Blenheim Bulletin
July 2016 Issue 137
Bulletin Dear Parents / Carers, As I write my final Blenheim Bulletin, I reflect back on eleven incredible years at Blenheim. Schools are exciting, vibrant and rewarding environments in which to work; no two days are the same and working with children is unpredictable and energising. I am very proud of the school Blenheim has become and, of course, sorry to be saying farewell to students, staff and parents. Once again, the Blenheim Bulletin is packed with the activities and adventures that have been had over the Summer term. I was very proud of our Year 11 students as they arrived at the Prom looking a million dollars. They had a wonderful evening and, as always, the staff at Silvermere Golf Club were fulsome with praise for their behaviour, conduct and social skills. Year 13 also had a fantastic farewell party and await their results expectantly which will open new doors in their lives. We also say farewell to a number of staff who are moving on to pastures new. Mrs Hussey has given sixteen years of service to Blenheim playing a key role in the Drama Department and the pastoral leadership across the school as a member of the Leadership Team. Mrs. Hussey has moved to Brighton and intends to travel and seek new ventures closer to home (although I am sure she will visit us from time to time). Mr. Edwards has also been at Blenheim for sixteen years, and made a significant impact with our GAMA (Gifted and More Able) students and within the Geography Department. Mr. Edwards has recently relocated to Oxford so will be pleased not to be making the daily commute from Oxford when he starts his new teaching role in a local school.
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Mr. Humm leaves the English Department and has also been a popular Head of Year. Mr. Humm has secured a Head of English post in an independent school in Cobham. Mrs. McCallion (Teacher of English) is also leaving the English Department. She has made a significant impact on teaching and learning across the school and is relocating back to Ireland. Mr. Brooks is relocating to Suffolk and we wish him every success in his new school as Teacher of Geography. Mrs Edwards (Teacher of Art) is relocating to Liverpool, Mr. Clifford is returning to Canada, Mr. Abbey is visiting Ghana before resuming work back in England and Miss Gilkes in relocating to Hackney. Miss McDowall has secured a promoted post as second i/c Maths in a Croydon school. Mrs. Day has secured Head of Technology at an independent school, Mr. Dean is moving to an independent school, Mr. O’Brien is moving to teach Technology full time, Mr. Panter will be working in a school to teach students who are unable to attend schools due to medical reasons, and Mrs. Vearncombe is taking time to be with her family. Miss Parish’s temporary appointment at Blenheim comes to an end and we are delighted she has secured a PE job in the local area. We look forward to the return of Mrs. Reuter to the PE Department who has been on a year’s secondment from Blenheim. Mrs. Barrow (Teacher of Psychology) is retiring from the profession after 20 years of service in education. Mr. Perry is also leaving us at the end of the year. Although only here for one year, Mr. Perry has made an impact on the pastoral leadership of the school. His wife has secured a Headship in Ireland and so Mr. Perry is relocating his family this Summer. I would also like to thank two Teaching Assistants Miss Karam and Mrs. Winsor who are both leaving and Mrs. Garrett who is retiring. Mrs. Garret has worked tirelessly as a Science Technician and I know will be sorely missed by the Science Department. New staff will commence in full time posts in September and I pleased that we are fully staffed. Congratulations go to Mr. & Mrs. Preece on the birth of their baby girl. Mrs. Preece will be on maternity leave during the next academic year.
Finally, I would like to thank all students, staff , parents and in particular my Leadership Team for your support and engagement during the last five years as I have led Blenheim forward. It has been a great privilege to be the Headteacher of such a wonderful school. I now handover to Mr. Hillier and Mr. Isaac who are in an excellent position to lead the school forward as Co-Principals. I wish you a wonderful Summer and all the best for the future.
Francesca Sheehy from 10ME, has just received a Distinction on her Grade 5 Piano exam. A great achievement and well deserved.
Tracey Fantham Headteacher
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Mrs. K. Brown,
[email protected] ParentPay have been changing the set-up of their systems recently. All parents should now have amended their login data to use an email address as the user name. Further improvements are expected over the summer months. As a parent/carer user, you now use your card to transfer funds into ‘your account’ on ParentPay. You then have a second stage to use these funds to make a payment against the various services set up by the school within ParentPay. If you have more than one child, you have just one ‘account’ and use these funds to make payments for any of your children with just one set of login details. This works even when your children are at different schools. When you first login to ParentPay, you will be directed to a video to explain the changes and show parents the exact steps to follow. This link is also included on the school website. http://www.blenheim.surrey.sch.uk/page/?title=ParentPay&pid=606
Blenheim’s English department has donated 50 books to the charity READ International. This charity was set up in 2004 by two university students to address the lack of access to educational resources and reading materials in Tanzanian secondary schools. Books are vital resources to ensure that students across the world can achieve their potential. We are so lucky to have so many super resources at Blenheim, it’s a great opportunity to ensure that we are helping the education of young people in other countries.
Mrs. D. Smith,
[email protected] Blenheim has established itself as an excellent teacher training school. Since the introduction of Schools Direct in 2013, Blenheim has developed many teaching programmes and links with Universities and training schools (SCITT) to provide outstanding teacher training, in a wide range of subjects, for new teachers. This year we have trained 24 successful teachers and many of these we are delighted to have employed to start in September. This is an essential programme that provides us with a means of recruiting good quality teachers at Blenheim This is especially important as we are recruiting from an environment that sees a worrying amount of teacher shortages across many subjects. The programme demands a high level of support from our current teachers and their expertise in mentoring has ensured the successful completion of QTS (qualified teacher status) for the trainees.
Mr. G. Adams,
[email protected] Within the first week of term, we will be hosting an Enrichment Fair during a break time so we can promote all the enrichment activities available at school. This will be an opportunity for all students to ask questions about the activities on offer, and to sign up to get involved. The event will take place in the Main Hall on Thursday 8th September at 11.05am.
