News Stories

On Thursday 7th March, Team Brunel and Cloud 9 students were able to dress up as their favourite book character to visit the Houses of Parliament to meet MPs and perform to other schools.

During the lead up to the day, all students had been rehearsing around 2-3 hours a week on their project, ‘Bringing Reading to Life’. It was decided to subvert the traditions of fairy tales into modern day interpretations. We had themes of gender, race and slavery brought to light and interpreted in a unique and engaging performance. Students worked very hard in all of these sessions to ensure that they would be ready and shine on the day.

Students performed to a group of primary and secondary students whilst involving them in the outcome of their performance. They asked a variety of questions to allow the audience to engage and think alongside their performances. All of the performances were phenomenal. Chris Waterman, MP, emphasised the key issues raised in the performances and expressed how he loved what the students had done. Georgina Newton, Warwick Centre for Teacher Education, also agreed how astounding the students were and how bringing such wide-spread issues to life was thoroughly insightful for World Book Day.

We were then able to listen to our Warwick colleagues and MPs read from their favourite stories whilst they were dressed up as that

character. Chris Waterman also helped us to learn one of his poems from his new poetry collection.

After this, we were all taken on a tour of the Houses of Parliament, where we learnt a lot about the history behind it as well as all of the people who had visited. One of the most exciting and memorable parts of the day was being able to go into the public galleries, where we had a snapshot of the debate going on around International Women’s Day.

Overall, the comments we had from the organisers of the event about our students were absolutely astounding. They loved the effort that the students went to with costumes and their performances. Most of all, they commented on how well behaved our students were at all times throughout the day.

For the past three weeks, Year 9 students Amy Cox, Yadunanthan Ravikanthan and Eren Geridonmez have attended the 'Royal Institute of Engineering' masterclasses at the University of Warwick.

They have had the opportunity to build and test crash structures with eggs and program their own autonomous cars. They were introduced to new situations and had only themselves to rely on to problem solve.

There has been a competitive side to each session and our students have been very successful in getting really involved.

There are three more sessions that they will attend this month.

"I really enjoy the way they teach you at University. I like being given a difficult situation and learning from my mistakes"- Yad

"I enjoy the competitive side to the sessions"- Amy 

"I love learning new skills and more about engineering"- Eren

^{Mr Ratcliffe-Law, Teacher of Science and STEM}

On this 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the fighting of the Second World War, Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation cordially invited all children who live or go to school in Coventry and were 16 or younger on 30th November 2018, to write a poem on the theme of peace and/or justice and/or reconciliation.

Our Year 7 students thoroughly enjoyed participating in this event and spent a lot of hours writing and re-drafting their poems in an attempt to win the competition.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Harry Lovelock was joint winner with a Year 3 class from Keresley Grange Primary School.

On writing the poem, Harry said:

"I found the ideas for my poem by watching a documentary about the war on television. The documentary informed me about the experiences faced by the young men who fought in World War One. These experiences included six weeks of training before the war, being in the trenches in Belgium, duty on the front line and helping out away from the front line. It also informed me about the harsh living conditions such as being surrounded by rats, mud, suffering from trench foot and for the unlucky few, dying.

I have also included the British troops helping the German troops to symbolise that we have reconciled now and that peace has been restored.      I feel privileged to have been chosen for joint first place in the poetry competition and I am extremely grateful."

The judges said that "Harry Lovelock’s poem 'The Great Adventure' tells a story, it’s simple but effective, it has a natural rhythm to it, it was believable, it flowed well, the word choices were well thought out and we felt the author's own voice coming through. Also, it is fitting for the centenary of the ending of World War I."

Philip Brown, Chair of the Lord Mayor's Committee for Peace and Reconciliation who organised this competition, said

"We had such a positive response to this competition that it will now become a regular feature of the annual Peace Festival. In addition, next year we are hoping to have one of the winning poems set to music in order to create the Coventry Schools Peace Song".

The Lord Mayor of Coventry awarded prizes, certificates and copies of the book containing all the poems submitted to the competition to the joint winners on Thursday 24th January at Keresley Grange Primary School.

This was such a wonderful competition for Harry and other students to be involved in and a once-in-a-lifetime experience for Harry and the Year 3 students to meet the Lord Mayor of Coventry.

                                               Miss Meyrick, Higher Attaining in The Bridge

On Tuesday 22nd January, students from Nottingham and Manchester tutor groups went on a visit to Nottingham University.

A fantastic day was planned which included activities like walking around the university grounds, interviewing student ambassadors and finding out about all of the different courses they have to offer.

Students left feeling that university is definitely an option for them!

                                                                Miss Yafai and Miss Bayton-Timms

During December, our Year 7 students showed immense generosity by supporting Langar Aid's 'Bag of Warmth Appeal'. This is a campaign to provide comfort to those who do not have access to winter essentials, especially those who are faced with homelessness and hardship during the winter months.

In order to fill the bags, students and staff alike donated items such as hats, scarves and toiletries. These bags were distributed around the West Midlands to provide comfort and support to the homeless, isolated and vulnerable.

I would like to thank all who donated. It truly made a huge difference in this cold weather.

A special thank you to Rob Bromfield for his generous donation of shallots from our school garden.

These shallots were used to cook meals for Langar Aid service users.

                                                                          Ms Birdee, HLTA The Bridge