Dates for your Diary Tuesday 25 th July 2017 25 th July Last Day of Term 5 th September Students Return to School SUMMER BREAK 8 th September Y7-Y10 Tempest Photographs 4 th September Non-Pupil Day 19 th September Open Evening ** 4.30pm - 7.00pm * Invite for Award winners only ** Everyone welcome Follow us on Facebook and Twitter Dear Parent(s)/Carer(s) 25 th July 2017 As the academic year draws to a close, I write to thank you for your support and to let you know about changes which are planned for next year. There are a number of staff who will be moving on to new positions and we wish them all well for the exciting challenges ahead. Amongst those staff leaving are Mrs Morris, our Business Manager and Mrs Shrimpton, our Marketing Co-ordinator both are retiring after 20 and 25 years of service respectively. Mrs Morris is the last member of the senior staff group that were here at the College when I started 13 years ago. She has worked tirelessly supporting the development of our fast changing business. Mrs Shrimpton has been our Marketing Co-ordinator ensuring a positive image and high profile for the College. We also say farewell to three members of our teaching staff: Mrs Beesly (History) is taking a promotion at South Molton Community College. Mr Fawdry (Maths) is taking up a post in Oxford. Miss James (Science) will be taking up a position in an international school in Spain. We have had a very strong team at the College and although we are sad to see our colleagues leave, we are also excited to welcome new members to our team. I would like to take the opportunity to introduce the new teaching staff: Mr Vaughan Specialist Teacher of History previous areas of experience and responsibilities: PGCE placement (South Devon College) teaching History at GCSE, A level and FdA levels to learners aged 14 to 18 and mature learners. Mr Vaughan also taught English at GCSE level and Politics at A level applying regular assessment to monitor learner progress. Mr Vaughan helped to organise and run trips for GCSE, A Level and Degree level courses. He has also assisted with marketing and promotion. Mr Griffiths Specialist Teacher of Mathematics Transferring from Holsworthy Community College where he has undertaken in-school training on the new GCSE content both at Foundation and Higher level. Mr Griffiths has been a form tutor and believes a positive learning environment is crucial to pupils success. He has a strong subject knowledge at both KS3 and KS4 and has worked as part of a team to amend and write schemes of work at both Key Stages: he has been a subject mentor for student teachers. Mr Griffiths has planned and organised Gifted and Talented days for primary liaison as well as Independent Learner Days and has assisted with extra-curricular sporting activities.
Mr Jenkinson Specialist Teacher of Science Transferring from Holsworthy Community College where he has been teaching all year groups and all subject areas within science, together with assessing and progress tracking. Mr Jenkinson has a role as a mentor to a tutor group. He has been trained in the new curriculum and is prepared for the modern scientific curriculum and pedagogical practice. Mr Jenkinson has experience in a wide range of projects, including Gifted and Talented, high achievers and SEN pupils. Mr Jenkinson has an enthusiastic teaching style; questioning and investigation are at the heart of his lessons. Uniform We believe that uniform does have an impact upon how pupils learn because smartness is part of our ethos. We believe that ethos is the foundation of our success. Thank you for supporting this. Uniform has been worn well this year. I would politely remind you that skinny trousers are not allowed and the skirts should be as prescribed by the uniform list. Numbers starting and joining the college In order to make our budget work, Directors have made a number of momentous decisions over the recent years. They came to a conclusion that with the new funding formula that we were given, we have no option but to attract more pupils. We have 124 pupils joining us in Year 7 in September (27 from out of area and the biggest number if Year 7s since I started 13 years ago). This means more than 20% of our total pupils are now from outside our transport area. We see this as a positive endorsement of the education we offer. Thank you for the support you have given us. It has helped us to be more agile. Holidays in term time When a pupil is absent from school, it has a significant effect upon their education and the education of the remainder of the class. Following advice from Devon County Council and as a result of a rise in numbers of parents taking children on holiday during term time, we will be issuing penalty notices automatically should there be an absence as a result of a holiday. As always, if the reasons for a request are exceptional and unavoidable, we will grant it. This will affect any requests made in the future. I have resisted doing this but have found that by doing so, school attendance has started to decline. Other local schools have been doing this for some time. Better attendance is good for every pupil in the school. Ready to Learn At the beginning of next year, we will be promoting an agenda where we all adopt the same approach to lack of equipment as we do to a lack of reading. Year 10 have had an assembly on this to explain it: We could be more consistent as a school with our pupils about this and we think it will further improve their results. We find too much time is spent providing basic equipment to pupils who should be ready to learn. The overwhelming majority who come ready have to sometimes spend time waiting for those who are not and we think this is unacceptable. The following is a list of equipment all pupils who are ready to learn will need in school: AR reading book compass Scientific calculator rubber 2 x black pens highlighter pens 2 x HB pencils colouring pencils purple pen (for response to marking) hairband (for long hair in practical subjects) ruler of at least 15 cm PE kit (when appropriate protractor I understand that Tescos have a sale of such stationery at the moment. Furthermore, we will be running sessions with all year groups on how to learn at the beginning of the year. We have an objective of promoting a more independent approach to learning at the beginning of September with Years 7-10.
