LGS Headlines

Langley Grammar School Reddington Drive Langley Berkshire SL3 7QS 01753 598300 school@lgs.slough.sch.uk

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www.lgs.slough.sch.uk

28 February 2014

From the Headteacher

Dear Parents

I do hope you and your families were able to enjoy the half-term break. We are very conscious that some of our families have been affected by the recent flooding and hope that the situation is improving for them.

Thank you to all those parents who supported our Year 7-9 production of Greased Lighting on the Thursday and Friday before the half-term break. This was our first production in the Hall for a number of years and was hugely enjoyable with very good performances from students across the year groups. Special mention must be made of Alex and Shenuri from Year 7; playing the lead roles of Danny and Sandy with astonishing confidence and maturity; directors Ms Seymour and Mr Wilkinson; Mr Carlton for his technical work, and the Art Department for the set. More information about the production can be found in the student news pages.

Elsewhere, students in Year 10 have been commended for their maturity during the CV workshop organised by the local education-business partnership Learning to Work, and for their fundraising during Year 10 Charity Week.

Year 9 students visited the Slough Careers Fair as part of their careers education programme and have completed a successful mid-year examination week which will help inform their thinking about which subjects to choose for their GCSE options.

As always, our staff have been working exceptionally hard to ensure that your sons and daughters are supported and stretched to achieve the best they can, whether that is in the classroom, on the sports field, out on educational visits or on the stage. Halfway through a very busy year, I am sure you would want to join me in thanking them for their dedication and commitment.

John Constable - Headteacher

In the student pages of this issue......

Mr M Aplin - News Manager

The LGS Sports Centre

Year 12 Geography Fieldwork

Charitable success

Drugs Awareness

Science Coursework

Greased Lightning

Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award

Positive feedback

Just three unsolicited comments received in recent weeks...

From a local businessman at the Yr 10 CV day..

“I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed yesterday’s event.... I was particularly impressed with the active involvement of all students that I met yesterday. They are a credit to Langley Grammar. From arriving at the school to leaving, I only saw polite, happy students who eagerly got involved in the CV activities and could present themselves in a very mature manner.”

From the parent of a current Year 7 student....

“Having read the January newsletter , I would like to offer my congratulations to Mr Constable and all the staff at Langley Grammar for their outstanding achievement in the GCSE results. It Is a testimony to all the hard work that goes on at the school. My son has only started this year and already I can appreciate the difference being at this school has made to him. Not only is he being stretched academically but also he is taking part in so many activities which is great. Well done and keep up the good work.”

From a governor attending Greased Lightning...

“.....an absolute pleasure to see this fantastic production last night. There were some great performances, great voices, dancing and music. Warm congratulations to all the students who participated on stage, to those who contributed in all the other aspects of staging such a production, and to the staff who must have contributed much of their own personal time and energy to the event.”

LGS Headlines

28 February 2014

Sports Round-up

Sports events over the last few weeks have been disrupted by the weather conditions, with many fixtures cancelled or postponed.

However, a number of our teams have still managed to play , with the following results:

Football

Yr 8 Boys vs Burnham Grammar

U15 Wayne Dixon 7 a-side Girls

Junior Girls Powerleague

U15 Boys Soccer Sevens

Won 3-2

5th out of 6

Winners

7th out of 8

Basketball

Yr 7 Boys vs Dr Challoners

Yr 8 Boys vs Dr Challoners

Yr 9 Boys vs Little Heath

Yr 10 Boys vs Dr Challoners

Yr 10 Boys vs St Bernards

Yr 11 Boys vs Dr Challoners

Yr 11 Boys vs Burnham Grammar

Yr 11 Boys vs St Bernards

6th Form Boys vs Dr Challoners

6th Form Boys vs St Bernards

Won

Won

Won 45-39

Lost 41-20

Lost 30-28

Won

Won 35-19

Won 49-31

Lost 82-36

Won

Yr 11 Boys Semi Final vs Prospect

U14 Boys County Final

U19 Boys County Final

U14 Girls vs John Madjeski

Lost 53-37

Lost 67-84

Lost 60-63

Won 39-28

Hockey

Yr 9 Hockey vs Dr Challoners

Senior Girls Hockey League

vs Burnham

vs Herschel

vs St Bernards

vs Burnham Grammar

Drew 0-0

Won 3-0

Lost 3-1

Lost 1-0

Lost 4-0

Senior Boys Tennis vs Hampton Lost

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

Congratulations to the 17 students from Year 11 who are the first from their cohort to complete the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

The students are:

Nicole Baldev Davinder Chahal

Simran Dhillon Aditya Gajendragadkar

Robert Heymer Lee Husain

Alison Ilyin Darshana Jeyaruban

Avi Knight Loaghitha Kugapiragasam

Natasha Manohar Bhavana Murikinati

Paawan Rayit Yashraj Sakpal

Jasneet Sangha Tina Sethi

Raman Sidhu

Congratulations to all of them!

