Coming Up
15th April
Summer Term Begins
15th – 26th April
Year 10 Exams
17th – 26th April
Year 9 Exams
Contact Us
Lemsford Lane
Welwyn Garden City
Hertfordshire
AL8 6YR
Tel: 01707 321755
Mr S. McQueen, Subject leader: Drama, writes:
On Wed 6th – Fri 8th February, five months of hard work came to fruition in three outstanding performances of this year’s school production, “Our House”.
The work began way back in September when auditions were held and rehearsals began, with students working hard to learn lines, songs, dances and music; giving up their time after school and some weekends to ensure their performances were outstanding both on and off stage.
Huge thanks must go to the staff who worked hard to make this production a success; Mrs Jackson and Mr Craig, who worked tirelessly throughout the year to ensure lights, staging, set, music, publicity, choreography and much more worked seamlessly to support the students.
However the real stars and those who deserve the most praise are the students, working hard on stage, back stage and in the band. This year we had a plethora of students involved who had never done the school production before as well as a regular members of the cast. We were especially pleased the high numbers of people auditioning for principle roles for the first time. The cast excelled themselves as always, putting in all their emotion and talent to portray Camden, NW5 and the people who live there, drawing their audience in and dazzling them with their acting and singing. It is always hard to pick out individuals with a cast as they worked seamlessly as an ensemble to create the show, but specific mention must go to Hayden Cable, playing the lead role of Joe Casey, showing the two alternate lives after he makes a life changing decision. Our other principle actors; Bethan Makowski, Vicky Langley, Olivia Evans, Ben Ferry, Louis Ross, Karl Puranik, Justine House and Alfie Kerr were equally strong, creating powerful and moving performances as the loved ones, friends and enemies in Joe’s life.
Students also ran SaLT (our Sound and Light Team) and the back stage crew, with special thanks to Will Stringer for designing the lights for the show and leading SaLT and our Back Stage Manager, Edie Spencer, for running the show from the wings. Extra special thanks must also go to Allyna Farrell and Lora Johnson, who made sure Hayden’s incredibly fast costume changes happened seamlessly, the unsung heroes of the show.
Well done to all students involved, your effort and talent has created another wonderful school production. Thank you and well done.
Mrs A. Wallis, Deputy Year Leader for Year 10, writes:
To show support within the community, Stanborough School were invited to join other schools from Welwyn and Hatfield, to a Holocaust Memorial event. All the schools that attended performed presentations on Nazi Persecution, the Holocaust and the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia at an event called ‘Torn from Home’. Stanborough performed their work on the Genocide in Rwanda. The students wrote and performed some amazing and very moving poetry. Many thanks to those students who worked so hard, Amy-May Ashley, Freya Elsley, Bryony Dickinson-Williams, Frayer Gower, Phoebe Gordon, Roxana Facalet and Louis Jackson, who introduced each poem with such compassion.
The event took place at the Campus West Theatre on Monday 28th January. After the performances all the students and staff were able to go out on to the Campus Outdoor arena where there was one minute’s silence to show respect for all the atrocities that people have endured over many years. There was then the release of Symbolic Peace Doves, followed by refreshments. The students were able to browse the brilliant art work that the students in Year 9 did to portray the atrocities from the holocaust and the genocides.
The students and staff were very moved by the whole experience and the respect the students showed was outstanding.
‘I really enjoyed going to the Holocaust event, it helped me to understand. It was well organised and everyone showed respect towards the holocaust.’ Roxana Facalet 10S
‘The holocaust event was very moving and made me think about those who lost their lives. It was very emotional when the poems were read and when the doves were released.’ Frayer Gower 10B
‘Last Monday was the Holocaust Memorial Day, the event was amazing, yet very sombre. The stories delivered were heart-breaking and a beautiful eye opener to how we should make the world better due to the world’s historic events. It was extremely moving and worth every moment.’ Robyn Elliott 10H
The students were fantastic and were a real credit to the school. It was a very emotional morning, but each and every student showed compassion and understanding. It was a real pleasure to experience with them such an important world event. Well done to all those who performed and participated in the morning.
On Saturday 2nd February, our new Gold Group, made up of six very motivated Year 12 students, started to train and plan the expedition section of their award. Our trainer was very impressed by their ability to discuss route planning and other aspects of the expedition in a mature and thoughtful way. They will continue their training and complete their practice expedition in June in the Peak District. The Qualifying Expedition will take place in the Brecon Beacons in July. This is a worthwhile challenge and the award will stand out on personal statements for universities and CVs. I would like to wish good luck to: Caitlin Maciver, Daniel Rowe, Lucy Thompson, Justine House, Harry Cross and Arkadiusz Ochnio.
