Rhodium Reading Challenge Champions

Congratulations to Year 9 students, Reem and Roba, our latest students to complete the St Bart’s Reading Challenge.

In order to achieve the final Rhodium Award in the challenge, Reem and Roba had to read at least 57 books across the five levels. This is a great achievement and they now join our Reading Challenge Champions honour roll!

In recognition of this impressive dedication to reading, both girls were congratulated by Dr Fitter (Headteacher), Mr Matthias (English Teacher) and Mrs Hewetson (St Bart’s Librarian). Mrs Hewetson was delighted to have the opportunity to compile two more hampers of goodies, including books, stationary, treats and the rare Rhodium Badge to be worn with pride. We hope Reem and Roba enjoy their hampers and continue with their love of reading – we understand the Ultimate Carnegie Challenge is next on their list!

Sixth Form Stratford Trip

Last week, Year 12 Geography students visited Stratford and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to look at different places’ characteristics and approaches to regeneration as part of their Unit 2 Changing Spaces topic. Students tried a range of fieldwork techniques including pedestrian observations and land use tallies.

Rory said, “It was really interesting to see how the rebranding of the area had affected places differently and to better understand why some areas were opposed to the regeneration project.”

Poetry Live

The English Faculty recently took some Year 11 students to ‘Poetry Live’, an annual event aimed at supporting GCSE students with their study of the poems that they will be assessed on at the end of this academic year. Students heard poets speaking about their poems and other poems in the cluster.

Students who went said, “The trip to Poetry Live! Is an absolute must. Seeing the poets and listening to the poetry live really helped with our GCSE course and gave us a better understanding of the poems and the poet’s intentions. The Unseen Poetry run-through was very useful and gave us a good insight into how an exam board would grade our work and how to analyse unseen poems.”

Freddie, Will and Aly (11P3)

Rhodium Reading Challenge Champions

Two more St Bart’s students will be added to the honour roll of those to complete the St Bart’s Rhodium Reading Challenge.

Year 8 students Alice and Jacob have each read at least 57 books across the five challenges in order to complete the final award in the school’s Reading Challenge. In recognition of their achievement and this impressive dedication to reading, both were congratulated by Dr Fitter, Headteacher, Mr Matthias, English Teacher, and Mrs Hewetson, St Bart’s Librarian, who said “ We are so proud of their achievement and their fantastic reading efforts, which will reap benefits as they carry on through their school careers. We know they are keen readers who will continue to challenge themselves with new books”.  Both were awarded with a hamper of goodies to enjoy, including their rare Rhodium Badge to be worn with pride.

Congratulations to Alice and Jacob!

House Creative Writing

During the Autumn Term and over the Christmas holidays, St Bart’s held its inaugural House Creative Writing Competition. Originally conceived by Year 13 student, Laura Swanson (Patterson House Captain – Arts), the competition challenged students, across the Key Stages to write a short story based around a series of prompts:

  • Key Stage 3: 1) A story about a fox called socks, 2) Purple, 3) Crossroads
  • Key Stage 4: 1) A re-telling of a religious myth or story, 2) Magenta, 3) Forgotten
  • Key Stage 5: 1) A story from the perspective of an inanimate object, 2) Grey, 3) For sale

On Tuesday 4 February, all those who submitted a story and their families were invited to the Awards Evening for the announcement of the 15 Semi-Finalists and three Overall Winners.  Entries were shortlisted by Mr Randall (Head of English) and Laura, whilst judging the shortlisted entries and deciding the three overall winners were St Bart’s alumni, Josh Douglas and Jude Evans. Both Josh and Jude studied A Level English at St Bart’s and are now studying degrees in this field – Josh (English Studies – University of Cambridge) and Jude (English Literature and Creative Writing – University of Warwick).

During the Awards Evening, guests enjoyed refreshments and listened as a selection of amazing entries were read by the student writers. The evening concluded with the winners being announced and a speech from alumnus Josh Douglas, who spoke about his own passion for writing. The winners were Sai Bhavik Bayyana (Key Stage 3), Vedha Krisnam (Key Stage 4) and Sophie Warner (Key Stage 5) –  you can read their short stories by following the links below…

Laura Swanson said: “The first annual House Creative Writing event was a fantastic opportunity for students to have their writing celebrated. The evening was filled with amazing short stories and the exploration of creative writing!”