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is open to students in Year 10, and the expectation is that they will complete the Award by the end of Year 11. There are four sections:

Volunteering

Physical Activity

Skill

Expedition

Although the School organises the expedition section, participants have to be self-motivated to complete the other sections in their own time.

You can read more about one participant’s experience in the article in the student news pages.

Mr J Podbury - PE Department

Well done to everyone who was involved in any of these teams, and particularly to

those who won matches or competitions.

LGS Headlines

28 February 2014

Langley Grammar School staff as you have never seen them before.....!

During Year 10 Charity Week, a number of staff took up the students’ challenge to take part in ‘Wear a Onesie’ Day. Students ‘sponsored’ the staff members to wear their favourite (or borrowed....) outfit and a considerable sum of was raised towards the Year 10 Charity Week total.

Year 9 Literacy Leaders

As part of our drive to improve reading, writing and communication across the School we are appointing a group of students to be ‘Literacy Leaders’, acting as literacy champions in the lower years of the school. Over the next few months they will be following a course which they have described opposite.

Congratulations to the following students:

Neeharika Hemrajani Irfaan Ahmad

Gurleen Muker Marium Sadiq

Yajat Bansal Rohan Bhandari

Simran Jhaj Sukhpreet Gill

“Literacy is everywhere, whether you know it or not. Unfortunately, we have come to realise that it is underrated. Most of us would consider Literacy and English to be the same subject - which, in fact, is incorrect. We don't seem to recognise the fact that literacy is everywhere and in everything we do, not just in English. Without literacy, we wouldn't be able to conduct our basic language skills. For example, we need literacy in PE to analyse and communicate a game or a sport. In Maths, we need good literacy to communicate an explanation or to understand an instruction. By being a literacy leader at school, we are taking on the job of making sure the idea of literacy is widespread, across the curriculum and in our general daily life. “Until the Summer holidays, we will be working through six different units to prove that we can be literacy leaders. These units include bringing literacy to different lessons; one of our tasks is to lead a literacy based activity in a Year 7 PE lesson. It helps us to build our confidence as well as show that literacy can be fun! The main part of this project is our intention to bring a brand new Literacy Week to the school where the whole week will be filled with fun, literacy-related activities. At the end of the course, we will have achieved our award!.”

Mrs P McKeown - English Department

Greased Lightning

On Thursday 13th and Friday 14th of February family and friends gathered to witness “a very professional play” - our own pro-

duction of GREASED LIGHTNING!!!

With music conducted by Mr Wilkinson, acting arranged and supported by Miss Seymour and everything else managed by Mr

Carlton, we were all set for a fun and polished production! For the first time in 6 years the annual play was in the hall. It was

packed with willing members of staff, students, parents, family and friends.

From creeping behind the audience to singing 50s style on stage both the audience and cast members had a ball! From head

to toe, everybody looked like they had emerged from a time machine with some great costume and set design that took us

back to the era of the late 1950’s.

Rehearsals started as far back as October and since then all cast members had anticipated the big show. When it finally came

everyone was well prepared and really enthusiastic to show off what they have been doing.

A lot of the audience were surprised to find that some of the main characters were from Year 7 and that one of the main year

7 characters had no experience in plays like the that one. You would never have known though, with Shenuri playing Sandy

and Alex playing Danny, both with real aplomb.

Everybody laughed to their heart’s content when ‘Danny’ took of his jacket to reveal a studded shirt! Everybody felt as heart-

broken as ‘Sandy’ when she sang ‘Hopelessly devoted to you’, in such a fine way that it was comparable to Olivia Newton-

John’s version from the film! Everybody felt the burn and joy of ‘Kenikie’ and ‘Rizzo’ throughout the play as well!

After the last show all of the teachers that assisted with the play were given gifts and cards to show them that they deserved a

huge thank you from all of the cast members after giving up so many hours of their time to make the show such a success. No

one can deny that they loved the whole show and we all cannot wait for the next one!

