All year groups are welcome to join us for our annual Careers Fair – this will be held in the Sports Hall. A great opportunity to speak to prospective colleges, employers, apprenticeships, universities.
14/2/19 Year 9 Parents Evening
15/2/19 School breaks up for half term
Headteacher blog:
Over the last few weeks, our swimming pool has gradually been stripped back. Boilers and air handling units have been replaced and we are beginning to see the difference that the refurbishment will make. We have a little more funding to secure, but once that is received, our plan is to reopen the pool at Easter. It is fantastic that, due to the efforts of the community and the financial backing of Sport England and other sponsors, this resource has been saved for our community. It guarantees that in the future, more children from Uttoxeter and our local community will have the life skill of being able to swim.
It is always a privilege to work with our site team manager, Mr Mirams and our Business Manager, Mr Storer to improve the environment for our young people. As sport is a personal passion of mine, this development is particularly important to me. We plan to hold our opening ceremony in May when we will be saying thanks to those of you who donated to our Crowdfunding appeal by passing over your rewards.
There was a particularly exciting moment this week: we met with Ken Hardy, founder of Lane 1 Swim School, who will become a partner of the school offering swim lessons for children in the area. Plans are for Lane 1 to offer swim lessons 6 days a week. Interested? See this link http://lane1coaching.com/swim-school/swim-school-info-video/
On Friday, I held an assembly for our sixth form students following their trial examinations. My congratulations to the 25% of the year group who have met or exceeded their targets. I shared with the year group the attendance data from 2017 when they completed their GCSEs. The correlation between high attendance and their GCSE results was evident to all. Equally evident was the negative impact of low attendance on GCSE results. Currently, some of our sixth form students are not attending all lessons or the intervention classes the staff are offering for them. We are concerned that many have ambitious applications for University places and apprenticeships which they risk not securing unless there is significant improvement in their results. We would appreciate, any conversations you can have with your sons and daughters to impress on them the importance of simply turning up to lessons alongside having a comprehensive revision schedule. Some students have registered in the morning and then not attended their lesson. The next few weeks will be tough, but it will all be worth it, if they secure the places they desire at university, on apprenticeships or in work. Please contact Mrs Dodd if you have any questions regarding post 16. Every lesson and every study hour counts in these final days. We want them to leave us securing their dream.
Thank you to all that attended the Y12 parents’ evening, it was a very successful evening with 89% of students being represented by parents and carers. Some of the feedback given to us told us that a number of students are feeling under pressure in the move from GCSE to A level. This is not uncommon. We have tasked all our Year 12 and Year 13 form tutors to play this clip in form next week. We thought you would like to see it and maybe discuss it with your child.
There are 2 more clips on the same site; one is about social pressures at exam time and the other is about how to spot signs you are getting stressed. Both are worth a watch.
Ill Child Procedure During the School Day
A polite remind for everyone please that students must report any illness during the school day to a member of staff. We will always ensure that our students are cared for and see by a member of the first aid team.
Parents & carers will contacted should your child be too unwell to remain in school.
Please can we ask for your support with these protocols to avoid students contacting parents directly themselves.
Puzzle of the Month January 2019
Murder on the River
Ian and Chris took a boat trip on the canal. They left from the Star pub. Ian started the motor and they set off gently up-stream. Some minutes later as they passed under a bridge Chris shouted ‘Ian, there is a hand in the water! It’s a dead body, Ian laughed ‘It is only an old glove.’ They continued up-stream. After 15 minutes Ian turned the boat round and made for the Star. They shot under the bridge and then it did not take long to travel the remaining mile to the Star. As they arrived they saw floating midstream the same old glove which they had just overtaken.
Ian kept the boat engine at the same speed all the time. But what was the speed of the current?
Solutions to Mr Askey
GCSE+ 28th January – 15th February.
This week saw the yr11 complete the first week of GCSE+. This is an intensive revision programme held for 20 minutes every morning. Pupils work on a subject with a specialist teacher on revision and exam techniques, giving them an extra 100 minutes revision a week. GCSE + will continue until half term and will be revisited towards the end of March.