We are currently working with the University of Roehampton to support the professional studies training, two of our teachers are also providing subject enhancement training to support their journey into teaching. Blenheim has put themselves firmly on the map as a strong teacher training school and we look forward to continuing our work with our partner schools and Universities in the years to come.
Blenheim High School
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Miss C. Bennet,
[email protected] Over the last 6 weeks, a selection of Year 7 classes have been trialling a new digital reading diary to record their daily reading. These diaries will be used by all Year 7 and 8 students next year. There has been some really impressive work created by these students. In particular, commendations go to: Jessica White Laura Norman Rebecca Simpson Grace Jansen Marco Vieira Isla Williams Alicia Pontin Emma Fordham Ethan Mellon Katie Beacham
If you change any of your contact details (including your name, address, phone number or email), please remember to let us know by emailing
[email protected] or phoning the Gateway Team during school hours.
Blenheim High School
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Mr. R. Edwards,
[email protected]
Throughout this academic year, the twenty two members of the Year 10 Whole School GAMA group have been in fierce competition to try and secure one of the eight places that were available on a recent trip to spend the day looking round two of the most prestigious colleges at Oxford University. Students were selected based on their Attitude to Learning scores across the year, and I am delighted to say that it brought about really fierce competition with lots of individuals raising their AtL in a bid to earn a place. In fact 26 of the 27 students in the group achieved average AtLs of over 90% this year. As part of this initiative, which is designed to help raise the aspirations of state school students, the group were shown round both Queen’s and St Hilda’s Colleges by current undergraduates and took part in a variety of different workshops and academic sessions that included a visit to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Following this visit, I am delighted to say that the outreach officer from St Hilda’s College, Oxford then came to Blenheim to run three separate workshops for GAMA students in different year groups. All Year 8 whole school GAMA students took part in a session that introduced them to the idea of Higher Education and some of the benefits (and possible concerns) of attending a premier University. The Year 10 GAMA group’s session focused more on the entry requirements of both Oxbridge and Russell group universities and what students can be doing in order to improve their chances of making successful applications in the future. This was then followed by a workshop for potential high achievers in Year 12, along with their peers from other local schools, who are currently going through the process of making their University applications. Through schemes and activities like these, it is hoped that we can continue to break down any perceived stereotypes of life at the elite Universities and get even more Blenheim students seriously aspiring to study at such institutions in the future. The Year 9 whole school GAMA group recently took part in a day of Sixth Form style lessons, designed to take the students out of their comfort zone. The ‘Reaching for A* Day’ yet again proved to be an enjoyable day for all those involved with students undertaking workshops in Philosophy; Engineering; Korean; Further Maths and Travel Planning. To quote a couple of the individuals involved, it was so enjoyable because “it really made me think deeply about concepts and ideas I’ve never thought about before ” and “we got complete freedom about how we did things … [which] … made us have to think hard and work hard.” I have also recently launched the whole school GAMA programme with a small group of Year 7s who were highlighted across a number of subjects when the school reviewed department GAMA lists in the New Year. This group have now met three times and have already impressed me with their enthusiasm and wide ranging skill set. The plan is then to include a number of other Year 7 students for the start of the next academic year once department registers have been reviewed. Please be aware that when department lists are reviewed in January and July of each year, individuals may be being removed from or added to GAMA lists according to the progress they have made within subjects. It is also important to make it clear that the Whole School GAMA groups are not based entirely on the number of department nominations that a student receives and therefore it is definitely possible for some students who are identified in a small number of subjects to be invited to join the Whole School GAMA groups ahead of individuals who have more nominations. As has always been the case, the school will continue to notify the parents of those placed on the whole school GAMA programme by post.
Blenheim High School
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Mr. P. Currie,
[email protected]
On June 30th, we took 24 children, 12 Science Club members and 12 Year 7 students who had been selected for working hard in science this year, to the Big Bang Fair South East at Ardingly show ground in Sussex. Over 7000 children attended this fantastic day of fun filled shows, interactive displays and hands on workshops to encourage and inspire them to look at science as a future career. We had a fabulous day despite the inclement weather. One of our students also won the Twitter Prize, congratulations to Bleu Thresher in 7OX, enjoy your Crumble electronic starter kit.
Colour changing milk
Skittle Diffusion
Making and flying kites
Creating tall towers
Vibrating motors
that Race!
Congratulations to the following students who have completed their bronze crest awards this year. Louise Bridgeman, Katie Carver, Mya Dalgleish, Tug O’Flaherty, Kian Jervis, Chris Lewis, Freya Lloyd, Rhiannon Lloyd, Ella Simpson. They have done a range of experiments, from looking at which studs would be best on which kind of surface, to what conditions plants need to grow, to what effect different detergents have on hair. They have all worked extremely hard to achieve this award and we were really impressed with the quality of their presentations. Hopefully their certificates will arrive before the end of term, if not they will be presented in September. We also have a number of students completed or nearly completed their Silver Crest award, which is a fantastic achievement. Once they are all complete and assessed we will be presenting them with their certificates. Bronze crests awards are a practical based project taking at least 10 hours to complete and are offered to all students in year 9 and 10. We will be offering the opportunity again next September, look out the parent mail next term for more information.
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We have been delighted to welcome the students from Year 5 at St. Clements Primary School to Blenheim this Half Term to experience a science lesson at a secondary school. They were very excited to be able to use Bunsen burners and chemicals to explore reversible and irreversible reactions, a topic that is difficult for them to do practically in a primary school classroom. Just before Half Term we were invited to attend Auriol Junior School’s Science Extravaganza. They invited several local primary schools to Auriol for the morning to share what they do in their science lessons and then to do some fun experiments that Blenheim had provided. These were all experiments that the school could borrow as part of our ‘lessons in a box’ where we loan practical lessons to local primary schools who may not have the equipment or expertise to be able to do them. We had a fabulous morning and really enjoyed seeing so many children enjoying science. Each year, Auriol Junior School take part in an enterprise project in the Summer term to raise awareness and funds for the British Heart Foundation. As part of this week of activities we go to their school and help them with heart dissections with their Year 6 students. The students have a fabulous time looking at the structures of the heart and experiencing first-hand what a heart looks and feels like. Through links with an ex-student we have also been happy to support 3rd Cobham Scouts Troup with a forensics’ evening and completing their Electronics Badge.
