Summer 2014 Issue 13

In Touch

Articles include: Acting Headteacher and

Executive Principal Designate News

Key Stage News

PE and Health Faculty News

Year 13 dress up on their last day in school

We say goodbye and good luck to Year 13,

who celebrated their last day in fancy dress.

I t is now over three months since I was appointed to the role of

Executive Principal and Headteacher of Bushey Meads School. During that time I have been privileged to have been able to visit the school on a fairly regular basis and have had the superb opportunity to meet with the

Acting Headteacher Ms Morawska each week, attend two Strategic Governors’ meetings, a Full Governing Body meeting, two Bushey St James Trust meetings, take part in the recruitment and interview process for our new Assistant Headteacher with oversight of the Sixth Form, Ms Sara Ash, and also facilitate a workshop and discussion session involving all the Bushey Meads’ staff as part of their recent INSET day on Monday 2nd June. In addition I was able to meet with over 250 parents at the special uniform consultation meeting held shortly after the Easter holidays and attended two

Senior Leadership Team meetings this month Without exception, I have found the Bushey Meads’ welcome outstanding on each and every occasion and have really enjoyed meeting all the students, staff, parents, governors and trustees and have seen and recognised the genuine commitment and desire that we all have in wanting to contribute to ensuring that each and every student achieves their true potential and has an enjoyable and positive experience throughout their time at the school. I am very much looking forward to starting here officially in September and would like to wish all the staff and students a very successful end to the academic year and I do hope that our hardworking Year 11 and Sixth Form students achieve all the success they deserve in August. With very best wishes to you all,

Jeremy Turner

Executive Principal and Headteacher Designate

As I write, I am wondering where this academic year has gone. When we started the year, July seemed so far away but as we all know time appears to accelerate in education and before we know it, another year has passed. But, what a wonderful year it has been. As some of you may be aware, I have had the great honour of working at Bushey Meads for seven years, six of them under the excellent leadership of Keith Douglas. However, for the majority of this academic year and with great pride, I have been working as Acting Headteacher of this school. It is only when you take up the privileged position of Head Teacher that you are truly able to see what makes your school unique and it goes without saying that it is the people within it that makes it so very special. It is the students, staff, governors and parents who are the heart and soul of our school community and who when we all work together help to plan, shape and ensure the success of all who make Bushey Meads their school of choice. Indeed, as Head, I have had the privilege of insight into the world of all Bushey Meads’ community and it is through this understanding that decisions are made that I know uphold the school’s integrity and place the student at the heart of everything we do. For those of you who follow education, you will be more than aware of the numerous government legislative changes that have been made this year. It is these that have formed the backdrop with which our staff and governors have had to grapple to ensure the success of our students and having had the pleasure of discussing assessments, students and strategies with our Heads of Faculties and Departments and Governors this past year,

I am confident this summer will be one of our most successful yet.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff at Bushey Meads for the work they do to ensure the happiness and success of our students. Many staff are unsung heroes who are the bedrock of our community, but with whom many of you

have little contact.

I also need to thank our leadership team, who stepped-up to the mark and have provided excellent support. In addition, I would like to extend my thanks to our Governing Body, who late into the evening in equal portions: challenge, critique, care and congratulate our staff in their endeavour to ensure the best is offered to BMS. Their commitment to your children and our school is without doubt and it has been a pleasure to work

with them as closely as I have this past year.

If you have ever had the pleasure of visiting our school, you will see for yourself what makes our school such a unique place and that is the magic of our students. I have never yet worked in a school, where I am constantly enlightened by the beauty of their characters. Our students are indeed a credit

to us all.

As always, the commitment of you, the parent body ensures that as a package we are the stronger to ensure future success. I wish you all a safe and restful summer break.

Hilary Morawska

Later on, a Maths challenge took place in order to extend our mathematical abilities. The challenge consisted of UKMT group challenge paper as well as a UKMT junior challenge paper. We worked in teams using a variety of skills to complete the paper. The winners of the challenge were Jake Zimmatore, Ellie Richardson, Amelia Farman and Arman Yodav. After, everyone went to the Peacock Lecture Theatre to get a taste of what a real lecture is like. The

lecturer gave helpful tips and guidance to the pupils to help them prepare for the exams. Many of us were shocked with the setup of the exam paper!

We would like to thank Mr Davison, Mr Varsani and Miss Harbott for arranging and accompanying us on this

visit. All in all, we had a very informative and inspirational day and would love to visit the London School of Economics again. Vinija Thirucumaran, Sahir Ladha (Year 8)

London School of Economics

O n April 29th, a group of pupils from years 7, 8 and 9 were given the opportunity to visit the renowned London School of Economics,

alongside pupils in year 6 from local primary schools, who have been attending the Maths Masterclass held here at Bushey Meads.

