End of term Newsletter - No 669 – 21 December 2017
We’re certainly ending a busy term with a last burst of activity! On Monday evening we were delighted to welcome Bridget Kendall MBE, Master of Peterhouse Cambridge, as guest speaker at our Annual Prize Giving which is always a wonderful opportunity to celebrate with students, past and present, who have achieved the very highest levels during the last year. Over 150 prizes were awarded, in a ceremony hosted very professionally by our senior prefects. This year we were in a new venue, Rothamsted Conference Centre, which proved to be a lovely setting for the event – we hope this might be the start of a beautiful relationship!
Then last night we maintained much longer standing arrangement by holding our 30th (!) annual Carol Concert at All Saints Church. A packed programme saw over 200 students from year 7 to 13 performing together and if you weren’t in the Christmas spirit beforehand, their irresistible enthusiasm certainly meant that you left the church bursting with festive cheer (and mince-pies!). It has been a long term, filled with a lot of hard work from all the members of the SJL community. Over the last couple of weeks I have been very impressed by how seriously year 11 have been taking their mock exams and I am sure their efforts will be rewarded when they get their results in January. In the meantime, I hope they and all the rest of the students and staff have a restful break and I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
As always, if you have any comments or suggestions I would be pleased to hear from you, please contact me at [email protected].
Claire Robins
LETTERS HOME THIS WEEK
To parents of students in Year 12 re Parent/Teacher Consultation Evening Year 9 parents - Options booklet and invitations for the Year 9 Options Evening Year 11 parents - full reports
SIMS INTOUCH
We use a system called SIMS InTouch to send letters and notices home. It has come to our attention that some email systems have reported the SJL InTouch email address as Spam or Junk. Please remember to check these email folders and ensure that 9194028@capita- intouch.co.uk is added as an exception in your email system. This will mean you don’t miss any important notices or letters from the school. Thank you.
A reminder that copies of all generic letters sent home can be found on our website at: http://www.sjl.herts.sch.uk/practical-information/letters-home.php
SCHOOL CLOSURES
In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary to close the school during normal hours. In these instances i.e. due to severe weather conditions, we shall inform parents by the following means:
BBC Three Counties Radio 92.1 FM or 630 AM Mercury FM 97.5 – 102.7FM Sir John Lawes Website www.sjl.herts.sch.uk SJL on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/sirjohnlawes School telephone message 01582 760043 Herts County Council’s website www.hertsdirect.org
CONGRATULATIONS
To the following students who received Headteacher’s Commendations this half term:
Year 8 Ruby Robertson Amelia Spiteri Boden Lawrence Shannen Millar Belinda Webster-Smith Luke Hobday Cameron Angrave-Smith Isaac Carter Sagrika Arun Year 11 Reuben Bennett Thomas Dadswell Ben Dahani Callum Jones Emily Royston Finley Brown Year 10 Alistair Baird Luka Wilson Elizabeth Bratton Kasia Kramer Chloe Morrison Year 12 Ella Partridge Isla Brewester Polly Jenner Katie Burroughs Sanjna Vora Emma Shardlow Binti Shah Millie Rice Year 9 Cameron Rice Emily Duncan Phoebe Chapman Alex Hegarty Jamie Allen Izzy Dobson Kyran Gosling Zoe Wright Leon Lewis Sean Skinner Matt Swann Georgie Carter Alice George Harry Kremer Fleur Butler-Wright James Pollard Jack Allen Katie Sutton Abby Probyn Eve Burton Kate Robinson Ella Purvis Sophie Hill Sara Fisher
Congratulations to Jonathan Bailey (10B) and Alex Hegarty (10N), who both achieved their black belt (1st Dan) in karate.
Congratulations to the following students who recently passed music examinations:
Seren Barker - Grade 8 Piano with Merit. Charlotte Evans - Grade 7 flute with Distinction Ed Smith - Grade 8 Piano.
NEWS FROM PAST STUDENTS
LATE AT TATE BRITAIN: FLUX 1 DECEMBER 2017 AT 18.00–21.30
Congratulations to ex-SJL student Holly Attzs, now at Central Saint Martins - a world leading centre for art and design education – who curated a show-reel at Tate Britain as part of the last ‘Late at Tate Britain’ of the year, exploring the theme of gender fluidity.
