FROM THE HEAD TEACHER
Next
year I am happy to
report that we will be fully staffed next year though, as
some of you may know, we have not been able to recruit an
Electronics specialist. Like so many schools in Surrey, we
find the cost of living, especially housing, makes
recruitment increasingly difficult. As we welcome many new
colleagues, sadly we also say goodbye to a number of
present staff. Many are moving on to well deserved
promotions, others have family commitments and four of our
most-valued staff, who have put so much extra into school
life, are opting for retirement.
 Mrs
Hodgson, Assistant Headteacher, came to
Therfield 31 years ago as a teacher of Religious Education
and History. During her time here she has done an
incredible amount for the school. Many of you who are now
parents of students here will remember her as a teacher
and many a graduate has reason to thank her for the
tenacity in which she pursued Admissions Officers at
universities following A level results which may not have
quite met the grades for the place on offer! More
recently, Mrs Hodgson has called on her experience to be
the guide and mentor for newly qualified teachers and
those coming to school for teaching practice. After all
this time she will no doubt miss Therfield and, in turn,
we will miss her.
Last year, Mrs Chambers, who has been in
charge of the Language Unit for the past 16 years, was
nominated as a 'Local Hero' and this is, I know, how so
many parents plus past and present students regard her.
Infinitely patient, quiet and encouraging, she has helped
so many young people to overcome difficulties and go out
into the world with confidence.
Another member of staff whose patience, efficiency,
courtesy and attention to detail will be greatly missed is
Mr Tilley, who brought his many skills as
a teacher of Maths to the post of Examinations Secretary,
while Mr Curnow, who has an unflagging
enthusiasm for all things practical, will leave a big gap
to fill in his role as Technician in the Technology
Department. We wish them all a long and happy retirement.
So many staff will be missed, not only for their abilities
within their own departments but for the extras they so
willingly put into school life:
Mr de Little, as well as being a most
successful Head of Technology, also used his photographic
skills to record most important events in the school
calendar;
As Head of Drama, Ms Harris has produced
a number of thoughtful and critically-acclaimed shows and
plays and has piloted our GCSE and A level students
successfully through the minefield of many a practical
adjudication;
Mrs Cox, deputy head of Maths, also ran
the Gardening Club;
Mr Mayhew will be missed, not only in the
Geography and Gamma departments, but also on the sports
field where he was an enthusiastic and successful coach in
Rugby, Football.
We shall also miss the special skills of Miss
Crofts (Head of Year and English), Miss
Peel (ICT and Psychology), Ms Ryan (Citizenship
and Careers), Mr Sadikali (Head of
Physics), Mrs Stephen (Science), Mr
Cooper (History), Mrs Gifford (Music),
Mrs May (French) and Mr Stanton
(Art).
Therfield is fortunate in having a strong team of support
staff and we thank those who are leaving us this year for
all their diligence - Miss Able, Mr
Churchill, Mrs Granger, Mr
Granger, Mrs Lyszyk, Mrs
Porter and Mrs Singletary
and wish them well for the future.
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Welcome
In September, Mrs
Carriett will be joining us as Assistant
Headteacher. Mrs Carriett comes to us from Coulsdon High
School where she is Literacy Co-ordinator and Head of Year
and is a former Head of Music.
Good news for the Science department is the return of Mr
Jordan from his travels. He will, once again,
be Head of Chemistry. Ms Kiryakidus
continues in Science where she has been in 'supply' for
the past few weeks and new faces in the department will be
Miss Myers from Fullbrook School, Mr
Williams from Bishop Reindorp School and Mr
Pillay, who is an experienced Science teacher
from South Africa.
Our new Head of Drama will be Mrs Hudson,
who comes from a similar post at Caterham School, while Miss
Cranshaw from the Millais School, Horsham joins
the Humanities Faculty to teach History, Geography and
Religious Studies. Mr Marshall, formerly
Head of Technology at the Rowan School, is joining the
Technology department, where Mr Kufandirori,
who has been with us this term is to continue.
