Autumn 2010

1

NewsletterNational Design & Technology Week 2010at Hurstmere

The only way is up!

Yr 9 Rocket Factory - Year 9 pupils spent the weekdiscovering aerodynamics. They used their newfoundknowledge to design and make compressed air propelledrockets. They should have been considering how aero-dynamics would affect the flight of their rockets; for mosthowever, all design ingenuity went out of the window whenthey were presented with a box of coloured feathers andplastic jewels that they were allowed to use to decoratetheir rockets.

The final lessons of theweek saw all Year 9 technol-

ogy groups on the field launching their masterpieces!There was a varied success rate, with the rockets of somepupils, who had decided not to overly adorn theirs with“Bling”, reaching altitudes in excess of 150 feet. (Continuedon Pages 6 and 7)

Mrs S Lloyd-Wood - Head of Design & Technology

The Summer Term saw Hurstmere School embraceNational Design & Technology Week. The aim was toraise awareness of the subject by showcasing the out-standing work achieved by our pupils in this area. Duringthe week various activities were organised by the depart-ment to challenge and inspire the boys to reach theirpotential in this subject. Unfortunately we can only touchon some of the highlights of the week and the boys’excellent work.

D & T Product Design - lamps andmedia display (more on Page 7)

A Specialist Sports and Science College

Hurstmere Foundation School

2

On the 6th July 2010, eight pupils from Hurstmere School,accompanied by their parents, attended the Jack PetcheyAwards Ceremony for Bexley Schools at the OrchardTheatre. The award winners were: Thomas Hornsey,George Mortlock, Kirk Porter, Frankie Clark, LiamCowell, Ben Hughes, Daniel Umney and Bradley Hales,whose admirable achievements, in and out of school, wererecognised by the Student Council. Mayor, Val Clark, alsoattended the ceremony to present the prestigious medalsto the award winners. The boys’ behaviour was impeccableand they are a credit to the school and their families.

JACK PETCHEY AWARDS

Ms A Rosillo - Student Voice Co-ordinator

The Duke of Edinburgh Awardhas once again been offered toHurstmere students of Year 9 and10. This year has seen a recordnumber of students with thedesire to complete the Duke ofEdinburgh Bronze Award atHurstmere, which is fantastic!Year 9 has seen them learning

about camp craft including how to put up a tent and how tocook on a camping trangia. Sessions have also focusedon appropriate clothing and food for expeditions. The finalpart of the Award will be the expedition which is scheduledto take place in October 2010 for the majority of the group.This will once again take place in and around the area ofColdblow Farm, close to the village of Ditton in Kent. Thearea offers, not only varied terrain to test the students, italso has some of arguably the best views in the county,including a spectacular view of Leeds Castle.

The students who completed the Award last year arelooking forward to receiving their certificates and badgesat presentation evening in November, and several havealready started their Silver Award which they will completeat their sixth form institution.

DUKE OF EDINBURGHAWARDS 2010

BEXLEY BOYS WILL BE BRILLIANTHurstmere will be playing a leading role in the achieve-ment of boys across Bexley in the coming academicyear. In collaboration with local primary schools we willbe working together to share practice with a view toraising standards for boys education. The project isbeing supported by national champion of boysachievement Gary Wilson who will speak at the schoolbefore Christmas during an INSET evening. With thesupport of our local community primary schools we areexcited about this chance for the school to share itsexpertise on boys’ education and make an impact ongood teaching practice in Bexley.

Mr Cleary - Targeted Intervention Manager (KS4)

Liam Cowell, now in Year 11, cycled 150miles in one day (Dartford to Brightonand back) on the 13th June 2010  to raisemoney for Great Ormond Street Hospital.This charity is very important to Liam and

his family as he was born with seriousheart and lung problems which meant that

the care he received at an early age waspivotal for his survival.

He now competes at national levelmountain biking and cross countrytournaments.

Matt Johnson (who leftHurstmere in 2006) has justbeen cast in StevenSpeilberg's film version ofthe play "War Horse"adapted from MichaelMorpurgo’s novel.  He isplaying one of the soldiers.

We wish all our studentssuccess in their chosencareers.

Alumni

150 Mile Charity Cycle SUPERMARKET REWARDSTesco:Fine Tip Fabric Pens20 Shelf Spring LoadedDryer.............for Art

2 water buttsWatering canLarge Windowsill Tray2 Self Watering TraysAn assortment of seeds ........forDesign & Technology/Science

Morrisons:Small forks and spades

Sainsburys:Kurling Stones SetSpeedminton setS100Pusher heads and handlesKurling target .....for PE

Thank you again to every-one who kindly donatedtheir supermarket vouchers,which we redeemed for thefollowing items:

3

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome new Year 7parents to the first Hurstmere Newsletter of the academicyear.

