Issue No.13, October 1994
Issue No.13, October 1994
| FROM THE HEADTEACHER
Our Parents' Evening for prospective new parents will be held on 16th November, starting at 6.30 ! will be giving a talk about the school at 7.15 and 8.30 pm. The whole of the school will be open for parents to browse around and there will be special displays of pupils' work. Tours of the school will be held a1 10.45 am on the mornings of 15,17,18,2'i,22 and 23 Nov. Please tell your friends with children about to transfer schools : any further information can be obtained by phoning the school office - 0372 818123. Thank you for all your letters about Glyn School and the proposals re a return to selection - these have now been forwarded to the Secretary of State for Education. We are pleased to welcome back Bridgette Phelps to the Drama department following her maternity leave. Therfield musicians took part in the 35th anniversary concert of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - musicians from the Academy have been working with our pupils for the past two weeks culminating in a performance at the Royal, Festival Hall which was broadcast on Radio 3 and well received. This past week has been a busy time for visits with 50 Sixth Formers going to the House of Commons and all of Year 8 visiting the Science Museum. Over 80 pupils will be in Belgium touring the World War 1 Battlefields over half term as part of their History course. HELPING WITH HOMEWORK Parents of pupils in Key :Stage 3 (Years 7, 8 & 9) will have noticed that we are now providing a much bigger homework diary so the pupils can record all their homework. Teachers may use it if they feel parents need to be aware of some issues, and parents can use it to pass minor messages to teachers. We hope it will be a useful additional means of communication. There has also been a change in the marking policy for Key Stage 3 - an A would be excellent for the group, B good, C - unsatisfactory and D - unacceptable. The pupils should also be clear as to the focus of the marking. If you have comments ion these two changes, please send them to Mr. Geary. NAMES, PLEASE It is very important that uniform is labelled in some way - if your child's sweater, PE kit, shoes or whatever has a name clearly marked then we can return it. If not then it is just one of an ever growing bundle of anonymous and unclaimed uniform that the Office Staff have to contend with each week. EXCHANGE TRIPS This year there will be both French and German Exchanges. These are open to all pupils in Years 9 & 10. Pupils should have already brought home details of these and I would encourage you to consider sending your son or daughter on one of these. In the past these have always been very successful and pupils gain both cultural and linguistic benefits. The French Exchange visit happens first and will be to Vertou near Nantes - our students will be in France from the 25th March until the 2nd April '95 and the French students will be in England from the 25th April until the 3rd May - a day at Euro Disney is included! The German Exchange is to Bergisch-Gladbach near Cologne: the German students will be here from the 17th-25th June and our students will return in September 23rd-30th. Those who have just come back from this year's exchange had a great time and were made very welcome by their German hosts. The costs include travel and all visits - French Exchange £150; German Exchange £160 approx. We need to finalise numbers so please return the form with your initial deposit as soon as possible to either Mr. Boucry (French) or Ms. Neumann (German). GCSE ART FOLDERS Mrs. Newstead (Head of Art) has the Art folders from this year's GCSE examinations ready for collection. Any student who wants their work returned should contact the Art Department. SPORT Football, Hockey, Rugby, Netball and Cross Country teams have all got off to a good start. Last Saturday we fielded 8 football teams against Richard Challoner School involving 97 students - evidence that Therfield pupils do play sport! At Rugby our Year 9 XV had a good 24-5 win over Reed's School and we sent squads from Years 9, 10 and 11 to the Effingham Rugby tournament last week - Year 9 lost in the final, Year 10 were beaten in the semi-finals and Year 11 came third in their group. Mr. Cockerill would dearly like to have a scrummaging machine to help with training .... can anyone help? Mr. Hill would still like to hear from anyone who can help with transport, refereeing and general management of team. Miss Jefford would be delighted to hear from anyone who can help with girls' sport, particularly transport. MORE REQUESTS FOR HELP! Has anybody got a good quality power drill, a jig-saw, 5" angle grinder, modern meccano kit, Bernina sewing machine which could be donated to the Technology department - Mrs. Shannon would love to hear from you ... also any more textiles. We are extremely grateful for those already received. The Sixth Form offer a challenge to would-be public speakers - or even established ones! They need speakers on diverse topics to 'make them think' as part of their General Studies course. Two 'slots' are available - one lasting 20 minutes which is usually about how a person came to be in a particular job and the other is a full session lasting about an hour. Mr. Cummings, head of Sixth Form, warns that the audience is young, lively, intelligent, critical and highly vocal but if you have anything interesting to say then they are a good audience. Our Harvest Appeal this year was for sports kit in response to England Rugby international Rob Andrew's television appeal for good quality kit to be sent to townships in South Africa. We had a good response and the kit has been 'bagged up' and sent to Wasps RFC for dispatch. DIARY DATES |