SCIENCE LAUNCH... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... We have

Summer 2009

1

Newsletter

F ollowing on from ourspecialism in Sport, theSpecialist SchoolsAcademy Trust (SSAT)has awarded Hurst-mere School, HighPerforming SpecialistStatus. As a result wehave adopted Scienceas our second special-ism.

This will enable us to devel-op opportunities for pupils tostudy Science beyond theschool curriculum encour-aging them to considerHigher Education and Sci-ence related careers.

To celebrate the addition ofScience to the School’sSpecialist status, we haveorganised a series ofevents. The first of thesewas on the afternoon of the25th June,when Mr Stringer,Staff and the Governors ofthe School invited guestsfrom local schools to hearguest speaker Mr MartynBerry MA, Msc., C Chem.,FRSC give a talk on Scienceas a Specialism in schools.

Excellent, innovative and in-spiring education in Sciencecan lead to a better knowl-edge of how Science worksand builds the responsiblecitizens our society re-quires. We seek to furtherutilise the impact of our

Sports Specialism toimprove learning across thecurriculum and to build uponthe cross curricular links be-tween Sports and Science.

By encouraging a broaderunderstanding of Sciencethrough extended and en-hanced enrichment opportu-nities, we hope to raiseachievement. Links withpartnership schools, localindustry and parents will bepart of our strategy to ex-tend the impact of the Sci-ence Specialism beyond theclassroom.

The new status will ensurethe Hurstmere Science de-partment is able to utilise theadditional funding to im-prove the quality of Sciencelessons and raise attain-ment by making Science apriority in school.

Mrs S BayarDirector of Specialism

SCIENCE: Theme DaysIt was decided that theschool’s Science Status becelebrated with 3 ScienceLaunch days:

Thursday 25th June Yr 9Theme Day: “Engaging inOur Community”. Also, a3pm Twilight for staff, gov-ernors, local primary &secondary schools with aguest speaker.Friday 26th June Yr 7Theme Day: “Building aSustainable Future”.Monday 29th June Yr 8Theme Day: PE/ScienceCross curricular Project onForces.

On these days, each YearGroup had their normaltimetable suspended andthey were involved in a proj-ect for the school day. Eachproject had a range of activ-ities and events planned forthe day including guestspeakers and some tasksthat involved prizes for theboys.

LIFT OFF!

DIARY DATES

Students return onFriday 4th September

Please check the schoolwebsite

www.hurstmere.org.ukfor dates for next term.

The students finishschool this term onFriday 17th July

at 1.30p.m.

Left to right: Mrs. S Bayar, Director of Science Specialism, GuestSpeaker Mr M Berry, MA, Msc., Cchem., FRSC and Mr A Stringer,Headteacher at the launch of Science as a Specialism on Thursday25th June.

2

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a veryhappy and restful summer holiday. As always, it seems tohave been a very busy year with a vast array of trips andevents accompanying everyday school life and I wish topublicly thank all of my staff who give so willingly of theirtime to enable the boys to participate in so many extracurricular activities.

During Activities Week at the end of term boys will begoing on a host of trips both in the United Kingdom andEurope. Perhaps our most adventurous so far will be agroup of boys and staff who are going to Zambia to coachrugby and who recently enjoyed a day at the ZambianEmbassy as a guest of the High Commissioner. With therecent appointment of a new Media & Displays Co-ordina-tor, Mrs Jackie Dowse, I hope that in future we will not onlycontinue to organise a wide variety of extra curricularevents but also do a better job of regularly informing par-ents by newsletter of our many successes and achieve-ments.

As I am sure you are aware, we were vastly oversubscribedagain this year and look forward to welcoming our newYear 7 students on an induction day at the end of the termand during our Sports Summer School in the holidays. Atthe other end of their schooling, our Year 11 boys haveworked hard for their examinations this summer and thegeneral work ethos has been truly commendable. They willachieve some excellent results and all of us wish themevery success for the future. Our High Performing Spe-cialist Status enabled us to take Science as a secondspecialism to accompany our Sports status and the addi-tional £60,000 annual grant will help us boost this area ofthe curriculum.

