Prospect School Newsletter

Transcription

1 Prospect School Newsletter 4 T H M A R C H You don t just stumble into the future; you create your own future. - Roger Smith An update from the Governors I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E : UK Mathematics Trust Intermediate Challenge Dates for your Diary 2 2 Just over a month ago, I wrote to tell you that the process of appointing a new Headteacher was properly underway, with an advert having been placed on the Times Educational Supplement s website. The period for applications lasted March. During those two days the prospective Headteachers will face a range of challenges. These include interviews with students and staff, written exercises and presentations, as well as formal interviews. It will be an exacting Year 8 Options 2 Message from the Headteacher 3 Breakfast Club Update 3 Sainsbury s Active Kids 3 Badminton Tournament BT Digital Champions Maths Puzzle of the Week for four weeks and closed on 11 th February. During the period the post was advertised, the recruitment agency received 46 expressions of interest, and we eventually received 11 completed applications. The Headteacher Selection Panel met on the 18 th February to review those applications and to produce a shortlist of candidates for interview. We have chosen six candidates, including the current acting Headteacher, Richard Kearsey, to participate in the selection process on the 5 th and 6 th two days for both candidates and the panel of governors, but necessarily testing given the importance of the role of Headteacher. Each of the six candidates would bring considerable strengths to Prospect, were they to be appointed. Therefore, we are confident that we will be appointing an excellent Head for Prospect and look forward to telling you about our new Headteacher very shortly. Paul Barker Chair of Governors

2 P A G E 2 Mathematics Trust Intermediate Challenge Congratulations to the following students from years 9 and 10 who have won awards in the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust Intermediate Challenge. Bronze Award: Carl Aramo (year 10) Susanna Pope (year 10) Nischal Limbu (year 10) Poppy Dean (year 9) Jack Chester (year 9) Silver Award: Abi Russell (year 10) Megan Turner (year 10) Silver Award and best in year 9 Charlotte Kurton (year 9) Gold Award and best in school: Dates for your Diary: 4th March to 15th March Year 8 Option Meetings 6th March Parent Surgery 3.30pm-5.30pm 28th March End of Term 4 16th April Start of Term 5 Ben Hodges (year 10) The Intermediate Challenge is aimed at the top third of pupils in Year 11 and below. It involves answering 25 multiple choice questions in one hour and is sat in school under normal exam conditions. This year the paper was particularly tough. The top 40% of intermediate students nationally receive a gold, silver or bronze certificate and each school receives a Best in School Certificate. Thank you to everyone who took part in this year s challenge. Year 8 Options The new Year 8 option booklets are now available and provide detailed information on the types of courses available. Printed copies were given out to all Year 8 Students on Friday 1st March The above dates are correct at time of newsletter issue. P R O S P E C T S C H O O L N E W S L E T T E R The option booklets can also be found under Academic on our website at:

3 P A G E 3 It was good to see and hear that so many students had attended revision sessions during the half term holiday period. Students should continue to look out for the revision/catch up sessions, that teachers are publicising now, for the next few weeks leading up to the Easter holidays. Teachers are also currently sending out letters for sessions that will be running in the Easter holidays. If there are queries please contact your son/daughter's teacher or the relevant Head of Department. Richard Kearsey - Headteacher Breakfast Club Following the trial of the Breakfast club, which started on Tuesday 8th January, I am pleased to confirm that between one hundred and one hundred and fifty students have been taking the opportunity to have a free breakfast every Tuesday morning; in order to help them prepare for the day ahead. In light of the success of this, the school will be offering the Breakfast club on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 8.00am to 8.25am in the dining hall with immediate effect. If students are unable to have breakfast at home, then this is a great way of ensuring they start the day with the energy they need. Further details are advertised around the school. Students will be offered: TOAST CEREAL HOT DRINKS JUICE We are now collecting Sainsbury s Active Kids Vouchers. Please post them in to the collection box at Reception. Thank you.

4 Badminton Tournament On the 13th of February, eighteen year 8 girls hosted a Bisi Badminton tournament for our local Primary schools. Sixty six year 3 and 4 pupils came to Prospect for an afternoon of badminton based activities spread over eight stations. Each station was set up and run by a pair of Prospect pupils. The stations ranged from rallying to relay races to target competitions, each testing a different badminton or coordination skill. Competitors P A G E 4 beyond their years teaching and controlling the participants so that everyone had a safe and fun time. The other adults who attended the day were astounded by the leadership skills on display and went away praising the day. gained points for their school as they travelled around the stations to find an overall winner. All participants were awarded with certificates and they all had a fun afternoon. "The year 8 girls who ran the event were superb; they assisted the children, praised them, cheered them on and even disciplined them appropriately. It was, however, the leadership of the year 8 pupils that made the event so successful. They controlled the pupils with expertise When we returned, the children all spoke very highly of the event and Prospect School. It was a great advert for you. We re looking forward to the next tournament!"

5 P A G E 5 Digital Champions in association with The Transformation Trust Following on from our very successful Train the Teacher Week, please see the article below which can be found at Homework Champions at Prospect School in Reading 14/02/2013 Students at Prospect School have been actively training others in their community through a series of activities including homework. The school has around 1300 students including a 6th form, with a diverse mix of pupils from different background and cultures. Teacher Samantha Bruin said, The BT Digital Champions programme was seen as an exciting opportunity to enable our pupils to build self-esteem and confidence by sharing their ICT knowledge with others around them. Most of the training pupils have undertaken has tied in with our curriculum so it helped them in lessons too. Pupils have been able to demonstrate their leadership skills and independent working. Many of our pupils have never been to a major arena concert in London and so it was exciting from my point of view to give them an opportunity to earn a place there. Promoting the programme to students The school undertook several steps to ensure that students were aware of the opportunity including: Assemblies for each year group which included showing them the video of the last Rock Assembly concert. Advertising the programme with posters around the school and supplying posters to each tutor group. s to all pupils with the details of how to sign-in and create a profile. 2 articles in our weekly newsletter Samantha continued, As I teach ICT, I have been able to get my colleagues across the department involved in setting BT Digital Champions as a homework task, this was by far our most successful activity. It helped get the message across and raise pupil awareness of what they needed to do to get tickets. We ran BT Digital Champion workshops during lunch break to help pupils that had difficulty in setting up an account and these were really successful. In December the school ran a train the teachers event. That event was very successful with both pupils and teachers alike gaining much from the session. Rewarding Students with BT Digital Champions Activity The most successful activity that we did was offering participation in BT Digital Champions as a homework activity to the teaching groups we felt had worked the hardest during the year. Pupils were given the task of training someone in their local community on how to do something on the computer, we gave them some ideas as a starting point and said they could choose their own ideas based on the trainee s needs. Pupils were given guidance on how to set up an account online and we asked that they ask the trainee to make a note in their planner so that the school could verify that the training had taken place. The school have already made an appearance on the leaderboard and are keen to continue with the excellent progress to date. We are currently in the process of rolling this idea out for more of our teaching groups and so we should expect our numbers to go up.

6 4 T H M A R C H P A G E 6 Maths Puzzle of the Week The winner of the first maths Puzzle of the Week, along with the answer, will be in next week s newsletter. Good luck to everyone with this week s puzzle. Simply put your answers on a piece of paper, together with your name and tutor group, and place it in the puzzle of the week box in your Maths Teacher s Classroom by end of period 5 on Friday 8th March The winner will be selected and notified on Monday Morning.