TOWNLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL CHRISTMAS 2014 NEWSLETTER

TOWNLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL
CHRISTMAS 2014 NEWSLETTER
Dear Parents and Carers
As the first term draws to a close and we prepare for the Christmas holidays we can look back on a very successful first third of the academic year. Of course we were placed in the Top 100 schools nationally and appeared in the Parliamentary Review but there have been countless successes and achievements during the term. I have tried to group them below.
Giving
We raised money for Children in Need through the Sixth Form Fancy Dress day, a group of our students continued their support for Bexley Women’s Aid with a film show, which raised a considerable amount and once again we collected for the Greenwich Food bank. There have been many other charity drives during the term and our students continue to volunteer in the local community. We also collected for Children in Need when our choir sang carols outside Nat West in Bexleyheath and sang for the staff and students at Woodside Special School.
Competing
Whether it is indoor rowing, netball or the Bexley Borough Language Speaking Competition we have time and again shown our mettle. We ran school heats in The Poetry by Heart competition and the National Articulation Award for which we are taking part in regional finals and we took part in the Shakespeare for Schools festival and the Readathon. Aspiring
We have this year a record number of students attending interviews at Oxbridge, ten at the last count and that reflects the record number of applications. Well done to all who applied. Also to the students who have received unconditional offers from Russell Group universities. Our computing students visited Cambridge and we have further visits next year with other subject areas. Congratulations to all the students whose work was selected for the Saatchi Gallery. There was such a high standard it was difficult for them to select. 1
Assisting
Townley has been teeming with Primary school children this term. Not only the significant numbers here for the selection tests, for which we were congratulated on our warm and welcoming arrangements, but also the considerable outreach activities we have been running. Of particular note are the Science and Computing outreach afternoons on Wednesday and Friday. These have been extremely popular and involved a large number of Primaries. We will be extending our outreach further in the New Year so expect to see more “little people” around the school.
Remembering
We made a concerted effort this term top recognise Remembrance Day. We commissioned a Townley Flag and Union Flag for the school, held special assemblies and invited members of scouts, guides, cadets etc to come in uniform. It was inspiring to see how many students were involved in these organisations. We also commemorated two Bexley residents who died in the First World War and laid a wreath on the grave of one in Old Bexley village. I have left out a great deal. I didn’t get to mention the New York trip, the National Poetry Day or the Year 7 Stem day. I must however mention our Christmas celebrations. Christmas lunch was a great hit on Tuesday and even Santa appeared. Unfortunately I missed him but he was seen outside my office. The Christmas concert was fabulous and the Carol Concert on Thursday promises to be the same. We even produced, courtesy of Mr Douglas, our own Calendar which has been on sale and are squeezing in a Christmas Fete on Friday afternoon.
A great way to end a great term and an even better year.
Wishing you and your families a happy Christmas and a peaceful new year.
D. Deehan
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Details of how to contact me are provided below:
Email my PA, Mrs C Dooley, at:
[email protected]
Email through the website at:
[email protected]
Telephone: 020 8304 8311 and ask for my PA, Mrs C Dooley
Fax:
020 8298 0057
Post:
Townley Grammar School, Townley Road, Bexleyheath, Kent DA6 7AB
SALARY SACRIFICE SCHEME FOR SCHOOL UNIFORM
Please visit the link below for an explanation to view how you may join this petition aimed at helping parents make their payments for school uniform more affordable. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/65790
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ARTiculation Prize 2015
Townley School Heat Tuesday 18th November
After months of preparation, the Art Department was delighted to host the
School Heat of the Articulation Prize 2015 on Tuesday 18th November.
The Guest Adjudicator for this occasion was British Council Exhibition Coordinator and History of Art Teacher, Stephanie Farmer. Stephanie joined
Townley’s Head Teacher Mr Deehan and staff members Miss Rodgers (Head of
Art and ARTiculation Lead Teacher and Mentor) and Mrs Anderson (Assistant
Head Teacher and ARTiculation Mentor) to form the judging panel.
The three Townley ARTiculation finalists captivated an audience of Art students
and school staff with a diverse range of exceptional presentations about a
piece of art or architecture of their own choosing; Nicola Macdonald spoke
about ‘escape’ by the digital artist Adam Ferguson, Maria Da Silva about ‘The
Taj Mahal’ and India Ferguson spoke about ‘The Rotunda Chandelier’ by
sculptor Dale Chihuly.
After much deliberation by the panel of judges, First Place was awarded to
India for her talk on the Rotunda Chandelier.
Guest Adjudicator Stephanie said:
“I was really impressed by all three entrants in the Townley School Heat. Each
individual chose very different subject matters that were personal to them and
gave excellent presentations. It was very hard to choose just one person to go
through to the next stage of the competition as each presentation had merit,
but after a thorough adjudication period we were delighted to award India
First Place. I wish her all the best for the Regional Heat.”
India will now go on to represent Townley Grammar School in the ARTiculation
Prize 2015 Regional Heat at the Saatchi Gallery, London in January.
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ARTiculation Prize 2015
Townley School Heat 18th November 2014
ARTiculation Prize 2015 School Heat
Left to right: Head Teacher Mr Deehan, student finalists Nicola,
India and Maria with Guest Adjudicator Stephanie Farmer.
