BOROUGHBRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL

Half Term Newsletter February 2014

Young Chef Competition

The District Final of this year's Young Chef Competition, sponsored by Knaresborough Rotary Club, was held at Betty's Cookery School on 4th February 2014. A big congratulations goes to Aimee O'Connell (Year 9) who came in 1st place against some stiff competition. This was stage 3 of the competition and Aimee will now progress to the next stage which will be in Derbyshire at the end of March. She won a gift bag, certificate and a trophy! Betty’s were so impressed with Aimee that they have offered her work experience.

The National School’s Equestrian Association was set up to allow active horse riders from different schools, colleges and club to come together and compete. Boroughbridge High School has an established equestrian team set up by Miss Riesen last year and now organised by a Year 10 student, Beth Grant, with help from staff and parents. The school decided to set up the team because many of our students have an interest in the sport.

Last year, in our very first competition at Bishop Burton, we managed to win the team’s 80cm class and get a 6th individual by Beth. This year we hope to build on our good start with many new members joining from Years 7 to 11. As Ms Riesen is away, Beth Grant, with help from her mother and another parent, Shirley, are taking on the challenge of the team. Very soon we will be holding a training session for our members to be ready in time for many events in the future.

Beth Grant 10R

Performing Arts News...

Help needed!!

As a school, we are a late entry into this year’s Global Rock in York at the Barbi-can. Around 45 students have currently shown an interest in taking part. Any parental support in terms of funding costumes, sponsoring students, helping them fundraise or making set and props would be much appreciated! Please contact Sonja on smorgan@boroughbridgehigh.com if you can help in any way. Thank you.

Some Boroughbridge High School students, hoping to be examined in GCSE dance next year, took part in a dance workshop run by the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. Eleven students were 'spotted' and have been invited to attend open days at the school, with potential to audition with Yorkshire Young Dancers. An excellent opportunity for the girls!

Boroughbridge High School presents Annie, a timeless story with classic characters and unforgettable songs.

Rehearsals for this ultimate feel good musical are now well under way. The cast is made up of pupils from

Years 7 through to 12 allowing a range of ages to come together. The talented Molly Brown (Year 8) plays An-

nie, she draws you in from the start and highlights the importance of keeping faith. Jack Priestley (Year 10)

takes on the profound millionaire Daddy Warbucks and his lovely personal assistant is played by Ellie Dickson

(Year 11). Con artists Rooster (Gawain Romyn, Year 10), Lily (Gina Gill, Year 11) and the wicked Miss

Hannigan (Caitlin Brown, Year 10) hatch a plot to kidnap Annie but don’t fret, the classic family musical has a

happy ending for Annie, Warbucks and the whole team. Set in New York City around Christmas 1933, the show

mixes fictional characters like Annie and Warbucks with real-life historical figures like President Franklin Delano

Roosevelt. The musical features classic tunes including "Tomorrow," "It's a Hard Knock Life" and "Easy Street."

Annie is the perfect Broadway musical for the whole family.

Show nights are from Tuesday 1st – Thursday 3rd April with a 7pm start. Tickets are available now from recep-

tion or please call 01423 323540. Adults £5, Children £3.

Performing Arts News cont/d...

Yearr 9 Performing Arts Careers Evening: Thursday 6th March at 7pm in the Performing Arts Studio

The term 'transferable skills' is much used in industry but what does it actually mean in today's world? On the 6th March, a variety of invited speakers, ranging from a Police Constable to an entrepreneur will share their thoughts about how the Performing Arts can be invaluable in our ever changing society. Those students, who have expressed an interest in taking an arts sub-ject at GCSE, will be invited with parents/carers to attend this thought provoking evening. Alongside the guest speakers there will be an opportunity to witness performance work under-taken by students in Year 10 (Drama, Music and Dance) including a group who have recently performed their Theatre in education play at Manchester Children's Hospital. Year 9 art work will also be on display throughout the evening. Following refreshments, there will be an oppor-tunity for the students to take part in a typical GCSE Drama or Music lesson highlighting the vast range of professional and personal skills that are valued by so many employers.

If you are interested in taking part in this evening then please contact a member of Performing Arts or Angie Rainbow (employer liaison) since this is a ticket only event.

