BATLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL Grammar School is currently trialling a home learning project system at Key Stage 3, ... Cardio-respiratory, Dual energy x-ray ... (School Sports Games

BATLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL & PRIESTLEY HOUSE

Spring 2017 Newsletter

Gym and Dance Show

Wednesday 5 April saw the fifth

annual Gym and Dance show

take place. This year we were

proud to represent gymnastics

and dance routines from

Priestley House, Secondary

Phase and our special guests

this year Panache. Panache are

an externa l gymnast ics

company who use our sports

facilities to run their gymnastics

club on a weekly basis. All

gymnast wowed the audience

with their amazing gymnastic

skills in the first half of the

show. The dance section of the

show represented many dance

s t y l e s t h i s y ea r f r om

contemporary to street dance, Bollywood to Irish dancing. The night was very much a pupil lead

occasion as all dances and gymnastics routines where choreographed by the students themselves, which

demonstrates their enthusiasm to be part of extracurricular activities at the school. The night was also

enhanced by pupils from Year 11 comparing the show and being responsible for the lighting and music.

On behalf of the PE department many thanks to all pupils who participated, Panache for being special

guests and above all the parents for their support on the night.

NEWSLETTER SPRING TERM 2017 PAGE 2

Home Learning Showcase Batley Grammar School is currently trialling a home learning project system at Key Stage 3, where each subject

across the school replaces all of their usual homeworks for a half term with a single home learning project. These

substantial projects are crafted to boost particular areas of student skill, knowledge and understanding, and to

engage closely with our whole-school concerns, such as careers and growth mindset. They challenge students to

work to the very best of their capability, deepen their understanding, consolidate their classwork, and prepare

them for learning to come.

The first subjects to trial home learning projects in the autumn term were English (research journal), Food

Technology (‘Fabulous Feasting’), Geography (volcanoes), ICT (emerging and future technologies) and Religious

Studies (identity collage).

On the penultimate afternoon before the Christmas holidays, a joint home learning project showcase and staff

bake-off was held, where students and staff alike celebrated the excellent work produced by students in their

home learning projects so far. Departmental staff and students were available to talk about their experiences of

the home learning project system in order for staff delivering projects in the spring term to learn more about how

to get the very best out of this way of working. Cake was enjoyed by all as we learned!

Many thanks from Dr

Banham, coordinator of

the home learning

project strategy, to all of

the students who kindly

gave up their time to

help this event be so

e n j o y a b l e a n d

informative, and to the

members of staff who

contributed to making

the event such a positive

note upon which to end

the year!

World Book Day with a Difference World Book Day with a difference – bedtime

stories and Batley Grammar Primary Phase!

Pupils and staff in the primary phase of Batley

Grammar School did not come to school today

dressed as their favourite book character as

many might have expected. Instead they came

to school in their pyjamas! Batman pyjamas,

giraffe onesies, stripy pyjamas, spotty

pyjamas. What else would you wear for your

bed time story! They curled up under quilts,

blankets and in sleeping bags, in the dark,

with torches turned on and listened to their

favourite stories.


Year 6 Science Heart Dissection

On Tuesday 31 January, Year 6 were invited by

Mr Hughes to come and see a heart dissection.

It was very interesting and everyone

thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mr Hughes showed us a couple of the valves

and even let a few people touch it! At first,

everyone thought it was a bit gruesome but in

the end it turned out to not be as bad as they

thought it would be.

We learned what a heartbeat sounded like (lub

-dub) and even used stethoscopes to test it.

When we got back to class, our teacher asked

us to write an explanation text about how the

heart works and everybody worked very hard

on it. Everyone’s explanation texts were very

detailed and their labelled diagrams looked

incredible.

The whole of Year 6 would like to say thank

you to Mr Hughes and that we all loved this

once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was brilliant!

Engineering Day In March, to celebrate Science Week and Careers Week, Year 8 spent the day exploring the career opportunities

offered by Civil Engineering. Students took part in a number of activities where they played the part of different

roles in a civil engineering company. This day was set within the context of needing build a temporary bridge to

help a local community after serious flooding.

