Newsletter

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February 2020 Edition

Dear Parents

Our senior students have been working extremely hard this term preparing for tests or mock examinations that took place after the Christmas break. I hope all students learn from the experience of these examinations and remain focussed on attaining the high grades they are capable of achieving this summer.

Year 11 students have been discussing Sixth Form choices with staff and Year 9 students have been considering the GCSE options they wish to study next year. Please don’t hesitate to contact appropriate staff at school if you have any questions or queries regarding subject choices. Miss Johnson, our Career Education and Guidance Co-ordinator, is also willing to assist students and parents in any way possible.

I am pleased to report that contractors have continued to work on the new extension to our technology block at the IN site which we hope will be complete by the end of the February break. Some pictures are included in the newsletter. After Easter we hope to see progress on the new Science block and we will be vacating the Science mobile classrooms so work can begin on the foundations and groundwork for the new laboratories.

I am sure all our students and staff will be delighted with the new facilities that are being developed at school, but appreciate it has occasionally been challenging to operate on site with the amount of construction work that has been undertaken. We are confident it will all be worth it in the end and would like to put on record our thanks to all our students and staff for their co-operation and assistance during this time.

Once again, the newsletter contains information about other activities that have taken place this term and my thanks to all our students and staff who have been involved in these events. I do hope all students and staff enjoy the February break and my thanks to parents for their continued support throughout the term. A final reminder to check the school website about our procedures if we are faced with severe weather conditions in the weeks ahead.

Mrs E Wilson, Headteacher

Students Celebrated Chinese New Year in School

We have marked Chinese New Year in school with events in the Hall on Tuesday 28th January, including games with fortune cookies as prizes and an opportunity to try bubble tea, prawn crackers and fortune cookies, as well as a display of artefacts and a Chinese brush

calligraphy experience. Thank you to Miss Yang, Mr Lobo, and Mrs Wang who organised the celebra-tions, and the students who helped with the celebrations, especially the Year 9 Mandarin students and their friends who brought the bubble tea and prawn crackers. We raised an amazing £126.81, which will be donated to

Green & Shine Foundation to support children in primary schools in rural China.

Thank you to the canteen for the lovely Chinese meals on Monday 27th January as well.

We can’t have real celebrations without Chinese food!

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Aleena Murphy’s language skills win national Mandarin competition

Aleena Murphy, 8C has won first prize at the final of the British Council Mandarin Speaking competition in London.

Now in its seventeenth year, the Mandarin Speaking Competition is organised by the British Council and aims to build interest in Chinese language and culture. Pupils from 43 UK secondary schools participated in the final round at the Victory Services Club.

The competition, which took place on 5 February, was attended by Nick Gibb MP, Minister for School Standards, Sir Ciarán Devane, Chief Executive of the British Council and representatives of the Chinese Embassy: Xia Jianhui, Minister-Counsellor of Education and Li Guoqiang, First Secretary who met with pupils taking part in the Mandarin Excellence Programme. Aleena asked Nick Gibb his views on the Mandarin Excellence Programme, and told them all of her experience of learning Mandarin in school. Pupils competed in either the Individual Language Ability or Group Performance section. Aleena won 1st Prize in the Beginner Plus category of the Individual Language Ability, giving a two-minute speech in Mandarin and answering some additional questions in the language. Ms Yang, teacher of Mandarin, said: “It is our first time participating in the national competition. We are thrilled about our pupil’s achievement. I hope that our students have

benefitted from the experience, gaining increased confidence when using Mandarin, learning

more about Chinese culture, and being inspired to continue studying languages to a higher level”. Sir Ciaran Devane, Chief Executive of the British Council, said: “Mayfield Grammar School pupils impressed the judging panels in regional heats and now the final with their skilled Mandarin speaking ability. Their winner’s prize of a trip to China is testament to the huge amount of effort they put in”. “Language learning is an essential part of under-standing and collaborating with other countries and cultures. With more than one billion Mandarin speakers in the world, it’s important that more young people in the UK learn the language – those that do will find it opens up exciting study and work opportunities in our increasingly interconnected world”. Nick Gibb, Minister for School Standards said: “I was pleased to see so many young people working towards fluency in Mandarin at the annual British Council Mandarin Speaking Competition. This will be a significant advantage when they are competing for jobs with their peers from around the world”. “Many of these young people competing are part of our £10 million Mandarin Excellence Programme and I would express my congratulations to all pupils’ involved”.

