UoB School Community Newsletter: Autumn 2018
A very warm welcome to our autumn community newsletter. As this is the first newsletter of the 2018–19 academic year, we’re treating you to a bumper edition!
Black History Month
To mark the start of Black History Month, which takes place every October, year 10 pupils delivered a live steel pan and samba performance at the University of Birmingham. Music Subject Leader Ms. Argyropulo-Palmer was certainly impressed:
“The pupils were absolutely fantastic, and were brilliant ambassadors for the school.”
Pupils from years 7 to 9 spent a day with members of the Windrush generation, as part of the Celebrating Intergenerational Connections event at the Afro Caribbean Millenium Centre on Dudley Road.
Our pupils and community elders were joined by Dr. Melrose Stewart, a lecturer at University of Birmingham, vice president of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and one of the driving forces behind heart-warming Channel 4 programme Old People’s Home for Four Year Olds.
Pupils shared stories, experiences and perspectives with community elders in what was a truly inspiring day for all involved.
Other highlights from Black History Month included students entering the University of Birmingham BAME poetry competition, year 8s watching Hidden Figures — a biographical film about black female NASA scientists during the Space Race — and year 7s watching the recent Dr. Who episode featuring Rosa Parkes.
Sixth form students to be mentored by professionals from Lloyds Bank and the University of Birmingham
A group of sixth form students have started working with professional mentors, as part of the One Million Mentors programme.
Fourteen students have been matched with mentors from Lloyds Banking Group and the University of Birmingham. Through monthly meetings, students and their mentors will work on developing a range of personal and professional skills, helping them to prepare for their future careers.
Mitch, a mentor from Lloyds Bank, reflected on the value of mentoring in his own experience:
“I, myself, have benefited from some excellent mentors both in the workplace and in my personal life. Being a mentee was a great experience, and I learnt a lot about myself and building trusting relationship as well as building confidence in my own ability. The support and development gave me real focus in my career aspirations and personal goals and if I can have a similar impact with my mentee, then I will achieve my goal.”
Let’s hope our sixth form students can reap these benefits too!
UoB School plays key role in Department of Education’s “renewed commitment to character education”
On 11th September, the school welcomed civil servants who were visiting as part of a fact-finding mission for the Department of Education (DfE). We had the opportunity to showcase our approach to character education, and how this might be taught to enhance moral, civic and intellectual virtues — alongside overall wellbeing.
Head of School Rebecca Tigue then visited the DfE in early October for a roundtable discussion on how the government can integrate character education into a wider policy framework.
The Education Secretary, Damian Hinds MP, recently spoke of a “renewed commitment to character education” and a draft policy is expected in January.
Author Caroline Lawrence shares her top tips with UoB School’s young writers
Year 7 and 8 had the pleasure of hearing Roman Mysteries author Caroline Lawrence speak when she visited the school on 1st October. She told them about the seven ‘plot beats’ that enable anyone to write a great story — by demonstrating this with favourites such as Disney/Pixar, Harry Potter and Star Wars, she had everyone gripped.
Caroline’s book Escape from Rome was given to all year 7s at induction day and many wanted to meet her, so we held two special ‘lunch with the author’ sessions in the library, where she spent time with our young writers and readers from all year groups. In the afternoon, a group of year 8s enjoyed a story writing workshop with Caroline — the concentration and focus of those involved was fantastic.
It was an inspiring and memorable day for everyone involved.
UoB School Sports Personality Awards 2018
On 2nd October, we held our very own Sports Personality Awards in order to celebrate our pupils’ sporting achievements over the last academic year.
Our guest speaker was Team GB Transplant Cyclist Gavin Giles.
Over 100 pupils and approximately 200 guests were in attendance. Alongside the awards and keynote speech, the audience was treated to a fantastic performance from the school dance squad and orchestra.
Food for the evening was kindly provided by GCSE food tech students and year 8 PLAD groups.
Year 9 Skills Show
On 15th November, the whole of year 9 went to the NEC for World Skills UK LIVE, which is a partnership between business, education and government to broaden young people’s perspectives when it comes to career choices.
A range of stalls were available for our year 9s to visit — construction, catering, health and beauty, forensics, jewellery making and much more. One student made a bird box during the event; many were able to test out the latest Virtual Reality technology; while some pupils were lucky enough to watch divers from the armed forces play noughts and crosses in a huge water tank!
YoungBlood Brass Band visit UoB School
It’s not every day an internationally touring jazz band stops by at a school to deliver a workshop — but that’s precisely what happened on Tuesday 11th September.
