Year 9 have shown brilliant trust and teamwork skills in their Drama lessons recently as they have literally been sweeping each other off their feet! Using Frantic Assembly’s methods, the students have been working together to safely lift each other to great heights. All students have demonstrated the ability to take risks and trust each other, which has been wonderful to see.
On Tuesday 21st March, we spent the day at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. We learnt about the human genome project and what genomes are being sequenced today. There is a lot of research looking at malaria and cancer as well as a new project called the ‘tree of life’ which aims to sequence all multicellular species in the UK to explore the diversity of complex organisms. We heard from scientists working at the institute and saw the latest sequencing machines. We saw a hard copy of the human genome consisting of many volumes of books and had our photo taken underneath them! It was a great day where we learnt a lot about genes, sequencing and the latest therapies.
Namkobee A
A group of Year 9 students took the train into London and enjoyed an afternoon at the theatre watching Tina The Musical. They were treated to a pre-show presentation from the cast and crew about careers in the theatre industry. This included demonstrations from the wig and costume departments, stage manager, lighting electrician, sound designer, set operator and actors. The students behaved fantastically, which was noticed by the ushers in the theatre.
As part of British Science Week 2023, Sixth Formers had a neuroscience seminar from Medical Biology Interactive, led by Dr Guy Sutton. We learnt about the anatomy of the brain and neurones which fits in well with the biology and psychology A level specification. We discussed the effect of the environment on brain function, with particular emphasis on the importance of sleep and stress. The session culminated in dissecting a sheep’s brain and looking at the different areas of the brain, how they can be imaged and what happens when they are damaged. It was a very informative session and explored lots of different areas of biology, psychology and criminology. It was great fun too!
Mahi J
The Save the World Club braved the rain on Monday 20th March to clean up litter in the streets around the school. We focussed on Briars Lane where there was a lot of litter along the footpath and hedgerow. The area looks so much better now! Save the World Club goes out once every half term, to help keep the streets around the school clean.
If you would like to take part in the annual Welwyn Hatfield Clean Up on Saturday 25th March 2023, please meet at the subway at the south entrance to the Galleria at 09:30 till l around 12.00. The clean up is north along the Alban Way. Everyone is welcome.
On 17th March, the Year 10s investigated the reasons for and against conflict and war. They analysed case studies to understand the many reasons why people and countries could cause conflict as well as wars between countries of the same faith. They developed their skills by collaborating in their group to create a presentation where they confidently presented to the rest of the class. This character development of public speaking is a vital skill needed throughout their life. One group per form was chosen to present to the whole year group. They were very creative and original! Well done to the Year 10s for a fantastic day!
Our annual Career Skills Day for Year 9 was once again well attended by a range of local employers from pharmaceutical to IT and financial solutions this year. We also had representatives from engineering, construction and large brand retail. In some of the classrooms, the focus turned to Lego and bananas as our local businesses engaged our Year 9 in fun and interactive Career skills sessions. Employers from a wide array of sectors provided Year 9 pupils with ideas on industries they may want to investigate post 16. Pupils were given the opportunity to develop essential skills through games and activities. Lego and bananas were even used as props to boost transferable skills of communication, team working and creative thinking! Year 9 enjoyed meeting new people from our local community, listening to their career journeys and finding out the different steps they may take from our dedicated Careers Counsellor.
Many thanks to our local corporates who gave up their time to run the event. Tesco, PayPoint, Computacenter, Roche and Morgan Sindall all contributed with their expertise and provided valuable links to our school.
As part of British Science Week 2023, Year 13 biologists designed an animation as a teaching tool. The theme for BSW this year was ‘connections’. Our biologists have learnt about how bacteria genes are connected in structures called operons. The control of these operons is complicated and involves many substances that can switch on or off gene expression. To help with the understanding of the interactions involved they designed a play-doh animation to show the events that occur chronologically. The end result is both informative and fun. See video below.
Y12 Science Animation explaining Operons
Well done to the Year 13 Biologists!
On Monday, we spent our science and maths lesson joining in with some great science activities.
We had to work as a team to construct the neatest density column using coloured sucrose solutions. House Seacole won, with Franklin a close second! Some of us made ice cream in under 10 minutes using dry ice with Mrs Blakey. It smelt great but we couldn’t eat it! Mr Short and Dr Bune made some fake blood using household items and showed how good it was to show forensic blood splatter. Dr Lota and Ms Blanchard made elephant toothpaste that shot into the air! We also tested how good our lungs were in a House competition where the House games captains had to blow into an indicator solution to see who could make it change colour the fastest. The session ended with the firing of rockets which made a massive bang but was great fun. It was a really spectacular start to British Science Week at BHGS.
Isabella R.
On Tuesday 14th March sixty-three of our Year 10 MFL Leaders in six teams visited Oak View School, Hatfield Community Free School and St Philip Howard Schools, giving French, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese activity workshops to KS2 pupils.
The Young Leaders collaborated as teams, planned, delivered and evaluated their language and culture based workshops for the Key Stage 2 pupils, with an eye to developing and demonstrating leadership skills through foreign language related tasks. An evaluation will be completed as preparation for the Languages Discovery Day which concludes the 2022-23 programme. There will be certificates and awards for Team Leadership and Initiative, which will be presented in July 2023.
One of the primary schools gave the following feedback: “I’m so pleased the afternoon was enjoyable and a success for all involved. Once again, it sounds as though your students did you, and themselves, proud. Thank you for continuing to provide these afternoons and enriching our pupils’ learning.”
Our students were, as ever, enthusiastic and brilliantly delivered their lessons to the younger pupils – they were also able to find out what life is like on the ‘other side’ of the whiteboard! They now look forward to the Languages Discovery Day hosted at BHGS on Tuesday 6th June in which the Year 10 pupils will play a leading role delivering a wide range of foreign languages and cultural experiences..
A big thank you to all involved, here at Bishop’s and at the Primary Schools for making this opportunity possible.
Mr Taylor
We are always looking for high quality candidates to join our team. For Current Vacancies, Application Forms and Guidance For Applicants, please visit our vacancies page
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Woods Avenue
Hatfield
Herts
AL10 8NL
Tel: 01707 275331
Email: admin@bishophatfield.herts.sch.uk
Headteacher:
Mr A Wood
BA (Oxon), MBA, NPQH
