All House and sixth form assemblies will be led by Damian Godwin
Thoughts for the Week
There are loads of cheesy quotes on friendship, I’ve tried to choose some non-cheesy ones!
‘When a friend makes some mistake, do not forget all the good things they did for you.’
‘The best time to make friends is before you need them.’
‘Fake friends are like shadows, always near you at your brightest moments, but nowhere to be seen at your darkest hours.’
Dates for your diary
6/12/2017 Woman in Black Performance
7/12/2017 Woman in Black Performance
8/12/2017 Woman in Black Performance
13/12/2017 Music Concert
Headteacher blog:
Woman in Black will be performed next week. We have some tickets available on Wednesday evening. It promises to be an excellent show. If you are able to join us please phone the school office who will be able to organise a ticket for you.
Thank you to all parents who attended the Year 11 parents evening. Attendance was 76% this year. We would be interested in feedback from parents as we are currently reviewing the insight booking system. Please email comments to office@tahs.org.uk. If you were unable to get the appointments you needed and have not been able to speak to your Head of House please use the email address above so that we can organise appointments for you.
Year 11 students will be completing their mock examinations in January. We have 10 students who have already streamed over 140 GCSEpods to support their study. Congratulations to Jack, Poppy, Laura, Niamh, George, Oliver, Wanicha, Fred, Freya and Tom.
The average number of podcasts streamed is 33 for students in Year 11. However we do have 38 students who have not yet used the resource. Help is on hand for any student in school. It would be much appreciated if parents could watch the following video to support their sons/daughters.
We have also put links to below to documents designed to support parents.
The stage is set and we are excited to say that TAHS’s production of Woman In Black starts Wednesday 6th December and runs both Thursday 7th and Friday 8th also.
The play tells the ghost story of the solicitor Arthur Kips, who takes on much more than he bargains for when instructed to sort the papers of Mrs Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House.
With lots of tension and scares, come along for a ghost story with a twist!
Tickets £5 from school office or lunch times outside the theatre.
Show starts at 7.30pm and ends at approximately 9.30pm
See you there!
Could you have a hidden talent for cyber security?
Cyber Discovery, HM Government’s Cyber Schools Programme, is an extracurricular learning programme for students in years 10-13 across England. Its goal is to ensure that many more people enter the cyber security profession in the coming years.
If you are in year 10 – 13 and interested please click here:
Please find below the letter from our local authority in relation to Changes to Penalty Notices for Absence from School that we shared with you in September.
Could we please remind you that these changes come into effect from 1st January 2018.
The changes specifically relate to the following areas,
Penalty Notice for leave of absence (holiday) in term time
Penalty Notice for persistent lateness
Period of time used to measure persistent absence and lateness
The history department strongly recommends watching Episode 2 of Ray Mears BBC4 ‘How the Wild West was Won’ on the BBC i-player about life on the Plains.
The first five minutes of Episode 1 and the last 25 minutes are also useful about the Donner party, gold rush and mining towns.
We will also be showing these programmes during lunchtime in room 16, so bring your lunch and watch then.
Art News
Year 11 Art GCSE Mock Exams & Dates to Remember!
Coursework deadline is Monday 18th December at 3:05pm– ALL work from Y10 and 11 should be submitted to their art teacher in paper folders. This is worth 60% of your GCSE grade.
To support students we expect you to be putting in hours at art club– every mark counts, this is a new specification and the standard is high to achieve levels. usually More effort = More marks!
Art Exam Parents Evening
January 9th 6:30pm-7:15pm Ede Studio
Art staff will be presenting advice and tips for the exam element of the GCSE worth 40% of the students Art GCSE grade. The Exam papers will be released on this date. Preparation for the exam starts immediately during the January Mock Exam period and students will be able to attend art club at lunch or after school til 5pm most days as per usual.
Calling Budding Artists/Designer- LOGO Competition
Year 9 students are invited to design a logo for Croxden Parish Council, this exciting opportunity is run as a competition across the locality and would be great for a TAHS student to have a go. Details on are Year 9 INSIGHT.
DONUT DAY 15th December
Interested in Teaching?
