The Vice Principal’s Blog

Mr Dobson, Ms Langworthy and four 6^th form students Lauren Scoltock, Georgia Stanley, Daniel Rands and Cevdet Karapinar travelled to Swaziland to visit our link schools and see how our Advent Charity appeal money had been spent.

We travelled overnight on the 30 June arriving at Manzini at 3.30pm the following afternoon. We were met by Sizwe Ndlangamandia the Swaziland CharitableTrust field worker. Who ably looked after us for our stay.

Our first venue was St Francis Secondary School where we spent two days. Students stayed with host families and attended school with them, spoke in assembly on both mornings. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves and got on well with all the students.

The photos show them in assembly and in lessons. Assembly is outside and it is winter in Swaziland – which is why Lauren looks cold!

Next up was Hho Hho AME Primary School which is in the north of the country and in a rural area. Following the Bacon’s trip last year we had provided the money for them to build a kitchen to feed their children. We were pleased to see that it had been built and was in use. We were able to paint the inside and outside over the weekend and then ‘see it in action’ on the Monday feeding the 512 children with bean soup.

Before:

During:

After:

We also did a ‘make over’ on the Grade 7 classroom. Our students in year 9 textiles had made bags for each child based on the theme ‘urban London’. These were placed one on each desk and filled with a Swazi pencil, pen, rubber, pencil sharpener, magnifying glass, ruler, balloon, bookmark (designed by Daniel Rands), packet coloured pencils and a Swazi badge.

We had posters to put up on the walls and Mr Dobson painted a typical English scene in the corner of the back wall.

We had visited Redriff Primary school earlier in the year to find out what teaching aids would be most useful to take and we purchased these with some of the appeal money. These were left on the teacher’s desk.

The students and teachers were thrilled with the room and resources.

Mavis Mazibuko (the Headteacher) took the time to explain to all the teachers how to use the resources and even had us copying some of the posters so they could go up in other classrooms!

We found time to play, read and generally enjoy ourselves.

Work available via download, using link below:

student-work

“Jambo” means hello!

Sandra Agard, renowned storyteller and Keith Waithe, award winning flautist and composer took our 8C, 8L and 8N classes on a dream journey, a wonderful fusion of music, storytelling and poetry from Guyana and the Caribbean on Wednesday 8^th July as part of Arts Week.

Sandra started off the session by asking the classes what the word for “hello” was in different languages, which the students impressively fired back at her!  She then told the stories of Anansi and the Magic Cooking Pot and The Talking Flute in her superb, lively and animated style, involving the students in role-playing – Minh Nguyen (8HL) making an impressively, wicked emperor! - or drawing them in with every word until they were literally on the edge of their seats.

Vocal gymnastics!

All our Year 8s have rhythm! They clapped to titi tita tum to dum, titi tita tum to dum, titi tita tum to dum…

Keith has a secret…he loves flutes! He shared this with the students by bringing in a small selection of his favourites to play. Amongst them, a bamboo flute from Bali, a Atenben flute from Ghana, an embellished flute from Tibet, a penny whistle from Ireland, a Jamaican bamboo flute and a silver flute from Western Europe on which he imitated animals and sounds, such as the maniacal laughter of a monkey, the roar of a lion and the wind in the rain.

The magical journey continued…

Keith loves the way storytellers use words and used his music to enhance Sandra’s words.

Douennes (A Caribbean tale) told by Sandra with Gimbe accompaniment by Keith. A scary story of two children venturing into the woods and meeting the Douennes (souls of children). Although warned by their friends and family the children don’t listen to the advice!

Keith revealed that he wakes up at 4.30am every morning to the sound of birdsong, goes to his backyard and plays to the birds on his Ocarina, a tiny clay flute from Peru! He plays, then tricks them by playing a Chinese melody which they dislike so much, they sing a little longer, then fly away, at which point Keith returns to bed for another two hours until he needs to get up! His little Ocarina hangs delicately round his neck in anticipation for their sweet song each morning.

More vocal gymnastics!

…chi chi cha cha chi…

Keith ended the session by choosing students to play a selection of percussion instruments – a Gimbe drum, played with wonderful rhythm and vigour by Jordan Kerr (8CP), Benjamin Olatunbosun (8SS) and Morenike Ogunseye (8BW) – a giant Ponsietta seed pod, shakers, tamborines and bells, by the other students.

