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NewsletterNewsletterNewsletterNewsletter December 2009

Issue 2Issue 2Issue 2Issue 2

‘Aiming for Excellence’Aiming for Excellence’Aiming for Excellence’Aiming for Excellence’

Above: Senior Prefects from last year’s Year 11 pictured with Guest Speaker, Ann Daniels, at the Springfield Awards Evening, held at the school in November (see article below). Right: Year 10 winners display their awards

Awards Evening

Awards Evening this year took place on Thursday 12th November and once again celebrated the outstanding results of last year’s Key Stage 3 and GCSE pupils. As is traditional, we had a special guest presenter who, this year, was polar explorer, Mrs Ann Daniels. After beginning the evening with a lovely piece of music, the Key Stage 3 prizes were presented. It was fantastic to see such an array of people being given their awards and we hope to see them all again receiving prizes after their GCSEs in two years’ time! We were then privileged enough to listen to a speech from our guest. Mrs Daniels told us how she had to undertake gruelling training, while having her young triplets at home, and how she was part of the first all-female team to walk to both poles. She described the freezing temperatures and explained how she would not have been where she was without sheer grit and determination. It was a very interesting and inspirational talk. We then moved on to the main part of the evening—the GCSE awards—which were presented by members of the local community. Again, it was delightful to see such a variety of people being recognised for their amazing achievements. Finally, to close the evening, we heard speeches from last year’s Head Boy, Head Girl and Senior Prefects, during which they presented a cheque for £500 to the school. Overall, it was a wonderful evening and a lovely celebration of everybody’s achievements. They truly have set the bar high for the current Year 9s and Year 11s! Emily Galloway—Deputy Head Girl

PORTSMOUTH TIDY SCHOOLS—SECONDARY SCHOOL WINNERS

In July 2009, Portsmouth City Council invited schools from the city to enter the Tidy Schools Competition, organised by Clean City Services of the Directorate of Environment and Transport and supported and sponsored by Colas, the street cleaning contractor. At the beginning of the Autumn Term, we informed the whole school that we would be entering the competition and that judging would take place by early October. Pupils worked hard to earn “Eco Credits” by making sure rubbish was binned, lights and monitors were turned off and paper was recycled. We also showed the judges our “Groundforce Project/Club” (vegetable growing) on the school site. As a result of the visit, we received a letter inviting two pupils to represent Springfield at the Lord Mayor’s Parlour, Portsmouth, on Wednesday 25th November. Aimee Archer (Year 9) and Aaron Bacon (Year 8) were delighted then to receive the Secondary School Category for Tidy Schools in Portsmouth Award (pictured right with Colin Ferrigan, our Site Assistant).

Mrs G Lewis—Facilities Manager

Year 9 Rugby

Well done to the Year 9 Rugby Team who came runners-up in the Portsmouth and Ha-vant Rugby Championship. They managed to win five games in a row before being beaten by a single try in their last game. The whole squad were fully committed giving their best throughout the entire afternoon of play. They were—and are—a credit to the school. The team: Francis Oldfield (Captain), Spencer Watkins, George Bateman, Ben Turner, Jor-dan Chappell, Alex Warwick, Bryn Rainford, Josh Newton, Jack Etherington, Tom Stone, Peter Harris, Alex Judd, Jack Rivington, Jack Mathews, Tom Follington, Josh Norris, and Mark Golledge. Mr M Snook—Subject Leader PE

BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE …BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE …BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE …BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE …

As you know, all the secondary schools in the city are part of a major capital investment project intro-duced by the DCSF to ensure that all school build-ings are fit for purpose and suitable to offer a 21st Century education to those in our communities. In February 2009 we made our Strategy for Change available to parents (please see BSF section of school website). This document describes how we plan to redevelop the school to achieve the BSF aims and respond to the local demand for additional spaces at Springfield School. The Governors have agreed to offer 240 places in each year group once the BSF project is complete, thus creating a school for 1200 pupils. It will not be possible to increase our admission limit until our building work is complete since large areas of the school will be “out of action” during the building project and we must plan to ensure that pupils attending during this period suffer minimal disruption to their learning. From January 2010 the serious planning for this major project begins. Building work is due to commence in the summer of 2012, so all key deci-sions and detailed plans have to be in place by early 2012. The governors have asked me to take on the Project Direction for BSF at Springfield given my detailed knowledge of the school and the highly suc-cessful strategic planning we have put in place during my thirteen years as Headteacher to date. I believe that this is such an important project for the school that I have agreed to dedicate a significant proportion of each working week to this task for at least the next two years. During the detailed planning stage I will be assisted by an additional senior staff member as my assistant director. That will enable me to retain the strategic lead of the school and remain at my desk as often as possible. However, I do ask that parents understand that I shall be “out of the office” or “in meetings” several days each week from now on and, therefore, less immediately available to respond to questions or concerns. My senior team will often take a lead on my behalf; they are each fully conversant with policy and practice which sustains the consistent approach I seek. I am totally confident that my staff and, in particular, those with leadership and management responsibilities, are “outstandingly” capable of continuing to run the school on a day to day basis. My total commitment to the future of this school remains guaranteed. I know that the most important way that I can demonstrate this is to lead our school through a challenging but potentially inspirational period for us all. The Governors and I shall be making further information available to all in our community in 2010. Watch this space!

Mrs Evans—Headteacher

Booster Grant Appeal—£2,500 so far

Thank you to:

♦ the families who have made a contribution to this appeal fund so far

♦ the pupils themselves who have donated £500 from their non-uniform day funds and the Class of ‘09, last year’s leavers, who presented us with £500 at their recent Awards Evening.

♦ local businesses listed below, who have made generous contributions: DJ Connolly—Building Services Engineers; GSF Sandylight Ltd; LST Projects; Master School Portraits; MJ Roper (Property Renovation) Ltd. If you want to help us move closer to our target, please send your donation in an enve-lope marked with your child’s name and tutor group. (Cheques should be made payable to: Springfield School Activities Trust ). Mrs C Kilgallon—Technology College Manager

PUPIL PERFORMANCE TARGETS: In 2007 we published a target of 60% for pupils who could achieve 5 good passes at GCSE including English and Maths. The result of 64% exceeded the target. At Key Stage 3 our target was for 81% of pupils to secure at least a level 5 in English and Maths—the outcome of 86% was excellent. Science too beat their target of 93%, with 94% of pupils earning a level 5 or better. Targets set for 2011: 5+ A*-C including English and Maths: 65% Percentage of pupils making good progress from KS2 to GCSE in English: 84% Percentage of pupils making good progress from KS2 to GSCE in Maths: 78% These figures are challenging and significantly above national standards. If we continue to work together - pupils, parents and staff - our pupils can achieve these very good outcomes.

Mrs L Evans—Headteacher Mr D Good—Chair of Governors

Pictured above: The Senior Leadership Team at Springfield

Mentoring success At a Business and Schools Awards Evening (for Portsmouth, Fareham and South East Hamp-shire) in October, I was delighted to witness Stewart Legg of South West Trains winning the award for Mentoring. As many of you may know, Stewart has given freely of his time and exper-tise to the school over a number of years and fully deserves this accolade. It was also pleasing to see several of our other mentors nominated for awards – namely, Colin Young (Chairman of Cranleigh Freight), Alison Slater (IBM) and David Morgan (BAE Systems). Mentoring can mean different things to different schools. For example, what is described as mentoring in some schools merely describes the good work that tutors and the Year Offices do through their effective daily interventions. Our pupils get that and more with a number of men-tors from business and the local community giving their valuable time and expertise for the pu-pils’ benefit. To us a mentor is another adult - not a parent or teacher - to whom the pupil can turn for advice and guidance. All our external mentors are, of course, CRB checked and receive mentor training from the school and other business agencies. They are carefully matched up by the Year Heads who know their pupils well and then regularly liaise with them. The issue of confidentiality is carefully assessed by our mentors, with the pupil’s safety being paramount. At its peak nearly one hundred pupils (mostly in Year 10 and 11) benefited from mentoring last year. They had a twenty to thirty minute visit into school from their external mentor every two weeks. Detailed analysis of the results of those pupils who were mentored over the last four years reveals that the vast majority of them achieve their target grades or more.