Performing Arts Week: 3rd - 7th March

Our annual event will include a variety of activities taking place over the lunchtimes of this fun- packed week. Those who have never quite made it to the variety of clubs that take place every lunchtime are invited to come and test the waters! Make new friends, learn new skills and have a productive lunchtime! The week also includes the A'level Theatre Practical examinations and the Year 9 Performing Arts Careers Evening.

Year 10 Theatre in Education Performances Wed 19th March at 7pm in the Performing Arts

Studio.

This term, the Year 10 GCSE Drama group have been devising their own Theatre in Education plays and workshops for a variety of audiences and venues. Inspired by 'Fagin's Boys' by Leeds Theatre in Education group, the GCSE group have created challenging and thought pro-voking work. This term they will be performing in a variety of venues including Manchester Chil-dren's hospital and local primary schools. Please contact a member of the Drama Department if you would like to attend since this event is ticket only.

Ghost Town Review By Year 11 GCSE Drama Students

On 12th February, Year 11 GCSE drama students and A’Level theatre studies students went to see a

play called ‘Ghost Town’ at the York Theatre Royal.

The story unfolded as a body of a young teenage girl was found on a beach by a teenage boy called Joe. We soon discovered that Joe had many difficulties within his life and had to battle to fight his demons. His conscience or darkness was represented in physical form. This charac-ter comforted and, at times, mentally tortured Joe with the guilt of imagination expressing the death of Joe’s loved ones. By doing this she was gaining control of his mental state. However she also tried to comfort him with a siren like call. The music underscored the play effectively. Overall we enjoyed the play as it had various plot twists to keep the audience captured.

Music Department Update

March is a relatively quiet time of year for the music department in terms of the number of engagements

but it more than makes up for that with noise levels! Three major projects occur in the Spring term this

year, two are regular annual events and the third is new.

February the 12th saw the 6th annual battle of the bands, The AMP Awards, take place at Harrogate Royal

Hall. The AMP Awards is a business, music and photographic competi-

tion for 9 schools in and around the Harrogate area all competing

within various aspects of the categories. Boroughbridge is a school that

prides itself in punching well above its weight when it comes to com-

peting against the Harrogate schools and this year’s entrants were no

exception. With the band, Weekend Offender, and the business team, Overdrive, we were set for our date

with destiny.

During the day of the 12th, the business team were busy organising their responsibility for the final. This

year it was VIP hospitality and they had chosen the theme of Alice in Wonderland. This required decorat-

ing aspects of the Royal Hall and themselves as if it was Wonderland. Alongside this they had to present

to a panel of judges, discussing their ideas and progress over the course of the project, in which they had

been helped by their mentor, Lucinda Bishop of Livius Events. The team received a special commendation,

from not only the business judges but also the band judges, for their impressive work. Then came the

music, and roared on by 800 screaming fans, the bands took to the stage. Weekend Offender, still

dressed as characters from Alice in Wonderland wowed the crowds with their excellent rhythms, scream-

ing guitar riffs and great vocals. Unfortunately they just missed out on a top three place as the competi-

tion this year was of an extremely high quality. That said, as an enterprise this year, it has been the

school’s most successful, with the team raising over £800, most of which will go directly to the charity

Pump Aid, which helps to provide clean water to villages in Malawi.

Finally, if the build up to the school tour of Croatia wasn’t enough, we will be taking part in musical

events to celebrate the start of the Tour de France. The Music Department will be participating in an ex-

citing Arts project as part of the Tour de France Cultural Festival. The project is open to all primary, sec-

ondary and special schools across North Yorkshire and will culminate in a digital exhibition of children

and young people’s art work and a Really Big Sing at the Open Air Theatre, Scarborough. The art work will

focus on new, vibrant, exciting photographic/digital work and the Really Big Sing will include up to eight

songs to perform (2 primary / 2 secondary / 4 all together) accompanied by a schools rock band. Two

songs have been especially commissioned for the event written by Alan Simmons and Jan Holdstock; the

Tour de France song will also be included. All of the songs in which secondary schools will be involved

include baritone parts so that older male students whose voices have broken can take part.

The exhibition of children and young people’s art work and the Really Big Sing will take place at Scar-

borough Open Air Theatre on Tuesday 24th June 2014.

