Borlase@Home News May 2020 - Sir William Borlase's Grammar School
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Borlase@Home News
May 2020
Dear All,
As we reach the end of a whole eight weeks of Borlase@home I felt it was time to try and capture
some of what we have been doing in a newsletter. Many of you will have been tuning in regularly
to our Official YOUTUBE Channel to follow the activities that students and staff have been involved
with from the VE Day celebrations to Mr Miall’s lunchtime concert and daily performances all this
week. If you haven’t yet tuned in for the school rendition of Hey Jude! you may want to try it this
evening! Borlase YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3g27IV8mBPSpM3p3kxj0Ug
As it is Friday, the weekly show is being streamed which seems to be very popular with students and
parents. I would like to thank our Performing Arts Technician, Jenny Chislett for her hard work and
skill in creating the YOUTUBE content.
I am enormously grateful to our staff for their dedication in sustaining teaching the curriculum,
supporting wellbeing and enthusing the students from the start of Lockdown. As the time has moved
on we have all learned that not all young people have had the same experience. Thank you all for
your many messages of thanks and to all the students who have shown their appreciation of their
teachers’ work and care. These are difficult times for everyone, but the whole Borlase community -
students, parents and staff - are working together to do the best we all can in the situation.
This newsletter brings together just some of the activities that have been going on in the virtual
world. I have had the opportunity to “look in” on lessons and have been incredibly impressed by the
way students and teachers are adapting. Tutors have gathered feedback from students on student-
workload in their different subjects to ensure they are managing the volume and challenge; this has
given teachers the feedback they need to adapt where it seems some year groups feel overloaded
in some subjects. We are continuing to work together with them to achieve the right balance.
I have also been delighted to see the enthusiasm of our Academic Societies who are meeting
regularly at break times - International Relations, History, Biology, Chemistry, Law, Computing,
History, Physics and many more. You can read more about the wider work of our Borlase@Home
programme in this newsletter, as well as special reports on some of the highlights such as the
extensive VE Day celebrations that we pulled together in the first week of May. And following a
programme of induction lessons held for our incoming sixth form, some our Year 12 put together a
film to welcome new students to the school. This innovation and willingness to support is a lovely
illustration of the Borlase spirit.
The sports department have launched their Borlase Boost challenge. Thank you so much to everyone
who has been hitting the pavements and roads to rack up the kilometres and bring in the donations!
If you haven’t done so, it is not too late: do log onto the school website and click on the Box Office
to get involved!
Useful Addresses
Articles Please
Enquiries from parents : parents@swbgs.com
Thank you to everyone who contributes to this newsletter. For the next
Ticket Box Office : YourBoxOffice.co.uk.
issue please send all articles and noticesto schaplin@swbgs.com.
Finance Payment system: www.parentpay.com
School Reception 01628-816500
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
continued from first page...
In my letter this week I have outlined the government, county and school position on returning to school. It is clear that for
senior schools, remote learning will be the new normal for a while longer so we are so glad that students, staff and parents
have embraced Borlase@home so positively. In the meantime, we are working on how to make this as safe as we can for
students, staff and families when this happens. This includes changing the biometrics used in the Canteen and Mimis and
for 6th form registration from fingerprint ID to cards and installing hand -sanitizer stations around the school. We have put
mechanisms on all fire doors to have them held open but close on an alarm to reduce touchpoints and are plumbing in some
outdoor sinks to create more hand-washing stations. We are continuing to follow guidelines and adapt the school. However,
I do encourage you to try and acquire personal bottles of hand-sanitizer and a small towel for your children to carry for the
return. The government advice on masks remains unclear. However, as masks are recommended on public transport, I think
it would be advisable to order masks now in case guidance changes as masks can take time to reach you.
In the meantime we will continue with Borlase@Home, staying together while apart. Of course virtual school, like all our
Zoom meetings is not quite the same as sitting side by side in a classroom, but working together, everyone is making a very
challenging period so much better.
