Private School News

THE MARIST SCHOOLS, BERKSHIRE – MARIST TIME LORD WINS TIMES AWARD

Marist students were continuing in The Marist Senior School’s strong tradition of creative writing when they entered the Young Times’ Writers competition, ‘The Claws of Macra’. The girls responded enthusiastically to the newspaper’s challenge: to write a winning Dr Who story which was spotted by Mrs Barnard the Schools Librarian.

Lucy Farrell in Year 9 beat readers all over the UK and online readers worldwide to see her story published in The Times.

Her story sees the doctor and Amy confront giant crustaceans, or Macra, in a gas refinery, with Amy turning into a crustacean herself. The Doctor needs to get her into the Tardis before she transforms completely.

Miss Lydia Spoors, English Teacher at the Marist, runs the creative writing club and encouraged the girls to enter the competition. She is delighted that Lucy Farrell’s story won, “this is a fantastic achievement for Lucy and our creative writing club which has gone from strength to strength this year. The girls have vivid imaginations and are very gifted when it comes to expressing themselves with originality and flair. ”

Not only will Lucy see her work in print but she will also receive a pass to the Dr Who Exhibition in Cardiff, Dr Who books and a treasured Sonic Screwdriver!

Photo: Lucy Farrell with her story in print in The Times (this Mondays edition)

HURST LODGE SCHOOL pupils visit Ascot Business Park

Ascot Business Park provided students from Hurst Lodge School with a local example of sustainable development. Year 6 had the opportunity to see the benefits of the brownfield site development adjacent to Ascot station when they visited their new local business park last week. Bill Raspin of Raspin Properties Ltd, joint developers of the site along with Salmon Harvester Properties Ltd., explained the complex issues of the construction involved in the change of use of the site very clearly.

In a lively discussion, the girls’ knowledge of recycling building materials and efficient energy use was expanded until they appreciated the features commercial properties need to achieve the ‘very good’ BREEAM* rating that this attractive and contemporary business park now has (*Building Research Establishment Assessment Method). The talk was followed by a quick tour of the park to highlight its variety of tenants and the different types of buildings on the park, from industrial units and artisan studios to the pure office space in Queen’s Square.

Hurst Lodge School has a tradition of awakening the curiosity and creativity of children through practical projects. They are currently setting up a small holding on their 20 acre site in Ascot and the first clutch of chicks are about to hatch. The aim is to make a closer connection with the natural world and to give students the opportunity to make decisions and manage resources through a small holder’s council. Hurst Lodge is collaborating with the award-winning Eden project in Cornwall to implement a carbon and waste reduction programme. The visit to the Ascot Business Park fitted in well with the school’s ethos and new direction.

Engineering science at THE MARIST SCHOOL

Last Friday Year 8 students at the Marist Senior School, Sunninghill experienced a hands-on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) day. This was facilitated by the charity Smallpeice and it was aimed at introducing engineering to women as a future career option. The girls embraced the tasks and challenges with enthusiasm and designed highly commendable models of working wind turbines.

Louise Duncan, course leader from the charity set the girls construction challenges which required problem solving skills and lateral thinking. Lynn Trainor, Science teacher said “I was extremely impressed by how diligently the girls worked together to address the assigned tasks.” Throughout the day the girls were competing to design and market an operational wind turbine. Groups were assessed for aesthetics, efficiency (ie highest voltage), cost, stability and teamwork. Most teams successfully completed all elements of the task and some students were refining design details towards the end of the afternoon

Mr Mark McCloskey, Headteacher of the Marist remarked that “Science, technology and maths are high priority, corner-stone subjects in the Marist curriculum. The introduction on an engineering component with team work and thinking skills was a refreshing initiative which was well received by all.”

Kayla Spitzer, a year 13 student in the Marist has been offered an unconditional offer at Villanova University in America to study Engineering. She selected this course because it combines Maths and Science and gives her so much scope for her future professional career development.

Head of Science at the Senior School, Ann Royston, was delighted by the response of the girls during the day and commented, “It was a thoroughly enjoyable day. It was very hands on learning for the girls, and it introduced them to the practical applications of science in our world.”

Further to this highly successful day, the Marist School has been given the opportunity to offer six free places on a residential engineering course at Portsmouth University in July. Competition for places amongst the girls is likely to be very high.

