Extra-curricular: Badminton club will be starting up again on Friday afterschool after half term and is open to all years 3.15-4pm. All students taking part require a PE kit and trainers.
Girls indoor football
Girls indoor football will be on every Wednesday in the sports hall. All years welcome. For more information please see Miss Arrowsmith
School Newspaper
If you are interested in the school newspaper or would like to have your writing or art published, please come along to A6 on Friday lunchtimes. Feel free to bring your lunch.
Allies Club
Allies club is a place to come and explore issues around equality. If you are interested in making the school and wider community more inclusive and want to help celebrate our diverse communities, please come along to A6 on Tuesdays after school.
Mental Health Club
Our school Mental health club will now be running every Thursday until Christmas. For more information, please speak to Mrs Brooks.
Computing
GCSE Computer Science and Cambridge National revision lunchtime support
Wednesday lunchtimes in C3. Please come along for support with this weeks revision topic as per homework task.
Code club – starting Monday 21st November
We are in the motions of finalising plans for our very first code club on Monday lunchtimes. Open to all students and supported by some lovely year 12s with University Computer Science aspirations.
Why not come see what all the fuss is about?
History
Year 11 History
After school revision session reminders:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after school – see Mrs Johnson / Mrs Young for details
American-West end of unit exam
Geography
All year 11 students are encouraged to join us for the following revision sessions which will be held from 3:05 – 4pm Wednesday in the Geography classrooms.
23rd November – Economic World
MFL
MFL MUSINGS
REVISION SESSIONS
Grade 7 – 9, Wednesday after school in room A5
Grade 3 – 6, Thursday after school in room A4
A Level conversation practice, Thursday lunchtime in A4
DUOLINGO CLUB
We will be running a Duolingo club for students who want to practice any foreign language. Full details to follow ASAP.
Science
Year 11 Chemistry revision
Start next weeks. Will take place Wednesdays after school 3.10pm-4.15pm. Sessions will be split between triple science and combined science to take place fortnightly. Week 1 sessions will be Triple Science (Chemistry) and Week 2 Session will be Combined Science (Chemistry). Sessions will take place in C9.
Drama
Drama revision
Year 11- Please remember to attend Drama revision on Tuesday after school in K9 each week. You will receive coaching for the component 3 exam as well as help with the all -important written portfolio. See you there, snacks and drinks served.
Performing Arts Club
It was great to start performing arts club again this term and fantastic to see so many of you there. We performed some improv as well as choreographing a dance to ‘Tightrope’ from The Greatest Showman. All are welcome, Wednesdays 3.15-4.15pm
English
Stoke Young Writers’ Club
Please see this opportunity below from a local Creative Writing group
Spark Young Writer groups are held monthly for young people interested in any kind of creative writing. Groups are divided into school years 3 – 6 (junior aged), and school years 7 – 13 (secondary or high school aged), with online groups also available for both juniors and teens. The Stoke Teen group for school years 7 – 13 will take place monthly in City Central Library, Stoke. It runs for one Saturday a month and is led by a professional writer, Gabriella Gay, with an assistant writer. In the sessions, your young writers will cover a range of writing from poetry to prose to script writing.
Well done to the following form groups for achieving the most overall amount of credits this week. Winning forms all received chocolates in form time on Fridays as well done for their hard work for the week.
Winning forms are:
Elkes 9E2
Orme – 903
Torrance – 11T2
Whitmore – 10W2
Elkes – Mrs Brooks
Well done to Elkes! Numerous students are now at the Bronze and Silver achievement awards and many approaching gold already. Badges and certificates will be delivered in forms next week.
Use diagrams to help recall of information eg mind maps, character drawings labelled with quotations or ordering information from most to least important in diamond 9’s or tarsia pyramids like this one. For example, what theme or character is most important in the play Romeo and Juliet or An Inspector Calls.
Bedrock words
Last week’s words were such an *eclectic* bunch, the opportunities to *disseminate* them widely were *abundant.*
*Conversely*, this week’s are a little more challenging to stitch together. If anyone has any *innovative* ideas (base word *innovation*), please be *courteous* and let me know in the *duration* of time these words are our focal point… else I shall *revert* to form.
Bedrock shoutouts
Shout outs this week to 9HD, who had the most students on target this week.
There will be a reward for the first class to attain 100% on target, so keep logging on and learning.
Bedrock have also launched some new competitions.
1) Any student who logs 20 points in a given week (the green smiley ones) gains an entry in a random prize draw for a £20 voucher. This is automatic, and across all schools, with 50 available. There are also 2 chromebooks up for grabs in the same draw.
2) Bedrock Stars is running between October 31st and December 18th. Students need to hit 140 points over the time period to be in with a chance to win some amazing prizes. This is different to the weekly draw, and so far we already have a number of students at or near that threshold. Good luck!
Creative writing competitions
Your English teachers may have mentioned this in lessons, but we are running a competition this half term. See clubs for more details.
GCSE Computer Science and Cambridge National revision lunchtime support
Wednesday lunchtimes in C3. Please come along for support with this weeks revision topic as per homework task.
Revision Guides
Please look out for revision guide information coming on ParentPay. Deadline for purchases is Wednesday 30th November to allow for delivery before the Christmas break.
Code club – starting Monday 21st November
We are in the motions of finalising plans for our very first code club on Monday lunchtimes. Open to all students and supported by some lovely year 12s with University Computer Science aspirations.
On Sunday 12th November 3 students represented the school to show their respects at the Uttoxeter Remembrance parade. We were grateful to be invited to take part in this important event. Thank you to Will, Elisha and Tom for your leadership on this day.
Year 11 Parents Evening
Year 11 parents evening will be held on Tuesday 22nd November from 4 – 7pm. We will be holding a face to face event as we have not been able to meet parents recently.
Year 11 and 13 mock exams
Year 11 and 13 mock exams begin on the 17th November. Pupils were given their general timetables before half term and revision should be well under way. Next week they will be given their personal timetables with allocated venues and seat numbers. We wish all students the very best in these exams.
Parentpay are collecting Donations for BBC Children in Need 2022. 99.25% will benefit BBC Children in Need (charity number 802052 in England & Wales and SC039557 in Scotland). Parentpay does not profit from this.
Opportunities in Sport
Badminton Club
Extra-curricular: Badminton club will be starting up again on Friday afterschool after half term and is open to all years 3.15-4pm. All students taking part require a PE kit and trainers.
Netball
Our under 16 team played John Taylor on Monday. It was a comprehensive performance with many of our team playing in different positions TAHS won 14-9
Team – Ainsworth, Bednall, Bettany, Clay, Randles, Ratcliffe, Smith, Weatherer
Player of Match – Louie
Some new names for this season were in the team for a floodlit tournament at Deferrers with several games against schools from East Staffordshire
Team – Ainsworth, Bettany, Clay, Cantrill, Guranca, Randles, Smith
Next Week
Tuesday – U14 & U16 netball Vs John Port (A)
Wednesday – Cross Country at Oldfield
Thursday – Year 9 netball club
School Newspaper
If you are interested in the school newspaper or would like to have your writing or art published, please come along to A6 on Friday lunchtimes. Feel free to bring your lunch.
Allies Club
Allies club is a place to come and explore issues around equality. If you are interested in making the school and wider community more inclusive and want to help celebrate our diverse communities, please come along to A6 on Tuesdays after school.
Mental Health Club
Our school Mental health club will now be running every Thursday until Christmas. For more information, please speak to Mrs Brooks.
Department News
Art
Art competition
Last few weeks for getting your entries in for the 3 Art department competitions running this year… prizes to be won… please get all entries into Mr Robinson-White through the TEAMS chat- or bring down a physical copy to the Art department… many thanks…
Mathematics
Senior Maths Challenge
On Tuesday 4th October 11 Year 12 and 7 Year 13 A-level maths students took part in the Senior Maths Challenge 2022.
The Senior Mathematical Challenge is a 90-minute, multiple-choice Challenge. It encourages mathematical reasoning, precision of thought, and fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems. The problems on the Senior Mathematical Challenge are designed to make students think.
The results are in and we have had our best set of results ever. A huge well done to Tom N for achieving the Gold award, Joe H and Tom L for achieving the Silver award and Dylan C, Will G, Harry I, Sophie R, Adam B, Charlie H, Toby P and Harry S for achieving the Bronze award.
Tom N, Joe H and Tom L will now compete in the next round of the Challenge – the Andrew Jobbings Senior Kangaroo. Well done and good luck in the next round!
Maths Week England – 14th to 18th November
Maths Week England was set up in 2019 by a small team of enthusiastic mathematicians who organise annual national events that celebrate Maths throughout schools and colleges.
This year’s theme is ‘The Power of 2’ and students will have the opportunity to carry out a fun investigation around this theme in their maths lesson next week.
Here is a sudoku puzzle for you to try. Each row, column and 3×3 square should have the numbers 1 to 9 once completed.
Computing
GCSE Computer Science and Cambridge National revision lunchtime support
Wednesday lunchtimes in C3. Please come along for support with this weeks revision topic as per homework task.
Revision Guides
Please look out for revision guide information coming on ParentPay. Deadline for purchases is Wednesday 30th November to allow for delivery before the Christmas break.
Code club – starting Monday 21st November
We are in the motions of finalising plans for our very first code club on Monday lunchtimes. Open to all students and supported by some lovely year 12s with University Computer Science aspirations.
History
Year 11 History
After school revision session reminders:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after school – see Mrs Johnson / Mrs Young for details
American-West end of unit exam
Geography
All year 11 students are encouraged to join us for the following revision sessions which will be held from 3:05 – 4pm Wednesday in the Geography classrooms.
16th November – Coasts
23rd November – Economic World
MFL
MFL MUSINGS
REVISION SESSIONS
Grade 7 – 9, Wednesday after school in room A5
Grade 3 – 6, Thursday after school in room A4
A Level conversation practice, Thursday lunchtime in A4
DUOLINGO CLUB
We will be running a Duolingo club for students who want to practice any foreign language. Full details to follow ASAP.
Science
Year 11 Chemistry revision
Start next weeks. Will take place Wednesdays after school 3.10pm-4.15pm. Sessions will be split between triple science and combined science to take place fortnightly. Week 1 sessions will be Triple Science (Chemistry) and Week 2 Session will be Combined Science (Chemistry). Sessions will take place in C9.
English
Read…write. Autumn competition opportunity
See below – you could even print this off and use it as a bookmark!
Bugsy Malone trip
On Thursday 3rd November 42 year 10,11, 12 and 13 students traveled to see ‘Bugsy Malone The Musical’ at The Theatre Royal, Nottingham. Mrs.Baldwin asked some students to review the performance. “Going to see Bugsy Malone live in Nottingham was a fantastic experience! With a cleverly designed set, we were instantly immersed into the swing of the jazz music, Charleston dancing and 1920’s America. The choreography was flawless and I think we could speak for everyone in saying the young actors and actresses were both inspiring and elating on a cold Thursday evening!”
Pip and Liliana y12
Bedrock words this week
There’s an *eclectic* bunch of words this week, and we’re *enthralled* by the *abundant* options to *disseminate*… But we went with the ones most *prevalent* across subjects.
Bedrock shout outs
Congratulations to Megan R, who has made the most progress this week, and Hayden B for smashing his target.
Work of the week
Mrs Hunt would like to spotlight Blake R in Year 10. We’ve been looking at how we can use different sentence structures, including minor sentences, to create specific moods for a reader.
Inspired by the sentence structures in Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games,” Blake wrote:
We’re in a crystalline, open cavern. An almost impassable rock. Behind a crystal – across from me – I can see another crystal indicating either energy radiating or power. To my right lies a levitating crystal and to my left and back, a huge crystalline beast consumes the bones of people. This is where my mother would want me to leave. Hastily.
Mrs Hunt really loved the word choices (especially “radiating” and “crystalline”) and the way Blake used minor sentences like Collins’ to create a foreboding mood. Well done, Blake!
Reading Recommendation
There’s a lot of buzz around Netflix’s new film, Enola Holmes 2, but did you know it is based on a series of novels, which are themselves inspired by a series of short stories and novellas? Explore the literary heritage with Nancy Springer’s “Enola Holmes” series, and the original Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock. The Conan Doyle ones are also 19th century, making them great for Paper 1 practice.