Last summer saw the school achieve another set of verysolid results with some outstanding achievements byindividual students. A fuller breakdown is given below, butour congratulations and best wishes go with last year’sYear 11 boys as they embark on new courses and newexperiences.

The summer term also saw our new Year 7 spend a veryexciting induction day in school and hopefully a veryenjoyable summer sports week hosted at the school.

Our usual wide and variedsummer Activities Weeksaw many of the boys offsite involved in outdoor pur-suits, cultural visits, chal-lenges and fun days whileour Year 10 were involvedin a highly successful periodof work experience. It is akey time I believe, in thesocial development of theboys and many return totheir studies with renewedvigour. Hopefully you willget a flavour of some of theactivities from the briefresume in this edition.

As a school we believeHurstmere is very wellplaced to be successful inthe challenging financialworld that the public sectoris about to enter. Theschool is financially sound,and the extensive monieswe have spent in recentyears on refurbishmentmean we are well placed forthe lean years ahead withan older but robust buildthat has been remodelled tobe fit for purpose for thenext decade. I am ensur-ing that the governing bodyremain well briefed onAcademy Status. It nowappears that Beths Grammar, Bexley Grammar, ErithSchool and Welling School, as part of their federation withKemnal Technology College, will become Academies be-fore the next financial year, to join the three establishedAcademies that already exist in Bexley. This will create aninteresting dynamic for Bexley as an education authority.

We strongly believe from existing examinations data thatour current Year 11 will achieve the highest results theschool has ever known. All in all, it looks to be an excitingyear ahead for the school.

Mr A Stringer - Headteacher

WHAT A RESULT!

We are very pleased with this year’s examination results. For the second year in a row, Hurstmere boys achievedover 75% 5+ A* - C and over 42% 5+ A* – C including English and Mathematics. Virtually every Year 11 boy left theschool with recognised Key Stage 4 qualifications and many have gone on to more advanced courses at localcolleges and sixth forms. Results in our specialist areas of Sports and Science were particularly pleasing, and therewere some outstanding successes in Art, English Literature, French and RE.

Outstanding individual achievements are listed below:-Michael McDonald gained 2 A* in Food Tech and Additional Science, 4A grades in English, Science, Geography and History,Distinction in ICT, 2 B grades.Andrew O’Connor gained 2 A* in Electronics and Additional Science, 5 A grades in English, Mathematics, English Literature,Science and French, Distinction in ICT, one B grade and one C grade.Jordan Stryczek gained A* in PE, 5 A grades in Mathematics, Science, Additional Science, Geography and Electronics,Distinction in ICT and 3 B grades.Charlie Nutting gained 2 A* in English Literature and PE, 4 A grades in English, French, History and Applied Science, Merit inICT and 2 B grades.Paul Waker gained 5 A grades in Mathematics, Art, Electronics, Graphics and PE, 4 B grades and a pass in ICT.Michael Dye gained A* in PE, 2 A grades in Additional Science and History, Merit in ICT and 5 B grades.James Peet gained 2 A* in Additional Science and Mandarin, 2 A grades in Science and PE, 6 B grades and a pass in ICT.Alexander Alton gained A* in PE, Distinction in ICT, 4 B grades and 3 C grades.Michael Corbett gained Distinction* in BTEC Sport, an A in PE, 3 B grades, 2 C grades and a pass in ICT.Scott Shergold gained A* in PE, 3 A grades in Mathematics, Science and History, Merit in ICT, 2 B grades and 3 C grades.David Callaghan gained A* in PE, 3 A grades in Mathematics, Geography and Additional Science, Merit in ICT, 2 B grades and3 C grades.Thomas Malyon gained Distinction* in BTEC Sport, Merit ICT, one B grade and 4 C grades.Robert Shires gained an A grade in Additional Science, Distinction in BTEC Sport, 2 B grades, Merit in ICT and 3 C grades.Serhan Mehmet gained 2 A grades in English and Additional Science, 7 B grades and Merit in ICT.Joseph Wood gained Distinction* in BTEC Sport, 2 A grades in Art & Design and PE, 4 C grades and a pass in ICT.Richard Waker gained A* in PE, an A in Geography, 7 B grades and a pass in ICT.Jack Collishaw gained 3 A grades in Geography, Science and PE, 6 B grades and a pass in ICT.Charlie Mason gained A* in PE, an A in Geography, 7 B grades and a pass in ICT.George Lyon gained 2 A grades in Additional Science and PE, 4 B grades, Merit in ICT and 2 C grades.Sam Branch gained 2 A grades in Religious Studies and PE, 5 B grades, Merit in ICT and 2 C grades.Elliott Eyre gained an A in Additional Science, 3 B grades, Merit in ICT, Merit in BTEC Sport and 3 C grades.

