MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

English Faculty News 2

Year 7 Celebration

Assembly

2

Tesco/Sainsbury

Vouchers

3

Y11 Paired Reading 3

Ten Tors News 4

ICT/Business

Faculty News

4

Expressive Arts

Faculty News

5

PE Faculty News 6

SWFfL Internet

Safety for Parents

7

Medical Room 9

School Uniform &

Lost Property

9

Teenage Pregnancy 10

Celebration of

Achievement Reply

slip

11

Dates for your Diary 12

School Term Dates

2009/2010

12

INSET DAYS for

2009/2010

12

Useful contacts 12

A Training

Opportunity for

Adults

7

Library News 3

Student Absence 2

MFL Faculty News 8/9

Wills Davis Atwell

Charity Grant Aid

10

Connexions News 11

CS2 Newsletter Volume 6, Issue 8

April 2010

Online at: www.chippingsodburyschool.com

For this month’s CS2 I thought that I would spend some time reflecting on just a few of the good news stories coming out of Chipping Sodbury School. What follows is a random sample.

We have recently celebrated the achievements of a large number of Year 11 students who have participated in a very positive Paired Reading initiative. These students have worked hard over the past school year, giving willingly of their time, with younger students in Years 7 and 8. It has made a significant difference to engaging students in reading.

At the end of March, a large number of parents and students in Year 11 participated in a Revision Skills workshop. This was followed up in school with all Year 11 students re-ceiving training in practical revision strategies. The aim has been to provide students and parents alike with techniques to assist with revision during this important time.

The examination period has now started for all Year 11 students with orals for Modern Foreign Language subjects taking place this week. We wish all students who are taking exams the very best.

The assembly programme this week has introduced all students to the Chipping Sodbury School House system which will be launched in September 2010.

Congratulations to a group of Year 7 students who successfully completed a ‘Survival Skills’ course over 7 weeks working with staff from the Local Authority.

23 students have passed an online level 2 (GCSE level) in ALAN (Adult Literacy and Nu-meracy).

400 Year 5 pupils will attend a Chipping Sodbury School Summer Science Fair.

There have been 120 applications to the 2010 Sixth Form representing over 80% of the year group.

52 Sixth Form students are studying the Extended Project Qualification for the first time this year and they’re seeking opportunities to link with local businesses. If you’d like to find out some more or can support us in any way in respect to business contacts in the community, then please contact Gill Hilleard our Head of Sixth Form.

Year 7 have started dreaming about their aspirations and what they want to do when they are older. In due course we will display all our students’ aspirations in one of the school corridors to be called ‘Aspiration Alley’.

Enjoy the rest of CS2. P. Lidstone Head

“Committed to learning”

Chipping Sodbury School

2

Student Absence To report a student absence please call the Attendance Officer on 01454 862952 on the first day of absence and leave the following information:

Student name and Tutor Group Reason for Absence and expected day of return Your name and relationship to student

English Faculty News Year 11 – GCSE examinations The final exams are very close now and revision is well underway. Please encourage your sons/daughters to revise carefully. Useful revision activities include going over notes from lessons, practising planning essays and identifying key quotations from texts. It is also recommended that students re-read their exam texts several times. Furthermore, the BBC Bitesize website contains some useful revision tips and activities. Students should make sure they are proactive in speaking to their English teacher if there is anything they are unsure about. It is essential that students who study English Literature bring their copy of the novel Of Mice and Men to the English Literature exam. Media students should check with their teacher to make sure they are aware of the equipment they need to bring to the exam. Mr M Sayers Head of English

Year 7 Celebration Assembly Term 4 Award/prize winners Basics Ben Perrett £5 SEAL Sasha King £5 Positive Points Tommy Rees-Bacchus, Ben Leighton Consistently high performance for netball: (badge awarded) Sasha King Milly Westcott Grace Rumble Georgia James Flo Langridge Milly Woods Jess Ganley Lauren England Beth Adams Danielle Mason Gold Commendation Raffle – prize winners Chelsea Breddy Brittany Reynolds Emma Davis Jodie Hood Ben Perrett Mirelle Olszewska Sophie Gideon Jasmine Rogers Alex Liddiat Lauren England Mrs Broad & Mrs Strange

3

Library News Well done to Madison Halladay who was recently shortlisted for the Young Crime Writers Award. The ceremony took place at Yate Library, where Madison was presented with her certificate by local author C J Carver. Mrs Pickering Librarian

Tesco and Sainsbury’s vouchers.

We are collecting tokens from both of these companies as usual. Please send them in to the library as soon as possible.