Uttoxeter Choral Society and the English Champions
Two of our Y13 English Champions, Elizabeth S and Josh H, will be supporting Uttoxeter Choral Society’s Concert this Saturday (12th November) at St Mary’s Church. Both students will be performing poetry readings, in between the Choral Society’s presentation of music from the Baroque era (first half) and Vivaldi’s “Gloria!” in the second half. Year 9 students are studying these eras and pieces in music as well, so it’s a great opportunity to enjoy some beautiful words and stunning music. For more information, please visit https://www.uttoxeterchoralsociety.co.uk/concerts-events/.
Revision next week
Thursday 15th November: Structuring a Power and Conflict Answer. Miss Beevor, A12, 3:10-4:00.
Revision tip
Remember you can apply the same what-how-why structures to Literature texts. Try opening “An Inspector Calls,” “Romeo and Juliet” or your anthologies at a random page. WHAT effect is created? HOW has the writer used methods to create that meaning? WHY those choices, for that text/character/mood/setting/focus?
Remembrance assemblies
Y 13 English Literature, supported by Mrs. Baldwin, created and performed assemblies on each day this week with the theme of ‘Remembrance’. Y13 are studying WW1 literature texts and are very knowledgeable about the horrors endured by soldiers in that conflict in particular and they shared some poems by John McCrae and Wilfred Owen as part of the assembly. One student, Elizabeth S, wrote and performed her own war poem entitled, ‘The Lieutenant’s Lament’. Thanks go to her and all the other students involved: Philippa B, Tess S, Josh H, Sophie W, Katie L, Liliana K, Kyle W, Georgia E and Lucy M.
Head of House updates
Whitmore – Miss Jones
Our Year 11 students appear to be focused on their trial exams which begin next Thursday. Please spend your time preparing thoroughly and producing materials that can be used again in the summer.
Students in all Years please log into Unifrog and complete the questionnaires which have been set.
Torrance – Miss Arrowsmith
Great start to this half term. I am pleased to see just how many students across all houses are achieving credits. Competition Time!!!!!
From Monday 14th November I will be giving a box of chocolates on Friday to the form groups who achieve the most amount of credits for the week. There will be one form per house who will win the chocolates . Good luck!!
Sixth Form updates
Sixth Form entry September 2023 – online application
All Year 11 students have been given access to a Year 11 Sixth Form Applications Team. This is to support them in making their Post 16 choices. Access to the online application form for Sixth Form entry September 2023 is available in this team or by clicking the following link:
Any questions please email Mrs Walton via sixthform@tahs.org.uk
Year 12 Work Experience week – Monday 28th November to Friday 2nd December
All Year 12 students are to undertake a week’s work experience. You need to be actively looking for a placement. You will need to register your placement via your Unifrog account. Mrs Young will be going into more detail regarding this during a Year 12 assembly. If you are having trouble accessing your Unifrog account please contact Mrs Walton on walton@tahs.net
Sixth Form Finance:
The school has been allocated a Discretional Bursary Fund (DBF) which students are able bid into throughout the academic year providing they meet the financial criteria set by the school and outlined in our DBF policy.
For the academic year 2022-2023 students are eligible for funding of up to £400 if their parental income is below £27,000 (proof required) or if they were designated as pupil premium. If a student is a looked after child (LAC) they may be entitled to up to £1,200 of financial support. Students must use this funding to support their Post-16 education. For example, Sixth Form uniform, transport costs to and from school, textbooks, revision guides, course materials, IT equipment (up to £150), educational visits, UCAS application Fee, University entrance tests etc.
More detailed information will be available in the DBF booklet which students can be obtain from Mrs Walton in the Sixth Form office or by emailing sixthform@tahs.org.uk
Year 13 Parents evening –Thursday 1st December 4-7pm. Letters to follow.
TUTOR TIME ACTIVITIES W/C 14th November 2022
Y12: Thomas Character – self fulfilled, ambition, tenacity
Monday: Choice of Unifrog tasks. Log into Unifrog and start filling in competencies/skills which will form the basis of personal statements. Log onto Unibuddy via UCAS hub: search for universities or courses and chat online to current students. Continue this at home, during enrichment and in your study periods and 6th form 7. Or watch this Unifrog video on Moocs then log onto Future Learn to explore their Moocs and continue future planning during enrichment periods/6f7. Why you should take a MOOC : Unifrog Blog
Tuesday: debate or TED talk
Wednesday: wider reading, well being or revision
Thursday: continue with Monday’s tasks
Y13: Thomas Character – ambition and tenacity
Monday: Personal statement writing with tutor support. Or CV writing/apprenticeship research.
Tuesday: debate or TED talk.
Wednesday: REVISION IDEAS (2 WEEKS UNTIL MOCKS) With students, read the ‘6 more Revision ideas’ handout and watch the clips on different strategies. Handout the ‘getting to 3a revision status’ handout. Encourage students to make a revision plan for their use over Christmas using the templates on the Y13 team or 6th form team ‘revision timetables 1, 2, 3 and 4’ which you should show them and print if anyone wants a paper copy. Remind them to build in any coursework deadlines.
Thursday: Improve personal statements. Plan open day visits. Or CV/apprenticeship research. Or continue with revision plans.
Poppies on sale
Senior prefects will be selling poppies in school all week during form time.
Future Intentions
Cambridge Sixth Form Law Conference 27-30th March 2022
A four-day residential trip to Cambridge University, which aims to give students an insight into the study of Law and life as an undergraduate at Cambridge. It is organised and run by seven current Law undergraduates, many of whom attended the Law Conference themselves and are passionate about giving other students the opportunity to have this experience.
During the residential aspect of the conference, delegates will attend Cambridge style lectures, have the chance to meet current students and explore the city and colleges of Cambridge. Delegates will stay in college undergraduate accommodation, under the supervision of the Committee and college Porters. All meals are provided. Whilst under appropriate supervision, delegates are given the time and the freedom to explore the city on their own and live life as if they were an undergraduate student.
There are 200 spaces available with a combination of funded and non-funded places. The conference will cost £155, which covers both accommodation and food, but not travel. Two non-funded places can be allocated to each school. This is on a first come-first-serve basis. (Eligibility for funding is for accommodation only and can be found on the below link)
Applications for the Conference are open from November 1stuntilDecember 31st.
Green Careers Week
Green Careers Week is an exciting event that raises aspiration, supports diversity, challenges stereotypes, and promotes real opportunities for young people to have a career that will genuinely make a difference. Discover careers, jobs, roles, and career pathways that are green careers and develop green skills.
A green career can be any job, role or occupation that contributes to preserving or restoring the environment and our planet. It can be any industry, not just those seen as ‘green.’ Green skills are abilities, attributes, values, attitudes, knowledge, and technical skills needed to adapt services, processes and procedures to support climate change.
Higher apprenticeship 101- Free workshop with the Civil Service for Y13 students
In partnership with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Y13 students are invited to attend two free online workshops introducing:
Workshop 2 (Weds 14th Dec, 4.00-5.30pm) – Who are OPSS and what do they do?
For any students keen to apply for the apprenticeship, following the online workshops there will be two further workshops at the OPSS in Birmingham in early 2023 where students will be provided with more specific application guidance:
Workshop 3 – Skills for success: How to gain and demonstrate key employability skills such as confidence and communication.
Workshop 4 – Playing to your strengths: How to recognise your personal attributes and shine in interviews.
Mentoring
Causeway and the OPSS will also be offering some additional Mentoring support for a small number of students who are facing the greatest barriers and want to progress to applying for the apprenticeship. These students will be assigned a member of staff from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as a mentor who will support them through particularly difficult parts of the application process.
Eligibility
We are looking to reach students from schools and colleges in the Midlands. The OPSS is particularly keen to hear from students from backgrounds which are under-represented in the Office.
Medical Sciences society (BWAMS) at the University of Birmingham
In partnership with the University of Birmingham Medical School, this conference is aimed at Year 12 students selected to complement the University’s widening access selection criteria. We hope to reach as many young people as possible.
Moreover, due to the pandemic disproportionately affecting young people from widening participation backgrounds, this additional support is now more important than ever.
Our conference will contain a plethora of talks from medical students, doctors, and University of Birmingham staff. They will range from a crash course covering work experience, A-levels and a taster lecture session, to a day in the life of doctors and medical students – as well as other informative sessions. These are designed to provide medical applicants with a holistic overview and enable them to put forward their best application – making the event hugely beneficial for your students considering Medicine at University!
These Experience Days will give you the opportunity to find out what it’s like to study at University, ask questions to academics and chat to current students. They will also help enhance your personal statement and make your university application stand out.
Minerals Matter!
The Minerals Matter website contains lots of information on job roles and career pathways in the mineral products sector.
PwC’s Flying Start degree programmes in Accounting, Business Management and Technology are open for applications. On these programmes students can earn a salary and fast-track their career while studying for their chosen subject.
Earn. Learn. Fulfil your potential. Whichever programme students choose, they’ll work on a range of projects in a culture that embraces difference and encourages them to think imaginatively. At PwC we want our people to feel challenged, to grow and to flourish. Students will have the opportunity to make an impact, being the difference to our clients from day one.
Find out more about our programmes here, or sign up to our upcoming events here. Explore. Inspire. Reimagine.
Tuesday 22nd November from 5:00pm – 8:00pm we’re running our next major Young Professionals Conference covering off; Business, Finance, Accounting, Technology, Engineering and Law with workshops and keynote talks.
The event is taking place at Cineworld Broadstreet in central Birmingham and we are bringing with us some of the world’s most prestigious employers.
The Employers Involved:Business, Accounting & Finance: PwC, KPMG, Grant Thornton, Mazars and CIMA Law: Freeths, Browne Jacobson, Fragomen & University of Law Engineering & Technology: Mott Macdonald & BT Group This event is designed to increase your chances of achieving the business, accounting, finance, tech, engineering or legal career of your dreams by giving you access to insights, knowledge, a network of contacts and career advice that you won’t get anywhere else. This is a unique opportunity to hear from and network with industry experts from not just one or two but several global organisations. It’s a completely free event all you need to do is sign up using the registration link below. All students that attend will get a certificate of completion to use on their CV’s and any UCAS applications.
Stress can be a normal part of job seeking, more often than not, it’s the result of over-thinking a situation. This article is full of advice on how to prepare for an interview:
Webinar series: Subject choice and interview preparation
Sidney Sussex and Churchill are collaborating on an exciting series of webinars in November, targeted towards Year 11s and 13s. Half the sessions will be run by the Sidney Sussex Schools Liaison Officer, Maria Kazani and the other half by the Churchill Schools Liaison Officer, Natalie Abbott. The deliverers of each session will be allocated in due course, but all sessions are open to everyone.
Year 11
These are targeted towards Year 11 students. They will explore choosing A-level subjects and University subjects with an emphasis on specific A-level prerequisites for certain University courses. Content will not only be applicable to Cambridge so we welcome applications from all students. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the session, both to the lead of the session (either the Sidney Sussex or Churchill School Liaison Officer) and the Admissions Director (either of Sidney Sussex or Churchill). They run on:
14th November: 5-6 pm
25th November: 5-6 pm
2nd December: 5-6 pm
Year 13
These are targeted towards Year 13 students who have submitted an application to either Cambridge or Oxford. Although we do not claim to represent the University of Oxford, there are a lot of similarities between our interview processes so students applying to Oxford are welcome to attend. These webinars will briefly cover the interview process, provide useful techniques and explore some mock examples. They are useful for those who have attended interview training before and also those who are not sure what to expect from the interview. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the session, both to the lead of the session (either the Sidney Sussex or Churchill School Liaison Officer) and the Admissions Director (either of Sidney Sussex or Churchill). They run on:
15th November: 5-6 pm
24th November: 5-6pm
How it will work
Students should fill out this form for Year 11: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8dc5i1j5aDpS4xE and this one for Year 13: https://cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6Qh3Nb6523yfUBo. Students are asked to indicate their preferred time and we will do our best to allocate each student to their first choice of date and time. Zoom links will be sent to individuals 24 hours before each event. We would be grateful if you could advertise this to your students!! There are some posters attached to help you do so.