On July 14th and 15th, we welcomed over 600 Year 5 students from ten local primary schools to our annual Science Festival, SteMFest. The children had an amazing time visiting the hall for the hands on experiments, exploring different science activities from static electricity, non newton substance (custard powder mixed with water) to the microscopic world and lots more. They also had the opportunity to join in science workshops in a science lab, and finally we had a visitor from the European Space Agency who brought an amazing robot and talked to the children about the future of science in space. It was a fantastic two days with so many children being excited about science and technology.
10b/ph3 got all shook up with an electric shock as they studied statics with Mr Wood. Having been shocked by his bad jokes all year, they got a real shock via the static charge build up. As we can see, it was a hair raising experience. Not to be outdone, Ms Moyse held up the side for the staff!
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[email protected]
Nominations for Star Mathematicians for last term were:Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Riley Alderson-Foster Nathan Asiedu Tatiana De Jesus Rian James Mia King Gabrielle Kirkham Fraser Marks Humza Mirza Hannah Pinchbeck Betsy-May Smith Millie Whiteway Isla Williams Zak Woodward Om Yadam
Euan Castledine Reece Germani Amy Marriott Josephine Peters
Olivia Angus Lucie Boeje Max Bourton Beatriz Diogo Aisha Dookun Samantha Foster Jessica Lane Josh Mims Jodie Mordan Stefani Pereira Jessie Rickman
Year 10 Maisie Askew Jessie Wilman Marcus Thornhill Rebecca Weeks Vini Rodrigues Rebecca Norman Louise Cory Lily Davis Rochelle Lapina Abby Mooney
All the Star Mathematician nominees’ names are put into a hat and one for each Key Stage is picked at random. Raffle Winners win a certificate and a £15 iTunes voucher:Key Stage 3: Warren Colman Key Stage 4: Alice Marshall Key Stage 5: Amy Brooks Year 12 Amy Brooks Omar El Dahshan Iain Campbell Harvey Lamb
Following their high scores in the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge, that took place in February, three of our students were invited by UKMT to take part in further Maths Challenges: Olivia Mellon in Year 9 was invited to take part in the European Grey Kangaroo Maths Challenge, for which she received a qualification certificate. Zach Clark in Year 11 was invited to take part in the European Pink Kangaroo Challenge, for which he also received a qualification certificate. Austen Leitch, Year 9, achieved such a high score that he was asked to take part in the Cayley Maths Olympiad, for which he received a Distinction and a medal. Following on from this, he was then invited to take part in a UKMT Maths Masterclass in London, organised by the Royal Institution Masterclass team. Well done to all!
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[email protected]
Year 7 have been thinking about why William was able to invade England in 1066 and have completed written work about the reasons for his success. They then made castles after studying the various methods of control used by William the Conqueror after his invasion. Some students made examples of his early Motte and Bailey castles. Others made stone Square Keep castles after studying castle development over time. As ever, we were so impressed by the effort and imagination which went into building castles from wood, cardboard, cake and even Minecraft blocks! Studies for year 7 continued with writing about the way the Black Death affected different groups of people and writing a letter arguing about why the Crusades are significant. Excellent work.
Year 8 have been studying the Atlantic Slave trade and slavery in the Southern states of America, completing a demanding assessment looking at evidence from the time of slavery and writing about its reliability. They embraced the difficult challenge of working as a team to design a museum exhibition commemorating 18th and 19th century slavery. Each team member took on a role and the team made decisions ranging from what to include and how to engage the visitors, to how to promote their museum. There were so many innovative designs and we were delighted at the amount of time, effort and imagination which went into this project. The final results showed a great deal of understanding about the lessons we need to learn from this topic and the questions we should still be asking. Well done Year 8!
On Wednesday 6th July, Year 9 had the opportunity to hear a very moving talk from Holocaust survivor, Marcel Ladenheim. He shared his experiences of growing up as a Jewish child in occupied France, losing touch with his parents and his brother, but given shelter and a new identity by two extremely brave French women. He talked in a very moving way about how that experience had affected him both as a child and throughout his life as an adult in the UK. (He was taken in by relatives in Manchester after the war and studied and worked as a dentist in the UK until retiring.) Blenheim students really appreciated his unique perspective on events which they have studied in History lessons and asked some excellent questions about events at the time and his reaction to them. The thank you letters written afterwards in lessons demonstrate how valuable Marcel Ladenheim’s insights have been in Year 9s study of such a sensitive and complex topic.
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Mrs. S. Jethwa,
[email protected]
Year 7 Overview: It is hard to believe that Year 7 students have now completed their first year as Blenheim students and they have produced some outstanding pieces of work across the curriculum. In addition they have clearly demonstrated their newly acquired skills both inside and outside of the classroom which have been consolidated during the recent Year 7 exams with a pleasing ATL average of 82%. Students should be proud of their contributions to their year group with an overall attendance figure of 96% and participation in the wider school community through enrichment activities including; Trips to the University of Surrey The Queen’s 90th Birthday Collage event at Epsom Down’s Race Course West End theatre trips Sporting events and performances in Music & PE A trip to Cologne The ever popular “Burgundy Times” newspaper! Through these contributions and with the support of the Year 10 Peer Mentors Year 7 have excelled and undertaken wider leadership roles as Form Captains, Enrichment Ambassadors, STEM Ambassadors, School Council Reps and Student Digital Leaders. Year 7 students should be proud of their efforts and continue with this ethos into Year 8!
