Check here for breaking news and a selection of news stories from our weekly newsletters:
BGS Cheerleading Club entered the Future Cheer Schools Out Competition on Sunday 5th May in Milton Keynes.
They placed 6th overall in their division, which is an amazing result for their debut performance against many well-established teams.
Miss Mani
For their Maths Diploma, Year 8 students were tasked with a statistical investigation of data which they had researched and/or collected themselves. Our hardworking students came up with some intriguing ideas - from asking their friends to identify their favourite food, to looking at the numbers associated with their favourite sports team or video game, to measuring how many kick-ups students of different ages can perform on the football pitch!
They then used the statistical techniques they’ve been learning in lessons - including pie charts, bar charts, stem and leaf diagrams, box plots, cumulative frequency graphs, scatter graphs, linear correlation and regression, statistical summary calculations, and more - to study their data and to produce a report or poster of their analysis. Some of their excellent work can be seen below.
Good job, Year 8!
Mr Male, KS3 Maths Coordinator
Click on the link here to view the Maths Diploma Photo Gallery
Huge congratulations to Alice Black and her netball team. Alice went to Sunderland to compete last weekend and came an impressive 7th in England! Alice plays for Kent County Netball Club. Following an initial qualifying regional tournament and 14 matches throughout the season, they gained a place at the U16 National Finals. The 18 best teams in England played over 2 days, in Sunderland, at the Beacon of Light Stadium. Their team, KCNC, won 5 of their 7 matches in the Finals, only losing to the eventual winners and another top team. Congratulations to Alice, an excellent GD circle defender who played every match, blocking out the opposition, defending shots and making interceptions to turn the play over. She is part of an amazing team, who worked brilliantly together to beat tough opponents, and we can proudly say they came 7th in the country.
Teamwork at its best!
The PE department is proud of your success, Alice. Well done!
Mrs Kemp, PE Department
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For their MFL Diploma Year 7, students created a piece of work about themselves using the vocabulary they have learnt in lessons so far this year. Diplomas were judged on the quality of language and presentation.
This year we had some absolutely wonderful projects with examples of outstanding language and creativity. The award for Best French Diploma goes to Suriya (7JR) and the Best German Diploma to Aysu (7LC).
Well done to all our Year 7 students for completing this project on time and to such a high standard.
Click on the link here to view the Year 7 MFL Diploma Photo Gallery
On Thursday 25th April 2024, we went to the TSBA ceremony at Latymer Upper School. To get there, we got the train to Victoria and then the tube to the school. When we got there, there was a lovely ceremony where all the student winners were announced for the creative responses and the book review competitions. Then the author winners of TSBA and the Trinity+ were awarded (Rebel Skies by Ann Sei Lin for TSBA and Lies like Wildfires by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez for Trinity+). After that, there were 'elemental' themed snacks, and we could get our books signed by the authors that were there and take pictures with them too. After that, we got the tube and train back to school. Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing Mrs Carey. So thank you for everything you do for us, Mrs Carey.
Liv, Year 8
The book trip was great fun! - just like last year! We got books signed and had some nice snacks too. We found out who won the TSBA awards (Rebel Skies) which I would recommend reading as it’s very good.
Overall, it was an excellent trip with the best librarian, Mrs Carey. I hope to do it again next year!
Grace, Year 8
In the autumn term, my two book groups read 14 books as part of the Trinity Schools Book Awards, voted on their favourites and eagerly awaited the awards ceremony where we found out which authors would take the trophies.
I was lucky enough to take nine students from Years 7-10 to Latymer Upper School to watch the ceremony, see their competition submissions displayed and meet the authors. We spent a lot of time with Teri Terry, author of Dark Blue Rising, quizzing her on how she comes up with ideas for her books, and discovering that sometimes she dreams them!
Thank you to the generous PTA who paid for the books and our participation in the awards ceremony. The students loved it and have already asked to take part again next year!
