News

Keep Up To Date With What's Happening At BVBS

Students Visit Snowdonia

by Amar Hussain, year 9

After three long hours of exhaustion, we finally approached our destination. As I came out of the coach, I witnessed wonderful nature; forests full of huge trees, towering mountains and a rapid river.

The instructors showed us to our rooms and I was happy about the fact that I had all my friends in my room. Later that day we started the activities, such as using a map to find out facts about the environment. It was interesting because I had never done anything like that before.

There were other schools there and we knew we had to set a good example for Belle Vue Boys' School. We did evening activities such as night watching, to see which animals go munching in the night and we trapped them using a clever metal trap. I had to wait until the morning before I could check if I had caught a mouse - and there was one, small, brown and scared.

Later, we had free time to do anything, such as play pool, football and watch TV. We played a lot of football and we beat the other school three times in a row - a very big accomplishment for us because we've never been in a competition like that before.

At about 10 o'clock we went to our room, where my friends and I played cards and on our PSP. The first night we slept really late and Mr Midgley went as red as a tomato because he had to tell us off three times. We went to sleep around midnight.

For the in-depth report view Amar Khan's Article here.

School Seeks Trust Status

Belle Vue Boys' School is thinking about becoming a Trust School. Trust Schools are a new kind of school - part of the local authority system but supported by a trust (made up of local companies and organisations) that will appoint some of the governors.

Bradford already has some Trust Schools; Buttershaw Business and Enterprise College, Nab Wood School, Queensbury School, Thornton School and Tong High School. In these schools, as will be the case here, the governing body continues to run the school and remains responsible for its performance.

To find out more about this please look at the Trust Letter For Parents and Carers or The Rationale Behind Establishing A Shared Trust.

Belle Vue Boys' School Is Going International

Belle Vue Boys' School is going international! Our school recently earned an International School Award from the Department for Children, Schools and Families for our participation in a two-week immersion course to study Arabic in Alexandria, Egypt. This was quickly followed by an e-twinning award from the British Council and the National Support Services of the European Union.

The e-twinning award is for a proposed project between schools in Bulgaria, France and Romania. Language teacher Ms Ware attended a Comenius contact seminar in Amiens, France, where 50 teachers from 16 European countries met to discuss sustainable development. Belle Vue's project, with four other schools, is called ENSEMBLE (Ensemble Nous Saurons Economiser, Maitriser, Biodiversifier L'Energie) ("together we will learn how to economise, manage, and bio-diversify energy usage").

ENSEMBLE is a two-year partnership that will see students and teachers studying wind farming through blogs, video links, e-mails, and visits to each of the schools involved. The project will culminate in a visit from partner schools to Belle Vue Boys', where they will study the effect of wind farming on tourism and cultural heritage.

Since our international team will be working in French, Belle Vue students will be perfecting their language skills while using cutting-edge technology to study wind farming. Whilst in France they will produce a working model of a wind turbine. The project will also incorporate art, in the creation of a logo for ENSEMBLE, drama, geography and history.

On The Road To FairTrade

by Umar Raza, year 11

Our FairTrade project is focused on raising awareness around the school of the global issues that affect third world countries. We as a school thoroughly believe in equality and social justice; this is why we have decided to become a FairTrade school.

Our aim is to support the cause and integrate FairTrade products in our school as much as we can. It is actually quite amazing how a change in our consumer activity can have such a substantial effect on the lives of others.

Belle Vue Boys' School currently has nine staff members with twelve students on the FairTrade steering committee, all of whom have volunteered to contribute. The FairTrade committee has monthly luncheon meetings in which we discuss our progress and plan new strategies.

So far we have carried out a whole-school survey to learn the opinions of students and staff. We successfully ran a tuck shop over FairTrade fortnight, in which we managed to sell FairTrade items such as chocolate, juice drinks and a few other refreshments. We are also planning on having a cooking competition as well as pushing for the school to permanently sell FairTrade goods.

FairTrade will also be introduced into the curriculum in areas such as Economics, Geography, Religious Education, Citizenship, etc. This will most definitely benefit the younger students as it will help people understand ethical issues of trade and business.

Parents can also help support FairTrade by purchasing from a wide range of products. FairTrade is the future. FairTrade makes for a fair world.

BVBS Fantasy Football Competition

Recently launched is the Belle Vue Boys' Fantasy Football competition. This gives students the opportunity to pit their wits against fellow students by managing their own football team and transfer budget. The competition is divided into four leagues; one league corresponding to each house colour. So there is a Red League, Green League, Blue League and Orange League.

The leagues run until the end of the football season and a new competition will be created every season. Up for grabs are various prizes including a Microsoft Xbox, Sony PSP's and Apple iPod Nanos. First prize is the Xbox, with the PSPs and iPods being second and third prizes respectively.

Students wishing to login click here

New Website Launched

Belle Vue Boys' School is proud to present an all new website fully designed and maintained in-house. Sporting a new look, the website offers many features that were missing in previous incarnations and provides us with a new web presence. The aim of this new portal is to provide staff, parents, students and visitors with access to a plethora of information about the school. Furthermore, the site is targeted at informing potential employees of job vacancies and details whilst also giving parents and students an overview of the curriculum and life at the school.

For staff and students there is also web access to securely authenticated BVB eMail with staff also being able to access the BVB Management Information System. This means that no matter what, staff and students can always access the information they need or submit work to school at those critical times.

Here at Belle Vue Boys' School your feedback is always welcome and helps us with our goal to continuously improve and grow. If you have any comments regarding the site, (such as potential improvements, bugs/errors, additional features) comments regarding recent visits to the school or other more general queries, please use the form on the contact page and get in touch.