We are fortunate to only have a few staffing changes fornext September, but will be saying goodbye to a number of

staff. Ms Power has left theEnglish Department to takeup a post nearer to her homeand will be replaced by MissBradley. Mrs Aziz is leavingthe ICT Department to joinBETHS Grammar Schooland is being replaced by MrWaghorn. Miss O’Brien isleaving the Drama Depart-ment to return to Australiaand is being replaced by MrsWilson. Mr Ras is leaving usand will be replaced by MrEast in the Technology De-partment. Mr Skeete is alsoleaving the Technology De-partment to become a Ten-nis Coach and Miss Hayward will join us in his place. MsLyons is leaving the Mathematics Department and will bereplaced by Mr Nagra who is an Advanced Skills Teacherin Mathematics and formerly Head of Mathematics at Lan-gley Park Boys’ School in Bromley. This will help tostrengthen our Mathematics Department and Mr Nagra willalso work on the cross curricular delivery of Mathematics,particularly in relation to our Science Specialism. Othernew staff joining us in September are Mr Ball in the PEDepartment, Mr Worden in the Science Department and MrJames in the French Department.

I believe that in September I will head the strongest staff Ihave known at the school in the eleven years I have beenat Hurstmere, and so with some excellent Year 11 resultsthis Summer and our new staff, we can look forward tocontinued development next year and even greateraccolades.

Mr A Stringer

Mon 13th Tue 14th Wed 15th Thurs 16th Friday 17thYr 7 Windmill Hill Windmill Hill Windmill Hill Windmill Hill Windmill Hill

Eagle Heights London Zoo London Zoo London Zoo PE DayHip Hop African Dance Hip HopStage Sword FightWorkshop

Bollywood Workshop Kent CircusSkills Workshop

Yr 8 Ardeche/Mersea Ardeche/Mersea Ardeche/Mersea Ardeche ArdechePE Day Technology Day Pain tball Pain tball I.C.T. Day

Thorpe Park ShakespeareExperience

English DayRap Poetry

Karting

France Day TripYr 9 Ardeche/Mersea Ardeche/Mersea Ardeche/Mersea Ardeche Ardeche

Film Project Film Project Film Project Film Project Film ProjectThorpe Park Pain tball PE Day Shakespeare

ExperiencePaintball

I.C.T. Day English DayRap Poetry

Karting

The purpose of this trip was to introduce the changes which have occurred in London over time. It also allowed the pupils to conduct asmall project on the impactof tourism in different, con-trasting environments. Thiswas a fantastic data gather-ing exercise and allowed thepupils to use the data in aninformative way.

The Year 10 students alsovisited Seven Sisters Coun-try Park in the spring term.The purpose of this trip wasto gather primary data fortheir coursework. At SevenSisters Country Park, thepupils used several datagathering techniques at dif-ferent areas of the park tohelp them complete theircoursework when they re-turned to school. Thesetechniques ranged fromsketching of the world re-nowned River Cuckmeremeander to asking mem-bers of the public questionsfrom the questionnairesthey had created before thevisit.

The trip was a great oppor-tunity for the GCSE studentsto see some geography out-side of the classroom. Thislocation provided excellentopportunities to see coastalmanagement techniques atfirst hand, impacts of tour-ism on an area and how itcan be managed, all withthe back drop of the SevenSisters white cliffs.

Mr A ReddyHead of Geography

Year 7At the start of the year, thewhole of Year 7 took part ina Geography field trip to theDocklands Museum in Lon-don. The trip was aimed atintroducing how London,and specifically the Dock-lands, has changed overtime. The trip involved atour of the museum whichcontains several exhibitionsdetailing key points in histo-ry which have changed theshape of London. Theseinclude times of piracy andWorld War II. The pupilshad the opportunity to expe-rience a stay in an air raidshelter and a walk throughthe old streets of London’sDocks in Sailor Town, whichis an authentic reconstruc-tion of the dock area of Lon-don from the 1800s.

Outside the museum, thepupils could see the con-trast between the old dockyard warehouses which re-main and the new financialarea of London includingCanary Wharf.

Year 10In the autumn term, the Year10 GCSE students travelledinto London to study howthe area of St. Katharine’sDock has changed overtime and the impact thattourism now has on the ar-ea. We then moved toGreenwich to study the im-pact of tourism at the CuttySark area and in GreenwichPark itself. Whilst in Green-wich Park, the students ex-plored different areasincluding the Naval Museumand the Royal Observatory.

