Weekly Buzz 8 November 2021

The Weekly Buzz

Zalesny Laura Liu Photo PicturebybyPaulina

November2021 2021 20 8September

Wellbeing at the heart Languages Day! of PPS

Headmaster’s letter

I am very proud to announce that Portland Place School won the APG Innovation Award (again) this year for the development of our hybrid School, Portland Place Online. This was

confirmed and presented at the APG Annual Conference just before the half term break.

The photograph shows Ambreen Baig, lead tutor for our hybrid students, and I receiving the award from Mark Hanley-Browne. This is the second time PPS has won this award having done so in 2019 for our Strive programme.

Portland Place Online also made us finalists in the Independent School of the Year Awards 2021, though sadly we were pipped to that one.

David Bradbury

Noticeboard

Lunch Menu

Gluten-free options available on each day

News Wellbeing At Portland Place we encourage our students to try something new. Learning something new or getting

involved in an activity that really absorbs and interests us is great for our wellbeing. Keeping our brains active is not only good for us physically, but it can help you feel you are flourishing as you see yourself make progress with a new skill. Being playful and trying new things is important, as is remembering that it's ok not to get it right first time - we can change "I can't do it", into "I can't do it...yet."

LAST CHANCE!!

We have some tickets remaining for the performance.

If you would like to come, please email david.chivers@portland-place.co.uk.

All tickets are free of charge!

Performance date: Monday 8th November / RADA Studios / 7.30pm

Noticeboard

Noticeboard Chemistry Week 1st—12th Nov 2021 Quiz, Podcasts, Chemistry TV, Experiments! See Firefly for details!

Post 16 Noticeboard Year 8 students are currently focusing on Careers as one of their PSHE modules. We welcomed Orla Harper from Invest In into assembly last Thursday to speak about developing your career, and about Invest In’s Career

Experience Programmes. These are a great way to get hands on experience and to try the career that you are interested in. The programmes generally run during the summer holidays. Read the information from Invest In:



We are running both in-person and Live Online weekend programmes across 28 different careers, providing students with an immersive experience of their dream career.



For those students looking ahead to the summer, we have launched summer experiences which allow students to gain an in-depth understanding of the career area and gain a competitive advantage. Students can benefit from a 15% discount on any of our Summer Experiences by use of the code SUMMER15 at registration



When registering for any InvestIN programme, students will now receive 12 months’ access to our state-of-the-art tech platform, AmbitionX. Here students will be able to access their programme resources, gain coveted ‘experience points’ to demonstrate their levels of professional development and will also

have unlimited access to any of InvestIN’s Live Online weekend and evening programmes through AmbitionX at no extra cost

Please note that as Portland Place School is a Partner School of InvestIN, our students are eligible for a 10% discount, using the code PORTPLACE10 at the registration page.

Post 16 Noticeboard

News Design & Technology Well done to all Year 7s for their fantastic work creating ceramic pumpkins in Autumn term 1.

Special mention to Kotone and Bibi for extra creative pumpkins!

Miss Bertaux-Strenna

News

News Jewellery Making Enrichment

News Y6&7 Student Election Assembly

A huge thank you from Miss Magniez and I, to everyone in the school who took part in the event, in one way or another: staff who dressed up, Y6 and Y7 students who particularly made it so much fun, Y8 students who made a huge effort, Y9 students who helped us prepare the food tasting with Gopal and his team, and many, many more who just played the game!

We are still receiving donations but we have, so far, raised over £500 for Save the Children.

So, again merci, gracias, thank you!

Mr Lalande

Languages Day 2021

News

News

News

News Biology Bake Off Results First place: Rhiya Year 7 - Eyeball Cake

2nd place - Stanley - Operation Game Cake with Cupcakes

News

3rd place : Yoel Year 7—Brain Cake

Joint 4th:

Isaac Year 10 - Cell Structure Biscuits

Oscar Year 10 - Biology Biscuits

News Biology Bake Off: Hybrid School First place: Nicky - Year 9 - Brain Cake

2nd place: Papaya - Year 6 - Photosynthesis Cake

3rd Place: Ahlam - Year 7 - Biology Biscuits

News Photography Enrichment

News

Y6 & 7 Spooky Disco

News Thank you SO much to Issie, Samara, Connie, Ariella, Sasha and Nicky for being fantastic helpers at the Y6 & 7 Halloween Disco!!!

