BLUEPRINT NEWSLETTER

May 2015

OPEN DAY/EVENING TUESDAY 23rd JUNE 2015 If you would like your child to sit the entrance exam for Year 7 (2016/17 intake), the following information should be noted:9.30 – 10.30 am 6.30 – 8.30 pm Entrance exam date:

Open Day - Tour of school Open Evening - Presentation and tour of school

Saturday 26th September 2015

All information can now be found on our web-site www.brgs.org.uk. Please click on About Us and Admissions where a Prospectus, Admissions Policy and Blue Information Booklet can be downloaded. If you wish to register your child to sit the exam on Saturday 26th September 2015, please click on the blue “Register” button and fill out the application form on-line. th

The registration deadline is 12 noon on Friday 18 No applications will be accepted after that time.

September 2015.

Minibus opportunity One of our student’s parents is hoping to organise a mini bus for any children local to Littleborough who will be travelling to BRGS in September and also for existing students from the Wardle, Smithybridge and Littleborough areas who might find this useful. In order to gauge if this is a viable option, she would like to know how many parents would be interested in sharing this facility before she approaches a minibus company for the cost involved. If this is something you think might be of use to your son/daughter, please e-mail Mrs Stone on [email protected] or phone her 07914 858303.

Dates for your diary… th

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Mon 25 to Fri 29 May th th Wed 27 to Sat 30 May st rd Mon 1 to Wed 3 June th Fri 5 June th th Mon 8 to Fri 12 June th

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Sat 13 to Sun 14 June th Thurs 18 June th nd Sat 20 to Mon 22 June rd Tues 23 June th th Wed 24 and Thurs 25 June th Fri 26 June th st Mon 29 June to Wed 1 July th st Tues 30 June and Wed 1 July rd Fri 3 July rd

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Fri 3 to Mon 6 July th nd Mon 6 to Wed 22 July th Tues 7 July th Wed 8 July th th Thurs 9 – 10 July th th Sun 12 – Sat 18 July th th Mon 13 – Thurs 17 July

HALF-TERM HOLIDAY Y7 Paris trip Y8 Anglesey trip Y10 “Sixth Former for a day” Y10 MFL spoken assessments Art exhibition in hall Bronze D of E practice (West Pennine Moors) Y10 Parents’ Evening Silver D of E assessment (Cumbria) Year 6 Open Evening th 6 Form Preview Days Y13 Ball Y10 Performance controlled assessment New Y7 Intake Parents’ Evening Y7 Activity Day Y11 Prom Gold D of E expedition Operation Wallacea expedition to Honduras Year 6 Taster Day Summer Music Concert Year 10 trip to Cambridge Music Tour Year 9 Camp

Ski Champion Congratulations to Richard Holt (10R) who came 4th in the English Moguls Ski Championships at Chill Factor over the weekend. Richard scored 20 more points than his last competition which is fantastic. We wish Richard good luck in his next competition – The Yorkshire Champs – in June. Well done Richard.

E-safety

Some of you may have noticed a new section to our website on E-safety, we would love to hear your views on it so far. More will be added as time goes on, including the guides that are at the back of editions of Blueprint (this month “ A Parent’s Guide to Instagram”). If you didn’t already know, the school also has a free Wi-Fi for the students (suitably secure for school children) so your son/daughter can access internet from any device they have which is capable of doing so. Mr Reeves and Mr Seddon (E-safety)

German Exchange 2014-15

Germanists already having booked their places.

Modern Foreign Language students go on theatre trip - Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui

During the half term break, our annual stay in Bad Homburg with students from the Kaiserin-Friedrich-Gymnasium took place. 25 BRGS students participated this year – they enjoyed an insight into school and family life in Germany and a range of cultural and fun visits in and around the Frankfurt area. Our thanks go to both our students who really did make the best of their week in Germany and to the parents of our students who were such welcoming hosts when our guests came to BRGS last September.

Modern Languages students recently enjoyed a trip to the Contact Theatre in Manchester to see Bert Brecht's 'The resistible rise of Arturo Ui' - a satirical parable that tracks the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. A really entertaining piece put on by students of German at the university.