Challenge Day Adventures

Students have been involved in a range of exciting activities since the start of the school year:- November saw Year 8 venture to the Royal Armouries in Leeds, where they learnt all about

the Civil War and how warfare has developed over the centuries. The Sixth form, meanwhile, were given an important lesson in the responsibilities that go with learning to drive, when the emergency services came in to discuss keeping safe when behind the wheel, as part of their Drive Alive programme. Year 9 were put on high alert when they took part in a drama simula-tion dealing with a deadly virus sweeping across Europe; through this they learnt how the Eu-ropean Union could react to a crisis situation, by working together. Year 11 were challenged to learn a new skill, which saw them take part in activities as diverse as Ginger Bread House construction to outdoor survival skills.

In January as part of their financial wellbeing education, Upper School were introduced to the

real costs involved in living independently and budgeting, a shock for some indeed! Year 7 reviewed their first term as high school students and how they can best help and advise their replacements in September.

March will see our next Challenge Day and, as always, it will be no less busy. Year 7 will em-

bark on their annual charity challenge, raising funds for a range of local charities. The compe-tition is on after last year’s group raised over £1000 for good causes. The school will also be welcoming Baroness Harris of Richmond who has kindly agreed to come and discuss her work in the House of Lords with the students.

GCSE Geography Fieldwork: Ripon

Two rather wet and cold days saw the Year 10 Geographers visiting Ripon to study the variations in housing quality through the city. Despite the harsh conditions the students managed to collect a lot of valuable data which they will use to complete a trial enquiry.

This is a very important exercise as during May we shall all be heading into the Yorkshire Dales to collect data to examine the impacts of tourism. This will then be used to complete their Controlled Assessment which will account for 25% of their final GCSE grade. The sharp ones amongst you will probably have no-

ticed that the photo was taken on a previous year…the

camera stayed firmly in my pocket this year (and cer-

tainly no one was working in a t-shirt!). Let’s hope for

better weather in the summer!

Visit to Cern: June 2014

A group of 20 Year 11, 12 and 13 students, accompanied by Mr List and Mrs Greenwood,

will be travelling to Switzerland in June this year to visit Geneva and CERN, the home of

the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC is currently the world’s largest particle acceler-

ator, consisting of a 27km ring of superconducting magnets, 100m underground, which

accelerate streams of protons to near the speed of light. It was used to discover the

Higgs boson, a fundamental particle nicknamed the ‘God particle’ in 2012. This discovery was crucial to support the cur-

rent understanding of particle physics, known as the Standard Model. Scientists at CERN, the European Organization for

Nuclear Research, study the tiniest particles in the universe to try to learn more about how the universe works.

The group will have a 3-hour guided tour of the facility, including visits to experimental areas. We will also explore CERN’s

own permanent exhibitions, Universe of Particles and Microcosm. We will be staying at the Geneva Youth Hostel. The trip

meal will be at a local restaurant to enjoy a traditional Swiss fondue accompanied by music from an oompah band. We will

have some time to explore Geneva before finishing the trip with a boat cruise on Lake Geneva and the chance to see Jet

d’Eau, one of the city’s most famous landmarks and one of the tallest fountains in the world.

Reading Takes Centre Stage at Boroughbridge High School

January 20th – 24th saw students and staff at Boroughbridge High School taking part in this year’s Reading Week (aka

Book Fest). It kicked off with a visit from writer Daniel Ingram- Brown (The Firebird Chronicles) who ran workshops all day for Year 7 and 8 students. This involved creating a fantasy island by re-cycling bits of old rubbish, designing weird and won-derful characters as well as inventing original plot lines. Later, students transformed their ideas into exciting stories.

