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Lytchett Minster School | Newsletter April 2019 elcome to the April edition of the WNewsletter! The arrival of spring always lifts our spirits as the beautiful grounds of Lytchett Minster School become transformed in a blaze of colour and the school fields are re-opened for students to enjoy at break and lunchtime. This month’s edition of the newsletter reflects the amazing vibrancy of the school with a very diverse range of extra-curricular activities and successes to celebrate. It has been most pleasing to see our students getting involved in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) events competing successfully with their peers from other local schools. Special congratulations go to three teams of highly motivated, intelligent Year 9 students who competed in the finals of a STEM challenge at Bournemouth University, an Atlas Elektronik event in Highcliffe School (see page 14), and a Rotary Engineering Challenge event at Parkstone Grammar School (see page 10), and a team of Year 7 and 8 boys who reached the finals of a Robotics Challenge event in Birmingham (page 4) and our Year 9 science ambassadors who inspired Bere Regis pupils (page 30). My thanks go to Mr Reghif, Mr Patel, Mr Packham and Mrs Ventham for supporting these important events. We have also seen great success this month in football (Year 10 boys and girls and Year 11 boys), cooking (Year 10 students), writing (Year 9 students), and art (Year 12). If you have not already booked your ticket on Wisepay (via the school website) for the School Choir’s performance of Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ on Saturday 27th April in the Lytchett Minster Parish Church, please do so, before they are all sold out! The 7.00pm concert begins with Wagner’s ‘Tannhäuser: Grand March’, followed by Vivaldi’s choral masterpiece and then individual performances by the school’s top musicians (who have all achieved Grade 8). It promises to be a fabulous concert! Our students have a real heart for others, and this was plain to see with recent charity fundraising activities, including the Sixth Form’s all-night Sleep Easy event (see page 2 & 24) and Red Nose Day (see page 11). It is always sad to say goodbye to staff, especially when they have served the school for so many years, but at Easter we say farewell to Mandy Franklin (Sixth Form Support Manager) and Mrs Abbott (Special Needs teacher) who are both leaving after many years of loyal service to the school. Andrew Mead Headmaster 01202 622413 • www.lytchett.org.uk • / 1 Student of the Month Congratulations to the following students who were nominated as March’s Student of the Month: English Maths Geography Music Food Tech Photo not Photo not available available Bradley Mitchell William Percy Isobel Young Poppy Stratman Abigail Hughes Year 8 Year 11 Year 7 Year 10 Year 9 MFL Psychology P.R.E. DANCE Art Photo not Photo not available Photo not available available Freya Barclay Ella Glass Phoebe Jones Louise Burke Eva Hampson Year 8 Sixth Form Sixth Form Year 10 Year 7 Drama HISTORY P.E. COMPUTING Photo not available Oliver Poole Archie Sheppard Eve Stickland Luke Coalter Year 11 Year 8 Year 10 Year 10 Ex-Governor Stuart McKechnie We were sorry to learn of the recent death of Stuart McKechnie who served as a governor at Lytchett for a number of years alongside previous headteachers Mr Castleton and Mr Clark, chairing the Finance Committee during the time of the new Arts Block project. He was involved with the School both as a parent and with the music department at that time, playing clarinet on the 1987 School Orchestra Tour to Switzerland. We pass on our condolences to Stuart’s family. 2 Agglestone Gault Kimmeridge Photo not Photo not available available Kieran Nisbet Ella Wilson Millie Porter Year 10 Year 11 Year 7 Purbeck Wealden Portland Sixth Form Photo not available Photo not Photo not Photo not available available available Oliver Chaplin Harvey Pocklington Rees Jones Chloe Gilbertson Year 7 Year 8 Year 7 Sixth Form Sixth Form support YMCA raise funds for the homeless Well done to all those Year 12 and 13 students who spent Friday night 15th March sleeping rough in the school grounds to raise money and awareness of homelessness in support of the YMCA. Special thanks also go to the staff who supervised the event : Mrs Booker, Mrs Skinner, Mr Hannaford, Mrs Coleman, Mr Coombes, Mr Wyatt and Mr Law. 3 Tomorrow’s Engineers EEP Robotics Challenge Lytchett Minster School students did an amazing job to get to the final of the Tomorrow’s Engineers Robotics Challenge – out of 500 schools and a thousand teams, putting them among the