Many thanks.

Year 11 Paired Reading Year 11 Students showing their certificates after the presentation on Thursday 22nd April in the Library. Well done all of you and thank you. Mrs South

4

Ten Tors News We have one more training walk on the Cotswold Way before this year’s Ten Tors event on Dartmoor taking place on the 8th and 9th May 2010. The teams have now been decided for the 35 and 45 mile routes.

The weekend training on Dartmoor included some different and quite challenging terrain and weather condi-tions for the teams to overcome. The 35 mile team did especially well and were able to see Okehampton Camp, where they will be starting and finishing the actual event, for the first time.

Last week half of the 35 mile team enjoyed some orienteering around Westonbirt Arboretum. Unfortunately, the café was closed when they returned so they are still waiting for their promised drinks of hot chocolate.

On Sunday, the teams were back in Wales and got good use from their waterproofs on the Offa’s Dyke path. Lunch at Gospel Pass Still smiling at the finish

ICT and Business Faculty News

Please remember to update the School Office of any changes to contact numbers especially mobile phones.

Chipping Sodbury Lions have once again been very generous in sponsoring our teams and we will be collecting for them at the Chipping Sodbury carnival.

If you would like to follow our teams during the event, then regular updates will appear on the Ten Tors website at http://www.ex.ac.uk/tentors.

Ms Jarvis Ten Tors Team Manager

We run a drop-in session on a Wednesday after school in C1, which is available to all students. This can be used to ask questions about any ICT and Business work, catch-up on coursework or to use the computers for homework. The following students have been awarded ICT and Business “Geek” of the week for the week beginning 19th March 2010 Year 7 – Jodie Hood Year 8 – Will Mason Year 9 – Gemma Rallison Year 10 – Zoe Paraskeva Year 11 – Ayesha Davies Sixth Form – Sabina Wiltshire Well done everyone! Please come and see me for your prize if you haven’t received it yet. Ms Jarvis Head of ICT and Business

5

Expressive Arts Faculty News Samba Workshop – Wed 24th February The Hall rang to the sound of Samba on Year 7 International Day. Our students thoroughly enjoyed exploring Brazilian music under the tutelage of Andy Warn from The Crotchet Factory. South Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra – Music for Youth Well done to Bradley Parker, Year 12, who performed with the South Gloucestershire Youth Orchestra at Mu-sic for Youth in Cheltenham on Saturday March 6th. The group played a varied programme and received good feedback from the judges! Music Service Spring Festival – March 2010 We are just coming to the end of a Spring Festival organised by the Music Service. Bradley Parker, Matthew Hunter, Rebecca Woodington, Charlotte White, Christopher Marx, Peter Rogers and Jack Bateman have all participated in a range of Playing Days and showed their skills off in a Colston Hall Concert on Friday 19th March. Yate and Sodbury Schools Concert – Friday 26th March at the Colston Hall Our bi-annual locality concert involving students from right across the age and ability range took place on 26th March. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for everyone involved and the students from Chipping Sod-bury who participated were a credit to themselves!

Mrs William-Jones Head of Expressive Arts Faculty

6

Physical Education Faculty News Summer Extra Curricular Clubs Monday – Tennis Coaching with Chipping Sodbury Tennis Club - Starting on Mon 17th May (20 places available £10)

- Primary Club Night Tuesday – All Years Girls Rounders

- All Years Boys Cricket Wednesday – Rounders & Cricket Match Night Thursday – All Years Girls Athletics (til May half term) & Open Court Tennis - Cricket Match Night PE Faculty Staff Chipping Sodbury U13 Cricket vs Winterbourne Academy The first match of the cricket season welcomed Winterbourne Academy U13 team to Chipping Sodbury. Winterbourne won the toss and chose to put Sodbury into bat. Winterbourne had a couple of very fast and ac-curate bowlers, who quickly made their mark on the game. After just two overs Sodbury found themselves on 7 for 2 wickets. Jack Thacker and Will Mason helped to halt Winterbourne’s bowlers and produced some excel-lent shots. The best partnership of the day (21) came from captain, George Walker and Ross Cox. After playing them-selves in, they started to relax and play some outstanding shots. Eventually their wickets fell, leaving our inex-perienced ‘tail ender’ batters to add a few more runs to the score. Sodbury finished their innings with a score of 54 all out. With a small target to defend of only 54, it was going to be a hard task for the boys. The Winterbourne opening pair were very strong and soon started to hunt down the 55 runs required to win. Jack Thacker bowled very accurately without any reward. Walker and Cox managed a wicket each, however, the pick of the bowlers was Callum Davidge who bowled very consistently, picking up a wicket which wicket keeper Pete Rogers held onto. Winterbourne finally reached their total finishing on 55 for 4 with 9 overs to spare. Although the team lost there were many positives to take from the game and with training underway on Tuesday nights the team will con-tinue to improve. Mr J Bowden Year 11 BETEC Students A selection of Year 11 Students completed the Sports Leader element of their BETEC Sports Programme by inviting all Year 3 & 4 pupils form St Johns Mead School to participate in a Multi skills event in the Gym. It was a mass of activity and all involved performed well. The Year 3 & 4 pupils worked very hard and with great spirit and the Year 11 students were able to demonstrate their leadership skills in a relaxed and confident manner……all passing with flying colours! Fiona Deans SSCO

