TAHS Weekly Newsletter.
What did Mrs Rudge Say?
Today Mrs Rudge was interviewed by Year 11 student Max. Max has already secured a job with the BBC and is hoping to access an apprenticeship with the BBC next year. He has been involved in supporting the school in a whole variety of ways during his time with us: interviewing students on school sports days; raising funds for the reopening of the pool; and speaking at community events. Whilst Mrs Rudge openly admits that being interviewed is not something she finds easy, she said that Max’s approach was superb and he managed to do what great interviewers are able to do – ‘almost’ put their guests at ease! Our thanks to Max.
If you would like to watch the interview please click on the link below.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AvUS8Q2sq8Qqbni5fdJnWQ3F50M?e=yyoACj
The Sixth Form team have made many calls to our Year 13 students since we closed our door to them on the 20th March. We have been wanting to keep them motivated and focused but also offer as much support as possible as this is a very unusual way to finish their academic journey. I have heard great stories about students who have set up their own business in the last few weeks. They have done this to keep themselves occupied, to raise funds and to help others. Well done to all of the Year who have gone to work to help others in the community, those that have gone into care homes, hospitals, retail shops and those that are helping the most vulnerable in their community.
We would like to know if an idea that we have had would be of interest to any of our year 13 students. We have seen that some of the universities have altered what will happen in September when many of your children would have been leaving to go to university. We would like to hold an online event where students from Year 13 would be able to join a live chat (via Zoom) with the Sixth Form Team. This does not need to be focused fully around university students but for all that have a query or would like some advice. If you feel this would be useful or of interest to your child could you please email sixthform@tahs.org.uk and we will arrange a date and time for this event.
We are now well and truly immersed in the new way of teaching and learning. All Year 12 students are being set work by their teachers. This can be compiled in various ways and will enable your child to engage with the content that is being delivered.
With this in mind I would like to keep our Year 12 students as focused as possible on their next step and using their time wisely as well as staying safe and keeping healthy.
Please encourage your child to keep on contact with their teacher if they are struggling with the content and that, if needed they are able to react feedback and express concerns to their mentor or class teacher.
It is coming up to an important time for you they should be looking at their next steps in their journey. Not all students will go to university, some of them will choose to have an apprenticeship or just to start a full time job or the more adventurous of them will choose to travel.
We need to help prepare them for this next step.
Below I have put together a range of links that I would like you may choose to access, all of these have been sent to their email that they used to register with Unifrog.
You can refresh yourselves on how to log into Unifrog.
You can look at how they choose a university or a specific course that they are interested in and which universities offer that course.
They can focus on their competencies – these are used to help them write their personal statement for university or a covering letter for an apprenticeship or job. Their best option is to work through and complete all competencies over the next week or so and then it is done and out of the way, then when they are asked to start writing their personal statement – and they all will be asked to do this by Mrs Dodd, then they have a starting point.
The last link that I have provided is for them to look at their wider reading and extending their skills base. Moocs are a great way for them to start thinking about their next step, get an understanding of what a specific career may hold or just learn something new. You can complete a MOOC too, just log onto Unifrog, click on the MOOC section, choose a category and off you go!
https://www.unifrog.org/student/competencies
https://www.unifrog.org/student/moocs/long-list
Y12 TAP (tutor activity programme)
6th Form Wellbeing
Please take a look at these 50 ideas for lockdown kindly sent to us by Amazing Apprenticeships – there is an excellent variety of activities to dip into. We also wanted to share a link of mental health web sites and apps for those who may need them from this document which is displayed in all our form rooms (insert here please!). Please email any of the sixth form team if we can help support your wellbeing – we are always happy to hear from you.
6th Form Future Intentions – Careers Guidance and Information
Deciding between university or apprenticeships? Take a look at these resources which should help your decisions. If you are already certain of your path, please read through the resources most relevant to you. These include information from an apprentice (with or without the task) and signposting so you can research current apprenticeships. Or advice from UCAS about making the right decisions and higher education myth busting.
Please download this pack for parents and carers about apprenticeships if you would like some more advice about apprenticeships, CVs and other useful guidance
Year 8 Transition
It is the time of year when the Pastoral Team, as part of transition, start their communication with Year 8 students, parents and carers. As part of the Year 8 transition process I would like to introduce two members of the TAHS Transition Team.
