U16 Girl's Football

Congratulations goes to the U16 Girl’s Football Team who beat St. Paul’s Academy 4-0 at a recent fixture at home. If any other Year 10 and Year 11 girl’s would like to join the team and play a few fixtures between now and the end of the year, then all you need to do is sign up on the Football board. A big well done to Laura Day, Nikki Lamboura, Ruby

Briant, Jade Stone, and Roxy.

The U14’s played The James Alleyn School in a friendly this week. Following their success in the Year 9 Ravensbourne tournament, they continued to play on form and were unlucky not to score more than the result could give them credit for. Well done to Kiera Hewitt-Brown for scoring the winner. The team consisted of Amy McKerrell, Hayley

Hawkins, Abi Sweetman, Vicky Pusey, Shanel Peat, Katie Green and Kiera Hewitt-Brown. The Year 8 team will play their Year group tournament on Tuesday 9th March.

Miss McSharry

Numeracy Week - 8th-12th February 2010 - Part 2

Friday 12th February - This was a big day because we hosted two events: A Puzzle Challenge Day for Year 7 developed by the Happy Puzzle Company and a roll of talks and workshops with Matt Parker.

Matt Parker is a secondary school Maths teacher but works for Queen Mary, University of London. His life goal is to make people more excited about Maths. The way he communicates Maths is very engaging and entertaining.

He spent a whole school day with us and delivered talks and workshops for around 300 of our students. Here’s the opinion of one:

‘

On Friday 12th February to celebrate the end of Maths week, many Year 9's took part in an intriguing Maths lecture to enable us to gain a better insight on how Maths effects every day life whether you think about it or not. Firstly we sat down in the main hall and the lecture told us about his ‘party trick’. The trick consisted of him knowing the probability of how many people would share a birthday and then working out how many people were actually literally at the party. After he said how you could bet money with someone as the probability was very high – he also mentioned how you’re more likely to die in the next few hours than you are to win the lottery!

Another thing he mentioned was the fact that Maths is always used in The Simpsons and Futurama, as the writers are Mathematicians and find it ‘humorous’ to include the ‘on-going jokes’. They have many qualifications such as PhD’s. The picture of the Klein’s bottle is a famous Maths shape which is one of the many jokes included in the cartoon show Futurama. Overall I felt it was a great way to gain a better understanding of Maths whilst making it fun and interesting for all, no matter what ability you are.’ Megan Powell, Year 9

More to come next week… ‘Maths in the Simpsons Talk by Matt Parker’

International Book Day is on 4th March and the Maths department suggests you read ‘The Universe and the Teacup’ by K.C. Cole. K.C. Cole demystifies Mathematics and explores its applications to our everyday lives, showing how Maths can simplify problems so we can understand and solve them... ‘Delightful…she has written a Science book which is aimed at non-scientists and which should help us all to cope with the barrage of numbers which confront us every day’ quoted Simon Singh, author of Fermat’s Last Theorem.

On this Day in History - 12th March 1930

Mohandas Gandhi begins a campaign of peaceful civil disobedience against British rule in India.

Known as 'Mahatma' (great soul), Gandhi was the leader of the Indian nationalist movement against British rule, and is widely considered the father of his country. His doctrine of non-violent protest to achieve political and social progress has been hugely influential.

Year 9 Football Team2

The Year 9 Football Team won the Ravensbourne Girl’s Football Tournament beating many schools in the borough such as Bishop Justus, Coopers, Charles Darwin and only losing to Bullers Wood! Bullers Wood lost their final game and drew in one other, to allow Hayes School to deservedly win the overall tournament. The girls did fantastic, and a huge congratulations goes to Daisy Stoneham, Charlotte Stevenson, Amy McKerrell, Vicky Pusey, Katie Green and Shanel Peat! Thank you and well done.

Miss McSharry

Ski Trip to Tignes

On Valentines Day we met at the school at 4 O’clock, so we were all half asleep when we said goodbye and set off on the coach to Tignes. There isn’t much to say about the journey, so I’ll skip straight to the day after, when we had all our gear on and were ready to ski.

We started skiing on the Monday and we learned fast. I had never been skiing before, but even the beginners group were skiing on blue runs by day two. The mountains were amazing. The feeling of standing at the top of a slope, seeing all the mountains around you is one that cannot be captured in a photo.

The next few days went past in a blur of skiing, relaxing in our ‘chillax’ room and, of course, falling over on the slopes. We learnt so much, it’s amazing that it was only a week. But on the other hand, it went so quickly. Before we knew it we were packed up and ready to go… and return to beautiful England where it was forecasted to be damp and cloudy, with a high possibility of rain and sleet.

On the way back, we were given a brilliant goodbye from Tignes, with the coach going past probably the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen, including a frozen waterfall.

I honestly recommend this trip, and if anyone has the time to go, I guarantee that they won’t regret it.

Daniel Thomas

LOVE2

Many of you will have seen the advertisements around the school for the ‘LOVE2 Festival’ and thought what is this all about???

Well, it was a chance for all the females in the school, who don’t usually take part in Sport, to come along and experience a range of activities totally free of charge. External Professional coach’s were brought in to deliver activities such as Dance, Cheerleading, Softball and Extreme Golf. These were themed as part of ‘The All American Dream’ - Sports that are untraditional to us UK natives. The 3 day festival was a great success and girls will be continuing their experience with opportunities such as FREE Golf Tuition with a Golf Pro at West Kent Golf Club for 10 weeks, where they will have the option of joining the club long term at a reduced rate. UNITY Dance group will also be continuing to work with our Dance department free of charge for the next 6 weeks.