I do hope everyone has a lovely half term. My very best wishes to you all, stay safe and well,
Ms Kay Mountfield
Headteacher
Borlase@Home
The closure of schools in March ended up happening more rapidly than many people expected and all around the country,
schools have done their best to adapt to the challenges of remote, home learning. Now, after two months spent in this
brave new world, it is clear that the Borlase@Home model that we have developed stands as an example of what schools can
do remotely in order to maintain the continuity of teaching and learning, as well as look after the sense of belonging and
community that is part and parcel of normal school life.
Our success in rapidly developing the Borlase@Home model has been rooted in two key factors. Firstly, the investment we
have made over the last seven years in developing our use of Google G Suite for Education and helping staff and students
to get the best from it has paid dividends. Staff were introduced to Google Meet as a tool in the week before the shutdown:
they were using it confidently just seven days later. Secondly, and more significantly however, the rapid adjustment to the
Borlase@Home programme has been possible because of our staff’s dedication, adaptability and resilience. We have long
emphasised these values as being at the heart of our approach to learning at Borlase, as recognised by our accreditation as a
World Class School by the High Performance Learning organisation a year ago; it is fantastic to see our staff and students so
clearly demonstrate these attitudes and competencies when faced with a situation for which they were most certainly not
trained or prepared!
Necessity is the mother of invention, and Borlase staff and students have responded to the challenges of the lockdown by
organising themselves in all kinds of exciting new ways. Student societies have moved online, to great effect and, as you will
no doubt have seen this week, the Music Department has pulled students and staff together into a range of amazing online
choirs. To have been able to listen to the Youth Voices, Madriguys and the Chapel Choir, Cantorum and, finally, a massed school
choir has been so uplifting. Assemblies are online and students are receiving regular, scheduled face-to-face lessons with their
teachers. The creativity and innovation of the teaching staff has been phenomenal. Levels of confidence in the use of these
technologies has soared and staff are experimenting with tools and techniques to make even more effective use of the core
Google tools.
We have also been able to move our induction processes into the Borlase@Home world. Last week, over 250 students who
aspire to start in the 6th form in September took part in a busy programme of induction activities that gave them a real taste
of life at Borlase, as well as meaningful and focused work to be getting on with over the course of the summer.
We do not know when or how this period of school closures will end, but we can be confident and proud that no school is
doing more to maintain teaching, learning and community than Borlase is.
Mr J E Simpson
Deputy Headteacher
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
We have had so much positive feedback from our community regarding our Borlase@Home learning, that we
wanted to share some of it with you. Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know your thoughts.
“We are all adjusting to the
“We really appreciate the fantastic variety of on-line lessons and the varied delivery new norm and I just wanted to
and engagement that teachers are providing. thank you and your wonderful
team for your great work during
A huge volume of content has been covered in the last few weeks. We are very aware these unimaginable times. I am
that not all schools have managed to deliver on-line learning and that by setting this grateful for the structure you
up so quickly, and always introducing new on-line structure, the children have had are providing to the day and
more consistency than would have been possible through other means. Overall this your efforts at promoting a level
has really helped to keep everyone engaged and working hard. of normality. I can only imagine
how much more the teachers
Thank you to you and all the staff for a tremendous effort in challenging and uncertain are having to put into planning
times” . and delivering effective virtual
classes”.
“We are aware that it is not easy to prepare, present and follow up
teaching via google classroom, particularly when many of you have
“We would just like to thank you and
families that also require home schooling and care. We are also aware
your teaching staff for having done such
from talking to friends that the quality and quantity of teaching is
a fantastic job in adapting your teaching
incredible compared to what many children are receiving and we
in the current difficult circumstances.
wanted to say thank you.
We are very impressed by the number of
online and pre-recorded lessons, which are
I'm also aware that the school is working really hard to provide support
helping to keep the students motivated”.
for those children who are struggling academically and emotionally
with the lockdown and again we are so impressed by this”.
“I wanted to let you know how impressed I was by
the Parents/ Options meeting on Wednesday. It
was the best parents evening I have ever attended! “I just wanted to thank you for maintaining such good
From a parent’s point of view, we didn’t have to find communication with parents and students during this
parking, find the correct teacher or wait around if difficult time. I have been reassured that school is doing
appointments were running late. Everything ran it all it can to keep my daughter engaged and positive
incredibly smoothly and we managed to discuss about the future at such an unsettling time in her school
everything we wanted to cover”. career.