Mrs Young. I am your pastoral coordinator for the transition process at Thomas Alleyne’s High School this year. A little bit of information about me: I have been working at TAHS since April 2009, currently I am Acting Assistant Head Teacher with Student Wellbeing and Behaviour as part of my responsibilities. I am also Deputy Head of Sixth Form and I teach History to all year groups. I am normally involved in the transition process as I lead on our Anti-Bullying Campaign by utilising Sixth Former as year 9 mentors and I deliver lessons during the transition days.
I am Mr Godwin, responsible for Special Educational Needs and Pupil Premium students. I have worked at Alleyne’s since 2002 working as a Head of House, PE teacher and now I am one of the Assistant Headteachers. Under normal circumstances myself and my team of teaching assistants would be getting to know a number of you, you would have visited the school and we would have met some of your parents and carers. Unfortunately, this year the situation is very different. Transition will be unique for you but by working with your Middle School staff and Thomas Alleyne’s staff I hope that we will be able to answer some of your questions and give a little taster of life at Thomas Alleyne’s.
There is no doubt that this year’s transition will different but we are working to ensure that we meet the needs of all students. We will keep you informed of activities and events, let you know when we will be sending communication and endeavour for your child to know who their Head of House, Student Support Assistant and in time who their Form Tutor will be. At this time, we cannot guarantee that your child will meet their pastoral support team in person before the end of this academic year, but we will ensure that they will have the opportunity to put a face to a name and listen to their team and how we can support them.
We are working collaboratively with your Middle School to ensure that we know as much about your son or daughter as possible, that we answer all the queries that come to us and that we help to make all the Year 8 students feel part of the Thomas Alleyne’s community. If you have a query about the transition process at Alleyne’s then please contact me on younge@tahs.net
History News
A big well done to all the Year 9’s who have submitted their history assessments. This was a real challenge for pupils and it’s great to have received so many high quality pieces of work.Year 10 are now several lessons into their new GCSE unit on ‘The American West’. Please ask them how they are finding this new unit and encourage them to contact either Mrs Young or Mrs Johnson to let us know how they are getting on if they have not already done so. Thank you.
Maths Puzzle
Thank you to everyone who submitted a solution to the area problem.Here is the solution…The red areas add up to 1368, put them together to form a single rectangle of length 72 (99-27).The width is the area divided by the length 1368/72 = 19. So the shaded area is 19 x 27= 513.Well done to Keith Ford who was the first person to submit the correct solution!
One I can do!
(99-27) x Y = 921 +447 where Y is the width of the column
72Y = 1368
Y = 1368 / 19
Y =19
Shaded area = 27 x 19
= 513
This Weeks Puzzle
With the Bundesliga restarting and the news that the Premier League may start again in June, I thought this puzzle was quite appropriate.
Six of the geekiest football teams on the planet are invited to compete in a new tournament.Each team will play each other, with the usual reward of 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw.After the first couple of rounds of matches the table looks like this:
Can you work out what games have been played so far
and the score in each?
Please email your answers with workings / pictures to ibbs@tahs.net. The correct solution and names of those who got it correct will be put in round-up next week.
English Success
Your English Teachers love receiving your work from you. Following on from last week’s poetry, Caitlin (Year 9) has shared with us some of her work on Othello. Well done Caitlin- your ‘Student of the Week’ certificate is well deserved!
RE
Students of the week have been chosen by Mr Scott
Year 9 Students of the Week are:
Connor, George, James, Lucy
Year 10 Students of the Week are:
Lily, Olivia
Year 12
Lucy
Each will receive their online certificate explaining the reasons they have been chosen.
Students of the week for Mrs Lindsay are awarded for a range of reasons including consistently great work and effort, quality discussion online, completing quality bridging work and very good A Level assessments.
Well done – it is getting very difficult to choose!
Year 9: Beth, Charles, Zita, Milly, Joe, Hannah
Year 10: Lewis, Lara, Nathan, Katie, Blake, Liberty
Year 11: Evie, Gabby
Year 12:Lucy and Isaac
Please also see the answers to the ‘Famous people as children’ quiz – attached. Thanks to those who go in touch with suggested answers.
Science News
Science Students of the Week
The following Year 9 students have been selected by Mrs Pavey for showing great resilience with online learning:
Eloise Paulinski, Tommy Smith and Finlay Taylor-Smith.
