Autumn 2011

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Newsletter

Ten of the best!

A Specialist Sports and Science College

HurstmereSchool

Hurstmere students achieve ...

RECORD GCSE RESULTS!

Following our verysuccessful OfstedInspection in Maywhich judged theschool as good withmany outstanding fea-tures, Hurstmere boyshave crowned the yearby achieving the bestset of GCSE results inthe school’s history.

We are pleased to reportthat 85% of the Year 11cohort gained 5A*- Cgrades, with 58% gain-

ing 5A*- C including Eng-lish and Maths. EveryYear 11 boy left the schoolwith recognised qualifica-tions at GCSE level.

There were many outstand-ing individual successes, forexample Elliot Roworthgaining 5 A* and 2 A grades,Timothy Dowling achiev-ing 3A* and 5 A grades, withSean Fairman, Jake Mc-Greig and Iain Kemp eachgaining 2A* and 5 A gradesin their sets of GCSE results.There were eight furtherboys who achieved at least

5 A or A* grades in tradi-tional GCSE subjects:Miles Ashdown, Lau-rence Cooper, DavidDiscalicau, OsenadiaJoseph-Ebare, Rory Le-ver, Jonathan Page,Jack Pierce and LukeWarren.

Staff and governors wouldlike to say “Well done” toall the boys who receivedtheir results this summerand thank the boys’ par-ents for their unfailingsupport of HurstmereSchool.

STUNNING EXAMINATION RESULTSwith Outstanding Individual Achievements

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This summer’s exam successes came hot on theheels of a very favourable report on the schoolby the Ofsted inspection team in May. The teamof six inspectors judged the school to be a goodone with a host of outstanding features. TheOfsted report can be accessed through a link onthe school’s website. It is littered with compli-mentary statements, such as,

“”.

“ ”

We should like to thank all those parents who tooktime to complete and return the Ofsted Parents’Questionnaire. It came as no surprise that the teamfound the parental response rate, “

. We are pleasedwith the report that “

On Tuesday 5th July, The Jack Petchey Foundation held anAchievement Awards Ceremony in the prestigious OrchardTheatre in Dartford. The event, which was to celebrate theachievements of today’s youth in Bexley Schools, wasattended by 9 Hurstmere award winners - George Willm-er, Thomas Grainger, Tom Gills, Nathan Williams,Jonathan Salmon, Henry Waller, Ertan Kasap, GeorgeBarry and Jerome Whitelaw. Tom Gills received particu-lar praise for his community work, helping children withdisabilities immerse themselves in sporting activities, animpressive and admirable accomplishment. The boyswere presented with their Achievement Medals by theMayor of Bexley, Councillor Ray Sams, and were awardedwith a £200 cheque which they have spent on variousschool projects, from class reward trips to specialist equip-ment in their chosen extra-curricular club.

Ms A Rosillo - Student Voice Co-ordinator

Achievement Awards

Several Year  9  pupils worked in the community asScience Leaders with local primary schools as part of aBoys will be Brilliant project - Ben Mathews, ReeceMcKibbin, Max Rendell, Adam Rowson, Dean Tuck-er, Naavalan Umashanker, Sam Nunn, RichardWest, Jacob Roberts, Joe McLynn, Dan Sparks andTom Graham.

Mrs S Bayar - Director of Science

BOYS WILL BE BRILLIANT

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back students andtheir parents following a well-earned summer break. Ishould like to extend a particular welcome to those stu-dents who have recently joined our Year 7, many of whoseparents I had the pleasure of meeting at our ‘Boys Will BeBrilliant’ achievement workshop in the first week of term.

I know that parents and students alike will enjoy readingof recent achievements and experiences within thesepages, and will understand exactly why I am so proud ofthe Hurstmere community. The incredibly wide range ofinterests and efforts described gives a full flavour of life atthe school. Further information and many more photo-graphs can be viewed on the school’s website, atwww.hurstmere.org.uk

You will, I am sure, share in my delight at the excellentacademic achievements of those students who have just

left us to move on to thenext phase of their educa-tion. Their efforts in part-nership with parents and theHurstmere staff, have en-sured that they are fantasti-cally well-placed to succeedin their chosen studies andfuture careers. The exami-nation results were the bestever achieved by the school,and underlined the very pos-itive judgements madeabout the school’s perform-ance by the recent Ofstedinspection. We look forwardto working together with you and your son once again inthe coming year.