On January 28th a group of Year 11 students wentto London for the day to attend a French GCSEconference. After our journey on the train (where the lastcoach had been reserved for Hurstmere) and tube, wejoined another 700 students from schools all over the coun-try. The day consisted of interactive activities led by FrenchGCSE specialists and sketches performed by BBC actors.The boys had a great time and they left the conference withfresh ideas and tips for their GCSE revision.

Following the success of the conference, the French Depart-ment organised a similar day trip to London on 9th March,this time for Year 10 students. Forty of our boys attended anational conference which targeted the specific topics ofYear 10 French GCSE. The boys showed exemplary behav-iour and learnt a lot from the day.

Thanks to Mme Marchioni, Mrs Guyan, Mme Antoniol andMrs Wootton for accompanying the boys and making eachof the conferences an enjoyable and valuable experience.

Mme L Notton - Head of Languages

FRENCH GCSE - CONFERENCE

We have now completed our secondyear of food technology in theschool and it has proved popularwith both lower and upper schoolstudents.

KS3 - Due to the large GCSE optionuptake we have been unable to includeYear 7 in our rotations, apart from avery small number of lucky students.From September 2009 we will be start-

ing some after school sessions - THE COOK CLUB - sopupils in Year 7 and 8 can come to the Food Technology areaand learn some skills whilst making some tasty food. Both MrDay and Vicki, the Food Technology assistant, would like to saya big thank-you to all of the boys who have worked so well inthe room this year. Next year we have more time with eachgroup in KS3 so we will be able to do even more cooking

KS4 - Our first GCSE group have just completed their finalexams, and we look forward eagerly to August when we canfind out how well they have done. The current year 10 havenow started, and are working well on their coursework projects,which they should be completing by the end of January 2010.Good luck to all our leavers, our current groups, and to all thosestarting in September.

Mr M Day Head of Food Technology

Food Technology

3

Field TripsGEOGRAPHY -

A trip to The Somme with the History Department, for Year 9s was arrangedby Miss Power. Students reading the novel ‘Private Peaceful’ were invited tovisit the place where one of the most infamous battles of World War I tookplace.

Year 11 students took part in the yearly trip to the Poetry Live Conference,where they had the opportunity to listen to and watch some of the poets fromtheir GCSE ‘Anthology’ and were given exam tips by the chief examiner.

Two Year 10 students, Serhan Mehmet andMichael May were successful in the regional Speak-out Challenge Competition, making it through tothe Kent finals, held at Chislehurst and SidcupGrammar School.

“The Red Stallion” school newspaper, now in its second year, has gone fromstrength to strength with the new Year 7 cohort adding fresh ideas. MissRosillo holds the meetings once a month.

This year’s Activity Week holds more interesting events in store; a specialvisit from a popular poet and a two day Shakespeare extravaganza. This willinclude performances from a theatre group and some fascinating works.

The weekly meetings for the Carnegie Awards have enabled Year 7 and 8students to pick their favourite book for the award. They will be doing apresentation in front of other schools in the Borough at Townley Grammar atthe end of June.

Mrs. Nunes accompanied several Year 8 students on an Aim Higher ‘HarryPotter Day’ which enabled them to have a taster day at GreenwichUniversity and the opportunity to interview the students of Greenwich Univer-sity. University staff and students, some dressed in Harry Potter costumes,led a variety of Potter-themed activities and challenges to educate and enter-tain the boys.

The pupils encountered Hedwig’s owl cousin who flew in from Eagle Heights,Kent’s Bird of Prey Centre at Eynsford. Other events included a Hat MakingChallenge, Quidditch Trophy Challenge and workshops with a design, drama,science and sports theme. The pupils also produced a newsletter about theday.

A representative from the charity 'Support OurSoldiers' came into a Year 9 English lesson anddiscussed, with students, her sons' experiencesof fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.The class donated parcels of essential and luxury items,that they had put together for the charity to ship out toBritish soldiers, and also wrote letters of support to sol-diers serving abroad.

Year 7 were also involved in this charity campaign and donated over 350 items. Soldierscame into a special Year 7 assembly to collect the gifts and posed for photographs.