Holly displayed a painting, and delivered a flawless dramatization of a monologue she had written to accompany her artwork, to a very appreciative audience. She was supported by Mrs Attzs and other ex-SJL students, including Esme Plumb, Andrew David, and Izzy Payne.
Congratulations go to Max Jenner for his success in being appointed as the Reserve member of the 2018 University Challenge - Balliol College, Oxford University team. Balliol won the competition in 2017 and Max will know in a month or two if he has made it on to the team. We wish him the best of luck in his endeavours!
DONATE YOUR CHRISTMAS TREE TO A HUNGRY GOAT!
Dear friends of SJL.
If and when you finish with your real Christmas tree and no longer want it, our goats and sheep will happily eat it for you! If you would like to donate your tree to our farm area then that would be fantastic.
Please email me at [email protected] if you are able to bring in your tree. I know how helpful the parents at SJL are and I could end up with hundreds so if you could contact me first that would be great.
Have a lovely Christmas and a pre-thank you from Billy, Bonnie and Bana
Phil Evans - Animal Studies Coordinator
MODERN LANGUAGES CONFERENCE
This half term, twelve Year 11 students were invited to attend the Modern Languages Conference held at St Albans High School for Girls. Lecturers from the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, Manchester, UCL, SOAS and Oxford delivered master classes in French, German, Spanish and Italian. Our students were also able to try a new language and take a taster class in Arabic, Russian, Mandarin or Linguistics.
“Yesterday, we went to St Albans High School for Girls for a language conference. We were joined by language students from schools in our area and we had several talks from graduates and lecturers. As a student of French and Spanish, I enjoyed the French lecture which consisted of watching, discussing and analysing a short clip of the film “La Haine” and learning what studying languages at university is like. We also had a taster session of either Russian, Linguistics, Mandarin or Arabic. I chose Arabic and thoroughly enjoyed learning about their alphabet and writing from right to left.” Emily Dixon (11H)
HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM ECO SCHOOLS
We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and to help you all have a more environmentally friendly Christmas we have been tweeting via our twitter account @SJLecoschools our #ecoadvent countdown to Christmas packed with lots of eco- friendly ideas. Check out the site and follow us @SJLecoschools
Happy Eco Christmas!
ECO-SCHOOLS IDLING
Over the past few weeks at eco-schools we’ve been working with the St Albans City and District Council on an Anti-Idling campaign. Idling involves leaving a car’s engine on when not driving, which creates 20 times more pollution than when driving at 30mph. A visitor from St Albans Council came and spoke to us to encourage us to take action against idling to help our local air pollution. This is a prominent issue in Hertfordshire, which has the second worst air pollution in the country. We also conducted a survey afterschool and found that 50% of cars were idling. This much idling near a school can be harmful to the health of everyone in the nearby area as the chemicals released can irritate peoples’ lungs and also wastes money from burning the fuel. The Eco-Schools group will be doing more work on this cause in the new year and for more information visit www.stalbans.gov.uk/greentravel .
MFL FACULTY NEWS
We have had a busy term and our students have taken part in a variety of competitions both in school and out of school.
German Debating Competition
At the beginning of September the Y13 consortium students (St Georges and Sir John Lawes School) decided that we should enter a German debating competition run by the Goethe Institut in London. On Wednesday 29th October we travelled to Watford Grammar School where we debated the question of whether there should be a common European Language. We were against the motion and the judges were very impressed with the way that they were able to talk freely in German, make jokes and respond to the other team’s arguments. We won the first round, which was a fantastic achievement, and are now against Haberdashers Askes School for Girls in February.
Congratulations to Chris Rouse, Barney Crawford, Henry Meredith and Toyin Akinkumi!
French Essay Writing Competition Barney Crawford also entered an essay writing competition run by Lancaster University. He had to write 500 words around the topic of language and nation. Barney won a runners up prize of a £25 book token and the judges commented that his essay was not only well written but also well researched. Well done, Barney.
Year 7 French Advent Calendar competition In the leading to Christmas, Year 7 students took part in a French advent calendar competition. We received almost 200 entries and we were impressed by the amount of effort, commitment and creativity students put into their calendars. After narrowing the entries down to just over twenty, our French assistant Sandrine was given the difficult task to pick the 5 winners. Well done to everyone who took part! Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!
