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
Miss Smith, Subject Leader: Dance, writes;
Congratulations to all the dancers who took part in this year’s Christmas Dance Show. The event celebrated the talents of a wide variety of Stanborough students including dance club students and BTEC classes. The performances included different genres of dance, including Jazz numbers, Contemporary and Urban styles.
Many students also took advantage of our audition process and with over 30 entries this year, the competition was tough as there were a number of excellent pieces. Some of the successful dances included a Hip Hop solo choreographed and performed by Lilly-Mai Male in 9B, and a confident trio performed by Faith Beckles 10S, Amy Chapman 11K and Nicole Chapman 11A. Other highlights throughout the show consisted of an upbeat Year 7 Dance Club piece ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ choreographed by Ruth Morgan 10A and Holly Milliken 10K. All the students performed this number brilliantly, no doubt due to the fantastic role models who led them, it was a wonderful piece!
Another highlight of the evening was an emotional and thoughtful piece ‘Yours’ performed by our Year 9 dancers. This was their first performance as a whole group and it was so pleasing to see such a well-rehearsed and polished piece so early in the course.
There were a number of expertly performed solos this year, including two Year 11 solos by Fran Hall 11O and Rebecca Lancaster 11H who have choreographed work based on this year’s exam theme ‘Contradiction’. There were also three Year 13 Lyrical Jazz solos which provoked emotional responses from the audience.
The event took a strange turn during ‘A Questionable Christmas’ with arguably the most challenging staff dance to date, the teachers really got the crowd going with their hip shaking and intricate footwork… well done to all those who took part.
The Year 12 dancers closed the show with their performance of ‘Sail’, which included original repertoire and developed motifs from choreographer Hofesh Shechter. They approached this performance with confidence, maturity and technical skill. The piece was very well received by the audience and I must congratulate them on their energetic and engaging performances. Well done.
All dance students took full advantage of this opportunity to perform their work on stage with our lighting and sound facilities. The Sound and Light Team did a fantastic job throughout the day and during the evening performance. Daniel Paget created some well thought out and creative lighting to add to our pieces which enhanced the overall performances.
All students worked extremely hard in preparation for this show and should be very proud of all they have achieved. I am so pleased with the commitment they have shown and their professional performances. Well done to all who took part.
Mrs V. Hargreaves, Year Leader: Y11, writes:
Thank you to everyone involved in organising and running the musical workshops with Applecroft students on Wednesday 6th December and to the Year 9s and Sixth form students who supported the smooth running of our annual Christmas Cheer event in the afternoon. This is the third year that we have run this event, with some wonderful performances by Applecroft Year 6s, including a sneak preview of their Christmas show. We were also very happy to welcome grandparents and residents from local care homes.
Thank you to our guests for attending and supporting us. It was a great team effort and brilliant to welcome some members of staff for the Christmas sing-a-long at the end of the day. Our next event will run just before Easter – please join us, if you can.
Mr R. Crann, Acting Subject Leader: Music, writes:
This year’s Stanborough School Winter Concert was held on Thursday 30th November and featured over 130 students. The theme for the concert was the Beatles as this year marks the 50th anniversary of their seminal album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The concert was started by Mrs Ritou leading the Concert Orchestra in her first Stanborough Concert. They performed the Waltz of the Flowers from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet and they will be performing more from the Nutcracker at our upcoming Carol Concert.
Mrs Ritou has also been leading Vocailini this year, which has allowed me to take over STAGS. Needless to say, despite the change in leadership, both choirs delivered fantastic performances and showed that the rivalry is still just as fierce.
It is usual for the themed songs to begin after the interval, but with so many popular songs written by the Beatles, almost all of the performers chose a Beatles hit to perform. Senior Choir started the themed songs by singing a madrigal inspired arrangement of Here Comes the Sun. That was followed with other Beatles songs by the student-led Ukulele Group and Holly Deacon.
The first half finished in style with a preview of our upcoming school show Guys and Dolls. Parents commented after the concert on how incredible the performance of Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat sounded when the show is still some time away.
The second half began with the traditional Year 7 Christmas Song competition. The Year 7 students have been writing Christmas songs in their lessons this half term and the best from each house was chosen to be performed at the concert. All of the songs were written and performed by students on the night and the winner was picked by Mr Brown.