Year 7 form group Melbourne: Promoted and advertised the parcel campaign and arenow working on the next charity campaign for ‘Support Our Soldiers’.  They are going toencourage Year 7 form groups to collect as many used stamps as possible which will helpraise funds for serving British soldiers. If you want to find out more about this charity goto www.supportoursoldiers.co.uk

English and Media Studies

4

English and Media Studies GCSE Media Studies:Two successful work-shops involving sixty Year10 Media and Drama stu-dents ran in school on the29th and 30th April 2009.Professionals in televisiondrama, including the cur-rent first assistant direc-tor of 'The Bill', taught theboys how to  act and filmone scene, and then writeand film their own policedramas. The boys wereextremely creative and en-gaged with the activities,especially the group workusing their own hand-heldcameras, and theylearnt  some invaluabletips to use in the class-room.  The Act-ed compa-ny will be returning forActivities Week in July.

Year 11 Trip to BFISouthbank Confer-ence on TelevisionQuiz Shows: This topicforms part of their exami-nation syllabus. The boyswere complimented ontheir behaviour and inter-est in the day.

Year 9 English: Twentyboys from Year 9 went ona reward trip through theJack Petchy Award Fund,to the Imperial War Muse-um, London.  This sup-ported their reading of twoFirst World War novelsand was a cross-curricularevent with the History de-partment.

Mrs A ElliottHead of English

The earthcolumnrose high-er andhigher toalmost4,000 feet.There ithung, orseemed tohang, for amoment inthe air, like

the silhouette of some greatcypress tree, then fell awayin a widening cone of dustand debris.”

Early attempts to fill it inwere resisted and the landwas eventually purchasedby Richard Dunning to en-sure it would be preserved.The Lochnagar memorialand a cross made with woodnow mark the site.

We also saw the ThiepvalMemorial which is dedicat-ed to the missing of theSomme which bears thenames of more than 72,000officers and men of the Unit-ed Kingdom and South Afri-can forces who died in WW1in the Somme sector before20 March 1918 and have noknown grave. Over 90 per-cent of those commemorat-ed died between July andNovember 1916. Our tourguide was very knowledge-able and the boys were ex-cellent.

Mr S SyplywczakHead of History

Historyin Theatre

Thursday 12th March – TheHistory Department ar-ranged for a touring theatregroup to visit Hurstmere inorder to perform historicalplays to both Year 7 andYear 9. Before lunch Y9were treated to a play‘Doomed Youth’ about theeffects of World War I onBritish society. After lunchY7 were enthralled by a pro-duction of ‘Time Tunnel’, alook at medieval historythrough the eyes of a timetraveller. Both performanc-es were very well receivedby the boys and it was athoroughly entertaining day.

Y9 Cross-curricularTrip to the SommeBattlefieldsOn Friday 17th October theEnglish and History depart-ments combined to run a tripto the Somme battlefields

for around50 Year 9students.

It was afantasticday link-ing withthe studiesof WorldWar I in his-tory and‘PrivatePeaceful’(the novel by

Michael Morpur-go) in English.Children's Laure-ate Michael Mor-purgo wrote thisgentle and deeplymoving depictionof World War I, asseen through theeyes of TommoPeaceful, a sol-dier who faces the firingsquad at dawn. It skips be-tween memories of a hardbut joyful childhood in ruralEngland and the depravityof life in the trenches as heattempts to reconcile thetwo very different sides ofhis brief life.

We visited the Lochnagarcrater which was made bythe Lochnagar Mine, an ex-

plosive-packed mine,which was detonated at7.28 am on 1 July 1916,the first day of the Battleof the Somme. The ex-plosion was witnessedfrom the air by 2ndLieutenant C.A. Lewisof No. 3 SquadronRFC:

“The whole earthheaved and flashed,a tremendous andmagnificent columnrose up in the sky.There was an ear-splitting roardrowning all theguns, flinging themachine side-ways in the re-percussing air.

5

At the end of Year 10,students are expectedto do a two week WorkExperience. During thistime the students willbe expected to under-take duties in a workingenvironment so as tohave some understand-ing of working practic-es.Found by the studentsthemselves and verified withBexley Education BusinessPartnership, these place-ments also generate vitaldocumentation for students’leaving files.  Placementsare many and varied; in re-cent years students havecontinued to work in smalllocal firms, multi-national in-stitutions and even with theMayor of London!

