THERFIELD NEWS Issue No.141*, Mar 2006

Of the twenty-seven 11-18 mainstream secondary schools in Surrey, only ten have made it to this year's Financial Times' list of the country's top 1000. The list features schools of all types including fee-paying, selective and non-selective. Therfield was ranked at 735 in the list - Howard of Effingham was 608, Oxted 682, St Bede's 755, Rosebery 792 and the Ashcombe 812. The list is based on this year's A level points per candidate and points per entry.

Congratulations to Miss Marrill who is taking over as Head of Faculty for Modern Foreign Languages from the beginning of the Summer term. This promotion allows Ms Buckell, the current Head of Faculty, to concentrate on her role of Assistant Headteacher.

The Bard Comes Alive! All Year 9 students, who are studying Macbeth for their Key Stage 3 English tests, watched a performance of Macbeth by the Box Clever Theatre Company in school on Monday 13th March. The actors concentrated on the key scenes from the play, which students will be tested on in May, and gave a lively and stimulating performance, followed by a workshop session which allowed a number of students to act in front of the entire year group, and to show their directing skills as well. We hope that students will have benefited from seeing the play performed live and will have gained an insight into the complexities of staging a performance.

Triumph for Young Enterprisers This is the name given to the tuck shop at school which was set up and run by students taking part in this year's East/Mid Surrey Area Young Enterprise Competition. This is the first year that Therfield have taken part. The teams are judged on three aspects of running a company, presentation, company report and company display board. The finals took place on 16th March at City of London Freeman's School, Ashtead. Our team beat off stiff competition from several other schools including Howard of Effingham, City of London Freeman's School and Rosebery School to take the top prize for the best presentation.

Congratulations go to the winning team of Tom Irwin, Tom Bingham, Jeff Ormiston, Stuart Cork and Chris Hargreaves. A big thank you must also go to Mrs Moore and Miss Sykes for their encouragement throughout the past 8 months, and to the business advisors, Harish Bhayani and Ian Jewell.

Rockets, Rafts, Flames and Shots Students were able to take part in various activities to mark Science Week (13th - 17th March).

Year 7 students made rockets with the best two from each class being launched out onto the school field. Some flew in a spectacular fashion while others looked more like they should have been in the Commonwealth Games Gymnastics Events given the way they flipped and somersaulted through the air before landing in flames only metres from the launch pad. It was great fun!!

Meanwhile Year 8 designed rafts from minimal materials. The raft that held the most pennies before sinking was the winner. Why is it that our students can build a raft in 30 minutes and the cast of LOST took two series to figure it out? Year 9 looked on in amazement as Dr Popplestone and Mr James performed some amazing Chemistry demonstrations with exploding hydrogen, fireworks, flames and freezing cold liquid nitrogen and dry ice.

Years 7 and 8 also participated in our Forensic Activity to determine "Who Shot Dr. Pop?" Having viewed footage of the crime, students collected evidence (fingerprints and microscopic fibres for examination) and performed some experiments including chromatography and flame tests in order to determine who the shooter was. After 5 days of dedicated work, our young scientists arrived at their conclusion ..... It was ....['m not telling!!! You will have to ask one of the newly qualified forensic scientists in Year 7 or 8.

A big WELL DONE to all the students who participated so enthusiastically in Science week. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as the Science staff did!

Changes to the School Day
Due to examinations the school day will change as follows during the period from 15th May to 30th June.

Serving up a Winner Year 8 are busy preparing their own pasta dishes for the annual pasta challenge, with the winning creation being served in the school canteen.

As part of Therfield's Sports College status the Food Technology Department have been able to obtain funding to support this 'healthy eating' venture. Winners will receive Tesco vouchers as rewards. The competition is to be judged by Mrs Stedman, Therfield Canteen Manager and Mrs Shipley, the area manager for school meals.

Rising to the Challenge UK Maths Challenge regional finalists were Michael Smith (9ABA), Jesse Lloyd (8JRB), Chris Knight (8JRB) and Miren Patel (9CRG).

The regional final of the UK Team Challenge took place on Friday 17th March where our students joined other schools in competitions such as Maths crosswords, number sequences and problem solving. These were tackled in the form of relays, individual competitions and team work. The students worked well as a group and we are eagerly awaiting the results.

Sports College goes from strength to strength Therfield has once again been awarded the prestigious Sportsmark Award by Sport England. This is a Chartermark that highlights high quality provision in PE and sport.

We have recently hosted two professional training days for PE staff from across Surrey. The first day focused on training PE teachers to use ICT more effectively with lessons. The second course was for Heads of Department and was targeted at Key Stage 3 assessment within PE and how to use this to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

The Year 13 Leadership group are now coming towards the end of their course. They are currently leading Boccia and table top games sessions at the Queen Elizabeth Foundation in Stoke D'Abernon.

