Baylis Court School Newsletter Friday 11 March 2022

Year 13 Politics Trip to Parliament

On Monday 7th March our politics class were lucky enough to visit the Palace of Westminster and have an insight into both the House of Commons and House of Lords. We learnt plenty of facts about the history of this monumental building including the fact that it suffered extreme damage in a fire in 1834; what we see on the TV is in fact a lot newer than the original part of the building that was built in the 1000s.

Our trip continued with a walk down Whitehall to see the multitude of government buildings including Downing Street and Cabinet department buildings. We saw many traditional events including Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace before heading to Trafalgar Square for lunch.

This trip was simultaneously educational for our politics course but was also culturally enriching as we were able to see very significant aspects of London and our history as a country that we may not have seen before, despite living so close to the capital.

Hannah Bunce - Year 13

Deeper Learning Day

On Wednesday 9th March all year groups took part in our second deeper learning day of the year. Many of the activities had a careers focus to tie in with national careers week.

Year 7

Pupils took part in a ‘Green Day’ to learn about climate change and sustainability. They rotated between Maths, Science, English, Geography and Art workshops, all based on this theme. Pupils could wear an item of green clothing and were asked to bring in recyclable items for the Art workshop. Activities also included origami in Maths and designing a sustainable garden bridge in an imaginary city in Geography.

Year 8

The day aimed to develop pupils’ understand of enterprise and business. In the morning they had a careers talk with a local businesswoman. They then learnt about the show ‘Dragon’s Den’ and had to work in groups to come up with an innovative product. In these groups they put together their pitch and considered their budget plan. The best product/pitch from each class went through to the final after lunch where each group presented their pitch to four ‘dragons’ (local business people). Congratulations to the following pupils who impressed the dragons and won Amazon vouchers!

• Best group: Uzo Eze, Samar Deol, Haninah Imran, Isra Sanad, Hiba Saqib, Harleen Matharu
• Most enterprising individual: Yasmine Majdoub

Thank you to our visitors for helping out as dragons - Alan Haley (Callisto Services), Ray McGroarty (Virgin Media), Aisha Noor and Sureena Gill (both from Microsoft).

Year 9

Pupils developed their oracy skills in workshops delivered by ‘Talk the Talk’. This is a fantastic day that we have been running for a number of years. It is great to see how they develop throughout the day and by the afternoon every pupil has the opportunity to speak in front of the class. Well done year 9! The ‘stand out’ speakers nominated by the visitors were:

• Mehr Amir
• Farhana Khan
• Marwa Yousef
• Erin Taylor
• Sumaya Aweys
• Husna Khaliqi
• Romeesa Khan
• Makatendeka Mari
• Gurvinder Sahota
• Eman Jaffar
• Fatima Shaikh
• Evelina Brugmane
• Atiya Shehan
• Dhanushika Muralikrishnan
• Ela Dillon
• Safaa Ahmed
• Jasskarn Kaur
• Isha Khan
• Laila Hodgkins
• Zaara Syed
• Afreen Din
• Hafsah Alam

Also, a special mention to Umayma Abbas for the biggest improvement of the day!

“I learned how to effectively give a speech. I could use this skill in the future.” Amina Irfan, 9 Grey-Thompson

Year 10

Year 10 had the opportunity to visit the University of Reading. This was an exciting day for them to learn more about university life to help them decide whether this might be a suitable route for them in the future. They had a campus tour and took part in a Q&A with university students.

““I enjoyed the session in which 2 uni students spoke to us about their uni experience and told us about the different courses.” Zahra Hussain, 10 Anderson

Year 11

The morning was focused around the topics of mental health and self-harm. The pupils watched a fantastic performance by Peer Productions called ‘Hidden’ which explores these topics. They then had a follow up session to learn more about appropriate coping strategies and how to access support. In the afternoon Mrs Martin led a presentation on GCSE exams and revision techniques to help them to prepare for the summer. The day concluded with three careers talks with ex-students to learn about possible career journeys once they leave education. Thank you to our ex-students for your contributions! Von even presented via Teams from Paris to talk about her inclusive fashion brand!

“With the correct support, anyone can heal themselves.”

“This production was an informative and useful session. We were entertained yet also educated about mental health, gaining a deeper insight on how to find support and support others.” Aleena Ashaq, 11 Nightingale

Year 12

Pupils took part in a variety of workshops to prepare them for future careers. They learnt how to write a professional CV, helpful interview techniques, and how to use labour market information to inform their future planning. They watched a presentation on LinkedIn, led by an external visitor, to help them understand how they can use this platform effectively. They then logged all their work on Unifrog as part of their ongoing careers programme.

Year 13

In the morning year 13 had two talks – one about healthy relationships led by Caron Kipping, and one about exam techniques by Mr Brown. They then took part in a range of fun activities to learn more about working effectively in a team. In the afternoon they learnt about how to stay active after leaving school and how to access local sports facilities as an adult. This was followed by some competitive netball and rounders games!