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Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems a long time ago. This term has primarily been dominated by the Ofsted inspection. A lot of our attention has been given to the inspection on top of the many day -to-day events that regularly take place. I hope you all have had a chance to read the full report which was published a couple of weeks ago. If you would like to attend the Ofsted Parent Q & A Session on Tuesday 26 February, please do make contact with the school. The other highlights for me this term have been to accompany the 24 students who partici- pated in this years Harvard Model United Nations Conference, and to enjoy getting to know the students who put themselves forward to be next year s School Captain and School Vice-Captain. Spending time with these stu- dents is such a pleasure – they are an inspiration and a credit to the school. I would particularly like to acknowledge Tom Hudson and Joe Taylor of Year 12 who received an honorary mention by the or- ganisers at the Harvard Conference Closing Ceremony. Well done gentlemen. I am also pleased to announce that from April the new School Cap- tain will be Jonah Diomede and the new School Vice-Captain will be Jack Ward. These two students are fine Maidstonians and were very impressive throughout the entire interview process. We wish them well. Finally, congratulations to the cadets of the RAF section who won the South East Region RAF Air Squadron Trophy Competition. They were tremendous on the day representing their school and their unit, producing consistently good scores in all disciplines. They are now preparing for the National Competition in a few weeks. Good luck to them. Do enjoy the rest of this newsletter which is packed full of news and success stories. Have a wonderful half term break.

Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

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Page 1: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

Maidstone Grammar

School

Newsletter

Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems a long time ago. This term has primarily been dominated by the Ofsted inspection. A lot of our attention has been given to the inspection on top of the many day-to-day events that regularly take place. I hope you all have had a chance to read the full report which was published a couple of weeks ago. If you would like to attend the Ofsted Parent Q & A Session on Tuesday 26 February, please do make contact with the school.

The other highlights for me this term have been to accompany the 24 students who partici-pated in this year’s Harvard Model United Nations Conference, and to enjoy getting to know

the students who put themselves forward to be next year’s School Captain and School Vice-Captain. Spending time with these stu-dents is such a pleasure – they are an inspiration and a credit to the school. I would particularly like to acknowledge Tom Hudson and Joe Taylor of Year 12 who received an honorary mention by the or-ganisers at the Harvard Conference Closing Ceremony. Well done gentlemen.

I am also pleased to announce that from April the new School Cap-tain will be Jonah Diomede and the new School Vice-Captain will be Jack Ward. These two students are fine Maidstonians and were very impressive throughout the entire interview process. We wish them well.

Finally, congratulations to the cadets of the RAF section who won the South East Region RAF Air Squadron Trophy Competition. They were tremendous on the day representing their school and their unit, producing consistently good scores in all disciplines. They are now preparing for the National Competition in a few weeks. Good luck to them.

Do enjoy the rest of this newsletter which is packed full of news and success stories. Have a wonderful half term break.

Page 2: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

Harvard Model United Nations 2019

MGS February Newsletter

“The experience of a lifetime”, “the best school trip”, these are a few things I have heard from students that went on the Harvard Model United Nations trip after a weeklong trip to the United States that did not disappoint. The way this trip shapes young people into leaders

of tomorrow is something truly special and a real privilege given to students by MGS.

The week begun with a long plane trip to New York where we began to settle into the American lifestyle of the bright lights and great food of Manhattan. The week of sightseeing begun with us trekking the long streets of New York City, taking in the mass of skyscrapers and trying to adjust to the subzero conditions of -15 degrees Celsius, let’s just say it was so cold one student’s eyelashes froze on the Brooklyn Bridge! As someone who has visited New York City before it was a pleasure to not only get to do it all over again and see the excitement of others as they took in the never ending skyline on top of the Empire State Building and eating the classic New York street food, it was a pleasure to spend it with some of my best friends. The trip into New York also allowed some experiences that you could not find anywhere else with a trip to the United Nations a specific highlight for me as getting to witness a significant building that has shaped the history of the world was a sight to behold. Being able to walk the same halls as influential leaders such as Winston Churchill and Barack Obama was a truly special experience that will always be surreal for me.