Guest Adjudicator Profile
Stephanie Farmer studied Fine Art at the University of Oxford (2006-9), where she
was awarded a First Class Honours Degree. She then went on to complete an MA
in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute in 2011. Stephanie has since worked as
an Art and History of Art teacher at St Paul’s Girls’ School in London and has
delivered a variety of art workshops at Eltham College. She currently works part
time at the British Council HQ, as the Exhibition Co-ordinator for their gallery space,
as well as teaching History of Art AS Level at Townley Grammar School. Stephanie
recently created an artwork with Chris Minchin for the exhibition ‘I See, I don’t See’
at Lewisham Art House (30 Aug - 7 Sept 2014).
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The Townley ARTiculation Prize Presentations
Left: Nicola’s ‘escape’ by Digital Artist Adam Ferguson
Left: India’s ‘Rotunda Chandelier’ by Sculptor Dale Chihuly
Right: Maria’s ‘The Taj Mahal’
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Alumni News
Former Townley Student Wins
Commonwealth Gold!
Former Townley student
Zoe Smith added a Commonwealth Gold
Medal to her impressive list of weightlifting wins this summer.
The rising sports star not only
took the Women’s 58kg title but
also set a new Commonwealth
Games’ record with a
phenomenal combined lift of
210kgs!
The athlete, who also won a
Bronze Medal back in April at the
European Weightlifting
Championships in Israel, is now
being dubbed as the future face
of British weightlifting.
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Well done Zoe!
From staff and students at Townley
Zoe Smith, Team GB Weightlifter, Commonwealth Gold Medalist and European Bronze Medalist
Zoe win’s the Gold Medal
Watch Zoe’s winning performance at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/commonwealth‐games/28504683
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This term has been a busy term for Duke of Edinburgh with the Annual Award Presentation Ceremony prep and Silver practice expedition. The Annual Award Presentation Ceremony for all of the Duke of Edinburgh Award participants in the Borough will take place in the New Year, Stephanie May from Bexley Youth Service will be in touch with all successful applicants nearer the time. Congratulations to all of the students who successfully completed the award. If you have still to get your Award submitted to the Borough for approval ensure that you do so before the beginning of January. This years’ Duke of Edinburgh Award has also got off to a flying start with 40 Year 10 pupils taking on the challenge of Bronze Award and another 60 completing their Silver Award and for the first time 19 Year 12 students completing Gold Award. Yet again the Award was over‐subscribed which unfortunately left some students disappointed at not receiving a place. Any Year 9 students considering applying for the Award this year whilst choosing their Options should be aware that the selection criteria includes reference to attendance, punctuality, behaviour, previous extra‐
curricular commitment and school reports so this should be taken into consideration in the year ahead. Good luck to all those students undertaking the challenge this year!
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The Silver practice expedition took place Thursday 9th October 2014 ‐ Saturday 11th
October 2014. Expedition group 1B will give you a little taster about their adventure. “We recently completed our practice Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award. As a whole, the expedition gave us all the opportunity to understand how to work well together as a group and gain an insight into navigational skills and exploring the outdoors. The weather proved to be an obstacle, in turn making the experience more challenging, however this allowed to develop teamwork and increase the sense of morale within the group. Despite this spirits were kept high as we thought rationally and practical thinking in order to succeed the expedition. The highlight of our Sliver DofE was no doubt, eating a hot meal after a cold and wet day walking. The experience overall was enjoyable, and despite its ups and downs it has equipped us with transferable skills and enjoyable memories for the future.”
1B consist of Yasmin, Amy, Francesca, Emily and Chloe. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all of the staff who have supported the Award over the past year, in particular to Miss Hossain, Ms Farag, Mrs Atkins, Mrs Maddison, Dr Rees, Mr Davidson, Mrs Perfect, Mr Quinn, Miss McCarthy, Mrs Urquhart, Mr Ting, Miss Clarke and Mrs Robinson. Not forgetting Mrs Bevington and Miss Heslip both of whom are unfortunately no longer at Townley. All of the members of staff above have given up a lot of their own time to allow our students to achieve such a prestigious award, and continue to do so over the coming expeditions this academic year. So I write this with huge thanks to all of them for without them none of the expeditions would be able to take place.
Miss L Butler, Duke of Edinburgh Award leader REMEMBRANCE DAY 2014
The Tower of London’s Poppy installation held 888,226 individual poppies, each one marking a British or Colonial military fatality during the First World War. Townley Grammar School displayed nearly 900 poppies around the school for four weeks during this period of commemoration, each one representing 1000 British or Colonial Military Fatalities. Poppies were on sale at the school with the proceeds contributed to the British Legion.
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Our fabulous Fully Booked Quiz Team: Rebecca, Sharon, Sohanah, Charlotte, Daisy and Chloe, took part in the Children’s Literature Quiz on the 26th November at Bexleyheath Library.
“The quiz was very exciting. We were given questions on seven different rounds. I think the most challenging round was the picture round because the clues weren’t that obvious, so we had to guess some. The easiest was the ‘food, glorious food’ round, because most of us had read the books, which the questions were on. Overall I think we did incredibly well, we came 5th, tried our best and had lots of fun.” Sohanah and Sharon
The Book Fayre and Book Art Workshop were held in school and raised XXXX.
