THE COTSWOLD SCHOOL

Bourton-on-the-Water

Gloucestershire GL54 2BD

Tel: 01451 820554 Fax: 01451 810658

e-mail: admin@mail.cotswold.gloucs.sch.uk The C

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An ‘Outstanding’ 11-18 School, Ofsted 2009

Specialist Language College, since 2002

DfES Leading Edge School, since 2004

Specialist Science College, since 2006

Mrs Monk, who deserves a massive thank you herself for putting on such a superb production, commented: “Following on from the success of ‘Godspell’ last year, our young people have excelled them-selves. Their commitment and hard work shows how well they respond to the discipline involved in putting on a demanding show for a paying au-dience. Well done everybody!”

Sell-out audiences acclaim stunning production of Little Shop of Horrors

The school hall was packed for three evenings just before half term as a cast of 30 pupils taken from Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 wowed audiences with their superb production of the musical Little Shop of Horrors. Everybody worked hard on this show – and commitment and flexibility were really important after the snow days cut down on rehearsal times. Our principals were outstanding - Conrad Godfrey (Seymour), Ruby Young (Audrey), Henry Fothergill (Mr Mushnik), Ben Pearson (the Dentist), Nathan John (the Plant), and Bertie Edwards-Moss (the TV producer).

“Breathtaking !”

This show’s exciting but difficult musical score was sung by the Divas (Lucy Gibbs, Izzy Harper, Ellie Bearcroft, Faye McKeever, Laura See, Nickie Hughes, Vicky Neville, Jodie Tyack and Clodagh Ogden), our team of nine talented fe-male backing singers who sang wonderful close harmony backing vocals, accompanied by the show’s band the Skid Row Six (Alex Elliot, Jim Dee, Tim Godfrey, Rob Bygrave, Oscar Meyrick and Mr Briggs). The production also boasted a versatile chorus who sang and danced their way through several challenging numbers. Thank you to Mr Briggs for his masterly musical direction.

On the technical side this was a difficult show to produce so we are grateful to everyone who worked on the lighting and sound desks, including Mrs Gummery, Dr Cox, Mrs Hamlet, Oli Gummery, Will Fisher, Alex Kennedy and Louis LeBreuilly. Thanks also to our backstage crew, led by Jess Smith as stage manager who did a wonderful job in ensuring that everything ran smoothly. And as always there was a small army of people involved in preparing for the show and working backstage and front of house on the night – a big drama department THANK YOU to all of you.

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Congratulations to: • Molly Birchmore who has recently

been selected for the U15 South West North Rugby team. A great achievement, well done!

• Georgie Read for her selection in the U13 Satellite Academy

• Andrew Scull who competed at the NIA in the Birmingham Games recently. He came 3rd in both of his races, gaining Personal Best times in the 200m (24.5 seconds) and 400m(53.26 seconds).

Business Enterprise Club Three teams of budding entrepreneurs have taken on the challenge of running their own businesses through the weekly Business Enter-prise Club run by Mrs Gregory and Miss Hanks.

The Nice-Cream Ice cream Company (Josh Aberson Y8, Josh Pearson Y8, Charles Gregory Y7, Brendan Mann Y7 and Tom Minns Y7) have been selling delicious, fair trade ice cream at school production, such as Little Shop of Horrors and the Jazz Eve-ning. They are also shining shoes on a Friday lunchtime, under the canopy, to keep the cash rolling in. They have so far made £350 profit. Well done boys!

'The Washer Boys,' a car cleaning and valet service for staff and sixth formers is led by Ja-mie Lomas Y7. This service has been ham-pered by the extreme weather conditions, but Jamie hopes to resume his service shortly when the weather warms up, if ever!

'Feel Real' run by partners, Theo Munroe and Joe Cobert , Y9, is a clothing company selling bespoke tee-shirts and hoodies. The boys can organise embroidery or letter printing to your design, such as the splendid Little Shop of Horrors tee-shirts worn by the cast and helpers. The boys now have samples to show future customers the quality and finish of their product and are putting a catalogue together of sizes and prices for potential customers.

Most businesses start out from a hobby, interest or skill. You might be able to turn your talent into a real business. So please come along to Room 6.1 on a Monday lunchtime at 1.15pm, to discuss your ideas with Mrs Gregory or Miss Hanks. All years welcome.

January Jazz is Just Fantastic A packed house enjoyed musicianship of the highest order last month at our very first jazz evening. “January Jazz” was a showcase for the school jazz band Back in Black and every-thing else jazz-related going on at school.

The hall was transformed with candle-lit café style seating, the bar was open early so the au-dience could enjoy a drink during the show (in true jazz club style…) and we enjoyed a whole range of styles and traditions – from Acker Bilk to Miles Davis.

