St Marylebone School Newsletter February 2011

The St Marylebone School Newsletter February 2011 In this issue...

St Marylebone Debating News: The Oxford Union Debating Finals Urban Debate League International Youth Speaks competition

Results of the Christmas Photo Competition

Trips: Pirbright Army Barracks Jewish Museum St Pauls’ Cathedral

St Marylebone School Netball, Volleyball and Badminton team

...And much more!

Education White Paper, English Baccalaureate and Future Options The Secretary of State for Education,

and have a choice of four good options

Michael Gove MP, is proposing major

that could include a language or a

changes

national

humanity. In fact around 75% of pupils

curriculum and the subjects pupils

choose a language and over half do a

should be taking at GCSE.

humanity but this is not enough for the

to

both

the

government.

In addition to the subjects that are compulsory at GCSE, Mr Gove is adding

As a result we are having to take the

a modern foreign language and either

following actions;

History or Geography as subjects that

Urge parents to read up on these

should be taken. These subjects then

changes and if you are concerned

make up an English Baccalaureate.

to write to your MP and ask them to put some pressure on the

Students that achieve at least a C in

government

English, Two Sciences, Maths, a modern

narrow choice of subjects in this

foreign

language

and

History

or

to

re-think

the

new qualification.

Geography will get a certificate from the English

We are writing to MPs ourselves and

Students who don’t

speaking to the contacts we have

choose the core subjects plus MFL with

both in parliament and at the

History or Geography will not get the

Department for Education to see

English Baccalaureate. Students who

if we can get some movement, at

miss a grade C in any of them will

least on including RE as one of

similarly not get the qualification.

the choices alongside History and

government

called

Baccalaureate.

an

Geography as a ‘humanity’. This Mr Gove is making these changes with

would mean a better choice for

immediate effect. His reasoning appears

pupils here and recognition of the

to be his belief that students do not get a

importance of the subject.

good academic education and too few take a language. Here we believe he is

We have to look at changing the

wrong. We believe that our pupils get a

options system for the current

very good academic grounding at GCSE

Year 9. We are putting the date of

Since that time Mr Gove has also

options evening back to after

announced changes to the National

Easter and will be reviewing how

Curriculum as he wishes to make the

we can accommodate the extra

focus more about ‘facts’ and less about

classes of languages, History and

‘skills’. He is keen to prescribe lists of

Geography that will be needed to

knowledge that should be acquired by

allow pupils to take the English

each pupil. Mr Gove has been heard on

Baccalaureate.

Radio 4 saying that it is important pupils learn the facts in the right order. You English

may care to read more about his plans

Baccalaureate is going to disappear. It is

and if they concern you then you may

this government’s express wish that as

wish to write to your MP about this too.

We

don’t

believe

the

many pupils take these subjects as is possible. As this is going to be a

There are major changes happening in

qualification with a certificate we cannot

education and it is being led from the

second guess its future importance to

centre by this government. Far from

pupils. In the absence of clarification

giving schools more choice locally we are

from the government or the Department

being given more prescription. It would

on the importance of the certificate to

be wise to be abreast of the changes as it

pupils we have to assume, given Mr

will affect the education of pupils for

Gove’s passion for it, that it will be

some years to come. Whether concerned

relevant.

or supportive, your opinion on the changes is important as the Education

On the school website there are a

Bill is in parliament now and being

number of materials and articles about

debated over the coming weeks.

this issue. These were released following the parent’s meeting in January.

Mr Hunter Senior Deputy Head

BBC School Report has started! This is a project which gives 11-14 year old students the chance to develop their journalistic skills and make their own news reports for a real audience.

ended by Callum r eading t he news; projecting his voice and making it much deeper on the radio than in normal conversation.

This is the fifth year of St Marylebone taking part, and the Year 8 students involved already have a great range of news article ideas. The stories include: the Royal Wedding; the English Baccalaureate; the ending of free tickets for London Zoo for schools; illegal downloading of music; rela- Our St Marylebone news team agreed it was very tionships between parents and students; the pos- good to get this experience of news making from a sible reduction of music education and the closing professional news maker. of local libraries.

