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                      Dusty was very disappointed not to make it through to the not live final of Harry Hill’s K factor competition this weekend.  He is after all the only knitted vacuum cleaner / spaceship in the universe!  But don’t worry.  This is not the end of his career. Following his recent modelling contract as the Stardusters spaceship, he will be appearing live at Stardusters – The World Premiere on 18th March, where he will be accompanied by another K factor hopeful, knitted David Kitcat. Don’t miss them!

Our schools went book crazy on Thursday 4^thMarch. At the Malling School, staff and students came armed with their favourite books and started every lesson with a 10 minute read. Listeners were treated to a quick blast of the teacher’s personal favourite book. Miss Butler delighted the students with two children’s books. The first, ‘Chicken Licken’ was her childhood favourite and the second ‘No matter what’ is her 3 year old son’s. Other titles included ‘Humphrey’ (Miss Cox), ‘Harry Potter’ (Miss Warren) ‘Catcher in the Rye’ (Mr Blandford), ‘How to be a Canadian’ (Ms Puopolo) and many others. At lunch time staff and students read to each other and the video camera. Mr Miller gave an inspirational reading of ‘The Hardy Boys’ and some students even plucked up the courage to read to staff. To finish the day off at 2.20pm everyone ‘downed tools’ and read for 10 minutes. It was really interesting to see the many different types of books that were being read by both staff and students.

Click these pictures to see them full size.

Leave us a comment and let us know what you were reading!!!!

Thank you everyone for taking part, Mrs Bicheno.

Just click Play to start the Podcast

Welcome to the first show of the term and yet again I think the team have produced another cracker! Presenting this weeks show we have Tom and Sean (Holmesdale’s answer to Ant and Dec!), another heated ‘Juke Box Jury’ with Alex Baker, Karis Page and Nathan Roberts, Will Oakley’s fantastic games review and 60 seconds with Head of Art Miss Ross. Also squeezed into the show is Martin Bunce’s film review of Disney’s ‘Up’, the news with Matthew Boxall and Lewis Chapman’s sports section with Mr Downey.

Every Friday, you will be able to listen to the show in the canteen at lunch and it will also be available to download here on the VLE. This means you can listen to the show anytime you like on your mobile phone, i-Pod or computer. 

For further information, song requests or if you want to be featured on the show then check out the brand newHolmesdale VLE.You can find it located on the  ‘Holmesdale Radio’ page.

This is an excellent video, a remake of the Flashdance showed on the Oprah Winfrey show, and based on a Black Eyed Peas song. I couldn’t think of a better video to celebrate World Book Day! I hope that all Years 7 and 8 have got your free £1 book tokens – if not, ask your English Teacher or in the library.

15 students from The Malling School took part in a special revision day hosted by The Village Hotel in Maidstone today. It was organised to provide these students – all aiming to get C or higher in English and Maths GCSE – with a stylish, modern environment to help them study. The students found themselves in a professional conference room with laptops, lots of coffee, hot chocolate and cakes and a tasty buffet lunch. Apart from the revision sessions – taught by Mrs Thompson and Mr Hollingsbee – the students were also given a tour of the hotel and an insight into a career in hospitality by The Village’s Events Manager, Caroline Phelps.

Once again we are collecting Active Kids vouchers from Sainsbury’s to buy loads of great sports equipment and lots of other stuff for school. So please ask everyone you know who shops at Sainsbury’s to save their vouchers for us. You can post the vouchers in the box at Reception.

Year 7 Holmesdale student, Harry Butler, took part on Tuesday in a fitness workout run by the international charity, LEPRA. The organisation works in 9 countries around the world supporting people who are suffering from serious diseases. The students had to get sponsorship and Harry was determined he was going to raise the most money. His mum told him she would pledge £20 to the charity if he would do the workout wearing a dress. LEPRA provides bicycle ambulances to transport sick people to hospital. £20 will buy a sun shade to protect patients as they travel. So Harry wore the dress and here’s the proof for everyone, including his mum, to see!

EXCEL is an exclusive fitness programme available after school and at weekends for 11 to 15 year olds at Larkfield Leisure Centre.

You can choose from Aerobics, Dance Mat, Circuit Training, Target Wall and much more.  On top of that you get to swim whenever you like! 

Get the details here:

www.larkfieldleisure.co.uk  and look under Junior Activities, Excel

For younger brothers and sisters, there’s the Kick Start programme.

Just click Play to start the Podcast

You may have heard the short Preview clip last week but here it is, Larry Does Larbucks!

In this third instalment of the Larry series, we join Larry out shopping with his mum. Despite Larry’s dislike of coffee, Larry’s mum decides to take him to Larbucks for a special treat.

After getting lost on the way to the toilets, Larry finds himself in another surreal land of chaos and confusion. Will Larry find his way home and find the public conveniences before it’s too late?

Click the poster to visit the Unit Radio website and listen to this and the rest of their Radio Shows!

We have 2 exciting new chances for you to take part in some family learning activities at The Malling School. Please see the linked images for more information on the ‘Fitness and fun for families’ and ‘Arsenal Soccer skills day’. If you would like to attend one of these events then just print out the form and return it to Mrs Thomas or the school Reception.

Over the half term there have been some new features added to the VLE. The main reason for this update was to allow you “The Student” to view your own Personal School Attendance figures. 

To be able to see this graph and some of the other new features you will need a plug-in called microsoft Silverlight installed. Don’t worry we are installing this to all School Computers & Student Laptops remotely over the next few days, however you might need to manually install it on your Home Computer or Home Profile. Click on the Silverlight logo to the left to visit the site and download it.

We have also added some quick links on the home page of the VLE when you login. They give quick access to your Email, Timetable & My Files. Note: Staff and Students at the Malling School can now access and upload documents to their network area from home!

You may also see some changes to the way the VLE Looks this month as we are hoping to make it a lot more Fun and Exciting to navigate. If you have any ideas or suggestions for What we could do then please leave them as a comment on this blog post and we will try and make them happen! 

The Attendance figures shown when you log into the VLE are from last term, if they are not accurate or are being displayed wrong then please contact michael.bright@mhfederation.co.uk to have them checked for you.

This week there may be limited or no access to email & the VLE. There will be an update here on the VLE Blog when normal service has been resumed.

MHF ICT Department

Just click Play to start the Podcast

This is a short Clip of the third instalment of the Larry series, we join Larry out shopping with his mum. Despite Larry’s dislike of coffee, Larry’s mum decides to take him to Larbucks for a special treat. After getting lost on the way to the toilets, Larry find himself in another surreal land of chaos and confusion. Will Larry find his way home and find the public conveniences before it’s too late?

The full show will be finished next week when everyone returnes from the half term.

Well January 2010 has already been and gone, Heres a short Video of whats been happening already this year!

Do you have any ideas, or things you would like to see in our Schools? Let us know and we might be able to make them happen! Have your Say…