Thank you SO much to Jesse for being an superstar MC, Kai for being a top selector, Lana, Lexi & Alex for their energy, enthusiasm and fantastic dance moves!!

News Year 6 History Project—WW2

Over the half term, Year 6 were given a History project to create a scene related to World War 2. The effort put in has been fantastic and here you can see just some of the work produced. Well done, Year 6! Mr Soper

News

Enrichment

LONDON ZOO ENRICHMENT:

This Wednesday, our group of 14 students visited the London ZOO. We followed the Orange Route, meeting and greeting tigers, butterflies, monkeys, camels, pelicans, flamingos and tiny giants; we listened to a talk on penguins and saw them being fed We also saw the lions, macaws, pelicans and flamingos on the blue route.

Ms Coates and Mr Bland

Hanuman Langur is a 'sacred' monkey — named after the Hindu god Hanuman

Sports report Year 8 Interhouse Fitness Challenge On Friday 22nd October Year 8 took part in their first house sports competition of the academic year – the interhouse fitness challenge! The challenge saw pupils complete a bootcamp style fitness course including

ladder hops, bear crawls, agility runs, burpee’s, sit ups, crab walks, bunny hops and a final sprint as fast as they could! It was a thoroughly enjoyable and competitive event with each and every pupil working their socks off to try and give their house a good start in the house sports league table. There were certainly some tired year 8 bodies at the end of the challenge! For each house an average course completion time was calculated, and we can reveal that the year 8 house fitness challenge results are as follows:

1st CAVENDISH – Average time: 1min 44secs 2nd LANGHAM – Average time: 1min 47secs

3rd WIGMORE– Average time: 1min 57secs 4th DEVONSHIRE – Average time: 2min 09secs

Whilst the whole year group worked very hard there are some pupils who deserve a special mention for their efforts. Arad Mohammadlou really pushed himself to the max for his house showing fantastic grit and determination. Georgie Cox and Olivia Solomou put in some excellent performances pushing each other to the finish line with Olivia just pipping Georgie to finish first. Jake Gadney, Matthias Page Fagon, Max Coombe, Max Dawson and Arad Mohammadlou all decided to really go for it and complete a second lap of the course for some extra fitness training! A big congratulations goes to Hazuki Kita who completed the course in 1min 23secs, the quickest time recorded in year 8!

Sports report Year 9 Interhouse Fitness Challenge With year 6 and 7 kicking off the House Events earlier in the morning, it was time for the Year 9 students to try to increase the points on the leader board for each house. After Devonshire had romped home to

victory in the younger student’s events, you could feel the nerves of the older students start to take over as they tactically eyed up each obstacle in the challenge. From the army crawl to ducking and diving round the slalom. From the press-ups to the bunny hops, each obstacle was surrounded by a sprint.

Regent’s Park was about to witness something special with each student in his or her houses putting themselves in the right order, an order that they thought would guide them to victory along the way. In addition, an order that saw friend take on friend but in this case, enemy taking on enemy and with the weather far nicer than the wind, rain, and mud of last year, the times brought another close finish in the event.

It was many students first time doing this challenge, but this was not evident as each student from 1 to 9 pushed themselves to help gain victory for their house. The encouragement from teammates, directing them to the next obstacle and then cheering as they sprinted to the finishing line, gave a sense of house comradery which was felt by all.

Positions 1st 2nd 2nd 3rd

Houses Langham Wigmore Devonshire Cavendish

Sports report Year 6 & 7 Interhouse Fitness Challenge A cold morning brings out the best in the students After a term of Health-Related Exercise through their Thursday lessons, it was time for the year 6 and 7’s to kick-start the House Events with the Fitness

Challenge being the first of the year. With half term only round the corner and the cold breeze from the winter air hitting the students’ faces, the warm-ups were intense to make sure that the girls and boys were ready for the challenge that was about to come.