What do the mentors want in return? Just a simple ‘thank you’ from the pupils who benefited from this. I would like, on behalf of the school and Governors, to extend this to a great big ‘thank you’ to this group of unsung heroes working behind the scenes consistently and effectively to help make the school experi-ence your child has a positive one. Mr J Lomas—Assistant Headteacher

On Thursday 22nd October, a group of excited Key Stage 4 pupils got on board the coach; our destination: the Novello Theatre in the West End of London. We were really excited to be going to see a professional theatrical performance of the GCSE text ‘An Inspector calls’. It’s a great play, writ-ten by J B Priestley. In it, a family are interrupted during a celebratory dinner by a man calling himself Inspector Goole. He questions them all about their part in a young girl’s suicide. At the end of the play, we begin to realise that Inspector Goole may not have been real. He may have been a ghost or may even have been from the future, sent back to warn the family of the consequences of their thoughtless behaviour. The audience were enthralled by the quality of the acting; and the fact that the play was set during the period of World War Two (rather than the era in which it had originally been written) made it seem more pertinent to a modern audience. We had great seats, right at the front of the dress circle, which meant we could see every expression that crossed the actors’ faces. The staged rain effect and collapsing stage were amazing physical representations of what can happen when we do not take social responsibility for ourselves and others. I loved the glamour and glitz of the West End and would love to go again. The whole experience was fascinating. Alice Brookes and Henry Greenwood (10D)

Non-uniform money—November 2009: On Friday 20th Novem-

ber, all pupils paid £1 in order to wear blue in recognition of Anti-Bullying

Week. Over £1,000 was raised and the School Council decided to divide

it amongst these charities: NSPCC, Aqua Aid and Send a Smile.

Mrs Naylor also organised a Year 10 team to sell Fair Trade chocolate at

break time. This raised nearly £100 which went to the BBC Children in

Need appeal. Mr J Lomas—Assistant Headteacher

Above: Stewart Legg pictured with the boys he has mentored. Left to right: Steven Devenport, George Walkley, James Saunders

and Spencer Watkins (see article above right)

‘SKELLIG’: On 17th November, a coachload of Key Stage 3 students from Springfield went to see a new adaptation of David Almond’s award winning children’s book ‘Skellig’ at the Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.

The set design was weird! It was made up of random props such as tyres and bikes and was meant to look like an old storage garage near to

collapse.

The play itself is about a teenager called Michael who finds what he thinks is a homeless man in the dilapidated garage of his new house. He

soon becomes friends with a local girl called Mina and together they realise that Skellig is not really a man at all; he has wings growing out of

his shoulder blades and is able to fly. He becomes the children’s guardian angel.

The play was amazing. Although there were only nine actors taking part, they were all really believable. The performance was very emotional

in parts and funny in others, with an ending that keeps the audience guessing as to what really happened. The best £23 we have ever spent!

Imogen Fitzgerald and Oliver Brookes (7R and 7N)

Maths Matters!

Do you know that if a store has a SALE with 25% off and offers a further discount of 10%, the total discount you get is 32.5% and not 35%? (For those of you whose Maths is rusty, this is because the additional 10% is deducted from the already discounted price and not the original!) Springfield is very lucky to have a strong Maths Department which is not only nurturing pupils through their exams but also equip-ping them for the real world outside school. The above example comes from one of the lessons. Help is there for all ages and abilities from the Year 7 Breakfast Club (Friday Morning from 8.30am to 9.00am in the Conference Room) right through to the Homework Help Clinic (Tuesday after School 3.20pm to 4.20pm in C05) The progress of every child is carefully assessed through the school’s computer based monitoring system—called SIMS—and personalised help is provided when needed. The school is currently following the new GCSE Maths National Curriculum, which now has no coursework, and next year a new Maths GCSE will be introduced to Year 9 which includes the use of functional maths skills where they are used in the world to-day. Since homework is such an important contributor to the success of every pupil, the school is now rolling out the use of My-Maths.co.uk which is a website that enables pupils to work through homework set by the school on line. The use of this website has been a great success so far and has benefited a number of pupils in the consolidation of classwork. More able pupils are given the opportunity to sit GCSE Statistics a year early and the school also offers the ‘Free Standing Mathematics - AS Level’ qualification for those who are interested. Finally, good luck to our Year 11’s who have completed their mocks and are coming up to the final lap of their studies before the exams in the summer. I am sure they will all find in later life that Maths definitely Matters ! Andy Minchin - Maths Link Governor

