Luckley Life THE NEWSLETTER FOR LUCKLEY HOUSE SCHOOL SPRING 2016 ISSUE 8 INTRODUCING BBC SCHOOL NEWS REPORT A group of pupils from Years 7 to Year 9 took part in the nationwide BBC News School THE WHITTY THEATRE Report Day. They researched a number of After over a year of construction, we are finally about to take topics, including: ‘The Whitty Theatre,’ ‘Behind control of our brand-new Performing Arts Centre: The Whitty the Scenes in Boarding’, ‘Body Image’ ‘The Theatre. This is an incredibly exciting addition to the school, and Tenner Challenge’ and ‘ISIS and Social Media’. will provide pupils with wonderful opportunities for years to The end result was a series of short broadcasts come. which are available to view on the news area of Having spent quite a lot of time in there recently, I can forgive our website at www.luckleyhouseschool.org. the slight delay with the handover; the building is packed full of state-of-the-art technology (supplied by over 100 kilometres of cable!), a considerable feat of engineering. We have been delighted with the way the building has taken shape and are particularly impressed with how flexible the space is. THE TENNER CHALLENGE In February, 30 Luckley pupils opted to take part in the ‘Tenner Challenge’. This entrepreneurship programme is run through Young Enterprise, and the challenge is to generate as much profit as possible from a £10 note, borrowed from school.Two weeks into the challenge there have been some fantastic team and individual efforts, including fudge, waffles and cake sales; a ‘Spas in Jars’ stall; key rings and cards for Mothering Sunday; car washing; ‘guess the number of mints in the jar’ and street dance classes. All the profits will go to the school charities, Lunchbowl and Stand By Me. The final stages this term included the commissioning of the audio-visual systems, the installation of seating and drapes, and a series of training sessions, during which I was presented with a 1000-page operation manual. (I’d better get reading!) Our grand gala opening production will be ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in June. But also look out for a variety of other events, as we hope to bring in a diverse range of entertainment from, and for, the local community. You can keep up to-date with news and events at www.thewhittytheatre.org and follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WhittyTheatre. Here’s to the next chapter of the Arts at Luckley! Oliver Bamber, Theatre Manager WWW.LUCKLEYHOUSESCHOOL.ORG [email protected] 0118 978 4175 A WORD FROM THE HEAD HEAD GIRL’S TERMLY REVIEW Jane Tudor, Head Claudia, Head Girl I am sure that we all enjoy spring with the promise of This term we were greeted back at school with longer and warmer days. That anticipation of new life miserable cold weather, but that didn’t dampen our and new beginnings is even more exciting for Luckley moods. Everyone took part in a range of events to as we near the completion of The Whitty Theatre. Such support their Houses in the final stages of this year’s a facility will provide our school with a whole array of competition. opportunities and I am looking forward to seeing this part of Luckley develop in the coming months and years. We enjoyed the annual Bake-off, where two members from each House took part in baking As ever, this has been a busy term and all the pupils have Easter cupcakes over a period of two days. On the thrown themselves into everything they have done, from the very wet inter-house Cross Country competition and first day the cupcakes were baked, with a variety of the Luckley Bake-off to the academic work in lessons. I am flavours such as white chocolate and marbled cake. always pleased to see the commitment to learning of our On the second day we saw the bakers decorate pupils in lessons and the progress they are making. their cakes, with lots of creative designs and techniques used. Many will know that even though I am not a performer, I love performances. I have enjoyed seeing the results As the term progressed the weather seemed to of the weeks and months of learning lines, rehearsals improve right up to the day of the dreaded cross and set design and preparation that have gone into the country race when it decided to pour down with GCSE Drama production of the Fantasticks. I also admire rain. However, this didn’t stop the fighting spirit, with the dedication required to be ready to give a musical Cornish House winning the trophy. performance, with hours of practice to overcome those tricky sections often found in pieces of music. The Spring The last event of this term is Musical Entertainment, Musical