School Mag July2009

GOLD Lordswood Boys and Girls get together for Joseph.

Summer 2009

In this Summer edition of GOLD we have selected key events from both the Spring and Summer terms. Pivotal moments such as the Joseph project that saw both the boys’ and girls’ school collaborate on a performance project that was an unmitigated success, can be seen on page s eight and nine, alongside an interview with Mrs Swallow. In this edition we hear about Miss Tooley’s forthcoming trip to Ghana, where she will be working with underprivileged children and I’m sure we shall be given an update in the Autumn term as to the success of this trip. Good luck Miss Tooley! Coach Guppy gives us another interview that again highlights the excellence of the basketball teams at Lordswood School. Both the boys and the girls have achieved great success this year. Advertisements are by our students and you can see some of the work of our talented art students. It’s been a great year and we’d like to thank the Head Ms Götchel for the tremendous work she has done to make this school an even better place to learn. Editor Manisha Bhopal Stacey Ann Bennett Mrs K.Hartland

Interview with Ms Götchel There has been a drive to encourage a student voice. How has this improved the ethos of the school? I would like to think that the development of the school council has created a greater sense of community within the school.

How have you enjoyed the first year? I have really enjoyed getting to know students in the different year groups, working with staff, governors and meeting parents. Particular highlights have to be “Joseph”, the Performing Arts, the Oscars Evening and the fantastic success of the basketball team.

What changes have you implemented? We have made changes to the timetable, including changing timings for the school day. This was in order to give students more opportunities for activities outside the classroom. We are also trying to develop facilities within school and make the most of an old school building. The development of the school council has been really pleasing to see.

How do you feel your roles as Head of the school has impacted on the culture of Lordswood? I’m probably not the best person to ask about this! I’d like to think as a school we have become more outward looking.

How do you see the school progressing over the next five years? We need to make sure we build on our success and continue to improve opportunities and facilitates for our students.

“I know you want me” by Pitbull is the new dance summer jam. This time Pitbull has come in with a new style departing from his Portuguese style. This is the anthem for all you ravers out there

Lady GaGa has yet again released another number one single ‘paparazzi’. She never fails to put on a great performance in her videos. This single is out to buy on the 6th July.

These X-factor finalists have finally released a new single ‘beat again’. These good looking lads have taken the hearts of many teens. And even though they didn’t win the x-factor , I’m sure there will be many more tunes on the way. This single is out in shops on the 13th July.

Joseph was well received by the audience. How do you think it went? I was really proud of the show in the end. After all of the hard work of students and many members of staff, we had a very successful production that has been reflected in the feedback we have had from parents and governors. There were many outstanding performances from both the boys and the girls and the relationship between the two has been strengthened by the experience. I was particularly impressed by the performances of the main cast who provided some strong vocal performances and successful characterisations, capturing the spirit of the musical. The way that the dancing was incorporated with the action added to the overall effect. I never get to the see the show as I am always back stage rushing around but the reaction of the audience on all three nights was excellent and we thank you all for supporting us. I am really looking forward the next one! What were the advantages of doing a joint project with the boys’ school? Of course doing a joint school production will always have its’ pitfalls but, on the whole, the process proved to be very successful. In terms of splitting the responsibilities it was nice to know that was always someone else there to share the directing, as well as someone to turn to when things were not going exactly as planned. The support the schools gave each other was one of the things that ensured the success of the performance, along with the rapport that has developed between the two schools. It also made casting a lot easier as we had boys to fill some of the main roles, even if we did end up with a female Joseph after all! .

Can you reveal the next joint collaboration with the boys’ school? This has been a closely guarded secret but, licence permitting, we are hoping to do Fame next March as a joint project. We want to challenge ourselves and the students by increasing the amount of opportunities for singing, acting and dancing. For those of us who are old enough, you will remember the T.V show that the musical is based on. There are a number of male and female parts suitable for Year 7 through to Year13, and a number of roles of responsibility like stage management, assistant choreographers and front of house roles available too. Auditions will take place in September at Lordswood Boys’ School and rehearsals will start after October half term at here at the girls’ school. This should prove an even more adventurous project than the last.

There are going to be changes to the drama facilities. Tell us more Yes it is all change in the drama department. We are moving from S9 to a permanent drama studio in G12. The new lighting rigs and boards are already in place and over the holidays the new tiered staging and painting will happen. It is also hoped that we will have a wardrobe and properties department to aid lessons. We hope that this will help us to deliver practical lessons to all Key Stages within the school, and encourage students to think about the production support elements such as lighting as well as performance. Thank you for supporting all of our performances this year, like Joseph, and the Performing Arts evenings, and we look forward to seeing you at them all next year.