What is constant, however,is the level of praise our stu-dents receive from theirWork Experience employersand from the Borough forthe quality of the place-ments themselves.

Mr K Mackenzie-Ingle

WORKEXPERIENCE6th - 17thJuly 2009

Fund Raising-

Cake Sale

6

D R A M A

bullying workshops for Bexley primary school children at the Children’s Parliament Conference in March.

Sketching to Success!With an impressive A*- C grade GCSE pass rate of 81.5%last summer and the successful completion of the ‘Soccer-Henge’ sculpture gardenproject by a group of thisyear’s Yr11 pupils in lastyear’s Activity Week – it wasalways going to be a ‘tallorder’ to build on these suc-cesses this year!

‘Soccer-Henge’In last year’s work experi-ence and Activity Week, year10 pupils (Daniel Plummer,Ryan McGandy, JoshuaJenner, Jack Campbell, Jake Sauders, MaxBrooker, Christopher Caddock and JosephRutherford-Axcell) garden-landscaped thegrass area between the Art Department andthe Year 9 playground - and made and sited11 ‘breeze block’ carved sculptures, basedon the idea of combining ancient historicmonoliths with a carefully chosen ‘greatestever’ football team. Please feel free to come and see theresult of the boys’ hard work when you next visit the school.

The talent, enthusiasm and hard work of our boys hasmeant we have continued to build on our previous achieve-ments –

Bassett, Reiss Berry, George Webb, Callum Eden,Erman Yenican, Billy Killick, Jamie Brown,Ryan Gregory and Luke Higgins, were highlycommended in a national portrait competition,and are to have their work published in the‘National School Art Portfolio’.

earned the school a £500first prize in the Bexley Po-lice graphics competition –his logo design will be usedby the Bexley CommunityPolicing Group.

have high hopes for ourlargest ever GCSE Art Op-tion cohort with their art ex-am results this summer.Good luck to all our schoolleavers in this, and all theirother exams.

Mr D BlowerHead of Art

Work getting under way on thesculpture project July 08 and thefinished ‘Soccer-Henge’ sculpturesin the garden June 09

Year 10 used professional Trestle Masks to exploremasks and mime as part of their Drama GCSE. be running various workshops including Hip Hop and

Street Dance, Circus Skills and African Dance. Amember of the West End Show ‘Stomp’ is coming into work with the Year 7’s on rhythm and movement.

Head Teachers’ Conference at the Marriot Hotel inBexleyheath in July. The aim is to raise awarenessof communication issues between schools and par-ents, through Drama.

in a Dance Club and will beperforming their work during aYear 7 assembly in July. Theystudied Hip-Hop and Streetdance styles, with a visitingtutor from the company ‘DanceCheer 49’, for twelve weeks.

Ms L WoodwardHead of Drama

GCSE DramaThe Drama GCSE examinations werevery successful this year, with a range ofplays performed in the Drama studio.

‘OurCoun-

triesGood’ -

(left to right) MatthewMcDonald, Matthew Wright,Liam Hollands, Nathan Trus-cott, Josh Ravens and LewisByron as the officers.

7

‘Find Me’ - (above and below)Daniel Furlonger as Vinnie withTroy Steele, Dexter Cook, MichaelHorgan, Stephen Walker andJoe Bradley.

“Bouncers” ...

... a very popular choice,with three different inter-pretations.

‘Brighton Beach

Scumbags’ - (left

to right) Jonathan Hart, Luke

Hazelwood and Daniel Gar-

ner.

‘Accidental Death of anAnarchist’ - (left to right)Kerian King, Jamie Hutchinson,John Andrews andAryan Hashtrudie.

in the Outer London areas. This discussion was part of aStudent Voice project on knife crime following the death ofRob Knox at the end of Hurst Road on the 24th May 2008.Mr. Conway said, “The questions were very polite but alsovery much to the point. They were particularly interestedin violent crime issues, having been part of a school projecton knife crime. The boys varied in age range but eachquestion was thoughtful and well put. They were anarticulate, bright group who did credit to their parents andthe school”.