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Blenheim Bulletin Student Achievement & Development: We have celebrated success through a variety of rewards including a record numbers of students achieving their Bronze, Silver and Gold Merit badges, Breakfast with the Headteacher, Sports Assembly and formal presentations during our final rewards assembly. Both curriculum and enrichment awards have been made to a number of students who deserve to be congratulated for their hardworking and committed attitude to all areas of their school life and the following students have received well-deserved pastoral awards for their consistent and positive contributions: Form Superstar Awards for being an excellent role model and overall fantastic student: Lara Sparrow 7NX Charlotte Nicholson 7NY Gabby Kirkham 7OX Om Yadam 7NX Ricaordo Goncalves 7NY Sultan Lubis 7OX Bobby Berens 7OY Amber Hattam 7SX Hannah Pinchbeck 7SY Tatiana De Jesus 7OY Josh Carslake 7SX Marco Viera 7SY Pashy Eastwood 7TX Tremayne Huie-Moseley 7TX Toby Hyland 7TY Laura Pereira Barradas 7TY GRIT Awards for embracing Blenheim with resilience, responsibility and determination: Imogen Bailey 7TX Grace Hardwick 7SY Isla Williams 7OY Melissa Alexander 7NY Katie Duggan 7TY Ruby Bayton 7SX James Tompson 7NX Eleanor Gravestock 7NX Kindness Awards for being a brilliant community citizen who actively supports the wellbeing of others: Reggie Milan 7NY Alicia Saunders 7SY Katie Beacham 7NX Rachel Dowse 7NX
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I write this entry after a hugely successful Rewards’’ Assembly where it was obvious from the massive amount of Year 8 students who were given prizes, certificates, badges etc. that Year 8 has been a great success for many of our young people – I hope to see this continue as they enter Year 9 and GCSE option choices. During the course of the year, Mrs Jones and I have been lucky to work with many of our talented and thoughtful students – be that by observing exemplar work in lessons, discussing the development of the school in Form Captain meetings, dangling precariously from a great height on a zipwire at Wild Wood in Guildford or indeed, sharing lunch with students and getting to know them even better during Thursday break times. It is with great pride that we awarded Mr. O’Connor’s form 8NX the title of ‘Octopus Champions’ as they beat off tough competition to be awarded the year-long prize. ‘Olly the Octopus’ has been adopted from Monterey Bay Aquarium in sunny California and I will be personally visiting him during the summer term to tell him the good news! Congratulations also to Miss Datoo’ s form 8SY who were chosen as winners of our recent competition on the EU referendum – their thought-provoking and creative work would have made many a politician blush! I am pleased to know that Mrs Jones will continue her exceptional work with the year group as their Head of Year in 2016/17 – she is a credit to the school and I am positive she will do a great job in leading the year group forward I wish all Year 8 students and tutors a great summer, it has been a privilege to be your Head of Year and I look forward to seeing your success continue to grow and develop.
Mr. C. Mundy,
[email protected] I was very proud of the attitude that Year 10 students displayed towards their recent Year 10 Progress Exams. Many of them had created revision timetables in preparation for their exams and put into practice some of the strategies taught to them during the ‘Study Skills Day’ back in May. It is important to treat practice examinations as if they were the real thing in order that students get a feel for what it will be like for them next Summer. Many students admitted to feeling anxious about their exams, but found strategies to overcome this once in the exam hall. We will be developing techniques for overcoming anxiety next term. I trust that your sons and daughters were pleased with their results, but if they have revealed any concerns in terms of progress, we will work to address these from September onwards. Congratulations to the 50 highest merit scorers who were invited to spend a day at Chessington World of Adventures on Monday as a reward for their hard work this year. It was a fun day for all and a well-deserved treat after the recent exams, controlled assessment work (Science and Geography) and MFL speaking exams. Well done also to all of the students who received a reward in either the ‘PE Rewards Assembly’ last week or the ‘Year 10 Rewards’ Assembly’ organised by Mr Perry. Particular credit is due to Danielle Kernaghan and Adam Merchant who were awarded Sports Woman and Sports Man of the Year! It is always a pleasure to see the achievement of our students being celebrated in this way. Congratulations to all of the Year 10 students who took part in their practice Duke of Edinburgh expedition this term. Although a few got lost along the way (no names mentioned!), I’m pleased to report that they all made it to the Bentley Copse camp site… eventually! Mr Mann and I are very pleased to be continuing in our respective roles as Assistant Head of Year and Head of Year and guide our students through into Year 11. Having been their Head of Year now since Year 8, it will be a privilege for me to support them through the most important year in their education. With your continued support and guidance, and their sustained effort, I have every faith that they will meet or exceed their potential. There will be a Year 11 Parents’ Information Evening delivered by us both on Wednesday 21st September at 18.30pm in the Main Hall. It would be great to see as many of you there as possible. Many students have applied to become Year 11 Prefects and support Mr Mann and me in organising the Year 11 Prom and a yearbook for next year. Successful applicants will be informed of their new roles upon returning to school in September. Can I please take this opportunity to wish all of Year 10 a well-earned rest over the summer. Please ensure that they come back to us in September feeling refreshed, looking smart and hungry to smash their target grades in their December trial exams!
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Art
&
Design
&
Design
Thank you to all who attended our end of year exhibition, in which we celebrated the success of our GCSE and A Level students by showing a selection of their work. All pupils had something displayed and the exceptional quality of the work really came through. It was great to combine efforts with Design Technology, who also displayed some fantastic work on the same evening and provided excellent refreshments. We also had some fantastic entries for the Epsom and Ewell Arts Festival 2016, six of which were selected for display at Bourne Hall. Well done to all those who entered and a huge thank you for your efforts; you will be rewarded as promised! The six successful pupils were: Samir Uddin (7OX), Ella Zeqiri (7TX), Jessica Davies (9OX), Danielle Jump (9OX), Jodie Mordan (9OY) and Zoe White (9OX).