Marist Mini Marvels!

Marist Year 7 Students become published authors!

Twelve Year 7 students at the Marist Senior School, Sunninghill have had their stories selected for publication following success in the latest Young Writers’ creative writing competition, Mini Sagas.

Students were challenged to write a fifty word story that would either be thrilling, thought-provoking or amusing.

A copy of the book, Mini Marvels, published by Forward Press, will be kept at the British Library and further libraries across the UK and the Republic of Ireland, providing a lasting record of their achievement.

The editorial team selected the stories for publication based on “imagination, perception, expression and creative use of language.” Twelve Marist Senior School students were selected for the book, and Miss Spoors English teacher at the Marist school is delighted with the girls success, “We have a strong year of creative writers in Year 7 and it is very exciting for them to have their stories published at the ages of 11 and 12. Fingers crossed we may in due course have the overall winner amongst our girls!”

Winners, Olivia Johnson, Melissa Fry, Olivia Smith, Catriona Wood, Rumneeq Dhaliwal, Amy Ghandi, Charlotte Phillips, Olivia Coleman, Roberta Cipolletta, Elika Bedroud, Ruth Weaver and Alice Karsten (front to back in photograph) are looking forward to the next stage of the judging process, where the editorial team will award a £1,000 prize for ‘the best story’ once the book has been published later this summer.

Photo: (front to back in photograph) Olivia Johnson, Melissa Fry, Olivia Smith, Catriona Wood, Rumneeq Dhaliwal, Amy Ghandi, Charlotte Phillips, Olivia Coleman, Roberta Cipolletta, Elika Bedroud, Ruth Weaver and Alice Karsten.

Hurst Lodge School, Ascot, working with The Eden Project

At Hurst Lodge we believe that education is about developing the foundations for making a life as well as for making a living and although academic results may act as an entrée to a future career, a good education is more than this.

Ultimately experience tells us that children who are happy at school learn better and face the future with optimism and, for parents, their children’s happiness plays a large part in their own.

We believe too that the challenges of the next 50 years will demand the best of us and that C. S. Lewis’s phrase; “while science may lead us to truth only the imagination can lead us to meaning”, is an important insight.
So…at Hurst Lodge we seek to inspire curiosity and imagination and encourage our children to experience a rich cultural life, encompassing creative and performance arts, science and citizenship, developing leadership and teamwork skills and instilling in them a joy of education which we hope will be sustained throughout their lives.

We also believe in the importance of underpinning this by making the connection between ourselves and the natural world real. This is why the Hurst Lodge community of staff and pupils will together embark on a journey of exploration by undertaking a programme of integrating the school’s operations into the learning experience.

We will be collaborating in this with the award-winning Eden Project in Cornwall, with whom we will be implementing a carbon and waste reduction programme with special emphasis on reducing and replacing our reliance on fossil fuels and looking at alternative technologies and managing these ourselves. We also intend to trial growing some of our own food and establishing a smallholding, to give our young people a greater understanding of the things so many take for granted. The children have already placed some fertile chicken eggs in an incubator and during the 21 days incubation process the chicken house will be constructed. Bee hives have been ordered and the bees are ready and waiting to occupy their new homes.

We are holding our first ever Saturday Open Day on June 12th from 10.30 to 14.30.

www.hurstlodge.co.uk

Marist pupil is youngest chosen for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra

Sophia Hall, a Year 8 student at the Marist Senior School in Sunninghill has been selected for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Sophia is a highly talented musician instrumentally and chorally. In addition to her prowess on the saxophone she sings with Taplow choir. They who were recently chosen to represent the UK in the National Choir Competition. Sophia is understandably delighted with her success and Sophia’s teachers share in her delight.

Jocelyn Slocombe, Head of Music at the Marist Senior School, was so impressed by Sophia’s talent, she recommended to her parents at Parents Evening in March that Sophia should consider auditioning for the National Youth Jazz orchestra at a later date.

Not being one to delay, that very evening Sophia researched the orchestra, and promptly presented for an audition with the orchestra as well as performing solos. Her final audition was with a famous Jazz Musician who was very delighted to invite Sophia to join the Orchestra.

At 13 Years of age, Sophia is the youngest musician in the orchestra. The second youngest is 15 and the other numbers are significantly older.