There were so many won-derful performances it is difficult to pick out high-lights – but some of the most memorable items were Ornithology featur-ing Will Ingram (Y13), a beautiful rendition of Ten-derly by Amy Hayes (Y11), vocal solos by Izzy Harper (Y12), Alice Sidg-wick (Y11) and Sarah Frosh (Y9), piano solos by Gemma Fifield (Y13) and Sophie Mustoe (Y11), and the clarinet and sax ensembles. Special thanks goes to our house band for the evening – thank you Alex Elliott, Oscar Mey-rick (both Y11), Liz Murray (Y13), and Charlie Meyrick (Y9) – not forgetting Mrs Hamlet, who put the eve-ning together for us.

Year 7 Music Showcase We are really looking forward to this event on Thursday 11th March. To help promote the Showcase we held a poster competition, won by Poppy Bridgwater (well done!) whose design is now being used around the school. Beatrice Durante’s design was our runner-up and this is being used on the tickets themselves—which are now available for purchase from Pupil Reception.

Sixth Form Auction of Promises On Wednesday 24th March, the Sixth Form will be staging an Auction of Promises to raise money for The James Hopkins Trust and Helen and Douglas House, both of which provide local hospice care for terminally ill children. We would like this event to be as special as possible and so if you think that you could donate to this won-derful event, please contact Rory and Alana on: cotswoldschoolauction@hotmail.com Alternatively if you cannot donate but would like to attend, please contact the above email ad-dress to request tickets which are free of charge. We hope to hear from you soon—thank you. Alana Powell & Rory Goodman

Language College News

This is a very busy and exciting half term for Mod-ern Foreign Languages at The Cotswold School. Our 5-week adult language classes will start on Tuesday evenings. The first Spanish class is on March 2

nd from 7- 8.30 pm. (Follow the pink arrows

to the MFL department). French starts on April 20th

and it looks as if Italian has become a viable group since we last went to press – this would be after Easter and I will confirm in the next few weeks. Secondly we have the second of our Language Play trilogy when the German actors of Onnatti visit us to perform. Our Languages at Work day takes place on March 4

th when we aim to show our

year 9 pupils how languages and the world of work go hand in hand. The French exchange students will be with us from 5

th -12

th March and we will be going over to

France from 23rd

to the 30th March.

We are delighted also that we now have a viable group for an Italian trip and will therefore be off to Tuscany in October half-term holiday. Mr Edwards is currently marketing his Sixth Form trip to Ber-lin and Krakow and the MFL department will shortly be advertising France 2011 and Rhine-land 2011. Meanwhile there are still a few places available on the German exchange and the Italy trips so see Mrs Hudson if you are interested. Year 11 are making excellent progress towards success, whether on GCSE or on NVQ courses. We have organised some sessions for those pupils who still need to top up their course-work portfolio and you will have received a letter if this involves your child. Please do your best to ensure they come to the session as it could signifi-cantly improve their final grade. Our brilliant Language Leaders (Louise King, Rebecca Bowran, Kieran Wiseman, Jessie Hon-nor, Tabitha Brown, Ellie Bearcroft, Milly Chapple, Kirstie Guest, Charli Porter, Amy Lyons, Kirsty Manning, Shannon Hitchman and Callum Haseler) have been promoting languages and developing people’s interest in them. They have amongst other things taken part in Open Day, where they helped to run the Languages Café and talked to parents about languages here at Cotswold. Up-coming events that they will be involved in, include the Year 9 Languages at Work Day, where they will run a special assembly. We are looking forward to hosting our 22 Chinese visitors from Souzhou International School after Easter. We still need several families willing to host a Chinese pupil for either half a term or the whole summer term. Pupils can travel on the buses, and will attend school during the week. They will be on tour during halfterm. Fami-lies are paid £100 a week. This is a one off oppor-tunity which promises to be really rewarding. If you would like more details please contact Miss Rodda at school as soon as possible.

Science College News

National Science and Engineering Week 12th – 21st March National Science and Engineering Week (NSEW) is a ten day programme of science, engineering and technology events and activities across the UK aimed at people of all ages. This year's theme is 'Earth' in support of International Year of Biodiversity and in-cludes everything from the Earth's amazing wildlife and people to its place in the Universe and how it works. Get nature-spotting with the What on Earth Project and find out what events are happening near you at: whatonearth.org.uk We will be celebrating this in school with lots of activities such as ‘Science is Fun for Par-ents’, poetry writing in English, designing space equipment for visiting other worlds in Art and competitions including ‘Endanger Ranger’. Details will be in tutor groups soon!

