Queensmead

News February 2019

Youth Travel Ambassadors 2019 Youth Travel Ambassadors 2019

On Thursday 31st January, They were awarded an Well done to all the Youth fifteen Youth Travel additional £320 towards Travel Ambassadors, you Ambassador students the film. They received in are amazing. attended the ‘Dragons total, an amount of £1300. Den’ style pitch at The Mrs Oakley Winston Churchill Bunker, All the students were Environmental Officer Uxbridge. brilliant and have worked so hard putting their The Dragons were: presentation together and it really has paid off. Councillor Keith Burrows, Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and Recycling David Knowles, Transport and Project Manager Sergeant Rob Parrin, Metropolitan Police Safer Transport Team Simon Bradbury, Transport for

The students have been working very hard over the last few months doing presentations in assemblies about safer school travel. They have also been very committed and enthusiastic, preparing a presentation for funding to make a film, which they want to show in school and other schools in the borough.

The film will be about anti-social behaviour, overcrowding and “drop-a-stop”. The Youth Travel Ambassadors have conducted a survey which highlights how many students catch the bus just for one stop rather than walk.

Students rehearsed for three weeks and had great feedback from a few Year 11’s but it had them thinking about all the questions the Dragons could ask.

The Youth Travel Ambassadors presentation was very successful. The ‘Dragons’ were extremely impressed with their pitch and asked a lot of questions about the film they want to make. Year 7 Rewards Trip

A thoroughly enjoyable As a result of students’ One student said: time was had by all. Keep excellent attendance, up the good work Year 7s. punctuality and attitude in ‘It great was fun. My lessons during their first favourite part was Mr D O’Reilly term at Queensmead, 100 swinging on the monkey Assistant Head of Year 10 Year 7 students attended bars. I also enjoyed Oxygen Freejumping in seeing what other Acton, on Friday 22nd students could do on the January. trampolines. I will definitely go again.’ This gave students a well deserved opportunity to The students were explore all of the various incredibly well behaved jumps that Oxygen had to and this was commented offer, including the on by the Oxygen staff. basketball courts, dueling The students were a credit column and multiple to themselves and obstacle courts. Queensmead. Fourth Plinth Schools Award

All Students have been invited to enter the Fourth Plinth Schools Award, funded by the Mayor of London.

The Fourth Plinth programme attracts world class artists to create a new sculpture for display in Trafalgar Square.

Each year, London schools are invited to enter, giving children a chance to get involved with public art and offer new views of London.

We will be entering students in two age groups, 8-11 years and 12-15 years. The closing date is Friday 8th March.

Below are a few entries we have already received. Winners will be announced in May.

Ms Evans Head of Art

GCSE Poetry Live

On Friday 1st February, I had unseen element of the exam. impeccably behaved and took the pleasure of taking forty a full and keen interest in the five Year 10 and Year 11 In addition, we were treated advice they were given. students to the GCSE Poetry to readings from Carol Anne Live event at the Apollo Duffy, the current Poet I hope that the day helped Theatre in Victoria. Laureate, Simon Armitage support their understanding CBE, Gillian Clarke, the and spark an interest in Offering a packed National Poet of Wales and poetry that they can take with programme, the day consisted John Agard, who brought the them to their GCSEs and of analysis and guidance from whole day to a rousing beyond. the Chief Examiner on how to conclusion. tackle poems from the GCSE Mrs Gibbons Anthology as well as the As always, students were Assistant Head of Year 7

Dates for your diary

March Thurs 21st Year 8 Consultation Evening 2pm - 7pm

April Thurs 4th Year 7 Consultation Evening 2pm - 7pm

Easter Break Monday 8th April - Monday 22nd April Engineers Regional Finals

As part of our hugely which consisted of competing say never attitude, while also successful school Robotics against the other schools on staying gracious in defeat. club which consists of the Lego challenge mat, Zenel, Ilkay, Maximilian and presenting our robot design to All-in-all the day was a Karun, we travelled to the the judges, a team work massive success and an event Engineers Regional Final at challenge and a presentation that I will look forward to the Heron Tower, Central to the judges about our repeating next year. London on 1st February. research “How robots can be used to help in a Mr O’Brien The day started out with a humanitarian aid crisis.” Assistant Head of Year 10 covering of snow, but it did not deter our team from Throughout the day we had a making the journey by train. lot of opportunities to admire the engineering around us. The competition started with a We had a great view of the safety briefing, followed by a Gherkin, the Shard, the Tower number of motivational of London, London Bridge and speeches from previous the O2 Arena to name a few. competitors and engineers working in the robotics At two o’clock came the industry. announcement of the winners. This was the most After this, it was down to nerve-wracking moment for business and the students the young engineers. There were challenged to a was a range of awards straight-line race with all the handed out and we had won other robots. the award for the best teamwork on the day. This was one of our teams strong point as they had been The students displayed a experimenting with gearing combination of emotions systems for this, the week including shock, jubilance and before. When the dust had sorrow. They had not won settled, it emerged that we the overall prize, but had had finished second with a shown the best teamwork out time of 3.021 seconds. We of all the schools on the day. were off to a great start in the competition. The students’ engagement throughout the competition After the race, we continued was a true testament to their on to the next challenges character, showing a never Scandinavian Visit

More than forty classroom past achievements and and confidence particularly teachers and headteachers awards for the school, and during a Q&A session. from across Scandinavia discussed their visited perspectives on Google th The day ran like clockwork on Thursday 24 January, suite. They explained the and our Scandinavian as part of a trip to explore tools they use the most visitors left with lots of technology in education. and how they are using fresh ideas to try out when technology to improve they got home. The headteachers were their progress. introduced to technology Mr Taylor at Queensmead during a The YTA really impressed Assistant Head Teacher comprehensive our visitors, with their presentation, exploring achievements, knowledge how tools including Google suite and Chromebook devices have transformed all aspects of teaching and learning.

Lunch was served in the canteen with a special Burns night menu going down a treat! In the afternoon, the Youth Travel Ambassadors, consisting of students from Years 7 to 11, delivered a presentation. The students showcased their

French PiXL Trip

On Monday 11th February, the Modern Foreign Language department took sixteen Year 11 students on a trip to the French PiXL conference in London.

The students found the conference to be very interesting and they left with a lot of new resources to learn from, including a workbook.

Students were also happy to find out more about modal verbs, time phrases and how to form questions.

Mrs Bamber Head of Modern Foreign Languages Year 9 Borough Netball Tournament

On Monday 25th February, The Year 9 team have the Year 9 netball team attended training every travelled to St Helen’s week since September and School to compete in the display excellent team- annual borough netball work and communication. tournament. Throughout the The team won two tournament their passing matches against Haydon was accurate and their School and . positional spacing was They drew one match utilised well. They are a against St Helen’s School promising team who and lost two matches uphold the values of sport against Swakeleys School and demonstrate excellent and High School. sportsmanship.

These results placed them Well done! third in their section, narrowly missing out on Mrs Carter the semi-finals. Head of Year 10

Back row left to right: Katrina, Sara, Issy, Sena Front row left to right: Phoebe, Tessa (Captain), Kymani

Queensmead School, Queens Walk, South Ruislip, Middlesex, HA4 0LS Email: [email protected] Twitter: qm_news