I would also like to thank all the staff who have continued
to provide lessons and/or work to keep her stimulated
and involved with school. I appreciate that many of
“To all the staff for the tremendous work them have their own issues to deal with at home yet
and transition into online schooling. Thank they continue to do what they can for the students.”.
you. Amazing schooling”.
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
Borlase celebrates 75th Anniversary of VE Day Friday 8 May 2020 marked the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi tyranny. Known as VE Day (Victory in Europe Day), and despite the challenges of the lockdown, Borlase students and staff worked collaboratively to commemorate the anniversary and to mark the sacrifice of the Borlasians who died in WW2. The Borlase History Department decided to challenge the entire school community to a VE Day Bake Off. The remit was simple, design a recipe, use an old wartime recipe, or if flour was to be an issue, go for biscuits, flapjacks and the like. The response was typically and brilliantly Borlase, for we were inundated with said wartime recipes, Grandparents’ recipes, Russian recipes, Candian recipes, Kiwi recipes, Gingerbreads and a Kladdkaka cake! At the time of writing the competition is yet to be judged, but it can be said with certainty that the History Department are going to find it extremely hard to decide upon the winners for each year group, staff, and governors! The Bake Off aside, ‘Team History’ also decided to make a commemorative video for the occasion, which can be viewed on the school’s youtube channel via the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRs_ l9vylBU&feature=youtu.be The video includes an extremely poignant reading from the Head Boy, Callum Kunchur, and a moving tribute to the Old Borlasian who gave the ultimate sacrifice. In addition, our fabulous History Society, led by Jess Cattanach, Olly Gale and Ben Furley, produced a wonderful tribute of their own, which can be viewed here - https://youtu.be/LVabszwB6po It has been an honour to contribute to the school’s commemorations and our thanks must go to the entire school community for getting involved with the Bake Off. On a more personal note, I would like to publicly acknowledge Mr ‘Spielberg’ Holloran for putting together our video. Mr P Mead Head of History In addition to the above activities, 8 of our senior students collaborated remotely to sing a wonderful rendition of Glenn Miller's 'White Cliffs of Dover' and the music department has also provided a Last Post and a Reveille to mark the occasion. The Development office has worked with the Old Borlasians Club to put together biographies of the Borlasians who died in the war and the school has also worked with Marlow Town Council to put together a commemorative video. © 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
Borlase staff donate PPE to NHS
We are very proud of the Borlase staff members who have contributed to local initiatives donating PPE equipment
to local health centres and the NHS. . The secretary for the Bucks Search and Rescue Richard Harper, who is an Old
Borlasian, is coordinating the response for Buckinghamshire.
Head of Chemistry Rebecca Sowden sent disposable glove supplies to Marlow Health Centre whilst Erica Barclay,
(STEM Administrator ) and Sonya Robinson (Science Technician) co-ordinated other PPE supplies to go to Amersham
Hospital.
Meanwhile, Design and Technology Teacher, Mr Graham Nicholls has
been extremely busy putting his skills to use designing and making
face shields at home. Using whatever materials and resources he
could get hold of, he has worked on various designs to suit. His
first products were quite labour intensive, cutting, drilling and heat
bending strips of plastic for headbands, before applying screens with
rivets, foam strips and elastic bands. Graham was able to produce
around 500 of these with the materials he had available.
Mr Nicholls then went on to a different design process using the schools 3D printer, printing stacks of headbands,
and clipping on hole punched screens. As these are not as labour intensive, he is able to produce more in the long
term should materials be available. The face shields have been distributed to local hospitals, medical centres and
care homes through local distribution schemes.
