The Weekly Buzz
Toni Jegede
01 February 2021
Noticeboard
Final Show! Michael Morpurgo’s Tales from Shakespeare: THE WINTER’S TALE Friday 5 February at 11:00am For more information, contact your English teacher
Noticeboard Languages On Monday 1st February P3, Y10 and Y11 students will be merging on Zoom for an online session with the French Institute Rap music, Life in the ‘banlieues’, Cinema, Comedy. On Tuesday, 2nd February P5, Y8 students will also be learning with the French Institute on Paris and its Landmarks. The sessions, run by the French Institute team, will be starting at 10:55 on Monday and 13:40 on Tuesday (both 10 mins early) and students must make sure that they log-in on time. They should last an hour, so students will need to catch up if they are late for their next lesson. Students must ensure that they are ready to work and contribute actively to the session, at their desk with their camera and microphone on. A Zoom link will be sent prior to the session. Monsieur Lalande
Noticeboard
Noticeboard For Years 7 & 8 (500 words – poetry, prose or drama) 1)
If you could have a superpower, what would you like it to be, and how would you use it?
2)
Write a story beginning with the words: ‘It was exactly midnight. I sat peering through my bedroom window, wondering what the man in a black balaclava was doing, rifling through my neighbour’s dustbin.’
3)
Little White Lies.
4)
Is a dog really Man’s Best Friend?
5)
The Train Journey
6)
An Old Biscuit Tin
For Years 9—11 (500 words – poetry, prose or drama) 1)
The Rescue
2)
Shot in the Dark
3)
The Boy in the Painting
4)
The Necklace
5)
A Stitch in Time
6)
Nothing Happened Today
7)
Mission to the Unknown
8)
Into the Light
Please speak to your English teacher for more information!
Noticeboard
MUSIC DEPARTMENT REWARD Jesse F-B in Year 9 has been working fantastically hard on his Grade 4 drum kit examination but due to COVID is not able to take the formal assessment. In recognition of his achievements, the Music Department is awarding Jesse 20 Reward Points for his hard work as he moves on to prepare for his Grade 5. Well done Jesse!
Noticeboard
The 2021 UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT) Intermediate Challenge takes place this Tuesday, 2nd of February during Period 1 and part of Period 2. Students taking part must be ready to join the Zoom call at 8.45 am on the morning of the Challenge. An email containing the link to the Zoom call and full instructions
on how to take part in the Challenge has been sent to all competitors and their parents this morning (Friday 29th January). The School and the Maths department wish all our competitors the best of luck in the competition!
Noticeboard Library—Book of the Week (Year 6 & 7) https://library.thenational.academy/steal-an-elephant-with-nizrana-farook/
Listen and read along to The Girl Who Stole an Elephant by Nizrana Farook
Noticeboard
We've subscribed to watch some author visits over the coming weeks.. More information here: https:// www.festivalofliterature.co.uk/schools-programme/
Noticeboard Library—Holocaust Memorial Day I've added some optional reading resources for you on Firefly to tie in with what is happening (see task and lockdown library lessons for more information). This week’s focus is After the War by Tom Palmer, which tells the poignant story of child survivors of concentration camps who start a new life in Britain, after the war. There is another short story which looks at issues relating to the Holocaust. If you would like pupil reward points for participating please do quizzes and I can reward you. You can also do a review of this reading to earn points for the pizza challenge.
After the War sample: https://www.barringtonstoke.co.uk/books/after-the-war/
More resources: The Windermere Children (Year 10+): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dtcz
The Anne Frank house are now offering their Virtual Reality tour in 3D:
https://www.annefrank.org/en/about-us/what-we-do/ publications/anne-frank-house-virtual-reality/
News English as an Additional Language This week is about our virtual school students who gave 150% in their EAL lesson. They’ve really impressed me with their mature comments about the Holocaust and demonstrated empathy when discussing key events and situations. Well done Anna, Davyd and Volodymyr! Keep up the good work.
News Y6 & 7 Assembly Things to keep you busy in lockdown!
News
News Art Studies of an aboriginal image.
Jesse Fryer-Jacobs
News
Sumayyah Mahmoud
Muhammad Javaid
Toni Jegede
Isaac Gordon
News Art Year 6 had scent boxes, smells around the house represented with colour and textures.
