19th July 2013 - Sir John Lawes School

End of Term Newsletter No 515 – July 2013At thirty pages this newsletter should take you most of the holidays to read! 0f course, ourlibrary staff might let it count as one of your Summer 6 Challenge to read 6 books from 6different genres! I’ll keep my remarks short but do need to say some important thank-yous aswe come to the end of the year.You will read below some farewell remarks from our Chair of Governors, Alan Read, who isstepping down after 7 years as Chair and many more as a governor. It is not possible toover-estimate the work Alan has done for Sir John Lawes School; in his time we have gonefrom good to outstanding, become an academy, achieved Teaching School status, formed aTrust with Roundwood Park and become the sponsor of Samuel Ryder Academy. All of theseprojects have involved a huge amount of work behind the scenes by the governing body, ablyled by Alan. He has also been a huge supporter of school life in general, attending concertsand plays, meeting students, particularly the senior prefects, and coming in on results day toshare in the laughter (and sometimes tears!). Speaking personally, as a Head teacher I couldnot have asked for a better adviser, sounding board and critical friend. He will be muchmissed! In tribute to his contribution to the school, the new conference room has beenrenamed the Read Room and we will be presenting the first ‘Alan Read prize for StudentLeadership’ at our next Prize giving. Thank you, Alan.We have also reached the time of year when we have to say goodbye to some of ourmembers of staff who are moving on to pastures new – and in some lucky cases toretirement! They are (in order of length of service!); Mark Roe, Kate Graham, CherylBonnington, Sam George, Gary Tamanian, Maria Walker, Kevin Norwood, Adam Snell,Rebecca MacTavish and Katy Walker. We thank them all for their tireless efforts on behalf ofthe students at SJL and wish them every success in the future! We will introduce our newstaff at the start of next term.Can I please encourage you to read this newsletter carefully? There is important informationfor the new year as well as lots of interesting reports on the opportunities that staff andstudents have enjoyed this year. We will be making more than 250 awards in our celebrationassembly on the last day of term, which I think shows just how much effort and enthusiasmevery member of the SJL community has put into this year. So my final thanks go to all staffand students who have worked so hard to make SJL a great place to work and learn and Iwish everyone a thoroughly restful summer!(And don’t forget your entries for our annual extreme reading competition!)As always, if you have any comments or suggestions I would be pleased to hear from you,please contact me at head@sjl.herts.sch.uk.Claire RobinsALAN READ

After seven years as Chair and several years as agovernor before that, I have decided it is time forsomeone else to take over and I shall be standing downat the end of term. My successor, subject to approval bygovernors in September, has already been identified.I have been conscious during this time of what a privilegeit is to be associated with such a successful school, withstaff, governors, children and parents who are allcommitted to making SJL the success it has become. SJLParents are fortunate indeed that their children are in thecare of such a dedicated group of professionals and laysupporters.I wish our Head Teacher, staff and governors continuedsuccess in all that they do to provide the best possible lifechances for SJL’s students.Alan ReadNOTICESEXAMSArrangements for collecting resultsExam results can be collected from the Hall on the dates below:A Levels, FSMQ & EPQ - Thursday 15 AugustYear 13 - 8.30Year 12 - 11.00Year 11 - 11.00GCSEs - Thursday 22 AugustYear 11 - 9.00Year 10 - 10.00If you are unable to come into school to collect your results, you can do one of the following:Provide Mrs Jones (Exams Officer) with an A4 stamped addressed envelope (1 st class largeletter stamp affixed), and your results will be posted to you. You need to bring this envelopein before the end of term.Provide Mrs Jones with written permission for someone else to collect results on your behalf.The letter should include your name, the name of the person collecting your results, and yoursignature. You need to bring this letter in before the end of term.Should you need to contact Mrs Jones, she will be in school from 10.00 to 16.00 on Thursday15 and Friday 16 August, and again on Thursday 22 and Friday 23 August. Alternatively, youcan email ajones@sjl.herts.sch.ukPOST RESULTS SERVICESPriority Remark- only for Yr 13 students with a University offer pending (summer results)The exam board will quickly remark your paper and re-issue your grade. You should beaware that your marks may go up, remain the same, or go down.You should complete an Enquiries About Results form and return it to the Exams Officer bythe deadline. If you miss the deadline, your paper cannot be remarked.The cost of a Priority Remark is between £40.00 and £53.00 depending on exam board, butyou will only be charged if your grade remains the same.You must sign a consent form to show that you understand that your marks could go down.

Remark- For any AS or GCSE studentThe exam board will remark your paper and re-issue your grade. You should be aware thatyour marks may go up, remain the same, or go down.You should collect an Enquiries About Results form and return it to the Exams Officer by thedeadline. If you miss the deadline, your paper cannot be remarked.The cost of a Remark is between £20.00 and £46.00 depending on exam board and level ofqualification, but you will only be charged if your grade remains the same.You must sign a consent form to show that you understand that your marks could go down.Access to Scripts- For any AS, A2 or GCSE studentThe exam board will return your exam script should you wish to look at it before making aRemark request, or if you wish to use it to support future learning. On occasion facultiesrequest scripts to be returned to support teaching. If a faculty wishes to request your script,your permission will be asked.Priority Access to Script – You should use this service if you wish to look at your paper priorto making a Remark request. You should collect an Enquiries About Results form and returnit to the Exams Officer by the deadline. The cost of a priority access to script is up to £13.00.If you miss the deadline, your paper cannot be returned quickly.NB. Following results publication in the Summer Year 13 students thinking about making aPriority Remark request must not request a Priority Access to Script first, but should gostraight to a Priority Remark request, given the limited amount of time available for thisservice.Original Script (either electronic copy or original paper, depending on exam board) –You should use this service if you wish to use your script to support future learning. Youshould collect an Enquiries About Results form and return it to the Exams Officer by thedeadline. The cost of access to an original script is up to £10.00. If you miss the deadline,your paper cannot be returned.NB. Once an original script has been returned, the Remark service is not available.ResitYou can resit a paper either in November (GCSE English or GCSE Maths only) or in thesummer.If you wish to resit a paper, you should discuss this with your subject teacher, and then collecta resit request form from the Exams Officer.Students are required to pay for resits - £10.00 per GCSE unit and £20.00 per A level unit.TERM DATESFor the Academic Year 2013 - 2014Autumn Term 2013StartMonday 2 September - (external 6 th form students only in school)Tuesday 3 September – Yrs 7, 12 and 13 in schoolWednesday 4 September – all students returnOpen Evening: Tuesday 1 October – school closes at 12.30Half Term:Monday 28 October toFriday 1 NovemberTwilight Inset Tuesday 19 November – school closes at 12.30Occasional Day Monday 2 December – school closedFinish:Friday 20 December at 12.30pmSpring Term 2014Start:Monday 6 JanuaryTwilight Inset Thursday 23 January – school closes at 12.30Half Term:Monday 17 February to