HOLIDAYS AND ATTENDANCE 100% attendance does not only give pupils a certificate at the annual Awards Assembly, though we are as proud to pre-sent them as the pupils are to receive them. We know that good attendance increases confidence, self esteem and indi-vidual performance. Pupils know they have not missed any work and feel in control of their learning. They are in a posi-tion to sustain friendships and working relationships: absence often has a negative impact on school relationships. We know that good attendance boosts achievement: missing any stage within a programme of lessons disadvantages pupils immediately. What have they missed? When can they catch up? Who will help them? A week out of school means missing twenty five lessons across perhaps ten to twelve subjects and the difficult and stressful task of finding out and understanding what they have missed. In Key Stage 4, a week’s absence could mean missing the introduction to a major piece of coursework, the in depth study of poems for an exam, the preparation for a controlled assessment or the assessment itself. We know that good attendance makes pupils feel that they belong to the school community. They find out about activi-ties, trips and competitions and enjoy being in school to take part. Our attendance policy sets out the school’s position on term time holidays very clearly: “Any holiday taken during term time will only be authorised in the most exceptional circumstances. The school will not authorise any holiday during Key Stage 4.” This is also the position of Portsmouth Local Authority. The Home-School Agreement, signed by all parents, states that parents will avoid term time holidays. Despite this, term time holiday forms continue to arrive in school on a regular basis. Last year one hundred and sixty-seven pupils took holidays in term time, forty-four of whom were in Key Stage 4. A significant number of fixed penalty notices were issued by the Local Authority Court Officer. This term seventy-two parents sought authorisation for a term time holiday, including twenty-one in Key Stage 4. I can only reinforce the united position taken by the government, Local Authority, governors and school that good atten-dance and parental support are crucial to every child’s success in school and ask that parents do not seek to take their children out of school for a holiday and continue to actively encourage good attendance. Thank you for the cooperation and support of so many parents. Mrs H Summers – Deputy Headteacher

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School Meals Service: Eden Foodservice, the school’s contract caterers, are dedi-cated to ensuring that we provide healthy nutritional choices for all pupils whilst complying with nutrient and nutritional standards. Our menus consist of a range of tasty, enjoyable meal options to meet every pupil’s needs. Popular healthy choices enhance a pupil’s well-being and lifestyle with tradi-tional meals, such as a selection of freshly prepared cold offers and a range of exciting and nourishing, easy to eat snacks as well as a daily choice of fresh fruit, yoghurts, desserts and drinks. Breakfast service: 8.00am—8.40am

(during which we serve a selection of breakfast items, including hot bacon sandwiches, toast and fruit juice) Mid morning break: 10.05am—10.25am A selection of ‘grab and go’ type foods including savoury muffins, cheese on toast, French bread pizza and paninis. Lunch Service—12.25pm—1.05pm This is more the traditional service to pupils. Our ‘Dine’ range feature traditional favourites—roast beef and Yorkshire pud-ding, curried chicken, vegetarian options, fresh vegetables, a choice of pasta, potatoes or rice and traditional home-made puddings. ‘Good2go’ range: home-made soup of the day, pizza, jacket potatoes with a variety of toppings, hot pasta, rice and noodle dishes ‘Deli’ range: Freshly prepared salads and pasta pots, sandwiches, baguettes, wraps and pitta bread with a large selection of fillings. ‘Treat’ range: Try baked muffins and cakes. On a monthly basis, Eden run promotional activities to encourage pupils to try the healthier options. January Specials: The £1 ‘Meal Deal’: bacon roll and hash brown. The £1 ‘Milk and cookie break’ ‘Let’s get fruity’: Fruitina fruit juice and piece of fresh fruit: £1 ‘Soup it up Meal Deal’ - 50p: Freshly home-made soup with a portion of crusty bread Muffin Day: Sweet and savoury: £1.40 Our staff are customer focussed and available at any time to discuss your individual needs and questions. Come in and visit your school caterer for great food, great choice and great value. www.edenfoodservice.co.uk

