Birkenhead School - School of the Week (Liverpool Echo)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2014

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LANGUAGE LOVE! Litherland college wins prestigious national award

By LORNA HUGHES ECHO Reporter lorna.hughes@trinitymirror.com @lorna_hughes

A LIVERPOOL sixth form college with a way with words has been honoured for its excellence in languages.

South Sefton College in Litherland was recognised at the British Academy Schools Language Award for its “Love Languages” project, which sees students undertaking work placements as language assistants in schools across Merseyside.

The college was also awarded the overall National British Academy Language Award and received £6,000 to continue its work with languages.

The winning project was selected by a panel of judges from over 100 applications from across the UK.

Dr Kim Wallace, assistant principal at South Sefton College said: “It’s fabulous to be recognised for our Love Languages project; the initiative is something that has been in development for two years, and the uptake for the programme and the passion from all involved has intensified year on year.

“We’re so happy to also have received a further award in recognition of the outstanding achievements of this student-led project.

“At South Sefton College, we’re renowned for being incredibly passionate about offering a broad range of enrichment programmes for our students.

“We believe that each of our young people deserve to be given the very best opportunities to meet leaders outside the sphere of the college to

■■South Sefton College in Litherland has been nationally honoured for excellence in languages at the British Academy Schools Language Awards

help them prepare for the world of work or higher education.”

The college describes the Love Languages project as an intensive programme of language enhancement designed to enable students to develop their knowledge of languages whilst cultivating invaluable skills for university or the world of work.

Students can complete work experience placements and work with uni-

versity lecturers at University of Liverpool and Manchester Metropolitan University.

The college says the British Academy Schools Language Award will fund further development of the project, including work experience placements abroad and strengthening international links with schools and businesses.

As winners of the national acco-

Pupil of the Week

Magic Maddie is a school marvel

EACH week ECHO Education salutes a pupil going the extra mile, in and out of the classroom.

This week stepping into the limelight is Maddie Unsworth, a first year pupil at Birkenhead School.

Teachers say clever Maddie, 12, works hard in class and is also a talented musician who took part in the school’s Christmas

Celebration performance.

She said: “I like coming to school to see my friends and I like doing fun things in lessons.

“At the moment I’m learning about the Battle of Hastings and I’ve also been practising for the school concert.”

Maddie and her classmates have added some movie magic to English class for

their latest project.

She said: “We did some filming for a trailer for a film of a book we’re reading called Tins.

“It’s about a boy called Fergal who finds gruesome objects in tins. We did storyboards and a pitch to the rest of the class.

“I love writing stories and poems and I would like to be an author.”

lade, South Sefton College has also been invited to be a part of the Born Global research project; an initiative which aims to investigate the nature and extent of language needs in the labour market and implications for languages education from school to higher education. A panel of judges assessed the originality, credibility and potential sustainability of the proposals and awarded South Sefton

College with a British Academy Schools Award alongside 13 other schools up and down the country.

Robin Jackson, chief executive and secretary of the British Academy said: “We heartily congratulate the winning projects, whose progress we will follow with great interest. We hope they will become beacons of good practice and inspiration and help to turn the tide on Britain’s language deficit.”

Name: Maddie Unsworth Age: 12 Favourite teacher: Mrs Pankhurst Strengths: English and history Could do better: I like most of my subjects!

■■Maddie Unsworth, 12, from Birkenhead School

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ECHO Education

ECHO

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2014

School of the Week

CREATING SKILLS AT HeadLines

STAYING behind after class today is Dr Jerry Grundy, Headmaster at Birkenhead School Years in post: Since September – I’ve served my first 100 days in office!

Your leadership style in three words: Strong, enfranchising, charismatic Worst thing you did as a pupil: I absent-mindedly turned a Bunsen burner on in the science lab then just wandered off. I almost blew up the entire science block! I was in an awful lot of hot water.

Best thing: I represented my school in all the first teams across every sport Hobbies/interests: Sport – I’m trying to get back into squash and my big interest is music – it’s very much about rock music for me Albums on your playlist this week: Lou Reed’s New York, Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan, Your hero/heroine and why: Philosophy is my specialist subject and my favourite philosopher is Friedrich Nietzsche. I look up to him and he serves as a big inspiration for me. He was an original thinker.

This week Lorna Hughes meets the talented scientsts of Birkenhead School in Wirral

RESEARCH on the remineralisation of teeth and the science behind liquitabs used in washing machines – it all sounds far too advanced for secondary school.

But it’s projects like these that are giving pupils at Birkenhead School the cutting edge when it comes to science.

Not only do older students have the chance to work on the sort of practical research you’d expect to find at degree level, but they are delving deeper into the subject through science clubs – and by mentoring budding scientists in younger year groups.

Headmaster Dr Jerry Grundy, who jokes that he is still “the new kid in the block” after his arrival in September, says the school’s success in science – reflected in outstanding exam results year-on-year – is a tradition he hopes to uphold.

And he stresses that at Birkenhead School, it’s cool to be clever.

He said: “I was so excited to join the school. Its reputation as a school and for its science results extends well beyond Wirral and Merseyside.

It’s very well established and I would love to be able to contribute to that and promote the sciences still further.

“From my own point of view, what’s so impressive is not only the results that we get – which really are second to none – but they are getting a very good preparation for university.

