November Newsletter 2015

Transcription

1 November Newsletter 2015 AWARDS EVENING AND PARENT/TEACHER MEETING EVENING Wednesday 18 th November 7 p.m. Wednesday 19 th November will be the date for The Priory School s Annual Awards and Parents Evening. It is a very special night in the school s calendar. It is our opportunity to recognise all of the effort and achievement put in by pupils throughout the school. Several awards and trophies are given to pupils who have demonstrated extra effort and last year s Year 11 pupils rejoin us to receive their exam certificates. Following the presentations there will be an excellent buffet for you to enjoy and then all staff will be available in their teaching areas for you to talk to. We hope to see as many parents and carers as possible. The Governing Body of the school will also be present for the evening. So... come and join us for this special evening. If you feel as though you want more time to talk to teachers about your child s work and progress please feel free to contact the school to arrange a time to meet with them. We will be holding a more formal parents evening in the spring term. National Anti-Bullying Week 16th-20th Nov Theme: 'Make a no!se about bullying' Teachers will be planning lessons throughout the week that focus on the issues and problem of bullying. Our website has lots of useful advice and tips on how to prevent cyber bullying. Further information can be found at We take all forms of bullying very seriously and will respond to all incidents. Sometimes our pupils think they have been the victim of bullying when what has actually happened is that someone has called them a name whilst playing football or bumped into them accidently and then called them a name. This sort of behaviour is not good and it will also be dealt with by the school, however it is not bullying. Bullying is The repetitive, intentional hurting of one person by another. Bullying can be carried out physically, verbally, emotionally or through cyberspace. We try our best at school to help children understand the difference between bullying and one off, unpleasant behaviour. Regardless of which type it is the school will always try to get to the bottom of it and teach pupils a better way. Usually this works the first time round. Occasionally it takes a little longer and we have to work hard to get pupils to understand the consequence of their actions and the effect those actions have on others. Nearly all of the time parents and carers are happy with the way the school manages the behaviour of pupils. On the rare occasions when parents do not feel we have done enough we would always encourage further discussion. Our Anti-Bullying Policy is available on our website as are links to a number of Anti-Bullying websites. We will also be having special assemblies during the week to promote our anti-bullying ethos.

2 Anti-bullying week poster competition! To prepare for Anti-Bullying week all pupils are invited to enter a special competition to design a poster promoting the theme of stopping bullying altogether! Completed designs need to be handed to the Head Teacher by Friday 21st November. Three entries will be selected to be printed and displayed around the school. All pupils who submit an entry will receive a small prize and the three winners will be taken to MacDonald s by Mr Wycherley. The Spalding Guardian and Lincs Free Press Education Awards 2015 The Priory School was a finalist in the Spalding Guardian and Lincs Free Press Education Awards in the Environmental Award category. I am delighted to pass on that the school won this category and received some wonderful comments from South Holland District Council who sponsored this award. Judges were blown away with the range of opportunities the school has developed for pupils to engage in environmental study and contribute to environmental issues. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed over the years to the school s environmental provision and curriculum. It is something that has grown and grown and has enabled 100 s of pupils to both learn and contribute. I am sure that our provision will continue to develop into the future. In other good news, The Garth School won the Primary School of the Year Award at last night s presentation. A massive well done to all. Daran Bland Cold Weather Wear As the weather is starting to get colder please can you make sure that your child brings suitable outdoor clothing with them to school. We try our best to get pupils outside for fresh air during break time even if it s a wet.

3 Our Grand Christmas Raffle has become something of an event over the years with a huge array of prizes. This is due in no small measure to the generosity of parents who send in donations. As usual the draw for our raffle will take place after the Christmas concert on the last day of term (Thursday 18 th December) and raffle tickets are now on sale from the school office. 1 for five tickets. All proceeds go towards the school fund. Donations of raffle prizes will be gratefully accepted at any time between now and the Christmas Concert Annual Reviews and Education Health Care Plan Transfers - Year 11! Annual Reviews are a very important time in the Priory School calendar. Year 11 Reviews are scheduled for 30 th November 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd and 4 th December to which parents and carers should have received an invite to. This years meetings will be the start of the process of transferring to EHC Plans. Two weeks prior to your child s review you will receive your child s report and parent and pupil response forms. It is always helpful when these have been completed. Annual Reviews for pupils from Year 9 onwards are combined with the child s Transition Plan Review. This part of the review focuses on the plans that need to be made to ensure every pupil is supported to make good decisions about what to do when they leave school. Mr Taylor East Midlands in Bloom Schools Award: Earlier this year the school entered the East Midlands in Bloom School Gardens Competition. We were invited to the awards presentation in September held at Rutland Golf Club, where we were pleased to learn that we had won the Best School Fruit and Vegetable Garden award. We were also presented with a silver gilt award for the gardens overall. Jordan Hoyle and Nathan Murphy showed the judge round when he came in June as they were studying for a qualification in horticulture. They, along with Mr Lee and Mr Rees, went to the presentation and accepted the award on behalf of the school. The judge said that he enjoyed being shown round by very knowledgeable and motivated Year 11 students. He was pleased to see that the gardens are well used by most of the school and the hard work that went into it throughout the year by the students. Mr Lee

