Bohunt Wokingham

SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT…

BOHUNT STUDENTS REPRESENT SCHOOL AT WOKINGHAM YOUTH COUNCIL

Hi everyone! We are Emma and Anika and we want to tell you about the Wokingham Youth Council. Over the past month, Wokingham Borough Council has developed a group called the Wokingham Youth Council. It consists of two student representatives from each school in the area coming together to discuss and tackle issues that are important to the young people of Wokingham. This can be anything from climate change to mental wellbeing and the broader the ideas, the better. We both applied for this role and were delighted to find out that we were successful — meaning that we would represent Bohunt Wokingham within the council. The council also consists of some champion members which help to promote their social action of interest (such as cultural diversity, climate change, mental health etc.). Anika achieved the Climate Change champion member position. On 6 July, our first ever Youth Council meeting was held over Microsoft Teams and it was a great experience for all of us. It was especially nice to meet all of our fellow council members as well as having the brilliant opportunity to talk to our guests, former Prime Minister Theresa May and MP Matt Rodda. It was an honour to hear about their views and advice on leadership and their own stories on how they became involved with politics. We also had some interesting Q&A sessions with our guest speakers. Our question for Theresa May was: “What legacy did you hope to have left behind as former prime minister?” She shared with us her dedicated work towards improving societal issues and resolving to cut carbon emissions by 50% by the year 2030. We also learnt that, despite the disagreements between parties, politics is eventually about people — it’s about what they have, what they need and what they want. Our most recent meeting on 20 September (again, over Teams) we had a particular focus on climate change. Many game changers presented how they are tackling climate change in their community — from amazing aquaponics projects to vertical farming systems to even hearing from our local council about their plans for climate action in our area. Anika was also invited as a guest speaker within the council to present a climate change spotlight project for all the schools in the council to participate in. The Climate Action Project is a sixweek programme (starting from 27 September) which unites millions of students and teachers worldwide in understanding climate change and steps we can take to mitigate its effects. Bohunt Wokingham is currently working on this now, involving a variety of students from different year groups and we hope to complete it just after half term and can’t wait to share our progress with you. On 25 October, we were also very privileged to participate in the ITV News Meridian interview about COP26 and climate change. We were asked to discuss a huge range of topics surrounding climate change including our own experiences and personal changes as well as politician’s actions that affect local and global impacts. See the interview here: www.itv.com/news/ meridian/2021-04-19/catch-up-itv-news-meridian-thamesvalley-for-berkshire-oxfordshire-north-hampshire-andbuckinghamshire Overall, the Youth Council is a wonderful experience for everyone, helping develop our leadership and communication skills. We really look forward to our upcoming meetings and projects and really look forward to sharing our work with you! Social injustice and equality, climate change and poor mental health are topics that we are all very passionate about and the Youth Council plans to address these issues in future meetings. We hope to take action in these areas later in the school year, and help make the Borough of Wokingham a better and more inclusive place.

SCHOOL HIGHLIGHT…

SHOWCASING BUDDING PHOTOGRAPHER ROWAN – BOHUNT WOKINGHAM

Hi, I’m Rowan and I’ve been a photographer since Year 9. I’ve been interested in photography since 2017, but started taking it more seriously just before the first lockdown in 2020 when I went to do photography with my friend George. I purchased the Nikon d3500 and watched a lot of videos on YouTube to better understand what I could do with the camera. For me, the best part of photography is being in nature and taking pictures of nature such as animals. I’m inspired by many photographs of nature that I see online on sites like Instagram. I like going on walks and I normally go to my local woods to take photos. For photography I use manual mode but I don’t have a style in editing but I try other styles lots to see what works ok and what works better, at the moment dark edit works well for me. I don’t have a favourite picture, I just like taking pictures. But I am particularly happy with the wildlife images I have taken. I use the Nikon d3500 with a kit and zoom lens and the Snapseed app for editing on the iPad. I hope to study photography after I leave Bohunt and eventually become a professional photographer.

BET YOU DIDN’T KNOW…

BOHUNT SCHOOL WOKINGHAM RECEPTION TEAM

Laura Brooks catches up with Sarah Aspell-Beaumont, Kat Palmer, Hayley Neale, Kim Boehm, Amy Rodgers. (Team member Liz Tuhy is currently on maternity leave).

Tell us about a typical day in the life of a Reception/ Admin team member.

SBT: We start our day early taking calls and arranging cover for the day should it be required. Our doors open at 8am. From this moment we work together as a team to input student absence onto SIMS, answer incoming calls, manage our student reception and manage our front reception. As soon as registration is complete we are checking registers and following up on missing students. Once all students are accounted for we will split as a team into managing our different work areas. One of the team will be located down in our medical room carrying out first aid and caring for students that are unwell.

Between the five of us we will cover a number of work areas. Sending out school communication which includes writing a weekly bulletin and half termly newsletter. As a digital school we arrange and process insurance claims for iPads purchased through the school. One of us is a point of contact for PPG students. They will process Free School Meal applications and ensure queries regarding PPG are answered. Over the summer we allocate lockers to new students and ensure they receive their key on the first day of school. We log and manage all student files. Each one of us is linked to a subject and will carry out any photocopying or printing requirements for that department. We will all carry out any administration tasks for any events or trips happening at school. Our most dreaded job of the day is managing the lost property left behind by students. There is always so much! We make an effort to return named items back to the owner to ensure our office is not overflowing with these lost items. Overall the day is very fast paced and varied. We must expect the unexpected and try our best to support the school any way we can.

What is the most bizarre question a student has ever asked you?

KBM: The absolute strangest question has to be ‘Do we have bolt cutters?’

Describe your job in three words

ARS: Organisational, fast-paced, instrumental Tell us more about your weekly motivation

HNE: We are all very motivated in the office but to give us that extra push we set ourselves little rewards throughout the day, like a nice coffee after the fire registers are completed or a biscuit after the PM tutor. We also have a different theme for each day, for example we have ‘Positive post it’ Wednesday and ‘Disney tunes’ on Thursday’s. But I think the thing we look forward to most is a team social event, where we can relax, laugh more than normal and reflect on how well the past few weeks have been.

Some consider you to be the superheroes of the school, what would you say to that?

KPR: That puts a smile on our face and makes us want to order our own Bohunt superhero capes! Our daily goal is to make sure that we support the students, parents and staff the best we can and in any way possible even if it’s outside of our daily routine job, we like to wear multiple hats!

What makes you such a great team?

KBM: We like to think of our team as the ‘engine room’ of the school. The place where a student, a parent or one of our fellow colleagues will always receive empathy, warmth and understanding. Our communication skills between ourselves and with the greater school are second to none and we feel this really does make us a great cohesive team. We work brilliantly together as we truly believe team work makes the dream work!