We also welcome Miss Baty (History and
Geography), Miss Marrill (Modem
Languages), Miss Crooks (Geography), Miss
Linwood (Psychology), Miss Harrold
(Music), Miss Cadle (Business Studies
and ICT), Mrs McConnell (Maths), Miss
Jackson (History and Religious Studies), Miss
Taylor (Modem Foreign Languages) and Mr
Ward (History and Politics)
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Learning
Support We still need to
fill three posts in the Language Unit and Learning Support
Department in September. These are term-time only posts
and will involve around 10 to 25 hours per week working
with students both in class and in withdrawal situations.
Although it is helpful to have experience of working with
children, training will be provided. If you are interested
and would like to know more about pay and conditions,
please phone Mrs Howarth, Finance
Officer, who will be available during the school holidays
on 01372 814429.
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Please
Note A reminder that
School finishes at 1pm on Tuesday, 23rd July.
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Date
for your Diary The
Governors Annual Meeting With Parents will take place on
Wednesday, October 2nd, once again in conjunction with the
Friends Annual Meeting. Early in September we will be
holding elections for two new parent governors and hope
you will give some thought now as to whether you will
stand or seek to nominate someone.
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Congratulations
Nick Lambon
and Sarah Glass have been elected by
staff and fellow students as Senior Students to represent
the school next year.
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Making
Music A busy and
successful year for the Music Department finished with a
flourish before a full house at the Summer Cabaret. All of
the school's ensembles took part to provide a varied and
lively programme with the Year Seven Band showing how
marvellously they had progressed in this, their first year
of making music together. As well as the orchestra and
group numbers, the programme featured many talented
soloists, both instrumental and vocal, demonstrating the
depth of musical talent we have in the school. Our
grateful thanks go to Mr Ben Langford
and his team in the Music Department for all the pleasure
they have given us this year.
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Prayer
Group The first meeting
of the new school year will take place on Monday, 30th
September at 8 pm at school. New parents are most welcome
to join or you can request for a prayer to be said. More
information from Mrs Jill Poole (01932
865476).
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Banking
Update The School Branch
of HSBC bank has been running successfully for the past
two terms. To date the branch has opened 48 Live Cash
Accounts which, according to the bank's Customer Services
Officer, Jennie Charman, is exceptionally high. The School
Branch forms an important part of the Citizenship
programme in encouraging students to develop good money
management skills. The focus is on encouraging students to
save on a regular basis and they can pay in as little as
£1 a week. Initially, the Branch targeted students from
Years 7 and 8 but as from September will be open to the
whole school.
Year 10 students, David Howarth, Selina
Reinio and Sarah Rowntree are
to be congratulated for the tremendous amount of work they
have put in to making the School Branch so successful.
They are now looking forward to training the team to take
over next year.
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Thank
You Mrs Hook
and the Technology Department are very grateful to
Leatherhead United Charities for their generous donation
towards the cost of a new 'baby simulator' which is a
popular and salutary accessory for the Child Development
groups and to the Friends for their most generous help.
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Maths
Visit Six Mathematicians
from Year 8 were invited to the Royal Institution in
London to attend a special Maths Masterclass. Since it was
founded over 200 years ago the Royal Institution has seen
lectures by some of Britain's greatest mathematicians and
scientists, including Michael Faraday, so it was a great
honour for our students - Karen Coulton,
Greg De Boer, Thomas Rushton,
Thomas Bingham, Thomas Coton
and Timothy Pitt - to be invited
together with 300 other promising Maths students. They had
lectures on number theory, origami and the history of the
Royal Institution itself. This final lecture was given by
Alan Davies who has delivered the the Christmas Lectures
on BBC television, and finished the day off with a bang as
it included a practical demonstration of a hydrogen
explosion! On the way home, Greg De Boer
won an ice cream for using his probability skills to
predict the correct platform for the group's return
journey!
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Youth
Council Therfield
students will be represented on the new Mole Valley Youth
Council which will have its first meeting in December.
Seven schools with students of secondary school age will
each elect two councillors who will serve for a year.
