Enjoy Respect achieve

Parent Newsletter

Inside this issue: June 2017

Headlines 1

Sporting Update 2

Sporting Records 3

STEM Update 3

Children’s Uni-

versity

4

3M Innovators

Challenge

Finals

5

‘HEADLINES’

OMG, three weeks and counting down now before the end of term and still so much to do!!

Although the delay getting into the new school building has been disappointing, we are optimistic that we

will shortly be able to commence fitting out the school in good time for September. In the interim though

it is a huge relief that the new road layout has finally been completed. There continue to be many areas

where the infrastructure around the school could be better, with no pedestrian crossings for example on

the Nine Mile Road Extension and I urge you to flood your local elected members with your dissatisfaction

on any such matters, to add weight to our own. Unfortunately the school is only seen as a single voice, so

the more commentators the better.

Focusing back on activity within school though, the last few weeks have produced some great successes,

with possibly the highlight being the Graduation event of our students from the Children’s University,

hosted in the Great Hall at Reading University. The significance of this for me is that graduation was

earned on commitment and hard work and was a recognition of the students who have thrown them-

selves entirely into the range of extra-curricular activities we provide outside of school hours. This com-

pletely encapsulates the spirit advocated by Bohunt. Indeed the engagement in ECA’s has been fantastic

throughout the year, and with new staff adding more diversity to this for next year, I am sure that both

year groups will be torn over what activities each day to pursue in September.

At the start of June, I was delighted to welcome Parent’s to this term’s Parent Forum. Turn-out was high

and it was great to see so many of our recent joiner Parents there as well. The main theme of conversation

revolved around the school curriculum and GCSE Options process for next year and some excellent sugges-

tions came forwards that we will be using to make that process as effective as possible. Although the Fo-

rum is not a decision making body, it is an important opportunity for Parents to voice their views and ideas

and I hope we will see more of you in the new school year.

Speaking of feedback we will be conducting a parental survey before the end of the year, on a number of

aspects we are really keen to hear your views on. Details will follow by Schoolcomms in the next fortnight.

In the meantime if you wish to feedback on the school using Ofsted’s ParentView questionnaire, then

please follow the link below https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/login?destination=give-your-views . You will

need to register to participate but it is a useful piece of information for us as a school to reflect back on as

an ongoing barometer check of parental perception of the school. We hope for positive comments of

course but if there is anything that you feel you rate the school less highly on, I hope you would be able to

feed those points back to us as well.

There is too much going on for me to cover in this edition, so I hope to see you at one of the upcoming

events in the last few weeks of term: Sports Day 10th July, New School Preview Day Tue 11th July, School

Production – 18th July, ERA assembly 21st July.

Ben Godber.

Autumn Term

1 September – 21 December Half term w/b 23 October (Term will start for both year 7 and 8 on Tuesday 5 September at 8.40am)

Spring Term

8 January – 29 March Half term w/b 12 February

Summer Term

16 April – 27 July (NB - attendance in the week beginning 23 July only applies to Summer Camp students. For all oth-ers school will end at 12.55pm on Friday 20 July) Half term w/b 28 May

INSET dates: Friday 1 September, Monday 4 September, 22 September + 2 others dates to be confirmed

Page 2 Enjoy Respect achieve

Athletics

Through the month of June, 30 students have represented Bohunt at the RSAA games. The competition has run afterschool on Tuesdays for Girls and Thursdays for Boys. Over the 4 weeks we have faced 20 schools from across Berkshire including Queen Annes, Reading Blue Coat, Reading Grammar and Kendrick. From the 27 teams competing, Bohunt was the only Year 7 team, with the other 26 schools mixing a few year 7s into their year 8 sides. In the High jump Ellie Holdstock, Lauren Wellstead and Joseph Smith were the only year 7 students in the whole competition. In the final rankings our girls placed 14 and our boys 16th. In both cases this is a huge achievement given our stu-dents were competing against older, bigger and more experienced athletes. Special mention: Lauren Wellstead (High Jump), Joseph Smith (High Jump), Ifeadi Okongwu (Shot Putt), Ruby Har-ris (75m Hurdles) and Molly McKeever (Long Jump) have all been picked to represent Wokingham at the Berkshire County games on Thursday 29th June. We wish them luck. As our athletics season comes to a close our attention turns to Sports Day. The event will be held at Palmer Park on Monday 10th July, with parents and siblings welcome to join us as we cheer on the 5 houses as they compete for the coveted Sports Day cup. Records set by students this year in formal competition will be broken, and one house will emerge champion, holding bragging rights for the next 12 months.

Sporting Update

Page 3 Enjoy Respect achieve

Evendon’s STEM fair. Evendon’s Primary school run a yearly fair to encourage young peo-ple to follow STEM careers and companies such as 3M, Microsoft and Thames Valley Water run fun interactive stalls. Evendon’s con-tacted us and asked if we would run a stall and four of our students, Eryn McBrearty, Archie Smith, Toby McCormack and Andra Boicu, ran a stall which was based around creative problem solving using Lego Mindstorms. The stall was a huge success with many students and adults expressing how interesting and engaging it was. All four of our students represented the school beautifully, showing enthusi-asm, great communication skills and passion for STEM and their school. STEM and Humanities Day On the 8th of June we were very fortunate to have Oliver Par from REME Museum come in and help us run a STEM and Humanities Day. REME (the Royal Mechanical and Electrical Engineers) have a rich history with Aborfied, and in particular our site, so it was an honour for Oliver to help out by running an activity but also supply the school with historical resources. The day involved the students having a topical debate evaluating the use of nuclear weaponry, which encouraged listening, evalu-ating and communication skills. Students learnt about conflicts the British army had been involved in and were able to analyse and in-terpret primary evidence donated by REME Museum. The students completed a challenge where they had to design an unmanned vehicle which could move an object. This tested resili-ence (lots of it), team work and ability to think on their feet. The students did magnificently during this very difficult challenge, with the overall winners being the team of Jake Edwards, Millie D’Orgee and Jonathan Dunn. Oliver was very impressed with the students he worked with and he looks forward to some of the students being able to come and see the Museum in the near future.