After-School Science & Engineering The latest group of enthusiastic students have been very busy developing their scientific and engineering skills. Tack-ling a light-house con-struction challenge proved an enlightening initial experi-ence. Since then they have been busy investigating the physics of toys with Mr Kemp, and testing some sand yacht racers. They have also used their com-puter-aided design skills to produce a digital camera with Mr Smith. Further egg-citing activi-ties will follow in the run up to Easter.

Lunchtime Science Club Science Club continues to grow in popularity with students engaged in a diverse and fun range of activities. So far this term they have

investigated the flight of helicopters, the forma-tion of clouds, foam pro-duction, eggficient cooking and disappear-ing worms!

Congratulations to all those who attend so regularly, including: Luke Pawley, Henry Yates, Jessie Kettlewell, Alistair Wilson, Felicity Brooker, Hannah Cairns, James Twin, Michael Johnson, Vanessa Evans, Edwin Greves, Tegan Saunders, Alexander Woodd and Naomi Fearon.

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Holocaust Memorial Day Holocaust Memorial day occurs on 27 January every year; marking the day Auschwitz Birkenau was liberated 65 years ago. This year the theme was ‘Legacy of Hope’.

Assemblies both in Upper and Lower School were held where pupils heard survivor’s testimo-nies of their experiences. They were given a chance to reflect and think about their ‘Hope for the Future’ which they then wrote anonymously on paper. These thoughts are now displayed in the shape of candles in the school’s foyer and include such comments as ‘I hope for a world where differences are celebrated and not dis-criminated against’ and ‘I hope people learn to accept others and share’. We hope the pupils are proactive in making these wishes come true. On Wednesday 3

rd February the school also

planted a tree to remember the persecution that occurred 65 years ago and still occurs in places today. This is the second year the school has marked this occasion in this way and once again the pupils were impeccably behaved; they were a credit to themselves and the school in their thoughtfulness and their ability to reflect on what was one of the most horrific events in history.

We would like to thank the pupils for their attendance, behaviour and attitude and to Miss Moody and Mr Webb for organising the tree-planting.

Book Week 2010: 1st-5th March This year Book Week has teamed up with our Science department for a spectacular 'Earth’ theme.

Besides the annual free £1 book tokens, story and poem competitions, fancy dress, literary speakers, storytellers and quizzes that happen every year, this year we have a new KS3 book club, Book readings and hot chocolate in the library, a Year 10 Macbeth workshop, an Eng-lish language Conference and numerous speakers. These noted speakers include Dr Peter Williams talking about snails; Lilie Ferrari on 'Creative Writing'; Anthea Dickie talking to some Year 7 Geographers, Julia Melvin (Prince Charles' archivist); Fiona Castle talking about 'Living Simply' and Selena Hastings, the biographer.

What a line up! Please encourage everyone to dress up as their favourite book character on Tuesday the 2nd of March and don't forget to spend those free book vouchers

Sport Relief Week:15th-19

th March

There are lots of events happening in school this year for Sports Relief and we would like to raise as much money as possible for really worthwhile causes through taking part in sport. If you would like to add any ideas to the busy schedule already planned, please see Miss Hemming as soon as possible. Monday 15th March: Year 11 Fun Run Mile, Year 7 Fundraising events (lunchtime) Tuesday 16th March: Year 11 GCSE PE Fundraiser, Year 10 Fun Run Mile, Year 8 Fundraising events (lunchtime) Wednesday 17th March: Year 12/13 Fun Run Mile, Year 10 GCSE PE Fundraiser, Year 9 Fundraising events (lunchtime) Thursday 18th March: Year 11 GCSE PE Fundraiser, Year 10 GCSE PE Fundraiser, Year 10 Fundraising events (lunchtime) Friday 19th March: Years 7, 8, & 9 Fun Run Mile (during PSHE), Year 11 Fundraising event (lunchtime) , Staff vs. Student netball match (boys and girls!) Please support as many events as possible.

DIARY DATES — March 2010 Monday 1st March Book Week begins

Tuesday 2nd March Non-Uniform Day— dress as your favourite book character!

Thursday 4th March Year 9 Languages at Work Day; Year 9 Options Evening

Monday 8th March Science and Engineering Week begins

Thursday 11th March Year 7 Music Showcase

Friday 12th March Year 10 Reports to Parents

Wednesday 17th March Year 12/13 Parents’ Evening

Friday 26th March Year 7 Reports to Parents

Thursday 1st April Break-up for Easter holiday, 2pm

Tuesday 23rd March Year 8 Parents’ Evening

Thursday 25th March Cotswold Partnership Swimming Gala, am