ROYALVISITOR

Autumn 2012

1

A Specialist Sportsand

Science AcademyHurst Road

Sidcup, KentDA15 9AWTelephone:

020 8300 5665Facsimile:

020 8300 2039

NewsletterNewsletter

The Princess Royalpresents??

Our work to help supportGuardian Angels, anAIDS orphanage inZambia, is still ongoing.We are building on workwhich was started in July2011 by HurstmereSchool pupils and wasthen fully establishedafter our first staff trip inFebruary 2012. Clothesand cuddly toys donatedby students and staff inFebruary, are now beingput to good use in the daynursery at GuardianAngels and we are onceagain building up asupply of clothes andreading books to trans-port to Zambia on ournext tour in 2013. We willbe sending a bag ofclothes in October 2012with the Tag Rugby Trustwhen they spend sometime in the Lusaka areacoaching tag rugby withanother party.

The work by the TagRugby Trust has not goneunnoticed. At the end ofSeptember 2012, Prin-cess Anne The PrincessRoyal visited Zambia aspart of The Queen’sDiamond Jubilee celebra-

tions. As a past Olympi-an, and mother of two,she visited the OlympicYouth DevelopmentCentre in Lusaka.

The Tag Rugby Trustwere invited to put on anexhibition game to showBritish charity work aliveand kicking as well ashighlight the developmentof the game of rugby atgrass roots level, espe-cially now that it is goingto be an Olympic sport.

A game was arrangedbetween SOSCO Com-munity School andGuardian Angels from

Chilanga. These twoschools have been sup-ported by HurstmereSchool since 2011 and itis very exciting for us thatthey were part of a fan-tastic day! The gamewas refereed by a resi-dent volunteer, MaryKawaya and the coach-ing was conducted by fiveYoung Leaders fromGuardian Angels whowere trained by Hurst-mere School staff and theTag Rugby Trust inFebruary 2012.

After the game Carol, oneof the young leaders fromGuardian Angels pre-sented Her Royal High-ness with a very Britishbouquet of flowers.Students and staffinvolved were pleased tohave spent some timewith Her Royal Highnessand it was great for allthose involved to see thatall of their hard work isrecognised.

Mr A Reddy -Head of Geography

Carol , a Young Leader trained by Hurstmere, presents abouquet to The Princess Royal during her visit to Zambia.

- met Hurstmere trainedYoung Leaders in Zambia

ROYALVISITOR

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WHAT A RESULT!

Once again there are many individual stories of outstanding success amongst the overall examinationresults achieved by last year’s Year 11 boys. As well as the GCSE grades, all Key Stage 4 examinationsare given a numerical tariff to allow calculations of total points scores, average points scores and “capped”points scores (for the best 8 results). The tariffs are as follows:

GCSE: A*=58 points, A=52, B=46, C=40, D=34, E=28, F=22, G=16, U/X=0.OCR National ICT: Pass equivalent to 1 - 4 C grades (40-160 points), Merit equivalent to 1 - 4 B grades (49-196) andDistinction equivalent to 1 - 4 A*/A (55-220).BTEC Sport: Pass equivalent to 2 or 4 C grades (80 or 160 points), Merit equivalent to 2 or 4 B grades (92 or 184 ),Distinction equivalent to 2 or 4 A grades (104 or 208) and Distinction* equivalent to 2 or 4 A* grades (116 or 232).BTEC Science: Pass equivalent to 2 C grades (80 pts), Merit equivalent to 2 B grades (92 pts), Distinction equivalent to2 A grades (104 pts) and *Distinction equivalent to 2 A* grades (116 pts).