OFSTED report - “

”.

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Ms A Rosillo - Student Voice Co-ordinator

DEVELOPMENTS

In February 2011, sevenpupils embarked on theirjourney to success byentering the Music ForYouth Competitionwhich allows young peo-ple to gain experience inpublic performing, com-peting with like-mindedand ambitious musiciansacross the nation. HabibMuyanja, Riad Muyanja,Jack Rutherford-Axcell,Sami Bouzefrane, SamObaseki, Tom Monks andJoe Hannen, now known as‘SDK’, made it through tothe next stage and won aplace in the national finals,which took place at the HMVInstitute, in Birmingham, on6th July 2011. They man-aged to beat 60,000 otherhopefuls and narrowed thecompetition to 5,000 acts.They performed threetracks: ‘Mash Up,’ ‘StandUp’ and ‘Denial’, all of whichare extremely popularamongst their peers. Allthree performances wereexceptional, causing hyste-ria within the audience.Judge, John Eras, com-mented that they ‘have mas-sive futures’ ahead of themand went on to praise theirsong, ‘Stand Up’, predicting‘it is a massive single in themaking’. It also won them anaward for Best Song.

Music ForYouthNationalCompetition

Hurstmere School host-ed an unprecedentedmusic concert on the30th June 2011, with per-formances ranging fromclassical instrumental solosto ‘Glee-styled’ choir ensem-bles. With the introductionof the ‘Studio Fix’ scheme inSeptember 2010, which en-ables pupils to record theirown songs in a professionalmusic studio, Mr Andy Gil-bert (musician in residence)has worked resiliently with ahost of talented pupils fromall year groups. The concertfeatured a culmination of the

songs produced in the‘Studio Fix’ sessions,whereby pupils performedtheir songs to their peers,parents, staff and gover-nors. ‘Hurstmere in Harmo-ny’ was a huge success,showcasing the very best ofmusical talent within theschool. An encore of thechoir’s finale ‘Don’t Stop Be-lieving’ concluded theevening, resulting in theaudience giving the per-formers a standing ovation.

HURSTMERE IN HARMONY

The pupils’ admirable com-mitment and enthusiasm formusic was fundamental inensuring the concert was aspectacular spectacle. Inaddition to the show’s suc-cess, a CD was also on saleto capture the ‘magic’ that‘Hurstmere in Harmony’produced.

Birmingham

MUSICCONCERT

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DRAMA AND COMMUNICATIONS

On 29th September the Year 10 and 11GCSE Drama students will take part ina Shakespeare workshop with mem-bers of the National Theatre in prepa-ration for their forthcomingperformance. November will see thecast perform their adaptation of Wil-liam Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar “at the Orchard Theatre in Dartfordas part of the National ShakespeareSchool Festival. To book ticketsplease contact the Orchard Theatredirectly to avoid disappointment -www.orchardtheatre.co.uk

UNWANTEDBOOKSFOR THESCHOOLLIBRARYCan anyone whohas any unwantedbooks, in good condition, pleasebring them into school and give to theLibrarians. All donations are greatlyappreciated.

DRAMA IN THECOMMUNITY - KS3

For the first time last year, Year 7pupils at Hurstmere took part in anAccelerated Reader programme. Theaim of this programme is to promotethe enjoyment of reading and so im-prove literacy across the curriculum.

We are pleased to announce that ourYear 7 pupils read a total of 3,816books which translates into a stagger-ing 27,170,833 words!Also, 75% of the pupils taking partshowed a significant increase in theirreading age.

The following boys read over 1 millionwords each:

Ellis Parkinson Rhys Dixon, Tyler Stevens Conor Carolan

These boys received a certificate andprizes for their outstanding achieve-ment.

The programme has proved so suc-cessful that all our new Year 7s and themajority of Year 8s will be taking partthis year. Well done everyone.

During Activities Week the DramaDepartment hosted a range of activi-ties for the sixth year running. TheYear 7’s, 8’s and 9’s were treated to arange of fun and exiting workshops,led by industry professionals. TheScat Pack company led workshopsbased around the skill of Improvisa-tion Technique, which helps to im-prove student skills in self confidenceand quick thinking. Our students alsoparticipated in workshops on Hip-Hopand Street Dance techniques, led byGavin and Daryl from “Natural Selec-tion”.