There was tinsel everywhere in all the excitement as Mr Brown announced Hatfield as the winning house. He commented that “they had a large choir of students, were very well organised and their singing was clear with expression and volume. They also had good co-ordinated actions, which along with their evident enjoyment and Christmas spirit made for an excellent performance of their composition.”
The year 10 GCSE music class then highlighted their talents with more Beatles songs that they have been practising in class. The second half also featured other Beatles performances by Uber Choir, Guitar Club, Poppy and Florrie Humphries and the “Smiths Salt and Shakers”.
The grand finale featured all 130 performers joining together to sing the Beatles song that so aptly summarised the spirit of the concert, With a Little Help From My Friends.
Join us on Monday 18th December for our Carol Concert, this year being held at the United Reformed Church in Welwyn Garden City.
Katie McClymont,10O, writes:
On Tuesday 28th November, our class was met with a visionary lesson, courtesy of Affinity Water, that put our STEM skills to the test.
Following an assembly held by Affinity Water on how their water infrastructure functions and makes use of STEM, we were introduced to our lesson by an Affinity Water representative.
On each desk was a large box, which contained all the parts necessary to complete the activity, and a large map. The activity was for each group to construct their own 3D water network system on the large 2D map, using the equipment supplied. The aim was to ensure the water network allocated water to each customer stated on the map, but also complied to the rules set such as only crossing a railway or river via a bridge.
The equipment granted was as follows: six containers (customers), one water tower container, one height-adjustable platform, 40 sections of long pipe, 15 sections of short pipe, 30 2-way-in-line connectors, 10 2-way 90° connectors, 10 3-way T connectors and an additional A3 map for planning.
As soon as the explanation was over, we had to immediately get to work in order to finish before the end of the 20 minute time limit.
Without a doubt, there was a wave of frantic effort throughout the class as everybody hastily joined together pieces of pipe and connectors. The activity certainly required a lot of social skills, like teamwork, as well as STEM skills, like estimating how much water pressure to set. The restrictions made on not crossing various areas also proved to be frustrating for some.
It was not long before the time was up and our water networks were up for judgement. Two groups were chosen to be judged before the end of the lesson, and had water poured into their water network to test if it really worked. All the spectators had the duty of being judges, and it was fair to say there was some degree of competitive bias. Luckily both groups successfully transported water through their system in a short amount of time.
In summary, we gained experience in industrial-style practical science: a valuable lesson for those aspiring to work in the STEM career sector.
Mrs K. Coldwell, KS5 and G&T Leader, Maths, writes:
Students in Years 11, 12 and 13 (and a few even younger) have taken part in a number of mathematical challenges recently. First was the European Mathematical Olympiad for Girls, in which Annie Mbukwa in Year 13, Daisy Butler in Year 13, Hannah Imafidon in Year 12 and Kono Washio in Year 11 took part. Annie and Hannah both earned distinctions for their performance in this challenge and Daisy and Kono respectively achieved the scores that Annie and Hannah had achieved the year before, showing that they were on the right track.
The results of the Senior Maths Challenge, taken on the 7th November, are also in. Gold certificates have been awarded to James Byrne (also Best in Year and Best in School), Shogo Washio and Nicholas Brown. James and Shogo also qualified for the first round of the British Mathematical Olympiad and Nicholas has qualified for the Senior Kangaroo follow-on round. All of these follow-on rounds take place this Friday. Jack Byrne, Rory Baxter, Dominic Rusch, Annie Mbukwa, Callum Thomson, Hamzah Hussain, Hannah Imafidon, Joseph Lowton and Kono Washio earned Bronze certificates, with Hamzah and Hannah securing Best in Year for Year 12 and Kono Best in Year for Year 11. Bronze certificates go to Eleanor Bull, James Ball, Lauren Fisher, Jonathan Van Hek, Kirsty Selwood, Matthew Bond, Stanley Hurt, Abram Lagman, Ethan Montenegro, Tawsif Chowdhury, Isaac Cheng, Christopher Illes- Wilbourn, Alex Baxter, Callum Elliott, Edgar Kager, Perry Kistruck, Usama Bin Irfan, Jack Moylan and Sean Davies. Well done to all who took part.
Finally, a team comprised of Hannah Imafidon, Tawsif Chowdhury, Shogo Washio and James Byrne represented the Senior Team Maths Challenge Regional Final at Arthur Mellows Village College in Peterborough. The competition was tough, but the team finished runners up, only surpassed by the performance of The Perse School in Cambridge. This is the second year in which Stanborough has placed second in a regional final- last year it was enough to secure a place in the National Final. We will have to wait and see if we are lucky enough to do so again.