Mandarin Speaking competition

Megan Chandler, 12SBY took part in this competition last year and was up against 10 other top cadets from the Kent district. Not only were her First Aid skills tested, but she also had to give a speech, produce an information leaflet and display excellent teamwork, most of the qualities she has learnt whilst being at Mayfield. She will now compete for the title of National Cadet of the Year at the end of February, which is a 3 day competition in Northampton.

External

Drama

Activities

A number of our students

have been involved in drama

activities outside of school this

term including a production of

‘Our House’ by Gravesend and

District Theatre Guild and

Gravesend Grammar School’s

musical production of ‘Spamalot’

We know that many of our students

participate in a wide range of extra

activities outside school.

Well done to all who give up free

time to pursue their interests.

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Ms Sayers

Subject Leader of Music

We are now in the final rehearsals ahead of our exciting trip to Wembley Arena, where we will form part of the 5,000 strong choir! The students involved have been learning the lyrics and dance moves to the twelve songs that will be performed.

* with merit ** with distinction

Year 8 Samba Drumming Workshops At the time of writing, we are looking forward to welcoming Inspire Works in to school on Wednesday 12

th February. All Year 8 students will

experience being part of a Samba band and put together some pieces of music in their sessions.

Music Examinations

The following students passed their ABRSM / Guildhall Trinity Music exams last term. Well done!

NAME YEAR INSTRUMENT GRADE

Tashi Raina 9 Singing 2**

Lois Crick 10 Piano 3

Iesha Agnihotri 11 Piano 3

Owen Excell 13 Electric Guitar 8*

There is a table of forthcoming Trips on the school’s website that is kept updated under the Life at Mayfield tab and trip letters and posters can be found under the Online Office tab on the website.

Modulo Programme (Orchestras For All) Stay Tuned, our school orchestra, have been busy rehearsing the repertoire for the forthcoming visit by professional orchestral players from the City of London Sinfonia on 2nd March. The visitors will work with our students on the pieces Vltava, Set Square and Exile/ Bulgar as part of the year-long project entitled ‘My Roots, Our Roots’ which explores music from different traditions. On 24th March, ten members of Stay Tuned from Years 7, 8 and 10 will travel to London to participate in the South East Regional Modulo Meet, where they will form part of a large orchestra and rehearse and perform the three pieces. We are very excited to be taking part in this programme.

Music Lesson Vacancies

We currently have vacancies for flute, clarinet, saxophone and guitar lessons. Please email Ms Sayers for details if you are interested.

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Safer Internet Day

Tuesday 11th February was Safer Internet Day.

Students took part in a range of activities during

form time to discuss issues relating to Social Media

and Internet use. There have been many recent

stories in the newspapers regarding the negatives of

using the Internet, but we also have to take time to

celebrate the positives it may bring to our lives too.

With this year’s theme being #freetobe, we have

explored the ways in which we can help people

express themselves online without the modern day

pressures and judgements of our society.

Starting at the end of January, we will be serving a vegan meal every Wednesday, on a trial basis. Please feel free to come and try out our new and exciting vegan menus. We also have a small variety of snacks. Please ask staff for advice.

On 7th January we had the kitchen inspected by an environmental health officer, and I am pleased to advise all our customers that we received a score of 5. We will continue to work to the highest standards to maintain this rating.

Time to Talk Day On Thursday 6th February the school participated in Time to Talk day. Time to Change is a growing social movement working to change the way we think and act about mental health problems. Many people don’t believe mental health problems are likely to affect them or people they know but the reality is that mental health can affect anyone. Statistically, 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem in any given year. No one should have to fear being treated differently because of a mental health problem. Time to Talk Day encourages everyone to be more open about mental health – to talk, to listen, to change lives. Talking about mental health doesn't have to feel awkward. We carried out activities in form time this week to mark the day.

Progress on building work at the IN site...

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Well it’s been another busy term in Design Technology and we are trying to contain our excitement about the building of the new block as we are so close to it being finished and we can’t wait to move in and create some amazing learning spaces!

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Year 11 Year 11 in all subjects are reflecting on their Pre-Public Examination results and determining what they need to do to ensure that they attain their target grades. All students are encouraged to liaise with any member of the department to ensure that they can reach their goals. There are catch up sessions running at lunch times and after school, as well as some planned for during the Easter break. Please let your teacher know how we can support you to attain a bumper batch of excellent GCSE grades!

We are now on

Twitter!

Follow us at:

@MGSGTechnology for

updates and news from

Design Technology.

It is a private account so please send us a message telling us who you are and who you are related to at school and we will add you.