On Friday the 12th of December, we decided to have a Non Uniform Day with the theme of the Christmas Jumper. Students paid £1, for the privilege of wearing their own clothes which might also incorporate a Christmas jumper and the school raised a total of £933.60 in support of ‘Save the Children’. 13
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The 14th November 2014 saw the return of one of the most widely anticipated Sixth Form events of the calendar year. No It wasn’t The Prom, or the last day of term, but Townley’s
Children in Need Dress‐up Day. Many had been waiting for the day to lead the dress‐up extravaganza for years, and when the time came to transform ourselves from young adults in black and white uniform to onesie‐wearing, face painted, cross dressing pioneers, I’m sure it is safe to say that we didn’t disappoint.
Each year, Townley 6th Formers are given the opportunity to come to school in costume for a small donation of £1 per person. All donations go towards the BBC’s UK charity, Children in Need, to help disabled children and disadvantaged young people in Britain.
The day started off with a number of surprises, including an outstanding performance from none other than the legendary Bob Marley (also known as Zeenat Salihu without the beard and microphone) and his back‐up dancers: Bumni Gabriel, Jasmine Afreh and Dupe Olawande. The reggae beat geared up the audience for the day ahead, which was filled with laughter and awe at the great costumes. In particular, when Joe McClynn strutted in and stood next to Mr Deehan, the hall was filled with gasps and cheers as he could’ve been Mr Deehan’s long‐lost twin; his pristine suit, silver hair and glasses were almost identical. Oyin
Adeshina really took to her role as an over‐sized baby, complete with a dummy and bonnet. Townley was also invaded by a group called “The Roadmen” consisting of Gina Onyekwere, Ochuko Oyeye, Linda Adesina, Jasmine Afreh, Ela Lutaj, Cindy Ezechukwu and Nerys Asala, who ditched the lipgloss, pencil skirts and flowing hair for sagging trousers, hoodies and beanies. With thanks to all your efforts through donations or dressing up, we were able to fundraise an amazing total of £500 in only one day for Children in Need 2014. Good luck to those taking part in Children in Need 2015, you have very stiff competition to beat!
Dupe Olawande and Jasmine Afreh
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On Tuesday 2nd December a group of sixteen Year 5 girls from Gravel Hill Primary School visited Townley Grammar School for a French Christmas Workshop. The girls learnt about French Christmas traditions, starting with a role‐play of La Fête du Saint Nicolas on the 6th December. French children leave their slippers outside their bedroom doors before they go to bed on the 5th December. If they have been good then Saint Nicolas will come in the night and fill their slippers with sweets and fruit. However, if they have been bad then Saint Nicolas’ assistant Le Père Fouettard will pay them a visit and leave potatoes or onions in their slippers. The girls found out about La Fête de Lumières in Lyon, where the Lyonnais leave candles in their windows so that the Virgin Mary can find her way through the streets. We talked about the tradition of ‘Le Pain Calendeau’, a special loaf which is given to the poor at Christmas time. Next came ‘Le Réveillon’ or Christmas Eve, where the French go to midnight mass and eat a huge meal to keep them awake late at night. The girls compared typically French and English Christmas meals. We learnt about ‘La Saint Sylvestre’ (New Year’s Eve), named after the Saint’s day which falls on 31st December, and the tradition of children receiving presents both on their birthday and on their Saint’s day. The girls had the opportunity to sample ‘La Galette des Rois’, a frangipane cake traditionally eaten on the 6th January, the Epiphany, in France. This commemorates the visit which the three kings made to Jesus. Inside the cake is a ‘fève’, originally a bean but more often nowadays a ceramic figure. The youngest member of the family cuts up the cake and distributes it. Whoever finds the ‘fève’ become King or Queen for the day and may choose their King/Queen. After the presentation about Christmas the children wrote a letter to ‘Le Père Noël’ (Father Christmas) and then learnt a Christmas song (Vive le Vent). In France it is traditional to send New Year cards rather than Christmas cards so the Year 5 girls made New Year cards. We listened to a story about Father Christmas’s Christmas to show the girls that even when there are words which they do not know they can still understand the gist of a story and can guess new words.
In order to revise the vocabulary that we learned during the day, the girls made their own French advent calendars by matching Christmas vocabulary and pictures. Every day of the advent period they can open their calendar doors and remind themselves of what they learnt at our Christmas workshop.
Thank you to everyone who supported the French Christmas Workshop, especially Mrs Bradshaw‐Smith, Miss Stapleton, Mrs Apps and the Year 12 French students who helped the Year 5 girls.
Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année!
Mrs Williams
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Computing Department News
Dutch Film Crew Visit Townley Wednesday 5th November
A Dutch film crew came to the Computing Department at Townley last week to produce footage for a forthcoming documentary titled ‘Backlight’. ‘Backlight’, a popular show in the Netherlands, is running a series on ‘The World of Tomorrow’ and as part of it they are analysing the Computing curriculum in the UK, compared to the current Dutch system.
The Director, Hans Busstra and the other members of the production company were based in the Townley Computing Department for the day; they spent the morning filming a session that comprised of Townley Computing staff and students and teachers from Upton Primary School, who were visiting as part of the Digital Schoolhouse Programme that Townley is a part of. The Digital Schoolhouse London Programme is an initiative that aims to develop a new generation of Computing teachers to teach the new Computing curriculum. This was followed in the afternoon by the filming of day to day Computing lessons at the school with Computing teacher Mr Poole and Year 12 students.
