30/04/14

1. 30/04/14 In this week’s issue we feature our new plans, (see R); the Geography fieldtrip to Liverpool; and work being done in school to combat potential bullying and how to educate on other issues affecting teenagers such as homophobia & sexting, building on the Bullying Intervention Group award BGS achieved last year. Dear Parents, Guardians and Students, As I am writing my contribution to the Briefing this week I have one eye on my emails waiting to hear from the government if we have been allocated a grant to fund the new school building which has featured in the local press as we have just applied for planning permission. The need for the new facilities is clear and we have a very good case, but gaining planning permission may be central to any decision. The new building (above in white) is essential to provide the state of the art facilities that our students deserve, particularly as the larger year groups are about to enter the 6th form and we are looking at all possible routes to fund these developments. Dr Gillespie

2. The 250 Club winner for March 2014 is lucky number 22, which belongs to Liz de Candole (Ashleigh 7B). Grand Draw tickets – have you returned yours? Sales are only at £673, less than £1 per student but this is usually a major fund-raiser to buy equipment for the school - please return them! • Taplow Cricket Club Colts has started its new season. Open to all – Girls and Boys age 6 - 17 with newcomers to the game especially welcome. Friday training sessions 6.15 – 7.30 every week throughout the season. Coaches are ECB qualified and CRB checked, and it’s a small and friendly club, Colts get great coaching and lots of local game play while parents can relax in the clubhouse. It’s a great social evening for all the family with beautiful grounds off Cliveden Road, with the club bar and a delicious high quality BBQ every week. • For more information go to www.taplowcolts.org.uk TaplowCC Colts are supported with funds from Big Lottery and Sport England’s Kids Get Active campaign. New Zealand Sports Tour The final fundraising event for New Zealand is our Black Tie Dinner at Maidenhead Rugby Club on Friday 23rd May at 7.30pm £30 per head, which includes a 3 course dinner wine and a disco. This is a really lovely event. If you would like to join the PE department on a table or make up a table of your own we would really love to see you there. Karen Ive New on the website: Extra-curriculum timetable Summer term under School Info Key Stages

3. Anti-Bullying Conference By ShivamMalhotra On the 28th March, a group of students from varying years, along with Mr Moubarak, went to the Aylesbury Gateway Conference Centre to attend an Anti-Bullying Conference. The general themes for the day were how to tackle Cyberbullying, Sexual Exploitation, Racism, Homophobia and Islamophobia. Throughout the day, we (PayasSinha, Pritesh Patel, Mollie Coogan, David Quist and myself) engaged in thought-provoking activities and videos – all of which you can view on YouTube. The first of which tackled the issue of Sexting. Feelings varied between “It was fun”, “You can’t run from it” and it’s “Not fair”. The ideas brought forward in this talk were not only about how to prevent this, but how to deal with it – we spent time looking at sites such as CEOP (a reporting, help and advice service) and BeatBullyingwhich are of help. While the day provided us with a lot of useful information, as well as lots of time for us to reflect and brainstorm ideas about how we could improve our school, one positive thought we left with was the consensus that BGS was already doing most of these things anyway. Mollie 9C: “I learnt lots of new things I didn’t know happened, like how people get picked on because of their sexuality and the danger of talking to strangers online” If you witness any Bullying at school, you can report it anonymously in the BGS Dropbox, which can be found by reception under the stairs to Dr Gillespie’s office Useful Links: http://www.stonewall.org.uk, http://www.areyoucomingout.com http://www.nobystanders.org.uk http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk http://www.srtrc.org http://www.beatbullying.org YouTube Videos: “Exposed” – Sexting, “Matt thought he knew” – Sexual Exploitation, “It gets better” – Homophobia

4. Geography Fieldwork in Liverpool by Beth Hopkins 12D Dense fog typified the bitter weather conditions AS Geographers would be experiencing over the next four days in and around Liverpool, gathering evidence which would help us in our summer exam. Within three hours of setting off, the grumpy, tired Geographers had made it to Claremont Farm, Wirral. Farmer Andrew showed us around his ever diversifying farm and infused us with useful facts for us to use as a case study, such as the education he provides to 3,000 students per year – like ourselves. Andrew also informed us of the socio-economic benefits he’s introducing when his farm shop is up and running, which he mentioned is the best form of diversification, and the most successful to his business. He also showed us his one and only animal – Aggie! After Claremont the excitement levels rose as we went through the Liverpool Tolls. This signified the start of our adventure –first stop Liverpool Museum followed by a welcome Nandos. Friday came and we were faced with carrying out some fieldwork in Liverpool which would be vital to us come the summer. Such fieldwork consisted of environmental surveys in various places around Liverpool – including Lime Street which we found was in much need of regenerating. As well as the environmental surveys we carried out, we also did some public surveys to gather a wider view of the specific area. The information we gathered through the questionnaires will help in our final summer exam when we’ll be faced with potential questions such as ‘using examples, outline the ways in which areas have re-imaged themselves to attract more visitors.’ We can now give examples, and state local opinions. Following this we all needed some retail therapy, but not without conducting shoppers footfall and pedestrian counts which will enable us to prove or disprove various hypothesis whether or not rebranding has been successful or not, in terms of retail and leisure activities as a catalyst.

5. Following all of our hard work, some food and some fun followed – ‘Yee Rah’ and ‘Jungle Rumble’ (although crazy golf wasn’t one of our best talents). Come Saturday we fuelled up on the hotel’s buffet breakfast and were prepped, with as many layers on as possible, for Blackpool and its breezy promenade as well as Ainsdale Sand Dunes. We did further fieldwork here, conducting different tasks to tackle five new hypotheses, including the successes of developments, the impacts of erosion caused naturally and via the fault of humans, and how sustainable the management in place really is. To find this information out, litter counts – to see the impacts of visitors and the litter management in place, photo map evidence – to see the developments that have changed over time, public surveys – to get a broader view on the issues we could be asked about during our exams, and environmental surveys – using our own judgement in small groups to see if a visitor number increase is positive or negative, were carried out before we had to retreat back to the warmth of the minibuses. Sunday came and we were leaving, but not before we hopped on a ferry ride across the Mersey to sum up our weekend and a stop-off at Amerton Farm for our last bit of fieldwork. Amerton Farm we found had already diversified, but many visitors did not feel much had changed in the years they’d been coming – superb evidence for us! All in all it was a very successful and fun trip, thank you to the geography department: Mr Bainbridge, Miss Goodier, Mr Baninand to Mrs Lyons! This 4 day residential visit to Liverpool and the North west was a real success, the students were superb! They worked well as a team to complete a variety of fieldwork tasks, all of which gave them the real data necessary to complete the fieldwork related AS exam. I was impressed by their willingness to get involved and by their interpersonal skills when speaking to guides, speakers and members of the public. The trip has enhanced their skills, given them key pieces of geographical knowledge, whilst having an enjoyable time in a unique and dynamic location. Mr Bainbridge Head of Geography