Mrs Carey, School Librarian
Click on the link here to view the TSBA Ceremony Photo Gallery
The school trip to the Baltic States was phenomenal. It was a great opportunity to experience the cultures of the Baltic States, and gain an insight into their fascinating history. It was also a great opportunity to practice my Russian - I purchased so many Russian books on the trip, my suitcase burst open at Gatwick Airport! We visited various museums in Tallinn and Riga, and went on guided tours of both cities, from which we learnt some fascinating stories about their past. One interesting story we heard from our guide in Riga was about a man who would not be allowed into a guild, which prompted him to purchase the building opposite the guild house, and place statues of cats on the roof out of spite, with their backsides facing the guild house. One of the highlights of the trip was a cooking class in Tallinn, in which we were taught to make Пельмени (Russian dumplings), which were served with borscht and black bread - all delectable Russian foods. Thrilling, enriching, and packed with unforgettable experiences, the entire trip was an absolute blast!
Malin Karasimov, 13 KSK
During the first part of the Easter holidays, we visited Riga in Latvia and Tallinn in Estonia. I really enjoyed it! We went to local museums and restaurants, and had guided tours of the two cities' old towns, which are truly beautiful. We had opportunities to explore the cities for ourselves, buy souvenirs, take hundreds of photos, and find out about local culture. For me, it was not just a welcome break from preparing for GCSEs, but one of the best weeks of my life :)
Here are some of my favourite memories (the full list would be way too long):
Winter Smythe, 11AMM
At 5am on the first day of the Easter holidays, a group of sleepy Russian-speaking students from Year 9 up to Year 13 embarked on a six-day adventure in Latvia and Estonia. Between balmy, sunny Riga at 17°C and rainy, snowy, windy Tallinn at 0°C, we had it all - culture and history, VR games, a cooking workshop, a walk in the woods and a visit to an Estonian Russian-speaking school. For many students, it was the first residential secondary school trip, a chance to spend time with their friends in a new environment. Not just the students, the members of staff who went on the trip had an amazing time too!
Ms Zotova, MFL Department
Click here to view the Baltic States Trip 2024 Photo Gallery
The Year 13 students were introduced to a new award this year, the Student Recognition Award, which allows the students to vote for a member of their year who they believe deserves to be recognised for their impact on the Sixth Form and the school community.
The students voted for many people in the year group and for a variety of reasons, including engagement with House events, having a kind and caring personality, commitment to extracurricular activities and support for various school events. However, there was an overwhelming voice to recognise James Spatz as the winner.
James is described by his peers as being friendly, helpful, incredibly dedicated, always willing to speak up, joyful, passionate and the light of our school.
In the words of the year group, he also has a genuine enthusiasm for improvement within the school and beyond, which inspires those around him. He has made a huge contribution to the school community and listens to what the students' wants and needs are, yet he is constantly modest. He is a positive role model in the school. He is always available for a conversation and takes time out of his day for others. He is admired by many of the year. He is described several times over as an eco-warrior and an absolute legend.
James has had a significant impact on the school as he has introduced new recycling bins and taught us all how to use them correctly. He has ensured that there is a sanitary bin in every girls’ toilet cubicle in the school. James is a frequent litter-picker, and he has organised a rota to ensure that there will be toast for breakfast for the Year 13s every day over their exams. Even down to the smaller but important activities, James has been responsible for changing the Week A/B sign in SFC, he has organised public transport on trips, and he has helped several Year 13s book their holidays.
This quote from a Year 13 sums James up perfectly:
“I think that James deserves this award because of his constant hard work and dedication to our school community. He has made a significant impact on improving the environment and recycling and is such an inspirational figure who fully deserves to be recognised for his presence.”
On behalf of your peers as well as the staff in this school, thank you, James and well-done!
The award will be presented every year to a Year 13 student. In the book there is a picture of the Year 13 cohort, a timeline of news events from the year, and the reasons why the students voted for the winner. Many thanks to Ms Smith for donating the book and to Emily Hoang in 11EAB for the beautiful writing on the front page. We look forward to seeing the book develop year to year. Might you win it when you’re in Year 13?
Miss Roberts, Director of Studies, Year 13
Bexley Grammar Students Win Big!
For six weeks this spring, a group of 30 Year 8 students were invited to take part in a new Engineering Programme called STEMFEST run by The Fest Hub. The aim of the programme is to bring together schools, engineers and the football community to inspire a new generation of engineers. Our school was paired with Charlton Athletic Football Club and an Engineering Firm called Ramboll Group, and we competed against two other schools from the London area.