Mrs Comer, Computing Teacher and Digital Schoolhouse Co‐ordinator for Townley said: "I am delighted that Townley has been selected as a feature school for this Dutch documentary. We have an outstanding Computing Department at Townley with dedicated and passionate staff that extends beyond teaching our own students into the wider school community. I'm absolutely thrilled that the good work of the Department and our students is to be recognised in this way."
We’ll bring you more details about the programme once available, but in the meantime further details about ‘Backlight’ can be found at: http://tegenlicht.vpro.nl/backlight.html
Townley Grammar School:
Digital Schoolhouse:
"Recognised locally, nationally and internationally for excellence in teaching ICT and Computer Science"
Townley is a Lead School in the Network of
Excellence for Computer Science; offering
support to primary teachers through our
Digital School House, and to computing
colleagues through our Computing at
School Hub activities. Townley offers a wide range of enrichment opportunities for both Computing and Mathematics through our STEM (Science Technology, Engineering & Maths) program.
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On Friday 26th September Year 12 and 13 Product Design students went to London and visited the Design Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, in order to enhance our research on existing products for our coursework, investigate design history, history of materials and view existing iconic products. Whilst there we observed a variety of products and ideas that multiple designers had come up with, in which broadened our horizons. At the Design museum we saw how different materials can be used to construct products, we then got the chance to construct a house using recycled cardboard discs. The discs allowed you to slot the cardboard together in different ways in order to create a stable structure. As shown in the images the house didn’t go as well as we had hoped but we were still proud of our accomplishment after it had collapsed.
We crossed over Tower Bridge and managed a stop off at the Tower of London.
We also visited the V&A museum which was incredibly intriguing as it included a wide variety of resources for all of us to use in our coursework projects. This widened our ideas and enabled us to create a variety of ideas for our final products. The trip was very educational and improved our understanding for both our coursework
and theory greatly. Year 12 students sat on the steps outside of the front of the
Victoria and Albert Museum
Written by Francesca Spinks and Olivia Reed 12.4
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Year 10
Textiles Achievements
Following on from Alanah Wiesbauer and Semira Badesha’s success at the ICHF fashion design competition last year (where both pupils were shortlisted as top ten finalists), we decided to enter all previous Year 10 Textile pupils again last April. The design brief for this year’s competition was to design an outfit inspired by Paris. As a Department we were absolutely delighted with the news that Townley had been awarded with two finalists and four highly recommended designers. The two finalists were:
Stephanie Dixon
Emma O’Connor
The highly recommended pupils were: Britney Pearce
Emily Khor
Anna Wrigley
Ronni Griffiths
As finalists Stephanie and Emma had the challenge of constructing their design ideas into garments in the small time frame of only five weeks. They then travelled to the ExCel Centre, London on Friday 4th April and watched as their garments were modelled on the catwalk and judged by the competitors from the Great British Sewing Bee.
Here are Stephanie and Emma with the models who wore the garments they had made. We were all very anxious waiting for the winner and runners up to be declared. We were absolutely delighted when it was announced that Stephanie had been ranked in 2nd place. Stephanie was presented with a bag full of Textile goodies and a £50 voucher.
Both Stephanie and Emma (with help from their friends/family & teachers) worked with a tremendous amount of effort to construct their garments. As a Department we are immensely proud of the finalists, those that were highly recommended and all pupils for their fabulous design work. It is safe to say that Townley dominated the design wall at the ExCel
Centre. Well done! 20
Italian Department Day Trip to University of Warwick
On Tuesday 18th November, twelve Italian students went with Mrs Bottaioli for a Taster Day in the School of Languages at University of Warwick. After a very early start, we set off on a three‐hour journey to Warwick, all excited for the day ahead. Our first activity of the day entailed a tour around the large campus, visiting the library, the arts centre, student union, as well as various subject buildings. Following the tour, an introduction to the day took place with information given to us from professors as well as first hand experiences from Language students studying at Warwick. This gave us an insight to studying languages at degree level. After the introduction, we went to our first taster lesson, which focused on the French Revolution and was led by Dr Katherine Astbury. During this session, we briefly learnt about the background of the revolution which allowed us to interpret and analyse various prints of satirical cartoons created during the time. The symbolism within these prints was identified and shared amongst the group. This taster was particularly useful as it highlighted how much the history and culture of a particular country are emphasised when learning a language at degree level. After lunch, we were taken to our second session, either about Mafia and Cinema in Italy or a Spanish language taster. I chose the Mafia and Cinema in Italy session, which was led by Dr Jennifer Burns. During this taster, we thought and learnt about the mafia and how it is represented in media such as films. We also considered viewpoints on the illustration of the mafia in Italian films as well as Hollywood movies which was interesting. To provide an example of the mafia in an Italian film, we viewed a short clip of ‘I Cento Passi’, a film that A‐
level students also study at Townley.
For our final session of the day our group attended either Intermediate Italian language or a Russian language taster. I chose the Russian session, which I particularly enjoyed. Learning the basics such as the alphabet as well as simple phrases about your name helped us to experience the Russian language. This lesson was particularly enjoyed by most students, who were intrigued by the language. To conclude the day, before setting off on our long journey back, we all gathered together along with the other schools to share our experiences and opinions of the day. The value of the experience for me was in the opportunity to see and sample the facilities of a renowned campus university as well as what I learned in the various classes. This trip provided us with a fabulous opportunity that we all learnt from and enjoyed very much.