DRAMA ACTIVITIES - KS3

DRAMA WORKEXPERIENCE - KS4

The Drama Department was extremelyproud of Freddie Foreman and JoeSpinks-Windle who completed theirwork experience placement at ErithSchool as Drama Assisstants to theHead of Drama, Mr Kensit.

Our students fulfilled a range of taskswhich included working with pupils ofall abilities and carrying out generaladministration duties. Erith Schoolwas impressed by the hard work andattitude of both students and will wel-come Hurstmere boys in the future.

On July 13th Drama class 7A visitedthe Alzheimer’s Centre in Bromleyfor the second time. The pupils per-formed extracts of Shakespeare’s“The Tempest” and “A MidsummerNight’s Dream”. The centre was ex-tremely impressed with the perform-ance and how the pupils engaged inconversation with the patients. Theyhave invited us back at Christmasagain to perform more songs andplays.

SHAKESPEARE SCHOOLFESTIVAL 2011 - KS4

SPECIALISM NEWS - Sports

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30 Sports Leaders from Year 10 visited St Peter ChanelCatholic Primary School during National School SportWeek to run a Festival which challenged the children fromKey Stage 2 both physically and mentally. There were 14different problem solving challenges for the children to tryranging from Aladdin’s Magic carpet to crossing Shrek’sSwamp. Sports Leaders awarded the groups points forcompleting the challenge as well as points for team work.A great time was had by all.

During the summer term 17 boys from Year 9 have beenattending the Hurstmere Leadership Academy. This givesthe boys their first taste at being a sports leader. EachMonday after school the boys attend a 2 hour sessionwhere they learn to plan, organise and run sports activitiesand the importance of health and safety. They also ran a4 week multi skill club at Chatsworth Infant School withtheir tutor Gary Wells. Hopefully many of these boys willgo on to complete their Level 1 Sports Leaders Award inYear 10.

Ms S Allsop

Hurstmere Karate Club gained some new belts from thegrading held on the 17th July 2011. Morgan Haggar andGeorge Lawrence became orange belts and Aaron Mal-pas gained his yellow belt.

Mrs G McGill

Hurstmere’s Year 7 football team successfully defended theKent Cup won the year before by the Year 8 team. On ahot summer evening at Sittingbourne F.C., Hurstmereemerged as deserving champions in an exciting game.After a tense first half, two goals in the second periodscored by Jahmal Ingram sealed the victory for Hurst-mere. It was an excellent performance on a difficult,bumpy pitch. The win was the climax of an exceptionalyear as they only lost one game, scoring 53 goals with only14 against.

Hurstmere’s golf teams have performed well recently. Atthe Kent Schools Golf Championships on 27th June atSittingbourne Golf Club, the ‘A Team’ of Bobby Twiner,Marcus Sewell and Thomas O’Reilly won the competi-tion, beating Harvey Grammar School on countback, on aday where good scoring was quite difficult. The ‘B Team’consisting of Luke Spooner, Albert Plant and JackWinter came fourth.

The Hurstmere ‘A Team’ then went on to represent Kent atthe English Schools Team Championship at Woodhall Spa.Unfortunately in a different competition format and withthe weather “gods” not being kind to us we could onlymanage 26th place, but we are hoping to return next yearto defend our Kent title.

Hurstmere Kent Golf Champions!

HURSTMERE CANOE CLUBBig congratulations go to RobbieSeamons and Jack Playford, bothpart of Hurstmere Canoe Club whobecame National Canoe PoloChampions in July. Robbie and Jackalso got to meet and receive theaward from Cambell Walsh, the Ca-noe Slalom Olympic Silver Medalist.The Hurstmere Canoe Club will be upand running until half-term. If you areinterested please see Mr Baston.

Year 7 Kent Cup Champions Again!

KARATE CLUB

PROBLEM SOLVING FESTIVAL

LEADERSHIP ACADEMY Josh Allen, who is a member of Woolwich Cycling Clubwas selected to represent Bexley at the London YouthGames, finishing 2nd in his cate-gory. He is alsorepresenting theclub at NationalTime Trial eventsand has beenpracticing hard inthe Velodrome.Well done Josh!

