Fairtrade Ambassadors visit Philip Howard Primary School

Year 9 spread the Fairtrade message

13 of our Year 9 students recently visited Philip Howard primary school to teach Year 6 about Fairtrade. Our team of ambassadors used their geography knowledge and prepared their own resources to provide Year 6 pupils with a carousel of activities to answer the following questions: – What is Fairtrade? – What can you do to support Fairtrade? – What is the story of Chocolate?

Students were quick to answer the questions posed by Year 6, develop their communication skills and learn how to direct conversation to ensure it is purposeful. All students managed this with confidence and skill, meaning the Year 6 were able to provide some great reflections on what they had learnt about Fairtrade from our ambassadors. They even requested another lesson from them!

Year 7 Bhaktivedanta Manor Trip

Year 7 students visit Bhaktivedanta Manor to explore Hinduism

78 Year 7 students developed their knowledge of Hinduism by going to Bhaktivedanta Manor on 15/6/22. Their day was full of fun activities run by the centre. The students had their face painted and dressed in colourful saris, rode a bull cart, fed the sacred cows, leant about the murtis (images of gods) and saw the worship of Lord Krishna. This was a rememberable opportunity which helped solidify understanding on why Hindus care for the environment which has been taught this year. Also, it will enhance their understanding of Hinduism when they study the religion in more detail in RE in Year 8!

Year 7 take the Tesco Challenge

Year 7 designed a marketing campaign for sustainable living in a Careers event led by Tesco

Tesco visited Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School to engage our Year 7 in a fun morning of creativity, communication and teamwork as part of their Careers Programme. In teams, Year 7 researched, brainstormed ,designed and promoted a sustainable recipe that looked to use “leftovers in their fridge” to help healthy eating and Save Our Planet. The morning was a buzz of activity with teams thinking up ideas of recipes and researching the impact of leftovers on our carbon footprint. They also were looking at nutritional values to encourage healthy eating and practically costing their new products – as any business would! They then were tasked with selling their product as part of the Tesco Food Love Story advertising campaigns. Our Year 7s threw themselves into the project – with timescales on the output and the presentations. All team members had a go at public speaking and impressed our visitors Tesco with their ideas and delivery. “Your Year 7s were tackling projects that our new recruits will look at; they did it with maturity and enthusiasm” said Sam Sullivan of Tesco. Our Year 7s enjoyed the day and reflected that they had developed their “selling skills and entrepreneurial know-how”.

Three lucky teams were crowned overall “winners” and were out to buy a delicacy like the ones that had designed for Tesco with their £5 Tesco gift voucher prizes Our Year 7s are watching out to see if any of our Bishop’s Food Love Stories get translated into a TV ad. You never know!

County Athletics Championships 2022

Pupils represent BHGS at the County Athletics Championships

On Saturday 11th June, Miss Cameron and Mrs Waters took a selection of pupils to represent BHGS at the County Athletics Championships at Jarman Park in Hemel Hempstead. This was an all day event with track heats in the morning then finals in the afternoon and field events (straight finals) taking place throughout the day.

The pupils that were selected had performed and achieved great success in the rounds of the County League competition this term.

The conditions were very good for Athletics (if a little hot!) but all pupils did really well with some great individual performances.

Results as follows –

Natu K (7Ha) – Ran well in the U13 200m but unfortunately not quick enough to make it into the final. Natu then placed 8th in the heats and made the final for the U13 100m where she finished in 7th place overall. A great result for her first time at this standard of competition.

Arabella A (8Ha) – Finished in 4th place in the U15 (Year 8 and 9) Discus competition with a best throw and achieved a new personal best of 17.80m. A brilliant effort from Arabella especially against girls who are a year older than her and again, in her first time competing at this level.

Dyllis O-A(8Au) – Finished in 5th place in the U15 (Year 8 and 9) High Jump competition with a best jump of 1.36m. A good result for her first time at this standard of competition and especially with a field made up of Year 9 pupils.