3D printer machine
3D printed visors
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
Mr Nicholls is one of many Design & Technology teachers from schools up and down the country who via social media and a coordinated approach, have been doing something similiar. At the last attempted count, nearly 400 schools have produced more than 236,000 various pieces of PPE. It is fantastic to see how such efforts and initiatives on a local level can really make a difference to our incredible NHS staff and care workers who are clearly so desperate for it right now. Mr Nicholls has now made over 1000 face shields and is still going! Some distribution has also been through Borlase staff or parents letting us know of of people or organisations who need them. He responded immediately to a personal plea from a parent whose father is a resident at a care home in Watlington and was very short of protective equipment. He personally delivered 40 face shields the same day! “We have been overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness that has been shown to us during this difficult time. A special mention must go to Leighton Park School, Sir William Borlase Grammar School and Wallingford School for their entrepreneurial skills in making visors for the staff.’ We are very proud of you Mr Nicholls! You are making such a difference! Five things to be grateful for... Having been removed from the wider world we have been able to focus on things closer to home. It has made us think about what we value most, and what we would not like to lose. The school has been working with students on a theme of ‘things we are grateful for’. Each student was asked to make their own video recording from home listing their five things, using their own format, props, or simply talking. The video clips were put together and produced an uplifiting presentation.Things to be grateful for ranged from parents, friends, books, football, school and the wonderful education they are receieving, trees, food and even an X-box. You can watch the video on the school’s Youtube channel using the following link: https://youtu.be.be/Z_bMbHFvo0Y © 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
Borlase Music@Home The buzz of extracurricular music has, for a long time, been a key feature of the daily Borlase environment. Although the current circumstances have meant the large range of musical activities usually taking place have been somewhat curtailed, we have been adamant that this does not stop students, and staff, being able to come together as a community to make, perform and enjoy music. We are therefore very pleased to report on a number of exciting ‘virtual’ extracurricular musical activities that have been taking place over the past few weeks, featuring hundreds of students - and staff - from across the school. VE Day: Friday 8th May Congratulations and thank you to the Borlasians who provided musical tributes for the school’s, and Marlow’s, VE Day commemorations. Ben Jones, Y10, performed the Last Post and Reveille, and members of the Senior Jazz Band came together with an exciting virtual performance of Duke Ellington’s Satin Doll. Those involved were: Ben Jones (Y10), Cormac Diamond (Y13), Florence Ridley (Y12), Joel Taylor (Y10), Josh Kaushal (Y11), Leon Tasch (Y12), Luke Haldane (Y12) and Daniela Taverner (Y12). Thank you also to Mr Davie and Mr Hartley for arranging this and editing it together. The tributes also included an arrangement of Dame Vera Lynn’s most famous works - ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’, performed wonderfully by The Y13 Vocal Octet, featuring Georgia Tuke, Lucy Banks, Isabelle Jones, Ava Sherwood- Rogers, Callum Kunchur, Raphael Conte, Cormac Diamond and Fergus Cooper. They were very pleased to get a mention on Marlow FM too! Online Lunchtime Concert: Thursday 14th May As part of the activities in our Y12 induction week, a short online concert - featuring students from across year groups - was streamed at 1.00pm on the Borlase YouTube channel. It was a lovely opportunity to watch and hear performances on a range of instruments including Voice, Flute, French Horn and Saxophone and a chance to reconnect with the normally very busy musical world of Borlase. We also heard a couple of very special arrangements: the first, a performance of a musical setting of the poem ‘Trees’ by Joyce Kilmer (previously read out in Chapel Assembly by Miss Mountfield), sung by Cormac Diamond (Y13) and accompanied on the piano by Mrs Hopper. A massive thank you to Mrs Hopper for organising this: she has, in her possession, a handwritten manuscript of the music copied out by her grandfather almost 100 years ago. The second is a three-part vocal arrangement, written by Amy Harris (Y12), of the Scottish traditional ‘The Parting Glass’. Amy recorded herself singing all three parts before using software to mix them together. Thank you and well done to all the performers: Reuben Bignell (Y12), Lauren Bull (Y9), Gabe Smith (Y12), Ellie Vockins (Y12), Charlotte Farmer (Y12), Cormac Diamond (Y13), Oisin Elliot (Y7) and Amy Harris (Y12). BorlaseMusic@Home celebration week: virtual choir performances As part of a BorlaseMusic@Home celebration, every day at 1.00pm from Monday 18th-Thursday 21st May, brand new virtual choir performances from Cantorum, Gospel Choir, Chapel Choir, Madriguys and Youth Voices are being released, totalling well over a hundred students with all year groups represented. The students have been brilliant, working hard in sending us videos over the past few weeks. These have been a fantastic way to celebrate the depth and variety of choral music at Borlase, even in these difficult times. We are also very sad to not see these groups performing in the scheduled Senior/Junior Concerts, so this has provided us with an interesting alternative. © 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
