Spring Newsletter 2022

Box Hill School

Spring Term 2022

Latest News

Españ-opoly Year 11 have been revising for their Spanish general conversation questions with Mr. Planas in a fun and creative way.

They studied playing “Españopoly”. Throughout the lesson, students asked each other exam-styled questions and awarded each other points depending on the quality of their answers. The winners left the lesson with some cream eggs ahead of Easter!

WELCOME For all of us at Box Hill School, the normality of the busy life of school remains a lifeline and a source of challenge and contentment.

We like to capture and document what is going on in the school community and hope that you will be inspired and uplifted by all that is happening in such an inspirational school.

Young Writers’ Competition Year 10 students entered the 30th annual Young Writers’ competition. Students had to write a 100-word mini saga inspired by the title ‘Twisted Tales’.

It was pleasing to see that their entries wowed the editors, ignited their imaginations and engaged the students with creative writing.

Many of our students’ entries have been chosen for publication in ‘Twisted Tales – Amazing Adventures’ and these students have received a certificate to recognise the standard of their work. As Albert Einstein said, ‘creativity is contagious, pass it on!’

British Army Outreach On Thursday 10th February Year 9 took part in an event run by the British Army Outreach department.

They listened to an interesting presentation, and it was enlightening to hear about all of the careers available within the army, from medicine and communications to HR and catering.

The pupils then took part in team building activities with the soldiers and had to work together to find practical solutions to a variety of puzzles. After the event, the soldiers commented that the Year 9 pupils were the best group of pupils they had ever worked with, and Mrs Piper felt very proud of them.

National Careers Week National Careers Week, which started on 7th March, allowed students to look for careers that offer a range of opportunities and allow their work to positively impact the environment. They took the opportunity to investigate careers in the sustainability industry. The students discovered that many different career options are available because this industry tackles a broad and diverse range of issues.

The sustainability sector allows students with varying subject interests and education levels to find many exciting openings. For example, sustainability consultants are mainly office-based; they provide advice and guidance on programmes and policies for businesses wanting to become more socially and environmentally responsible. On the other hand, environmental scientists may spend a great deal of time out in the field, monitoring soil to prevent soil pollution.

If students are looking for an area that offers diverse options and is continuously growing, then a career in sustainability may be a perfect place to look.

Round Square Committee On 8th March our Round Square committee joined another 150 students and their teachers and zoomed in to an audience with Lesego Serolong, founder of Bee-Loved Honey, to launch this year’s virtual RSIS Project in support of one million beehives. 15 countries were represented across two calls with RS schools joining from Canada, Germany, Jordan, Dubai, South Africa, Peru, Dubai, England, Scotland, Switzerland, India, Oman, Kenya, Australia, Vietnam. We love the vital connection that this gives us to our family around the world!

A healthy environment needs bees: our planet’s food security is largely dependent on an abundance of natural pollinators; including honeybees, birds, and other insects, but honeybee colonies worldwide have been declining at an alarming rate. This commitment seeks to address issues related to dwindling honeybee populations by allowing individuals to buy beehives in order to replenish honeybee populations

Boys’ Sport Round Up Over the last three weeks boys’ sport has continued to be very busy in rugby, football and hockey.

In rugby, a notable performance came against More House School for the U15s, where Box Hill scored a last-minute winning try in a very muddy affair! The U13 team have also travelled to some 7s tournaments at Wetherby School and Ibstock Place School. At Wetherby they made the final of the tournament and narrowly lost to Fulham Boys School. At Ibstock the team performed very well again to come 3rd out of 10 teams. In hockey, pupils have recently had close matches with St James Senior School, Moon Hall School and Kingswood House.

In football, our busy fixture list continues to bring out some excellent matches. Our U16 football team have now progressed to the quarter finals of the Society of Heads cup, following a victory against Milton Abbey School.

Girls’ Netball Eighty-five netball matches have been played so far this season.

The U12s have made tremendous progress and enjoyed a winning streak of five matches against Duke of Kent, Moon Hall, KES, Downsend and Feltonfleet.

The U13s have been similarly impressive and posted a 25-4 win against Feltonfleet. Maia E was named Player of the Match.

The U14As and 1st and 2nd VII squads won their respective matches against Epsom College and City of London Freemen’s School respectively.

Girls’ Football The girls U13s football team are over the moon for two reasons; firstly, they won 3-0 away to Manor House and secondly, they are now sporting their new football strips!

Sixth Form Valentines Ball Sixth Form pupils enjoyed their first formal engagement since the pandemic which was a real treat after a busy term. For those in Year 13, leaving for university and employment, this was their first Sixth Form event having missed these opportunities during the pandemic. As you can see, the evening was fantastic and enjoyed by all.

Model United Nations Conference On Saturday 5th of March, students from Year 10 and 11 participated in a Model UN (MUN) conference with students from other schools, providing a unique insight into the dynamics, working methods and real-life challenges of being part of a UN delegation.

Zac, Katya and Jaime represented Iraq, debating different topics on a wide range of topical issues from “Big Tech Censorship” to “Modern-Day Slavery”, “Child Soldiers” and the “Right to Protest”.

The students were able to overcome their nerves, learn from each other and strengthen their interest in debating, diplomacy, international relations, humanities and law. Just as importantly, they had a lot of fun!