Daniil Vasilyev
Nora Masciaro
News
Leila Cilengiroglu
Harrison Brudenell-Turpie
News Humphrey Boland
News Belonging Poetry As part of their study of poetry inspired by the theme of belonging, Year 10 Literature students wrote their own poems. We have some budding Romantics amongst us:
Madoc Jones
News
Laura Liu
News A Climb Up Heaven’s Stairs by Nick Bartha Shrewd early morning air biting at my legs Mist surrounding my head, not clouding, but refreshing A day of wondrous sights ahead, Yet hours of climbing not yet done Lavish greens and boisterous blues Boulders large enough to crush a soul Sitting in tranquil peace Not an hour in the sun begins to strengthen Piercing the trees Mist creeping lower and lower into the mountains Forced back by nature Mossy valleys turning into wooded forest Sings of wildlife all around A deer spotted running Startled from the crunch under foot Rabbits darting from bush to bush, Birds filtering above the treetops, Bugs crawling in the foliage below, And me Walking along Soaking in the landscape, Climbing
Tyrol, Austria
Finally, an open plane Sun shining on the tops of the mountain A small cabin to the left And to the right, My reward
A sight to behold Standing on top of the world A mountain range unrivalled to anything else Nature’s way of showing off Perfection
News
Irene Peleteiro Paniagua
News
Irene Peleteiro Paniagua
Sports report Active in Lockdown—Pupil Focus: Lawton Ballbach (Year 9) Lockdown is never an easy time for sport and exercise, but many of Portland’s pupils have been putting in the miles. Each week pupils log their activity via Strava and Year 9’s Lawton Ballbach has completed a highly impressive 125.94km on his bike and trail running. Here’s what Lawton had to say about his weekly exercise schedule:
Sports report Land’s End to John O’Groats House Challenge
Year 9 Big changes in the Year 9 leaderboard saw Devonshire’s lead slashed by Cavendish, thanks to an incredible 125.94km added by Lawton Ballbach. There are a lot of pupils in Year 9 racking up the miles, not least Huxley and Ryder Nayak and James Eadally of Wigmore who added 48.58km. House 1 : Devonshire 2nd: Cavendish st
3rd: Wigmore 4th: Langham
Total Distance 170.90km 166.33km
Top Performers Huxley Nayak: 47.22km Lawton Ballbach: 125.94km
64.54km 30.31km
James Eadally: 48.58km Jesse Fryer-Jacobs: 20.43km
Sports report Year 10 Things have taken a dramatic turn in the Year 10 Land’s End to John O’Groats Challenge this week!
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Cavendish house team member Sylvan Farmer’s Strava activity was not logging correctly, but now this issue has been resolved it turns out he has racked up some huge numbers since the start of the challenge. He has covered a staggering 100.88km since the challenge began, which is an outstanding achievement! This has bumped Cavendish house to the top of the leader board. Something similar also happened with Langham team member Alex Politi…and he has just completed 105.37km in one week! Absolutely amazing! Things are starting to hot up… House 1 : Cavendish 2nd: Langham 3rd: Wigmore 4th: Devonshire st
Total Distance 228.14km 177.00km 119.92km 20.90km
Top Performers Jake Cossey: 34..52km Alex Politi: 105.37km Kieran McKintosh: 18.85km Nicolas Bartha: 7.68km
Total Distance 225.16km 137.83km 91.85km 89.38km
Top Performers Martin Ris: 26.71km Humphrey Boland: 29.01km Leyla Cilengiroglu: 11.45km Tec Hennebry: 23.52km
Total Distance 78.56km 66.27km 41.23km 16.95km
Top Performers Sonny Brendon: 9.14km Miles Sellens-Flack: 7.56km Gabriel Aldis: 3.87km Ali Abdel-Khaleq: 7.84km
Year 6 & 7 House 1 : Cavendish 2nd: Langham 3rd: Wigmore 4th: Devonshire st
Year 8 House st
1 : Langham 2nd: Cavendish 3rd: Devonshire 4th: Wigmore
Top 5 Female Performers This Week Susan Li (Y6) Olivia Solomou (Y7) Leyla Cilengiroglu (Y6)
15.04km 12.39km 11.45km
Lana Tuite (Y9) Lexi Horne (Y9)
11.32km 08.26km
Sports report Year 8 Friday Fitness Challenge Year 8 have been working hard in the in their ‘Fitness Friday’ Lessons! They recently performed very well in a ‘workout for time’ challenge. The challenge involved pupils completing a variety of exercises with good technique as quickly as possible! Pupils had to perform 3 rounds of 5 exercises, each round consisted of 50 star jumps, 40 squats, 30 lunges, 20 sit ups and 10 push ups – the fastest pupil to complete the full workout would win the challenge! It was not easy but Year 8 really worked their socks off. I’m sure there were some
very sore bodies the next day!
