We held a special event to present GCSEcertificates to former year 11 students inNovember. The headteacher, PatrickCook, welcomed 350 students, parents,staff and governors in the Richard SmithHall. He briefly gave the headlineexamination statistics (see panel) butstressed that the purpose of the eveningwas to celebrate individual successes.

The certificates were presented by twoformer members of staff; Peter Cole whois now Deputy Head at Lady MannersSchool, Bakewell, and Helen Brightmorewho is now an Assistant Head at TheBolsover School. Both guests had playeda major role in helping the Year 11students to achieve success.

Mrs. Brightmore, who had been Head ofYear for these students, echoed thesentiments of the tutors present in sayinghow proud she was of them individuallyand collectively. The Chair of Governors,David Skinner, closed the presentationby saying that the school was movingforward and announcing a series ofevenings on which parents will be invitedto meet the governors in their localcommunity.

For the students the best part of the eventcame after the presentation when theyhad the chance to catch up with eachother. Some had not seen each other forfour months and others for about fourhours but all of them were very happy tobe together again. It was a verymemorable evening for everyone

DECEMBER 2006

Celebrating GCSE successes

In 2006 there was a 99.5% pass rate atA Level and an average points score of267 – the best in recent years. Goingon to higher education remains apopular choice with 90% of our Y13students going onto university this year.

We now offer 30 Advanced Levelcourses with a range of GCSE,enrichment and leadership courses tooffer a rounded experience. The VIForm has its own centre including nineseminar rooms, two computer roomsand a common room. There is alsoeasy access to the school library andthere are other specialist rooms in thefaculty bases.

Over 200 students and their parentsattended our Post 16 Convention inNovember .

There were presentations by PatrickCook, Headteacher, and ChrisStrudwick, Head of VI Form, as well asdisplays by faculty staff and our currentVI Form students.

The achievements of our Y13 studentsare being celebrated at our AnnualPrizegiving on December 19th. TheLeavers’ Ball is pictured above.

Sixth form achievement

Exam statisticsStudents with 5 or more A* - C grades

5533%%Students with 5 or more A* - C grades (inc. Eng & Maths) 4499%%Students with 5 or more A* - G grades

9933%%Students with at least 1 A* - G grade

9966%%Students’ average points score 335588

The 2006 Parents’surveyIn May 2006 we conducted a survey ofparental opinion about importantschool matters. Although only 27% ofthe parents included in the samplecompleted their surveys, it does give usa starting point for a continuingdialogue with parents.

At Tupton Hall we are ‘committed tocontinuous improvement’ so wecertainly want to hear and act uponparents’ views.

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Tupton sporting success – see inside.

INSIDE: Sports leaders 2012 • World Challenge • Young Achiever Award

Sports leadersof tomorrowtrain for 2012Tupton pupils are leading the way acrossthe district in Sports Leadership. This wasreflected in Tupton pupils gaining themost places in the recently launchedSports Leadership Academy above anyother school in Chesterfield and NorthEast Derbyshire.

The Chesterfield and North EastDerbyshire Leadership Academy givespupils the chance to develop theircoaching, volunteering and leadershipskills, which enables them to gainqualifications that will drive future careerand volunteering opportunities. This isbeing achieved through a range ofbenefits, including free courses such asfirst aid and improving your leadershipskills and access to National Governingbody accredited courses in over ninedifferent sports.

The school provides tailored support andclose mentoring from PE staff and schoolsports co-ordinators, helping them withplacements in primary, secondaryschools or in a community club of theirchoice.

An exclusive reward package is also inplace to recognise and reward theachievements of the members.

HealthpromotionHealth Promotion Days have been heldthis term for Y11,12 and 13 students

with a wide variety of visitors helping toput on interesting and informativeevents. Experts were on hand to discusstopics and to offer advice as well to giveout free samples and leaflets to all whoattended.

Topics covered ranged from sexualhealth advice to drugs awareness adviceand from mental health information toLeisure Services information. It was veryinteresting to see students trying tojuggle whilst wearing goggles that gavethe same effect as too much alcohol!Students were delighted to find that therewas also free food on offer at theHealthy Eating table in the form of fruitand smoothies and that they could get afree bra-fitting service from Marks andSpencer!! Practical activities were alsooffered with aerobics, circuit trainingand relaxation classes made available toall.