7

A training opportunity for adults CIEH Level 2 Award in Food Safety in Catering Due to the success and popularity of the course last year we are running another day of food hygiene train-ing this academic year on Thursday 1st July 2010. The course will cost £19.50 and will be one full day of training 9am-3pm followed by a multiple choice exam, lunch will be provided. This course may appeal to anyone who wishes to work in catering, food service, food retail or for others who are interested in improving their knowledge of food hygiene. A food hygiene certificate at this level is a statu-tory requirement for any person who works in food handling or preparation. This course would usually cost around £100 but we are able to offer the course for £19.50 in school. Suc-cessful candidates will receive an industry recognised certificate from the Chartered Institute of Environ-mental Health. For further information or to book a place, contact me on; nicola.finch@chippingsodburyschool.com or ring (01454) 862900 Nicola Finch Teacher of Food Technology

19:00 – 20:30, 5th May, Hanham High School, Hanham 19:00 – 20:30, 6th May, Patchway Community School, Patchway 19:00 – 20:30, 10th May, Kingsfield School, Kingswood 19:00 – 20:30, 11th May, Downend School, Downend

All venues open to South Gloucestershire parents

8

Mighty Fine Linguist Awards – March and April 2010

This award recognises outstanding effort and/or achievement in language learning. March 2010

Year 7 - Connor Pierce (French) Year 8 - Megan Bond (German/French) Year 9 - Louise King (German) Year 10 - Gareth Barnaby (German) Year 11 - Matt Lewis (Spanish/German)

April 2010

Year 7 - Nadia Cocking (French) Year 8 - Charlotte Butcher (French) Year 9 - Tom Blackmore (German) Year 10 - Rebecca Woodington (French) Year 11 - Jamie Pearson (French)

Well done to these students and to all the others who were nominated.

Linguists of the Fortnight:

22 February-5 March 2010 8-19 March 2010 Katie Craythorne - Year 8 Florence Langridge - Year 7 Tyler Heal - Year 8 Anna Ball - Year 8 Lawrence Cann - Year 9 Floe Hillson - Year 8 Nicole Hann - Year 9 Keeley Thorne - Year 8 Callum Carter - Year 10 22 March-2 April 2010 Maria Sidwick - Year 11 Katie Hellen - Year 7 Oliver Williams - Year 7 Gemma Ferris - Year 9 Jade Rowe - Year 9 April Welch - Year 9

Modern Foreign Languages Faculty

9

Year 9 visit to Strasbourg and the Black Forest – July 2010 We will be holding an information evening for students who are taking part in this visit on Wednesday 16th June at 7pm in the Drama Hall. Students, parents and carers are invited to come along to find out final details about the visit. Please bring your son/daughter’s passport and valid European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) to the meeting. Reminder – Please check that student passports will be valid to travel in July 2010.

The Medical Room We would really appreciate it if students who feel ill do not by-pass the systems we have and phone home themselves, as this not only breaks our mobile phone policy but also ensures that staff within school are put in a difficult position. Students should go to the medical room to see a first aider who will then make the decision if parents need to be contacted. We would also politely remind parents that vomiting and diarrhoea cases should be kept at home for 48 hours after the last bout of illness. Mrs Rowlands Assistant Headteacher

School Uniform and Lost Property The uniform shop is open for collection of orders on Monday, Wednesday & Friday at break time (11.10 - 11.30am) The lost property cupboard is open Tuesday and Thursday at break time (11.10 - 11.30am) for students to look for lost property Any items that are named will be returned to the rightful owner! Mrs Smith i/c School Uniform