Students worked with engineers and representatives from Charlton’s Community Outreach team over a number of weeks to learn about engineering and its role in football and also to design a new stadium. We then attended a grand final at the London Stadium where they pitched their ideas to a panel of industry experts, who then quizzed them on their designs. I was incredibly proud of how all the teams performed. Anyone would have found the presentations daunting, but they all rose to the challenge and really represented Bexley Grammar School brilliantly.
All the students were given a goodie bag and enjoyed the novelty of having a free lunch, which made us all feel very professional!
Overall, our teams did fantastically well, winning three out of the six prizes available (we didn’t actually enter two of them but who’s counting??)
Ms R Lusted, STEM Coordinator
The winners were:
Nibodh Shrestha, Jason Hammond, Victoria Lawani & Guin Homfray
Radleigh Pompei, Adam Sulcas, Sid Pant & Josh Rehal
Lilla Berglund, Florie Nalepa, Freya Savage, Hannah Keeling,
Katy Fletcher & Christopher Male
Stemfest was an amazing opportunity to learn more about the field of engineering, allowing us to learn more about a profession we may want to pursue in the future. They accomplished this by setting us the task of redesigning Charlton Athletic Football Club's, 'The Valley'. We then spent the next few sessions of STEMFEST learning about the roles of engineers in a team and working on our presentation for the redesign of The Valley stadium. We started the event by, in groups, building the strongest bridge possible with newspaper rolls and cable ties. Juice cartons filled with water were then placed onto the bridge to see how much load our bridges could hold. This depended on our design and how well our bridge dispersed the weight of the load. The winner of this bridge contest was a group from our school with a load of 43 cartons, each weighing 1.75kg to a total of 75.25kg, which broke their all-time record.
We then went to present our group presentation that we had been working on over our past few STEMFEST sessions to a board of professionals who assessed our stadium designs and presentation skills. After that, we were treated to a buffet of sandwiches. Then it was inspirational speeches delivered to us by special guests who, against all odds, became incredibly successful in the engineering industry, passing some of their immense knowledge onto the new generation of potential engineers. This was followed up by the award ceremony, which presented the well-deserved to students awards for best design, sustainability, and presentations, being awarded a trophy and a £30 Amazon gift card, and although I didn't win, I still had a very enjoyable experience. Throughout this experience, I have learnt greatly about the field of engineering, and it has developed my interest in engineering and increased my curiosity in science.
Elwood Battye, Year 8
Please click on the link here to view the STEMFEST Photo Gallery.
Five representatives from this year's Young Enterprise team, Illumina, competed against other school teams in the East London Finals of the Company Programme competition on Monday 22nd April. Students travelled to the BNY Mellon offices in London where they showcased their company. Students had already completed a detailed business report for the competition and needed to set up a trade stand to demonstrate and give information on their product - multisensory candles. The judges interviewed the five representatives at their stand where students explained their inspiration to improve mental health and how they came up with such a fantastic idea. They were then taken off to a separate interview room where judges more formally questioned them on the Company Programme process, their finances, experiences and next steps. After that, the team were greeted by other members of the team and parents who had travelled to London to show their support. Finally, the team needed to give a presentation to everyone at the event. They were the last to present but soon had the audience participating in finding hidden leaflets stuck to the bottom of their chairs to demonstrate the sheer number of people affected by a mental health problem. They did an excellent job of keeping their cool throughout the day. The most prestigious award - Best Company - was given to Illumina! The team were commended on their performance in all aspects of the competition and judges felt that this was a high-quality, professional product that could be a real success in the future.
Well done to the representing students; Max Campbell, Evie Ngyuyen, Luke Winter, Jasreen Ghag and Ethan Abbate for their exceptional performances and hard work in the lead up to this event. They represent a large team who are also responsible for the ideas, acumen, marketing and production in the business. The team has been competently led by Max, who has shown tremendous resilience throughout the process, and we're glad that he was recognised for his diligence in this way. A big thank you to Max's parents, who have been pillars of support for the team, from turning their house into a candle production factory to driving heavy stock all over London for their various events to helping students improve their marketing skills - we are all very grateful.
