AUTUMN THEN BILLERICAYewsle SCHOOLtter 2012 Merry Christmas! Dear Parents many students have excelled in a range of proj- A Message from ects and sporting activities. Our Open Evening As we approach the end of another year, I would and Open Mornings were well attended and we Mrs. Hammond like to take this opportunity to thank all members welcomed over 1000 visitors to the school. of our school community, staff, students, and par- ents for all their support and understanding during Students will finish for the Christmas holiday at the building work process. The work is progress- 12.10pm on Friday 21 December and will return ing well and we are still on schedule to start the to school on Monday 7 January at the normal new academic year in September 2013 with all time. our building work complete. Our plans for an offi- cial opening of the new block are moving for- May I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wards and we hope to host this ceremony early in healthy and successful New Year 2013. the New Year. Mrs S Hammond We have had a wonderful start to the academic Headteacher year. Our Year 7 students have settled in well and In our last newsletter we told you about the retire- I am delighted to be stepping up to the chair- my stewardship. ment of our chairman Robert Orr after 14 years man's role at this time. of service. The governing body has elected Mr The Governing Body's responsibility is to ensure Colin Breathwick as the new chairman: Under the direction of Head teacher Mrs that the school has a set of operating policies Hammond, the School has an enviable academ- and objectives, and has the resources to support ic record of continuous improvement over the the pursuit of the school's mission, and to moni- past ten years, culminating in an "Outstanding" tor progress and performance against these poli- rating by OFSTED in 2011. With the exception of cies and objectives. The economic climate pres- the July 2012 GCSE English examination results, ents additional challenges to everyone and the which continue to be the subject of nationwide school is not exempt from this. The Governing controversy, our examination results in 2012 Body will continue to ensure that best value is have been 'the best ever' and credit must go to obtained for all school expenditures with priority Mrs Hammond and all the staff for this new given to the quality of education, wellbeing and record level of achievement. safety of the students. We live in exciting, changing and challenging The Governing Body is committed to supporting times and as a governing body we strive to capi- the school staff maintain our excellent standards talise on every opportunity. Academy status has and I would like to take this opportunity to ask recently brought us additional challenges as well parents to take an active role in supporting the as opportunities and we intend to make the most school, the staff and their children's education at of these for the best advantage of our students. this critical time in their formative years . With a population of over 1700 students and 300 I look forward to the challenge ahead and to employees, The Billericay School is a substantial working with everyone connected with The entity in the town, and visible enough to make its Billericay School mark on the community. The School's aim is:- A Message from "To ensure that each individual student is given Colin Breathwick every opportunity to reach his/her potential in a Chair The New Chair caring and supportive environment" and this will remain uppermost in my mind during School Road, Billericay, Essex, CM12 9LH www.billericay.essex.sch.uk Tel: 01277 655191 Fax: 01277 314414 E-mail: [email protected] These students have all spent a lot of their lunch International Community and break times practising past exam papers and have had to work independently. They have shown Jubilee Celebration Languages a very mature attitude and keen work ethos in order to achieve such marvellous results. On Tuesday 19 June students from Personalised Results Learning took part in an International Diamond If you speak a language at home, other than those Jubilee Celebration for our staff and students who 2011-2012 already taught in school, and you can read and speak more than one language. Mrs Bellers pro- write it a little, you may be able to sit an exam in that posed the idea and we made it a very British occa- language - please contact Mrs Bellers or Ms sion. We made a typical afternoon tea of sandwich- McDonald if you are interested. es, scones, Victoria sponge, strawberries and Once again big congratulations to our linguistically cream. A PowerPoint presentation including footage able students as they achieved brilliant results in of the coronation was prepared for guests to enjoy. the following languages last academic