To kick off National Science and Engineer-

ing week in March

Light Hall held an event to promote Science to

girls. There is a lack of girls going into science

and engineering jobs so to highlight the

types of careers availa-

ble, workshops were held by local industries

to demonstrate what they offer. The event

called, ‘Skirting Sci-

ence’ included demon-strations around sports

science, civil engineering, fuel cells, optics, chemical engineering, the life of a Clinical Nurse Specialist, supersonic cars, surgical instruments, the pharmaceutical industry and

gears in cars! Over 150 girls from 10 local secondary schools came to join in the event along

with local VIPs: Lorely Burt MP; Irene Chamberlain, Mayor of Solihull and her consort;

Mark Rogers, Chief Executive of Solihull Council; Jackie Ulliott, Chair of Governors; Ruth Longville, President of Soroptimist International (Midland Arden Region). The Keynote

Speaker was Professor Averill MacDonald, Professor of Science Communication from the University of Reading. Many of whom are see in the picture above.

The event was inspired by the Soroptimist International Club of Solihull & Dis-

trict and supported by the Head of Science, Mr Walsh. Workshops were provided by Arup, Fitness Excel, Severn Trent Water, National Grid, Open University, Project Blood-

hound, S3 Process, University of Birmingham, Surgins, TRW and Jaguar Land Rover. .

I N S I D E

T H I S I S S U E :

BIKEABILITY

STOCK MARKET

CHALLENGE

40 YEARS IN

SCHOOL

ART TRIP

TRIATHLON

CHALLENGE

WORK EXPERI-

ENCE

ECO CHALLENGE

LIGHT HALL NEWS A SPECIALIST MATHS AND COMPUTING COLLEGE

S P R I N G T E R M 2 0 1 2 I S S U E N O 2 0

Light Hall School

Hathaway Road

Shirley

Solihull

B90 2PZ

Tel: 0121 744 3835

www.lighthall.co.uk

Email: office

@lighthall.solihull.

sch.uk

SKIRTING SCIENCE

ROYAL OAK A Royal Oak tree from the Royal Es-

tate has been donated to school in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond

Jubilee. 6 million of these have been distributed to be planted around the

British Isles.. To mark the occasion

the Mayor of Solihull, Irene Chamber-lain and her Consort, agreed to plant

the sapling along with the Headteacher, Mr Scutt, Mrs Cole and

Head Boy, David Wood and Head Girl, Gracie Walton.

P A G E 2 I S S U E N O 2 0

BIKEABILITY

ART TRIP

DANCE SHOW

EDWARD’S 40 SCHOOL YEARS

Edward Johnson has worked at Light Hall School now for 40 years. Edward

has been a Caretaker’s Assistant and loyal employee of the school for all this time and all the children know him well.

In December Light Hall hosted another dance show.

The evening was attended by 200 people and was a great success. The show included performances from

the BTEC Dance students, Light Hall Dance club, Peter-brook Primary

School and

Woodlands Infant School.

Light Hall Sports Lead-

ers supported the event

through vari-

ous roles.

Students from Year 7 have had the opportunity to partici-

pate in the Bikeability programme and develop their cy-cling skills. All

students in-volved enjoyed

the day de-

spite the poor weather. This

was funded through the

Solihull Sports Partnership led

by Mr Barnes.

STOCK MARKET CHALLENGE Business Studies teacher, Mr Lowe ran a challenge to

give Year 9 students a chance to taste what it is like to work on the stock market! Software is used and

displayed on a screen which periodically shows news reels relating to stocks and shares. Students can then

decide during the day when to buy and sell their

shares at the mock bank. It all gets very exciting and lively as students enjoy the learning experience. On

the day students had the benefit of staff from HSBC and a local businessman to advise and support them!

In January Year 10 Art students visited Oxford, to gather Primary Resources by exam-

ining the architecture. They also visited the Graham Sutherland exhibition and the Ash-molean Museum. At the Ashmolean Museum students were impressed by the Pre-

Raphaelite paintings, particularly at how detailed and realistic they looked.

P A G E 3

In this Olympic and Paralympic year, the school will be organising a number of

activities for students leading up to London 2012. In addition staff will be com-peting in some challenging events including the London Marathon and The Half

Iron Man event. Mr Barr and Mr

Hall are both doing this triathlon event on 1 July at Trentham

Gardens in Stoke. They will swim 1.2 miles, cycle a gruelling

50 miles then run a half mara-thon of 13.1 miles. Their aim is

to raise over £1,500 for Get Kids

Going. This charity provides adapted wheelchairs to allow

disabled children to take part in sport. Each wheelchair costs

£3,000, so if you wish to donate

and support this good cause then contact either Mr Hall or Mr

Barr at school.

