Robert Bloomfield Academy: Principal’s Bulletin April 2019 Dear Parents/Carers, This term has seen a whole school focus with the House Dance Competitions, Stem Days, World Book Week and Comic Relief Day. These events bring the whole school together and reflect the wonderful whole school ethos. Other events have included Music Concerts, Harry Potter Evening, Bikeability, Sporting Fixtures, Year 7 trip to ‘Big Bang’ and Year 5 trip to Hazard Alley to name but a few. Thank you to all our staff that go above and beyond to provide so many opportunities for our students, we know the children really appreciate the extra-curricular activities. Rehearsals for our annual production which this year is Mary Poppins are in full swing and I am thoroughly enjoying being part of the preparations. After 18 years of dedicated service Val Knowler will leave us at Easter. Val started with us as a Teaching Assistant has worked in Design Technology and Science supporting them as a technician and spent the last few years in the Reprographics department, she is a valued member of staff and we wish her well in her retirement. We welcome Miss Curtis to our year 5 team and Miss Sandhu & Miss Dietri to our Teaching Assistant team. Finally, I am really pleased with the students and staff in Year 6 who are working really hard in the final push to SATs. Have a lovely Easter break and we look forward to welcoming the pupils back on the 23rd April. Sam Farmer Principal House 1 Tolkien 250 We are approaching the final stages of the House competition and everything is 2 Morpurgo 243 still up for grabs. Recent competitions have been well attended and include Anti 3 Dahl 237 bullying posters, SMSC, monthly maths and interhouse hockey. The key question 4 Bronte 234 is whether current leaders Tolkein will hang on to their lead and win the coveted 5 Shakespeare 230 House shield. There are plenty of events coming up including Spring Sports, year 5 6 Rowling 229 Spanish quiz and Sports Day and we look forward to as many pupils taking part as 7 Dickens 204 possible. Any house could still win! 8 Austen 176 Hazard Alley Y5 visited the Hazard Alley Safety Centre in Milton Keynes to safely experience some dangerous situations. A morning learning about the importance of being safe online - and some fantastic internet safety raps! - was followed by a walk around the indoor village. Here pupils identified the dangers of roads and railways, how to prevent danger in the home and around town, and they even got to make 999 calls. A fabulous and informative day was enjoyed by all, with RBA pupils once again proving they are a credit to the school. Page | 1 Hockey Report Spring Term The Spring term is a busy term for hockey fixtures. At the end of February, the u13 team competed in the Bedfordshire County Tournament. Throughout the tournament the boys played some excellent hockey. This resulted with us beating Bedford School (an incredible achievement), Goldington Academy and drawing with Bedford Modern School. These results saw us being crowned County Champions and qualifying for the next stage, The East Regional Tournament. This took place on Tuesday 12th March in Redbridge in Essex. We knew we were going to be up against it as this tournament brings together some of the largest private schools and therefore the most experienced hockey schools in the East Region. Having said that our first game was against Hitchin Boys. We started the game very confidently and managed to score a goal within the first two minutes. The rest of the game was very even but late in the second half Hitchin managed to grab a goal to level the scores. However, it was a very promising start to the day. We were not so fortunate in our next three games though as we were beaten by Felsted, Greshams and Ipswich. By this point the weather had taken a turn for the worse and the boys were glad to seek some refuge from the strong winds and pouring rain over a lunch break. After lunch the weather started to brighten up as did our fortunes. The boys were rejuvenated after some food and a chance to dry off. Due to some excellent finishing from Oli Kemp the boys managed to beat Spalding Grammar School 2-1. Our final game of the day was against St. Faith's from Cambridge. The RBA boys had been very impressed by this team as we had watched several of their matches during the day. They were a well drilled team with lots of skilful players. The RBA boys stepped up to the challenge manfully and matched their opponents in every area. The final score of 1-1 did not fully reflect the quality of our performance, the boys should be very proud of their achievements and the progress they have made in a relatively short space of time. The Team: Jacob Nelms, Toby Abbott, Tommy Baddeley, Felix Moon, Oli Kemp, Dan Kemp, Harry Fell, Indy D'Cruz, George Dobson, Ashley Heley. The u11's have also been in action this term. They comfortably won the District Competition against Henlow. Many boys then travelled to BMS for their first competitive hockey fixture. It was a great experience for the boys with lots of very promising performances. I am looking forwards to trying to get lots of these pupils to hockey club from September so we can try and emulate the achievements of the older pupils this year. Yr 6 Football Report Spring Term The Yr 6 League season started with a rearranged game at home to Arnold. RBA dominated the game and had all of the better chances to score. Sadly, we were not able to convert any until late in the second half when Max Pickford pounced on a loose ball in the box and calmly finished it to give RBA a winning start. The next game saw us travel the short distance to Henlow. Again RBA dominated for long periods of the game but putting the ball in the back of the net was still a bit of a problem. Even more worrying was that we were now starting to concede goals at the other end. We left having been beaten 3-1, but knew we would be much improved in the next game. The following week against Holywell we found our scoring touch. After a tight first half the scores were level at 1-1. Early in the second half we scored two excellent goals through Toby Starling and Luke Theobold these goals effectively killed the game off and we started to look ahead to our County Cup semi-final against Alameda. In the semi-final the boys showed no nerves and produced probably their best performance of the season. Jack Mason commanded the midfield and Taylor Power marshalled the defence to a comfortable win. Our last league game was against Parkfields. It was clear from the start that we were far superior to our hosts on this occasion. However, the boys conducted themselves impeccably in what can be difficult circumstances. They all accepted their time on the Page | 2 Robert Bloomfield Academy Bloomfield Drive, Shefford, Bedfordshire SG17 5BU Telephone: 01462 628800 Fax: 01462 628801 Email: [email protected]. bench and stuck to their job on the pitch, this was a good indicator on how they have matured as a team over the course of the season. We still have two games to play. A league semi-final against Goldington and the County Cup final (opponents to be confirmed). Sadly, we will be playing both of these games without an integral part of the team. Dan Kemp will be leaving us before the end of the term. We will miss his speed, his skill and his directness on the pitch and also his attitude and good humour off it. We wish you all the best for the future Dan. Due to the size of our year groups we also enter a B team in to the District Leagues. No other school does this which means our B teams has to play against other schools A teams. This puts them at a distinct disadvantage, but it is much better to be out there giving it a go than not. In several of their matches the RBA B team have just lost out by a single goal or two. This is a great effort by these pupils, the quality of their performances and their exceptional attitudes will see them pushing for A team places next year. Music Beds Band Factory The Beds Band Factory rock band competition took place on Wednesday 27th Feb 2018 at Redborne Upper School. The RBA band consisted of: Matthew Berry (guitar) Jayden Bligh 8C (keyboard) Gene Cordt 8C (bass guitar) George Findlay 8C (vocals) Ronnie Hanks 8W (guitar) Jacob Nelms (drum kit) Kees Ramsey (bass guitar) James Tyler 8C (vocals) Aled Williams 8E (keyboard) All of the above are in this year’s year 8 Rock Band music option class. The band prepared very thoroughly for the event and really did themselves justice on the night with a fabulous rendition of ‘Eye of the Tiger’. Very well done to all of the participants. During the beginning of March, Hollie Deering from Year 7 played the piano for the first time at the Bedfordshire Festival of Music. Much credit must be given to pupils who dedicate so many hours of practice to their art. Mastering an instrument takes considerable dedication and for anyone who attended any of the classes over the eight days of the festival, it will be evident just how much work has gone into playing their piece to performance level.