Charters News Autumn Term 2014

This year’s magnificent drama production of 60s hit musical “Summer Holiday” in November

showcased the vast musical and theatrical talents of the large cast and crew. It was quickly

followed by our two seasonal concerts: the Winter Concert held in school and the Festival of

Nine Lessons and Carols hosted by Holy Trinity Church. Like the production, the concerts

encourage a high level of participation from students and staff and this year featured nine

different choirs and seven different instrumental groups including the school orchestra,

playing both classic and contemporary music. Each concert had its own style and created

some beautifully performed and uplifting melodies.

Well done to everyone involved.

For term dates see www.chartersschool.org.uk/Term-Dates-2014-2015

Co-Heads’ Comments

by Martyn Parker and Richard Pilgrim

The sunny start of the new school year in September

seems to have given way so quickly to the Christmas fes-

tivities at the end of term. At our backs we always hear

“Time’s winged chariot hurrying near” but though like the

great poet, Andrew Marvell, “we cannot make our sun

stand still”, we have “made him run” so far this academ-

ic year.

It is, of course, always good to start the school year with

excellent examination results to proclaim; and last year’s

GCSE and Sixth Form candidates did us proud achieving

the school’s strongest set of grades across all the differ-

ent qualifications. We have rightly celebrated these ex-

cellent results but, as we always say, Charters is about

so much more than academic success. The personali-

ties, achievements and relationships of the young people

at Charters enrich our community and are the life-blood

of the school. That’s why this year we have launched

‘The Edge’, an exciting and innovative award scheme

that captures the personal qualities and contributions of

our students … more of that in a moment.

We know that Martha Collison is an extraordinary baker

and an attractive personality who charmed the nation;

and we were so proud of Lily Meyrick (7M) who had the

confidence and ability to sing to an audience of millions

on the Chris Evans Radio 2 show recently. These exam-

ples are the tip of a ‘can do’ iceberg at Charters. Their

efforts stand with those of the young people involved in

our exuberant production of ‘Summer Holiday’ and the

superb performance of our Junior Girls Cross Country

team who finished second at the National Champion-

ships and … well there are so many notable achieve-

ments because our students’ mantra has been ‘Carpe

Diem’.

The willingness to grasp opportunities to be involved in

positive activities has never been more important. Julie

Bentley, the Chief Executive of Girl Guiding, explained on

a recent edition of Desert Island Discs, that there are so

many negative pressures and influences on young people

in today’s modern society. She believes organisations

like the Girl Guides offer positive opportunities that act as

a counterbalance and, we would agree, that the opportu-

nities we offer at Charters have the same effect.

That is why we have introduced ‘The Edge’ for all our Year

7 students and will shortly be doing the same for Year 8.

‘The Edge’ is a scheme for schools to develop and ac-

credit in students those personal attributes essential for

employability and success in later life – leadership, or-

ganisation, initiative, resilience and communication. The

scheme was developed at Charters and is being trialled

by many other schools up and down the country. Creat-

ing opportunities which build confidence has great value

and is part of our role as teachers. Poet, Christopher

Logue, sums this up: “Come to the edge. We might fall.

Come to the edge. It’s too high! Come to the Edge! And

they came, and he pushed, and they flew”.

Carpe Diem

Follow @ChartersCareers on Twitter for latest career opportunities

We are entering the season for setting New Year’s reso-

lutions and personal challenges. Well, this time last

year, Dr Nathan Green, Head of Year 7 at Charters, want-

ed to help us raise money to upgrade facilities at Tira-

bad. He started with the idea of a triathlon and then

thought “extreme”! A normal triathlon would be swim,

bike and run. So Dr Green decided on a 10K Dart river

swim, 190 miles bike ride from Tirabad to Charters and,

not just to run the London Marathon, but to run the 26.2

miles in a bike costume! He has put himself through all

of this to raise a target of £10K which will be used to

improve resources at Tirabad and if all this was not

enough, he competed in an Ironman competition in

France as well.

Dr Green said: “Tirabad is a special place worth all the

effort. To be able to take “21st century technology kids”

to the Brecon Beacons, teach life skills, develop leader-

ship and create a love of physical activity is a privilege.

