Speech bubbles © Damien Weighill (2009) with kind permission of Blast Design ltd and Conqueror

4

View

Spring ‘10 Issue 14 Spring ‘10 Issue 14 5

View

News

Have your say...

More than 325 Upper and Junior School parents completed a BGS questionnaire last term, just one of the ways parents can feed back their views on BGS.

of parents were very satisfied or satisfied with BGS.

rated the academic

performance of the School as excellent or above average.

of parents are satisfied or very satisfied with pastoral care and 94% feel that the House system works well, giving our students a sense of belonging.

rated as excellent the range of subjects, activities, sports and extensive facilities which create such a rich variety in our School. The most popular preferences for additions were cookery, dance, Mandarin and textiles, important feedback which will be used in our curriculum review.

think BGS is excellent or good value for money, although fees are the one thing most parents would change if they could. The School recognises the importance of keeping increases to a minimum.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this survey.

House debating

Junior

W

hether cosmetic surgery should be banned, military service should be reinstated

or we should choose to live in the country or the city; all have been hotly contended, with some excellent points put forward on all sides. Debaters were asked to speak for six minutes, the first and last minute of each speech designated as protected time in which no points of information can be made.

There was keen interest in the proposition for the second semi-final that computers should replace teachers.

The big debate

Students in Years 7 to 10 have been taking sides, using their powers of persuasion to compete in Junior House debating.

News

MOROCCO Привет!

at school in

James Graham’s proposition that they should treated the audience to one of the best speeches of the competition, a masterful show of irony, humour and persuasive language that put Keen’s, as hot contenders, into the final against Scott’s.

Opposing the final motion, ‘This House believes that we are slaves to fashion’, Scott’s proved they have the gift of the gab; with an excellent performance by Sanya Rajpal and Gavin O’Connell they became Junior House debating champions.

APPLIANCE OF

SCIENCE

For more information visit www.educationforallmorocco.org

Students throughout the School have been making paper aeroplanes and throwing eggs, all in celebration of National Science and Engineering Week.

In a test of design and construction skills and using nothing more than a sheet of A4 paper, plane throwers launched their prototypes from the Sports Hall balcony to find which model would go the distance. Students preferring the challenge of the vertical over the horizontal were encouraged to package an egg in such a way as to ensure its safe landing when dropped from a similar height.

on track for

MOROCCO

Year 9 boys and girls took to the cycle track in March, bringing them closer to their planned Easter destination, Morocco.

The 23-mile round trip along the path of the old railway line between Bristol and Bath became a fund-raising route for 37 students, saving for their African adventure. Although the inclement weather caused complaints about cold hands and toes, fortunately for all, the

forecast torrential rain and 40 mph gales held off, allowing some to complete the trip in under two hours, yet others came home in four, possibly thanks to excessive time spent warming up in Bitton’s cosy café.

Ilaria Pignatelli (OB 2009) is currently helping at a school boarding house for girls in Morocco, part of the project supported by BGS and its students though the charity Education for All. It’s a busy routine.

“Every day I’m awake at 7.00 to get the girls up and help Latifa prepare breakfast, usually bread (‘hobbs’ in Arabic) with jam or honey and really, really sweet milky coffee.

“The girls start school from 8.00, depending on timetable, then it’s lunch at 12.30 and time to relax before lessons start again from 1.30 until 5.30.

“I’ve been playing games with the girls who don’t have lessons, doing origami, and a regular dance class for an hour before dinner. The girls always ask me ‘what’s this’ in English, and I do the same for Arabic! I’m learning slowly: it’s a bit of a challenge!”

Already increasingly proficient in “Bonjour”, “¡Hola!” and “Salve!”, Year 8 students had the chance to add “Guten Tag!’, “Привет!” (“Privet!”) and “χαιρε” (‘khai-re’) to their vocabulary this term, an opportunity to explore what it’s like to study German, Russian or Classical Greek.

BGS is one of the few remaining schools with a commitment to offering students a really broad choice of languages, and in Language Taster Week everyone has a chance to discover their individual and special points of attraction, to help them make the choice that best suit them. For those who really get a taste for

it, there’s a further option to combine two modern languages with Latin or one modern language with Latin and Classical Greek, giving BGS students a really broad choice of language options as they move on to GCSE.

CIDER WITH CEILIDH

In an evening of high jinx and hoedown organised by the Friends of BGS, tables were turned on BGS parents who spent a spirited evening getting to grips with the complicated sequential geometry of a Highland reel. There were individual awards for the most improved dancer, tenacity and interpretation and we think everyone deserved an A for effort.

The BGS Ceilidh Band struck just the right chord, entertaining guests on arrival, before handing over to Jellied Reels, the calling band for the night. Supper was hot sausages and mash and delicious apple tarts, washed down with a delicious range of cider and real ale, supplied by Bath Ales. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11