In terms of average points score, the top 25 boys were as follows:Callum Eden gained 4A* in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Geography, 1A grade in Biology, 3B grades and a Distinctionin ICT, with an average points score of 53.5.Charlie Nelson gained 4A grades in Mathematics, Core Science, Art and Product Design, 1B grade, *Distinctions in BTEC Sportand BTEC Science and a Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 52.9.Harry Thurston gained 3A* in History, Product Design and Religious Studies, 3A grades in English Language, English Literatureand Core Science, a Distinction in ICT and a Merit in BTEC Science, with an average points score of 52.5.William Powell gained 2A* in Core Science and Additional Science, 3A grades in Mathematics, History and Electronics, 2Bgrades and a Distinction in ICT, with an average points score of 52.0.Christopher Gomes gained 4A grades in Mathematics, Core Science Art and Geography, 3B grades and Distinctions in ICT andBTEC Science, with an average points score of 51.5.Sachin Patel gained 3A* in Mathematics, Core Science, Additional Science, 3A grades in Electronics, Geography and Gujarati,3B grades and a Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 51.4.Thomas Sweeney gained 2A* in Physics and Chemistry, 4A grades in Mathematics, Geography, Biology and Art, 3B grades anda Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 50.9.Henry Waller gained 2A* in Physics and Chemistry, 2A grades in Mathematics and History, 2B grades and a Distinction in ICT,with an average points score of 50.2.Jack Lyon gained 2A* in Core Science and Additional Science, 1A grade in Product Design, 4B grades and a Merit in ICT, withan average points score of 49.8.Amarpreet Kang gained 2A* in Core Science and Additional Science, 3A grades in Mathematics, Product Design and Art, 1Bgrade and a Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 49.6.Antony Su gained 2A* in Core Science and Chinese, 2A grades in Mathematics and Additional Science, 3B grades and a Meritin ICT, with an average points score of 49.5.Abrar Haque gained 6A grades in English Language, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geography, 2B grades anda Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 49.2.Luke Higgins gained 3A grades in Core Science, Product Design and Media Studies, 5B grades, a *Distinction in BTEC Scienceand a Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 49.2.Luke Spooner gained 3B grades, *Distinction in BTEC Sport, Distinction in BTEC Science and a Merit in ICT, with an averagepoints score of 49.2.Kieran Freear gained an A* in English Literature, 4A grades in English Language, History, Geography and Core Science, 1Bgrade and a Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 49.0.Tom Gills gained an A* in Art, 2A grades in English Language and Core Science, 4B grades, a Distinction in BTEC

Science and a Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 49.0.Ryan Clark gained 2A grades in Mathematics and Electronics, 5B grades, a *Distinction in BTECScience and a Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 49.0.Joe Tworek gained 1B grade and *Distinctions in BTEC Sport and BTEC Science, with an averagepoints score of 48.5.

Sam Batchelor gained an A in Core Science, 5B grades, a Distinction in BTEC Science and aMerit in ICT, with an average points score of 47.8.

Rhys Byrne gained an A in Product Design, 3B grades, a *Distinction in BTEC Scienceand a Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 47.8.

Callum Mantell gained 3A grades in Core Science, Additional Science and History, 2Bgrades and a Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 47.6.

James Coleman gained 3A grades in Mathematics, Core Science and Electronics,1B grade, a Distinction in BTEC Science and a Merit in ICT, with an average pointsscore of 47.6.Jack Haine gained an A in Media Studies, 4B grades, a Distinction in BTECScience and a Merit in ICT, with an average points score of 47.4.

Matthew Appleton gained 5A grades in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology andGeography, 4B grades, with an average points score of 47.0.James Barlow gained 2A* in Mathematics and Chemistry, 1A grade in Physics and 4Bgrades, with an average points score of 46.5

Another Solid Year of Examination Results with Outstanding Individual Achievements.

Welcome to the first newsletter of the new academicyear. It has been a summer where we have beenenthralled by the Olympics and the individual feats ofOlympians and Paralympians.

Hurstmere has set many of its own new records thissummer in the GCSE results: 82% A*-C in Maths,90% 5A*-C overall and our highest ever points perpupil score. Sadly the marking debacle which nation-ally affected so many schools at GCSE English alsodisadvantaged about 18 of our boys who would havepassed at grade ‘C’ had they been entered in Janu-ary. They were marked down in the June entry to‘balance the books’, due to poor regulation of theexam grade boundaries in January.

Glenys Stacey, the Head of OFQUAL, says the earlyentry students got a “lucky break”. That frankly is nota good enough response from the exams regulator assome boys have had their life chances affected;dropping from a ‘C’ to a ‘D’ in English has meantsome have lost their chosen sixth form course or their

place on an apprentice-ship scheme. We are anation that expects andrespects ‘Fair Play’, sowe hope the educationalbodies succeed in right-ing this injustice as hashappened in Wales withthe re-grading of Englishresults. This has nothingto do with the supposeddumbing down of examstandards, as some tab-loid papers are portray-ing it.

Our new Year 7 has settled in well and we are all fullof expectation for the coming year. I hope you enjoythe newsletter which gives a snapshot of just a few ofthe events and trips which have taken place lastsummer and at the start of this year.

Mr A Stringer - Headteacher

Caxton 1441

Chaucer 1390

Sidney 1358

Cobham 1247

The 2011-2012 Housecompetition finished inJuly with Caxton Housebecoming 2011 - 2012House Champions.

The trophy was presentedto Ross Philips, theHouse Captain in the firstHouse Assembly inSeptember.