4 Key Stage 3 Halloween Disco: The Priory held a spooktacular Halloween disco on the last day of term which had everyone screaming with delight. Staff and pupils alike dressed in a cavalcade of costumes that ranged from the scary to the silly. There were plenty of fun games around the hall to play such as apple bobbing, colouring competitions and much more! There was also a competition to write a Halloween themed story which was won by Joe White. Mr Allen provided an awesome disco complete with lights and music. It was great to see things that normally go bump in the night bopping on the dance floor! There was also a costume competition which was difficult to judge because of the great costumes, but in the end Charlie Mansfield was the top scarer! Mr Holmes was disqualified because his werewolf costume just turned out to be his really big beard. A big thank you to the school council who helped to organise this event and to Mrs Derick for keeping us all in line, it was not an easy job. Thanks to everyone who attended and made it such a great disco, see you all at Christmas! Report by Nathaniel Reynolds. Scooter & Skateboarding Workshop: On Thursday the 15th October, camp Rubicon skate mentor came in to teach Years 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s and 11s the basics of skating, they were going to do scooters but the surface was too wet so the decision was to do skateboards instead. Two sports leaders who have had an experience of this extreme sport volunteered to help out. The first basic skill to skating, the mentor taught everyone was how to actually stand on the skateboard with help till they were 100% confident and this turned out a success. The next step was riding the skateboard, with the help of the partners they managed to succeed onto riding on their own without any help. In the free time they all had at the end of the activities, the staff also had a chance to get involved Mr Forman tried to do an Ollie after years of not riding, such an entertainment. These activities carried on with all years right through the day. Ryan Cox & Lewis Bridges

5 Cross Country Championships: We were recently invited by Agilitas Sports to officiate in the Primary Schools Cross Country Championships which are held on The Rugby Club fields. Our job was to set up the course, act as the Marshalls whilst the children ran, and also be the Hares which involved running the races and managing to stay in front of the athletes. This is not as easy as it sounds as some of the younger ones are trained Athletes. When the races had finished, we were responsible for clearing the course away and being on hand for the presentation of the awards. Mr. Gibson the officiator said thank you to us in front of the 500+ athletes and teachers and invited back next year. It was the first time that Yr. 10 Sports Leaders had been out of school as a group and I was proud with the way that all the pupils conducted themselves. Mr Allen News from the Music & Drama Department: The Choir Choir have worked very hard, practicing their Christmas song, with signs and will be performing in the Christmas Choir Competition in Spalding town centre on Saturday 14th November. They will be singing at about 2:45 and also be performing in the Prize Giving concert to be held at St. John the Baptist Church on Friday 4th December. We will let you know if we win and what prizes have been awarded. Zest Theatre Company will be coming into school to perform their piece about Homelessness and the vulnerability of youths. This covers a range of difficult issues and links well to the novel Stone Cold by Robert Swindells which is part of the English Curriculum in Year 11. They will also be providing a feedback session where pupils can talk about the issues raised. This performance will be beneficial also to our Year 10 and 11 Drama and Music students as they continue working on their final performances. On Wednesday 9 th December Year 10 pupils will be going to see a production of the musical Oliver! at the New College Stamford Theatre. This show is put on by the college students and will support the work Year 10 do in Drama and in English with this novel.

6 Sarah O Brien will be visiting the school on Thursday 10 th December with her pupils from The Voyager School to present a music workshop. This year s pantomime is Peter Pan and the whole school have been invited to attend the morning show on Monday 14 th December. This is a yearly trip and always so much fun. Miss Sinclair Diary Dates Wednesday 18 th November Awards and Parents Evening 7p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday 20 th November Year 8 visit Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse. Thursday 26 th November Year 9 visit Green Britain Centre 30th November to 02 December Year 11 Annual Reviews. Friday 4 th December Year 10 & 11 to watch Until Its Gone. Friday 4 th December Parent/Carer Support Group 10a.m. to 12.00p.m.- Guest speaker is from the Local Offer. Monday 14 th December Peter Pan South Holland Centre. Wednesday 16 th December Christmas Dinner Thursday 17 th December Christmas 2pm/ Last day of term. Tuesday 5 th January Start of term 3. Working In Partnership Please feel free to contact me to discuss any aspect of school life because it is always better to talk about a concern before it becomes a problem. Just pop into the school office or phone and I will try to be available to talk to you straight away or you can make an appointment for a mutually convenient time.