The trip included a range of activities, all of which were both educational and fun. Firstly, we were given a tour of the campus which allowed us to see the major contrasts between University and school. For example, their library is up to one hundred times the size of ours! We were also told about the history of many buildings and some of the University traditions. An interesting aspect of the University was that they had statues of animals around the site, including their mascot, the beaver.

One of our favourite parts of the trip was the question and answer session we had with a group of Maths lecturers. It was nice to hear about what it was like to be a lecturer at LSE and interesting to find out how they spent their free time.

Mock Trial Success

O n Saturday, 17th May Ms Bailey, the school’s Highly Able co-ordinator, and Ms Knowles, Head of Social Sciences, took a group of twelve pupils from Years 8 and 9 to Highbury Corner Magistrates’

Court for the regional heat of the Citizenship Foundation’s Magistrates’ Court Mock Trial competition.

The team had already won the local heat in Tottenham and were excited about the challenge of meeting even tougher opposition. The pupils had changed roles since the first round of the competition and they were determined to do their best in their new roles.

The Prosecution team were in action first of all, including our Magistrates who were involved in both rounds of the competition, as was Juliana Kemp, our Legal Adviser and, later, our Usher. The case involved possesion of a bladed article, an offence that the ‘real’ magistrates who were involved in judging the competition informed us is being taken very seriously in the courts at the moment. Our Prosecution lawyers, Helen Stevenson (Year 9 and Amie Champion (Year 8) tried their best to prove that the defendant from our rival team was guilty but the verdict was returned as not guilty. This was a tough round and all of the girls performed well.

Our Defence lawyers, Amira Izhar and Nadia Naghibi, were in court next and they, along with our Defence witnesses, ensured that our defendant was acquitted of all the charges against her. Jess Pickles, acting as our defendant, Chris Bishop, gave a spirited performance and, once again, the girls felt that they had done well.

The moment of truth followed shortly afterwards, it had been a very close competition we were told a complex scoring system had been followed to ensure that the best team were rewarded and…the best team, on this occasion, belonged to Bushey Meads. The girls were presented with medals and vouchers. They can be seen wearing them very proudly in the photo attached. They travelled to Birmingham in June for the national final where they competed against the very best. The school is very proud of all of them.

The team: Year 9: Kajal Dodhia, Amira Izhar, Juliana Kemp, Nadia Naghibi, Jessica Pickles, Helen Stevenson.

Year 8: Shannon Ballantine, Amie Champion, Leoni Farrow, Abigail O’Reilly, Riya Patel, Katrina

Phillimore.

O n Friday 23rd May, we said goodbye to our Year 13 students with an emotional and lively Leaver’s Assembly in the Sixth Form Study

Centre. Students entered to see the Sixth Form centre transformed with hundreds of balloons and decorations and to the sounds of the UK number one single on the day they started Bushey Meads in 2007, Shaun Kingston – Beautiful Girls. They were also treated (some may say punished) with a slideshow of student pictures from Year 7 (some of which were a little embarrassing!).

This day marked the end of, for many, seven years at Bushey Meads and most had made fantastic effort in the designing and preparation of their fancy dress. With the theme of ‘under the sea’ and ‘childhood memories’ students embraced the chance to look silly and dress up with what is quickly becoming the custom passion and enthusiasm. This year has been a very successful group and it was a pleasure to see so many of them enjoying the last day at Bushey Meads. During the Leaver’s Assembly Ms Weddle and Mr Dawson spoke about their memories and about the future. Ms Smallwood was also able to make an appearance, for which I know the students were grateful. The assembly gave me the chance to remind the students of some of the sillier things they may have done during their time in school, but more importantly, the opportunity to thank them for their hard work during the short time I have led the Sixth Form. As the speeches finished, just enough time was left for photographs and probably more importantly for the student cake! We in the sixth form team wish the entire year group the very best of luck for their exams and for the future.

The afternoon started with a reconstruction of a road traffic incident, with the services breathalysing the driver and cutting out the seriously injured passenger. The scene was dramatic and provided a realistic picture of a major incident.

The Sixth form hosted the annual ‘MegaDrive’ event, promoting safe driving amongst our students. The event is organised by Hertfordshire Highways who bring together the Police, Fire Service, Ambulance Service, Trading standards, and Theatre in Education group “Tip of the Iceberg”. They presented a wide range of seminars designed to encourage young drivers to take simple precautions when driving. The Fire and Rescue Service, for example, through graphic and shocking information and pictures highlighted the importance of wearing a seatbelt, regardless of where one is sitting in the vehicle. Students were horrified by the types of injuries that could be caused both to themselves and other passengers.