Please get in touch either with myself at slo@sid.cam.ac.uk or Natalie at schools.liaison@chu.cam.ac.uk if you have any questions. We are greatly looking forward to these webinars and hope to see many of your students there!
This week we will be celebrating students achievements in our annual prize giving. We are thrilled that our guest speaker is Dr Emily Hancock.
Emily went to St Mary’s First School, Windsor Park Middle School and then on to TAHS in 2003, achieving GCSEs in 2006 and moving on to Sixth form doing A-Levels in Chemistry, Maths and Biology, and AS level French.
She studied Medicine at University of Leeds between 2008-2013, graduating with honours. She completed her Foundation Training in West Yorkshire, before moving closer to home to work in Emergency Medicine in Derby for 12 months, and then gained a place on the GP training programme in Derbyshire in 2016. This also involved 12 months at Leicester Medical School as a Teaching Fellow where she gained a Post Graduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice. Her GP training was completed in August 2020 in Swadlincote where she stayed until February 2021, when she moved to North Cornwall to work as a rural GP in Boscastle. She enjoys cold water swimming, walking the coastal paths, crafting and socialising with family and friends
We look forward to listening to Emily and to congratulating our prize winners.
Year 11 Parents Evening
Just to remind parents that the year 11 parents evening will be on Tuesday 22nd November from 4 – 7pm
Unifrog
Year 9:
All students in Year 9 have been sent a welcome email from Unifrog to their school email, can you please ask your child to access this email and create a password. As explained at the Year 9 tutor evening Unifrog is here to support all choices that our students make for their future intentions, this includes looking at their GCSE options.
Below is the link to a webinar that all students can access, as well as parents, to help make the decision of which options to take and why.
Year 11 and 13 mock exams begin on the 17th November. Pupils were given their general timetables before half term and revision should be well under way. Next week they will be given their personal timetables with allocated venues and seat numbers. We wish all students the very best in these exams.
We are a small group of parents and staff that meet every term to discuss how we can raise funds to donate to departments. Recently we have supported the Art, Music and PE Departments. We are looking for new members to help out with refreshments and events such as Prize Giving, Christmas Concert and the Careers Fair. If you would like to be part of the PTA and join our friendly meetings or just help out at these events please email Mrs Young and she will pass your details on. younge@tahs.net
Request for donation of prizes
Please be aware that it is Junior Prize Giving next Thursday 10th November. The PTA will be serving refreshments after the event and would like to hold a raffle to help raise funds. If you would like to donate a gift for the raffle please hand your donated item into the office for Mrs Young to collect.
BBC Children in Need 2022 donations
If you would like to donate to this worthy cause you can do so via the following link:
Parentpay are collecting Donations for BBC Children in Need 2022. 99.25% will benefit BBC Children in Need (charity number 802052 in England & Wales and SC039557 in Scotland). Parentpay does not profit from this.
Data Collection Sheets
If you have yet to do so, please return your checked and signed data collection sheet to the School Office providing at least two emergency contacts as this information helps us to contact you in an emergency.
Thank you to those parents who have already returned data collection sheets.
Opportunities in Sport
Rugby
Uttoxeter Rugby Club still require more players at all age groups Sunday Mornings- see club facebook page.
Football
Girl’s football
On Tuesday 8th November we have a 7 a side tournament for both year 9 and year 10. Good luck to all of the girls representing the school.
Girls football club will be on Wednesday this week with Miss Arrowsmith also.
Netball
County Netball Success
Our U16 teams competed in the County Tournament held at Denstone on Thursday. They finished runners up in the group stages beating St John Fisher and Madeley and losing to St Joseph’s by one goal.
The semi- finals had us drawn against the group B winners, Painsley. A side containing several players who our team are used to playing with outside of school, to stoke up the competition even higher. A really competitive game was played and Painsley led at half time 5-3. The second period we clawed a goal back and by full time the score was level 9-9. Two minutes of extra time was to played, things were getting nervy and again, scores were level 11-11.
During Another period of extra time, the ball did not want to go in for either side but just before the end of the next 2 minutes we scored and the final whistle blew. Through to the final, bragging rights over teammates and most importantly qualified for the regional competition.
The final saw TAHS face St Joseph’s again. The game was equally as tense as the semi final and earlier group game. Most goals were scored off centre passes with relatively few turnovers but St Joseph’s held on to win the final 7-6
Our Year 9 team had their first experience of a county netball tournament playing 8 games. They developed a lot throughout the 8 fixtures improving their tactical decisions and the range of passes.
Extra-curricular: Badminton club will be starting up again on Friday afterschool after half term and is open to all years 3.15-4pm. All students taking part require a PE kit and trainers.
School Newspaper
If you are interested in the school newspaper or would like to have your writing or art published, please come along to A6 on Friday lunchtimes. Feel free to bring your lunch.
Allies Club
Allies club is a place to come and explore issues around equality. If you are interested in making the school and wider community more inclusive and want to help celebrate our diverse communities, please come along to A6 on Tuesdays after school.
Mental Health Club
Our school Mental health club will now be running every Thursday until Christmas. For more information, please speak to Mrs Brooks.
Department News
English
English Revision
Revision next week will be looking at the language analysis question (Paper 1, Q2 and Paper 2, Q3). This will also support other questions where language analysis is required, e.g. the 2 Q4s / Literature, as well as giving you ideas for the 2 Q5s.
Thursday 10th November, in A15. 3:10-4:00
Work of the Week
Landon F in Y10 produced some lovely Romeo and Juliet inspired art work for Mrs Bell as part of his Shakespeare unit.
Mrs Bowler’s 9HA and 9HL English groups have been learning about conflict poetry. Students have written their own poems or diary entries from the perspective of WW1 soldiers. I think you will agree that they look and sound fantastic!
Revision
With mocks around the corner, we can recommend the following links as well as using GCSE Pod. Students often enjoy the Mr Bruff and Mr Salles YouTube channels:
Book Trust (www.booktrust.org.uk) is a great site to visit for reading recommendations, such as this one:
Bedrock – Half Term Challenge
Well done to Year 9 who really took the Half Term Bedrock Challenge on board – your usage increased by a massive 25%. We promised winners from a range of categories, and these have been rewarded this week with credits and a little treat.
Congratulations to Lewis M (most progress), Elias F (biggest time commitment), Kara F (most points) and Isabelle W (lucky login). 9HS were the winners of the whole class competition, with more students from this group logging on than from any other.
The monthly challenges and weekly credits with shout outs will continue – so keep logging on and learning those words!
Bedrock – this week’s words
A *meticulous* analysis of the words we’re studying this week has revealed a *pernicious* fact… some of our words are being repeated! However, we remain *impartial* and bid a *cordial* welcome to words old and new. There’s always one word we struggle to embed into this format – for this week it’s *conform.*
Computing
Bebras Competition 7th – 18th November
It’s that exciting time of year where students get to show their Computational Thinking skills to compete both within the school and nationally.
Over the next two weeks all year 9 students and those that opted for Computer Science at GCSE will take part in the Bebras Computational Thinking competition. This is a national event run by the Oxford University Computing team to put our students through their paces with a variety of increasing complex logical challenges. The top 10% of participants nationally will be invited to compete in the Oxford University Computing Challenge.
If any student in Years 12 or 13 would like to join please see Mrs Hadfield.
If any students would like to practice there are some previous challenges here: https://www.bebras.uk/index.php?action=user_competitions. Parents and guardians – why not make it into a family game by challenging each other to a high score?
GCSE Computer Science
All students have now received guidance on revising for the upcoming trial examinations. Please do remind them to use their list to focus their time and check Talaxy for this weeks guided revision.
Cambridge Nationals in IT
All these students have also now received guidance on revising for the upcoming trial examinations. Guided revision tasks on Talaxy.
Code club – Coming soon!
We are in the motions of finalising plans for our very first code club on Monday lunchtimes. Open to all students, watch this space for more information shortly.
History
Year 11 History
After school revision session reminders:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after school – see Mrs Johnson / Mrs Young for details
American-West end of unit exam
All groups need to be revising for this exam which will be in the first week back after half-term. Ask your teacher for help if you feel you need it.
Geography
All year 11 students are encouraged to join us for the following revision sessions which will be held from 3:05 – 4pm Wednesday in the Geography classrooms.
9th November – Rivers
16th November – Coasts
23rd November – Economic World
MFL
MFL MUSINGS
REVISION SESSIONS
Grade 7 – 9, Wednesday after school in room A5
Grade 3 – 6, Thursday after school in room A4
A Level conversation practice, Thursday lunchtime in A4
DUOLINGO CLUB
We will be running a Duolingo club for students who want to practice any foreign language. Full details to follow ASAP.
Science
Year 11 Chemistry revision
Start next weeks. Will take place Wednesdays after school 3.10pm-4.15pm. Sessions will be split between triple science and combined science to take place fortnightly. Week 1 sessions will be Triple Science (Chemistry) and Week 2 Session will be Combined Science (Chemistry). Sessions will take place in C9.
Head of House updates
Whitmore – Miss Jones
This week it was great to deliver assembly and celebrate the successful milestones Whitmore students have reached. With over 50 students having 100% attendance and over 90 students achieving their bronze badge. In terms of the House trophy competition we can celebrate not being bottom.
Elkes – Mrs Brooks
As the darker mornings and evenings draw in it Is getting more and more challenging getting up and motivated. Make sure you look after your emotional well-being by trying to enjoy the outdoors when the weather is bright.
As we approach mocks, I want to remind year 11’s that they can visit the Elkes office for any issues surrounding exams, revision sessions and revision timetabling.
Torrance – Miss Arrowsmith
Assemblies this week were delivered by Mrs Young to talk about student’s Aspirations. It was pleasing to see all students engaging and thinking about targets they could set to challenge their self either physically or academically.
Well done to all students who have achieved credits or Thomas Character points this week. Keep working hard and keep up the hard good work!
Orme – Mr Brassington
Just a quick message from me this week to thank all the Orme students for their hard work engagement and conduct so far this half term. I am watching the credits accrue and positive feedback from a number of staff members. It has also been commented on that the way you arrive for assembly each week is a credit to you all. I have been happy with your focus, conduct and uniform so far this year. You are an example to the rest of the school on how to conduct yourselves. Take note Elkes!
The Orme stars for this week are Scarlett R and Elli M (9O3) who both represented the school in the County Netball tournament
I look forward to seeing you all in assemblies next week as we discuss the importance of attendance.
Overall house points for this week
Sixth Form updates
Sixth Form entry September 2023 – online application
All Year 11 students have been given access to a Year 11 Sixth Form Applications Team. This is to support them in making their Post 16 choices. Access to the online application form for Sixth Form entry September 2023 is available in this team or by clicking the following link:
Any questions please email Mrs Walton via sixthform@tahs.org.uk
Year 12 Work Experience week – Monday 28th November to Friday 2nd December
All Year 12 students are to undertake a week’s work experience. You need to be actively looking for a placement. You will need to register your placement via your Unifrog account. Mrs Young will be going into more detail regarding this during a Year 12 assembly. If you are having trouble accessing your Unifrog account, please contact Mrs Walton on walton@tahs.net
Sixth Form Finance:
The school has been allocated a Discretional Bursary Fund (DBF) which students are able bid into throughout the academic year providing they meet the financial criteria set by the school and outlined in our DBF policy.
For the academic year 2022-2023 students are eligible for funding of up to £400 if their parental income is below £27,000 (proof required) or if they were designated as pupil premium. If a student is a looked after child (LAC) they may be entitled to up to £1,200 of financial support. Students must use this funding to support their Post-16 education. For example, Sixth Form uniform, transport costs to and from school, textbooks, revision guides, course materials, IT equipment (up to £150), educational visits, UCAS application Fee, University entrance tests etc.
More detailed information will be available in the DBF booklet which students can be obtain from Mrs Walton in the Sixth Form office or by emailing sixthform@tahs.org.uk
TUTOR TIME ACTIVITIES W/C 7th November 2022
Y12: Thomas character – ambition, self-fulfilled, tenacity
Monday: read the Which guide to higher level apprenticeships and consider if they are for you.