SUPERMARKET REWARDS

Sainsburys ActiveKids 2012:3,153 vouchers were

collected and havebeen banked to gotowards a PGLoutdoor activitycourse for theboys.

Tesco:You managed to collect4,828 vouchers whichwere spent onbooks for theschoolLibrary and theremainder onStopwatchesfor PE .

Thank you again to everyone who kindly donatedtheir supermarket vouchers, which we redeemedfor the following items:

Thank you to everyonefor their hard work andeffort over the year and Ilook forward to the 2012-2013 Championships.

Mr M Robinson -Teacher i/c House System

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A plea to parents who drive theirchildren to school.

Please park safely when you are drop-ping your son off in Hurst Road, andwith consideration to other road us-ers and our neighbours. Also pleaseensure that your son leaves the vehi-

cle via the nearside and not into the road. Acouple of near misses have been reported to usalready this academic year with boys exiting on to theroad without checking to see if it is safe to do so.

By now you should havereceived your usernameand password for our new

on-line payment system hosted by WisePay.

The WisePay Payment System can be accessedfrom the school website, and allows parents to makeonline payments to the school by all major credit anddebit cards for a range of services including trippayments, revision guides, school fund and ActivityWeek.

WisePay is quick and easy to use and removes theneed for pupils to carry cash. Trip balances can beviewed 24 hours, 7 days a week and payments canbe made even when the school is closed.

Should you have any queries regarding WisePay,please contact Mrs Hobbs in the Finance Office.

PLEASE PARK SAFELY

MUSIC

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MATHEMATICSMathematical Puzzles

Some Science studentstook part in the ‘I’m aScientist, get me out ofhere!’ national event thisyear. They spoke to realscientists in virtual chatrooms in their lessonsand were able to askthem questions about dif-ferent aspects of Sciencethat they were interestedin and then voted to“evict” the scientists dayby day. All of the stu-dents were enthusiasticabout the challenge ofasking questions of theprofessionals and lovedgetting their answers sent

through to them byemail or by chat

room. All the boys whotook part spoke really en-thusiastically about thisopportunity. Shaun Smithshould receive specialpraise as he was com-mended by the scientistsfor his probing scientificquestions and mature atti-tude. He won a prizewhich included a £20WHSmith gift card. Thisis a particularly prestig-ious prize since he waschosen from all of thestudents who got involvednationally.

Miss C Gayton - Teacher ofScience

SPECIALISM NEWS - Science

The Maths Department has a

subscription for:-

(login ‘hurstmere” -

password ‘fifty’).

REMEMBER

2011 Hurstmere leaverMiles Ashdown is to playat the Albert Hall. Hisgroup includes a numberof students from Sedge-hill School where our ownMr Gilbert also acts as anArtist in Residence. Mileswas invited as he is anexceptional violinist andthe previous violinist leftthe country.

These are exciting timesfor Hurstmere MusicDepartment as Mrs Roeand Mr Robertson arestarting a school concertband. The band will fea-ture orchestral instru-ments such as cello,violins, trumpets, trom-bones and clarinets andwe already have 11 boyssigned up as memberswho are instrumentalistsof a very good standard.We look forward to see-ing the concert bandperforming in future con-certs. Will Morley (Year10) will also be takingsome responsibility for

the band as he is going togain some conducting ex-perience with the ensem-ble. The Music Dept.would like to hear fromany other instrumental-ists who want to the joinconcert band.

The schools record label,presently known as“STUDIO FIX”, had audi-tions and found a wealthof talent at Hurstmere -with everything fromguitar bands to youngYear 7 singers. Therecord label is in need ofa good logo design, soanyone who is willing tosubmit a design using theSFIX or Studio Fix logowill be most welcome. Asmentioned in assembly,there are house pointsfor the winning design.

Mr Robertson is also onthe lookout for new Year7s who want to sign up forany music lessons - thereare places available fordrums, guitar and piano.

Mr I Robertson - Teacher inCharge of Performing Arts

MATHS GCSERESULTSHIT A HIGHThe Mathematics GCSEpupils received the bestexamination results for 5years with 208 boys be-ing entered for the examthis summer and getting100% A*-G passes and82.2% A*-C. The biggestincrease was in the A* - Cpasses.

The pupils and staff haveworked hard to obtainthese impressive results.

Year 7 (2011-12)work together tosolve the variousmaths problems.

Save used postagestamps for the blind -RNIB (Leave 1cm round theedge).Please give them toMs T Guyan in Rm1.