The preparations for next year’s exchange is well under way with a further 25 young

Mr Wyton Head of Modern Languages

BRGS Summer Music Extravaganza An Evening of Summer Swing in the Sun! Wednesday 8th July 2015 at 7pm Come and support pupils from Y7-13, soloists and ensembles and some very special guests... Make a note in your diary

(Cost: £3/person - pay on door)

Holidays - Academic Year 2015-2016 All holiday dates are inclusive. INSET days are holidays for pupils, training days for staff nd

WEDNESDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2015 – INSET DAYS FOR STAFF rd THURSDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2015 - INSET DAYS FOR STAFF SCHOOL STARTS FOR YEARS 7 AND 12 ON FRIDAY 4TH SEPTEMBER 2015 YEARS 8, 9, 10, 11 AND 13 START ON MONDAY 7TH SEPTEMBER 2015 Autumn half term

26th October to 30th October 2015

5 days

Christmas

18th December (last day for pupils and staff)

10 days

Re-opens

Monday 4th January 2016

Spring half term

15th to 19th February 2016

5 days

Good Friday

25th March 2016

1 day

Easter Monday

28th March 2016

1 day

Easter Holidays

8th April 2016 (last day for pupils and staff)

10 days

Re-opens

Monday 25th April 2016

May Day

2nd May 2016

1 day

Summer Half Term

30th May to 3rd June 2016

5 days

Summer

22nd July 2016 (last day for pupils and staff)

School to identify 3 more INSET days.

British Science Week Chemical Engineer, Claire Holt, came to visit 7S for British Science Week. She talked about Chemical Engineering as a career which can involve working for one of many different companies including Cadburys. She said that chemical engineers are people who help develop a product, such as medicine. Someone will have an idea regarding chemicals and tell a chemical engineer what it is, then the chemical engineer will make it. An example of this is an inhaler for people with asthma. Claire showed us a really interesting investigation. She put a cup down with the card laid landscape across it, she put the paper on top of it and, at the very top, balanced on the paper, was a ball. Like a magic trick,

where they pull the table cloth off the table and all the plates and cutlery stay there, she pulled the piece of card and the ball fell down into the cup and the paper flew to the side. It was really exciting. She also made balloons race each other. Claire’s visit has been really exciting and interesting and I have definitely learnt a lot. I can’t wait for science week next year when hopefully she will come and teach us all about different things in science again. By Natasha Saxton 7S For British Science Week we also held a Key Stage 3 Quiz which had questions on topics as diverse as space and cannibalistic hippos. The winners were: Year 8: 8B Jess Lockheed, Luke Morriss, Stephen Rayner Year 7: 7S Umar Mahmood, Abdur Rafy and Aaron Cheung Well done everyone!

Recipe for Success Year 10 student Ben Holdsworth-Miller won the Accrington and Rossendale College MasterChef competition with two mouthwatering delicious dishes. Ben's main course was a roasted Parma ham wrapped chicken breast with a cheese and English mustard filling served with potatoes, carrot puree, red onion chutney, asparagus and a wholegrain and Dijon mustard cream sauce. His dessert was described as "an indulgent lemon syllabub on a cushion of clementine and Cointreau sauce, topped with crushed amoretti biscotti; served alongside an intense chocolate torte on a buttery biscuit base with chocolate orange curls." Head Chef at the College said that "both the winner and the runner up produced excellent dishes worthy of restaurant standard, their level of technique and skill was exceptional for such an age." Ben received a £100 Amazon voucher and certificate and will receive a trophy during a presentation steak night at the college. Ben's dream job is to own his own restaurant and by winning the AccRoss College Junior Masterchef Competition he has been motivated to go on and fulfil this dream! Miss Gore Food Technology Teacher

Good luck Year 11 Good luck to all our Year 11 students who celebrated their last day in Year 11 with the annual shirt signing. More photographs can be found on our website

www.brgs.org.uk. We wish you all every success with your GCSEs and wish you well for the future. Of course, we will still be seeing the vast majority of you when you return to BRGS Sixth Form but for those who are leaving for pastures new, we wish you every happiness in everything you do!