Tuesday: Watch this Derby University webinar about Student Finance. Finances can put some students off university so this information is designed to help them make informed choices.
Wednesday: wider reading, well-being or revision.
Thursday: future intentions – work experience organisation.
Y13: Thomas character – ambition and tenacity
Monday: Personal statement writing with tutor support. Or CV writing/apprenticeship research. Or finalising UCAS applications.
Tuesday: debate or TED talk.
Wednesday: wider reading, revision or wellbeing.
Thursday: Personal statement writing with tutor support. Or CV writing/apprenticeship research. Or finalising UCAS applications.
PAT Testing Tuesday 8th November Room 74.
Drop in session for 6th form students to bring in items for PAT testing such as laptop chargers.
Poppies on sale
Senior prefects will be selling poppies in school all week during form time
Sixth Form updates
Future Intentions
Cambridge Sixth Form Law Conference 27-30th March 2022
A four-day residential trip to Cambridge University, which aims to give students an insight into the study of Law and life as an undergraduate at Cambridge. It is organised and run by seven current Law undergraduates, many of whom attended the Law Conference themselves and are passionate about giving other students the opportunity to have this experience.
During the residential aspect of the conference, delegates will attend Cambridge style lectures, have the chance to meet current students and explore the city and colleges of Cambridge. Delegates will stay in college undergraduate accommodation, under the supervision of the Committee and college Porters. All meals are provided. Whilst under appropriate supervision, delegates are given the time and the freedom to explore the city on their own and live life as if they were an undergraduate student.
There are 200 spaces available with a combination of funded and non-funded places. The conference will cost £155, which covers both accommodation and food, but not travel. Two non-funded places can be allocated to each school. This is on a first come-first-serve basis. (Eligibility for funding is for accommodation only and can be found on the below link)
These Experience Days will give you the opportunity to find out what it’s like to study at University, ask questions to academics and chat to current students. They will also help enhance your personal statement and make your University application stand out.
Medical Sciences society (BWAMS) at the University of Birmingham
In partnership with the University of Birmingham Medical School, this conference is aimed at Year 12 students selected to complement the University’s widening access selection criteria. We hope to reach as many young people as possible.
Moreover, due to the pandemic disproportionately affecting young people from widening participation backgrounds, this additional support is now more important than ever.
Our conference will contain a plethora of talks from medical students, doctors, and University of Birmingham staff. They will range from a crash course covering work experience, A-levels and a taster lecture session, to a day in the life of doctors and medical students – as well as other informative sessions. These are designed to provide medical applicants with a holistic overview and enable them to put forward their best application – making the event hugely beneficial for your students considering Medicine at University!
Higher Apprenticeship 101 – Free workshop with the Civil Service for Y13 students
In partnership with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Y13 students are invited to attend two free online workshops introducing:
Workshop 2 (Wednesday 14th Dec, 4.00-5.30pm) – Who are OPSS and what do they do?
For any students keen to apply for the apprenticeship, following the online workshops there will be two further workshops at the OPSS in Birmingham in early 2023 where students will be provided with more specific application guidance:
Workshop 3 – Skills for success: How to gain and demonstrate key employability skills such as confidence and communication.
Workshop 4 – Playing to your strengths: How to recognise your personal attributes and shine in interviews.
Mentoring
Causeway and the OPSS will also be offering some additional Mentoring support for a small number of students who are facing the greatest barriers and want to progress to applying for the apprenticeship. These students will be assigned a member of staff from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as a mentor who will support them through particularly difficult parts of the application process.
Eligibility
We are looking to reach students from schools and colleges in the Midlands. The OPSS is particularly keen to hear from students from backgrounds which are under-represented in the Office.
How do students take part?
To take part, please complete this registration formby Wednesday 23rd November.
The inaugural Green Careers Week runs from the 7th-12th of November 2022, and this week we are joining in the celebrations early by bringing you brand new resources to help you celebrate the first ever Green Careers Week! We’ve got everything you need, including a brand-new green apprenticeship film, a fun new sustainability quiz, a new Rapid Read, social media assets and more!
This week we were proud to present our first House Drama and Dance in 4 years. The competition was judged by former Drama student, Holly Wilson, A Level Drama student Lara TC and Miss Horobin who, as well as being one of our geography teachers, has a wealth of experience in the world of dance.
Performers across the TAHS houses created and performed choreography and drama on themes relating to the THOMAS character curriculum.
The show included scenes from Kes, A Monster Calls and poetry by Manchester Poet, Matt Goodfellow. There were a variety of dance pieces ranging from Toxic by Britney Spears to Come What May from Moulin Rouge.
The students performed with confidence, sensitivity and flair to an audience of year 9 and we cannot wait to do it all again next year.
Please speak to Mrs Mood if you wish to join performing arts club after half term.
The points were so close, but the winning house were Elkes, well done to them and to all of the performers and technicians.
Opportunities in Sport
Rugby
Uttoxeter Rugby Club still require more players at all age groups Sunday Mornings- see club facebook page.
Football
Boys Football
U14 Boys Moorlands League Thomas Alleyne’s 3 – Moorside 2
Great result by our Year 9 Boys on Thursday afternoon. First half goals from Filip, with a lovely, guided header and Freddie with a drive into the bottom corner. Moorside fought back in the 2nd half and equalised with 3 minutes to go. With a quick reshuffle captain Freddie moved up front and scored the winner after dribbling past 6 players and finishing in the bottom corner!
Girls Football
Well done to our year 9 Girls who represented the school in their first match this week against Trentham Acadamy. Your performance was amazing, and I would say a well-deserved 9-2 win!
The first week back our U15 Girls will be playing Endon High School on Wednesday 2nd November after school. Good luck Girls!
House Netball and Rugby
House Netball
Wednesday saw the return of House netball. It was a fantastic turnout from all year groups. Especially Year 9, where each team had three or more subs. The games were all played with lots of enthusiasm. The competitive spirit was really high, and it was the perfect occasion to showcase the skills which have been developed this half term.
Many thanks to Skye, Louie, Hattie, Martha, Alisha ad Rachel who were officiating matches
Year 9 Netball
1st Orme
2nd Torrance
3rd Elkes
4th Whitmore
Year 10
1st Whitmore
2nd Elkes
3rd Torrance
4th Orme
Year 11
1st Whitmore
2nd Elkes
3rd Orme
4th Torrance
House Rugby
On Wednesday we had our boys house rugby competitions. The participation and standard of play was outstanding in all age groups.
Thank you to those parents who have returned data collection sheets.
If you have yet to do so, please check the contact data we have for your child, amend where necessary and return the signed data collection sheet to school as soon as possible. We politely request at least two contacts; this information helps us to contact you in an emergency.
Badminton Club
Extra-curricular: Badminton club will be starting up again on Friday afterschool after half term and is open to all years 3.15-4pm. All students taking part require a PE kit and trainers.
School Newspaper
If you are interested in the school newspaper or would like to have your writing or art published, please come along to A6 on Friday lunchtimes. Feel free to bring your lunch.
Allies Club
Allies club is a place to come and explore issues around equality. If you are interested in making the school and wider community more inclusive and want to help celebrate our diverse communities, please come along to A6 on Tuesdays after school.
Department News
English
BookBuzz
Students have selected their books and their choices have been submitted to Bedrock. It will be a couple of months before the books arrive in school, so watch this space!
Bedrock
Many of our Year 9 students are getting into excellent Bedrock habits, and we *acclaim* their progress. Whilst we don’t like to *dwell* on the negatives, it seems some students are becoming a little more forgetful… please remember Bedrock homework is as important as other types of homework, and must be completed in the same manner. It’s also really tricky to integrate this week’s words: however *idiosyncratic* our style, our efforts could be seen as *feeble*… Our final word is *astute* – bonus Bedrock points for the first person to find a way to link it to the other words this week!
At the end of the first term of our Bedrock journey, two students have completed more units than any other. Congratulations to Leah K and George B: prizes are on their way.
Work of the Week
There’s nothing visual to show today as books have been taken home to revise from, but Mrs Hunt would like to acknowledge the amazing analysis of “Bayonet Charge” by her Year 11 students today, particularly Elin L, Kai H and James L (although there were at least 8 other names that could be singled out). There were some superbly insightful comments made, and excellent links to other poems, making for a really effective revision lesson. Well done!
After-school revision
We’re running weekly sessions after half term – timetables will be published in English classrooms each half term. Sessions will run on either a Tuesday or a Thursday, so check the timetable carefully.
The first session is Mr Hulme on An Inspector Calls – plot and character basics. Thursday 3rd November, 3:15-4:00 in A6.
Revising over half term?
Our top tip for this week is to remember that almost everything you see, read or watch can be analysed (#sorrynotsorry). Keep a look out in particular for uses of imagery (similes and metaphors abound in adverts), interesting verbs (facebook and twitter can be fascinating for these) and other interesting language features. Watching a film? Think about the structure of the story. Going for a walk? How is a film poster using a slogan? Where there’s words, there’s revision…
More formal revision should be focusing on Literature texts (An Inspector Calls; Power and conflict poetry); Unseen Poetry skills; and the English Language question types. Search AQA on YouTube for advice direct from the people who write the paper, especially their “Spotlight on…” series (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBhgvcteMltjp11wShXfB91rxWv_MNrox).Wider Reading
With half term ahead of us, and the prospect of darker nights and cosy evenings curled up on the sofa, the English Department thought it would be good to offer some suggested reads. Each of the suggestions below links to different areas of our curriculum next half term. They are designed to complement – not replace – texts and concepts studied in school. Uttoxeter Library can order in any books they don’t have in stock – so pop up and see them.
Y9 – Heroes
Private Peaceful – Michael Morpurgo
Wonder – RJ Palacio
Y9 – Power and Conflict
The Book Thief – Marcus Zusak
The Diary of A Young Girl – Anne Frank (non fiction)
Y10 – Powerful places, dangerous spaces
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs
The Door That Led to Where – Sally Gardner (Mrs Hunt’s current read – it’s awesome!)
Y10 – Romeo and Juliet
Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman
Saving Juliet – Suzanne Selfors
Y11 – People and Poverty
The Salt Path – Raynor Winn (non-fiction)
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens (19th century)
Y11 – A Christmas Carol
At the End of the Passage – Rudyard Kipling
The Nether World – George Gissing (19th century)
Bonus topic: Spooky Stories and Terrifying Tales
The Haunting of Tyrese Walker – JP Rose
The Clockwork Crow – Catherine Fisher
Bedrock – half term challenge
The English Department are challenging you to get onto Bedrock over half term… prizes are at stake for a range of Bedrock related activities. The more you log on – the higher your chances!
History
Year 11 History
After school revision session reminders:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after school – see Mrs Johnson / Mrs Young for details
American-West end of unit exam
All groups need to be revising for this exam which will be in the first week back after half-term. Ask your teacher for help if you feel you need it.
RE
Year 11 and 13
As we approach half term – this is a good time to get organised with a plan to revise for the trial exams. Please remember the key tips you learnt from the Inner Drive session:
If accuracy is vital, do one thing first, finish it, then do another.
A weak note is better than a strong memory
Use acronyms, simplify and chunk information
Space out the revision and practice by testing yourself.
Write to do lists – do the hard things first and early.
Don’t make the 9 mistakes of sleep.
Don’t assume the worst – be positive but work to achieve good results.
Please speak to your teachers if you want any support or guidance with revision.
BTEC Tech Award Sport Activity & Fitness
Year 13 – All should be revising training methods and planning for Mock exam
Year 12 – Learn labels for all body systems
Year 11 – Coursework for Body Systems, Injuries and Technology needs uploading to Teams by end of half term. Use Online text book (Active Learn) to revise for mock exam.
Year 10 – Complete equipment and technology power point and plan warm up.
Geography
All year 11 students are encouraged to join us for the following revision sessions which will be held from 3:05 – 4pm Wednesday in the Geography classrooms.