…aya moo moo jay……aya moo moo jay…

A rich and joyful sound was created by our wonderful, rhythmic Year 8s, Keith and Sandra as they danced, played and sang.

Kwaheri means goodbye!

Ms Mitchell, Librarian

Seven teams applied for the Southwark based competition, Four were shortlisted and given two training sessions. One session at Bacon’s and another at the City of London Academy. They then presented their business plans at Bristow’s Law Firm and two teams from Bacons and one from COLA were chosen.

Brights sold decorated plimsolls and socks at the Rotherhithe Festival.

Picture Perfect sold and decorated photo frames and took photos to go in them.

   Both teams were given £150 and they both made profits.

Brights made £73.20 profit
Picture Perfect £136.35 profit

Picture Perfect were overall winners beating COLA by £10

All profits were donated to the Swaziland Charitable trust

The “girls in sport day” has been organised by the school sports partnership with the aim of increasing participation, motivation and enjoyment amongst Key Stage 3 Girls in sport.

The girls involved were a mixture of those who already take part in a variety of sports within school and also those who have not traditionally been involved in extra-curricular/ sporting events. Girls were introduced to a variety of new activities which are not currently included on the school’s curriculum, such as cheerleading and tae Kwando, with the hope that these might be more appealing to girls in that age range.

Four schools were involved in the event; Bacons College, City of London Academy, Globe Academy and Walworth Academy. During the morning session each school was split into 4 groups and sent to a different activity, either Conditioning, Cheerleading, Tae Kwando or the fitness suite; this encouraged students from different schools to mix and get to know each other.  Each session lasted for approximately 45 minutes and all of the girls were fully engaged and clearly enjoyed taking part in all of the new activities.

The afternoon sessions focussed on competitions. Each school was divided into two teams and entered into a football tournament. Again participation and enjoyment seemed high amongst all of the students and even those who were not playing in a particular game supported their team, using the cheerleading skills they had acquired earlier in the day.

Bacons College had two teams entered in the football tournament, both of which won their pools and semi-final matches which meant that they had to face each other in the final. After full time the score remained 1-1 and therefore finished in penalties. Bacons B team eventually won 3-2, however the standard and behaviour of both teams was outstanding and commented upon by members of staff from the other schools.

It was clear that all of the girls enjoyed themselves as they finished the day asking when the next would be and a number of the girls are thinking about taking further Tae Kwando and cheerleading classes.

Thursday morning dawned and 38 excited Year 8 students and 4 members of staff met at school to climb the coach that was to take us to the French seaside resort of Le Touquet.  We arrived at Folkestone and caught the Eurostar to France for our journey to Le Touquet.  Having arrived early at our hotel, we went down to the beach where everyone let off steam after being cooped up in the coach.

 Next morning we travelled to Neufchâtel to visit a traditional French bakery, where, after a demonstration in French, the students were able to try their hands at making croissants.  We then drove to Citi Europe to enjoy some retail therapy, though it was disappointing that prices seemed so high due to the unfavourable exchange rate.  The students were able to use their French to buy post-cards and later on they wrote these in French describing the day’s activities to their families.

 On Saturday we visited a snail farm and the bravest amongst us even tasted them!  This was followed by a very enjoyable visit to a theme park where there was a large selection of roller-coasters, water rides and dodgems.  The evening was rounded off by a trip to the bowling alley, which was enjoyed by all.

 Sunday started off with a visit to a local market where the students were again able to use their linguistic skills to buy local produce and complete a quiz.  In the afternoon we had a very interesting visit to La Coupole which was an underground bunker designed to house and launch V2 missiles. It was also a museum of the two World Wars.

 After this interesting but rather gruelling activity, some lighter entertainment came that evening in the form of a visit to the local disco.  Indeed this was the highlight of the trip for several of the students!

On the last day we visited the fascinating Sea Life museum at Boulogne before calling in at Citi Europe for some last minute shopping prior to our journey home.  We arrived back at Bacon’s College exhausted but happy after a very fulfilling trip  

Before 2008, the Sixth Form in Bacon’s College was represented by the Head Boy and Head Girl (and their deputies). These positions were filled by students who consistently demonstrated their commitment to the College through their involvement in extra-curricular activities and schemes, as well as meeting the highest standards for behaviour, application and the completion of their studies. In short, they were expected to be role models. Potential candidates, after consultation with their tutors, were then invited for interview with the Director and Deputy Director of Sixth Form who subsequently made their final decisions.