Intervention Timetable
The latest timetable for interventions and revision in linked below. Make sure you make the most of the opportunities that are presented to you.
This week’s Science Students of the Week selected by Mrs Evans are:
Year 9
Tom Keeling and Halle Young for improved effort in Science.
Year 10
Jed Brunt and Jess Lyons for improved test scores in Chemistry.
Year 11
Alex Griffiths and Ben Collier for fantastic scores in the Chemistry trial exam.
This week’s Animal Care Students of the Week selected by Mrs North are:
Year10
Scarlett Simister and Jess Carrington Smith for excellent work on their Animal Handling course work.
Year 11
Eboney Robertson and George Mothershaw for excellent work on their Animal Behaviour course work.
Well done!
Geography Revision
We started our Friday after school revision sessions last week and it was great to 17 pupils there.
These will be running every Friday 3:10 – 4pm in 6a and 6b. All students welcome to attend.
In order to help students get prepared for the GCSE Geography exams, attached is a Knowledge Organiser for the Natural Hazards topic. This will be the first section of Paper 1 and will look at the topics of Plate Tectonics, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Tropical Storms and Climate Change. There is a lot of information on these so I would recommend that students download a copy and make any notes/changes they want to to help them understand it. The following link will also take you to the section of GCSEPod that is relevant. Also thank you to all of those students that are attending the revision session on a Friday afternoon, we hope your finding them useful.
The year 9 netball team played a match against Paulet on Wednesday after school. They all played fabulously with great teamwork and high morale. They won the game 26-11 which is a great score line. The girls managed to double their points from the first half in the second half, which shows great dedication and perseverance. Congratulation to Halle Young who was voted Girl of the Game by the opposing team.
We have two fixtures next week with both the Year 9 and U16 teams playing Robert Sutton and Paget on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Good luck ladies.
Girls House Football
Massive well done to all the houses that came out and represented their houses in house football, the conditions were not ideal but all the girls that attended played with spirit and commitment.
Year 9
In the year 9 competition there was a lot of excitement and very close matches, with goals coming from Ava Shenton, Holly Dickens and Mia Bevan. The competition eventually ended in a nail biting penalty shootout between Orme and Torrance. With some expert goal keeping from Zoe Carr, Orme ended up on top. 1 st : Orme 2 nd : Torrance 3 rd : Whitmore 4 th : Elkes
Year 10
In year 10 there were some very high scoring matches, with goals from Eve Bednall, Freya Hadgett, Harriet Bebbington, Alice Boothby and Shona McIntyre it was all to play for. However, in the end Whitmore came out on top, with a good win over Torrance. 1 st : Whitmore 2 nd : Torrance 3 rd : Elkes 4 th : Orme
Year 11
In the year 11 competition it came down to a battle between Elkes and Orme, which eventually left the decision to the fact that earlier on in the tournament Elkes had beaten Orme 1-0 meaning Elkes house took home the victory. Goals came from Eloise Gadsby and Jemima Pope. 1 st : Elkes 2 nd : Orme
3 rd : Torrance 4 th : Whitmore
Year 9 Future Intentions
Dear Year 9 Students and Parents/Carers,
Please find attached a copy of the plan for Future Intentions Week which starts on Monday 4th February to Friday 8th February. The purpose of this week is to provide guidance on completing the options process and to give students a taste of the subjects that we offer that they have not previously experienced. These subjects include Child Development, Animal Care, Health and Social Care and Business Studies.
Students in H Population will be off timetable for lesson 1 and students in U Population will be off timetable during lesson 2. Their normal timetable will take place for the rest of the day.
I have also attached a copy of the Option Preference List to help with choosing your option subjects.
I would also like to remind you that on Thursday 7th February there will be an information talk in the Theatre about the options process. This will be delivered by Mrs Rudge at 6.15pm and then repeated at 7.00pm. At the same time as this, there will also be ours careers fair in the Sports Hall from 6.00pm to 8.00pm. This hugely successful and popular event has over 50 employers, universities, colleges and apprenticeship providers to help make the right decisions regarding their future and options.
If you have any queries or questions regarding this please do not hesitate to contact school and I look forward to seeing you on Thursday night.
Thomas Alleyne's high school 