Issue No: 650

LETTERS HOME THIS WEEK

• Re Simon Satchwell Science Lecture

A reminder that copies of all generic letters sent home can be found on our website at: www.sjl.herts.sch.uk/practical-information/letters-home.php

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to the following students who received a Headteacher's Commendation this half term:

JUNIOR MATHS CHALLENGE RESULTS

The Junior Maths Challenge, run by the UK Mathematics Trust, is one of the UK's biggest maths competitions. We achieved great results again this year. A special mention goes to Sophie Hill, Charlotte Evans and Suse Tredinnick, who have qualified for the Kangaroo round. Ollie Burroughs in year 7 did exceptionally well and has qualified for the Junior Mathematical Olympiad (JMO). Well done to all!

21ST CENTURY LEARNERS

MUSIC EVENTS THIS TERM

A reminder of the events this term. Please check carefully. More details will follow.

Thursday 8th June - Inspiring Hertfordshire Awards @ St Albans Cathedral. Year 10 Saxophone Group performing.
Saturday 10th June Harpenden Carnival. Pistachios (Snr Sax Group) performing from 1.30pm.
Friday 16th June - Pistachios & Year 10 Sax Group performing at the Friends of Sir John Lawes Summer Ball.
Wednesday 5th July - Summer Prom at the Harpenden Public Halls, 7pm.
Saturday 8th July - Trinity Exams in the Music Block

Music Tour to Slovenia
We are still waiting for a few final passport and EHIC photocopies to be brought to the finance office. Please return these as soon as possible, as we need this information for certain bookings in Slovenia.

The Parents Information Meeting has been confirmed as Monday 3rd July, in the School Hall at 6.45pm. More details to follow.

Please check tour rehearsals on the Music Notice Board and through form messages. All students going on tour MUST be attending the appropriate rehearsals, which includes existing extra-curricular commitments.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at lgillot@sjl.herts.sch.uk

PARENT PAY AND SCHOOL TRIPS

You will be aware that we are using ParentPay now for School Trips, which means you will receive all trip invitations via email. This facility is used by the majority of schools and enables you to pay and provide your consent in one go and electronically.
We are finding this is really helping with cutting down on paper and saving your child the inconvenience of returning paper slips.
If you are unsure of how to use your ParentPay account, then please do not hesitate to contact the Finance Office and we will be only too happy to assist you.

Thank you for your continued support.

SHOW MY HOMEWORK - STARTS 5TH JUNE 2017

We are very excited to be launching Show My Homework, an online tool to help you keep track of your child's homework. Show My Homework will allow you to see the details of the tasks your child has been set, all their deadlines and their submission status and grades.

We have decided to introduce this system to improve the way we communicate with parents and also to enable parents to have a greater understanding and ability to support home learning as well as providing greater visibility into the homework we set.

We have written to all parents about this exciting development and log in details for parents and students are currently being generated.

SCHOOL SHOP

A reminder that the school has a well-stocked, non-profit-making shop, where students and parents can purchase most of the school equipment and materials they might need. In particular, we would like to draw your attention to the Exam Revision Guides and materials for: English, Science, Food Technology and Modern Foreign Languages. These guides are hugely helpful to the students taking exams. To find out more, please contact the relevant Head of Department or the Finance Office or simply send your son/daughter along to the school shop. Thank you.

SATCHWELL SCIENCE LECTURE - 6th June

The SJL Science department is delighted to announce that this year's Satchwell Science Lecture will be delivered by Richard Kirby from tdo3DPrinters. His lecture on 'How to build a house on Mars' will show how the latest 3D printing technology is being used across the fields of science, medicine and space to deliver new cutting edge developments to improve people's quality of life. The lecture will also include a demonstration of this technology in action!

Letters will be coming home to students from the science department shortly, but if you are interested in attending please email admin@sjl.herts.sch.uk with your details.

MUSIC LESSONS

Unfortunately the cost of music lessons will rise from September 2017, having been held at the same price for the past two years.
Therefore the cost of lessons per term will be as follows:-

• 20 minute individual lessons £166.00
• 30 minute shared lessons £124.00
• 30 minutes individual lessons £238.00

Please may we remind you that if you wish your child to no longer have lessons, you need to ensure that you give the school half a term's notice.
Should you have any queries about the music lessons, then please do not hesitate to contact the school and we will be happy to assist you.

ECO SCHOOLS LAUNCHES 30 DAYS WILD CHALLENGE

You may have heard of 30 Days Wild (www.mywildlife.org.uk/30dayswild/)

It is run by the Wildlife Trusts and it encourages people to do an activity in the 'wild' every day during June. There are loads of ideas on the website and loads of them are really simple - e.g. eat dinner outside, watch the sunset, watch a wildlife 'webcam', go to a bird hide, walk barefoot in the grass.

