March 2019 Edition Welcome to the March edition of Beverley Highlife. I hope that you enjoy reading about what has been happening at Beverley High School this month. Sharon Japp, Headteacher Cyberfirst Final On Sunday 24 March our GCHQ finalists left for Edinburgh with Miss Brownell and Miss Butlin to take part in the final stages of the competition. In keeping with the nature of the organisation the details of the following two days were kept top secret. Upon arrival we received an invitation to a formal meal hosted by the Deputy First Minister of Scotland at Edinburgh Castle. A private tour of the castle was a real highlight as was the dining experience in The Great Hall. On Monday our four students pitted their cyber wits against the other 9 teams at The Playfair Library, University of Edinburgh. After a day of problem-solving, code-cracking challenges and a nerve wracking boardroom presentation, the students did themselves proud. Being in the top 10 (out of 3,350 teams) they proved themselves to be amongst the UK’s most cyber-savvy students. We are delighted and exceptionally proud of these four fantastic students, Libby Boswell, Evie Larvin, Tanya Norman and Lottie Wilkinson. For the final component of this competition they will meet with HRH The Duke of York, at Windsor Castle in May, to share their experiences. FairActive School Award Beverley High School has been recognised as a FairActive School by the Fairtrade Foundation thanks to your fundraising and our awareness raising work. FairActive is the next award up from last year’s FairAware status. Next year we will aim for the top award which is the FairAchiever School. Well done to Mr Evans, Miss Stamp and the International club for co- ordinating all the school’s fairtrade activities this year. World Street Dance Championship Qualification A number of Beverley High School students form part of the 19 strong BDC Queens Street Dance team that have gained regional, national & international recognition. Aimee Dobbs, Harriett Acklam, Sophie Stead, Olivia Lambert, Claudia Jenner, Gina Reed & Ruby Northern all make up part of the team that has seen continued success since forming just under two years ago. Formed out of the Base Dance Studios in Beverley, their first competitive competition was the Lancashire Street Dance Championships in April 2017. A first place set the tone for further regional success ensuring qualification into European & World Events. A Six Nations triumph followed in late 2017 which set them up for them up for their biggest challenge in the British Championships in March 2018. As a team, they had been dancing for less than a year together but this did not stop further success in being crowned British Champions in the Under 14 category. Hugely competitive International Events came about & highly acclaimed 6th place in the European Finals in Germany & 3rd place in the World Championships in Glasgow ensured an excellent first year for the team. 2018 was rounded off by further number one spots being gained at the 2018 Six Nations Championship. An appearance on ITV’s Calendar followed & local acknowledgment in winning the Hull Daily Mail Team of the Year 2018 continued the girls’ remarkable success. This has continued into early 2019 & despite going up an age group, they have once again defended their crown & become British Champions 2019. A 2019 World Championship place has been gained so hopefully they can continue their amazing journey. Well done BDC Queens, we look forward to hearing about the World Championships in August. National British Dressage Championship Qualification Year 10 student Molly Tulloch has been successful on her new horse over the past year and qualified for the British Dressage National Championships final at Hartpury College, Gloucestershire in April. This is the pinnacle of the British Dressage calendar and Molly has done extremely well to qualify. She has qualified for two classes. Well done Molly and good luck next month! Pictured, Molly and her horse Ashcwin, qualifying for the Winter national championship to be held at Hartpury College. GCHQ Scarborough Trip On 28 March we had the opportunity to take Year 8 students back to GCHQ in Scarborough to hear from a famous STEM ambassador and former child prodigy. Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon is a prodigy in every sense of the word. Aged 11, she was the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing, and was just 20 years old when she received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford. Since then, she has forged an enviable CV, including positions at Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard and Deutsche Bank. Then there are the Honorary Doctorates from Open University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Kent University & Bristol University and an Honorary Fellowship at Keble College, Oxford. It is this wealth of experience and pioneering spirit that led her to co- found the STEMettes, an award-winning social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women in the STEM sectors. We were delighted to be able to meet her and for her to use her experience and incredible personality to hopefully inspire our students into this ever changing and exciting world. Save the Children Parliament Trip On Tuesday 19 March, 10 students visited Westminster to work with the charity Save the Children as they called on the government to do more to support the children who are suffering from the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The students selected had all submitted particularly empathetic entries into a creative writing competition run by the charity, with three being crowned national winners. This was an excellent achievement – students from over 120 schools across the country entered and there were only 20 winners: 3 of whom were from Beverley High School! The first part of the day involved a large publicity stunt where the students added pens to a large installation of the phrase ‘words not war’ – one of the key phrases of the campaign – outside The Houses of Parliament. Students from a school in Milton Keynes, university students and key members of the campaign were also involved with this and the ‘stunt’ was done to represent the 60 000 people across England who have signed the petition requesting that the government do more to make their voices heard about the conflict. Representatives from the local and national media were also present at this time and spoke to and photographed the girls as they campaigned – you may have seen them on Look North or read about them in the Hull Daily Mail. After this, the students spent the rest of the day in workshops, exploring how to effectively present their opinions to people in positions of power and about the influence that they can have as individuals. They then met with MPs in Parliament and had the opportunity to ask them questions about what they are doing to support the children of Yemen. One of these Members of Parliament was Beverley MP, Graham Stuart, who also managed to gain access for the students into the House of Commons where they were able to watch part of a live debate. Throughout the day, the students conducted themselves very maturely and empathetically, speaking with real passion about what they hoped could be done to support the children of Yemen. Well done to the pupils who entered the competition, those who won and those who visited London and to Miss Stamp for organising the competition in school and accompanying the trip. National Festival of Music for Youth In mid-March 40 Beverley High School students performed in the local stage of the National Festival of Music for Youth. They played and sang in a wide range of East Riding ensembles and choirs including: Senior Wind Band; Youth Jazz Orchestra; Intermediate Wind Band; Double Reeds Ensemble; Intermediate Strings; Youth Singers; Senior and Intermediate Percussion Ensembles. High praise was bestowed by the judges and we await news of which groups have been selected to travel to the regional stage in Birmingham in July. We hope that some will be selected to play at the National Schools’ prom in The Royal Albert Hall in November. Senior Recital Evening The annual senior recital evening on Friday March 22 provided another reminder of the breadth and depth of musical talent in our school. Members of the audience commented on the extraordinarily high standard and expressed their thanks for a very enjoyable evening. Congratulations to the 54 students who played, sang and supported each other so beautifully and to the Music department for staging such an extraordinary evening. Sports Report Netball The Year 10 netball team played 5 matches in the end of season tournament held at Cottingham High School against South Hunsley, Goole, Cottingham, Longcroft and Hessle. The team won all these matches so played in the final against Bridlington, the winner of the other league. They won this match 12-3, therefore they are the East Riding netball champions! The Year 9 netball team did really well in the East Riding end of season tournament, coming second out of 12 schools in the East Riding. They beat all 5 teams in their league to make it through to the final. In the final they lost 5-8 to South Hunsley. The Year 7 end of season tournament was held at Longcroft. Drawn in the larger of the two groups the girls performed very well, beating Howden, Wolfreton and Woldgate. Despite a disappointing loss to Hornsea, they finished top of the group with a far superior number of goals scored in the four games (21 goals). The semi-final was a tight game against Goole, ending 3-3 at full time and still 3-3 at the end of extra time.