year: Eagle Heights Among the guests were speakers of Urdu, Dutch, Romanian, Spanish, Moldovan, Russian, Farsi, Display Mandarin, Flemish and of course English, reflecting IGCSE English: Hamed Omidi "C"; the wealth and breadth of language backgrounds As part of their level 2 Applied Science certificate, Andrei Vartic "C" across our school. It was good to see new friend- Year 10 students were given a talk by Mr Alan Ames IGCSE Spanish: Higher Level: ships being forged between students who had not from Eagle Heights in Eynesford, Kent. The stu- Andrei Vartic "A" ( he achieved 100%) met before. dents met a Harris Hawk, Lanner Falcon and a Bald ½ GCSE Urdu: Eagle and were treated to a flying display in the Ajab Durrani "B" sports hall. They learnt about their habitats, adapta- (this is his third language GCSE ) tions and conservation issues of British birds of Ajab previously gained B in German (Year 9) prey. The picture shows Jack Merrit holding Alaska and B in Dutch (Year 7) the Bald Eagle. AS + A2 Russian: George Gorobchenko A* AS Chinese: Lian Wilkinson "A" International Day of The Girl On 11 October 2012, Miss Miller and schools across London and beyond to Miss Gosling set their alarms bright and celebrate the power and potential of girls early in order to escort a group of Year 9 everywhere. The girls fortunate enough to & 10 students to the first ever be involved in this amazing event were: International ‘Day of the Girl’. The Brodie Bangs, Emma Franklin, Andie Southbank Centre and the charity ‘Plan Fuller, Sophie Huggins, Alice Davie, UK’ organised all sorts of activities and Rachel Hardy, Ella Brown, Mae Lake, workshops including a mentoring session Libby Wernham, Maddison Keeling, Katie on the London Eye. The girls were lucky Everett and Megan Palmer. All would enough to take part in speed mentoring agree that they had an amazing day, with many inspirational women including Sophie Huggins said "I'm actually a bit television presenters, radio DJs, authors, buzzing," and was enthusiastic to tweet journalists and airline pilots to mention a her new contact Radio 1 DJ Gemma few! There were over 300 girls from Cairney. Jack Petchey Award Winners' Ceremony On 11 October the achievements of all the Jack The picture shows some of last year's winners at Petchey award winners in the Basildon district were the award ceremony, accompanied by Andy Barrow. celebrated at the Towngate Theatre. The guest of From left to right: Anna Laen-Gay, Ben Carr, honour was former captain of the paralympic wheel- Georgia Chandler, Mr Murnane, Joseph Breedon, chair rugby team, Andy Barrow. As ever, this was a Becky Leverett, Zach Pallier and Kristy Waker. well attended and uplifting event. This year one of We have also heard from the parent of Megan our teachers, Mr Murnane, received a leader award; Palmer in Year 9 who received a Jack Petchey he was nominated by students in recognition of the Award for her tremendous efforts and achieve- outstanding work he does in running the 'World ments at her swimming club, Basildon & Phoenix Challenge' programme and our gifted and talented Swimming Club. The photo shows Megan receiving provision. her award from ex-paralympian and tv commenta- tor, Danny Crates. Inspirational Women Conference 2012 It's not all about make-up and boyfriends - Girls' Guests at the event included Bridget Minamore, a Role Model Project inspires young girls to aim high- 20-year-old poet, journalist and student at Students were offered the opportunity to chat with er. University College London, who performed her writ- all the event's speakers and 60 other professional ing on body image and the treatment of celebrities real women role models over lunch in a speed-dat- Some 250 students from The Billericay School, by the media. ing style networking session with the professionals Essex, arrived at Queen Mary University of London before returning to the hall for further talks. on Friday 13 July for an event featuring inspirational Natasha Armstrong, community manager at "We speakers, discussions and a networking lunch with Are What We Do" also spoke at the event. The not- They were addressed by Ruth Amos, entrepreneur some of the UK's leading businesswomen and cam- for-profit behaviour change company kicked off the and MD of StairSteady Ltd, whose business started paigners. successful campaign against excess plastic bag as a result of her GCSE Technology coursework use in the UK with designer Anya Hindmarch's 'Not and Councillor Catherine West (Leader of Islington The Inspirational Women Conference 2012 was a Plastic Bag'. Natasha explained to the audience Council) who explained how the girls could give and organised by Year 9 members of Billericay's Role how small actions can make a big difference to the gain from their community and the world of politics.