The real hard work of the trip started when we arrived at Boston and checked into the Sheraton hotel where we would be staying for the duration of the conference and where we began to experience the true wonders of the experience. Meeting people from all around the world really broadens your view on humanity as a whole and I know friends have been made that will last a lifetime. This coupled with the intense nature of Harvard debating, where one delegate even woke up at 4am to write a draft resolution led to a frantic weekend filled with excitement and some really high level of debating. The conference was broken up into 6 sessions of debating with some of the world’s smartest academics with our delegations representing Iran and Lithaunia, this has allowed us all to look at viewpoints that we do not hold and empathise with people that we would have never empathised with before.

This is how I know that no one that attended this trip will ever forget it as it was not only an experience that has left us with unforgettable memories, it has molded us into the leaders of tomorrow and this is why I’d highly recommend it to the year 11’s who are wishing to attend MGS’s sixth form in the next academic year. You will not regret it.

By Matthew Wesson

Page 3: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

Harvard Model United Nations 2019

Page 4: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

MGS Summer Newsletter 2017

Record breaking Charity Day

MGS February Newsletter 2019

On Friday 1st February, Corpus Christi House held a charities day to support the Local Mid-Kent Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA). We chose this charity as students and teachers at Maidstone Grammar School have been helped by MNDA in coping with the loss of loved ones and making memorable days out to create cherished memories.

Throughout the week leading up to the charity day, Corpus Christi and other house prefects sold raffle tickets for a chance to win prizes. Prizes had been kindly donated by the local community and included two Maidstone United football tickets, Gillingham ice skating tickets, a £50 voucher for Senacre cycles and many more!

On the day our prefect team and various students throughout the school helped run fayre stalls at break time. These proved very popular and included guess the weight of the cake, guess the sweets in the jar alongside a cake stand whereby cakes were made by sixth form students beforehand. Other students helped make candyfloss, hot chocolate and caramel popcorn also.

Next was lunch the lunch time activities where there were numerous events as well as some of the above fayre stalls. The Big Hall event was a teachers and staff band playing at lunchtime for £1 entry. The staff band performed “Anarchy in the UK” and the student band played “The Eye of the Tiger” all with the teachers dressed up in 80’s themed fancy dress for the day.

Page 5: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

MGS Summer Newsletter 2017

Charity Day

MGS February Newsletter 2019

The most popular event was organised by form Cr7, this was the arrival of three supercars, generously provided by Supercars of London. The students had the opportunity to view a Porsche, a Ferrari and a Lamborghini, all driven by the generous owners who came down from London to help raise money for the cause. Students had the opportunity to have a photo taken in the cars for £1. These cars proved very popular and we are very grateful for Paul Wallace and his friends for supporting us. We are happy to report that we raised £400

from this event alone!

All these events collectively organised by the Corpus Christi prefect team and other students raised £2791.35! With the help of the JustGiving page which raised £320 from the generous donations from the public which is a new school charity total record. We are so pleased to be able to provide Local Mid Kent MNDA with this donation as we know it will greatly help the local community. We also want to thank everyone who helped raise this amazing total.

Thank you very much

Scarlett Grindle

Page 6: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

School News & Achievements

William Luckhurst from Barton house had an extremely successful day at the UK Cold Water Swimming Championships. William entered 5 events which consisted of 90m freestyle, 30m Butterfly, 30m Freestyle, 30m Breaststroke and a 4 person relay. The water temperature was below 3 Celsius. William came away with 5 gold medals having won each of his events. As far as we know that was the most medals won by an individual in this championships this year. Williams aim is for the World Championships in Bled next year. Best of luck William.

Congratulations to Daniel Lloyd of Tonbridge House who took part in the British Cycling National Cyclocross Championships. He competed in the U14s race held at the Cyclopark in Gravesend on a very tough and technical course, with Daniel having to do the same course as the Elite Pro men who compete in World Cup races. The course had 40m of sand, a steep 30% hill, a scaffolding bridge, steps, muddy off-camber sections, and road sections. Only the top competitors qualify for the British Championships based on points accumulated from races earlier in the season. First to be set off were the 80 competitors in the U16s and then 2 minutes later the 60 competitors in the U14s. It was a five lap race over 40 minutes with a very fast and furious start. Daniel had a steady start but then completed the last laps very strongly to finish in 8th place overall. Well done Daniel and good luck for the British Championships.