Mrs Swallow

Paris and Belgium May 2009 On 18th May 2009 37 students left Birmingham at 8.30 to go on a Battlefields trip to Belgium and Paris. After a long five hour drive to Dover we got on the ferry to Calais. We arrived in Calais at around 2’oclock in the afternoon and drove to Belgium and arrived in the evening. We unpacked, had dinner and settled in. The next day, Tuesday 19th May we visited Vimy Ridge and tour of the battlefields, after that we visited the Tyne Cot British cemetery, which is the biggest cemetery in Belgium; it has up to nearly 12000 gravestones. In the evening we went to a memorial service at Menin Gate in Ypes, Belgium. This memorial service happens every evening in Belgium at 8pm. It was made for l the bodies of soldiers that were never found. It was a very moving service and three of our students lay a reef to mark our respect. On Wednesday 20th May we went to the Sanctuary Woods where we visited more trenches and tunnels. It was an experience not to be forgotten as it was like stepping back in time. After that we drove into Ypes, Belgium where we spent many hours because our coach got delayed by a broken indicator! We visited the Flanders field museum which gave us lots of information on World War 1. After that we visited a very lovely chocolate shop where the staff were really friendly and treated us very well. We then were left for free time which we

On arriving in Paris in the early evening we had to rush to the Seine river cruise. This was a lovely experience as we were shown the beautiful architecture that makes Paris the amazing city it is. After learning about the sights of Paris we headed back to the hostel and thankfully went to bed! Exhausted and tired. The next morning, Thursday 21st May we had an early start to sight see the Champs Elysee, which is quite a land mark. We then visited the Eiffel tower, which was an amazing experience as we saw a fabulous view of Paris. After that we went to see the SacreCoeur and Montmartre which was very tiring to walk up, and some of the girls ran all the way! On the evening we went for a meal altogether which everyone enjoyed and was lovely food, that was served by a rather handsome waiter! We went back to the Hostel and got ready for the disco where we were able to let our hair down and dnce the evening away. The morning of Friday 22nd May, our last day, everyone including the teachers were extremely tired. We had breakfast and departed from Paris to go to Calais and stopped off at a hyper market where we were given free time to shop; a chance to buy momentos of the trip. Then we got the ferry back to Dover which took an hour and a half leaving the girls very tired but excited to be back in the UK. After another long five hours drive from Dover to Birmingham we arrived back at school at 10.00pm. A big thank you to, Miss Smith, Miss Dignon, Miss Pickford, Miss Gough and Miss Healy for a wonderful trip.

By Katie Wheway and Pavita Chouldry

The Ghana Project On July the 27th I will have packed my bags and arrived at Gatwick and will be waiting for a flight that will take me to Ghana in West Africa and to the start of what I hope will be an amazing experience. I will be spending my summer living and working at the Underprivileged Children’s Centre (UCC) in Ghana’s capital city, Accra. The centre was set up in 1998 to help children who could not afford to go to school gain an education because unlike the UK where everyone is entitled to an education, children in Ghana have to pay $10 a term (this doesn’t sound a lot but this is the equivalent of a months wages for a lot of families). Roughly 20,000 Ghanaian children have to live on the streets and many of the 150 children who go to the UCC are orphaned, homeless or come from a very poor family. The UCC provides 6 of these children a permanent home and provides all 150 children with Literacy and Numeracy lessons and pays for 85 children to attend school. They have also set up a choir and football teams. However, the children have never taken part in any Art activities…until this summer!

I have already sent over a suitcase full of art equipment and for the 4 and a half weeks that I am there we will be making and decorating bags and head scarves, making hand puppets and jewellery and painting huge murals on the walls of the centre’s new classrooms to brighten up the space and to help with their education. I am really excited about the project but also a little nervous – the living conditions will be completely different than over here – no running water, no modern cooking facilities and huge bugs!!!!! This term I have had a great little team of helpers working in Wednesday Art club with myself and Mrs Baxter to make African inspired gifts which we sold at the Performing arts evening to raise money for the Children’s Centre. Well done and thank you to them because together with the money from the ticket sales we raised £250 which is enough to pay for roughly 8 children to attend school for a year!!!!! I am hoping that the project will be a huge success and that we can continue to support it next year!