10

Teenage Pregnancy The national teenage pregnancy strategy has teamed up with Brook and Parentline Plus to run consultations on sex and relationships education with both young people and parents. We want to ensure that South Gloucester-shire has a big voice in this and ask that parents and students complete the consultation and share their opin-ions. Your thoughts will help inform government policy. All contributions will be anonymous. For young people: The survey is available on Brook’s website at www.brook.org.uk/haveyoursay and results will inform the next phase of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy. The survey is for all young people aged 11-18 and will ask their thoughts about the information, advice and sup-port that would help them make safe and healthy decisions, as well as their views on sex and relationships edu-cation and sexual health/contraceptive services. For parents: Teenage pregnancy rates have fallen to the lowest level for over 20 years. But more needs to be done to help young people build the knowledge and confidence to delay early sex and to use contraception and condoms effectively. Parents and carers play a vital role - so the Government is working with Parentline Plus. The survey is quick and easy to do and completely anonymous. Visit the website here: http://www.gotateenager.org.uk/default.aspx?page=survey Kind Regards, Rhiannon Holder Teenage Pregnancy Project Worker for South Gloucestershire

11

Celebration of Achievement We know that many students outside of school achieve in ways that make you very proud. We would love to share these moments and so have decided to attach a slip for you to let us know if anything significant happens in your child’s life.

For example, completed a 5km run, survived a parachute jump, raised money for charity, gained Grade 5 music theory, played in a youth orchestra, had a poem published, won a competition, filled boxes for the Christmas appeal, was the carnival princess.

Please return the slips to their Head of Learning, Student Co-ordinator or tutor.

Thanks in advance

Mrs K Rowlands & Mrs L Leader Assistant Headteachers ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

Please return to: Head of Learning/ Student Coordinator/Tutor)

Student’s name ……………………………………………………………………..Tutor Group………………..

Details of celebration

Parents’ name…………………………………………………………………….

Date…………………………………………..

12

2 May Y10 Ten Tors Training 3 May MAY BANK HOLIDAY 7/9 May Y10 Ten Tors Expedition, Dartmoor 10 May Summer Examinations until 30th June 14 May AS Examinations start 20 May Y8 PARENTS’ EVENING 28 May MUFTI DAY - Last Day of Term 5 7 June First day of Term 6 Modular Mathematics Examinations 8 June Ardeche Visit Parents’ Meeting 9 June Y7 Camp Parents’ Information Evening 11 June Modular Mathematics Examinations 14 June Y8 Cross Curricular Day 2 15 June Chipping Sodbury Festival School Concert 16 June South Gloucestershire Schools Athletics Y9 Strasbourg Visit Parents Briefing 17 June Chipping Sodbury Festival Lunchtime Concert Chipping Sodbury Festival Evening Concert 18 June INSET DAY 21 June A2 teaching starts 23 June 2010 New Intake Induction Day 1 2010 New Intake Parents’ Evening 24 June 2010 New Intake Induction Day 2 28 June Post 16 Induction 30 June School Production

School Term Dates for 2009/2010 School Year

TERM 5 Monday 19 April 2010 - Friday 28 May 2010

TERM 6

Monday 7 June 2010 - Friday 23 July 2010

Dates for your diary

Chipping Sodbury School Bowling Road Chipping Sodbury Bristol, BS37 6EW Tel. 01454 862900 E-mail: enquiries@chippingsodburyschool.com

Useful Contacts Name Position

Mr P Lidstone Headteacher

Ms J Passco Head’s PA

Mr D Hinkins Deputy Head

Ms K Turner Deputy Head

Mrs L Leader Assistant Head

Mrs K Rowlands Assistant Head

Mrs A Magham Assistant Head

Mr R Blacker Business Manager

Mrs L Broad Head of Learning Y6/7

Mrs J Strange Student Coordinator Y6/7

Mr C Whitfield Head of Learning Y8/9

Ms S Stone Student Coordinator Y8/9

Mrs D Clarke Head of Learning Y10/11

Mr R Wathen Student Coordinator Y10/11

Ms G Hilleard Head of Learning Post 16

Mr G Hill Head of Student Engagement Post 16

Mr K Mellens Head of Design and Technology

Mr M Sayers Head of English

Mrs A William-Jones Head of Expressive Arts

Miss H Kenyon Head of Humanities

Ms L Jarvis Acting Head of ICT/Business

Mr J Poole Head of Inclusion

Ms M Moult Head of Maths

Ms D Bryan Acting Head of Modern Foreign Languages

Miss C Maggs Head of Physical Education

Mr M Stow/ Dr J Lewthwaite

Joint Heads of Science

Mr M Marsh SENCO

Student Absence Line:

01454 862952

INSET DAYS for the remainder of 2009/2010

Friday 18 June 2010