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his has been a very interesting term. The massive achievements of last Summer are becoming a distant

memory. The best results we have ever had plus a third consecutive Grade 1 is a hard act to follow.

But I am determined that we will not rest on our laurels. We strive to improve further and have estab-

lished some very clear priorities to move standards to new heights. We have been working very hard at

looking at our classroom practice. This is a relentless drive. I am very confident that there will be a

substantial rise in academic performance next Summer. There is important news on the Post 16 front. In the past, we have offered AS and A2 courses only. Every year

students ask why we are not offering Level 3 BTEC courses. Well, for the first time next year, we are offering a

number of level 3 BTEC courses. This will dramatically widen our Post 16 provision. There has been great in-

terest in these courses and we are expecting a very high uptake. If weather forecasters are to believed, we are in for a severe winter. Please use the website which will be updat-

ed regularly and you will find all the information you need. In the event of very severe

Weather, a decision as to whether to stay open or close will be made at 7.00 a.m. and placed on the website. Finally, may I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you all for your continued

support.

John Reavley

Head Teacher’s Comment

T

s October came to an end, a few hairy growths appeared on some of our male members of staff. This was not a

bid to audition for a 1970s cop show. We were taking part in the ‘Movember’ fundraising challenge. Mr Clark,

Mr Todd, Mr King, Mr Mahon, Mr Williams and Mr Sharp agreed to grow moustaches in aid of efforts to

combat testicular and prostate cancer. In total, we raised £900. We’d like to say a big thank you to all students and staff

who donated to this worthy cause and a very big thank you to all those who managed not to laugh as they passed us in

the corridor (not many of you!).

Mr Sharp

A Movember Challenge

ith only two incorrectly sized courts to practise on and an

average of 25 pupils who turn up to training, it was

always going to be a hard task to compete against the

other 8 schools in the Harrow borough at the U14 Badminton

Tournament. But compete they did, as the U14 badminton squad this

year managed to chalk up victory after victory to get in the final

with Park High, Nower Hill and John Lyon.

Their success didn't end there. With victories over Nower Hill and

Park High, it meant a ‘winner takes all’ final was set up against John

Lyon. Our Year 8 player Rahul Popat, won his singles match again,

despite being a year younger, to continue his status as the best player

in the borough. Sadly, however, we went down by a point in the end

to lose the match 4-3. A great effort was made by all the boys who

competed. Well Done!

Mr Whitfield P.E.

W Badminton Championships

n Friday, the 29th June Mrs. Syed took two students from Rooks Heath, Banusanth Pathmanathan (9

Green) and Vinooja Thurairethinam (9 Green) to The Royal Institution of Great Britain in London, also

known as RI, to take part in a Mathematics Masterclass Day. It was a busy day with masterclasses, lec-

tures and puzzles, giving students the opportunity to investigate many fascinating mathematical topics and tricks.

There was a museum with equipment originally used by great scientists and a library with handwritten books by

famous scientists, which were more than 300 years old!

The students invited were either UKMT Best in School Winners or Masterclass students. The students and teach-

ers who participated in this interesting event came from all over Britain; there were students from Norfolk, Suf-

folk, Cambridge etc.

The whole day was divided into three lectures, each with its own story. The first lecture was held by Professor

Alan Davies, who reconstructed a variety of the experiments which were first shown in the RI lecture theatre.

This lecture theatre is the oldest lecture theatre in the world still in use! Professor Alan Davies demonstrated ex-

periments first performed by famous scientists such as Humphry Davy, Michael Faraday and John Tyndall.

The second lecture was held by Andrew Fiztharris, who showed the students how they used mathematical tech-

niques to crack most codes and ciphers and the participants even had the opportunity to crack a code by them-

selves!

In the final lecture, held by Dr Colin Wright, he demonstrated a selection of the patterns and skills of juggling

while at the same time developing a simple method of

describing juggling patterns. This was the lecture we

enjoyed the most because of his comical way of speak-

ing. If you want to break a world record in juggling,

his advice is: “the world record of juggling things at

the same time is held by someone who juggled 3 saws.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking… I hate him too.

