Almanac 2015-16

Hove Park School

“Embracing Challenge, Excelling in a Changing World”

Almanac 2015-16 al▪ma▪nac n.

1.

2.

A register of the days, weeks and months of the year, with events, anniversaries, etc, published annually.

An annual publication containing a variety of factual information.

Welcome to Hove Park Welcome to the fifth edition of our Hove Park Almanac. Once again this has proved to be another very busy year in the life of Hove Park. I’m constantly amazed at the shear breadth of activities undertaken by our students throughout the year. It’s fantastic that the Almanac provides an opportunity for their many accomplishments to be rightly celebrated. Our Almanac confirms that over a year in its life, Hove Park is clearly a dynamic and exciting place to learn.

The governors were delighted to welcome the arrival of Mr Reed, our new headteacher, at the start of the 2015-2016 academic year. After the inevitable period of change and disruption in the spring and summer terms of 2015 following the departure of our previous headteacher, Rob’s arrival has reinvigorated our drive to develop into a truly outstanding school. The governors and the new senior leadership team have very quickly established an excellent working relationship as we continue our journey of improvement.

Working closely with our new headteacher and senior leaders, the governors have this year established a new vision to take us forward onto the next phase in the development of Hove Park, and how best to prepare our students for the future. As we move forward our new vision will encourage students to embrace challenge and the belief that they are capable of truly astonishing accomplishments. They must strive for the highest standards and embrace the diversity and opportunities offered as global citizens in a constant changing world. Our new vision is now encompassed by our new motto:

“Embracing Challenge, Excelling in a Changing World” As in previous years the governors are keen to ensure that Hove Park is strongly positioned to meet the challenges of the local and national educational climate. We recognise the importance of opportunities to develop partnerships and collaborations and pursue a future where schools work closely together to benefit all children within our city. We now benefit from external challenge and support as a member of “Challenge Partners” where schools across the country work collaboratively to drive improvement. We also work in close collaboration with our fellow secondary schools across the city within the “Secondary Partnership”. Our local partnership has developed over the last year becoming a strong educational voice within our city.

The governors are once again proud of the progress Hove Park has made this year. We continue to be educationally ambitious for our school and constantly strive to ensure that every student is capable of outstanding achievement.

Mike Nicholls

Chair of Governors

Headteacher’s introduction Welcome to this year’s Almanac. This is our fifth edition and, once again, we are delighted to share with you some of the brilliant accomplishments and amazing endeavours of our students.

Recent years have been a time of change for the school and in the wider world! We have been transformed into a good school rising to meet the new challenges of becoming truly outstanding.

A long standing feature of our school, of which we are very proud, is the spectacular breadth of activities that characterise our community, including: the school production of Les Miserables; students in the finals of a national Mandarin competition; footballers in a national final; visits to China, Thailand and Ecuador; and students building a greenpower racing car.

Our pupils are entitled to the highest standards of teaching and a rich range of extra-curricular activities.

A first class education means equipping young people with the highest grades in the right qualifications and it also means developing each child’s wider character including their moral values and resilience.

This year’s Almanac demonstrates our vision made into reality.

Rob Reed

Headteacher

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Oxbridge success Four top-performing students from Hove Park Sixth Form celebrated last year after receiving offers from Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

With five teenagers on average chasing one place the competition is notoriously stiff and standards exceptionally high.

Last year there were 34,000 students applying for 6,400 places.

Joseph Fairbrother was offered Maths and Computer Science at Oxford; James Holmes, Oriental Studies at Oxford, India Grant, a place to read Human Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge and Gareth Bourne was offered English Literature at Cambridge.

The students admitted that the infamous three day interview process was a knee-quaking, heart-thumping experience which apparently reduced some applicants to tears.

In one task students were given a piece of previously unseen material which they have to analyse and respond to.

James said: “I was given 30 minutes to read an article about a court case from Oriental China which I knew nothing about.

Then they asked me to talk about it. I thought I’d done really badly but I must have said something right!” Joseph had to analyse an unfamiliar computer programme and was asked when a particular line in the code would repeat.

Head of Sixth Form, Mr Miles, said: “We are incredibly proud.

This is a record-breaking number of Oxbridge offers for us and it goes to show that we aim incredibly high.”

Exam results summer 2016 There were many individual exam success stories this summer and our students’ achievements in many different subject areas once again reflected the strength and depth of teaching across the curriculum.

At GCSE our students: • •

made progress across the school that was in line with national averages achieved well across a wide range of subjects, with 66% achieving 5 or more A*-C grades and 60% achieving 5 or more A*-C grades including English and maths

There were many stunning individual successes, with 32 students achieving 5 or more A*/ A grades, and excellent results in a variety of subjects, for example: English literature – 80% A*-C, maths – 75%, A*-C, science – 85% A*-C, art - 89% A*-C, computing – 74% A*-C, German – 69% A*-C, ICT – 83% A*-C, product design – 73% A*-C. In the sixth form the results also maintained the excellent standards we have achieved in previous years.

This year, our A-level students: • •

made better progress than most students nationally achieved significantly more top grades than in 2015 (A* to B grades increased by ten percentage points)

Everyone at Hove Park School was thrilled that the superb accomplishments of our A-Level students enabled them to progress to their chosen higher education courses and jobs.

It is clear that there continue to be many strengths in the school. Commenting on the results, Headteacher, Mr Reed, said: “Some of the results achieved by our students are stunning. I feel very proud to be associated with them. I am also pleased that in so many areas the school has sustained strong outcomes. This is a strong platform from which we can make further improvement.”

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Prizegiving Evening Hove Park’s annual Prizegiving Evening took place this year at The Clarendon Centre on Thursday 10th March with England Rugby World Cup winner Maggie Alphonsi as Guest of Honour.

Maggie presented prizes and shared the story of how she overcame difficulties to win prizes herself including the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year, an MBE and the 2014 World Cup. Prizes were given for Outstanding Achievement and Outstanding Progress by students in all subject areas and all years. In between prizes there were performances from the Upper School Orchestra, the Lower School Choir, the Key Stage 3 Dance Club and a reprise of One Day More from the original Hove Park School cast of Les Miserables. Students who had made a notable contribution to the school and the greater community, received the final prizes of the evening, each year group’s Community Cup. In his first Hove Park School Prizegiving introduction Headteacher Rob Reed described the community’s shared pride in celebrating the outcome of a massive amount of hard work from students.

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Goodbye & good luck to year 11

Winter City raises funds for charity

In June Hove Park said ‘Goodbye’ to year 11 after five years at the school. On the evening of Tuesday 28th June students were congratulated for their achievements in year 11 at their last ever Graduation ceremony.

Year 7’s Xavier raised over £400 for charity with his model ‘Winter City’.

Wednesday 29th June began with the traditional Leavers Assembly. To much amusement the students were treated to a montage of their year 7 photos along with the Leavers Film, with goodbye speeches from Mr Streeter, Mr Gallucci and Mr Brooking.

The same evening the 210 students in their glamorous outfits descended (in the rain!) onto Pangdean Barn to celebrate leaving school at the Prom. A great time was had by all and it was an amazing night for students and staff.

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During December Xavier set up a model city in the attic at his home and invited people to come and view it in return for a small donation to charity.

His charities of choice were the UK Sepsis Trust and Amaze Trust, who each received £200 and £201 respectively.

This is a fantastic achievement and an incredibly unique way to raise money. We are very impressed with Xavier’s charity work and hope he inspires many more students to get involved in charitable endeavours.

Your creativity, persistence and warm heart truly paid off. Well done Xavier!

Comic Relief

By Student Reporter, Sofora Hove Park students and staff dressed up as their childhood heroes or in dress of their future career goals, to raise awareness for Pudsey Bear’s annual Children in Need Appeal.

A number of events were planned to run throughout the day and into the following week; including non-school uniform day, cake sales, a Pudsey Pub Quiz in the school hall and custard pies throwing into the faces of some brave teachers — all for a good cause, of course!

Mr Reed, Headteacher, said ”Children in Need is a wonderful initiative that raises a lot of money for many worthwhile causes. I’m proud of the way in which Hove Park students and staff contribute to these causes.”

The school raised an impressive £1151. Children in Need has managed to raise over £740 million since first airing in 1980 and continue to raise more and more each year.

Sport Relief Sport Relief 2016 was again a great success at Hove Park. Students were split into two teams and had to take on the Sports Relief indoor obstacle course, to gain points.

The teams then went outside and took on the Sport Relief Mini Mile event, from which winning times were taken and added to the Sport Relief score board. Students were again very generous with their donations to Sport Relief with many dressing up in red sports kit, including the PE Staff.

Well done to all students who took part in this year’s Sport Relief. We are already looking forward to next year’s event.

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Diversity at Hove Park At Hove Park we value the cultural and linguistic diversity of the pupils as a positive asset and a rich resource for the school and community. We acknowledge that language and culture is central to a person’s identity and we build on the skills and knowledge that pupils bring with them to school. We encourage both the pupils and families to play a full part in school life.

Hove Park is a large school with 20% of our students having “English as an Additional Language” (EAL).