The students had to design, cost and build the bridge. This was tested to its limits, and considering that the

bridges were made with only paper and a simple fastener, the winning bridge was able to hold 7 Kg on a span of

0.75m


Solving a Real Life Murder Mystery On Monday 6 February, 12 Batley Grammar School students attended a

History and careers based workshop organised by the York University

Excellence Hub. The Universities of York, Leeds and Sheffield host a range of

courses throughout the academic year, facilitated by educators and

supported by students at each university. These events combine various

subject skills with careers experience and a look at university life.

Students were given a range of sources and tasked with prosecuting either

Richard III or Henry VII for the murder of the boys back in the late 1400s.

They had to collect evidence, discuss findings with their group and form an

argument to give to a court room hearing later in the day. Students from

Sheffield University supported them and the work they did was really superb.

The second part of the day focused on careers and skills. One session gave

students an insight into a career as a lawyer and they role-played some

court room etiquette…they would need this later in the trial they staged. The

second session was run very ably by some second year medical students

who gave students some extra information on the dating of bones, fatal/non

-fatal injuries to skeletons and DNA profiling. All of these pieces of

information would be vital in helping the teams unpick the mystery of the

Princes in the Tower.

After lunch the groups had a final twenty minutes to prepare their cases and decide who would present them

before the trial began. Two groups sat in the courtroom and presented their prosecution against Richard III and

Henry VII while the other two groups went for a tour of the university to find out about student life at Sheffield.

Mr Linkins was fortunate enough to act as a judge for the hearing during the final part of the day. All 4 groups

presented their cases most ably, drawing on what they had learnt in the law presentation. BGS students formed the

core of several teams and even teamed up with other students to present their case which showed great team

work and curiosity. Overall Henry VII was condemned and the group led by our very own Jak Spencer and Emanuel

Soimaru were considered to have presented the best case.

Very well done to all involved!


Careers in Sport Fifteen Year 11 GCSE PE students

were involved in a fantastic day at

Leeds Beckett University for the

Careers in Sport Live Roadshow.

Students had the opportunity to

listen to inspiring keynote

speeches from the likes of

Heather Fell (Olympic silver

medallist in Modern Pentathlon)

and Phil Wright (Primal Academy –

Succeeding in the Fitness

Industry). There were also a

number of presentations by

members of the different sporting

industries such as Bobby Madley

(Premier League referee) as well

as a talk from Harvey Grout (CIS) about the different options career options in the sports industry.

Whilst at the University, students participated in a Sports Science tour of the campus. This included the

opportunity to see, first hand, the number of different laboratories that the University has to offer as well as

listening to talks and being involved in practical sessions in Physiology, Biochemistry, Nutrition, Biomechanics,

Environmental chamber, Cardio-respiratory, Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scanner and the AlterG anti-

gravity treadmill.

A number of the students also took up the opportunity to be involved in coaching sessions from a range of elite

level coaches from Bradford Bulls and Leeds Force Basketball as well as experiencing new initiatives likely to hit

the sporting world such as Powerhoop and Boogie Bounce.

Maths Feast On 15 March a team of four students

represented Batley Grammar School in

the 2017, Year 10, Maths Feast Quiz,

run by the Further Maths Support

Programme. 16 teams took part, from

schools across the Bradford and

Kirklees areas. Emma Mosley, Lorcan

Nicholls, Emanuel Soimaru and Jak

Spencer represented the school with

zest and determination. The

competition consisted of five rounds

involv ing; Logical Reasoning,

Countdown, Comprehension, Problem

Solving and a Relay Round. Against

stern opposition, our students came

first in the Logical Reasoning round.

This is a real achievement, of which

the team should be really proud.


Young Sports Leaders

The Year 9 Young Sports Leaders have

been assisting (on 3 separate occasions)

in the running of the Primary and

Disability Sports Hall Athletics over the

last 5 weeks.