Art
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‘It has been an incredibly close House competition this year and as we move towards the end of term, it is still too difficult to determine the winner. So much that occurs at Blenheim feeds into the House system and the final information that will determine who wins is the Year 7 and Year 10 Attitude to Learning scores on their reports. What can be known is that in Year 8 the top performing House was Nashwan, in Year 9 it was Tulyar, in Year 11 it was Sinndar, in Year 12 it was Octavius and in Year 13 it was Nashwan’ – Mr. Morgan
OCTAVIUS - Mr S. Millard,
[email protected] It was a slow start for us at the beginning of the year, we kept in contention but we were not setting the world alight. The second half of the year has been a completely different story. We have managed to win House music (well done Joe, Seb, River & Joel) and collect another house competition win in the Year 8 mixed Rounders. Then we kept that winning feeling going by winning the Race to Rio Challenge, managing to walk 152,100km, getting to Calais, Team Octavius are truly international. A massive thank you must also go to the house captains who managed to assemble a very strong Sports Day team, narrowly missing out on winning (it still hurts) by 8 points!! Also our points total owes a huge debt of gratitude to the top performers in each year (Isla Williams in year 7, Daniel Siner in Year 8, Seb McKie in Year 9, Jenna Abbott in Year 10, Louisa Martin in Year 11, Alexander Reston in Year 12 and Bebe Cook-Abbott in Year 13), I am looking forward to awarding prizes to our top performers at the start of next year, the totals are not finalised yet so at the time of writing it is all to play for. Looking forward, I am excited to see the results of the yearlong house competition, it is closer than it has been in a long time so I am eager to see how we have finished. The effort from all in students in gaining merits, showing effort and attending school, along with our strong sporting performances has really impressed me over the last term. This is also a good opportunity to introduce our new Octavius Prefect, Jack Chu. Jack will be working to motivate the students and help guide Team Octavius through the year. With this in mind I am really looking forward to next year and the promise of creating a winning house. GO TEAM OCTAVIUS.
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Blenheim Bulletin TULYAR - Mr M. Everest,
[email protected] “Clear eyes Full Hearts Can’t Lose!!!” What an incredible year for Tulyar House. We have battled from 3rd place to the top and then back to 2nd so far. Despite all of this adversity we managed to triumph at Sports Day 2016. I have never been so proud and impressed with the level of commitment and tenacity of our Sports Champions. I witnessed all the qualifying heats and could not believe the talent we have in our House. Massive congratulations to Grace Jansen in Year 7, Saffy Lewis Collymore and Sean Bridgeman for breaking Records and to all competitors that contributed to our outstanding victory. We now are focused on finishing the year collecting all available points ready for the announcement of the overall House champions. All my fingers and claws are crossed that we have clinched another victory in what has been an epic battle between Dinosaur and Lion. Congratulations are in order for our new Tulyar Prefect Toby Keen. Toby will be working with me to continue our winning streak. As the Summer Term comes to a close I will be looking forward to making a running start to next year and keep the positive productive and proud nature of our house alive. Congratulations and thank you to all of the pride and I sit upon my throne as the Lion King a happy man ! Enjoy the Summer !!!
NASHWAN - Mr Mulvaney,
[email protected] As the year draws to a close, and before the final table is released, I think it’s worth saying that Nashwan have had an excellent year all round. Wherever we finish, we have constantly challenged throughout the year, sometimes leading, never more than a few hundred points off the pace. Although we didn’t place well overall at Sports Day, we had some excellent individual successes. Special mentions must go to Tyri Donovan, Dan Froud and Tyler Ince for their emphatic 100m final wins, as well as Emily Jessup, Keeley Smith and Sophie Brown for their 1st, 2nd and 3rd finishes in the Year 8 Girls 100m final. Holly King topped it off with an excellent win in the 300m against all the odds (and an entire line-up of Sinndar finalists!). At the beginning of next year there will be rewards for the highest contributors in each year group and I would like to take this opportunity to thank every single student for their efforts this year. Nashwan is a house on the up, and I think if we can increase our overall participation in house events, we can really mount a challenge next year. Our Year 7, 8 and 9s have all been brilliant on a day to day basis (with Year 7 and 8 winning their year group) and if we can just put in strong appearances in house events, without necessarily even winning them, I really think we can push the other houses all the way!
SINNDAR - Miss E. Gostling,
[email protected] It has been a very busy term for House events – House Music Competition, Walk to Rio, Dream League Soccer 16, House rounders and Sports Day. I have been extremely proud of everyone that has taken part and helped to achieve points for our house. Congratulations to Naim Attia, Caleb Heather, Katie Lane, Merve Dinc, Rebekah Bright, Olivia Pendry and Megan Siarey for achieving the most amount of House Points for their year group. Even with the efforts of all the students that have contributed house points, this year has not ended quite as high up the leader board as we would have liked so there is plenty of work to do next year to fight back and move to the top. We need to work as a TEAM to get to the top because Together Everyone Achieves More!
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Mr. S. Morgan,
[email protected]
It has been an extremely wet summer for the PE department this year, which has led to numerous fixtures and extracurricular clubs being cancelled. Disappointing as that has been for all, our spirits are never dampened for long in PE and this summer we still have managed to be drenched in fantastic achievements and our extra-curricular clubs have been saturated with student numbers. Water references aside, across the whole year students have been attending our clubs and representing Blenheim in fixtures a phenomenal amount of times. There have been almost 4’500 occasions when a student has attended an extra-curricular club this year, and over 1’400 occasions when a student has represented Blenheim. Initially that may not seem impressive for a school of our size but it is equivalent to 200 Netball fixtures, and in reality means that on average 150 pupils a week are involved in sport at Blenheim. On behalf of all the staff involved in PE clubs and fixtures this year, I just want to thank all our fabulous students for their commitment and hope that after another summer of Olympic and Paralympic inspiration, that they will all be back for more in September.