The team now have a matter of weeks until the St Last week the St Marylebone news team was Marylebone news goes live (24th March 2011) on treated to a fantastic news workshop. It was run News Day, when the students will be presenting

by Callum May, a radio news producer for the Ra- their video, audio and text-based news reports. dio 1 bulletins, Radio 5 Live, as well as number of Check the BBC website for more information and other BBC radio stations. In the session Callum to see our budding news reporter Paige's work demonstrated how to pitch news articles to differ- with BBC London Tonight (http:// ent radio audiences, and the students looked at tinyurl.com/4qekktv). what makes a good news story. They then worked together to decide on the order in which news sto- Ms Parkes ries should be placed in a bulletin. The session

Enterprise Department Enterprise Week and the £10 Challenge November saw the return of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The £10 Challenge was the highlight of our activities in school, which saw students applying for a loan of £10 from Mr Wood which they then had a fortnight to turn into a profit. The profit was then split between the students and this year’s nominated charity, ‘Movember’. Even at the start of the challenge many had to be t1urned away due to the sheer volume of applications. Some interesting ideas included a couple of staff teams involved in the production of personalised mugs and a school ‘gossip’ magazine. Watch this space to see who might be giving Lord Sugar and co a run for their money.

Movember Movember is a charitable organisation that raises awareness and funds for prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is UK’s most common cause of cancer death in men but if caught early has one of the highest survival rates. Each November, in a bid to raise awareness and much needed funds, men around the world are challenged to grow a moustache for the entire month of November. This year a brave bunch of male teachers from St Marylebone have took on the challenge and have stuck it out well, taking the jokes and school photographs all in their stride. The end of the month saw a flurry of activity in a bid to raise funds, including a dodgeball tournament against the sixth form and a visit from former ‘World Moustache Champion’ Steve Parsons (pictured).

Mr Wood

Black History Month Performance After speaking to some of my friends, I realised that lots of students and teachers were unaware that October was Black History Month. So two of us in Year 11 decided to raise awareness during this month, culminating in a performance in the theatre on Friday 5th November. We felt that there was a misunderstanding about the true meaning of Black History Month. We believe that it is about celebrating black achievements and contributions to society rather than just reminiscing on slavery.

faced many challenges throughout the rehearsal time, but the show finally came together. We filled up the whole theatre and received huge applause at the end.

This year we gave a very small taster of what we hope can be achieved in the future. We hope that black history will be recognised every October, and that there will be an annual show, which slowly gets bigger until it is as prestigious as World Culture Day! We would like to give a huge thank you to all those involved, as we couldn’t We learnt about how important it was to not give have made the show a success without their help. up, even when things are not going your way. We also learnt how hard it is to plan something We hope you enjoyed the show! without the aid of teachers—especially trying to organise your own friends—but how rewarding it Audra Graham 11N can be when your efforts are successful. We

Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

ALE English A-Level Enrichment Congratulations to all the Year 12 and 13 students who have attended the ALE club this year so far!

The ALE sessions are run by two English teachers who instigate debate about whatever material they have chosen. This could be a literary theory, an individual text, a critical perspective, a thematic link between texts or a specific author’s work.

Sir Toby and Sir Andrew Twelfth Night

So far this year, students have explored Gothic literature, Tennyson’s poetry, Romanticism, the Death of the Author, Magic Realism, graphic novels and the theory of the Power of the Gaze.

The discussions have been incredibly rich and the students have developed excellent discussion skills, as well as increased their knowledge of a wide variety of texts and theories. This will be invaluable to them in their future studies, and also in interviews and exams. And it’s fun too!

We hope even more students will join us at future sessions, and make the most of this fantastic opportunity. Everyone’s welcome!

Mrs Jeens

English ALE club: every other Thursday, 3:45, Blandford room 33

St Marylebone Reaches Oxford Debating Finals Nervously gathered at the Oxford Union regional round, our Year 11 Debaters prepared for their toughest competition yet on Monday evening

(24th

January).

The Oxford Union Society’s annual schools’ debating competition is the largest British Parliamentary

“Isabel Fletcher and India Hill will be debating in Oxford Union with 88 of the best teams from across England at National Finals Day!”

schools’ competition in the world (with regionals covering over 700 schools across England), so we knew the debates would be challenging.

Our three teams (Imogen Crane and Victoria Sampson; Lola Seaton and Noor Sahan; Isabel Fletcher and India Hill – led by Miss Dempster and cheered on by the rest of the Year 11 Club) faced Sixth Form teams from Westminster School, Henrietta Barnett, Godolphin & Latymer and University College School, amongst others. We hoped to build on our experience from the Cambridge Union competition entered earlier in the year.

