Burton Borough School Newsletter December 2017 BBS Concert Band competes at the World Music Contest Way back in July, 60 past and present members of the Burton Borough Concert Band travelled to the Netherlands to compete at the World Music Contest held in Kerkrade. The contest is only held once every four years and this is the 3rd time the BBS Concert Band has been chosen to compete at the contest. Unlike the National Concert Band Festival that BBS Bands compete in every year in the School Band Section, the WMC is not just for school and youth bands. Our students competed against other youth bands and adult bands from around the world- a tough challenge going against people who have been playing for far longer! Also as the WMC is not just for school bands, it meant that several ex-members from Concert Band who had left in the last few years to go to university, could come back to play for the contest. It’s always a testament to the enjoyment that students get from the bands when they return to play, even after they have left the bands at 18 years old. Concert Band played 2 pieces for the contest. The set piece that every band had to play was Land of Zarathustra by Amir Moolokpour was over 15 minutes long. The second piece- that was chosen by Mrs Ruston, was Persis by James L. Hosay, nearly 10 minutes long. For students to play a 25 minute set of challenging music is a huge achievement in itself and we were delighted when Concert Band was rewarded with a Silver Medal, after scoring 75 points out of a possible 100. All the students’ hard work and hours of rehearsals had paid off with a brilliant result. Principal’s Wall Dear Families, What an incredible term it has been! With the new uniform, the introduction to our new ‘small schools’ system with Aqualate, Chetwynd and Hawkstone and the never ending list of activities your children have been engaged in at Burton Borough, the term has certainly flown by! In this issue of the Burton Borough School Newsletter, you will find some amazing things our young people have achieved; from winning medals in sports at a national level to our famous Burton Borough Bands winning platinum awards nationally and awards internationally, we are certainly setting the bar very high for our students. Not only that, you Diary Dates for next term: will undoubtedly have heard about our Burton Borough University scheme (more information in this newsletter) and the amazing work our Wednesday 3rd January students have produced from it. Not only have they been recognised First day of term by us for outstanding achievement but also by Oxford University, one Tuesday 9th January of the country’s leading higher education establishments, and the Year 9 Parents’ Evening local media. Thursday 18th January With the new, more rigorous GCSEs our students are preparing for, Year 11 Mock Results Evening mental health and wellbeing is one of our top priorities this year for both students and staff. We have carried out a huge amount of work Monday 22nd January around this and it has been recognised as good practice. As a result, Year 9 Options Evening we are sharing what we are doing with local schools and hope to Wednesday 31st January develop this nationally. During our two week mindfulness taster sessions Year 7 Parents’ Evening with year 10 and 11, my favourite moment was when I turned up to a th th 9am meeting to be told that our governors had not yet arrived Tuesday 6 – Friday 9 February because they were participating in the Indian Head Massage session! School musical – Sister Act If you would like daily updates from Burton Borough School, please Monday 26th March don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @BurtonBorough. Aqualate Celebration Have a fantastic Christmas holiday and New Year. Thank you for your Evening continued support and I am really looking forward January 2018! Tuesday 27th March Mrs. Raymont-Hall Chetwynd Celebration Evening Thursday 29th March As well as the Concert Band playing at the WMC, Hawkstone Celebration BBS Big Band performed an open air concert in Evening Valkenberg Town Square and it wasn’t all work for the students and staff, they also took part in several activities over the trip- including tobogganing overlooking Valkenberg and laser quest inside the town caves- always great fun (and ever so slightly competitive!) Everyone involved had an amazing time on the trip and were delighted with how well the band played. It’s always a fantastic opportunity for students to travel abroad and take part in international competitions so fingers crossed we can go back to the World Music Contest in another 4 years! National Concert Band Festival Regionals November 2017 On Sunday 19th November Burton Borough School Big Band, Concert Band and Junior Wind Band took part in the National Concert Band Festival Regionals held at Wrekin College. All the bands had to play a program of music to showcase their ability for a panel of adjudicators of professional musicians marking them against a set of criteria. The adjudication is to measure the individual bands level of performance- i.e. how well that band performs, rather than making comparisons between two different bands’ performances. 