Bushey Meads News Issue 94 20 January 2017

Editor: Mrs Armitage Submit your articles to: newsletter@busheymeads.org.uk

Deadline: Tuesday for Friday’s edition

Mrs Ash, Assistant Headteacher

Miss Farook, Lead Practitioner for English, has developed strong links with Little Reddings School, looking at the curriculum in Key Stage 2 English and how we can adapt our schemes of learning with Key Stage 3 students to build on their previous knowledge. As part of the initiative all the English teachers from Bushey Meads School visited English lessons at Little Reddings School this week. Mrs Knowles and Mrs Hiscocks are pictured above discussing a lesson. The experience has been eye opening and inspirational with students in Years 5 and 6 producing some fantastic work.

Mr Wells, teacher of Year 5 at Little Reddings, looked at language techniques used in writing to deliver impact, sentence structures and annotating texts - all skills utilised in Key Stage 3 and beyond.

Miss Farook said: ‘We are now looking forward to the Key Stage 2 team visiting our lessons this term so that we will be able to continue embedding best practice across both schools.’

Dates for

the Diary

Wed 25 January Y13 Parents

Consultation Evening

Thurs 26 January Students finish at 1320

(Staff Development afternoon)

Tues 31 January Y10 Parents

Consultation Evening

Wed 1 February Y12/13 Royal

Geographical Society A-level study day

Y10 students visit

Bushey Synagogue re Holocaust Memorial Day

Thurs 2 February Whole School

Enrichment Day

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SOMER-LILY (12Willow) Somer-Lily has been invaluable to the sixth form team this week, assisting with our IT facilities and keeping the two sets of Chromebooks charged and available for all the students. With her hard work, the entire Sixth Form have been able to enjoy the use of personal computers during study periods.

TANYA (11Ash) This week’s student of the week has been nominated by Pastoral Manager, Miss Dhanecha, for achieving excellent results in her recent Pre-Public Exams. Tanya has historically been a hard-working, energetic and positive student since she started at Bushey Meads School in Year 7. I am confident that Tanya will achieve exceptional grades in her final GCSE exams come August and we wish her all the very best of luck as she comes to the end of her KS4 journey.

MITHUSHA (07Willow) Feedback from Mr Back highlighted Mithusha’s excellent progress in Literacy Studies and the outstanding standard of work that Mithusha is producing. Mr Back described Mithusha’s book review folder as the best he had seen in the last two years. Well done Mithusha - keep up the good work.

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ASH BEECH ELM MAPLE OAK SYCAMORE WILLOW

House Points 2016-2017

KS3 & 4 Year 10 Consultation Evening - Tuesday 31st January: The pastoral team are looking forward to welcoming all Year 10 parents to this important evening. There are still appointment slots available so please do access our online booking system via the school website. Valuables at School: Can we please remind parents to be mindful of the valuables that children bring to school with them, especially cash, in order to avoid unnecessary losses. It is advisable that students use their lockers for safekeeping purposes.

KS5 Year 13 Parent Consultation Evening - Wednesday 25th January: The sixth form are looking forward to meeting parents on the above evening. Appointments can be made between 4.30 and 7.30 via the new online booking system. Advance notice: Year 12 Parent Consultation Evening: is scheduled for Thursday 23 February. Planning ahead for study periods: will enable a more focused and productive use of time. The Sixth Form Team are very happy to offer support and guidance for all students looking to make better use of their study time.

STAFF VACANCIES We are currently advertising for the following positions at the school: English Teacher Mathematics Teacher Science Teacher Further information about the posts can be found on the school website under 'Vacancies'. Alternatively, please contact the HR Office on 020 8955 8833 or vacancies@busheymeads.org.uk

Ms Bowe - Lead Practitioner for English and Whole School Literacy

Mr Akram - Lead Practitioner for Maths

8 MAPLE – Word of the Week Miss Rowden, Head of Dance and Form Tutor

As part of their word of the week activity 8Maple students were given the task of creating a Newsround piece that incorporated the word, ‘audacious’ – last week’s word of the week.

Students completed this successfully and we had some very creative pieces presented. This was a fun activity and really helped the students understand how to use the word and its meaning. Look out - we may have some aspiring news presenters on our hands!!

The Art department now has its own shop for all your art needs.

OPENING TIMES:

Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays – at break time

WHERE: C1 - manned by Mrs Bennett.