The first debate focused on whether the cost of

We gathered again after 9:30pm, to hear the final verdict on all of the debates. Only a handful of teams would reach the finals… To our delight, Isabel Fletcher and India Hill (below right) were selected to make it through to the National Finals Day! Isabel and India (supported by their loyal club) will be debating in Oxford Union with 88 of the best teams from across England in March. Congratulations to Isabel and India on this outstanding achievement!

Meanwhile, our younger debating students have also had victories to celebrate in the first round of the Urban Debate League, run by Debate Mate.

university education should be paid for entirely by the government. Next, our teams debated about whether On Tuesday 25th January, St Marylebone hosted the British soldiers should be allowed to refuse to fight in first round of the competition for local schools. We put specific countries or wars. All of our teams debated forward three teams, to take part in two debates. brilliantly and were praised by the judges for such Firstly, we debated about whether celebrities should be sterling work against Sixth Formers.

punished for misconduct in their private lives.

The second debate focused on whether people under the judges’ attention and although the team did not the age of 16 should be banned from using social advance to the next round, we gained valuable networking sites – a hotly contested motion! Overall, experience and a reputation as tough competition for we were thrilled that St Marylebone won five out of our other schools. six debates. Well done for this brilliant work!

In our younger years, two teams of Year 7 and 8

“5 out of 6 Urban Debate League wins for St students (led by Ms Wigginton and Mr Taylor) are Marylebone!”

currently preparing to take part in the Rotary International Youth Speaks competition being held on

th Our Sixth Form team, led by Mr Douglas and Ms Lyle, Tuesday 8 February. The Central Area Semi-Final for has also been taking part in inter-school competitions. the London District 1130 Competition will be held at

In late November, the Sixth Form Debating Team took The American School in London. The teams of three part in the regional round of the Schools’ MACE students are taking on the roles of chairperson, speaker The team of and proposer of the vote of thanks; the Year 7 team are Francesca Ferrer and George Qiao took on the speaking about teenage stereotypes and the Year 8 team challenging task of opposing the motion “This house on sex education. Watch this space…

Debate, hosted by Portland Place.

believes the West should be held responsible for climate change.” This was a Herculean task, but the energetic Miss Dempster and engaging style of the St Marylebone team caught Head of Debating

RESULTS OF THE

Judging was done by Mr Sanghvi, Mr Jordan and Mr Lau, and we were all impressed with the excellent response and very high quality of entries! Well done to all those who entered – the competition was fierce and judging was difficult indeed…

But the winners are: Year 7 – Emily Avis, Year 8 – Millie Dwyer, Year 9 – Vincci Chong, Year 10 – Karman Law, Year 11 – Sophie Barrett

Interpreters’ Club This year the Sixth Form Interpreters’ Club has gone from strength to strength. Building on the success of having our sixth formers interpreting at parents’ evenings last year, we have now expanded our provision, and our presence at both Year 8 and Year 9 parents’ evenings was bigger than ever before.

Some of the keenest members of the club have been selected to attend a two-day conference in February, where they will learn more about the career opportunities open to those who are lucky enough to be bilingual.

Year 12 Members of Interpreters’ Club

Beyond the challenges of working as interpreters for parents, members of the club have been embracing other projects which reflect and celebrate the diversity of cultures both within the school and the multi-cultural city we live in. Some students have been working with a professional film-maker to create short films on being bilingual in London; other students are putting together proposals to try and win National Lottery funding to be able to put on a cultural festival or create a work of art that celebrates London’s multi-cultural heritage.

If you would like to use the services of one of our trained sixth form interpreters, either at a parents’ evening or at another important meeting between you and a teacher at the school, please contact Robin Voller at: r.voller@stmarylebone.westminster.sch.uk

Role-playing interpreting situations in preparation for the real thing

Did You Know?

There are over 80 different first languages spoken at St Marylebone school.

We have students trained as interpreters in 15 languages, including all of the school’s most widely-spoken languages, such as Bengali, Arabic, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Researching heritage organisations on the internet, in preparation for Lottery fund bid

Bilingual Book Club Bilingual Book Club is running for its second academic year, every Tuesday lunchtime in the main school Library. This year we have students from Year 7 and 8 improving their reading skills in Arabic, Italian, Portuguese and Tagalog with literacy mentors from Year 10. At their weekly meetings the students use a range of bilingual books, which we have stocked in the library, to improve their literacy in both their home language and in English. The very experienced mentors, many of whom have already taken a GCSE in their home language, also work with the students on their pronunciation and writing skills.