SCHOOL PRODUCTION: ‘THE THWARTING OF BARON BOLLIGREW’

Rehearsals gallop on apace for 'The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew'. Forty students from Years 8, 9 and 10 are taking part in the production, which will be the first in our new Drama Studio. With original music and artwork from the Music and Art departments this will truly be an original show. The production will run from Wednes-day 3rd February through to Friday 5th February nightly at 7.00pm in the new Drama Studio. Tickets will be available from the Drama Department from the week beginning Monday 18th January. Prices: Children—£3.50 Adults—£6.00 OAPs—£3.00 Mrs McAlister—Drama

Springfield School English Department books

Dear Parents

As your dutiful sons and daughters tidy their rooms in readiness for a visit from Father Christmas could you please urge them to search for and return Springfield School English Department books. Many texts seem to have been taken home for revision and homework purposes leaving us depleted of vital resources needed by other teach-ing groups. No questions will be asked and carrier bags dropped off at the English office or at Reception would be most welcome.

Mrs Sharkey—Subject Leader English

Smallpeice Trust residential Engineering experiences In July, four groups of pupils gained valuable engineering ex-perience through attending these courses. There were three Year 9 trips – Engineering experience at Portsmouth University; Marine engineering experience at Southampton University; Nu-clear Marine experience at HMS Sultan, Gosport—with Year 10 going to a Motorsports engineering course at Oxford Brookes University. SMALLPEICE TRUST - MOTORSPORT COURSE From our first glance at the itinerary, we could tell that this course would be a good experience and would compete with the Marine Technology course at Southampton University. We thoroughly enjoyed both. The content of the course at Oxford Brookes University was excellent. Our icebreaker activity involved making a vehicle that was both stylish and effective in terms of going the furthest dis-tance. As we were both in different teams we had to get to know a variety of people and make friends accordingly.

On the motorsport course we learnt different and useful lessons about aerodynamics, diffusion and other important factors in racing. Although great fun, the go-karting also offered us a valu-able insight into the world of racing; we had to use braking and acceleration techniques to try and beat the opposing teams. I feel this was a really great part of the course as it provided a fun but important view of racing.

Overall, this course was brilliant and an amazing experience. Our views on racing are now completely different and we now understand the telemetry of Formula 1 and other racing types.

Iain Butler 11S And Daryl Messer 11P

Go4SET links pupils with companies and universities to offer

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

experience. Go4SET aims to raise the pupils’ awareness and

highlight the exciting future career opportunities in SET.

On 17th November we went to Fratton Park with Dr Hopkins—

but not for the reasons you would think. We went for the

opening of a new ten week project called ‘Go4SET’. It involves

learning about the school’s water system and reducing the

amount that is wasted. We also met our Team Business Men-

tor, Stuart Burgess, who will be helping us throughout the pro-

ject and hopefully organising a site visit for us.

We learnt a lot of new water facts, team building (a marble

run, which we won - by miles!) and project management. All of

this information and these skills will come in very handy when

our project is presented. The project aims to find out the

amount of water used and plan how to reduce this.

Our project will soon be underway and we will be pitching our

ideas to Mrs Evans and Mrs Lewis soon.

We all had a lot of fun on this trip—and the biscuits we were

given at Fratton Park were fantastic!

Rachel Lewis and Katie Brookes (9F), Bryonie Rodgers, Amelia Bramley and Laura Collins (9L) and Kathryn Kite-Powell (9R)

KS3 Science and Engineering Challenge:

On Thursday 8th October, fifteen pupils in Year 9 participated in a KS3 Science and Engineering competition at HMS Sultan in Gosport, organised by EBP.

This was a challenge in which many other schools took part and the aim was to have new experiences and learn new things.

For our first activity we learned about submarines. There was a model which most of us tested. We learnt why submarines do not sink. The sailor with us had experience on submarines and so we asked him lots of questions about them. Next, we learnt about and made a ‘coke’ crusher using cardboard. We found this enjoyable and discovered that the triangle is the strongest shape, so we made most of our crusher from trian-gles. After this, we were divided into smaller groups and worked to make a bridge from which we could hang 2kg weights. Unfortunately, my group’s bridge broke straight away. We lost, but another Springfield team (pictured below) had done very well and produced the best bridge of the day. They were later given a mini tool box as a prize.

