Marriotts Weekly News Aim high. Work hard. Be kind. 15th February 2019

Dear Parents, Carers, Students and Families As we reach the end of another busy half term, I would like to thank all students for their efforts over the last 6 weeks, all parents for their on-going support and all staff for their incredible hard work to ensure that Marriotts students, aim high, Work hard and are kind. It was fantastic to see some of you at our Freedom from Abuse event this week. Please see below for more information. Congratulations to all our sporting teams for their victories over the last week. Next half term is a busy one for all students, but particularly for Year 8 who select their options (deadline Friday 1st March), plus Year 11 and 13 who begin the final run up to their GCSEs and A Levels. Reminder to Year 8 parents that we have Parents’ Evening on Thursday 28th February. I hope that all students and staff enjoy a well-deserved break and come back raring to go next half term. Take care and stay safe. Kind regards Ms B Honnor Headteacher

Word of the Week As part of the school's drive to advance the reading skills of every student we are focusing on broadening vocabulary by teaching key academic words explicitly in class. To support this, we have introduced a 'Word of the Week' (WOW) that features key, high-frequency words used by all faculties across the school. The aim is to use these words as much as possible to ensure that the precise meaning is embedded to allow students to use these words accuracy in academic writing and talk in their subjects. Please support your child and the school by using this word at home and challenging your child to use it accurately. The WOW for w/c 28th January is: achieve

To successfully reach a goal/outcome through effort, skill or courage.

Example: She achieved her ambition to go to university

Message from Marilyn Hawes who delivered the Freedom from Abuse event this week Thank you so much for inviting me in on Monday and looking after me so well. I was so very impressed by your school. "I had the absolute pleasure to be in school on Monday 11th February to train all pupils, staff and parents on identifying behaviours and taking responsibility with critical thinking and about staying safe off and online. I was incredibly impressed. The building is awesome in what it offers for students, as a modern state of the art, light open, airy space: the perfect learning environment. Managing 1400 young people is a huge task and yet everyone knew what was expected of them and behaved in a quiet, calm style. The discipline was superb without shouting, which was a joy to

see. I had a fantastic day and thank you all for your hospitality. Keep up the good work. Great things ARE happening in Stevenage and you are an example of it - well done !!" The parents’ event was excellent and so many questions - very encouraging and the turnout was fantastic. I have other evening events at Stevenage schools if any parents, who could not attend the Marriotts event, would like to attend I am sure other Headteachers won’t mind. 21st March - Nobel School, 6.00-7.00pm 7th May - Almond Hill Primary School, 6.00-7.00pm 10th June - The Leys Primary School, time tbc 11th June - Lodge Farm Primary School, 6.30-8.00pm

Safeguarding Many thanks to all our parents who came to the Freedom from Abuse talks, we have had a very positive response to these talks from students, staff and parents. As a school we think it is vital that we work together with the wider school community to ensure the safety of our students and we would like to summarise some of the key messages below. Online

Know who you are talking to online

Have a strong password (at least 12 characters long)

Report anything of concern

Be mindful of the images you post over social media Another key message from our Freedom from Abuse talks is to be aware of peer on peer abuse. Increasingly the danger to young people can be those their own age who can befriend young people with the aim of getting them involved in gang related activity. Please ensure your child takes this risk seriously, know who their friends are and that they always inform you of where they are.

Year 12 trip to the University of Cambridge On Thursday 7th February, 10 Year 12 students, who are each studying A-levels in at least two of Chemistry, Physics and Maths, attended a Natural Sciences taster day at the University of Cambridge. The students had a great time being part of the University for the day. The attended six lectures each, had lunch with the University students and looked around the Cavendish Museum where they saw the actual apparatus Maxwell used to investigate the viscosity of gases in the 1860s and were mesmerised by the cloud chamber, which showed evidence for all sorts of different particles. The lectures were designed to make everybody try something new and think about areas where different scientific disciplines meet. The favourite lectures included Professor Derek Smith, who is one of the ten people in the world who decided which strain of flu goes in the vaccination each year and a talk about antigenic cartography - a way of mapping the evolution of the flu virus using computing and mathematics. The students also enjoyed Dr Oliver Shorttle’s talk, from the Earth Sciences and Astronomy department, about discovering exo-planets and what they can tell us about the Earth and volunteering to help with demonstrations during a lecture on Li-Fi - a new idea for Wi-Fi using light. The students left the visit feeling inspired about possible course choices at University and thinking about which University they each may like to apply to.

Yestermorrow – an Erasmus Project

Over the last 3 years Marriotts has been involved in an Erasmus project together with 5 other schools from Poland, Romania, Italy, Spain and Sweden. We met up in each of the countries twice, once for a planning meeting and once for a meeting with students. Each time, we took a different group of students from Marriott, each in Year 10. They had to write an application saying why they would like to come along and how they could positively contribute to the experience.

The project investigated the effects of the wars in the different countries. Students researched different aspects of this topic and presented their findings to each other. They became more aware of what our parents and grandparents went through after the war. They saw many similarities between the countries and also some differences. At the same time, students from all countries had a great time together with organised activities which helped to understand the other countries’ cultures. All students said that the experience was a life changing opportunity and they came home knowing a lot more about other parts of the world. The second part of our project dealt with the topic of trauma. We looked at trauma people

faced after the war, but mainly we looked at dealing with trauma in school. This was led by an expert on trauma in children from Switzerland. We produced a children’s book together which can be used with traumatised children and received training on this, which was disseminated to many members of staff in all the participating schools. We looked at procedures for inclusion in the different countries. Students and staff learned a lot from each other. We saw what Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Polish and Swedish schools are like. There are many big differences, there were more and less privileged schools, more and less difficult hurdles to overcome for students, but a passion for learning shone through from all alike. Not just in school situations, but also learning about life and culture. We are very proud that we could give this opportunity to Marriotts students and will endeavour to create more projects like this in the future. We now have the International School Award as a result of taking part of this project. If you would like more information on the project, the different schools, student presentations etc. please go to: www.yestermorrow.eu