Inset DayFinish:Friday 21 FebruaryFriday 14 March – school closedFriday 4 April at 3.30pmSummer Term 2014Start:Half Term:Tuesday 22 April - Inset day – no students in schoolMonday 26 May toFriday 30 MayTwilight Inset Wednesday 25 June – school closes at 12.30Finish:Friday 18 July at 12.30pmUNIFORM - IMPORTANT REMINDERSThe time is fast approaching when many of you will be looking to replace items of uniformready for next year. We would like to take this opportunity to remind parents about the rulesregarding some areas of uniform. All students are required to wear sensible, plain blackshoes, not trainer-style, canvas or fabric slipper/ballet-styles and no stilettos or heels abovetwo inches. As you will know, the school is built on a fairly steep slope and has a number offlights of steps both inside and outside the buildings, which the students are required tonavigate on a daily basis. In wet weather, the site can become very muddy and slippery. It istherefore vitally important that these guidelines are followed and the appropriate footwear isworn at all times.When replacing skirts, please purchase them from our uniform suppliers, Stevenson’s or JohnLewis and ensure that they fit correctly. They should not be tight around the hips and waist,as students are expected to wear them fastened up at the back at all times and no more thantwo inches above the knee. Please check the length of your daughters’ skirts carefully asstudents do grow over the year and many girls are now wearing skirts which are FAR tooshort. Boys’ trousers are expected to be of an appropriate size so that they fit correctly (notsagging or baggy underneath and no underwear showing) with a small, plain belt if required.Finally, a reminder that students are not permitted to wear hair extensions, false hair piecesor false nails of any kind. Students may wear one pair of plain, silver or gold studs in thelower lobes if they wish – no other piercings are permitted and plasters over piercings are notacceptable. Extreme hairstyles and colours are not permitted. Tramlines in the hair and/oreyebrows are not permitted. Hair should not be cut shorter than no 2 in length. Students whodo not follow these rules should expect to be removed from lessons until the situation isaddressed. Please refer to our website or the student planner for further guidance.We thank you for your support in this matter.NB: if you have any items of uniform, in reasonable condition, that you no longer need, wewould be grateful if you would consider sending them into the school so that we can passthem on. In addition, if parents are looking for second hand uniform, do contact the school aswe have some items available.New PE KitAs you will no doubt be aware, in response to our student’s requests over the past couple ofyears for us to update and improve our PE kit along similar lines to other local schools, wehave agreed to do just that from September 2013. After a process of consultation with arange of manufacturers we finally settled on the following range of kit and happily we wereable to retain Stevenson’s as our main suppliers.All current students will be able to continue wearing the old style kit for at least the next 18months but will be expected to replace old for new as the time passes and they grow out of it.It is hoped that by spring 2015 all students within the school will be wearing the new kit.GirlsRoyal Blue/White Girls Games Shirt (SJL Crest)Plain Royal Blue Skort or ShortsRoyal Blue/White SJL Hockey SocksWhite socks (ankle length)White trainersFootball bootsPlain Black Leotard and Black Cycling ShortsBoysRoyal Blue/White Boys Games Shirt (SJLCrest)Plain Royal Blue ShortsRoyal Blue/White SJL Football SocksWhite socks (ankle length)White trainersFootball Boots

Navy SJL Base Layer (Optional)Navy Blue SJL Fleece (Optional)SJL tracksuit (Optional but desirable)Shin pads/Mouth GuardRoyal Blue/White reversible Rugby ShirtNavy SJL Base Layer (Optional)Navy Blue SJL Fleece (Optional)SJL tracksuit (Optional but desirable)Shin pads/ Mouth GuardTo summarise the changes:Old White Polo shirt replaced by Boys and Girls Royal Blue and White Polo Games shirtOld reversible Rugby shirt replaced by new style reversible Rugby shirtOld Plain Royal Blue football socks andWhite hockey socks replaced by new SJLlogo Royal Blue and Whitefootball/hockey socks for boys and girlsOld Plain Navy shorts replaced by PlainRoyal Blue shorts or Skort (optional forGirls)Old Navy Sweatshirt replaced by NavyFleeceOld SJL Tracksuit replaced by New SJLTracksuit (optional)The new range is made up of muchhigher quality performance garments anddesigned not only to look better but alsoto give the students better comfort in allconditions. Despite this there has onlybeen a minimal change in the cost of themajority of garments with the oneexception being the Boys and Girls PoloShirts which are more expensive than theold plain white polo.To ease the burden of the increased costof the Polo Games Shirts for Boys andGirls, we are delighted to say thatStevenson’s will offer a 10% discount on these items to all current students looking to replaceold with new on the production of their smart card or library card during the transition period.CONGRATULATIONSPRIZE-GIVING 2012-2013We are delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Subject and Year prizes. The following students will beinvited to attend the Scholars’ Trust Awards Ceremony in December, where they will be presented with theirprizes. Congratulations to:Name Reg PrizeCamden Nightingale 10R John Miles Sculpture PrizeDavina Jayawickrama 7H KS3 ArtKatharine Bevan 10L KS4 ArtRebecca Reading 12H KS5 ArtChristopher Moore 13R KS5 GraphicsJames Shutkever 12R PhotographyAlice Warren 13H Business Studies (Stuart Bishop Prize)Fraser Crome 12N Critical ThinkingSophie Caplan 9B KS3 DramaJack Pannaman 11B KS4 DramaOliver Slade 13L KS5 Drama (Richard Burke Prize)Sarah Clarbour 13K EconomicsBarney Crawford 8L KS3 EnglishAnnalisa Houghton 8L KS3 EnglishIsobel Barlow 11L KS4 EnglishJoshua Sambrook 11B KS4 English

Neena Michalik 13L KS5 EnglishSally Tang 13H Public SpeakingAnna Young 11L KS4 GeographyDamiano Sogaro 13H KS5 GeographyCaoimhe Downey 10B KS4 HistoryAnna Heneghan 12K KS5 HistoryEmily Evans 9B KS3 ICTNatasha Miller 10K KS4 ICTLydia Edwards 9L Library (Old Scholars' Prize)Seren Barker 8B KS3 MathsIsabel Probyn 8A KS3 MathsManav Gupta 10B KS4 MathsDaniel Toy 10B KS4 MathsJamie Carr 13A KS5 MathsLouis Gabaldoni 9N KS3 MediaOzora Darwin 10L KS4 MediaHanna Dos Santos 13K KS5 MediaLena Moustaghfir 7R KS3 FrenchMax Jenner 10R KS4 FrenchNeelima Ahmed 12N KS5 French (Kingswood Prize)Edward Smith 8R KS3 GermanKatie Wilkins 10K KS4 GermanConstance Edwards 12K KS5 GermanGlen Bishop 10L SpanishJames Peck 9K KS3 MusicDigby Lovatt 10A KS4 MusicEmily Wright 13L KS5 Music (Alan Kettley Prize)Luca Denton 8H KS3 Boys PEIan McKay 9K KS4 Boys PEMatthew Bullock 12K KS5 Boys PEElla Hutson 7R KS3 Girls PEAmy Russell 11B KS4 Girls PEAbby Smith 12H KS5 Girls PEMichael Crake 12N Chris Armitage AwardEmily Douglas 13A Read Award for Student LeadershipFarhiya Yusuf 11A Russell Turner PrizeSusannah Latham 9R SJL AwardHolly Verney-Smith 13L PsychologyWedad Rattab 11K KS4 Religious StudiesAbigail Browning 13N KS5 Religious StudiesSophie Bunn 13R BiologyLaura Cherry 13H ChemistryAnna Pollard 8R KS3 ScienceJack Toy 8A KS3 ScienceBernadette Furey 11H KS4 ScienceWilliam Greaves 11N KS4 ScienceBharadwaj Ramanathan 13R PhysicsJoe Booth 11A 3D Product DesignMarco Ghelfi 9R Cliff Gardner Award for TechnologyGabriella Centro 7R DesignOlivia Finlay 11H Food TechJames Stepniewski 11N KS4 GraphicsMatthew Bassil 13N Product DesignEmily Westcott 9K KS3 TextilesAdena Moulding 11R KS4 TextilesHannah Gadsby 12R KS5 TextilesNatasha Green 13L Sixth FormMilly Bagshaw 10K Year 10 Prize

