From the Head Teacher…

DIARY DATES

SCIENCE

COLLEGE

December 2015

ABSENCE LINE

01923 478234 Years 7-11 (Mrs Gray)

or email Mrs Gray on attendance@queens.herts.sch.uk

01923 478217 6th Form (Mrs Froy)

Please report all absences by 9.15am on the first day of ab-sence. This should be followed up by a letter to the Form

Tutor when your child returns to school.

Dear Parents and carers,

We have now almost come to the end of what is always the

longest and in many ways the busiest term of the school

year. The Year 11 mock exams have gone well, with students

obviously taking them seriously. The outcomes will be re-

vealed on Mock Results Day. The aim of this day is to repli-

cate “Results Day” in August, which is why individual subjects

do not give out results beforehand. If students have not re-

vised properly and their results are not what they had hoped,

Mock Results Day may well be a difficult day for them. How-

ever, hopefully they will learn from this experience and will

have time to do something about it. Better to have a difficult

day in December than next August!

Plans for the end of term festivities are well under way and

the School Pantomime, the Year 7 Carol Concert and the Year

7 Christmas parties will all soon take place. All of these sea-

sonal events have an important place in the Queens’ School

calendar.

When you next visit the North Side, you will notice the patio

extension to the North Dining Hall is now completed (just in

time for the inclement weather). It is now providing us with

an additional 72 covered seats and is already being well used.

Less immediately obvious, unless you are trying to work in-

side the South Side on a cold day, the re-cladding and double

glazing of the South Side main building has also been com-

pleted. We have just submitted bids to the funding agency

for two further pieces of capital work. Firstly to have the

leaking roof on the South Side main building replaced and

secondly to have the Technology Block re-cladded and dou-

ble glazed. We should be hearing whether we have been

successful in the Spring, with the work hopefully being done

over the Summer.

I hope that you enjoy reading the end of term edition of Fo-

cus for news of the variety of things that have taken place

this term, especially the Boxing exploits of Cameron Paul,

and that you all have a safe and very happy Christmas.

T James

Headteacher

December 2015

7th Sports Academy Open Evening

8th-11th School Show “Cinderella”

11th Y11 Mock Results distributed p4

11th Charity Cake sale

14th Y12 Parent Consultation Evening

14th Y7 Drake Christmas Party

15th Y7 Auden & Sutherland Christmas Party

16th Y7 Carol Service

17th Charity Christmas Jumper Day (£1)

17th Y7 Newton Christmas Party

18th End of Term (12:30 finish for students)

January 2016

5th School starts back

6th Y11 Parent Consultation Evening

11th-15th Y12 Mock Exams

18th-22nd Y13 Mock Exams

12th-13th Drama Workshops with West Herts College

18th Y7 Parents Consultation Evening

18th Y11 MFL speaking exams

20th Y12 Art & Photography Mock all day

27th Y12 Art & Photography Mock all day

Please note our Easter Holiday dates for 2016 are different to the Herts

County dates. We will be breaking up on Thursday 24th March 2016 and

returning to school on Monday 11th April 2016. Many of the local Sec-

ondary Schools have opted to do this and it may make a difference if you

are trying to book holidays. Term dates are published the school website

or you may call the main school office for details. Please always check

before you book any holidays.

Thank you on behalf of the students and staff of Ng’andu Basic School

I just wanted to write to express my thanks to all of you who do-nated old football kit for Ng’andu Basic School in Zambia. Myself, Miss Leaper & Miss Buss received a fantastic reception from the students and staff upon our arrival during October half-term, which included the performance of traditional songs and tribal dances by the school’s students. Both the staff and students were extremely grateful to receive the kit, and have now set up a local tournament against other schools to - in the words of their headmistress- ‘proudly show it off’. I must also take this opportunity to publically thank Chris McGuane and Watford Academy for their donation of two full sets of Watford’s Academy Kit.

In addition to being privileged to witness the traditional songs and dances performed, Miss Leaper and Miss Buss also tried their hand at teaching a lesson on testing for starch with little more than a piece of chalk, a black board (I’m sure many of you reading this—myself included—can relate to this) and a leaf to aid them. During the visit, the Chief of Kazangula (the area of Zambia in which Ng’andu School and The World Heritage Site of Victoria Falls are located) also expressed an interest in what we were doing We are hopeful of working together to further support the staff and students at Ng’andu so watch this space for information on further appeals and visits.