Raising awareness and improvingunderstanding of health issues is animportant aspect of the work of theschool and these events, along with workcarried out during PSD lessons, aims toachieve that goal.

Our senior pupils help coach junior school pupils in various skills. This leads to aSports Leader award.

Another academic year is well underwayand Tupton Hall School has continued todevelop both its curriculum and afterschool clubs. An increase in the variety ofactivities has seen the introduction of GGooll ff

at Year 10 as well as VVooll lleeyybbaall ll as alunchtime club.

Alongside this, Tupton teams havecontinued to be successful in a variety ofsporting fixtures. In ffoooottbbaall ll, Year 7 Boyswere Springwell 5-A-Side CompetitionWinners and Year 7 Girls were the StMary’s 55--AA--SSiiddee Competition Winners.The Year 8 Girls have moved swiftlythrough to 3rd Round of County Cup.Whilst in hhoocckkeeyy the U14 Girls and U16Boys are now playing in First DerbyshireLeague.

In CCrroossss CCoouunnttrryy, our Junior Boys andJunior Girls made it through to RegionalFinals for English Schools Cup, withseveral individuals placing highly.

JSLA, CSLA and HSLA have continued toincrease in their popularity. Linked to this,a LLeeaaddeerrsshhiipp AAccaaddeemmyy has beenlaunched with 24 Students from Tuptonbecoming part of the Chesterfield andN.E. Derbyshire Leadership Academy.

Successful start to the year

The 2006 Parents’surveyCCoonnttiinnuueedd ffrroomm ppaaggee 11

Overall 69% of parents gave the schoola good score ( 69% ) for overallperformance and 38% thought it hadimproved in the last year. 21% of newparents said that the school hadexceeded their expectations.

Like the students, parents were asked torate individual subjects and they gavetheir top marks to PE ( 73.1% ), Maths (71.2% ) and Spanish ( 70.3% ). Thesubjects that they would most like to seeimproved were English, French andGerman.

In more general terms parents weremost happy with the school facilities,the level of security and the access tocomputers. They were less happy withcommunication between school andhome and our measures to controlbullying. Like the school staff theparents’ top priority for improvement isschool discipline ( identified by 16.9%of those surveyed ).

Since the surveys we have written a newSchool Improvement Plan to reflect themain priorities identified by students,parents and staff. These will besummarised in a ‘You said, we did’document before the end of term.

The Governing Body are also planningto hold a number of local consultationmeetings with parents in the new year.

Oxford awardCharlotte King who won a place atBalliol College, Oxford, from TuptonSchool has now been awarded a JamesGay Exhibition in recognition of hersuccessful work at the university.

End of termThere is a busy end to the term with theschool drama production ‘Return to theForbidden Planet’. This will be closelyfollowed by our annual Carol Service atWingerworth Church and our ChristmasConcert at school. Reports in our nextnewsletter.

The term ends on 19 December withthe VI Form Prizegiving in the evening.20 December is an INSET day.

Fire fighters, Health professionals andeven a rock band were in Tupton thisterm as Personal and SocialDevelopment (PSD) took a radical newdirection with the launch of the newImpact Days in October.

Until this year, PSD had been deliveredon a one hour per week basis.However, inspired by a schemedeveloped successfully at CampsmountSchool in Doncaster, Tupton is runninga programme of four Impact Days andfive extended periods this year.

The whole day format allowed a hugevariety of activities to take place givingstudents a distinctive and memorableexperience.

Tutors’ delivery of such topics as HealthEducation, Personal Safety, Study Skills,and Careers Education and Guidancewas complemented by outside speakersand organizations.

Year 7 focussed on getting to knowTupton Hall and each other. The Fire

and Prison Services provided talks andactivities for Year 8, including anopportunity for students to experiencethe smoke tent – what is it like when ahouse is on fire? Year 9’s theme of Sex‘n Drugs ’n Rock ‘n Roll, a focus onHealth Education and Youth Culture,climaxed with a performance by a liverock band.

Year 10 and 11 students focussed ondeveloping Study Skills, both yeargroups inviting professional teams towork with the students. In the SixthForm there was the opportunity for Year12 students to develop learning skillsand to use the new ALIS assessmentsystem while Year 13 students focussedon UCAS work and careers.

Deputy Year Mangers and the PSDteam are now busy preparing the nextImpact Days to build on the success ofthe first day. The second Impact Daywill be on January 10th.

