Term 3 Newsletter 2012-13 - February 2013 - Queen Elizabeth's ...

Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School
Term 3 Newsletter
January - February 2013
Dear Parents and Students,
Welcome to our term 3 newsletter, we hope you enjoy reading the
various accounts of the activities that have taken place over the past 6
weeks.
Work is progressing, albeit very slowly, on the sixth form centre as the
attached photo shows. We are hoping that things will be much more
productive after the break. The main delay appears to have been because
of concerns about the archaeology. My theory is that now that Richard III
has been found they are starting to look for other ‘missing’ monarchs.
King Stephen was buried in the Abbey, in our grounds in 1154 and is
actually somewhere in the vicinity, probably the church.... watch this space!
The campaign is progressing well, my thanks to everyone who has
supported us to date, we are close to the ‘tipping point’ now, which will
confirm that the Auditorium is a viable project. Work on the boiler
replacements is going really well, currently ahead of schedule. There isn’t a
great deal of logic replacing boilers in the coldest months but we had to
progress now due to spending deadlines! Fortunately it has not been too disruptive and we are looking forward to this project completing in March.
On Wednesday 19th December Queen Elizabeth’s
Grammar School went to Sittingbourne College with
two teams ready for their first rugby tournament as a
team. After only 11 weeks working together as a group
they managed to bring a gold and silver trophy. The
captains of the two squads were Alfie Monro and Archie
Oliver, both 7Q.
The weather was cold and bitter and rained for half of
the tournament, but Queen Elizabeth’s fought through! In
the tournament Archie’s team played the Howard, and
Sittingbourne’s second team, and Alfie’s squad played
against Sittingbourne’s first team and their second.
One of the players was fortunately injured in warming
up, and had to watch from the sideline. Unlike any other
team, we had two girls, one in each team, Samantha
Hutchins, 7Q and Ellie Clarke, 7S. Unfortunately we all
had to play on Atroturf, and I think a lot of the players
had more injuries and aches from the cuts and grazes on
their legs than the contact. Overall it was a striking
success for year 7 Queen Elizabeth’s Rugby, and hopefully
the first of many.
Archie Oliver 7Q
We heard the welcome news that Ofsted would not be visiting this year as we were
expecting. However, we continue apace with our work to improve every aspect of
the school. We have recently conducted a two-week review of teaching which has
provided us with the welcome news that the proportion of ‘Outstanding’ and ‘Good’
graded lessons continued to rise. We are, of course, always keen to know how our
students and parents are feeling about the school and welcome your thoughts on
this matter. Parents can also let us know their views on the Ofsted website
‘Parentview’ - http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the fantastic and really
hardworking PTFA; who successfully raised £18,000 over the past couple of years to
replace our old minibus which had come to the end of its life. The students, and
particularly the PE Department, will benefit from this new addition to the school.
On Thursday afternoon this week we had an official handover ceremony, when
members of the PTFA presented the keys of the new minibus to members of staff.
Urgent message from the Art Department
David Anderson, Headteacher
QEGSF Year 7 Rugby Club Clinch Winners and Runners-up
at Sittingbourne RUFC Rugby Tournament
Could students from years 10, 11 and 12 please collect any pieces of artwork you would like to keep by Friday 1st March as we are desperately short
of storage space. Any pieces of work which have not been collected by the deadline date will be disposed of. Thank you. Mrs Higson

2012-2013 House Competition
Term 3 is often a quiet term for the house competition with many
students across the school focusing on their examinations. However,
there have been plenty of House events happening this term. There were
form quizzes from the Media and RS departments, a creative writing
competition, Mathematics House challenges, points awarded when
students ‘Signed to Sing’ along with all the regular ways students can earn
points for their houses.
In the last week of term, Katie Ingram in year 9 organised a charity food
collection as part of her citizenship GCSE. She contacted the House
team who helped her to run this as a House competition, F House were
very generous with their donations! The contributions were presented in
a whole school House assembly on Wednesday, where there was also a
Valentine’s Day quiz where Q and G Houses were victorious, picking up
bonus points. E and S Houses are joint first in the Interhouse sports, with
E House leading the junior sports competition.
