21/07/14

1. 21/07/14 In this week’s issue we feature our national Educational Visits Award; Junior Speech Day; Eco-week; Roop Singh Day; outstanding teaching; the summer reading challenge & Longridge with Y7 Dear Parents, Guardians and Students, We are coming to the end of another successful and eventful year at Burnham Grammar School which has seen us finally securing £500,000 to replace all of the windows in the school and gain planning permission for the new 3 storey building through the middle of the school. In the Autumn term we will be launching a fundraising campaign to raise money for the new facilities which will greatly assist our grant application. If you would like to be involved in this capital fundraising project, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. I would also like to pay tribute to all of our staff at the end of a busy year. Mrs Targett and Mr Lennon’s National School Business Award for trip provision was well deserved, however, it could easily have been mirrored by a number of our support staff teams. Our teaching staff need to be singled out for the significant improvements that they have made this year with nearly half of all the observed lessons being judged as outstanding. This is a significant achievement and reflects the diet of dynamic and inspirational learning experiences that students benefit from day in day out. It is always sad to say goodbye to colleagues at the end of the year. Mrs Hall, who is currently on the tour to New Zealand, has been a fantastic teacher and has helped to develop sport at BGS to the point where we were the only school in Bucks to be awarded the Gold Kite Mark for extracurricular sport. She has also developed PSHE as a real strength of the school which was singled out for praise in the last Ofsted inspection. Finally, we are saying goodbye to Mr Gray as he takes up the headship of his new school. Mr Gray has had a significant impact in many areas of school life and I will always be grateful for wise advice, knowledge and encouragement in supporting me in this role. We wish him every success for the future. Have a restful and enjoyable summer. Dr Gillespie

2. Education Business Awards July 2014 BGS is delighted to have won the 2014 national Education Business Award for Educational Visits. At BGS we are extremely proud of the range of Educational Visits that we offer to our students each year; the number has recently grown to around 100 trips annually. Educational Visits at BGS range from day trips into Burnham Village or Oxford University, domestic residential visits such as to Liverpool and international travel to Europe, the United States of America and even New Zealand. We are equally very proud of the range of activities involved in these visits: a trip to Parliament to improve one’s citizenship skills and to understand more about how our country is governed; Young Enterprise to develop students’ entrepreneurial spirit; international sports tours (rugby, netball and skiing) or European tours to practise the languages taught in the classroom, experience the culture of those countries or commemorate our war dead at the Battlefields of the Great War. These are to name but a few and you will be familiar with these visits through the many student reports in this newsletter. Additionally, plans are in place for a once in a lifetime experience visit to Ghana where our students will help to develop amenities for a local community. Thanks go to Mrs Targett (who organises our visits in school and to whom many parents will have spoken to help ensure all is in place for their children to have a great visit) the on-going efforts of our staff, supported by our students’ families and of course the enthusiasm of our student body that we are able to offer such an eclectic range of opportunities. As with all of our work at BGS we strive to provide outstanding opportunities for our students Following a reception and lunch, Sharron Davies MBE, British Olympics and Commonwealth Games medallist, announced the winners in each category. Burnham Grammar was a finalist against three other schools from across the UK and before we knew it.... Burnham Grammar School was announced as the 2014 Winner of the national Education Business Educational Visits Award sponsored by The Rainforest Café. We returned with a framed certificate and trophy; just as Y7&8 students prepared for their overnight camps last week and the senior students departed to New Zealand. Mr Lennon, Assistant Headteacher

3. Junior Speech Day July 11th 2014 The full list of certificate winners and awards is on the website under News & Achievements and there will be a display on the main corridor in Sept. Mr Mills, & Mr Gash (next page) of the Rotary Club of Burnham Beeches presented the Rotary Club Creative Writing awards and prizes. Featured below are the UK Junior Maths Challenge award winners - BGS had a record number who won gold awards

4. Thanks to our stage crew Our Head Boy James Monger and Head Girl Beth Hopkins below gave a speech on the achievements of 2014 to a packed audience of invited parents and students. Ex BGS student Takashi Lawson was guest of honour who spoke about his journey to achieve his ambition to study Materials Science at Oxford University with his top tips on success.