Valdar if you would like to improve your skills in your home language.

If you can’t attend the club then please explore the bilingual reading section of the library and you could take a book home to read with a parent, carer or older sibling. There are many French, German and Spanish books available which will support what you are learning in class as well.

Parents and Carers: Please email d.valdar@stmarylebone.westminste r.sch.uk if you have any questions about Bilingual Book Club or any other aspect of the work of the Linguistic and Cultural Inclusion Department at St Marylebone.

New members are always welcome Miss Valder so please come along and see Miss

I go to Bilingual Book Club and I read in Arabic but I also practise my alphabet and my writing.

My reading mentor is Iman from Year 10 and she is great at helping me read and pronounce my Arabic.

Sameerah from Year 10 has also helped me learn my alphabet. They go over things with me until they are perfect.

Reading with Iman has really helped me. I used to read in Arabic a little bit before joining the club but now I have learnt my alphabet well, I read a lot more.

I like going to Bilingual Book Club because I l have learned my Arabic alphabet in a fun way and it has become easy to learn Arabic.

Why don’t you come to Bilingual Book club and learn how to read in your home language?

Laila Harding, D7

Parliamentary Writing Competition In November, Mr Douglas's Year 10 English class entered a nationwide parliamentary writing competition called 'Write Now'. The aim is to encourage students to become more confident writers and to foster an enthusiasm towards politics. Last week, Syriol Benissan (10W) discovered that she won the competition! She wrote a fantastic tract acting as Leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party, combining wit, intellect and a heavy sense of irony. It proposed the need for more English teachers (very good Syriol) for "students who cannot reed or rite" and even called for "The Isle of Man to be renamed "The Isle of Men, Women and Children".

Syriol has won a visit to the Houses of Parliament and the chance to interview a politician; what a fantastic achievement!

Mr Douglas

Lebanon to London...

In 9N (Mr Wood and Miss Active’s tutor group) one afternoon registration a week is given to a member of the tutor group to deliver a presentation on a topic of their choice. Batoul Damaj used this as an opportunity to share her story of how she came to London from Lebanon.

Hello everyone - or as we say in my Arabic language - marhaba!

I’d like to tell you something about my life story. I came from Lebanon a year and a half ago. I used to live in a city called Tyre where I had lived for my whole life. Lebanon is a really beautiful and modern country with a warm climate in the summer but like here it gets cold and rainy in the winter. People love to go on holiday there because of the fantastic beaches, the beautiful scenery, the mountains, trees and waterfalls…..

But although Lebanon is so beautiful, it has also been through some very difficult times such as the terrible war that happened in 2006 when thousands of innocent Lebanese men, women and children died and others were separated from their families for many many years.

So how did the war affect my family and my life? 14 years ago my dad felt he had to move here because it was impossible for him to find a job in Lebanon which would support his family and give us opportunities for our future. So for 14 long years he worked very very hard here and became very successful. He tried again and again to get permission for my mum, my brothers and sister and I to join him in England but again and again he was refused.

Finally last year our lucky day arrived and we were given permission to join him here at last.

Imagine – my mum, my brother and I had not seen my dad for 14 whole years!! I had been a tiny baby when I last saw him. But our family troubles were not over, because my other brother and sister were not allowed to come to England so we were still separated with no hope of living together as a family. It’s true that in December my mum and dad were able to go on holiday to visit my brother and sister in Lebanon but it was only for a holiday for three short weeks. Now we are separated all over again. I am sure that all of you in this class can imagine what it’s like for my mum and dad to be forced to be separated from the son and daughter that they love so much and for me not to be able to live with my beloved brother and sister. It’s very painful for us all.

I do realise though how lucky I am to live in this amazing city. I love London –especially the shopping! And I love that London people are so multi-cultural and they treat each other so well.

Although of course I miss my country, my family, my school and all my friends in Lebanon, I am really determined to work as hard as I can to make a success of my life in this incredible school so that my family and I can have the happiest future together when we are finally reunited…

Batoul Damaj 9N 19th January 2011

Bloggers Gifted and Talented students in Years 8 and 9 have been exploring their particular areas of interest in a blogging project that also aims to develop the Personal Learning and Thinking Skills of participants.