All results of House events are posted on Moodle on a regular basis;
please check this for updates on the totals and where points are being
allocated.
Year 12 students are very keen to start helping year 13 with the House
system and will start supporting the senior student form representatives
in their duties. The current form representatives have been very
impressive this year and it will be a very hard act to follow for the new
team.
The totals are:
Q E G S F
299 299 184 277 269
Q E G S
590 512 450 545
February House
Year 7 & 8 Totals
Mr Harvey
February House
Whole School Totals
GCSE Computing
students create
android smartphone
apps for Controlled
Assessment
GCSE Computing students have been using their smartphones in class. For
once, this is not a citation on the behaviour log, but actually a crucial stage in
the Controlled Assessment! As part of developing an App for an Android
phone, the students have been testing their apps on the smartphones, to
ensure the systems work.
They have also used students to test these apps, to make sure it’s user friendly
and bug-free. We all know how frustrating poorly made software can be to
use…
Once tested, the students have to finish their write-up and move onto learning
the computational theory work for the summer exam. The course has both challenged and stimulated the students, many of whom have opted to take
the new Computing A-Level, being offered for the first time at Queen Elizabeth’s, in September.
Mr Stanton
Need to research a topic Complete Issues can be found on our Moodle Page in the Library Section
Complete Issues provides you with relevant articles, statistics and organizations for your research in a quick and easy way. It is made up of:
Essential Articles - Stimulating
arguments, thought-provoking discussions,
opposing viewpoints and personal accounts
Fact File - Up-to-date statistics & graphs
You will find Complete Issues both user-friendly and clearly organized - give it a try!
Key Organizations - Current contact
details & websites for thousands of
organizations

sign2sing 2013
On Wednesday 6 th 2.45pm 638 students at Queen Elizabeth’s took part in Sign2Sing. A charity world record breaking attempt
for the most people signing and singing at the same time to promote Signhealth.
The type of work Signhealth do includes research, for example, why more deaf people commit suicide. Better healthcare –
more deaf people suffer serious side effects from diabetes, heart disease and obesity, thought to be due to lack of
communication by GPs. This was alongside outreach programmes, supporting people into work and counselling for young
people.
The Year 8’s said it was great and that it was good taking part in a whole school charity event for those who are less
fortunate than us.
Yr8 Feedback - Written by Iona Thompson and Natalie Grace, our sixth formers who helped promote the event throughout the school.
Everyone would like to do it again next year as it was a really fun and rewarding thing to do. It made them more aware of the sign health charity and
introduced them to sign language, which made them interested in learning more. They were all enthusiastic, and there was an exciting atmosphere,
everyone got involved and had a good time.
7F quotes:
“Liked how everyone knew it and it was fun.”
“It made everyone happy and cheerful.”
“Think it was good because the songs were easy to learn signing for.”
“It was well synchronised across the country, loads of people tried to do it
well to get house points.”
“Good atmosphere because it was loud and fun and we were signing and
singing together.”
“Trying to break the world record from last year.”
My time as a Comenius Assistant
After fourteen weeks at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School it is now time for me to go back home to Sweden. Working as a Comenius Assistant in
Faversham has been a great experience. It has been very interesting to gain more knowledge of the British school system and at the same time I have
also learnt a lot about both strengths and development areas in the Swedish school system, where I will work in the future. One of my tasks as a
Comenius Assistant has been to teach the students about my culture and Swedish, my mother tongue, and to encourage the students to be curious
about other countries and to motivate them to learn foreign languages. During two weeks in December I held presentations about Swedish Christmas
celebrations. I found it very nice to see how keen the students were to ask loads of different questions and to learn some words in Swedish. Since then
I’m often greeted in Swedish by them in the corridors.
