LSF.WEEK 26 June 2020
STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIRMAN, LOUGHBOROUGH SCHOOLS FOUNDATION 26 June 2020 The Board of Governors met yesterday in order to discuss how the Foundation might better embrace diversity and inclusiveness, and in so doing, create an environment where discrimination of any nature will not be tolerated in any shape or form. Governors were unanimous in their commitment to making the Foundation’s Schools beacons of inclusivity. To support the Foundation in this aim, Governors have commissioned an independent external review of issues of race and inclusion within our Schools and Foundation community. The review will address issues of ethnicity and religious diversity within the Foundation to support Governors in better understanding and addressing those areas where improvement is required, as well as identifying areas of good practice upon which the Schools can build. It will focus on three areas: Culture, Curriculum and People and will provide evidencebased recommendations to Governors. Governors are pleased to announce that Dr Jeffery Quaye and Dr Fiona Hammans will lead this review. Dr Quaye is an experienced education leader, school inspector and Chief Executive in the South-Central region of Aspirations Academies Trust and has advised UK government on education issues, with expertise in governance and improvement. He is the author of a thought-provoking book on how race, social class and gender all affect attainment in mathematics, as well as a number of articles on race and education. Dr Hammans is CEO of Abingdon Learning Trust and a former Head and school inspector with experience of leadership across nursery, primary and secondary schools. Much of the review and analysis will be completed over the summer break setting the scene for a range of pupil, staff and parent group meetings to be convened in the new academic year. These meetings will explore the perception and experience of all our stakeholders, the details of how parents and pupils may contribute to the process will be provided in due course. While the external review will focus on issues of race and ethnicity, the Governors are committed to addressing wider diversity and inclusivity. Thank you to everyone who has already been in touch, to share your thoughts and suggestions of actions that could be taken to address this; these responses will be shared with the reviewers to inform their own work. At the same time the Heads are already considering how some of the wider suggestions to make the schools truly inclusive may be acted upon. We can be very clear that the Foundation will continue to listen to its parents, pupils and alumni and that your views will be instrumental in shaping our next steps, and we encourage you to continue to send your experiences and suggestions to diversityandinclusion@lsf.org The Board of Governors wish to thank you for your support and remain committed to creating a genuinely equitable School community.
Thank you The staff at Fairfield have once again risen to I would like to thank the Fairfield the challenge in welcoming back the children parents for their patience and from Years 2 to 5 on a suitably bright and sunny understanding, particularly with their cooperation in making the respective Monday morning. coloured pod drop offs and pick-ups so
wonderfully efficient, thus ensuring that using the Foundation’s main car park might actually have become a daily pleasure rather than something of a chore.
It has been truly heart-warming to see the wide smiles, laughter and excitement of all our children (and parents!) as they took to their two metre markings, in readiness for their socially distanced approach into school.
We await further governmental guidance with bated breath regarding the start of term in September. However, having successfully delivered a full return to School in the most challenging of situations, I am certain that Fairfield will be more than ready to rise to the challenge to provide your children with a first class education, whether in pods or full classes, once the Autumn term commences.
The atmosphere around the campus was positively upbeat, particularly as the returning classes completed the Fairfield Royal Flush, with every single year group attending School. Equally impressive is that we have had approximately 86% of our children back in School this week with some classes enjoying a 100% return of their pupils.
Pod Life Due to strict government guidance stipulating that children cannot be in groups of more than 15, many of the children have found themselves working with different teachers and classmates this week. However, ‘Pod Life’ at Fairfield is most definitely alive and kicking! There was perhaps no better illustration of this than in Mr Moseley’s reintegration video, which has had record viewings on the Year 3 section of Firefly and pays homage to the well-known Brit Pop anthem, “Parklife” by Blur. Feedback from parents thus far has been positively glowing, as parents “are happy for the rest of the day, safe in the knowledge that children have returned to school seamlessly”. https://media.lsf.org/View.