It seems only fitting that the Blenheim Sports Day held on Friday 8 th July should get top billing in the PE section of the newsletter as this year was one of the most successful and closest competitions ever. In the week leading up to the actual day over 400 students, selected by the Heads of House, competed in either the track heats or the field events. With students achieving points for taking part and for finishing in the top eight in every field event, as we went in the day Octavius House had a slender lead over last years’ Sports day winners Sinndar and 2014-2015 Overall House Trophy winners Tulyar. I am always amazed at how much better the student performances are on sports day compared with the track heats and this year of all those taking part, only a couple of students failed to improve on their qualification times. This just goes to show how hard the students are willing to push themselves when competing for their House in front of the whole School. On the day although the windy conditions weren’t the best for the spectators or the audio sound system, it did prove to be advantageous to the competitors and it was a bumper year for school records. Adding to the five set during the week in field events, a further nine school records tumbled. Indeed in the highly impressive Year 7 girls 100m final, the top three students all beat the previous school record. Sadly going forward only one student can hold the record and that now belongs to Grace Jansen of 7TY who took the title in a time of 12.95 seconds. This was just one of the many fine performances on the day and all the event winners and new record holders are listed below as they all deserve notoriety. It is difficult to single out individual performances when so many students are giving their all, but particular credit should go to Tyri Donovan of 12SM. Tyri is an exceptional young athlete who has competed internationally and although Tyri’s beloved Nashwan house weren’t really challenging to win sports day, he treated the whole school to a display of sprinting ability the like of which had never been seen before. After cruising to the 6 th Form boys 200m crown, he won the 100m title in 10.42 seconds, which was the fastest ever time recorded on Blenheim’s track. Pretty good really when you consider that he is a 400m hurdler! As I mentioned earlier, this years’ sports day was one of the closest on record. Anyone who has witnessed a Blenheim Sports Day will testify to how quickly all the races are completed and as such occasionally, very occasionally, a result may get recorded incorrectly as one did this year. On the day it was announced that Tulyar had won sports day by a mere 65 points, and although the result was correct, the margin of victory was even smaller. In the end they only won it by 8 points! Hard to quantify if you aren’t aware of the points system but in reality if Tulyar had finished behind Octavius in the final race of the day, then the trophy would be wearing the green colours of Octavius for the next 12 months. In the individual year groups, Tulyar won Year 7 and Year 9, Sinndar won Year 8, Octavius won Year 10 and Nashwan won the 6th form, however the overall final scores were: Tulyar - 3075 points Octavius - 3067 points Sinndar - 2790 points Nashwan – 2215 points
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Age Group
Event
Year 7 Girls Year 7 Girls Year 7 Girls Year 7 Girls Year 7 Girls Year 7 Girls Year 7 Girls Year 7 Girls Year 7 Girls Year 8 Girls Year 8 Girls Year 8 Girls Year 8 Girls Year 8 Girls Year 8 Girls Year 8 Girls Year 8 Girls Year 8 Girls Year 9 Girls Year 9 Girls Year 9 Girls Year 9 Girls Year 9 Girls Year 9 Girls Year 9 Girls Year 9 Girls Year 9 Girls Year 10 Girls Year 10 Girls Year 10 Girls Year 10 Girls Year 10 Girls Year 10 Girls Year 10 Girls Year 10 Girls Year 10 Girls Year 12 Girls Year 12 Girls Year 12 Girls Year 12 Girls Year 12 Girls Year 12 Girls
100m 200m 300m 800m Discus High Jump Javelin Long Jump Shot Putt 100m 200m 300m 800m Discus High Jump Javelin Long Jump Shot Putt 100m 200m 300m 800m Discus High Jump Javelin Long Jump Shot Putt 100m 200m 300m 800m Discus High Jump Javelin Long Jump Shot Putt 100m 200m Discus High Jump Javelin Shot Putt
2016 Sports Day Event Winners (Records in Black) Girl Age Group Event Grace Jansen Grace Jansen Gabz Kirkham Megan Ince Gabz Kirkham Grace Jansen Honey Morrell Grace Jansen Gabz Kirkham Emily Jessup Keeley Smith Holly King Toni Bush Alice Chesney Toni Bush Alyssa Chaiprakhom Lucy Taylor Alyssa Chaiprakhom Jessica Purdy Jessica Purdy Saffy Lewis-Collymore Saffy Lewis-Collymore Sam Foster Rhiannon Lloyd Saffy Lewis-Collymore Freya Lloyd Saffy Lewis-Collymore Lily Davis Lily Davis Katie Carver Victoria Fuller Emma Laming Victoria Fuller Daisy Thomas Katie Carver Emma Laming Rachel Cozens Beth Johnson Beth Johnson Lily Devins Rachel Mansell Rachel Mansell
Year 7 Boys Year 7 Boys Year 7 Boys Year 7 Boys Year 7 Boys Year 7 Boys Year 7 Boys Year 7 Boys Year 7 Boys Year 7 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 8 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 9 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 10 Boys Year 12 Boys Year 12 Boys Year 12 Boys Year 12 Boys Year 12 Boys Year 12 Boys Year 12 Boys Year 12 Boys Year 12 Boys Year 12 Boys Year 12 Boys
100m 200m 400m 800m 1500m Discus High Jump Javelin Long Jump Shot Putt 100m 200m 400m 800m 1500m Discus High Jump Javelin Long Jump Shot Putt Triple Jump 100m 200m 400m 800m 1500m Discus High Jump Javelin Long Jump Shot Putt Triple Jump 100m 200m 400m 800m 1500m Discus High Jump Javelin Long Jump Shot Putt Triple Jump 100m 200m 400m 1500m 800m Discus High Jump Javelin Long Jump Shot Putt Triple Jump
Boy Cian Fitzpatrick Jay Cook-Abbott Cian Fitzpatrick Freddie Devins Freddie Devins Josh Hunnex Tremayne Huie Moseley Josh Luff Alfie Duffy Nicholas Selves Lenny Hall Lenny Hall Alexander Pires Alfie Huckle Alfie Huckle Rahi Islam Toby High Ethan Nash Tom McGowan Ethan Nash Ryan Bellworthy Tyler Ince Nathan Crisp Xavier Minors Alfie Jones Ralph Drummond Joe Clark Kyle Francis Charlie Hall Nathan Crisp Harry Holland Christopher Lewis Daniel Froud Daniel Froud Chris Palmai Finlay Rogers Finlay Rogers Marcus Thornhill Alfie Brown Alfie Brown Charlie Horton Robert Doorgachurn Bruno De Souza Tyri Donovan Tyri Donovan Matthew Nelligan Sean Bridgeman Sean Bridgeman Thomas Evans Ed Pettipher-Young Sean Bridgeman Elliot Mitchell Tom Perry Tyri Donovan
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Sports Day 2016
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Already mentioned earlier was the impressive numbers of students that have been representing the school and taking part in extra-curricular clubs. As well as earning plenty of individual merits, every time a student attended a club or represented the school they progressed towards achieving our Sports Colours award. For those not familiar, if a year 7 student attended 25 hours or more of clubs or fixtures then they automatically were eligible for the Sports Certificate. If they already had been awarded the Sports certificate then they received the next award up. This summer large numbers of students received their awards in the Sports Assemblies run by Mr Millard and Mrs Baxter. In total 72 students achieved the Sports Certificate including over a quarter of all the Year 7 students in the school. Along with those students, 29 achieved half colours for continual commitment across two school years, 16 achieved Full Colours for three years’ commitment and five students received our highest accolade for completing four years of extracurricular commitment to Blenheim. Those students were, Katie Carver, Jamie Maher, Danielle Kernaghan, Becky McFarlane and Ellie McFarlane all from Year 10.