Sophia started to play the Saxophone at the age of 7. She only recently started taking grade exams and she is already on grade 7. She practises every evening and every Saturday with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.

The Marist Senior School are extremely proud of Sophia’s accomplishment. Miss Slocombe adds, “It is an outstanding achievement and we are very proud of Sophias individual success and the wider musical life of the Marist school.”

Photo: Sophia Hall with her Saxophone

A Day in the Dealing room for Padworth students

Padworth College Sixth form students visited the ICMA Centre at Henley Business School, University of Reading to find out more about courses and careers in finance and investment and to participate in a practical share dealing session in the brand new state-of-the-art Dealing room.

The group of 10 students from Padworth College, who are all studying Business Studies and Economics A Level, attended two lectures during the afternoon. The first was given by Dr Adrian Bell, Director of Teaching and Learning who spoke about the role of the ICMA centre and the Finance and Investment Banking course at the University of Reading followed by an interesting talk from Graham Philpott, Deputy Director about the range of careers which former graduates had forged after the course. Mr Philpott also gave the students some useful tips on preparing a successful CV.

The students were then given a tour of the Dealing room and shown how to operate the sophisticated dealing system. Economics student, Alma Pereira said, “It was so interesting – not only did we gain the fundamentals of the share market but we actually applied them in the simulation exercise. At the end, some of us made huge profits while others ended up with equally huge deficits – we all found this an exhilarating experience”.

The ICMA Centre has the most extensive non-investment bank dealing room facilities in the world and was established with funding from the ICMA. The Centre is equipped with all the latest trading technology giving it the feel of a real trading floor and it is sponsored by Thomson Reuters.

Head of Economics, Michael Laizans said, “This trip has given our students a real insight into the world of banking and share dealing – the hands-on experience in the Dealing Room was extremely useful and I think will really help their understanding of investment and banking practices. We are very grateful to Reading University for giving our students this opportunity”.

National Science and Engineering week at The Marist School

National Science and Engineering week was from the 12-21 March, and the Marist Senior School, Sunninghill, fully embraced it within the Science Department.

Glass Frogs, Yeti Crabs, Sea Pigs and Blob Fish were just a few of the strange creatures encountered during National Science and Engineering week. A full week of activities culminating in a Pub Quiz (non-alcoholic!) attracted up to 30 girls every lunchtime in the Science departments labs.

The Marist students began the week with a spot of forensic investigation, taking their own fingerprints and seeing if they could then identify whose was whose (move over CSI!!).

With the beautiful spring weather having finally arrived the girls took the opportunity to photograph the buds and emerging flowers, hoping to chronicle their unfolding through the week as they basked in the sunshine.

Another lunchtime saw teams of Marist girls exploring and discovering around the school site trying to colour match leaves, twigs, Joe (our Maintenance Manager) work gloves and other outdoor finds to a colour chart, with chocolate goodies for the winning team with the best match. The girls also took part in a quiz to identify weird and wonderful images, including images seem through a microscope.

Rev Lynn Trainer, Physics Teacher, commented, “National Science and Engineering Week was a week of fun and mayhem with HUGE thanks to our Senior Lab Technician, Mrs Wood, who put everything together and lead the sessions. The girls thoroughly enjoyed all the challenges and experiments we set and we can’t wait for next year to create even more exciting things for the girls”

Independent Schools Association (ISA) Drama Festival 2010

On the weekend of March 12th and 13th March Hurst Lodge School, Ascot hosted the ISA Southern Section of the ISA Drama Competition, as it has for the previous 13 years. Every member school of the Independent Schools Association is invited to participate

This competition is organised by ISA to promote drama in schools. Schools may enter in 4 categories, Infant, Junior, Middle and Senior.

A total of 19 different pieces of theatre were performed over the weekends by children aged between 4 and 18 from a variety of schools from all over the country -The Northern competition was held the previous weekend at The Hammond School in Cheshire.

All were adjudicated by Mr Mark Oldknow (GODA) who was impressed with the standard of professionalism of all the entries. Hurst Lodge was praised for its facilities, the technical support given by the team and its general organisation of the event.

Following the weekend of performance we eagerly awaited the results. When these were published Hurst Lodge was delighted to discover that we had received two first place awards. The marks achieved were awarded for the technical, production, acting and entertainment value.