Knowledge organisers in Year 9 and big focus on independent learning in the school We invite Year 9 Parents into the College on 14 th September 2017 at 7.00pm to explain how we will be using knowledge organisers for homework. We have spent a good deal of time transforming the way we will be offering homework and classwork with Year 9 because we realise that with the new rigorous GCSEs we have to change the way we teach in Year 9. Reduction in the use of Supply teachers for 2017-8. Staff attendance at Chulmleigh is very good. Morale is good and we all feel fortunate to work in a school like this where staff and pupils pull together. Teachers are limiting the amount of time they spend out of school and balancing that carefully against the need for curriculum enrichment and staff training. We will therefore, pool classes when a teacher is absent and have a maximum of 3 classes together in Heywood Hall. We have reorganised this after looking at how we can effectively improve cover and reduce costs. We would rather spend money on recruiting teachers rather than supply teachers: However, should a teacher be absent for more than 3 days, we will ensure they are taught by a qualified supply teacher. As you know, our pupils are taught by many subject specialists in a day, so although this will be different, it will seem like business as usual. We made a decision to do this after looking at South Dartmoor Community College s model. They found it was better than the traditional model of employing supply teachers, often unknown to the children and will fit well with our push on independent learning. Any pupils who do not have their normal teacher will, of course, always have work set for them in the usual way. The wider picture of School Budgets The College budget is now in a far better position, largely as a result of the recruitment of pupils. I would ask parents to watch what happens to school funding nationally. It has been parental pressure that has led to the announcement of 1.3bn of funding for schools but we have also been told that it will come from the education budget. We shall hear what that means in the Autumn. We are uncertain because Fair Funding which has now been scrapped represented an 80k p.a. reduction to our budget and this followed a previous significant reduction to our budget. We recognise that other public services are being cut, however ask that you never hesitate to let your elected representatives know how important the education of your child is and that you believe we should, as a country, invest in the young who will be looking after us and our families in the years to come. I worry they might have reason to be disappointed with our generation unless something changes. GCSE Results We look forward to sharing the results with you on 24 th August. For the first time, the results will be in numbers rather than letters in English and Maths. We anticipate they will be good but also think they will be confusing until we get something to benchmark them against. Gold Scholars I warmly congratulate all pupils who have worked so hard this year. I particularly mention our gold Scholars, who will receive their awards in September. Florence Cutler, Abby Williams, Eliza Moore, William Barlow, Florence Job, Ruby Cutler, Erin Fraser-Smith, Amelie Rogers, Jasmine Cain, Esme Hazelpupilden, Henry Huxtable, Emilie Yendell, Evie Sparrow, Tori Higglesden, Rowan Fitzsimmons, Katie Hawkins, Sarah Kneller, Laura Fraser-Smith, Livi Jenkins, Tabby Bradford and Olivia Tucker. And finally.. If you are getting a break in the summer I hope it is good, restful and restorative. Our pupils deserve a good break and we now wait to see them poised and ready to learn in September. Thank you for your continued support. Yours faithfully Michael Johnson Executive Headteacher
Safeguarding and CCTV After much consideration the College has decided to install a level of CCTV around the school buildings to help protect students and staff and to give a higher degree of supervision around the buildings. We already have a few cameras located in high traffic areas to monitor student safety, these cameras are installed to ensure that everyone is kept safe. None of the existing cameras, or any of the new cameras, will be continually monitored, but used by senior staff to review situations as appropriate. Cameras will be positioned in areas of entrances, stairs, corridors and spaces where queuing is likely. Our intention is to make our school even safer. Terry Pullen Estates Manager Accelerated Reader Scheme This year, as part of the Accelerated Reader scheme, students at Chulmleigh College have read 7213 books and 318,687,722 words! The English Department would like to congratulate every student who has contributed to this by being an active, independent reader. Jo Nunn Literacy Co-ordinator Some of the Millionaire students, who have each read at least one million words each.
