The West Bridgford School - A Specialist Technology College

New All-weather Astro Pitch Opening

Helen Richardson (voted UK Womens Player of the Year by the Hockey Writers Club and former student of the West Bridgford School) officiated at the opening ceremony, organised by the Monarchs Hockey Club. Helen now plays hockey for Great Britain, England and Reading and has over 100 caps and represented GB at the Sydney and Beijing Olympics. 

The Monarchs Hockey Club, National Hockey Federation, Rushcliffe Borough Council and WBMHC Buy a Square, all contributed to make this project possible.  A big thank you to them all!

U19 Netball team through to the Nationals!

Congratulations to the U19 Netball team who are the East Midlands champions and will now go on to represent the region nationally! After winning the Nottinghamshire County Tournament, the team faced a tough regional tournament on 30 January 2010 at Soar Valley School in Leicestershire. They were in a section which comprised of teams from John Cleveland, Wellingborough and Trent College. The team got off to a good start with a very close 9-8 victory over John Cleveland and eventually emerged as runners-up of the section. The semi final game against Oakham School would decide whether the team progressed to the National finals and it was a hard match with the team down by 3 goals at half time. However, a fantastic performance by all players led to a 12-10 victory. The final was a re-match against Trent College who had previously beaten us 10-5 in our section. The team put in a tremendous effort and managed to pull off an amazing 11-4 win.

The girls will now be participating in the National Schools Tournament at Roedean School in Brighton on 20 March 2010. The majority of the schools in this tournament are private schools and we will compete alongside these as one of the best 16 schools in the country. Congratulations to the following players and good luck at the National Schools Tournament: Elena Martin, Zoe Shipley, Emma Jacob, Melissa Kenney, Phoebe Penfold, Sadie Penfold, Holly Gascoigne, Abigail Mellors and Charlotte Martin

Football so far.......

This season has seen continued success for our football teams. Earlier in the season the U18 girls reached the last 32 of their national competition and were unfortunate to lose a close game. The year 8 and 9 boys\' teams have also been in outstanding form. Both teams are yet to lose a game in any competition!  The year 8\'s, as well as remaining in the County Cup and South Notts Cup, have reached the last 32 of the National Cup. They will play Roundhay School (Leeds) on Tuesday 26 January (2.30pm kick-off) at West Bridgford School. The year 9 boys\' team, having won every trophy available to them last year, are busy trying to successfully defend them all. They have reached the last 16 of their national cup quest, thanks to a 5-0 victory over Spalding Grammar. Goals from Pierce Bramley (2), Danny Elliott (2) and Tony Shipley sealed a comprehensive victory. The boys now travel to Tameside, Manchester for a place in the quarter finals.

Mr Fidler (PE Teacher)

Year 8 Consultation Event

THIS HAS NOW BEEN RE-SCHEDULED FOR THURSDAY, 25 FEBRUARY 2010. School will therefore finish at 1.13pm on this day. Letter to parents to follow shortly.

Year 8 boys\' football National Cup Match

This fixture is now due to take place next Tuesday, 12 January following recent cancellation.  Please note the letter in our information section for year 8 on the website. Also, keep an eye out on the website for further details.

Children in Need 2009

This year our school has raised a staggering £3,000 for this charity.  Fundraising events included a Wear What you Like Day, Cake Sale, Sponsored Run and various quizzes.  Well done to everyone!

Year 9 Options Evening (Wednesday 2 December)

Parents and students are invited to this most informative evening to give them the opportunity to find out about the courses we offer at key stage four, explore possible option choices for next year and to better understand the process for making subject choices.

Programme for the evening

• Presentations in the Theatre - 5.30pm (9A, B, C), 6.00pm (9D, E, F) and 6.30pm (9G, H)
• Visits to subject stalls in the Main Hall for parents and students to talk to subject leaders

Timescale

• Wednesday, 2 December (Options evening/options booklet distribution)
• Monday, 7 December (Year 9 consultation event)
• Monday, 14 December (Return of Options Choice form)

We look forward to seeing you at these events.