Another Solid Year of Examination Results with Outstanding Individual Achievements

4

MATHEMATICS

The ‘Hands-On Risk and Probability Show’ came to Hurst-mere School in April to work with some of our Year 7 pupils.The presentation, run by the University of Cambridge,enables pupils to explore real-world examples of probabili-ty in action through an interactive presentation and ‘WhoWants to be a Mathionaire?’ gameshow workshop.Pupils enjoyed discovering how mathematics can help tomake sense of the real world in situations involving luck,chance, risk and probability.

Hands-On Risk andProbability Show Ten Year 9 pupils took part in the project ‘The Success Factor’

run by the University of Greenwich. This involved pupils learn-ing maths through hands-on, fun activities. The second stageinvolved pupils participating in skills development workshopswith University of Greenwich mentors, learning how to plan alesson, manage their time and keep young people interested.

The feedback from the University about all the pupils was verypositive. Congratulations to Jack Herring, Lewis Rumsby,Jamie Brown, Dan Bassett, Tom Sweeney, Isaiah Akanbi,Ben-Lewis Hunt, Charlie Lush, Joe Stewart and Archie Webb.

The Success Factor

Bubblz the Maths clown came to Hurstmere in July to dosome shape and space work with some of Yr 7. Pupilswere given the opportunity to see mathematically shapedbubbles like pyramids, cubes, prisms and octahedrons.Working in groups pupils then enthusiastically made tetra-hedrons using balloons to create larger structures.

All pupils were very positiveabout the experience andenjoyed using balloons toput into practice what hadbeen learnt in the classroom.

Mr R Nagra - AST Maths

Bubblz the Clown

In June top sets in Year 7 and 8 tookpart in a maths ‘Tag Quiz’. Working ingroups, pupils had to answer a series ofmaths problems and puzzles as quicklyas possible. Each group was given amaximum of four attempts on eachquestion, scoring more points thequicker they arrived at the answer.

Pupils enjoyedthe activity and the winners wereArchie Bigsby-Thompson andMatt Hollands (Year 7) and TommyReynolds, Charlie Boden andJack Dimmock (Year 8).

Mathematics ‘Tag Quiz’Examples of questionswere: There are 10 students in

a room. If all studentsshook hands with eachother, how many handshakes wouldthere be altogether?

The sum of five consecutive odd num-bers is 435. What is the smallest of thefive numbers?

By how much is the sum of all the evennumbers from 1-100 bigger than thesum of all the odd numbers from 1-100?

Why not have a go?The answers are on Page 7. Mr R Nagra - AST

The Mathematics Department were pleased to host the Easy Piece Theatre Company in July.The drama group performed plays using dramatic reconstructions from thehistory of mathematics to look at the development of somemathematical ideas. Pupils then split into groups for work-shops where mathematical concepts formed the basis of theirdrama work. Pupils enjoyedthe activities and found theactive learning style engag-ing and interesting. Theyalso benefited from theopportunity to draw togethermaths, drama, history andscience within one project.

Maths/Drama Cross Curricular Work

Mr R Nagra- AST Mathematics

5

Exam Dates for your Diary

Year 10: Unit 1 (30%) 9 November (am)- calculator allowed

           Unit 2 (30%) 21 June 2011 (am)- non calculator

Year 11: Unit 3 (50%) 9 November (am)- calculator allowed

           12 November (am) - non cal-culator

           Unit 1 and 2 resits 1 March2011 (am and pm)

SPECIALISM NEWS - Science

Mrs S Bayar - Director of Science

STEM CLUBScience, Technology, Engineeringand Maths - Growing for Success

Last term a team of Year 7 pupils, whoare the founding members of theSTEM Club, took advantage of thegood weather to give the club a kickstart. Lead by Mr East, the clubs aim is to promote cross curricular subjectknowledge in a fun and enthusing way. The focal point of the club is theconstruction of a vegetable and nature garden which includes raised beds inwhich to grow vegetables and conduct experiments.The pupils will use the garden to learn about how food is grown and our impacton the environment as well as a whole range of other skills. There are a largenumber of teachers involved including Mr Baston(Geography), Mr Worden andMrs Bayar (Science), Mrs Lloyd-Wood (Technology) and Mr Nagra (Maths).The club is in its early days, however there is lots of enthusiasm from bothpupils and staff. Future extensions to the project include designing a wateringsystem for the plot using electronics skills, installing a bird box camera and

possibly even installing some renew-able energy sources such as solarpanels. (Not to mention cooking andeating the food that their hard workwill produce ...)

If you feel that you may be interestedin joining in please come and see MrEast or Mr Worden.

In May the Science Depart-ment had the pleasure oftaking a Year 8 and a Year 10 BTECgroup to a 'Medical Skills Day' atKings College University, London.The boys took part in various activitiesincluding a chance to learn some ba-sic first aid skills, including the“Heimlich Manoeuvre”. They tookblood samples from a fake hand(which was shockingly realistic) andinvestigated the components of ahealthy diet. Some were visiblyshocked to see just how much fat,sugar and salt some food productscontain! In the afternoon we wereshown to the  main laboratory wherethe boys were shown how to correctlydissect a sheep’s heart.