Pupils from years3-6 performed “Percy Parker’s Flying Bathtub”, a curriculum based musical that was devised by Andrew Holdsworth, a teacher at Hurst Lodge School. An overall mark of 63% was achieved.

One of the senior entries was a piece based on “The Good Person of Szechwan” a play written by Bertolt Brecht, which was awarded a creditable 72%. The other senior Hurst Lodge entry was “The Listener”, a devised production using the Walter de la Mare poem of the same name, as the stimulus for a piece of physical theatre. This gained the best results in the country, as well as being awarded The Clewborough House Cup for the Best Senior Production and The Dair House Trophy, (the Adjudicator’s Discretionary Award for “the most innovative and creative” piece).

These results rounded off a great weekend for the school and were well deserved by the girls for all the hard work they had put into the performances.

SHAKESPEARE AT THE ABBEY SCHOOL, READING

This term has seen the two major school productions at The Abbey. ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was an ambitious and impressive Senior School play and the Junior School put on a lively, musical version of The Tempest.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Senior School production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was a great success. The most famous of the Bard’s plays has everything – star-crossed lovers, conflict in fairyland, a royal wedding and the humour of Bottom and his head of an ass!

In order for as many girls as possible to be involved the two Directors, Miss Sutton and Mrs Airton, worked with two entire casts to stage three evening performances and an understudy matinee. The audience was welcomed and immediately travelled through time, escorted by the mischievous fairies, encountering actors in the corridors before taking their seats in a magical evocatively-lit setting.

The actors displayed incredible professionalism and had really worked hard to develop their characters in both the drama and comedy of the play.

The Tempest
All the Year 5 girls were involved in an exciting performance of ‘The Tempest’ to a delighted audience of family and friends. Not quite using all Shakespeare’s original words, the cast conveyed through drama, dance and song, the thrills, laughter, romance and wonder of the Bard’s tale.

With a cast of 50, the musical play thrilled the audience with a shipwreck, the machinations of Prospero and his unsurping brother, the three headed monster Caliban and enough Hobglobins and dancing Sprites to cause much mischief and mayhem. Ariel, a hard working crew of sailors and various other characters completed the line up of the play which showed us how a modern-day class of children learned to love the Bard of Avon.

The music and dance numbers were a delight, the costumes sparkled and a jiving rendition of ‘All shook up’ injected a surprise factor into the historical setting.

Photo: The Tempest

For further details please contact Nicky Hurley on 0118 987 6908 or marketing@theabbey.co.uk

The future’s not just bright, it’s green at the Marist

The coveted Eco Schools Green flag is the culmination of a year’s work by the Marist Senior school in Sunninghill, Ascot. In securing this prestigious accolade the school has improved its environmental efficiency and taught students about the importance of protecting the environment through sustainable development. The Green Flag is awarded to schools who exhibit proactive environmental work covering topics such as water, health and wellbeing, waste management, litter, transport, school grounds, biodiversity and energy.

Schools throughout the country can work towards gaining one of three awards – Bronze, Silver and the elite Green Flag award, which symbolizes excellence in the field of environmental activity. Bronze and Silver are both self accredited through this website and Green Flag is externally assessed by Keep Britain Tidy. The Marist Senior School obtained their Bronze and Silver Award last summer and have since been working diligently towards the Green Flag status.

Among the numerous projects the Marist Senior School has undertaken, some of the most successful and popular have been the lunch time Growing Club, the reduce poster competition, the recycling competition and the sunflower race. The staff and pupils have made significant efforts to reduce paper through purchasing new printers that offer a double-sided printing facility, recycling boxes in every classroom, an online newsletter and e-mailing letters home to reduce paper consumption further.

During the schools’ inspection for the award, the Marist School was praised for embracing the message throughout the curriculum, its informed student Eco Action Team and its litter free environment. Year 11 Students are assisting and taking an active part with the growing Club as part of their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Miss Spoors, the Eco Schools coordination teacher said: “The Green Flag Award is a combination of hard work over the year with a huge number of staff and students involved. I would like to thank Environmental Officer Charlie Atkin and her team for helping us achieve the Bronze and Silver Award in the summer term and this final result which we will now build upon. We are especially proud of this award as it puts us amongst the few secondary schools in the country to have achieved this!”