£15,000 available for sixth form students planning to study Maths or Physics at University.
Pastoral students of the week are those pupils who helped out on Yr 11 parents’ evening: Grace Harvey, Matthew Payne, Vicki Catterall, Katie Lawerence, Owen Carrington, Alex ford, Andrew Pye, Okyanus Ari, Neve Hall, Annie White and Tom Johnson. Your help was greatly appreciated by both parents and staff!
Science News
I’m A Scientist Get Me Out of Here – The 25 Genome Project
As part of their biology A level, year 13 students have been studying how genome sequencing is carried out and why it is so important. This week during their lesson, they were able to take part in a live chat with three scientists. The scientists are all working at the Wellcome Sanger Institute which, as part of its 25th Anniversary celebrations, will fund the genome sequencing of 25 new species. The scientists participated in the chat room with our students during which time they championed the species they felt should be sequence. We were fortunate enough to be able to ask questions to world experts on three potentially dangerous species.
One scientist was championing sequencing the genome of the Asian Hornet, an invasive species that is currently making its way over to Europe and competing with our bee population. Another was keen to learn more about the Lion’s Mane jelly fish with its 36m long tentacles which is threatening to spread throughout the oceans in part due to overfishing reducing predator numbers. One of the students asked: ‘Do you think that by sequencing the genome of the jellyfish the information can be used to control its population?’ This reply came straight back: ‘Sequencing the genome is the only reliable way to control populations. We can use the genome sequence to try to create sterile males which can be introduced into the population. Manually controlling the jelly fish is too expensive.’ Finally, Daubentons bat is able to incubate rabies virus without coming to any harm. The final scientist hoped that by sequencing the genome of this bat, it would give scientists a clue to this ‘superimmunity’ to lethal diseases which could then be used to help humans.
Overall it was a very enjoyable experience and the students learnt a great deal in preparation for their A level exam in the summer. This project is running for three weeks across the whole country and so we are now able to join hundreds of other schools across the country to vote for which genome should be sequenced.
This week’s Science Students of the Week selected by Mr Milward are:
Year 9
Darius Blurton and Isabel Watts for excellent attainment and inquisitive questions in lessons
Year 10
Tara Wilkins and Poppy Chatfield for excellent work in lessons and pleasing test results
Year 11
Kim Burgess and Nicolas Lamb for excellent progress
Well done!
Summer 2017 Exam Certificates
These will be available for collection from TAHS on:
Thursday 14th December 11am -1pm
Friday 15th December 11am -1pm
News from PE
Boys Badminton
The KS4 badminton teams travelled to Paulet for the East Staffordshire tournament on Wednesday.
The team have trained regularly with Milly Radley & Alice Smith and have greatly improved their knowledge and skillset. The B team of Seb Hancox,Tommy Mangan, Isaac Hawley & Ethan Bungar were in the more difficult pool facing John Taylor A and Paulet A. Unable to win a game some long rallies were had and some good points won in the match.
The TAHS A team comprised of Alex Bennett, Thomas Page, Alex Done & Owen Carrington who were in pool B. Their 3 fixtures
against Pingle, Paulet B and Robert Sutton all ended in defeat but each match could have gone either way with the score being 3-2.
House Hockey
In cold conditions the year 9 House hockey competition took place. It was a high scoring event compared to the senior competition the previous week.
Whitmore ran out winners after 3 victories Frankie Tooth, Mya Dain & Amie Renshaw all scoring. Torrance finished second on 5 points with Alyssa Shaw
scoring. In third place were Elkes and fourth were Orme.
Rugby World Cup Final
Dont forget to support England in the morning 9am kick off on BBC in the Rugby League World Cup Final v Australia.
U16 Badminton District Winners
Congratulations to the girls under 16 A team who on Tuesday night fought of local competition to progress through to the county stage of the tournament. The team played a series of singles and doubles matches against Burton schools. Without losing a game the girls progressed easily into the next stages of the competition. Well done to: Scarlett Simister, Alice Radley, Emily Barton and Sophie Lomas.
Thomas Alleyne's high school 