We can’t believe the first half term of the year is over already, but it has

definitely been a busy time and we hope you enjoy reading all about it.

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4

Newsletter

The Blandford School Art Exhibition

On 29th and 30th January all our KS4 & KS5 students had a final piece of coursework on display in the Drama Studio and Art rooms. The whole school community, including parents‘ and Governors then voted for their favourite piece of art work. The winner in the KS4 category was Simran Ranamagar with her father‘s

portrait. 2nd prize went to Charlie Pike for his skull inspired piece and 3rd prize to Lewis MacKenzie. Evie Opalka came 4th with reflections in bottles. The KS5

winners were 1st prize Adam Gonthier, 2nd place Adam Sykes, 3rd place to Becky Tun Pe and 4th place went to Charlotte Frazer

Dates for your

Diary

Thursday 6th March

Y8 Parents‘ Evening

5pm - 7.30pm

in The Hall

Thursday 20th March

6th Form Parents‘

Evening

5pm—7.30pm

in The Hall

GCSE Performing Arts Students Tackle

Theatre in Education

Students from Milldown and Spetisbury Primary Schools visited The Blandford School on 16

th

and 17th January for a

morning of educational fun. As part of the GCSE Performing Arts specification, year 10 students devised Theatre in Education pieces using the stimulus text ‗Junk Girl‘ by Tim Burton. With sensitivity, they skilfully used Physical Theatre and Puppetry to address issues such as bullying and discrimination, relating their performances to our School Charter. In the role of Animators, the year 10 Performing Arts students then led the youngsters through workshops in object manipulation and special effects make-up. The primary students excitedly worked together to create ‗Cuppets‘ (the manipulation of cups to construct puppets) and were taught how to apply make-up techniques to imitate mould. There was a real buzz about the place all morning and at the end of the workshop, the Primary School teachers congratulated the year 10 GCSE Performing Arts

students on their positive educational impact and the overall success of the morning. Through hard work and dedication, the students of The Blandford School have done us proud!

Youth Parliament

Elections

On Thursday 6th February The Blandford

School took part in a county-wide election to

vote for young people to represent them in

the UK Youth parliament (UKYP). Although

we had no one from The Blandford School

standing as a candidate, the elected

member will represent views across their constituency. Once elected

MYPs organise events and projects, run campaigns and influence

decision makers on the issues which matter most to young people.

All Members of Youth Parliament (MYPs) meet once a year at the

UK Youth Parliament Annual Sitting. The ballot was held in normal

conditions and voting slips were collected in a secure box. The voters

watched a DVD of the candidates from across Dorset and learnt

about their manifestos to enable them to decide who they wanted to

vote for. Steve Harrow, teacher, said: ―The youth parliament is a

great way for young people to learn about voting and the democratic

process. We are a Rights Respecting School

and this is all about making sure that our

children and young

people know and

understand their

rights as global

citizens and respect

the rights of others.‖ Sixth Form students Rachael Fleming and

Sian O’Brien

Blandford School Network Talent Show

On Friday 7th February The Blandford School hosted the third Blandford

Schools‘ Network Talent Show. It was such a special event, and wonderful

to see some of the talent that is present in our feeder primary schools. The

show was judged by our own Headteacher Mrs Sally Wilson, along with Mr

Graham Haigh and Mr Brian Winkle, who had the very difficult task of

picking a winner. The compères for the afternoon were TBS students

Thomas Henley and Francesca Yeatman who did a fantastic job and fellow

student Jonathan Cox helped behind the scenes to make sure everything

ran smoothly on the day. Among all the amazing acts, we had a magic

show performed by Leon Somerville and Tristan Day from Spetisbury

Primary, Rowan Geilern from Milldown Primary School who

treated us all to his stand up Comedy routine and Molly Carter from Blandford St Mary

Primary School wowed the audience with her beautiful ballet performance.

Once all the Primary School acts had performed, and while the judges were

considering their decision, the audience were entertained by performances by some of

The Blandford Schools own home grown talent, including Sam Greenwood and

Charlotte Legg on the piano and singers Emma Wright and Freya Inglis. After much

deliberation the judges announced Leah Crabbe from Archbishop

Wake as the winner who had performed a beautiful

dance routine, the judges said she had exceptional

poise and linked every move with the music, as well

has engaging with the audience. Second place was

awarded to Mendho Sherpa from Downlands for her

Nepalese dance and third place went to The

Pimperne School Dancers who danced their routine

to the Thriller soundtrack. Overall it was a wonderful

afternoon, enjoyed by all those involved; we can‘t

wait to see what new acts the BSN Talent Show

will produce in 2015.

Generous Donation

Local Business Ragtags has very

generously donated £1000.00 to

The Blandford School student

support fund, which was originally

established with a contribution by

Ragtags in 2012. The fund is

used to assist students from year

7 through to year 11 by providing

uniform, books and equipment as

well as contributing towards the

cost of trips that are important for certain courses, for

those students who may otherwise have to go without

these essentials. It is wonderful to see how the

community and school are working so closely together

support each other. Alison Falconer owner of Ragtags

said ― I am so happy to work with The Blandford School,

and to help with the free school uniform, and so pleased

to be able to contribute towards

some of the pastoral care work that

is done‖.

Headteacher Sally

Wilson and Alison

Falconer from Ragtags

Massive Mega Music

Meltdown

On the evening of Saturday

8th February The Blandford

School reverberated to the

sound of an eclectic mixture of quality rock music.