CYCLING AT THE LONDON YOUTH GAMES

During Juneof the Summer

Term, students fromYears 7 and 8 were asked todonate any old football and rugbyshirts that they had grown out ofand no longer wanted. The aim ofthis was to take out as many shirtsto Zambia to donate to specificorphanages whilst the Year 10students were on their tag-rugbytour. Both year groups respondedwith amazing enthusiasm and wesaw over 100 shirts donated of various sizes and colours,with several teams from all different leagues representedfrom Spurs to Millwall, Charlton to Nottingham Forest!

Whilst we were in Zambia we had to make a choice as towhom and when to donate the shirts. Some of the Year10 students who were coaching became much attached toa small community school called Sosco; it comprised of twoclassrooms, a dusty field area and there was a small areaat the back of the school with outside toilets and this wasthe entire school. There were four members of staff whowere paid very little to run the school and this basicallyformed the central part of the community. One thing thatwe all found exceptionally shocking was that for a studentto be taught at Sosco it cost around 5000 Kwacha (60pence) per month. This was, for some students in thearea, too expensive and really enforced how important thecoaching was to the children. Our students rose to theoccasion and ensured that the students had a fantastictime whilst being coached.

On the final day that we spent at Sosco, the boys alongwith Mr Reddy and Mr Robinson gave a football shirt toeach of the students being coached and those in lessons.It really showed to the students from Hurstmere how asimple gift can make a lot of difference and I am sure thatthey will remember the looks on the Sosco students’ facesfor ever.

A huge well done to all of those who donated shirts! Thephotos of the shirts will be on display at various areasaround the school for those who donated to see their shirtsand their new owners!

A big thank you must also go out to the local football teamswho also supported our shirts campaign. Phoenix FC, LongLane FC, Old Lady Youth FC, Parkwood Rangers FC andFootscray Lions FC all donated team strips of shirts whichwere donated to various government schools and orphan-ages in the Chilanga area of Zambia. These schools willnow be using the team shirts as their official PE kit and willhopefully soon be competing against each other at footballand tag-rugby wearing the shirts. Once again a massivethank you to all of those individuals and teams who helpedto support our campaign!

Tour Diary Excerpts: George Webb - Year 11

“Some of the schools we went to were good as they weregovernment schools but the schools that were based in a commu-nity were shocking in comparison. But as this was the first timemeeting the children I was really surprised at how happy all of thechildren we met were. Even though they had nothing in theirlives, they were as happy as anything. I really hope that it is thesame when we are coaching tomorrow.”

“Today was the start of coaching the schools. The first schoolwas Sosco. Coaching was really enjoyable but it was tiring. Thekids were really excited when we arrived and they were greatwhen we were coaching. Sosco is a community school and thismade me want to put extra effort in just to make a couple ofhours of these kids’ lives more enjoyable. The second school wewent to was Musamba. The kids here were like the first school,really enthusiastic. Today was a great experience.”

“Coaching was brilliant! The kids were amazing! Theywere all singing and dancing and they all really enjoyedthemselves. This showed when they were all singingand dancing around us and I felt really proud of thewhole team!”

Tour Diary Excerpts: Tom Sweeney - Year 11

“Today it was our first day of coaching and I thought it wentextremely well. We first went to Sosco School. This was a verypoor school where students had to pay 5,000 kwacha (60p) amonth. This is a very small amount to us but for children andfamilies this is considered to be too much money. This schoolloved the coaching and we managed to teach this school thebasics. Tomorrow we will advance with our coaching and hope

ZAMBIAShirts for Zambia Appeal in the Summer Term

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OnWednesday 29thJune as part of NationalSchool Sports Week, 17 PrimarySchools and 600 children participat-ed in the annual PartnershipGames which were held at Hurst-mere School. The Games had anOlympic theme and children wereencouraged to demonstrate the Ol-ympic and Paralympic Values ofExcellence, Friendship, Respect,Courage, Determination, Equalityand Inspiration.

There were 6 competitions on the day with Year 1 compet-ing in Multi Skills, Year 2 Tri Golf, Year 3 participated in theParalympic sport of Boccia, while Year 4 competed inAthletics, Year 5 Mini Rounders' and Year 6 competed inthe Partnerships popular cycling event. 30 Hurstmereboys from Year 9 acted as Team Leaders on the day forthe Primary Schools, while events were run by the SSCo’sand a team of over 100 Sports Leaders.

