Enjoying Achieving Succeeding The Fernhill Post 17 th February 2017

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1 Dear Parents / Carers From the Headteacher It's been a long and busy half term and the warmer weather is coming at just the right time for the students to enjoy their half term holiday. Please do take time to review the things that have been going on in school this half term and make sure you look on our website for regular updates and other information. We are going to be upgrading our website over the next couple of months so please do us with any suggestions you have about improvements you'd like to see. The next half term promises to be even more busy. Our Year 11 students have mocks, there are various trips underway and of course we have the production of Oliver! to look forward to. As always thank you for your support of the school and have a great holiday with your children. Peter Collins Headteacher

2 Drama Department Oliver 2017 Our whole school musical is fast approaching and tickets are now on sale for Oliver! The dates for the show are Wednesday 29 th, Thursday 30 th and Friday 31 st March The show will start promptly at 7:30pm and will take place in the school's Main Hall. Tickets can be purchased at Student Reception and cost 7 for adults and 5 for children. Money needs to be handed in in an envelope with your child's name and form on as well as how many child and/or adult tickets you would like and for which date. Tickets will then be delivered to your child's tutor via their register. Theatre in Education Project Year 10 Drama students visited two primary schools recently as part of a Theatre in Education project. Their aim was to entertain the Year 5 pupils by way of a drama performance as well as teach them some drama techniques that they will learn should they come to Fernhill in Year 7. There were also some valuable lessons entwined in the session about bullying, what they can do and why we should be nice to each other and help each other. All Year 10 students were fantastic and were great ambassadors for the school. The Year 5 pupils from Cherrywood and Grange had a brilliant time and learned a lot from the session. They were hooked by the performance that the new GCSE students gave. We hope this was a valuable experience for our Year 10 students and gave them a taste of what we have to do as teachers! Mr Clements Good luck to all Year 11 students who will be starting their Mock Exams week commencing 27 th February.

3 MFL Department Japanese Club I have been interested in Japan and the Japanese language for a long time and spent 18 months in Japan when I was a student. I was pleased to discover that some of our Year 10 students shared my interest and were keen to learn some Japanese. We have been meeting after school on a Tuesday since September and we are working on our speaking and reading skills. To read Japanese, you have to be able to read Hiragana, Katakana as well as Kanji. Som and Laction have now mastered Hiragana, they are making good progress with Katakana, and we are very slowly tackling the 2000 Kanji that you need to learn before you can read books or newspapers. Mrs West Le café français des années 8 Since January, in their MFL lessons, Year 8 students have been learning how to describe and give their points of view on food and drinks. As part of the topic, students have also learnt how to order a meal in French. On Thursday 2 nd February the MFL department set up a French café in room J5 where students had to perform a role play in French. We were impressed by the patience of the waiters who coped very well with some very demanding clients. Well done Year 8! Mrs Mourey

4 History Department Monsters come to Year 7 History! Last week, our Year 7 History students took part in a Men and Monsters workshop with Fernhill s Poet in Residence, Ms Hudson. This session complimented the Anglo-Saxon work which the classes had studied during the Autumn Term and developed an understanding of Anglo-Saxon storytelling. Ms Hudson read the students a version of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney, which tells the story of Grendel, a monster, who attacks the hall of Hrothgar. Beowulf kills Grendel in revenge and leaves the head in its lair. An alternative version, called Grendel s Groove, by Adrian Mitchell, was also read which gave the events from the monsters perspective. Students were asked to consider if they thought Beowulf was a hero or villain and complete a piece of writing from the point of view of either the King or Grendel s mother. All the year 7 students thoroughly enjoyed the experience of Ms Hudson s workshop and were really engaged throughout, producing creative and thoughtful pieces of text. A BIG thank you to Ms Hudson. Mrs Tulip and Mrs Lovelock EAL Department Fernhill goes bananas for Fairtrade Recently we have been learning all about Fairtrade in assemblies. Chloe Smith, Bea Iglesias, Bobola Borisade and Ronnie Tanner have shown us how buying Fairtrade products helps to ensure that farmers and workers are paid a decent wage so that they are able to care for their families and escape living in poverty. Ronnie wrote a letter to the canteen which has resulted in Fernhill selling Fairtrade bananas at lunch and break. We would like to say a big Thank you to the canteen for all their help with this project. Fernhill now uses 100% Fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar in addition to the bananas. Students have been invited to take selfies holding Fairtrade products which could be a banana from the canteen or something else that they buy. We are going to make a display in school showing our support for Fairtrade. Please send your selfies to: fairtradeselfie@fernhill.hanst.sch.uk Thank you! Mrs Cayless

5 Spaces are limited so get them while you can! Tickets can be booked online on the Fernhill school website and are available to Year 10 drama students, Year 9 specialist studies drama students and ALL of Year 7 and 8. Theatre ticket + return travel to the theatre is 34 See Miss Williams for more details!

