THE KING DAVID HIGH SCHOOL
The Headteacher’s Report for the Summer Term 2017
Staffing:
The following staff are retiring. We thank them for their valued contributions to the school and wish them every happiness in retirement.
Teaching:
Mrs V Fletcher - Biology part time
Mrs L Jacobs - Head of Yavneh Girls/History part time
Mrs E Raczkowycz - Head of Science/Biology full time
Mrs C Ronksley - Government & Politics full time
Non teaching:
Dr M Opperman - Senior Laboratory Technician part time
The following staff are leaving this term and we wish them all the best for the future:
Miss L Blaney - English full time relocating
Mrs C Casson - French part time new position moving to primary sector
Miss J Chapman - PE full time promotion
Mrs B Dowdall - Mathematics full time new position
Mrs J Marneras - Art part time re-locating
Ms M Perez - English/JS/Modern Hebrew full time change of career
Mr C Walsh - History/Classical Civilisation full time promotion
Mrs E Cooper - Business part time end of maternity cover
Miss V Cottrell - Biology part time end of temporary contract
Miss V Swift - Physical Education part time end of temporary contract
Miss X Zhao - Mathematics part time end of maternity cover
New appointments September 2017:
Teaching:
Miss C Harrington - Joint Head of Science
Miss S Hirst - Joint Head of Science
Mrs J Seitler - Head of Yavneh Girls
Miss L Barbeaux - French part time
Miss K Barker - Physical Education full time
Mrs C Cowan - Mathematics part time
Mrs J Lomax - Science part time
Rabbi N Nadav - Jewish Studies part time
Dr D O’Brien - Science full time
Miss M Roberts - Art full time
Mr L Stott - History full time
Non teaching:
Mrs E O’Connor - Senior Laboratory Technician part time
Head Boys and Head Girls 2017-2018
HEAD BOY HEAD GIRL YAVNEH HEAD BOY YAVNEH HEAD GIRL
Samuel Benjamin Ria Cohen Sammy Pine Talia Harris
Simeon Kudenko Caroline Rashman Naphtali Shapiro Rivka Langer
DEPUTIES DEPUTIES DEPUTIES DEPUTIES
Guy Berger Ellie Goldstone Danny Deacon Malka Duman
Robert Hyman Miriam Makin Robert Goodman Michal Greenberg
Daniel Moss Zoe Vure Ionatan Somekh Gabriella Kay
Benjamin Oehley Miriam Sills
Charities:
The pupils, as always, have been very generous with their donations to lots of charities, which include Jewish and non-Jewish organisations. Thanks go to Rabbi Goodman, the Year 9 pupils in Main school, Yavneh Boys and Yavneh Girls, who, together with fellow students across the campus, raised a staggering total of £19,200 for their chosen charity Zichron Menachem. The Year 9 pupils presented a cheque for £15,367.32 to Zichron Menachem whilst they were in Israel on their recent trip. The amount raised will enable Zichron Menachem the opportunity to furnish their mobile hospital bus that will accompany the ill children on various trips that take place throughout Israel. The remaining amount of nearly £4,000 will be used to enable students that have financial difficulties the opportunity to participate in all the Jewish Studies extra curricular activities and trips that take place throughout the year.
Educational Trips/In School Events:
As well as the extra curricular activities within the school (please see attached list), there have been many successful events this term, and thanks go to those staff who have arranged and given much of their time to these events which include the following:
Aish:
Aish continues to inspire our students to engage with their traditions and have a love for Judaism by presenting an array of activities in school. The Year 9 Israel trip was run in conjunction with Aish who also sent some of their young leaders on the trip. We are sorry to say goodbye to Rabbi Ross who is moving to London. Rabbi Ross has led the Aish team for the past four years and he has been an inspiration to us all. We wish him and his family all the best for the future.
During this term, GIFT held a few ‘Lunch and Do’ sessions that concluded with a special festive lunch to reward all the girls for their great efforts over the course of the year.