Meetings will be held at Pippbrook and they will discuss
items of importance to young people. as well as consulting
with representatives of the full District Council. This is
part of an initiative to get young people involved in the
district and follows Young People's Day which takes place
on Saturday, 27th July at Dorking.
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Holiday
Dates These dates are
given in the Information Booklet which is sent home with
all students at the end of term, as are details concerning
start times in September. The website will be updated with
this information.
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Cricket
Triumph The Year 9 boys
topped off an excellent season by winning the Callingham
Crane Trophy when they beat City of London
Freemen's School in the final. This is an invitation only
competition in which sixteen schools in the private and
state sector compete. Although we have challenged well in
previous years this is the first time we have come away
with the trophy. The Year 9 team also came top of the
District League. Our links with Ashtead CC and its
coaching set-up undoubtedly help as the Year 7 and 8 teams
have also shown great promise and had some good wins this
season.
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Sports
Day The waterlogged
state of the field meant that we had to change the date
for Sports Day and were rewarded with fine sunny weather
and some really encouraging performances. Champion House
this year was Leith, followed by
Polesden, Norbury and Juniper.
Records were broken by Jamie Montgomery,
Chris Scott, Ben Stevenson
and, most notably, by Craig Hughes in
Year 10. Craig ran the 200m in 23.90, thus breaking the
record of 24.20 which had stood since 1983 and, for good
measure, he also broke the 14-year-old 400m record!
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Looking
Good About £30,000 is
being spent on refurbishing the Resource Centre, Library
and Quiet Study area. The drinking fountains already in
school are being well used and we plan to increase the
number available to students.
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In
the News Mark
Richardson, Year 8, was in charge of the
microphone to good effect when he appeared on BBC
Newsround recently. Mark, who has ambitions to be a
journalist and is a keen follower of motor racing, won a
competition which attracted 5000 entries and went to
Brands Hatch to claim his prize and be a mechanic for a
day. While there he interviewed Formula 3 racing driver,
James Courtney, and so made his debut as a TV reporter on
Newsround.
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Africa
Evening Once again the
weather provided a very suitable background to this
celebration of Year Seven's work and the show played to
packed and appreciative houses on both occasions.
It seems that students as well as the audience enloyed
themselves - in summing up Felix Wright
comments, "this will be hard to top as we personally were
dazzled"; Claire Howard writes, '...a
drumbeat started and filled the school with the sounds of
Africa. Masks, jewellery and brightly coloured costumes
were all to be found on that extraordinary evening", and
finally Samuel Fry, "..the heart of the
African jungle was here at Therfield beating like never
before. The voices lifted us all ... the cat walk was
fantastic ... Africa was really there".
The standard of folder work submitted this year was so
high that extra prizes were awarded, the winners being James
Bruce, Katie Deacon, Rosie
Howarth, Claire Howes, Claire
Maiczewski and Felix Wright.
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Show
Jumping Ben
Stevenson in Year 8 will have an energetic
start to the school holidays - he has qualified two of his
horses to jump at the All-England Show Jumping Meeting
at Hickstead from 23-26 July.
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Busy
Times Return visits for
both the French and German Exchanges proved to be
successful and enjoyable and yesterday the Year 7s set off
for their visit to the Rhine Valley.
Year 9 students on the French Exchange were quick to offer
praise - "it was definitely worth going on and worth the
money". They filled the week well, explaining how they had
spent time with the French families, visited the Abbey on
a huge rock at Le Mont St. Michel, shopped at St Malo and
Nantes, and went to a medieval park called Puy du Fou
before ending the week at Parc du Futuroscope. They also
attended lessons at the French school and were bombarded
with questions!
The German Exchange of 36 students, six Sixth Formers and
five staff went to Bergisch-Gladbach and enjoyed a range
of new experiences and trips including a day in a German
school. They were also able to appreciate the beauty of
Cologne from the top of the Cathedral - a well deserved
reward after climbing over 500 steps! All agreed that the
Exchange meant they now felt more confident and had a
better knowledge of the language.
Back at school, the Year 10 students have been taking part
in Language Workshops designed specially to help with the
GCSE oral examinations.