2nd November – Urban Environments
9th November – Rivers
16th November – Coasts
23rd November – Economic World
MFL
MFL MUSINGS
REVISION SESSIONS
Grade 7 – 9, Wednesday after school in room A5
Grade 3 – 6, Thursday after school in room A4
A Level conversation practice, Thursday lunchtime in A4
DUOLINGO CLUB
We will be running a Duolingo club for students who want to practice any foreign language. Full details to follow ASAP, ready for a November start.
Art
Yr12 artists are currently working on some large scale paintings of collections of objects personal to them. It is fantastic to see them utilising skills and knowledge learnt in their painting and colour workshops into this work. Excellent progress this week from Molly D, Nell W, Odette H and Gemma B particularly. Well done guys! We can’t wait to see these finished!
Yr10 artists have been working hard on their Sea themed coursework unit and are utilising past student examples of tasks to inspire their own ideas for presentation of work. Keep up the excellent work guys!
Yr11 artists have been exploring traditional and non-traditional materials and techniques in a range of samples this half term with Mrs Cornell with some very intriguing results. We are looking forward to seeing these ideas progress towards final outcome designs after the half term break in preparation for their 10hour mock exam in the final week of term.’
Science
The 2022 visit to CERN started in the dark and rain of an early morning Uttoxeter before more of the same, this time inside a minibus, on the first leg of the journey to Manchester airport.
The process through the airport was relatively hassle free though a few of us were delayed by bag checks after trying to smuggle books though security. At least it wasn’t a 12″ kitchen knife like a fellow traveller had packed.
After a short flight we arrived in Geneva to be greeted by 24⁰C weather and bright sunshine in sharp contrast to the British rain we’d left behind. After a couple of tram rides we arrived at our hostel, home for the next two nights, and settled in.
We unpacked and headed for the local park, on the shore of Lake Geneva and explored the sculptures and buildings on the park and took in the beautiful view of the Alps just beyond the lake, including catching the moon rising behind Mont Blanc. We headed back to the hotel for dinner and an early night, or in the case of a few of our more enterprising students, convincing Uber to deliver a pizza.
Thursday began with a continental breakfast and two tram rides to CERN. We began with the obligatory group photo and then headed over to the Particles exhibition inside a giant sphere where we learned about space, the origins of particles from the Big Bang and how CERN detects them.
Then we were off to our first activity of the day: cloud chambers. We split into small teams and collected dry ice, propanol, a metal plate and a plastic chamber and assembled our cloud chambers. The propanol vapour condensed in the cold and formed a cloud. As a variety of charged particles passed through the chamber they would leave a vapour trail in their wake. We were watching the movement of invisible subatomic particles in real-time. We then identified the different subatomic particles (electrons, muons, alpha particles etc) from the different trails they made and looked at some of the decay processes occurring in the room that led to their creation. It was a fascinating experience!
After a delicious lunch, we had a guided tour round the syncrocyclotron (the first particle accelerator at CERN) and an explanation into the science and engineering of accelerating particles to near the speed of light. This was followed by a visit to ATLAS, the enormous detector that is used to measure the properties of the many subatomic particles produced by smashing protons into each other after travelling at mindbendingly high speeds through an underground loop 24 kilometres in diameter. The scale of engineering and the sensitivity of the apparatus was incredible.
By the end of this tour the group was feeling a little footsore (especially the student who had a soldier drop his assault rifle on her foot) and it was a weary bunch on the tram home.
We rested for an hour or so before heading back into the city for dinner followed by a stroll alongside the lake.
On Friday we were old campaigners on the tram system and hopped on number 15 to the United Nations ready for our tour. Everyone was looking a little bleary-eyed at this point and the energy levels had waned a little so it was safe to say that enthusiasm levels were not as high as they could have been. This quickly changed when the tour began. Our guide showed us round the various parts of the building and inside a couple of the council chambers. She described the structure of the various organs that fall under the UN umbrella and showed us some of the incredible art work donated by member states over the years.
We were then allowed to sit in the viewing chamber and observe the 51st session of the Human Rights council, listening in to the translators on our earpieces. We were lucky enough to hear some impassioned speeches and observe the council members vote (something our guide had never seen before in ten years of working there) including a vote on a resolution to downgrade the word “atrocity” to the word “crime” in the Human Rights documentation. We were all shocked to hear that the proposer was Russia and relieved that the proposal was rejected with a massive majority.
The visit concluded with an exhibition on nuclear weapons and the UNs work in promoting disarmament.
We hopped back on a tram to grab lunch at a boulangerie and followed by a visit to the museum of the history of science. The amassed antique scientific instruments and displays were fascinating but we were all beginning to fade and the clock was ticking on our return flight. Yet another tram ride and a short hop on a double-decker train got us to the airport. We left Geneva with a bird’s-eye view of CERN for one final time before returning to Birmingham, Greggs and rain.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip and a unique learning experience for us all.
A really enjoyable week. A big thank you to everyone who has represented Whitmore House or the School in our first seven weeks. It was great to finally see some 1st place finishes in the rugby and netball competitions but more importantly it was great seeing everyone having fan and trying their best. Enjoy your half term break
Elkes – Mrs Brooks
Well done to Elkes so far this half term. We are currently joint first with Torrance on the leader board. Let’s see if we can hit top spot by Christmas.
Just a reminder that our Mental health club will continue after half term on Wednesday. For more information, please speak to Mrs Brooks.
Enjoy your half term break.
Torrance – Miss Arrowsmith
we made it! Our first half term is complete, and we held celebration assemblies this week to highlight just how amazing some of our students are. Students had a special mention for 100% attendance, bronze and silver awards linked to our credit system as well as students being recongnised by their Head of House for outstanding achievements so far this year. Well done to everyone who saw their name on the PowerPoint. In total over 250 students achieved their bronze award and 4 students achieved their Silver. Well done and keep up all your hard work.
Well done to hundreds of students who took part in Netball, rugby or house drama/dance this week. Your efforts and commitments have been seen across the school and particularly by your head of house. We finished Joint First overall this half term – Dream team I’d say.
Targets for w/c 31st October
100% Attendance
Bronze, Silver or Gold Award
Thomas character points – through your Tutor lessons
How can you impress your Head of house in preparations for the next celebration assembly
Enjoy your half term everyone
Orme – Mr Brassington
Well done to all of the students who achieved 100% attendance this half term.
Students who manage to get to Christmas with 100% attendance will receive a certificate and be entered into the attendance raffle – Make sure you keep coming to school, working hard and being the best student, you can be!
Sixth Form updates
Sixth Form entry September 2023 – online application
All Year 11 students have been given access to a Year 11 Sixth Form Applications Team. This is to support them in making their Post 16 choices. Access to the online application form for Sixth Form entry September 2023 is available in this team or by clicking the following link:
Any questions please email Mrs Walton via sixthform@tahs.org.uk
Year 12 Work Experience week – Monday 28th November to Friday 2nd December
All Year 12 students are to undertake a week’s work experience. You need to be actively looking for a placement. You will need to register your placement via your Unifrog account. Mrs Young will be going into more detail regarding this during a Year 12 assembly. If you are having trouble accessing your Unifrog account please contact Mrs Walton on walton@tahs.net
Sixth Form Finance:
The school has been allocated a Discretional Bursary Fund (DBF) which students are able bid into throughout the academic year providing they meet the financial criteria set by the school and outlined in our DBF policy.
For the academic year 2022-2023 students are eligible for funding of up to £400 if their parental income is below £27,000 (proof required) or if they were designated as pupil premium. If a student is a looked after child (LAC) they may be entitled to up to £1,200 of financial support. Students must use this funding to support their Post-16 education. For example, Sixth Form uniform, transport costs to and from school, textbooks, revision guides, course materials, IT equipment (up to £150), educational visits, UCAS application Fee, University entrance tests etc.
More detailed information will be available in the DBF booklet which students can be obtain from Mrs Walton in the Sixth Form office or by emailing sixthform@tahs.org.uk
TUTOR TIME ACTIVITIES W/C 31st October 2022
Year 12
Monday:
Students continue to arrange work experience and/or tidy up their files and revise. Thomas Character: self fulfilled, tenacity
Tuesday:
Debate day – watch a TED talk or debate current affairs
Personal statements – work on personal statements with tutors. Are students being realistic with their university applications or do they need to add a foundation course? Thomas character: ambition, tenacity
Tuesday:
Debate day – watch a TED talk or debate current affairs
Addressing a wide variety of topics, our latest collection of rapid read resources aims to help teachers, parents, carers and individuals to be better informed about all things apprenticeships!
Including straight-talking advice, clear explanation of current legislation, ‘how tos’ and ‘where tos’ the six new downloads join the Amazing Apprenticeships free resource library.
We are looking forward to celebrating the achievements of so many of our students in our final week before half term. Our Heads of House will be holding celebration assemblies for all year groups. In addition, 30 students who will be invited to join us for a special breakfast so that we can congratulate them on their exceptional achievements this term.
We look forward to seeing parents of Year 9 and 12 at the parent sessions on Wednesday. If you have not booked your appointment as yet both Talaxy and Eventbrite are still open for bookings. If you have any problem accessing these please contact your Head of House or Mrs Walton.
Thank you for your support this half term. School will be closed to students on Friday when staff will be undertaking training.
Data collection sheets
Please check the data collection sheet for your child, amend it as required, sign and return it to the school office by Thursday 20th October. Thank you to those parents who have already returned data collection sheets. It is essential schools have at least 2 contact numbers in the event of an emergency.
House Dance and Drama
We are looking forward to our House Drama competition this week. Please find below further details. We wish the best of luck to all participants and thank them for their hard work.
Monday 17th October rehearsals:
Period 1- Elkes
Y13-E Naylor, J Norton
Y12-E Russell
Y11-E Parker, J Fowler, H Kent
Y10- K Prior
Y9- K Jones, M Shingler, A Ratcliffe
Period 1- Whitmore
Y13- H Leech, G Edwards
Y9- P Blake, C Taylor, G Richardson, K Garfin-Mumford
Period 2 -Torrance
Year 12: H Ekins, O Holland, J Norton
Year 10- L Hawley, E Baldwin, J Moore
Year 9- M Hipkiss, I Ross, E Byrne
Period 2-Orme
Y13-K Williams, C Hallam
Y11-M Parkes
Y10-P Tortenesi
Y9-O Twohig, A Harper, I Green
Period 3 and 4-ALL STUDENTS
Tuesday 18th October:ALL STUDENTS INVOLVED Period 1-4
Opportunities in Sport
Rugby
Well done to the 22 boys who made their school rugby debut’s this week against Denstone in the county cup. Whilst losing to a very well organised side, the boys worked hard and have all made great progress in training.
Uttoxeter Rugby Club still require more players at all age groups Sunday Mornings- see club face book page.
Football
Girls Football
Well done to our year 9 and 10 Girls who represented the school in their first match this week against QEGS. Your performance in the second half was amazing!
This week we have a year 9 Girls game Vs Trentham High School on Thursday after school. Good luck Girls!
Netball
This week we only have year 11 and sixth form netball on Thursday after school.
House Matches this week
Next Wednesday is House Rugby for boys and House Netball for Girls.
P1- Year 11
P2- Year 10
P3- Year 9
Boys and girls have been working towards this all-half term. Please excuse yourself from lessons if you wish to play (GET YOUR MARK FIRST)
Badminton Club
Extra-curricular: Badminton club will be starting up again on Friday afterschool after half term and is open to all years 3.15-4pm. All students taking part require a PE kit and trainers.
School Newspaper
If you are interested in the school newspaper or would like to have your writing or art published, please come along to A6 on Friday lunchtimes. Feel free to bring your lunch.
Allies Club
Allies club is a place to come and explore issues around equality. If you are interested in making the school and wider community more inclusive and want to help celebrate our diverse communities, please come along to A6 on Tuesdays after school.
Department News
English
Work of the Week
Mrs Bell’s Y10 class have been working on Romeo and Juliet. Congratulations to Landon F, Max H, Sam M and Ryan F for their clear understanding of the key scenes so far.