Pupils were asked to identify a topic, skill or area of interest they wanted to explore and reflect on. However, as a further challenge, bloggers were also asked to identify one of the Personal Learning and Thinking skills as a theme on their blogs, and to use their blog to reflect on their abilities as this kind of learner. Thus, the blog would not only investigate the topic, but also the blogger’s thought processes and personal reflections.

Pupils were told to maintain their blogs regularly throughout the school year, as prizes will be awarded in July for the best-kept blogs! So far, all blogs are looking fantastic, with topics ranging from horse-riding through cookery, music and fashion, to reflection on friendship, emotional intelligence and biology.

The heartfelt, witty and intelligent comments from pupils on their blogs have reminded me, once again, what a truly talented community of learners we have at St. Marylebone school!

Miss Bletcher and Ms Gilham (Gifted and Talented) and Miss Pugh (Assistant Headteacher in charge of Personalising Learning)

I,Scientist The St Marylebone School was lucky to be invited to take part in an exciting new project as part of our Gifted and Talented Programme. Five Year 8 Students were selected to participate in this five-day scheme, which aimed to investigate new ways of learning and to develop pupils’ independent enquiry skills, with the eventual outcome of pupils planning and carrying out a brand new piece of scientific research.

A fundamental principle of the project was the idea of approaching learning and investigation through play. Thus, in the first day of the project, the St Marylebone girls worked with pupils of all ages, from schools across the UK, to develop games that explored our sense of direction.

Subsequent days were spent exploring the theme of “Finding Our Way”, and the participating pupils decided on the question they wanted to answer through their experiment: “Why do I not get lost?” However, to complicate matters further, group leaders introduced the idea of finding our way through sound, rather than through sight. This was investigated further using an iPhone app that transformed light into sound, with lighter colours producing a higher pitch than darker colours. Pupils used the iPhones to find their way around mazes of light and dark colours, with their journey times recorded.

Interestingly, results showed that girls were much quicker at finding their way through sound than boys. This opened up many new questions that the pupils were keen to explore, proving the project to be a huge success, as the pupils’ scientific curiosity and desire for investigation had truly been awakened!

Miss Bletcher (Gifted and Talented) and Miss Hotchkiss (Science Department)

Reading Week 2010 Thanks to fantastic involvement from pupils, parents and carers, 2010 marked a very exciting Reading Week at The St Marylebone School.

The week began with a registration book quiz, in which pupils demonstrated their encyclopaedic knowledge of the literary world! Pupils also showed their kindness by bringing in old books to donate to charity; many much-loved classics will now be passed on to be enjoyed by new readers!

On Wednesday, Michael Wills, a Marylebone parent and the author of several thrillers, joined pupils for a special creative writing club in the library at lunchtime. Pupils from across the school worked as a group to discuss ideas of character and setting, and how these could be used to inspire a plot, coming up with an eventual storyline that sounded like a future bestseller!

The next day, we also benefited from the generosity of two other Marylebone relatives: John Hegley and Odette Elliott. Odette worked with a Year 7 class to develop ideas and illustrations for children’s picture books, before signing her own books in the library at lunchtime. The children were inspired by her amazing ideas. Meanwhile, John Hegley also worked with Year 7, delivering a poetry writing workshop, with help from his trusty banjo! At lunchtime, pupils and teachers gathered in the library to listen to John Hegley perform his songs and poems. His humorous approach was infectious, and everyone left with a new perspective on the potential of poetry!

Reading Week finished on a high, with a Careers in Literature lunch hosted by yet more generous friends and relatives of Marylebone pupils. After working with Year 9 during their English lessons, our four literary professionals joined pupils for a careers Question and Answer session in the library, which proved particularly popular with the Sixth Form, and which covered many different areas of the literary industry. Marcia Williams shared the creative process she went through to create her children’s book, Alfie’s War, whereas Nicola Barnes gave a behindthe-scenes insight into the legal side of publishing. Hugh Barnes and Julie Wheelwright shared their experiences of journalism and non-fiction writing, and pupils were queuing up to quiz them for career advice.

Overall, Reading Week was a huge success, thanks to the generous time and effort supplied by all those who got involved. If you would like to contribute to 2011’s Reading Week, please contact Miss Bletcher in the English Department.

