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This year’s BBC School Report took place in April this year and involved the whole of Year 7 for a full day. Using lesson plans and materials from the BBC website, with additional support from BBC staff and support partners the teaching staff helped students develop their journalistic skills to become school reporters for the day. More than a thousand schools took part throughout the whole country and Stretford Grammar were one of 14 schools within the Greater Manchester area to successfully complete the day’s events. Students had to research, plan, script, film and then edit their reports. Once this process was complete the reports were uploaded to our YouTube channel which was linked to the BBC school report links. You can view our reports on our YouTube site. Huw Edwards, the BBC’s news anchor commented that “I’m involved because I want to give young people the chance to make the news themselves, and I want to share the principles of good journalism”. Perhaps one day we will be hearing from our very own correspondent. BBC Filming Drama students were given the opportunity of being extras for the day when the BBC filmed a sequence of interior shots for a new educational short film set in a school environment. The students were part of a classroom scene which took several hours to film! By being part of the professional television drama world, our students got a glimpse of the complex media world. Thank you to Ms Evans and Mr Price-Uden. <strong>Spring</strong> Concert The <strong>Spring</strong> Concert was held on Wednesday 29th April 2015 and we were joined by the Choir from St Matthews` Primary School for some joint items. All the ensembles performed including Fusion, Junior Choir, Senior Choir, Folk Group, Wind Group, String Group and there were solo items including Fabian Spiedel-Johnson, Year 7, and Linn Renken, Year 10. The A Level students left in style with a version of “The Devil Came Down to Georgia”. The Year 7 and 8 Drama Club also excelled in their performances. Caleb Liem and Peter Mitchell were awarded the Silver Cup for Outstanding Excellence in Music which they will keep until next year. Spelling Bee Once again students in Year 7 have been taking part in the Routes into Languages National Foreign Language Spelling Bee competition. The first round took place in forms. Students competed against their classmates by spelling out in French and Spanish as many words as they could in one minute from fifty memorised words. The winners and runners-up received a certificate and were put through to the second round which took place in February where the successful candidates were tested on a further fifty words. The winning students, Tommy Walker-Mackay 7H and Maryam Bham 7H for French and Safa Khan 7R and Zarah Khalique 7D for Spanish were given an additional fifty words to commit to memory. On the 18 th March they, along with Mrs Dolphin and Madam Jourde, went along to Manchester Metropolitan University for the Regional Finals. After enjoying our special Spelling Bee cupcakes, it was down to business and students competed in the First Round Part A against students from all over the region. Competition was the toughest this year that I have known but Safa and Zarah made it through to the second half of the first round after a challenging tie break for Zarah. The competition was even tougher in Part B and after another tie break, this time for Safa, sadly the students left the competition. They performed wonderfully in a very close competition and should be extremely proud of themselves and their nerves of steel!
Jamie Edwards Former international basketballer, Jamie Edwards, gave a series of sessions to students from across the school. Jamie founded the company Trained Brain after his playing career. He spends time with elite sports people and businesses challenging traditional learning techniques by providing a unique experience that develops a “think differently” perspective. Jamie spoke to the students about the need to prepare for exams and life beyond. He explained that you can train your brain to reach high levels of performance. Having worked with people such as Freddie Flintoff, Darren Clarke, Jimmy White and recently Joe Hart, his words of wisdom were keenly acknowledged. Islamic Art Day Lionheart Challenge 24 th February saw Year 9 take part in the Lionheart Challenge, a national business and enterprise competition run throughout the United Kingdom. Hoping to follow in the footsteps of the 2013 National Finalists from Stretford Grammar, students had to develop, market and finance business ideas with help from business coaches. The winning team were praised by the judging panel for the clarity of presentation, the unique properties of their product range and outstanding accountancy. Pamela Caudwell, National Lead for Lionheart praised the excellent standard of the work undertaken by the students and that as always it was a pleasure to come to Stretford Grammar where students were an asset to the school. Young Enterprise March 2015 saw the Trafford final of the Young Enterprise competition held at Stretford Grammar School. Light Up!, our own Young Enterprise Company were one of six winners on the evening with Best Company Report awarded by KPMG in Manchester. The judges singled out the report as being better than many KPMG received from long established companies and praised the language, style and layout of the report as being exemplary. Ameera Cheema, the Managing Director thanked all the members of Light Up! for their hard work throughout the company programme. The mayor presented the prizes and was highly complimentary about the efforts of our enthusiastic and resourceful entrepreneurs. Islam and Art day for Year 7s. Year 7s took part in a creative and spiritual exploration of Islam. On the day, the workshop leader Raz Ul- Haq, an Islamic artist, discussed Islamic practices (mainly the 5 pillars) and the concept of God as One. The students took part in some meditation and produced some creative Islamic calligraphy. Careers Day The careers fair was aimed at students from Year 9 upwards. It was an excellent opportunity for students to ask the exhibitors questions about the opportunities and various pathways on offer. There were a variety of visitors including NHS Futures; The Law Society; Greater Manchester Police; Manchester Chamber of Commerce; STEGTA; KAPLAN and the Finance and Accountancy Careers Group. Students received a fifteen minute talk in form groups from Leeds University about HEI and the language of HEI. They also listened to a fifteen minute presentation from Apprenticeships Ambassadors about the various routes into careers. They were then free to wander around the stalls. Mr Nicholson was pleased to see that the students were actively engaged with the whole process and that the day was deemed a success by all.
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