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Sailing
Success The Sailing Club
has, once again, won the Ken Grace Trophy for
achieving the most RYA certificates by a Surrey school. At
the Hayling Island Regatta, Lina Haines
in Year 13 received a signed photograph of round-the-world
sailor, Ellen McArthur, for the best female helm of the
year.
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Championship
Jump Emily
Parker in Year 12 competed in the English
Schools Athletics Championships in Nottingham at
the weekend and is now the Senior Girls Champion for the
Triple Jump. In jumping a new personal best of 12.52,
Emily also set up a new national junior record.
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Carnegie
Book Award The school
vote was for Love that Dog by Sharon Creech
which Therfield readers felt was a compelling story of a
boy who cannot write poetry or so he thinks! The story is
subtly developed and contains fun and thought-provoking
poems. The national winner was Terry Pratchett's The
Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - a book
our students enjoyed but felt was 'yet another Pratchett',
the type of novel he writes very well, but lacking the
originality of our chosen winner.
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Poetry
Day Given our choice for
Carnegie it was appropriate that students in Year 10 were
able to sample poetry in a lively and innovative way.
Philip Wells, our visiting poet, proved to be an engaging
and inspirational choice as he read a selection of his own
poems and persuaded students to read theirs.
The various workshops run by the English Faculty saw
students debating controversial issues raised in the
poems, dramatising poetry and writing their own poems. The
day culminated with a celebration of poetry written by
students during the day - some of it very moving and some
of it amusing. A vote of thanks went not only to Philip
Wells but also to Ms Hall and the
English teachers for arranging such an unusual, enjoyable
and innovative day.
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Safety
First In readiness for
the Autumn term sports programme of Rugby, Hockey and
Football, the,PE department recommend that all students
wear gum-shields and shin-pads for these sports.
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More
Maths Success Following
on the success of our Junior Mathematicians, the
Intermediate students have had an equally good return from
competition in the UK Maths Challenge. 2614
schools took part and we had an entry of 78 gaining a 55%
success rate in achieving gold, silver or bronze
certificates. Gold award winners were James
Claxton (best in school), Luke
Mursaleen, John Andrews, Joe
Newman and two Year 8 boys, Stuart
Coke and Tim Pitt.
Eleven of our students were invited to take part in The
European Kangaroo, the next challenge round
involving harder questions and two Year 8 boys, Thomas
Coton and Thomas Rushton,
achieved distinctions. Also, 13 year old Tim Pitt,
because of his high score in the Maths Challenge, was
invited to take part in the 2002 Invitational Maths
Challenge, a very demanding written paper open to
students up to age 16. He didn't win but received a
certificate.
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Valuable
Advice Year 12 English
students had some worthwhile tips on how to manage their
coursework when they had a visit from Mills and Boon
writer, Nadine Hoskinson, recently. Ms Hoskinson shared
her expertise in writing marketable romantic fiction so
much so that an entertaining time was had by all!
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Sports
Academy A reminder that
a Sports Coaching Academy takes place at Therfield in
August. The cost (special discount for Therfield students)
is £125. Non Therfield £165. Pickup Sport &
Education of Ashtead are the organisers and can be
contacted on 01372 273141.
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Can
you help? Barbara
Schellhaus, a 16 year old student from our partner school
near Cologne is looking for a family to accommodate her
for a 3-4 month period in he Spring term while she attends
Therfield to improve her language skills. If anyone feels
they could offer her board and lodging, please contact Miss
Buckell at school.
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STOP
PRESS Congratulations
are due to Year 9 students who gained some wonderful
results in their National Curriculum Tests. Over 85% of
students gained Level 5 in Maths, English and Science -
this is almost 20% better than the national average.
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SPECIAL
MENTION Therfield has
been recognised by the County as having Leading Practice
in English at Key Stage 3. Miss Wade has
been invited to join the group of Leading English
Practitioners for the next Academic Year. This complements
the success of the Maths Department where Miss
Pears is a Leading Practioner for the second
year.
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Issue 101 published 19 July 17 2002