The MP added, “Parliament can sometime overawe visi-tors but this group came well prepared and were not to befobbed off with any politician’s ducking and diving. Theywanted straight answers to their straight questions and hadtheir own views on why violent crime is growing. We wouldall do well to listen to their generation more carefully and Ifound the experience very encouraging to know that thisexcellent school is turning out first rate students.”

Mr D Cleary

The School Councilbattles Swine-flu!This term the StudentVoice has been workinghard to clean up theschool. The SchoolCouncil have been debat-ing ways of improving thequality of cleanlinesswithin the school toiletsand have agreed the fit-ting of a new liquid soapdispenser which will im-

prove the standard of hygiene for everyone in school. Thiswas driven by senior councillor Kirk Porter.

Student Research TeamTo support the School Council a team of student research-ers has been selected after an application process. Theyare currently researching standards of hygiene around theschool by focusing on surveys taken in form time.

MP quizzed by form representativesBack in February a group of form representatives fromacross the age demographic of the school visited theirlocal MP, Derek Conway. The boys were given a tour ofparliament and were received in their MP’s private cham-bers for a very open discussion on the rise of knife crime

Ms Mackler would like to congrat- ulate all of the Year 7s for a fantastic startto their time at Hurstmere! The year has gone tremen-dously well and this is due to the polite behaviour and hardworking efforts of the whole year group. It is clearly a teamof boys with great ability and I look forward to seeing thatdevelop throughout Year 8.

As a team we have alreadyexperienced some enjoyableevents together! From "FormAssemblies" where studentsworked hard to present totheir entire year group the in-formation about the Olympiccity their form is named after,to a disco in February and twoskating trips to Gillingham, ev-eryone has been kept quitebusy. The students haveworked very hard to gainpoints for their form in the"Inter-Form Competition".

We know for sure that Los Angeles has won the first half ofthe competition, but the next few weeks will decide whichform wins the second half! Keep up the fantastic work boysand Year 8 should be as successful as this first year hasbeen!

Ms L MacklerHead of Year 7

8

MP for Bexley, Derek Conway

Year 7 ice skating trips to the Ice Rink,Gillingham

Year 9As we come to the end of Key stage 3 it is mypleasure to report that Hurstmere Year 9 aregenerally in good shape and ready to face thechallenge of Key Stage 4 in preparation foradult life. Three years have gone by fast butin that time boys have gained confidence andmaturity and built up the knowledge requiredto take them on to their chosen courses andGCSE’s.

Many have excelled on the sports field, in drama,music and other extra curricular activities put on by theschool and in the community. This is an important partof their education and getting the balance right in thenext two years will bring the results that every parentwill be proud of and every pupil will need given thecurrent economic situation the country faces. Theworkload from now on may mean less TV and compu-ter games time and set aside time in the holidays forcourse work which is a large part of the overall gradein many subjects. There is no doubt that boys whowork hard, follow instructions and stop finding excuseswhy work could not be completed will benefit in thelong run.

Having been a Head of Year for more years than Iwould like to remember, I can say that this is a goodyear group and my colleagues agree. It is often thecase that in the final two years the boys become evenmore focused on the goal of their final exams. Asparents you may be seeing changes in your son as hegoes through puberty and also wants more independ-ence. For some these can be difficult times and ifthere is any way the school can help please do nothesitate to contact me.

Finally I would like to thank the tutors for all their help,much of which goes un-noticed, and you, the parents,for your support. Getting your children in school, ontime and prepared to be able to work is vitally impor-tant. I would also remind you that taking holidaysduring term time in the next two years can disrupt hislearning. Let us continue the partnership for the goodof your children. You have the pleasure of your child’scompany over the next six weeks, so enjoy the holi-days and we look forward to his return in September.

Mr G Jagniaszek - Head of Year 9

I am writing as Head of Year for the last time because,as most of you are aware, from 22nd June 2009 my rolewithin the school changed. I have moved from Head ofYear to Head of the Science Department. I have had avery enjoyable and rewarding time working within theschool’s pastoral system but I am looking forward to thedifferent challenges and experiences that my new rolewill bring, especially in view of the School recentlybeing awarded Specialist Science College status. Thisis a very exciting time to be a part of an expandingdepartment.

