Summer Newsletter 2013 (pdf) - Bishop Fox's School

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Newsletter SUMMER_Layout 1 10/07/2013 11:38 Page 10 Maths Excellence Awards UK Junior Maths Challenge Congratulations to George Hogben, Siyu Huang, Elizabeth Jewell, Emily Robinson and Alex Wagner on achieving the Half Excellence Award Congratulations to Gabrielle Joslin, Chris Grabham, Adrian Lane, Will Larkman and Millie Rossiter on achieving the Full Excellence Award In April a number of Year 7 and 8 students took part in this particularly demanding national competition. Well done to all who participated and particular congratulations to the following for being awarded certificates. Bronze: Year 7 Year 8 Silver: Year 7 Year 8 Benjamin Mills, Nick Denslow, Wojciech Toczydlowski, Samuel Cunningham, Joseph Uff Lucas Swaine, Fahamina Hossain, Elliot Joslin, Emilie Gunn, Jessica Wells George Hogben, Emily Robinson, Alex Wagner, Siyu Huang Elizabeth Jewell, Charlie Penny Gold and Best in School: Matthew Kingdom Pi Challenge Update! As reported in the Easter newsletter, KS4 teacher Liz Harvey ran a number of activities on International Pi Day (Thursday 14th March) to raise awareness of the magical mathematical number Pi. One of the challenges was to see who could memorise the greatest number of digits of Pi. Winners are now confirmed as Liam Cannings 9BB and Ciaran Nicholls 10PC, who memorised 50 and 100 digits respectively. The overall champion was Rosie Brain 9SK who memorised a staggering 120 digits! All winners received a Pi badge, certificate, and, of course, some ‘Pie!’ Well done to all! Accelerated Reader Accelerated Reader is here at Bishop Fox’s. We have purchased a new, innovative and interactive reading programme, designed to engage all students in reading for pleasure, improve their reading skills and thereby improve their literacy abilities in all areas of the curriculum. All Year 7 and 8 students have now taken a ‘bench mark’ reading comprehension test. The results of which have provided us with a range of data on each student’s reading ability, including a Reading Comprehension Age score, a National Curriculum score and a ZPD score ( Zone of Proximal Development or Book Level). It is the ZPD score that students will use to select a book at the appropriate level and then (within 24 hours of completing the book) take an online quiz on that book. Students are encouraged to read at least 25 minutes per day and record their reading on a reading log. They should select books in the first instance at the lower end of their ZPD in order to gain some early successes on the quizzes. They can then move up through their ZPD so long as they are hitting their minimum target of 85%. Certificates, prizes and awards will be presented to students who read the most words – The Millionaires Club, and those who consistently achieve 100% on the quizzes – The 100% Club, each half term. The school Reading Champions have also been trained in how Accelerated Reader works and can help with any questions, students or parents may have about the programme, selection of books, help with quizzes and reading skills. Well done for the commitment and enthusiasm these students have shown in helping set up the Programme: A big thank you goes to: Annabel Cook Izi Dunn Sadie Fear Rebecca Woodgate Rosie Brain Harvey Revolledo Santos Ganga Talia Williams-Altun Kimberley Puxty Jakub Kozuch Samadhi Alagoda Matt Trump Tim McKee Michael Coe If you would like to know more about how Accelerated Reader works – go to www.renlearn.co.uk Mrs Bell, Lead Teacher for Literacy High Standards & High Expectations
Newsletter SUMMER_Layout 1 10/07/2013 11:38 Page 11 10 go to Oxford University In the depths of December I made an application in the hope that some students would be able to get on to the Oxford pathways programme. The New Year dawned with good news but tinged with a sting. The application was successful but there would only be provision for 10 students. To win the places, just like applying for a real place at Oxford, our high achieving students had to submit a 150 word personal statement, have data from the school showing that they were on course for achieving A / A* in all their subjects and to be received by a deadline, midday 28 February 2013. An early morning email on 4 March and the names of the successful students arrived from the city of dreaming spires. We would be off to St John’s College, Oxford on Wednesday 12 June 2013 To get to Oxford for the 10:15 start the school minibus, safely and ably driven by Mr Barnett-Jones, whisked the bleary