Matthew Noble 11L Year 11 PrizeAimie Palumbo 7A Year 7 PrizeGrace Payne 8H Year 8 PrizeAdam Wilmshurst 9H Year 9 PrizeWinners of the Halley Stewart Prizes, the Winn Award and the Selex Galileo Awards will bedecided following results day and published in the new academic year.EXCELLENCE IN MUSICWe also congratulate the following students who have been awarded Full Colours for theircontribution to excellence in Music throughout this academic year: Hazel Duffell, Josh Eckley,Tom Gloess, Natasha Green, Lydia Haynes, Max Muller, Sophie Roche, Alison Small, RachelWaldram, and Emily Wright. Well done to all concerned!Congratulations also to the following students who passed instrumental or vocal exams in thespring and summer 2013 sessions!Natasha Green Singing Grade 8 with MeritJonathan Risley Clarinet Grade 8 with MeritEmily Wright Clarinet Grade 8Emily Bolton Singing Grade 7Mark Pulver Piano Grade 7Digby Lovatt Bass Guitar Grade 6 with DistinctionRachel Elliot Singing Grade 5 with DistinctionManav Gupta Saxophone Grade 5Alice Davies Singing Grade 5 with MeritSarah Freeman Singing Grade 5 with MeritAimee Kirkland Singing Grade 5 with MeritAlex Latham Clarinet Grade 5Charlotte Neal Singing Grade 5 with MeritLillie Quick Singing Grade 5 with MeritCaitlin Eckley Singing Grade 4 with MeritAlice Foster Clarinet Grade 4Tom Archer Saxophone Grade 3Jack Allen Clarinet Grade 3 with MeritLauren Bailey Clarinet Grade 3 with MeritLucy Brand Clarinet Grade 3Gabi Centro Clarinet Grade 3 with DistinctionJasmine Ellis Trumpet Grade 3Sophie Girling Trumpet Grade 3Susie Latham Trumpet Grade 3 with MeritBen Miller Clarinet Grade 3Aimie Palumbo Singing Grade 3 with MeritAnna Rowan Singing Grade 3 with MeritEmily Threlfall Trumpet Grade 3Aimee Gorman Violin Grade 2 with MeritElliot Payne Trumpet Grade 2 with MeritEdward Smith Piano Grade 2 with MeritDorothea Birrs Piano Grade 1Davina Jayawikrama Piano Grade 1Tom McNeill French Horn Grade 1 with DistinctionHannah Wildy Piano Grade 1HEAD’S COMMENDATIONSWell done to the following students who were awarded Head teacher’s Commendations thisterm:Lauren Archer, Emma Shutkever, Natasha Miller, Hollie Stephenson, Max Jenner, HarryPenrose, Abigail Rowland, Lewis Tizard, Dan Toy, Max Jenner, Rory Glass, Natalie Smith,Michael Crake, Hannah Walpole, Daisy Coregan, Isabel Harris, Emily Thorne, Jack Murphy,Daniel Sambrook, Patrick Brine, Rebecca Fiedler, James Peck, Robin Fletcher, LaurenPollard, Zoe Jenkins, Ruby Mulgan, Polly Jenner, Lily Robertson, Emma Fisher, Davina

Jayawickrama, Emilia Rice, Matthew Swann, Josh Ferguson, Christian Everitt, Ben Douglas,Elisha Mans, Edward Smith, Hannah Bentley, Aiden Mahoney, Kasia Motyczak.Congratulations to Luke Dyer 9B (left) who won the U14Hertfordshire County Archery ChampionshipsCongratulations to Ellen Archer who was recently selected to jointhe ASA East Region Synchronised Swimming TalentDevelopment Squad in May, after a competitive two hourselection process in Hemel Hempstead, which also involvedextensive land training, and now has the opportunity to attendthe training programme taking place across the region. Shetrains with the Aqualina Synchronised Swimming squad inStevenage.Congratulations to KatherineCoggins 9K who recently wonthe under 16 TennisTournament at Elliswick Tennis Club. Katherine received a£100 prize for being the most improved tennis player at theclub.Congratulations to Bradley Howell 11R, who representedSJL in the schools Judo competition and won a Goldmedal.Congratulations to Victoria Cleevely and her Kata partner(right) who earned two Gold medals with scores that setthem well apart from the rest of the competitors in therecent British Schools Judo Association National KataTournament.LEADERSHIP AWARDSWe are pleased to announce the introduction of a new award to celebrate student leadershipwithin the school. This award is designed to bring together the diverse range of opportunitiesfor students to take a lead at SJL, including the JLT, LLT, Eco Schools, Oxfam Group, LibraryCommittee, sporting competitions, concerts, plays, fund-raising, meeting visitors and manymore.The award can be achieved at bronze, silver and gold levels. Bronze is designed to beaccessible for keen Year 7 students, silver for those who play a leading role for a period oftwo or three years and gold for the few students who show sustained and significantleadership over their time at SJL.As the award is new, we have piloted it this year with the Junior Leadership Team and a smallgroup of Year 7 students. The names of the first winners are listed below. As of September,the award will be open to all students, who can enter by completing an application form intheir planners to explain how they have shown leadership.Bronze Award Winners Silver Award Winners Gold Award WinnersRobert Murphy 7NAimie Palumbo 7AAmanda Rowland 7LBobby Vivanti 7LTegan Reed 8NLucy Turberville 9RMaxine Tink 12A21 ST CENTURY LEARNERSEach half term we place one 21 st Century Learning quality inthe spotlight. Students set targets for themselves in therelevant area and review them at the end of the half term. Thequality in the spotlight for the second half of the Summer Termwas co-operation. Those students in Years 7-9 who achievedthe greatest success in meeting their target were awarded the

co-operative sticker by their tutors to put in their planners. Their names are listed below. Year10 names are not included for co-operation because they were taking exams and out ofschool on work experience at the time. Those who get a complete set will be given the 21 stCentury Learning Award.Co-operative LearnersYear 7 Year 8 Year 9ALDRIDGE CharlieALLEN JackAYRES RebeccaAYRES ZoeBAILEY LaurenBALSON-PATEL MaijaBARRETT LauraBOLTON MarcusBOOTH DanielBROOKS JamesBUNN CharlieCARTER CharlotteCENTRO GabriellaFISHER EmmaFROST GeorgiaGARDNER AimeeGORMAN AimeeGOULT CharlotteGREENWAY HarrisonGUY EllaHUSSAIN AzakJACKSON NatashaLAROUSSI NawalMILLER BenMULGAN RubyMURPHY JackMURPHY RobertO'CONNOR GeorgePALUMBO AimiePOLLARD LaurenPRINCE LibbyRABIN IsabelleREED AlfieRICE EmeliaROBERTSON LilyROWAN AnnaRUSSELL BenSHANKS MiaSTANTON AbigailSWANN MatthewTHORNE EmilyTOMLINSON ChloeABUBAKAR AdamALMOND KatieARMSTRONG LiamBEECH DominicBENTLEY HannahBROOK HarryBUCKLER JakeBUTLER LewisCAPTIEUX MarcusDAWES JodieDOWNEY OrlaDYTHAM DanielFOSTER CeliaGERRED ChristopherGREATOREX LucyHANNAH MollyHANWELL LukeHARRIS AmeliaHEIGHTMAN TimothyHUZAR CameronKAZMI ZaynKENYON HannahKNIGHT EmilyLAWRENCE MatildaLUYK ThomasMILLAR OliviaO'HANLON EmilyPASCAL RosieREED TeganRISLEY EmmaSTEBBINGS PatrickTRUSCOTT AilisBURFORD MatthewCAPLAN SophieCARTER AmyCOGGINS KatherineCOLES JordanCOLLIS JessicaCULLEY EloiseDIAS OliviaDYER LukeELDRIDGE FinlayELLIOTT RachelFLETCHER RobinGILFOYLE KathrynGRAVESTOCK WilliamHAMBIDGE StanleyHAYES MikeyHILLIER SophiaHOUGHTON ThomasJACKSON AliceKIRKLAND AimeeLATHAM SusannahLLOYD AlysMCNEILL RebeccaMOUSTAGHFIR InessNOAKES SophieO'CONNELL ChloeODIASE OmonePARKINSON WilliamPARRISH LucyPATEL ShivaniPAVITT PhoebeSAQLAIN ZaraSHAW MaximilianSHAW OliverSMITH JoshuaTORRANCE ScarletTURBERVILLE LucyWALPOLE LottyWESTCOTT EmilyWRIGHT JarynYANKOVA ToniYUSUF Issa

Independent LearnersSome students have succeeded in winning every sticker available. This means they haveshown themselves to be resourceful, open minded, committed, flexible, motivated and cooperative.In short, they are independent learners, demonstrating all the qualities needed forthe 21 st century world. They will receive certificates and badges in the end of year assembly.Their names are listed below.Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10ABUBAKAR AdamHANNAH MollyMANS ElishaREYNOLDSCharlotteROUSE ChristopherWRIGHT TayAYRES RebeccaGUY EllaLAROUSSI NawalPALUMBO AimiePOLLARD LaurenROWAN AnnaCOLES JordanELLIOTT RachelFLETCHER RobinGILFOYLE KathrynGLOESS KirstyHALE LauraHALSEY TobyHAYES MikeyLANGLEY JamesMCNEILL RebeccaNOAKES SophieO'CONNELL ChloeSAQLAIN ZaraSHAW OliverSPENCE TobiasTORRANCE ScarletWALPOLE LottyYELLAND CiaraASHTON SamanthaAYLES HollyBURTON LewisDAVIS NickyFLETCHER CharlieKING MartinSHAH DavinaSKILTONEmma-RoseTIZARD Lewis