Your son’s new Head of Year will be Mr Joyce, who iscurrently Head of Year 11. I have been working closelywith him over the past few weeks and will continue todo so to ensure continuity of your son’s pastoral care.

I would like to thank you for your support over the pasttwo years and I wish your son every success as heprogresses into Year 9.

Year 8 have had a very successful year and have beeninvolved in a variety of activities including a trip to theDavid Beckham Academy in Greenwich and a RaisingAspirations day. They have a number of things to lookforward to in Activities Week including a trip to theArdeche region of France, a trip to Mersea Island,Go-Karting, Paintball and a trip to Thorpe Park amongstother activities running within school. Next year theymust continue to achieve and work hard as they will bechoosing which subjects they would like to study in KeyStage 4.

Mrs. W Day - Ex Head of Year 8

Year 8

9

On Monday 22nd June 2009 Mrs Day “handed over thebaton” to myself as the Head of Year 8. I would like towish her a successful time as Head of Science in thisexciting time for Science at Hurstmere, and to thank herfor all her hard work and efforts in moulding such agreat group of boys. I am looking forward to the re-sponsibility of guiding your sons through their final threeyears at Hurstmere, not just helping them achieve goodexamination results but assisting them in their socialdevelopment, as they turn from boys to young adults.

This coming year, when options will be taken, is a veryimportant time in the boys’ education. It has shaped thepath for many pupils and has led them towards a careerof their choosing. Making the right option choices canbe so vital and if this is done sensibly and thoughtfullythen the boys can enjoy a focused approach to theirKS4 studies.

A favourite part of my job is to get to know each andevery pupil in the year group and understand all thedifferent personalities and their specific needs. Overthe next three years I am also looking forward to work-ing with you, the parents, and together supporting yoursons at Hurstmere.

Mr G Joyce - Ex Head of Year 11, new Head of Year 8

Sports NewsSports News

Due to the large amount of sport that takesplace at Hurstmere, Mr Simpson will contin-ue to produce the ‘Sports College News’,where most of the year’s sports news will befeatured. However, our Sports Days weresuch a triumph for many students, that it wasdecided to dedicate a page of the school’sNewsletter to celebrate the boys’ sportingachievements on the track.

10

On Monday 8th June, fourteen Year 10 pupils were invitedby the Zambian High commissioner to visit the Zam-bian Embassy in recognition of the work that we willbe doing in their country coaching underprivilegedchildren in Lusaka.

The school has joined forces with the Tag Rugby Develop-ment Trust who go to many areas of the world that have arugby structure in place but struggle to progress due tosocial and economic circumstances. Our boys will bevisiting many parts of the country taking kit and equipmentwith them. The trip is being organised by P. E. Teacher,Mr Robinson. They will then spend a week teaching theyoungsters how to play tag rugby and the week will culmi-nate in a tag tournament. With the equipment and knowl-edge that our pupils leave behind it is hoped that the lessfortunate youngsters will continue to get the enjoyment ofplaying and in turn improve the Rugby structure in thecountry. The Boys have had to raise a sum of £10,500 tohelp subsidise the trip and they have carried out a numberof fundraising events to reach this target. To name a few:-

Staff Race Night Bag packing at Morrisons Inter-form football and rugby Valentine’s Disco Refreshments at Parents’ Evening Sponsored swim - (thanks to the support of Crook Log

Leisure centre) swimming the equivalent of the Englishchannel in a massive team effort.

Tag Rugby Festival and Family Fun Day where all of thePrimary Schools in Bexley, Bromley and Greenwichwere invited to participate, led by the boys. We intendto repeat the event next year.

Many of the events the boys have organised have involvedmany local organisations and we would like to thank all ofthe people involved. As part of the fundraising activitiesalone, the boys have gained many skills including leader-ship, project management, enterprise skills and teamwork.

Mr K WadsworthHead of P.E.

The result of this year’s School FantasyFootball League was, as ever, a closerun thing. Despite a storming last monthfrom Luke Callegari (Year 8) he was stillseven points short of overhauling TomClifford (Year 10).

The FA Cup competition was even clos-er with Joe Lynch (Year 8) surpassingBen Fraser (Year 8) by just two points.Joe needed every round in the competi-tion to win as he only passed Ben’stotal after the Cup Final itself.