USED POSTAGE STAMPS

NOVEMBER07/11/12 Careers Evening Yr 1115/11/12 Welcome Evening Yr 722/11/12 Parents Evening Yr 1027/11/12 Prize Giving29/11/12 Parents Evening Ski TripJANUARY17/01/13 Parents Evening Yr 1131/01/13 Parents Evening Yr 9FEBRUARY07/02/13 Options Evening Yr 928/02/13 Parents Evening Yr 8MARCH14/03/13 Parents Evening Yr 7

Please check the school websitewww.hurstmere.org.uk

Once again the ‘World ofMaths’ Road Show wasinvited to HurstmereSchool and presented avariety of hands-onproblem solving activitiesfor our Year 7 pupils. Theboys worked in groupsand seemed to enjoy thevarious mathematicalchallenges.Mr R Nagra- AST Mathematics

DIARY DATES

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Help him improve his reading skillswith an annual subscription to aFrench Magazine for only £8.

5 issues 2012/13 with access toto interactive activities and videoclips.

1. September/October

2. November/December

3. January/February

4. March 5. April

Allons-y! KS3/P7-S1 Years 7-8

Bright and accessible materialsto enthuse and engagebeginners of all abilities.

Packed with puzzles, quizzesand accessible articles oncelebrities, sports and music.

Regular features : Ma vie enFrance, Belle ma vie, OuiChef ! Animaux and comicstrip ‘Les Aventures de Pitt etBulle’

Bonjour KS3/S1-2 Years 8-9GCSE Foundation

Builds confidence in reading,listening, writing and speakingand deepens culturalunderstanding.

Helps motivate your studentsto take their French studiesfurther.

Regular features on Sport,interviews with real Frenchteenagers and all the latestcultural events and news fromFrance.

See Ms Guyanfor details andapplicationforms.

Parents: Two ways to help yourson with his French studies.

Every studentshould have agood FrenchDictionary. Wecan offer CollinsEasy LearningDictionaries –normal price£9.99 nowONLY £5Save £4.99

Learning anew language is never

easy. That’s why Collins have cre-ated Easy Learning books to boostconfidence, foster success andbuild a thorough foundation inlearning languages. The EasyLearning French Dictionary hasbeen written in consultation withteachers and recommended bythem for students up to GCSE level.

ZAMBIA FUNDRAISING Ourprepa-ration

for the nextHurstmere School Tag

Rugby Tour to Zambia in July 2013now has under a year to go andfundraising is in full swing! Variousevents have taken place sinceEaster to help us achieve our fund-raising target. We have had a hugesuccess with our Grand SummerRaffle, which helped us to raise£4,500 towards our £35,000 target.

The students who are travelling toZambia have also made fantasticindividual efforts to contributetowards the target. Events such asthe Three Peaks Challenge com-pleted by Dan Newman, asponsored swim by George Parish,and group activities by largenumbers of the students whichincluded car washing and bagpacking, have all helped to raisefunds.

Various other fundraising activitiesinclude a Blues Brothers Tributeevening, a night out at CrayfordDogs and a Winter Time Raffle.Our current fundraising total is£17,834.03 over half way towardsour target, so we are well on theway!

Aside from the fundraising, anumber of students spent the sum-mer term coaching students atDulverton Primary School on oneafternoon a week. This was notonly to raise the profile of Tag Rug-by with boys and girls in primaryschools, but it has also providedsome of the students who will betravelling to Zambia, with practiceat coaching. This will continue afterChristmas 2012, when we will workwith four primary schools, with theaim of running a tournament atHurstmere School where teamsfrom each school will be invited toparticipate in the Summer term.

Mr A Reddy - Head of Geography

DRAMA

A selection of Year 8s, 10s and11s performed Shakespeare’s“Richard the Third” at the OrchardTheatre in Dartford on the 15thOctober as part of the Shake-speare Schools Festival 2012. Bytaking part in the Festival thepupils had an amazing opportunity

to showcasetheir talentsto a wideraudience,and in sodoing werea credit tothe school.

Miss L Wood-ward - Head of

Drama

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Snippets from ACTIVITY WEEK July 2012

NEW GEOGRAPHYAND ART MURAL

On the Tuesday of Activity WeekRE and Music combined forces tohave a celebration of Sikh Culture.We brought in artists for Bhangradancing and drumming. Manypupils had the opportunity to try outboth activities, and then puttogether everything they hadlearnt to perform for theirpeers.

Mrs G McGill- Head of

R.E.

During this year’s Activity Week agroup of 27 Year 9 pupils put theirartistic talents to full use, andworked extremely hard in the ArtDepartment to create the newGeography and Art mural. Thelarge-scale floor-to-ceiling muralwas painted using acrylic paints onboard and is sited in the corridoroutside rooms 16 and 17.