Park Pod Life (To be sung to the tune of Park Life by Blur) Coming back to Fairfield is going to be very different in what is known as (POD LIFE) You’re going to be doing a lot of handwashing over the day but it’s going to be OK in what is known as (POD LIFE) You’re going to be making friends, having lots of fun and doing exciting things (POD LIFE) Who’s that man shouting down the megaphone, you should walk round the track mate, get some exercise All the children So many children And they don’t go hand-in-hand Washing their hands clean Pod Life Know what I mean? I can’t get up when I want except on weekends when I get rudely awakened by the postmen (POD LIFE) I put my uniform on, pack my bag and I think about leaving the house (POD LIFE)
Andrew Earnshaw Headmaster
I social distance, I sanitise my hands too It gives me a sense of enormous wellbeing (POD LIFE) And then I’m happy for the rest of the day safe in the knowledge there will always be a bit of my heart devoted to it All the children So many children And they don’t go hand-in-hand Washing their hands clean Pod Life Pod Life (POD LIFE) Pod Life (POD LIFE) It’s got everything to do with your 20 second wash technique, you know? (POD LIFE) (POD LIFE) and it’s not about mixing when you walk round and round and round (POD LIFE) (POD LIFE) All the children So many children And they don’t go hand-in-hand Washing their hands clean Pod Life Know what I mean? All the children So many children And they don’t go hand-in-hand Washing their hands clean Pod Life Mr Moseley© 2020
Happy welcome back
Tall ship trip
There were lots of happy faces on Monday morning as we welcomed back our pupils in the Prep School (Years 2 to 5).
Congratulations to Megan in Year 13, who has been selected to take part in a tall ship trip later this summer as part of the UK Launch of Darwin200. This is a voyage which will take place in 2021-2023 replicating Charles Darwin’s trip around the world on HMS Beagle. There were over 130 applicants and only 12 were selected to sail alongside the professional crew and a team of scientists, so this is a fantastic achievement for Megan. Megan’s fantastic experience in LSF Combined Cadet Force undoubtedly played a key part in her selection for the Darwin200 team. The voyage itself is actually an environmental project looking at ocean conservation (loss of habitat & wildlife, ocean plastics, coral and solutions to these challenges) and the crew will be testing equipment in UK waters in preparation for the full voyage starting next year.
Inspiring interview Another of our CCF cadets, Pippa (who has been recently promoted to the rank of Sergeant) interviewed Pilot Kirsty Murphy earlier this week as part of her remote learning. Kirsty Murphy studied aeronautical engineering at Imperial College, and after a stint as an instructor on Hawks, was a
Pop up creativity This week Year 7’s have been discovering how to create pop up cards in their Design & Technology lessons.
front-line pilot on Tornado GR4s in Iraq, and then became the first (and only) female member of the Red Arrows. She retired from the RAF after 17 years and is now a display pilot for the Blades aerobatic team and an Aviation Ambassador for the Department of Transport. Kirsty has had quite a career!
They have been experimenting with different mechanisms and then creating their own fantastic cards. Here are two of their fabulous creations, a music inspired card from Jonny and a beautiful flamingo from Nina.
A big thank you Finally, thank you to all our Year 12 students and parents who came in for meetings with their tutor and myself on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is great to see how hard these students have worked during lockdown and the information gathered during these meetings has been invaluable for our planning for September. It is also good to see how far ahead of the game Year 12 are this year regarding UCAS preparation and personal statements. In particular, it is good to have our applications for medicine and Oxbridge courses effectively completed. A big thank you to our Sixth Form team for their work on this.
Julian Murphy Headmaster
Human life returns to Burton Walks It has been lovely to hear boys’ voices back on the campus since our ‘Wellbeing School’ started on 8 June. In recent days, Year 10 boys have been back consulting their tutors and thinking about their preparation for the key GCSE year ahead.
Drama students have been working hard in our studio preparing their group devised pieces for Year 11 under the watchful eyes of Mrs Bruton and Ms Hooper.
Ultimately, however, you sense that the most important thing in the boys’ minds is the chance to interact with one another for the first time in 3 months!
Practical Science
Biology extension
During our online learning, boys have missed undertaking the experiments that are such a core part of science education.
Year 12 boys are now focusing increasingly on preparation for university applications, so that the UCAS form can be completed at the very start of September.
The Grammar School expects all boys to undertake an independent piece of research such as the Extended Project Qualification (equivalent to half an A Level) or our own Kerr Award essay prize sponsored by an alumnus.
However, particularly now that the good weather has returned, the science departments are encouraging boys to design and create their own practicals.
There are also a number of subjectspecific national competitions and many congratulations to Phil and George (Y12) who have made it through to the final of the Royal Society of Biology’s essay competition. Phil’s entry asks ‘Is Genetic engineering destroying diversity?’ while George has chosen the title: ‘Should humans interfere with biodiversity?’