Voting Day BRGS students went to our very own polling station to place their vote in our Mock Election. The results were as follows: Mock Election Results Main Sixth Party School Form

Total

Labour

160

102

262

Conservatives

167

92

259

Liberal Democrats

85

67

152

Green

47

13

60

PE News… Year 8, Year 9 & Year 10 Rossendale Football Champions Huge congratulations to our Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10 Boys' Football Teams who have all won the Rossendale Schools' Championship!

To keep up to date with all our PE department news follow us on Twitter @brgs_pe where you can find the latest information on sports practices, match results and GCSE/A-level advice.

Applying First Aid to Youth Mental Health Sixteen members of staff completed a Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training course and are now certified Youth Mental Health First Aiders. Teachers and support staff undertook a comprehensive programme focusing on young people’s mental health: introducing the risk factors and warning signs of mental health in adolescents and teaching participants how to respond appropriately. The pioneering programme, which is internationally recognised in 23 countries, has been endorsed at the highest level with First Lady Michelle Obama speaking in March about how the course “really gives you the skills you need to identify and ultimately help – someone in need.” Michelle Obama commented that we need to refocus our efforts on mental health, breaking the silence for those who suffer from these problems and encouraging people to talk openly about mental health. Youth MHFA helps introduce a five step action plan to help young people get the care needed in their community whilst also supporting them emotionally. The course also looks at how to recognise the signs and symptoms of different types of mental health problems including depression, anxiety and suicide. The training programme was led by BRGS Pastoral Manager Siobhan Robinson and the feedback was excellent, resulting in the School putting on a further course for colleagues during the summer term. One person who participated in the course commented: “I believe Youth MHFA has provided me with extra tools to be able to better understand and support young people – something so valuable in my line of work.” Another colleague believed that it had changed their “outlook and perception of mental health and well-being in others” raising confidence to deal with issues such as self-harm, depression and anxiety. Headmaster Alan Porteous said: “Our aim is for students to ‘enjoy and achieve’ whilst at school. To ensure that students do not have any barriers to their learning we need to support them holistically in providing top-quality pastoral care and this excellent course effectively raises awareness and understanding of mental health issues.” Youth MHFA Instructor and Pastoral Manager Siobhan Robinson added: “Being able to recognise and help a young person with mental ill health is so important, and raising awareness around mental health issues will reduce the stigma associated with them. This course gives people the tools to support and comfort struggling young people and could help to save a young person’s life, prevent problems from becoming worse and promotes good recovery." Dawn Johnson, Chairperson for Lauren's Place commented: "We are really impressed with BRGS's approach to supporting their staff with this course. It is an invaluable resource and we would advocate that all senior schools should have this available to their staff, to help them support the young people that they work with. Anyone from the age of 14 can access the course and at present there are funded courses running at CSNW in Accrington. For more details contact 01254 460080." For further information about Youth MHFA please visit www.mhfaengland.org or email [email protected]

UKMT INTERMEDIATE MATHS CHALLENGE 2015 Year 11 pupils at Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School achieved 10 Golds, 17 Silvers and 19 Bronzes in this year’s UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge. Over 200,000 pupils from across the UK sat the Challenge, with roughly the top 6% receiving a Gold certificate, the next 13% Silver and the next 21% Bronze. The percentages for BRGS were 18% Gold, 31% Silver and 35% Bronze. Two pupils – Thomas Chesworth and Aimie Foster - were invited to sit a further round called the Pink Kangaroo, which is a multiplechoice Europe-wide challenge. These two

pupils were the Best in School, with Thomas leading the way. Maths teacher Mr Wilbraham, who organises the Challenge, said: “The pupils showed a fantastic attitude to this challenge and all tried their best to achieve a Gold certificate. The idea behind the challenge is to test mathematical thinking and application, rather than to tackle the style of questions found in text books and on GCSE examinations. The pupils are required to think about their answers rather than just guess and our results show how mathematically able BRGS pupils are, as 84% received a certificate compared to 40% nationally.” A sample question from this year’s Intermediate Maths Challenge is: Three different positive integers have a mean of 7. What is the largest possible integer that could be one of them? A: 15