Huge congratulations to Sai Bhavik, Vedha and Sophie and to all of the students who entered. Thank you to Laura for suggesting and organising the competition, and to our brilliant judges Josh and Jude for their time and support.

An Inspector Calls

Y11 went to the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton this week to watch the astounding ‘An Inspector Calls’ to support their GCSE revision. A great time was had by all, and the pyrotechnics were a must-see. The actors put on a great production which really brought the story to life with their dramatization of J.B Priestley’s morality play. I definitely recommend going to see it; one hour and 45 minutes you will not waste!

Ali Sparkes – Author Visit

We were delighted to welcome the children’s author, Ali Sparkes, to school on 28 November. Having published over 40 books for children, Ali shared her writing journey with us, including her early childhood writing which received rave reviews… but only from her friends! Ali talked to Year 9 about her latest novel, ‘100 Summers’, and gave students the challenge of figuring out a few ciphers. We were shown the obvious downsides of a code where 1=a, for example, and the advantages when you use a book as the decoding key – say, for example, one of Ali’s (as long as your friend/handler/boss has the same edition).

In the afternoon, Ali led a small workshop, giving students the opportunity to write their own title, blurb and first page and then vote on which one was the most compelling.

“I was grateful to attend the workshop in the afternoon. We voted on which front cover, blurb and short extract we liked most out of four of her books and then we paired and made our own title, blurb and short extract. It highlighted how important the front cover, blurb and short story are in influencing someone to want to read a book. I bought her book ‘100 Summers’ as the front cover looked very dramatic and mysterious and the blurb was very enticing! I can’t wait to read it!”

Holly Fry (9P1)

 Students are really fortunate to have opportunities like this, and we are grateful to Ali for coming to visit.

Year 7 Bookbuzz

At St Bart’s Library, we are very keen to foster a love of reading among our students. Each Year 7 English group has had an introduction to our Library, in which they learn how they can borrow from the exciting collection of fiction and non-fiction books. In addition, through the Bookbuzz scheme (supported by the Book Trust), the Library is giving a FREE book to each of our Year 7 students, which we do every year.

With a list of 14 amazing titles to choose from, every student should be able to find something they like, whatever their interest or ability, and the book will be theirs to keep. So if you have a Year 7 student, watch out for a new book coming home!

National Poetry Day Competition

National Poetry Day was marked on 3 October, a day where all poetry and poets are celebrated for their contributions to the literary and educational world. The English Department organised their own take on the day by holding a poetry competition which, like the main national prize, was to write a poem based on the theme of ‘counting’. Many incredible entries were received across all year groups; the writers showed maturity, beautiful style and some were genuinely emotional.

Congratulations to the winners below; runners up received chocolate or a book while the overall winner for each year group won a giftcard. We are hugely proud of you all and we hope you enter future competitions!

 

Year 7

1st: Amelie Batute 7D1

2nd: Laura Arnold 7P2

3rd: Lucia Biais Zambelli 7D3

 

Year 8

1st: Martim Caeiro 8E2

2nd: Siva Palappinan 8C1

3rd: Josie Appleton 8C3

 Year 9

1st: Florence Chalk 9D3

2nd: Sienna Powell 9C1

3rd: Anna Schrijver 9D1

 

Year 10

1st: Gauravi Deegwal 10C1

2nd: Divyanshi Malik 10C2

3rd: Gamya Bayyana 10C3

 Year 11

1st: Amy Oliver 11D3

2nd: Yasmin Agodzo 11P3

3rd: Tabitha Cook 11P2

 

British Library Trip

Our English Language A Level trip headed to the prestigious British Library in London with a group of 30 students, some already studying the subject in Year 12 and 13, others being given a preview of it in Year 11. Although the drive was long, it was worth it for the interesting lesson in the rich variety of dialects, local terminology and accents across the UK. We discovered, in particular, than Newbury is a traditional crossroads for different ways of pronouncing the “bath vowel”, though there evidently weren’t many old farmers in our party. After the library, the excursion continued to the former house and now museum of Dr Samuel Johnson, 18th century England’s “most distinguished man of letter”, for a special guided tour about his legacy in the study and standardisation of language through his famous dictionary. The museum was full of surprises, not least the vision of Mr Horn in the trappings of Georgian maid. He thought it suited him very well. Each to their own!

St Bartholomew’s School, Andover Road, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 6JP

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