We currently have over 50 languages spoken in the school - ranging from Albanian to Zulu. This rich and diverse range of cultural backgrounds enhances learning for all pupils and promotes a strong cohesion within our school community. As well as the large majority of EAL students who were either born in the UK or arrived here at an early age, we are also happy to welcome a growing number of older international students that have chosen to come to Hove Park School and Sixth Form Centre to further their studies (coming from Europe, Scandinavia, or as far as China).

At Hove Park we employ the Young Interpreter Scheme to recognise the huge potential that exists within our school community. By using the skills and knowledge of our existing pupils to help support our “New to English” (NTE) students we ensure that they will feel safe and supported from the start. For many Young Interpreters it wasn’t so long ago that they themselves were in the same situation, which helps them to empathise and understand the issues and difficulties involved in settling into a new school and a new culture in a new language. As well as supporting students in school, Young Interpreters can also be used to help school staff communicate with parents at home who are new to English.

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Parent involvement is particularly important to us. We regularly hold information evenings for parents so that they are able to learn more, not only about Hove Park School, but also about the English education system. We recently organised well attended meetings for the Polish and Arabic speaking communities, which provided useful information for both the parents and the school. We expect to hold more such evenings for the Chinese and Italian communities, both of which we have a significant number of students.

Hove Park School was recently awarded with School of Sanctuary status. This award recognises the work carried out within the wider school community to understand what it means to be seeking sanctuary and to extend a welcome to everyone as equal, valued members of the school community.

Hove Park School is proud to be a place of safety and inclusion for all.

Pictured to the right is class work from our students plotting all the nationalities of Hove Park students that currently attend our school and all the languages spoken in our Young Interpreters groups.

Herb garden In June this year Caitlin, Daniel, Hannah and Ewan of year 10 created a herb garden in one of the raised beds on the applied learning patio.

Ms Locke, Operations Manager of Caterlink, the school’s caterer, kindly donated bay, parsley, thyme, sage, mint and fennel. The herbs will be used by students in their cookery lessons adding that personal touch.

Year 7 ‘Tenner Challenge’ During March, three year 7 maths classes participated in the nationwide ‘Tenner Challenge’ in which students arranged themselves into groups and were given £10 cash to set up a business for a month.

They had to complete the work outside of lesson time and demonstrated some real entrepreneurial skills. Businesses included the ever popular ‘cake sales’, raffles, competitions and using laser cutting to form personalised key rings. Students reinvested the profit that they made and then ‘cashed out’ at the end.

They had to pay back the £10 pledge, plus £1 to the Young Enterprise but they got to keep the remainder of the profit. Many groups chose to give a proportion of their earnings to a charity of their choice. Almost all groups managed to make a profit, some in excess of £100.

One student said: “I had a blast creating a company concept and working with my fellow students. We all agreed to give fractions of our earnings to charities and in my opinion, this was the best part. It was marvellous knowing that we had fun whilst giving back to our community and adults and children around the world less fortunate then us.”

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Icy landscapes A small but enthusiastic group of Hove Parkers met early Sunday 27th March, waved parents off in the rain and touched down in a chilly Rekjavik. On arrival it seemed that despite the pre-trip advice, most pupils underestimated how cold Iceland is!

Straight away the group headed to the world famous Blue Lagoon. Everyone was amazed and wanted to stay longer.

It was a jam packed itinerary, including the famous Eyjafjallajökull volcano, Gullfoss’ Golden Falls’ – one of the most photographed and famous waterfalls in Iceland, and the famous natural wonder Geysir.

Despite entering into spring, it snowed for the second and third day, which led to snowball fights and some amazing photographs. It was even possible to see the Northern Lights during our stay, despite being out of the recommended time of year for this.

Trip leader and Geography teacher Ms Haynes said: ”Iceland deserves it reputation of being a very unique and a special location, and an amazing playground for Geographers!”

Thailand Trip By student reporter, Grace In Summer 2015 Hove Park students had the opportunity to take part in a journey of a life time to Thailand. The adventure began with a sleepover in the sixth form common room, which was a strange experience being locked in the school at night. We woke up at 3am, ready to set off on our journey and it would take us almost 24 hours to arrive in a humid Bangkok.

The roads, as we headed from the airport to our hostel on the Kao San Road, were very scary - it seems Thai driver culture is all about avoiding gaps and getting there as fast as possible! When we arrived at the hostel there was no time to sleep despite being exhausted, we each had to take on a role and plan the rest of the trip - from accommodation manager to water purifier, we all had a role to play in making sure we got the very best out of the experience.

After spending a night in Bangkok we headed to bed early as the next morning we were due to travel 4 hours to the jungle ready for our trek. The minibus journey was eventful as we were pulled over by the police who, on pulling back the sliding door, were surprised to see a large group of westerners snoozing in the back. So much so that one of the officers insisted on taking a selfie with us all before waving us off on our way.

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Arriving in the national park we were impressed by the number of beautiful monkeys there were, however they soon became our nemesis as they continuously burgled our tents, stealing all our food provisions!

The next phase of the project, involved building a community garden for a preschool in Surin. The building project was tough, working all day in the blaring Thailand Sun all becoming accomplished bricklayers by the end of the trip.

The best part was the final day when we got to plant the flowers and we saw the difference we had made to this community. We then had a few days to explore Bangkok - we went to a fantastic floating market, visited the Grand Palace and many temples. Learning so much about ourselves and a different culture will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

“The Thailand trip was my first real adventure and I will remember it forever.”- Lottie “Thailand has been the most incredible and inspiring experience of my life so far. The trip has given me the opportunity to explore new places, foods and skills and provided a refreshing break from technology and general stress.” - Aisha “This experience has been a life defining one. We really have lived different lives these past two weeks and I will keep the memories close to me forever.” - India “From trudging, blinded by sweat, suffocated by humidity and deafened by gibbons to washing concrete, mud, sweat and blood out of my clothes in a hotel bin, this experience has been unique!” Rhianna “I really think the trip has helped me develop as a person and given me a taste for adventurous travel for the future.” - Grace “On a personal level I feel like I’ve grown a lot in confidence and really learnt to embrace new challenges. I feel like a passion has been discovered to get out there and see the world.

Thailand was just the beginning :).” - Hari

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Strictly 2015!

Teachers once again donned sequins, feathers and dancing shoes for the second Hove Park Does Strictly, now one of the school’s most popular annual events.

Following the format of the BBC’s Strictly show, eight nervous couples tangoed, waltzed and fox-trotted around the school hall as their steps were scrutinised by a judging panel, which included former professional dancer, and Hove Park teacher, Ms Gaywood. This year students were especially looking forward to seeing, soon-to-depart, Deputy Head Ms Leung, who danced a mean salsa with her teacher husband, Mr Ball in her last hurrah for Hove Park after 20 years of service.

The winning couple were another husband and wife team to take part, Mr and Mrs O’Donnell, who danced a “steamy” tango to a Moulin Rouge medley.

“The atmosphere was amazing,”said winner Mrs O’Donnell.

“We were nervous because it was a very technical dance but there is great camaraderie between the dancers and the kids are really rooting for you, which gives you the confidence to do it.”

The £355 raised went to the winning couple’s chosen charity, the Motor Neurone Disease Association, who supported their family when Mr O’Donnell’s father was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. “They were fantastic in making sure he had everything he needed and was able to go home to spend time with his family at the end,” said Mrs O’Donnell.

Halloween charity bake-off In the last week of the autumn term, year 11 tutor group 11H decided to host the school’s very own spooky Bake Off, inspired by the recent Great British Bake off.

11H organised the Halloween inspired baking challenge themselves and dared participants to create the best looking and tasting Halloween themed cake.

The entries were incredible, with the top spot going to Jasmine for the winning cake and a special mention to Sergios, whose cakes tasted amazing!

The sale was a success and almost ÂŁ60 was raised for a charity called Plan, who support children to get a good education. 11H sponsor a little boy called Hang, aged 10, who lives in Cambodia and has a hard life. Through the support of the charity Plan, 11H are helping to get him a good education and as part of that ongoing support, all the profits from this event went towards his sponsorship.

Heatstroke Earlier this year Hove Park year 10 prefects organised the Heatstroke event on the Nevill campus to raise money for The Stroke Association.

The aim of the event was to bring some summer sun to a dreary February day. The Nevill hall was transformed into a summer party with music, a BBQ, candy floss and summer games such as a limbo competition.

Our students raised over ÂŁ100 for the Stroke Association and all agreed the event was a great occasion bringing students from all year groups together to brighten their mood as well as raise awareness of stroke risk factors.

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Graduations Graduations events once again saw students celebrating their own and each other’s successes. Each year Graduation gives an opportunity for students to reflect together on their achievements over the year.

Students attending Graduation have successfully passed their Hove Park Bacc. This means that they have made good progress across their subjects an achievement which supports their continued learning and of which students can be justifiably proud.

Hove Park School hosted parents and carers for Graduation Ceremonies at Nevill Campus for year 11 and also for year 9 students as part of their transition from Valley Campus. All other year groups celebrated Graduation in end of year assemblies and all enjoyed student performances as well as more formal presentations.

Graduation remains a key event in the Hove Park calendar.

TV talent

By Saffron, School Reporter In January Hove Park students from year 10, 11 and sixth form were given an amazing opportunity to learn how to make and broadcast TV programmes during a visit to Brighton University.