PE and Health Faculty News – Summer Term 2014

It has been an extremely busy summer for the PE and Health Faculty with the students continuing to show

great enthusiasm for curricular and extra-curricular sport. Fixtures have been played in cricket, tennis,

rounders and athletics with much success. The athletics season has been particularly successful and we

recently held our annual sports which included record numbers of participants.

ATHLETICS On Wednesday June 25th over 100 students from the school took part in the annual Watford District Athletics

Championships at Woodside Stadium. With over 15 schools taking part the competition was as fierce as

ever. The effort and attitude of the students was excellent and the team was rewarded with 1st Place in the

B League clinching the trophy for a second year in a row. We also had 7 outright District Champions which

was an outstanding achievement. Well done to all the students who took part on the day who all

contributed to the District B League success. A full review of the results is shown below :

Individual District Champions

Dominic Ashwell - 1st Year 10 100m / Matt Walker - 1st Year 10 1500m / Amara Francis - 1st

Year 10 High Jump / Sophia Wright - 1st Year 10 Long Jump / Deanne Noel - 1st Year 10

100m /Lyes Titouah - 1st Year 9 300m / Danny Manning/Matt Bernard/Olly Benveniste/

Dominic Ashwell - 1st = Year 10 4 x 100m Relay

Other notable performances on the day included

County Athletics Plate Final This has been a fantastic season for the Senior Boys and Girls athletics teams with both qualifying for the

County Plate Finals. On a wet evening at Jarmons Park the team put in a fantastic performance with the

girls finishing 5th overall and the boys 6th. Dominic Ashwell won the 100m Final on the night and the relay

team of Danny Manning, Matt Bernard, Ollie Beneveniste and Dominic Ashwell also came home in 1st

place. All the students have performed really well throughout the season and been a credit to the school.

Full teams :

Senior Boys : Matt Bernard, Dominic Ashwell, Ollie Benveniste, Tommy O’Sullivan, Matt Walker, Danny

Manning, Marco Fernandes, Hassan Naz, Noah Malancinas, Alex Garvey

Senior Girls ; Amara Francis, Deanne Noel, Abby Gerry, Charley Stewart, Sophia wright, Frances Talbot, Emily

Jarman, Yuthica Singh, Myah Sharif, Chelsey Gerry, Niamh Cooper, Esther Ayani

Other top 3 results on the night included ;

Matt Walker – 3rd 1500m /Noah Malancinas – 3rd Javelin / Amara Francis – 3rd Hurdles and 2nd High Jump

Sophia wright – 3rd Long Jump /Senior Girls Relay – 3rd

Dominic Ashwell We must also give a special mention to year 10 student Dominic Ashwell for his achievements this summer.

As well as winning all 6 County League 100m races, Dominic also won the Watford District 100m title

(winning the best performnce of the day award) and the Hertfordshire County 100m title in a new record

time of 10.78 seconds. In doing so Dominic beat a record that had stood in the county for 31 years. Dominic

now progresses onto the National Championships in Birmingham and we all wish him well.

YEAR 7 BOYS

Aidan Angold – 2nd Pole Vault

Thanujan Tharmakulasingam – 4th Long Jump

YEAR 7 GIRLS

Bella Parker - 3rd Javelin

YEAR 8 BOYS

Sam Wright – 5th Pole Vault

Jack Leyshon – 3rd Javelin

YEAR 9 BOYS

Alex Barrett – 3rd Pole Vault

YEAR 9 GIRLS

Abby Gerry – 5th 100m

Niamh Cooper – 4th Discus

YEAR 10 BOYS

Olly Benveniste – 3rd 200m

Alex Garvey – 5th Pole Vault

YEAR 10 GIRLS

Emily Jarman – 3rd 1500m

Amara Francis, Deanne Noel, Charley Stewart, Sophia Wright – 2nd 4x100m

relay

School Sports day On Friday 4th July the sun shone as the years 8,9 and 10 took part in the annual school sports day. The

participation levels were fantastic and all students represented their form teams with commitment and

an eagerness to do well. At this moment we do not have the full final scores as we await the results of

the 1500m races but the individual event winners were :

The SEN Sports day was also a fantastic success with 16 students competing in a range of events

including all the throws, boccia and a sprint. After a fierce morning of competition the top 3 placings

were :

1. Ben Lawson - 10 KBD - 107 points

2. Jack Rogers - 9CH - 101 points

3. Ross Machen - 8SM - 80 points

Well done to all those that took part.