“We all thought that our two favourite parts were building the island and creating characters for our story. Buckets of fun. Ten out of ten for

the whole experience!” Kalysta Neal Year 7 “This workshop was really good because it helped us with creative writing.” Elizabeth Chester Year 7

Year 9 students were able to take part in a Q&A session with Daniel. This was a fabulous opportunity for them to gain insight into how he develops new ideas for his novels. Throughout the week, everyone had to keep a book by their side at all times as they were asked to Drop Everything And Read (DEAR). Whatever the lesson, students ditched the essay writing, algebra, test tubes and paints and jumped into their books for 20 minutes each day. Some students were pleased to find they had finished several books by the end of that one week. Students were also rewarded for getting caught with their nose in a book at break and lunchtimes. Lurking around every corner and corridor that week were our resident super heroes ensuring all reading was duly noted and praised. Book Fest seemed the perfect opportunity to reveal the pictures and winners of the Boroughbridge High School Extreme Reading Competition. Congratulations go to Nellie Trott (first prize), Ben Rutter, Joel Porter and Niamh Dennett for their pictures of themselves reading in strange places. Other successful events included lunchtime showings of films based on books, a book quiz, the book swap, staff Shelfies and the launch of Boroughbridge High School’s Book Club. The week culminated in students and staff dressing up as their favourite book characters. There were some great costumes and the winners Jack Priestly, Sam Nicholls and Alex Nelson were awarded prizes for their efforts. Students and staff look forward to doing it all again next year!

HMS Heroes Group goes from strength to strength!

It has been lovely to see the profile of Service children raised over the last year through the formation of our HMS Heroes group, a pupil voice group set up for students who have a parent who currently serves or has previously served with the Armed Forces. More students are coming forward and a real sense of pride and identity is developing for them as a group. A bright new notice board has been cre-ated in the library to keep our Heroes up to date and ideas are flooding in as the students decide what they want on their board. Aimee Walker and Abby Heath also continued to raise the group’s profile by holding an assembly for their fellow Year 7’s to explain the role that HMS Heroes has in school and the benefits that they gain from being part of it. Annabel Hall, the Service Pupils’ Champion from Ripon, made a special effort to bring with the new HMS Heroes Standard (flag) for the assembly too. It has been a busy start to the year for our Service children. Three representatives of our HMS Heroes group were joined by other Service children from the Ripon area and attended a meeting at Linton on Ouse Primary School. For Aimee Walker Year 7, Chris Renwick Year 8 and Dannii Crombie Year 9 it was a great opportunity to support younger children whose parents are in the Armed Forces as well as discussing future events and opportunities. Back at school a cake sale was held at the beginning of February to raise money for wounded Ser-vicemen and women via the Help for Heroes charity. Pin badges and wrist bands were also enthusi-astically sold in form time by other Heroes. This was a fantastic opportunity for our HMS Heroes to see the support from other members of the school community for a charity that is close to their hearts. Due to our involvement with HMS Heroes, both in North Yorkshire and nationally, another charity, Reading Force has been on the lips of our Service children too. Reading Force have offered to pro-vide every Service child a free book to encourage them to read more. Much head scratching and de-liberation has taken place as the book order deadline neared but we are delighted to get confirmation that there is indeed enough funding left to ensure each service child at Boroughbridge High School will get their free book after Easter!

Mrs Langford Service Children Coordinator & HMS Heroes Leader

Boroughbridge High School Soup Run

Students in Year 10 BTEC Workskills Group made their annual delivery of homemade seasonal soup & bread to the elderly on Springfield Road, Ladywell Road and Gwendolyn Court.

These were very gratefully received and students have received letters of thanks from some of the residents!

Putting the STEAM into STEM

Aims: Extending STEM activities to include cross curricular projects and Year’s 7-13