KS5 Shakespeare Trip
Thank you to Tess S from Y13 for giving us this review of Mrs Baldwin’s English Literature trip:
“On Monday, Year 12 and 13 Drama and Y13 English Literature students visited the Curve Theatre in Leicester to watch the play ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare, a text which we are all studying. The play was put together by the Frantic Assembly Theatre Company, whose adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic text places the story in the turbulent 21st century and has seen previous success in its original runs in 2008 and 2014. The powerful message of acceptance and deception is all the more poignant when placed in more familiar circumstances and the high tension throughout this re-imagining of the play made it a truly unforgettable and exciting trip!
Revision
For GCSE Literature, here are some useful links on GCSE Pod for unseen poetry. Please see your English teacher or form tutor if you have forgotten your password – or just reset it in the usual way using your school email. As you can see, there are links to: thinking like an examiner; planning an answer and how to tackle an unseen poem plus many other useful modules.
We couldn’t recommend just one book this week when there are 17 amazing choices for Y9. Please click the hyperlink above to find out more about each choice. If you are not in Y9 and are interested in any of the books, please see Mrs Bowler in room A6 as we have copies of them all which are available to loan. All students should be sharing their choice of book with their teacher before 18th October.
Bedrock
We were quite *vexed* to see the tone of words this week – *trepidation,* and *apprehensive* are not very happy words! However, we hold no *animosity* towards Bedrock, as it’s perfectly *feasible* we can use these words in our lessons and beyond…
Bedrock credits this week go to Abigail M for showing the most progress between pre and post unit tests. Well done, Abigail!
History
Year 11 History
After school revision session reminders:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after school – see Mrs Johnson / Mrs Young for details
American-West end of unit exam
All groups need to be revising for this exam which will be in the first week back after half-term. Ask your teacher for help if you feel you need it.
Social & Health Studies
Our star students this week are from our fabulous year 12 Psychology students for making a super start to their new A-level course:
Lucy B
Rhiannon T
Gemma B
Hannah W
Megan S
Jack W
Daisy T
BTEC Tech Award Sport Activity & Fitness
Please see attached video on BTEC Sport 6th form course suitable for anyone in Year 11
Year 10- All students are currently completing an assignment on Technology in Sport and are planning practical delivery of warm ups.
Year 11- All students need to complete and upload to Teams coursework on Body Systems, Injuries and Technology before October Half Term. Students who got below a L2 Distinction on their exam have been entered for a resit in February for the opportunity to improve their grade.
Year 12- Students are studying Anatomy & Physiology for exam in January.
Year 13- Students are practicing planning training programmes and lifestyle changes in preparation for January exam.
Geography
All year 11 students are encouraged to join us for the following revision sessions which will be held from 3:05 – 4pm Wednesday in the Geography classrooms.
2nd November – Urban Environments
9th November – Rivers
16th November – Coasts
23rd November – Economic World
MFL
MFL MUSINGS
REVISION SESSIONS
Grade 7 – 9, Wednesday after school in room A5
Grade 3 – 6, Thursday after school in room A4
A Level conversation practice, Thursday lunchtime in A4
DUOLINGO CLUB
We will be running a Duolingo club for students who want to practice any foreign language. Full details to follow ASAP, ready for a November start.
Art
Student Showcase: A-Level Photography
Each week in roundup we will be showcasing a different student from across KS4-5 in roundup to highlight the hard work and effort our students have been putting into their work. This week’s A-Level Photography unit was based on, “Wildlife Photography” looking at themes of Aesthetic, Awe, Abstract and Agility in the natural world.
Head of House updates
Whitmore – Miss Jones
Huge congratulations to Skye W who has been selected for the England Volleyball squad this week, also Imogen S who has been selected to represent Team England Cheerleading.
Former Whitmore student Isabel P, currently in Year 13 has spent this week at a GB training camp for the Beach Sprint Rowing Championships.
Also Amelie R and Lucy C, both former Whitmore students, now studying in Sixth Form spoke very well on BBC Radio Derby, promoting Women’s Rugby this morning.
Please let us know of your successes and endeavours that you are involved in outside of school.
Elkes – Mrs Brooks
Another fantastic week for Elkes. Next week is house drama and Elkes have been historically outstanding in this field. Get involved, get cheering and get DRAMATIC!
Torrance – Miss Arrowsmith
This week we have house assemblies delivered by your Head of house. This is to celebrate your success in the following areas:
100% Attendance
Bronze, Silver and Gold awards for (30/60/90 credits)
Thomas Character award
Head of house recognition award for 1 year 9, 10 & 11 student in each house
Good luck to all students and well done to everyone who has achieved anyone of the above.
This week we have House netball, House Rugby, House drama and dance. We are currently coming second overall in the house rankings so I would like to encourage as many Torrance students as possible to get involved.
Orme – Mr Brassington
As we approach the end of the term and look forward to the half term review I wanted to say a quick thankyou to all the Orme students that have gone above and beyond. The number of credits, the number of times that I have been stopped by staff to tell me about individual achievements and the number of times I have witnessed Orme students stepping forward to help or support others so far this term is incredibly humbling. I look forward to sharing some of these successes with you next week in our assembly.
Hey now, you’re an Orme star this week is Matilda M who has racked up an incredibly impressive 63 credits already this term. Well done Matilda!
Sixth Form updates
Sixth Form Finance:
The school has been allocated a Discretional Bursary Fund (DBF) which students are able bid into throughout the academic year providing they meet the financial criteria set by the school and outlined in our DBF policy.
For the academic year 2022-2023 students are eligible for funding of up to £400 if their parental income is below £27,000 (proof required) or if they were designated as pupil premium. If a student is a looked after child (LAC) they may be entitled to up to £1,200 of financial support. Students must use this funding to support their Post-16 education. For example, Sixth Form uniform, transport costs to and from school, textbooks, revision guides, course materials, IT equipment (up to £150), educational visits, UCAS application Fee, University entrance tests etc.
More detailed information will be available in the DBF booklet which students can be obtain from Mrs Walton in the Sixth Form office or by emailing sixthform@tahs.org.uk
TUTOR TIME ACTIVITIES W/C 17th October 2022
Year 12
Monday
Is Uni or an apprenticeship right for you? How do I know? Watch these videos to help you prepare covering topics such as finance, degree apprenticeships, city living and how to make the most of university open days:
Wellbeing/revision time. Encourage students to organise their notes and folders, perhaps making some Cornell notes. Or give them a selection of colouring/sudoku/word puzzles (suggestions on the Team). Or time to continue with a mooc.
Thursday:
Fab four future intentions choices: improve their personal statements; plan open day visits; improve their CV or research live apprenticeships on Unifrog.
Amazing Apprenticeships
The Parent Perspective Podcast episode 4 is now LIVE.
This week we’re talking about a crucial stage in your child’s journey – considering the options!
Not every child has a rock solid plan for their future and it can be daunting to make big decisions at this point of life. Our brilliant guests, Influencer and Co-founder of Bambuu Brush Tommie Eaton and his mum, Director of Sporting Futures Training Jill Eaton, discuss what that time was like for them, the importance of keeping options open, and never trying to predict the opportunities that might arise…
Following surveying the views of parents last year, it was clear that many parents missed the opportunity to meet their child’s form tutor face to face. For this reason, we have decided to reintroduce face to face parents evening for years 9 and 12. All parents will receive a letter with further details.
Bookings for tutor appointments will be available via Talaxy from Tuesday 11th October. Please contact your Head of House if you are unable to book an appointment. We are keen to meet all parents.
During the evening, we will be running a series of important information sessions on unifrog and GCSEpod. We hope all parents will be able to join us for these.
Year 9 – parent information sessions
GCSE Pod
Unifrog
Year 12 – parent information sessions
Unifrog
Extended Project Qualification
Important Reminders for Years 11 and 13
Year 11 and year 13 trial exams commence on 21st November. Students will be provided with their examination timetable prior to October half term.
All students are asked to revise all content from Year 10 and Year 12. In addition, please ask your sons and daughters to focus on specific areas identified by their teachers.
We are pleased to be able to offer year 11, 12 and 13 students a ‘Studying with the Brain in Mind’ workshop on 11th October to support them with their revision. Please access further support on the school website – where you will find revision strategies, templates and lots more.http://www.thomasalleynes.uk/page/?title=Revision&pid=281. In addition, we have purchased GCSEpod for all students.
Attendance
This week, in addition to speaking with students about ensuring their conduct in school and out of school is excellent, we held attendance assemblies.
The purpose of these assemblies was to highlight the overall impact of below average attendance. Please see the graph below, which shows the progress of all students who attended less than 85% last year. Students below the line made less than average progress.
After school revision/support sessions for Year 11
Extra-Curricular
Art Competitions available for all to enter – deadline for all entries 30th November.
Student Showcase: A-Level Art…
Each week in roundup we will be showcasing a different student from across KS4-5 in roundup to highlight the hard work and effort our students have been putting into their work…. This week’s A-Level Art unit was based on “intelligent design” … looking at the relationship between science and religion, investigating how the design of cell biology and biochemistry function in different life forms….
Music updates
Please see the music noticeboard for instrumental and vocal lessons times.
House Dance and Drama
A reminder please that rehearsals are Wednesday afternoons until 4.15pm and if students wish to rehearse at lunchtimes, please contact Mrs Mood on TEAMS to arrange a time and location. Please bring clothes that you can move into Wednesday rehearsals.
Opportunities in Sport
Rugby
Swimming
English Schools Swim Gala
On Thursday we travelled to Newcastle Under Lyme School to compete in the Freestyle and Medley relays.
Intermediate Girls team – I Edwards, M Carrington, E Byrne, A Brown
Senior Girls team – L. Oldham, A Jones, L Blood, C Woods
Intermediate Boys team – H Oldham E Bulmer, D Simister, L Slack,
Senior Boys – O Edwards, W Bulmer, B Pickering, J Minshall
Interested in becoming a lifeguard? Please see information below. This is a great opportunity to get involved and achieve a NPLQ qualification!
Lifeguarding
National Pool Lifeguard Course (NPLQ) with Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW) and Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
When? 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th, 22nd & 23rd October 2022 (3 x weekends) Where? Trentham Community Sports Centre, Trentham ST4 8PQ Times? 8.00am- 5.30pm Price? £250.00
Pre-requisites of course: 16 years of age on or before final day of course Dive/jump into deep water Swim 50 metres in less than 60 seconds swim 200 continuously (100m front 100m back) Tread water for 30 seconds surface dive to floor of the pool (2m) Climb out unaided
Interested? email: JILL.BRIDGWOOD.1@sky.com or call Jill 07966422238
Rugby
Year 9 have their first competitive game on Wednesday. Numbers at training are over 30 and the team are making good progress. Training on Tuesday after school all welcome.
Uttoxeter Rugby Club still require more players at all age groups Sunday Mornings- see club face book page.
Football
Boys Football
Another busy week for boys and girls football with 16 new boys representing the school against Abbotsholme on Wednesday and a combined total of 96 at training!
On Monday Year 10 play their first round English Schools FA Cup match against QEGS Ashbourne. Year 10 Girls play the same opponents on Thursday in the 2nd round.
Year 9 & 10 boys then face JCB on Thursday in a district fixture.
Girls Football
Girls football club will be on Tuesday this week in preparation for our match on Thursday. Year 9,10 & 11 all welcome
Girls U15 football fixture vs QEGS away on Tuesday 13th October
Netball
Tuesday – Yr 9 netball vs John Taylor (a)
Wednesday – Year 9 netball Club
Thursday – senior netball Club
Many thanks to Mrs Edwards and Mrs Lyon who have assisted with umpiring last week.
Fitness Club
Fitness club will be every Friday 3:05-4pm with Mr Scott in the new pavilion Gym. Please see Mr Scott for more details.
Mental Health
Our club will not be running this week, but I look forward to seeing you all next Wednesday
Interested in becoming a MENTAL HEALTH AMBASSADOR?
Join us on WEDNESDAY EVENINGS in A11 3:15-4:15pm
The WHAM Plan is delivered by young people and anyone who has completed the full course is able to deliver the sessions to others, such as in a school or youth organisation.
There are a variety of different topics that we cover, including:
What is emotional wellbeing?