WHEN: at break time

All items are of high quality and are cheaper than equivalent products in shops. Do come along and check out our products – and save yourself lots of money! Mrs Waring Teacher of Art

ART SHOP - PRICE LIST £ Acrylic paint set - 10 x 22ml 8.00 Artpacks GCSE 20.00 Colouring Pencils 4.00 Fineliners 50p Gel pens - silver, white 1.00 Linseed Oil - 75ml 2.09 Mountboard A1 black 1.00 Oil paint set, 10x 20ml 9.00 Oil paint 200ml, white 4.50 Paintbrushes (small) size 0, 2, 4 50p Pencils - HB, 2B, 3B, 4B, 6B 20p Prittsticks 80p Rubbers 10p Rulers 20p Sketchbooks:-

A6 1.10 A4 2.50 Black (for photography) 7.50

Watercolour set 1.50

Snow Day and Emergency School Alerts

Should the need arise to contact parents in the event of a school closure due to heavy snow (or indeed any other reason) please be aware that a notice will be placed on the front page of the Bushey Meads website. In the event of school closure due to inclement weather we will endeavour to do this by 6.30 am. Regular update messages will be provided in a similar way throughout the school closure period, including information about school re-opening arrangements. During these potential emergency periods, please avoid telephoning the school directly and look for updates on the website or via email or text alerts. Many thanks for your cooperation.

Mr Turner, Executive Principal

For those parents whose children use either of these services, please note that there have been some minor revisions to the timetables, effective from Monday 21 January. We understand students who travel regularly have been informed of these changes by the bus drivers. The revised leaflets are available from our Reception area and are posted on our website – click on this link to view: http://www.busheymeads.org.uk/bus-service-page/ In summary, morning journeys will start a few minutes earlier due to increased traffic levels. An additional bus to Elstree/Borehamwood will commence its service from Harcourt Road at the end of the school day, providing a more reliable service as it will not be affected by any delays in Watford. The bus travelling to Watford has been held back to 3.14pm to give a little more time for students to catch this earlier bus. For those who have not used this service but are potentially interested, Sullivan Buses is a public bus service but they do work with us to provide a service which fits in with our school start and finish times. They service a route to and from Watford High Street and in the other direction to Borehamwood via Elstree (306). There is also a separate service between Bushey and Borehamwood only (823). If you would like more information regarding times and fares please click on the link above or pick up a leaflet from our Reception area. Mrs Armitage, Editor of Weekly Newsletter

Mrs Carol Raymond, Parent Governor and Mathematics Link Governor

One of the best ways to reinforce our own learning is to teach others. How encouraging it was, when I popped into the maths department this week, to see students from years 11 and 12 spending lunchtime coaching their younger peers. Students had arrived, books in hand, ready to share a sandwich and a maths problem. Everyone was working enthusiastically to make this time count, stretching themselves and building confidence to exceed personal targets in maths. Well done and thanks to the coaches!

Thanks also to Mr Varsani, Head of Mathematics, for hosting and to the Mathematics team for supporting the students in this activity. Carol Raymond, Parent Governor and Maths Link Governor

On Tuesday all parents and carers were sent, via groupcall email, an invitation to vote for two of the following candidates who have been nominated for the current parent governor vacancies. These vacancies have arisen as a result of two existing parent governors’ 4-years term of office having expired. The posts were advertised also via groupcall email, as well as posted in 2nd and 9th December editions of this newsletter. LISA MADDOCKS SARAH PURSER JONATHAN STEVENS KEVIN STOVEY Details of each of these candidates is included in the email. Each parent is invited to vote for one candidate per vacancy. Should you require a hard copy of the document sent out, and/or a ballot paper then a copy may be obtained from the school’s main Reception. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF BALLOT PAPERS: WEDNESDAY 25 JANUARY 2017 – hard copy only accepted

It was a powerful moment to watch our hard working Year 13 students open their all-important PPE Examination results last Friday afternoon in the Main Hall. With now just 60 school days to go, everyone is

really focussed on reviewing ‘where they are at’ and ‘what the next steps need to be.’

There were a number of key staff on hand to offer advice and reassurance about what the school has in place

to ensure that every student achieves their true potential on 17th August 2017 – the really big day!

The Year 13s watched a number of very powerful media clips of last year’s Year 13 students actually opening their envelopes on their results day in August and finding out whether they had secured their UCAS places and achieved their aspirational target grades. The clips also contained some immensely useful student advice – some top tips to ensure success. Here are a few……….

maintain 100% attendance in school and to all lessons start revising now complete as many past papers as you can focus on the problem questions and the areas you know you need to improve listen to your teachers (they know what they are doing) attend all the revision classes and holiday sessions on offer attend the Study Saturday Sessions starting towards the end of this term stay healthy and exercise when you can

Leave the stresses of life behind you and join the Modern Foreign Languages team on one of the five day trips to either France or Spain, in support of the language you are studying. Read on to find out more ….