Firstly they were chosen, on the basis of

their commitment and enthusiasm in PE

lessons, to represent Batley Grammar

School. They had also been identified and

requested by Mick Troop (School Sports

Games Organiser) to help run the Sport

Hall Athletics due to our previous

excellent reputation of Young Leaders at

the school.

From the onset they showed excellent maturity and leadership skills in dealing with both adults and children. They

were highly praised by Mick Troop for their effort and commitment over the last few weeks and without their help

the Sports Hall Athletics would not have taken place. The girls have gained so many different skills and

experiences from leading these games and these will serve them well for future college/sixth form applications.

We were very impressed with their efforts and could not thank them enough for representing our school to a very

high standard. Well done again!

Balanceability On Thursday 19 January, we had great fun

in Year 1 and Year 2 classes learning how

to ride a balance bike with the

Balanceability programme.

Balanceability utilises balance bikes in

order to teach children the fundamentals

of balance, core stability, gross and fine

motor skills and the essential confidence

to ride a bicycle. The children rode around

the Sports Hall, improving their balance!

Great fun was had by all!

Festival of Science

As part of British Science Week the BGS Science

department ran a trip to the Festival of Science, University

of Leeds, on Monday March 27th. 30 year 10 students

participated in a Biological Sciences day. Students had the

opportunity to experience life on the University campus

for a day of practical Biological Sciences, getting hands-

on with sophisticated DNA technology, and learning

about dimorphism in flowers. More information can be

found at www.leeds.ac.uk/festivalofscience.


Year 10 Religious Studies Candle Conference On 21 March thirteen members of the

two Year 10 GCSE Religious Studies

groups a t tended a s tudent

conference, ‘Christianity and

Conflict’, at St George’s Church in

central Leeds.

Hosted by renowned philosopher and

theologian Dr Peter Vardy, the aim of

the conference was to equip higher

ability students to reach the upper

levels of performance on the new 9-1

GCSE specifications, and to prepare

them for A-level study.

Exploring issues such as ‘Who Was

Jesus?’, ‘The Sanctity of Life’ and ‘A

Just War?’, within the conference was

embedded intensive expert preparation for answering the new-format GCSE exam questions.

All of the students in attendance really benefitted from the day, enriching their knowledge and gaining key advice

about how to apply it to maximum effect in an exam context.

Learning Together Workshop The Reception class took part in a family workshop,

trying out different ways to practise their writing.

19 of our parents/carers came along to join in

painting, gluing, writing and drawing with their

children. We hope they enjoyed themselves as much

as the children clearly did!

BGS retains its Careers Quality Standard Award Following a recent inspection of the Careers provision in school, the assessor was full of

praise commenting: “In the light of all the evidence presented, I have no hesitation in

recommending that Batley Grammar School is awarded the C&K Careers Quality Standard

(Nationally validated by the Quality in Careers Standard)….. Excellent practice continues

to exist in terms of CEIAG provision at Batley Grammar School and the school has

demonstrated that it is committed to continuous improvement…. I wish to commend the

group of students I met who were a credit to the school”.


Hi5 Netball Success

On Tuesday 28 March, children from the

Primary Phase, went to represent the

school at Newsome High School, Kirklees

Hi5 Final.

We were victorious in the Batley Schools

and St John Fishers’ rounds; winning

both tournaments.

In the Kirklees Final, we won five games

and lost two, which were to the schools

who gained 1st and 2nd places.

We earned a trophy and gold medals by

winning the St John Fishers’ Tournament

and bronze medals from the Kirklees

Final. We worked well as a team in all the

matches and enjoyed the tournaments.

Hi5 Netball Team

Fundraising

Batley Big Sing On Wednesday 15 March, pupils from Year2 to

6 took part in the Batley Big Sing held in the

Graves Hall. We sang several songs with over

100 children from local schools and also

performed ‘Over the Rainbow’ on the

boomwhackers. Well done to all the children

who took part.

£778.77 £178.16


Year 2 Football Skills Event

On Wednesday afternoon, the Year 2

class and pupils from 8 local schools

took part in a skills session on the

back field. The activities were led by

coaches from Premier Coaching. The

pupils all had a fantastic time and

learnt some new footballing skills.