“Many go on to do individual pure sciences or joint sciences or medicine and dentistry.

“Equally impressive is what goes on beyond the exams. There are so many competitions that we enter. We do a lot of work with Liverpool University and a number of students

■■Pupils Edward George, 16, left, and Holly Lyas, 16, from Birkenhead School, take part in a science experiment 111214SOTW_08

undertake Nuffield Research.

“They complement their work at school with experiences they will be able to take on to university and their later careers.”

Nuffield Research placements – previously known as Nuffield Science Bursaries – provide post-16 students with the opportunity to work alongside professional scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.

From dissecting a frog to using a

tion, said: “The characters don’t succeed at once – they fail and fail again. So the final solution is more of a joy when it arrives.

And it is original; to have a white cloud as a character is new to me.” Layla said: “I love writing stories and want to be an author when I’m older.”

GEOGRAPHY students from Belvedere Academy in Princes Park became record breakers when they took part in the world’s biggest data

He said: “Over the last 15 years we have really pushed the practical side of science and we do a lot of practical work, whereas some schools will shy away from it. It does make a big difference.”

Science clubs start in Birkenhead

School’s Prep, for the school’s youngest pupils, and continue right through to Sixth Form.

When I visited, A Level students were using a double period to continue their research into the science behind washing machine liquitabs.

Mr Hayward said: “We have this double period there for students to do these sort of research projects and they will learn some of the pops and bangs type experiments.

“Each year a group of students will

Around the Classes

Noticeboard A PRIMARY school pupil was named as a runner-up in a national short story competition. Layla Smith, seven, a pupil at Black Horse Hill Junior School in West Kirby, wrote “Once upon a time there was a fluffy white cloud” for the VTech competition for four to eight-year-olds.

Layla’s story is about a lonely polar bear who tries to make friends with a white cloud. Horrible Histories author Terry Deary, who judged the competi-

Bunsen burner, we all remember the school science lessons that took us away from the textbooks – and head of science Mike Hayward says that’s exactly what sets Birkenhead School apart.

JAMES MALONEY

mapping event. The project, supported by the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) and Esri UK, saw students from 24 GDST schools plot location data on a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) map alongside answers to questions about life in their local area. Students were able to use mapping applications to examine the patterns which emerged.

■■YOUNG singers from a Merseyside primary school have been raising their voices to raise funds for a Liverpool hospital. The 57-strong Show Choir from St Mary’s College preparatory school, The Mount in Crosby, performed a selection of carols and songs from the shows in the foyer of the Royal Liverpool Hospital

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2014

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T SCHOOL OF SCIENCE VoxPupils

BIRKENHEAD School students on science, research projects and sharing their science skills FRANCESCA Way, 16, said: “We are working on a research project to do with washing machine tablets and looking at the enzymes.”

SAM GavinPitt, 17, said: “We are looking at washing tablets, how they work, what’s in them and looking at the science behind them.”

■■Pupils Nomia Navaratnarajan, 18, left, and John Gibson, 17, test their scientific skills

decide what they are interested in.

Some wanted to be dentists, so we did a project on demineralising teeth and this year it’s liquitab research. It usually comes out of advertising, so the teeth research was from adverts about a toothpaste which claimed to repair tooth enamel.

“We have also had research on nerve transmission and the antioxidant properties of superfoods.

“We are also running two science fairs in January and February. Local

Cubs will come in and spend time doing experiments on a round robin basis, and that will give them their science badge.

And this approach ties in with Dr Grundy’s three key aims for his next year at the independent, co-educational school – not to be confused with the nearby academy which also bears the Birkenhead name.

He has introduced the idea of “intellectual hand grenades”, with pupils challenged to think on their ■■Crosby student Campbell Wallace swapped the classroom for the cameras as he presented a piece for CBBC’s Newsround. The budding Trevor Macdonald, a pupil at Sacred Heart Catholic College, presented a piece about Liverpool’s Everyman Theatre winning the prestigious Stirling Prize for being Britain’s best new building of 2014

111214SOTW_07

JAMES MALONEY

feet about issues of the day or it’s really all about varying the diet brainteasers – just as they will need to that the students receive in school to keep them fully engaged and stimuin university or job interviews.

He said: “My first aim is to encour- lated. age pupils’ independent thinking, so “When you hear “peer pressure” it they think outside the box. often has negative connotations but “We don’t know what problems the at Birkenhead School, there’s a really next generation is going to be solving, strong work ethic. so it’s all about creating skills for “If you can get swept along by that them. tide, the peer pressure kids are under “Hand in hand with that is from the transforms itself into something really teaching perspective, to encourage a positive. variety of different methodologies – “Clever is cool here.”

ELEANOR Hilton, 16, said: “We do academic mentoring throughout the school and help at science clubs with experiments.”

HOLLY Lyas, 16, said: “We get lots of opportunities to do science and there are clubs for younger years.

I want to go into medicine.”

■■Tranmere Rovers players Max Power, Michael Ihieke, Jay Hunter, Danny Holmes and Luke Pilliny visited Weatherhead High School in Wallasey to congratulate the U13 Girls Football team on winning the Girls Cup. They beat off competition from other local schools teams across two rounds in the competition, hosted by Tranmere Rovers FC and organised by Tranmere Rovers in the Community.

The Weatherhead team will represent Tranmere in the regional finals in Shrewsbury in January