The trip to the University’s Falmer Campus was offered to a number of drama students and gave them hands on experience of broadcasting as well as an insight into how programmes such as BBC News and the Victoria Derbyshire show, were put together.

The visit included a tour and a demonstration into how a control room and studio operate, followed by some hands on experience of how to prepare for a live broadcast event.

Students were also given the chance to produce their own Les Misérables promo, which involved quickly getting to grips with lighting, audio, headphones and speakers.

Dumplings Robert in year 10 and Ms Huang (Hove Park’s Confucius classroom assistant) provided expert guidance to staff and students this February as we celebrated the Chinese spring festival and the coming of the year of the monkey by making Jiaozi dumplings, a traditional Chinese fried dumpling.

These stuffed dumpling delicacies are traditionally made as part of the new year celebrations. The meat and the vegetarian stuffings were enhanced with the addition of authentic Chinese chives grown on Hove Park’s applied learning patio (see page 10).

Staff and student’s alike enjoyed learning how to make these tiny tasty treats and celebrating the year of the monkey!

Youth Parliament The Pupil Parliament at Hove Park is very similar to the areas of responsibility in the UK government.

There are ministers and deputy ministers for all key areas such as health, education, arts and international development.

Our parliament meets fortnightly and is led by students who wanted to make sure that Hove Park was providing a well rounded education, where everyone feels safe and ready to learn within this vibrant community. Each area of parliament undertook a change project every term, by identifying an area of school improvement within their field and creating an action plan with the school to achieve set objectives. The students were also advocates for their chosen area and promoted opportunities across the whole school. If you are a current student and would like to be involved in pupil parliament or have a point that you would like parliament to discuss at its next meeting then please e-mail parliament@hovepark.org.uk.

Edwyn joins UK Youth Parliament Year 9 student, Edwyn, will serve as Brighton & Hove’s representative on the UK Youth Parliament in 2016/17, making him the youngest person from the city ever to hold the post.

Edwyn was elected from Hove Park to Brighton & Hove Youth Council (BHYC) in year 8. The youth council brings pupils from across the city to consider issues that affect young people, feeding into the decisions of the city council.

From there, Edwyn was put forward to the national UK Youth Parliament (UKYP), an assembly of people aged 11 to 18 elected from their area’s Youth Council who discuss the views of young people across the country and then debate and campaign on those views.

Edwyn will attend meetings in the House of Commons, and will join national campaigns for young people as well as meeting local MPs and Councillors.

Edwyn said, “I am thrilled to have earned this role and can’t wait to get started on all this year’s work.”

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Future Aspirations As part of their preparation for life after school, nervous year 11 students experienced what it’s like to have a job interview at our annual ‘Future Aspirations Day’.

Staff from Legal & General and other volunteers from local business, gave up their day to give mock job interviews during which the teenagers also had to present a school project.

Students benefited hugely from the experience and learned about the importance of punctuality, dressing smartly, speaking clearly as well as being able to sell their skills and talk about their attributes.

Head of year 11, Mr Streeter, said: “We had very positive comments from all our visitors. They all conducted themselves in an excellent manner and made a fantastic impression.”

Tessa Roden from Legal and General commented: “The children were a credit to the school, extremely polite and had a positive attitude”.

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iPad tours

Somme visit

Earlier in the year Hove Park hosted visits from teachers and other education professionals from around the world, including France, Germany, Denmark, South Africa and Lithuania.

On Saturday 14th May, a group of year 10 students, their parents and grandparents, travelled to the Somme battlefields in northern France.

Every January, the British Educational Training and Technology (BETT) Show takes place in London and attracts thousands of international visitors.

As part of the BETT experience, some of the visitors joined our school for the day to see how iPads are used in lessons. They also took part in a teacher workshop showing them how to use mobile devices in their teaching and find out more about how the Hove Park iPad scheme works, one of the few of its kind in the country.

This year Hove Park’s Student Digital Leaders, who support their peers in getting the best out of their devices, did an excellent job presenting to the visitors their favourite apps and tools for digital work.

One visitor commented: “The highlight of the visit was to hear the students talk about how they apply the different apps to different classes and to see their interactive way of learning”.

The trip was made more poignant as it took place on the centenary year of the battle, which commenced on 1st July 1916, a date forever infamous as the greatest military disaster in British History with 20,000 being killed or fatally wounded in one day’s fighting. After visiting the Canadian monument at Vimy Ridge, we also walked along the preserved trenches at Beaumont Hamel.

Again, we were struck by the close proximity of the allied and German frontlines at that point, literally a few yards apart.

Finally, we visited the Thiepval Monument to casualties with no known graves. There we laid wreaths of remembrance to the fallen, including known ancestors of some members of our party, bringing the tragedy of war home on a uniquely personal level as these student comments reveal, ‘It was a great trip, it really opened my eyes to the horrific events of WW1. Thank you so much.

‘Thank you again for all the information you found for us about our relative. It was fantastic to be able to find him on the monument’.

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Ecuador Trip

By Ms Morris Last July, 13 Hove Park students went to Ecuador with Camps International on a life-changing trip.

The trip consisted of digging 29 foundation holes, more cement being mixed and poured than I can count, 6,000 bricks moved, a whole school being painted, 10 English lessons being taught by our students, alpacas, boat trips, pan pipe making, football matches, mountain climbing, over 30 games of Uno and temperatures ranging from 2 to 32 degrees with altitudes of up to 2,600m. Yet this does not even begin to cover what an experience the trip was.

As a group we travelled first to Camp Esmeraldas, in the town of Chura, then to Camp Kuri Kucho in the mountains. Our third week was the adventure week where we trekked over 4,000 metres up mountains. Finally in our last week we went to Camp Amazonia by the Rio Blanco. One of the biggest difficulties we had was the heat while we worked in at Camp Esmeraldas. One afternoon that really sticks in my mind was the ‘Cement Squad’ day. In the school playground were 30 wheelbarrows of gravel, a stack of 50kg bags of cement and 7 shovels. 7 of us donned wellies and volunteered to mix cement, little did we know that it would be continuous cement mixing for 3 hours.

It was at times challenging, but the motivation and determination of the students was astounding, not one person gave up and everyone else rallied around supplying us with water and sunscreen.

Throughout the trip the group grew and developed as they faced new challenges and went to different communities. I had the great pleasure with the rest of the leadership group, to have praise heaped on us at every place we went due to the way the students conducted themselves.

The impact these 13 young adults made to the lives of the people they met and helped was huge.

I know personally this trip will stay with me for ever and it was amazing to see how much the 13 students who I met in the school gym on the 1st July became proud, respectful young adults with leadership skills and wills of iron.

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Radio 1 DJ films students Radio 1 DJ, Gemma Cairney, came into school last year to film some of our students discussing what it means to be a young man today for the Southbank Centre’s ‘Being A Man Festival’.

Working with the Southbank Centre, Gemma created a 35 minute documentary capturing the opinions of secondary school boys from different backgrounds and parts of the country.

Discussions were led by the boys and topics included body confidence, sex, careers and the media.

The film was a parallel to the WOW Now film that some of our Hove Park girls took part in for the Women of the World Festival in March 2015.

The finished BAM film will be shared via social media in the run up to Southbank Centre’s Being A Man Festival as well as being part of a panel discussion led by Gemma.

BBC 1 Panorama Hove Park School has been working in partnership with the charity ‘Youngminds’ during the last few years to provide resources and support for students in developing their resilience and ability to overcome barriers to learning. When Youngminds were approached to support Panorama in finding a school to work with that was able to highlight good practice around the theme of pastoral care, they turned to Hove Park.

The Panorama team spent the day at Hove Park filming and interviewing a range of both students and staff. They were really impressed with the school’s commitment to pastoral care.

The programme, “I’m Broken Inside – Sara’s Story” aired on the 11th April 2016 and showcased some of the positive work we do in supporting students.

Be The Change The ‘Be The Change’ program is an inspirational youth career event which is an interactive and engaging experience for all involved.

Students learn about the individual qualities, attitudes and behaviours, as well as qualifications, that are invaluable in today’s job market. The event aims to demonstrate to young people that, although maybe not always academic, being bright and talented and with the right support, they can have successful futures!

The focus is on teaching skills that lead to employability, a currency that still needs to be better recognized in today’s often-tough job market.

Phoebe, year 9 said: “ I found ‘Be The Change’ very inspiring and very useful. I learnt lot from the experience. I chose to go up on stage and explain why I should get a job when I’m older. It felt very scary, but I forced myself to do it because I knew I would be proud of myself after.”

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Greenpower This summer Hove Park took part in a very exciting competition, racing their self-built electric race car at Goodwood race track in the South East Heat of the Greenpower IET Formula 24 competition The students showed excellent teamwork skills and pretty much ran the day themselves, making some final adjustments to the car in the morning and lots of successful pit stops for driver changes. The car stood up to the test in the practice laps and first race and although we were not the fastest, we came a respectable 41st of 60 in our first year of racing. The team made 11 of the 2.2 mile laps in the 1.5 hour race.

It was a nerve racking start for the staff and parent supporters as a couple of cars starting in front of us crashed on the start line, however our most experienced driver didn’t let this bother him and we avoided any debris.

Unfortunately, as the rain came in, the second race was less successful and our batteries ran flat half way round the track meaning we did not complete the full race time. However, the students have shown incredible team work and commitment to this long and involved project. To build and race your own car is quite an achievement!

