Hi all, I would love to update you on our memorial garden project. Miss Lamb and I, along with our key worker pupils, had been discussing way in which we could mark our time in lockdown and wanted a visual reminder of those we have lost in our school community, through Covid-19, other illnesses and tragic events.

We came up with the idea of creating a memorial and wellbeing garden at the heart of the school, where our community can paint a stone in memory of those they have lost and place it in a beautiful space to be remembered. This space will be a quiet area for people to sit, admire the beauty and smile at the memories they have with those people they have loved. We chose the space that is currently the VI Form cut through near Mr Hinds and Mrs Bounds offices, as it was in need of some TLC and was a suitably large space.

As you can see from the picture below, we have had our work cut out for us! We have done a lot of weeding and digging over, and today we started to repot some of the herbs and plant the bulbs we have been generously donated. We are raising money and/or donations of equipment and plants, or even some of your time, to complete our garden and make it a beautiful place. We want to plant up a sensory garden, recreate the fountain and pond area and maintain the furniture.

We are looking for donations of bedding plants, herb plants, top soil/compost, shingle, weed mats, garden accessories and furniture, gardening tools, wood stain and varnish, wood treatment like Cuprinol, path edging...anything to make our garden a success. Also, any snacks or treats to keep our volunteer workforce going would be greatly appreciated!

We have been very lucky so far-this is our current list of donations:

- £395 so far on our GoFundMe page

- £200 of Bulbs from Sainsbury’s Farnham Road

- 15 bags of white shingle and 12 herb plants from Tesco Slough, along with some lovely rainbow cookies to decorate and eat!

- £100 of bedding and climbing plants from Lidl

- A skip from a local company

- Plants from Farnham Common Nursery

- Wood treatment and brush from the handyman

- A bird table from a local lady and bird seed from Pets at Home

- Planters from a local man

- Pots handmade by a local lady’s father, who has passed away

- A very generous and substantial from Slough Islamic Trust and Ajmal, which will take us up to our target of £1000 within the first two weeks!

We would love to keep going and raise as much money as we can to make the area even more beautiful and maybe get some new garden furniture for the area to make it a lovely place to sit and reflect, so any further contributions would be greatly appreciated.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/baylis-court-school-memorial-garden?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1

Any money we are donated and do not use, we will donate to the NHS and our local hospices, who have supported others in their illnesses and looked after our loved ones in their final hours.

Some of the students helping have written about their experiences in the garden so far:

Mahin Mazhar, Y10: The key worker students that have been coming into school during quarantine have started to help out with the memorial garden for all the students that have lost loved ones due to Covid-19. It has been a couple of weeks since we started work. From the prickly thorns to the wild bushes, we have started to remove and bag up the rubbish-this seemed an impossible task, but Christine and Hanah took on the challenge! Manyof the Y7’s have gone above and beyond, with Umayma taking a whole tree root out by herself! Helping out with the garden has uncovered hidden talents and skills we never knew we had. I came up with having our handprints in cement for all those who have taken part. It has been a fun and joyful experience and I’m glad I came to school during quarantine.

Victoria Guzewicz, Y7: What we usually do is clean and weed the garden-we are making a memorial garden for people who have lost family members. This may help lots of children and staff to express how they feel and they can sit there with people and talk about who you have lost instead of hiding it.

Umayma Abbas, Y7: It was a big mess-overgrown trees were all over the place. First, we cleared the ivy because that was the worst and took out all the wonky branches and big roots out of the ground. We had a giant pile of rubbish that the teachers helped us remove. We found so many stones in the mud so we did rock painting to decorate the garden later.

Milly Shaw, Y7: I like helping in the garden because you get to do lots of different activities. I like picking up the shale because we are going to put white small shingle down afterwards. I can’t wait to see what it looks like after!

Hanah Shafiq, Y10: When we first set our eyes upon the garden, we were shocked-the space was covered completely in green leaves and thorns. We took it as a challenge and have made it our mission to transform the messy garden into a beautiful one. Personally, I have learnt so many new gardening skills, for example, how to take tree roots out of the ground. It is an extraordinary experience, something that I have never done before. As well as that, Ms Lamb and Miss Goswell had put out a GoFundMe page to raise money-our goal was £1000. We were nowhere near that, with donations of £395, but thanks to the generous offer from Slough Islamic Trust, we have reached our goal within two weeks. We are delighted and very thankful to them. Over the past two weeks we have poured our blood, sweat and tears into getting where we are now.