Year 7 success at the British Indoor Rowing Championships (NIA Birmingham)

Four of our year 7 girls competed in the BIRC championships last Sunday, 22 November 2009 and came home with some fantastic results. Willow McGowan-Crewe won the gold medal in the Women Junior 12 race with 517m, followed by Sacha McGowan-Crewe who came 4th (496m), Elise Hutton joint 8th (479 m) and finally Isabella McGowan-Crewe who came in at a creditable joint 14th position (468 m) out of 51 competitors.  Well done to the Hutton McGowan-Crewe crew for this huge achievement!

Children In Need

A superb response to a super cause. Organised by year 11 this year with other year groups chipping in too! The meticulous attention to detail was impressive as the tutor rep team sprung into action. They promoted the event every day in assembly, organised all the collection bags and badges and arranged rotas for the mega cake sale. This alone raised nearly £300 - that's in less than 20 min, remember! Some year 11's brought in four or five boxes of cakes they'd made at home.

The outfits for the day were something of a departure from recent times... they certainly have left a lasting impression -mostly green and blue, on the school. Lycra also featured strongly as a 'must have' item amongst year 11. And, this was all before we'd set off on the Fun Run at Ruddington Park.   160 year 11's set off to walk, skip, 3 legged or 4! legged or ran round the 3k track or twice for the really keen - the 6k run, all sponsored for the children of Great Britain.

I am hugely proud of year 11. They showed exactly how we can work hard and play hard without there being any problems. Their spirit and sheer wholehearted enjoyment of some innocent fun was deeply appreciated and lovely to watch. I can't wait to see how much money we have raised!

WELL DONE YEAR 11 (ALL ALL THE OTHERS WHO HELPED) AND BEST OF LUCK THIS WEEK IN YOUR MOCKS!

New fitness suite and dance studio

The school is delighted with this new facility, handed over to us by the builders last Friday. Lessons have begun in ernest and the students are making fantastic use of the equipment now available to them.  This new facility is the result of a great deal of hard work by many staff in the school and has been funded solely by the school itself. More photographs available on the website. Select 'Letters/newsletters' followed by ' whole school' then the 'fitness suite publication file'

Outstanding start to Cross Country season!

Saturday, 26 September saw this year's cross country season begin with Schools League Race 1 at Berry Hill Park in Mansfield. Taking a squad of over 45 athletes was our biggest yet and on a dry yet demanding course, our athletes exceeded all expectations. We had full teams in five of the six races and the year 7 girls managed to field 3 complete teams!  The stand out team performance on the day was perhaps the year 7 girls, where four athletes finished in the first 12 positions and in addition to the strong team results, there was a great individual run from year 10 girl, Sarah Hemington, who actually won her event, despite running against girls a year older. With so many new runners competing from West Bridgford, the signs are encouraging that we are in for another good year. Well done to everyone who competed. The full results and information on the next event will be in the P.E. folder on the website shortly.

The Tate Modern Gallery (by Joe Thompson Year 11)

Our visit took place on 29 June and after a sweltering coach journey we arrived in London. As we entered the vast Turbine Hall, housing the works of Rachel Whiteread, Doris Salcedo and Carsten Holler, to name but a few, the first thing that struck us was the air conditioning!  For the first portion of our visit we were given free reign, on the condition that we did not leave the allocated areas. Our task was to reproduce two artworks that particularly caught our eye and I can safely say that I rendered my drawings in exquisite detail, paying particular attention to Albert Giacometti's surreally skeletal frames. I then found myself in the Tate Modern bookshop, flitting in ever-increasing fascination from book to book. Whilst in the bookshop I realised what most fascinated me about the Tate; the sheer diversity that was contained in it's colossal industrial walls. Here was a place where I could find a DIY manual to impressionist painting rubbing shoulders with a collection of Boys Own Paper front covers. And it was the same with the artworks: I could meander into Cornelia Parker's Thirty Pieces of Silver, find myself in front of a human face carved in stone by F.E. McWilliam and then walk over to see a surrealist film entitled Meshes of the Afternoon. Such is the immense variety within the Tate Modern that it is simply impossible to see it all in the space of one day.