Mrs A Taylor and Mrs B Radenhausen

Our visit to Ceuta

2016 with Mrs Taylor

Our final visit to Sweden 2018

with Ms Radenhausen

Our students visit Romania in 2017

with Miss Slade

Rising Futures Since October 9 students have taken part in the Rising Futures Programme to build their confidence, self-awareness and resilience. The students have finished the programme this week and made a presentation of the lessons they had learnt and things they had been doing. The programme has been a great success and the boys have represented the school to an extremely high standard. We would like to congratulate the following and praise them for their amazing achievement: Mitchell, Harvey, Jayden, Lewis, Billy, Junior, Owen, Ashton and Archie.

Sport Sports Hall Athletics Championships On Thursday 14th February 9 of our Year 7 students were selected to represent Marriotts in the Sports Hall Athletics Championships. Our students were commended on for being the most respectful, positive and well behaved school on the day. The students participated in a range of field and track events. The Year 7 boys won the competition and have now progressed to the next round of the County Championships next month. The Year 7 girls came in a very close second after a tremendous effort! Congratulations and well done to: Callum, Max, Harrison, Dominic, Priase, Hannah, Carmen, Ella and Lois.

Swimming Gala

We had the Secondary Schools Swimming Gala last night and all of our students participating won medals for their events!

Sophie - Silver (Junior 50m Backstroke)

Jessica - Gold (Inter 50m Backstroke)

Daisy - Bronze (Inter 25m Butterfly)

Heather - Bronze (Junior 25m Butterfly)

Josh - Gold (Senior 50m Butterfly)

Marriotts Girls Swim team - Silver (Freestyle relay)

Phoebe - Bronze (Junior 50m Freestyle)

Louie - Bronze (Junior 50m Freestyle)

Alesio - Gold (Senior 50m Freestyle)

The students were once again a credit to the school showing fantastic sportsmanship, respect and effort. The students put on a fantastic team display with younger students swimming up to help in relays, which gained us a Silver medal. Well done all!

Rewards and Recognition Teachers regularly issue Achievement Points to students who are Aiming High, Working Hard or Being Kind. Rewards and recognition of achievement are given out through Achievement Points, which are given each week we would like to congratulate the following students who have received Green and Yellow slips. Green Slips We would like to congratulate the following students who have received a Green Slip up to 15th February.

Rhianna F 7A Zack T 7D Leo C 8A Ciaran H 9E Owen F 10F

Brooke G 7A Louie B 7E Archie S 8A Emily S 9E Felicia S 10H

Abbie H 7A Carl C 7E Harrison C 8B Junya B 9F Jesse I 7A Riaz C 7E Chelsea-Jean G 8B Leah C 9F Hope K 7A Keira H 7E Dylan H 8B Sasha S 9F Ebony C 11C

Harrison M 7A Shanaia L 7E Kenny M 8B Matthew D 9H Erik C 11C

Jimmy A 7B Michael M 7E Danielle N 8B Dominic F 9H Abbielilah D 11C

Hollie C 7B Aimee P 7E Isla W 8B Alana H 11C

Ashley M 7B Jessica S 7E Shea O 8D Gabriel L 11C

Avidan A 7C Emilia W 7E Breyden B 8E Amelia S 10A Kie W 11D

Oliver B 7C Keenan B 7F Caine R 8E Joshua A 10B Molly L 11G

Abbie C 7C Louie P 7F Jamie C 8G Libbi H 10B Jocelyn C 7C Kristi W 7F Shadice M 8G Jake L 10B Hannah C 7C Amy G 7G Hope M 8G Justin O 10B Eloise F 7C Samad M 7G Rohail A 8H Lois W 10B Alissa H 7C Victoria R 7G Harry D 8H Ayaan A 10C Harry H 7C Dennis R 7G Shirley O-A 8H Madison H 10C Bailey-Rae N 7C Sammi-Jo T 7G

Frances M 10C William O 7C Jared T 7G

Edward R 10C Gracie P 7C Jack A 7H Alfie C 9A Chloe B 10D Ellie-May R 7C Sophia D 7H Daniel F 9A Morgan C 10D Kya S 7C Luke G 7H Bailey H 9C Eleanor H 10D Makenzie S 7C Praise M 7H Emily P 9C Tamara I 10D Mitchal W 7C Mollie S 7H Charlotte C 9D Nathan P 10E Charlie W 7C Olivia Y 7H Sophie H 9E Tilly R 10E Cleo W 7C

Dates for your Diary 2018/19 Half term holiday: Monday 18 February – Friday 22 February Thursday 28 February – Year 8 Parents’ Evening, 4-7pm Friday 8 March – Inset Day – school closed to students Friday 5 April – last day of term, normal school day Easter holiday: Monday 8 April – Monday 22 April 2019 Tuesday 23 April – First day of term (Week 2)

Thursday 2 May – Year 10 Parents’ Evening Monday 6 May – Bank Holiday – school closed Half term holiday: Monday 27 May 2019 – Friday 31 May 2019 Monday 3 – Friday 7 June – Year 10 Work Experience Thursday 20 June – Year 9 Parents’ Evening Thursday 4 July – Year 11 Prom, Knebworth Barns Monday 8 July – Year 6 Transition Evening, 6-8pm Thursday 11 July – Year 6 Transition Day Friday 12 July – Sports Day Monday 15 July – Presentation Evening, 6-8pm Friday 19 July – last day of term