After lunch we had my favourite activity of the day: working in pairs we created a balloon buggy. My partner and I did well in this and our buggy came sixth overall.

We then learned about helicopters and were able to climb on board a real one. There were also video simulation games to play—it was as if we were riding a real helicopter. Finally, we went into the Science labs and made slime! We all had a great time and would like to do something like this again.

Hameh Majidi (9D)

Darryl Messer (11P) in racing

car—see article left

Group of Tom Follington (9E), Rajeev Janagal (9D), Ben Holden (9P) and Emma Uden (9D) testing their winning bridge design—see article above

These courses are available again this year. Visit www.smallpeice trust.com for more information. These four day courses cost £75 – see Mr Elliott for details

THE BP TRADING CHALLENGE Oil - one of the greatest concerns of Year 10? Not really, but when a group of BP workers came to school and met with a large group of Year 10 pupils, they got an insight (albeit a small one) into the workings of an oil company (see picture above). Several teams of four participated, acting as companies, and each member of the group had important jobs to do if they wanted their company to succeed in the oil trade: two people sorted out the money, one proposed the trades, and the other spoke on behalf of their company. The session focused mainly on the financial side of things: trading oil barrels, deciding whether to buy or sell de-pending on what it was thought would happen to the price of oil based on information from quick news updates, and, ultimately, trying to make the greatest possible amount of money. It was an important session in terms of teaching the dynamics of a real company, giving a glimpse into some of the opportunities avail-able, showing some of the skills that are used, and also how what is being learnt now can be applied to bigger things later in life. It was fun to be at and taught us a lot.

Richard Wademan – 10F

The Year 10 oil barons at work! See article below

The ESI Club (Engineering and Science Initiative) has been set up following a successful bid for DCSF funding to promote STEM (Science, Tech-nology, Engineering, Maths with ICT) activities within education for Year 7, 8 and 9 pupils. Year 7 activities include ‘Science is Fun’, Technol-ogy Club, cake icing using ICT, digital videoing, K’Nex Club. If Year 7 pupils are interested in any of these activities, please see Mr Elliott in DT3 for more details.

ESI CLUB LAUNCH TO YEAR 7 PUPILS A special event was organised to highlight this club and to promote STEM activities. Wednesday 10th October saw the launch of Springfield’s ESI club to Year 7 pupils with a special hour lesson. This ex-cellent show was presented by Ian B Dunne on ‘Science is Magic’. I’m sure that I wasn’t the only person who was in-spired by the ‘Science is magic’ show. Ian B Dunne showed us some amazing things – things that I never thought possible, such as flying sau-cers made from tin foil. So, I joined the ESI Sci-ence Club, so that I can do amazing things too! In the first week we made air bazookas - great! In the second, we made natural indicators using fruit and vegetable dyes. You don’t have to do any writing. It’s fab!

Victoria Lipscombe 7P

Careers in the Space Industry

On the afternoon of 6th October, a group of twelve Year 9 pupils—mainly those actively involved in the ESI Astronomy Club—visited IN-TECH in Winchester, accompanied by Mr Elliott. This event was part of World Space Week. We were given the privilege of going on an educational trip to INTECH so as to provide us with an insight into the space industry and what careers are on offer, as well as what qualifications we would need to work in this area. On arrival, we had a good look at the Science activities for about twenty minutes before visiting the planetarium and see a 3D interpretation of outer space, starting with satellites and then moving further out to get an impression of the solar system and beyond and what it might look like. We thought this was very good and very educational. Then we visited several exhibitions about ‘space’ and were given a detailed talk about the ‘Mars Rover’ project together with a demonstra-tion of a life-sized model of the buggy. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at other activities such as a machine that explained how conveyor belts work and transport goods. Alex Joseph (9F) and Connor Robson (9F)

Photo above: Victoria Lipscombe (7P), Madeline Gar-diner (7R) and Kirsty Edginton (7P) - see article below

Mr K Elliott—Assistant Technology College Manager a nd ESI Co-ordinator

IMPORTANT INFORMATION LAST DAY OF AUTUMN TERM—FRI 18TH DECEMBER—2.20PM FINISH

FIRST DAY OF SPRING TERM—MON 4TH JANUARY 2010 PROFESSIONAL CLOSURE DAY—TUESDAY 26TH JANUARY—SCHOOL CLOSED

CALENDAR *

Please mark these dates on your calendar NOW!