I’m hopeful of also planning a future trip in which we would look to bring students out to Ng’andu, so stay tuned for news of a possible visit later this academic year.

Mr C Michaelides

Head of Auden House

Newton House News Charity Event: Newton House organized a Stayawake last month to collect money for sev-eral charities that we have been supporting for the last few years: Breast Cancer Research; Herts Air Ambulance and Children in Need. On Friday 6th November 24 Y7 Newton Students decided to give up their evening to support our Charity event. They have raised nearly £500 so far. Well done to all of them.

Christmas Party: We are holding a Year 7 Christmas Party in December on the last week of term. Letters will come out soon. Watch this space. Congratulations: Cameron Paul of 10NE has just won a boxing Gold Medal. You can read more of this in Focus at the end of term but we just wanted to say how proud we are of his achievements.

Miss E Besse Head Of Newton House

Auden House News

Sutherland House News

Year 7 - This year Auden and Sutherland Houses will be hosting our joint Year 7 Christmas party on Tuesday 15th December from 2:45pm until 4:30 pm in the North Hall, straight after school. Students do not have to wear school uniform, so if they bring to school the clothes they want to wear, they can change before the party starts. There will be a variety of activi-

ties including quizzes, games and a mini disco. There will be crisps and drinks available during the party which will be provided by the Houses. We do hope that your son or daughter will be able to come, as it should be a good end to the Year 7’s first term at Queens’ and a fun start to the festive season.

Congratulations:

Robert Anechite 8SV is part of the British National Junior team for QWAN KI DO & QUAN KHI DAO. Robert won 1ST Place at the British National Championship in March 2013, he came 5TH at the European Championship for children and juniors in April 2014, and 1ST and 3RD Place in the British National Championship in October 2014. Robert will be representing England at the International Championship for children and juniors on the 4th to the 7th December 2015 in Botosani, Romania. We wish him every success.

Mrs S Griffiths

Head of Sutherland House

Drake House News

It’s been a great term so far and particularly well done to our three Year 7 forms who have settled down really well and are a credit to us all. Well done them! We are looking forward to next year’s Yorkshire trip – Wisepay is open for deposits and if you want to see how we did

last year we are @draketrip on Twitter. Mrs Davies will be off on maternity leave after Christmas so Mrs Yokoi will be looking after 7DA. 26 Year 7s took part in our sponsored silence just before Half Term and about 25 Year 8s managed to stay awake (just!) at our Stayawake in No-vember. We have raised about £600 for our chosen charity. Thanks to Mr Foxall, Miss Gannon and Mr Kanagaratnam for giving up their time. This year we will be donating some money to the Ingleton Swimming Pool that is run solely by volunteers and is used by us on our Yorkshire trip. We are also supporting BRAKE, a road safety charity, as it is now twenty years since three of our Sixth Formers sadly died in a motor accident in The Avenue, Bushey. There will be an account of this in this term’s Focus.

Well done to all who took part in the House Cross Country and we are currently second in the Robert Brown Trophy for House sport. In fact all four Houses are within 12 points of each oth-er, so this will be a great competition. There will be more events next term, along with the House Music competition in March.

Mr M Swift

Head of Drake House

Technology Department News

Thanks and congratulations to Mrs Cannard, who has served as a Food Technician at Queens’ for 35 years. She has given unstinting service to the Department and the school and continues to do so.

Mrs Lesley Cummings

Head of Design and Technology

Drama Department News We are in the midst of rehearsals for the Performing Arts Departments production of Cinderella. We have a fan-tastic cast featuring students from all the years. There will even be some surprise staff appearances, so make sure you come along and watch this festive show! Our Year 7 and Year 8 Drama Clubs are running every week. We are very fortunate to have some dedicated Dra-ma students from our GCSE and A level classes who come along and help us every week. Drama leaves its mark on our students. We currently have 2 ex students working with us; Georgia Parker who is our Assistant Director for Cinderella, and Jess Bedrossian who is running a special Drama club for interested Year 9 students, who want to do Drama GCSE next year. Our Year 11 and Year 13 classes are working hard on their Devising units for their exams. We are hoping to run a Drama Evening in May which will showcase the amazing talent we have at Queens’. This evening will feature exam work as well as performances from our Drama Clubs. Any student who would like to be involved in any of our clubs are welcome to come and see us in the depart-ment.