Since the beginning of January I have offered a Rope Skipping Lunch Club once a week where
students from years 7, 10 and 12 have participated. Rope skipping is one of my biggest
interests and I have been practising the sport for more than 13 years. Another big interest of
mine is contemporary circus, and during my time as a Comenius Assistant at Queen
Elizabeth’s Grammar School I have had the opportunity to combine teaching my mother
tongue with teaching contemporary circus. During Wednesday afternoons I have been
teaching a group of form six students juggling, hula hooping, rope skipping and different ways
of balancing, integrated with the
Swedish language. How languages can
be taught and learned through
involving the whole body, using
creativity and developing the physical
ability at the same time is something that I would love to learn more about in the future.
Another highlight during my British adventure has been to teach rope skipping to many groups
of students within Physical Education. Most students have been skipping before but maybe not in
a way of creating tricks while you skip, trying double dutch, long rope and other, new ways of
challenging the motor skills with a skipping rope. A difference from the Swedish school is that
the P.E. subject here is organized girls and boys separate. While teaching rope skipping and
Circus Swedish in mixed groups, I found it both nice and interesting to see that girls and boys
seemed to enjoy the lessons together and that the activity of course could be conducted
regardless of gender.
I would like to say a big thank you to all the students and the members of staff who made me
feel very welcome at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School. Thanks to you all I have many new
experiences that I am sure I will find very useful in the future. I would like to say an extra big
thank you – or “tack” as we say in Swedish - to the students in the Rope Skipping Lunch Club, in
the Swedish Lunch Club and the Circus Swedish Group. Thanks to you and your keenness to
learn, your creativity and your enthusiasm I have developed my way of teaching. I have new ideas
about how to create learning situations that include everyone and to find ways of teaching
where the strengths in each and every student are identified. You have inspired me to try
creating lessons where the participants can develop their knowledge based on their own abilities
through a positive, encouraging and exploring atmosphere where all the students are
contributing to the learning process within the group. It has been great to teach you!
7Q quotes:
“It was energetic.”
“It was bonding for the whole school.”
“It was competitive fun.”
“Good fun and promotes a good message.”
“Nice to know and felt good that we were trying to break a world record.”
Matilda Lindberg
Comenius Assistant

We have 2 new children that we sponsor through Action Aid as Abacha
Mathew and Leonela have left the programme. Our new children are
Grace Daniel and Juan Carlos Xoj Caal, both aged 6. Grace lives in
Nasarawa in Nigeria and speaks Eggon. Juan Carlos lives in Guatemala and
speaks Q’eqchi, the most popular Mayan language in the area.
The money to sponsor Grace and Juan Carlos is raised through the
Fairtrade team (the Fairtrade tuck shop and events) and the team write to
both children regularly.
Mrs Oliver and
the Fairtrade Team
We have welcomed a new
Fairtrade team this term so
that our Year 13 ‘Fairtraders’
can concentrate on their
examinations. We would like
to say “thank-you” to the
outgoing team; James Freed,
Alex Ross and Will Whysall
and welcome our new Year
12 team; Matt Rose, Lydia
Baxter, Matt Organ, Alistair
Hills, Shannon Wells,
Madeleine St Clair Baker,
Emily McKane, Rosa
Bisbrown and Harry Johnson.
The first order of business for our new team was to organise a very
quick cake sale. In two days alone they raised £200 which they sent to
the Teenage Cancer Trust. Despite raising money for Teenage Cancer
Trust throughout the past two years, the team have been further
motivated following the death of one of their year group, Max Smith in
December. Max passed away after a long and brave struggle from
Osteosarcoma and the Fairtrade team plan to continue raising money
for Teenage Cancer Trust, to thank them for all the support that they
gave to Max throughout his treatments and to help towards others in
his situation.
The Fairtrade team also raise money to pay for the two children that
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School sponsors through Action Aid. We
have two new children this year, they are Grace Daniel in Nigeria and
Juan Carlos Xoj Caal in Guatemala. Grace speaks ‘Eggon’ and Juan
Carlos speaks ‘Q’eqchi’.
The team are currently making plans for ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ which
plans to run from 25 th February to the 10 th March this year. We hope
that students will join in the activities planned during the fortnight and
will enjoy the cake sales, events and competitions. The team also plan to
make ‘Fair Cake Friday’ a monthly event and will be selling cakes made
from Fairtrade ingredients. If you would like to make cakes for the
team, all donations are most welcome; the only request from the team is
that you use as many Fairtrade ingredients as you can, we do sell
Fairtrade sugar and cocoa powder on the stall.