The theme of the mural waschosen to reflect its location – thegeographical images of rainforests, volcanoes and flags havebeen combined with art imageryfrom round the world, including

Mexican ‘Day of the Dead’, Gaudi’sarchitecture, Indian patterns andthe Pop Art of Dartford-born PeterBlake – to create a powerful,abstract design.

The boys’ talent and teamwork setin a newly refurbished corridor,have completely transformed apreviously drab part of the schoolinto a vibrant and exciting space.

All pupils involved handled difficultnew techniques and materials on adaunting scale to excellent effect –impressive stuff indeed consider-ing they were all still only in Year 9,and very promising as the boys arenow starting their two year ArtGCSE course in Year 10.

Mr D Blower – Head of Art

Sikh Culture Activities- MUSIC and R.E.

ENGLISH Activities

The boys enjoying theBhangra drumming and

dancing activities.

HarryPotter

During Activity Week the EnglishDept. provided a range of activitiesto inspire the boys’ creativity.

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During activities week inthe summer term thecurrent Year 8 embarkedon an intrepid experiencetaking on the wild andunforgiving Essex terrain.The conditions were oftenwet and windswept(outdoor camping at itsbest) but all boys perse-vered and created theatmosphere for an enjoy-able and memorable trip.

I am delighted to havebeen able to take around75% of the year group toMersea Island and wasproud of their conductthroughout. This was afantastic opportunity forthem to make newfriends, enjoy new experi-ences and develop goodrapport with members ofstaff and I am pleased tosay they achieved all ofthose things.

Year 7 School Journey to Mersea Island

During Activities Weekthis year a group of Year9 students were luckyenough to visit the Sci-ence Museum. We wereworried about our journeyas it fell on the first daythat the Olympic Gameslanes were open, but wewere very lucky with traf-fic. At the museum theboys learned about howenergy is generated andtransferred in the modernworld, how materials areused and made, got tosee real rockets and ani-mations about satellites

and learned some interesting facts about the humanbody. The interactive aspect of the Science Museumwas greatly appreciated by all of the boys and theyreally enjoyed their day!

Miss C Gayton - Teacher of Science

SCIENCE MUSEUM TRIP

Year 8 had a fantastic day exploring the NaturalHistory Museum during Activities Week. They spentsome time adding to their knowledge of Ecologyusing one of the Museum’s self-guided tours, findingout information about food webs and predators.Much to their delight they were able to tour the dino-saur area of the museum where the life sizeanimatronic T-Rex, that roared and thrashed about,was a particularly popular part of their day. They alsoenjoyed reading and learning about the evolution ofman. Behaviour was exemplary and the boys werevery good representatives of the school.

Miss C Gayton - Teacher of Science

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM TRIP

Particular highlights in-cluded the team workshown in all activitiessuch as team challenge,aerial runway andevening games, as wellas Archie Wise’s birthdaycelebrations and JayLattimore sampling thebite of the North Sea. Iwould like to thank allmembers of the yeargroup for entering intothe spirit of the trip as well

as members of staff fortheir hard work.

I hope to fill our next resi-dential trip to Paris in2013 where we will buildupon our experience ofthe cultural beauty ofEssex with a culturalexperience around thecapital culminating in avisit to Disneyland!

I hope to see you there.Mr D Cleary - Head of Year 8

The pupils enjoying some of the manyactivities on offer during their week away.

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Design & Technology

National Design & Technology Week 2012 - The Great Egg Race

Teams1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 TOTAL AVERAGE

CAXTON 171 136 158 117 56 244 235 159 185 64 46 0 1571 143

CHAUCER 202 148 187 187 148 201 245 0 103 163 41 0 1625 148

COBHAM -20 31 176 0231

240 253 220 180 234 236 0 1781 162

SIDNEY 109 166 170 0271

68 240 247 154 157 218 27 1827 152

Once again Hurstmere’s D&T Dept. organised ‘TheGreat Egg Race’ challenge in recognition ofNational Design & Technology Week 2012. Theboys who took part designed and made manyinnovative vehicles to be first to deliver their eggintact. Cobham house finished as overall winners.

As part of Activity Week a group of Year 7 pupils wereasked to design their own "Doctor Who" Dalek typemonster using a basic jitterbug kit. The task includedproduct design skills using a variety of materials.They had to include a solder and an electronic circuitto power an electronic single eye at the front of theirmonster.

Year 7 boys complete several units of work coveringgraphics, product design and electronics. This majorproject at the end of the year was the boys’ opportu-nity to show in this one final project all of the skillsthey have learnt over the year.