The winners are:
First place : Noah Bains (7K) Second place : Max Martin (7B) Third place : Thomas Wellham (7H) Fourth place : Rose Brindle (7H) Fifth place : Imogen O’Cuinneagain (7K)
First hand experiences from a Syrian Family with Year 13 As part of our topic on ‘Integration’, our Year 13 German group discovered more about the life of a refugee family who fled Syria and now live in Germany. Our students came up with some interesting and imaginative questions for the Syrian refugee family, which consists of Mum, Dad and two daughters aged 8 and 10. Through Mrs Leaver’s connections, our questions were directly answered by the Syrian Family who live in Mrs Leaver’s home town of Much (near Bonn and Cologne). They kindly shared their experiences and thoughts with us. Not only did they tell us about how they feel about living in Germany, visiting a German school, learning about the language and culture of Germany, but they also described the harrowing journey they took across the Balkan route in 2015 and told us some horrific details about the daily life of fear they experienced back in Syria. We were fascinated to hear their inspirational story and we very much admire their strength to escape this life - not knowing how the journey would go, who they could trust or even where they would end up. Thank you to our Year 13 students for coming up with some insightful questions and a big ‘Thank you’ of course to the Syrian family for providing so many interesting details and sharing with us their thoughts on integration into life in Germany.
MFL Commendations Across this term the students have, for the most part, been working hard in languages. At the end of the term we feel it is important to recognise the effort that the students have been making. From each class we nominate someone who we feel has achieved well and also someone who we feel has put in a great deal of effort. This, as you can imagine, is not an easy task and the nominated students for this term are below.
Year 7 Symons, Katie (French Year 8 Brooke, Hannah and German) Berry, Klara Clark, Gregory White, Lauren (French Dobson, Leo Clarke, Leanne and German) England, Daisy Clarke, Ruth Di Giacinto Montalvan, Fullarton-Turner, Leyah Davies, Eliza Luigi Gardiner, Alexander Dormer, Lewis Grimes, Katie Heal, Max Fiedler, Sebastian Hill, Annabel Hegarty, Jack Martin, Max Housden, Vaughn Holland, Charlotte Michael, Caitlin Michie, Maxwell Kramer, Kasia Sharma, Anoushka Power, Jude Millington, Sampuran Smith, Dexter Sweeney, Gabriella Mitchell, Martha (French Sutton, Rosie (French Martin, Max and German) and German) Wrentmore, Anneka Norwood, Lily Simpson, Daisy Tadja, Mounir Bird, Amelia Barratt, Sam Carter, Georgie Year 10 Bending, Jasmine Dixon, Lucy Bratton, Elizabeth Bentley, Heather Humphrey, Ethan (French and German) Brooks, Freddie Johns, Sophie Chambers, Ella Dobson, Leo Thompson, Calum Colston Patel, Jay Frayne, Zara Dadswell, Thomas Fatima, Noor Gardiner, Alexander Dahani, Imogen Franklin, Abi Graham, Shaun Di Giacinto Montalvan, Shah, Binti Hall, Will Tanya Corcoran, Charlotte Hawkins, Charlotte Johns, Sophie David, Emmy Schelhase, Victoria Mustard, Scott Jing, Justine Simpson, Daisy Platt, Raffy McMullan, Violet Townsley, Holly Scott, Stanley Purvis, Ella Spiteri, Jake Martin, Keira Year 9 Hill, Sophie McCarthy, Sophie Baudot, Emilie Johnston, Sophie McGarry, Emily Berwick, Holly Bowler, Sasha Morrison, Chloe
Next term we hope will be an equally busy term with students in Year9, 10 and 12 heading off to Alzey for the German Exchange and there will be some more competitions to enter. We thank you for your support this term and we wish you a Joyeux Noël, Frohe Weihnachten and Feliz Navidad.
