Stars of the Week

For the week ending Friday 27th January, the stars are: 

Achievement Assembly

Today's Achievement Assembly celebrated a number of our children in a host of activities and we are delighted to list them below

Jeans for Genes Day

Our Reception pupils in their Jeans on Friday 7th October.

Independent Schools Association Competition

The ISA Competition took place on Friday 30th September and Design and Technology pupils obtained 2 First, Art and Design Endorsed Photography obtained 2 First and are through to the Nationals of the Independent Schools Association.

Vocab Express

Milton Keynes Safety Centre

Year 7 pupils enjoyed their Induction Day at the centre, experiencing an assortment of life's challenges and learning how to deal with them.

Sherrardswood Fun Day

Come and join in all the fun on Saturday 17th September!  Organised by our fantastic PTA, the day will be full of exciting activities and a selection of refreshments will be on offer - to book your tickets at the discounted rate, please click here.  For more details please view the Fun Day Poster  FUN DAY POSTER

Royal Wedding

In celebration of the Royal Wedding the Chef served a fish & chip 'take away' lunch in a Union Jack box!

Evening of Dance

The dance show this year has been very successful and the dancers were from Year 3 to Year 11.  There was a range of style of dances that we all enjoyed learning and performing very much.  Each and everyone of us put time and effort into the show but most of all, our PE Teacher, Mrs Layton, who has put all the hard work into it and we are eternally grateful for her dedication.  We hope that the dance show becomes a tradition at Sherrardswood as it is enjoyed thoroughly by both performers and the audience.  By Laura Figge and Tessa Reid, Year 11.

Festival of Words

We were delighted to have 45 pupils taking part in the first ever Festival of Words, held at Welwyn Garden City Free Church on Saturday 19th March.  The event created attention from local press and we were pleased to welcome back Casey Gutteridge, former pupil and now photographer for the Welwyn and Hatfield Times, who took pictures of our entrants for an article featured in the paper.  Winners table below:

Gifted and Talented Mathematicians Workshop

The 7th Sherrardswood Gifted and Talented Maths Event was our biggest yet!  Miss Fulford and Mrs Wright welcomed 120 of the brightest year 5 and 6 students from schools around the county to come and play.  The theme this year was the Level 8 topic Simultaneous Equations.  As always, the children hugely impressed us with how quickly they picked up the concept and methods involved.  After an initial teaching session, the students took part in a team race and then completed 48 challenges.  The winning teams all scored 100% on these challenges and the only distinction between them was their speed.  The room had a fantastic buzz as 120 brains were completely focused on really tricky maths.  Congratulations to all involved and special thanks to the Year 11 and A Level students who worked with the children so nicely.

RAF Museum Visit - Years 1 and 2

Pupils enjoyed an exciting day at the RAF Museum in Hendon recently.  An opportunity to see aircraft old and new, lots of interactive entertainment and scientific experiments challenged minds and everyone had a fantastic day.

NEW Science Programme

The Senior School Science Team have worked hard to recuit an exciting selection of external speakers for pupils in Years 9, 10 and 11.  Taking place on Monday 14th February, Monday 28th February, Thursday 10th March and Monday 21st March the speakers will be providing interesting insights to pupils from several perspectives.  Please click here to view the full programme.

Junior Choir

Members of our Junior Choir gave an excellent performance at the Isabel Hospice Fun Run, which took place on Sunday at Stanborough Lakes.  With two performances, one before the 5K and one before the 1K fun runs, all pupils braved the cold weather and sang beautifully.  With a wonderful £115 raised at the Choir Concert on Thursday 2nd December, Jessica Wilde handed over a cheque for the money to a representative from Isabel Hospice.  Details of the event will hopefully be included in the Welwyn and Hatfield Times this week and we are hoping to get a mention!!

Welwyn Advent Windows

We were delighted that St Mary's Church in Welwyn invited us to again participate in the Welwyn Advent Windows event during December and January.  The theme this year was 'Oh Holy Night' and pupils and staff worked hard to prepare the window for the grand unveiling which took place last Friday 3rd December.  Our window can be seen throughout December at AGBIS (Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools), The Grange, 3 Codicote Road, AL6 9LY.  To view all the windows please click to go to the Welwyn Advent Windows website.

Maths Inspiration Day

‘The Maths of the Simpsons’, ‘Cola Wars’ and ‘The Indian Rope Trick’ were just some of the topics covered at the ‘Maths Inspiration Day’ in Cambridge on 23^rd November.   The trip was organised by Miss Fulford, Head of Maths for our high flying maths students and a group of 21 were selected to attend the talks run by a team of truly inspirational speakers. 