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This time it’s (Robot) War!

Year 8 STEM Day

This year a group of excited students from years 7, 8 and 9 put their design and technology skills to the test in a ‘Robot Wars’ challenge.

At the end of last year a successful S.T.E.M day (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) was delivered to year 8 students by the Young Engineers Network.

Working in small groups the students were given 1 battery, 2 servos,1 transmitter and 1 remote control. They also had access to cardboard, tape and a glue gun. With this raw material they had to design and build an ant-weight robot capable of racing, sumo wrestling and…playing football.

Easy right?!

The activities were very much hands on and involved communication skills & team work. The challenges tackled by the students were: • •

It was very impressive to see the students so engaged in such a challenging task and working closely together to produce some fantastic robots.

Overseeing the activity was ‘STEM Deliverer’ Andrew Rogers from Brighton University. He said: “The students are gaining an understanding of the technology but also having a lot of fun in designing their own robot and understanding the features that make them work.”

Student Kizzie-Mae, whose team produced an intimidating creature with a fierce battering horn, said: “Last time I spent too much time making my robot look nice, so this time I’ve concentrated on the technical skills so I could actually make it work!”

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Our world our future - looking at the implications of increasing world population Potential Energy - looking at the global energy mix including renewable and non-renewable energy.

Kinetic Energy - Solar Car and test Careers in engineering and routes in to engineering

All students participated in the challenges with a competitive buzz in the air. Greta’s team constructed a free-standing paper windmill, Nigel, from the young engineers network, said it was the best one he had ever had made by a year 8 student and wanted to take it with him as an exemplar to show students from other schools.

Marc, Solomom, Chenise and Shannon’s team designed and constructed the winning car.

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Antarctic explorer In December last year a member of the British Antarctic Survey team, Jonathan Kingslake, visited the school to talk about the work he undertook and discuss the significance of the findings.

Jonathan showed students how Brighton would fit into Antarctica 2,700,000 times, he then discussed the animals that lived on Antarctica. Specifically the black-browed albatross, six species of seal, various whale species and 40 million penguins!

Amongst other projects the British Antarctic survey team analyse ice cores. They compare the composition of gasses trapped in bubbles in the cores to the gasses found in today’s atmosphere.

This is to help understand the changes over time and to help make future predictions. Climate change is possibly one of today’s most discussed topics, not just in school science lessons but in today’s geopolitical arena To finish off, students were also shown equipment that was used whilst in Antarctica by the survey team, they were very enthusiastic about trying out the thermal sleeping bags!

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Science Week As part of our celebrations of British Science Week (11-20 March) our inventive science technicians staged the first display of their Crafty Science creations.

The team of three combine their interest in science with their textile art skills to create unique, educational exhibits for the Brighton Science Festival each year.

Over the years the trio have amassed; a huge crocheted solar-system, knitted emission spectra scarves, an attempt to explain sub-atomic matter in felt (the fondly named ‘Hove Park-ticles’) and a knitted ‘brain hat’. This year the Crafty Science team deployed their skills to create the entire periodic table out of individual felt cubes. It took the trio three months to make and is really an inspired creation, not to mention a very effective teaching resource. They have also recently knitted the human digestive system.

The works of science and art have never before been all together in one place, so to celebrate British Science Week, Ms Wong, Ms Cottingham and Ms Reynolds will for the first time host a Crafty Science display in the library at Hove Park School.

PowerRide - sustainable energy innovation This year former Hove Park student, Joe Porter, received a £10,000 grant for his idea, PowerRide, which aims to stem global warming by harnessing the energy made from cycling.

Joe studies Sports Technology at Loughborough University and entered the Exciting Engineering competition for the experience of developing a real world project. The Sport Technology Innovation Fund is a fund set up by the Mayor’s Office and London Sport to support start-ups with ideas to make London more physically active.

After the award, Joe said: “Money is always the barrier to success for any start-up business, but the funding from London Sport has really bypassed that whole difficult first struggle for us, and has allowed us to open up our creativity without the restriction of finances. Winning is something I’m not used to, so when I won the Exciting Engineering award it gave me a form of recognition that my ideas aren’t crazy! All of the attention and investment is beyond anything I could have imagined when I was sat in my garden with my sketchbook. I’m very excited for what the future holds.”

Joe’s invention, PowerRide, is a system that captures energy from cycling that can be stored and used later on a whole host of applications.

The idea came from Joe’s keen interest in physics, natural energy and how they can be used to solve the global warming and energy crisis.

With the support of Andy Harland, Director of Loughborough University’s Sports Technology Institute, Joe has started Team PowerRide, a group of four like-minded Sports Technology students working to see how far Joe’s idea and vision can go.

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Primary Partnerships Hove Park School has a history of working with primary schools throughout the local authority to help prepare students for the transition to secondary education.

With recent changes to GCSEs and the abolition of course work in many subjects, students need to be well equipped with the best possible skills to prosper in their chosen senior school. We offer a range of tasters in a number of key subjects for Primary schools, all delivered by our highly motivated and engaged ‘Peer Tutors’, students who have a specialism is a subject and are experienced in working with younger students to facilitate learning and understanding. We are very proud that our students are our best ambassadors!

We offer initial taster sessions in MFL, PE, science and MADE (art & design). The onus is always on students working together to develop key learning skills and develop confidence with topics and themes that form a key part of the KS3 curriculum. There are three options - a short taster, a longer half day and a full day. We have focused on very interactive elements of the curriculum, as well as areas of the curriculum where Hove Park School students and staff have particular specialisms. We are of course delighted to offer bespoke sessions in collaboration with staff and students, please email jasandford@hovepark.org.uk with your particular request.

The Diversity Project As part of our Primary Partnerships, Hove Park was approached last year by the Headteacher, Mr Dobell, of Iford and Kingston Primary School. It was Mr Dobell’s aim to set up links with his school and expose his students to the rich diversity of Hove Park School.

After careful planing a group of our Peer Tutors from years 7, 8 and 9 went to Iford and Kingston on three separate days earlier this year to run presentations for the pupils. The sessions featured a student from Hove Park (with African heritage) making African cookies with the pupils, a student (with Sri Lankan heritage) making their own currency and taking part in a maths lesson and a

student (with Indian heritage) reading stories and acting out Indian tales as well as dressing up the students in traditional dress.

The students were asked back to the school to make iMovies from the photos the pupils took during the presentations. They spent the day producing some excellent movies and these were shown at the school’s presentation evening at Iford and Kingston Primary.

Mr Dobell is very keen for the links forged with Hove Park to continue and we are looking forward to how our Peer Tutors can work together to produce more exciting days later this year.

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Design & Make Students in Hove primaries have been benefitting from Hove Park’s technology facilities and expertise through recent partnership projects.

The first ‘Design and Make’ project involved year 5 students at West Blatchington Primary school. Three years on and we now host children from St Andrews Primary and Goldstone Primary and we are very excited to welcome children from Hangleton Juniors this academic year.

The aim of the Design and Make project is for primary students to research and design keyrings on paper using graphic design skills and then make these keyrings with the support of technology teachers using acrylic in our workshops.

“Primaries are very enthusiastic about the chance to use tools and materials other than paper and card as their space and facilities are often very limited. So it was exciting for the pupils to come into our workshop and use equipment and materials that they would never normally have access to.”

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Sixth formers PE partnerships teach Spanish to Primary kids Three HP6 students recently delivered a series of Spanish lessons at Glebe Primary in Southwick this year.

Katie, Isabella and Louise from year 12 planned and delivered lessons in starter Spanish to classes of 30 year 4 students. The students at Glebe Primary were learning Spanish as part of their project on the rainforests of South America.

Mr Baker, year 4 teacher said: “The children enjoyed the whole experience and also learnt a lot. Thanks again to Hove Park and of course a huge thanks to the girls themselves who did a fantastic job of teaching the kids.�

Hove Park School is now working with primary schools in the local area to develop the involvement of young people within PE and sport. A PE specialist from Hove Park is currently working in partnership with both West Blachington and Aldrington primary schools to encourage young pupils to take part in a range of high quality, PE curriculum based activities.

Each primary school is provided with four hours per week of specialist support in PE. Our PE specialist works alongside primary teachers at KS1 and KS2 to plan, and provide guidance to support the teaching and development of the PE curriculum. The role of the PE specialist is to help provide the pupils and class teachers with a range of lessons and activities to ensure that the delivery of each lesson is meaningful and purposeful for all those that take part. The primary teachers and PE specialist find out what young people want to do, then together work to find a way to facilitate this within an enjoyable environment in PE curriculum. Hove Park PE specialists also run the primary school after school clubs in netball, football and gymnastics preparing young talent in a competitive environment

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Geek Girl!

We were lucky enough to have successful teen author, and Geek Girl creator, Holly Smale visit years 7 and 8 as part of our World Book Week celebrations last year.

She gave two inspiring talks to both year 7 and 8 in the hall, describing how she was bullied at school for being geeky and not conventionally pretty. She tried to ignore the bullies and found comfort in reading books and ended up studying for a degree in English and an MA in Shakespeare, eventually becoming a best-selling teen author drawing on her experiences in her novels.