Students engineer a sustainable future

From 20 - 23 July, Jonathan Bowes (year 11 student) attended a residential course to learn more about renewable sources of energy. Taking place at the University of Newcastle School of Marine Science and Technology, along with 40 other students, he spent time discovering about tidal, wave and wind power.  The four-day programme was specifically designed to help engineering and design and technology students reach a higher attainment target of the National Curriculum. Pupils were provided with the opportunity to learn about engineering through a series of presentations and practical exercises, using state-of-the-art facilities. They also learnt about the engineering challenges involved in capturing, distributing and storing energy from the environment, and then competed in teams to design and make the most effective and innovative energy capture devices. Jonathan gained this opportunity through the Smallpeice Trust.

Young Brits at Art

The Young Brits at Art competition really appealed to me when Mrs Hart first told us about it. A small group of people from our school were chosen to enter and everyone produced really good portraits. I was so happy and shocked when I found out I'd been chosen for the 100 finalists and to spend a day in London!   We travelled down by train on the 'big day' and met Mrs Sharpe outside the Southbank Centre. Inside, the top 100 pieces were printed on to the floor; I was really proud to be amongst so many great artists. I was surprised to see such variety in the pieces and it opened my eyes to many new medias. The awards ceremony was very impressive, there were dancers and a choir. After a while the top 10 winners were announced and called up to the stage with their pictures. They were all fantastic; one of the winners whose self-portrait could have been professional was just 11 years old. Although all were amazing, my personal favourite was a painting of somebody's grandma - it was so detailed and I could not believe it had been achieved by a 16 year old! After some afternoon tea we set off back to St Pancras for the train journey home. I really enjoyed the whole experience.

Eleanor Savage (Year 9)

(Young Brits at Art is a portrait competition run by the Commission for Race Equality)

Sports Days 2009

Well done to all students who have competed in the four school sports days held in the final fortnight of term. There were some fantastic individual and team performances with tremendous sportsmanship and support shown throughout. Special congratulations go to tutor groups 7G, 8G, 10C and 11G who were overall winners within their year group. A significant number of school records were broken and the updated athletics records as well as the four results sheets can be found in the PE folder on the website.

Official opening of our wind turbine

Des Coleman from the BBC very kindly agreed to officially open our wind turbine on Monday 6 July.  This was followed by a buffet lunch with the school council reps and our chair of governors.  A feature on the BBC Midlands Today programme on 8 July followed. Our students are very proud of their achievements in ensuring this big project succeeded.

Visit to Peter House College, Cambridge - a student's report

When we arrived at Cambridge, it was amazing, the University is a beautiful place. We had a tour around Cambridge where we saw the different colleges and historic buildings. The King's Chapel is a brilliant church where we were taught about Engineering and how the arched roof of the chapel was made. During the tour we visited one of the houses where students stay which offer very good facilities. After the tour we ate lunch in the dining hall before being taught about Law by a Professor at the University. He told us about some court cases and how it works if you wish to become a lawyer. I found this lesson particularly interesting. After that it was Medicine which, again, was very informative.  We even had the opportunity to ask some existing Cambridge students all about their life at university.  I am really glad I went as it has opened up many choices for me in the future. I learnt a lot about university life and also about how you need to get good grades to achieve the best you can. 

Stephanie Skermer (Year 11)

More athletics success for Bridgford athletes

On Thursday, 24 June over seventy West Bridgford athletes participated in the year 7 and 8 Rushcliffe Schools Championships. Having practiced in lessons and at extra-curricular clubs, both age groups were confident of performing well against other schools. In the year 7 competion we managed to finish first overall and in the year 8 competition we just missed out on first place by ten points, although our combined totals put us in first place for the Championships.  There were some absolutely fantastic performances on the day and the support pupils gave each other in all the events was pleasing to see. Winning the combined event at year 7 and 8 and the combined event at year 9 and 10 earlier in the term, just highlights the talent and enthusiasm of the pupils at our school. Well done to all those who competed. The full results will be put in the PE folder on the website shortly.

Notts schools track and field athletics championships

Congratulations to the 20 students who represented the school on Friday 12 June. A significant number of you achieved a top 3 finish and many more achieved new personal bests which was fantastic to see. The results and overall team positions can be found in the PE section on the website. Well done!

U13 boys' football team lift a national trophy

Our U13 boys'  team defeated Queen's School (Herts) 2-1 in the final at Doncaster Rovers' Keepmoat stadium on 19 May. West Bridgford took the lead after 17 minutes with a goal from Pierce Bramley, quickly followed by a second from Joe Harbottle. Man of the match was Nitin Mishra. An outstanding effort from all the team. The school also took four coachloads of year 8 supporters, making this a momentous day for the year group.

