Dear Parents and Carers,
As we reach the conclusion of another remarkable academic year at Baylis Court School, I am delighted to reflect on the exceptional achievements and memorable experiences that have defined our recent weeks.
Our annual Sports Day proved to be a resounding success, showcasing the abilities, teamwork and competitive spirit that exemplifies our school community. The energy and enthusiasm displayed by pupils across all year groups created an atmosphere of celebration and camaraderie that truly embodied our school values.
Year 10 pupils were treated to an excellent educational experience when the Globe Players visited our school to perform Macbeth. This immersive theatrical presentation not only brought Shakespeare's masterpiece to life but also provided our pupils with the invaluable opportunity to engage directly with professional actors through a comprehensive question and answer session. Such experiences enrich our pupils' understanding of literature and demonstrate our commitment to providing diverse learning opportunities beyond the traditional classroom setting.
Pupils in all year groups have had the opportunity to join end-of-year trips. Year 7 pupils visited London Zoo, Year 8 enjoyed outdoor experiential learning at Ufton Court. Year 9 pupils experienced bowling and ice-skating at Guildford Spectrum, and Year 10 challenged themselves with the outdoor adventure activities at Go Ape. Our Year 12 pupils concluded their year with a memorable trip to Brighton, providing them with well-deserved relaxation before their final year of study.
I am particularly proud to celebrate the outstanding success of our Community Day, which was expertly organised by members of our Student Leadership Team. This wonderful event raised over £900 for the Alexander Devine Children's Hospice in Maidenhead, demonstrating the compassion and community spirit that defines our school. The dedication shown by our pupil leaders in coordinating this event reflects the exceptional character development that occurs within our school environment.
In the last week of term pupils across the school were praised for their hard work and success in special assemblies led by Heads of Learning. Congratulations to all pupils who were recognised for excellent attendance, achievement and attitude to learning. We hope that they have proudly shown you the certificates they were awarded in school.
Today we have celebrated significant achievements of pupils in all year groups in our end of year assembly. Awards were presented to pupils in all years for: exceptional progress, arts person of the year, sportsperson of the year, Heads of Learning awards and the Principal’s award. In addition, one pupil in each key stage was nominated for the spirit of Baylis award, and one pupil across the school for their outstanding contribution. We are really proud of the members of our community who have been recognised for their outstanding achievement and effort in so many areas of school life. Photographs of the award winners will be shared in the first newsletter of the new school year.
As we prepare for the summer break, I must acknowledge the contributions of our valued colleagues who will be leaving us. Mr Duale from mathematics, Miss Redondo and Miss Lozano from Spanish, Miss Mizyan from science, Miss Gill and Ms Perveen from English, Mr Hartley from geography, Miss Devaney, our Head of Learning Year 7, and Mrs Coulson from media and drama, who has served our school community with distinction for seventeen years. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to each of these members of our team for their dedicated service to the Baylis community and wish them continued success in the future.
As this academic year draws to a close, I wish everyone a relaxing and restful summer holiday. We look forward to welcoming our new Year 7 and Year 12 pupils from 11:20am on Wednesday 3 September, with all pupils returning to school at the usual time on Thursday 4 September.
Thank you for your continued support of Baylis Court School.
Christine MacInnes
Principal
Year 9 Celebrate a Fantastic Year!
Year 9 have had an incredible year, marking the end of Key Stage Three with enthusiasm and determination. As they prepare to begin their Key Stage Four journey in September, students have thoughtfully selected their GCSE options and are ready to embrace the next stage of their education.
To celebrate their achievements, Year 9 enjoyed a fun-filled trip to Guildford Spectrum. The day was packed with excitement as students showcased their ice skating and bowling skills, making memories to end the year on a high.
Well done, Year 9 – I am so proud of all you have achieved and look forward to seeing all you accomplish in Key Stage Four!
Wishing you a restful and enjoyable summer holiday - Mrs Nelson.
Community Day Success – A Record-Breaking Fundraiser for Baylis
Community Day was an incredible success, and I am delighted to share that we raised an outstanding £901 in profit for Alexander Devine– the highest amount ever raised by Baylis for a charitable cause. This achievement would not have been possible without the core support provided by sixth formers in terms of funding, all running all 4 stalls and generous initial donations from staff.
All the food prepared for the day was completely sold out, which not only helped us reach this amazing total but also showed just how much the event was enjoyed. From the feedback we received, students thoroughly enjoyed the day – and it was fantastic to see so many getting involved and supporting such a meaningful cause.
Tai Bishop, Lead for Corporate and Community Partnerships at Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice said “ We were delighted to be chosen by Baylis Court School. Their incredible fundraising will enable us to continue providing specialist care and vital support to over 200 children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families across Berkshire. Together, we create treasured family memories, precious smiles and deliver the highest standard of care, a mission that simply wouldn't be possible without the kindness of schools like theirs. With over £3.4 million needed annually, and 85% of our funding coming from the community, we really do rely on the generosity of local organisations to deliver our lifeline services. Thank you to everyone at Baylis Court School for choosing to support our cause; we are so grateful for your kindness.”
