Welcome & Pupil Success

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1 Welcome & Pupil Success Dear parents and carers, Welcome to our first new style half-termly newsletter. The aims of the newsletter are to share pupil success, provide a review of the half-term and let you know some future dates, events and other relevant information. For more regular success updates, please follow our Facebook or Twitter pages. Our Year Leaders produce a weekly success slide which is shared during form times, they have written a short section about their year groups which is included in this newsletter. As you will see, the last half term was very busy. It was great to see many of you at the Ofsted presentation in September earlier this month. It was good to be able to talk face-to-face and answer your questions. We also appreciated your support on the Macmillan Coffee Morning and at the Fun Run. The French trip was also great success, it was good to see so many thank you messages and positive comments from parents. Year 5 visited Hazard Alley and Year 7 visited the Natural History Museum. This was also a term of sporting success. Alameda has always had good rugby players (as you would expect in a town with a big rugby club), but the current Year 7 and 8 teams are the best by far that Alameda has ever seen (as you will see from the report on their recent success). This is due to the commitment, teamwork and skill of the boys involved as well as the excellent work by the PE department and the partnership with Ampthill Rugby Club. We are also developing a very strong girls team too which is great to see. Well done to everyone involved. Rugby is, of course, only one of the sports we work hard at. All of this is only a small part of what we do. Most of our time is spent focussing on academic work. It is pleasing therefore to see that children are being rewarded well for their efforts in lessons, as shown in the merit awards. They have also recently completed assessments and I know more information was shared with you at the Meet the Tutor evening. We would welcome any feedback on our new newsletter. Please contact Mrs Tilley, either by calling the school or via (ctilley@alamedamiddleschool.org.uk) if you have any ideas on how we can improve it. Miss M Warner Headteacher House points WOW Awards Fun Run Aragon: 39 Castile: 44 Leon: 25 Navarre: 47 It was great to catch up with some Year 8 pupils today to discuss their Geography work from the Summer Term. Their learning about Favelas was excellent, as was the work they had produced. C Ebdon, A Vincent, M Sugrue, M Decesare, J Doohan, N Scott, E Spencer, T Gudgeon, S Tiana, H Ambrose, A Weir, A Minnards, E Thompson, E Ballantyne, J Wall, E White The Fun Run that took place on the 19th September was a great success. The total raised so far is We still have lots of outstanding forms so please get sponsorship money into school as soon as possible. WOW Awards for more outstanding work go to: A Blake, S Healy, A Cole, S Frary, B Norris, R Noble Thank you for your co-operation with this so far. Attendance Year % Year % Year % Year %

2 Diary Dates Monday 30th October Friday 10th November - Training Day - Remembrance Ceremony Alameda staff and pupils will go to the war memorial on the Alameda Walk at 11am (parents and carers are welcome to join us). Thursday 16th November - Open Evening Friday 1st December - PTA Christmas Fayre Thursday 7th December - Year 6 subject consultation evening - Celebration Assemblies W/B 11th December Friday 15th December - Autumn term reports published Tuesday 19th December - End of term Drop off and pick up at Parkside Hall Firstly, thank you to everyone who uses the drop off and pick up area by the Sports Hall behind Parkside Hall. This area can get very busy, especially just before and after the school day. Could we please stress that cars should only be travelling at 5 m.p.h, park in the allotted areas, never drive onto the walking areas and be very aware of children not realising you are about to pull out of your parking space. Thank you, we just want to make sure everyone is safe. Key Stage 2 Times Tables Every week, we work on our times tables using the Flurrish app. It has been great to see that the overall percentage correct go up over the first 5 weeks from 79.52% to 87.66% Well done to everyone who has been working on their times tables. This is such an important part of maths. Mrs Piazza, Key Stage 2 Maths Subject Leader Rotakids at Alameda After an assembly to explain what Rotakids is all about many children volunteered. We decided to encourage each form to fill a Rotary shoebox which will be shipped to children in Eastern European countries. Some Rotakids are designing posters about this campaign to remind everyone that the deadline to fill the boxes is Friday 10th November. Year 6 Rotakids are going to organise the planting of crocus corms given by Rotary, both to enhance the school grounds and to plant in pots to give to housebound people in the community others are designing Christmas Cards for children in the lower schools to colour in to place in Phonus Insurance window in Ampthill on the Rotary Tree of Light. Finally, with the Christmas Fayre in December, some Rotakids are going to have a stall selling home-made Christmas biscuits and pine cones which they are decorating during half term to sell as Christmas decorations. They are all very enthusiastic and a delight to work with. Maureen Milway