The following Year 10 students have been selected by Mrs Gywnne for showing resilience and superb progress:
Klaudia Siwek, Kacper Wielechowski, Lily WIlliams, Will Gregory, Maddy Capewell and Bailey Redshaw.
The following Year 12 students have been selected by Mrs Gywnne for determination and hard work resulting in great results:
Neve Hall, Georgia Fleeman, Sam Ward and Will Bowyer.
Well done!
Elkes News
I have had to adjust to working remotely as have you, and like many of you, I’m also missing the teachers and students I work with and the daily routines we were used to and like you I have to make new routines to adapt to this new way of teaching. This week I’ve had lots of emails from students who are becoming more confident in communicating with teachers about their work, and about the different places they are up to in their learning journeys but I wanted to especially mention Liam and Elliot in year 10, as both have had some ICT setbacks, but have worked really well to get back on course, and also Becky and Will who have maintained great approaches to the situation from the off. As ever, it would be good to hear from more Elkes students about how you’re doing, and if there’s anything we can do to help – parker@tahs.net
Orme News
Hello students of Orme,
I hope you have all had an industrious and tranquil week. Continuing with the acronym HALT I am going to touch on loneliness, this is I think an especially relevant subject given our circumstances, but I think something that we should consider.
First of all, being alone isn’t the same as being lonely. If you are spending time on your own, that’s fine, we all need space to think. However, everyone needs relationships in their lives. Try to make time each day or so for positive, constructive interaction with someone, a friend, a parent, a sibling or even a teacher. It is also important that you try to be available and emotionally honest in these interactions, if you are feeling unsure or overwhelmed talk to someone about these feelings. Just this alone can help to alleviate negative emotions and give you a sense of peace. I am proud of how as a house I see these connections being made and the Orme community that remains strong despite the physical distance between us right now.
On the subject of the Orme community I have been really pleased to see your contributions from the assembly I have sent out each Tuesday, from Eloise teaching me how to say kindness in British Sign Language (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj6C2igFIks here is the link she shared with me to Joe Hall teaching me the previously incomprehensible language of American football (I still don’t think I can bring myself to watch it though, sorry Joe). There are too many examples for me to share here but I have enjoyed each and every one of them and look forward to making my daughter get involved in more of the quizzes and activities you send to me.
There are times when you have to try something out just to make sure you’re not missing out, and that is what I did this week when trying the legendary Elvis grilled sandwich (a grilled sandwich is a bit like a toastie that hasn’t tucked its shirt in and looks a bit untidy). Occasionally a combination can be wrong enough to be right (a bit like dipping fries into a milkshake) and this combination is bizarrely compelling. It rides that mysterious line between sweet and savoury, you could dial back the sweet by omitting the honey to make it more savoury, but, Just don’t. I should warn you that this is a hugely calorific combination and should be followed by your daily exercise and a nap.
Hot Elvis toastie
Ingredients
2 tsp butter
2 slices white bread
1 tbsp golden caster sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
1 ripe banana, thinly sliced
2 tsp clear honey
a little icing sugar
vanilla ice cream, to serve
Method
Using 1 tsp soft butter per side, butter one side only of two bread slices. Mix sugar with cinnamon, then sprinkle over the buttered slices of bread.
Put one of the slices, buttered-side down, in a toasted sandwich maker. Spread the top of this slice with peanut butter, then layer over the banana. Drizzle with honey, and sandwich the second slice of bread on top, buttered-side up. Close and cook, following your sandwich maker instructions, until the toastie is crisp and golden.
Cut in half, add a slice to each plate, dust with icing sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream.
Have a great weekend and stay connected
Mr Brassington Brassington@tahs.net
Torrance News
As we reach the end of another week of our virtual school, I wanted to take the opportunity to share the success of one of our Torrance students, who has been keeping himself busy in lockdown. Many of you will be aware that one of our Year 11 House Captain’s Max has a very successful Youtube channel, ‘Matchday with Max’. As we all adapt to the changes in our lives during lockdown, Max has also been busy adapting his Youtube videos to become ‘Lockdown with Max’. So far he has interviewed football presenter Michelle Owen, journalist and broadcaster Caroline Barker and Olympic bronze medal winning gymnast Sam Oldham. I personally can’t wait to see who is next on his list!
Well done for adapting to the current challenges and continuing to make your videos Max, I know you’re providing a great deal of entertainment to a lot of people! Make sure you remember us all when you’re famous!!