The Eco-Schools group are going to try to tweet a picture every day during June of a teacher or student doing a 30 Days Wild Activity. It would be great if parents could encourage their children to get involved.

If you are able, it would be great if over half term (or at any point in June) students could take a photo of themselves doing a 'wild activity' (have a look at the website for ideas) and email it to hcox@sjl.herts.sch.uk with a short description of what they are doing. We will then tweet one a day during June. There will be a small prize for anyone who submits a photo.

Thank you!
The Eco-Schools group

LIBRARY

Year 8 Reading Challenge
The Year 8 students achieved the best ever results in the M25 reading challenge this year! This year is the 10th anniversary of the M25 reading challenge, and although the books have been regularly updated, the principles of the challenge have remained fundamentally the same, with the aim of encouraging students to read more and to read more widely from a range of authors and genres. This year 151 students from the year group of 201 completed the challenge by reading 5 or more books. Many students read more than 5 books, as the year group read 1150 books between them. In addition to individual certificates, there were class prizes, and individual prizes for best reviews and best efforts. Well done, year 8!

Sir John's Shadowers
This year we have 28 students reading books which have been shortlisted for the Carnegie children's book prize - probably the most well regarded prize for children's literature. Students are doing well at reading and promptly returning the books, so that we can circulate them and everyone gets a chance to read titles. Have a look at some of the reviews that Sir John's Shadowers have put on the Carnegie Shadowing website:

The national winner will be announced on 19 June and the books will then be available for everyone to read. There will be an SJL marketplace promoting the books and where the shadowers will talk about their favourites, on Friday 16 June. This is open to all students, so be inspired to be a shadower next year!

Mrs Johnson
Librarian

CYBERFIRST STUDENT BURSARY AND DEVELOPMENT SCHEME FOR YEAR 13s

Generous Annual Bursary, Paid Summer Activity & 3 Years Employment in National Security

Have you ever thought of protecting online and digital services in the UK? As part of a Government Cyber Team, you could use cutting-edge technology to do just that. It makes for a truly fascinating career.

GCHQ is looking for motivated individuals with a technical aptitude and real passion for all things cyber. With a number of varied roles in their CyberFirst Student Bursary scheme, it's a unique opportunity to pick an exciting challenge that rewards you for your talent and commitment. If you are about to start your first year of undergraduate study in September 2017, you could benefit from a mix of financial and development support for the first few years of your career.

Click here for more information.

SPORTS NEWS

Twitter
The PE department would like to remind you we have a Twitter account for keeping students and parents up to date with fixture details, results and general sport and physical education news. Please follow us @SJLPhysEd.

Year 10 Rounders
The Year 10 A & B Rounders' team got off to a great start in their first game against Roundwood Park this week. Both teams demonstrated some great batting and consistently put Roundwood's fielders under pressure. The A team really got their game together in their second match with some excellent fielding between Lucy Jackson, Louise Rouse and Susie Stafford, getting Roundwood out after 17 balls and 1/2 a rounder. The B team showed excellent batting in their games, with a special mention for Ashleigh Field on her batting and Jenna Lee Colyer for getting player of the match. Well done to all who played.

SJL A vs RPS A: 10.5 - 5.5
SJL A vs RPS B: 14 - 0.5
SJL B vs RPS A: 4 - 6
SJL B vs RPS B: 10 - 6

Year 9 Cricket vs Verulam
After the preparation for this game being anything but easy, with a number of late replacements, you would have been forgiven for thinking this would be more than a challenging game. However what followed was extraordinary.

Having been put in to bat first, Josh Kerton and Henry O'Connor walked out knowing the responsibility was on them to get us off to a good start, and they more that achieved this. This opening partnership put on 151 runs until Henry was dismissed LBW agonizingly close to a fifty, having scored 44 from 44 balls, the perfect supporting role. Meanwhile Josh put on the best batting display I have seen in a school match, scoring an incredible 94 off 57 balls 'not out', including 7 huge sixes. Unfortunately at the death he didn't get to face enough balls to turn this into his first century, but with batting like that I am sure it won't be long until he converts to a bigger score. Alfie Woodbridge replaced Henry, scoring a quick 11 to finish our innings on a mammoth 178 from our 20 overs. For any standard of cricket across the world this was a fantastic first innings total.

Confident this would be defended, the boys took to the field relaxed and immediately found good lines and lengths. The wickets taken were well shared with Kerton, Barnard, Butterworth, Whiting and Woodbridge chipping in, and some safe hands shown by Noah Goodhind and George West. We were able to give more bowlers a go because of our strong position and even though we gave away 50 extras, Verulam were only able to amass 115 from their 20 overs. Restricting these extras in future games will be the key to more success.

With some key players missing, a 74 run win was a huge achievement for the boys who should be confident of progressing far this season. Congratulations to all the boys involved and another special mention to Josh Kerton (9H) for an incredible match winning knock.

KEYSTONE WORKSHOP

DSPL WORKSHOP