By Arunima Lall 10 Hera
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BEXLEY ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS
TOWNLEY GRAMMAR JOINT 1ST PLACE WITH
ST COLUMBA’S CATHOLIC BOYS’ SCHOOL
Following on from World War One centenary commemoration assemblies by Poppy Kemp, Elaine Man, and Ella Mckweon, Townley Grammar School held a
re‐enactment of the famous World War One football match on Christmas Day 1914 at lunchtime on Wednesday 17th December. A toss of a coin decided which Sixth Form boys would join the British and German teams. The boys involved were Declan, George, Ayo, Jake, Dan, Ernest, Joe Mclynn, Bradon and Kiera and the German side won 5 against 3. The event was well attended with a performance from the Year 7 cheerleaders too. The total raised was £67.85 and it will be donated to the charity War Child. 22
TRIP TO THE LAKE DISTRICT
The Lake District fieldtrip was truly a brilliant experience that many of us enjoyed despite our reserve before going. It was a long journey, but with the help of the Lion King and The Hunger Games Catching Fire we made it to Blencathra Field Centre. On the first day, we visited Keswick‐ a beautiful and secluded town, in order to land use map the area and calculate flood risk. This involved walking around the town determining land use value, the flood defences and the severity and likelihood of flooding in the area as part of the Extreme Weather topic of AS Level Geography. Much to our surprise, when wandering around town mapping flood defences, we came across a full scale Tardis and Dalek! The hardest part of the day was doing questionnaires in the pouring rain; pushing us to be confident and engaging to locals in the area, but from this we learnt the impact of flooding and how it affected those in the area. On Sunday we were fortunate enough to see the vast Thirlmere Lake and for the first time, we were able to comprehend the scale of these incredible expanses of water that make the Lake District. After this, it was a short trek to Lowe Bridge End Farm where we talked to Graham, the farmer. This was an insightful visit where we asked Graham questions about the impacts of flooding and conducted an infiltration study, showing us Keswick had experienced a lot of rainfall ‐
we had only just started to appreciate just how much it rains in the Lake District. To compensate, Blencathra Field Studies Centre provided a vast array of tea and cake. On the final day (and arguably the best) we investigated Grasmere, the hometown of William Wordsworth. Here, we talked with the locals about their perception of the village and compared prices with London and much to our surprise found that afternoon tea is cheaper in London. The trip would not have been complete without trying some famous Grasmere gingerbread ‐ opinions varied but most agreed that it was incredible. To end the day we visited the tiny village of Threlkeld to investigate whether the area needed rebranding. Overall, the trip was an eye‐opening experience that we will all remember as a rewarding and enriching five days. We were able to fully understand the social, economic and environmental factors of both extreme weather and rebranding in the Lake District and we hope that with this valuable information, we will all be successful in our exams in May. Thank you Miss Totty and Mrs Bannister for organising and taking us on this brilliant trip.
Emma Rogers and Rebecca Harvey
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Leadership Awareness Evening
Monday 1st December 2014
Townley Grammar School hosted its first ever Leadership Awareness Evening on Monday 1st
December.
Over fifty guests joined Year 8 & 9 students and school staff for an informative event that gave an insight into the leadership programmes and opportunities offered to students at Townley.
The evening began with a welcome speech by the school’s Head Teacher, Mr Deehan, who introduced the subject of student leadership programmes and the importance of developing leadership skills in today’s young people. This was followed by a presentation from the night’s guest speakers ‐ educational professionals Gloria Dada and Katrina Estien. Gloria and Katrina are joint Co‐Founders of the Diverse Leaders Network, an organisation who work in partnership with schools, universities and businesses to ensure every child has access to the knowledge, skills and networks needed to reach their full potential. Gloria and Katrina, who have much experience in delivering leadership and careers awareness programmes to schools across the country, spoke about the aims and objectives of the Diverse Leaders Network and gave parents and carers details of a new project they will shortly be running at Townley – The Tomorrow’s Leaders Programme. Guests were also able to see video presentations from current Townley students talking about their experiences on the Townley Leadership Programme, a dedicated and progressive leadership course for the school’s Sixth Form students.
The evening wrapped up with a networking session, during which attendees had the opportunity to talk to Gloria, Katrina and school staff about the forthcoming programmes being offered at Townley during 2015. Diverse Leaders Network is a social enterprise that exists to increase diversity in leadership and promote fair access to the professions
More information about the Diverse Leaders Network
can be found at:
www.diverseleadersnetwork.org.uk
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FOOD BANK
Townley Grammar School collected 450kg of food this year and this was more than last year by 100kg. A huge thank you for all you did and all you collected. As you may have heard recently, poverty in Britain is in the news again so your contribution was fantastic. We will be receiving a letter from them soon. Please remember also that the supermarkets have a trolley all the time for any food bank contributions and they add a third to the number of items so that they do not receive any profit from the donation. Please especially remember them this Christmas as they will be VERY busy.