The Fitness Challenge sees the students in their houses battle against one another to get the quickest time over a number of different activities. Activities which include a slalom run, sit ups, bunny hops and burpees all timed and tallied together to give an overall time and in turn the victor.

Cavendish, Devonshire, Langham and Wigmore all lined up on the starting line. The nerves were kickingin, but the excitement was also running through the air as students who had previously done the chal-

lenge the year before, started to reminisce on the rain, the mud, Mr Steward’s poor attempt of doing the challenge himself, all of which added to the excitement as the House Event began.

Each student took it in turn to attack the course, some taking a full speed ahead attitude and some tactically figuring out where they could make up time. From student 1 to student 11, each one tried their hardest to win for the team. With finished students standing on the finishing line, there was calls of advice and cheers as students powered through to make sure that they got the best time possible.

With every student going over the finishing line, sprawled out on the floor while others were talking and smiling at the attempt that they had just done, it was great to see the effort and enjoyment that these

students had doing their first house event.

Position

House

1st

Devonshire

2nd

Langham

3rd

Wigmore

4th

Cavendish

It was a closely fought battle but by a matter of seconds Devonshire came out victors in the year 6 and 7 Fitness Challenge and in turn took the first victory for the House Events.

Sports report U13 Football Vs Kew House After two weeks off for half term and an early rise for most of the boys, it was a tough pill to swallow with a devastating 5-0 defeat against a strong Kew House team for our Under 13’s team. With the sun shining

down and the cold winter’s air blowing on Regent’s Park it was a tough day at the office for the Under 13’s who found it very difficult to get into the game. After soaking up a number of shots and being constant pressure, the Portland Place defence who included: Hazuki Kita, Rafer Moge, Tecumseh Hennebry and Matthias Fagon Page were able to keep Max Dawson in goal, clean shirted and safe from any shots that might have come his way. Even when playing themselves into some sticky situations the defenders regrouped and kept Kew House away from any clear opportunities.

Jake Gadney, who was playing in the centre of midfield with Spike Culpin, commanded the area playing some silky one-two’s with his teammates to open up the defence. This was shown by some great passing between Jake, Dexter Culpin, Danny Maclean and Humphrey Boland, allowing Tyson Douglas-Letts to

break between the centre backs only to be denied by the keeper who palmed his shot away for a corner.

It was end-to-end stuff that saw both teams have numerous shots, some being blocked and others bringing out saves from the keeper, but with 5 minutes left in the half the gates were opened when Kew House were able slip two goals past our goalkeeper.

Sports report Going into the half time oranges with a 2-0 disadvantage the PPS students gathered together and with Ned Harwood coming on in the centre of midfield the ball was passed around from left to right with considerable ease, making the Kew house team, in some cases chase shadows. When Spike was reintroduced due to an injury to Humphrey the youngster continued to pressurise the defence into making mistakes. This allowed his brother, Dexter, Tyson and Danny to continuously put shots on goal but to no avail.

It was a game of missed opportunities for the PPS students who could have drawn level with their opposition and on another day taken the lead, but it was not meant to be. Whilst the attack was progressing, the defence was slipping, allowing Kew House to score another three great goals and in turn take the victory.

Player of the match Jake said:

Sports Clubs from 1st November “Today was just not our day. We pushed and forced errors, but our own errors let us down. It was a busy day and to come away with nothing is disappointing to say the least.”

A spokesman for the team continued by saying: “With the pressure that we asserted on Kew House we really should have put a few of the goals away.

It was a tough loss, but we are happy with the progress that we are making and hopefully we will continue in the right direction.”

