Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School recently hosted an exciting and educational Parliament Week.

The week-long event aimed to immerse students in the world of politics, democracy, and critical global issues through a series of engaging activities. From a Parliament Week quiz to a creative Big Ben model building challenge and a bake-off competition featuring cakes themed around democracy, parliament, climate change, and AI, the pupils learnt about UK democracy and their role within it.

Parliament Week Quiz:

The week kicked off with a Parliament quiz that put students’ knowledge of parliamentary processes, historical events, and political figures to the test. The winning house was Parr!

Build a Big Ben Model:

The iconic Big Ben model building challenge brought out the students’ creativity as they worked together to construct replicas of one of London’s most recognisable landmarks. The resulting mini-Big Ben models served as tangible reminders of the students’ collective efforts throughout Parliament Week.

The Big British Parliament week Bake off!

Students participated in a bake-off style event where they showcased their culinary skills by crafting cakes themed around democracy, parliament, climate change, and artificial intelligence. Students decorated their cakes with intricate designs and brilliant messages on these important issues. The cakes created for the bake-off were not just delightful treats but also powerful expressions of the students’ perspectives on democracy. From cakes adorned with symbols of unity and collaboration to those depicting the effects of climate change and the integration of AI in our lives, each cake told a story.

Ecofuse homemade reed diffusers sell out!

Our Bishop’s Young Enterprise team ‘Ecofuse’ attended their first trade fair on Sunday at Harpenden Christmas Market on Sunday 26th November. The stall looked professional and crowds of people stopped to have a look, ask questions and many purchased the beautiful reed diffusers as Christmas gifts. The reed diffusers scents were handmade by the team who had spent time over the past few weeks researching and testing out the quantities needed to create a long lasting reed diffuser. They worked brilliantly as a team and sold out by the end of the day! The judges were impressed at how far the team is already on their YE journey.

Ecofuse are currently re-stocking their products and are planning to sell more of the reed diffusers at school before the end of term. Please look out for fliers and messages. Photos and videos are posted on the Ecofuse Tiktok and Instagram platforms: @-ecofuse. Please support our YE team and click ‘Like’!

Year 10 Modern Foreign Language Leaders visit local primary schools, giving French and German activity workshops to KS2 pupils

On Tuesday 21 November, sixty-seven of our Year 10 MFL Leaders in four teams visited Oak View School and St Philip Howard School, giving French and German activity workshops to KS2 pupils.

Young Leader initiatives have made a great impact on the teaching of young people over the last 20 years across many curriculum areas, using a sports team model. The BHGS Foreign Language Leader Programme hopes to engage a whole new group of young leaders through MFL.

The Young Leaders planned, delivered and evaluated their learning activities for the Key Stage 2 pupils, with an eye to developing and demonstrating leadership skills through foreign language related tasks. A follow-up visit will take place in the year including a Languages Discovery Day for the Key Stage 2 pupils hosted by our school in June in which the Year 10 pupils will play a leading role delivering a wide range of foreign languages and cultural experiences.

There will be certificates and awards for Team Leadership and Initiative, which will be presented in July 2024.

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 their 2nd placements in the Spring Term.

A big thank you to all involved, here at Bishop’s and at the primary schools to make this opportunity possible.

Investigating the success of the Kings Cross regeneration project

On Monday 20th November, Year 10 geographers travelled by train from Hatfield to Kings Cross. The purpose of the visit was to help consolidate learning from lessons and experience first-hand the regeneration that has taken place at Kings Cross. King’s Cross is one of the largest and most successful redevelopments in London. Over the past 20 years, what was an underused industrial site has been transformed and rejuvenated with new streets, squares and parks, homes, shops, offices, galleries, bars, restaurants, schools, and even a university.

Students were given a booklet with photos and tasks that guided them round the Coal Drop Yard at Kings Cross. They looked out for features of ‘old’ and ‘new’ architecture Kings which showed how well the regeneration has merged both, to create a beautiful workplace, leisure amenity for the local people, commuters working in London, as well as visitors like us.

We were able to understand how the regeneration of Kings Cross has been largely successful, providing positive results environmentally, socially and economically overall.