Woodside Christmas Concert ‐ At All Saints Belvedere –
The Townley Chamber Choir Sang at their Christmas Concert with Woodside Sports College
Paper Art Event in the Library December 2014 with Alexx Jordan , Illustrator, Printmaker and Paper Artist
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The winners of the YPI 2014, Gloria Adebayo, Emily Howard, Jessica McMahon, Chloe Mc Nully, Bobbie Notcutt and Georgia Pettman of 10 Hestia ( pictured above with two representatives from Bexley Women’s Aid) won £3,000 for the charity in June 2014 . Since that time the students have established a strong link with the charity and were invited to perform at Bexley Women’s Aid Annual General Meeting on the 19th November. After this event, the students decided to raise money to purchase items off the Charity’s Wish List. Following assemblies to the entire school on the work of Bexley Women’s Aid, students were invited to a viewing of ELF over two lunchtimes on Thursday the 11th and Friday the 12th December. There were popcorn and cakes available and the total raised was £184.64. Emily Howard was able to purchase four duvets sets.
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On Tuesday 9th December, the Textiles, Dance and Art Departments attended the Clothes Show Live 2014 at the NEC in Birmingham.
After a very long four hour journey, we finally arrived! We began by browsing the beautiful boutiques, purchasing goody bags from a variety of designer brands and meeting celebrities including Amy Childs, Ollie & Andy from MIC, Ricky & Jess from TOWIE and the YouTuber Mazzi
Maz. Some of us even got glittery lips, which became rather annoying very quickly! The time then arrived for the highlight of the day – The Alcatel One Touch Fashion Show, hosted by Jamie Laing from Made in Chelsea, with a special guest performance by Elyar Fox. The fashion show had a theme of New York City! The show took us on a journey through the seasonal fashion changes in NYC featuring winter wear, beach wear, bridal wear, work wear and studio 51 disco wear.
We were lucky enough to have front row seats, so many pupils had the great pleasure of ‘high fiving’ the models and dancers as they ran past. The garments were spectacular but the dancing was something else, featuring many dance styles including hip hop and contemporary. We left feeling inspired and shopped out! We are all looking forward to the Townley Fashion Show later in the year, we hope you are too.
10X Textiles 28
Economics, Target 2.0 hits the mark
On Friday 28th November myself and three other students from the Upper Sixth along with Mr Lines went to Central London to compete in a regional heat Bank of England’s Target 2.0 competition against six other schools and colleges in teams of four. The competition involved creating a fifteen minute presentation which summarised what had been happening in different areas of the UK economy recently, and using the research to come to a decision about whether the Bank of England’s base interest rate and asset purchases should be changed or kept at the same level. Each presentation was judged by three members of the Bank of England, and after each one, the team was questioned on what they had spoken about ten minutes.
Our team, which comprised of myself, Amy Hau, Sharon Malhi and Indiana Assirati (the four who attended the event) as well as Ela Lutaj and Justas Zabotka, started preparing for the competition in September of this year, each examining a different section of the economy before working together to form a final presentation and making a final decision. The preparation helped us to look in depth at principles we had studied as part of our A‐level course using complex and at times contradictory data, and the responses to questions helped us to apply our knowledge. It also helped our university applications
We all enjoyed the experience and it definitely taught us a lot about wider areas of our subject. Juliet Evans 13.1
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The Library
This term has seen a great number of students reading and visiting the Library (3,345 books issued this term) and we have put many great titles into the hands of Townley students through their borrowing from the Library, gifts from Townley and providing Townley the opportunity to buy books for their family, friends and themselves.
Gift Books
Each year, Townley gifts a book for each new Year 7 and this year included these titles:
The most popular book was Geek Girl with 100 given out making it the most read for our Year 7.
Student comment:
Fully Booked Quiz
Our fabulous Fully Booked Quiz Team: Rebecca, Sharon, Sohanah, Charlotte, Daisy and Chloe, took part in the children’s literature quiz on the 26th November at Bexleyheath Library. “The quiz was very exciting. We were given questions on seven different rounds. I think the most challenging round was the picture round because the clues weren’t that obvious, so we had to guess some. The easiest was the ‘food, glorious food’ round, because most of us had read the books, which the questions were on. Overall I think we did incredibly well, we came 5th, tried our best and had lots of fun.” Sohanah and Sharon
Scholastic Book Fair
We held a book fair over 5th– 11th December run by Harleen Jassal and Ruth Collard‐Stayte and we are pleased to say that it was a great success. Scholastic supplied many books by authors such as James Dashner to Cathy Hopkins, as well as stationery and posters. Popular titles included The Impossible Knife of Memory, The Hunger Games series and The Maze Runner series. A total of £756 was spent and we can now order £378 worth of free books for the school which will be beneficial for all students.
I thought it was creative and the stationery was well ranged and of good quality.’ Shaumiyah 8.Aph.
‘There was a variety of good books and posters were of good quality and very cheap. It was nice to go there and look around.’ Marsha
Lastly, reading is for life, not just for Christmas, and we wish you a happy booky New Year.