DRAMA NEWS
What a busy term it’s been for SJL Drama with lots of devising work being showcased in years 11 and 13 for exam purposes and of course the triple challenge of Fame the all singing, acting and dancing musical. For year 13 it all began with a workshop on Berkoff’s Metamorphosis with freelance director Annie Sutton which quite literally stretched our students. This helped engender two superb devised pieces on Immigration and Conditioning which were presented to parents in November with stunning results. Year 11 were treated to a trip to The Woman in Black which was as spine- tingling and chilling as ever. This fulfilled the GCSE Requirement to write about live theatre before they embarked on some superb devising work on a variety of topics ranging from The Secret life of Walter Mitty to Find Me -a play about mental health. The showcase of five pieces was a feast of dramatic talent with truly original and inspired drama work. Now all they have to do is write about it!!
Fame was a pleasure to work on from beginning to end, but not without its challenges. The choreography was tough, many of the notes were high and much of the dialogue was colloquial New York dialect. However the cast and crew persevered to create an eighties flavour to the trials and tribulations of a group of Performing Arts students in Juilliard New York City. The students in the show were fabulous; especially our year 13s in their last show. However I would like to thank Cassie Martin (Choreographer extraordinaire) for all her help and inspiration and of course Miss Gillot and Miss Woolrych for making the music and moves for the core of the show. It was a brilliant final performance and the star-makers and booty-shakers got the applause they so richly deserved.
The end of term year 7 Christmas plays were especially festive this year and the future stars of SJL Drama are beginning to shine bright!
Tim Armitage / Head of Drama
ART
By the end of term our GCSE and A Level Art students will have completed 10 hours of practical mock exams. We are very impressed with the quality of the drawings, paintings, prints, sculptures and textiles pieces that they have produced. GCSE students please note that we will be releasing the actual exam question to you during your first lesson in January as your final exam starts. You will need to have a separate A3 or A4 sketchbook for your exam piece. A Level Art Graphics Photography and Textiles students the completion date for your current coursework pieces is the end of January so that we can launch your exam prep time. Y12 and Y13 sustained pieces are looking impressive with some huge painting and textile pieces being worked on in the Art Department. Sixth Form students and last year’s GCSE students for Art and Textiles please note that if you have not yet collected your work you need to do so quickly so that we have room to display all the amazing work from this year.
Once again this year we ran a competition to design the SJL 2017 Christmas Card with the highest number of entries ever and a very high standard of design. The overall winning digital image by James Atwell in 7B is above. We also shared a selection of entries and the seven placed designs on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. If you missed these you can see the high standard of these and all the rest of our students work by following us on Instagram (www.instagram.com/sjlartdept) Twitter (@artlawes) or on the SJL Facebook Pages.
Mr Higgins Mrs Farrell Mrs Gibson Mrs Hewitt Mrs Jacques Mrs Ponte Mrs Pullinger Mrs Redford Ms Richardson
HOUSE
Already since September we have had a huge number of House Competitions and events where students can earn House Points. From the House Quiz which filled the Hall, Lawes Team Games which filled the Sports Hall for over a week, Sports Leagues running down in PE and some Festive favourites like the Christmas Card Competition, Reading related Paperchains in the library, Form Room Decoration Competition, the return of the Y7 Carol writing competition in Music and many others. All of these events have been judged and by final assembly the House points will have been awarded and totalled. We will be awarding the House Merit Mark Cup for the House who has achieved the most Merit Marks during this term. That House will then hold the cup for the Spring Term.
You can look at some of the Christmas Card entries on Twitter and Social Media and we will be sharing some photos of the best of the Form Room Decorations over the holidays
Congratulations to all of you who have represented your Houses and involved yourselves in one of the many competitions
Mr Higgins Mr Evans Mrs Ponte Mr Bloxham Miss Caldicott Mrs Gibson Mr Hatchell Mr Morton
UKMT SENIOR MATHS CHALLENGE
The results have come in for the Senior Kangaroo, which was sat by the students who did very well in the Senior Maths Challenge. Well done to Seren Barker year 13 and Max Rose year 12 who both came in the top 25% and achieved a Merit in the paper.
ICELAND, SPORTS TOUR AND SKI TRIP HOODIES
We are Team Solution and we are made up of nine students from Sir John Lawes Sixth Form. We are taking part in the Dragons’ Apprentice 2017/18, where we are supporting the Harpenden Mencap charity. Harpenden Mencap has been providing services to people with learning disabilities in the local district since 1959. They have three residential homes which provide long-term care to 13 people, and also support a further 14 people living more independently. 100% of our profits will go towards the charity.