3 Year 5 News Our new year 5 cohort have settled in splendidly to life at Alameda and have been grabbing new opportunities in clubs and extra curricular activities, such as the upcoming Inter House Dance Off, with both hands. There have been some fantastic successes both in and out of school for the students that we have really enjoyed sharing through our weekly success slide. To name but a few C Dobson (5HFI) was the first student in the year group to gain both his Bronze, Silver and Gold merit awards, M Norris (5KSM/LBL) was awarded a medal and certificate for her participation in the Bedfordshire Gymnastics Association s General Floor and Vault Competition and L Farr (5KSM/LBL) has had some amazing successes in cross country running. I am always inundated with successes! Over the next half term and in the run up to Christmas, all of the year 5 team are really looking forward to celebrating even more successes and watching the children progress even further in their learning! Miss Smith and the Year 5 Team Year 6 News The Year 6 team and I are incredibly proud of how well our Year 6 pupils have settled into the new school year at Alameda, and what a busy start of the term it has been! With Values Vouchers earned, merit cards filling out, and with lots of learning underway, it has been fantastic to see so many children coming back to school, ready to build upon their successes from Year 5. On top of the abundance of sporting, musical and literary successes achieved outside of school, the children have also been busy demonstrating their school values of Respect (September) and Responsibility (October). Furthermore, it was great to see so many children pushing themselves to run the extra mile during the Fun Run- well done, and thank you, to all who took part. Another highlight of this half term for many pupils was No Pens Day ; it was fantastic to see many pupils embracing a new way of learning. We are also pleased to announce that, as a year group, we have made a strong start attendance-wise this half term with a combined attendance of 97.01%. Well Done to the 106 Year 6 pupils who have 100% attendance this half-term! Miss Lucas and the Year 6 Team

4 Year 7 News This half term Year 7 have been studying Plate Tectonics, we have had some fun with playdoh- modelling plate boundaries. Some photos of our successes are below. We have finished the half term off with a visit to the Earth Galleries at the Natural History Museum, which consolidates our learning so far, and leads us to the case studies we will be looking at after half term! We also enjoyed seeing the new whale exhibit in the Great Hall too! Year 8 News Mrs Sibley has been very pleased with the amount of pupils that have become prefects, taking on responsibility and showing the school values. The first group of Year 8 pupils to have achieved a WOW award for their English work on Gothic Horror: G Decesare, M Exton, M Gale and A Turner. Well done to M Young and O Phillips for reaching the 10Km milestone in the Marathon Challenge. Some great pieces of writing in The Alameda. Amazing achievements in sports this half term, fantastic results in Rugby, Netball and cross country. I Gallon is representing England in the World Dragon Boat racing in China. Please can I take this opportunity to remind you that we are now moving back to shirt and tie for uniform after half term. Also that the uniform is clearly shown in the planner and is knee length skirts and tailored trousers. Mrs Sibley and the Year 8 Team

5 PE News This term has been a busy and successful term for the PE department. Congratulations to the Year 7 boys rugby, league winners 2017! Played 7, won 7 and only conceded 2 tries on the way to being crowned champions! A huge achievement to be really proud of, well done to all involved! The Year 8 Team are waiting to hear whether they too have won their league, finishing this week unbeaten and guaranteed at least joint top of the league, possibly outright winners! Needless to say we are all very proud of the efforts and achievements of the KS3 boys! Congratulations to the Year 7 and Year 8 Girls Netball teams who have played 7 and won 6 of their games this season. They have played some fantastic Netball at times against some tough opposition. We need to keep working hard in the coming months with county tournaments coming up in March. The cross country has three league fixtures. Out of two fixtures we stand top of the standings in both boys and girls Year 5/6 teams, 3rd in the Year 7/8 Boys and 5th in the Year 7/8 Girls teams. The hard work at Thursday running club is paying off. We have been overwhelmed with about 100 pupil s attending this club on a regular basis. We are awaiting confirmation of the results from Friday 13th Oct to see how we stand after the three fixtures. This will be put on Facebook in due course. This year at our running clubs we are challenging our children to run the distance of a Marathon (26.2 miles) before the London Marathon takes place in April next year. They can run 1, 2 or 3KM at either of our Thursday lunch time or Friday morning clubs to add to their accumulative distance. So far we have awarded a large number of certificates to pupils who have already completed 10KM, we even anticipate a couple of our most committed runners to achieve their silver half marathon award by half term! The initiative has encouraged runners of all abilities to join and keep attending the club which is fantastic to see! On the 29th Sept the PE department organised another very successful annual fundraising Fun Run, alongside the brilliant P.T.A. Every pupil really worked hard that afternoon to complete as many laps as they could, running and walking a distance of approx. 1-mile lap. It was so lovely to see lots of you the parents come along and support your child in this school event. Thanks again to all the volunteers who helped on the day make it such a success. The money for this event was due in on the 13th Oct, so if you have any outstanding sponsorship money could this please be sent in with your child as soon as possible. If your child is interested in any of the clubs which we run here at Alameda, please ask them to see a member of the PE staff for more information. The parents can see the clubs list on our website and the children can see the clubs list up and around school and on their form boards. Enjoy the well-earned rest at half term and see you all ready to go after the break. Best wishes from the PE department.

6 GCSE Astronomy Congratulations to those who took the GCSE Astronomy exam last June. All passed with two thirds achieving Grade C or above. We even had the first A*! The new 9-1 GCSE starts this year and there are places available for Year 7 pupils who would like to start studying for examination in Thank you to those who have already handed back their form (I ll be in touch soon). If anyone hasn t applied but is still interested, please Mr Heavisides sheavisides@alamedamiddleschool.org.uk. The course will be starting straight after half term on Tuesdays Mr Heavisides Cooking Club Cooking club after school Tuesday Year 6/7 3:20-4:45. Cooking club will be on Wednesday lunchtime, for Year 5. Also Thursday after school 3:30-4:45 for Year 8. Pupils who are interested to get a letter from Mrs Friend. It will start the week commencing 6th November. Mrs Friend