As a ‘finale’ to our celebration week, on Friday 22nd May, a never-before-attempted Borlase musical activity is taking place. All staff and students have been invited to take part in a virtual performance of ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatles; this is also being released at 1.00pm. Above all we really hope that this will bring our school community even further together during these difficult times and be something memorable to look back on in future years. In what is also Mental Health week, we hope this activity will help to lift spirits and enhance mental wellbeing. All of these performances can be found on the Borlase YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ SWBGS1. Please do keep an eye out here for our future BorlaseMusic@Home, and wider performing arts, performances. If you have twitter, please also do follow the @BorlaseArts twitter feed for the latest updates. Well done and thank you again to all students and staff for their contributions to, and support of, these musical activities. And thank you to all parents and the wider school community for their support. Finally, I must thank my colleague, Ms Jenny Chislett, for her amazing and dedicated work mixing all of these performances together, which has taken many hours. Wishing everyone all the very best at this time, Mr Miall Director of Music Borlase@Home presents LIVE STREAMING EVENTS! To enhance the Borlase community ethos and to lift spirits during lockdown, the Performing Arts team have been streaming productions on the Borlase youtube channel every Friday at 7pm. So far we have streamed our production of Guys and Dolls , together with the 2019 production of An Enemy of the People . Watch out for more Performing Arts Online Events! © 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
The Borlase Boost! Raising funds for much needed equipment for the fitness suite in the new sports hall and the NHS Heroes. We want to boost the physical and mental health of the entire Borlase community - both now, during lockdown, and into the future when we return to Borlase. The Borlase Boost challenge will aim to get Borlase to the Olympic stadium in Shinjuku, Japan, covering 10,000km in combined distance, over 10 days. We will need your support to get there! We are asking for a minimum donation of £5 to participate in the challenge, but please feel free to give more. We will be raising much needed funds for a fitness suite in our new sports hall, and we would like to take this opportunity to show our community support for the work of the NHS, but giving 20% of all funds raised to NHS heroes. We would like you to join us! You can choose your activity, running, cycling, walking, anything that involves distance. If 1000 people took part and covered 10km we’d reach Tokyo! The Borlase Boost will be launched on Monday May 18th and last 10 days. All you need to do is visit TicketSource. co.uk/borlase to give your £5 or more and we will send you the link for you to submit your final distance after the 10 days and a we would love to see a photograph of you doing the challenge! Each and everyone of us can play a role in keeping the wider Borlase community healthy - so we hope you’ll add up your distance and help us achieve our target. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKrnPuR6m78&feature=youtu.be © 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
What might be your future pathway?
This week saw the launch of our Futures summer programme for year 12 students.
Following on from talks by speakers from a range of professions such as chartered
surveying, social work and the army as part of the weekly lecture series since September,
students were directed to a range of virtual talks this week available through Speakers
for Schools to include engineering, journalism and the environment.
Our summer future pathways programme was launched on Monday through a virtual
live lecture attended by over 200 students. In this session, students learnt about the
staff support available to them, the online tools to use for researching options and the
purpose and aims of today’s Futures Research Day. (Thursday). Even as I write, students
are recording their plan A and their plan B in google classroom and further steps to
take! Mrs Fortnam, Mrs Bull and Mrs Clayton have been holding drop-in sessions today
and Mrs Birkett has been giving feedback already. Our KS5 form tutors will be following
up with small group conversations in the weeks ahead.
All the details of the programme have been shared with year 12 parents - and we would
encourage conversations at home as a follow up. It has been really encouraging to
see the students’ positive engagement as they explore the exciting options available to
them!