Well done to the following 3 pupils who completed the challenge in the quickest times.
1st - Gabriel Aldis – 8.02
2nd - Sasha Cerna – 11.33 3rd - Isabella Calvert Bull - 13.49
Y8 Friday Fitness Challenge Leader: Gabriel Aldis. Well done!
Diary CLUBS 12:50-13:45
Monday
Chamber Choir - Room 1 - Miss Boyle
12:50—13:40
Y6-11 Table Tennis Club, PPS Hall
Friday
12:50—13:40
Y6-8 Drama Club, Drama Studio
12:50—13:50
GCSE Art Club, Miss Dever, H11
12:50—13:40
Y6-8 Book Club
12:50—13:40
Y6-11 Table Tennis Club, PPS Hall
12:50—13:40
Advanced Arabic, Ms Elshelmani, G41
12:50—13:40
Digital Theatre & Club, Drama Studio
12:50—13:40
Y11 GCSE Art Club, Ms Osborne, HH12 (invite only)
12:50—13:40
GCSE Spanish, Ms Magniez, G32
13:15—13:45
KS3 Science Journal & Book Club, H1
12:50—13:45
Vocal Ensemble, Ms Ryder, R1
12:55—13:40
UKMT Maths Challenge practice, G41
13:10—13:45
Y11 Science Revision (Biology), H1
Tuesday 12:50—13:35
Senior Weights Club (Y9-11), PPS Changing Rooms
12:50—13:45
GCSE French, Mr Lalande, G41
12:50—13:45
PPS Choir, Mr Hill & Miss Boyle, GPS Hall
13:00—13:45
Cyber Discovery (age 13+), Mr Whiteside, G34
13:15—13:45
KS3 STEM Club, Ms Robinson, H1
15:45—16:45
Japanese Club, Ms Eren, R36
15:45—16:45
Y11 GCSE Design Club, Ms Birtles, B1
15:50—17:00
Art Club, Ms Dever, H11
12:55—13:40
Look out for updated Y6-11 Fitness Training Club (HIIT/Circuit), Club &R11Enrichment PPS TERM DATES Spring Term 2021 GCSE Computer Science (Y11), G34 info Term starts Maths Puzzles, Mr Hill, G41 Monday 4 January
13:00—13:45
Russian Club, Ms Zalesny, R24
Half term
13:10—13:45
Y11 Science Revision (Physics), H1
End of term
15:45—16:30
KS3 Maths Club (Y6-9), R24
Summer Term 2021
15:45—16:30
GCSE Statistics & Additional Maths, G33
Term starts
15:45—16:30
Arabic Club, Mrs Elshlmani, R36
Bank holiday
16:00—17:00
Fencing, PPS Hall, meet PPS changing rooms 15:45
Wednesday 12:50—13:40 12:50—13:40
Thursday
Half term End of term
12:50—13:40
Y6-11 Dance Club, Rm 11
12:50—13:40
Y8-11 Creative Writing, Ms Baig/Ms O’Donnell
12:50—13:40
Mandarin Club, Ms Huang, PPS Hall
13:10—13:45
Y11 Science Revision (Chemistry), H1
15:45—16:30
Mon 15 Feb – Fri 19 Feb Thursday 1 April
Thursday 22 April Mon 3 May (school closed) Mon 31 May – Fri 4 June Friday 9 July
Autumn Term 2021 Term starts
Monday 6 September
KS4 Maths Club (Y10-11), G33
Half term
Mon 18 Oct – Fri 29 Oct
15:45—16:45
KS2/3 Design Technology Club, Mr Bradford, B1
End of term
Friday 10 December
15:50—17:00
Art Club, H10 & H11
Thank you for reading