All pupils were given a Hurstmere School Sport Partner-ship Games T-shirt and awards were made at every eventaround the Olympics and Paralympic Values. Each com-petitor received an Equality Award, the team who finished1st received the Excellence Award as well as a medal foreach team member. Certificates were also awarded to theteam who demonstrated Friendship and Respect to oth-ers, while individuals received medals for Courage andInspiration.

We also ran a Tag Rugby Festivalduring the Games to help the boysgoing to Zambia gain experience ofcoaching and organising competi-tions. This was also a huge successwith over a 100 competitors.

Events like this could not be runwithout the help and support ofour Sports Leaders. The feed-back we have received concern-ing the Hurstmere boys was

excellent withmany schoolspraising themfor being politeand respectful.Thank you andwell done to allof them.

PARTNERSHIP GAMESto see who the stand out players are at the school It wasmagnificent to see the joy on all the children’s faces from 3 yearsold to even a grown man or woman. After this coaching we wentto Muamba School where the students and school were slightlybetter off than Sosco. When we started the coaching we werefaced with a very large amount of children and we had to splitthem into two groups. This consisted of about 30 people betweenme and Louie. There were also another 60 or so people splitbetween another 4 people. This school was very good at rugbyand it was clear they must have done it before. Overall thisschool was also so happy to play with the rugby balls and it wasso great to see that, yet again, children were enjoying the helpand fun we were giving to these children. Tomorrow will hopeful-ly be as good as today.”

“In the afternoon we coached New Northmead School which wasa school with so many children. This meant we could pick froma large amount of people. We did a variety of games includingbulldog, stuck in the mud and passing drills. We also did amini-tournament.”

“When the team was finally decided, we had 30 minutes left soBen and I were kicking and throwing the ball in the air for the kidsto catch. However, some of the groups of children started to singand dance. This started a massive dance between us and the 120children who we were coaching. We were all dancing in amassive circle which was videoed by all our teachers. This wasan incredible experience and we were so happy to be having thismuch fun and to see the joy on the children’s faces was extraor-dinary. Another great part of this was when one boy came intothe middle of the circle and did a total of 14 backflips. This justended such a great day. We finished the day with a touch matchwhen we got back to the college.”

“The celebrations at the end of the game were amazing with theMusamba team and their school and teachers celebrating thevictory. We ran around the pitch singing and dancing and thiswas brilliant. The players were given food and water before theywere given their trophy.”

“The celebrations continued after we left and I gave one of mywater bottles to the little boy, Arole, and he was extremelygrateful and I really liked him as a character and I managed tofilm him doing his flips and headstands. When we left the schoolit was sad that the coaching was all over.”

Once again Hurstmere Schoolorganised two inspiring after-noons of field and track eventsthat tested the students’ athlet-

icism and stamina.

Our congratulations to all the winnersof their events and well done to all who participatedand the organisers.

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TOUR DIARY EXCERPTS - Cont.

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MATHEMATICS

Mathematics ‘Tag Quiz’

We were fortunate to wel-come Soccer AM presenterAndy Ansah to Hurstmereon a memorable summerday in July. During theschool day he worked with anumber of Hurstmere foot-ballers in preparation for hislatest project, which culmi-nated in working with Chris-

tiano Ronaldo in Madrid. Many will have seen the resultingtelevision documentary in which the Real Madrid legendwas the subject of much electronic and biomechanicalanalysis, in an attempt to explain his staggering skill andathleticism. The analysis techniques were modelled andpractised with Hurstmere boys in our Sports Hall, a weekbefore Andy flew out to film the documentary. It was agreat experience for all concerned.

In the summer term boys in Years 7 to 9 took part in aMathematics ‘tag quiz’. Working in groups pupils had tosolve a series of mathematical problems and puzzles asquickly as possible.

Examples of questions included:

A flight took off from Birmingham at 9.08am localtime and landed in Chicago at 11.55am localtime. If Chicago is 6 hours behind England, howlong did the flight last?

Find three different whole numbers (all less than20) which when multiplied together give thesame result as when added together.

What is the 50th term in the sequence: 1, 5, 11,19, 29, ....?

If you want to have a go, the answers are on thebottom of page 11.

The Mathematics department were pleased to host theEasy Pieces Theatre Company in July. The drama groupperformed plays using dramatic reconstruction to look atthe development of some mathematical ideas. Pupils thensplit into groups for workshops where mathematical con-cepts formed the basis of their drama work. Pupils enjoyedthe activities and found the active learning style engagingand interesting. Pupils also benefited from the opportunityto draw together mathematics, drama, history and sciencewithin the project.