What made this day such a successwas that the staff at King’s are allmedical professionals themselves orstudents studying for a degree inmedicine. This was a real workingscience environment and theselaboratories are used for trainingfuture doctors and surgeons. Theboys rose to the challenge and were acredit to Hurstmere, showing maturityand a sense of responsibility in com-pleting the tasks set.

Medical Skills Day

MINI SCIENCE OLYMPICS30 pupils were invited to attend Dartford Grammar School forGirls’ Mini Science Olympics. Hurstmere boys worked in teamsto complete a range of activities all based around the theme of

the Olympics. Challenges involved Media, Art, Science, ProblemSolving and Blind Football.

Hurstmere boys achieved a number ofmedals including 2 Gold and theycame second overall winning Silver.Other schools attending includedDartford Grammar School for Boys,Wilmington Grammar and LongfieldAcacdemy.

Mrs W Day - Head of Science

The Maths Department has a

subscription for:-

(login ‘hurstmere” -

password ‘thirty’).

REMEMBER

Math Quiz Answers - 45, 83, 50

Please check the school websitefor dates for next term.

www.hurstmere.org.uk

DIARY DATES

Exhibition of pupils work in foyer – including GCSE coursework

Yr 7 sustainability activity – ‘Unpacking the packed lunch’ led by (Bexley) SWAC

Yr 8 World Cup /Food Technology related activity

Yr 9 Rocket Factory

Yr 10 Technology Logo Competition

KS3 and 4 Design Icons Competition

Form Group activity sheets – Yrs 7 - 9

STEM Display

Yr 7 Schools Waste Action Club’s (SWAC) -SWAC ran a number ofworkshops during NationalDesign and Technologyweek at Hurstmere Schoolwith all of our Yr7 studentstaking part.

SWAC’s objective for theworkshops was to promotethe 3R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) and therefore divert as

much waste as possi-ble from our landfills.

Our Year 7 studentswere encouraged togenerate ideas abouthow to deal with thewaste generated fromthe packed lunches webring to school during apro-active task de-signed to come up withpacking a waste freelunch!

Yr 8 World Cup fever - Year 8 pupils studied the dietsof professional football players, using this information todecide on suitable eating plans for the football tournament.They then went on to taste the flavours of the world in aseries of blind taste tests.

Yr 10 - Product Design and Graphics pupils headed off toIslington to visit the New Designers Exhibition which show-cases the best graduate designs from universities fromaround the country. The experience proved to be reallyuseful to the boys giving an insight into new methods ofworking, research and the possibility of pursuing a careerin the design industry.

Crest Awards - This year, for the first time we haveentered boys for both the silver and bronze Crest Awards.CREST is Britain’s largest national award scheme forproject work in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology,Engineering and Maths). It gives young people aged 11-19opportunities to explore ‘real world projects’ in an excitingway.

We are proud to report that the following boys successfullycompleted the Bronze Award: Thomas Gills andAmarpreet Kang and the Silver Award: Paul Waker,Richard Waker, Michael Waring, Casey Killilea,Edis Mustafa and Ersel Tekbiyik.

Great Egg Race -Each year BethsGrammar hosts aGreat Egg Race challenge for seven local secondaryschools. This year 5 pupils from Year 9 entered thecompetition. Each group was given a remote control carchassis, a raw egg and a box of materials. The pupils hadto design the top half of the car so that it would successfullycarry a raw egg around an obstacle course and then at theend, using minimum intervention, deposit the egg into anegg cup. Hurstmere came a very close third, behindTownley and Bexley Grammar schools, managing to breakonly one egg during the whole day.

Exhibition of Pupils’ Work - This was set up in theschool foyer giving the boys the chance to see the type ofwork produced in the four GCSE option area: Electronics,Graphical Products, Catering and Product Design. Along-side this was a variety of Key Stage 3 work. Pupils haveproduced some excellent quality work this year; we lookforward to displaying more of it next year.

Mrs S Lloyd-Wood - Head of Design & Technology Dept.

6

Design & TechnologyNational Design & Technology Week 2010

7

Design & Technology

Exhibition of Pupils’ Work

In celebration of National Design and Technology Week2010, the D & T Department in association with ScienceSpecialism ran a competition to raise awareness of thedesigners of some of today's Design Icons. Each dayduring the week two images of iconic design were postedup outside the D & T rooms. The students needed to findout what each design is called, who designed it and thedate of the design.

Congratulations tothe worthy win-ners:- Matthew

Gowan andHenry Waller.

Both won an I-Pod shuffle.

In June Ms Mackler and Mr Jones were fortunate to take 24Year 8 students to Charlton Athletic for a “Year 8 RaisingAspirations” conference. The students heard a fantasticpresentation by TV presenter, Gareth Jones about settingand achieving goals. The students  then worked in smallgroups in a team building exercise. Overall the feedbackfrom students was extremely positive. Some commentsfrom the boys included, “I learned to have faith in myselfand that anyone can succeed in life” and “I was taughtby Gareth Jones to have goals in life and to find ahobby that maybe I can transform into a future job”.Well done to all the boys who participated!

