Portland Place School
Weekly Buzz
26 June 2017
PPS gears up for an exciting end of term events. Details can be found on page 11 Upcoming play, trips, concerts
What’s happened in the week and key dates in the diary
Academic and Sports fixtures
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Letter from the Headmaster Dear Parents,
Portrait of Editor
The creative talents of Portland Place students have again been on show this week. A super concert on Monday night saw pupils from all years performing. Among many highlights for me were the Brass Ensemble, Soul Band and Choir, along with the solo pieces from Cora Hilliard, Laurie Ashcroft and Blake Millar. The standard across the board was high and I am always struck by the confidence our pupils have to perform publicly whatever stage they are at in learning their instruments. It was a fitting swan song for several members of the Sixth Form for whom this would be their last Portland Place performance. Their contribution to music here over the last several years has been great and they will be much missed.
Pupils in Years 7 – 9 have given three performances of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ this week in a version adapted to a dark London setting. I saw Wednesday’s opening night and it was an accomplished and enjoyable performance from all the cast with several very talented actors on show. The simple staging, with its brightly coloured boxes and .graffiti backdrop, effectively drew you into this mad and confusing world. And it is always good to hear a recitation of ‘Jabberwocky’. My thanks to Victoria Brocklehurst for producing and directing the show. I am also looking forward to this afternoon’s Science Fair with Years 4, 5 and 6 which rounds off their topic week on the theme of ‘Under the Sea’. You will remember that we had an impromptu visit from ISI before half-term for a brought forward compliance inspection. We have now received the final report and this will be sent to all parents, with my response to it, next week.
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David Bradbury, Headmaster
Notice board Refugee Collection Charlotte Williams-Foster, SENDCo The plight of refugees is the crisis of our times and over half of all refugees are children. Educating these young people is a high priority for so many reasons. We are collecting stationery to send to the Atma encampment in Syria. We can send any stationery items that are used and still useful, but not good enough to give to our own students. Folders that are worn, part-used exercise books(with the old work torn out) and so on. If we have opened boxes of items please don’t include the remaining items - Unused resources must be kept. From school maybe we could supply: Exercise Books, Folders Personal donations (i.e. not from school stock) could also include: Pens, Crayons, Felt tip pens, Pencils, Paper. Pencil Sharpeners,Rubbers, Staplers and staples Soap.Sanitary pads Can you help? Miss Magniez and Dr Williams–Foster are gathering donations and will be happy to answer any questions.
Portland Place School Sports Day 2017 Perivale Athletics Track, Stokedove Way, off Argyle Road, Perivale, UB6 8TJ Sports Day 2017 is next Friday 30 June. It will be great to see as many parents as possible on the day, supporting the pupils. Pupils arriving independently should get to the track by 9.45 at the latest, ready to be registered. The event finishes at 3.00pm. Pupils not getting the coach back to school will be dismissed from the track. All pupils must wear house T-shirts. Please bring wet/warm clothing in case of bad weather and a hat and sunscreen if it is hot and sunny. Please also be aware that lunch deliveries will not be made that day, so pupils must bring a packed lunch and drink. A tuck shop will also be available at the venue
Bookfair Mr Nilsson, Librarian Dear Parents,
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Portland Place School will have a Book Fair on 28 June. There are over 200 titles to choose from so there will be books for everyone. The prices start from £2.99. The Book Fair is open for all students and parents. Celebrate reading by coming to our Book Fair. Books sold at the bookfair will be added to your child’s account.
News Summer Concert Mr Hill, Director of Music On a very warm Monday evening, RADA Studios was packed out with parents and students for the annual PPS Summer Concert. A fantastic range and variety of items including Wagner, the Jackson 5, music from stage and screen, ensembles large and small, and some great solos. A huge thanks particularly to Miss Boyle, Mr Bentley, all of the Visiting Music Staff but also most importantly the students for their contributions and commitment to the music at Portland Place over the whole year. To see more please go to https://twitter.com/ppsmusicdept?lang=en or https://twitter.com/year7pps?lang=en
Year 7 Latin American Workshop Ms Picado, Head of Spanish
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On Tuesday afternoon a few Spanish Year 7 students (Adam, Sumaya, Arthur, Jess, Vasilis, Freddie, Tommy, Scarlett, Max and Calder) had the great opportunity to learn a few dance moves from the lovely teacher Laura, from Canela Fina! During the first part of the workshop, Laura took the students on an imaginary journey to Spain Brazil and Mexico. The variety of songs that she chose and her patience made it easy for the students to learn the dance moves really quickly. During the second part, the students carried out drama activities and practised their listening skills in Spanish. They finished the workshop by recreating the sounds of a storm using only physical acoustics. We can't wait to have Laura again at Portland Place. The Spanish Department would like to thank all the students involved for their motivation, enthusiasm and energy; as well as Ms Florea, Ms Philipovszky and Mr Lalande, for their help in the running of this event.
News Year 5 Impromptu Poetry Lesson Lauren O’Donnell, Head of English The Portland Place spirit in action! Towards the end of a cover lesson with Year 5, two Year 10 pupils (Albie Marber and Perdy Bilton) were walking past the classroom having finished their end of year exams. Both popped their heads in the door and saw that as it was nearly lunchtime, most pupils had nearly finished their work. They both requested that they be allowed to come in and deliver an impromptu poetry lesson, choosing to teach one of their GCSE poems (Ozymandias!). Within seconds, Year 5 were enraptured with Albie and Perdy’s enthusiasm and were reciting the poem as a group, having understood the main messages with impressive speed! Special mention to Marc Ventura Mora and Lawton Ballbach for correctly defining ‘narcissism’ and ‘alliteration’, and thanks to Albie and Perdy for stopping by and sharing their love of English (and some pretty excellent teaching skills) with pupils lower down the school!