Congratulations also to the following students (see photo below) who have recently taken partin the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme:

SPECIALISMSI am delighted to be able to report that our firstcohort of Post-16 BTEC students havesuccessfully completed the two year, three ALevel equivalent course. Almost all, and allthose who applied are going on to some of themost prestigious media universities in thecountry, including Bournemouth, SheffieldHallam, University of Hertfordshire and Salford,to further their studies before entering theindustry.This has been a fantastic and challengingcourse, with students undertaking a wide rangeof production work across the UK. There havebeen some amazing documentaries, musicvideos, corporate promotional films,magazines, animations and dramas made, andI know that our graduates will enter theirUniversities with formidable portfolios or workand extensive expertise. We wish them everysuccess!We have continued to invest in mediaresources to facilitate the ambition of ourstudents, and we are now “tape free” in that allour location equipment, including cameras,records to hard drive or SD-Ram. This keeps us current, but also makes managing the vastamount of material captured by students a little more straightforward!Science continues to be an area of keen student interest, with students competing in localengineering competitions such as the Go4Set challenge whereby they had to produce adesign for an eco-friendly sports stadium and present it to other schools at BRE Engineering.The Robotics Club has produced its new radio controlled warrior robot, that will be competingin battles against entries from other schoolsover the summer break, and all Yr9 studentshave completed two CREST engineeringprojects and peer assessed them with eachother.Our Activities and Collaboration Week hasbeen a huge success, with studentsexperiencing all kinds of new challenges andeducational trips.Of the many highlights there has beenbreeze block totem pole sculpture,construction competitions in Design Tec, pinholeand antique photography, shadowplays, film making, textiles, cookery, gameswithout screens, inter-house games andmuch more.

There have been some fantastic trips toWhipsnade Zoo, the Hitchin Gurdwara,Watford Mosque, an inter-school gamescompetition with our trust partner schoolRoundwood, and a celebration of Sir JohnBennett Lawes, founder of the RothamstedResearch Station, with year nine studentsspending a day at the centre with scientistsand environmental researchers.The success of this complex and ambitiousweek is down to the hard work of all staff(every member of the SJL staff team isinvolved!) and the effort and commitment ofour fantastic students – all nine hundred ofthem taking part! A truly fantastic end to theyear.Enjoy the photos.Alex Prior

SILVER ARTS AWARD NEWSThis year is the first that we have had a group of year 10s who said that GCSE Drama justwasn’t enough! Ben Douglas, Ellie Lewis, Hollie Shepherd, Ryan Ginger and Claire Matthewshave all been working this past year on gaining their Silver Arts Award qualification in theirspare time. Worth half a GCSE grade A*-C and awarded by the Arts Council, the awardrequires students to perform in theatre productions, speak to professional actors anddirectors, review shows, investigate future careers and lead workshops to share their skillswith others. This week, they have been leading workshops for year 7 base on the musical WeWill Rock You! They organised, planned and led everything themselves and they did a superbjob. The dancing, singing and acting was excellent and all the students had a really good timelearning new skills and working as part of a team. So congratulations to Hollie, Ryan, Ellieand Claire on their workshops and congratulations to Ben who worked as the assistantdirector for the lower school play A Midsummer Night’s Dream.FRENCH PRIMARY VISITSMelody Britton, DramaDuring the last few weeks a number of year 9 students went back to primary schools - asteachers! They planned and delivered a number of different French lessons to primary schoolpupils. The schools involved were Manland Primary School, St Helen's Primary School,Wheathampstead, Crabtree Junior School and Kimpton Primary School. The primary pupilswere excited to see some familiar faces return, as were the primary teachers! The studentsacquitted themselves extremely well and taught excellent lessons with thought, dedicationand real creativity. Well done to everyone involved!HAVE YOU MET …?This year 70 students in years 7-10 took part in the first ever Have you met....? events. Thestudents produced a display about themselves which included work from school and out ofschool. They then invited teachers as well as parents and governors to talk to them and findout about their interests. It was really satisfying to see these students speaking withconfidence and showing pride in their achievements. They also talked about their personalqualities, where they learn best and they set themselves a target for what they want toachieve in the future. By all accounts this project has been a great success and was recentlyrecognised at the Herts Advertiser School Awards as the most innovative project of the year.I would like to thank all those who took part this year and all those parents, staff andgovernors who attended.Mrs BrownYear 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10IsabellaLiam Armstrong Luke Dyer Holly AylesGeorgeson.Fraser Bretnall. Umar Saleem Ian McKay Kieran BowenNabilah Khan Tiffany Dilley Adam Pritchard Jordan HillierTanya Burgess- Gaby HayesGabrielo NashJoshua MollJamesMia Shanks Marshall Sinnott Tiffany Winchester Keely PlaatsGeorgia Frost Jack Dance Ashleigh Bretnall Zak BarwellJamal Juma Sameena Rahman Jordan Coles Yasmin BottingDamon Payne Sam Martin Laura Hale Tia-Jay CookeShah Alazeem Luis Kent Katie Hale Ozora Darwin

Joseph Boyson Lauren Barwick Alice Jackson Oskar SandersAngel High Oliver Berridge Emma Bates Gareth LloydGrace Joshua Darwin Emerson Luke Connell Michelle FarnhamNawal Laroussi Mouna Laroussi Ryan Horsley Caoimhe DowneyMilly Martin-Ivelina Pepechkova Sammy Little Faheema FaheemaCraddockElliot Nikitits Liam Samples Rhys Hutchinson Melodie TaylorConnor Scinaldi Joshua Webster Susannah Latham Josh CassataHarry Collins Jack Brand Laura Bradbury Peter RowlandBeth ElderkinBobby VivantiTHANK YOUA huge ‘Thank You’ to all of those who helped the school in the collection of the Sainsbury’sKids Vouchers. We were able to collect a massive 15,354 vouchers and this amount has nowgone towards purchasing hurdles, basketballs and ball bags for the PE Department and tovarious pieces of kitchen equipment for the Food Tech Department.This is the largest amount the school has ever collected and we could not have done itwithout your support.NDEKE HIGH SCHOOL AND SIR JOHN LAWES CALENDAR COMPETITION!Over the summer holidayswe are setting students andstaff the challenge of takingphotos, drawing or paintingpictures of sights in the UK.Students in Ndeke High have been set the same challengewithin the Zambian setting, the aim being we can celebrateboth the similarities and differences between the two nationsthrough art. Mr Higgins will be judging the photos and picturesin the autumn term and there will be a calendar on sale in thelead up to Christmas with the winning captions throughout.There are 12 categories, one for each calendar month: Home,Buildings, Water, Landscape, Religion, Learning, History,School, Seasons, Wildlife, Sunset and Fashion. So get yourcameras and paintbrushes ready, we look forward to seeingthe fantastic work in the new school year!CHILDWICKBURY ARTS FAIRLast Friday, some sixth formers and year 9 textile students visited the Childwickbury Arts Fair.It was an excellent opportunity for us to discover and explore the works of different artists,craftsmen and designers. We saw some amazing, inspirational displays and it was great thatwe could actually talk to the artists about their work and how they created it. We were verylucky with the weather as it was beautifully sunny and hot; it was a lovely day out! I woulddefinitely recommend for any pupils to go next year.Emily Westcott 9 King