See the list to see where you can join in and contribute to the many
planned activities. We want to raise as much money as we can for our
two sponsored children and our chosen charity; Teenage Cancer Trust.
Fairtrade team on the first ‘Faircake Friday’
Best Fairtrade Cake
Competition – on Monday 4 th
March, bring your cake made with
Fairtrade ingredients. Mrs Waterhouse
will be choosing the best cake and
awarding the winner with a Fairtrade
treat and house points. Bring your
cakes to the Fairtrade stall at break
time on the 4 th . We will then sell the
cakes at lunchtime, so if you don’t bake
one, come and buy one!
Fairtrade Quiz – buy a quiz sheet
from the Fairtrade stall. Complete it
and return it to win a Fairtrade
Hamper.
Year 7 – the Fairtrade team will be
talking to you about Fairtrade Fortnight
in your assembly on Thursday 28 th .
Cake Sales – there will be cakes on
sale at the Fairtrade stall throughout
Fairtrade fortnight.
Sixth Form memorial lunch in memory of Max Smith – this
will take place on Wednesday 27 th at lunch time in the Food Tech Room
for Sixth Form only. We will be serving a curry made with Fairtrade
ingredients and served with Fairtrade rice. Please bring your own bowl/
plate and cutlery and a donation. The money made will go to Teenage
Cancer Trust.
If you want to find out more about why we support Fairtrade then
please visit: http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/default.aspx
Mrs Oliver and the Fairtrade Team
Fairtrade team with a cheque for Teenage Cancer Trust

F1 In Schools is a multi-disciplinary challenge in which teams of students aged 9 to 19 deploy CAD/
CAM software to collaborate, design, analyse, manufacture, test, and then race miniature gas
powered balsa wood F1 cars. The challenge inspires students to use IT to learn about physics,
aerodynamics, design, manufacture, branding, graphics, sponsorship, marketing, leadership/teamwork,
media skills and financial strategy,. They then apply their knowledge and skills in a practical,
imaginative, competitive and exciting way.
On February 5 th two formula one teams from Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, ‘Team Icarus’ and
‘Team Spitfire’ competed in the regional finals in London. The teams were made up of students from
year 11, 12 and 13. They had to design and make the cars, the merchandising (adding logos and
sponsorship to cups, hats, pens and more to promote their team) and the uniforms for the teams
to wear. An important part of the challenge is to find sponsors and one of the main sponsors, for
the second year running, was Martec an engineering company based in Whitstable. Martec
generously sponsored the teams, gave invaluable advice and support and helped with the
engineering of some crucial parts of the racing cars.
At the finals the teams gave presentations to the judges and raced their cars against other schools from the South East. The Spitfire team recorded the
second fastest time (17 metres in 1.066seconds). Racing at this level is very like the real thing with crashes and cars bursting into pieces halfway down
the track! It was a great day enjoyed by all, even if we didn’t come back with the trophy.
F1 In Schools is a very rewarding club and introduces new interests and
experiences to students. Some team members had not been involved with
engineering or design before but are very enthusiastic now and want to
continue to develop their skills. The team
members all agree that they enjoyed the
experience and would recommend it to anyone.
This is a great challenge for anyone interested in
business, marketing, design or engineering. F1 In
schools has proven so popular that the Design
Technology department are offering it to year
11 next year as an enrichment activity. This
will give invaluable experiences to any student
that takes part and also will look good on any
UCAS application or CV.
If you know of a business that might like to
sponsor or support a team next year, please contact Mr Phillips in the
D&T department.
Eager Duke of Edinburgh’s Award students complete gruelling trial day walk
30 athletic applicants for the Duke of Edinburgh's Bronze award set off on
a cold, damp January Saturday morning to complete a 10 kilometre hill
trek. Completion of the course was a requirement for being accepted on
this year's Award. The students had to navigate themselves along a route
around Wye Downs, including a couple of tough climbs and some
challenging map reading. There was also an infinite supply of mud!
day, over a weekend, carrying all
of their food, water and
camping kit.