Whilst the sports colours system recognises commitment, the sports assemblies also gave the PE department the opportunity to recognise individuals for excellence in particular sports. Coloured Excellence badges have been given out in a number of sports including Athletics, Football, Gymnastics, Dance and many more, recognising students for their impressive performances over the year. Additionally in the sports assemblies the highly coveted Sports Boy and Sports Girl of the Year awards were given out. This award takes into account both a student’s commitment and excellence and it was extremely difficult to choose this year as so many students have contributed massively. However it is my pleasure to announce the deserved winners this year are: As well as the established twitter account @BlenheimPE, the PE department also have an Instagram account @blenheimpe where you can check for fixtures, results, videos and sporting news. You can also get involved with us by using #teamblenheim on both Twitter and Instagram.
Year 7 8 9 10
Sports Girl of the Year Gabz Kirkham Lucy Taylor Jasmine Backhurst (Pictured) Danielle Kernaghan
Sports Boy of the Year Max Luff Euan Castledine (Pictured)
Adam Merchant
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It may have been a little while ago but in the Easter newsletter, PE highlighted that our U16 Girls’ Football team had qualified for the Surrey Schools Final. I am delighted to report that the girls won the final against Woking School 3-1, courtesy of two goals from Heather Eade and a bullet of a goal from Jasmine Backhurst. The team had put in numerous impressive performances over the year and playing in brand new sports kit sponsored by Wilson’s of Epsom, they just proved too strong for a talented Woking side. This is the first ever Surrey School’s football title that Blenheim have won and great credit should go to all the team involved and in particular Captain Eloise Williams (Y11) for her outstanding leadership.
Over the last year the PE department, in conjunction with Lester Bowden and Orion sportswear, have been developing an improved PE sports kit for Blenheim students to wear in lessons. The new kit is far more athletic in nature and really modernises the sportswear at Blenheim which hasn’t changed for twenty years. Several items are made of a fast drying lighter polyester material, and the shirts are now available in both boy and girl fits for the first time, which should make the kit more comfortable to wear. Lester Bowden have begun selling the new sports kit within their store with the current kit including the white polo top being discontinued. I’m sure that you will all be planning a summer trip to Lester Bowden’s because the new kit is so good, however, please note that the current ’white’ kit is acceptable at the moment for anyone currently at Blenheim and will be gradually phased out over the next few years as students need to replace items as they grow.
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Ms H. Jordan-Spiteri, Deputy SENCo/Literacy and Language Teacher,
[email protected]
A SUCCESSFUL YEAR 6 TASTER MORNING! Students were invited from several feeder primary schools for a special introductory taster session in the Enhanced Learning Centre. It was a wonderful opportunity for Year 6 students to meet other students who may work in the ELC department with specialist teachers and teaching assistants. They all enjoyed being challenged to a ‘Mission Impossible’ task whereby they had to work as a team, solving the clues to find their way around the buildings.
Year 6 students experienced some activites from the Special Friends’ Social Skills Programme. They practised ‘Milkshake Breathing’, a relaxation technique by blowing bubbles through a straw.
They also had an opportunity to work on Word Shark and Lexia Strategies UK literacy programmes. Overall, Year 6 students had a pleasurable morning and are less anxious about starting at their new secondary school in September.
We look forward to welcoming them all back! Farewell to Miss Karam and Mrs Winsor, Teaching Assistants, for their hard work and support working with our more vulnerable students. We wish them both well on their next stage of their careers.
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Social
Sciences
Department
Miss K. Putley,
[email protected] “My Journey from Creating Evil to Inspiring Heroism”: Dr Philip Zimbardo Conference Psychology A-level students were lucky enough to hear one of the most prolific Psychological researchers of the 20th century speak in London earlier this year. Zimbardo spoke about his controversial 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, replicated by the BBC in 2001, which was deemed so unethical it changed the landscape of ethical requirements in psychological research from that point onwards. Students discovered that hearing research described first hand, and being able to see how Zimbardo felt about his work, made it far more memorable. We were also privileged to hear about the study from the perspective of his wife, Professor Christina Maslach. We had learnt when studying the research that she had played an instrumental role in the termination of the experiment. We heard from widely published author Cara Flanagan, who wrote our A-level text books, on validity and ecological validity. As well as this, other field experts spoke on a range to topics, for example Dr Mark Griffiths, Director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University, who has published over 1500 papers and articles on behavioural addiction. He spoke about how a number of behaviours can be potentially addictive including gambling, sex, exercise, videogame playing and internet use. He explored the ways all addictions are linked. An altogether fascinating day which gave us real motivation about what we will be studying next year in Psychology.
