Each year, Routes into Languages run a national spelling bee competition for Year 7 students who are studying French, German and Spanish. There are four stages of the competition with 50/100 words to learn at each stage (300 altogether). This would equate to about a third of the words needed for the new GCSE at Foundation tier and is a fun and motivating way to learn useful high-frequency language!
We hold our Open Evening for those in Year 6 in September each year which is then followed by an extensive programme of daily school tours throughout September and October so parents and children can come and have a look at the school on a working day.
Backwell-Dinan Exchange 8 - 15 June 2023
After three years affected by the pandemic, we are delighted to have been able to re-establish our link with the Collège F. Broussais in Dinan, and on Wednesday 8 June 31 excited students from Years 9 and 10 embarked on the overnight ferry journey to France!
Our KS3 production of Grease was a resounding success with over 850 people coming to support the show for its 3-night run. Students from years 7, 8 and 9 became T-Birds and Pink Ladies and sang and danced their way through the iconic songs of the popular show. The commitment and sense of teamwork on display was a joy to watch, resulting in 2 hours of vibrant musical theatre. The cast was given great support by a tight and focussed 10-piece band and a team of talented technicians overseeing all of the lights, sound, staging, costumes and props. This was a terrific team effort, pulled together by the vision and energy of director Jenny May, musical director Esme Caldwell and technical director Scott Stokes.
This term the Sixth Form team at The Croak – the school’s online newspaper – ran a competition for budding journalists in the lower school. A number of high quality entries were received, and then were judged at a meeting of The Croak team, where the winner and runners-up were chosen. You can read the winning articles on The Croak page on Frog, or by clicking on the links below.
In a closely fought contest, Lois R won the competition overall with her entry about the pleasures of reading. However the team really enjoyed reading some entries on slightly more niche topics, and consequently judged Brandon P and Elliot W’s articles - about electricity pylons and tarmac respectively – as runners-up. All students are currently in Year 11 and deserve to be congratulated for their informative and highly entertaining articles.
The Croak is currently open to any sixth formers who want to contribute. In our meetings, we talk about ideas for articles, in discussions that are very much student-led, and those are then developed and written by students before being uploaded to Frog. The meetings are held fortnightly on Week 1 Tuesday lunchtimes in SF4, and we are always delighted to welcome new contributors.
We would also like to encourage current Year 11 students who will be staying at Backwell for Sixth Form to think about joining us next year; there will be taster session held on Tuesday 2 May for any Year 11 students who think they might be interested.
Well done again to our winner and runners-up of the competition, and thank you to all the students who entered. Particular thanks to Molly D in Year 12, who had the idea for the competition and was instrumental in organising it.
Ms Procter
Red Nose Day takes place in Friday 17 March 2023.