However, if you ever want to break a world record you

would have to juggle at least 4 saws at the same time

for longer than 3 minutes. Whatever you do, please

don’t try this at home… Do it at school instead.

They’ve got more insurance!”

Thank you to Mr. Manivannan and Mrs. Syed for ar-

ranging the day.

It was a fantastic experience and an unforgettable day!

Vinooja Thurairethinam, 9 Green

O Masterclasses for the Masters of Maths

A Bit Of Business

Physics and Chocolate

ur Year 9 Business students carried out their first market research

project in South Harrow. They used the results to create a new

drink for Coca-Cola. Four winning teams then took their new prod-

uct offering to Coca-Cola for a Young Apprentice Challenge and

well done to the winning team “Spotlight” whose drink, Exango,

took gold! The head of Education at the factory had the following to say:

“Again we had a fantastic day with the students and Coca-Cola en-

gineers. The four groups were very competitive and they all showed

superb enterprise skills as they presented their products to our

team.”

BTEC and GCSE Business had a fantastic vocational trip to Thorpe Park. The seminar on “Thorpe Park as a Business” has

assisted both groups hugely in their learning and understanding of key business concepts.

Year 12 Economics enjoyed their 1st outing and also completed an interactive activity in the Bank of England to assist their

understanding of macro-economics.

O

elieve it or not ,physics is involved in chocolate production.

Without the careful use of temperature and pressure we

wouldn’t have the wonderful confectionary that adults and

children alike have grown to love.

On October 13th Year 12 Physics students went to the “Chocolate Un-

wrapped” exhibition to learn more about the production of chocolate. L to R: Manikandan, Matthew, Pameer, Aslam, Wing Chung, Sulaxan

and Alfie just before going into the exhibition. The students are listening to one of the exhibitors talking about his

chocolates. For more information go to:

http://rooksheathscience.wordpress.com/2012/10/

Ms Hare Physics

B

And here is some we made earlier.

Economics Department

ear 8 students (mainly 8G) had fun when they visited the Science Museum on 21/11/12. They participated with innumerable

hands-on activities in the various galleries. Satellites, space rockets, space shuttles, and a variety of transport modules for

travelling to and back from the Moon, were

fascinating to see in the Exploring Space

gallery. They saw the iconic Apollo 10 command module that

took three astronauts around the Moon. They enjoyed the Web

Lab, looking at the Code Breakers and Alan Turing’s work on

how science is developing strategies for less pain. They saw

Stevenson’s engine in the Making the Modern World gallery.

The paperweight representing the contraceptive pill was also

very interesting. The ‘Who am I?’ gallery was focussed on

learning about one’s self. The flight gallery had numerous air-

craft of various types. The changes in a medical theatre were

seen in the ‘Glimpses of Medical History’ gallery. Various ex-

hibits, including a heart and lung machine, a pacemaker, mod-

els of the body and even a mummified cat, caught the students’

interest. At the eye-catching Science museum shop students did

some shopping for interesting scientific souvenirs. All in all, it

was an excellent out of school learning trip on an otherwise

rainy day in London.

Dr Rathod

Science Museum

Y

Wednesday 19th December Additional English trip to Royale Leisure Park,

Park Royal

Wednesday 19th December Geography field trip to Bluewater Shopping Centre

Wednesday 19th December Year 13 Science trip to Cavendish

Museum, Cambridge

Thursday 20th December Last day of term for students

Friday 21st December Professional Day

Monday 7th January Professional Day

Tuesday 8th January First day of term

Wednesday 16th January Year 8, 9 & 10 Options Evening

Tuesday 22nd January Year 10 Consultation Evening

Diary dates

big thank you to all students, Parents and Staff for making this evening such a huge success. The evening was, to

quote a student ,'awesome.' There was food from around the world and entertainment in the theatre. What more

could anyone want? The atmosphere was jolly and students participated with great enthusiasm. A

International Evening 2012