Art:
The Art Department held an informal Arts Evening, where family and friends were invited to view the exciting array of GCSE and A level art work displayed around the school. The exhibitions included GCSE Art, Craft and Design work, while the A level Exhibits included Fine Art, Graphic Communication and Textile Design. Year 10 and 12 students had the opportunity to visit Manchester Metropolitan University Degree Shows, Tate Liverpool, The Walker Gallery and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. All Year 9 pupils took part in an engaging art activity based on the concept 'Exquisite Corpse'. Groups of pupils had to design and create a student of the future which was judged in front of a panel to decide the most innovative idea.
Bat Chayil Ceremony:
The Bat Chayil ceremony will be taking place on the 16th of July for some of the Year 7 girls who will be celebrating together with their friends and family. In the build-up to the ceremony the girls are continuing to raise money for GIFT. A cheque will be presented to them during the ceremony to help families less fortunate.
Business and Economics:
We are pleased to welcome Mrs Mulgrew back to the Department. The Business Studies Department organised an ‘Enterprise Afternoon’ with the Physics Department for the whole of Year 9. The pupils were set the task of designing a product using a principle of physics that they have studied. The pupils then had to design a promotional campaign for their product and present their strategy to a panel of judges.
Miss Williamson arranged for Year 10 Business Studies Main School and Yavneh Boys pupils to visit Manchester United’s Football Stadium at Old Trafford. Pupils listened to a seminar based around marketing and social media to aid their controlled assessment and also had a tour of the stadium and a visit to the museum.
Computer Science:
This term has been a creative journey in order to encourage computational creativity through the education system. The Year 8 pupils have been learning to animate objects using an animation software suite and Year 9 pupils have been working on a computing challenge, designed to stretch their creative skills in computer graphics and then design their own computer app. The team of Naomi Cooper and Thomas Ingleby won the best app design for whole of Year 9. Year 10 GCSE Computing pupils narrowly missed out the national finalist PA Consulting Group's Raspberry Pi Competition 2017 by scoring 21/25, but received excellent feedback from the panel. The Year 10 GCSE Computing pupils attended a very special event at Manchester Airport supported by industry specialists such as Airbus and Vodaphone where they participated in discussion and expanded their knowledge in the areas of aircraft design, 3D printing Technology, flight data systems and technical data tracking. Thanks to Mr Levy and Mrs Basger in extending their support for this event.
Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme:
The 2017 expedition season is now coming to an end but has been in full swing since the beginning of April.
Twenty-six Year 9 Main School and Yavneh Girls successfully completed their Bronze Practice and Assessed Expeditions as well as eighteen from Year 9 Main School and Yavneh Boys – and for the second year running we have seen an overall rise in Bronze numbers! Once again we held a full day’s training at school for all pupils in Year 9 as there are so many valuable and transferable skills associated with the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, including basic first aid, map reading, and best practice in an emergency. The training day was extremely successful with everyone showing how important and very rewarding teamwork can be.
Main School pupils Katie Cobb, Harry Press, Jordan Kersh and Ellie Goldstone are currently working towards their Gold Assessed Expeditions taking place during the summer break. Gabriella Kay, Miri Sills and Sabrina Miller from Yavneh Girls are also currently planning their Gold Assessed Expeditions. Good luck to all of them. When they have finished their Gold Duke of Edinburgh they will be called to St James’s Palace to collect their award from the Earl of Wessex and will meet other dignitaries at the same time. This is a truly rewarding experience and a great way to be recognised for completing the world’s leading achievement award for young people.
This Duke of Edinburgh season has once again been very successful and thanks must go to Miss Fullwood and the entire team at JLGB for the hard work and support they have put in over the past year.