U14 Cricket team success

West Bridgford U14 cricket team started the defence of their County title on Wednesday 6 May against Toothill School, Bingham. Having won the toss Toothill decided to bat first with the hope of posting a competitive target for Bridgford to chase. However, it took just four deliveries for the first wicket to fall and consistent bowling from the Bridgford attack ensured the wickets continued to fall. In fact, we managed to bowl Toothill out after 15.3 overs for 61 runs with Shakeel Taj and Gagandip Sehmbi taking two wickets each. The run chase didn't start as well as hoped as three early wickets fell but with time on our side Ieuan Marks-Venables steadied the ship with an unbeaten 31 which saw Bridgford comfortable winners reaching the 62 run target after just 7.3 overs and with six wickets in hand. Well done lads - a solid start to a promising season!

Year 9 County Football Champions!!

On Thursday 30 April, the Year 9 boys' football team became County Champions after defeating the current National Champions, Trinity School, 4-3 to lift the County Chaplin Shield. An outstanding team display saw West Bridgford build a comfortable 3-1 lead only to be pegged back at 3-3 with ten minutes to play. However, from the resulting re-start, a 50 yards wonder goal from Elliott Ackroyd ensured that Bridgford added the Year 9 County trophy to the Year 8 triumph achieved earlier this month. The effort, determination and work rate of all the players was magnificent and we are all very proud of their achievements. Well done!

Swine flu

In view of recent developments I wanted to offer parents further information about the current situation, as I see it, with regard to Swine flu.

Parents will be aware that there are now confirmed cases in the UK, one of which occurred in a school in Torbay. In that instance the Head Teacher took the advice to close the school for seven days based upon the advice of the Health Protection Agency. Antiviral drugs were also distributed to school children.

Clearly it remains a possibility that this could happen to any school in the country and we have put in place plans for this possibility. Our plan is based upon the DCSF model pandemic flu checklist for schools. This plan requires me to establish lines of communication to which we would disseminate information quickly to students and families. During this anxious time it is my intention to use our website to keep you informed of the situation in school and I would ask that you check this regularly for updates. Our communication procedures with the LA and relevant health authorities are in place.

The best advice I have available to me at the moment suggests that there is no reason to be concerned about the present situation in our school. I would, however, like to signpost you to the website of the Department of Health. This can be found at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/index.htm . At this site you can download a copy of the information leaflet which is shortly to be distributed to all households.  You will see that there is simple advice available as to how our students can help reduce the spread of a flu virus through the use of good hygiene practice. Their catch phrase is “catch it, bin it, kill it” and the advice is to use tissues when coughing or sneezing, to bin the tissues after use and to wash hands regularly.

I will publish further information if the situation for our school should change.

R. McDonough

30/04/2009

U13 Boys football team are County Champions yet again!

Congratulations to our U13 boys, who have been crowned County Champions for the second year running after beating Toothill School 2-0 in the final at Collingham. Will Krafts scored both goals and Danny Elliott and Nitin Mishra both giving 'man of the match' performances.

Red Nose Day

Congratulations to all our students and staff who, so far, have raised a phenomenal £4388.80.  Fundraising events included a 10k run, cake sales and competition,  guess the staff member from teenage photographs and  'devolution' images, sponsored skipping and many more...................   Well done!

County Bronze Medals for Year 7 running teams (Cross Country)

On Saturday, 14 March four year 7 Cross Country relay squads (3 runners per team each completing 1200m) competed in the Nottinghamshire Championships. All four teams performed very well over a short but tough course in Mansfield. The girls teams managed to hold off some strong opposition with our 'A' team finishing in 3rd place and the 'B' team finishing in 6th.

The boys 'A' team also finished 3rd and the 'B' team also performed extremely well, although they only had two runners on the day! Those that competed were Lara Robinson, Emily Hammond, Freya Woodhouse, Emma Sunderland, Lizzy Collard, Holly Walker, Marcus Skidmore, Harry Brown, Laurie MacDonald, Calum McManus and Andrew deBoer.

A great end to a fantastic year of Cross Country running. Well done!