Zoe A- A (8Ha) – Ran well in both the U13 100m and 200m but unfortunately, in very popular events (the 100m had 4 full heats of 8 runners) Zoe just missed out on the final for the 100m.

Evie J (9Ha) Finished in 5th place in the U15 (Year 8 and 9) Discus competition with a best throw of 17.12m.

Ife N (9Pa) Finished in 5th place in the U15 (Year 8 and 9) Shotput competition with a best throw and new personal best of 8.68m. Ife also just missed out on 4th place by 1cm!

Natu K (10Fr) – Ran well in the U17 (Year 10 and 11) 100m and 200m and made finals for both events. She came 7th in the 200m final and (we think – very close photo finish) 5th place in the 100m final. Again, a brilliant effort to make 2 finals in her 1st and 2nd choice events and especially against girls in the year above.

Amy P (10Fr) – Competed in the U17 (Year 10 and 11) Triple Jump competition. Amy did incredibly well to jump 9.75m (2cm shy of her current PB) and finish in first place to become County Champion! An incredible effort from Amy who has only really started practicing her Triple Jump since March this year and again, against girls in Year 11 as well. Amy is pictured with her medal and certificate.

Ena O (11Pa) – Competed in the U17 High Jump competition. Ena recently jumped a new PB of 1.63m (2 shy of the National Standard height of 1.65cm) and was determined to equal or better that on the day. Ena has been seeing some great results in her Athletics competitions for both her Hurdles (with a recent new PB of 12.4 seconds) and her High Jump. Ena was in fantastic form and jumped very well to score a new PB of 1.65cm to become County Champion! Ena is pictured waiting to jump and then with her medal next to the High Jump event.

Lastly, an ex pupil of ours – Serena T (now at Beaumont School – pictured on the podium) finished in 2nd place in the U19 200m.

A big thank you to Miss Cameron and Mrs Waters who came along for the whole day to help supervise, coach and officiate 2 events to make it possible for our girls to attend.

BHGS return to Legoland

After the last Legoland was so popular across the whole of Year 8, we returned to Legoland with the students who were not selected to go last time. The girls participated in two workshops and had some time to explore the park and even go on some rides. One of these workshops was on robotics. Students got into pairs and had to build a robot, then code it using Scratch. We had a wide range of brilliantly built robots built, including a peculiar 4-eyed creature and a tank. Everyone had fun experimenting with their set of code and getting creative when building their robot. The other workshop was on the science of roller coasters. There was a presentation on the science behind how rollercoasters work and then Year 8 had a chance to build their own rollercoaster in small groups, using the knowledge from the presentation to help them.

By the end of the day, it was safe to say that everyone had a blast.

Lilly-Jade Tennyson (Year 8)

Languages Discovery Day

62 Year 10 Young MFL Leaders run a successful 3rd Languages Discovery Day

On Tuesday 7th June, the BHGS MFL Faculty held the third Languages Discovery Day which was run by 62 Year 10 Young MFL Leaders who shared their cultures, languages and linguistic interests with 100 Year 5 Boys and Girls from Oak View Primary, St Philip Howard RC Primary and Hatfield Community Free School. The Key Stage 2 pupils had the opportunity to experience twenty-three different languages from all around the world from French to Italian, Punjabi to Swahili, including special workshops in British Sign Language, Morse Code and Egyptian hieroglyphics . The day was divided in 27 workshops and by all accounts was a great success. Special praise is due to the Young Leaders for their infectious enthusiasm which gave the event a great buzz and celebrated the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of our school!

R J Taylor, Head of Languages Faculty

A Taste of Spanish Club

Exploring the culture at Spanish Club

Last month at Spanish Club, we have been learning some basic salsa steps, so to celebrate our successes before May half term we tried some tapas! The offering included tortilla de patatas, churros, chorizo, serrano ham with Manchego cheese and croquetas de jamón. We spoke about the culture of tapas in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries too. By the end of the afternoon, everybody had tried something they had never tried before… the churros with chocolate sauce were a particular favourite!

Spanish Club for Key Stage 3 takes place on Mondays after school. Why not give it a try?

Miss Mizon