I want to thank you all for coming along and supporting your peers and friends in trying a new sport, and also demonstrating that you care and ‘Love’ the healthy body that you have and will continue to improve it too.

Miss McSharry

Tesco's School Vouchers

We are collecting these again. Please can they be placed in the collection bin in the Study Centre. Last year we managed to buy 2 digital camera’s, keyboards and mice with the vouchers the school collected.

Mr Veldtman, Director of ICT

Sponsor Miss McSharry in the ADIDAS half Marathon on behalf of the MHF Charity

Miss McSharry is embarking on a challenge to run the ADIDAS half Marathon around the World Famous 'Silverstone Race Track’.

“I will be running to raise money for a fantastic charity called The Mental Health Foundation. Often Mental Health is something that we often find hard to talk about because some of the symptoms and effects are hard to diagnose. 1 in 4 of us every year will suffer from some kind of Mental Health issue. As a teacher, it also gives me great pleasure in seeing the monies raised, to help people with learning disabilities.” Charity Registration No. 801130.

The Mental Health Foundation is the UK's leading charity working in mental health and learning disabilities. With pioneering research and community projects it aims to improve the support available for people with mental health problems and people with learning disabilities.

If you would like to sponsor Miss McSharry, then you can by one of two ways: www.justgiving.com/Sinead-McSharry. Alternatively pop down and donate money at the PE department. Every little bit really does help.

Girls' Inter House

The Year 7 and Year 8 girl’s,experienced their first Inter-House Competition of the academic year, with the playoff’s and final’s being postponed until recent days due to the extreme weather conditions. Netball was the sport, a favourite of the school and a well represented sport of Girl’s PE.

Both year groups did fantastic, with many ‘Most Valuable Player’ votes going to girls’ who were not currently active in our extra-curricular programme. It was nice to see such a team spirit regardless of ability.

The final Winning results were:

Year 7: Walmer

Year 8: Bateman

Watch this space for the next Inter-house, shortly to follow. The next sport is an indoor sport called ‘Queen Ball’ otherwise known as 'Bench Ball' to some. A fantastic, fun game, that highlights team tactics and team ethos.

Please make sure all Houses have made Miss McSharry aware of their nominated ‘House Sports Captains’.

Trip to Madrid - 11th-14th February 2010

We arrived in Madrid at about 2 o’clock at the hotel, still half asleep, but there was no time for resting as we set off straight away to see the history of Madrid and the street performers, who were hilarious (at first) until they put a fake axe to Ellie’s throat OH NO! Amongst all the exciting things we did, we visited some amazing places including Toledo, The Plaza de Toros (bull ring) and many more traditional Spanish places. After enjoying a traditional Spanish lunch of tapas in Toledo (not including the 10 that snuck off to MacDonald’s) we were set a task to discover facts about Toledo, whilst everyone was looking at street signs, Jessica Hadjimina decided it was easier to ask the public.

Despite our initial lack of enthusiasm towards the educational activities, they were actually as fun as the ice skating, bowling and the theme park – where Mr Whittle went on a ride that was so fast his hair looked like Jedward’s. Some people even experienced their first time on a rollercoaster. Overall it was a SUPERDOOPER holiday and we thank the three teachers, Ms Knox, Mrs Vega Vergara and Mr Whittle for such an amazing time. Era Fantástico! Gracias. WOOO!!!!

By Ellie Steward 10CP and Ruby Briant 10DHH

MusicFest - 3rd March

Congratulations to all students who performed in the MusicFest last week. We had a splendid range of items including students’ own compositions, rock, classical, bands, solos, and small groups. There was a record number of Year 7s taking part and our first ever performance on the bagpipes!

Students who performed were: Jacob Hilton, Aidan Sealy, George Cowley, Harvey Husnu-Beresford, Matthew Flaherty, Jenny Igiri, Ruth Varney, Hannah Stanton, Alex Tildesley, Rebekah Lucking, Lizzy Bull, Emily Compton, Evie Matthews, Ellie Cook, Polly Sisley, Sharee Watson, Katherine Vennard, Will North, Jack Sumarno, Ella Cullinan, Henry Terry, Jack Tucker, Greg Manuel, Charlie Worman, Sydney Bissell, James Harper, Jordan Finlay, Scarlett White, George Byrne, Giorgio Tweneboa-Kodua, Dan Thomas, Terry Seares, Charlotte Carter, Florence Wickert, Sophie Jones, Olivia Harris, Charlotte Ferguson, Harry Benady-Shemilt, and Dan Mackintosh.

Year 11 Aiming High Evening - Tuesday 23rd March

Advance notice that at 6:30pm on Tuesday 23rd March we are holding our final Year 11 Aiming High Evening. This is a crucial evening where we will be issuing the exam timetable and showing parents how they can best support students in the remaining time before GCSEs begin in May. We will also be explaining how our revision timetable works (we do not do Study Leave in its traditional form) and demonstrating some on-line resources that we think are very useful. There will also be representatives from the English and Maths departments to discuss briefly how parents can support their children in preparing for these particular examinations. We anticipate the evening will last approximately 45minutes For the first time, we are suggesting that students accompany parents to this evening. Please make a note of this date in your diaries. We will issue more details closer to the date but we really would like to see all Year 11 parents in attendance.

Mr L Preston, Assistant Head