A special mention to sixth formers for spending the whole day running errands, setting up the stalls and tent in the cultural clothes, and to our amazing henna artists who alone had raised whopping £70 for students.
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the parents who kindly sent money into school with their children to support the event. Your contributions made a real difference and played a huge role in our success.
Thank you once again to everyone who contributed – whether through donations, time, or participation. Together, we’ve not only raised an incredible sum for charity but also strengthened our sense of community and school spirit.
Dhanushika Muralikrishnan
Head Student of Baylis
8 Parks improving the Baylis environment
In May a group of students from 8 Parks approached Mr Hartley about organising a garden at Baylis. Like all Year 7 and Year 8 students, they needed to complete a task as part of getting their PixlEdge certification. The students had the idea that planting a garden would be a way to do this but also to improve Baylis a little bit and add a little life to the school grounds. This was a fantastic idea and Mr Hartley worked with some other members of staff including Mr McCarley to get equipment and organise a location and time to achieve a low-maintenance garden where it could be appreciated by all but not require extra work from any members of staff.
We decided to use the three large Belfast sinks that are located between the boiler room building and the canteen zigzag entrance. The students brought in a wide variety of seeds that they purchased themselves, mainly wildflowers and other species that can be sown late in the season and still produce beautiful blooms in August and September without loads of looking after, as we are going to be on our summer holiday! The word sowing is very different from ‘sewing’, sowing means initially planting the seeds in the ground. Hira, Yasleen, Aleena, Raaniya and Summaya took part, first weeding a lot of the dead grass and dandelions that were already in there and loosening the soil. Aleena made a surprise discovery when taking some weeds to the skip, where a member of staff had discarded a couple boxes of the most beautiful painted rocks! Shock horror! Aleena suggested using these as a border for the sinks, which as you can see made a big impact when initially the newly planted sink is just bare earth and dead grass. The five of them then scattered the seeds liberally across the three sinks.
You can see everyone hard at work here.
After we finished we watered the sinks liberally, after all, we were in the middle of a heatwave and dry spell. We hoped that would give the wildflowers a kickstart to help them start. The students had selected sunflowers, calendula (another tall yellow flower with brown centre), sweet peas, and a few other species that are classed as wildflowers. Iqlas and Madinah (also from 8 Parks) also contributed by buying the seeds even though they couldn’t attend the planting. The idea is that even though grass and weed species will also grow back, the flowers we planted will grow amongst them and flower above, creating a colourful area for students and staff at break and lunch as well as lesson interchange. Here you can see our freshly planted flower bed, the students hope everyone likes the painted rock border. Can you spot the Baylis rock?
After watering we decided our resilient work needed a bit of a fun finale, so we choreographed a couple of group photos, one serious and one fun, as we work hard and we play hard!!!
Fast forward to four weeks later, and sadly it’s the last week of school! Over the last four weeks all six of us, plus Habiba, have been helping out with watering the wildflowers every couple of days to make sure they are strong enough to last through the potentially dry summer break. As you can see, we have grown lots of weeds 😃, however we can see the sprouts of the various wildflowers mixed in. You can see our efforts below, and hope by the end of August our wildflowers are in bloom. We are totally biased, but we definitely think this is one of the best PixlEdge activities completed ever! If you are feeling inquisitive, please do ask us a question about the garden if you see us around school.
Have a great summer and maybe try planting something in your own garden at home!
- The Gardening Crew
Please put this in the bulletin.
The Art and Media department would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all parents, carers and families who attended our Art and Media Exhibition on Community day. It was a fantastic celebration of creativity of across the school, showcasing work from KS3 and KS4 Art and Design and KS4 & KS5 A Level Media Studies. The exhibition featured a wide range of impressive artwork and media projects, reflecting the talent, imagination and dedication of our students. Your presence and support made the event even more special and a great way to end another successful year at Baylis Court School.
Miss Bansal
Year 10 Chemistry Taster Day at Imperial College
A group of Year 10 students recently attended a Chemistry Taster Day at Imperial College London. The visit was a great success, with students gaining hands-on experience and insight into university-level chemistry. They returned inspired, motivated, and full of enthusiasm for the subject.
Here’s what some of our students had to say:
"It was amazing to use real university lab equipment. I felt like a real scientist!"
"The experiments were fun and really helped me understand how chemistry works in the real world."
"Visiting Imperial made me seriously think about studying science at university."
Well done to all who took part!
Ms Dhaliwal
On Friday 4th July the Baylis Court Year 10 Human geography fieldwork trip took place. This year the trip again went successfully and the students achieved their GCSE goals. Mr Hartley, Miss Bryant, Ms Lamb and Ms Cabrera accompanied the Year 10 geographers on the fieldwork.
Our fieldwork was to answer the question “To what extent would the proposed Slough Cycle Superhighway be worthwhile for the town of Slough?” Slough had a cycle superhighway that was proposed and secured considerable funding, in the millions, in 2022. The project does not seem to have progressed much since then, however the students were still interested in finding out whether the actual concept would be worth spending our taxpayer money on.