You can check out Max’s Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKKQXXhVbd7_dxvzvJ5KRbA
A reminder to all Torrance students that me and Mrs Collier are always here if you need anything and love to hear from you. You can reach us on wrightl@tahs.net and collier@tahs.net
Whitmore
This week I asked Miss Jones if it would be possible for me to write our section for Round up as I wanted to express how proud I am of all our students.
When I started at Thomas Alleyne’s and joined Whitmore House as a Student Support Assistant in September 2019 I had no idea that this would be how my first year would finish. Like all of you I have been missing spending time with my family and friends, but I am choosing to focus on the positives of the situation we find ourselves in. Since working from home, I have had the opportunity to get to know more and more Whitmore students and their families. It is inspiring to see how well the students have adapted to the circumstances. I am enjoying reading the stories from students about how they are spending their time and remaining positive. I look forward to the day we are able to have a Whitmore assembly in the theatre, and students can once again pop their head in the door of the Whitmore office.
I would like to share with you some of the work that our students in Whitmore have done and where they have gone above and beyond for their community.
Evie has donated money that she and her family would normally use on going out to support the school in buying and supplying laptops and food for those that need them, Alex is completing a 20km bike ride every week and Issy has been making scrubs for a local hospital
In the meantime if you would like to share with us what you have been doing, if you have a question we can help you with or if you need some support then please contact myself arbery@tahs.net or Miss jones jones@tahs.net.
PE Department
Students continue to engage in a wide range of physical activity both from what we are setting on Insight and their own ideas. Please continue to share these with us.
Congratulations to students who have gained places on KS4 BTEC Sport Activity & Fitness and KS5 BTEC Sport.
Transition resources/ Bridging work/Preparation tasks and info will be uploaded to Microsoft Teams, this is accessed the same as your school outlook email. If you have received confirmation you are studying these courses in September please check on Teams. Any issues email Mr Barrow barrow@tahs.net
Yr 10 and 12 resources are on Microsoft Teams – please check this regularly and work through material as you are able.
2.6 Challenge
Mr Barrow is continuing to do the 2.6 challenge to support the schools fundraising efforts. If you would like to sponsor him please email malbon@tahs.org.uk or https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/mr-quigleys-covid-response-fund
So far he has –
26th April 2.6km run in 15min 53sec
27th April 26 press ups in 26 sec
28th April 2.6 mile run in 26.20
29th April 2.6 min plank
30th April 26 sec plank with 26kg on back and 2.6 min crusifix with 2.6kg hand weights
1st May 26 squats with wife on back
2nd May 26 times to top of stairs 5 min.47 sec
3rd May 26 alternate hand catches with tennis ball in 27 sec
4th May 26 kick ups with a rugby ball
5th May 26 min yoga challenge
6th May 26kg bench press 61 reps (continuous to failure)
7th May Connor in Yr9 challenged me to his work out 26 press ups, 26 squats, 26 bicep curls, 26 sit ups. Connor did it in 1min 45 , Mr Barrow did it in 1 min 54 (not sure if weights were the same)
8th May 14 reps shoulder press with 26kg barbell
9th May 13 reps bicep curl with 26kg barbell
10th May 26 min run = 4.52km
11th May 260 press ups in 17 min
12th May 26 Malcolms in 9min 37 (A Malcolm: lie on your front, getting up running back 10m, doing a burpee, then running forward 20m doing a burpee and then returning to the start – that is one Malcolm)
13th May 26 successful basketball free throws in 48 shots
14th May 26 successful rugby drop goals 10 m away in 48 shots
15th May 26 min exercise bike – 10.3 miles on Level 3
Why not see if you can beat Mr Barrow on any of his challenges or send in a 2.6 challenge for him to try.
Art Work
‘The Art Department continue to be impressed by the work being emailed in from students and wanted to share some great examples of Year 9 work for both the ‘Insects’ project and the ‘Still Life’ project. Well done Year 9 and keep up the excellent work! Remember, even if you are not up to date with these tasks we still enjoy seeing you tackle them at your own pace. In addition to Year 9 success, it has also been really promising to hear from our Year 11’s who are beginning their bridging work tasks, and from our very talented Year 12s who are starting to move onto developmental work. We are looking forward to seeing how you progress with these tasks as we move into the second part of the summer term. The Art Dept’.
Links
Thomas Alleyne's high school 