A trip to Normandy on Monday 3rd – Friday 7th July 2017 You will stay in a holiday village near the beach and will spend a day at the Chateau de la Baudonniere where adventure /outdoor activities will

be available for you to participate in

and enjoy. You will be instructed completely in French by instructors who know how to explain things to learners of French! Also you will visit markets, a goats’ cheese farm, the famous and iconic Mont St Michel, WWII Landing beaches, Granville ……. to name but a few. There will also be some relaxation time in St Malo / Dinan and, of course, time to have fun with friends at the evening entertainment. Letters will be issued to students shortly by Mrs Paddick. We do hope you can join us on this unforgettable experience. Bon voyage!! Mrs Tomalin, Head of Modern Foreign Languages

A trip to Catalonia on Monday 10th – Friday 14th July 2017 Year 8 students of Spanish will soon have the opportunity to apply for a place on this annual trip to Catalonia! The group will be staying in chalets at the Vilanova Park

complex, thirty minutes South of Barcelona and will travel to Spain by plane.

The trip will be of great cultural and linguistic value

and will include visits to well-known landmarks in Barcelona, the Benedictine Monk mountain retreat at Montserrat and a day at Aqua Leon - a very popular water park. There will also be cultural entertainment in the evenings! Letters will shortly be given out in Spanish lessons. A deposit of £240 will be payable to secure your place. Mrs Charles, Teacher of Spanish

Supporting students to be independent!

Mrs Paddick, Teacher of French In today's technological world, students are much more likely to lose sheets of paper than their precious mobile phones! Why waste paper printing out dozens of help sheets. I was getting tired of referring students in lessons to grammar sheets they'd lost. So, I took control. Using their phones, students can now scan the QR codes displayed on my 'support station' on the wall or on a small print-out stuck in their books. These take them directly to a PDF sheet or a webpage which they can view on their phone and get help with the particular aspect of learning they need support with - wherever they are!

As a Trust we are delighted to announce that Little Reddings Primary School will be appearing for the ASDA Watford (dome roundabout) green token scheme as from this week and will remain till the end of March. If, as a parent of a student in the Bushey St James Trust, you shop in ASDA please ensure you collect your green token and deposit it under 'Little Reddings'! Do also tell you friends and families as all tokens will help towards raising funds for our primary school within the Trust.

Mr Turner, Executive Principal With gold scissors at the ready it was superb to have Richard Abrahams, Vice Chair of the Bushey St James Trust and Vice Chair of Governors, at school last Friday to officially open our new F Block English classroom, our two new Science Labs and the staff car park at the rear of the school.

Students and staff gathered to mark the occasion where we recognised the hard work of so many people in making the project a reality – not least our hard working Facilities Manager Richard Chambers who has liaised with all the contractors and architects and overseen the major works across the school site.

We now move on to Phase 2 – a two-storey extension to the Music Block, two new English classrooms near E Block and a new entrance to the Sixth Form Centre and large study room. Exciting times!

Mr Cartledge, Head of PE & Health

Arsenal FC Double Club Tournament

On Monday 16th January we were invited to send a Year 7 team to enter the Arsenal FC Double Club football and literacy initiative.

The event took place at the Arsenal training ground at Colney Heath. It is part of a programme to show students the importance of the balance between academic work and sports participation.

The boys played a series of 7-a-side matches against Hertswood and Mount Grace schools on the indoor 4g training pitches at the ground and then completed a series of Arsenal literacy based tasks in the classroom. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and although the boys didn’t manage to win they showed commendable spirit in the football and applied themselves well on the literacy tasks.

Squad: Max, Taylor, Ellis, Tyler, Alfie, Stanley, Cian, Calum (GK), Frankie

Bushey Meads continue their athletics links with Watford Harriers. Every Tuesday Watford Harriers send in an athletics coach who works with students of all ages and abilities developing fitness through fun and interactive movement games and puzzles. The sessions which take place in the gym are free to attend and a great way to develop interest and fitness for the upcoming athletics season. In addition Watford Harriers are hosting a

JUNIOR CHALLENGE RUN

CASSIOBURY PARK, WATFORD

SATURDAY 18 MARCH Bushey Meads students are encouraged to enter. Anyone interested in participating in this event - approx 2.5km - can either print off and return the flyer on the next page or see Mrs Cooper in the PE and Health Faculty. for more details.