Recital was a feast of talents. The calibre of all the with the theme of ‘High School Musical’. I am performances in school are always impressively high. particularly excited about this event because I get This term we look towards Easter and in assemblies to see everyone’s musical talents and best American we have been following the journey Jesus took to the accents! Cross and considering the choice and sacrifice he made to allow us to have eternal life. As I give thanks for our This term some of our younger pupils took part Risen Saviour I also hope that all members of our school in the BBC School News Report where they were community have a joyful Easter break. given certain topics and interviewed different people about their point of view. It was a great day, and everyone was really interested in all of the topics If you are a Facebook or Twitter user, please ‘Like’ our being discussed. Facebook page and ‘Follow Us’ on Twitter to keep up to date with news and photos from all our school events. Finally, I would like to say a big congratulations to Alice and Becky who will be taking over the role of www.facebook.com/luckleyhouseschool Head Student and Deputy from next term. It has www.twitter.com/luckleyhouse been great being Head Girl at Luckley and I would like to wish them both the best of luck in the future. WWW.LUCKLEYHOUSESCHOOL.ORG [email protected] 0118 978 4175 Luckley HOUSE SCHOOL ENRICHMENT IS MURDER FOR YEAR 7! HOW THE NAVY USES ICT Year 7 were joined by pupils from local prep schools for Year 8 pupils went to Action Stations in Portsmouth an enrichment session with a murder theme. The day which we all really enjoyed, especially the laser quest! We involved challenging but fun activities in Music, English, were taken on a tour to see the control room, cinema Maths and Science, which led the pupils to discover the projector room and a curved screen in the conference identity of “the Chalkwell Murderer.” The day started with room. The control room was filled with ancient ice breakers and a music session, where pupils created computers and Cat 5 Ethernet cables that worked on and performed ‘suspense music’. Next, they examined the Windows 95; this came out in 1995 and they are still crime scene in the library, where the body of ‘Hugo First’ using it! Next we played laser quest in a maze with three had been discovered. The pupils worked together in small different levels and many ramps. We then went on the groups studying the profiles of the six main suspects, and rotating climbing wall, which was amazing! After lunch later had the chance to interview each one, played by Year we watched a ‘James Bond’ type film about the Royal 10 pupils. Navy and enjoyed team challenges. An excellent day! They then turned analysts solving clues with mathematical Isobel B, Year 8 skills before becoming Forensic Scientists to carry out experiments on soil and other materials found at the ‘crime scene’. The day ended with the guilty suspect, ‘Anita Bath’ ‘coming clean’ and explaining why she had committed the murder! Former Head of History, Miss Torry WORLD BOOK DAY What a wonderful time we had on World Book Day! In assembly we explored the national focus of ‘Books to Remember’, by looking at books which have inspired famous people. At the start of each lesson over the course of the day, the whole school read an extract from the Gothic short story by W.W. Jacobs, The Monkey’s Paw, so that by the end of the day we had all heard the twists and turns, as well as the controversial, gruesome ending. It was also fun to see so many students running around the school searching for the ‘25 Books that Changed the World ‘at lunchtime. The following week, pupils were inspired by Paul Dowswell, an author who has written over 60 books, mostly with history as the subject, but also about geography, natural history, and science. Mrs Clare Rees, Head of English WWW.LUCKLEYHOUSESCHOOL.ORG [email protected] 0118 978 4175 GOVERNORS’ DAY ART NEWS At the end of last term, Year 9 students visited the Henley River and Rowing Museum to see the wonderful exhibition of work by Eduardo Paolozzi. Pupils studied Paolozzi’s photo montage and screen print work and then took part in a bespoke screen printing workshop. They explored the many options and made their own prints, which are now displayed around the school. This term, Year 11, 12 and 13 Art students visited the Tate Modern Art Museum in London to collect valuable research for their upcoming art exams. They worked in the Governors spent the day in school to experience the life galleries, producing drawings and written notes that will of a Luckley pupil.