5. Roop Singh Day Y9 Congratulations to our Year 13 Business Studies students who came second in a national contest dealing in shares on the London Stock Exchange. The Shares4Schools competition allows students to use £1,500 to buy and sell shares in public companies. The team from BGS, whilst making relatively few transactions, bought wisely particularly in retailer Next and British Airways, netting a profit of around £200. The BGS investors - LekhikaChaudhary, Sarina Sami, George Mackrell, Simran Bhopal and George Crimminswere regional winners for the South and were one of very few groups who made a profit despite difficult economic conditions At the presentation ceremony in London recently, the team also heard from the managing director of leading online share dealing service the Share Centre (which organised the competition) and from a leading investment group. Their prize was a trip on the London Eye; see the massive cheque outside Business Studies. Mr Kramer Dancing, drama, and making the 5 Ks in D&T for display in RS rooms

6. Roop was asked questions about his life and responded by telling amusing stories about how he won the popular TV show ‘Deal or No Deal’. I found the stories quite amusing because of the manner in which he told them. I will take away how Roop managed to create positives from negatives like when he crashed into a car he praised his turban for saving him from injury. We respected Roop’s beliefs and learnt the meaning behind the Sikh religion. He showed us that you can look at life’s negatives and be put down, or you can treat them as positives like he does and enjoy life. HersimerPadda 9D Roop Singh Day Y9

7. On Tuesday 8th July Year 2 and 3 pupils from St. Peters Primary School were welcomed to Burnham Grammar School to participate in Citizen Scientist activities for the BGS Eco-week. The activities included counting the number of bees on lavender, making bird feeders and bug hotels, insect research and collecting and designing road safety signs. The children impressed their teachers and 6th form helpers with their enthusiasm and had a fun experience at the school. They particularly enjoyed the bug counts and lessons on insects. Surveys were filled in by BGS students with help from the children, documenting the bee numbers and conditions. These surveys will be sent to the Great British Bee Count Citizen science scheme who will analyse the data and continue the research on the bee populations within Great Britain. With thanks to all the teachers and 6th formers who gave up their time to help out with this fun and educational activity day. By Cameron James – Year 12 6th Form help organised by Matt Anderson – Year 12 We have started our Safer Cycling and allotment initiatives… more next term

8. Teaching and Learning 2013/14 It has been a fantastic year overall for teaching and learning at Burnham Grammar School. As always a large proportion of the staff has been involved in teaching and learning groups working hard to improve students’ classroom experiences across the school. There has been a real drive towards achieving ‘Outstanding’ teaching and learning, with both teachers and students sharing ideas and working together to really pinpoint what enables our students here to learn, make progress and succeed. The highlight of this year was the Spring Senior Team observations, in which every single member of teaching staff was graded as ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Good’, with over half of the lessons seen graded as ‘Outstanding’. This is a phenomenal achievement and I was proud to discover recently, at a national Outstanding Teaching conference, that not one of the other representatives I spoke to could boast such a fantastic achievement, some of whom were representing quite prestigious schools! We are fortunate to have members of staff who are so committed to their profession, and I would like to congratulate all members of staff and students who have worked so hard this year. One example of this is the development of Action Research projects, and we look forward to hearing the outcomes of Mr Banin and Miss Shave’s personal teaching projects next term. Finally, it is with great pride that I can announce that the high standard of teaching was recognised by our students in the recent Kirkland Rowell surveys, where they graded ‘teaching quality’ as Outstanding. There will be an opportunity for parents to receive full feedback on these surveys next term. We received this kind email from a parent recently, writing about her daughter: “Her excellent report reflects her continued hard work and positive attitude to learning, which I feel is a result not only of her own determination, but also of the high standard of teaching she receives on a daily basis.” Miss Peplow This really reflects where we are at Burnham Grammar with teaching and learning, but never satisfied, we will continue to strive for improvements and are looking forward to another exciting academic year! Mrs Adamson, Deputy Headteacher

9. 2014 Summer Reading Challenge Read six books during the long summer holiday. This year’s challenge is entitled the Mythical Maze: find your way around a labyrinth with fantastical creatures from the world of legend and mythology, collecting stickers of each character along the way. So how to get involved? Head to your local library during the summer holidays and enrol. It's completely free and anybody can take part. Children can chat, get reading recommend-ationsand enter competitions see website http://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/ Skirmish Paintballing Y9 Compliment “I would like to say that all the players were exceptionally well behaved and a pleasure to have on site; the marshals remarked during our team debrief what an easy and fun group they were to run and that of the many school groups we see they were amongst the best we have ever had, and if you could let your Head Teacher know what a credit to the school they were we would be very grateful.” World Book Night book recipients Students had to apply for a copy or two from a selection of free books, either for themselves or to pass on to someone else. Over 70 books were given out to year 7 students last week. The books were chosen by Dr Gillespie, Mrs Williams, Mr Hudson and Ms Johnson and students watched a short presentation in assembly from these staff explaining why they’d chosen their title. The video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YspqjSDXMaY

10. Longridge 2014 Thank you to all the staff who made this possible and year 7 who were fab!In particular thankyou to Miss Goodier who masterminded the Activity Week for Y7-9 & Mrs Targett for all the paperwork