L I G H T H A L L N E W S

ADULT

LEARNING An extensive programme

of learning for adults con-

tinues at Light Hall. We have classes in Calligra-

phy, Stained Glass & Mo-saic, Spanish, French, Art,

Cake Decorating, Wine

Appreciation, Woodwork, Patchwork and Quilting.

and IT for pensioners. For further information con-

tact Mrs Watson, Commu-nity Development Manag-

er.

TEACHERS TAKE ON TRIATHLON

PARENT PORTAL Many of you will have heard of our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Frog at

school. From April 2012 we are pleased to launch our Parent Portal section of Frog. This will allow parents to access to a variety of information and resources

including: Parent Notices – brief notices keeping you informed on the latest goings on in

school

Recent News – a section for staff and students to share news and stories of events happening around the school

Letters – an electronic copy of all letters that are sent out to parents in the post and email

Calendars – quick and easy access to calendars and important dates Subjects – access to all your child’s online learning resources

Contact – a quick and easy way to contact the school with any questions

E-Safety – information for parents on keeping your children safe online.

WORK EXPERIENCE In March Year 10 students

went into the world of work for a week of work experience.

Students are pictured working at the Birmingham Cat Adop-

tion Centre based in Holly-

wood. During the week they helped clean and feed cats

waiting to find a good home. The centre is holding an East-

er Egg Hunt on 9th April—see further details on the website:

www.cats.org.uk

RECYCLE FOR LIFE We took possession of the

red wheelie bin in January

which is situated in the staf-froom. This is a simple and

effective way for staff to get rid of any bric-a-brac, clothes

etc., whilst making a dona-tion to the British Heart

Foundation. The items are

then recycled and sold in their shop in Solihull raising

valuable funds to fight heart disease. Remember to com-

plete a gift aid certificate in

with your donation so more of the money raised goes to

help the good cause!

SUMMER TERM 2012 Monday 23 April-

Wednesday 25 July

Half Term Monday 4 June- Friday 8 June

AUTUMN TERM

Wednesday 5 September—Wednesday 19

December

Half Term Monday 29 October— Friday 2 November

www.lighthall.co.uk

S P O R T S N E W S

2012 TERM DATES

Additional closure days

Thursday 5 April, Monday 7 May

Danny Fox has been nominated by British Cycling

as a talented athlete and has been granted a place on the Lloyds TSB local Heroes Scheme,

that helps support potential Olympic hopefuls. He is very excited about this and has to attend a

presentation day with the other candidates and a

day of workshops with Olympic athletes. This is to be based at the Olympic London village and in-

cludes access to the Olympic Stadiums.

Abi Stokes, in Y11 has been com-peting all over the country since

the age of 7 and is a rhythmic

gymnast at ‘Elena RGC’ and trains up to 5 times a week at her gym-

nastics club which is based in Oldbury. Abi is now in the process

of obtaining a Coaching qualifica-tion which will enable her to help

other gymnasts to achieve their

goals. She played a major part in helping her Club to win the British

Club Team Championships. Abi had a fantastic year at competitions,

winning titles at The National

Grades Finals, the Welsh Champi-onships, Rose Cup, and Bath Open

Championship. She then followed up her Club success with a top 6

finish at the British National Indi-vidual Apparatus Championships

that were held in Bradford in No-

vember.

BRITISH CLUB TEAM CHAMPION

PRIMARY SPORTS FESTIVAL In January, Light Hall invited children from 6 primary schools in

the area to participate in a football tournament. Over 120 students took part in the evening event supported by parents and teachers.

Light Hall sports leaders also gave their support by officiating and scoring. It was a huge success for the community of schools.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

In March students from years 7 and 8, who had been outstand-

ing in PE and shown a high level of commitment to extra-curricular clubs, were selected to see the Badminton Champion-

ships at the NIA.

CYCLING TALENT

SCHOOL GOES GREEN! An Eco Committee was set up in December to help raise aware-

ness of waste, recycling and saving energy. The committee is made up of staff, students, a governor and member of the com-

munity. In December staff and students were asked to switch on to switching off. In March students received assemblies on

waste and were encouraged to separate cans and plastic waste

at break times. Also we had 15 volunteers in Year 7 who be-came litter monitors for the week. Earlier in the year students in

Year 7, 8 and 9 were asked to design posters for their art home-work. The posters are to help get the important message over

effectively and will be used around school. The winning designs were completed by Jamie White in Year 7, Jack Broad in Year 8

and Megan Boddington in Year 9 pictured here.