Maths gets Historical!

REMEMBERThe Maths Department has a subscription for:-

(login ‘hurstmere” - password ‘forty’).

The site includes tutorials and question practice on all topicsfor all abilities. There are also games and fun activities.

Later that evening Andy was kind enough to present theawards at our third annual Sports Presentation ceremony.After making the Senior and Junior Colours Awards, andrecollecting a number of team and individual successes inInter-School and County competitions, Andy spoke to boysand parents about the intrinsic rewards of extending one-self as a sportsman through practice and dedication. Helater recalled how much he had enjoyed his own school-

days, at theformer CatfordBoys’ School. Hehad benefited tre-mendously fromthe enthusiasmand skill of his ownPE teacher, one MrG. Jagniaszek !

UNBELIEVABLETEKKERS!

On Tuesday 5th April, Onatti came back to HurstmereSchool to perform a KS4 play for all Year 10 and Year 11French GCSE students, as well as for the 80 Year 9 boyswho have chosen French as an option for their GCSEstudies starting in September 2011.

The play ‘Le Paquet Mystérieux’ or ‘The Mysterious Parcel’was carried out entirely in French and, despite being a littlechallenging for some younger pupils to understand attimes, it was very enjoyable. The two native speakersused the stage, props and body language to help pupilsfollow the plot. Thank you to all the pupils who volunteered– or were volunteered! - to interact with the actors onstage; their participation was much appreciated by all!

Mme L Notton -Head of Modern Foreign Languages

GEOGRAPHYOn Thursday 7th April, the GeographyDepartment and 20 Year 8 students visit-ed ZSL London Zoo. The purpose ofthe trip was to further develop theunderstanding of endangered animals and theirneed for protection. The students were selectedas a result of their excellent performance on a self-guidedprojected based on an endangered animal of their choice.The choices of animals ranged from Panda Bears to Yang-tze River Dolphins and the general standard was very high.

Whilst visiting ZSL London Zoo students had the opportu-nity to see the newly born Mountain Gorilla along withsome other extremely rare animals including the AfricanHunting Dog and the Bactrian Camel. This was all support-ed through a specially designed talk from ZSL London Zoostaff, focusing on feeding and food chains within the zoo.The students en-joyed the opportu-nity to see up closevarious types offood fed to the ani-mals at the zoo,along with variousitems confiscatedby HM Revenue andCustoms. Theseitems ranged fromcrocodile and hippopotamus skulls to ivory tusks, all ofwhich the students had a chance to handle and exam-ine, whilst linking back to their position in the food

chain. A Hiss cockroach was shown tothe students as one of the most impor-

tant components of a food chain.

Year 8 Visit London Zoo

SPECIALISM NEWSScienceDuring Activitiesweek – 21st July2011, Yr 8 pupilsenjoyed the presen-tations and activitiesthat Dr SamanthaBooth, from Green-wich Universitybrought with her.

She showed the boys how to make GloSticks by carefullymixing a number of different chemicals. We saw how tomake different colours and how to make them either brightfor a short time or less bright for a longer period. She alsobrought a large block of dry ice – solid carbon dioxide. Theboys had great fun with this and the laboratory soonlooked as if it were part of the latest Harry Potter film set.

Later on the same day pu-pils were given the task ofbuilding an energy-effi-cient windmill. They weregiven paper, tape and afew other bits of equip-ment. The windmill thatgot the highest readingson a voltmeter won. Prizeswere also given for ap-

pearance and structure. All the boys enjoyed the challenge.

On the 20th July 2011, Year 8 enjoyed a day at theGreenwich Planetarium and park. This involved a show onthe solar system and then a tour of the observatory.

Greenwich Planetarium Trip

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Activities Week 2011

During Activities Week 30 boys fromYear 9 went to Ty’n Y Berth MountainCentre in Wales. The focus of the tripwas to develop the boys’ leadershipskills and prepare them to take on avariety of leadership roles withinschool.

After dinner on the first night the boysgot kitted out in waterproofs and wel-lingtons and headed out into the forestfor a night time adventure. Theywalked through mud, along streamsand through drainage channels withone thing on their minds – having fun!