Drama:
Drama Students from Year 13 presented a series of practical workshops for Year 12 exploring a range of theatre genres and techniques. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working together and ideas were developed into performance presentations. Year 12 Drama and Theatre students rehearsed and presented adaptations of two plays, Dr Faustus by Christopher Marlowe and the Greek classic Clytemnestra adapted by Gwyneth Lewis. Both plays were attended by family and friends and formed part of the students’ Component One exam. In GCSE the pupils have been busy and committed to devising their own plays on a range of themes including 1984 by George Orwell and the painting ‘The Scream’ by Edward Munch.
Drama Club has continued to be highly popular. We’re very proud of the pupils from the lower school who presented a number of lunchtime theatre performances of their own devised, staged plays for a live audience in Studio 2.
Our LAMDA students have been taking exams this term in several performance-related areas including Acting Grades, Speaking Verse and Prose and Solo Introductory Stages. We hope to continue to offer LAMDA next year and if any pupils are interested in studying the beneficial and exciting courses then they should contact Mr Sills.
English:
Some Year 10 pupils attended a performance of their GCSE Drama, Romeo and Juliet, at The Globe. Year 12 English Literature students travelled to Mold for a performance of their A Level Drama, The Importance of Being Earnest and also to London for an excellent Poetry Conference to hear poets studied at A Level. Year 12 English Language students visited Haworth to provide context for their coursework and to research aspects of Language Change. English Language teachers attended a symposium at the Linguistics Department
of Huddersfield University with whom we are building strong links to support the teaching of Language at A Level.
Food Technology:
Year 5 pupils will experience using the Food Tech room and make sweet cup cakes during their visit on the various taster days. Miss Airley has run mini cake making and decorating projects with Year 7 and 8 pupils. Year 9 pupils have been working their way through a pastry booklet and have made various fruit and cheese pies with lattice toppings as well as tasty Eccles cakes.
French and Spanish:
A group of Year 11, 12 and 13 pupils sat the Advanced Examination for the UK Linguistics Olympiad. This is a challenging test in which they have to solve linguistic data problems from a wide range of languages. This year the languages included Maori, Tamil, Choctaw, Abkhaz and Kaytetye. Many congratulations to Omri Simon (Year 11) who gained a Silver award, placing him in the top 10% of students nationally. Well done also to Simeon Kudenko who gained a Bronze award. This is a great achievement for both pupils. The Olympiad was also run in school and Reuben Baker (Year 7) gained the best KS3 mark – using his linguistic abilities and translation skills, he was able to crack a code and catch an international jewel thief! Following the Olympiad, many pupils attended the ‘Linguistics’ lecture delivered by Miss Pietralski.
Annabel Kramrisch and Shaked Kirsh (both Year 12) thoroughly enjoyed lectures in a range of modules linked to MFL at Oxford University and both relished the opportunity to gain an insight into life as a language student at university. In June, Year 12 students are also looking forward to participating in the ‘Linguastars’ programme at Leeds University where they will have target language workshops as well as language taster sessions.
Geography:
Mr Faraday, Mr Chappelle and Mr Sleeman took the Year 12 Geography students on a four-day residential trip to Malham Tarn Field Studies Centre. This was to enable them to collect data for the independent investigation. The students had a great time and the weather was stunning! Year 7 and 8 pupils enjoyed a day out at Heaton Park during activity week where they competed in an orienteering competition.
History:
Mr Walsh organised a Year 8 trip to Blist Hill Victorian Town, Ironbridge. This was focused on developing the Year 8 curriculum with regards to the Industrial Revolution in Britain. This is the second year the department have been to Blist Hill. Fourteen pupils from Year 10 and Year 12 took part in a trip to Berlin accompanied by Mr Pitt, Mrs Dowdall and Ms Downes. This was to support their study of Nazi Germany as part of their GCSE course.
Congratulations to Year 12 student Simeon Kudenko who was highly commended in the Vellacott History Prize for his essay on the role of imperialism in the fall of the Qing dynasty. This is an extremely competitive annual competition organised by Peterhouse College at the University of Cambridge. Simeon’s essay was one of the top five entries from over 160 different schools nationally. Further details are available at: https://www.pet.cam.ac.uk/essay-prize