Lealands News

School Newsletter | Issue 18 | May 2014 | Student Name ______

Inside this issue: Easter Bonnet Competition P12-13 A Letter from the Trenches P14 Headteacher’s Introduction P2 Science Poetry Competition P15 Parental Forum P3 Fair Trade Bake Off P16 Notices P4-5 Family Learning P17 International Links- Update P6 Year 11 Art Exam P18-19 Archbishop of Canterbury Visit P7 Tapas Evening P20 Sports News P8-9 Accelerated Reader P21 Craig McGregor Visit P10 Summer Exam Timetable P22-23 Easter Concert P10-11 Community Fun Day P24

Community Charity Coming Up Half-Term Week Sports Day Fun Day III >>> Monday 26th May - Wednesday 25th June Saturday Friday 30th May 12th July 2014

Lealands High School, Sundon Park Road, Luton LU3 3AL Tel: 01582 611600 Fax: 01582 612227 Email: [email protected] www.lealands.luton.sch.uk

Aspire Believe Achieve Introduction from Headteacher - Mr Burridge

Dear parents/carers,

I would like to start by wishing our Year 11 students the very best of luck in their forthcoming GCSE examinations. They have all worked exceptionally hard this year and deserve every success. It will be sad to see this year group leave as they have contributed so much to the development of the school.

During this term staff have already begun thinking about next year. As I am sure you are aware, there are many many changes that the Government is bringing in from September. One of the most significant is a new national curriculum. Our staff will be planning and training during the course of this term so that we are well prepared for September. Other changes to GCSEs, performance tables, assessment levels, Special Needs, GCSE grading and so on are very significant but I am confident that our excellent staff team will respond to all of these as best they can in the interests of all our students. We will be up-dating you with a range of information during the course of next academic year.

At the start of this term we conducted our annual questionnaire for parents. I am pleased that the results of this have been excellent and demonstrate that most of you are extremely pleased with all aspects of the education we provide at Lealands. There were 165 responses with 40% of these coming from parents of Year 7 students. The 3% who disagreed, last year, that their chid is making good progress has been reduced to just 1%. This is excellent and shows that we are achieving very well in our main task of securing good progress. In most cases, last year’s very positive responses have been replicated this year and in many cases the proportion strongly agreeing has increased. Although the vast majority of parents believe that behaviour is excellent, there has been a slight deterioration in parents’ views of behaviour and we are looking into understanding why this is the case and what action may be needed. Thank you to all parents/carers who responded as this provides very helpful information to us.

I hope you enjoy reading about the many successes and exciting activities that have been taking place so far this term. I am also looking forward to Sports Day, hosting a visit of colleagues from our partner school in India, the annual school production, the Community Fun Day and our new Lealands Experience Day at the end of term (details to follow).

2 Parental Forum

On Wednesday 19th March, Mrs Bendefy, one of the school’s Assistant Headteachers, held a ? parental forum. This is an opportunity for parents ? to come together to discuss how improvements ? can be made in the school.

As a group there were many discussion topics, for example, how parents’ evenings could be improved and how the communication could be improved between the school and the parents.

Parents were welcomed by student leaders and we used this opportunity to generate an understanding of parents’ views about Lealands.

We found that most parents were very happy with the services and teaching that the school is providing their child. However, there were some areas they felt needed improving, such as the use of learning diaries.

These sessions are a great way to express any views, queries or worries that you may have about your child at school and the communication you get from the school. If you would be interested in attending our parental forum please contact Mrs Bendefy.

Luke Davies Head Boy

Important Dates

Term Dates: Half-term: Monday 26th 2014 - Friday 30th May 2014 End of Summer Term: Friday 18th July 2014 Start of Autumn Term: Wednesday 3rd September 2014

Important Dates: Sports Day: Wednesday 25th June 2014

School Production:Wednesday 9th July - Friday 11th July, 7.30pm and Saturday 12th July, 6.30pm

Community Fun Day: Saturday 12th July 2014 (See back page for more details)

Lealands Experiences Day: Thursday 17th July 2014

3 Online Payments

Don’t forget you can pay online using the ‘Parents Payment’ link from the homepage of our website: www.lealands.luton.sch.uk

If you do not have your link code to login, please contact the school finance office on 01582 611600. Parents can pay online for the following:

Voluntary Contributions Events, Trips and Visits New Summer trips Technology Years 7, 8 and 9 Amsterdam will be added once Graphics Years 10 and 11 Blue Peris the details have Resistant materials Years 10 and 11 Prom been finalised

Online Payments For School Meals Are Now Available. The school prefers for all school meals to be paid for online. This gives you the flexibility to top up your child’s account at home using a debit or credit card rather than having to use cash or cheque.