Ms L Mackler

Year 8 Raising Aspirations

Twenty Year 10 boys took part in a 3 day course run byGreenwich University – they participated in activities atthe university on the 6th and 8th July and visited BowlesOutdoor Center on the 7th July.

Year 10 visit Greenwich University

Year News

Richard Waker, Michael Waring, Casey Killilea,

Photographs from‘Bouncers’, one of theYear 11 GCSE Dramaproductions.

8

‘Drama is one of the key ways inwhich children can gain under-standing of themselves and others;can gain confidence in themselvesas decision makers and problemsolver; can learn to function collab-oratively, and can explore – within asupportive framework – not only arange of human feeling, but also awhole spectrum of social situationsand /or moral dilemmas’ (Departmentof Education and Science 1989a Englishfor 5-16 (The Cox Report), HMSO)

Hurstmere is extending and clarify-ing Drama’s strengths by re-namingit ‘Drama and Communications’.Why? In Drama we teach leadership,collaboration, performance, bodylanguage, speaking and listening in theguise of a play, an issue or crosscurriculum subject. In Communicationsthe student will define what good (andbad) communication skills are throughpresentation, negotiation, interperson-al skills and conversation skills. It willbe framed in a fun, creative andengaging way but the focus is ondeveloping life skills.By teaching our students how to com-municate on various levels, they willbecome naturally conditioned and con-fident to promote themselves to anyfuture employer. I believe it is impera-tive to teach life skills for a successfulcareer, and if a student says theystudied Communications at school,then they are ahead of some of theircompetitors. This subject will enablethem to demonstrate an immediateunderstanding of communication toany employer, and articulate their ownpersonal strengths within that.We believe there is a far greater needfor lessons in verbal and physical com-munication today, as children areweaned on touch technology from anextremely young age, be it computers,gaming, interactive TV, mobilephones; the list is endless. ICT is animperative skill set to have in thecurrent climate and young people can-not succeed without it. We are simplyreaddressing the balance and ensur-ing that our students are competent inall forms of communication so they areproperly equipped for a successful ca-reer of their choice.

Ms H Wilson

DRAMA AND COMMUNICATIONSRE-NAMING OF THE DRAMA DEPARTMENT

Taylor Egan, Ryan Wooley,Matthew Stone and Max Todd havebeen offered places on a week'scourse at Rose Bruford College ofTheatre and Performance from the 6thSeptember, to undertake a course in'Backstage Theatre Skills' includingcostume, props, lighting etc. Thecourse itself is linked to the BronzeArts Award. This was a 'once in a lifetime opportunity', and they will soonbe getting their certification.

Mr D Corry

ROSE BRUFORD COLLEGEBackstage Theatre Skills

On the 28th September the MacbethDrama students attended a cast work-shop at the Ashcroft Theatre inCroydon in preparation for their forth-coming performance on the 14th

October. The pupils worked withindustry professionals and twomembers of the National Shake-speare Company. They participatedin a number of voice and physicaltheatre exercises, as well as develop-ing their improvisation techniques.The last hour of the workshop resultedin Hurstmere pupils performing a tenminute extract of their show andreceiving constructive feedback fromthe festival organisers. Our Year 11Technical Theatre student was able tomeet with the Stage Manager of thetheatre and the Lighting and SoundDesigners to gain ideas for the show,which was a huge privilege. Cater-ham School also attended the work-shop and the pupils found this to be avery positive experience (especiallythe part where they got to meet girls!!).Both schools watched each otherperform and gave helpful advice onwhere improvements can be made intime for the 14th October. The daywas very inspiring for all the pupilsand staff involved.

Ms L WoodwardHead of Drama & Communications

Yr 11 GCSEDramaProductions

9

GEOGRAPHYSummer CompetitionThe end of the summer term saw theWorld Cup dominate the television andthe daily press. It was also a fantasticopportunity for the Geography Depart-ment to utilise this monumental event.Students in Year 7 and 8 studied theWorld Cup in terms of the countriestaking part and South Africa specifi-cally as the host nation. This culminat-ed in a project for both year groups.Year 8 were given the task to create aWorld Cup video showing England’shopes of winning and informationabout the host country. The Year 7students were given the task of creat-ing a World Cup stadium worthy ofholding the final. This was a fantasticopportunity for students to show theircreative sides and to also experimentwith their understanding of scale.Some of the results were truly amaz-ing, with some of the winning stadiumson display in themain school foyertrophy cabinets.

The 6 studentswho produced thewinning stadiumsand videos havebeen awardedwith vouchers

Summer Competition

presented as a joint prize fromGeography and the Sports College.