3 Platinum Awards! Over 60 students played in the Burton Borough School Bands that weekend, aged from 8 to 18 and all 3 bands played fantastically and were each awarded with a Platinum Award- the top award you can get! The feedback given by the adjudicators was very positive and by receiving Platinum Awards this means that all 3 bands will be invited to take part in the National Finals being held at the Royal Northern College of Music in April 2017. All the students who took part played exceptionally well and their hard work and commitment to rehearsals after school and at weekends really paid off- well done to all involved. Rotary Lite Young Chef Challenge On 30th November we hosted the Rotary Lite Young Chef Challenge. Students were asked to plan, cook and serve two identical main course and desserts within a budget of £10. The theme was Autumn Harvest which inspired our budding chefs to use a whole range of seasonal fruit and vegetables. The quality of the food produced was outstanding, it looked great and tasted even better. The competition is run by Rotary Lite of Newport with the winner going on to the next round. A huge thank you to Martyn Dean from Rotary Lite and his wife Jane for all their hard work, to Peter Roberts, Head Chef from The Orchard Restaurant in Newport and Lajina Leal, who runs Lajina Masala, providing cookery lessons for individuals, small groups, families and corporate team building events. I am so proud of all the students who took part:- Valdis Viksne Tyler Goodman Rebecca Stone Alfie Heath Isabelle Edwards Jamie Morris Jonathon Hawkins Katelyn Wilkie Katie Jones Olivia Darby Sam Kerrison Molly Duffield After much deliberation and plenty of tasting the judges finally announced the winners:- Runner –up was Katelyn Wilkie for her main course of Pesto, tomato and mozzarella stuffed chicken breast with potato salad and Apple and plum crumble. Winner – Olivia Darby who cooked courgette and carrot frittata served with roasted vegetables and a poached pear with vanilla and cinnamon, served with vanilla whipped cream. I also want to say a huge thank you to Rotary Lite who sponsored the event by providing 20 chef’s whites for our students to use and the winners trophies. I am very proud of these fantastic students. Keep cooking! Kay Goodridge TLC Design Technology Futurechef 2018 Futurechef 2018 took place in October and all the competitors were fantastic. They had to plan, prepare, cook and serve two identical main course meals within a budget of £5. No help was given. The quality of dishes was amazing and all of them should be extremely proud of their endeavours. A huge well done to:- Liam Anslow Finlay Bickerton Louisa Bambro Jonathon Hawkins Molly Duffield Nathan Hester Thomas Steel Katy Ingram Jessica Wright Olivia Darby Kian Marsh Rhianna Otero Salgado Liam Anslow and Finlay Bickerton are our two winners who progress to the Local Heat in Hereford in January. We wish them all the best. Kay Goodridge Design Technology Well done to our two winners “Quality dishes” Sister Act Rehearsals are underway for this years school musical ‘Sister Act’ which will be performed from 6th-9th February 2018. As always students are working hard learning lines, songs and dances. We always like to challenge students with our shows and hopefully ‘Sister Act’ will be our biggest and best show yet! Based on the 1992 film, Sister Act is a feel-amazing musical comedy nominated for 5 Tony Awards including Best Musical. Sister Act features original music by Tony and 8-time Oscar winner Alan Menken, the composer of Beauty And The Beast, The Little Mermaid and Little Shop Of Horrors (among others!) When disco diva Deloris Van Cartier witnesses a murder, she is put in protective custody in one place the cops are sure she won't be a found: a convent! Disguised as a nun, she finds herself at odds with both the rigid lifestyle and uptight Mother Superior. Using her singing talent to inspire the choir, Deloris breathes new life into the church and community but in doing so, blows her cover. Soon the gang chasing her finds themselves up against Deloris and the power of her newly found sisterhood. Tickets will be available after the Christmas holidays so watch out for further details in January.