Access to the online payments can be found on our website using the link at the top of the homepage ‘Parents Payment’; this will take you directly to the registration/log in website.

Further details and an online payments instruction manual can be found on our website: www.lealands.luton.sch.uk

Contact Information For Students

It is extremely important that we have up-to-date contact information for all students.

Any changes to a student’s address, parental contact telephone numbers or email addresses should be passed to Mrs Lawes at the school as soon as possible either by telephone on 01582 611600 or by email to [email protected].

Scarlet Fever Advice

Due to the increase in Scarlet Fever nationally, public health advice is being circulated to all schools and nurseries.

A Public Health letter and fact sheet with information and frequently asked questions has been sent to all parents via email or post. A copy is also available in the letters section of our website www.lealands.luton.sch.uk.

If you have any concerns please contact your G.P.

4 Coping With Hayfever

Please ensure your child takes their medication before they come to school (e.g. antihistamines, eye drops, nasal sprays, etc).

Spare medication may be left in the Medical Room for emergencies. All medicines held and dispensed by the medical room must be provided in their original packaging and must have a parent/carer’s written consent.

Please ensure that your child has ample supplies of tissues. A little pot of Vaseline is also useful – your child can dab a little under his/her nose to provide a lubricating barrier to the constant irritation from blowing and rubbing.

Miss A Maczugowska – Matron

Value Of The Month

5 International Links - Update

This month we received great news that we have been awarded a second round of grants by the British Council to further develop the links with our International partner schools in India and Tanzania. The International Co-ordinators in the Indian and Tanzanian schools were delighted to know that we will be able to make further teacher exchanges during the course of the school year 2013/14. We will be pleased to welcome Mr Praveen Bansal and Mr Sunil Nehra in June, from the Computer Faculty at Subodh school in India.

We have continued to assist Sazira School in Tanzania with its resources; with a grant provided by the British Olympic Committee we have been able to provide volleyball equipment. The school has virtually no sports equipment so the provision of two nets and a number of volleyballs will greatly enhance what they can offer their students.

Luton Futures Partnership

Lealands High School belongs to a partnership of eight secondary schools in Luton, called Luton Futures.

The partnership was set up in 2010 and includes; Lealands High School, Ashcroft High School, Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Challney High School for Girls, Icknield High School, Lea Manor High School, Stopsley High School and Woodlands Secondary School.

By working together in the Luton Futures partnership, Lealands is able to provide its staff access to a more widespread and varied level of training, support and opportunity. This means our pupils can benefit from the increased motivation, experience and skills this offers our teachers.

For more information on the Luton Futures partnership, please visit their website www.lutonfutures.co.uk or visit, ‘Like’ and share their new Facebook page for up-to-date news from all of the Luton Futures schools.

6 The Archbishop of Canterbury Visits Lealands

Lealands, was extremely fortunate to have been chosen to host a visit from the Archbishop of Canterbury, accompanied by the Bishop of St Albans, in association with Luton Churches Education Trust (LCET).

Lealands was chosen for the visit by LCET due to the work invested in the school to help spiritual development amongst the students.

The visit took place on Thursday 27th March and on his arrival, the Archbishop was greeted by Lealands’ Head Boy and Girl; Luke Davis and Georgia Marcantonio. He then spent an hour observing and joining in with a lesson delivered by LCET to twenty students from Years 8 to 11 based on exploring human reactions to a range of issues.

The students then asked and answered many questions. They got to tell the Archbishop what they like and don’t like about The Church – some said it was a calm happy place, while others said it could be a little boring. The Archbishop listened attentively and talked openly and honestly about his life and faith to the group of enthralled students.

