UoBSchool Community Newsletter January 2018
A warm welcome to everyone for our first Community Newsletter of 2018! We invite you to have a read and get an insight into what goes on in our School community. If you’ve got anything you’d like to see in future newsletters, please do get in touch via our website. As always, you can catch the latest news on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.
Language Leaders
Our Language Leaders have been doing some incredible work, designing excellent revision resources and conducting 10 minute takeovers at the beginning of language lessons. We’re so impressed with the leadership qualities and confidence our pupils are showing in sharing their passion for languages. They’ve also been keeping the ‘mot du jour’ board up to date every day with a different French or German word. Bon travail!
Margam 2018
Our annual geography field trip took place at the beginning of this year, with our Sixth Form geographers making their way to Margam. One of our students said:
“It was a great experience! Highlights included exploring the beaches, which were amazing, and getting to see wild deer in their natural habitat. It was an incredible experience, especially coming from Birmingham where the only wild thing you see is a bird or feral cat!”
A Level Winter Show
If you’re looking for something to do during half-term or the weekend, why not head to Winterbourne House and Gardens where our talented A Level artists currently have an exhibition in the Coach House. The show is on every day until 27th February, and entry is free for UoBS pupils. Don’t forget to sign the guest book during your visit!
Wingardium Leviosa!
The School library was once again transformed into Hogwarts for our third Harry Potter Book Night. With beautiful and (seemingly) dangerous magical potions made by our wizard-like technician team, pupils took part in a Fantastic Beasts themed quiz as well as trying Hogwarts specialities such as Butterbeer and edible worms. Congratulations to the winners of the House Cup for the second year running: Hufflepuff!
Pushing Horizons
January’s Horizons Series lectures included a talk on ‘Russian contemporary foreign policy’ from Derek Averre and ‘Why Shakespeare Still Matters’ from Dr Erin Sullivan from the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute.
We were also joined by Professor of Infectious Diseases Robin May for ‘a whistlestop tour of bugs, white blood cells, and the interesting things that live at the back of your throat’. One of our Sixth Form students even asked a question that generated some great discussion on Twitter amongst academics, resulting in an entire Twitter thread about pathogens and tardigrades (otherwise known as moss piglets)!
Physics Olympiad Success
Sixth Form students were awarded certificates for achievement in the Physics Olympiad competition — administered by the Oxford University — by Mr Roden. Congratulations to all students for this achievement.
Welcome to Twitter UoBS Techs!
A warm welcome to our School technicians who have just set up a new Twitter account! Follow them on @UoBSchool_Techs to see cool science experiments and watch this space for news of their new ‘Science Bites’ series.
Tech for Education
A special mention for the @UoBSchool PE department for their outstanding use of Instagram. Keen followers of this account will have noticed some fantastic gymnastics analysis, utilising photographs, annotation and video to enhance and develop pupils’ learning of gymnastics technique.
Physics Big Quiz
Our pupils competed against pupils from schools across Birmingham in the University of Birmingham’s ‘Physics Big Quiz’. Congratulations to a team of our students who came first in the wordsearch part of the quiz!
The Power of Words
We honoured Holocaust Memorial Day this year with a series of PLAD sessions exploring this year’s HMT theme ‘The Power of Words’. The week culminated in Year 9 joining pupils from across the world to watch a webcast of Janine Webber who shared her remarkable story of survival as a Jewish child in Poland during the Holocaust.
Brew Monday
Over 20 UoBS staff got together over a cup of tea and three types of chocolate brownie to mark ‘Brew Monday’, an initiative from The Samaritans to turn ‘the most difficult day of the year’ on its head by renaming the third Monday in January ‘Brew Monday’. We joined thousands of people across the UK getting together over a brew, and raising awareness of the importance of listening and sharing about mental health. For more information on The Samaritans, visit their website.
A window to the world
New curtains aren’t usually a cause for excitement… unless the curtains are of maps of the world! Miss Till’s classroom now has these movable maps, showing both the Mercator projection and the Peters projection of our planet!