Year 7 boys have been making their own wind turbines with the results featuring on Mr Parton’s Twitter feed. Jack (Y7) should be particularly commended for producing enough power to lift a 3kg brick with the assistance of his parents’ leaf blower!
UCAS information booklet 2020-21 1
Science Detectives Many congratulations to the Year 10 boys who have been successful in the 3M Science Detectives competition.
Duncan Byrne Headmaster
They have shown great determination to complete their entry under the challenging conditions of lockdown. This is a team event: Tom, Nathanael, Ishr and Josh achieved second place, whilst Ben, Simeon, Harry and Darius were highly commended.
William (Y9) is also through to the final of the Royal Society of Biology’s poster competition and, as with the essay entrants, will undertake a Zoom defence of his poster to a panel of judges.
Gold Crest for Manasi Year 11 student Manasi has received feedback on her STEM project on ‘The Chemistry Behind Digestion’ from the external examiner and has received a Gold CREST award as a result. Manasi completed a superb piece of work which took her about 120 hours, including design, research, experimentation and production of a professionally referenced final report. Well done, Manasi - you deserve it!
Lockdown has certainly encouraged the girls to be adventurous with their entries and there have been numerous videos and podcasts as well as posters, paintings, models and many baked goods!
Year 8 pupils had the topic of the English Civil Wars. They also amazed staff with a variety of baked goods, including a cake baked in the shape of a Cavalier hat, real meat mince pies, jumbles and fig rolls. There was also a huge selection of posters, booklets, paintings and diary entries as well as handsewn outfits, both large and small.
History Challenge: Years 7, 8 and 9 Over the past few weeks all the girls have been busy creating an entry for the annual High School History Challenge.
The Year 9 topic of World War Two seemed to really inspire the girls. Entries included presentations on Bletchley Park, models of Anderson shelters, make up demonstrations, musical performances of Dame Vera Lynn and Glen Miller, a full sized handmade Women’s Land Army uniform, a ride in a spitfire simulator, a podcast of the Polish airmen in the Battle of Britain and lots more cakes (made with rations..) the girls had clearly pulled out all the stops!
This gives the girls the opportunity to create or make anything to do with their current history topics and really promotes independent learning. The teaching staff have been absolutely delighted with the high quality of entries received, which have been presented by the girls in their online lessons.
Drama competition winners During lockdown our Drama Prefect, Kyla, launched a drama competition to allow the girls a chance to get creative with Drama. There were three categories; dance, monologues/duologue’s and musical theatre. A massive well done to all the girls that took part, all the performances were excellent and the winners were as follows.
Year 7 had the topic of the Middle Ages. There have been a real selection of entries; handmade bows and arrows, a medieval outfit, a video presentation on the First and Second Battles of Tarain, a poem on the Peasants Revolt, motte and bailey castles made both out of cardboard and cake, stained glass windows and medieval lettering amongst many others.
DANCE COMPETITION; Winner, Years 7-8, Jemima in Year 8. Jemima’s lyrical dance was heartfelt and beautiful to watch. The judges thoroughly enjoyed her performance. Winner, Years 9-10, Josephine in Year 9. Josephine’s contemporary dance was very elegant and the performance was well rehearsed with some impressive tricks and flexibility.
Winner, Years 11-13, Helena in Year 11. Helena used the space well and her performance was graceful, full of energy and well-choreographed. MUSICAL THEATRE; Winner, Years 7-8, Ruby. There were many excellent entries however Ruby’s performance was the most energised as she sang Cups from Pitch Perfect. A truly uplifting performance including the famous cup choreography. MUSICAL COMPETITION; Winner, Years 9-10, Megan in Year 10. Megan sang Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Classic; Don’t Cry For Me Argentina. It was beautifully sung with great technique. Winner, Years 11-13, a duet by Lizzie and Libby in Year 12. The duet complimented both voices, they showed great technique and ability to blend their voices to one another.
Fiona Miles Head
MONOLOGUE; Winner of the monologue category was Emily in year 10. She performed Mary Warren’s monologue from The Crucible. Emily demonstrated great understanding of the text. She committed to her character and even managed to create a costume.
Another week has passed and we are relishing getting back into the swing of things here at the Nursery. This week, our Developers have been exploring their animal chimes and listening to the sounds they make. The children have also been busy making parrots using various coloured feathers to get ready for their tropical summer display.