The students, who were chosen, have been involved with different aspects of LCET’s work within Lealands and some are even spiritual ambassadors developing ways to support the exploration of spiritual understanding.

Lealands was extremely honoured to have been chosen for this exciting visit and the students said they felt very grateful to have been offered this once in a lifetime opportunity. Mr Burridge, headteacher, was with the Archbishop throughout the visit and said, “It was a very moving experience. The students were initially nervous, but the Archbishop quickly put them at ease and they showed great depth of thought in a very wide ranging discussion.”

At the end of the visit, The Archbishop and other dignitaries were presented with a Lealands’ paperweight to remind them of their visit. The Archbishop said he would definitely be putting this on his desk and would pray for the school regularly.

7 Sports News - Golf Competition

On Tuesday 29th April, students representing Lealands Leadership Academy, went to Stockwood Park Golf Club to deliver a competition to children from Primary Schools from all over Luton. The weather was good and the competition was fierce. Our leaders were an absolute credit as always and made the event a great success.

Well Done;

Tia-Ebony Travers, Kayla Perry, Caitlyn Towers, Shannon Shakes, Abigail Smith, Georgina Barton, Jemma Poulton, Rhys Cole, Daniel Gould, Kyle Ajayi, Elise Crick, Abisha Tharmaseelan, Amoy Smith, Nadine Scarlett and Emma McNamee.

Sports News - Rounders

On Wednesday 30th April, our Year 10 rounders team competed in a tournament at Ashcroft. The girls played brilliantly, working really well as a team.

Well done to the following students involved; Michaela Young, Shola McKenzie-Lowe, Caithlyn Hetherington-Morton, Megan Cole, Megan McLaughlin, Samanatha Cox, Hallie Samuels and Hannah Goodman.

Football Club at Sundon Park Juniors

Daniel Gould, Ben Pincher and Kyle Ajayi have just started helping with a football club which takes place at Sundon Park Junior School. The club is on every Friday after school and the boys are really enjoying themselves. There will be pictures and report in the next edition of the newsletter.

8 Sports News - Quad Kids On Tuesday 6th May Vicki Thompson, School Games Organiser, visited Lealands to deliver training to students from Lealands Leadership Academy. Our Leaders would be running the Quad Kids event the following day at Stockwood Park Athletics Track to Year 3 and Year 4 students from schools from all across Luton.

They were responsible for the Howler, a throwing event, similar to the Javelin and a standing long jump competition. They also had to organise a sprint competition which involved filming the students as they crossed the finish line to ensure we identified the next Usain Bolt or Eavion Richardson!! They also officiated on the long distance races and were very encouraging and supportive to the young runners.

Due to the fantastic efforts of our Leaders they have now been asked to reprise their roles at the County Finals which will be held in Bedford.

Congratulations to: Tia-Ebony Travers, Kayla Perry, Caitlyn Towers, Shannon Shakes, Abigail Smith, Georgina Barton, Jemma Poulton, Daniel Gould, Kyle Ajayi, Elise Crick, Amoy Smith, Nadine Scarlett, Emma McNamee and Rudo Makoni.

9 Retail Director of Topshop Visits Year 10 Business Students

On Friday 21st March, Year 10 Business students were visited by the UK Retail Director of Topshop, Craig McGregor.

The first session focused on elements of the recruitment and selection process in Topshop and how it was vital the business employed the right people. Students were given examples of recruitment and selection from Mr McGregor’s own role as the UK Retail Director to illustrate how wrong decisions can affect a whole company.

The second session focused on the principles of customer service within Topshop. Students developed their understanding of how important customer service was in ensuring Topshop remained a global market leader in fashion.

Students enjoyed and appreciated the visit from Mr McGregor as it allowed them to make links between theory covered during business lessons to the a large global organisation such as Topshop.

Easter Concert

The Easter concerts in April were a resounding success. They featured over 100 musicians and dramatists at the school, who performed each evening to an audience of 200.

The concerts produced some outstanding moments of music & dance/drama.

We are very lucky to have such talented students who were able to make such an impression on the audience.

The Year 10 drama students gave the first performance of ‘A Soulful Celebration’, (pictured on this page) which was a received with a standing ovation.

The evening was summed up by a letter received from a parent.