Confusious Day

Students were fascinated to hear her life story which is a tale of triumph over adversity, of overcoming bullying and challenges to make a success of yourself.

The signing we held went very well with Holly making time for each and every student, asking them about themselves and letting the students take more photos with her.

Holly has recently moved to Hove from London, she has nearly 10,000 followers on Twitter and she tweeted the following straight after her visit: “Amazing day at Hove Park School, now I’m a new local. Such enthusiastic and smart kids.”

The Ministry of Twisted fairy Stories - Story tales workshop Engines Hove Park were lucky enough to be selected to take part in the pilot scheme for Story Engines, a creative writing piece of software developed by the educational charity, The Ministry of Stories.

22 students took part in trialling the software that enabled them writing their own stories online, and then get online mentor feedback. The students were very enthusiastic and wrote some extraordinary stories.

We were then invited to an international creative writing conference in London, where some brave students got up on stage and presented their views on how the software could be improved.

They also got to meet the award winning author Dave Eggers who is heavily involved with the American version of The Ministry of Stories. The students also had the opportunity to explore the Monster Supplies Shop in Hoxton - which caters for your average Monster’s every retail need!

In July Hove Park’s Literacy Coaches met with the new year 7s to ‘mash up’ some vintage fairy tales.

Fifteen budding authors used their imaginations to make their own crazy creations. Students chose five pictures from a selection of fairy tales from around the world, then arranged them into a whole new story. We were very impressed with the students and are looking forward to working more with them next year.

Literacy trip to Sussex County Ground We had an enthusiastic welcome from the Education Officer at the Sussex County ground when we took 10 cricket mad students for a day of poetry writing and a tour. We even got to see some of the star players practicing in the nets as we sat in the press box. The students learnt about the many different careers available, from groundsman to physio therapist to journalist.

Then we toured the cricket museum and wrote our own calypso style poems.

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Harry Potter Studios

World book day success

In January, year 7 were lucky enough to visit Harry Potter Studios experience in Watford as part of their science topic. Everyone had a fantastic time and really enjoyed seeing the sets, costumes and special effects that make the books and films so magical. The students were engaged on many levels, and were able to relate their experiences to their curriculum in art, science, design technology and literacy when they returned to school.

47 students from years 7, 8 and 9 came to Valley library at lunchtime on Thursday 3rd March to listen to teachers reading from their favourite books.

Following the trip, students competed in a flash fiction competition in the library to write a 200 word story with one of the following story starters: • Harry, Ron and Hermione stood in front of the door as it slowly creaked open…

• The troll staggered closer but the evil fairy was ready with his nuclear false teeth…

• Voldemort laughed. They all think I’m dead, but I’ll show that Potter weakling, once and for all…

• I’m so embarrassed, she thought. My dad is Draco Malfoy and everyone hates me now…

• Harry felt strong. Nothing could stop him now he had the iPad of Doom…

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This was part of celebrations around World Book Day. Ms Morris, Mr Paul, Ms Tapuska, Ms Satterly and Mr Carpenter all read extracts from books such as Once by Morris Gleitzman, Mr Stink by David Walliams, Matilda by Roald Dahl, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

Students thoroughly enjoyed listening and commented ‘we should do this more often not just on World Book Day’.

They also held a ‘Design a Book Mark’ competition and a ‘Guess Who’ competition.

Anna Mckerrow Anna McKerrow, the author of dystopian teen thrillers Crow Moon and Red Witch, visited Valley campus on Thursday 21st April, where she ran two fantastic workshops.

In the first, students got to create their own utopian and dystopian world manifestos. Demands for World Peace figured heavily - along with banning Donald Trump, early starts at school and broccoli!

In the second workshop Anna was very impressed by the stories the students created by just looking at a picture she had bought along. Well done everyone who took part and Anna hopes to return next year when the last book in her trilogy is published.

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Andrew Miller In November 2015, Hove Park students of English Literature and creative writing were memorably entertained with an hour long talk and Q & A session from Andy Miller, the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of ‘The Year of Reading Dangerously’.

In that work Mr Miller described a year-long project to reconnect himself with the pleasures of reading, setting out to read (or re-read) a book every week.

On the page and in ‘real life’, Andy is in equal parts very funny and sharply insightful about the qualities that make particular books unique and worthwhile. His enthusiasm is infectious, and he lingered after the formal session to chat with individual students about their reading plans and some of their own ideas for their own fictions.

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Hari Johnson Hari Johnson was just one example of the many talented students here at Hove Park School. An insight into this particular student’s experience at the school from KS3 to sixth form identifies the opportunities, performance experience and integral skills that the performing arts department gives to students within the continually evolving industry.

Just a few of Hari’s credits are: - An excellent performance of the cruel yet comical Thenardier in ‘Les Miserable’, Tom in ‘Citizenship’ performed at The National Theatre as part of the NT Connections, the intellectually critical role of Reverend Hale in ‘The Crucible’ and Zeke the talented basketball player with a secret passion for baking in ‘High School Musical On Stage’ with Apollo Productions.

Hove Park School is extremely proud of such a vibrant and outstanding level within the performing arts department that endeavours to keep growing.

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Les Misérables

By Student Reporter, Saffron Yet again Hove Park blew the roof off with another spectacular school show, Les Misérables.

It was a formidable performance that left me in awe as well as a fountain of trickling tears. Mesmorising and simply brilliant, Hove Park students enthralled the audience of parents, friends and teachers with a stunning performance of Victor Hugo’s epic tail.

Set against the backdrop of 19th Century revolutionary France, Les Misérables tells the gripping story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption. Max, played the long suffering protagonist Jean Val Jean with fiery intensity. Alfie, in the role of young student Marius, was poised, passionate, yet gentle and convincing in his performance, playing superbly alongside his stage love, Amy, in the role of Cosette.

Providing the emotional torment of unrequited love, Eponine, played by Lily, brought the audience to tears. The chemistry between the three of them was exemplary and you could feel the tension surrounding their dysfunctional love triangle.

Jame’s gripping performance of the ruthless policeman Javert created a powerful and sinister air to the tragic tale. The perfect balance to this was Hari and Phoebe’s outstanding and hilarious interpretation of the comic roles of corrupt, scavenging innkeepers, showing remarkable skill and excellent comic timing. The chorus was superb and sang with confidence and ease; from the rousing ‘Do you hear the people sing’ and ‘One day more’, to the mood-changing and melancholic ‘Drink with me’.

The orchestra was well led by Ms Ede, Ms Lloyd and Mr Miles, whose interpretations of the familiar, haunting, often spine-tingling and stirring pieces enhanced the sheer drama of the show.

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Homage to Holocaust

StratfordUpon-Avon

This year Hove Park students devised a piece of theatre to pay homage to the victims of the Holocaust. This was performed at the Holocaust Memorial Event held by the Holocaust Education Project at The Old Courtroom in Brighton.

By Student Reporters, Amy and Gareth Last April, the AS and A2 Theatre Studies class went on a residential trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where Shakespeare was born and lived. On this trip we had the opportunity to explore Stratford, visit Shakespeare’s birthplace, participate in a Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) workshop, tour the Swan Theatre and see a production of Hamlet.

The A-level drama students used poetry written

by Holocaust survivors to create a montage of scenes depicting the impact on everyday Jewish people. They considered how generations of families were wiped out and how important their stories still are to young people today.

Visiting Shakespeare’s birthplace was a fascinating insight into life in the Elizabethan era and especially the bard’s earlier years. It was entertaining and informative with the whole place having an atmosphere of theatricality. The theatre staff were in role performing soliloquies on demand, and an expert on glove-making ready to sing a song.

In order to connect to this year’s theme ‘Don’t Stand by’, the students researched political movements or groups of people who took a stand against Nazi Germany, risking their own lives. The result was a moving performance using both dance and dramatic form to express this devastating act of inhumanity.

Head of drama, Ms Banks, said: ”The event was very emotional as we heard the true stories of Brighton residents who had survived life in the death camps. As we get to the point where we have very few Holocaust survivors left it is important that these stories are passed down through the generations to make sure that the lessons of the past are well and truly learnt.“

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National Theatre performance Last July Hove Park was selected to perform at the National Theatre beating off stiff competition from 500 other schools, youth theatres & professional theatre companies. This was a massive achievement for the students involved Hari, Eleanor, Lily, Phoebe, Liam, Gareth, Devon, Noah, Mellisa, Ilayda & Max. The play Citizenship was a hilarious coming of age play written by Mark Ravenhill exploring sexual identity.

We went to a production meeting at the National which was highly overwhelming as we entered a room of over 30 people who were going to ‘make’ our production, from set designers to the head of wigs, there was going to be no expense spared from the National in making this production ready for the National stage!

Our experience performing Citizenship at the National Theatre was out of this world. Knowing we were going to be performing on such a prestigious stage, to an audience of over 400 was admittedly slightly daunting, but so exciting more than anything else. The whole day passed in a blur, we rehearsed with the National’s directors, got to see the amazing set the theatre’s design team had made for us and did a dress and technical rehearsal all before curtain up at seven o’clock. The team at the National treated us so well throughout the day, and really did help to calm any nerves we may have had!