Organised by Year 13 music students, Elias Mead and

Gavin Marish, as part of their Level 3 BTEC Music

Technology course, the Massive Mega Music Meltdown

was well received by the enthusiastic audience. All profits

raised from the event will go towards the PCA‘s

forthcoming summer production of ―Les Misérables‖ (at

The Tivoli Theatre). After the four school bands, (Last

Resort, The Grind, Fourway in a Barrel and Stark) had

completed their highly entertaining sets, the evening

concluded with music from well-known local pub bands,

Riff Mission and Punk on your Hits. Feedback from the

audience was really positive. We are all hoping that

MMMM will be the first of many such music festivals held

at The Blandford School. If you want to see these bands

perform again soon, why not go along to Teddy Rocks in

the town centre in May 2014?

Winner Leah

Crabbe with the

Judges.

Mendsho Sherpa

performing her

Nepalese dance

Pimperne Dancers

Blandford St Mary

Dance Group Molly Carter from

Blandford St Mary

Kaylea-Mai Collins and

Scarlett Greenhalgh

singing “Sing”

Sporting News TBS Netball Leaders lend

a hand.

For the second year running The Blandford School was asked to send

Netball Leaders along to help officiate at the South West of England Schools tournament. Six girls from the school attended and did a variety of essential jobs like collating score tables, collecting score cards and time keeping. Lesley Thomas the Chair of South West Schools said ―Many thanks again for bringing the team of Young Leaders from The Blandford School to the tournament last Saturday. They were well organised, helpful, polite and worked hard. They were invaluable to the efficient running of the tournament - please pass on our thanks to them and their school‖. The girls involved were: Bethan Amey, Alyce Peaty, Flo Bailey, Emma Sully, Ashlea Gale and Georgie Bailey

Rain doesn’t stop play as Blandford St Mary

storm to victory

On Wednesday 5th February, 60

children from Blandford St Mary,

Archbishop Wake, Durweston,

Spetisbury and Milldown participated in

an indoor 6-a-side football tournament

organised by TBS students. In very

close, well played matches Blandford

St Mary emerged as the overall winners after being level with

Milldown in the round robin stages. The winner was decided by

a Beat-The-Keeper challenge, which was hotly contested by all

schools. The penalties on the day were enough to put the

England team to shame! By Sam Eager Y13

Les Misérables update:

Over 90 students auditioned for 40 roles in the upcoming Musical ‗Les

Misérables School Edition‘. We were bowled over by the enthusiasm

and talent on display and we would have loved to have awarded a role

to every student. Although the principal roles have been cast, we have

not yet cast all the supporting roles and we will do this in the process of

rehearsal. Every student involved will have a distinct role in the show,

with solo and/or small ensemble singing. Many congratulations to all of

the students on the cast list below;

Principle Roles:

Valjean – Gavin Marish

Javert – Ryan Brown

Fantine – Zoe Hickson

Thenadier – Tom Henley

Madame Thenadier – Jess Nipper

Young Cosette – Freya Inglis-

Marius – Joel Mariner

Cosette – Rachel Jennings

Eponine – Frankie Yeatman

Gavroche – Billy Hitchcock

Enjolras – James Willis-Fisher

Bishop of Digne – Jacob Rosoman-

Supporting Cast:

Rory Shafford, Amy Lillywhite, Kristina Rana, Bethan Amey, Moriom

Karim, Kirsty Pardoe, Emma Wright, Adam Dando, Emily Streeter,

Anna Tomes, Ellie Tory, Sophie Hill, Abi Lum Kin, James Allen, Luke

Panchaud, Izzy Ellis, Hannah Pitman, Lindsay

Acott, Jasmine Hancock, Niamh Robertson, Kat

Ellis, Tyler James, Lauren Malin, Ellie Keats, Lucy

Thomas, Martha Allan and Emily Beavan

Cross Country Championships

After recent success in cross country, two Blandford School cross country runners have been selected to represent Dorset at the English Schools Cross Country Championships. Michael Johnson (year 8) came 5

th in Dorset, putting him through to

represent the Junior Boys Dorset Cross Country Team, and Sixth Former Ryan Walbridge qualified in 4

th place, who will

now be representing Dorset in the Senior Boys Cross Country Team, at the English Schools event later this year. This is a fantastic achievement and shows the dedication and commitment both students have put into their training with Wimborne Athletics Club over the winter. We wish them the best of luck for their races at English Schools and hope they can continue to achieve in their sport.

The Blandford School’s

production of Les Misérables

will be showing at The Tivoli

Theatre, Wimborne 15th-17th

July 2014

Sam Eager , Toby Dunn and Matt MacPherson.

Tenner Launch

On Tuesday 28th

January Year 9 took

part in the launch of the

Tenner Challenge 2014.The Tenner

Challenge is a national competition

designed to give young people a taste of

what it‘s like to be an entrepreneur. The

competition works by the students being

pledged £10 from the Tenner Bank, they

must then use this money to start up their

own business. They have a whole month

to make as much profit as possible while

also trying to make a difference and give

back to society. The Tenner Challenge will

run throughout March and the winners,

who will be

judged on criteria

including

innovation,

journey travelled

and social

conscience will

be announced in April, so watch this

space! For more information visit

www.tenner.org.uk.

Can you help?

Would you like to help us with our

Work Related Learning Week

23rd

to 27th

June 2014?

We are looking to provide our Year 10

students with:

an insight into the World of Work

an opportunity to develop employability skills

careers talks/workshops

visits to local employers

an experience of a job interview

an understanding of possible progression routes

post-16 and post-18.

Can you help us with any of the above?

If you feel you can offer us a workshop, careers talk,

an industrial visit or are prepared to conduct mock

interviews, please contact:

Andrew Mead (Deputy Headteacher)

amead@blandfordschool.org.uk Tel: 01258 451121 Ext 213

Paula Taylor (Work Related Learning Co-ordinator)

ptaylor@blandfordschool.org.uk Tel: 01258 451121 Ext 254