'The concert was totally brilliant. I was stunned by the standard of musicianship and drama....’ 'Thank you for an unforgettable evening’.

10 Easter Concert Photos

11 Year 7 Easter Bonnet Competition On Friday 4th April, all of our Year 7 students took part in an Easter bonnet competition.

The students had to design and create their Easter bonnets with the materials they had access to, which included; paint, tissue paper, feathers, pom-poms, pipe-cleaners and googly eyes.

Once all of the magnificent creations were completed, the students had to parade their bonnets in the Central Courtyard ready to be judged by headteacher, Mr Burridge.

It was an extremely tough decision to pick out the winners. Congratulations to; Georgia May, Kirstie Wilson, Molly O’Connor, Jessica Farquharson, Shania Mohit, Joshua Price, Katie Hill, Samual Johnson, Maria Mushtaq, Sadia Abdullah and Shania Hamilton. All the winners were rewarded for their efforts with an Easter egg.

Well done to all the Year 7 students for taking part.

12 Year 7 Easter Bonnet Competition

13 A Letter From The Trenches

In history, Year 9 have been studying the First World War. Here is an example of a letter from the trenches, written by Matthew Fitzgerald, Year 9.

14 Science Poetry Competition

During Literacy Week, 3rd- 7th March the science department ran a poetry competition asking all students to write a poem about science.

One entry from each year group was selected by the department as an excellent poem. The winners were:

72JA - Haddy Gaye 84CR – Jacob Penny 94MS – Ethan Devine 103KS – Nabila Begum 114CG – Liam Day

Viruses, parasites, bacteria galore, These nasty little enemies could cause a sudden war, They wear a suit of armour to stop us finding a cure, But we will fight to beat them. That’s for sure.

The white blood cells inside our bodies will try to take them down, But there are times when they defeat us, And they wear the crown.

Keeping fit and staying clean, Can help them stay at bay, So take my advice and have a wash each and every day.

By Jacob Penny 84CR

Request For Help!

The History Department and Year 7 are putting together a school time capsule. If anyone has any ideas what we could place in it, or any memories of Lealands if you are an ex-student, please contact Miss Young at [email protected].

Thank you.

15 Fair Trade Bake Off On Thursday 6th March Lealands held a Fairtrade bake off to raise money for the Fairtrade foundation. The donations will go towards providing better working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world.

We had many entries from both students and staff and a winner was chosen from each. Our very own celebrity chef Megan Cole from Year 10 who recently won a local Young Chef of the Year competition had the difficult job of judging.

Megan sampled all the cakes and chose the winners. The students’ category was won by Clare Frost from Year 8 with a fantastic novelty burger cake and the staff category was won by Mrs Oliver with her beautiful white chocolate and raspberry cake.

The cakes were all sold to students and staff during break time and a total of £65.00 was raised for the foundation.

Well done to all of the competitors for your fantastic efforts and thank you to all who contributed to Year 8, Clare Frost’s winning Mrs Oliver’s winning white the bake off making burger cake chocolate and raspberry cake it such a huge success.

16 Family Learning

Lealands has been working in conjunction with Luton Adult Learning, to deliver family learning classes. The idea of the classes was to engage parents with their children’s learning; to engage them with the school; to help their child with their homework and to introduce them to adult learning courses.

Up until now, the courses have only really worked in Primary schools and Luton Adult Learning was really keen to get involved and pilot them at Secondary level. The pilot was a great success and therefore more courses will be offered soon. The main focus is currently on literacy, numeracy and English as additional language (EAL), but hopefully other areas may also be looked at in the future.

Food Bank

In April, Lucy Munro and I decided to work with The Luton Food Bank. This was part of our Get Involved project where we volunteer and choose what we want to do in our community.

We made and decorated some collection boxes and put them around the school and we also made some posters and a PowerPoint which we showed to students at tutor time. The food we collected was given to The Luton Food Bank to help people who are in difficult situations so that they can eat if they have little money.

We would like to say a big 'Thank you' to everyone who contributed to this project. You were a big help.

Chloe Hewitt (9AS)

17 Year 11 Art Exam

Congratulations to all Year 11 GCSE art students who have successfully completed their 10 hour Fine Art exam.