Overall Results:

1st - Tom Clifford (Year 10)2nd - Luke Callegari (Year 8)3rd - Hasan Aysal (Year 8)

Year Winners:

Year 7 – Harry MaherYear 8 – Luke CallegariYear 9 – James McMahonYear 10 – Tom CliffordYear 11 – Dan BoatmanStaff – Mr. Joyce

FA Cup Winner – Joe Lynch

Entry packs will once again beAvailable in late September/earlyOctober for all pupils and staff.

Mr N WhiteChairman, Hurstmere Fantasy Football League

Tom Clifford

LukeCallegari,

HasanAysal

andJoe

Lynch

11

A number of students previously unattached toextra-curricular sport have found their niche in the Mar-tial Arts group, who are devoted to their after school train-ing on Wednesdays from 3.30 - 4.15. They are affiliated tothe Hyo Gen Do group outside of school and do all theirgradings at Swanscombe. At the last grading on the 19thApril several pupils passed their belts.

Mrs G McGill - Head of Religious Studies

Year 10 Work Experience in Africa

ZAMBIA - Tag Rugby

12

WorshipfulCompany ofBarbers’MedicalActivity DayThis trip was organised in conjunction with BexleyBorough’s Aim Higher programme which aims to raisestudent’s aspirations and encourage them to considerFurther Education after they finish their GCSE’s.

The students were selected from those studying for GCSEAdditional Applied Science – a course which aims to pro-vide students with some of skills needed for work or furtherstudy in a science based environment.

After travelling to London Bridge by train, the students tookpart in an interactive lecture on the Cardiovascular Systemwhich took place in one of Kings College’s science labora-tories. They learnt about the basic anatomy and physiologyof the heart including looking at preserved specimens ofhearts that showed a number of different disorders includ-ing heart attacks and replacement valves. They were alsogiven the opportunity to dissect a lamb’s heart, althoughsome students embraced this with more enthusiasm thanothers! The event was delivered by a former governmentpathologist who was able to add a number of rather grue-some stories of her own; she was assisted by studentscurrently studying medicine at Kings.

After lunch the students were given a tour of the university,including lecture theatres, the library, ICT facilities andstudent common room.

During the afternoon session the students were given theopportunity to examine both normal ECG traces, and thoseof people who had suffered from a heart attack. They alsolearnt about ways in which heart attack victims can betreated and preventative measures that can be taken toprevent the likelihood of that happening. The session end-ed with a ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ style quiz.

Overall a fun and informative day was had by all with thestudents gaining knowledge to support them in their GCSEScience exams. The students behaved impeccablythroughout the day and were a credit to the school.

Mrs W Day - Head of Science

On Wednesday 17th June a group of twelveYear 8 and 9 boys attended a Science & Tech-nology challenge day, funded by Bexley coun-cil and in collaboration with GreenwichUniversity.

The day involved the boys working in teams of four, twomembers of each team being from a different school.Each team was given one of a number of “challenges”with some basic equipment with which to work. Onesuch challenge was to build a bridge, using only paper,string and masking tape.

What made the day a success was that participantswere made to work outside their ”comfort zones” byquickly building a team with two strangers and usingtheir initiative and creativity to find a solution to thechallenge. Hurstmere boys did extremely well in devel-oping team work very quickly and Josh O’Flynn andElliott Roworth won first prize for their “self-rightingbuoy”. Of the eight participating schools, Hurstmeretook third place amongst some tough competition and,as would be expected, all the boys’ behaviour andconduct was exemplary throughout the day. They wereall worthy “Ambassadors” for the school and we shouldbe proud of them.

Mr P Dovell

On Friday 26th June, our Year 7 students impressed theMayor of Bexley, Cllr Bernard Clewes with their WaterProject, which was part of the ‘Building a SustainableFuture’ Science Theme Day. The Mayor visited severalclasses during his morning tour of the school accomo-panied by Mr Stringer, Mr Stollery and Mr Cleary.

Bexley’s Mayor Visits Hurstmere

Left to Right:Toby Hosier, Cllr Bernard Clewes, Ben Hughes and Dean Tucker.

Produced by J. Dowse - Printed by EHV Printers Limited July 09