If the Slough Cycle Superhighway were to be built, it would be parallel to Bath Road alongside it and enable bikers to commute to work or for leisure, an area that currently has a lot of traffic including large lorries and busses. The Year 10 students walked from Baylis to two locations along Bath Road, Salt Hill Park and near 220 Bath Road, to see the levels of traffic, air pollution, noise pollution as well as undertaking an overall environmental quality survey. In theory, building the superhighway might mean people who currently take cars may bike instead to work, reducing engine noise, vehicle emissions and overall traffic.
We were worried it would be an extremely hot day, particularly as we had to walk over 3 kilometers for the fieldwork. However, temperatures were warm but not actually that bad and this year’s cohort of Year 10s seemed very physically fit and had no problems hiking the distance! We enjoyed a bit of nature getting through the park and no-one got lost on route. There were some beautiful red kites to look at as we went through Baylis Park and some interesting graffiti art when we walked under the brick bridge before Salt Hill.
Everyone successfully took all of their data at both sites and we were all really impressed by how organised and efficient the Year 10s were at doing it this year. The students keep all the data in their fieldwork booklets, which they will be using throughout Year 11 to revise for Paper 3. As they have such detailed and neat notes it will aid them in making sure they have good evidence to support their answers, and we are sure we will look forward to some great Paper 3 results in twelve months time! Please congratulate the geographers if you see them around.
And the question remains, would it be worthwhile to build the cycle superhighway? We did see a considerable amount of traffic at both locations of Bath Road, particularly Salt Hill Park, and decibel readings were high at both locations, meaning it was very noisy and you had to either speak very loudly or shout to be heard over the background noise. On the other hand, the air pollution readings we found online did not seem overly bad for either site. The students will be writing up the findings in their conclusions and we’ll have to wait to see what their opinions are after evaluating the data. Watch this space!’
GCSE Art – Year 9 into Year 10
Your child’s GCSE Art pack will be ready to collect on the first day back after the summer holidays. Please ensure it is brought to every Art lesson, as it contains the materials needed for the course.
Notice for Parents – Year 7 & 8
Please ensure that your child is equipped with the basic materials for Art lessons in the upcoming academic year. These include:
- HB pencil
- Eraser (rubber)
- Ruler
- Sharpener
- A small set of colouring pencils
Having these essentials will help your child fully support in lessons and home learning. These items can be easily found at your local supermarket or at The Range in Slough.
Dear All,
We are starting a book club in the new year!
If anyone from any year group would like to join us, please come into the library and leave your name, year and email address by Tuesday 30 September latest. We will get back to you with more details once we have fully gaged the level of interest.
Also, this year for book club we’re trying something different – YOU vote for the book YOU want! For the first book club we already have a list of choices for you to choose from:
Cricket Regionals – Chance to Shine (Tuesday 17th July)
On Tuesday 17 July, our Baylis Cricket team travelled to Eastleigh to take part in the Chance to Shine Softball Cricket Regional Tournament. It was a fantastic day of competition, with a very high standard of play on display from all teams involved. The Baylis Cricket team played teams from as far as the Isle of Wight and Bognor Regis!
Our squad rose to the challenge, showing great promise and determination throughout the day. Many players demonstrated excellent skill development and game awareness, learning a huge amount as they competed against some tough opposition. Most importantly, the experience left the team inspired and eager to continue playing and improving.
We are incredibly proud of the team’s effort, attitude, and sportsmanship – they represented Baylis with pride. With this momentum, we’re excited to see what the future holds for our budding cricketers.
Year 11 Prom
Year 11 celebrated the end of a really successful year with their Prom, held at The Pinewood Hotel. All of the students looked absolutely incredible and definitely made the most of the theme of Dress to Impress. Staff and students both enjoyed a great evening with some great songs played to get the party going! The following awards were given out, voted for by prom attendees:
- Best arrival-Haddy
- Best hair- Alanna
- Best headpiece-Haddy
- Best dress- Zara
- Best make up- Martyna
Thank you to all of the staff who came and supported, especially Mrs Coulson who took some wonderful photos.
Well done to the Prom Committee, for organising such a brilliant event and for raising money for the charity Hillingdon Women’s Centre.
We wish the year 11s the best of luck in whatever the future holds.
Sports Day Success
Our Sports Day, held on 9th July, was a resounding success! The entire school community came together to create a fantastic day filled with energy, excitement and achievement.
Students truly excelled, showcasing the best of our core school values – resilience, kindness, and inquisitiveness. Whether it was cheering on their peers, giving their all in every race, or trying new events for the first time, the spirit of Sports Day shone brightly throughout.
We were particularly impressed by the mass participation across all year groups. It was inspiring to see so many students getting involved and supporting one another.
A huge thank you to the students for making it so special. Particularly the Y10 Sports Studies students who ran events all day making the PE team very proud. Well done to everyone involved – you made Sports Day 2025 one to remember.
Credits:
Created with images by Maximusdn - "Christmas wallpaper decorations concept" • หอมกลิ่น กล้วยไม้ - "Beautiful cosmos flowers on white background" • Grafvision - "Artist paint brushes"