·         No number in the Simpsons is ever selected at random! 

Apparently 8 out of the 15 writers for this famous cartoon series, have degree level maths qualifications and love to hide ‘beautiful’ numbers and maths jokes in the background.   The speaker pointed out Perfect Numbers, Mersenne Primes, the Ramanujan Hardy number and a false solution to Fermat’s Last Theorem. The challenge is now on to find the significance of any numbers that come up in future episodes!

·        Dating agencies use Game Theory to optimize their matches.

Hats off to two of our students, Dom Everett and Jaron Ali, who were invited up on stage to participate in the ‘Nice and Nasty’ game. 

It was a very inspiring afternoon and the speakers encouraged the students to think about continuing their mathematical studies further, to degree level and beyond, and the opportunities that this would open up for them.

Children in Need

Pupils donned a bright and varied selection of spotty and stripey tights and socks last Friday to raise money for Children in Need.  Donations are being counted and we will let you know soon how much you have raised.

Harvest Assembly - Friday 8th October

Thank you to all who attended the Harvest Assembly at St Mary's Church in Welwyn and for the plentiful donations of harvest gifts.

Happy 82nd Birthday Sherrardswood School

Well done to the School Choir who gave a fantastic performance of 'Rhythm of Life' and to infants and juniors who warmed everyone's hearts with the Sharing Song.  Thank you also to Parents and Staff for an excellent attendance and to Lord Laming, who gave up his time to join our special event and give a talk to our Year 11, 12 and 13 students.  Congratulations to longest serving pupils; Shannon Walter, Philippa Johnson and Jaron Ali and our youngest pupils; Rachel Neilson, Joshua Posner and William Chapman for lighting and blowing out the many candles on the birthday cake!

(images courtesy of the Welwyn and Hatfield Times)

Summer Music @ Sherrardswood

This summer Sherrardswood held its first music summer school. Between 27^th and 29^th July the music house echoed to the sound of music as a group of students from Yr 3 – 9 prepared for a concert.  The concert would be held on the final day and would include music they had only started to learn on the first morning. The musicians rose to the occasion and gave competent performances of music ranging from Smoke on the Water to the Bare Necessities. The audience was also treated to several solos on piano, electric guitar, flute and clarinet. As well as rehearsing music for the concert, there was time for Blues composition, keyboard work and a chance to try out different instruments such as saxophone and violin.

       

University Visit
Year 12 went to the Higher Education Convention at Hertfordshire University on 22nd June, to gather information about potential universities and courses.  On Monday, 5th June, a trip to the Anglia Ruskin University enabled Year 12 to sample a taster day; following introductions and an icebreaker activity, the students were given an overview of student finance and the University application process, a tour of the campus, overview of courses and a budgeting activity entitled 'Can you spare the price of a cuppa'.
 
 

Year 8 Enterprise Day

Year 8 took part in an Enterprise Day, based around creating a recycling business. The day included exciting challenges for the students to include developing a business plan and a presentation for an electronic and electrical waste recycling company. The day educated the students about environmental issues and the growing need for sustainability and gave the opportunity to develop necessary skills such as communication, teamwork, planning and confidence—essential for employment.

Gifted and Talented - Evening of Challenging Fun

The Gifted and Talented department’s first Evening of Challenging Fun was held on 10^th June in Mimram Sports Hall.  An excellent turnout of students and parents took part in a wide variety of activities, including binary jigsaws, foreign language spotting, disaster identification and deep sea diving!  The Head Boy, Michael Durrant, and Chris deLeeuwe from Year 12 also did a very visual chemistry demonstration called the Iodine Clock.  Thanks to all those who attended and those who helped organise - looking forward to our next exciting event!

Breakfast Club

The exciting new Sherrardswood Breakfast Club launches on Monday 26th April at the start of the summer term.  Available to all students, from Reception and above, the club will be open every morning from 8.00 am until 8.30 am in the Dining Room and will be supervised by a member of staff. 

The menu choice will initially be:

Cereal and milk                                          Sausage, bacon or vegetarian baguette

Toast with a variety of spreads              Choice of drinks

At just £2.50 the cost covers food and staff supervision.  A register of pupils attending the club will be taken on a daily basis and the cost will be charged to your account and added to the following term's invoice.  For final year students the cost will be deducted from any deposit held.

If successful the club will continue in the next academic year so we would value your support and feedback in this exciting new venture.

eSafety Seminar - Wednesday 24th February 2010

Thank you to all who attended this very informative and topical event.  Mr Pointeer has collated some useful safety hints and websites to assist Parents in working with children at home.

 Website Home-Family Guidelines           Useful Websites for Parents

Masters of Logic