Miss Bletcher

RS Trips St Paul’s Cathedral On 12th January Year 7 RS G+T students visited St Paul’s Cathedral to see what we could learn about Jesus from the artwork in the Cathedral. We found it surprising that pictures and sculptures could mean so much; in 'The Light of The World' even the way Jesus stood meant something. Jesus was knocking on a door and holding his lantern with his hands facing outwards, and this symbolised the way he hung on the cross.

The Henry Moore statue, ‘Mother and Child’ was also inspiring.

Although the statue does not form a human being, the abstract shape has the flow of a mother and child. The sculpture is designed to be seen in three different ways, from the right side, which shows a child in the mother’s womb; from the front it represents childhood, from the right side, it shows a mothers head bending over the child, cradled in her arms. Our tour guide described this as something to touch and feel and be part of; quite the opposite of what you’re allowed to do in a gallery.

Angela Sun 7N, Agnes Chandler D7, Rani Gandesha 7W

Jewish Museum On 19th and 20th October, all of Year 8 visited the Jewish Museum in Camden. Students in the Year were given an option of workshops and they voted for one which looked at the Jewish clothing.

These are some of the reflections of Year 8 students about what they learnt: “I learnt that Jews can customise their Kippahs to appeal to different age groups to show aspects of their personality” Aggie Collins “I learnt many different things about Jewish clothing. Each item has something to do with the Jewish commandments in the Torah. The tallit is the prayer shawl that men wear. It can be worn in different ways or styles depending on age. Sometimes women would wear a smaller version of the tallit which is like a scarf.” Freya Parks “I learnt that the tefillin, is a small box containing the words of the Shema (a Jewish prayer), it is connected to a long length of black lace which is wrapped around the left arm and hand, it can also be worn around the head. This is so the words of the prayer are close to your heart and mind.” Aurelia McGlynn-Richon

News from the Art Department Summer School It seems quite some time since the Summer School, when the weather was warm and the evenings light and bright. The Art department ran two very successful summer projects – one textiles based and the other focusing on Edgware Road. Students on the textiles course made accessories (hair accessories and brooches). The Edgware Road group spent the week at Church Street Market looking at the redevelopment plans and responding to the plans with a pamphlet, which was handed out to members of the public. The feedback and evaluations for both courses were very positive and we hope to bring these students in to the final phase of the Edgware Road project.

‘Fired Up’ Programme The Art department is one of the few involved in the ‘Fired Up’ programme to raise the profile of ceramics education. The entire department attended a six-week course at Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design on Wednesday evenings from 5-8pm to improve their ceramics knowledge. The course was a successful and excellent experience in which the staff were making objects and learning together. A good artistic, creative and bonding experience!

Four members of the department are spending Saturday 15th January at the V&A with our link ceramicist, developing an exciting new clay scheme of work to use in school. We are looking forward to using new and exciting techniques and seeing the outcomes in school. We will have an exhibition of student work on display later in the year to show all of the new techniques learned during the ‘Fired Up’ programme.

G&T Newsletter and Blog The department have benefitted from a very distinct G&T role taken up by Ms Wade, our newest member of the team! She has already made an impact with the G&T newsletter that she is producing on a monthly basis. The G&T students entered a Howard De Walden Christmas Card competition, offered to the students through the new email contact book in which groups of students can be emailed. One student won the 10-14 group and one was a runner up. They both have received prizes of book vouchers from Daunt Books. One of the cards, designed by India Hill, was printed for the St Marylebone Christmas card, and was the first Christmas card to sell out during the Michaelmas Fair.

The department is also developing a blog showcasing the fantastic artwork produced by the students. The site is created but is now being filled with images – we will send out links to this later in the year!

School Production The students on the new Theatre GCSE (which replaced BTEC) worked very hard to design the production of Anything Goes, which ran from 1st-3rd December. It was a real-life work experience for them, working to very real deadlines and problem solving. They had meeting with the production staff and presented their ideas with confidence and maturity. They enjoyed the process and spent evenings during the production working backstage to help with costumes, hair and makeup. Thanks to Birte, Vicky and Dora who also stayed to support the students.

Edgware Road Project The final phase of the Edgware Road project is underway. We now have visas organised for the UltraRed team and we have been planning the project through the use of Skype with artists in Canada, the states, Berlin and London! The project begins with the Year 10 Option A group visiting the Centre for Possible Studies (the Edgware Road project space) on Monday 10th January. Chris and Robert from Ultra will be working on the project for the full 12 weeks. The entire year group will be using the Edgware Road resources, but just one project group will work with the artists.