The performance itself was something I’ll never forget. Although we felt it went far too quickly, I know all of us enjoyed every second we were up there. There was such an electric vibe in the auditorium that night, and having an audience of 400 really did help. The amount of laughter we got was beyond all our expectations and spurred us on during every scene. It was such a special feeling performing a play that had come to mean so much to us on such a well known stage - something that I know will stick with all of us forever.

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Meeting the President Teachers at Hove Park attended the opening ceremony of the UK Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms Annual Conference at UCL in London at which Xi Jinping, President of China, and HRH The Duke of York were guests of honour.

Headteacher Mr Reed and Chinese teacher Min Qiao represented Hove Park, which is the only state school in the area to have been awarded Confucius Classrooms status.

A major new link between Peking University (PKU) and the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) was announced at the ceremony offering students of Mandarin the chance to spend their gap year at the Chinese University.

Headteacher Mr Reed said: “It was fascinating to her how the UK is the European leader for engagement with China educationally.

More students in the UK learn Chinese than anywhere else in the European Union. It was great to share good practice with colleagues in schools from across the UK who have, like ourselves, lots of children learning Mandarin. The conference helped reinforce my commitment to leading a school committed to the languages and technologies of the 21st century.�

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International visitors Hove Park Students are regularly presented with a host of opportunities to take part in cultural exchanges both abroad and in the classroom. Building on the legacy of Language College status the school maintains a rich offer of languages and is continually building and expanding projects to facilitate international student exchange. There is a wide range of trips on offer to students across all year groups, from year 7 up to year 13.

Last year saw educational trips to Iceland for Geography, Germany and China for Languages as well as a very successful sixth form trip to South America. During these visits students were exposed to real challenges of cultural acclimatisation and communication, often testing student resilience to the maximum. Be it helping to build shelters in Africa or having to create a video about The Great War in German, our students always step up to the plate and all come back eulogising about the experiences they have had.

We also try where possible to build on our strong capacity for tolerance and shared values of cultural respect and integration by welcoming students into our school. Students from Europe and the Far East come to our school to immerse themselves in the British school system and our student buddying projects ensure that both Hove Park students and visiting students alike gain so much understanding of the world outside their immediate home. The images shown here are Taiwanese students in school over the summer term and Chinese visitors in school from Chinese schools on the buddying programme We try to give our students at Hove Park a number of direct experiences of the increasingly globalised world, equipping them well for the future.

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National Mandarin competition Former sixth-former, James Holmes, last year qualified for and took part in the HSBC British Council Mandarin Speaking Competition Finals.

James competed in the Advanced category against just five other students in the prestigious event. James was also just one of two state school students to reach this stage in the competition in his category.

James competed in the heats before Christmas and was delighted to hear that he was through to the finals. The competition is extremely tough at the advanced level.

James has also recently completed an A-level in Mandarin and has been offered a place to read Chinese and Oriental Studies at Oxford University.

Headteacher Mr Reed said: “This a fabulous achievement by James. We are all very proud of him.�

A View from the Other Side of the Planet

By Mr Reed, Headteacher In August, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit China. I was invited to give a lecture in Beijing to Chinese colleagues, explaining some of the most important trends and developments in English schools. It was of course an absolute honour to be given this chance but it was also a visit from which I learnt much more about education in some places beyond our own boarders.

Perhaps the most significant and striking aspect of the visit was that it confirmed to me that the Chinese benefit from a different public attitude towards education and Chinese children consequently have a different mindset from their European counterparts.

As part of my visit my hosts generously allowed one of my Chinese colleagues to show me some of the sights of Beijing. This included a visit to the Confucius Temple, which is approximately 700 years old. Confucius is of course a world famous teacher and philosopher, perhaps comparable in some ways to Plato or Socrates. Confucius’ teaching includes a significant emphasis on the importance of education. Therefore, as Confucius made a significant contribution to Chinese political

and moral thinking, this has helped create a society in which education is greatly valued. Even today, families will go to the Confucius Temple

seeking good luck for children about to take significant school or university exams.

I had previously been told that Chinese students firmly believe that hard work and practice are the key to academic or any other success.

Anecdotally this proved to be absolutely accurate.

During my lecture to Chinese colleagues, I asked them the following question: If a Chinese student received a disappointing mark in an exam, were they more likely to state that they had too little talent in that area or were they more likely to state that they simply needed to work harder? My Chinese colleagues unanimously told me that a Chinese student is more likely to blame lack of effort than lack of talent.

My visit to China has made a lasting impact on me. It was fascinating to see something of another education system in a very different culture. There were many aspects of Chinese education that I admire but it was also interesting to note that my Chinese colleagues were interested and admiring of aspects of the English system. I am sure we have much to learn from each other.

Another long established feature of the administration of Chinese society is the existence of an effective civil service, entrance to which is based on highly competitive public exams. For hundreds of years, many hard working Chinese children and their families have aspired to social advancement through the meritocratic means of succeeding in the civil service exams. Again, this has served to accentuate the perceived value of education within Chinese society.

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China trip The Hove Park trip to China was an incredible experience for our students. Every student made the most of this fantastic opportunity by indulging in the local cuisine, speaking the language at every opportunity and observing the beautiful sites the country has to offer.

For some of our students, the adventure began with their first long haul flight. For others, it wasn’t until they stepped off of the plane to witness and experience the unfamiliar culture, that they realised what a once in a lifetime opportunity they were embarking on.

The adventure began in Beijing, where students were soon hit with the high temperature, busy roads and a delicate mixture of historical and modern buildings in the city centre.

After seeing various landmarks such as; The Forbidden City, Tianenmen Square and the Temple of Heaven, it was time for the students to experience a Bullet Train to Jinan City. This is where students had the opportunity to experience the life of a University student on campus, eat at the University canteen and participate in Chinese lessons and cultural activities.

Hove Park were excellent role models for our school and the University staff were very complimentary about their maturity and willingness to embrace the culture.

The whole experience was rounded off with a fantastic trek on the Great Wall of China. Students hiked up steep terrain in the humid weather to witness truly breathtaking views. It was a great way to end this once in a lifetime experience that our Hove Park students were able to be a part of.

Japan club Last winter we were lucky enough to secure funding from the UK Japan Foundation for a 10 week course of after school sessions with native Japanese teacher Maki Hamilton.

At the club’s launch there was a great turn-out of 25 students. Over the 10 weeks they learned about Japanese language and culture, including origami, calligraphy, food and of course the sometimes eccentric fashion, which some of the girls were particularly enthusiastic about!

Many of the students who took part were already learning Mandarin so it was interesting for them to compare the two. Consensus: Japanese is easier!

Languages training day Hove Park School’s MFL department hosted this year’s city-wide training day with all schools from the Local Authority and some 60 teachers.

The focus of the day was on developing strategies to target the changes being made to the GCSE languages syllabus for this year.

From 2016, students will have to overcome a series of more rigorous academic skills in languages, including translation and accessing authentic listening and reading materials from the target language countries.

Head of MFL at Hove Park, Mr Sandford, said: “Teachers delighted in the opportunity to share resources and pedagogies over the course of the day and we hope the event acted to cement a strong collaborative approach from colleagues in the local area to challenges and changes ahead.”

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National Schools Cup Final In 2016 Hove Park’s year 9 Under 14 football squad were not only the pride of the school, but of Brighton & Hove too as they played in the finals of the ESFA National Schools Cup Final at the Madejski Stadium at Reading FC. Despite being defeated by an incredibly strong team from Thomas Telford School, getting so far in a national competition was an amazing achievement. The Hove Park boys had an incredible season, also becoming Sussex champions after winning the County Cup final earlier the same month. A coach full of fans including students, teachers and parents travelled to Reading to cheer on the team and despite the heavy rain created an atmosphere of support and excitement in the stands. The match was streamed live on YouTube enabling many more of the school community to watch the game and the commentary gave it the feel of a professional game.

Hove Park was given a standing ovation at the end and the boys were commended on their performance as well as being very gracious in defeat.

Team manager Mr Pulling said: “It’s a fantastic achievement to have reached the final. In this competition we play against teams with a lot of professional academy players representing their school sides. Our side only has one academy player so the boys should be immensely proud of themselves. We’ve competed against schools with better resources and facilities, which encourage them to be able to spend more time training with their teams. It’s a really positive thing for the school that we were able to take so many spectators. It shows that the school community is very strong and supportive of their peers.”

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Competing for Great Britain Last Summer, year 10’s swimming machine Joel Thompson competed for Great Britain in Italy in the Energy Standard International, Lignano Sabbiadoro .

Four teams took part from Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia with 54 team members from each country. Joel was the youngest athlete at 14 years competing in five events, achieving his personal best in four out of the five and determined that on his debut for his country he would bring home his first International Medal which included second place and a Silver Medal.

Joel’s mum, Tania said: “The event was live streamed and for those of you who tuned in to watch the live action, thank you. We are as ever proud of Joel and his achievements.”

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Students enjoy epic ski trip to apline Aprica February half term 2016 saw the annual ski trip depart for the alpine resort of Aprica in Italy.

Following on from our first successful visit to Aprica in 2015, the Italian resort would again be host to a fun-filled week before the trip heads to Bardonecchia in 2017. With 40 students and six staff in tow, the coach meandered its way from the UK to the tree lined resort of Aprica.