Mrs Fernandez and Mrs Daniels
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Alumni News
Gillian Saker attends Prize Giving
Monday the 15th of December was Certificate and Prize‐giving Evening for the Lower Sixth. Parents attended the presentation of their daughters with their GCSE certificates and prizes were awarded to students with exceptional performance. Our guest speaker was Gillian Saker who attended Townley Grammar between 2002 and 2009. Gillian gained four ‘A’ grades at A2 and went on to study for a BA Hons in Acting at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. Now Gillian is a professional actress who has had played lead roles in the ‘Misfits’ and ‘Ripper Stree’t. Her address inspired students, parents and staff especially her emphasis on the importance of perseverance. 31
KENT NETBALL NEW U12 ACADEMY
England Netball has a Performance Pathway, the aim of which is to develop athletes with the attributes to attain excellence. The programmes within the pathway are focused on developing athletes to reach their potential and provide performance‐enhancing training for individuals. As part of the Performance Pathway, Kent Netball runs Academies for the U14 and U16 age groups. From 2014 they have extended the programme to include a new U12 Academy for Year 7 netball players. This Academy will sit just below the Satellite and County Academies and will be the first stage of Kent Netball’s Academy Programme.
The school was able to nominate two players to attend trials for this squad. The trials took place on Sunday 9th November 2014 at Rainham School for Girls. Amy Claibourne‐Dixon and Alice Pavlou from 7 Hera were nominated because they had demonstrated good fundamental skills and have the potential to improve. On the day there were over 120 other students and all very nervous. After a long warm up and some skill practices all the players were separated into teams. The rest of the day the teams competed against each other and were observed by a series of different coaches and selection panel. At the end of the afternoon the players were congratulated for their effort and informed they would be contacted via e‐mail if selected.
I am delighted to announce that both Alice and Amy were selected for this Academy and the PE Department would like to congratulate them on this achievement. WELL DONE and good Luck with this new scheme.
Mrs Linda Blazeby
Year 11 Learning Manager
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Netball Match Report
Year 8:
Townley Grammar v Bexley Grammar
6 – 0 WIN!!!
Player of the Match:
Ebun Adebiyi
Year 9:
Townley Grammar v Bexley Grammar 6 – 4 WIN!!!
Player of the Match:
Carlene Cole
Year 10:
Townley Grammar v Bexley Grammar
5 – 10
Player of the Match:
Eni Segun
Year 11:
Townley Grammar v Bexley Grammar
6 – 6
Player of the Match:
Kiara Laker
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PE NEWS
Year 7 Inter House Netball Tournament
Tues 7th & Wed 8th October
The first Year 7 Inter House Netball Tournament of 2014 ‐ 15 took place last week and
saw netball players from all seven Townley House Groups taking part and competing
for the title of overall winner!
The event took place over the Tuesday and Wednesday and there were many exciting
matches played between the opposing House Groups.
Sports Leaders from Year 11 were assigned to the different House Groups and did a
fantastic job of looking after the teams throughout the two days and helping the
event run smoothly.
Year 11 Learning Manager and PE Teacher Mrs Blazeby said:
“I would like to congratulate every single Year 7 student who took part in this
tournament – they were all so enthusiastic and there’s definitely some up and
coming netball players out there! I’d also like to say thank you to the Sports Leaders
for their help during a very busy tournament and say well done to the overall
winners.”
Netball Tournament Results
1st Place:
Persephone
2nd Place:
Demeter
3rd Place:
Hestia
Sports Leaders are now in the process of delivering certificates and nominating Player
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of the Tournament titles – more news next week!!!!
Cricket News
Townley Cricket Team beat an experienced Bexley District Team!!
by John Daniels, Townley Cricket Coach
There has been a lot of cricket activity at Townley
this autumn with record amounts of pupils
attending the after school Cricket Club and other
cricket initiatives being discussed.
The school opened their programme of matches on
Thursday 9th October with a visit from an
experienced Bexley District Representative Team.
A good performance by the schools’ bowling attack
reduced the visitors to 230‐7; the school, batting
second, had to be aware that a cautious approach
needed to be applied and a disciplined batting
performance enabled the school to reach 267 for 6
‐ enabling the school to achieve a notable 37 run
victory!
Representing Townley were:
Arunima Lall (Joint Captain), Izzy Regan (Joint Captain), Anna Breare, Emily Davies,
Emily Evans, Riess Fernandes, Katie Tomlinson, Evie Townrow, with Kiki Ly playing for the district and Shirley Mason filling in as a substitute for a latecomer for the district.
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Bexley Basketball Competition
Townley placed 2nd overall!
On Wednesday 1st October Townley Grammar School hosted a
Bexley Basketball Competition between five local schools –
Townley, Erith, Blackfen, St Catherine’s and Bexley Business
Academy.
The Townley Team played well and were placed 2nd overall, having
lost only one game by only one point to Erith, who became the
overall winners.
Townley Basketball Team Players
Townley were represented by:
Michelle Ndukwe
Temi Akintoye
Taiwo Eyiowuawi
Franny Sho‐Silva
Blessing Olusegun
Elizabeth Akinbodunshe
Liz – Marilyn
Bianca Azimi
Diamond Offorji
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PE NEWS
Year 7 Inter School Netball Tournament
Tuesday 18th November Year 7 had their first inter School Netball match on Tuesday against local school St Catherine’s.
There were two teams representing Townley who both performed exceptionally well!
Match Results:
Team 1 Townley Grammar School v St Catherine’s 14 ‐ 0 WIN !!!
Player of the Match: Aarti Jandhu
Team 2
Townley Grammar School v St Catherine’s 9 ‐ 0 WIN !!!
