The Bulmershe Bulletin – Issue 14
13th December 2024
Dear Parents and Carers,
Celebrating the Power of Student Voice at Bulmershe
At The Bulmershe School, we place great value on listening to our students and involving them in shaping their school experience. Their opinions and insights play a crucial role in helping us make decisions that truly reflect the needs and aspirations of our young people.
We have several ways to hear what our students think. Half-termly Student Council meetings bring together representatives from each year group to discuss key issues and share ideas. Termly “Pulse Surveys” are another important tool, giving every student the opportunity to tell us how they’re feeling and what improvements they’d like to see.
Students are also invited to take part in subject reviews, providing candid feedback on what they think works well in our departments and where they’d like to see change. Over the last few weeks, we’ve received fantastic input from students during our reviews of Business, English, Geography and Sixth Form. Their thoughts and suggestions are invaluable in helping us enhance our teaching and learning.
Another unique aspect of our approach is involving students in the recruitment of new staff. Our student-led interview panels allow them to ask the questions that matter to them and assess whether a candidate would be a good fit for our school community. Their feedback is then shared with the relevant department to help make informed decisions. This not only helps us find the right staff but also provides students with an excellent opportunity to develop leadership and communication skills.
Thank you to every student who has taken the time to share their thoughts with us. Your voice matters, and we’re grateful for your contributions. Remember, you can always use the “Tell us something” button on our website to share feedback or ideas at any time.
Amanda Woodfin
Headteacher
Upcoming Events
Weds 18th Dec – Year 11 “How to Revise” presentation, 6pm, Auditorium
Fri 20th Dec – Christmas Jumper Day – raising money for Daisy’s Dream
Fri 20th Dec – Term breaks for the Christmas holidays at 12:20pm
Mon 6th Jan – Term starts for all students
Mon 6th Jan – Year 13 Mock Exams start
Mon 13th Jan – Year 11 GCSE Mock exams start
Sixth Form Book Club
On Wednesday, Miss McNamara hosted the Sixth Form Book Club: a relaxed meet up where students and staff come together to celebrate their love of reading beyond academic texts. Over tea and biscuits, the group shared their latest reads and swapped recommendations. There was a discussion on favourite genres, with a large number agreeing they love the escapism of a fantasy novel.
Book Club is all about bringing together people who like getting lost in a good story. It’s informal, fun, and open to all Sixth Formers who want to share their passion for reading. This informal club has no set reading list—it’s simply a chance for book lovers to connect and chat. It’s just one of the many ways we encourage students to explore their interests and enjoy school life beyond the classroom.
The next club will be on Wednesday 29th January at 3pm in the Sixth Form Café. If this sounds like your kind of thing, grab a book and join us!
The Library is ready for Christmas!
It’s looking extremely festive in the Bulmershe School Library! Thank you to all the creative students who made decorations and helped make the library look so Christmassy!
Year 9 ask big questions
The RS department has welcomed the local volunteer group REinspired to school over the last few weeks; this time they were discussing big questions with Y9. There were some very tense games of Jenga and Pass the Bomb all while exploring questions Y9 had set for the volunteers. From: If God has no children then why is Jesus The Son of God? and Can non-religious people can draw wisdom from religious texts? to Why is morality important?, the Year 9 students were really enthusiastic and definitely challenged the volunteers! It was great to see our students using their critical thinking skills and developing their own views and opinions – it’s what RS at Bulmershe is all about!
Sports Update
On Friday, we were delighted to welcome a Girls’ Football Festival to Goals! Students from The Wren, Maiden Erlegh, St Crispin’s, Piggott, Theale Green, JMA, Bohunt, Edgbarrow, Waingels, The Holt and Charters joined our Bulmershe players for an action-packed day of football.
Each pitch was full of energy as the girls competed in 10-minute matches, swapping players and switching pitches after every game. The atmosphere was filled with enthusiastic cheers from supporters and teachers spurring their players on. A special thank you goes to The Wren School for organising the festival and to Reading FC for providing referees and officials who kept the matches running smoothly.
Congratulations to our Bulmershe players for their fantastic participation:
Year 7: Brooke R, Madeleine N, Milleah F, Piper W, Sophie H
Year 8: Clara R, Diya D
Year 9: Grace C, Brooke M, Layla H, Louise M, Emily J
Year 10: Laila B, Lucinda L, Charlotte D
Well done to everyone who took part—it was a brilliant celebration of girls’ football!
Festive Fun at Film Night!
A huge thank you to all the Year 7s and 8s who joined Mrs Cousins and the Year 11 Prom Committee on Tuesday for a festive film night. This event was part of Year 11’s fundraising efforts to support their Prom in July.
After raiding the tuck shop, the afternoon kicked off with a Kahoot Quiz, before students voted for their film of choice and, in the spirit of Christmas chaos, chose the classic Home Alone.
We hope everyone had a brilliant time and didn’t arrive home too full of sugar. Thanks to your support, the event raised over £500 for the Prom Inclusion Fund. Year 11 and the Prom Committee can’t thank you enough for making this possible.
Whole School Christmas Lunch
Christmas Lunch on Wednesday saw turkey, pigs in blankets and all the trimmings, with staff and students enjoying a festive meal together. The crackers were an unexpected hit—especially the festive stickers inside, which quickly made their way onto hats, bags, and plenty of faces. By the end of lunch, it was hard to tell who was more decorated: the students or the Christmas tree!
There was a brief moment of chaos when the sound system got stuck on Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas... Luckily, Mr Coniam swooped in to save the day, restoring the playlist before the song looped for a fourth time.