Mr Karl McCloskey, Headteacher for the Senior School added, “This award is something the whole school is exceptionally proud of. It would not have been possible without the commitment of the whole community to become more eco friendly. The wider community of parents and friends have embraced being contacted via our E-Newsletter, and I eagerly anticipate the fruits of Growing Clubs’ garden and herb patch this summer.”

The Marist Wins them all in a week!

The Marist Senior School, Sunninghill, had an impressive week of sporting successes starting with Swimming on Monday 3rd March, where their swimming teams attended the Ascot School’s Relay Competition at Heathfield School.

The Year 9 team came first over all in their age group, and the Year 7 teams also came in top positions after being placed 2nd and 3rd.

Cross country was their next event on Wednesday 3rd March at ‘The Look Out’ in Bracknell. The Swinley Forest Cross Country Relay was entered by Ffion MacKenzie and Chelsea Tinniswood in Year 7, Greta Spitzer and Emma Davis Year 8, and Kate Reynolds and Lucy Campbell in Year 9.

The Marist Relay Team came first and two minutes faster than the other competitors!

Also on Wednesday, fifteen teams entered The U13 Ascot Schools Netball Tournament held at St George’s School. The Marist Team were unbeaten in their pool games and then played Licensed Victuallers School and won 6-2 in the semi-final. They went on to beat The Abbey School 4-3 in the final.

The Marist Senior School has won Swimming Relays, Cross Country Relays and Netball Tournaments all in one week!

Mrs Bishopp, Head of PE at the Marist Senior School is extremely proud of the successes of the PE department in such a short space of time, and Mrs Karen Thompson a PE teacher at the Marist comments, “we have had a strong sporting year at the Marist so far and are so proud of girls and their team spirit and comradeship. We are looking forwards to our next matches over the coming weeks.”

Multiple Marist Musician Successes at the Woodley Festival

Talented Musicians from the Marist Preparatory School triumphed at the Woodley Festival of Music and Arts held earlier this month.
The Marist Recorder Consort was highly commended for their ‘lovely sense of ensemble playing’ and took home a gold medal. A silver medal was awarded to the Guitar Quartet for their rendition of ‘The Drunken Sailor’.
The Marist also had solo medal winners including, Catherine Abela who won silver on the Violin and Abigail Harding who won Silver on the Recorder and achieved a Merit for her Oboe playing
In the Upper Junior Choir Class, the Marist Preparatory Junior Choir, who were the largest Choir at the competition, were given Highly Commended. The Chamber Choir took home a Distinction as well as being awarded the prestigious John Keane Trophy for the best performance.
Mrs Hercock, the head of Music at the Preparatory School commented, “I was thrilled with all the results, in particular I was overjoyed for the chamber choir as we faced very stiff competition in this class. It is only the second year this choir has taken part and they should give themselves a pat on the back for their outstanding effort!”
The Marist Preparatory School are delighted to have received the honour to be invited back to perform at the Gala. Congratulations to all those who performed!

World Book Day celebrated at Bearwood

On Thursday, 4th March, Bearwood pupils of all ages celebrated World Book Day a number of ways. Firstly, the librarian visited the Prep and Pre-Prep Schools, where the children dressed up and were treated to storytime as well as some free literary gifts and World Book Day cupcakes. The themes for Year 3 and Year 5 were based on what they’ve been reading, namely Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Greek myths. The younger children dressed as their favourite book character.

At the College, four Year 8 writers, Holly Bishop, Alastair Cameron, Aidan Sakakini and Frances Tidey, spent five hours being creative as they worked together to produce Chapter 4 in their inter-school e-book. The first three chapters were written on Monday to Wednesday by the Emmbrook, Cranford House and Sandhurst schools, and Bearwood wrote the final chapter, and named the whole story “The Fallen Angel.” Copies of the final story are available in the Bearwood College Cook Library.

Photo: Bearwood College Prep School’s Year 5 children dressed as Greek Gods

Author shares her top tips

Luckley-Oakfield welcomes top teenager fiction writer

‘Characters turn the wheel of a plot’ popular fiction writer, Mary Hooper told girls at Luckley-Oakfield when she visited to share the secrets of her successful writing.