B: 16 D: 18

C: 17 E: 19

Regional Final of the UKMT Maths Challenge Four pupils from Years 8 & 9 represented BRGS at a Regional Final of the UKMT (United Kingdom Mathematics Trust) Team Challenge competition at Manchester Grammar School on Tuesday 21st April. The pupils – Eva Quigley and Michael Tomkinson (both Year 8), Joseph Coong and Faizah Hanif (Year 9) were chosen by their Maths teachers after producing excellent work throughout this year. They continued this in the competition where they were up against 29 other schools from the Lancashire and Manchester region. After four rounds of solving challenging Maths puzzles and problems covering a variety of topics, the pupils finished in 12th place out of 30 teams, which was an excellent achievement. Manchester Grammar School won the event, with Altrincham Girls’ Grammar the runners-up. Maths teacher Mr Wilbraham, who accompanied the team to the Regional Final, said: “The pupils put up a really good performance on the day and did themselves proud. A teacher from Manchester Grammar School was with them throughout the competition and commented on how well they had worked together and how pleasant and co-operative they were. The team found the Shuttle round the toughest challenge, but that is generally considered the hardest by all competitors.

It involves using an answer from one question in the next question, which means an early mistake affects all subsequent answers. However, we all enjoyed the day out and will repeat it next year with four more pupils from Years 8 and 9.” The BRGS team are pictured with their certificates and here are two of the warm-up questions the pupils were given when they arrived at the event, ‘to get their brains working’.

Question 1 Three positive numbers have a product of 240. What is the smallest sum they could have? Question 2 My children’s ages are in the ratio 4 : 5 : 6. In 6 years’ time, they will be in the ratio 6 : 7 : 8. How old are they each now? Contact Mr Wilbraham ([email protected]) if you want to know the answers.

Year 13 Leavers' Day Year 13 enjoyed their last day at BRGS on the 12th May 2015. The day culminated with the traditional fancy dress parade in the school hall, with DJ Tony Edwards leading the singing of New York, New York! as well as another old favourite Take That's Never Forget and the classic Conga. We wish them every success in their A levels and beyond. Keep in touch with BRGS!

DON’T MISS OUR SIXTH FORM ART EXHIBITION – ALL WELCOME!

Have a great May half term! See you back at school on Monday 1st June 2015 read on for “Parent’s Guide to Instagram”

A Parent's Guide to

© 2014 ConnectSafely.org

Top 5 Questions Parents Have About Instagram 1. Why do kids love Instagram? Because they love media, sharing it and socializing with it on their phones, and Instagram makes all that doable in a simple, eye-catching way. Teens like taking, cropping, enhancing, sharing and commenting on photos and videos. But the commenting isn't just commenting – in effect, they're socializing in mixed-media conversations that include plenty of likes and links too. 2. Does Instagram have a minimum age? Yes, it's 13, in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. But Instagram doesn’t ask users to specify their age, and there are many younger children who use the service, often with their parents’ permission. Whether Instagram is “safe” depends more on how it’s used than on the age of the user, but Instagram will delete underage accounts if they’re notified and can verify the users are under 13. 3. What are the risks in using Instagram? Though there's nothing inherently dangerous about Instagram, the main things parents worry about are typical of all social media: mean behavior among peers and inappropriate photos or videos that can hurt a child’s reputation or attract the wrong kind of attention. Parents are also concerned that people their kids don't know can reach out to them directly. Kids can learn to manage these risks, which is why we wrote this guide. 4. What's the best way to help kids stay safe on Instagram? As with all social media, being respectful of ourselves and others makes us safer. Our posts and comments reflect on us and others in our photos and videos. Whether serious or silly, they become part of our public image. Respecting others in how media is shared, tagged and commented on reduces risk. While most kids are smart about this, it doesn't hurt for parents to be sure kids aren't posting provocative images or having inappropriate interactions with people they don't know, which leads to the next question... 5. Should my child's profile be private? For many kids, part of the fun of Instagram is developing a big following – a good thing for parents and kids to talk about. Having a public account on Instagram means anyone can follow you. A private account means that you have to approve anyone who wants to follow you, so many parents have their kids start using Instagram with a private account. But there's no guarantee your child won't be seen on Instagram or any other photo-sharing service, because people post photos of each other. Even not having an Instagram account can’t ensure a child won't appear in a photo there. How positive or negative a young person's experience is on Instagram or anywhere online depends as much on the person and his or her friends as on the app.