Mr A Reddy - Head of Geography

MEDIA STUDIESasked the teachers about ...ENGLISH-

On the 24th June schools across thecountry decided on the overallwinner of the Carnegie Award foryoung persons’ author of the year.Several boys from HurstmereSchool worked their way througha number of the shortlisted booksand eventually decided on the novelRevolver by Marcus Sedgwick.

A presentation was devised by six boys from Years 7 and8: Richard West, George Parish, Ben Wood, Alex Jean-Paul, Luke Wilkes and Jordan King. The boys incorpo-rated drama, readings and commentary on the novel intotheir presentation and performed confidently in front ofother schools in Bexley with the Deputy Mayor of Bexleypresent. Jordan King from Year 7 stated, “We choseRevolver as it hooks you in from the start. With eachflashback another piece of the story is revealed to makethe full picture. Revolver has just enough detail to keepyou interested but not pages of description”.

Miss Martin (English Dept.) and Mrs Tubbs (Librarian)

Carnegie Awards Shadowing Films that Changed our Lives

SPECIALISM NEWS - Sports

10

This is only the second year that the school has entered theBritish Schools Karting Championship. There were close to100 pupils from the School who attended sessions at LakesideKarting Circuit, to compete for the 30 places available in thisyear’s competition.

Pupils had 2 x 15 minute sessions at Lakeside and those whowere successful then progressed to the semi-final stage whichwas held at Brentwood Karting Circuit. Three teams of threepupils were successful from this event.These pupils attended the South East Regional Final atBuckmore ParkTeam 1 – Tom Grainger, Tom Langford, Nick EvansTeam 2 – Reece Bisonette, Lewis Foster, Jacob WealTeam 3 – Craig Hilder, Joe Baldwin, Joe Thompson

Team 1 were successful in qual-ifying for the National Finalsheld at Daytona Milton KeynesCircuit, with Mr Davis competingin a Teachers Race, both fin-ishing in 1st place to make it asuccessful day for the School.Finished 2nd Nationally fromover 700 teams

Mr Anthony Davis - Target Intervention Manager KS3

In June 2010, 12 students and 3 staff from Baobab Collegein Zambia visited Hurstmere for their final week whilst ontour in England. The tour was a culmination of the hardwork of the staff from Baobab College and the fund raisingof the students. It was a fantastic opportunity for thestudents who visited Zambia in the summer of 2009 tomeet the Baobab College students who they worked withand to once again share the fantastic experiences of the2009 tour. It was a great opportunity also to find out aboutthe progress which has been made as a result of the 2009tour, in the government schools and orphanages which theHurstmere students went to and coached children in howto play tag-rugby.Whilst the students were visiting from Baobab they also had theopportunity to visit the Natural History Museum in London accom-panied by several Year 9 students from Hurstmere. This was agreat opportunity for some of our boys to develop friendships withstudents from another continent.

The week was a great success and one of the most importantresults was the meeting of the students who will be visitingZambia in 2011 and the Baobab College students. They wereable to share fundraising ideas and discuss what will be happen-ing on the tour. This has given all the students who are part of thetour a new drive to achieve their fundraising target of £13, 500.

They have currently been involved in several fundraising events,including one at a local primary school where the students arehoping to carry out some coaching of Year 5 and 6 students inorder to develop their coaching skills. The most recent fundrais-ing event was a quiz night organised by several of the parents ofthe students. The event, which proved to be a massive success,raised over £800 towards the overall target. Several other eventsare being planned for the forthcoming months to reach the targetprior to the tour.

Mr A Reddy - Head of Geography

BAOBAB VISIT

Our congratulations go to threepupils who on the 2nd May gainednew belts. Sam Kitchen who wasin Year 11, achieved his brown belt.Ben Hughes gained a blue belt andJay Akran his yellow belt.  Sam alsoattends the training squad for HyoGen Do and will continue to trainnow he has left Hurstmere. Ben andJay have made huge strides quitequickly because of their hard workand natural ability.

Mrs G McGill

hYo Gen Karate Group

On the 11th of June the annual KentSchools Tennis Championshipswere held in Bromley. The JuniorBoys Doubles Competition (Years 7 & 8) washeld at Ravensbourne School with over 50 pairs entering.After winning their first two games Hurstmere’s Alex Juniper(Team Captain) and Lucas Percy, who were both in Year 7, lostto a particularly strong pairing from Ravensbourne School andconsequently finished second in the group but still progressed tothe latter stages of the Cup. The next three games witnessed theHurstmere pair play some exhilarating and compelling tennisbefore triumphing in the last game, in an epic match againstSevernoaks School, to progress to the Final. The Final saw Alexand Lucas again pit their wits against the Ravensbourne pairingthat had beat them earlier in the day. The match began in astalemate with both schools holding serve before the Hurstmerepair stepped up a gear and, after some scintillating rallies,triumphed 6 -1 to become deservedly for the first time inHurstmere’s history, and to the admiration of those still watching,Kent Doubles Junior Champions! Well done to Alex andLucas, and a special thank you to Karen Briggs and Ravens-bourne School for hosting and organising a fantastic event.