With the same editor as J K Rowling and over 40 books to her name, Mary was able to offer the eager Year 7 and 8 girls a real insight into the art of story telling. She shared with them about her approach to researching her novels, planning and editing, as well as working with publishing houses and the difficulties surrounding book covers.

Mary talked about drawing inspiration from all kinds of sources; including films. She explained how Ground Hog Day had sparked the idea for one of her novels about a boy who wishes to have his birthday everyday. Her early books featured 15 year old modern heroines, but having felt she had exhausted modern plots Mary moved to writing historical fiction. She explained how she uses eye witness material to ensure her historical settings are authentic.

Mary showed the girls how she plans her writing – no software package for her, but a storyboard divided into the same number of boxes as there will be chapters in the book. She adds post-it-notes with ideas about characters, settings and action. As she uses an idea in her script she destroys the sticky note.

The group heard that authors have no opportunity to participate in book cover choice. This is the publisher’s task.

At the end of a gripping talk there was an opportunity for girls to ask questions and they learnt that Mary’s favourite children’s books were the Just William series. She confessed to having no ambition at school and did not start writing seriously until she was 30 years of age.

The hour long session ended with book purchasing and signing.

School Librarian Mrs Jean Warwick commented, ‘The girls have much to think about after listening to Mary. I hope a few may copy her novel plan for their essays and perhaps some have acquired inspiration for stories of their own. Mary’s love of writing and history should convey enthusiasm and passion for the girls to emulate. Mary was very complimentary about our pupils. She said that she could not remember such a rapt audience.’

Sports for Schools

Hurst Lodge School, Ascot has recently been visited by Becky Wing a British Championships Gold Medal winner in gymnastics. Becky comes from Farnborough in Hampshire and is an extremely stylish, mature and elegant young performer who stands out for her high level skills, great dance ability, and for the beautiful quality of her work. Hers is undoubtedly a name to look out for in the build-up to the 2012 Olympics.

Also present was Paul Reeve representing Sports for Schools in ‘The 2012 Inspirational Campaign’. Sports for Schools wishes to encourage young pupils through this scheme to help reduce the amount of health problems faced in today’s society. Changing the culture in modern society via encouraging children to see sport and fitness as the “norm”, not a chore, is crucial to tackling these health epidemics.

The session started with a fitness circuit in which all of the junior school plus Years 7 and 8 children enthusiastically took part. This was a sponsored event and the money collected is to be split between the school, to purchase sporting equipment, and the other half going to the “Development of Young Athletes” hosted by the Sports for Schools organisation.

The Kindergarten and a representation of senior students then joined the audience to watch Megan Rhodes, a Year 11 pupil perform a dance, choreographed by the Hurst Lodge Dance Department, followed by a gymnastics display given by Becky. There was then a question and answer session to round off the highly enjoyable afternoon.

Hurst Lodge wishes Becky and the School for Sports campaign every success in the future.

RSPB Little Schools’ Birdwatch at Hurst Lodge School

Littlehurst Nursery, which is based at Hurst Lodge School, Ascot has been taking part in the RSPB Little Schools’ Birdwatch. It is designed to educate and inspire three- to five-year olds about the birds that share their outdoor space and links well to the Early Years Curriculum. Young children have a natural curiosity in the world around them, so we used our outdoor area to hopefully spark a lifelong interest in nature and wildlife!
To encourage the birds into their playground the children made some bird seed cake. They enjoyed rolling their sleeves up, mixing the lard and seed together, then pushing and squeezing the mixture into pots before hanging them outside.
The children then watched the birds that came to visit and recorded their findings by putting a picture of each species of bird seen into a box.

The first hour brought along a number of blue tits, wood pigeons and rooks.

Everyone who took part thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the children loved to see how their efforts had attracted the wildlife.

Luckley shows Panasonic a thing or two Luckley-Oakfield school leading the way in school IT

Luckley-Oakfield School, Wokingham, 1 February 2010: Business Technology specialists from Panasonic recently visited Luckley-Oakfield School, Berkshire to learn about technology in UK Schools. During their visit the Panasonic staff were given a tour of the school and able to watch various classes to see how interactive boards form a part of everyday teaching at Luckley-Oakfield. They were particularly interested in the use of hardware in the school and also keen to see how software is used by teachers to deliver the curriculum.