Congratulations to Frank Chadwick from College House. Frank won a silver medal in the 50m backstroke at the Kent County Swimming Championships competing against 24 other boys in his age group. Good luck Frank for your future races.

Congratulations to Matt Burrows from Tonbridge House who after winning a bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke final at the Kent County Swimming Championships, came second in the 100m breaststroke and first in the 200m breaststroke in his following competition. His times now rank him 4th in Great Britain in his age group for both these events. We wish Matt good luck for future events.

Page 7: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

MGS Summer Newsletter 2017 MGS February Newsletter 2019

School News & Achievements

Congratulations to Joseph Pickard of College House who has been invited to join the National Children's Brass Band. This is an amazing achievement for him as there are only 4 soprano cornet seats available in the band. Well done Joseph.

Following invitations to attend the U15 Saracens rugby trials just before Christmas, Tom Rowe and Freddie Gache of Corpus Christi House have both been selected for the development squad. They are two of only 13 players from Kent. Well done both.

Congratulations to Matthew Hua from Barton House who won the Maidstone Young Musician competition for 2019. Matthew won this year's competition held at Maidstone Girls Grammar School on

Saturday 19 January with impressive performances of Mozart's Sonata no17 in B flat major, and Chopin's Nocturne in E, opus 61. He competed against 7 other finalists on the night and is now through to the district finals for the national Young Musician competition. Well done Matthew and good luck.

Page 8: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

Student Achievements & News Student Achievements & News

School News & Achievements

MGS February Newsletter 2019

Please come along to Spring Showcase on Thursday 21st March in the Big Hall at 6.30 p.m. There will be a variety of acts including some Drama pieces, Gaudeamus Brass and Senior Big Band performing.

Maidstone 6th Form Apprenticeship Fair

On Friday 8th February all our 6th Form students had the opportunity of attending the 2nd Maidstone Apprenticeship Fair at Maidstone Leisure Centre, Mote Park. The event was open to all 6th Form students attending Maidstone Schools and was organised by Helen Grant MP and former Maidstonian, Alex Rolfe.

The event was a fantastic opportunity for students to meet and engage with a variety of employers and learn about the varying apprenticeship opportunities available to them on completion of A Levels or after a degree. Around 50 employers were present at the event, spanning a variety of industries, including Rolls Royce, BMW, Kent Police, BAE, The Environment Agency, KMPG, Barclays, Gallagher, the NHS and many more. Events like these help give students a greater awareness of the employment options that may be possible after they have completed their full-time education so are a valuable learning experience.

Page 9: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

CCF News Cadets from the CCF RAF Section of Maidstone Grammar School have been training hard for the last year to compete in the 2019 Royal Air Squadron Trophy.

The competition is staged each year and sponsored by Royal Air Squadron. Teams from CCF RAF Sections compete in Regional Heats and the top teams from each of the heats compete in the national finals.

I am pleased to report that the MGS CCF RAF team narrowly won the South East regional Heats on Sunday 3rd February, and as such will go forward to the national finals on the 10th March.

MGS have been six times winners of the National competition, but the title has eluded us for some years.

The competition consists of currently six disciplines, Drill, RAF Knowledge, Shooting, Command (Leadership) Tasks, First Aid and Aircraft Recognition. The team placed in all six at the regional heats so has high hopes going into the final.

We go into the finals against our old foes of Dulwich College and Wilsons School who came second and third in the regional heats.

We wish the team good luck for the 2019 competition.

Page 10: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

CCF News

This year the CCF RAF section have been allocated a 14 place camp at RAF Shawbury (Defence Helicopter School) during extended learning week. Due to the dwindling state of the RAF camps around the UK we are very lucky to even be awarded a summer camp.

The section needs to take a spread of cadets (NCO’s and Cadets) and priority will be given to those who have not camped with the CCF RAF section before.

