INTERNAL EXAMINATION TIMETABLES - TERM 6

Life changes; the personal characteristics that help make us good to know, well-balanced and successful people stay constant.  We aim to help our pupils to develop the characteristics that will help them to enjoy life-long success – including determination, resilience, and a willingness to work hard, both independently and with others, to achieve goals that might, at first, seem out of reach.  These things, added to an ability to see mistakes as ‘feedback’ rather than ‘failure’, are as important for later success as are the high exam grade outcomes enjoyed by the vast majority of our pupils. 

Ours is a caring community; we build confidence and self-esteem by showing our pupils how they can meet challenges and overcome difficulties themselves.  They learn that quantities of intelligence are not fixed, that success is largely down to effort over time rather than luck, and that ‘self-esteem’ is gained through achievement in the face of adversity, rather than through adult praise for mediocrity.  We teach, too, that we all ‘stand on the shoulders of others’ in life, and that co-operation is as important as competition. 

Relationships between staff and students are excellent.  Those relationships are the daily demonstration that we do not simply talk about caring for others and supporting each-other – we live these values daily, in countless ways, and this is what makes our community special.  Sample the richness and diversity of life at Boston High School via this website; better still, come and visit us.  There’s a feeling you get when you’re here that you’ll not quite find anywhere else.

Dr J G Howard

Headteacher

24th May 2013

Boston High School’s Class of 2013 leavers transformed their School into Hogwarts for the day. The world of Harry Potter was this year’s theme for the traditional annual leaving festivities. Teachers and  Sixth Formers donned cloaks, waved wands and one student even dressed as the ‘Golden Snitch’ from the books and was chased around school in the style of the now infamous game of Quidditch. Student Rebecca Leatherland said, “It has been an awesome day so far, very emotional but also very exciting to think that we are all off on our own adventures in some way.” Dr Howard, Headteacher, said: “These have been a truly wonderful group students and we all wish them every success in their final examinations and the exciting futures they have ahead of them.”

Our own Young Journalists were reporting throughout the day...

Magical Muck-Up Day

This year as we bid a farewell to our Upper Sixth Form, we saw our school transform into ‘Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’.  Seven years ago when they were just beginning, the theme of their summer school was Harry Potter,  so seven years later now all in the sixth form they thought Harry Potter would be a great legacy to leave. During the day we saw: a troll invade the girls toilets; the knight bus make its rounds and Madame Dolores Umbridge’s office arrive in Boston High School.

One student said, ‘It is really creative.  I loved that the entrance was platform 9 ¾ and that the entrance to the English block was the entrance to Diagon Alley.’
To see some of our sixth form in action on their last day watch the video below. We wish them good luck in the future and hope they have fun wherever they go after Boston High.
 

Our resident photographer, Mr Acheson, captured some great photos of the excitement!

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24th May 2013

This year’s Geography fieldtrip for year 8 on Wednesday 15th May set out to examine the potential for tourism development in East London. Despite a very early start, year 8 enjoyed a whirlwind tour of some well-known and many less well-known tourist destinations in East London. These included the 2012 Olympics stadium, the Cutty Sark, the Discover Greenwich centre, the Greenwich Market, Greenwich Park and its famous Royal Observatory, the National Maritime museum, Canary Wharf, the O2 arena, the Emirates Airline Cable car and the Crystal exhibition at the Royal Group of docks. The Crystal exhibition on sustainability is in an amazing building on the side of the old docks. Where admission was free we went inside for about 10 minutes in each! This is a new and exciting way to visit such centres! Students were in groups of 4 and had to score each attraction from the point of view of different kinds of tourist e.g. a young backpacker, a family with 2 young children, retired American visitors etc. Before returning home we had half an hour of shopping at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford.

The whole day was very fast paced with a wide variety of transport used: coach, Docklands light railway, London Underground (Jubilee line) and of course the cable car. The was of course the favourite tourist activity for most of the 63 year 8 students and who could disagree with them. The day was organised for us by the excellent company, Urban Geography East London.

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7th May 2013

At the end of last term many members of Y8 went on the fantastic trip to Dieppe - including Ariane Fleuriot who has provided this report.