Each pupil was given a basic jitterbug kit from whichthey had to assemble all the parts correctly in orderto form the basic shape of the Dalek type monster.The boys then used their imagination and practicalskills to build some bodywork and the electronic eyeof the monster. All the switches and batteries re-quired were assembled by the boys and formed themain control parts of their monsters.

As you can see from thephotographs the boysachieved a very goodstandard of work whichthe thoroughly en-joyed.

Mr G Middlewood –Senior Teacher

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During activity week30 boys from Year 9went on a residen-tial trip to T’yn yBerth MountainCentre in Wales.The boys were se-lected for their

commitment to PE, demonstratinggood leadership skills, and as good role models toother young people both in school and the localcommunity. Throughout the week the boys partici-pated in a range of outdoor and adventurous activi-ties such as orienteering, a gorge walk, raft buildingand mining. The highlight of the week for many of theboys was the mountain day where they all conqueredCader Idris, a mountain in the Snowdonia NationalPark which is 2,927 feet (892m). The emphasisthroughout the week was on enhancing the boys’leadership skills in preparation for some of the rolesthey will take on in Year 10.

Mrs S Allsop - Partnership Development Manager

Mr Davis, MrWadsworth, MrWright, Miss Bra-dley, Mrs Halton,Mr Syplywczak,Mrs Nunes andmyself took 80boys away. Monday wasspent at Old Trafford Stadium, the home ofManchester United Football Club. The tour wassuperb and included Sir Alex Ferguson’s view fromhis personal pitch side seat, a visit to the home teamschanging rooms and a chance to touch and have yourphotograph taken with the team shirts. A tour downthe Munich Walk had the pupils riveted with a person-al insight into the great ‘Busby’s Babes’ 1958 Unitedteam from which 8 players lost their lives in theMunich Air Disaster.

Tuesday was spent at Alton Towers Theme Park totest out the best of what Britain’s biggest rides had tooffer. The experiences of their explosive encounterswere enthusiastically elaborated on during the lunchbreak. This enticed the staff to have a go during thefinal hour when most other visitors had gone homeleaving small queues on even the best rides.

Wednesday was spent at Alton Towers Water Parkand even though it was not the most exciting ofvenues, at least the boys had a good cleansing.

Thursday we headed home and very strategicallybroke the long coach journey with a little stop atCadbury’s Chocolate World. We were given a tourof the factory during which bars of chocolate werehanded out, and then onto the shop, for anotherchance to buy some goodies for their loved ones,(and their brothers and sisters). The boys were safelyreturned to Hurstmere that evening to be warmlywelcomed home by their families.

Lastly a big thank you goes to the pupils themselves.It was a pleasure to take them away. One of thehighlights of the trip was when a crowd of about 25 oldage pensioners, who also stayed at the hotel, cameout to wave off our coaches. They had told me earlierthat they were concerned that 80 teenage boys werearriving but they described our lads as the most polite,well-mannered bunch of boys they had ever comeacross. Thank you all.Mr Joyce – Head of Year 11 (2011-2012)

During Activity Week Year 9 pupils designed rocketpropelled cars using the same design principles asthey used for designing rockets in Year 8. The pupilscompleted an initial study into projectile motion andthe forces acting upon it before designing their ownindividual cars. They produced chassis designsaround a sealed tube. Once completed the rocketcars were launched using a compressed air firingunit. Somewere very suc-cessful makingfull use of theYear 7 play-ground fence

as a temporarycrash barrier!

Mrs S Lloyd-Wood - Head of Design and Technology

YEAR 8 ACTIVITY WEEK TRIP

YEAR 9 SPORTS LEADERS VISITTY’N Y BERTH MOUNTAIN CENTRE

YEAR 9 ROCKET CARS

SPECIALISM NEWS - Sports

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As a school we were fortunate enough to acquirearound 150 tickets for the Olympics and Paralympicsas we were part of the “Get Set” network of schools.All the boys in the school were given the opportunityto apply for one or more tickets to a variety of events.

In the main Olympics we took parties to GB vs. Brazilin the women’s football at Wembley. Two groupswent to see men’s and women’s volleyball at EarlsCourt and a further group went to see the women’sMountain Biking at Hadleigh Farm in Essex.

George Lawrence in Year 9 said “I applied for Moun-tain Biking because I thought it would be a great ideato go and support Annie Last and Great Britain in anevent. I wanted to go because I wanted to be in-volved in the Olympics. Furthermore I did not want tostay at home all summer and watch it on television; Iwanted to be involved”.

