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The Ruthless Readers have finished reading and reviewing all of the books from the TSBA and have voted that their favourite book was The Declaration by Gemma Malley!
On the evening of Friday 2nd February, a group of seventeen Year 12 and 13 students were excited to meet their Italian exchange students, arriving from Siena. Over the course of the following week, we engaged with these students to develop both our Italian and their English skills. On the Saturday morning, we all took part in a short treasure hunt around Bexleyheath, allowing us to get to know each other. Some of us then went to explore the pleasures of Bluewater, which, coming from a small town, our Italian friends thoroughly enjoyed. Sunday was spent with families - my student, Emma, experienced unusually deserted Central London streets whilst cheering me on in the Cancer Research Winter Run, then afterwards, being scared at the London Dungeons!
Before Christmas, Year 9 was studying World War One and had undertaken research regarding the impact of Sir Douglas Haig, the British General during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.
Oxbridge success again!
I am delighted to announce that ten students, (seven students from the current Year 13 and three students from last year) have received offers from Oxford and Cambridge Universities. These are remarkable successes - congratulations to the following students:
Friday's performance of “Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist”, on the first day of December, was the perfect occasion to open, officially, the new BGS Theatre. The event began downstairs in the new Sixth Form Study Centre with bubbles (courtesy of the PA which also provided refreshments for the interval) and canapes (which had been created only an hour or two earlier as part of the Senior House Cookery Competition). We were pleased to welcome previous Headmaster, Mr Jones (1976-1995) and his wife, governors, councillors, long-standing friends of the school and a host of alumni to mark this happy event.
A busy fortnight for the Music department with our KS5 Showcase last week, which featured our Sixth Formers performing pieces to be recorded for their IB portfolios, and A-Level recitals. We were treated to a beautiful performance by the Chamber Choir of ‘Winding Road’ by Thomas Hewitt-Jones; the composer tweeted us afterwards that he was thrilled school choirs are singing his works!
Students of our IB Japanese Beginners Course attended a special event held at SOAS on 9th November. All the students that were attending the trip first met at Charing Cross Station so that Mrs Everett (our Japanese teacher) could guide us to SOAS University of London. We walked the whole journey from Charing Cross Station to SOAS; it was quite long but still enjoyable.
In World War One, three of my great great uncles signed up in the rush to fight the Germans, they fought for their king and country. Alfred, Horace and Wilfred Seath were all brothers and lived in a small house at 24 Ardmere Road, Hither Green. My great great great grandma was so proud of her sons, but once she found out that two of them Alfred and Walter were “killed in action” (Alfred on 21st August 1917, and Walter on 13th November 1917), she wrote a letter to King George V, asking if they could send her dear Horace home, as he was too young to even be fighting in the war. Her son was killed a few days after she sent the letter, on 22nd August 1918 - he was only 19.
When the opportunity to participate in the ‘Operating Theatre Live’ arose, I was extremely excited. It promised to give a hands on anatomical experience in a clinical environment whilst gaining an understanding of the major organ systems in our bodies.
If there is a Chinese celebration near one of our Chinese lessons our teacher, Miss Lu, will often arrange for a fun activity during the lesson. On October the 4th we celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节!
Today was very different from anything we have done so far at BGS. Pens and others writing materials were banned from all lessons! The day was all about talking rather than writing. We started off with Computer Science and we used ‘Scratch’ to create an awesome racing game. Next we had our Science lesson. Usually in Science we would be drawing graphs of previous experiments, but today we couldn’t do this. The teachers chose the best bits out of our text books and we read them and shared the information with the rest of the class. Some people found hilarious ways of explaining their topic.
On Tuesday 26th September, Bexley Grammar School celebrated foreign languages and cultures as part of
International Day. Students and staff alike represented a host of different countries by wearing international dress, whilst Years 7-10 enjoyed a variety of special lessons put on for the day. A massive thank you to all staff involved for putting on such varied and interesting lessons, and well done to do all students for embracing internationalism so wholeheartedly.