Not all of us could come, but our laughter and chatter made up for everyone who had to stay behind. On the day of departure, we had to be at school for 7.00am, to board the big red bus entitled “LEON” which was to become our “second home” whilst we were away. We stopped a few times on the journey, until we arrived at Dover for the ferry. It was a choppy journey, but this way we didn’t miss seeing the rolling coast of Calais as we approached the harbour. The trip to the hostel only resulted in more excitement. The travelling from Calais to Dieppe took a few hours, and was very photo-worthy, and we took advantage of the chance to take pictures of some of the French landscapes.

When we arrived at our destination it was already dark. Everyone was glad to finally be there, but hungry! After we got settled into our rooms we were invited downstairs for dinner where we were greeted by the French chef and people who worked at the hostel; we were to address them in French only, which gave us experience talking in French. This was reinforced the next day in Rouen. After leaving the hostel we visited the market at Place du Vieux Marché to have an hour’s guided tour around Rouen to introduce its history, which we all learnt a lot from. It was a very French scene; a musician was playing the accordion whilst an old couple danced in the background as our tour guide spoke. Time was given for us to go and have lunch and to shop, which gave us a very individual aspect and really tested our language skills! Later on, we stopped at Ferme Val de Bures, a goats cheese farm, for a milking and tasting session and a visit to see the baby goats! The lady who owned the farm spoke to us in French whilst Mr Servonat translated, but she spoke 26th April 2013 very slowly so that we could pick out certain words and phrases for ourselves. We got back to the hostel at 6.45pm ready for our evening meal of quiche and couscous, which was shortly followed by a walk to the local bowling alley. This was a great time to spend with all of our friends, and again we used our French to order drinks and bowling shoes.

The next day we visited a marine museum where we were dropped off by a miniature train, which had previously taken us on a tour around Dieppe stopping once on a hill, which revealed the beautiful sights of the town. Every day that followed was just as good as the other. Later on, on the third day we went to Le Treport for the first time where we went on the funicular, you could see for miles from there. There were a few souvenir shops, which were visited and we patrolled the beach, admiring the cliffs nearby. This day was our last full day, so a few of us visited the games room back at the hostel in the evening where we played table tennis/football in a match against the teachers. On the last day, on our way home, we stopped at Pâtisserie Le Fournil, a bakery in Wierre Effroy, and got to try croissants, freshly baked from this typical French-styled bakery. Later we stopped at Intermarché, a French supermarket, where we raided the chocolate aisles, before heading home.

Dieppe was an amazing adventure that I will never forget. Once we got back to England, I felt homesick for France, and wished I were back there. New friendships were made, more memories created, and the trip had a real educational impact.

24th April 2013

Year 10 Health and Social Care students visited Johnson Community hospital today, to carry out research for their GCSE assessment tasks.  They received informative talks from the Outpatients’ sister and the Minor Injuries Chief Nurse Practitioner who explained issues such as quality assurance, services provided and the structure of the organisation.  The students then went on a tour of the hospital which included the Outpatient departments, the in-patient and palliative care ward and the Minor Injuries Unit.

16th April 2013

Despite fears of bad weather the group set off on Monday 11th March with considerable excitement and expectation. They were not to be disappointed as the weather proved to be dry for all but Thursday afternoon and the return drive on Friday. Our 19 Boston High students were accompanied by 6 students from Boston Grammar school and a total of 3 staff. On arrival in Keswick we visited the shores of Derwentwater to see the drumlins and climb Castle Head. Later we stopped at Ashness Bridge and the Bowder Stone before reaching our very comfortable accommodation at Borrowdale Youth Hostel.

Day 2 involved a focus on Settlement with 5 transects along major roads into Carlisle. Here we noted the variety of housing types in different areas of the city as we walked from the edge of the city to the city centre. We also examined the impact of the recent flooding in Carlisle, the new flood defences and visited the wonderful waterfall at Aira Force on the edge of Ullswater.

On the Wednesday we travelled to the Field Studies Council field study centre at Blencathra for a 6 hour field day on rivers. Here we were preparing for the typical examination questions on the fieldwork paper on carrying out safe field study on rivers in mountain areas. To be precise we were investigating changes along the Glenderaterra Beck. In the late afternoon we also took in the wonderful views of Buttermere and its amazing lake.