Continuous Professional Development
Some highlights from our staff CPD activities from January:
- Our maths department attended the Mixed Attainment Mathematics conference, hearing lots of interesting views about the benefits of mixed attainment teaching.
- We had a great meeting of academics from the University of Birmingham and UoBS teachers, continuing to build on our relationship with the University and create deeper subject-specific links.
- Staff explored how mental health affects young people in schools.
Women in Tech
We were lucky to have Stemettes’ CEO Anne-Marie Imafidon visit us and share her journey with Sixth Form students. Anne-Marie was the youngest girl ever to pass A Level Computing at the age of 11, and was just 20 years old when she received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford. Any young women interested in a future in STEM can find out more and get involved here.
Young People Making Their Mark
Year 9 guest pupil M. Waleed Khan is standing in the UK Youth Parliament elections, aiming to represent young people in Birmingham, and be a voice for young people wanting to make a difference in the world. He shared his special story with communities across Birmingham, and has fantastic support shown by our own pupils, as well as pupils at Turves Green Girls and Boys School. We’re all incredibly proud and inspired by the courage and dedication to making a difference in the world Waleed is showing, and we wish him the best of luck in the UK Youth Parliament elections! Watch this video of Waleed’s campaign made by Year 13 UoBS student and filmmaker Will Terry-Wright.
Sporting Successes
Our pupils’ sporting year started off with a whole host of sporting achievements. Here are some highlights:
- UoBeasts have been rising to the top again in Sports Hall Athletics, with Year 7 and 8 boys and Year 8 girls winning their tournaments, and Year 7 girls coming in at 2nd place.
- Our Year 8 girls’ netball team enjoyed a win over Shenley Academy, with close defeats for the Year 7 and 9 teams.
- Our girls’ cricket teams have gotten off to a flying start this year, beating Moseley in both Under 13s and Under 15s matches.
- The boys haven’t been too far behind, with the Year 8 boys’ cricket team enjoying a comfortable victory against Holte School, and Year 7 and 9 teams winning against Bishop Challoner and Year 9 winning against Moseley School.
- Our para-cricket team also enjoyed a successful first tournament against other South Birmingham schools in January.
- Our Year 9 girls’ Handball team came 3rd place in the Birmingham Schools Games Handball Tournament.
Enrichment highlights
What’s Inside: The ‘What’s Inside’ enrichment took a break from taking apart lawnmowers and toasters, and undertook a spell in a biology lab, where they modelled the inside of the digestive system.
Stan’s Cafe: Theatre company Stan’s Cafe took pupils on an ‘Eye of the Poet walk’ where they explored the colour and texture of the city streets.
NDCS Roadshow
We welcomed the National Deaf Children’s Society Roadshow to our school, where pupils got to explore issues around deaf awareness and how we can work together to close the communication gap between deaf and hearing pupils. The assembly and visit was very helpful in enabling our pupils to learn how to show more kindness and compassion amongst all of their peers.
Curriculum Look
Religious Studies: Year 9 applied ‘Just War’ theory to Syrian air strikes recently, discussing principles like “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and transitions of power post war (jus post bellum).
Biology: Pupils have been investigating gravitropism in Year 8 biology lessons.
Languages: Year 9 have shown great commitment and progress through learning from mistakes and improving their writing by redrafting.
And finally…
After 36 years of teaching, and after four years leading the University of Birmingham School, Mr Roden has announced his decision to retire at the end of the current academic year. We’ll be wishing him a happy retirement when the time comes and we hope you will join us in this.
We’re now looking to find the right person to lead our School forward during a period of exciting growth, before we reach full capacity in 2019/20. If you know someone who might be right for the role please join us in spreading the word about this unique opportunity, ahead of the application deadline on 5th March 2018.
That’s all from us for now.
Have a wonderful half-term everyone!
The University of Birmingham School
