Young Muslim Writers Award

Last year, I wrote a poem for a competition for the YMWA, not realising that it was a very big organisation trying to find writing talents worldwide. I had found the competition a day before the deadline however I was eager to enter.

I had totally forgotten about the competition until one Autumn October day my mum got an email. I was chosen as the top 5 young writers in the world for my age. The email congratulated me on my writing talent and how I was invited with my family to the grand final in Senate House, London.

On 1st December 2018, my mum, dad, two siblings, my grandma and I drove to Wood Green and then took the underground train to Russel Square.

Each finalist was given a gift bag full of books and writing supplies. We had lunch and then the ceremony began. I had the opportunity to meet many authors and publishers. I didn’t win first place but I think that this was a very enriching experience for me. It helped to boost up my confidence and gave me lots of inspiration. Right now, I have already entered my poem for this year, I am in the middle of the story and am collecting ideas for the journalism category.

Why don’t you have a go too?!…

Aliyeen A 7Austen

BHGS Sixth Formers Build Entrepreneurial Skills

A team of Sixth Formers from Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School joined the Young Enterprise Scheme to have an insight into the industry of business.

From our first meeting in September 2018, we discovered that we wanted to target two main issues throughout the UK; pollution and obesity. Throughout this rewarding process, we were fortunate to have the guidance of our business advisor, Mike O’Brien and the support of our teachers, Mrs Ruffhead and Miss Grossman. This led to the formation of our company, Eco-Fit, which primarily aimed to sell eco-friendly and sustainable resistance bands, which were made from natural rubber. However, as our company progressed, we invested time into creating prototypes of an elasticated, eco-friendly water bottle holder to store money, cards and keys. After meeting with an experienced designer from John Lewis, we gained advice into the development of this product. To gain funding, in order to purchase stock, we sold shares to teachers, friends and family.

Throughout our journey, we overcame difficulties; including sourcing our resistance bands with a low carbon footprint, to ensure that our eco-friendly ethos was maintained. In addition, we were committed to attending many trade fairs and markets to promote our brand and sell our product. At the Welwyn Garden City Trade Fair, we were proud to be awarded certificates for ‘Teamwork’ and ‘Best Trade Stand’. We decided that it was important to promote our resistance bands throughout school by notifying families through InTouch, creating a social media competition, running a trade stall on Friday lunchtimes and organising morning Pilates classes for the Year 7 forms.In March, we competed against local schools at the North and East Hertfordshire Young Enterprise Competition. Through our determination and great performance throughout the presentation and interview, we were successful in winning ‘Overall Winner’, ‘Best Trade Stand’ and ‘Marketing’. This meant that we had earned a place at the County Finals, which were held at Hertfordshire University in early May. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful at progressing to the next round; we were however honoured to have won an award for ‘Customer Service’.

As a team, we are extremely proud of our progress throughout the Young Enterprise Scheme because we have learnt some vital entrepreneurial skills. We continue to be a profitable company and will continue to sell our eco-friendly resistance bands.

For more information or to purchase our product, visit our website: www.EcoFitUK.comNicole Edwards(12Austen)

Girls from across the school took part in activities to support wellbeing and to raise awareness of mental health.

Mental Health Awareness week saw a variety of form and lunchtime activities for girls to try out. In forms the girls learnt about how our brains develop as we grow and how trying new things and learning skills is an important part of keeping our brains working effectively as well as being an essential part of our wellbeing. More than 70 girls joined Monday’s Just Dance session with Miss Cameron. The girls got to experience how dance can help you to ‘shake it off’ when you feel stressed. Tuesday again saw more than 70 girls trying Tai Chi with Mr Griffiths where the girls learned some simple moves and breathing that form the basis of the martial art. On Wednesday Mr Underwood led the sunny Mindful Meander around the school grounds. He spoke to the girls about how being outside surrounded by nature can benefit our wellbeing. Dr Bune led the Stress Busters session on Thursday where more than 80 girls tried out different stress relief aids such as putty, stretchy worms and twiddle toys. The girls measured their heart rates before and after they had used the aids. They then determined which aid had reduced their heart rate the most and was therefore the best Stress Buster. Finally on Friday, Ms Neesham led a fantastic session on mindfulness techniques with girls using activities such as calligraphy and balancing books on their heads to learn about mindfulness and concentrating on the present through using our senses to connect with our environment. The sessions were all very well attended and there was lots of laughter and learning. Well done to all of the girls for coming along to try out something new and thank you to all of the staff for running and supervising the sessions. For more information about young people’s mental health and wellbeing please visit https://www.healthforteens.co.uk/ You can also follow our Pastoral Twitter account at @BHGS_wellbeing

A day focused on the Holocaust and persecution

On Thursday 9th May, Year 10 took part in an RE conference, this one focusing on the Holocaust.

The day started off as an entire year group in the hall. Mr Pandya gave us all a quick lesson on the Holocaust. The emphasis of this lesson was on the individuals behind the statistics. Often with any statistic from any historical or modern event where individuals have been affected, it is easy to forget that these victims had a life to live. This led onto an activity in which we created our own character. We gave this character a name, an age, a hobby, an occupation, a nationality and a reason as to why they were targeted in the holocaust. Each character was laid out across two tables, filling them entirely. This provided us all with an insight into just how many individuals were affected.

As period 2 began, Melody Cremer, a sixth former, came to inform us further about the holocaust and what is being done today to remember it. She was part of a programme which the school runs together with the Holocaust Educational Trust where she was able to visit one of the most famous concentration and extermination camps to exist, Auschwitz. Now Melody works to remember the holocaust as an Ambassador for the HET and she talked to us about a memorial that is proposed to be built in central London to honour victims. The aim of this is so no one forgets and therefore we learn from the mistakes of the past.

Nearing break time, we moved onto looking at some quotes focusing on the holocaust. Each carried a message and meaning to think about. One that i can recall is: ‘thou shall not be a victim, thou shall not be a perpetrator, but above all, thou shall not be a bystander’. In my opinion this quote can be applied into many situations and tells us to make an effort to help fix what is wrong. In period 3 and 4 we listened to a holocaust survivor, Hana, share her story. She and her sister were children in Czechoslovakia when the war broke out. Life for them soon became difficult as the nearing Nazi ideals were putting them in danger. So hana and her sister took a train over to England. This was part of the Kindertransport programme for children that were targeted by the war and needed to escape to safety to be provided with a better life. Hana continued to grow up in this country with a few families. Her education carried on and she went on to study chemistry at university. She has spent time over the last few years trying to spread her story. She has visited her hometown since and does so every year- even being provided with an award for her work. This part of the day was interesting and we managed to hear a first hand story.

The day was ended by watching a film called ‘The Freedom Writers’. Which is based on a true story set in America, where a class of students who were impacted greatly by their home lives, gangs and other negative factors from the outside world, managed to change against all the odds. They are taught about the holocaust at one point to emphasise that working against one another will only account for hatred and war. They write their stories down in a diary. This film once again showed that humans must learn from mistakes.

This R.E day was eye opening and provided us all with information that we will not forget.

by Fatimah Aswania, 10 Seacole