Crescent shaped moon Exploring the crescent/moon shape for their shape of the month, Investigators and Pathfinders used their colouring skills with felt tip pens to create lots of different patterns. The children were also busy being creative, choosing colours and using their hands to decorate a special card for Father’s Day.
Pioneers are continuing to welcome their children back and we are so proud to see how much they have grown and learnt during their time at home. This week the children have been enjoying activities in literacy and numeracy. This has included cutting animals and sticking them in order of size, using the tweezers to count out the correct number of farm animals and writing farm animal names in our tray filled with dried rice. We are also getting lots of mini-beast visitors into our Pioneers garden! Look at the beautiful Admiral butterfly on our Buddleia bush.
Carla Brindley Nursery Manager
Sports
IN THE NEWS... HIGH SCHOOL WORLD SERIES CHALLENGE 2020 UPDATE
WEBINAR Listen to Foundation Director of Sport, Jo Hackett, talking about the future of school sport with the PADSIS Chairman, Neil Rollings.
With the final week of the World Series Challenge fast approaching, the PE department would like to take this opportunity to share some of the amazing work that has been going on in PE lessons and to provide a podium update based on points accumulated so far. Keep an eye out on the schools PE Twitter page next week for live updates and the big announcement of the final results on Friday! @LboroHSSport
Jo explains her role across the four schools and suggests how the pandemic might influence school sport in the short and medium term. Link: Talking School Sport: The Future of School Sport with Director of Sport across the Loughborough Foundation, Jo Hackett
SIX FOR YEAR 7!
RACE FOR LIFE
The Year 7 boys at the Grammar School are keen to impress with their cricket skills. Mr Parton has set them another challenge to video themselves practicing their cricket skills in the garden.
Since January Miss Coady from the High School has been training for the Nottingham 10 km Race For Life event that was meant to be held on Sunday 7 June. She was in the final week of her first training program when lockdown was announced and all Race For Life events for 2020 had been cancelled.
Ideas could be keepy-uppys, re-enacting a famous moment in cricket history or playing a family game of cricket. We are sure the Year 7 boys will rise to the challenge and an entertaining end of term video will be created shortly!
Miss Coady was determined to keep training and decided to “race” 10 km on every Sunday of June. The initial goal was to aim for a target race time of 1:05:00 but then she challenged herself to beat her time each week. She is preparing for her final run on Saturday and hopes to break her time again. Miss Coady is raising funds for Cancer Research UK and any donations to her fundraising page are greatly appreciated, since she is close to her target of £200. https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk. org/page/ellens-race-for-life-10kchallenge-2020
CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to Mr Clarke, Head of Hockey at the Grammar School, who has been recognised for his contribution to Youth Hockey Development across Leicestershire. A well-deserved award for all the hard work and dedication that Mr Clarke gives to the sport.
A big thank you to one of our Year 13 students Jess for delivering some fantastic live Dance sessions during the past few weeks. Our girls have been learning some classic favourites such as The Greatest Showman, Hannah Montana and High School Musical and have absolutely loved it!!
CCF
IN THE NEWS...
COMBINED CADET FORCE We have been really impressed with all those cadets attending remote training this term, and especially our NonCommissioned Officers. They have shown great determination and innovation in continuing to deliver activities since our last update in early May, including: - Army NCOs have run physical training session, map and compass activities, and lessons on Section Battle Drills
STEM FLIGHT Outstanding among our leaders has been the unstinting effort of Flt Sgt Kerchey, for his work with the STEM Flight. He is one of our annual prize winners this year, which include: - Priestley Sword for Senior Cadet - Tom - Most Promising Junior Leader - Alexander - Best Shot - Thomas - Most Promising New Cadets: RN - Tino and Christiaan; Army – Ella (LHS) and William; RAF – Harvey and Kritveer. - Best Turnout - Miles In the absence of the physical trophies usually awarded at Annual Review, prizes will be sent in the form of Amazon vouchers. Following on from the STEM Flight’s online engineering talk with Dr Diaz of Imperial College London, several cadets conducted video interviews with current and former members of the Armed Forces. Our interviewees, all Loughburians themselves or with a connection to the school, had fascinating stories to tell. Highlights included:
- Henry delivered a tutorial on sea terms and naval knowledge - 70% of RAF basic cadets passed their Leading exams and have been awarded Leading cadet classification Roshan created a video of many of our cadets paying their respects to accompany the Headmaster’s VE Day address - Ryan led a fantastic session of shelter building, and many RAF cadets on a rainy Thursday afternoon set their shelters up by improvising with pieces of equipment in their gardens
- Pippa and Sam interviewed the first (and only) female Red Arrow, combat veteran, and Blades display pilot, Kirsty Murphy - Jared and Archie discussed life in the navy, flying helicopters, and being a ship’s captain with Cdr Pete Higgins AFC RN (OL 1997) - Tom and Lily interviewed Lt Col Adam Foden DSO MBE (OL1996), the current commanding officer of the Royal Lancers, about life in the armoured cavalry We look forward to more interviews with more serving Loughburians before the end of term. Recordings and written summaries of this interview series are being made available internally as a teaching and careers advice resource on Firefly.