Our students enjoyed six days of thrilling skiing which started with learning to ski on the progressive nursery slope ‘Campetti’. The students gained confidence quickly and immediately the more advanced group were off testing themselves on the more difficult runs.

The rest of the novice groups were soon challenging themselves on the tree lined blue runs down to Baradello with the beginners leaving the nursery slopes behind. As the week progressed, the groups explored the whole resort, even trying the difficult and steep red runs. The group experienced the midweek visit to Verona for a chance to buy some souvenirs from Prada and Gucci, rest their ski legs and sample a traditional Italian pizza opposite the famous Arena.

A full après-ski programme was provided, which included bum-boarding, quiz night and ice skating. The week ended with the famous fancy dress last night disco where, with several other schools, Hove Park dominated the dance floor until we were the only school left! Everyone got into the spirit of the trip and donned fancy dress in the theme of TV and Film characters to bring a fantastic trip to a close.

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Rockley 2016

Confusious Day

On Saturday 18th June a number of year 8 students departed for Hove Park’s residential activity trip to La Rive on the South West coast of France. The students spent the week developing team work, perseverance and independence through a number of land based and water based activities such as Dart Sailing, Pico sailing, Kayaking, Windsurfing, Mountain biking and team challenges.

Students also experienced French culture by tasting traditional French cuisine such as frogs legs and snails and developed their French speaking skills when talking to people on the 5-star campsite and during a day trip to the town of Arcachon.

One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to the Dune De Pylat which stands at an impressive 110 metres above sea level and runs for 2.7 miles along the western coast.

The students were impeccably well behaved throughout the trip and a real credit to Hove Park school.

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Becoming a lifeguard

Coaching with FA tutor

Last summer, 22 students became lifeguards for the day on Brighton Beach, an activity day run by Brighton Surf Lifesaving Club.

Alongside our busy sporting timetable, students at Hove Park School have the opportunity to achieve their Level 2 in Football Coaching.

It was a gloriously sunny day and our students began with beach flag racing games in the specially built sand pit. It was a huge amount of fun and tested our students reaction times, speed and fitness.

Delivered by an outside specialised FA tutor over the year, the Level 2 in Football Coaching teaches our sixth formers the fundamental skills for coaching. The course covers a range of key elements from the core syllabus, setting up constructive and informative lessons, effective communication and more importantly, how to focus coaching for each student on their personal abilities. Along with the application of practical learning, students work though their theory with the support of Mr Pulling. Students also look into the importance of Health and Safety, First Aid and Child Protection. All attributes to developing the mind and skill of a young footballer.

Next was a crash course on first aid, teaching our students about how to save a life. The latest techniques for CPR were covered and how to deal with adults and children choking. The students listened with real keenness and all had a go at practising these vital life saving techniques.

Then into the sea. After a fair amount of time getting into tight wetsuits the students were taught about currents and rip tides and how to be safe in the water. They began by all having a challenging course to swim round, learning how best to get in and out of the sea. Then it was lifesaving, using the latest equipment our students all had a go at running in to the sea and swimming out to save casualties in the water. Finally all were given rescue boards and completed a course by paddling, whilst learning how to turn quickly, be stable on the boards and use them to save lives.

This course has proven to be extremely successful in providing a direct path into the coaching industry and we now have a number of talented football coaches working within the Brighton and Hove area; the Ladies Elite Development Squad at Brighton and Hove Albion and Louis Potter Jones, who went straight into coaching at Brighton and Hove Albion. And not forgetting, a number of students that also travelled to America to apply their expertise.

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Sports Day 2016

By Student Reporters Mariya and Tasnim Hove Park enjoyed another record breaking sports day at Withdean Stadium Hove Park students in true Olympian style, sprinted, leaped and jumped their way to another record breaking sports day with team Mandela crowned overall winners.

Students taking part embraced the spirit of the event and created a positive sporting atmosphere helped on by hundreds of enthusiastic spectators.

Teams that took part were Mandela, Turing, Hawking, Roddick and Yousafzai.

In a fantastic display of athleticism Ella year 7 broke both the 600m record by an astonishing 7 seconds, finishing the race in 1 minute 53 seconds and then the 300m race, with a new record of 48.75 seconds.

Other records broken in track events were Piper, year 7, in 150m sprint with a new record time of 21.38 seconds and Callum, year 9, who set a new record for the 100m sprint at 11.85 seconds.

In the field Angel, year 8, threw a whopping 8.02m in the shot, which is 30cm more than the previous record, and Bruno, year 7, who broke the year 7 javelin throwing at 27.17m.

Mr Reed, Headteacher, said “I found it absolutely wonderful and was delighted to see the smiles on all the athletes’ faces. Education is important and sport forms part of that education working towards targets and goals, both individually and as teams.

It is pleasing to see how sport had united all the students together on this lovely day.”

The annual event was held at Withdean Sports Complex and conditions on the day were perfect for the athletes starting cloudy and cool, but by mid-morning, the clouds vanished bringing with it warm sunshine. What a relief after the record breaking heat the day before!

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City-wide tournament

Dance crew are Euro champs

The 2016 Brighton and Hove Netball Tournament was organised by a group of year 11 GCSE PE students as part of their coursework. The girls cannot be praised highly enough for their maturity and professionalism. They had several planning meetings prior to the event and due to their meticulous attention to detail, it all ran like clockwork on the day.

Congratulations to year 7’s Jude, who is part of a streetdance crew shown to be among the best in Europe after a championship win. The crew, ‘Stereo shok’, have recently returned from Germany, where they competed at the European Street Dance Championships.

Eleven teams entered and staff from all other schools commented on how well the girls managed the event. They spoke confidently in front of almost one hundred other students, collated scores, instructed staff and kept the tournament running to time, as well as bringing staff cups of tea and biscuits. I think this might be why many said it was the best tournament they had ever attended! A huge well done to Olivia, Katy, Hannah, Summer and Louisa.

Hove Park were well represented by two teams in the tournament and the girls gave it their all. They demonstrated fantastic team spirit and refused to give in. They were thrilled to be in the play offs, eventually finishing a respectable fourth and fifth.

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More than 194 crews and 2,122 dancers from across Europe took part, making it the biggest European dance championship to date. Steroshok danced over three days with some amazing choreography thanks to their teacher, JP Omari, and won their category to become the Under 14 Advanced European Champions!

Coach JP, said: “It’s amazing. It’s a life-time achievement. I’m very proud of the kids as they’ve worked very hard for this. They’ve really turned it around. It’s just such a win that they deserve and worked for and I’m very proud of them.”

Scottish U17 national team Last year a determined football player Hamish, year 11, had the privilege of competing in the Scottish U17 National Team.

Scotland Vs Iceland took spectators through their paces with a tense yet exiting and methodical game. The team’s hard work and discipline paid off with results coming in as 2-1 to Scotland.

Hamish had shown a huge commitment and drive to his sport being a key member of the U18 squad this last season.

Hamish’s achievement doesn’t stop there, towards the end of the year Hamish was also offered a two year scholarship contract with Brighton and Hove Albion. This is a huge accomplishment for any young footballer wanting to pursue his sporting goals.

We would like to take this opportunity to say well done to Hamish for his triumph and determination in the sporting world.

Digital Leaders All students at Hove Park School are given the opportunity to become a Digital Leader as part of our wide offer of student leadership opportunities.

Our Digital Leader programme enables students to engage with technology in different ways; as creators, presenters, trainers and collaborators. The skills learned and practiced on the Digital Leader programme are, without doubt, skills our young people need in a technological world which is constantly developing.

Our team of Digital Leaders are from all year groups and students have the opportunity to work across all year phases and lead sessions for primary school children, Hove Park staff and teachers from other countries.

Coupling leadership opportunities with enhanced digital opportunities gives our Digital Leaders a unique set of skills that are highly appreciated by employers and colleagues in further and higher education. Most importantly, our Digital Leaders are engaged, empowered and confident learners.

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Apple Distinguished School application This year we were encouraged to apply to refresh our Apple Distinguished School (ADS) status. This is a prestigious scheme designed to recognise and celebrate the work of schools in establishing digital skills and creative approaches to learning.

We are currently awaiting the outcome of our application which should be announced during the Autumn term.

How iPads have changed teaching From class teachers to teaching assistants, newly qualified teachers to experienced appointments, staff at Hove Park have access to training to facilitate their use of technology, to enhance learning and teaching in our school. We continue to make use of traditional methods of training via demonstrations and workshops alongside utilising iTunes U to deliver up to date, readily available information such as ‘how to’ guides, and hints and tips for all areas of pedagogy. The following case studies represent staff in different roles at different stages of their careers to show how 1:1 devices have fit with their areas of specialism.

Mr Whiteman

Joining HPS as a new member of staff I joined Hove Park School in September 2015 with three years of teaching experience but very little experience of technology within the classroom. At first I was overwhelmed with the scope for student progress and engagement using 1:1 technology. I soon found that I could easily personalise learning through sharing appropriate support and stretch materials on Showbie, iTunes U and Mathspace.

1:1 technology then became an integral part of my teaching and learning as students demonstrated enhanced awareness of their weaknesses and began to act upon them using their iPads as a means of differentiation.