More congratulations to our Cross Country Runners

Who represented the Rushcliffe District Squad in the County Cross Country Championships last Saturday (28 Feb). Particular mention must go to Marcus Skidmore, Daisy Reed, Sam Jones and Laurie MacDonald who all managed to pick up team medals for finishing in the top 6 Rushcliffe runners in their respective races. In addition to these athletes, Catherine Ross (pictured), who also picked up a team medal, managed to gain selection to represent Nottinghamshire at the English Schools National Event at the end of the month. All runners involved were an absolute credit to the school and we are very proud of their achievements. Well done!

Congratulations to our Year 9 boys' football team

Our year 9 boys beat Carlton le Willows 4-1 in the County Cup Semi Final on 2 March. An early goal 45 seconds gave the lads a fantastic start and a further goal before half time, and two quick goals after half time, put us in a commanding position with 25 minutes to play. Although we did concede a late Carlton le Willows effort to give the scoreline a more respectable appearance, the final result was never in any doubt. Well done boys!  Into the County Cup Final for the second time in three years!

Indoor Rowing Success

In December our Years 7,8 and 9 girls were entered in the Concept II inter-schools league. In most age groups there were between 250 and 300 schools registered and competition was hotly contested.  Results for our students were:

Year 7 - 20th (136 schools entered). Team: Joanna Towndrow, Jumanah Rahman, Lisa Lesowiec

Year 8 - 4th (170 schools entered). Team: Ella Robinson, Rachel Waldram, Penny Marshall, Rebecca Rowntree

Year 9 - 4th (112 schools entered). Team: Rowann Raynor, Lucy Mason, Megan Hughes, Charis Cornish

Our year 9 students are all members of the rowing club  so expectations may have been high and they came in with a great result.  Our younger students are still quite new to the sport so their achievements were quite outstanding.

Well done girls!

New building developments

The school has just been successful in securing planning permission for a new building for our P.E. department. The new facility will include a fitness suite, dance studio and an additional dedicated P.E. classroom. Plans for these can be found on the website (letters/newsletters, whole school).  We are still awaiting a decision from planning for an additional science laboratory - the school is beginning the tendering process soon and it is hoped that these two new additions will be completed around November 2009.

Badminton tournament success

Both our boys and girls in year 9 played magnificently at the recent Rushcliffe tournament, each coming 1st and 3rd in the pairs and 1st position overall.   Well done!

Medals all round for Cross Country teams

On Saturday, 13 December our Cross Country squads competed in the final schools league event of the season as Berry Hill Park. In awful running conditions our athletes were outstanding and all 4 of our teams achieved a top 3 finish, which is a fantastic achievement considering the event attracts athletes from all over Nottinghamshire. On a day where a wetsuit rather than running vest, seemed more appropriate, a particular mention should go to Alex Skidmore (6th), Catherine Ross (1st) and Lewis Jarram (4th) who all achieved seasons bests to lead their respective teams home.

Overall league standings:  Year 7 girls (silver medals), Year 7 boys (silver medals), Year 8/9 boys (County Champions), Year 8/9 girls (Silver medals). Full results will be put in PE folder on website when received.

School Sports Partnership Cross Country news

On Tuesday (9 Dec) 45 students competed in the annual School Sports Partnership Cross Country event against athletes from the other six secondary schools in the programme. Over a flat but testing course at Toot Hill School, our athletes performed remarkably well and the school finished in overall 2nd place after finishing 2nd in both the boys and girls combined competitions. The Year 7 girls actually managed to win their team competition with Lara Robinson (2nd), leading home 5 West Bridgford athletes in the first 13 positions!.  In addition to this team achievement we had 17 individual athletes gain selection to the District Squads, to compete at the County Championships on Friday, 7 February 2009.  Full results can be found in the PE folder on the website.

Green Week

Our green week took place 3 - 7 November 2008 and raised an impressive £1049. A whole range of activities took place to make our students and staff more aware of 'green' issues.

UK Youth Parliament

Congratulations to Jonathan Bowes (Year 11) who has been voted in.

U19 netball success at county level

The West Bridgford School girls beat Nottingham High School, Ashfield and Harry Carlton schools in the finals and now go through to the East Midlands tournament next January 2009.