A huge thank you to the Cucina team for feeding over 1,000 hungry people and to the Sixth Formers on the tills for keeping everything running smoothly. It was a fun, festive and slightly sticker-filled lunch to kick off the Christmas season!
[Reminder for Monday] December Food Bank Collection
The Geo-Leaders club are once again collecting food for the Woodley Food Bank in time for Christmas. Please see below a poster they have created with all the information.
🎄[Reminder] Christmas Jumper Day🎄
On the last day of term, students who wish to can swap their Bulmershe blazer for a festive Christmas jumper! 🎅✨
This is a voluntary activity, but if your child does take part, we’re asking for a small donation to support the amazing charity Daisy’s Dream. You can donate:
💷 with cash at the school gate
💻 Online via sQuid Offers
Daisy`s Dream provides support to children and young people who have been effected by bereavement, either supporting them in preparing for a loss or working with them following the death of someone important to them. Daisy’s Dream provides their services free of charge. They couldn’t do the work they do without the support of the brilliant people who want to help them make a difference. At Bulmershe, we have worked with Daisy`s Dream on a number of occasions and it is comfort for us to know they are there to support our students when needed.
Cucina Main Meals – w/c 16th December
On a Friday we like to shine a spotlight on those who deserve a thank you or have done well over the past week. If you would like to nominate your child, or a member of staff, please use our nomination email address: HeadsPA@bulmershe.wokingham.sch.uk.
Student Shout Outs
A shout out to all year 11 3D Design students. You are all working really hard to meet your component 1 deadline. Not long to go now, keep up the hard work. The end of term deadline is the goal and you can all get there! Don’t forget Tuesday and Wednesday afterschool intervention is until 5pm next week, see you there! – Mrs K Trenwith
Well done to Xander in year 13 who has received conditional offers this week to study Architecture at Reading University and Oxford Brooks University. I have also been impressed with the resilience shown by Eleanor in year 13, who has been prepping and attending interviews over the past few weeks to study Architecture and 3D Model Making at University. Well done for your dedication and determination, keep it up! – Mrs Trenwith
Mrs Parkes would like to shout out to Louise M in Y9 who had fantastic questions on financial maths, Caleb, Joel and Joshua in Y8 who did amazingly well on their recent tests, and Alyssia in Y7 for her perseverance in algebra.
Mrs Moon would like to give a shout out to Weber year 7 for being helpful by collecting equipment without being asked to, Damien in year 7 for great contributions to class discussion, Huda in year 8 for always being polite, courteous, and helpful and to Hector in year 7 for always being helpful in lesson by collecting and handing out books.
Charlie B and Jess S in yr 12 were absolute troopers this week, helping to support with a tricky situation with great maturity and effort. The school is lucky to have them! – Miss Moores
Miss Marr would like to give a big Shout out to Veronica M in the Sixth form for always helping her in the library and cataloguing all the books!
Mrs Senthilkumar would like to give a shout out to Diya D in year 8 as she always upholds the school’s core values and has excellent leadership abilities to address problems, and also to Sophie B in year 8 for her excellent attitude towards learning and produced outstanding work in computing this term.
Mrs Garrard would like to give a shout out to Jack M and Flora R in year 8 for their superb effort every geography lesson, great detail in written work and for being a pleasure to have in the classroom.
Ms Moran would like to say well done to Kacper M in Y8 for creating a stunning poster on Richard Arkwright in history.
Mrs Nath would like to give a shout out to her Y11 Bi2 class, for working so hard and debating lots of current biology issues with a really mature approach.
Staff Shout Outs
Miss Harris would like to say a massive THANK YOU! to Mrs Mehdi, Mrs Brown and Mr Broughton for the planning, organisation and delivery of an inspirational Year 5 science club experienced by pupils from the following primary schools Highwood, Redlands, St Dominic Savio, Alfred Sutton, and Southlake. Miss Harris is truly grateful for your hard work, commitment, dedication and time to the Bulmershe Primary Enrichment Programme.
Parent Shout Outs
I would like to give a shout out to Kayden H! He’s been working hard lately, both in and out of school. He has been helping others alongside doing the school production of Kinky Boots and doing as much homework as he could. He has also been training hard for the Street Dance World Championships – giving up lots of his free time.
Congratulations go to Kayden, Thomas, Luci and Emily and the rest of the Urban Stylez crew who placed first with Urban Juniors and 3rd for their Megacrew!
What’s On
RSPB Birthday watch
The year 7s have been studying habitats in Biology this autumn term. You can help continue this work at home by signing up to take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch! This is the world’s largest garden wildlife survey: every year, hundreds of thousands of nature lovers take part, helping to build a picture of how garden birds are faring.
Sign up to take part in scientific research and observe the world around us: https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/big-garden-birdwatch
And if Ornithology is of interest, find out how you can turn this into a full time career!
Ornithologist Job Profile
Crafting and creative writing
Wokingham Libraries are hosting winter wonderland creative sessions on Monday 23 December. These are running at Woodley Library at 10.30am and Lower Earley Library at 2.30pm, with each due to run for one hour. Sessions are suitable for children aged six to ten and it is free to attend, but places must be registered in advance.
Father Christmas at the Oakwood Centre
Santa and his elves are coming to Woodley on Monday 23 December as part of a free event at the Oakwood Centre. It is being organised by Crumbs Café and Woodley Town Council and will run from 10am to 3pm. There will be a meet and greet with Santa, entertainment and activities while you wait and every child will receive a special gift.
You will be required to book for one of the 30-minute sessions, with time slots available from 10am to 2pm and 1pm to 3pm. A space must be booked for each child attending. To find out more and to book, visit the TicketSource page.