1:1 technology has provided a different dimension to my teaching by encouraging students to become more independent. I provide the scheme of learning via iTunes U, then set iPad activities, including opportunities to enrich students and to structure support, if needed. I also use apps such as Nearpod to promote collaboration and cooperation. This has helped with behaviour for learning and assessment by engaging students through giving a technological approach to other activities.

1:1 technology has also improved teaching and learning in my classroom by raising engagement.

Students have learned to become more independent and also how to use technology to collaborate and cooperate with their peers. Teaching using 1:1 technology has provided me with more opportunities to personalise learning and therefore supports me in ensuring all students make progress every day.

Mrs O’Donnell

How using iPads has changed the way I teach Food Technology

As Head of Food for Life Skills, I have found 1:1 devices to be extremely useful. We use the iPad in numerous ways, that have really enhanced my own pedagogy as well as my students’ learning and progress. iPads have allowed students to become more independent with both theory and practical work. For instance, whilst cooking, students use their iPads to access recipes, record various stages of production and to record and evaluate their final outcome.

Using the facility to make notes in their recipe iBook whilst watching demonstrations allows students to develop their own strategies during practicals. From a teaching perspective I am able to instantly show good practice using the iPad and Apple TV. Student independence has also been supported by sharing our whole scheme of work with resources in our departmental iTunes U course. Students have

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resources for each of the outlined lessons, which they can access as and when they need, with differentiated resources available for our students with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND), English as an Additional Language (EAL) and other learning needs, as well as extension work.

Using the iPad for homework has made a very positive difference. I generate a template homework book using Book Creator for my students for the term, which becomes a live workbook that is marked with feedback. I like the fact that I can give feedback in various ways using Showbie, which means I can tailor the method to best suit each student’s needs.

Using a combination of Showbie and iDoceo I can also track and monitor students’ grades, ensuring that their progress is evidenced irrespective of whether it exists in a physical exercise book or in their digital portfolio.

Ms Bashir

Student support with literacy and EAL

I first started using iPads at Hove Park two and a half years ago, having never used one before. My initial role at the school was as a Literacy Coach, supporting students one-to-one with literacy skills, and I’ve now moved to supporting students with English as an additional language (EAL) across the school.

My use of the iPad has been consistent throughout each of my roles. I found starting out with it an enjoyably steep but ultimately straightforward learning curve. I particularly enjoy the different ways I can use iPads to engage students with their work.

As a Literacy Coach I used apps to look at student’s handwriting such as Cursive Practice, word apps such as Word Salad, mind-mapping apps like Popplet to make word connections, spelling test apps, Nearpod to devise lessons, Keynote to make presentations, Word Mover to make sentences, Showbie to disseminate and collect work and Book Creator to make a resource for students to record their work.

In a recent EAL session I worked with a student who had only been in the UK for five months. We worked on questions and vocabulary in a GCSE Science exam paper. As we identified new words, the student wrote them into a book along with translations from Google Translate. I set up a Showbie class for her to join where I had placed a template of a Keyword Book and I showed her examples of year 7 students’ Keyword Books. She got a clear idea of what to do by seeing the examples and set about adding keywords, translations and images from the web to illustrate each word, for example a picture and translation for the keyword ‘nucleus’. I asked her to tell me what a nucleus was in English, in her own words and in a sentence, which she typed onto the page. I encouraged her to be as creative as she wanted to be with her Keyword Book and she was very engaged. These activities will help her to practise this new vocabulary in a different way, whilst the images will help her to remember the word and as it is also a record of her work she will be able to use it every day to support her learning.

A future step will be to get her to expand her sentences and to record herself saying each word.

This will increase her confidence in her own spoken English and remind her of the pronunciation of the words. We’ve previously used a similar approach to great effect with Literacy Coaching, as students evidence progress of their reading skills by recording themselves reading aloud at the start of the intervention and then reading the same piece of text again at the end of the intervention. Aside from monitoring purposes this is very effective in helping the students to appreciate for themselves how their fluency, intonation and accuracy have improved. They can hear the change and are proud of their achievements. Many students reported an increased confidence in reading out loud and answering questions in class as a result of this and other activities in Literacy Coaching, based around use of the iPad.

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Art round up There has been so much creative energy in the art rooms this year, making it very difficult to select individual pieces to highlight here.

However, it’s worth mentioning that our newest and most exciting projects have been the Niki de Saint Phalle sculptures, produced by year 8 students and Steam Punk clay sculptures by year 9.

There has also been some very exciting art generated from the year 11 ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ project. Lots of bleeding limbs, decapitated heads and generally disturbing outcomes have filled the art room. Some great contributions to the sensational exhibition that took place in July.

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GCSE photography This year is the first year we have entered students for GCSE photography. The coursework projects encouraged students to analyse subject matter in detail and explore the formal elements of line, shape and texture.

Students were also encouraged to work as documentary photographers and shoot from the hip in urban environments.

By the time students reach the exam, they are confident and skilled in their ability to work independently towards themes of their own choice. The number of personal responses students have made, required the art department to expand the annual Summer exhibition.

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A level art and photography This year A level students have exceeded their skills and practices beyond previous years. Students have produced extensive bodies of work and demonstrated maturity and sophistication in their responses to a wide range of starting points.

Students are encouraged to own their space and environment in the sixth form and use the art and photography spaces to work independently and in their own time. They have portrayed themselves as great role models and practitioners to the rest of the school, both in their attitude to learning and their exemplar work.

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The COMPACT award Hove Park Sixth Form has been working closely with the University of Brighton for many years, and have recently been awarded for their work. Sixth form students get to try out university lectures in subjects they have an interest in, quiz current degree students about their chosen courses, and become part of the University of Brighton COMPACT programme that aims to support sixth formers with their subject choices through taster sessions and personal guidance.

Last year, students took part in a film making course in a real film studio and medical students had the chance to try out their skills in an operating theatre, but only on the dummy!

Hove Park Sixth Form is very proud to be recognized for their work with post 18 providers including Brighton University and will continue to inspire young people to take the plunge and experience university life.

Sixth formers University Parliament trip taster day On Friday 18th March, a group of year 12 and year 13 law and politics students enjoyed a visit to the House of Commons and House of Lords.

On Wednesday 24th February a group of year 12 students visited Brighton University to get first-hand experience of life on campus.

The trip was arranged courtesy of ‘Inspiring the Future’ (ITF), an organisation that aims to facilitate career networks between colleges and local volunteers from the working world.

The students were given the opportunity to talk frankly with current students as well as try out three different faculty areas.

First, we undertook a guided tour of both Houses of Parliament. It was highly inspirational to picture the setting of so much legislative procedure discussed in class. And did you know that the late Michael Jackson asked to buy the Queen’s Throne in the Lords? Regrettably, it was not for sale.

Secondly, students participated in a ‘speed networking’ session with the Commons’ employees, discussing possible career options and pathways.

The quality of questioning was excellent. We all agreed that it would be great to utilise the ITF volunteer placement service in other A2 subjects in the future.

In business, students were asked to promote a product to a given target market, including packaging, pricing and branding.

In health, students watched a nursing assessment, which involved interactive robotic patients and a control room where conditions like heart attacks can be simulated. The students also got the chance to handle the robot and check it’s pulse.

Finally, students were introduced to crime as a topic of study, and looked into the grey areas of law and what constitutes a crime in the UK.

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University destination highlights 2016 Name

Course

Destination

Lucy Birch

English Literature and Creative Writing

University of Brighton

Oliver Blackmore

Biological Sciences

University of Brighton

Gareth Bourne

English

University of Nottingham

Kyle Edmond

Mathematics

University of South Wales

Lucy Eldridge

Geography

University of Brighton

Joseph Farebrother

Mathematics and Computer Science

Oxford University

Alicia Gomez-Dubberley

Contemporary Media Cultures

University of the Arts London

James Holmes

Chinese and French

University of Leeds

Irene Kairlas

Pharmacology (Foundation)

Kingston University

Connor Keehan

Mathematics

Sussex University

Jack Melling

Criminology

University of Bedfordshire

Lindani Mnkandhla

International Tourism Management

Plymouth University

Mehdi Mojabi

Pharmaceutical and Chemical Sciences

University of Brighton

Ronan Murphy-Coghlan

Politics

Canterbury Christ Church University

Philobater Nazim

Pharmaceutical and Chemical Sciences

University of Brighton

Pishoi Philips

Interior Architecture

Middlesex University

Rachel Alice Powell

Criminology

Roehampton University

Liam Purtell

History

University of Southampton

Stanley John Richards

Mathematics and Physics

University of Exeter

Rebecca Louise Sargeant

Television and Broadcasting

University of Portsmouth

Callum Jordan Smith

Automotive and Transport Design

Coventry University

Dawn Smith

Psychology

Sussex University

Daisy Snook

Geography

University of Nottingham

Kelli Snow

Chiropractic

Anglo-European College of Chiropractic

Lily Starr

Applied Psychology (Clinical)

University of Exeter

Special Thanks With special thanks to... parents and carers for their continued support; all our teachers and support staff for their tireless dedication and commitment, our students for their enthusiasm and for always striving to achieve their best, our governors for their valuable time, input and guidance, all our partner schools and colleges for working with us to create a successful learning network across the City. And finally, to the kind sponsors below, who supported us in producing this publication.

Our kind sponsors

Hove Park School

Almanac 2015-16