Please note, the rules dictating the wearing of RAF Uniform on an RAF camp are dictated by the Royal Air Force, as such ALL cadets and staff HAVE to comply with regulations with regard to dress and discipline.

The major factor is haircuts and we are unable to take cadets to summer camp who do not have a smart off the collar haircut.

“The hair of the head is to be well cut and trimmed. Sideburns are to be short and well-trimmed and are not to extend below a line running through the mid-point of the ear. Extreme styles of haircuts and colouring are not permitted.”

Please understand these are RAF regulations and it is a privilege to attend a summer camp at an operational RAF Station

OC RAF Section

Maidstone Grammar School

Page 11: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

News on the MGSPA. Raising Funds, Raising Learning

Our main event this term was our joint Ceilidh and Hog roast, with MGGS, held on Burns Night weekend. This was such a fantastic evening, piped in by our resident bagpiper, former Headteacher, Mr Neil Turrell, and was enjoyed by everyone who came along.

Our next event in the calendar is our Quiz Night on Friday 8th March at 7.30pm. Test yourself on all things Europe, and enjoy a Ploughman’s supper too! Please get your teams set up and money into the Bursary, so we can cater for the correct numbers.

The Clothes Recycling bin has now arrived and is sited next to the sports hall. Please leave all your bagged unwanted clothes and paired shoes in the bin, and all monies raised are split equally between The Salvation Army and the School. We are also happy to receive curtains, towels and duvet covers.

We receive regular donations via the easyfundraising site where members have shopped online via this website. We now have 384 registered members and have raised £6160 since launching this initiative. This doesn’t require you to do much apart from visit your online shop via this site and click away! PLEASE, PLEASE JOIN IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY – it’s extremely straightforward and doesn’t cost you a penny to sign up.

We need more people to take part in our lottery – The 100 Club. Entry is £30 for the year, with monthly draws of £50, and a special Draw in December of £1000! Entry forms can be found here:

http://www.mgs.kent.sch.uk/assets/Uploads/PA/mgspa-100-club-application-form.pdf

Matched Giving - please take a look at the list of companies that we know are involved with matched giving, and get in touch with your personnel/HR department to ask about this. It can make quite a difference to our fund raising!

Page 12: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

News on the MGSPA Raising Funds, Raising Learning

Empties Please is a another green initiative, whereby the school receives money, in return for recycling used printer cartridges, so please bring in both spent ink cartridges, and also toner cartridges from laserjet printers. Ask at work, if you can have a specially designated bin for MGS. The more we collect, the more we raise. So far we have raised over £600 from ‘rubbish’.

Join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mgspanews, and visit the website at www.mgspa.org.uk

Finally, the Parents' Association would like to thank all of you who have supported us during this term. Please check our pages regularly on the school’s website to see what events are coming up and where the funds are spent. Remember, your PA is only as good as the support it receives from you, the parents!

Why not GET INVOLVED? There are many ways that you can help. Please contact the Parents Association via the school website, or talk to us at one of our events

Upcoming PA Events:

• 8 March— Quiz Night

• 30 March—Spring Fair

Page 13: Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter · 2019-09-17 · Maidstone Grammar School Newsletter Welcome to this Spring Newsletter. Despite Term 3 being only six weeks long, Christmas seems

Diary Dates

Contact us

Maidstone Grammar School Barton Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME15 7BT 01622 752101 [email protected]

MGS February Newsletter 2019

Term 4

25 February 2019 - First Day of Term 4 - Week 2

25 February 2019 - Y11 Mini mock week & 6th form appointments

4—8 March 2019 - Y10 Internal Exams in the Big Hall

11 March 2019 - Y13 Parents’ Evening (4.30pm-7.30pm)

15 March 2019 - Charity Day—Comic Relief

20 March 2019 - Spring Showcase

26 March 2019 - Y11 Parents’ Evening (4.30pm-7.30pm)

28 March 2019 - Careers Fair (periods 1 to 4)

1 –2 April 2019 - Y9 Immunisations

5 April 2019 - Last day of Term 3

23 April 2019 - First day of Term 5 - Week 2

Please remember that the School attendance email address is: [email protected]

See the Headmaster’s weekly blog and regular news updates on the MGS