Mrs Jane Bungey
Head of Key Stage 5
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.comCare Home correspondence! During Year 12, students are offered the opportunity to take part in various volunteering projects, one of which is to visit the elderly residents of a local care home. These are weekly or fortnightly visits during which they chat, play board games, help with arts and crafts, play musical instruments and even take part in armchair Zumba! The students develop a real bond with the residents over the course of the year and so we were all so disappointed when the visits had to come to an end due to the current restrictions. Not to be defeated however, we decided to ask students to keep in touch by sending letters, poems, stories or pictures to the home. In the last couple of weeks, the 6th form tutor groups have begun compiling joint letters, with photos, to share all the different things they have been doing whilst in lockdown. We are so proud of our students for their continuing commitment and care for others in the community and we will continue to send more letters as they are finished. Mrs L Fortnam KS5 Student Support Officer Celebration Assemblies Many of the heads of houses have been working with other form tutors and their students to produce a special assembly to celebrate all the wonderful things that have been taking place during lockdown. Nominations have been made by students as well as tutors, and the presentations have included highlights of the year, house point winners from each year group, and a special award to house member of the term. As you would expect from Borlase students, their achievements have surpassed expectations ranging from virtual cooking sessions, to sporting/fitness achievements, to teaching needlework online. Keep up the good work! © 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
Borlase Science@Home
Year 8 students in Mrs Rooke’s Biology class have excelled in showing initiative and creativy at home. They
were asked to make their own beak and then performed an experiment picking up worms (not real ones, they
improvised!) and then seeds. They were looking at survival of the fittest and natural selection. Would their bird
survive if the food source changed?
Joe Fisher
Elizabeth Thornton:
The worms!
Lorenzo Read
Daniella Y
Students were also asked to design their own animals
to then examine natural selection by answering a
series of questions. Would their organism survive if the
environmental conditions changed?. A series of blobs
of playdoh would have been sufficient but these went
above and beyond!
Murray Cartwright:
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.comAngela Matoska:
James Cooper:
Sophie RD
Paella
Spanish Tortilla
Cooking@Home
Our students have also been cooking
up a storm in the kitchen during
lockdown! Food tech lessons, as well
as Spanish cookery, have transferred
brilliantly to the online world
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.comRoyal Society of Chemistry Chiltern and Middlesex Poster Competition
Year 8 pupil Phoebe Palmer received highly commended with her colourful and carefully researched poster about
Colourful Creations in the Royal Society of Chemistry regional competition. Phoebe skillfully demonstrated how
chemistry produces the colours of our food, our clothes, buildings, paintings and many more. There are many weird
and wonderful places to find colour and materials!
The winning poster came from North London Collegiate School and the runner up was from St Michael’s Catholic
Grammar school. Congratulations to Phoebe!
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Science Club
This year in Key Stage 3 science club, we have done a huge range of experiments, from oobleck
to sugar crystals to tornadoes in a bottle. Not long before we left school, we started growing
avocado trees, which Mrs Algama has been taking care of. Several have been transferred
to compost now and are beginning to sprout shoots. Most recently, we planted radishes in
different nutrient solutions to explore which elements had the most effect on plant growth,
and we have seen a striking trend in the size of the vegetables.
We are planning on continuing with science club throughout the lockdown, and will be
doing demonstrations of experiments and providing experiments you can try at home as
well. So look out for an email from us!
Gardening club
We are hoping to open a gardening club once we are all back at school, in which students
will be involved in growing vegetables to be used for the food in the canteen. The canteen
will supply us with their food waste for composting to feed the plants. This will decrease the
schools food waste and food miles from transporting goods to the school.
Ella Murgatroyd and Alice Turnbull , Yr 12
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.comPoetry by Heart Competition National Competition
As reported in the March 6th Newsletter, following the school’s Poetry by
Heart competition, Year 8’s Joseph Reid was selected as the school’s Key
Stage 3 Champion to progress to the National Competition. We filmed his
performances of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky and A P Herbert’s First World
War poem, The Cookers to be judged first on a county basis, and then on a
national basis. On 11th March we were delighted to learn that Joseph had
been selected out of hundreds of entrants as one of the 10 national finalists for
Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) and he was invited to attend the national final event at
Tate Modern in London, where he would perform his poems in front of a panel
of judges including acclaimed poets Patience Agbabi and Daljit Nagra. Sadly
Covid-19 intervened and, like so many things, the event had to be cancelled
at the last minute. The final judging was conducted virtually, using the filmed
performances, and Joseph achieved a brilliant 3rd place. Huge congratulations
to Joseph on this fantastic achievement!
Borlase@Home eLibrary
Since the school has gone virtual, so has the library!