We are selling jumpers for the Sports Tour, Iceland and Ski trip which will take place in 2018. To purchase a designed jumper for these trips please visit: Instagram – teamsolution17 Website – www.uniformeasy.com/solution
LIBRARY
Year 9 reading challenge In the autumn term, for the last four years, SJL has held a reading challenge for year 9. Students have to read a dystopian novel, an ‘issues’ related book and a book of their choice, to complete the “Read the World to Rights” reading challenge. This year, 120 students completed the challenge (60%) and certificates will be awarded in the first year assembly after Christmas (there are too many to give out in the end of term assembly!) So a very well done to year 9 students, and especially to classes 8L/ENL and 8L/ENR which each achieved 100% completion, and also to 8L/ENI where 25 out of 29 students completed the challenge and in 4th place, 8L/ENT with 27 out of 32 students completing. Well done year 9!
Christmas competitions Our annual Christmas chain house competition sparked the competitive streak of students and staff, as in no previous year! For the first time, the chain of favourite books, authors or series went all the way around the library and not just once – it was nearly twice! It had 2034 links and the winning house was Hepworth, with 539 links. Well done everyone, and especially Hepworth!
We also ran an advent competition, to read a Christmas-related book and write a review on a ‘bauble’, for our Christmas tree. Students were then able to open a window in our chocolate advent calendar. Christmas reviews included The Christmas mystery (Jostein Gaarder), The girl who saved Christmas (Matt Haig), The Snow kitten (Nina Warner Hooke), Mistletoe and murder (Robin Stevens), Christmas at the cat café (Melissa Daley, a parent author) and of course A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens).
Our third Christmas competition was to decorate a Christmas tree for your favourite book character. We had some lovely drawings and written descriptions of how the tree would be decorated. Our overall winner was Eleanor Bailey 10H for her drawing of Cthulha, from Call of Cthulha, (originally short stories by H P Lovecraft, “the man who created the modern horror story”). Runners up were Leanne Clarke 7L for characters from The Wimpy Kid; William Pinner 7A for characters from Into the Storm; Holly Kerton 8B for Paddington and Amy Webster 9B for the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Senior reading group This term the Senior reading group has been a small and select group of staff and sixth formers, who have read three books this term. Each meeting we have a choice of 2 books, so we have read The Handmaid’s Tale or Cuckoo’s Calling; Never let me go or We need to talk about Kevin; Us or The lie. We would welcome some more members, and our next meeting is 17th January, open to all sixth formers and staff. We will be discussing two books recommended by one of the sixth formers: Love, Nina or The hundred year old man who jumped out of a window and disappeared.
Big Challenge The Big Challenge is a biennial reading challenge which last ran in 2016. The aim is to read as many books as you can in a calendar year, starting on 1 January. All students, staff, governors and friends of the school are very welcome to join in. Last time we had some parents joining in and it would be wonderful to have some of you again in 2018. Parents, inspire your children! Students, challenge your parents! If you are willing to give it a go, just email [email protected] and we’ll add you to our list. Students get an ACE card for every 10 books read, and we will award certificates to all students, parents and staff who achieve: 26 books in 2018 – bronze 39 books in 2018 – silver 52 books in 2018 – gold. All you have to do is keep a list of the books you have read… Challenge yourself! This is written to YOU, not to other students and parents!
Library helpers As always we are extremely grateful to our parent helpers, who support us by doing a whole range of things in the library, including shelving, processing new books and stapling links to make a Christmas chain (!) We couldn’t do a fraction of what we do for the students, without their help. Which brings me to a request for help! We would particularly welcome anyone who could spare 1-2 hours a week especially on a Thursday or Friday, but we are grateful for help whenever it suits you, if you can commit to a regular time. For further information, please contact [email protected] I hope to hear from you!
Mrs Johnson - Librarian
The Friends of SJL would like to wish everyone a Happy and Restful Christmas.
Many thanks for supporting our activities – we’ll be back in the New Year!
Help raise funds for the new minibus!
Do you have a bit of a clear out after Christmas? If so, please save any of the following, put it in a bag and drop off at school. We’ll let you know when – it will be soon after Christmas.