On Tuesday they went Orienteeringwhich was a real challenge as they ranthrough the forest trying to find thecontrol points, with quite a few realis-ing map reading was more importantthan running fast. They also wentunderground to explore a disusedslate mine which tested the boysnerves as they had to clip on to safetylines to avoid big drops, abseil downshafts and explore the various tunnels.The biggest challenge of the weekcame on the mountain day when theyspent 6 hours walking on Cadair Idris.For many this was their first mountain

Last summer Year 7 embarked on ajourney across land and sea to theouter reaches of Essex. The weekincluded a range of activities includingclimbing, zip-lining, caving and swim-ming which all pupils attempted andenjoyed. When not involved in activi-ties the boys camped in groups ofeight and appreciated a wide variety ofauthentic Essex cuisine and startledteaching staff with their use of thesalad bar!

experience. Luckily the sun shone allday and the boys were rewarded fortheir efforts with spectacular views ofthe surrounding area.

“Although I don’t like heights I wasreally pleased to get to the top, thanksto all the support my group gave me tokeep going.” - Ben Matthews.

The last day proved to be a wet one,not because of the Welsh weather butthe activities! The boys completed aGorge Walk which involved walkingalong the bed of a stream overcominga variety of obstacles on the way. Thisincluded traversing, waterfall climbingand ducking under trees. The otheractivity of the day was canoeing on theMawddach estuary and playing a vari-ety of water games which involvedgetting very wet.

“This was a very enjoyable trip, whichgave me the chance to get away fromall my technical gadgets, socialise withmy friends and experience a range ofactivities that I’ve never done before.It was a great week.”- Naav Umashan-ker.

Sue Allsop - Partnership DevelopmentManager, Hurstmere School Sport Partnership

Alongside the activities offered by theresort, staff also worked tirelessly toprovide entertainment in terms of ar-ranging, monitoring and sometimesgetting involved in games of footballand cricket. A particular highlight wasMr. James hiding behind tents as a‘secret fielder’ during games of cricketand no member of staff being able tobowl out either Sam Crawford or MarkCerisola.

The boys were a credit to the schooland their Head of Year Mr. Wright andhave set a high standard for any futuretrip to Mersea. Definitely one to re-member!

We had around 80 Year 8 students in the English Department for a day ofShakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ then around 50 Year 9 students thefollowing day for Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’. We began by showing the movieversions of each of the plays, focusing on the key scenes to be looked atthroughout the day. The ‘Say Two’ theatre company came in during themorning and they worked with the pupils on a number of different workshops.

The first was an acting workshop. The pupils were encouraged to lose theirinhibitions and take on the roles of a variety of characters at the “Capulet Ball”for ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and the “Banquet Scene” in ‘Macbeth’. They dressedup in an assortment of costumes, including both male and female characters!They learned their lines, re-enacting the scene brilliantly. All pupils took part,even the quieter ones!

For ‘Romeo and Juliet’ the pupils then moved onto the “Comedy and Cuss-ing” workshop. Here, they learned how to be very rude to each other in theShakespearean way. The comedy of Shakespeare became a little clearer tothe pupils and they were able to “cuss each other down” in ways which were500 years old!

Finally, and probably the most anticipated part of the morning for both yeargroups, came the “Sword Fighting”. The pupils were introduced to a collec-tion of weapons including the rapier, broadsword and dagger. The instructorexplained how sword fighting has developed through history, completely cap-turing the attention of the pupils. The swords were then handed over to theboys who were able to use them, fighting each other in choreographed battles!

We then returned to the classrooms to complete mask making, armour making,weapon making, storyboards and script writing activities to complete the day.The pupils chose their favourite part of the play, usually the big fight scene, andperformed their own versions, using the knowledge accumulated throughoutthe morning. Both year groups completed some excellent work and seemed tohave a thoroughly enjoyable day. In addition, they have all undertaken somebeneficial preparation work for their Shakespeare studies next year – well done!