In 2008, it was decided that the Sixth Form profile in the whole College needed to be improved and made more visible so the College Leadership Team was set up to support the work of the Head Boy and Head Girl, and the Deputy Head Boy and Head Girl. We were fortunate enough to have an outstanding field of candidates to choose from and these students have laid the foundations for this year’s team to take over and build upon their good work.

Essentially, the College Leadership Team is the voice of the Sixth Form student population. Every member of this group has been selected because it is felt that they can provide great service to their fellow students and to the College as a whole. Sixth Form students should feel able to express their opinions, queries and issues to any member of the Leadership Team who will then discuss them with the Deputy Director of Sixth Form in their weekly meetings. The Head Boy and Head Girl (and deputies) will also meet regularly with the College Principal to discuss Sixth Form issues, both academic and pastoral, and to explore opportunities to represent the College in wider contexts.

The Leadership Team is also the public face of the Sixth Form for public events and they are required to attend a range of meetings and forums to represent the College in student matters. In the past few years, the Leadership Team has represented the College in meetings with The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg.

Additionally, they are role models for the students in Years 7-11, figures for them to aspire to and emulate. They are, in many ways, the best the Sixth Form has to offer and, from this year, the Leadership Team will be developing their links with the rest of the College in a number of ways. From this year, members of the Leadership Team have now been given specific roles and responsibilities to further enhance the service that they provide to the College. Students in Year 11 will be given more guidance and advice to help them with coursework and post-16 applications with the help of Banah Rashid and Jusna Khanum, who will also be liaising with the Art, Technology and Textiles departments. Frederick Heath-Renn and Arnob Shahriar will be responsible for helping to implement the new Extended Project qualification and to help with the Gifted and Talented programme. Both students will also liaise with the Maths and Science departments. Daniel Rands will work primarily with the Drama and Music departments and will be responsible for the organization of events connected to the Sixth Form or to the whole College, including the Charity Appeal (which has been traditionally led by the Sixth Form). Abbie Chapman will be primarily responsible for Extended School initiatives and schemes (such as Reading Buddies, Mediation and the Homework Club), raising the profile of the Sixth Form’s work, particularly with younger students. Daniel Antwi, Lauren Scoltock, Joe McEwan and Olive Mackintosh-Lowe will co-ordinate and manage these students in conjunction with the Deputy Director of Sixth Form in addition to their other duties

More pictures of the College Leadership Team are available by clicking the link below:

http://wiki.baconsctc.co.uk/groups/studentcouncil/wiki/247f1/College_Leadership_Team_’09.html 

“The trip all in all was another fantastic day out at the Hindu Mandir in Neasden.  We travelled on the tube for the first time and although the walk was a little further than first anticipated, the weather held out and we had well placed sign posts to direct us there.

The staff were, as usual, informative, interesting and gave the students an in-depth knowledge about the temple and it’s position in the community.  They began the day by watching a short film presenting facts and figures about the site, construction of the temple, and a brief overview of information regarding the volunteers that not only help to carve the marble and wood, but that also helped to assemble the materials into the temple you see today.  They experienced a worship ceremony which was open to members of the public and were also offered a blessing as they travelled around the inner hall to observe the decorated gods in their individual stations.  Following this they had a quick look around the museum and then the day was finished off with a question and answer session with one of the Hindu volunteers who work in the Temple.”

Ms Massey

Bacon’s College is delighted to announce that 9 ducklings have hatched in the central atrium garden, all 9 and Mum are doing very well indeed.

The Science department have set up a makeshift pond (paddling pool) and have put the old Science text books to excellent use, acting as steps for the babies to enter and leave their aquatic facility.

Unfortunately when the ducklings become old enough to fly, they will be unable to leave to the garden due to the height of the walls and their aerobatic inexperience. For this reason The Swan Sanctuary http://www.swanuk.org.uk/ in Shepperton will be moving the whole family to a new nesting site in a secret location somewhere suitable once the ducklings are old enough to travel. In the meantime they are quite the attraction for staff, student and visitors who are able to view them clearly from the upper atrium balcony in the yellow wing.

The duck is a regular visitor to Bacon’s and has had several broods in previous years. She has become quite adept at knocking on the office door which leads out to the atrium to ask for her breakfast or mid morning snacks. She is a welcome visitor and we hope to see her or her children again in the future.