On a personal note, I have been completely overwhelmed and humbled by the generosity of so many people-a big shout out needs to go to Ms Lamb, Ms Hazell, Ms Ahmed, Ms Bounds, Ms Waldon, Ms Devaney, Ms Mathews, Mr Pightling and Ms Kapoor for all of their hard work and effort in helping to make this project a success-I can’t wait to share the final pictures with you all, but keep up with our progress! Miss G

There is a new free MyTutor Online School, which they have designed to offer additional support to learners at this time.They will be sharing daily lunchtime live group webinar tutorials, as well as short explainer videos and written resources, covering common tricky topics across a range of GCSE subjects.

These are all completely free - students just need to sign up using the link above and join live sessions via Zoom video link. All previous sessions are also available on our YouTube channel.

Check out the full Health and Fitness at home list of suggestions for week 7 here

Dear parents/carers,

In collaboration with researchers at the University of Oxford, our school has signed up to take part in the ‘Online Pupil Survey - Home Edition’, which aims to monitor the well-being of school pupils during lockdown and to assess the impact of COVID-19 on mental wellbeing and learning.

Please read through the information letter (PDF) for parents, there is more information about the survey on the research team's webpage, including Frequently Asked Questions https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/research/schoolmentalhealth

If you do not want your child to take part in the survey, please notify the school by emailing Miss Waldon at kwa@bayliscourt.slough.sch.uk) by Friday 12th June 2020.

Kind regards,

Ms N Chauhan

This weeks Tutor time Cultural Enrichment “Retro Music” winner is...Misbaah Hamza from 8 Anderson who has won a £10 Amazon voucher!

Well done everyone that took part, don’t forget to take part in next weeks Tutor time Cultural Enrichment task!

Mrs Coulson

CULTURAL ENRICHMENT

Staff enrichment

“Last week I made bread and butter with ingredients I already had at home. It was fascinating looking at the food science part of things. Making butter by hand with a whisk should definitely count as a workout, too. And freshly made bread freezes very nicely if you slice it and defrosts in the toaster.”

S. Rosales- Teacher of Spanish

Your Cultural Enrichment projects are bringing joy to us all.

Well done,

Mrs Coulson

What areas of study does a Law degree cover?

Skills include:

• Research – you'll thoroughly study many case analyses
• Critical analysis – you'll read primary sources and be required to make up your own mind
• Synthesis of complex ideas – you’ll get to grips with a whole new language, but also develop the ability to successfully communicate in layman's terms
• Presentation – you’ll often partake in mooting competitions and pro bono societies, offering legal advice to real people
• Writing – you'll have to communicate all of the above – on paper!

Routes to Practice as a Solicitor or a Barrister

Areas of Law

The types of law that you choose to pursue when studying at post-graduate level often determine the firms you can apply to once you graduate - not to mention your longer-term career opportunities.

Here's some of the practice areas you could enter:

How much do Lawyers earn after qualifying?

As a newly-qualified lawyer it's likely you'll enjoy a considerable jump in your earnings.

As a member of a Magic Circle firm you can expect an impressive salary. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer recently boosted its salary for newly qualified solicitors to £100,000 making it the highest paying Magic Circle firm. Other Magic Circle firms pay salaries of £91,000 (Clifford Chance) and £83,000 (Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Slaughter and May).

USA-based firms also offer some of the highest remuneration packages to their newly qualified lawyers, for example, Kirkland & Ellis pay their London-based newly qualified solicitors £143,000.

As well as higher rates of pay, working for an international firm opens you up to opportunities for travel and work abroad.

Where else can a degree in Law take you?

With a Law degree you can train to become a Solicitor, Barrister, Crown Prosecutor, or a Judge.

In addition, if you have completed your Law degree or a Graduate Diploma in Law, there are other professions that would value your qualifications, including:

Careers outside the Law

There are other careers which value Law graduates’ skills, including:

• Civil Service - the fast stream is a quick route into the Civil Service
• Policing – there are a range of careers in policing
• Teaching – the Teach First Leadership Development Programme offers work experience and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education qualification
• Teaching & Lecturing – the Postgraduate Certificate in Education qualification in post-compulsory education is available
• Working for an MP – working for a member of parliament gives you the opportunity to help effect change in local government or on a national scale

Where can I find out more?

Visit the websites of the following professional bodies to find out more about courses and careers in law:

• Law Society
• The Bar Council
• Chartered Institute of Legal Executives
• LNAT – the Law National Aptitude test
• Law Careers.net