eyed 10 off just before 7:00am. Note – how to have a minibus full of students quiet; get them out of bed around about 6am!! The day itself unwound at pace. A quick cup of coffee and biscuits, then, into the auditorium of St John’s to meet with the other 7 school parties. We thought we had travelled far but one had travelled down from Leeds while another school had come from Sussex. We quickly learnt about the University and found out that Tony Blair went to St John’s as well as Boris Johnson! A sense of political balance Soon we were off in the company of a second year biochemistry student who gave us a whistle stop tour of the main University sites. We even got to go into the science park, not normally open to the public, where all the labs are located. This is all high rise modern steel and glass buildings that would not look out of place in Canary Wharf. Our next port of call was Worcester College. The entrance looks quite insignificant and unassuming from the busy main road but step through the medieval solid oak door and we were surrounded by architectural magnificence, quiet and the most pristinely cut lawn that would give Wimbledon a run for its money. A more sedately paced tour of Worcester revealed their libraries - £250 pa grant for books for each student; students cramming for their final exams; a garden bigger than Vivary Park complete with its own beautiful lake leading down to the College’s own cricket and rugby pitches and on to the boathouse. The student accommodation is stunning – it makes Holiday Inn look down at heel! A communal kitchen for 4 students to share looking as though it had come out of the Ikea catalogue was shown off. We were even allowed to step in to a student’s room to see what it was like – tidy!! No wonder they have a “scout” who tidies the room each day and cleans once a week. I could feel our group wanting this arrangement for their everyday living now. Free fast unlimited broadband in every room topped off the envy. Lunch in the ornate dining room was a bit of a let-down as we thought we would have something sumptuous. A plate of home produced pizza and chips with salad was more little chef than master chef. The afternoon slot was given over to a style of lecture based on the Oxbridge tutorial system derived from the Socratic system of the Greeks. With the school from Leeds we were involved in a tutorial with the Director of the political science programme who lead us on an exploration of the notion of democracy. His style of questioning certainly flummoxed many of the students especially when having posed a question to a student he patiently waited for the student to try to formulate an answer. The long silences became a form of psychological torture with nowhere to hide. Our champion within this session was James Lovelock who produced some well -argued points The day finished with a plenary session at St John’s with advice on how to apply to Oxford, what grades they needed to be thinking about at GCSE and what type of courses to study at A level for entry. We rounded the time off with a number of photo opportunities before escaping back into the minibus. The long day ended back where we started but at 7:00pm, tired but having had the chance to view a possible future for our students. What did our students think of the experience To paraphrase they all want to go to university, they were amazed by the whole experience, astounded by the possibility of being able to study over 5,000 subjects but also the reality of needing to study hard now as 7 A* are required at GCSE if you want to be considered for medicine let alone the A*AA minimum at A level. Would they go again An overwhelming, yes. So if you will be in Year 10 in 2014 are working hard then look out, the Oxford trip may be coming your way. The students: Sasha Blackmore, Ellie Causley, Ope Howard, Gabbi Joslin, Caitlin Law, Millie Rossiter, Adrian Lane, Will Larkman, James Lovelock, Fin Shanley-Hayes G Nuttall-Owen G&T Coordinator & Head of Computing / IT 4 Win University Place Four talented Year 9 students won a 4 day Railway Engineering course at the University of Bath. Ben Prouse, Sadie Fear, Phoebe Causley and Lucas Williams will be provided with the opportunity to work with professional engineers on design and make projects and learn basic engineering skills. All students participated in a STEM day at Bishop Fox’s and were identified as showing talent in this area and subsequently provided good reasons why they should be involved. High Standards & High Expectations
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