Pancake Day

International Women’s Day International Women’s Day was on 8th March, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

As a co-ed school we have a unique and diverse school community, and we are proud to have such powerful female staff and students. We created a community collage of images to recognise and celebrate all of our female students and staff.

We celebrate the women of Box Hill School today, tomorrow and always.

Robotics – Co Curricular Programme In the Robotics activity, the students are using the Edison Robot which comes with a number of inbuilt sensors, such as sound, light and proximity, so the students can build various devices such as a crane, a tank, digger and roboclaw. They can programme them to move in various ways, avoid objects, respond to claps, follow lights or even respond to infra-red signals from a remote control.

The language they use is based on Python which gives them the opportunity to experience programming in a different language (we code in Small Basic and Visual Basic in Computer Science) and develop an understanding of how to control objects with the code they write.

World Book Day We all celebrated World Book Day 2022 on Thursday 3rd March and throughout the week as well. Tutor times were filled with students guessing the identities of our masked readers; which teachers were hiding behind those Iron Man, Spiderman and ghoulish masks? All students were sent a digital WBD token, which could be used for money off a book of their choice or to purchase one of this year’s exciting and wide-ranging WBD books in the library, alongside various bookish arts and crafts.

On World Book Day itself, students and staff read books of their choice at the start of every lesson. Every year, this is an opportunity for us to raise the profile of reading for pleasure and remind students how reading is a life-long skill, that impacts on learning in all subjects and not just English. Plus, our teachers love showing their students how they are ‘reading role models’ too.

Year 7 students, ably supported by a selection of our Year 11 and Year 13 leaders, excitedly took part in the Great Box Hill Book Competition. Teams had to compete to successfully pitch an idea for a new book to our illustrious panel of judges. All were fueled with countless brownies and cookies and the winners and runners-up celebrated with certificates and prizes. There were some great ideas that publishers would love to get their hands on! Year 8 students spent the day at Chichester’s Festival theatre, enjoying a drama workshop and then a powerful performance of Morpurgo’s ‘Private Peaceful’.

Finally, the English department once again ran various book-related competitions. Year 9 students competed in Cook-a-Book, with students producing stunning representations of their favourite books or characters in edible and drinkable form. Other year groups created books-in-a-jar and children’s story books. Prize winners will be announced in year group assemblies in the coming weeks.

Steel Drums Workshop We were really pleased to welcome our peripatetic drum teacher, Charlotte Burke, to the music department at Box Hill School to run a steel pan workshop for our Year 10 GCSE Music group and Year 9 pupils who will be studying music next year at GCSE level.

Piano Evening This half term, we held our first live-audience concert since the start of the first lockdown. Our wonderful piano evening showcased the immense talent we have at Box Hill School with performances by students ranging from beginners to very accomplished performers; from Year 7 to Sixth Form. Our performers played brilliantly and really showed off the versatility of the instrument. From the expressiveness of Chopin’s nocturne in Eb Major to the liveliness of Hound Dog, the audience were taken on a musical journey and a great evening was had by all.

We are super excited to be hosting lots of other musical soirees throughout he rest of the year and look forward to sharing news about them!

Calypso music, from Trinidad and Tobago, is part of the curriculum for GCSE music, so what better way to learn about the style than by playing as part of a steel pan band?

Charlotte taught students about the history and context of the style and guided and taught the group to play a piece as an ensemble.

The students even got to meet the man who made the instruments they were playing and told the students a bit about how steel pans are made.

The resulting performance, where each student played their own part on one of the pans was wonderful and everyone who took part had a fantastic time.

Chinese New Year Celebrations Box Hill School’s Got Talent

In Burmester House students enjoyed making Chinese paper cuttings of tigers and the symbols for “new”. The tradition is called chuang hua and one makes these cuttings out of red paper and then stick them in your windows. Everyone participated and had a lot of fun doing so. There were some wonderful creations as you can see from the photos.

The girls then shared some Chinese food after their efforts. A great evening was had by all and we are very grateful to our Chinese students for sharing their celebrations with the whole house.

GET IN TOUCH Please contact us via admissions@boxhillschool.com WHO TO CONTACT Claire Jordan, Registrar Daniella Quaglia, Marketing Manager

Old London Road, Mickleham, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6EA Tel: 01372 373382 www.boxhillschool.com  boxhillschool  @boxhillschool

Old Cottage decided to celebrate Chinese New Year with an evening of special fried rice, ably prepared by a team of students that included Taichi, Jason, Max, Valerie, Silas and Mr Nicora and Mr Baker. Special thanks must go to Taichi and Jason, who delivered pan after pan of the delicious dish. It is no exaggeration to say that kilos of food were prepared, which the whole house enjoyed, with most boys having more than one bowl!

Open Events Tuesday 29th March Whole School Open Event (1.30pm-3.15pm)

Tuesday 21st June Whole School Open Event (9.30am-11.15am)

Thursday 28th April Whole School Open Event (9.30am-11.15am)

Tuesday 29th June Whole School Open Event (9.30am-11.15am)

Thursday 16th June Open Evening (6.00pm-8.00pm)

Visit our website to book your place at one of our Open Events.