UoBSchool Community Newsletter: October 2017
The leaves are falling, the clocks have gone back, and all of a sudden, we have completed another month at UoBSchool! Here’s a round-up of last month’s highlights…
Bud’s Run 2017
Ready, set… go! We enjoyed our first college event of 2017/18 under a Sahara-dust covered sun at the brand new University of Birmingham athletics track. We had a great time racking up college points, and even got Mr Roden to run a lap… although we’re not sure which college he gave his points to! We also held a cake sale and raised money for Parkinson’s UK. Take a look at photos over on Facebook.
A big thank you to international athletes Hannah England, Luke Gunn, Freddie Owsley, Sarah MacDonald, Sara Treacy and Jonny Davies, and University of Birmingham Athletic Club committee members Ella Shirley, Tom Coe and Aedan O’Brien for helping us out and cheering our pupils on.
We were delighted to receive the following message from UoB Sports Coach Bud Baldaro:
“It was wonderful to see the energy and enthusiasm of your pupils. They were a credit to your school.” — Bud Baldaro
Biology Week 2017
We joined schools across the world to celebrate Biology Week 2017 with an exciting week of activities taking place.
We kicked the week off with a talk from Professor Jeremy Pritchard about evolution. In PLAD sessions, we got to take part in ‘What am I made of’ dissections, led by our Year 13 biologists, and took part in a ‘stick insects, snails and habitats’ workshop with Dr Hanson, our new enrichment officer. We also had biology quizzes in PLAD, and our annual Sixth Form biology quiz in the hall. In addition, we held a biology photography competition, with our art department as our esteemed judges.
The week culminated in a Biology Bake Off, with some of our pupils practising their creativity virtues to produce some beautiful, imaginative and wonderfully disgusting biology-inspired bakes.
Congratulations to:
- Simran as our Star Baker for her red velvet brain cake
- Pablo for best technical bake for his bread hands
- Hannah for best scientific bake with a superbly accurate cross-section of a cell
- Alvyn for the best moral bake with a cake to show smokers’ lungs.
Head to our Facebook page for more photos of the week!
Off to the Globe
Our English Literature Sixth Form students traveled down to London for an authentic Shakespearean experience on a trip to see King Lear at the Globe Theatre. Our groundlings enjoyed a fantastic performance, and even got to meet the cast of the show afterwards!
Congratulations to Student Guild Reps
We explored democracy in action last month, as we held elections for our Student Guild. Each candidate had to give a one-minute speech in a video-hustings, before all pupils and students in the School cast their votes. Congratulations to Mush, Idrees, Dan, Degarni, Xanthe, Layla, Xena, Mayah, Nikita, Faiz, Troy and Waleed who have been elected as our Student Guild reps for 2017/18.
Here’s a snapshot of the first Student Guild meeting from Year 7 Guild rep, Xena, who was also introduced to our Chair of Governors, Dr Chris Banks last week:
My experience at the Student Guild meeting was great. I met lots of new people at the meeting from different year groups (Years 7, 8, 9 and also students from Year 12 and 13). I think it’s a good idea for students to discuss what needs to be improved, as it’s important that we continue to improve as a School, which will help make our experiences greater. The meeting started off with an introduction of how the Guild has been set up and what will happen in the future. We then appointed a co-chair from the Sixth Form students.
We discussed the different areas of the School we want to help improve, for example, how we as a School community can get involved in raising money for different charities. We discussed the different charities that we would like to work with, for example, Cancer Research UK and Children in Need. We also talked about the successes we have had as a School, for example, of how the Bud’s Run that happened this past week has helped raise money for Parkinsons UK.I am very happy to be representing my School as part of the Student Guild and I look forward to helping the rest of the School in the future.
Over the Bridge with Willmott Dixon
Our Willmott Dixon ‘Build a Bridge’ challenge culminated in a real-life bridge building challenge, where 8G had to use STEM skills to construct a bridge outside school. Thanks to the Institute of Civil Engineers for bringing the bridge, and Willmott Dixon for their ongoing enrichment support as a Corporate Partner.
Launch of Character Education Report
As a school with character education at the heart of our ethos, we were delighted to host the launch of a new research report from the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues. The research involved three schools, including our own, and we were delighted to read that they ‘found that pupils at the two secondary schools displayed higher levels of moral reasoning, when compared with a national survey of more than 10,000 pupils in the Centre’s 2015 Character Education in UK Schools study’. Thank you to all families who enabled pupils to take part in this research.