top 48 competitors. This was a fitting achievement for the students’ hard work and preparation. At the event, which was part of the Big Bang Fair at the NEC in Birmingham, they were excellent representatives of the school, showing themselves to be hard working competitors and engineers. They also had the chance to look at the huge selection of STEM stands at the Big Bang Fair, which showcased all sorts of potential careers, including a slightly larger robot brought along by the military: maybe this will be what they’re making in 10 years’ time! Report by Luke Nicholas (Year 8) Lytchett Minster School was proudly represented by Rees Jones (Year 7), Alfie Rawlings (Year 8) and Luke Nicholas (Year 8) at the Tomorrow’s Engineers final at the Birmingham NEC. We had to complete a series of tasks such as a race and a challenge mat. Firstly, we had two tries, back to back, on the racetrack. It was 8 metres long and timed by robots. It was also on tables that would have led to catastrophe if our race car couldn’t go straight … however, our car is incapable of turning! On the first go, the gears weren’t properly connected and it slowed down towards the end; on the second go it sped up significantly! Ours was ideal for the challenge optimising lightweight parts and extreme gearing. We then had to tackle a series of challenges, pushing our robot to the limit. With not-so F1-grade wheel changes and a destroyed plane, we completed these. In the limited five minutes allowed, we failed the ramp the first time, but succeeded the second time. The dance section showed the judges our not-so-funky dance moves, and the engineering challenge was a pain in the head – the engineers’ head! Throughout the morning we had to complete a teamwork challenge, which involved exploring the halls and working things out as a team. We handed the form in on the dot and used the ancient art of counting to complete two of the questions in the teamwork challenge. We also had to explain our design ideas and problems we overcame to the judges, despite it being a little awkward when we had nothing to say! Finally, we were hunted down by the judges to show them our idea of how robots could improve the future for humanity. Our robot was a rescue drone, designed for search and rescue and to act as an ambulance that doesn’t require personnel. They saw us at our pod, which was beautifully decorated with artwork and had our name board – which we hope will eventually be displayed in the IT block. Unfortunately, in the awards presentation we didn’t win anything – although, with only ten awards and 48 schools competing, there was only a small chance of getting a prize – but we still had loads of fun! If any student is interested in taking part in robotics, please email Mr Reghif. 4 Project Qualification for Exceptional (PQE) students Congratulations to the following top Year 9 students who took part in the PQE challenge. Amelia Barber Erin Briggs Sam Graham Izzy Harwood Charlotte Henry Mia Longhurst Daniel Pritchard Bethany Pryor Joe Smith Ruby Stratford Amelie Vivian Harriet Walker The students were asked to research and write a 1000 word essay on a topic of the choice; a concept similar to that of the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), taken by our top A level students. Mrs Halley Gordon and Mr Mead had the pleasure of reading and assessing the essays. They were very impressed with the high standard of academic scholarship evidenced in the work produced. The top 3 students, Mia Longhurst, Amelia Barber and Daniel Pritchard, were then required to give a 5 minute speech about their topic to the Senior Leadership Team . Mia spoke on the subject, ‘Should we fear artificial Intelligence?’ and Amelia and Daniel spoke on the topic ‘How can we combat climate change?’ The winner of the PQE Challenge 2019 was Daniel Pritchard. This young man gave a very impressive and eloquent speech showing a very profound grasp of his chosen talk. His essay is printed below. We would also like to thank the Year 12 and 13 EPQ students who mentored the Year 9 students through this project. How can we combat climate change? By Daniel Pritchard In this essay, I will be talking about some ways that can help us combat climate change. I will also say about how we have reached this stage and what we can do to prevent the situation from getting worse. Then at the end, I will state whether I think we can stop climate change and what you can do to help First I’ll start by talking about how climate change has reached this point. In 1870, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 290 ppm (parts per minute) and the average global temperature was around 13.7°c.