Thursday 24 August 2023
Backwell Year 11 students were in school today to collect their results and to celebrate their impressive achievements.
Despite having their education significantly disrupted over several years, this year group were graded ‘normally’ in a return to the pre-pandemic standards of 2019 and before. They have shown great resilience and positivity in their approach to GCSEs and have been rewarded with fantastic results.
On Thursday 17 August, our Year 13 students at Backwell School received their A-Level and vocational subject results.
Our students have faced ongoing challenges post-pandemic, including sitting their GCSEs under very different circumstances. After four years of significant disruption to their education, these students have taken exams that have been marked ‘normally’ - at the same level as the 2019 cohort, the last year of results before the pandemic.
Despite the challenges they have faced, Backwell students have received fantastic results and the vast majority of students who applied have already successfully had university places confirmed, many of which are at their first-choice universities. Others have secured extremely valuable apprenticeships and other training offers.
We are incredibly proud of our year 13 students, who have met the huge challenges they have faced over the last few years with positivity and determination. We are looking forward to following their progress as they embark on an exciting new chapter in their lives at university, in training and employment, in many cases preceded by wonderfully exotic travel plans. Congratulations to all our leavers and thanks to parents/carers and Backwell staff for the support and expertise you have given them.
Support and guidance for future plans will be available on an ongoing basis for those who want help or advice.
We wish all of our Year 13 leavers, all the very best of luck for their future steps.
A sell-out crowd was treated to an evening of entertainment at the Backwell Playhouse last Saturday 15 July 2023.
This year two Year 12 students have taken part in the Lessons from Auschwitz project. Based on the premise that 'hearing is not like seeing', the four-part course explored the universal lessons of the Holocaust and its relevance for today. The students took part in a series of insightful seminars which led to them creating their own project to educate people on the lessons of the Holocaust. The programme culminated in a one-day visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau and a follow up seminar in London.
The 2023 Backwell Bake Off Final was hosted this week after an intense month of baking! The competition saw 18 Key Stage 3 students take part in three rounds to show off their baking skills in the hope to make it to the Final round this week.
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.