We also had a number of tickets to see ParalympicAthletics in the Olympic Stadium and we made fourtrips in all. It was great to see a wide variety of eventsand one group was lucky enough to see David Weirget presented with his Gold Medal for the 1500M.

A great time washad by all, it’s just ashame it’s all over.Hopefully a genera-tion has been“INSPIRED” andwe will continue to

promote the Olympicand Paralympic val-ues we have wit-nessed this summer.

Mr I Simpson -Director of Studies

A few months prior to the beginning of the Olympicsand Paralympics a notice was put up on one of theboards around the school. The notice offered ticketsfor 3 events at the Olympic Games and one at theParalympics. The Olympic events were: Women’sFootball, Great Britain vs. Brazil at Wembley Stadium,Women’s Volleyball at Earl’s court and Women’sMountain Biking at Hadleigh Farm. The Paralympicevent, offered on three separate occasions, was Par-alympic Athletics at the Olympic Stadium. The onlyway to be eligible to receive a ticket was to write ashort paragraph telling the reader why you should bechosen to go to each event. I was lucky enough toreceive four tickets.

Each of the events wasamazing to watch. Thefootball was very tense,even though Great Brit-ain scored the onlygoal in the secondminute, Brazil stillplayed well and hadmany chances at scoringbut weren’t successful in any. The Women’s Volley-ball was also a great event. In the first game Turkeyand Korea went head to head to qualify for the quarterfinals. Turkey was the more dominant side, andalthough Korea tried hard to stop them from scoring,they were in the end beaten by 3 sets to 2. In gametwo Great Britain went up against the DominicanRepublic. Although Great Britain played extremelywell and the crowd were very supportive they werebeaten 3 to 0. The Mountain Biking was a veryintense race. Being off road it meant that punctures,stumbles and collisions were common. Great Britainwas leading for the first half of the race and was doingwell, until France powered forward into the lead tothen win Gold.

The Paralympic Athletics was definitely the best eventthat I went to. I was able to see several of the eventsfrom a different perspective, such as the Wheelchair800 metres and 1500 metres, Blind Triple Jump andBlind 100 and 200 metres, Cerebral Palsy Shot-putand Discus, and Amputated Arms 100 metres. I wasable also to watch several of the other events’ medalceremonies take place. I also enjoyed going to all thedifferent areas of the Olympic Park and seeing all thefamous landmarks that it contained. It was definitelyworth going to all the events, and I consider it anhonour to have been chosen to go and watch them.

Ellis Parkinson - Year 9 Pupil , Caxton House

My time at the Olympic andParalympic Games

HURSTMERE AT THE OLYMPICS

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SPORTS DAYS 2012

The Hurstmere teams had mixedsuccess in the 2012 Cricket cups.Three of the year groups teamsreached the North Kent cup finals.

Three of our boys attended theKent Team Golf Championships onMonday 2nd July at Kings Hill GolfClub trying to defend the trophy wewon last year. It was a very windyday with some extremely punishingrough following all the rain that wehad.

Bobby Twiner shot 74 off a handi-cap of 1, Marcus Sewell shot 76 offa handicap of 2 and Tom O’Reillyshot 79 off a handicap of 4. Thismeant that we retained the KentChampionship by a massive 12

This year saw the inaugural HouseTennis Doubles Championships.The popularity of this event meantthat we had to introduce 2 prelimi-nary rounds just to select those toqualify for the draw. 64 pairs from

SPECIALISM NEWS - SportsCRICKET 2012 The Year 8 team lost to Beths, the

Year 9 team lost to Chislehurstand Sidcup, which was a repeat oflast year and our Year 10 team,having won the competition inYear 7, 8 and 9 lost to Beths in thefinal.

It was still a fantastic achievementto reach three of four finals and Iwould like to thank all players andteachers involved for all their hardwork.

Mr K Wadsworth - Director of Sport

HURSTBLEDON KS3 HOUSEDOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP 2012

strokes, and also meant that wewould be asked to represent Kentagain at the English Schools Fi-nals at Woodhall Spa. This is amagnificent achievement for theboys.

At a very rain affected course inLincolnshire on 10th and 11th Julythe 3 boys (which now includedLuke Spooner (2 handicap), whoreplaced the unavailable BobbyTwiner, played extremely well in acompetition which tends to favourthe higher handicaps. Luke scored36 points (2 handicap), Marcus 35points (2 handicap), and Tomscored 34 points (4 handicap). Thismeant that our team score was 71points (best 2 to count) and wefinished 13th out of 30 teams fromacross England.