Written by Jasmine Panesar 7S

Greased Lightning

Greased Lightning

Year 12 Geography Fieldwork

Written by Avjeet Dhandwar 6B

The eagerly anticipated journey to the relatively unknown (at least to us) province of Northern Ireland brought

Year 12 geographers to Heathrow ‘s Terminal 1 very early in the morning on Monday 3 February. Upon arriving at

3:45am some ‘technical difficulties’ with British Airways’ ticketing system led the group to be delayed by an

enlightening 8 hours.....! Eventually the short plane journey landed them in Belfast where the overcast weather

matched everyone’s tired and gloomy mood, due to our delay!

However, five days of hard work, relaxation and surprisingly satisfactory weather followed! County Antrim

hosted the excursions over the week, a perfect venue to enhance students’ knowledge on the topics of crowded

coasts and unequal spaces. The teachers who accompanied the students on the visit were Mr Mace, Mr Pascall and

Miss Foley, who were very impressed with the work ethic and behaviour of the group. At Bushmills Education Cen-

tre where the group stayed, a team of enthusiastic and caring staff made everyone feel at home, providing exqui-

site meals and fun activities to take part in during leisure time.

Year 12 Geography Fieldwork

Some of the many towns and villages visited included Portballintrae, Portstewart, Portrush, Coleraine, Bushmills, Dervock,

Ballymoney— and many more. The highlight of the visit had to be the enthralling visit to the Giants Causeway. The UNESCO

World Heritage Site is a rare geographical phenomenon which was explained thoroughly by Mr Pascall. This enhanced our

knowledge of physical geography; however the human geography aspect was also significant wherever the group went.

Questionnaires, 8-way thinking, bi-polar analysis and retail service index were only some of the many techniques used to

survey the numerous locations.

Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable visit for staff and students alike. A wonderful balance between work and play made it

a memorable experience for all.

Year 12 Geography Fieldwork

Year 10 Charity Week

At the time of writing the two charities for our “Year 10 Charity Week” are still to be finalised. There will be one national and one local charity chosen, with the suggestions given by current Year 10 students. Similar to every year, this was a combined effort to see how much money can be raised as a year group in comparison to the previous year 10 - with of course the main aim being to help charity.

A group of Year 10 girls started a henna design stall, for which they self-trained for 2 weeks before, practising

designs and the techniques in order to ensure perfection during the week. The first day wasn't as successful as anticipated which was a bit disappointing, however with better advertising for the next few days the stall started to fill up, which then required additional people being called in to help manage the queues! Henna designs were printed on an A4 sheet of paper to attract people going past the student corridor.

Another group of Year 10 girls organised a raffle stall for a big teddy bear; similarly the first day didn't seem to

be very successful, however with the help of some teachers with the advertising of the bear, the next 4 days seemed to bring in a lot of entries from students all across the school from Year 7s to teachers! Taking on board suggestions from a few students, the girls decided to auction off another small bear to the highest bidder, in order to make more money for charity, this was popular and raised additional money for those in need.

Written by Amrita Heer 10K & Pratyush Jain 10V

Overall, this year's “Year 10 Charity Week” was considered to have been the “best ever”, in the words of Ms Roughton, in terms of making the most money for charity and the range of different events held by the Year 10 students. The money raised will help two very worthy charities, and help improve the lives of those less fortunate than us, and I hope our school keeps up its generosity when it comes to giving money to help charity! Our final total of money raised stands at an amazing

£702.65!! Thank you to everyone who contributed in any way!

Finally on Thursday lunchtime there was a Year 10 concert in the lecture

theatre which gave a number of students the chance to perform but also the teachers had the opportunity to display their talents in a staff choir.

By each audience member paying at least £1 to watch, along with any other donations, it proved to be a success. The lecture theatre was almost completely full by the end of the concert, allowing them to raise £63.

With the popularity of football within the school, a group of

Year 10 boys helped to organise a penalty shoot-out competition, which people didn't need much convincing to attend! It was held on the astro-turf near the triangle area - a busy area during break lunch attracting further attention from the students.

The success of the penalty shoot-out was also due to the active advertisement of the boys running the event as they went out to get people to take part!

Year 10 Charity Week

Acknowledging it was Valentine’s Day soon and that it was during the last day of school before half term, a group

of students started selling roses as well as offering a delivery service on the 14th . This was a very popular

prospect among many teens, and the fact there was a delivery service made it even better. The students selling the roses were very active walking through the school in order to attract attention to the roses, which helped increase the amount of money they made.