Sharing experiences of teaching
Miss Exton took part in a panel discussion alongside national figures in teaching at the Early Career Teachers conference run by the Chartered College of Teaching in London. Chaired by Schools Week Editor, Laura McInerney, Miss Exton shared experiences of ‘surviving and thriving’ in the first few years of teaching with fellow early career teachers.
Restart a Heart Day
We took part in the national ‘Restart a Heart Day’ and welcomed representatives from the British Heart Foundation and the West Midlands Ambulance Service to school to train all of our Year 7 pupils in important CPR techniques.
The Story Spinner comes to town
Phil McDermot ‘The Story Spinner’ came back to visit us, this time enthralling Year 7 and 8 classes with his stories, and helping us to develop storytelling and oracy skills.
Linguists of the half-term
Congratulations to our ‘Linguists of the half-term’ for their consistent effort and excellence in language learning:
- Sharose, 9A
- Ibraima, 8G
- Sahara, 8S
- Liyah, 7A
Rush Hour Research
We’re fortunate to have brilliant links with the School of Education at the University of Birmingham, and as part of this, we host Rush Hour Research, a professional learning session for teachers from across the West Midlands. In our latest Rush Hour Research, we heard from Professor Angela Crease and Professor Adrian Blackledge about ‘Multilinguism in Everyday Practice’. You can listen to the latest podcast from Professor Creese to learn more about this topic. Our next Rush Hour Research event is on Tuesday 6 February 2018, with Professor David Gillborn, about ‘Race and Education’. Book tickets here.
Celebrating Black History Month 2017
We’ve been enjoying the wonderful curation of books in the library that celebrate and explore Black History Month 2017. We’re looking forward to delving into these and even more books over the course of the year.
Thank-you café
We had our first thank-you café of 2017/18 with Year 7 pupils cooking and serving a three course meal for their families and loved ones to show gratitude.
Send my friend to school
This term Miss Till is leading the ‘Send my friend to school’ enrichment, with pupils coming together to look at how they can promote the importance of education for children all around the world. It’s part of the nation-wide Send My Friend to School initiative, run by the Global Campaign for Education. The group are about to put on a series of assemblies, featuring an interview with Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala’s father.
Clued Up
A group of our pupils took a trip to King Edward VI Camp Hill to a talk with Robin Stevens, who is a well-known detective author. It was exciting to meet Robin and learn more about her journey of becoming a published author.
Sixth Form Open Evening
We’re opening our doors again next Thursday evening, to welcome prospective Sixth Form students to find out more about UoBSchool Sixth Form. If you have friends or family in Year 11, we’d appreciate your support in spreading the word! Prospective applicants can book their tickets here.
On the Horizon
Our Sixth Form students have been enjoying more lectures from academics from the University of Birmingham each Wednesday afternoon as part of the Horizons Series lectures. This month we’ve heard fantastic lectures from Professor Prem Kumar, Dr Clare Ray, Professor Gavin Schaffer, Professor Michael Tausz and Dr Shireen Kanji.
Invitation: Research into Social Inclusion, SEN and diversity
Julie Allan and Clara Joergensen, researchers from the University of Birmingham, are currently carrying out a research project at UoBSchool, looking at social inclusion, special educational needs and diversity. They are hoping that the project can help bring knowledge about how to foster inclusive practice in educational settings and benefit both the school and other schools in the community. As part of the project, they are looking for parents who would be happy to do an interview and share their experiences of having a child at the school. Interviews will last approximately 45 minutes and will be arranged to take place in a location that suits you. All data will be kept highly confidential and no names or other significant characteristics will be mentioned when reporting the findings.
If you are interested in taking part in the study, Julie and Clara would really appreciate hearing from you. Please contact them by email at c.joergensen@bham.ac.uk or telephone on 0121 415 8170.
Sixth Form Student Ambassadors
Our newly appointed Student Ambassadors were selected this month, receiving their all-important badges. We look forward to seeing them acting as role-models around school, and take on this leadership position for UoBS.
That’s all from us this month. As always we look forward to hearing any comments, or stories you may like to share. Just send us an email on welcome@uobschool.org.uk with ‘Community Newsletter’ in the subject.
Best wishes,
All at the University of Birmingham School