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Activities Week 2011

With around 80Year 7 pupils, we

held a ‘Dr. Who’day in the Eng-

lish Department.This was designed

by Mrs Elliott to be a day offun and creativity based aroundthe very popular television series.We began by watching the“Doomsday” episode of series 2. Thisepisode features the terrifying Cyber-men and Daleks in a battle with TheDoctor to save planet Earth! Afterwatching this episode, we looked atsome of the extra features found onthe BBC website to give us furtherinsight into The Doctor and his ene-mies. The pupils then had to createtheir own aliens / monsters. They didthis with great enthusiasm and cameup with some amazingly detailed con-cepts for Dr. Who monsters such as“Insidious Ruin”, “Sigrad” and“Armatogk”.We continued the day by making ourown Tardis! This proved to be a diffi-cult and challenging task, but againthe pupils approached the exercisewith eagerness. We ended up withsome weird and wonderful creations,not all resembling the Tardis, unfortu-nately!The imaginative writing and producingskills of Year 7 were put to the testnext, with pupils having to create theirown Dr. Who episode. They designeda storyboard with Dr. Who and theiralien creation as the main charactersand writing a script to compliment theimages. The pupils presented theirepisodes to the rest of the class. Thework was imaginative, scary and excit-ing! A very impressive effort Year 7 –well done.

Mrs. J Nunes - English Teacher

Year 7 had themagical experienceof a Harry PotterDay. They watchedclips from “The Gob-let of Fire”, present-ed short scripts fromthe film, made propsand produced fabu-lous storyboards.

Ms A Elliott -Head of English

HARRY POTTER DAY

8 hrs 47 mins 1,2,3 2549

Maths Quiz Answers:

We are looking for a number ofplaces for this academic year forsome of our pupils, on alternativecurriculum courses, to attend workexperience one day per week. Thepupils will by carefully selected andmonitored by our staff on a regularbasis. If you are able to offer aplace or know of a company thatmight be prepared to do so, pleasecontact Mr. Corry with appropriatedetails.

If you have a Nintendo DS that youno longer use - we can, by install-ing appropriate maths softwarethat will help improve pupil attain-ment. Please donate to Mr. Corry.

Mr D Corry -

12 Produced by J Dowse - School photographs C Richardson and staff - Printed by EHV Print Limited - September 2011

On July 13th and 14th, Year 9 wereinvolved in an Inter-House GreatEgg Race. This was a competition totest the design and technology skills ofthe contestants and their ability towork as a team.

The object of the competition was totransport a raw egg using a radiocontrolled car, around an obstaclecourse and then deposit it into an eggcup, without touching the vehicle orthe egg. The car started with thebodywork removed which left just thechassis onto which the contestantshad to construct a device capable ofsafely carrying the egg and depositingit at the finish. They were given aselection of tools and materials towork with and 3 hours to complete thetask ready for the race.

The competition took place in the mainhall and the boys showed their support

DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

Chaucer 2086

Sidney 1928

Caxton 1885

Cobham 1607

These are the final house standings for the 2010 - 2011academic year. I would like to thank everyone for theirinput in to the first year of the house system. I amhoping to extend the system further next year.

Congratulations to all involved with Chaucer (Yellow)house, this year’s winners.

FINAL HOUSE STANDINGS 2010 -2011

to fellow house members as they com-peted. The Technology teachers wereextremely impressed with the ingenui-ty and creativity demonstrated in thedesigns produced. It was a greatsuccess and there will be an eagerlyawaited Great Egg Race 2012, so getcracking!

The results of the Hurstmere GreatEgg Race were as follows:

First –Chaucer

Second –Caxton

Third –Sidney

Fourth–Cobham

On Friday the 1st of July a group of 6boys from Year 9, were chosen tocompete in “The Great Egg Race” atBeths Grammar School. There were 6schools competing, and a good senseof competitive spirit grew between allthe schools. Hurstmere’s team workedwell together and chose to use a sim-ple, functional design, rather than amore complicated one that could fail atthe crucial points in the course. Theteams had to choose a main driver anda co-driver who would take over thedriving if needed to deliver the egg tothe finish. Hurstmere were the last tocompete which gave the team plentyof time to study the competition and todiscuss the best way to attack thecourse.

The main driver was Connor Hassanwho drove the car with confidence andapproached each obstacle with littlefear. There were some minor mishapsalong the way and one cracked eggbut with a successful delivery and afast time recorded, we were awardeda respectable 2nd place. The trophy ison display in the school foyer. Eachboy in our team was given a silver cupto take home as a memento of the day.

I would like to thank Joe Beard, JakeWelland, Alim Conteh, ConnorHassan, Tom Wilson and MaxRendell for their mature behaviourand the way they represented Hurst-mere School during the day. Welldone!

2nd Place at BETHS’ Great Egg Race

Inter-House - Great Egg Race