Maid enhill N ew sletter - Maidenhill School

On 10th November, last year’s
Year 11 joined with parents and
staff to celebrate their achievements
in our annual presentation evening.
Students were nominated by each
subject area as well as for shields
and trophies. Mr Watson presented
his special award to Lewis Brain for
MAIDENHILL NEWS: WINTER 2011
Achievements Evening
Library
Year 7 Library Helpers are developing
ways for students to find a good
read. Research shows that 75% of people
want to browse and be inspired by what
they see. Only 25% come into the library
knowing what author they want and go
straight to that section.
Mrs Escott-Allen is gradually placing more books
‘face-on’ so they can be seen from a distance and
attract potential readers. This is especially important
for very thin books which can get lost between the
bigger ones.
Library Helpers meet every Thursday afternoon
and are filling the new display by the library counter
with a different theme each week. The first theme
was ‘Horror, Spooks & Ghouls’ and lots of people
commented how good the display looked and how
easy it was to choose from. About ten spaces on the
display had to be topped up as people borrowed
from it. They’ll be keeping an eye on how well each
theme does. This will help Mrs Escott-Allen when it
comes to designing the new library layout.
Mrs Escott-Allen - Librarian
outstanding academic achievement.
Lewis achieved 15 A*- C grades
including 7 A grades and one A*.
Megan Bullock received the Teacher’s
Special Award for commitment to
her studies – her 11A*- C grades
included 7As and 2 A*.
Billy Perry earned the Governors’
Special Award for contribution to
whole school life. Billy had been an
active member of the School Council
and took a lead role in a number of
school productions during his time at
Maidenhill.
Jess Weaver, Kate Lapidge and Harry
Vallender performed for one last
time at Maidenhill to enthusiastic
applause. The proceedings ended
with a delicious buffet prepared by
catering students.
Catering for Year 11
Achievements Evening
I
was pleased to be asked by
my catering teacher to be
involved with the catering for the
Achievements Evening. First of all my
thoughts were “Oh no”, but then
I realised that I could be helpful.
There were other people helping
as well which made it fun. Miss Fry
was playing songs while we worked.
I made all sorts of foods including
tikka bites, sausage rolls and caramel
cream bites. My friend Megan
Hobson and I were asked to design
the menu for that night’s food.
We were really pleased that we had
been asked to be involved in such a
great job. I was so proud!
Beth Patton - RKF
Year 9
Visiting Author
On Thursday the 17th
of November, Dianne
Samuels, the author of a text
we are studying for our GCSEs,
came in to Maidenhill School.
She gave a lucky few of us
a writing workshop, in which we learnt different writing
techniques, especially to do with creative writing. One of the
activities was to write non-stop for fifteen minutes on one
topic, which really made our wrists ache but was a great
activity because we learnt how to creatively write.
In the afternoon, we had a talk about the creation of her
play Kinder Transport about Jewish children that were sent
from different countries to England just before the start of
WWII. To understand some of the characters’ thoughts and
feelings, some people volunteered to read out pieces of
script and then discuss the characters and how they react to
certain situations. We found out that Dianne Samuels based
her story on what had happened to some of her friends
and family and used this to create a lot of the characters in
Kinder Transport.
It was a fantastic opportunity, and really opened many
people’s eyes to creative writing.
Janneke Bax-Pratt - DKB
Year 11
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