Player of the Match: Ingrid Ghosh
An excellent start!
Year 8 Results
Townley Grammar School v St Catherine’s 6 ‐ 0 WIN !!!
Player of the Match: Evie Townrow
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Bexley Inter‐schools Golf Tournament
November 2014
Congratulations to Charlotte Finn in Year 9 who has stormed to victory in the
Bexley Inter‐schools Golf Tournament.
She was the only student from Townley and was up against pupils from
Hurstmere, Chis & Sid, Bexleyheath Academy, Beths, Harris Academy, Erith and
Cleeve Park.
There were only 3 girls playing and 17 boys all from Year 7 to Year 11 and
Charlotte managed to beat them all with a winning round of 52 ‐ 23 lower than
the next best girl!
Massive congratulations to Charlotte for her outstanding performance on behalf
of the whole PE Department.
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PE NEWS
Bexley Borough Netball Tournament
Team Townley Win 2nd Place!!
Congratulations to the Year 9 Netball team who clinched 2nd Place in the
Bexley Borough Netball Tournament on Wednesday 24th September.
Twelve teams from across the borough participated and the Townley
netballers won all their games to reach the final, where they met Bexley
Grammar.
The team played extremely well, but were beaten 4 – 3 . However, they
were delighted to still come out of the tournament with the title of 2nd
Place overall in Bexley, with each of them receiving a runner up medal!
Well done girls!!!
Players of the Tournament:
Toyosi Ugun
Anna Pavlou
Deliah Reece
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Bexley Borough Netball Tournament
Team Townley Match Report
Year 9 Netball Team
Anna Breare
Nabila Mansour
Carlene Cole
Anna Pavlou
Toyosi Ugun
Rosie Hepworth
Deliah Reece
Molly Stebbing
Hannah Macdonald
Amadeep Mann
Individual Match Results:
Townley v Blackheath 6 – 4 WIN!!!
Townley v Trinity 5 ‐4 WIN!!!
Townley V Welling 6 – 0 WIN!!!
Townley v HACA 8 – 0 WIN!!!
Townley v Cleeve Park 11 – 0 WIN!!!
Final:
Townley Grammar v Bexley Grammar 3 – 4 40
Bexley School’s Cross Country Championships 23rd October 2014
This year’s Bexley Cross Country Championships were held at Hall Place,
Bourne Road on Thursday 23rd October. Teams were made up of six runners
and a total of twenty pupils per age group were allowed to enter.
Year 7 Competition
Townley entered fifteen athletes in the Year 7 competition and all did
extremely well.
Individual Results
Well done to the following students received a Top 10 placing:
Anna Blincoe – 1st
Suki Ly – 2nd
Caitlin Gray – 3rd
Angel Gediz – 6th
Taisha Clare – 8th
Madeline Murray – 9th
And congratulations to the following students who also did exceptionally well:
Foutina Cieslik
Nova Bish
Aarti Jandu
Temi Fadimu
Kay Owolabi
Stephanie Damoah
Sira Macclean
Tia King Rosie Delap
Overall Team Results:
Townley achieved 1st & 2nd Place!!!
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Year 8 & 9 Junior Competition
Well done to the following Year 8 & 9 Townley athletes who competed in the
Junior Competition:
Madeleine Follis
Oluwaseun Folorunsho
Neethusa Navaneethan
Megan Baffoe
Tiffany Fapetu
Cindy Iwu
Kitty Weekes
Danielle Bakare
Katie Bennett
Katy Machova
Rosie Hepworth
Diana Ibn‐Ibrahim
Joy Bakundukize
And the overall team results:
Townley again achieved 1st Place!
Year 10 & 11 Intermediate Event
Finally, in the Year 10 & 11 Intermediate Event, congratulations go to the
following two students for their effort and determination:
Tabbi Harvey‐Crowe
Taiwo Eyiowuawi
And the PE Department would like to say well done to the following student who
won 1st Place in that age groups competition :
Kelsey Fuss Year 11 Learning Manager and PE Teacher Mrs Blazeby said:
“This was an overall excellent day for the Townley Cross Country Teams and I’d
like to congratulate all of the students who took part in this competition. There
were some fantastic results ‐ both individually and in the team placings and it
was great to see so many friends and family cheering on the Townley runners. I’d
like to also take this opportunity to thank Miss Dooley for her assistance on the
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day.”
Bexley School’s Cross Country Championships
23rd October 2014
Overall Team Results:
Year 7 Competition:
Townley Grammar School
1st & 2nd Place
Year 8 & 9 Junior Competition:
Townley Grammar School
1st Place
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STUDENT SERVICES
At this time of year particularly, there are a lot of viruses, coughs and colds etc., please do not send your daughter/son to school if they are unwell, particularly if they have something contagious. This will help us control cross contamination. Please remind your daughter/son that Student Services will make the judgement if they are too unwell to stay in school, encourage them to report to one of the team before they contact home. If you have a new contact number, please inform us, if your daughter/son needs to go to hospital we will need to contact you quickly. A third contact besides parents is equally important. If you do not have a further contact on record, please supply us with a name and relationship to the child together with a contact number.
Many thanks – Mrs Herridge – Student Services Manager.
WITH BEST WISHES FOR CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR FROM ALL THE STAFF AT TOWNLEY GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Spring Term starts:
6th January 2015
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