Miss Tooley

“Black Rabbit Summer” By Kevin Brooks 12– 16 “Black Rabbit Summer” is a mystery/ crime story. A group of friends meet up for a reunion at a fun fair. While they are there some one goes missing from the group, but no one realises until the next day. A new person comes in to the group who is a celebrity, who also goes missing. Later on in the story she ends up died. Will they find out who did it? Or will they all get dragged in to deep before its to late ? “Black Rabbit Summer” is a gripping tale of fun, mysteries and disappearances. You will not want to put this book down! The Name Of This Book Is Secret By Pseudonymous Bosch. Mystery, adventure story. For 12– 15 year olds. The story is about two kids Max-Earnest and Cass, but those are not their real names. They have been given those names to protect their identity. At the beginning you find out about Max-Earnest; he has no friends at school but when he bumps in to Cass they become great friends. Max-Earnest lives with his mum and dad but you don't hear about them and Cass lives with her mum but spends a lot of time with her granddad and uncle. One day while Cass is in her granddads shop she finds a box with on the front The Symphony of Smells which a strange man and women called Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais (shifty characters) are looking for. The box belonged to an old magician who passed away, so when Cass finds this out Cass and Max-Earnest go to investigate the magicians house. However while they are there they encounter two villains who have found a notebook belonging to the magician which has a message in for Cass and Max-Earnest. The message takes them to a spa where they have a big task a head of them, to help save the world from Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais.The Name Of This Book Is Secret is a fun and exciting read. You can really get in to this book with all the mysterious happenings which are going on. But Don’t Tell Anyone It’s A Secret!

Twilight – the movie and the book 16/06/09 A family of vampires live in Forks North America. When Bella a young 17 year old girl, moves into the area she is intrigued by Edward. She later discovers Edward is a vampire through his pale skin, cold blood and incredible strength and speed. Later on in the film they fall in love however another vampire comes into the story to attempt to kill Bella but Edward saves her on countless occasions. The story is hybrid genre of teen romance and horror. The film differs from the book Twilight because in the book it has more detail and takes longer for the main characters to fall in love with each other. They also miss out a few scenes that would have been good in the film. For example the part when they do blood testing in class and Bella faints. The film twilight has become popular amongst a lot of girls, because of the unusually romantic storyline that the film has. Also the great casting of Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen has caught the attention of many girls and Hollywood. You may have also seen him as a Cedric Diggory in the film “Harry Potter”. “The film is great and I love the casting of Edward Cullen. The only thing that I wish they put in was the thoughts of Bella which is in the book. The way the showed the fight was very good and the effects where very good especially the effect of them running very fast. Overall it was a great film.” Lucy Jackson “Overall I think that the film has a good storyline, great detail, settings and location and well selected cast. The film shows the high emotion and superb tension of a teen horror/romance flick. I’m looking forward to the second movie “new moon” to see more of the story. I think the film twilight caught my attention like a lot of other girls that would like Edward Cullen. It was a thrill to watch.” Angie lee The next sequel New Moon will be released on 20 November 2009. People are very excited about it and it is greatly anticipated as Edward Cullen will still be cast as one of the lead roles in the film. Lets hope this film is as good as the first one.

Year Seven Film Project

The girls in action! From left to right: Cheyenne Morris, Amrit Chana, Amelia Wilkinson, Shanita Purewal, Georgina Hamilton, Bryannah Collins and Carrie Slinn.

Eight Year Seven pupils were lucky enough to work with professional director, Will Aldersley, to create a transition dvd to be sent to Year Six pupils. For six weeks the girls worked on planning and filming the production. From the planning stage, they were adamant that they wanted the film to be genuine; showing the school in a realistic light. They decided, therefore, to keep the production unscripted and spoke naturally

of their first experiences of Lordswood. The girls also interviewed several members of staff to reassure the Year Six about their move to Lordswood.

Amelia Wilkinson, 7 said, “It was really fun working with the director, Will and I learnt a lot about the equipment. I really enjoyed presenting on camera—it During the six weeks with Will, was fun!” the girls learnt several new The project was a great skills including editing; how to success and the girls operate a camera and how to worked under pressure to set up the equipment. Some of create an excellent final the girls also found themselves production. Well done extremely confident in front of girls! the camera and turned out to be talented presenters.

tTeachers’ Pets Win the League!

From left to right: Miss Hobbs, Mrs Farrah, Miss Colvin, Miss Thomas, Laura Lordswood’s staff netball team, ‘Teachers’ Pets’ had an extremely successful season in the Birmingham Work’s League and won after only being defeated once throughout the season. After a successful 2007, ‘The Pets’ were promoted from the Third Division to the First Division and went on to win against notoriously difficult teams such as Birmingham Sport who they beat 33 - 19 in October.

Miss Thomas, Gold Defence said of ‘The Pets’ success, “Every game I get really nervous because we are in the first division and competition is tough but we work really well together as a team.” Yet, despite ‘The Pets’ success, there have been some struggles along the way. Miss Webb left Lordswood in March and the team lost their valuable ‘Centre.’ However, undeterred, the team have still gone on to secure

success and make their mark on the league! Let’s hope that this success continues and they can gain yet another victory at the end of this season!