STEM is STEAMing ahead at Boroughbridge High School! It is offering unrivalled opportunities for our students to become involved in exciting projects linked to Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and now we are includ-ing the Arts!! So - how do the Arts become part of STEM and turn it in to STEAM? To inform the public of important science discoveries in new and interesting ways requires an input from a wide range of disciplines. When we were invited to make a short film for the European Antibiotic Awareness Day by Professor Kerr, a group of Year 8 students quickly agreed that they wanted to use contemporary dance! So we needed dancers, make-up artists, costume designers, camera operators and video editors, not to mention scientific advisors! Following on from the last year’s Royal Society Exhibition in London was never going to be easy, but our involvement in this has led to lots of new and exciting opportunities! As you can imagine, it has been quite hectic behind the scenes in science this year. There has been a hint of celebrity status for our Royal Society team! There was an article published in the Royal College of Pathologists journal (a definite high point for the team), a further request from the Biology editor of the school science magazine ‘Catalyst’ – but a very different style required for this - not a quick task. The invitation to visit Ox-ford University to see the laboratory where Alexander Fleming worked on Penicillin has still to be finalised for the later this year. The Chemistry department at York University are analysing our oils and telling us what each oil is made up from. Students who exhibited in London last July adopted the name of antimicrobial agents. These students are now in Years 11 and 13 studying hard for their exams. However, three new agents in Years 10 and 13 have been recruited: Rachel Gilby, Georgina Armitage and Bethany Grant and they are continuing the research in the laboratory by investigating 3 different essential oils after school on Thursday evenings. The history of medicine became centre stage when Ampleforth Abbey sent us a pdf copy of a medical book dating back to 1550; only 5 copies of the book exist. We were invited to visit the Monastery to learn of their role. Friar Prior gave us a tour and explained how a modern day monastery works. At the visitors centre we learned of the history of Benedictine monks. A key aspect of this role was medicine, before all the monasteries were destroyed!

What is happening now? Mr Inglis: various projects involving Microbiology and Anti-microbial agents with Years 10-13 Mrs Greenwood: Lego club: computer programed robots and rollercoasters!! Years 7-9 So – what next?

Going Global - Mrs Mahan is helping bring an international perspective starting in September, by setting up European links for student to share their work. It is hoped our scientists will also be keen to share their work.

Discussions are ongoing with a Consultant oncologist from Sheffield University who is interested to see if our essential oils might slow the growth of cancer cells. Dr Young has already been helping sixth formers with written coursework projects on the subject of cancer. A parent has volunteered their services as a forensic chemist to help us.

Leeds University have also asked if we would be interested in a being involved in a Royal Society school partnership grant project with them, no details as yet.

Plans are being made for a STEM club to allow students to conduct their own investigations, as individuals or teams for fun or to enter competitions like the BIG Bang. This is an extension to the already excellent work being done in sci-ence.

And finally …. an after school Junior Café Scientifique completes the plans for next year. This will give pupils the chance to listen to guest speakers covering a wide range of scientific and technological topics.

.Sporting News January 2014

Boy of the Term: Harry Bennett Girl of the Term: Anna Capps

Date Year

Group Sport

Competition /

Opposition Score Details / Player of the Match

21/1 10 Netball Outwood Ripon Lost 2-5 Beth Grant

21/1 7 Netball Outwood Ripon Won 9-2 Alice Hogg

21/1 8 V’s 10 Netball Outwood Ripon Lost 4-6 Anna Capps

23/1 8 Basketball Thirsk Lost 2-26

Pts scorer-Miles Clifford

P.O.M Luke Duncan

28/1 7 V’s 8 Netball Outwood Ripon Lost 3-10 Jenna Flintoff

28/1 8 Netball Outwood Ripon Won 6-4 Katy Allen

28/1 8 A & B Football T’ment @ QE

B V’s QE= 0-0

A V’s York HS= 0-0

A V’s QE= 1-0

B V’s Huntington= 0-2

B v’s St Aidans= 0-2

A V’s Huntington= 0-0

A V’s B= 1-0

B V’s York HS= 0-3

A V’s St Aidans= 0-1

Boroughbridge A= 3rd

Boroughbridge B= 6th

Date Year

Group Sport

Competition /

Opposition Score Details / Player of the Match

11/2 7/8 Netball V’s Ashville College Lost 4-23 Anna Capps

13/2 7/8 Rugby V’S Thirsk Lost 20-32

Scorers– N Farmer

J Brady

P.O.M Henry Fletcher

13/2 6th B’ball V’s Thirsk Lost 20-32 P.O.M– Ciaran Blondrage

13/2 10 A & B Football T’ment @ QE

A V’s York HS=

1-1

B V’s QE= 4-2

A V’s B= 2-1

A V’s QE= 3-1

B V’s York HS= 0

-3

Scorer– Joe Dorkings

Scorers– Jacvk Issac & Kieran Holmes

Scorers– Jack Issac (B) James Webster

& Joe Dorkings (A)

Scorers– Joe Dorkings x 3

P.O.M= Joe Dorkings

Jack Issac

.Sporting News February 2014