Mrs K. Coldwell, KS5 and G&T Leader, Maths, writes:
After a long postponement due to Professor Hawking’s ill health, four Stanborough students were able to attend the Inaugural Penrose Lecture on Quantum Black Holes, given by Stephen Hawking at the Mathematical Institute at Oxford University during the October half-term. Tawsif Chowdhury, Hannah Imafidon, Christopher Illes-Wilbourn and Joseph Lowton, all in Year 12, spent over two hours travelling to Oxford to hear the one-hour talk but all agreed that the journey was more than worth it for this once in a lifetime experience. The opportunity to hear renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking speak live on his own work with Roger Penrose and more recent work with others was the main draw of the event. Students also walked over Penrose tiles at the entrance to the Mathematical Institute, only to hear the introduction of Professor Hawking’s lecture given by his colleague, Sir Roger Penrose, as they sat in the Andrew Wiles building, directly behind Sir Andrew Wiles himself! So two of the most famous living British mathematicians were also part of the package! Such was the inspiration of this event and others like it, that Joseph Lowton made his own way to the public lecture which Andrew Wiles gave on the 28th November at the Science Museum in London.
Jess Elsley, Year 12 Dance Captain, writes:
On 16th November, Year 10, 12 and 13 students went to Trinity Laban in London. It was a day out looking at a professional dance school and what it involves. We travelled all the way to London and arrived at Laban.
First we had a little talk from a course director and got to see the lecture room at Laban within which, despite the fact it was primarily a dance school, they learnt that they had to still do theory work in lecture rooms. We then had a tour of the building and saw all the studios, and got an insight into some of their classes. This was interesting because as we walked around the school, we saw lots of the students sitting around and stretching and preparing for their class, which really highlighted the fact it was a dance school. Furthermore the whole building was shaped for dance; down every corridor were fountains and places to sit and stretch, even the grass outside the building was shaped into stairs so people could sit on in summer and people could perform in front of them. We also got to watch the resident dance company, Transitions. We saw how the company worked together and what a standard rehearsal would look like.
After lunch we took part in our first workshop: contemporary technique. The start of the workshop was doing slides and leg swings to get warm and practising using the space. Afterwards we had a creative choreography workshop, we started by doing a walking round exercise, which was an improvisation task. Both workshops were very energetic and enjoyable, using new styles which hadn’t been explored by the students previously. Overall the day was a great insight into the college life as a dance student and was enjoyed by all the students who went.
‘It was a great experience and I enjoyed watching Transitions and how they worked together, I would definitely go again.’ Abby Mortimer, Year 12 Dance Captain
Mrs M. O’Connor, IT and Computing, writes:
Last week was Anti – Bullying Week 2017 and the students at Stanborough were busy promoting a key message; ‘All Different – All Equal’. This year’s theme focused on empowering young people to celebrate what makes them, and others, unique. The aim of the campaign is to help young people understand how important it is that everyone feels valued and included in school, allowing them to be themselves, without fear of bullying.
During our Year 7 to Year 10 IT & computing lessons, students displayed a mature approach to important topics. They discussed what makes us different from each other in a positive way and discussed things that could be used in a negative context, meaning people are not treated equally. Topics included race, gender, sexuality, family, culture, faith, age and where they live.
It was refreshing to hear students sharing their thoughts and opinions on what makes them ‘All Different, All Equal’, celebrating difference and equality. Each student demonstrated their understanding that we need to see and recognise difference, knowing that treating people the same won’t amount to treating people fairly. For people to experience true equality, we can’t just notice differences, we may have to take action to ensure people are given equal opportunities.
Our Year 7 students took part in our House competition; Anti – Bullying Week Wrist Band Challenge, showing their support by wearing their wristband every day of the week. The winners of the competition were 7 Offley, showing the most support, with 7 Sopwell a very close second. So that’s 100 points to Offley!
We encourage students to take individual and collective action to prevent bullying, creating safe environments, where they can be themselves at Stanborough School. At Stanborough, it is Anti – Bullying Week every week!
Tilly North 9A “Think before you speak. You should always be unique, don’t let anyone change who you are.”
Sarah Pennell and Reece Ogeer-Ali 7BM “The lesson showed the effects of what happens during and after bullying.”
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