Making an impact

Tupton Hall School, Old Tupton, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S42 6LGTel: 01246 863127 email: info@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk www.tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk

design & print • www.pickardcommunication.co.uk

Creative summer schoolDuring the summer, Tupton studentsjoined with Deincourt and Tibshelf in anArt, Music and Drama summer school.

Drama involved a masked performancewith professional actors from TrestleTheatre Company. Art students helpedto make the clay masks and scenaryand the musicians wrote the score forthe show with the help of a group ofTupton sixth formers.

ICT initiativesICT is the second specialism at TuptonHall School, and as such is closelyfollowing the Sports Collegedevelopments. As well as online andcurricular developments, two excitingGifted and Talented initiatives areextending the Sport/ICT cross-curricularlinks.

ICT Live!This is the second year of this project. Lastyear the ICT Live! students produced apromotional CD of the Sports CollegeLaunch that was sent out to schools in ourcommunity. The finished product isavailable to download on the school’swebsite: www.tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk.This year ICT Live! are producingpromotional media material for theChesterfield and North East DerbyshireSports Leadership Academy. For moreinformation on ICT Live! email NickMelton: nickm3@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk

Girls’club

Computer Clubs for Girls.(CC4G) is anationwide initiative is in its first year atTupton Hall, and is going to focus onfurther developing girls’ interests in ICT bydoing vocational projects focussed aroundwomen in the public eye, and how ICThelps their lives and careers. For moreinformation on CC4G email Sara Rankin:sarar2@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk

THS onlineTHS online continues to grow into acollection of online resources, usefulinformation and dates, and links to usefulwebsites and school information. Pleasecheck and explore the site regularly tokeep up to date with schooldevelopments.www.tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk

Access: please use your son or daughter’susername and password to access schoolspecific information. For general ICTissues, email Nick Melton, Head of ICT:nickm3@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk

Our Year 12 students training for their expedition to South Africain 2007

World Challenge trainingexpeditionbbyy BBeeaauu RRoobbiinnssoonn YY1122

The World Challenge Team, who travelto South Africa in July 2007, spent theweekend of the 17th-19th November inBuxton on their training weekend.Countless amounts of students from allover the UK travel overseas with WorldChallenge to test their minds andbodies in some amazing places aroundthe world. All must undergo trainingbeforehand. The Tupton team spenttheir weekend building camps, cookingand laughing, not to mentioncompleting a 14k hike with a full pack.

We were tested physically, mentally andemotionally, pushed to our limits andeven further for some. Two nights were

spent under canvas in freezing and wetconditions eating freeze dried food forsupper and we loved every minute of it!We were taught how to create astretcher out of a plastic bag and arope and how everything, no matterhow insignificant, could be put toanother use.

Each night we reviewed the day andthis gave everyone the opportunity todiscuss what had gone well and whatwe needed to work on. The WorldChallenge Leaders helped us along theway and gave us the push we neededto survive the weekend. All I can saynow is …….BRING ON THEEXPEDITION IN JULY 2007!!!

Congratulations to Bethany Raynor, Y8, forwinning this prestigious award.

Bethany has coped very well with considerableproblems and illnesses. She has nursed olderrelatives and coped well with bereavement.Bethany does well in lessons, despite ahearing impairment, and is liked by all.

Bethany is a very pleasant young girl andrichly deserves this acolade. Despite all shehas coped with Bethany has found time toenjoy kickboxing and swimming and manyother activities at school.

Derbyshire Young Achiever Award 2006

‘Let’s kickracism out’project

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In association with Chesterfield FootballClub, the PE and Geography facultieslinked all year 7 forms to a country witha mixed culture, such as Nigeria orChina. They researched their countryand produced work to raise awarenessin a continuation of the excellent workthat goes on in Geography.

The form groups, representing theircountries, participated in a week-longfootball competition. Over 100students, male and female, wereinvolved. Chesterfield Football Clubsupported the week and sent twoplayers, Adam Smith and JamieJackson, and a former player, MarkJules, to meet the students. Despite nothaving a racism problem within theschool, PE and Geography thought itvery important to inform students ofdifferent cultures and help themunderstand the experiences of othernationalities.

MusicVariety was the theme of TuptonSchool’s Music Week with a differentensemble of musical students

greeting fellow pupils on each morning.Below are some of the ‘buskers’performing.