Linda Stephens from the School Economics department had been instrumental in helping the global brand develop products for the UK market by testing future designs and sharing insights with Panasonic’s European Development Team. Linda, the Head of Economics at the School also took part at the recent BETT show in London by hosting the Panasonic “Classroom of the Future” stand and explaining how new technology from the company can be used in UK schools. Following the show the six executives from the Japanese Headquarters wanted to further their understanding of how UK schools use technology and Luckley provided the answer.

The school was thrilled to have an infrared wireless speaker and microphone as well as an interactive whiteboard and ruggedised “toughbook” laptop donated to them by Panasonic.

Staff at Luckley-Oakfield School were fascinated to learn that in Japan technology does not feature as part of school life or as a tool to aid pupils and teachers.

Headmistress Vivienne Davis commented, ‘It was a wonderful opportunity for us to share our experiences of using IT throughout the school; use of interactive software and wireless networked laptops. It is really interesting to learn about the cultural difference between the Japanese and UK education systems, particularly in regards to technology. We hope the trip to the UK and to Luckley was informative for our visitors.’

Bearwood College Pupil Matt Dunn selected for Under-19 World Cup Cricket Team.

Matt, a sixth former, is currently in New Zealand, ready to compete in the ICC Under-19 World Cup which takes place from January 16th -30th, 2010. The bi-annual tournament involves 16 teams with England facing Afghanistan, Hong Kong and India in the group stages.
The squad left the UK on January 1st for Wellington, New Zealand, where they spent time acclimatising before reporting to Christchurch for the start of the World Cup. England plays in two warm-up matches against Papua New Guinea U19 on January 11 and New Zealand U19 on January 12.
England’s first match in the group stages will be against Hong Kong on January 16th, followed by Afghanistan on January 18 and India, the current World Cup holders, on January 20th. The top two teams in each group will progress to the quarter-finals.
Headmaster Stephen Aiano comments: “This is such an exciting time for Matt and everyone at Bearwood is following the team’s progress closely. The team has this fantastic opportunity to test themselves against some of the most talented young cricketers in the world. We wish them all the best and hope he will be back celebrating success at school soon.”

Hurst Lodge pupils sing at “BETT” show in Kensington Olympia

Pupils from Hurst Lodge School in Ascot sang a collection of songs from a new curriculum-based musical to thousands of delegates at the internationally renowned “BETT” show in Kensington Olympia last week. The largest educational exhibition in the world, BETT attracts over thirty thousand visitors annually, and the performance by seventeen junior pupils from Hurst Lodge had hundreds of teachers and education professionals humming along throughout the giant hall.

“The response from the crowd was fantastic”, said Russ Payne from Scholastic Education, the publisher of the musical. “The children performed with such enthusiasm and their singing really brought the exhibition to life. Several visitors said that the pupils’ performance was the highlight of the exhibition, and one lady commented that the singing must have been recorded, as it sounded too good to be ‘live’. She was wrong of course. It was live, and it was brilliant!”

“All of the songs from Percy Parker’s Flying Bathtub have been recorded by pupils from Hurst Lodge over the past eighteen months,” explains composer Andrew Holdsworth. “The musical is modular, so teachers can pick and mix from a collection of scenes and songs which are based on topics they’re covering in the classroom, such as the Tudors, the Victorians, the Egyptians and the Ancient Greeks. Pupils from years three to six at Hurst Lodge learnt a large number of brand new songs, which they recorded with great commitment and accuracy in a series of professional recording sessions arranged at the school. An infectious enthusiasm for singing and performing coupled with a willingness to embrace new ideas made Hurst Lodge the perfect place to bring these songs to life. The junior pupils were full of ideas, many of which have been incorporated into the musical in some way or another. I’m absolutely delighted with the results of our work together and I’m very grateful to Hurst Lodge for helping me bring this teaching resource to life. Teachers from as far away as Denmark, Mexico and India approached me after the children’s performance to tell me they were looking forward to using the songs and scripts in class, so hopefully it won’t be long before classrooms all over the world will be singing along with the children from Hurst Lodge!”

Pupils from the school made a short movie about their involvement in creating the show, which can be viewed at the school website, www.hurstlodge.co.uk.