Event Boy Time / Distance Girl Time / Distance

75m Jack Struthers 10.80 Bella Holman 11.26

150m Hugh Someya-Carr 21.59 Mollie Glenister 23.33

300m To be set on Sports Day

600m Javier Turner 1.55.40 Ciara Jolliffe 2.04.4

1000m Javier Turner 3.37.70 Kirsten Docherty 4.04.53

High Jump Joseph Smith 1.30m Lauren Wellstead 1.21m

Long Jump Oscar Scott 4.40m Molly McKeever 3.85m

Shot Putt Rhys Chapman 8.01m Ifeadi Okongwu 7.84m

Javelin Max Davies 19.85m Alice Routley 10.80m

Discus To be set on Sports Day

Sporting Records

Total focus from a student showing great

resilience designing an unmanned vehicle.

Page 4 Enjoy Respect achieve

Children’s University

Congratulations to the follow students who graduated from children’s University:

Jack Murray

Andra Boicu

Nicholas Robinson

Phoebe Joyce

Charlie Worsley

Alice Routley

Hamza Hussain

Katie Lebovitch

Sophie Hicks

Jake Warsap

Jessica McGladdery

Kirsten Docherty

Joseph Smith

Ben Rodhouse

Sophie Wotton

Katie Eaton

Malik Choudhry

Molly Froud

Ellie Frost

Isaac Keegan

Adrian Walsh

James Anderson

Rebecca Brown

Harrison Pratley

Ayden McCormack

Zachary Izzard

Lidwine Boutin

Ellie Holdstock

Taitam Callis

Emily Chandler

Amelia d'Orgee

Isi Snaith

Zoe Goodsell

Benjamin Symes

Arthur Chandler

Amelie Pignon

Charles Jackson

It was a wonderful evening with great speeches from three students who accumulated

an exceptional amount of hours. Students who attended described the event as…

“A great experience, the venue was very nice and I found the gowns very funny”.

Jack Murray.

“I thought that they children's university was a great experience for all of us. It was

great to know and have certificate proof of all the clubs that we/I have been to and

collected hours for our passports. I thought that having the event at Reading Univer-

sity because it made the event so much more special and memorable”.

Millie d’Orgee.

“I think that Childrens University was a great opportunity. I was amazed to think that

I could graduate at my age! It was a really rewarding experience and I think that it

will really benefit me in later life”.

Isi Snaith

“I think that children's university was a great idea because it gave us an idea for

what it is really like in a graduation. I would love to do it again”.

Ben Roadhouse

“It was a great way to explore new things and become more confident, it was also a

good way to get a real life experience of graduating at a university”.

Hamza Hussain

Page 5 Enjoy Respect achieve

3M Innovation Challenge

The Bohunt Robotics club were asked if they would like to take part in the 3M Innovators Challenge after doing so well in the First Lego League earlier on this year. Lots had been learned from the FLL and the whole club was up for another big event. The students divided themselves into two teams. The mighty Bobot’s and the awesome Brainiacs! The challenge was a tricky one. The teams had to design a piece of furniture that was made out of recycled or renewable materials. Research commenced, and all sorts of weird and wacky designs were highlighted and discussed. One of the biggest challenges the teams had, was finding the correct target market and a suitable need for their product. Creative designs began to develop, and all sorts of recycled material began to get experi-mented on. It was great to see a group of year seven pupils creating prototypes and working collabo-ratively. The next challenge that each team faced was a fast approaching deadline. They needed to organise themselves, but also have a chance at creating a innovative product. The solution came in the form of 2D Design, a useful CAD programme which would enable each team to visualise their ideas quick-ly. Although, this was a skill each team needed to learn about and this was also the first time they had experienced using it. It sparked their imaginations and two very different products were born. The Brainiacs created a sustainable baby chair and Bobots created a very innovative games tidy. The 3M judges liked both ideas, but they were really taken by the concept that Bobots had invented. So there I am, two weeks later, photocopying worksheets for my next lesson, when out of nowhere I receive an envelop with some certificates and a carefully folded letter. It read, “We would like to in-vite the Bobot team to the 3M Innovators Challenge final”. I must say that I couldn't help but jump in the air. Well done Bobots! The Final itself was a great opportunity for the team to explain their design to parents, politicians and a variety of people from industry. The Bobot team relished this opportunity to learn and practice their presentation skills. They all behaved impeccably and this was mentioned to me by different people at the company on a number of occasions. Both myself and Mr Thomas were very proud to see our students up on stage receiving their rewards as finalists. Both teams demonstrated an excellent growth mindset and even began talking about what they might do next year. Until next time, this is a very proud Mr Williams signing off.