Miss Hobbs deep in concentration before going on to score!

Basketball Academy 20082008-2009 Season Interview with Coach How have the boys’ basketball team faired this year? The boy’s had a new set of challenges this season through entry into the West Midlands Men’s League Division 2, as well as all of the schools competitions. It has been a very successful year for the boys who managed to win the Men’s League, as well as the shield competition which is run by the league committee. The competition in the Men’s league was very tough and involved a number of physical battles against some older and stronger players but the improvement in our team was clear to see throughout the season. It was a big commitment for the players, giving up a number of evenings and weekends to play the games but it proved worthwhile by the end of the season. It will be an even bigger challenge in Division 1 next year but I am sure the players will rise to the occasion. Unfortunately the team couldn’t retain the schools trophies that we won last season, reaching the final of the Birmingham schools’ and the semi-final of the West Midlands schools’. Both games ended in defeat to Sutton Coldfield College and I know the boy’s in year 12 are already training hard to prove a point to Sutton next year and regain these titles. A special mention must go to two players from the team; Myles Hesson who is now a member of the Great Britain Under 20 team and Jack MacDonald has made it in to the Ireland Under 18 team. It is a great achievement for the two of them but I’m sure they would acknowledge the support that they have received from their teammates. I wish them both the best of luck and look forward to seeing some Lordswood representation at the London 2012 Olympics!! How have the girls performed this year? Once again this season the girl’s have exceeded all expectations and had a fantastic season, retaining the two trophies (Birmingham Schools and West Midlands Schools) that they won last season and reaching a National Final as well (English Schools). It was a bit of a shame really that the girls did not get more of a challenge this season but they still enjoyed playing together and developing as a team. Fariha Razvi, Jasmine Stanley-Ahmed and Cleo Morris all joined the team and made valuable contributions to the team. I’m looking forward to working again with them all next year and seeing them continuing to improve as they have done this season.

Unfortunately the team will have to play next season without the talents of Stacey Townsend, Alice Patefield, Korron McIntosh and Laura Hunt who have completed year13 and their time at Lordswood. The girls have done incredibly well over the last two years and have all played key parts in a team that in this country has only lost two games in two years, both of which were to Barking Abbey who have had the strongest basketball set-up Nationally for the last six years. It really will be tough to follow the success that these girl’s have achieved and it has been a pleasure to coach such a talented group of players. What are the highlights of the year? This season saw the Academy return to Sweden for the Lundaspelen tournament in January which, again, was the biggest highlight of the year. It was another intense six days of basketball and team building that was worthwhile and enjoyable for all of those that took part. We are already beginning to plan for the tournament in 2010, so hopefully it will live up to the expectations of the last two years. For the girl’s team, the biggest highlight was reaching the English Schools Under 19 National Final. To be in the top two schools teams in the country is an enormous achievement and does not reflect the amount of time and effort that the girl’s have put in to Lordswood over the last 12 months. It was a shame that we could not go on to actually win the competition but retaining both the Birmingham Schools and West Midlands Schools without losing a game (or letting a team get within 40 points of us!) shows the total domination that the team had in the West Midlands. The final game of the season for the boy’s was the league-deciding playoff game against Birmingham Blazers at the Hadley Stadium in Smethwick. Not only was it one of the best games that I have been involved in, we were also fortunate enough to have a crowd of supporters that cheered us on – helping us to win the game and therefore the league. It was the last game for a number of the players who are now moving on to bigger and better things, so it was a great ending to what has been an incredible journey for the students. I would like to just thank all of the Year 13 students and wish them the best of luck in whatever they choose to do, whether it be University, an apprenticeship or full-time employment. The last two years have been an incredible experience for me and it has only been working with such a great group of players that has made it all seem worthwhile. I’m sure that they will go on to be great successes and that they remember their time in the Lordswood Basketball Academy with fond memories because I know I certainly will.

Coach.

L T X Q W S C I E N C E H

S O S P A N I S H P E I I

J Y R O M K Z W T L S J S

Lordswood Girls School Drama History

G D Z D U B X E J T O L T

H P J P S C C S O L L A O

D M G L M W V C H T D I R

Media Creative Arts Science PE

J L U B U H O H K U M D Y

G I R L S P I O S H R E Z

A C E T I O G O D R A M A

Y T D Q C U T L B E Q D P

C R E A T I V E A R T S Z

P Y S S V X H W S F F G C

O K L F M M A T H S G M Y

By Momna Mahmood 7C Lydia Silverton 7S