Knowing that a lot of the students in the school play Fifa 14 or would like to play Fifa, a group of year 10 boys

hosted a Fifa 14 event, in which students could come and play or watch other people playing Fifa 14 on PS4 or PS3. The consoles were connected to the projector in room 303, which therefore enabled the students to play on a big screen, a chance they would not normally have. With the help of a persuasive advertising team, the group managed to attract a lot of attention throughout the whole period of 5 days. Another popular activity was the Mario Kart competition that was held by a group of students in 408. People would have to pay to play and watch which created a lively, competitive atmosphere. It seemed to be popular as students from various year groups came to play the game as well as a few teachers who joined in to raise as much money as possible!

Charitable success

Sometimes doing that bit extra can help achieve real success. Shivani Member in 8K is a student who was excited to have the opportunity to create a difference in the world. By selling sweets, cakes and raffle tickets, Shivani earned money for Christian Aid. Several of Shivani’s friends put a massive amount of effort into helping her raise money for charity, giving up their time every day to raise money and make a difference in the world. Shivani’s charity week was extremely busy all week with most days all the items sold were sold out. The most exciting part of Shivani’s charity week was Friday where in the first ten minutes, almost all of the cakes and sweets were sold out. Suddenly, a large crowd gathered around Shivani as they started the final charity event of the week, the wet sponge. With teachers enjoying the feeling of taking part in the charity event by being involved in the wet sponge, in addition this event brought lots of money to be spent on the work of Christian Aid in relieving poverty.

“It’s a good feeling to know that what we have raised will help people in the world and make a difference. When I saw all my friends ready to give up all their time for charity, I realised how important helping the poor in charity was to everybody not only me and as we worked together we raised a lot of money and made a difference.”

Christian Aid is a charity working to help children who are in need of food, water and essential requirements to survive. Christian aid provides immediate response to children who are desperate to survive, the charity works in over 100 countries to help save innocent children.

Shivanii’s efforts across the week raised a total of..........£420. Well done!

Written by Vianca Shah 8K

Science Coursework

For our A Level coursework this year, the Year 13 chemistry A Level students undertook investigations in topics of

their choice ranging from the synthesis and testing of the purity of aspirin, to the comparison of the accuracy and

precision of the different methods that can be used to determine the amount of copper in brass, and the

determining of rate equations of certain reactions through the use of the colorimetric analysis technique.

I carried out an investigation to determine the most accurate method of finding the concentration of Cu2+ ions

present in known and unknown concentrations of copper (II) sulfate. During my investigation, the four different

experimental methods which I carried out and later compared in terms of accuracy and precision were the redox

titration method, the colorimetric analysis method, the gravimetric analysis method and the electrochemical cells

method. After 3 days of intense practical work in carrying out the investigation I had planned, and analysing and

evaluating my results, I came to a conclusion that the electrochemical cells method was the most accurate and

precise method of the four experimental methods which I had investigated.

Written by Amardeep Dhesi

D of E Bronze Award

In 2013 60 students from Year 10 (now in Year 11) signed up for the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award which required them to take part in three activities - volunteering, physical activity and a skill - in addition to completing an expedition.

Written by Nicole Baldev 11H

For the expedition the group had training throughout the year from Mr Podbury, Mrs Roughton, Mr Tulla and Miss Franz who kindly took out their Monday afterschool to teach us how to read a map, how to pack our rucksacks, how to map a route and so on. These skills that we learned were essential for the expedition and came in very handy when we embarked upon it.

When the day of the expedition came around, we were all quite nervous, but eager to get started and finish. We went in early July — and my word what a sweltering hot day it was! We had packed plenty of sun cream, brought along our sunhats and ensured that we had an ample supply of Evian water. The first day was by far the best; we managed to complete our route quite quickly and took about 6 hours to get from the starting point to camp. At 8 o’clock we arrived, set up our tents and cooked a delicious 3 course meal.

At 4 in the morning we were greeted by chirping birds but hey ... that’s the norm for teenagers to wake up at that time right? Although we were awoken at an unearthly hour, it gave us a chance to begin our journey earlier and reach our final destination quicker. But things never plan out how you want them to and unfortunately our group got lost in the woods for 3 hours, therefore we had to be rescued by Mr Podbury.

Even though we had a major setback in our journey, we kept the group morale high and when we felt like giving up, we forced ourselves to get back up and finish the expedition. This whole experience taught me (and I am sure the rest of the group) key skills in life which are invaluable and need to be used.