They practised passing the ball,

dribbling, goal-keeping and even

played some 5-a-side matches.

Primary Phase Bake Off On Monday 3 April, the primary phase took

part in their own Easter-themed Bake Off

organised by Head Girl, Jenna Husain. There

was a fantastic array of large and small cakes

which were admired, tasted and judged by

Mrs Tullie, Mr Hartley, Jenna, William (head

Boy) and Hannah (school councillor). They

had some really difficult decisions to make!

Well done to all our winners and thank you

for taking part. We raised an amazing

£159.45 selling the cakes afterwards which

will be shared equally between a charity and

developing projects in school. Thank you for

your support. Well done to our winners:

Aadam Mulla; Sam Hunter; Hannah Baporia.


Year 11 Cathedrals Visit In April, Year 11 full course Religious

Studies students visited Liverpool’s

Anglican and Roman Catholic Cathedrals.

The visit was arranged to benefit

students’ work in the second of their two

GCSE RS units, Religious Expression in

Society, where students consider religious

architecture, art, literature, media and

music. The students, the largest group

ever taken on this annual trip, spent an

hour at each of the venues, each

remarkable and unique in their design.

Winmarleigh Hall

The STEM faculty took 28 Year 8 and 9

students on an educational visit to

Winmarleigh Hall on the weekend of Friday

31 March to Monday 3 April. The visit was

designed to allow students to see

Mathematics and Science being applied

outside the classroom as well as including

activities to improve their team building

skills. The trip was a huge success with

lots of complicated STEM activities and

skills being undertaken by everyone.

Students managed to improve their ability

to problem solve as well as use data

collected from the Giant Swing to produce

graphs in a computer based lesson.

Whilst abseiling, they discovered how to

work out the height of the tower they had

just absei led down by using

measurements taken on site and applying

Trigonometry; another new skill.

Evening activities included building team

robots where students enjoyed a ‘Robot

Wars’ style battle at the end resulting in a

lot of mess and the hard built robots

suffering a soggy death! Although cold

and tired by the end of the weekend, all

students were fully engaged in the

activities and learnt a lot about

themselves; particularly in terms of their

tolerance for heights. Winmarleigh Hall

staff were impressed with the behaviour of

Batley Grammar School students and have

invited us to return again next year.


BGS congratulated by Minister of State for School Standards

Batley Grammar School congratulated by Minister of State for School Standards as being amongst the top state-

funded schools in England for a very high standard of entry in the English Baccalaureate in 2016.

BGS retains Highest Rating for Food Hygiene

We are delighted to announce, in partnership with our catering

providers ABsolutely Catering, that we have once again retained our

Food Hygiene Rating of 5 (very good), this is the highest rating

possible.

Visit the Catering page on the school website,

www.batleygrammar.co.uk, for details of the menu options currently

available in the Dining Room.


BATLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL & PRIESTLEY HOUSE

Carlinghow Hill, Batley, WF17 0AD - (01924) 474980

www.batleygrammar.co.uk - [email protected]

Executive Principal: Mrs B P Tullie MA

Head of School: Mr G C Kibble BA - Chair of Governors: Mr A Hartley BSc

Dates to Remember

Monday 24 April

First day of Summer Term

Wednesday 26 April

Year 6 Robinwood Trip

Departs

Thursday 27 April

Junior Maths Challenge

Monday 1 May

School closed - May Day

Bank Holiday

Monday 8 May

Year 6 SATs begin

Monday 15 May

GCSE Exams begin

Friday 26 May

School closed - INSET day

Monday 28 May - Friday 2

June

Spring Bank Half Term

Monday 5 June

First day of Summer Term 2

Thursday 8 June

Year 7 and 8 trip to

Manchester

Documents

BATLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL Grammar School is currently trialling a home learning project system at Key Stage 3, ... Cardio-respiratory, Dual energy x-ray ... (School Sports Games