Dear Parents and Carers,
I think this is probably our fullest BSW Blog to date, which says everything that needs saying about how as a community we have relentlessly and determinedly pursued making sure that our young people were able to enjoy the best and widest possible secondary school experiences this term.
Achieve is one of our three core values and there has been much concern across the nation regarding disrupted schooling and its long-term impact. Whilst we are very strong on celebrating wider curriculum achievements, I recognise we do not always share in the same way as some of the academic headlines we see in school. We always keep a close eye on this area as it is a mainstay of the day job and we know each student’s success in the classroom is their gateway to the widest possible future choices for them.
Key Stage 3 Achievement:
This term Year 7 have smashed all records across the schools for our classroom behaviour and rewards system, posting an incredible 58:1 ratio of ERAs to behaviour points. They might not have been here long but already they are contributing across the school. Y8 are demonstrating some of the positives we can take from home learning. As a year group, they have the highest recognition in the school for independent classroom work. This is a critical life skill, which bodes well for the study skills they will need in their GCSEs the option choices, which happen next term.
Key Stage 4 Achievement:
I am delighted to share with you that our year 11 students this week received back their mock grades. Whilst there is still a lot of hard work to do, collectively they have demonstrated the right attitude, good knowledge retention and a willingness to act on feedback. This means they have an excellent baseline from which they can be confident of performing really well this summer. Year 9 have been recognised the most out of the GCSE cohorts for their enjoyment and engagement in lessons beginning their new courses with real zest and zeal. Last but by no means least, Year 10 over the past 2 rounds of Trust assessments have made the best progress out of all the Trust Schools; a strong and competitive benchmark that shows how well they are tackling their GCSE studies.
Around the school, it is the day-to-day relationships between staff and students that build the commitment and accountability required for success. The oil that keeps theses relationships running smoothly is respect and we again this term have supported local and national charities in raising funds and resources to help with their work. We have tackled key national issues such as equality through assemblies, lessons, tutor times and our parent engagement group and held to our high expectations of individual self-regulation supporting those who might at times find this difficult. As a result, the school atmosphere is always a positive and caring one in which learning can thrive.
Finally, it was with great pleasure that we were able to see so many of our 2021 Y11 cohort back in school for an evening to celebrate their achievements in the summer. Hearing of their new adventures, seeing the fond interchanges with staff and reminiscing over their time here allowed us to reflect that they tangibly embody our enjoy, respect, achieve values and gamechanger ethos . They also remind us all that we are but one part of their journey into adulthood, a journey that we should all be proud to be a part of.
On behalf of all the staff, I would like to again thank you for your invaluable support this term; some of the fruits of which can be seen below. I wish you, your loved ones, families and friends a festive Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Best wishes
Mr Whitehead
Enjoy
Wednesday 15th December saw Christmas truly come to life at BSW with the annual Christmas Dinner and Christmas Jumper Day, bringing festive cheer throughout the day. Students wore some superb Christmas knitwear, ranging from the glamorous to the downright cheesy, donating £1 to Turning Tides for the privilege. A delicious Christmas dinner was served up in the canteen including turkey with all the trimmings and a mouth watering chocolate brownie for desert. A big thanks to all of our amazing kitchen staff and to the staff volunteers who helped make the feast happen.
On Wednesday 17th November, up and coming boy band Here At Last visited BSW for a day of performance for Years 7 to 10. They performed songs by Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber and Billie Eilish.
The band, who boast 2.5 million followers on the social media platform TikTok, are currently touring schools not only with their captivating brand of harmonious pop, but also with some important messages for the students around online safety, cyberbullying and mental health. Students engaged really well with the performances and the message and Layla and Liz in Year 10 were on hand to interview the band after their performance. You can watch their interview here.
While we are sad not have been able to invite parents/carers to see the Winter Concert this year, owing to increasing Covid cases nationwide, we are nonetheless delighted to present a recording of the concert. The final post-production touches are being made right now and we are excited to share with you the recording later this week!
On Wednesday 24th November students in Year 9 enjoyed a performance of A Christmas Carol by the touring Quantum Theatre Company. Bringing to life one of their GCSE texts, the performance was enjoyed by students who had the chance to experience a bit of live theatre at BSW.
It is always great to be able to connect our students with the wider world, particularly during the pandemic. In French, the Pen Pal scheme between Bohunt School Worthing and le collège Bourgenay is alive and kicking. They had their first zoom call in December and are planning a new one in January. This has given students the chance to practice their language skills as well as making new friends. We will bring you more news soon!
Elsewhere in the French Department some of our Year 7 students have been creating posters as part of a competition to promote language learning. The winning entry was by Suzi Chow, with Stanley Eastment coming second and Ruby Edwards third. Well done to all students who entered their fantastic posters.
On 9th December, our KS3 Mandarin Excellence Program students, Year7 and Year 8 total of 59 students had an enjoyable day of Chinese culture. They learnt Chinese traditional Fan Dance and Kungfu sessions in the morning. They now know that Chinese Kungfu is not about fighting skills, but the Chinese martial arts emphasizes on physical conditioning, technique and sparring. In the afternoon, they all had an outstanding opportunity to explore traditional Chinese food and the Bubble tea culture. Feedback from some students: “We really wish to have more of this type of experience about Chinese culture”
A huge thank you to everyone who helped make Children in Need Day on Friday 19th November such a tremendous success! We raised close to £1000 through the efforts of students and staff and were delighted to be able to donate the money to an amazing charity. A special thanks to Ms Willard and Ms Stachini and the other Team Mandela tutors that helped organise and run the bake sale and of course our brilliant student bakers who produced over 300 baked products in 2 hours!