The students worked extremely hard to produce some fantastic final pieces for their 2014 exam. The students used a wide range of materials to explore this year’s themes of gardens, fragments, texture and openings. They worked with ceramics, 2D drawing/pen, oil/acrylic and watercolour painting and mixed media.

The final pieces produced and GCSE course work will be exhibited in the end of year show taking place between Tuesday 17th June – Friday 20th June.

We would like to invite you to come to the exhibition, with the private view Tuesday 17th June 4pm – 7pm. By Leah Gill

These are a few pieces of work that have been produced in the 10 hour exam.

Well done to all students.

By Tia-Roni James

18 Year 11 Art Exam

By Sherie Sitauze

By Rico Pessoa

By Electra Dottin By Brittany Smith

19 Tapas Evening

On Monday 31st March, after a day in lessons a number of Year 8 students came back in to school for the Languages Department “Fiesta of Tapas”. Students were treated to a range of tapas dishes giving them an opportunity to experience a real taste of Spain.

We ate our way through nine separate dishes, made with typical Spanish ingredients such as chorizo. There were a range of dishes on offer including gambas, paella and patatas bravas. As the evening wore on the conversation flowed and there was a buzz of excited expectation about what the next dish would taste like.

The food was of excellent quality and cooked for us by a number of our Year 10 and 11 catering students who did an outstanding job! Everyone involved thoroughly enjoyed the evening and we all agreed that the culinary skills exhibited were second to none.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening was had by all due to the amazing work done in the kitchen by Miss Selby and those catering students who gave up their time. ¡Gracias!

20 Accelerated Reader

We have recently had rewards assemblies for Years 7-9 where a wide variety of prizes were given out to stu- dents who had shown the most enthusiasm, persis- tence and improvement over the course of the past term.

Form winners were 7AM, 8CR and 9MS who all did brilliantly well and are due to celebrate with doughnut parties.

There were 3 winners of the 'outstanding performance' award, each receiving Kobos for their hard work and dedication. In year 7, Lewis Draper was the student to receive the award whilst it was Samara Ottey in Year 8. The lucky recipient of the Kobo in Year 9 was Conor Ford who deserves a special mention for amassing over one hundred points over the course of Accelerated Reader Week. Well done to Conor.

There will be more Kobos distributed as prizes during the end of year assemblies so there are still plenty of chances for students to be rewarded for their dedication towards the AR programme.

Keep on quizzing! Mr Furkins (Accelerated Reader Coordinator)

National Science & Engineering Week

National Science and Engineering Week ran from the 13th-22nd March this year. We celebrated it at Lealands by carrying out several dry ice demonstrations for all year groups.

Dry ice is commonly used in the theatre and music industries to create the smoke special effects. It is a solid, frozen form of carbon dioxide and exists at -79oC. We had great fun, students and teachers alike, running a series of experiments designed to engage and question. The favourite experiments were the frozen rose, which was then subsequently smashed into small pieces, as well as the blackcurrant scented smoke.

The main theme of the week was ‘Exploring the Future’. To promote this, the students in Years 7, 8 and 9 had one week to design a product they believed would be needed and available 100 years from now. The students were encouraged to question what changes would occur with the environment and create scientifically relevant, useful inventions. We received some fantastic pieces of work and some incredibly well thought out ideas. Personal favourites included a set of ‘mechanical gills – for when we all have to live underwater’ from Grace Mitchelmore (Year 9) and the ‘Sower – a solar and wind power collecting, genetically engineered flower’ from Julie Soeng (Year 7).

21 Summer 2014 Exams Timetable

SUMMER 2014 EXAM TIMETABLE

HALF-TERM 26th MAY - 30th MAY

22 Summer 2014 Exams Timetable

SUMMER 2014 EXAM TIMETABLE (CONTINUED)

23 Community Fun Day

The sun is threatening to make a much needed return, which means it is that time of year when we are pleased to inform you that Lealands is organising another charity Community Fun Day.

The last 2 years have been a massive success, raising money for Keech Hospice Care Children’s Services and other local charities. Close to a thousand people attended last year’s event, raising a total of £2280.

Planning for this year’s event started many months ago, to help make it even bigger and better than previous years. We look forward to seeing you there and keep our fingers crossed that the sun will be shining down on us!

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