Mr M Wright

As part of National School SportsWeek and also using some PElessons, all of Hurstmere’s Year 7and 8 boys have been able to expe-rience a small golf lesson and havebeen able to play a round on theLost Island Adventure Golf courseat the World of Golf on the A20.There was plenty of hidden talent onshow at the driving range as well asa few novice swings. The Lost Is-land Encounter Adventure Golf hastwo 18 hole courses which providedthe boys with a lot of fun as well asa chance to practice their puttingskills. We hope to continue our linkwith World of Golf this year withmore golf sessions being planned.

Links with the World of Golf Sidcup

Kent DoublesJUNIOR CHAMPIONS

11

30 boys from Year 9 were selected togo to Ty’n y Berth Mountain Centre inWales during Activities Week. Thefocus of the trip was to develop theboys’ leadership skills and preparethem to run a festival in the autumnterm for local Primary school children.

On arrival at the centre the boysparticipated in their first activity, thenight walk, which set the tone for theweek: lots of mud, getting wet andloads of fun and exciting challenges.Throughout the week the boys triedtheir hand at Orienteering, Climbing,the Gorge Walk, going down a Mineand a Mountain Walk.

The weather was typically Welsh withnon-stop rain during the mountain daybut the boys coped admirably, helpingand encouraging each other along theway and never moaning about theconditions. The boys had the opportu-nity to take on a variety of leadershiproles and develop their personal andsocial skills throughout the week aswell as doing chores such as makingpacked lunches and washing up!A fantastic time was had by all!

Ms S Allsop - Partnership Development ManagerHurstmere School Sport Partnership

Y 9 Sports Leaders Trip to Wales

On the 30th Juneas part of National School SportsWeek, 14 Primary Schools and 440children participated in the annualPartnership Games held at HurstmereSchool. The Games had an Olympictheme; children were encouraged todemonstrate the Olympic and Paral-ympic Values of Excellence, Friend-ship, Respect, Courage, Deter-mination, Equality and Inspiration.

There were 6 competitions on the day Yr 1 Multi Skills Yr 2 Tri Golf Yr 3 Paralympic sport of Boccia Yr 4 Athletics Yr 5 Mini Rounders Year 6 our first ever cycling event.

Thirty Hurstmereboys from Year 9acted as TeamLeaders on theday for the Pri-mary Schools,while eventswere run by theSSCo’s and ateam of 160Sports Lead-ers.

All pupils were givena Hurstmere School Sport Part-

nership Games t-shirt and certificatefor attending the event, and Bronze,Silver and Gold medals were present-ed to those teams who finished in thetop three. At the closing ceremonyone team from each event was pre-sented with the Middleton MurrayOlympic Values Award for demon-strating the Olympic and ParalympicValues. These schools will go to asporting event at the O2 where theywill spectate from Middleton Murray’sexecutive box.

Ms S AllsopPartnership Development Manager

Hurstmere School Sport Partnership

PARTNERSHIP GAMES

canoe-ingwhileprovidinga platform to jointhe club and get involvedwith competitions and trips. Couresand coaching for students continuethrough the Autumn Term. For moreinformation please see Mr Baston.

Mr T Baston

After the huge success of the kayak-ing courses being ran over the pastfew months I am pleased to announcethat a partnership has been formedbetween Hurstmere and Meridiancanoe club. Meridian is the localcanoe club based at Danson Park: theclub also has sessions in the localswimming pools and regularly runstrips as well as enters a number ofcompetitions. The partnership willallow for students to try kayaking and

SPORTS DAYS 2010On both daysthe weatherand the com-petition wasoutstanding.All the boystried their bestand showedtheir talent that

we aim to nurture here at Hurstmere.To see all the results visit our website- www.hurstmere.org.uk

12 Produced by J Dowse - School photographs C Richardson and staff - Printed by EHV Print Limited - October 2010

Snippets of ACTIVITIES WEEK July 2010

It was with greatpleasure that Iagreed to be theFrench cultural andlinguistic attachée toMs Mackler on herParis trip 2010. MsMackler organisedfor 90 Year 8 pupilsto spend four days inFrance during Activi-ties Week in July 2010. The boys had thebest entourage possible with Ms Fay, MsMartin, Ms Rosillo, Mr Corry, Mr Davis, MrBaston and Mr Granville as chaperons.

On our way to Paris, we stopped at Vimyto visit the famous Canadian War Memorialand some WWI trenches. We then spent awhole day visiting the City of Paris. We hada stroll around and under the Eiffel Tower,admired the Arc de Triomphe, walkedalong the Champs Elysées and had a mostrelaxing guided boat trip on the RiverSeine. The boys all enjoyed going on rides

in Disneyland Paristhe next day, and wewere all amazed bythe stunning fire-works display in theevening. The tripwas a great successand the boys mustbe commended fortheir excellent be-haviour on the trip.