JANUARY

FRIDAY 8TH QUITIQ POWERBOAT CHALLENGE (GOSPORT) - YEAR 9

TUESDAY 12TH 4.30PM—6.30PM YEAR 8 PARENTS’ EVENING

THURSDAY 14TH MORNING TRIPLE SCIENCE EXAMINATION

MONDAY 18TH MORNING TRIPLE SCIENCE EXAMINATION

WEDNESDAY 20TH MORNING TRIPLE SCIENCE EXAMINATION

TUESDAY 26TH PROFESSIONAL CLOSURE DAY—SCHOOL CLOSED

WEDNESDAY 27TH 4.30PM—6.30PM YEAR 10 PARENTS’ EVENING

THURSDAY 28TH YEAR 10 WORKING LUNCH. THEME: CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES

FEBRUARY

TUESDAY 2ND YEAR 9 FOCUS DAY (THEME: MAKING A DIFFERENCE)

WED 3RD TO FRI 5TH 7.00PM DRAMA PRODUCTION: ‘THE THWARTING OF BARON BOLLIGREW’

MON 22ND—FRI 26TH YEAR 9 OPTIONS WEEK

THURSDAY 25TH 7.00PM YEAR 9 OPTIONS EVENING FOR PARENTS

FUTURE TERM DATES

CYBER CAFÉ BATTLEFIELDS TRIP (YEAR 10) MFL TRIP TO FRANCE (YEARS 8 AND 9)

EVERY TERM TIME SATURDAY 9.30AM TO 12 NOON WED 17TH—SAT 20TH MARCH FRI 26TH—MON 29TH MARCH

GEOGRAPHY FIELD TRIP (YEAR 7) MON 17TH MAY MFL TRIP TO GERMANY (YEARS 8 AND 9) FRI 18TH—TUES 22ND JUNE TRIDENT WORK EXPERIENCE (YEAR 10) MON 5TH—FRI 16TH JULY PREFECTS EURO DISNEY TRIP THURS 15TH—SUN 18TH JULY SPORTS DAY WED 21ST JULY FRENCH ALPS TRIP (YEAR 10) WED 21ST—THURS 29TH JULY MOROCCO EXPEDITION (YEAR 11) THURS 5TH—MON 16TH AUGUST

*Please note these dates are correct at

publication, but could be subject to change.

Please check the website, future

newsletters and your child’s study planner

The role of the European nations in the slave trade is an impor-tant part of our Year 9 History course. What is less well known is the important job done by the Royal Navy in suppressing the trade after it was abolished in the British Empire in 1807. In an attempt to redress this imbalance the Navy Museum Service brought some genuine artefacts for the students to handle. These showed the students the horror of slavery by enabling them to actually try on the cruel instruments of torture and try to imagine what it must have been like at the time. They were told the story of the Navy and how it used its technological advantages over other nations to enforce human rights. Stu-dents were able to use the knowledge gained in class to make intelligent inferences about the objects and other primary sources on show. Some of the items were two hundred years old and irreplace-able. They included the manacles that Jordon Crinson put on and the pistols (made safe, of course) that the students lined up to handle. The Royal Navy Museum Service brought His-tory to life and we have already planned for another visit next year. Mr J Hobson—Head of History

Additional activities Is your child making the most of the additional activities provided at Springfield School? Over half term in October we successfully ran two days of sporting events aimed at 11-16 year olds in our community. More recently, Springfield students have been taking part in practical sessions for skin, nail and hair care (see photo above). Look out for forthcoming events (such as taster sessions for more unusual sports and a programme for the Easter holidays) in the New Year. These will be advertised around the school, in assemblies, on the website and through the NECIP (North East Community Improvement Partnership). Mrs J McFarlane—Assistant Headteacher

Right: Springfield pupils enjoying the

recent nail care session

(see article below)