Football news Under 18 Boys Football v Marlboro (County League) Date : Thursday 12th January 2017 Result : Drew 3-3 Scorers : Chris Osei, Andrew Fordham, Euan Enright Squad : Lyes Titouah, Luke Piesley, Andrew Fordham, Victor Williams, Curtis Meale, Maciek Blasic, Euan Enright, Connor Freeman, Kobe Johnson, Cameron Hanton, Chris Osei, Archie Levy Commended performances : Kobe Johnson, Curtis Meale Comment: An excellent second half performance saw the boys just miss out on victory. Trailing at the end of the first half the boys played some excellent counter attacking football but just failed to find the winner.

Basketball news Under 18 Boys Basketball v Bushey Academy (District League) Date : Tues 10th January 2017 Result : Lost 27-19 Squad : Ryle Bumagat, Vamsi Dyjecinski, Kobe Johnson, Leon Nyoro, Jack Leyshon, Chris King, Julius Pazio, Cameron Hanton Commended performances: A great attacking display and one of fantastic stamina from Ryle who due to limited numbers and a strong opposition was required to play for the entire 40 minutes. Comment: A very strong defensive display, but a lack of points from around the team and a limited ability to drive the net, lead to a disappointing loss.

Year 10 Boys Basketball v St Clement Danes (District League) Date : Thurs 12th January 2017 Result : Won 40-17 Scorers : Charlie Lyall 28, Joel Smith 4, Yama Qarib 4, Ben Faulkner 2 and Tadas Taraskevicius 2 Squad : Charlie Lyall, Joel Smith, Yama Qarib, Jack Fordham, Tadas Taraskevicius, Jayson Jeyananthan, Peter Ayani, Phillip Michie, Mert Temiz, Sam Beaven, Ben Faulkner Commended performances : Charlie Lyall and Tadas Taraskevicius Comment: Excellent performance by the Year 10 basketball team to start the season. The boys worked hard on defence in this game restricting the amount of shots for the opposition. Charlie proved crucial in and around the key while Tadas worked hard man marking their point guard.

Year 9 Boys Basketball v St Joan of Arc (District League) Date : Mon 16th January 2017 Result : 22-21 Scorers : Pavit Sangasinha 12, Ross Marsh 6 and James Demir 4 Squad : Pavit Sangasinha, Ross Marsh, James Demir, Billy Garvey, Avon Shrestha, Olu Oshinya, Commended performances : Pavit San

Year 8 Boys Basketball v Bushey Academy (District League) Date : Tues 10th January 2017 Result : Won 14 - 8 Scorer : Toyosi Oyedeji 4, Alfie Sullivan 4, Virat Sangasinha 2, Taylor Bees 2, Max Mesula 2 Squad : Taylor Bees, Leo Enright, George Rowe, Zach Khan, Max Mesula, Jaylen Sotomey, Alfie Sullivan, Toyosi Oyedeji, Luke Andrews, Virat Sangasinha, Ben Castello Comment: A good start to the basketball season for the Year 8 team. Alfie Sullivan played really well as the point guard while Taylor Bees proved to be an effective power forward. A focus for the next game will be focusing on the man to man defence.

Year 7 Boys Basketball v Bushey Academy (District League) Date : Tues 10th January 2017 Result : Lost 20-14 Scorers: Tyler Pearce 6, Taylor Bates 4. Toby Stevens, Max Machen Squad : Taylor Bates, Ellis Anthony, Stanley Booth,Max Machen, Tyler Pearce, Max Machen, Tom Barnes, Toby Stevens, Hamza Said Dawood, Aryan Faraboushehri, Japesh Agrawal, Kurt Swan, Orhan Bayraktutan Commended performances : Tyler Pearce Comment: The boys enjoyed their first experience of competitive basketball narrowly losing after a really strong start. Some excellent shooting in the first quarter from Tyler Pearce was the highlight and with more work on offensive strategy and team defence the boys can look forward to the upcoming fixtures with confidence.

Keeping up the winning ways with upcoming events!!

Please email Mr Tocknell

your ideas for: House Music

Competition/Theme

Ash house like any great figures of the past are continuing our winning ways. Every student in Ash continues to gain points through their attitude towards learning and the award points system. We have had some fantastic entries in the photography competition and some great results in House football competition, with the year 9 boys winning. We are always representing Ash House in positive ways!

Go the pale blues

Cameron (12Ash) With Cameron representing the school in both Football and Basketball so far this year he certainly has made a good impression as a newer member of the school community. It is great to see students working together for a common goal and Cameron has certainly made his mark on the Sixth Form so far with his positive attitude and desire to be involved.

we are organising a house celebration for winning the house competition last

year and our positive start to this school year!