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Weekly Newsletter

18 May 2012

CREATURES CAPTIVATE NURSERY CHILDREN

The nursery class at the junior school had a visit last week from Lisa Porter "The Bug Lady" as part of their topic on ‘Minibeasts’. Lisa brought in a selection of creatures, both young and fully grown and included various types of stick insects, giant African land snails and cockroaches which the children could handle. Lisa also brought eggs and discarded skin cases to show pupils how the creatures grow and to introduce life cycles. Everyone enjoyed Lisa's visit and are looking forward to learning more about minibeasts at future trips to the Tropical World in Leeds and the Arboretum at Castle Howard.

REMINDERS FOR COLLEGE TWO STUDENTS

A reminder to all College Two parents that students are expected in normal lessons and to be in school from morning registration, until the study leave starts on May 26th. Can we please remind you that students should not park in school at any time, including during the exams, but should use the local car parks.

EXCITING DEVELOPMENT IN THE MODERN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

From the start of the summer term pupils have had the benefit of using a dedicated media room for the improvement of their linguistic skills. The new software allows pupils to work at their own pace and teachers to set differentiated individual programmes of work. It gives pupils the opportunity to practise all four language skills, but particularly listening and speaking, in a non-threatening situation. (Some pupils do not like speaking out in class!). The MFL department would like to thank the leadership team for supporting this development and it is gratifying that the feedback from the pupils has been very positive. We are convinced that the programmes will boost their confidence and help them on their journey to greater fluency. Please read next week’s newsletter about a new opportunity for parents to learn a new language or refresh an old one in school from September 2012.

HOLOCAUST CENTRE VISIT

On Monday staff from the RE and History departments took Upper Schoolroom students on a successful trip to the Holocaust Centre in Laxton, Nottinghamshire. The centre has an exhibition following the course of the persecution of the Jews under the Nazi regime in Germany. Videos, artefacts and displays allowed the students to empathise with the victims of the Holocaust. This was brought home by a talk given by Mala Helfgott, a survivor of Belson Concentration Camp. There were some excellent questions from our students. It was a beautiful day and students were able to reflect on the events of the Holocaust in the memorial gardens as can be seen in the photographs.

YORKSHIRE CHESS ASSOCIATION TOURNAMENT

Bootham Junior School hosted the annual Yorkshire Chess Tournament on Sunday. 94 children from six different schools attended. Well done to all who participated and the results for Bootham Junior school were very pleasing:
Year 6 (and under) Event - Eddie Phillips came first. A merit award was given to Adam Sullivan and the Bootham Junior Year 6 and under team came first.
Year 4 (and under) Event - Benjamin Sinclair-Shaw came first. A merit award was given to Darsh Johar and the Bootham Junior Year 4 and under team came second.

GARDENING ACTIVITY GROWS

Oliver McGregor from Middle Schoolroom writes the following: The gardening club is an activity which is supported by York Edible Schools who work with schools to make a difference in children’s knowledge of what gardening actually is. Most children think that gardening is what old grannies do for fun, but actually it is a fun way to make your own food. Our group contains Amelia Lawrence-Downs, Frankie Lordan, Katy Brierley (a parent volunteer) and me. First of all we had to clean up the plots. Over the next few weeks we chose our food. Frankie and Amelia chose to stick with salads and flowers while I focused on the well-known fruit and veg like strawberries and garlic. This term we have made serious progress. We have made the garden worthy of any gardener by clearing out and rearranging the greenhouse, the base of operations with tomato plants. We have added wire mesh and built trellises to improve growth. We also have enough crops to give to the kitchens so now you will get more garlicky, garlic bread more varied veg at the salad bar and plump tomatoes for every need. Read more about future plans in next week’s newsletter.

FOOD FACTS FROM BOOTHAM CHEFS!

Nick’s and Mick’s Food Facts:

• Apples are made up of 25% air…..that’s why they float
• Carrots were originally purple until17th century
• Celery requires more calories to eat and digest than it contains
• Cherries are a member of the rose family
• Strawberries are the only fruit which has its seeds on the outer skin

Lower Schoolroom at Horse Dale

GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT NEWS

Lower Schoolroom Students have a sunny day for their Geography field trip!
How lucky we were this week to enjoy some lovely sunny weather on our field trip to Skipwith Common and the Wolds. The students worked well and enjoyed themselves in the fresh air learning about landscapes although I suspect they will remember rolling down the hills as the highlight of the day! Many thanks to all those involved especially Graham Ralph, for whom this was the last official field trip of his 32 year career at Bootham.

Iceland update
Thank you to those who have already sent in their replies but Liz Brown is still in need of the final payment option reply from some students.

NEARLY NEW - UNIFORM ITEMS REQUIRED

The BSA would be very grateful for any items of current school uniform that your son/daughter has grown out of. If you have any items that are in good condition, please hand them to Reception.

Upper Schoolrooms enjoyed their recent Outdoor Educational trip to Bewerley Park

SPORTS RESULTS

Cricket: The 1st XI played in a Twenty20 game against St Peter's on Wednesday. The opposition batted first and scored a formidable 156-7 in their overs. Bootham batted really during their innings but fell 30 runs short of the total. The Under 13 team managed to win two games this week. They beat The Minster School on Monday and then followed this up with an away league win against Fulford on Thursday. James Nelson and Tom Williams were the pick of the Bootham batsmen. The U15 team lost in their first game of the season against Fulford on Thursday, whilst the semi-final of the Junior Inter-house competition between Firbank and Brigflatts was won by Brigflatts. An Old Scholar's team managed to narrowly beat a Bootham XI last Saturday by 25 runs.
Boys' Tennis: The U18 team managed an impressive 6 sets to 0 win against Wigginton tennis club on Tuesday. Number one seed Michael Kwong once again impressed in his singles game. The U14 team also had a superb win on Thursday against Bishopthorpe tennis club. The team consisting of Hanjun Kim, Liam Langedijk, Hugh Gammon and David Woolley managed a 5-1 victory.
Rounders: Last week ended with an exhilarating rounders match between the school and Old Scholars. Despite the powerful hitting from the scholars, the school team were fantastic in the field and made some amazing catches and dominated the game. School won by an innings and 8 rounders. On Monday the U12 and U13 rounders teams hosted Manor on our Clifton fields. The U12 continued to show promise winning 13 – 11, but the U13s found their game too challenging, losing 19½ - 11. On Thursday the U14 and U15 rounders travelled to Queen Margaret’s with the U14s kicking off their season with an 8½ - 7 victory and the U15s with a slightly weaker side losing 10½ - 6.
Girls’ Tennis: On Tuesday the U14 tennis team played against the Mount in an even game which finished 3 sets all. The U18 tennis team battled against a strong Pocklington side on Wednesday losing 6 sets to 0.

We look forward the Bootham Biathlon with the Junior School at the end of this week and a busy fixture programme next week.