The food-mood connection
Positive activities for wellbeing
Healthy relationships
Helping others
Planning ahead for troubled times
Mindfulness in nature
School Newspaper
If you are interested in the school newspaper or would like to have your writing or art published, please come along to A6 on Friday lunchtimes. Feel free to bring your lunch.
Latin Club
Anyone who would like to learn Latin should come along to A6 on Friday after school.
Allies Club
Allies club is a place to come and explore issues around equality. If you are interested in making the school and wider community more inclusive and want to help celebrate our diverse communities, please come along to A6 on Tuesdays after school.
Department News
English
An Inspector Called…
The much-awaited theatre trip took place this week, with 73 Year 11/10 students thoroughly enjoying their trip back to 1912. The production really brought the text to life, and will help support revision for Y11, including key quotations and how the text must be considered as a play for performance, not a novel to be read.
Thank you to Mr Hulme for organising, and all the English teachers (plus special guest English teacher, Mrs Oliver) for giving up their free time to support the trip.
Starts next Thursday lunch (13th October) at 1.20 in room 6A.
If you enjoy reading and would love the opportunity to read new books, this group is for you. Every time we get together, we will all take home the same text to read and then meet a few weeks later to discuss our opinions of the book.
Suggestions for good reads will be taken in the hope that we can read your recommendations!
Please bring lunch with you. Tea, coffee and hot chocolate will be provided.
Revision Tip of the week
If you attended the really useful Revision evening two weeks ago, you’ll remember Mrs Hunt supporting Mrs Lindsay (and Mrs Ibbs) in their recommendation of flashcards. These are a really effective way to learn quotations – put the quotation on one side and then why it matters / what comments you could make about it (language and meaning, as well as plot/character and context) on the reverse.
They’re particularly useful for revising Power and Conflict poetry, as you can practice ‘pairing’ quotations.
Flashcards can be homemade; digital (check out quizlet.com), or even prebought – CGP do a great range.Bedrock
Unfortunately, we were *deprived* of our *burgeoning* weekly vocabulary sharing in Roundup last week. However, we shall emerge *unscathed,* and *(re)invigorate* ourselves, pledging to be more *meticulous*… There are some fabulous vocabulary choices being explored this week by our Y9 learners. From the life of Charles Dickens to the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Fire of London, students are encountering these words in context through some really interesting topics. It’s been lovely to see these words highlighted in other lessons, too.
A different parameter for our shout outs this week: time spent. In the last week, members of 9UL are dominating the time spent leaderboard, with 5 of the top 10 places belonging to this group. Miss Beevor and Mrs Bowler have added credits for all students who contributed to the class’ success – well done!
Across Y9, 10 students have spent at least an hour building their vocabulary skills and will have credits added. Well done to Illiya K, Rayna S, Delilah O, Lacey J, George B, Joseph R, Oliver W, Daniel H, Fran dP, and Freya H. Credits have been added for your commitment.
Work of the Week: It’s English, but not as we know it…
Year 13 English Language students had a creative approach to their feedforward work following a recent assessment: creating a display to address their own areas of weakness and celebrate what they did well. Students have loved learning about American as a variety of English and exploring both its standard and non-standard variations. If you want to know why “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” links to inner city Manchester, or why “fall” as a season is not as American as you think it is – check it out on the stairs to A15.
Particular thanks to Evie and Alyssa for co-ordinating this.
Maths
Year 11 GCSE Maths Revision Guide and Practice Papers
All Year 11 students have been given a letter about purchasing a GCSE maths revision guide (£4.99) and a pack of practice exam papers (£3.15). Both of these are available now to buy via ParentPay. These will be very useful for the upcoming mock exams as well as the final GCSE exams in the Summer. The deadline for ordering these is Friday 7th October.
Social & Health Studies
Our departmental star students this week are those who did an amazing job on the open evening. Alex and Megan did a great job of demonstrating bandages. Milly, Keira and Kylah showed parents all the fabulous coursework produced by students in Child Development and Health & Social Care. They all did a really super job!
BTEC Tech Award Sport Activity & Fitness
Please see attached video on BTEC Sport 6th form course suitable for anyone in Year 11
Year 10- All students are currently completing an assignment on Technology in Sport and are planning practical delivery of warm ups.
Year 11- All students need to complete and upload to Teams coursework on Body Systems, Injuries and Technology before October Half Term. Students who got below a L2 Distinction on their exam have been entered for a resit in February for the opportunity to improve their grade.
Year 12- Students are studying Anatomy & Physiology for exam in January.
Year 13- Students are practicing planning training programmes and lifestyle changes in preparation for January exam.
Drama
Last week, year 13 got to grips with Brecht in their practitioner studies. The students showed excellence in their understanding of this challenging module.
Rehearsals are well underway for House Dance and Drama which takes place on Tuesday, October 18th during the school day. Below Kyle W directs Orme students for the devised drama section.
Independent Study Zone
Now students wanting added challenge in their drama lessons can take advantage of a The Student Alone Zone in K9 to develop independent study and drama literacy skills.
School Lottery
Thomas Alleyne’s PTA is a successful and friendly group of parents and staff. We help at school events by serving refreshments and using the proceeds of these events to donate money to departments across the school. This year we have donated to the Art, Music, PE and provided calculators to ensure all students have the access to equipment needed for exams. We have thoroughly enjoyed helping at the performance of Grease, the Summer Concert and Junior Prize Giving. We would like to take this opportunity to let you know that our AGM is on Monday 26th September at 7.00pm at Thomas Alleyne’s. We would like to recruit parents of students in Years 9-13 to come along and support the school. If you can’t attend the AGM but think that you could help at one or more of the events that the school hold throughout the year then please email Mrs Young at younge@tahs.net
Head of House updates
Whitmore – Miss Jones
Attendance has been high at extra curricular clubs by Whitmore students. The hard work and dedication is needed in the next couple of weeks with the house drama and dance competition. Keep up the hard work in rehearsals
Elkes – Mrs Brooks
I’ve been incredibly proud this week. We are currently in the lead with 30 house points!
To further celebrate our success, I’d like to introduce the Elkes biscuit award. A weekly award given to the student who ‘takes the biscuit’ for their excellent work, effort, courage or kindness.
The student who takes the first Elkes biscuit is: Rhys Morgan (nominated by numerous teachers for effort and resilience).
Torrance – Miss Arrowsmith
I would like to say a big thank you to all of the students working hard lesson after lesson, who are in the correct uniform and making Thomas Alleyne’s a great school to be part of. We have given out thousands of credits out so far, this academic year to students who are working hard. Thank you and well done to any students that have either helped out or participated in any house competitions or open evening.
Torrance are currently coming second in the school rankings for house points. We are only 4 points behind Elkes and 5 points from coming first!! Let’s all dig deep, continue to achieve credits and see if Torrance can overall finish top for the first half term!
Orme – Mr Brassington
Very important message this week in assemblies about attendance. Keep coming to school and working hard and you will see the rewards soon follow!
Data Collection Sheets
Data collection sheets have been distributed to students this week. Thank you to parents in advance for checking and returning sheets to the school office as soon as possible. We politely request at least two contacts; this information helps us to contact you in an emergency. Please also advise the school office if your contact details change during the school year.
Please check the information on the sheet and add any amendments/changes clearly. In line with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ we need at least two emergency contacts for your child.
Please sign and return the sheet to school as soon as possible.
Given the current cost of living crisis, we’ve put together a guide to the 16-25 Railcard (also known as the Student Railcard or Young Persons Railcard) to help your students travel around UK and save money on train tickets.
On Tuesday 11th October we have an external company coming in to speak to all our Sixth Form students. This is to support in revision and how to prepare themselves for exams and their academic studies.
These sessions are taking place in the theatre as follows:
Year 13 – period 1
Year 12 – period 3
All students must attend this session. If students are being taught then they will be accompanied by their class teacher, all students who are on a non contact or 6F7 session must also attend. Registers will be taken to ensure all students are accounted for.
Date for diary
Year 12 Work Experience week – Monda 28th November to Friday 2nd December
All Year 12 students are to undertake a week’s work experience. You need to be actively looking for a placement. You will need to register your placement via your Unifrog account. Mrs Young will be going into more detail regarding this during a Year 12 assembly. If you are having trouble accessing your Unifrog account please contact Mrs Walton on walton@tahs.net
Sixth Form Finance:
The school has been allocated a Discretional Bursary Fund (DBF) which students are able bid into throughout the academic year providing they meet the financial criteria set by the school and outlined in our DBF policy.
For the academic year 2022-2023 students are eligible for funding of up to £400 if their parental income is below £27,000 (proof required) or if they were designated as pupil premium. If a student is a looked after child (LAC) they may be entitled to up to £1,200 of financial support. Students must use this funding to support their Post-16 education. For example, Sixth Form uniform, transport costs to and from school, textbooks, revision guides, course materials, IT equipment (up to £150), educational visits, UCAS application Fee, University entrance tests etc.
More detailed information will be available in the DBF booklet which students can be obtain from Mrs Walton in the Sixth Form office or by emailing sixthform@tahs.org.uk
TUTOR TIME ACTIVITIES W/C 10th October 2022
Year 12
Monday:
Do you have a fixed or growth mindset? Open the ‘Bridging The Gap’ document. Complete the quiz on p20 – 22. Fill in the questions on p26. Each student should have a strength and area for development at the end of the session, as well as more awareness about their learning styles.
Watch 3 clips to help students prepare for university and what they can expect with videos from Oxford Brookes, Edinburgh and Leeds Beckett Universities. Discuss any fears, uncertainties or questions they might have.
Wednesday:
Time to choose a mooc or continue with one already started.
Thursday:
Fab four future intentions choices: improve their personal statements; plan open day visits; improve their CV or research live apprenticeships on Unifrog.
Sixth Form Finance:
The school has been allocated a Discretional Bursary Fund (DBF) which students are able bid into throughout the academic year providing they meet the financial criteria set by the school and outlined in our DBF policy.
For the academic year 2022-2023 students are eligible for funding of up to £400 if their parental income is below £27,000 (proof required) or if they were designated as pupil premium. If a student is a looked after child (LAC) they may be entitled to up to £1,200 of financial support. Students must use this funding to support their Post-16 education. For example, Sixth Form uniform, transport costs to and from school, textbooks, revision guides, course materials, IT equipment (up to £150), educational visits, UCAS application Fee, University entrance tests etc.
More detailed information will be available in the DBF booklet which students can be obtain from Mrs Walton in the Sixth Form office or by emailing sixthform@tahs.org.uk
TUTOR TIME ACTIVITIES W/C 10th October 2022
Year 12
Monday:
Do you have a fixed or growth mindset? Open the ‘Bridging The Gap’ document. Complete the quiz on p20 – 22. Fill in the questions on p26. Each student should have a strength and area for development at the end of the session, as well as more awareness about their learning styles.
Watch 3 clips to help students prepare for university and what they can expect with videos from Oxford Brookes, Edinburgh and Leeds Beckett Universities. Discuss any fears, uncertainties or questions they might have.
Wednesday:
Time to choose a mooc or continue with one already started.
Thursday:
Fab four future intentions choices: improve their personal statements; plan open day visits; improve their CV or research live apprenticeships on Unifrog.
Summer Career Experiences in London
For the ultimate experience in Law & Finance-related careers, students should register for our Summer Experiences. Trade the stock market in a City skyscraper, argue a human rights case in the Supreme Court, value a FTSE 100 company and much much more.
Students can register for these now at a 15% discount.
From Tuesday of next week, we will be opening to all students for breakfast from 8.15am. We are keen for students to come into school in the morning and base themselves in our school canteen together, rather than be in town.
All pupil premium students or free school meal students will be provided with a free breakfast if they are able to join us before 8.30am.
If your circumstances have changed recently, and you think you may be entitled to pupil premium funding please email office@tahs.org.uk for further details.
Attendance
We appreciate parental support with attendance. This week, we will be holding attendance assemblies with students. These will be focused on the impact of below average attendance. Please see the graph below, which shows the progress of all students who attended less than 85% last year. Students below the line made less than average progress.
Students GCSE results with below 85% attendance.
Talaxy Update
Notice to all parents – Talaxy Logins. (Our Homework portal)
We are pleased to announce that all pupil and parent Talaxy logins are now available. These will be used to view homework and to book parents evenings.