SCIENCE CLUB NEWSOur science club party had a fantastic turn out with lots of students attending who we hadn'tseen for quite a long time!Our experimentThis experiment is called methane bubbles.1. We started by filling a bowl with washing liquid.2. We then put a lot of methane gas into it.3. This created bubbles. The person lined up and wet their hands. They then put bubbles ontheir hands.4. Miss Ghorashi then lit a match and set the persons hand on fire.(This experiment was entirely safe - don't worry!)What we learnt!We learnt that methane is flammable and that because of this we can cover our hands withwashing liquid and methane, then set it alight and it will not hurt us.This experiment was carried out by the whole of science club!LOWER SCHOOL SPELLING CONTESTStudents from years 7 to 9 have been taking part in a four week spelling challenge where theyhave been learning ten words per week. I have been delighted to see the gradualimprovement over the four weeks as students learn new strategies for spellings and thenumber of students achieving ten out of ten each week has gradually increased.The challenge culminated in a house spelling contest with each form’s top spellers competingfor house points and prizes. They were tested on words ranging from ‘silhouette’ to ‘deity’,with more challenging words in the tie break such as ‘decadence’ and ‘megalomania’. Wewere impressed with the standard overall; the winners for each year group were: AimeeGorman 7N, Barney Crawford 8L, Josh Smith 9N and Mark Pulver 12R. The overall winnerwith the most correct words was Josh Smith 9N. Well done to all of those who took part.Mrs SeymourMODEL UN TRIP 2013On 4 July 2013 six students from Sir John Lawesattended a model UN event hosted by UNA-UKat King’s College in London. At first I was verynervous about the event; I had never been to amodel United Nations before so I didn’t knowhow it was going to work. However, when we gotto King’s College my nerves disappeared as wewere welcomed to the event with a talk on thedamage caused by wars, mainly civil wars, byTheo Farrell, the Professor of War in the ModernWorld at King’s College, and a talk on usefulskills for negotiation by Sir Stewart Eldon, formerUK representative to NATO and former deputyrepresentative to the UN. After these talks, whichdelivered some very useful tips for the debate,we split off into three Security Councilcommittees, each containing the same group of fifteen countries; I was representing Russia incommittee three. Our task in these committees was to represent the interests of our givencountry in negotiating an arms trade treaty, similar to one that was actually discussed in theUN in March this year. The discussion was heated yet productive and it even continuedduring the lunch break! The treaty went through a variety of amendments, yet in my view wegot an effective treaty signed. These negotiations were followed by a summary of the day’sdiscussions from each committee and finally a question and answer session with Sir StewartEldon and Ben Donaldson, a UNA-UK employee who was in New York for the actual armstrade treaty negotiations. I left the event with some great memories and also a much better

understanding of how the UN works and what it is like to be in the shoes of an internationaldiplomat.COLLABORATION WITH OXFAMHarry PenroseThis year we have been working with Oxfam as a ‘Lead School’ which has involved usworking on joint projects aimed at developing our whole school approach to global citizenship.Our work with Oxfam has benefited pupils, staff and the wider community. We have a veryactive Oxfam Youth Action Group whose work this year has included arranging a campaignon the Arms Trade Treaty, delivering an assembly to Year 7 onland grabs, organising a cake and coffee morning for staff forInternational Women’s Day and delivering an assembly toCrabtree Juniors on the Send my Friend to School Campaign.One of the highlights of their work this year has been the IFcampaign on world hunger which culminated in a visit to DowningStreet where they had the opportunity to present the paper platesthat had been produced by school children up and down thecountry to David Cameron and David Walliams.Another highlight of our work with Oxfam this year has been8M’s ‘Message in a Book’ project which involved them as a classcollecting books for our local Oxfam shop and writing messagesto buyers of the books about the Millennium Development Goals.As part of this they also created a display for the shop windowand organised a ‘pop up’ book sale at school which raised over£50. A massive thank you must be said to all the teachersinvolved in co-ordinating this project and the pupils in 8M – theydid us proud!The final Oxfam event of this year involved working alongsideSamuel Ryder Academy to host a conference for localsecondary schools entitled ‘Farmers Feeding our world’. Thiswas attended by over 100 students in the penultimate week ofterm and gave pupils the opportunity to learn about the issues facing farmers in different partsof the world and explore ways in which young people in this country can make a difference.ECO-SCHOOLSThe penultimate week of term has been Green Week at SJL where theEco-schools group have encouraged staff to incorporate eco-themesinto lessons, delivered school assemblies and carried out a school widesurvey which involved scoring each faculty area on how eco-friendlythey are during lessons. We are pleased to announce that the winningfaculty for this year is PE, which means they will now take on the trophyfrom the History faculty who were last year’s winners. In their assemblythe eco-schools group reported on some of their achievements for thisyear which have included: Launching a competition to design an eco-friendly mug so that wecan cut down on our use of disposable cups for meetings andevents. Organising an awareness raising campaign entitled ‘Lights offblindsup’ to encourage us to use more natural light Working with Roundwood Park school on a joint ‘Green Christmas’ campaign and aninter-school energy saving competition Re-labelling the bins around school to encourage people to reduce and re-use theirwaste rather than throwing things in the binWorking to increase biodiversity in the school through seed and tree planting and makingof bird feeders.If you are interested in getting involved in eco-schools next term please see Mrs Cox inHumanities.

HOUSE NEWSThis term has seen four House competitions, Britten’s Cluedo, Ryder’s Olympics, theHepworth Hunt and the musical talent contest that is Austen Factor. House points have alsobeen earned through the school spelling competition.There are still the points from Sports Day and from this term’s Merit Marks to be added to thetotals with the final total being announced in the assembly on the last day. Also presented willbe the Merit Mark cup for the House that has been awarded the most merits this term.What has impressed throughout this term and indeed through the whole year has been theway students from all years have got involved in the different house events and competitions.Well done to everyone who has represented their form and house in a competition this year!Mr Higgins, Mr Evans, Mrs Ponte, Mrs Trussler, Ms Montgomery, Mrs Crowder, MrThompson, Mr RobinsART NEWSThis term has seen another set of exams for our Art and Textiles students in Y11 and our Art,Graphics, Photography and Textiles students in Y12 and Y13. The students started theirexams with the questions being given out in January and February and finished with amammoth 130 hours of examinations completed in June. We have held two exhibitions andour GCSE and Sixth Form Shows were filled with stunning work and very pleased studentsand families.This summer also sees some of our students’ work exhibited in the New Youth Centre whichopened this month on Harpenden High Street.The final week of term sees Activities Week with students producing a textiles market placemural, a pointillist mural to be displayed at Harpenden Tennis Club that commemorates AndyMurray’s victory at Wimbledon, making their own paper, sculptures using cardboard,developing photos in the darkroom and many other activities.We would like to wish Mrs Redford good luck as she goes on maternity leave at the end ofterm and welcome Mrs Wakeley who joins us in SeptemberStudents entering Y10 and Y12 have their holiday work and we are already looking towardsexcellent results in the summer and another vintage year in SeptemberMr Higgins, Mr Carey, Mrs Gibson, Ms Lange, Mrs Ponte, Mrs Pullinger, Ms Richardson, MsStoneCAKE SALEOn sports day, Chloe Aitchison, Anu Awe and Maddie Edge sold cakes in aid of CRY-Cardiac Risk in the Young. It was a very successful day and overall we raised £145. Wewould like to say a huge thank you to everyone who brought in cakes and took time to makethem look lovely with the decorations. All of the cakes were sold and there were a lot ofpositive comments.A SUMMARY OF A DRAMATIC YEARThis year has been a really challenging and exciting year for the Drama department where wehave concentrated on traditional seasonal productions. Miss Britton’s wonderful production ofA Christmas Carol featured ghostly silhouettes, Victorian period costumes and fantasticperformances from the whole cast of thirty actors led by Jack Pannaman as Scrooge. Therewere some memorable characterisations from Aiden Alexander as Bob Cratchitt, Claire Leithas Frances, Hannah Sweeney as Belle and Rory Glass as the spine tingling ghost of JacobMarley. The production was full of memorable performances, great ensemble acting andseasonal cheer. In keeping with the seasons we planned an open air production of AMidsummer Night’s Dream for mid- June and prayed for fine weather. The talented andcommitted lower school cast performed brilliantly in an 80 minute version of the Dream thatplayed for four performances with two matinees to year 7 and primary schools pupils. Wemanaged to have two and a half performances outside and one and a half inside and the cast