Back in October, the History department coordinated the whole-school celebrations of Black History Month. It was fantastic to see key figures of social, cultural and historical significance being celebrated in lessons across subjects.
Well done to the following students who were the winners of the ‘100 Great Black Britons’ Black History Month poster competition. Pictured left to right; Dylan Collier, Stanley Eastment, Mia Fowle, Angela Pan, Clara Lacey, Bella Perry and Klara Wickson.
In November the school marked its annual Remembrance commemorations. This year Luke Heaton’s moving performance of the Last Post was live-streamed across Zoom to all classrooms as the school fell silent in a respectful moment of silence and contemplation. Well done to Archie Jenner for producing a wonderful piece of Remembrance artwork during Digital Drawing Club.
As part of a global WWF initiative, students in Geography have written their personal commitment to reducing climate change as well as what they want to see the government do on a national scale. These are written on each side of the leaf. Students took inspiration from the recent COP26 Climate Summit and have also been thinking about ways that as a school and community we can reduce our impact on our environment.
Bohunt Worthing have kept up their yearly tradition of supporting Turning Tides, a local homelessness charity who help people all year round in the local community.
Year 7 and Year 9 Students and Food Tech staff made a ‘gingerbread army’ of over 350 biscuits for Turning Tides, a local charity that supports those who are homeless. The biscuits were delivered to Turning Tides distribution centre on Friday 10 December.
Over the last two weeks students and staff have also been donating items such as tins, Christmas Puddings and mince pies, collecting in excess of 750 individual items. The gingerbread men and other food items were taken to a very grateful charity on the 10th and 15th December, to be used to create hampers at a very difficult time of year for some. Finally, our annual Christmas Jumper Day, also on the 15th raised £332 for the charity to support their work.
Achieve
We are really proud of Year 11s for getting through their first round of mock exams. Students have demonstrated hard work, resilience and dedication in mounting their first major hurdle of their final school year and the Exams team and invigilators were quick to praise the excellent conduct and attitude of students during their exams. Year 11 have now received their mock results and will have been given important feedback by their teachers to help them progress to the next stage. We wish them the very best going forward.
Alongside their mock exams, students in Year 11 have also been considering their options for next year and applying to college courses and apprenticeships as they get ready for the next stage of their education. Ms Armstrong, our brilliant Careers Coordinator, has been providing students with lots of help and advice, including 1:1 mentoring, online careers platform UniFrog and visitors from our fellow Bohunt school Steyning Grammar who recently spoke to students about the option of attending their excellent Sixth Form. Our message to all of Year 11 is well done and keep going!
Our GCSE PE students have been completing their rock climbing assessments, completing some challenging climbs under a variety of conditions. We thank E3 Adventures for hosting our students at their excellent climbing site.
A big well done to the Year 11 English students who achieved outstanding attitude to learning in their studies. To celebrate their efforts they were treated to hot chocolate and pastries in the LRC on November 9th. What a way to spend a rainy morning!
Outdoor Education is such an important part of what we at BSW and all the BET schools do. This term we congratulated our amazing Duke of Edinburgh Year 11 Bronze Award Certificate winners. The students were awarded their certificates during their celebration breakfast in the LRC.
Bohunt School Worthing welcomed students from three Bohunt Education Trust (BET) schools to take part in a cross-trust enrichment day on Tuesday 7 December. Students from Bohunt Liphook, Steyning Grammar School and the Costello School were given the opportunity to work on projects using iPads to produce high-quality videos. The day saw a number of hands-on sessions including some key filming fundamentals such as scene-setting, ensuring you have good sound and lighting when filming, using green screen and editing footage. Some sessions were led by student digital leaders in Year 8, 9 and 10. These students are the school’s experts in film editing and digital media. The digital leaders are led by Mr Attrell and Mr McPherson.
A huge well done to our Year 10 Boys Basketball Team who made it to 3 wins out of 3 in the last week of term by beating St Andrews 47-14! It was great to see the whole team getting plenty of court time but a big shout should go out to MVP George Andrews with 5 blocks (4 in 1 quarter!).
Well done to all students who took part in the Year 7-10 Intra-House football competitions in December. It was great to see so many pupils representing their Houses in some epic fixtures. Mandela took the most wins overall, but there were lots of close games and some brilliant goals from all Houses!
On December 13th the Year 7 District Basketball away fixture against Shoreham Academy saw a great game on both sides, going down to the wire. However, Nancy Horn saved the day with a late bucket to force overtime. Final score 30-28, marking our first win of the season. Well done all!
| Friday 17 December | Last day of term, finishing at 1.40pm – no clubs. |
| Tuesday 4 January 2022 | INSET DAY – school closed to all students. |
| Wednesday 5 January 2022 | Start of term for all students – see email sent on 9 December for starting back and test details for each year group. (click here to go to the email). |
| Thursday 6 January 2022 | Virtual Y11 Parents’ Evening – bookings through the parents’ evening booking system. |
| Wednesday 12 January 2022 | 6 to 7pm Ski Trip Parent Briefing for Y8, 9 and 10 – more info to follow in the New Year. |
| Thursday 20 January 2022 | 6.30 to 8pm Y11 Prepare to Perform 2 Evening – more info to follow in the New Year. |
| Tuesday 8 February 2022 | 4 to 7pm Y7 Parents’ Evening – more info to follow in New Year. |
| Monday 21 to Friday 25 February 2022 | Half term |