We manage this Centre with two other schools, but only

just manage to balance the books each year, because

we keep the costs to parents as low as we can. I wanted

to do something to raise funds so the Centre can make

the investment it needed. To date my Justgiving site

(www.justgiving.com/TirabadTriathlonExtreme) has

raised £7.5K so I’m just short of my target. Thus my

thinking cap is on for what next!”.

Farewell to Staff

We are sorry to be saying farewell to two members of the

teaching staff this December: Mrs Naessens (Maths) is

moving to another school nearer to her home and Miss

Holt (PE) has gained a promotion to be Head of PE at Sir

William Borlase’s School in Buckinghamshire. We would

like to thank them both for all their hard work over the

years at Charters and wish them well in their future ca-

reers.

Martyn Parker and Richard Pilgrim

Co-Headteachers

The Tirabad Triathlon

A Year of Extreme Challenges

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Charters Connect

We’re already planning our next event. This time we’re

seeking to re-establish contact with former students turn-

ing 40 this year or in a year or two either side of that, so

if that’s you then we would love to hear from you.

We’ve found some photos from that year group. Do you

recognise anyone?

We think we may have here Fleur Tennant, Robbie Dea-

con, Catherine Heridge, Kerri Lister, Paul Clayton,

Vanessa Steele, Emily Lascelles, Robin Beshoori, Mark

Jones, Ruth Owen, Lorraine Molyneux, Emma Rogers and

Sadie James.

Are you amongst this group or do you know someone

who is? Do you have photos we could feature? And

who’s that behind the door with an empty tin of Quality

Street?

Please let us know your current contact details by email-

ing cc@chartersschool.org.uk giving your name (and the

name you were known by when at school, if different)

and your postal address so we can send you an invita-

tion.

We’re just as interested to hear from former staff so if we

haven’t been in touch with you recently, please email us!

The alumni society of Charters School

If you would like help organising a reunion for your year group, please email cc@chartersschool.org.uk

Saturday 16 May 2015 Now we are 40 years!

Here we think we have found photos of Piers Dodd, Andy

East, Giles Crickmay, Mark Jones, Mr Stagg, Andy Bow-

yer, Kyle Chambers and Phil Mahoney .

Are you in touch with anyone here or from this year

group? Please let us know. Does anyone recognise the

girls in the Sixth Form Common Room?

To find out about the Sixth Form see www.chartersschool.org.uk/Sixth-Form-Welcome

Inside and Outside the Classroom

Students from Years 8 and 9 were invited to submit a

House Shield design for our new school flagpole. A huge

number of entries were received so many congratula-

tions to the winner of our House Shield competition, Beth

Brown 9R.

Year 7 students were invited to submit Christmas card

designs to win points for their House and, if they wished,

have their design made into a variety of Christmas prod-

ucts, including cards, wrapping paper and parcel labels.

There was some wonderful artwork and the winner of this

competition was Maddie McKee 7A.

Amongst senior students, Georgina Boursnell’s mixed

media art work for the year 11 Pre Public Exam skilfully

reflects on the indiscriminate loss of life in this centenary

year of the start of World War I .

Year 7 Reward Trip Lily Jones

Christmas is a magical time of year, filled with happy

memories and fun times with your friends. But when you

get to go somewhere extra special, with all of your close

mates it makes it that much more memorable.

London, for me was a highlight of 2014, packed with

laughs, cheers and hugs of reassurance. Overall it was a

fab night.

It started off with a 5 star tour guide experience from Ms

Bowie and Ms Boxall “B&B tours”, it was brilliant! This

was followed by an outstandingly special 4D cinema ex-

perience that showed us around London in a “different”

way. Then came the great finale: The Eye! This scarily co-

lossal ride was actually AMAZING!

I wish I could do the whole trip again!

Thank you Mr Clarke for organising it.

Mixed Media artwork ‘War doesn’t determine who is right, only who is left’

Winning Art

For Learning Gateway queries see www.chartersschool.org.uk/gateway

Geologists visit Kimmeridge Bay

This is the third time the department

has visited this geological gem, and

this was definitely the best trip so far.