were professional and flexible in their approach. The Open Air production and the beautifulOasis garden were a perfect match and there were some sterling performances from thelovers played by Alice Clothier, Sophie Caplan, Adam Wilmshurst and Charlie Bellwood. Themechanicals led by Lauren Braggs and Patrick Brine were entertaining and the magical fairieswere commanded brilliantly by Kirsty Dolby and Tom Pigram as Titania and Oberon. It was apleasure to work on and the end results were a source of great pride for all involved!There have been seven theatre trips this year for all year groups and these have ranged fromThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time for Year 10 and 13 down to Matilda foryear 7 and 8 students. These two productions have been the most entertaining andinspirational visits I can remember and worthy of all the awards and hyperbole attached tothem. In between we visited the hilarious One Man Two Guvnors, the still awesome LionKing and a stunning Macbeth with James MacAvoy. This programme inspires and supportsour work by providing opportunities for live theatre reviews which are required at Year 9,GCSE and A Level coursework as well being very entertaining and enjoyable of course!We have awarded special end of year Drama Awards for students who have been mostimpressive in classes and productions during the year. The following students who willreceive the much coveted star trophies this year are as follows…..Year 7 Nawal Laroussi Harvey MihilYear 8 Lauren Braggs Charlie BellwoodYear 9 Shivani Patel Tom PigramYear 10 Ben DouglasYear 12 Jemima NivenOur year 9s have been especially impressive this year with an excellent showcase aboutfamily and friendship featuring some superb comedy and they have appeared in both upperand lower school plays. 55 year 9 students have passed Arts Award Bronze by producingimpressive portfolios based on their practical enjoyment of theatre and the arts.Our year 12 A Level Drama group have produced some impressive monologues andduologues and two first rate productions of Beautiful Thing and Be My Baby. They havedemonstrated not only excellent performance skills but also great social and organisationalskills and several of them hope to pursue Drama related courses at University which isfantastic.Our next show will be an upper school musical in December; we have interesting short listand we will announce the project in early September. There will of course be a lower schoolplay project in the summer term to engage the young directed by Mrs MiltonA big and sincere thank you to all the many staff, students and parents who have helpedsupport Drama and theatrical activities during this memorable year!Tim Armitage / Head of DramaMUSIC NEWSIt’s been a busy year for musicians at SJL. InJanuary a busy term for the students and staffin the Music faculty began with a fantastic day trip to theBritish Music Experience (BME) at the 02, followed by ascreening of the film Les Miserables.

As well as the Christmas, Spring and Summer Prom, thestudents at SJL have been performing in the variousshowcases, we have had this year. Here are some of thestudents performing at the Year 9 Showcase.African drumming WorkshopOn February 26 Risenga Makondo visited the school tolead a Djembe workshop with our year 9 students. We allfound out that African drumming required great disciplineand concentration and was very physical. The studentsare now working on incorporating the rhythms thatRisenga taught us into a piece of Fusion. We enjoyed hisvisit so much, he was invited to give a workshop at thestaff conference!The Harpenden Schools Music FestivalMembers of the school Concert Band performed at the annual festival in the HarpendenPublic Halls on Monday 11 March joined by students from Roundwood Park and St. Georges.A smaller group taken from the Concert Band accompanied the primary choir in a rendition of‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ and the Saxophone Ensemble gave a fantastic performanceof ‘Lady Be Good’.Jazz EveningOn Friday the 26 th of April the school hall was transformed into a Jazz Club for the annualJazz Evening featuring the Jazz Band, Saxophone Ensemble, Soul Group and someoutstanding solo performances.The evening saw the last ever public performance by the Senior Soul Group (Lydia Haynes,Rose Wheeler, Sophie Roche, Rachel Waldram, Natasha Green, and Monty Allaway-North)who have been together since year 7. As ever, their close harmonies and stylish presentationlit up the evening. Some stunning solos given by our year 13 students who will be leaving forpastures new this summer, delighted the audience and set the bar for the younger membersof the band. Congratulations go to Lydia Haynes, Josh Eckley, Tom Gloess, Max Muller,Emily Wright, Rachel Waldram and Natasha Green all of whom had solo features with theBand.MAST YEAR SUMMARY 2012-13This has been another fantastic year for our students, many taking part in a wide range ofMASt activities throughout the year.Once again our more able Y10 students took part in a trip to Trinity College, Cambridge. Theday started with a detailed introduction to universities in general and Cambridge in particular.This was followed by a tour of the College, including the famous Wren Library, and then lunchin the beautiful dining hall. After lunch the students heard a talk from the Admissions Tutorand then took part in a treasure hunt around the town.“This trip is a fantastic experience for anyone who is keen to excel in their studiesand grasp an insight for later student life.”Kate BevanEnglishYouth Cultural Ambassadors

On the 20th of June, Sir John Lawes Schools Youth Cultural Ambassadorsvisited the Royal Opera House in London. Twelve of us attended; we completedtwo workshops and also were privileged to receive a tour of the Opera House.The day started at the train station for 7:30 to catch the train to Covent Garden.Once we arrived at the Opera House, we went to the conference area, wherethe day was based. As the other schools arrived, we helped ourselves to tea,coffee, juice and biscuits.After all the schools had arrived and settled down, there were a few speakers introducing theYCAprogramme, and also telling us all about the Royal Opera house and what happens there. Weheard from Jan Schmolck, the Section Principal Second Violin; Mal Burton, CostumeManager; James Simpson, Director of Lighting and Visualization; and Laura McCulloch andNathalie Harrison from the Royal Ballet. Our key work for the day was ‘inspiration’ and eachspeaker spoke about what inspiredthem to take up the career theyhad. This was really inspiring forus, hearing what happens in such amagnificent place in which athousand people of many differentprofessional disciplines work on asite just over an acre in size.SamanthaSharkey 8NewtonYou cancatch up withwhat theYCAs are upto athttp://www.hertsyca.org.uk/ which they will be populating over the course of thecoming academic year with their artistic projects.Poetry by HeartYear 12 student Ella Yaron reached the final of the Poetry by Heart Competition, judged bySir Andrew Motion. The final was at the National Portrait Gallery and Ella recited RobertGraves’s ‘Welsh Incident’. Many congratulations Ella, for some wonderful performances.Art & TextilesStudents exhibited work in the Harpenden Photographic Society Exhibition with severalstudents getting Gold Silver or Bronze prizes including Leah Burchell, Jess Hill, MeganHowey (Jess Hills work pictured)The Christmas Card competition ran again this year, with the winning entry being usedby the School as the official card for Xmas 2012.The winning entry was by Sarah Hunt, Y10Students entered work into Royal Academy Student Summer Exhibition (sadly nobodygot in this year), and into the Schools Art exhibition alongside Schools from Harpenden,St Albans and Hertfordshire.

Mast Textiles students attended professional workshops, a regular yearly event.MediaWe held a live broadcast fulfilling industry expectations for the multi-camera productionunit for the Year 12 BTEC students which involved them learning an array of industry skillssuch as vision mixing, audio mixing, graphics, presenting and floor managing. They thenproduced a 7 minute news broadcast in a live environment, including advert breaks.The more able Year 12 BTEC students were selected for a film-making course run by HertsUniversity in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Four of our students were selected,making us the most highly represented school in Hertfordshire. Our students wrote, scriptedand created a short satirical drama (using professional actors)which was then posted on YouTube and will be used by the BFI asexemplar work.The Year 13 BTEC students liaised with external clients to produceprofessional promotional videos to market a range of corporatefirms. Clients included ‘Private Fly’, (a private jet hire company) andthe Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead. Both companies have putthe videos which our students made onto their corporate websites,with the Snow Centre broadcasting the video to promote theircompany every day on their screen within the Snow CentreScienceYear 9 students Rebecca Spittal, Lydia Edwards, Nathan Smith,Joshua Moll, Faris Kazmi and Simon Satchwell took part in thisyear’s Go4SET design and engineering project. They wereable to visit the Building Research Establishment in Watfordand Selex in Luton, learning about cutting edge technologies inthe construction and defence industries, and receiving trainingin presentation skills. They chose to design a new eco-friendlysports stadium for a site in Harpenden, and after some researchand consultations with their mentor from Selex produced adetailed report along with a presentation and a model of theproposed stadium, presenting their work very effectively at thecelebration day at the BRE in May.At this year’s Fascination of Plants Day at Rothamstead ourteams had a brilliant day, and once again were very successful,carrying off second and third prize in the “Design an Ideal CropPlant” competitionPhotography and GraphicsDigital Photography and Graphic Students undertake a photochallenge.Inside each box, was a daring task that involved taking a pictureusing various rules/techniques.The winning group managed to show off the skills they have learnedthis year – whilst also daring to capture pictures of various members