In order for your account to become live, you will need to associate it against your School registered email address. Please visit the school website http://www.thomasalleynes.uk/ and navigate to the page called ‘Talaxy Login Details (Parents)’ which can be found in the ‘Parents’ section of the website or click on this link http://www.thomasalleynes.uk/page/?title=Parents&pid=9
If you are experiencing any issues with registering on Talaxy please email ‘talaxy@tahs.org.uk‘.
Data Collection Sheets
Data Collection Sheets will be sent out to parents via students next week (week beginning 3rd October).
Please check the information on the sheet and add any amendments/changes clearly. In line with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ we need at least two emergency contacts for your child.
Please sign and return the sheet to school as soon as possible.
After school revision/support sessions for Year 11
Revision support
We are delighted that Inner Drive will be coming to school on 11th October to work with y11 and 13 students with a session titled ‘Studying with the Brain in mind’ Further details of the session attend is below.
Extra-Curricular
Art Competitions available for all to enter – deadline for all entries 30th November.
Music updates
Please see the music noticeboard for instrumental and vocal lessons times.
Music Extra-Curricular Clubs
Tuesday lunch Year 9 Band
Thursday lunch Choir
Friday lunch Senior Band
House Dance and Drama
A reminder please that rehearsals are Wednesday afternoons until 4.15pm and if students wish to rehearse at lunchtimes please contact Mrs Mood on TEAMS to arrange a time and location. Please bring clothes that you can move in to Wednesday rehearsals.
Opportunities in Sport
Rugby
Swimming Club
Good luck to our students who will be representing the school on Thursday at our first Swimming Gala of the year hosted by Newcastle Under-Lyme School.
Interested in becoming a lifeguard? Please see information below. This is a great opportunity to get involved and achieve a NPLQ qualification!
National Pool Lifeguard Course (NPLQ) with Emergency First Aid at Work (EFAW) and Automated External Defibrillator (AED)
When? 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th, 22nd & 23rd October 2022 (3 x weekends) Where? Trentham Community Sports Centre, Trentham ST4 8PQ Times? 8.00am- 5.30pm Price? £250.00
Pre-requisites of course: 16 years of age on or before final day of course Dive/jump into deep water Swim 50 metres in less than 60 seconds swim 200 continuously (100m front 100m back) Tread water for 30 seconds surface dive to floor of the pool (2m) Climb out unaided
Interested? email: JILL.BRIDGWOOD.1@sky.com or call Jill 07966422238
Football
Boys Football
Boys football club will be on Wednesday this week. Hope to see you all there.
Girls Football
Girls football club will be on Wednesday this week. Hope to see you all there.
House Handball
Well done to all of our students that represented their house in House handball. Results will be shared next week.
Netball
Good Luck to our year 9 Netball team who are playing in a netball festival on Tuesday at Deferrers
This week netball club will be on Wednesday.
Fitness Club
Fitness club will be every Friday 3:05-4pm with Mr Scott in the new pavilion Gym. Please see Mr Scott for more details.
Mental Health
Mrs Brooks will be running a club to promote positive Mental Health and well-being . This will run from 3.15 -4.15 in Room A11. See you Wednesday.
Interested in becoming a MENTAL HEALTH AMBASSADOR?
Join us on WEDNESDAY EVENINGS in A11 3:15-4:15pm
The WHAM Plan is delivered by young people and anyone who has completed the full course is able to deliver the sessions to others, such as in a school or youth organisation.
There are a variety of different topics that we cover, including:
What is emotional wellbeing?
The food-mood connection
Positive activities for wellbeing
Healthy relationships
Helping others
Planning ahead for troubled times
Mindfulness in nature
Department News
English
Work of the Week
Mrs Baldwin’s Y11 class have been working on the novel ‘A Christmas Carol’, exploring the Victorian context and author’s life for their AO3. Here is some excellent work from Niamh T.
In Miss Beevor’s class, 10H1 have made storyboards and playlists for Romeo and Juliet showing their knowledge and understanding of the play as a whole and the key events.
The English department is very much looking forward to the launch of Bookbuzz in Y9 lessons next week. In class, you will be introduced to seventeen different Bookbuzz books of different genres, from comedies and autobiographies to drama and sci-fi fiction. You will then decide which one you would like to take home to read and keep as an early Christmas present from the English department!
The department aims to foster a lifelong love of reading whilst also encouraging wider benefits. Research has shown that reading has physical, mental, social and emotional benefits. MRI scans have shown that reading involves a complex network of circuits and signals in the brain which get stronger and more sophisticated when we keep reading. Reading increases our vocabulary, raises self-esteem, builds good communication skills and helps us with skills like prediction. The Literacy Trust have also found that young people aged 11 to 14 who read daily in their free time are twice as likely to read above the level expected for their age! Children and young people’s reading in 2019 | National Literacy Trust
Set Texts
Romeo & Juliet texts are available to purchase, as are our other key texts of A Christmas Carol and An Inspector Calls. Please purchase via Parent Pay and collect from Mrs Hunt.
Revision
Memorise these useful connectives, conjunctions and discourse markers (and maybe add some more of your own):
whoever
whatever
similarly
meanwhile
moreover
nonetheless
for
while
differently
even so
therefore
however
so
interestingly
with
although
besides
because
since
consequently
furthermore
nevertheless
until
alternatively
whereas
unless
then
because
whenever
after
yet
Book Recommendation
Mrs Bell can recommend Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series for those who like murder mysteries and comedy.
From the Back Cover (Amazon)
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved murders. But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.
Maths
Year 9 Maths Star Starters
Well done to the following Y9 students who have been nominated by their math’s teachers for making an excellent start to maths at Thomas Alleyne’s.
Year 11 GCSE Maths Revision Guide and Practice Papers
All Year 11 students have been given a letter about purchasing a GCSE maths revision guide (£4.99) and a pack of practice exam papers (£3.15). Both of these are available now to buy via ParentPay. These will be very useful for the upcoming mock exams as well as the final GCSE exams in the Summer. The deadline for ordering these is Friday 7th October.
Social & Health Studies
Our departmental star students this week are those who did an amazing job on the open evening. Alex and Megan did a great job of demonstrating bandages. Milly, Keira and Kylah showed parents all the fabulous coursework produced by students in Child Development and Health & Social Care. They all did a really super job!
Art
Year 12 Artists and Photographers went on a trip to Birmingham City Library, Museum and the Ikon Gallery on Friday 30th as part of their coursework development and location sketching / photography. It was a great day, even with the cold and rain… Our students made some great work and represented the school and the department fantastically throughout the day.
BTEC Tech Award Sport Activity & Fitness
All Year 11 Need to be completing coursework on Technology in Sport. All details are on Teams
School Lottery
Thomas Alleyne’s PTA is a successful and friendly group of parents and staff. We help at school events by serving refreshments and using the proceeds of these events to donate money to departments across the school. This year we have donated to the Art, Music, PE and provided calculators to ensure all students have the access to equipment needed for exams. We have thoroughly enjoyed helping at the performance of Grease, the Summer Concert and Junior Prize Giving. We would like to take this opportunity to let you know that our AGM is on Monday 26th September at 7.00pm at Thomas Alleyne’s. We would like to recruit parents of students in Years 9-13 to come along and support the school. If you can’t attend the AGM but think that you could help at one or more of the events that the school hold throughout the year then please email Mrs Young at younge@tahs.net
Head of House updates
Whitmore – Miss Jones
I have been popping in and out of lessons all week to observe our fantastic form tutors delivering our Thomas Character Curriculum during form time. I was pleased to see just how many students were engaged in the content and contributing to the discussions taking place. Well done!
Elkes – Mrs Brooks
Mrs Brooks would like to thank all the Elkes students who helped in our Open Evening. One very brave year 9 stood up in front of a room full of parents and potential students to make a fantastic and confident speech.
As some year groups approach assessment week and mock exams, may I remind pupils that any concerns or anxieties can be shared about this in the Elkes office. Numerous strategies can be put in place to give you a helping hand and emotional support is always at hand.
Torrance – Miss Arrowsmith
I would like to say a massive thank you to all students that helped out with Open Evening this week. Well done to all Torrance students that took part and represented their house in Handball. your determination, enthusiasm and ability to play handball for over two hours was impressive to say the least.
As we approach our 5th week can I remind students to ensure their uniform is correct, you continue to conduct yourself around school in a professional manor and work hard in lessons.
I look forward to seeing you all in assembly on Wednesday.
Orme – Mr Brassington
Let me start this week by saying a huge thanks to all the students (whatever colour tie you wear) who supported the school with open evening. It really was wonderful to see the excitement created around the classrooms as you got involved and showed the very best of what we as a school community offer. It would be remis of me however to not give special thanks to those students in Orme who gave up their evening and made the event so successful. This has led me to think of a new (potentially) weekly feature for Orme round up we shall call…
Orme star recognition will confer on you not just legendary status amongst the school body but also a suitably impressive number of credits to go towards a greater chance at those end of term rewards. The Orme star for this week is David B for his organisation of a truly impressive An Inspector Calls dining room scene, including interactive elements such as QR codes and military like organisation of some other passionate English students to get into both character and costume and wow year 8 parents. A special mention for 9O3, 3 people helped out Open Evening – science and PE. 5 students volunteered to take part in the additional House Cross Country – the girls came in the top ten and 1 of the boys came 5th. Mrs Johnson reports that there have been some really impressive contributions to our Thomas Character Curriculum work on mental health. I look forward to seeing you all in assemblies next week as we discuss the importance of attendance.
Given the current cost of living crisis, we’ve put together a guide to the 16-25 Railcard (also known as the Student Railcard or Young Persons Railcard) to help your students travel around UK and save money on train tickets.
Year 12 Work Experience week – Monday 28th November to Friday 2nd December
All Year 12 students are to undertake a week’s work experience. You need to be actively looking for a placement. You will need to register your placement via your Unifrog account. Mrs Young will be going into more detail regarding this during a Year 12 assembly. If you are having trouble accessing your Unifrog account please contact Mrs Walton on walton@tahs.net
Sixth Form Open Evening – Thursday 6th October, 2022
Post-16 Open Evening taking place Thursday 6th October between 6.00-9.00pm. Year 11 students received a talk from Mrs Young on Thursday 29th September about the evening and Sixth Form. Tickets for the subject talks and information talks are available by clicking on the link below for Eventbrite.
The school has been allocated a Discretional Bursary Fund (DBF) which students are able bid into throughout the academic year providing they meet the financial criteria set by the school and outlined in our DBF policy.
For the academic year 2022-2023 students are eligible for funding of up to £400 if their parental income is below £27,000 (proof required) or if they were designated as pupil premium. If a student is a looked after child (LAC) they may be entitled to up to £1,200 of financial support. Students must use this funding to support their Post-16 education. For example, Sixth Form uniform, transport costs to and from school, textbooks, revision guides, course materials, IT equipment (up to £150), educational visits, UCAS application Fee, University entrance tests etc. More detailed information will be available in the DBF booklet which students can be obtain from Mrs Walton in the Sixth Form office or by emailing sixthform@burrow11
TUTOR TIME ACTIVITIES W/C 3rd October 2022
Year 12
Thomas Character: Ambition, Self Fulfilled, Tenacity
Monday:
Degree Apprenticeships. Using this link, watch the ‘Higher And Degree Apprenticeships – Make Them Your Plan A’ film and the ‘First 100 Days’ film. If there is time, watch further films of your form group’s choice. https://amazingapprenticeships.com/resources/?films=1
Tutors to check that students have sent off letters or made arrangements for their work experience. Watch some more apprenticeship films if there is time.
Year 13
Thomas Character – Ambition, Self Fulfilled, Tenacity
Monday:
Log onto the Future Learn website and explore their Moocs – academic or wider interests. Students should sign up for one and continue this during their 6th form 7 enrichment sessions or tutor time on Wednesdays. These will help personal statements to really stand out!
Wednesdays:
Continue with a mooc.
Thursday:
Fab four future intentions choices: improve their personal statements; plan open day visits; improve their CV or research live apprenticeships on Unifrog.
Thomas Alleyne's high school 