Day 4 involved a visit to Wordsworth country with an exploration to Grassmere. Here we examined the characteristics and changing nature of a rural settlement, in this case a tourist ‘honeypot’. We also walked to Easedale Tarn to map and study glacial features such as a hanging valley, a tarn (lake), a corrie, waterfalls and much more! The afternoon ended with a walk around the Borrowdale area to take in the many features of glacial erosion and deposition to be found there.

Each evening involved a great deal of data analysis and hard work to work out the significance of what had been seen during the day. It was a great trip, enjoyed by all and many wondered why we had not been to amazing Lake District National Park before. Thank you to all the parents for your continued support for this valuable trip.

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16th April 2013

Many of you will now be aware of the internet YouTube sensation ‘Harlem Shake’, which has taken over and now it seems that everyone around the world is creating their own versions. As a development of media production techniques, our news team, filmed, edited and added the famous DJ Baauer music to their very own ‘Harlem Shake’ video.
The workshop took place last week to improve the skills that the journalists have learnt over the past year, we were also looking at the influence internet sensations have on the media and how a short video clip or ‘viral’ can have a phenomenal impact on the media rich content we experience. First there was Gangnam Style, now there is Harlem shake…it is anyone’s guess what will be next.
We hope you enjoy our version of Harlem Shake starring the BHS Newsteam!
 

Rebecca Leatherland
BHS Newsroom Senior Editor
 

1st March 2013

Between February 12th and 15th 2013 the History Department made its annual trip to Berlin with 16 students. We took a few students who are studying power, politics, nationalism and fascism within politics and Sociology A level courses but the majority were our A2 level History students. As usual the trip was tightly linked to their coursework essays which comprise 40% of the total year’s work. This year’s task is to look at several historians’ interpretations of the Holocaust and using these with their own knowledge answer the very difficult question “assess the view that the Holocaust was mainly the result of a long term plan by Hitler to eliminate the Jews”.

The full trip report can be downloaded below!

Berlin 2013 - Trip Report

1st March 2013

The idea of the Royal College of Music was first suggested by Prince Consort but it took several years until it was fully established in 1876. The college is designed to ensure that students are equipped to succeed in the ever changing career of a musician and are ready to take the initiative in their futures, but my future was less certain as I was going to be composing and performing an original piece of music and I don’t even play an instrument!
 
Several school pupils, ageing from fifteen to eighteen, were invited to participate in the Pulse Fiction Composition Workshop at the Royal College.  The workshop provided a fantastic chance to improve both musical and composing skills as well as teamwork but the worrying part was that the newly formed group only had 5 hours until a public performance, gulp!

The workshop was led by composer Frasier Trainer and there were several RCM musicians present to support and encourage the students. At the end of the workshop, there was a 15 minute concert in which the group performed the new pieces they had created; it was inspirational to all attending and gauging by the crowds reaction all were suitably impressed.

This was followed by a formal ‘Variable Geometry Concert’, in which several well-known pieces were performed: Chamber Symphony by John Adams, Workers Union by Louis Andreissen, New Work (a world premiere no less) by Raquel G Thomas and Tehillim by Steve Reich. The conductor was Jean-Philippe Calvin and his orchestra consisted of bass, strings, percussion and voices. There were about 30 members and they performed to a fairly small audience in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall. The concert was a masterclass in minimalism and although sometimes quite niche was a pleasure to watch and listen.

Look out for my audio report on the next Boston High YJA Radio show, but if you can’t wait for the next show here is a little teaser, click below to hear our performance.
 

Download Performance!

Alisha
Boston High Newsroom
 

8th February 2013

Tuesday and Wednesday saw more than ten pairs of students from key stage three battled it out in a cook off! Mrs Thornalley and Mrs Manson judged the cook off and they tasted dishes from 5 different countries: the Caribbean, Republic of Ireland, India and Portugal.

The brief was for two students to plan and cook a 2 course meal for 2 people from the countries listed above. The 2 course meal should have consisted of a main course with either a starter or dessert and the complete meal should cost no more than £10.

The pairs had 30 minutes preparation time where they could collect equipment and weigh out all of their ingredients. In this time no food handling was permitted. Then an hour and a half was given for cooking. At the end of this time both dishes had to be plated and ready for judging.
Dishes cooked included flatbread and spicy coleslaw and a lot of different curries with variations of desserts. Well done to everyone who took part!

Kyra Balderstone
Year 8

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