The Year 9 Duke of Edinburgh course is now in full swing with 120 students preparing for their first expedition in the summer term.

We would like to wish James Major in Year 12 good luck as he prepares to represent the Mid Surrey Sports Partnership at the National Step into Sport Conference that is being held at Loughborough University over Easter.

The PE department's Gifted and Talented programme has now been launched. It is targeted at our most able athletes from across the school. One of the first sessions was at the University of Surrey and covered how elite performers maintain a balance between school, sport and their social lives. The day was led by Active Surrey with presentations from UK Sport and six elite performers. During the afternoon our students attended degree level lectures on psychology of sport and physiology.

We are now advertising the Year 12 Football Academy for next September. Students practical performance sessions will be taken by Chelsea FC at their new training complex at Cobham, they will then study either BTEC Sport or A Levels at Therfield. Application forms for both boys and girls can be requested from Chelsea FC by calling 020 7957 8225.

The 10th Anniversary Surrey Youth Games takes place on 17th /18th /241h /25th June, once again we are hoping for a large representation from Therfield students.

Lost Property There is a considerable amount of lost property waiting to be claimed including many mufti items. Anything not claimed by 28th April will will be recycled.

Child Development Our Year 10 Child Development students recently spent a very successful week with their placements at local Nurseries. Our thanks as always go to all those involved for their time and support.

Bits and Bobs Would you be able to donate any of the following items?
Plain (not patterned) fabric, lace, braid, buttons or felt. These items are needed for KS3 textiles groups. If you have any of these bits and bobs that you would like to donate then please call Mrs Wallace on 01372 818123 extn 216.

Oxford Online We have recently subscribed to Oxford Reference Online Premium. This is a massive reference collection for ALL subjects and includes maps and illustrations. The site is available to staff and students at school and at home. To get a taste of what will be on offer you can log onto the site, do a tour and look at sample illustrations. In the near future an extra password will be required for use at home, we will keep you informed.

Log on details are: www.oxfordreference.com Usename: therfield Password: oedonline

Field Work On 20th March the Year 10 Geography students visited Guildford. The aim of the day was to investigate how people view their quality of life, the range of services on offer and whether the land use in this settlement exhibits patterns shown in geographical urban models. The students worked hard and collected lots of data for their first piece of coursework. They were a credit to the school. Well done!

Sloping Off! A report on the Year 10 Ski trip to Les Menuires by Bill Knight (1ONPK)
We set off for Les Menuires in France full of optimism. The coach journey passed quickly before we reached a beautiful snow covered village and realised we were there. The apartments were right on the slopes and we were able to walk down to breakfast in the morning and then ski from the restaurant. The snow was great and there was lots of it all week. Once we were in groups our instructors took us on a variety of runs and some of us went off piste, where we were also able to video ourselves skiing and use it as a sport for GCSE sports studies.

We had some free time in our apartments after skiing before we had dinner at the restaurant. The evening activities were one of the highlights of the trip and we enjoyed swimming, ice skating and an evening at the nightclub.

The trip was great thanks to Miss Buckell, Mr Batchelor, Mr Morrhouse, Miss Marrill, Mr Tuck and Mr Morren everyone really enjoyed the week.

Social Team News
Can you help? You will have read in your letter how much in need we are of new members and supporters. If there is anyway you could help, either by joining us on the committee, or by occasionally helping out at fund-raising events, please let us know. You can phone us on 01372 812313 or 01372 276641

Jumbo Jumble
A terrific well done to all who attended our Jumble Sale on Saturday 25th and a whopping great thank you to all who helped. We raised £700 for school funds.

Vouch for Us Following on from our successful collection of Sainsbury's vouchers last year we are hoping to collect even more this time. You helped us raise vouchers to the value of over £2600, the highest any school in the area collected and with this we were able to enhance the equipment for the sports department. Please send vouchers into the Main Office. (A big thank you must go to Mrs Major who counted all 30,000 vouchers last time).

We are also collecting Tesco vouchers. In the past these have been 'cashed in' for valuable items to help with the study of ICT. Please send your vouchers into the school as soon as possible.

RUSHing Off Liz Noble is once again returning to Africa in July. She doesn't want to go empty handed, so if you can send in any pens, multi vitamin tablets or spectacles she would be very happy to take them with her.

Vacancies We are looking for a number of people to join our team of Exam Invigilators for May/June exam time. This is a part-time position and can be for l to 4 hours in any one session. Please contact Mrs C Harvey, Examinations Officer on 01372 814463 for further details.

Therfield School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Dates for Your Diary

* issued in error as no.145