Once accepted on the Award,
students will train and plan for
the expedition, whilst also
completing the Physical, Skills
and Volunteering sections of the
Award. The Duke of Edinburgh's
Award has been judged the
single most sought after nonacademic
qualification with UK
employers.
Mr Stanton
Despite high winds, a lot of unfamiliar wildlife and the odd wrong turn, the
students demonstrated a high level of fitness, completing the course in
under four hours. Considering the students had not chosen their teams,
they showed very good teamwork , discussing navigational conundrums
considerately and encouraging each other during the more challenging
sections. All of this bodes well for the Award itself,where they will
navigate themselves along a route of their design, for at least 6 hours a

Berlin has been the fulcrum of so much history especially in the last 100 years, in fact so much
so that every street has its own story.
This January, twenty-one Year 12 and 13 students went to this intriguing city to find this out for
themselves. It was cold (we now know what it is like to be an Emperor Penguin at the pole) and
the hostel we slept and played in (A LOT!) was clean and pleasant (despite having once been an
SS barracks). So what stories did we unearth
There were sad tales. At Wansee we sat in a charming room by a lake and considered how
Heydrich, Eichmann and their fellow demons also sat down in the same room only 60 years
previously. For 90 minutes these most unhuman of men methodically and without any moral
compunction whatsoever planned the systemised genocide of potentially 11 million Jews. They
then retired for cognac and cigars to celebrate a job well done. It seemed too chilling and too
cruel to be possible. We listened but how could we understand Trying to understand History
at Wansee is to stare straight into the mouth of hell. At what is left of the Berlin Wall we heard
the fate of those killed trying to defect from the East to the West. We heard of old ladies who
died jumping to what they hoped was freedom in the West. Young men, babies, children ..
everyone was caught up in the politics of this divided Cold War city. Again it was very sad and
simply felt so very wrong.
In short, German history between 1933-1989 is obviously not a fairy tale. Berlin attests to that
and we sensed this more than ever from its street stories and our many tours. However, it has
thankfully now a happier present which we embraced wherever possible – hot chocolate,
friendly kindly local Berliners and a love of tomato sauce with a few chips thrown into the
sauce for good measure. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Queen Elizabeth’s
students for making this one of the most pleasurable trips I have had the good fortune to lead.
Further thanks to Mr Salvage and Mrs Percy for helping to keep our morale up when it was
flagging. Long Live Amplemann!!
History
James Sladden
Berlin Trip

Design &
Technology Trip to
The first Design and Technology trip to Eurodisney left Faversham early on the morning of the 30 th January. 43 students (from years 10, 11, 12 and 13)
and 4 staff (Mr Harvey, Mrs Waterhouse, Miss Kirkaldie and Mr Munro) travelled by coach to Paris via the tunnel and arrived at the Hotel Cheyenne at
about 3.30pm. Once we had checked in to our very comfortable rooms, we walked the 10 minute route to Disney Village where our first seminar took
place at the Gaumont Cinema, in a theatre at the top of the building. We were entertained by some short films on various aspects of the park and the
speaker explained the Disney ethos and gave us some interesting facts and figures about the Disney operation. After the seminar we returned to the
hotel to unpack and settle in and then headed off for our “all you can eat” buffet supper at the hotel’s restaurant. Some people took this literally and no
one went hungry! After supper we returned to our rooms for an early night as most people were very tired after our journey.
We were up early next morning for a buffet breakfast and then into the Village for our workshop, again at the Gaumont. This was excellent with teams
creating designs for themed restaurants with entertainments and menus, all using the Disney ethos (Emotion – Service – Creativity) and based on a
Disney film. Our school came up with some excellent designs (including one based on “Up” which apparently was unusual) and each group presented
their ideas to the panel of judges (the teachers and the Disney facilitator). The facilitator was very impressed by the standard of Queen Elizabeth’s
students’ design and presentation.