Year 7 Trip to National History Museum Guest Piece written by Zeynep Yilmaz, Year 7
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On Monday 12th June the Year7s went on a school trip to the Natural History Museum. We travelled on the tube and when we got there we immediately saw a huge planet. Once we dropped our bags off in the lunchroom we found there were loads of things to see and do. We created our own 'exhibitions' with our favourite animals in the mammals section, wrote a set of top trump cards for the dinosaurs and completed a discovery guide looking at volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. I loved it because it was fun to see everything!
News Year 9 Trip to Kew Gardens Guest Piece written by Annas Kaaki, Year 9 We had a wonderful day in Kew Gardens, it was interesting learning about biodiversity and what there is in our world today. We walked along the treetop walkway and saw the gardens from a new perspective. One of the main lessons learned was how certain plants have been specifically chosen to repopulate the once thriving land in North Africa which is now suffering from desertification. This was called "Project Green Wall" this is an ongoing effort to reintroduce biological diversity into the Sahara desert .
Year 12 UCAS Trips to SOAS 14 June Ms Price, Deputy Head of 6th Form Students this year attended the SOAS Open Day in London and the UCAS convention in Cambridge which were both a huge success. We started the SOAS Open Day with a tour of the campus including the 100th anniversary rebuild of the Senate House, the vibrant and political focused Student Union and the extensive Library. The students had time to explore the buildings which included a Japanese roof garden and attended lectures on a range of subjects from Music to Korean and Japanese Studies, with many students attending a talk on personal statement writing. To be continued next week with the Cambridge Trip. 7
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Compelling Article Shot
Sports ISA National Athletic Championships - Birmingham Mr Mcloughlin, Head of PE A mixed team of boys & girls across Years 7-10 had been selected from Portland Place to represent London North at the ISA Nationals on Monday 19th June. The weather was very warm at 31°c but that didn't stop our athletics performing well at this tough competition. Sumaya Al Thani, Ben Doll-Steinberg and Laura Logan all competed in the Shot Put and were competitive. However, they just missed out on making the podium with Sumaya just being pipped into 4th on the final throw. Max Ackermann competed in the Year 8/9 boys Shot putt and with his best throw of 10.25m and won PPS’ first medal of the day to secure a bronze medal. It was an exciting competition at the long jump pit which involved Freya Francis-Baum (Year 8) jumping in the Year 8/9 girls’ event. Freya was the only Year 8 girl in the competition so she was jumping against girls an academic year older than her. Prior the event Freya had targeted the long standing Yr 8 girls school record of 4.70m from 2004 would be needed. Leading into her final jump she was in 4th place. Freya did not disappoint and delivered a huge 4.77m jump which secured the bronze medal and broke the school record! Erin Dytor (Year 8) another one of our Yr 8 girls who was competing against Year 9’s ran a great race in the 100m to finish just outside the medals in 4th place. This should give her the confidence to build on this for next year. Perdy Bilton (Year 10) also finished just outside the medals in a fine 4th position in the Year 10/11 girls Javelin. Other performers from PPS included Lola De Martinez in the 800m and Nicholas Kazarina in the High Jump who finished in the middle of the field and Anton Polyakov in the 4x100m relay. The final medal of the day was awarded to Alfie Campbell for the year 10/11 boys 4 x 100m relay. A great leg from Alfie saw the boys, picked from other schools in London North, secure another bronze. Well done to all of the boys and girls for qualifying for this national event and performing so well on the day.
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Max Ackermann
Freya Francis-Baum
Laura Logan
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Sports Cricket Mr McLoughlin, Head of PE U11s v Radnor On a bright and sunny afternoon PPS u11s made their way to Teddington to take on Radnor House School in a highly entertaining encounter. PPS won the toss and opted to bowl first. In the early overs Hamish Cooper, Lawton Ballbach and Gordon Turnor all bowled really well, showing good accuracy and pace. In the field the boys looked sharp as Radnor played some good shots that were stopped from reaching the boundary. As the innings progressed PPS took 6 wickets including 1 excellent bowl from Hamish Cooper and some fantastic catches from Lloyd Day, Christopher Dhali, Gordon Turnor, Lawton Ballbach and Hamish Cooper. By the end of the innings Radnor House set PPS a target of 69 runs for 6. Hamish Cooper and Lawton Ballbach opened the batting and in the early overs Radnor bowled with great pace and accuracy making it difficult for the boys to make a clean contact with the ball. However after a couple of overs the boys got their eye in and started hitting some excellent shots. Hamish Cooper hooked a couple of shots over the boundary and Lawton played some excellent front foot drives. Eventually Lawton was caught out but Kunal Patel filled in seamlessly and it wasn't long before he hit his first 4! In the last few overs Lloyd Day came in and hit three 2's in his first 3 shots and 10 minutes later PPS hit 70 to take the victory. This was the first time the boys have played a cricket fixture for PPS and they put in a really good performance. There were impressive performances across the team. Christopher Dhali made an amazing diving catch. Gordon Turnor bowled well and showed good awareness in the field. Lloyd Day and Lawton Ballbach both did a good job at wicketkeeper. Man of the match goes to Hamish Cooper who hit 25 not out, took 2 wickets and showed excellent leadership as captain. Well done boys!
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Calendar and Contact
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Thanks for reading! Look for our next issue at www.portland-place.co.uk/ @PortlandPlaceHD