Finally, we are delighted to announce the following promotions to our most senior leadership posts: - Senior Prefect, CCF - Cadet Regimental Sergeant Major Ashford - Prefect, Royal Navy - Cadet Warrant Officer Borrill - Prefect, Army - Cadet Company Sergeant Major Fergus - Prefect, Royal Air Force - Cadet Warrant Officer Oram They and the rest of the Contingent look forward to welcoming our new cadets and staff from The Grammar, Amherst, and the High School next term! Major D Murphy Contingent Commander .
Music
IN THE NEWS... #LETSMAKEMUSIC
Meanwhile the LSM Clarinet Quartet have also recorded a splendid virtual performance of Clare Grundman’s Caprice. https://youtu.be/Qhx9XLiICV4
The Loughborough Schools Music Flute Ensemble and Alumni Flute Ensemble combined for a performance of ‘Nellie the Elephant’! We are sure that you will enjoy listening to this wonderful rendition and well done to Mrs Preston for pulling everyone together and making this happen. https://youtu.be/nRwm1BWQN08
CLASSIC FM Some famous faces joined together to welcome Alexander Armstrong to his show on Classic Fm.
As Principal Cello at the National Youth Orchestra, Danushka, Year 13 at the Grammar School, was included and sent a message in the video!
LIKE & SUBSCRIBE Please Like and subscribe to the Loughborough Schools Music YouTube to hear other marvellous performances from pupils across the Foundation.
News in pictures
IN THE NEWS... REVIEW DAYS High School staff welcomed back pupils in Year 10 this week for face to face review sessions with Form Tutors and members of the Senior Leadership Team. Appointments were carefully managed to ensure appropriate social distancing however these sessions provided a step on the road back to a fuller reopening of the School in the Autumn term.
HOLIDAY COURSES
YOUNG INNOVATORS
Bookings are now being taken for the Holiday Courses held at Fairfield during the summer holiday. For all details and to make an online booking, please visit https://lsf.org/whats-on/holiday-courses
Well done to all the Fairfield children who took part in the 3M Young Innovators Challenge competition. The standard of entries was very high and the pupils designed some very interesting planes and monuments.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! Music pupils are enjoying their remote learning and here is Patrick, who is in Year 2 at Amherst, at home and practising with the tutor notes set by Mrs Burns.
PHOTOGRAPHY LIFE Well done to Shivani who is in Year 7 at the High School. She has entered her striking photographs into the Royal Society of Biology 2020 Photography Challenge. The theme is ‘our changing world’. Good luck Shivani !
MENU CHALLENGE Grammar School boys have been busy over the last eight weeks during lockdown participating in the great Menu Challenge. This week was all about spice and the boys have not disappointed with a real mix of style and tastes. Ben made an amazing Mexican Chicken, tomato and chipotle stew with pinto
bean and lime rice whilst Joshua created Peri Peri Chicken with corn on the cob amazing! Svayam cooked Dosa with spicy Potato Curry and Elliott made a delicious Chicken Raisukaree. Chefs of the week were declared as Henry for his spicy panko crusted Bang Bang Prawns and Kayan for his Indian spicy Thawa Chicken. Well done boys, keep up with the cooking!
Loughborough Schools Foundation 3 Burton Walks Loughborough Leicestershire LE11 2DU
T: 01509 283700 www.lsf.org @LboroSchFdt
Loughborough Schools Foundation is a Company Limited by Guarantee, number 4038033, and is registered in England and Wales. It is also a Registered Charity, number 1081765. The Registered Office is 3 Burton Walks, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 2DU