of staff eating doughnuts! (I’d like to add that this was one of the challenges – no member ofstaff would be eating doughnuts otherwise!)Chloe O’Connell, Joe Loader and Laura Bradbury were in the winning team! Well done…GeographyMAST Students have been able to access a variety of trips: the Year 13 students went toLondon to look at it as an example of a World City, including a visit one of the trading floors inCanary Wharf; students in Year 8 visited Rothamsted where they were able to meet withscientists developing GM crops and understand the rationale behind them; Year 7 and Year 9students carried out projects in Harpenden, on the suitability of services in Harpenden and onhow sustainable Harpenden is. Students are encouraged to devise their own data collectionmethods such as traffic surveys and annotated photographs of the area. In Year 10 thecontrolled assessment focuses on Epping Forest and students devise their own method toinvestigate the woodland. Many students devised their own home made clinometers tomeasure the angle of the trees and work out tree heights and performed complex statisticaltechniques such as Spearman’s Rank, which is normally introduced at A-level.HistoryOnce again in 2013/14 students in History have achieved highly across the year groups.Challenging the more able is embedded in the curriculum and is developed into students’work to add pace, depth, breadth and stretch to students’ learning.From the outset in Year Seven students have been encouraged to producecreative solutions to open ended tasks which has, for example, seen themproducing a diverse set of treasure boxes to represent the brilliance of 9 thCentury Baghdad. This has also extended to inventive responses to activitieson William the Conqueror and how he kept control of post 1066 England. Fromthese ideas stimulated in lessons, students have furthered their understandingthrough complimentary wider reading.The Year Nine enrichment yearcontinues to increase in popularity, inpart thanks to excellent activities thatstimulate and engage more ablestudents. Much of the year is based upon thespecification of the ‘Extended Project Qualification’that many students study at A Level, asking thestudents to produce an independent projectalongside an oral presentation. The year beganwith a focused depth study on the Normandy D-Daylandings which was accompanied by a residentialvisit to the site of the landings, and ended with abroader study based upon the History of the United States. Both allowed more able studentsto choose their own learning route and area of focus, allowing for independent discovery andoriginality.Stretching the more able has continued all the way through to A Level with students workingand researching diverse coursework topics through the University of Hertfordshire includingthe collapse of the Dutch East Indies Company, Lenin’s role in the Russian Revolution andthe Industrial Revolution.The History Department looks forward to continuing working with the students on the MAStregister to improve and hone their skills and talents.MFLMAST students have enjoyed a variety of different experiences this year in MFL. MASTstudents had a fantastic opportunity to engage their language skills by taking part in theGerman exchange, run with the Elisabeth Langgässer Gymnasium, our partner school inHarpenden’s twin town of Alzey, in Germany. Many good friendships and cultural exchangeswere set up, and our MAST students were able to make first-hand use of their German skills.Our year 12 MAST students have had the opportunity to attend a taster day at CambridgeUniversity to take part in a variety of seminars, talks and activities to discover what learning alanguage at the highest level is like.

Many of our MAST students have made excellent use of the Mary Glasgow languagesmagazines – aimed at English learners of foreign languages. They are easy to access, andcontain authentic texts in the foreign language. They can still be ordered, speak to any MFLteacher for more information.Finally, many of our MAST students excelled last week in the French primary project.Returning to primary school, some even to teach younger brothers or sisters, theydemonstrated their own knowledge to younger learners. They did themselves and the schoolproud!PEThe introduction of iPad technology has been an exciting development for all students andstaff at SJL but none more so than the MASt students in PE who have had the ability to workwith video analysis software in the palm of their hands for the first time. Gone are the days oflengthy computer hardware set-ups and cables everywhere and restrictions on whereanalysis can be done. Our students are now able to capture, compare and analyse their ownperformance and that of others in an instant, indoors and out. Video technology and the abilityto see yourself perform have long been the most powerful learning and coaching toolsavailable and now our students can use them all the time.Along with iPad technology our students have also continued to be very successful in toplevel competition this year with some 175 students winning invites to our annual sportsawards evening to celebrate their individual and team successes of the past year.Open EveningOnce again we rounded off a year full of successes with our MASt Open evening, whereparents and students joined in celebrating all our students’ achievements. Our Year twelvemathematicians Jonny Risley and Runil Shah impressed everyone with their very professionalpresentation of the Maths Faculty MASt work; Marco Ghelfi demonstrated his skill in Designand Technology by working on his current project; Simon Satchwell and Robin Fletcherplayed football with the robot they built; throughout the evening we were entertained by somewonderful musicians, and the event was recorded for posterity by our Y12 media studentsGeorge Barker and Toby Stewart. A huge “thank you” goes to all the staff who as everworked hard throughout the year to offer our students so many exciting opportunities. And ofcourse a big “thank you” to our parents for their continuing support.Ms RicciardiSCHOOL ASSOCIATIONThank you very much to all parents who donated items for our Second Hand Uniform Sale onSaturday. Thanks to their generosity we were able to raise a fantastic £362.60 to go towardsschool projects. We are considering having a termly event, so please, if you have niceuniform that you would like to hand on, watch this space.The School Association 200 Club is just a little bit of fund-raising fun with the chance to winyour stake back (whilst raising funds for school projects at the same time) and with a 63:1chance of winning at the moment it is definitely worth joining in. For only £1 per month, youwill be entered into a monthly draw to win cash prizes. All funds raised go to School projects.Please get involved! You can download an application form here.This month (due to the holidays) we have drawn 3 draws; June, July and August and thelucky winners are Joanne Mylles, Sanjay Gupta, Jayne Walpole, Clare Robins, Jennie Dentonand Nick Spittal. Congrats to them and thank you to all those who support the school in thisway.Festival on the Field 2014 is go!

Many of people have been in touch asking whether another Festival on the Field is planned.Well it is! But not until Saturday 5 July 2014.The Festival on the Field is a great family music festival, which last year featured someoutstanding tribute bands, school orchestra performances, entertainments and a market. Itwas jointly organised by Sir John Lawes School Association and Manland School HSA, andraised around £22,000; it was also winner of the PTA UK fund raising event of 2012. Thisyear we want the event to be even more successful. Although we already have sometalented and experienced event organisers we need help in the following areas:Marketing: we need people to help publicise the event – to parents, students, public, and themedia. We want to make it the most talked about event of the year!Advertising and sponsorship: we need people who can find us sponsors and who are reallygood at selling programme advertising space to local businesses. This can help us raisethousands of pounds on top of the money we make from ticket sales. We have an eventprogramme and need someone to work with our printer to help put it together.Raffle: we need people to coordinate the raffle, by finding great raffle prizes from localbusinesses and organising the raffle ticket sales in Sir John Lawes and the local community.Or perhaps you have a local business and could contribute a raffle prize?Posters and publicity: we need people to put up posters and banners and to talk to localshops about displaying them. It won’t be hundreds of posters and the more people who helpthe easier it will be.Field team: we need people to help manage the day and we need someone to coordinate thevolunteers on the day.Like us (a lot!): we have a new Facebook page for this event and the more ‘likes’ we get theeasier it will be to tell people about The Festival on the Field. Search ‘Festival on the Field2014’ on Facebook and you’ll soon find us.Reasons to get involved: It will be fun, and it’s a great way to get to know other parents Everyone who is involved in organising the event will get a free ticket to the Festivalon the Field. Some people will even get a ‘crew’ t-shirt to wear on the day (you lucky lot!) The money raised will go towards your child’s school, helping to buy new equipmentand improve the facilities at the school.We are having a Festival planning meeting on Wednesday September 11 th at 8pm at theBritish Legion. Please put this date in your diary as we would love as many people aspossible to come along and find out how they can get involved. Please get in touch by email:sjl-schoolassociation@hotmail.co.uk. Just leave your name, number and email address andwe will be in touch with you.SUMMER NEWSLETTER SPORTS ROUND UPIt has been yet another fully packed and successful summer term for sport at Sir John Lawes.

