Chamber Choir Trip to Bruges

Wider Learning Bulletin 9 – 05 / 03 / 18

During February half term, 39 students from the Twyford Chamber Choir visited Bruges and Brussels to perform at the Cathédrale St Michel & St Gudulein Brussels and St Joseph’s Church in Bruges. The performances were stunning and received many positive comments from the public and a standing ovation during the church service. We also visited Veurne (for a famous waffle), Planete Chocolat, the Musical Instrument Museum, took a Canal boat tour and finished the weekend with a lovely traditional meal at Panier d'Or Restaurant. It was a fantastic experience and great opportunity for the students. A huge thank you to Mr Orringe and Ms Bryant for directing the choir and vocal consort performances and Mrs McGonigal for organising such a fantastic trip.

Half Term Trip – Skiing in Austria

The 2018 ski trip went to St Anton in Austria, an international resort renowned for its tough skiing and apres ski. 46 students and 6 staff enjoyed a mix of weather on the slopes and developing their skill on piste, over jumps and round the increasing number of moguls (bumps) that were created through the day. The best thing about this trip is always seeing the progress the beginners make from those first few tentative moments to being able to make the journey up to the top mountain in the bubble car and then being competent and confident enough to ski back down. Off the slopes we bowled, ice skated, tried our hand at curling and held our breath as the finale of our big quiz went down to rock, paper, scissors decider!Mr Stanton

Science How can social media be used to introduce Neuroscience? Neuroscience is a transforming field of science. In the words of Martha Farah in her William James Award Address “(it) has rappelled down from the ivory tower and eloped from the hospital ward,” Neuroscience can now be used as a tool to understand, access and predict a wide variety of problems in society and beyond. Social media is society's platform for communicating and seeking information, it is used to see what is happening globally and share opinions, and for that reason, it can play a part in introducing neuroscience to the world.

The media portrays that there is a huge divide between scientists and the general public, but that is not strictly true as both scientists and members of the public engage with scientific research on social media, although there are disparities in the topics that people find of most importance. From a survey done by Cat Williams in November 2016, it was seen that professionals tweet a myriad of topics, related to science, aimed at scientists etc. On the other hand, members of the public are more focused on mental health and well being, which are examples of some of the top twenty articles most tweeted. This demonstrates that scientists or professionals should use neuroscience to target the public, by using these favourite categories and focusing more on society and everyday problems. Doing so will hopefully allow for deeper interactions between scientists and the general public.

Mental health and well being is an important issue. Approximately 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem each year, solely in the UK, yet overall numbers of people with mental health illnesses have not changed that much over the years. Worries caused by money and work, for example, can prevent people from coping. Neuroscience is key to understanding the brain and can be used as amethod to find treatment, with social media being an effective platform to express any findings of this global issue. There are many findings that can serve as an explanation for why we are the way we are. One example is that the brain is affected by stress, which can lead to it switching off into habit mode, which means people might go out of there usual routine. Neuroscience also challenges previous beliefs and social media can share this. For example, recent work has enabled neuroscientists to see that the disorder ADHD is caused bydifferences in the grey matter in the brain, instead of major abnormalities in the dopamine function, therefore, the general public would become better aware of any misconceptions. All this can be of interest to the general public as it is something that can be overcome due to social media usage and allows for many people to understand their own selves and others, which is a great way for the public to be introduced to neuroscience and the difficult scientific jargon.

On the other hand, social media is very opinionated. Topics such as sexism, politics etc. appear constantly on these websites. Neuroscientists are interests in seeing what's different about the brains of people with unpleasant qualities. Neuroscientist HikaruTakeuchi at Tohoku University and his colleagues have identified that the brain of a person who supports gender inequality has a different level of grey matter to the one who is the opposite. Additionally, the neural differences found were linked to psychological characteristics, which in turn can help explain sexist beliefs. Because misogyny appears quite readily on social media websites, neurologists can share their own findings and engage themselves with the general public. Moreover, sexism, in a sense can be overcome, as people can understand, more fully, why it can happen in a neural sense. In this way, social media can be used to bridge the barrier between the professionals and the general public.