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Instagram is a simple photo- and video-sharing app with a huge and growing following, especially among young people. Like everybody, kids use it to capture special moments, but also to carry on conversations in a fun way – using photos, filters, comments, captions, emoticons, hashtags and links elsewhere to talk about things and share interests. It runs on the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch as well as Android phones. Using Instagram is easy: You take a picture or up to 15 seconds of video and customize your media with filters and other enhancement tools. You add a caption and, for video, choose a cover frame to represent it. Then you hit Next (Android users, tap the green arrow) and choose how you want to share – just to your Instagram followers or outside the app, via email, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media services. Basically, there are three ways to share on Instagram: privately, publicly and directly. With Instagram Direct, you have the option to share a particular photo privately to a limited number of people (15 max), whether or not you follow them or they follow you.

Instagram lets you shoot video or still images. If your kids are using Instagram, the best way for you to learn about how it works is to ask them how. Kids are often glad to teach their parents about their favorite tech tools, and asking them about Instagram is not only a great way to learn about the app itself but also about how your children interact with their friends in social media. That's very individual, which is why we suggest you ask them about it, but if you want a little general information about using and staying safe in Instagram, here goes:

Responsible sharing •

You control your privacy. By default, photos and videos you share in Instagram can be seen by anyone (unless you share them directly) but you can easily make your account private so you get to approve anyone who wants to follow you. To do that, tap Profile on the bottom right, then Edit Your Profile next to your profile picture. Scroll down to see if “Posts Are Private" is turned on or off. If turned off, you can make your photos private by toggling the switch to on. (Android users, tap Profile and Edit Your Profile. Be sure “Posts are Private” is checked.) [If you update or reinstall the app, make sure your settings are still the way you want them.]

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Instagram Direct is automatically private. Anyone, including people you don’t follow, can send you an image or video that only you and up

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to 14 other people can see or comment on. If you follow that person, the image will be sent to your Direct folder. If you don’t follow the person, it'll arrive in a Request folder, and that person’s Instagrams will keep going to your Requests folder until you approve that person. If you choose to ignore the person, he or she won't be able to send you an Instagram unless you go back and change that setting later. •

Privacy can't be perfect. Even if your posts are private, your profile is public (anyone can see your profile photo, username and bio). You can add up to 10 lines of text about yourself, so parents and kids may want to talk about what's appropriate to say on their bio screens.

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Respect other people’s privacy. If someone else is in a photo you post, make sure that person's OK with your sharing or tagging them in it.

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Your posts have impact. Think about how media you post affects others – whether they're in there or not. Sometimes it’s the friends not in the photo or video who can be hurt, because they were excluded.

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Think about your location-sharing. The “Add to Photo Map” feature gives you the option of adding a location to a photo. It's turned off by default, but it’s “sticky” – so, once turned on, it stays on until you turn it off. You can always turn it back on but, for each posting you share, think about whether you really want people to know where it was snapped or recorded.

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Sharing beyond Instagram. By default, you're sharing your media only on Instagram but you have the option to share more widely by clicking on "Email," "Facebook," "Twitter," etc., then Share. If you do share elsewhere, be aware of the privacy settings on that service. For example, unless your profile's private, Twitter shares to everyone by default. Facebook, by default, will share media posted from Instagram to friends only. But after you share on Facebook, you can change that setting in Facebook by selecting it and changing the audience.

How you represent yourself •

Your media represents you. That probably seems obvious, but remember it can keep on representing you well into the future, because content posted online or with phones is pretty impossible to take back. So it's a good idea to think about how what you post now

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will reflect on you down the line. If you think it might hurt a job prospect, damage a relationship or upset your grandmother, consider not sharing it. •

Manage your visibility. The photos you’re tagged in (videos can’t be tagged) appear in the "Photos of You" section of your profile (for now, Photos of You is only available for the iPhone and Android apps). They can be visible to anyone unless your account's private. Others can tag you in photos they post but, if you don't like the way you're shown, you can hide a photo from your profile or untag yourself (it'll still be visible on Instagram but not associated with your username and not in your profile). If you don't want photos to appear in Photos of You automatically, you can prevent that by turning off "Add Automatically" – just tap Profile , then the Photos of You tab and the gear button and choose "Add Manually." (Android users, tap the Photos of You tab , then the three small squares .)