AthleticsIt has been another fantastic athletics season inwhich all our athletes once again showeddetermination and dedication throughout theseason.Our athletics teams had an excellent start to theseason. The seniors led the way becomingSenior Mixed District Champions early on settingthe standard for the rest to follow.The regular county and district league fixturesproduced a steady stream of personal bestperformances. At the all-day district championships SJL came 2nd overall in the mixedschools competition.Our Year 8s and 10s have had a hecticCounty League season, competingagainst the best athletes from within theCounty. All the teams performedfantastically well over the season withthe Yr. 8 girls qualifying for the CountyLeague Plate Final, in which they came6 th but only 2pts away from 2 nd .bodes well for our future athletic success.It is a reflection on the quality of athletesthat we have at SJL that over 20students were entered for the CountyChampionships at Jarman Park this yearas individuals. This is very impressiverepresentation from one school andTennisBoys TennisWell, the weather might have started off cold but the high temperatures lately helped in theclimax of another great season. The sheer numbers of students involved in practices,particularly from the lower school is amazing. It has reached the point now where they are outevery day playing; filling up the courts and making great use of all the opportunities that cometheir way. I think I might need to enter more teams into the leagues next year!The quality of the tennis has continued to improve and new faces this year in some of theteams have added to the overall quality. What has been good to see is that people havestepped in through the season and helped out the teams when it has been needed.The Year 7 team, playing in the year 8 league made a good start and can be pleased withtheir efforts this year. They have got a lot out of this experience and it will serve them wellnext year. They finished off their season with a great win and I hope this gives themmotivation next year. The Year 8 team have had a fantastic year, becoming DistrictChampions and showing what a capable team they are. They finished 4 th at the County Finalsand will be looking to better this next year. The Year 9 team have also been very successful,becoming District Champions for a second time running. At the County Finals they were veryunfortunate not to be County winners but had to settle for runners up in the cruellest of ways.They will want to put this right next year I’m sure. The Year 10 team won 2 out of 3 matchesand this was not enough to see them in the play offs for the District Final. They are aconsistent team who are capable of doing well and it has been good to see them involvedover the years. A big thanks to all of them for their commitment over the years. The Year 10AEGON team were hit with bad news right at the start with Tom Hewitt breaking his hand justbefore the season started. A positive outcome to this was that James Portal, a Year 7 studentcame in and played number 1 for the team. What a fantastic effort from him this year and he

showed what a very capable tennis player he is. All the boys played their part in what was agreat effort and there really was some amazing tennis played. The standard in this league isvery high and the boys did exceptionally well.Year 7: Tom Archer, Charlie Bunn, Dan Booth, Harry AnsellYear 8: Chris Rouse, Teddy Howes, Nick Bailey, Oliver BerridgeYear 9: Adam Pritchard, Adam Wilmshurst, Louis Gabaldoni, Dan CampfieldYear 10: Christian Everitt, Charlie Guy, Lewis Burton, James JessopYear 10 AEGON: James Portal, Jamie Sear, Ben Douglas, Jakob BuusA big thank you to everyone involved. That goes to all who attend the clubs and to thestudents who play in the teams.Date Year 8(1)DistrictTennisThur2.5.13Wed8.5.13Tue14.5.1315.5.13 St George’sAWed5.6.13Wed5.6.13Thur6.6.13FRI14.6.13St AlbansANBSHYear 7/8 (2)DistrictTennisTownsendHRoundwoodHMarlboroughHYear9DistrictTennisTownsendHRoundwoodHMarlboroughHYear 10DistrictLeagueTownsendHRoundwoodHMarlboroughHYear 9/10AEGONLeagueHabs BASt George’sASt AlbansAMonks WalkAResults7/8 L 2-2(16-12)9 W 4-010 W 3-110 L 10-27/8 L 3-19 W 4-010 L 4-08 W 2-2 (21-19)10 W 4-27/8 W 3-19 W 2-2 (19-14)10 W 4-08 W 3-110 L 5-18 W 3-110 W 6-0Girls TennisThe Girls’ tennis teams had a fantastic season. They have all entered the District League, andhave had some great matches. It has been really good to see their tennis progress throughoutthe summer term. A particular mention must go to the Year 7 team, who have really held theirown in a Year 8 league, and look to be strong contenders next year.

For the first time in a while, we had the Year8,9 and 10 teams all winning their groups,which meant that they progressed through tothe District Finals. The Year 8s met a strongteam from STAHS here, and lost, and the Year10s had a very close match against Loreto,where they lost by two games, as they drew onsets. The Year 9 team won their final againstMarlborough 4-0, which meant that theyprogressed through to the County Finals. Thisis a very exciting competition, where they comeup against all the District winners from theCounty. The team of Katherine Coggins, Kate Chisholm, Phoebe Jones and Hannah Jonesplayed extremely well throughout the tournament, which meant they went on to becomeCounty Champions! An amazing achievement girls – well done for booking your place atSports Awards Evening 2014 so early on!ROUNDERS ROUND UP!All teams have been very enthusiastic andhighly motivated during the summerterm, despite the weather. Studentshave regularly attended practices andplaying some fabulous rounders! Well doneto all the girls who have been part of therounders team this year, you have showngreat commitment and have had somefantastic results.Year 8 RoundersThe Year 8 team have performed well thisyear, with lots of students regularly turningout to practice! The team have playedseveral friendly matches this year, usuallyfielding an A and B side. They have had varied success in the games but the B sideconvincingly beat St Georges 9 rounders to 6 and a half. This culminated in the Districttournament last week, with games against Beaumont, Townsend, St Albans High School andSandringham. There was some excellent batting from the team, particularly Ailis Truscott andsome fantastic fielding by the whole team. Unfortunately after winning 1 game and drawinganother SJL did not go through to the semi-finals and finished 4th in the group. Caitilin Eckleywas voted player of the tournament- well done to everyone who has been part of the teamthis year!Year 9 RoundersWell done to the Year 9 team on a fantastic Rounders season! The Year 9 team had theirdistrict tournament last week, and were drawn to play against St Albans Girls School,Sandringham, Loreto, St Georges and St Albans High School. The team was fantastic,winning every group game very convincingly with some brilliant individual play. KatherineCoggins was the consistent big hitter, with Lotty Walpole also having some fantastic bats. Thestandard of fielding was excellent and easily took us through into the semi-finals againstBeaumont- where they won again. This meant we met St Georges again in the final. It was atense game as we faced their excellent batting skills; however Emily Westcott and NiamhThorne rose to the challenge and had some amazing catches to put the St Georges playersout. The final score was SJL 5 St Georges 3- making the Year 9s District Champions!! EmilyWestcott was voted player of the tournament from a team including Jessica Collis, Abi Goch,Niamh Thorne, Scarlett Torrance, Lucy Parrish, Emily Wood, Rebecca Spittal, KatherineCoggins, Lotty Walpole, Lucy Turberville and Hannah Jones- congratulations to the wholeteam on a fantastic tournament!

SoftballSJL entered their first softball tournament a fewweeks ago. This was run by Herts Baseball club,and was an exciting introduction to ourinexperienced Year 9 team who had only playeda few times before in PE lessons. Thetournament included Year 9 and 10 teams fromall over the County with varying playingexperience. Each team was assigned twocoaches, who worked with their teamsthroughout the tournament, giving tips ontechnique and tactics.Our team of James Baird, Cameron Coelho, BenHenderson, Matt Burford, Sam Lindores, Rebecca Spittal, Lucy Turberville, Lucy Parrish,Niamh Thorne and Emily Westcott arrived tentatively, butsoon picked the game up, and were fielding extremelywell, with some great catches taken by all team members.Their batting confidence soon picked up, and they playedsome great matches, only losing one against a veryexperienced team. It was great to see their confidencegrow throughout the tournament, and they came away witha very respectable result – overall runners-up!Well done to all of you, and let’s hope that this is the onlystart of SJL playing softball!Sports DayOur bumper-packed year culminated in Sports Day lastFriday. The overall results were as follows:Austen Britten Hepworth King Lawes Newton RyderYear 7 89 76 118 115 73 87 107Year 8 86 111 73 110 118 113 86Year 9 113 114 106 99 97 82 93Year 10 82 114 54 100 100 140 121Year 12 28 16 34 34 26 36 19House Relay 5 6 2 3 1 4 7House Totals 403 437 387 461 415 462 433

It was a fantastic day of competition with all year groups displaying talent throughout all manyevents. Well done to all students in Newton and Mr Thompson for your excellent win.The PE team would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a fantastic summer break.See you in September to do it all over again!The KIDS HUBsThe KIDS HUBs are information and support services for parents and carers of disabledchildren/children with additional needs aged 0-19, across Hertfordshire.Please click on the link below for details of upcoming groups and activities.Download the activities programme.TRAMPOLINING AT SJLSaturday mornings starting 7 September 2013. Sessions at 10.00 and 11.00amContact me for information: CAROL OXLEY - 01582 621615 carol.s.oxley@gmail.com