Mrs S Jones and Mrs L Billinge Drama Department

Combined Cadet Force News

The new Y9's in the CCF had a fantastic Trip to Caldecotte Lake and Adventure Centre. They

challenged them selves to jump off the tower of fear, Zorb over water, build their own raft to

cross a lake and capture a Flag in the dark.

10 of our Y10 and Y11 RAF Senior Cadets all passed their 2nd flying lesson at RAF Benson on Wednesday 11th No-

vember. Some doing aerobatics and taking control of the plane.

Mrs T Dombey, CCF

Art Department News

Rachel Walford Y12 won the RSPB Richie Richardson Award (most realistic)

for her painting of a fox and was highly commended for her watercol-

our painting of a woodpecker. Her work was displayed in the Mall Galleries

in an exhibition called 'The Natural Eye 2015.'

Mrs J Padgham, Art Department

Taiwan 2015

After two years of planning our students visited one of our twin schools, the Er

Chong School in Taiwan in October.

Taiwan was an amazing experience with Er Chong being amazing hosts. They

were friendly, welcoming and very polite and made us feel at home. The coun-

try itself was inspiring and makes us see how their life and culture is different

to ours.

“We did a various range of activities from visiting Taipei 101 to making sushi.

We went to some authentic night markets experiencing the true heart of Tai-

wan.” - Lochlan Crowder 10AP

We visited Er Chong everyday for the morning until 12 where we did lessons

and experienced their everyday life.

“Taiwan was an once in a lifetime opportunity - the people, the country and eve-

rything around us was amazing. Thanks Taiwan!” – Owen Abderrakib 9AH

“Taiwan was an amazing experience and I’m very grateful for the opportunity, I

would highly recommend it to anyone considering going.” - Danny Robinson

9AW

“Getting to know the culture and how people go about their everyday lives and

being a part of it was a great experience and helped me to learn about living in a

different country, very different to ours.”- Sayef 10DA

“The people in Taiwan were very kind and welcoming. They were very compli-

mentary about us and the experience was very cultural. It was a great experience

MFL Dictionary Appeal

If anyone has French/German/Spanish dictionaries at home that are in good condition but

are currently unloved and not being used, would you consider donating them to the MFL

department?

Dictionaries can be handed in to either the North or South.

Merci beaucoup/Danke schon/Muchas gracias!

Mrs Y Kennedy

MFL Department

Careers News

Y11 Exam Busters drop in session every Monday Lunchtime in Mrs Foweraker's room just by South Reception.

The Year 11s Mock Interviews are held from 1st-5th February 2016. Business smart is the dress code.

All Y11s will have an SLT interview in the New Year to talk about their progression after their GCSEs.

There is a Careers Fair 15th March 2016 6-8pm. Please put the date

in your diary.

Check the National Apprenticeship website now for September 2016

start dates.

Keep an eye on The Queens’ School Twitter account for any national

or local careers events.

Mrs C Davies, Careers Co-ordinator

Mr P Vekaria, Assistant Head i/c KS4

Uniform Matters!

Generally we’ve been very pleased with the standard of the students’ school uniform this term but we’re starting

to have students wearing inappropriate items, especially footwear. Our policy is very strict and students will have

to spend the day in Internal Exclusion if you are unable to bring correct uniform up to school.

Please do not allow your child to come to school wearing jewellery, nail varnish, piercings (apart from an ear stud

in each ear) or footwear other than traditional school shoes or plain boots. As the weather worsens we do appre-

ciate that they may need to wear very substantial boots to walk to school but they should change into school

shoes in the building. Hopefully we’ll manage to avoid any snow on school days this year but please check our

website and look out for an email from us if you are in any doubt about whether school is open.

Mrs K Clarke, Deputy Head