Well done to all those involved.Mr I Simpson - Director of Studies

KENT AND ENGLISH SCHOOLSTEAM GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS

Three of our young golfers.

Years 7 and 8 played most lunch-times over 4 weeks before finallywhittling the competitors down tothe last two pairs which wereamazingly both from Year 7 andboth of whom had beaten Year 8pairings in the semi-finals.

The final was competitively playedout in front of teachers, specialguests, ball boys, an impartial um-pire, Mr Ball (who was the ‘shadeprovider’ during breaks) andaround 150 cheering pupils.

To the excitement and delight ofthe crowds the game went to‘sudden death’ advantage andwas won deservedly by the pairingof George Hodkin and Jack Leek.Commiserations go to MatthewLock and Jack Sproul who cameso close to winning.

Mr M Wright - Teacher of PE

The summer term saw the 2nd InterHouse Athletics Competition of themodern era take place over twodays - Thursday 14th June – Fieldevents and Tuesday 19th June –Track events. Both days producedsome outstanding performances,and the effort by all competitorswas excellent.

Final positions: 4th– Caxton 395;3rd– Cobham 451; 2nd– Sidney 478;1st – Chaucer 509. Well done toeach Year House winner and alsoto Chaucer House who haveretained the title of Inter HouseAthletics Champions.

Hurstmere Sports College‘Sportsday’ records were set byRyan Mills of Chaucer House(12.17secs) in the Year 8 100m,and by the Sidney House Year 104 x 100m relay team (49.32secs).That team was anchored by last

year’s EnglishSchools JuniorBoys’ 100m Sil-ver medallistTommy Ramd-han who alsoset an all-time,all-age Hurst-mere record forthe 200m(22.92secs) atthe Inter-Housemeeting.

Mr K Wadsworth - Director of Sport

Year 9 cricket team.

DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARDS 2012

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three months of volunteeringwork which has ranged fromhelping at Cubs and Scoutgroups, to coaching sports atlocal primary schools. Therehave also been a great varietyof physical activities carried out,including football, rugby, running and even time trailbiking.

November will see the students who have completedall aspects of the award, attending the annual BexleySchools Duke of Edinburgh presentation evening.

Well done to all boys who took part!Mr A Reddy - Head of Geography

The Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award expeditiontook place in two parts this year, with 22 studentscompleting their expedition in July, during ActivitiesWeek and 11 students completing their expedition atthe end of September. Despite a week of rain, theweekend in September remained dry and sunny de-spite recording temperatures of 3 degrees Celsiusovernight. This made for a very sluggish early morn-ing rise for the students!

The culinary expertise of the boys was tested to themaximum with a wide variety of meals cooked. Thisranged from pasta to sausages and beans to a fullcurry with naan bread.

The range of activities the students have undertakenwhilst completing their Duke of Edinburgh has beenfantastic. All students need to complete a period of

Primary School Games

Hurstmere hosted a Pri-mary School Gamescompetition during Na-tional School SportsWeek. The SchoolGames is a governmentinitiative to increase com-petition in schools. Over250 children from localschools participated inactivities run by sportsleaders. Activities includ-ed Multi Skills, Tri Golf,Boccia, Athletics, Round-ers and Cycling. The

On Friday 29th June weheld our annual SportsPresentation Eveningand presented boys inYear 10 and 8 with theirjunior and senior sportscolours ties. The tieswere presented by HarryAllen, an ex-Hurstmerepupil, who has recentlysigned for HarlequinsRFC.

Congratulations to all theboys involved.Mr I Simpson - Director of Studies

children were rewardedwith certificates for dem-onstrating the ‘Spirit ofthe Games’ Values -Determination, Honesty,Passion, Respect, Self-Belief and Team Work.The Games gave oursports leaders an excel-lent opportunity to gainfirst-hand experience ofleading and officiating.

Ms S Allsop -School Games Organiser

SPORTS PRESENTATIONThe School Games Kitemark  was launched in2012  to reward schools fortheir commitment to thedevelopment of competitionacross their school and intothe community. To gain theKite mark the school wasrequired to meet a numberof pre-requisites and had toprovide evidence of allstudents taking part in atleast two hours of  physicaleducation during curriculumtime and the extensiveextra-curricular programmethat is on offer at Hurstmere.The PE Department alsohad to demonstrate theirinvolvement in SchoolGames competitions at bothLevel 1(House) and Level 2(Inter-school) and how theyengage boys in leading,managing andofficiating in theSchool Gamescompetitions.

Produced by J Dowse - School photographs C Richardson and staff - Printed by EHV Colour Ltd - October 2012

Harry Allen presents an award toAlbert Caton Year 11.