Students can now borrow eBooks from our virtual library and
read them on their devices, either in their web browser (eg
Chrome) or by downloading the eReader app.
There are over 1,300 popular titles to choose from, by authors
including J K Rowling, Philip Pullman, Jacqueline Wilson, David
Walliams, Cassandra Clare, Derek Landy and Rick Riordan, as
well as authors of classic novels, such as J R R Tolkien, F Scott
Fitzgerald and Harper Lee.
The Borlase@Home Library is here: https://swbgs.eplatform.
co/
To borrow books, students should sign in using their SWBGS
Realsmart username (the first part of their email address eg
loftj) and the password swbgsstudent.
We have also created a list of fantastic free books and
audiobooks which can be read or listened to online or
downloaded.
Happy reading!
Mr Lofthouse
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.comLinklaters National Essay Competition Finalist
Following Cece Briscoe’s success in 2019, for the second
consecutive year Borlase has a finalist in the Linklaters
Making Links national student essay competition. Run by
Linklaters LLC, a major multinational legal firm, Making
Links is an essay competition for 6th Form students in state
schools in the UK, designed to promote independent and
creative thinking and analysis. The challenge was to write
a 500-word essay on the subject ‘What has been the single
biggest disruption or innovation in the business world,
within your lifetime?’ Year 12 student Matthew Williams
wrote about the profound effect that the increased use of
automation and Artificial Intelligence have already had, and Sadly, in what is now an all too familiar theme in these
will have in the future, on our lives. He has been selected challenging times, that final is now a virtual event.
from hundreds of entrants as one of 20 national finalists Matthew will participate in a series of online interactive
to receive a £250 prize and the opportunity to attend the meetings with Linklaters staff and the other finalists,
final event at Linklaters’ offices in London where he has the before submitting a final presentation to compete for
chance to take home a £2,000 prize. the grand prize. We wish Matthew the very best of luck
- and congratulate him on the fantastic achievement of
reaching the final of this prestigious competition.
Borlasians Longlisted for 500 Words
An unprecedented eight Borlasians were longlisted for the BBC Radio 2 500 Words competition 2020. Now
in its 10th year, 500 words is one of the world’s biggest story-writing competitions for children up to 13
years old. There is no theme; children are simply challenged to write the most compelling story they can in
500 words or fewer. This year over 135,000 children, including many Borlasians, entered the competition.
From these, the judges selected 5,000 stories for a longlist to be judged by The Reading Agency, including
eight Borlase students. Congratulations to: Thomas Warrington (Y7), Lola Bennett, Oliver Green, Freya Millard,
Oliver Taylor-Johnson, Francesca Wells (Y8) and Maddy Grice (Y9) on this fantastic achievement. Sadly, none
of our students made it to the shortlist of 50 finalists, but Oliver Taylor-Johnson came very close, making it
into the top 100!
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.comDuke of Edinburgh @Home During this pandemic we are all in lockdown and staying at home. This does not mean however that this should restrict us from having fun, being inventive and imaginative. To compensate for the fact that we are meant to be away on expeditions, I have instead set some challenges to DofE groups that they can do from home on their weekends. Delighted to say that we have had lots of pupils rise to the challenge and so far we have had fancy menus and home camping/indoor dens. The silver D of E group have been challenged to do a 1 pot meal with no limit on ingredients. Only rule ...you guessed it can only be cooked in 1 pot! Mr Dean Stevens Duke of Edinburgh Co-ordinator Borlase Art @Home Our art students have adapted fantastically to working at home, away from the studio in And here are some stunning watercolour school. This beautiful piece is something Lauren pictures by Amy Harris n Year 12 Power, year 13, was working on as part of her A level project. © 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.com
Taplow Choirs is recruiting for new members in September. Conductor, Gillian Dibden is collecting
expressions of interest at the moment and will contact with more information as lockdown eases. There
is a mixed youth choir for boys at any age with changing voices and girls from year 11 upwards. There
is also a girls choir year 5 to year 10, Both meet only fortnightly. Call GIllian on 07799413746 or email
gillian.dibden@gmail.com
© 2018 Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BR Reg. Charity No: 1096750 www.swbgs.comYou can also read