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Consider the whole image. What’s in the background of a photo or video could indicate where it was taken or what the people in it were doing at the time. Is that information you want to convey?

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Your media could show up anywhere. Instagram videos can be embedded in any website, and it’s important to remember that anything digital can be copied and shared by others. So even if you limit the audience, be careful not to share anything that could be a problem if someone were to pass it around.

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Use a strong password, and don’t share it. This gives you some control over how you're represented in social media because other people won't be able to use your password to impersonate you. Also use different passwords for different services (for advice on passwords visit passwords.connectsafely.org).

What to do if you're being harassed •

You can untag yourself. Only the person who posts can tag people in the post, but – if that person's profile is public – anyone tagged by the poster can untag themselves. You can untag yourself by tapping on your username in a post, but only if the post is public or if you follow the person who tagged you.

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Block someone if necessary. If someone's harassing you, such as repeatedly tagging you in photos you don't like or sending you a lot of direct messages or trying to engage you in a creepy conversation, you can block them so they can't tag you, contact you directly or mention you in comments. They also won't be able to see your profile or search for your account. To block a user, go to his or her profile and select the Menu button on the top right side, then select Block User. (Android users, go to the profile you want to block and tap the three small squares . Select Block User.)

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You can delete your posts. If you ever want to delete one of your own pictures or videos, just click on the three dots in the lower right corner under it (see screenshot) and select Delete. That menu also lets you share or email your post. But if you’re sharing media on Facebook, Twitter or other services, deleting from Instagram doesn’t delete them elsewhere.

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Be picky about who you share with. Instead of sharing a photo with all your followers, you can select who can see it. Click on the Instagram Direct icon in the top right corner and choose who to share it with (up to 15 people).

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Flag problematic posts. You can report other people’s inappropriate photos, videos or comments – or users who violate Instagram's community guidelines. Just click on the dots at the bottom of the screen below the post, then on Report Inappropriate. If it's urgent, email Instagram from the Help Center. You can find the Help Center by tapping Profile , then the gear button . (Android users, tap Profile , then the three small squares .) That takes you to a screen where you can click Support.

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Ignore messages in your "Request" list. When photos or videos are sent to you, only those of people you follow go to your Direct folder. Photos from anyone else go into your Requests folder. So if you don't want to receive an Instagram from anyone you don't know, ignore any images in your Request folder. If you ignore them for two weeks, the content will just go away. If you want to see images only from people you know, limit who you follow.

A few closing thoughts for parents Young people communicate and socialize in all kinds of digital media tools and services, from apps to videogame chat to texting on phones. Instagram is one of thousands of social media apps for smartphones. But it might help

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to know that all this is just an extension of their "real world" social lives, giving them new chances to hang out with their friends during in-between moments – from waiting for a ride to catching up between classes. As socializing gets more mobile, no single service, app or tool covers all digital social activities or even a single category, but research shows that socializing face-to-face is still the main event to teens. But you could talk with your kids about the wisdom of keeping their Instagram experience anchored in their offline life and friendships. Remember that your kids can be on Instagram even if they're not on Instagram. Sounds unlikely, but not in social media. Even if a parent bans all social media, his or her child's photo and other information can be posted by friends via their accounts. And there's a risk of social marginalization for kids who are not allowed to socialize in this way that's now so embedded in their social lives. Wise use tends to be better than no use. There are many options for digital socializing, with new ones popping up on different platforms all the time. Some do a better job of protecting privacy and safety than others, and parents can't possibly be on top of all of them. We also can't always understand the context of photos, videos and comments our kids are part of in social media. That's why it’s important to keep the lines of communication with your kids as open as possible and work together to figure out what's appropriate for them, in terms of safety, privacy, reputation and time management. It generally just works better to talk with our kids about their favorite tools – with genuine interest, not fear – because they're more likely to come to you if they ever need help.

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