GCSE musicians, year 7 pupils and the school orchestra were firstly treated to a performance from YoungBlood Brass Band — who are from Michigan, USA and were in Birmingham as part of a tour. They spoke to pupils about their music, did a workshop with the school orchestra and then everyone performed their piece ‘Brooklyn’.
Single By Sunday perform and talk cyber-bullying
Pop punk-rock band Single By Sunday visited the school in September. The four members — who hail from Glasgow and a few years ago were called ‘Scotland’s best unsigned band’ — did a live performance for years 7 and 8.
They also spoke about cyber-bullying, offering their advice and perspectives to pupils around this issue.
UoB School Rugby Festival 2018
Pupils in year 7–10 took part in the school’s rugby festival, held on 12th October. Full contact, touch rugby and rugby-netball were the varieties of the sport on offer; they competed in round-robin style tournaments throughout the day.
Teal was the overall winner on the day — well done to all involved!
Bud’s Run: School raises money to fight Parkinson’s Disease
With support from the University of Birmingham Athletics Club and Hannah England, the whole school took part in Bud’s Run on 19th October.
Participants completed a loop of either 1km or 2.5km — in the process raising £211.63 for charities who support people with Parkinson’s Disease.
Duke of Edinburgh Training Day
To prepare for their Bronze Award, year 9 pupils took part in a Duke of Edinburgh training day at school. Accompanied by a member of staff, groups of pupils practised their map reading skills, pitched tents and even made hot chocolate on portable gas cookers.
Young Samurai author Chris Bradford talks to pupils about ‘method-writing’
A group of Year 7s and 8s enjoyed a talk with author Chris Bradford yesterday in a trip to King Edward VI Camp Hill Boys.
Chris believes in ‘method-writing’ in order to make his books believable and has learned various martial arts, done bodyguard training and learned how to use a samurai sword — all of which featured in his action packed talk. The tone was set when the librarian introducing him was dramatically bundled off stage to the sound of a klaxon!
Chris went on to talk about his books and taught the audience the basics of body guarding and surveillance in an interactive presentation. Everyone had a chance to meet him afterwards and get a book or postcard signed.
The pupils had a fantastic time:
“Funny and entertaining!”
“Really energetic and really fun”
“My favourite part was when he showed everybody the samurai sword.”
Chamber Concert
The first chamber concert of the year took place on Thursday 25th October. It saw twelve fantastic solo and duet performances from pupils in years 8–10, performing a wide variety of music from Einaudi to Bruno Mars.
The student performances were really well-received by the audience and students were a credit to the school and their teachers.
Digital artist John Sutcliffe delivers workshop with year 12 students
The Art department hosted digital artist John Sutcliff, resident artist at Dronfield Heritage Trust, in early November.
He taught artists in year 12 how to map projections on to different surfaces — making them able to work from their own films, photographs, GIFS or even able to interact with music and sounds such as clapping!
This collaboration was brought about by Carol Wild, a PhD student from Birmingham University who is researching artist-teacher, site specific practice.
Rush Hour Research @ UoB School
In partnership with the University of Birmingham School of Education, we’re hosting the Rush Hour Research series — an opportunity for teachers and other education professionals from across the city to attend talks by leading researchers and academics as part of their continued professional development.
On the 9th October we welcomed Dr. Claire Crawford, who delivered a talk on data and measuring pupil progress; and on 4th December, we’ll be welcoming Dr. Clara Jorgensen, who will be speaking on the issues of school spaces, inclusion and the experiences of SEN pupils.
Lloyds Bank executives impressed by Year 12 marketing presentations
On 22nd November, year 12 marketing enrichment students went to Birmingham Hippodrome to present their advertising campaigns to executives from Lloyds Banking Group.
The executives were certainly impressed, offering to purchase students’ idea concepts!
Year 7 Energy Quest
Our year 7s took part in Energy Quest, an interactive STEM workshop packed with hands-on activities, careers information and stories from real engineers working in energy.
Romeo and Juliet
On 21st November, year 10 watched a live broadcast of Romeo and Juliet, performed by the Royal Shakespeare Society.
Assembly highlights
We’ve been fortunate enough to welcome some fantastic speakers to our assemblies over the Autumn term. Preet Gill, MP for Edgbaston, spoke to year 10 pupils as well as sixth form students about her experiences in politics and community development.
Handelsbanken, a prosecuting lawyer, a leading estate agent and the Social Mobility Foundation were among our other assembly speakers; offering several distinct perspectives on potential career paths for students.
Thank you for reading —our next newsletter will be released at the end of term.