Illumina is going on to compete in the next stage of the competition in May, and we wish them all the very best of luck.
Mrs Harris, Head of Economics and Business
On Saturday 20th April, the Chamber Choir performed at the inaugural Spring Song Choir Festival at Christchurch Bexleyheath, organised by ZigZag Performing Arts and Greenwich Academy for Music and Dance. Comprised of Year 12 and 13 students and led expertly by Mrs Casling, the Choir performed Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, Glow by Eric Whitacre and Grace Kelly by Mika. Their performance was wonderful to watch, with smiles of enjoyment clearly visible throughout their performance. The audience were treated to a high quality performance, and the choir enjoyed performing alongside other local community choirs. Well done to members of the Chamber Choir - and good luck to our Year 13 members as you embark on study leave and exams!
Mrs Goddard, Music Department
This week, the school received an SSAT Educational Outcomes Award for Exceptional Student Progress in 2023. This is in recognition of us being in the top 20% of schools nationally for last summer's exceptional GCSE outcomes.
The SSAT is the largest and longest-standing network of secondary schools in England and their unique Educational Outcomes tool brings together all publicly available data on all schools nationally. Educational Outcomes Awards recognise the highest performing schools nationally against a range of measures. Receiving an Educational Outcomes Award is a significant achievement and a testament to the work of everyone at Bexley Grammar School.
Sue Williamson, Chief Executive of SSAT, wrote to us saying “Congratulations to Bexley Grammar School on winning an SSAT Educational Outcomes Award. This success is down to the superb learning and teaching, outstanding support and inspirational leadership of students, staff, parents / carers and Trustees. You have made a huge difference to the lives of the young people in your school. Thank you.”
On Friday 15th March we celebrated Culture Day at BGS. Staff and students wore traditional attire or items of clothing representing their cultural heritage and participated in a range of activities throughout the day. Below are descriptions of some of the activities that took place - next week students will report on and share pictures of the fantastic after-school event organised by the ACS (Afro-Caribbean Society) and SEAS (South-East Asian Society).
A large number of students in Years 10 and 11 joined Ms Giglione in the hall in their lunch period for some Bailes en Linea (South American Line Dancing). It was very energetic and great fun was had by all!
At lunch, I participated in the biscuit making in L3 and I thought it was really fun. It was a really good way of representing your country through creating unique designs using the abundance of different colours of icing. For example, since I am from Jamaica, I created the Jamaican flag as the design for my biscuit.
Elijah, Year 11
To celebrate Culture Day, the Language Club prefects hosted a session of International Games. We played Romanian Scrabble, as well as German Bananagrams. It was good to learn about how different cultures play games that are widely known around the world.
Overall, it was really fun and something that would be fun to do again!
Caitlin Gorman, Year 9
On Culture day, I helped to run the fan making activity during P6 lunch. We didn't know if it would be popular, but we ended up with around 20 people! It was fun and easy to do. I would encourage everyone to be involved in activities on any future Culture days.
Lucy, Year 11
Throughout the day, students raced to find and name 20 flags hidden all over the school. Students who were successful claimed a small prize from the MFL Office!
On Friday 15th March, Culture Day was run by the SEAS and ACS which was lots of fun for everyone, with many activities throughout the day including biscuit decorating, a challenge to find country flags around the school, an international parade and food stalls!
As well as this, many students wore clothes from their home countries, showing classmates all about where they come from. We are all individuals in a big supportive group, and we respect everyone, and take the opportunity when given to learn about other cultures.
Culture day gives pupils the opportunity to celebrate and represent their cultures as well as a chance for everybody to embrace the customs, traditions and languages that make each culture unique.
Lily, Year 7, said “It was a great opportunity to learn about other people's cultures and heritages.”
Paige, Year 7, said “I really enjoyed culture day as it was a chance to celebrate other people's cultures and traditions.”
Aysu, Tanvi and Kendra, Year 7 Media Correspondents
Click on the link here to view the Culture Day 2024 Photo Gallery.
Mrs Savage, MFL Department