This may have been because it was an

unusually balmy sunny day with none

of the strong winds that we had last

year. We were able to work far down

the beach and take time to look and

understand the geology of the bay. However, it was al-

so such a good trip because the group were so involved

in what they could see and learn. The staff really appreci-

ated their positive attitude.

We looked at the rock structures, folding and faulting,

and learnt how to measure them. We also looked at tec-

tonic jointing and some students found fine doorstops

formed by jointing on the wave cut platform. But the high-

light of the trip was finding fabulous fossils. The best

find of the day was by Harry Pye who managed to find an

awesome doorstop with a large fossil ammonite on its

top face.

Over half term, 74 students and ten teachers travelled

across the channel to take in the sights of Paris. We had

a behind the scenes tour of the Stade de France, walked

down the Champs Elysée and saw the Arc Triomphe. Pho-

tos were taken of the city from the top of the tallest sky-

scraper in Paris, Tour Montparnasse, and pupils enjoyed

the roller coasters at Parc Astérix. In the evenings, we

were entertained by our French animateur, Faisal, whilst

feasting on the finest French meals. Here’s what some of

our students said about the trip:

“I thoroughly enjoyed the Paris trip because I got to see

so many places and I was with my friends. The place we

stayed at, named Campus Est, was brilliant. It was clean,

had good food and everyone was friendly” Ben McClusky, 8T

“The best part of the Paris trip was the Stade de

France because it had the players changing room. We

stayed at a Campus and there were pitches to play

football on. The food was so nice!” Maxime Duggan-Hill, 8S

Year 8 in Paris

Safe Drive Stay Alive

Last year 1,204 people aged 16-19 were injured on

roads in Thames Valley and Hampshire and an average of

4 young people per week were killed or seriously injured.

At a hard hitting presentation Year 13 learnt from the ex-

periences of others the consequences of a casual disre-

gard for focused attention on the road while driving.

Real life testimonies from the emergency services, a fa-

ther who had lost his 18 year old daughter in an accident

and a short speech from a girl who had been severely

injured in a crash while in her early twenties reminded

students of the need to take care driving on the roads.

Charters Book Blog invites...

When I first heard there was a new ‘Young Bond’ book

being published I thought of the author Charlie Higson

and I searched for it online - it said Steve Cole was the

author and I thought “who’s he?” I was excited but anx-

ious - was he going to be as good as Charlie Higson….?

I received the book a couple of days before Steve’s visit

and was enthralled…

On Monday 10 September Steve Cole came to Charters.

At second break I queued to get my book signed (I had

only got to page 76 and boy, it was good!). A group of

Bond lovers surrounded Steve and we had our picture

taken.

Finally fifth period arrived and the wait was over! I saw

streams of people heading for the hall and I managed to

get a front row seat - a perfect view to see him…

You can read the rest of Hugo’s excellent report of the

event at http://

chartersbookblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/when-steve-

cole-visited-charters-school.html

The October weekend to Berlin was a fantastic trip. We

consolidated old GCSE facts and learnt lots of new things

from our great tour guide, to support our anti-Semitism

unit for A-Level.

Every moment of the trip was a highlight, even when our

feet were in agony and we were all sleep deprived. The

holocaust memorial and Sachsenhausen Concentration

Camp were particularly poignant aspects of the trip that

made us reflect about the awful treatment of the Jews

and other targeted groups of German society.

We went bowling on Saturday night which was a lot of fun

and I think we were all very taken with the trip to the Ber-

lin Olympic Stadium on Sunday. It was a brilliant trip that

we all took a lot from and understood so much more

about the significance of commemorating the devasta-

tion of war at the annual Remembrance Service.

Anti Semitism recognised Julie Fitzpatrick

Charters students competed in the U14 Girls Berkshire

Hockey Tournament at Wellington College. After eight

tough matches Charters found themselves in the

Plate Final against Claire's Court winning in a penalty

flicks competition! Well done to all the girls involved in

this event.

The U13 C and D Netball teams travelled to St Mary’s

Ascot for a netball tournament against seven other

schools. With both teams winning all of their matches

and having exactly the same goal difference Charters C

and D teams finished joint winners of the tournament!

Very well done to all the girls involved for a fantastic

evening of netball.

More sporting success