Mon: Table Tennis club 12.50-1.40pm, PPS Hall Tue: Weight Training club 12.50-1.40pm, PPS changing rooms Football club 3.50-5.00pm, Regent’s Park Wed: Running club 12.50-1.40pm, Regent’s Park Fencing club 4.00-5.00pm, Rm 11 or PPS Hall Thu:

Dance club 12.50-1.40pm, Rm 11 GCSE PE Revision club 1.10-1.40pm, meet PPS changing rooms

Fri:

Table Tennis club 12.50-1.40pm, PPS Hall

Diary Enrichment—First Half of Term Activity

Staff

Room

London Zoo

ECO & EWA

Offsite

Makerspace Club (whole term activity) DWO

B1

Creative Writing (Authorfy Club) (whole term activity)

BCA

ECO Club (whole term activity)

HSI

Jewellery

CBO, HFR, EWA

Portland Place Enterrprise

MTH

Senior Football (whole term activity)

JKU & LST

Fencing (whole term activity)

SSA (& coach)

Horse Riding (whole term activity)

CBY & JSI

Forest School

CMA & WBR

R34 & Offsite

Stand Up Comedy

DCH & AJU

Drama Studio

Rock Band

SSG & S.Jesson

Music Rooms

Photography Skills (whole term activity) PZA & DFL

Library Science Lab G32 Room 35 G31 Offsite Room 11 & PP Hall Offsite

Canteen

Self Defence (whole term activity)

LVW & BSO

Offsite

Badminton

SRI

Offsite

Diary CLUBS Thursday

Monday 12:50-13:40

Table Tennis, Mr Rider, PP hall

13:00-13:30

Yoga For All, Ms Florea, R11, All years

13:10-13:45

Y11 GCSE Chemistry Revision, Ms Silcocks, Science tbc

Tuesday

12:5013:45

Russian Club, Ms Zalesny, R26, All years

12:5013:45

PPS Choir, Mr Hill & Ms Boyle, Drama Studio, All years

13:1013:40

GCSE PE Revision Club, Mr Rider, meet PE Corridor

15:4516:30

Year 10-11 Maths, Ms Segerstrom, R24

15:4516:30

GCSE Statistics Support, R22

16:0017:00

Senior Art Club, Ms Dever, Art Room 1, GCSE Art Art Club, Ms Osborne, Art Room 2, Y6-10

08:30-09:00

Japanese, external tutor, R26, All years

12:50-13:40

Weight Training, Mr Rider, PP changing rooms, All years

12:50-13:45

Music Theory Club, R42, All years

12:50-13:30

Art GCSE Lunch Club, Ms Dever, Art Rm 1, Y10 GCSE Art

12:50-13:30

KS3 Design Club, Mr Wood, B1, Years 7-9

12:50-13:30

Cat & Dog Textiles for Battersea Cats & Dogs Home, B1, Years 6-8

13:20-13:50

News Quiz Club, Ms Lewis, GPS classroom tbc, Year 11

16:0017:00

13:20-13:45

Physics Revision, Mr Brittain, Science tbc, Years 9-11

Friday

15:50-17:00

Football Club, Regent’s Park, Mr Kubic, All years

15:45-17:00

Wizard of Oz rehearsal, Drama, Mr Chivers, All cast

12:5013:40

Table Tennis Club, Mr Rider, PP Hall, All years

16:00-17:00

Art Club, Ms Dever, Art Room 1, All years

12:5013:45

Year 6&7 Choir, E Ryder, R1

12:5513:45

UKMT Maths Challenge Club, G1, All years

15:4516:30

Y11 GCSE Art, Craft & Design Workshop, Mr Wood, B1

Wednesday 12:50-13:20

Wizard of Oz rehearsal, Drama studio, Selected cast

12:50 –13:40 Running Club, Mr Steward, Regent’s Park, All years 12:50-13:30

French Bilingual Club, Mr Lalande, R36, All years

12:50—13:45 Percussion Ensemble, Mr Jesson, R26, All years 12:50-13:45

Music Theory Club, R42, All years

13:00-13:45

Shakespeare Off By Heart, Library, Y10 & Y11

13:10-13:40

STEM Science, Ms Freeman, Science tbc, Years 6-9

15:45—16:30 Y11 GCSE Art, Craft & Design Workshop, B1, Mr Wood 15:45—16:30 Year 6-9 Maths, Ms Segerstrom, R24 16:00 -17:00

Fencing Club, PP Hall, Mr Janda, All years

16:00—17:00 Wizard of Oz rehearsal, Mr Chivers, Drama, All cast Thursday 08:30-09:00

Arabic, R36, Year 7-11

12:50-13:40

Dance Club, Ms Boyce, R11, All years

Thank you for reading