Neuroscience is a vast topic, in relation to science. There are approximately 100 billion neurons in the brain and neurology acts as a tool to understand affective and cognitive problems that society faces. Social media is used to share millions of problems, that neuroscientists could take into their own hands, whilst sharing their expertise, as a result, the general public can be introduced to neuroscience. Saira-Noor Mohammad

Humanities

On Thursday 22nd February to Friday 23rd February, 40 Year 9 students visited the sites of WWI, to commemorate and remember all of those who died, from both sides. They managed to experience, first hand, life in the trenches, as they walked through an original Trench network, and discovered just how close the enemy was at all times. They were reminded of ordinary citizens exposure to the war, and listened to the horrifying tales of both nurses and doctors. They were so fantastic that a little treat was also in store- as we visited an original Belgium chocolate shop, where they were welcomed with numerous special offers! They represented Twyford fantastically, with a special mention to Isla Parratand Wilf Braddock, who were chosen to be part of the Last Post Ceremony, laying a wreath on behalf of Twyford. Miss Wade

Last week Year 7 Music Scholars were invited to the Dress Rehearsal of the English National Opera production of Benjamin Britten’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Below is a photograph from the

production and a couple of photos of Twyford students appreciating the fantastic music, even on a very cold, snowy day!

Music

Two groups from Twyford took part in Ealing Music Service Encore Competition, ‘The Dizzies’ and ‘Pearls

of Wisdom’ – the Sixth Form Vocal Consort. The Vocal Consort won the prize for most technically accomplished musical performance winning £250 for

the school music department, well done!

Ealing Music Service Competition:

Drama

On Tuesday 20th February and Tuesday 27th February we took Year 12 and 13 students to watch ‘All’s well that ends well’ at The Globe. Before the show we had an introductory lecture from a leading professor about how this play was considered to be one of Shakespeare's ‘problem plays’. We then watched the production which was all done by candlelight. The combination of superb writing and acting had us all gripped from start to finish!

On Tuesday 27th February, we took our Year 11 GCSE Drama students on a Backstage Tour of the National Theatre. It was fantastic for the students to see all the different theatre makers in action from costume, set, lighting, props and sound design. The students will be able to use their knowledge from the tour in their written ‘Theatre Makers in Practice’ exam in May.

London Diocesan Board for Schools (LDBS) schools service

On Friday 26th January, eight of us year 7s, accompanied by Mr Douglas, went to visit St

Paul’s Cathedral for the London Diocesan Board for Schools (LDBS) schools service 2018. It was an amazing day, full of fun

songs to sing and very interesting talks that really got us thinking.

We saw many fellow Church of England schools, primary and secondary, and we even saw Father David bring 3 William

Perkin students along. We really enjoyed the songs, especially the song sung by the Tower

Hamlets Deanery Choir – a group of pupils from 8 different schools in East London.

Postcards for schools in our partner Dioceses in Angola and Mozambique were

sent during the service – a true act of kindness which shows that people care

about those in less fortunate areas of the world. There was also a really interesting talk that got us thinking about the actions

we perform, which made us think about how we all could be better people.

By Maysa Brice 7T

Chaplaincy

Bank of England Film Competition: Well done to Bilaal Darwish-Mohammed, Arwa

Shahin and Sammy Glyn for taking part in the Bank of England Film Competition. They may not have won overall, but they were very proud to receive

their Trophy for Twyford for taking part in this completion. Mr Robinson

Media and Film

The recent bad weather hasn’t stopped play…here is a selection of photographs from some of our great sports clubs and fixtures over the past two weeks….

Twyford B team tournament results: • Football Year 7 = 1st

• Football Year 8 = 3rd

• Football Year 9 = 3rd

Twyford B team tournament results: • Netball Year 7 = 1st

• Netball Year 8 = TBC• Netball Year 9 = TBC

Inter-form - Year 8 Basketball• 1st Place - Truro • 2nd Place – Canterbury • 3rd Place – Wells

Congratulations to Theo Williamson in 8W who has secured a place in the London Irish development squad.

The PE Department

Sport Report

Languages

In the second round of the French and Spanish spelling bee, 26 year 7 students took part. Well done to Tobias Ioni-Frederkingwho won the second round.

Key Events in Languages:• UKLO: 26 students took part and will all receive a certificate.

Congratulations to Maria Malinowska for achieving Gold and Hitoe Ishii and Yasmine Afifi for achieving Bronze awards.

• French performance: A group of French students from Lyon came to visit us last Thursday and performed sketches for our Year 12 French students in the community room after school, before spending some time together in the café.

• French Exchange: On the last day of the exchange week, the French students came to the lessons with their French partners. The photos below are from the ‘speed dating’ and board games lesson we had with the French students and one of our Year 10 Set 1 Classes. We all had a very enjoyable time.

The Year 8 Competition deadline has been extended to Friday 9th of March…details below:

Spelling Bee