Sadly, we have had to say goodbye to MsMackler who started teaching at HurstmereSchool in September 2004. She has nowreturned to Canada to continue her teach-ing career, and she will be sorely missedby all members of staff and all pupils whomshe will have taught as a History Teacheror looked after as a Head of Year. We wishher the best of luck in her life on the otherside of the Atlantic.

Mmme C Guyan

French Trip

Mr Joyce, Mr Wadsworth, Mr Robinson,Mrs Nunes, Mr James and Miss Bradleywere the staff that accompanied 60 Year 9pupils to Euro Disney Paris.

Our first day, Monday, was mainly a travel-ling day, but we did arrive early enough tovisit the Disney Village for some food andfamiliarise ourselves with the bus shuttlesthat transported us to the Disney Parksand the Dream Castle. The hotel wasideal, with facilities for the boys such as anindoor swimming pool and grass areas forfootball. On the Tuesday we had a greattime whizzing round from ride to ride in themain Disney Park. The Wednesday wasspent mainly spent in the Disney Studios.What a ride the rocking roller coaster was,and the Tower of Terror wasn't bad either,but with a hopper pass we were able to goback into the main park to go on rides thatwe missed the day before. We stayed andwatched the parade with fireworks return-ing late and tired back at the hotel for somemuch needed sleep. The Thursday wasour return home day and the pupils werebrilliantly behaved on the coach as theyhad all been during the trip.

A great and memorable trip at the end of along year. Mr G Joyce

Y9 Visit Euro Disney

Mersea Island Visit

177 Year 7 boys travelled to Mersea Islandin Essex for a few days rest and relaxationafter a hard year’s work at school. Theboys took part in a wide range of activitiesfrom wall climbing and archery to zip wireand orienteering. The boys thoroughly en-joyed camping out in tents and luckily theweather was excellent. The trip was a

great success and Ibelieve the boystook away manyhappy memories. Iwould like to thankall the members ofstaff who accompa-nied the boys and

made the week such a success.Mr P Bolter

CROSS-CURRICULAR MURALSDuring activities week a selection of boysfrom Years 7, 8 & 9 joined the Art Depart-ment to create exciting murals for the cor-ridor walls in Science, Maths and Art.The students involved in the project creat-ed the designs; they transferred the de-signs onto the walls and painted themmixing their own colours of acrylic paint.

The Art murals are based on the Year 9project ‘Ab-Sport’.   The concept of theScience murals is based on DNA strandsand in Maths we used tessellated shapes.Students also got the chance to designand create their own t-shirts in a personaland interesting way.

A huge thanks to all the boys involved inthe project as the murals look great and allteachers from the respective departmentsare proud to have them brightening uptheir corridors.Well done! Miss Mills -Teacher of Art

Art:

During “Activities Week” students fromYears 8 and 9 took part in a simulateddigestion activity where they had to physi-cally breakdown food by using “teeth”(potato mashers) adding various enzymesand more mashing along the way. Nutri-ents were absorbed from the small intes-tine and the final stage involved releasingthe remaining waste into the “toilet”. Thisactivity had a high cringe factor and wassuitably hands-on and messy. The boystaking part were interested and engagedand all behaved extremely well.

The second of their activities was to testtheir ingenuity while they designed andbuilt a trebuchet with only limited resourc-es and within tight rules. These were test-ed in the playground with all groupscompeting against each other. A largerange of constructions were produced,most of which demonstrated greatresourcefulness but keeping within thecompetition rules!

Science Ingenuity

For Activities’ Week, I arranged Shake-speare workshops involving Year 8 andYear 9 pupils.

The Year 8 Shakespeare workshopsfocused on “Romeo and Juliet” andinvolved sword fighting, Shakespeare’slanguage, acting out the Capulet BallScene and some interesting work aroundthe Prologue.

The Year 9 Shakespeare workshopsfocused on “Macbeth” and involved pupilsacting out various scenes from the playand making props, culminating in somepolished performances at the end of theday.

Mrs A Elliott - Head of English

Shakespeare Experience

During activity week, 60 pupils took part ina Media Studies and Drama collaboration.Pupils were part of a Film Club that ex-plored the issue of teenagers and guncrime. They watched and studied shortfilms on this topic which included ‘Gravity’by Colin Hutton and the ‘History Boys’.They worked alongside young actors whoimprovised and acted from a script on thisissue.  The pupils then devised a short filmon this topic and pitched it to the actorswho selected the best films from thosepresented.

Mrs L Murphy

Media Studies Film Club

My son SamuelDarroch, mybrother NigelHerterich and I

ran a two day Martial Arts Course in schoolfor Years 8 and 9. It was a great success.

Mrs G McGill

MartialArts