Mr. G. Adams,
[email protected] The planning for the ski trip is well underway, with a full trip of 43 students from our current Years 8, 9 and 10. The ski trip will be based in Zell am See in Austria, staying at the Gasthof Kirchenwirt close the Zell am See and Kaprun ski areas. The hotel is within 10km of both the Zell am See, Kaprun and Kitzsteinhorn glacier ski areas (http//www.zellamsee-kaprun.com/en) , which provides a wide variety of piste, and guaranteed snow. In the Autumn term there will be a student/parent Ski Trip meeting for those booked onto the trip. The information evening for the trip is planned for 17th November 2016, at 6.30 pm in the Main Hall. Further information about the 2017 ski trip will be communicated directly to parents via parent mail at the start of the Autumn term.
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Mrs. F. Charles,
[email protected] We are delighted to report that the Year 10s did an amazing fund raising event making and selling cakes during break times. This was after a moving assembly showing the lack of Science equipment and facilities at our second link school St Joseph’s Miranga Secondary School in Kenya. Our students’ overwhelming response was a desire to contribute to their counterparts’ education in Kenya with additional equipment and to enhance their facilities. This has resulted in us being able to send out to Kenya ten microscopes and a chemical balance. Photos showing the boxes of equipment arriving at St Joseph’s Miranga and the items unwrapped.
This is what our colleague Mark Origa wrote to us after receiving the microscopes this week: “Our girls and boys are very thankful for this kind donation from your students and staff. Thank you to all the team of Blenheim High School for putting a big smile on our students’ faces and giving them the tools to help them learn and be great Scientists in the future. We do not have right words to use in thanking you all and the Mr. Mundy Year Group that has worked so hard for us and the students to have this. Thanks so much.” A message from St.Joseph's Miranga Secondary school students in Kenya to Blenheim High School: “Thumbs up for this your very kind donation to us the St. Joseph's Miranga Secondary School students to all the Blenheim High School family for this their kindness to us and to empower us educationally.”
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Mrs. J. Watson,
[email protected]
At Blenheim we endeavour to provide the best possible CEIAG support to students and parents. This year, I would like to invite Year 9 parents to comment on this support via a brief survey which should take no more than 5 minutes to complete. Please use the following link to provide feedback which I will use to assist with future planning; https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KS3optionsparentsurvey2016 Every year we hold a Year 12 Future Choices’ Day to assist Sixth Form students with career planning. Whilst we work very closely with our UCAS applicants, more students now are interested in training and gaining qualifications in the workplace. This June, we organised an employer led Careers Fair and some twenty organisations attended to promote the vast range of post-18 work-based opportunities including apprenticeships, school leaver programmes, sponsored degrees, internships, gap year projects etc. This was very successful and many of the employers have expressed an interest in returning next year. I am always looking for opportunities to develop further links with the workplace and would be pleased to hear from any parents who know of any employers that would be interested in working with Blenheim. Atkins offer local schools a Young Engineers and Scientists programme, monthly after school to promote learning about different science, technology, engineering and maths careers through fun experiments and challenges in the workplace. This year our students have learnt about electric motors, controls, mechanical, geo technical, nuclear and structural engineering. Thirteen of our Year 9 STEM ambassadors graduated at the end of the course and have come away with inspiration and a valuable insight into ‘real’ STEM careers: Ella Simpson, Ben Banyard, Ben Hedges, Seb McKie, Jessica Lane, Katie Lane, Mia Le Stavi, Saffy Lewis-Collymore, Thomas Evans, Lucy Bushaway, Matt Dell, Will Caldwell and Dominic Dawson. One of our Year 10 students Maisie McMillan who completed the YES programme with Atkins last year was specially selected to work on their new WALT (Why Am I Learning This) project with Atkins to promote STEM careers to women. Maisie says “it was the best thing I've done. I have been up to the Euston tower (Atkins head office) and met with the Managing Director and the STEM leaders and was involved in a dragons den type activity. I have been keeping in close contact with Atkins in Epsom and I am attending careers talks and can really see a career for me with them. I am also going to be doing some work experience in the near future with Atkins.” This innovative approach to promoting STEM careers is being rolled out across other companies now and Maisie should be proud of her contribution. Current Year 10 students are advised to spend a little time over the summer holidays thinking about the important choices they will have to make with post-16 options in the autumn term. Assemblies, Parents’ Information Evenings, individual careers interviews and a Careers Education Programme will assist in this process. I will produce a list of all the forthcoming open evenings and distribute as soon as students return to school in September. Preparation is key and we aim to get all Year 11 students to have made decisions and put their plans into action before the end of December. Parents can contact me by email
[email protected] if they have any queries about this.
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21/07/2016
1330
Early Closure School Holiday
18/08/2016
1000
1100
GCE Results
25/08/2016
1000
1100
GCSE Results
25/08/2016
1030
1230
Year 12 Enrolment Day 1
26.08/2016
1000
1200
Year 12 Enrolment Day 2
05/09/2016
900
1200
Year 12 Enrolment Day 3
05/09/2016
845
1500
Year 7 Students in school all day
05/09/2016
1130
1300
06/09/2016
845
Years 8-11 in school to pick up timetables and beginning of term information. Year 12 in school
06/09/2016
845
Year 13 Enrolment
07/09/2016
845
Year 13 in School
07/09/2016
1830
1930
Year 10 Information Evening
08/09/2016
1830
2000
Year 12 Information Evening
08/09/2016
1105
1130
Enrichment Fair
12/09/2016
School Photographer, Year 7, 9, 12
13/09/2016
1715
1815
Key Stage 3 GAMA (Gifted and More Able) Evening
13/09/2016
1830
1930
Key Stage 4 GAMA Evening
15/09/2016
1900
2030
Presentation Evening for Prize Winners
21/09/2016
1830
1930
Year 11 Information Evening
22/09/2016
1830
2000
Year 7 Parents’ Information Evening
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