Bronze groups: Canoeing and Walking
I am very pleased with how the Bronze participants have started their award, many of them have almost completed their skills, volunteering and physical sections. Students are volunteering in after school clubs in and out of school and in charity shops, providing invaluable help and contributing to the community. Participants need also to learn a skill or do sport. Many clubs are organised in school to give them the opportunity to do so. A French club has started on Thursday evening for Year 10 as some participants wanted to learn more French. This is a great way to complete the skill section and improve their grades at the same time.
I would like to remind all participants that I am in C5 every Wednesday at lunchtime where I can answer any question or help with edofe.
Please note that due to the change of DofE programme, the training session for the Walking Expedition which was booked for 9th February has been cancelled.
Walking Expedition
Practice expedition: 11th and 12th May 2019
Assessed expedition: 12th and 13th July 2019
Canoeing Expedition
Practice expedition: 8th and 9th June 2019
Assessed expedition: 21st and 22nd June 2019
Thomas Gray,12A, writes:
London welcomed the Year 12 Government and Politics class on Friday 18th January 2019. After the eventful House of Commons votes earlier that week, everyone felt excited to get a tour of the battleground of British politics; the Houses of Parliament. The train and tube trip were navigated well, and everyone made it to Westminster tube station in time for some lunch. After a quick sandwich, the class made it through security and we met our tour guide. We first went to the central lobby, where Members of Parliament are often smothered by the press, fortunately there were no cameras there for us that day. We then were taken up to the viewing galleries of the House of Lords where unelected professionals make recommendations on policy making. A debate was taking place which was especially impressive as we were able to see the chamber in action, live! Then we were taken to the committee rooms where experts are chosen to scrutinise the government and to help with the making of any legislation. Then, we were led to the ‘other place’: The House of Commons. This was particularly exciting due to the two very important votes just days before however there were no debates taking place while we were there which meant that we were able to actually go into the chamber itself. It seemed strangely small although still very regal, filled with its green benches and gold ornaments. We even got to stand at the dispatch box, where Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn exchange arguments over issues such as Brexit.
After the tour, we met in the education centre for a workshop about select committees and we debated whether or not they were an effective method for scrutinising government policy. It started with a quiz and then we were told to research to prepare for the debate. We then met with Baroness Barker, who sits in the House Lords and is a former committee member; she was able to explain to us about what her job entails, how to address her (m’lady and then ma’am) and what she thinks, as a liberal democrat, about her role as an unelected representative.
Overall, the trip was very informative and enjoyable as we got to see the inner workings of how our country is run.
Mrs M. O’Connor, Deputy Curriculum Leader: IT & Computing, writes:
On Saturday 12th January, Stanborough School hosted a heat of the FIRST LEGO League Robotics Competition for the third year in a row. We welcomed teams from all across the country. FIRST LEGO League is an international competition organised by FIRST for primary and secondary school students which challenges kids to think like scientists and engineers.
In September each year a new themed challenge is announced and this year’s theme was ‘INTO ORBIT’. During the INTO ORBIT season, teams had to identify and solve a real-world problem relating to supporting astronauts while travelling in space. This was then required to be presented in the form of a project to our panel of judges on the day of the competition.
During the season the team also had the challenge of building, testing, and programming an autonomous robot utilising LEGO® MINDSTORMS® technology to solve a set of missions.
On the day of the competition our team of Dawid Zablocki 7OS, Camaron Lindsay 7OS, Maxwell Chisholm 7S, Sarah Pennell 8BM, Thomas Linger 8H and Oliver Holbourns 8S went head to head with seven other teams.
After each game the teams were given the opportunity to review and improve their programming and game strategies. Throughout the process, the teams were encouraged to focus on the FIRST Core Values of celebrating discovery, teamwork and professionalism. Each team had to present their understanding of the core values during a task that was given to them on the day.
The Stanborough team have worked hard over the past three months to prepare for the day. They showed that when given a challenge they could work together to solve a problem. Above all they showed resilience in the face of adversity, working through any problems.
Overall the day was a huge success and all the visiting teams really enjoying the experience.
Well done to all the students who competed in the competition and a massive thank you to our students, staff, parents and local businesses for volunteering to support the organising of the day. You made it a success!
15th April
Summer Term Begins
15th – 26th April
Year 10 Exams
17th – 26th April
Year 9 Exams
Lemsford Lane
Welwyn Garden City
Hertfordshire
AL8 6YR
Tel: 01707 321755