We then made our way to the park and although cold, it wasn’t raining, the queues were wonderfully short and the park relatively empty. We regrouped
at 5 for our final seminar which was very intensive, revealing how every aspect of design at the park was considered in minute detail and how important
safety is within each design. Afterwards we ate at King Ludwig’s Castle and celebrated Josh Pollard and Max Ruffel’s birthdays. Then back to the park for
the most fantastic light show to celebrate the park’s 20 th Anniversary. Everyone was really enthusiastic about the show which replaced the illuminated
parade. Then after some serious shopping, back to the hotel for bed.
On Friday we presented Lewis Rigden with his birthday cake, and we had another half day at the park, but this time we weren’t so lucky with the
weather and all got thoroughly soaked. But we still managed to have a good time and everyone was on board our coach by 1.30 ready to go home.
Overall we thought this trip was a great success. We will be asking students who participated (and their parents) to give us some feedback so that we
can make it even better next year when it will be open to Year 9 and 10 D&T students.
Mrs Waterhouse

PTFA General Knowledge Quiz
Saturday 2 nd March 2013
7.30pm at Queen Elizabeth’s School Hall
Tickets £5 for adults, £3 for students (over 16 only), tables of 8.
Bread and cheese provided but adults can bring their own alcohol.
Money via school office with name, telephone number,
email address and number of places required please.
Poor Weather Arrangements.
The school will remain open unless otherwise stated on the
home page of the school website and will only close to
pupils if the site is unsafe.
If the decision is made to close the school we will post the notice
on the school's website by 7:15am. We will also pass this
information to Kent County Council who will also publish it on their
website, www.kent.gov.uk/winter along with the KMFM website,
www.kentschoolclosures.co.uk
Heart FM, BBC Radio Kent and KMFM will use the information
published on the Kent County Council website to broadcast closures,
however we have no control over the speed at which the closures are
broadcast so the best place to check if the school is closed is via our
website, please remember to refresh the page regularly. We will also
send a text message and email via Parentmail, to all those parents
who have signed up to this service.
The decision to open or close the school will not take into account
whether the pupils can travel to and from school safely as each pupil
has a different journey to make. It is important that parents satisfy
themselves that their child can safely make the journey before they
allow them to depart.
In the event of conditions deteriorating through the day of if
insufficient staff are available to safely supervise the children, it may
become necessary to close the school before 3:30pm. In this
eventuality we will monitor the transport situation before making a
decision, based on the best information we have, as to whether
children should leave school early. Should this occur we will ask pupils
to contact parents using their mobile phones. We will use the school
line to contact the parents of those pupils who do not have a mobile
phone in school.
If the school is open and your child is not coming into
school, please remember to either call or email the
school by 9:30am.
The PTFA have signed up to the Easy Fundraising Organisation which has links with thousands of websites that parents might use to buy
things. Each time you purchase from one of these websites the school will receive a percentage of the money you pay.
Please pass this information on to anyone who would be willing to sign up and help us raise money – all friends and family welcome!
www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/queenelizabethsgrammarschoolfaversham/
Term Dates 2012-13
Term 1
Monday 3 rd September (Years 7, 12 & 13)
Tuesday 4 th September (all other Years)
to Friday 26 th October
Term 2
Tuesday 6 th November to Friday 21st December
Staff Development Day – Monday 5 th November
Term 3
Monday 7 th January to Friday 15 th February
Term 4
Monday 25 th February to Thursday 28 th March
Term 5
Monday 15 th April to Friday 24 th May
May Bank Holiday - Monday 6 th May
Term 6
Monday 3 rd June to Friday 19 th July
* Next Year Term Dates 2013-14 *
Term 1
Staff Development Day - Monday 2 nd September
Tuesday 3 rd September (Years 7, 12 & 13)
Wednesday 4 th September (all other Years)
to Friday 25 th October
Term 2
Tuesday 5 th November to Friday 20 th December
Staff Development Day – Monday 4 th November
Term 3
Monday 6 th January to Friday 14 th February
Term 4
Monday 24 th February to Friday 4 th April
Term 5
Tuesday 22 nd April to Friday 23 rd May
May Bank Holiday - Monday 5 th May
Term 6
Monday 2 nd June to Friday 18 th July