In March an after school club will run both at school and at the Centre for Possible Studies, during which students will begin to write the roof top performance. This will continue until the second week of work experience, the week of the performances. 15 students from Year 10 will be offered work experience with the Serpentine Gallery as part of the Edgware Road project.

Visiting Photographer On Wednesday 19 January, photographer Reg Wilson, visited the Art Department to talk to students about his life as one of Britain's most prolific performance photographers. From the 1960s, he recorded four decades of the performing arts in all their richness and variety, capturing the great and the good on stage, backstage and in the studio. Reg talked about what it was like to create images of performers such as Maria Callas, Laurence Olivier, Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. He described how his use of single rolls of 36 -exposure film, forced him to consider his shots very carefully and contrasted this with the ‘snap-happy’ nature of digital photography today. His main advice was to ‘make pictures’ rather than ‘take pictures.’ The students were gripped by this idea and understood the need to compose their images, in order to reveal the essence of their subject matter.

Miss Cubbin

PE News

The SMS Volleyball Team

Year 9 Netball Team

The school teams have been boosted by our smart new kit and are achieving great things this term. Our volleyball team qualified for the Central London u/15 Volleyball Championships which took place in January. They beat Stockwell Park and Camden School for Girls by a comfortable margin and although they lost their third match against Graveney A (eventual winners) they qualified the semi-final.

Year 9 team won all their matches, beating Portland place 16-7, St Augustine’s 14-1 and Paddington Academy 15-0.

The semi final was a close match against The Elmgreen School which they narrowly lost. The girls played very well and showed that they have great potential to do even better in future competitions.

Well done!

The netball teams have started their leagues well and have impressed us with their effort and team work. Our Year 7 team have beaten Queens College 10-3 and although they lost to Portland place they have the makings of a fantastic team.

The Year 8 team beat St Augustine’s 5-3 and the

“Our KS4 Badminton team won all 20 of their games at the Westminster interschool’s competition!”

Finally our KS4 Badminton team who are coached by Mr Goh won the Westminster interschool’s competition and qualified for the Central London finals on the 2nd February. The format of the final was a round robin competition against qualifiers from four other boroughs. The matches included two singles and three doubles matches against each school. We are very proud to announce that St Marylebone team won every game they played and therefore have qualified for the regional final at Crystal Palace on the 2nd of March. We wish the girls much success in the next round.

Ms Grant

Year 9 & 10 Trip to

Pirbright Army Barracks On a cold, wet day in January a group of Year 9 and 10 students made their way to Pirbright Army barracks in order to experience some entirely different forms of learning and to gain some new skills. They met the soldiers who were running the day and started with a lesson in makeup – not eye shadow and mascara, however; instead they were told to cover their faces in thick brown and green camouflage. This helped everyone get into the spirit of the day which had a clear message – today you will be

treated like soldiers, not school girls!

The day consisted of mentally and physically challenging team exercises and the chance to experience typical soldier life, including being given a ration pack for lunch which the girls had to cook over an open fire. It concluded with completing a very challenging assault course which consisted of some very high climbs, a long rope swing and getting very, very wet!

Miss Hardy

Here is what some of the girls had to say: ‘The greatest experience of my life, one to never forget’.

Bimisha, Year 10 ‘Mentally and physically challenging but great fun’.

Kangwa, Year 9 ‘I conquered some fears; it was adventurous and I pushed myself. It taught me how hard being in the army really is’.

Sam, Year 9.

‘I enjoyed making our own food because it gave us the closest possible insight into what the soldiers really have to go through’. Lauren, Year 10.

‘I really enjoyed the rope swing and the way they challenged us to do the activities’. Deniz, Year 10.

‘I loved every single second…even the press-ups’. Autumn, Year 10.

‘I had an absolutely fantastic day and although it was tremendously tiring, we benefited from all the lessons learnt and improved our physical and mental skills’. Iman, Year 10.

‘This experience will stay with me, for all the good reasons’. Sophia, Year 10.

School Photos!

You can get large (A4-sized) prints of photos taken at school events. Pupils can view the photos on the shared drive - U:\Whole School\Photos. Please send an email to Mr Sanghvi (n.sanghvi@stmarylebone.westminster.sch.uk) quoting the filename of the photo you would like. There is a small charge of £1 per photo to cover ink and paper costs – this can be paid in the ICT office.

For any other queries, please contact Mr Sanghvi.

Thank you!