The Baden Powell Challenge Award Lucy Govier, Niamh Blacker and Imogen Webber have been awarded The Baden Powell Challenge Award. The Baden Powell Challenge Award is the top award a Guide can achieve. It replaces what was previously the Queen's Guide award and has taken 12-18 months to complete. To gain this award the girls had to choose ten clauses from a list over a variety of zones. The zones are :- Healthy lifestyle, celebrating diversity, global awareness, discovery and skills and relationships. Once the girls had completed their tasks, they went on a residential adventure. Lucy and Niamh went to the Guide Headquarters in London and did a monopoly style challenge which involved hopping on and off buses to visit places from the monopoly board. Imogen went to Exmoor and did an outdoor activity based adventure. Chulmleigh Guides have had 5 girls complete this award in the past 3 years. If anyone is interesting in joining Chulmleigh Guides please contact Mandy Blacker on 01769 580502 or mandyblacker@hotmail.com Well done girls, an amazing achievement. Mrs J Craig Civitas Award Emer Fosbrooke is a great example to other pupils in the school. She has always exercised very good judgement and is courteous and compassionate to others in the school. We see this in the way she acts as a prefect, but also outside school and we were very proud to watch her lay the wreath at the Menin Gate during the History visit to Ypres this year. As well as being a Senior Guild member in school, Emer is a Corporal in the Air Cadets, which means she is the senior cadet in your squadron and looks after and train younger cadets. As well as being a cadet, she supports the group by getting involved in charity collections for them and Emer is even supporting the International Air Show at Fairford in Gloucestershire this weekend. At home, Emer spends some of your time helping her father with his business. As a result of the courage she has shown this year, Emer s confidence has improved greatly and she is a worthy winner of this award. Congratulations. Civitas Award
Volunteers Needed Volunteers needed for New Perspectives event! Sunday 30 th July sees the launch of the HIDDEN HISTORIES OF RURAL NORTH DEVON project in Chulmleigh Town Hall, 2-5pm. This exciting 3 year project will improve access to the Beaford Archive an enormous collection of black and white photography by the artists James Ravilious and Roger Deakins and will also record new oral histories from local people connected to the Archive. This drop in event invites locals to come and take a look at unseen images from the Archive, meet members of the project team, and listen to local speakers including artist John Hurford. We are also looking for volunteers to help us on the day with the set up and running of the event (if you re not all too exhausted from the Fair!) any level of commitment is welcome, whether its half an hour to help set up, or a couple hours helping with the tea and coffee. Get in touch with Sophie@beaford-arts.org.uk or phone 01769 572573 for more info about the event or if you re able to volunteer. Thank you! Sophie McCormack Hidden Histories Project Coordinator
The Ivor Marsh Library * LIBRARY * WEB PUBLISHING * * PRINTSHOP * * STATIONERY SHOP * Opening Times to the Community During the College Term Tuesday 9am - 4pm Booktrack 3.30pm - 4.30pm Wednesday 9am - 4pm Thursday 9am - 3pm During the College Holidays 2017 Thursdays 9am - 3pm 26th July - 4th September inclusive Phone: 01769 582126 Email: chulmleigh.library@librariesunlimited.org.uk www.chulmleigh.org
Printshop Full Colour Photocopying from only 25p per A4 sheet Black & White Budget Printing Single-sided from 5p per A4 Double-sided from 8p per A4 Minimum of 50 copies per master Personalised Notepaper, Posters, Invitations, Leaflets, etc All designed to your specifications Binding - Laminating A professional service with the personal touch www.chulmleigh.org Your local community website Events Diary from 6 per year as many events as you like Web Page from 30 per year including design and publishing Contact Pauline for more information Tel: 01769 582126