Thanks
Men’s, Ladies’ and Children’s Lingerie clothing Socks Paired shoes (tied together or Belts elastic band around) Soft toys Handbags Household linen Hats Curtains Bags Towels Scarves and ties Bedding (bed sheets, pillow cases Jewellery and duvet covers)
NEWS *** NEWS *** NEWS
New Minibus Campaign – Funding Partner
Friends of SJL are pleased to announce that Savills of Harpenden has donated £1000 to kick off the campaign and will be partnering us during the year to come. Nick Ingle, head of the Harpenden office commented; “We at Savills are delighted to be partnering a local school this year and helping towards the funding of a much-needed new minibus. We plan to work with the school on a number of projects during the coming year.”
The Friends of SJL will be focussing all their fund-raising this year on the new minibus campaign and it’s fantastic to get a kick start with the donation from our local Savills branch. This, in addition to the funds raised at the quiz, is a great way to begin our fund-raising efforts. More on this in future Newsletters.
Festival on the Field Date Announced!
The 2018 Festival on the Field will take place on Saturday 7th July Save the date - Tickets on sale in the New Year Stay in touch…..
SPORTS NEWS
Twitter The PE department would like to remind you we have a Twitter account for keeping students and parents up to date with fixture details, results and general sport and physical education news. Please follow us @SJLPhysEd.
Fixtures for the 1st week back after Christmas 8th – 13th January:
Week Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Senior Saturday
Monday Basketball vs Beaumont (Home) Tuesday Hockey Vs Queenswood (Away) Wednesday Rugby Netball Cup Festival Vs @ Beaumont Woolams (Home) 4.30 Thursday Netball A – Friendly B – League Vs Beaumont (Away) Friday Saturday Rugby Rugby Rugby Rugby Vs Vs Vs Vs Kings Kings Kings Kings Langley Langley Langley Langley (TBC) (TBC) (TBC) (TBC)
School Games County Badminton Finals
Fantastic performances from our U14 and U16 Girls’ badminton teams saw the two teams bring home Silver and Bronze medals respectively from the County Finals day.
U14’s – Lucy and Katy Savage, Sagrika Aran and Kaaviya Suresh Vidhya played and won all three of their group games beating The Priory School, Rickmansworth School and Presdales to reach the semi-finals where they defeated local rivals St Georges 5-0. The final turned out to be a rematch with Presdales and unfortunately this time the girls’ school proved just too strong and ran out 3-2 winners with the deciding match being won 11-9. So close and yet so far but the girls were very happy with their silver medals.
U16’s – Elizabeth Bratton, Fiona McCardle, Louise Rouse and Susie Stafford played and won 3 out of 4 of their group games beating Thomas Alleyne Academy, Presdales and JFK School and losing to Watford Girls. In their semi-final they were beaten by Knights Templar School but triumphed in their 3rd/4th place play off beating Queenswood School 4-1 to secure the bronze medals.
Well done to all the girls involved, you can all be really proud of your efforts, and we are sure the U14’s will look to go one better when they play in the U16 competition next time out.
Netball Year 9 The Year 9 girls had a very tough league game this week against Beaumont and despite playing well could not quite convert their chances to goals. The final score line did not quite do the girls’ performance justice as they held their own for large parts of the game but ultimately Beaumont were slicker in the final third and took their chances well.
The final score was 6-16 to Beaumont but the girls should be proud of their spirited performance
Year 8 Netball The Yr 8 B team played Beaumont in the district league competition on Thursday. The game was fairly even throughout but Beaumont won 9-4. The SJL girls marked closely throughout and took some lovely interceptions in a fast and furious game but just did not push the ball up into the circle often enough to keep the score line even. Well done to all players.
CHRISTMAS TREES Croft Farm has been selling beautiful non-drop Nordmann Fir Christmas trees for over 20 years. See for yourself at:
Cherry Tree Lane, Leasey Bridge, Wheathampstead AL4 8HP. Telephone 01582 832071. Opening times: 9am – 5pm.
Don’t forget to mention Sir John Lawes School!
Please see below details of Girls football sessions in Watford which we have been informed will be running free of charge for the first 6 weeks (Mondays) and an Inclusive Disability Sport session (Wednesdays).