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