GCSE PE Cornwall Trip At the end of April a group of 30 Year 10 GCSE students visited Cornwall for a 3 day

residential trip to support the practical element of the GCSE PE course. The students

had the opportunity to participate in rock climbing, kayaking and surfing which were

then formally assessed by the qualified instructors for their GCSE PE practical grade.

The approach displayed by the students was fantastic, they were keen and

enthusiastic and regularly praised by the instructors for their desire to do well. A

special mention must go to the group who were climbing in torrential rain and

howling winds on the Saturday afternoon. Their spirit was amazing and they can all be

proud of their efforts.

Girls Year 8 Year 9 Year 10

Hurdles A de Alwis - 8AP L Campbell—9PL J Boseley - 10LAR

100m J Phillips - 8AP T Vardin - 9NMF J Kemp - 10SW

200m J Phillips - 8AP R Bharmal - 9CDS H Williams - 10LAR

800m B Parker - 8SM L Farrow - 9DR I Malin - 10AA

Relay 8DH 9NMF

Long jump J Wheeler - 8AH R Bharmal - 9CDS N Gabriel - 10LAR

High Jump K Mullings - 8AP L Farrow - 9DR C Jackman –10GAK

Shot G Bryant - 8AH L Campbell—9PL M Petrela—10AA

Discus R Ward - 8SG M Liberty - 9DR N Cooper - 10LAR

Javelin B Parker - 8SM S Goode - 9EL C Gerry - 10KBD

Boys Year 8 Year 9 Year 10

Hurdles T Tharmakulasingam 8DH

M Lawman - 9EL J Jalkhi - 10KN

100m C Cameron - 8DH V Williams - 9CDS O McElduff - 10GAK

200m C Cameron - 8DH C Meale - 9HB L Titouah - 10KN

300m S Basnett - 9EL L Titouah - 10KN

800m M Benveniste - 8EG E Enright - 9NMF L Nyoro - 10GAK

Relay 8DH 9HB 10KN

Long jump TTharmakulasingam 8DH

C Bedwell - 9DR A Fordham - 10KN

High Jump B Faulkner - 8DH D Glisson - 9HB S Baker - 10LAR

Shot J Fordham - 8LH J Downes - 9EL R Bumagat - 10AA

Discus E Fiordelisi - 8DH M Lawman - 9EL A Powell

10PK

Javelin C Lyall - 8DH C King - 9DL V Dyjecinski

10AA

British Schools Karting Championship Perseverance over adversity was the order of the day as 6 talented and determined Bushey Meads students took part

in the British Schools Karting South East England final on Sunday 4th May (star wars day!). Jack Cowley, Jamie Sadur, Alex Finn, Taarik Adolphe, Aaron Goldsmith and Jaedon Adolphe travelled to Buckmore Park in Kent to race against some of the top karting drivers in the country. Sometimes to be successful you need talent,

determination and a bit of luck, but after the first few races and our drivers getting pushed off the track by others, it became clear that it would not be our day to stand on the podium. Despite stiff competition, the boys gave their all, never gave up and drove really well. I'm

sure they'll be back again next year (with some as yet undiscovered Bushey Meads talent) to try again. A massive well done to all the students and to Mr Cox for his support.

Mr Chalkley

In January some of the Year 12 and 13 Biologists took part in the British Biology Olympiad. We did better than ever this year with 6 of our students achieving commended status or higher. Navi Ponrajah achieved a Bronze award and was invited to an awards ceremony at the Royal Society of Biology on the 26th June.

Building on that success the Year 9 and 10 pupils took part in the Biology challenge throughout March. They competed against some of the top schools in the country and again this year we did better than ever.

A total of 43 students achieved commended status. Kobe Johnson, Varun Narayanan and Andrew Powell achieved Gold putting them among the top 5% of all competitors. Christina DeVenny, Yennie Chang, Kajal Dodhia, Eliana Hanton and Sarah Hastie achieved Silver and were among the top 10%. Year 11 students attended a residential summer school at Nottingham University to study aspects of science.

T Greenwood

2014 British Biology Olympiad

BIG BANG FAIR 2014

12 Highly Able STEM students from Bushey Meads travelled to Duxford Imperial War Museum to visit the Big Bang Fair 2014. This was an opportunity for the students to find out about new developments in Science and Engineering and gain ideas about possible projects for Bushey Meads very own STEM club. There were also many activities to

experience, such as 'the wall jump', recycling, reaction testers, science quiz and a real invisibility cloak! The students were inspired to see some of the possibilities that are out there and Bushey Meads plan to visit next year exhibiting some of our own amazing STEM work.