6 A Space for Us All: Poetry at School Library Corner Poetry has been a part of our culture and society for a very long time. From Shakespeare to Zephaniah, John Donne to John Hegley, poets have been unpicking social and cultural norms and educating youngsters since the birth of the written word.and Fernhill is no exception! Since September, Becci Louise Hudson, Performance Poet and Educator, has been running a residency programme in Fernhill s library, supported and funded by Foyles Libraries fund. The residency has included workshops in lessons across the whole curriculum, Poetry Club after school two days a week and a Poetry Takeaway Service at lunch time. Ms Hudson has run over twenty workshops in six different subject areas: English, Maths, Science, History, Drama and Music. She has written over 50 poems at the request of students and has ten regular attendees at her after school poetry group. The students who attend the Poetry Club have produced some truly remarkable, emotive, funny and original work and have enjoyed writing poetry, performing their work, making books by hand to compile their own collections and sharing their work with others. We see poetry around us more and more, from the 30-second verse on the Nationwide Adverts to the hour-long storytelling shows of Fringe Artists. Author Visits -Chris Bradford & Bali Rai We are really looking forward to welcoming Chris and Bali back to Fernhill to work with Year 7 and 8 students after half term. It's World Book Day Thursday 2 nd March is World Book Day and to celebrate we have plans! Following the success of the latest 'Harry Potter' film, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', our Poet in Residence Becci Hudson has devised a range of competitions to create a fantastic beast and tell its story. The competition will be launched in KS3 library lessons and KS4 English lessons after the half term break. Winning entries will be displayed in the Library and there will be prizes!

7 Rotary Youth Leadership Award Before Christmas, members of Farnborough Rotary Club approached the school to offer Year 10 students the opportunity to apply for two fully funded residential places to take part in a leadership and team building week. We are delighted to report that Abbie Blunden and Lauren Harbour impressed the interviewers with their written applications and interview skills and have secured their place! During the residential week Abbie and Lauren will work with students from across the south east to develop their skills of leadership, teamwork, resilience and public speaking. We wish both girls an enjoyable and rewarding week. We would also like to express our thanks to all Rotary Club members for their support for last autumn's mock interviews and the opportunity to enter the 'Young Writers' and photography competitions. Young Writers entries have been submitted and we'll let you know if a Fernhill student has won...again. Keep Reading! Fernhill School 100% supports Reading for Pleasure and how this underpins children's success. To this end there are so many school resources to help children access reading. Here's a reminder: Library catalogue of books: Students can ask for their login details in the library The Day Newspaper The online newspaper provided by School Library Service available from the VLE Magazines: A range including Total Film, Top Gear, National Geographic for Kids, Shout! and so many more E-books: FREE! The Wheelers app is available from all android and i-phone app stores. Students are being registered during library lessons First News: Each week 100 newspapers are delivered to school, some back issues are distributed to the wider community, but if you would like your child to bring one home, please advise them to pop into the library every Friday.

8 This week On Friday 17 th February, members of the British Army visited Fernhill School. They ran activities with 14 of our Year 7 and 8 boys which included a full tour of one of their Army trucks and a full night-vision experience, where they had to spot important objects using actual night-vision goggles! The boys even had the experience of wearing the camouflage paint! All of the boys thoroughly enjoyed the experience. They said that they now know that the Army is about so much more than what they originally thought and that they are now going to look at the Army as a possible career choice! Miss Pegg

9 Parking please think.. Please be mindful of the local community when parking to collect your child. Parking causing obstructions to driveways or parking on grass verges can be very frustrating for local residents. With the wet weather we have been experiencing parking on the grass is causing these areas to become mud piles. Thank you for your understanding / co-operation. We are delighted to confirm that we raised for Christmas Jumper Day. Forthcoming Events Monday 27 th February school 8.40am Monday 27 th February Year 11 second Mock Exams Tuesday 7 th March Author Visit Chris Bradford, Year 7 Thursday 16 th March Year 8 Specialist Studies Information Evening, pm Friday 24 th March Comic Relief Day Tuesday 28 th March Parent Focus Group Meeting 7.00pm 8.00pm 29 th, 30 th and 31 st March Whole School Production Attached to the Fernhill Post are details from: The Rock Project - musical instrument lessons. Home Start, Rushmoor & Hart - recruiting volunteers. We return to school on Monday 27 th 8.40am in Week 1