Swedish Gifted and Talented day

An exciting Swedish Gifted and Talented day is being held at Hove Park School on Saturday 6th June.

This one day event is open to all students in Year groups 7 - 9 (KS3). The day is designed to develop students’ linguistic abilities and transferable language skills in listening and speaking as well as cultural awareness of this often overlooked European country by focussing on the timely celebration of Midsummer.

The Swedish day will take place at our Valley Campus, Hangleton Road from 9.00am – 3.00pm. The event is free of charge for all students who live in the Brighton & Hove area.For further information contact Ellis Jones on 01227 767700 ext 3260 or Email: ellis.jones@canterbury.ac.uk.

Swedish Gifted & Talented

In December a group of 25 talented linguists from Year 9 experienced a fantastic workshop all in Swedish! Students learnt how to use their linguistic skills by transferring them to another language which they had never encountered. At the end of the day, students had created an acrostic poem in Swedish and could hold a basic conversation in the language. Students were also given an insight into a European country which is not usually studied in the curriculum. The chance to taste Swedish food, including for those more daring students the dreaded pickled herring, was also offered!

ICT Update

Partially funded by our Interreg project, the school will be kitting out both Valley and Nevill sites with a whole school wireless system and 130 student laptops.

There will also be major investment into class sets of notebooks to enhance creativity in teaching and learning across different curriculum areas.

Arabic

Salem Aleykum! In October 2008 Hove Park was awarded a small bursary to support the development of Arabic teaching alongside our supplementary school, the Coptic Sudanese Arabic Society which runs Arabic classes on a Saturday at the Nevill site. As a result teachers from the Arabic school have been sharing good practice with Hove Park language teachers through peer-observations, ICT training and sharing resources. The profile of Arabic is also increasing at the school with 10 students from Years 10, 11 and 12 taking their GCSE Arabic this year. Year 7 students will also benefit from having Arabic taster sessions at the beginning of the Summer Term. For more information on learning Arabic please contact Ms Stenning @ cstenning@hovepark.org.uk.

Commenius project

In October Mr Paul and Mrs Hartley visited our partner school in Kranje, Slovenia for the inauguration of the RE project, LOOR. Hove Park is working with partner schools in Slovenia, Lithuania, Austria, Germany, Poland, Turkey and Sweden. At this initial meeting a website was set up which all parties have access to and contribute to. It demonstrates all the work that is being done on the different faiths and religions in our own local communities.

Partly in response to the challenge of the cook project, the name of the RS Department has been changed to that of "Philosophy, Ethics and Religious Studies Department" This demonstrates that Religion is studied within the context of philosophy and Ethics.

A group of "International Philosophers" has been selected from Hove Park by Mr Paul and the P.E.R.S Department to represent us in June for the next LOOR meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.

Hamburg Exchange 3-10 October 2008

The MFL department has formed a link with a very hospitable German school and we are delighted to offer students the wonderful opportunity of an exchange visit to the beautiful and fascinating port city of Hamburg. Hove Park students will stay with host families for one week from 3rd October 2008 and the German school party will visit us for a week in March/April 2009 (exact dates to be confirmed).
With generous funding towards the trip from the British Council, we have managed to keep the price down at £240 to include:

• Return flights Heathrow/Hamburg
• Insurance
• Transport (including airport transfers)
• Cultural trips including visits to a theme park, a river cruise and a guided tour of Hamburg

Host families will provide accommodation and all meals with packed lunches.

To book a place and for further information please contact mdavies@hovepark.org.uk or call 294976

Somme Battlefield Trip 2008

On Sunday 16th March 2008 students and staff will travel to the Somme Battlefields with visits to British/Commonwealth and German cemeteries, Lochnagar crater (the biggest hole left on the Western Front) a preserved battlefield and the Thiepval memorial to the 70,000 who died on the Somme and then finally to Ypres for some frites, chocolate shops and the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate Memorial.

Travel by coach departing at 04.45am and returning 23.45pm - cost £35

Further information available from Mr D Pitcher