On Thursday 30th January, I was one of the first 17 students who received their Award in assembly and felt a sense of satisfaction and triumph for what I had achieved. Although the experience was, at some times difficult, I would recommend getting involved in this scheme because it is a lot of fun and will certainly help in future life!

During last year, I volunteered for 6 months at my old primary school at two afterschool clubs, one a week. I had the chance to really bond with the children there and felt a sense of pride and accomplishment when they created a masterpiece of artwork or learned new maths skills which they otherwise would not have a chance to learn at home.

I chose to do this particular activity for 6 months instead of 3, to test my determination and see whether I would be able to go straight afterschool every Tuesday and help these children learn new things or improve certain skills. Being able to do this proved that I was determined to complete the award and I continued to help out for the full 6 months.

For my physical activity, I attended swimming lessons once a week at a leisure centre and in those 3 months, I improved my swimming drastically. Every week I would go afterschool on a Wednesday or sometimes very early on the weekend, practised my techniques and learned some new things too!

For my skill I decided to go to an art club and worked with clay, producing different everyday objects and painting them. The first project that I worked on during those 3 months was creating a cake topper of my friend so that it could be placed on her birthday cake. I sculpted a model of her which perhaps did not look too much like her but nonetheless she loved it! After this, I began to create a fruit bowl and even created a little teapot set.

Raising Awareness

On Thursday 7 February, Years 7-10 were told that they would be watching a presentation on ‘drugs awareness’.

As the students made their way into the hall, they expected to see a PowerPoint Presentation with a few pictures

and warning signs. However, what they saw was unexpected!

Years 7-10 were greeted by pop band, The Parades, a local band from Reading who are a supporting act for pop

band McFly. Instruments were set up on the stage, sound checks were being carried out: we knew this would be

an enjoyable experience.

The band introduced themselves with three impressive performances of their singles as well as well known tracks

such as Blurred Lines and Happy. Students were out of their seats dancing and thoroughly enjoying the

entertainment. Teachers were also joining in! After these performances The Parades informed the audience that

they worked for a charity called D.A.R.E, Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The charity raises awareness about

drug use and abuse in young people. The band then proceeded to tell us about the different kinds of drug abuse

young people can be victims of and the long and short term effects of drug abuse. As this is a part of the syllabus in

PCS and also relates to the Anti Bullying Policy at Langley Grammar School, the presentation and performance was

engaging, enjoyable and very informative.

Written by Vianca Shah 8K

Year 9 Careers Event

On Wednesday 5th February we had a great opportunity to attend the annual career fair in the Centre in Farnham.

This was organised to help us make current and future decisions such as GCSE options and career paths. In addi-

tion the main aspect of the visit was to help us see the ’bigger picture’ which was to gain knowledge about the

world beyond education. The afternoon started with a talk from ‘Learning to Work’, the organisation running the

event. The talk was very useful and was an insight to our GCSE options as well as the world of work. They also

gave us more ideas about other options that we might like to choose after Year 11 or even after Sixth Form, such

as gap years, further education colleges and universities. We were able to sample example questions that we

might like to ask the different companies that were at the fair so we could make the most out of our visit.

We were then introduced to a panel of workers that

were from a wide range of working backgrounds

ranging from the Metropolitan Police to the

accountants for Mars and computer experts for CA.

We then got the opportunity to ask them any

question we had about the company or the job

itself.

Whether it was simple questions such as what could

the annual salary be or a more complex question

like what kind of processes did you have to go

through to get the job.

The question and answer panel gave us detailed

information about this and we found it very useful.

The whole event was enjoyable and a useful part of

the whole process of choosing our options and

thinking about what we want to do in the future.

Written by Tia Dhaliwal & Muskan Gupta 9V

At the event there were not only companies promoting their

careers there were also big universities and colleges along with

charities and one Dance Company.

During the event we discovered newer careers and further edu-

cation options that we may have not come across before, such as

apprenticeships and the different designations and also work

experience jobs we might like to take in the future.

This event was a great way to gain background information about our future options and we all found it very help-

ful because we all learnt something about further education or the world of work that we didn’t know before.

Thanks to Mrs Golding for organising the visit and to the teachers that attended as well. It was a great visit!

Really useful day, we

learnt a lot and it was

fun and interesting, I

would recommend to

Editor’s note.....

The Slough Schools Careers Fair was a collaborative venture organised by the local education-business partner-

ship ‘Learning to Work’ and backed by the Slough Association of Secondary Headteachers. Year 9 students from

all of Slough’s secondary schools attended as part of their careers education programme.

Year 9 Careers Event