Issue No.145, July 2006
Issue No.145, July 2006
| FROM THE HEADTEACHER
As the school once again comes to a close we say a fond farewell to a number of staff. On behalf of the Therfield community I would like to pass on particular thanks and future best wishes to Mr Morley-Davies, who leaves us to take up a Deputy Headteacher position in Andover and Mrs Carriett who is taking maternity leave. Mrs Shannon (Technology) is retiring from full time teaching. However, I am delighted to say that she will be returning to Therfield in a part time teaching capacity in September. Mrs Marshall (Head of Year
8/Technology) has been promoted to Head of Technology at
Collingwood College, Mrs Kirton has been appointed SENCO
at Woking High School and After more than 25 years service at Therfield, Mrs Lokkerbol (Senior Science Technician) is retiring. We also say goodbye to Mr Fray (Maths), Miss Engelbrecht (Maths), Mrs Smith (MFL), Mr Hoskins (RS & Sociology) and Miss Dawson (LSA). The school will miss all these colleagues and we wish them well for the future. I am pleased to report that the school will be fully staffed in September. Mr Metcalf has been appointed Head of Physics, Mr Oswick, Miss McKinney, Miss Martin and Miss Parker will be teaching (English), Mr Churchill, Miss Warman and Mr Williams (PE), Mr Brooks and Miss Eaton (MFL), Mr Mott (Drama), Miss Foskett (Psychology), Miss Jones (Humanities) and Mr Kotey (Maths). I would also like to congratulate the
following staff on their promotions: Profile All schools are required by the Government to publish a Profile for the start of next year. This document replaces the Governors' Report to Parents. The subheadings for the profile are very prescriptive as so too are the number of characters that we can use under each heading. I would very much welcome your views on our draft profile which I have posted on the school's website at www.therfieldschool.org.uk/ A hard copy may be obtained by telephoning the school office on 01372 818123. I would be particularly interested to hear from you as to whether this format is more or less useful to you than the traditional Governors' Report to Parents. Extra Maths GCSE The Mathematics faculty is to offer a GCSE in Statistics as an extra-curricular course to Year 10 students from September. Students will work on the course during normal Data Handling lessons for the first term, then carry on extending their coursework and working towards a more thorough understanding during one lesson after school each week. The final exam would be in June 2007, and there could then be an opportunity to complete a further course in another area of Mathematics during Year 11. If you would like more information please see either Mrs Foley or Mr Ross. We will only be able to offer the course to a limited number of students from the present Year 9 set 1 students this year, but if it is successful we will be offering it in an option block the following year. Leatherhead Life Winners As mentioned in last months Therfield News here is the promised update on the Leatherhead Life Youth Exhibition. Congratulations must go to three of our students who won prizes, Lauren Cude (7JFY) who won first prize in the Year 7 category, Louisa Banks (9ACO) who won second prize in the Year 9 category and Teela Wyman (9ACO) who won a 'Special Prize' of a family photo shoot. The judges were Becky Chapman from the Black Dog Gallery, Andy Newbold, and Leatherhead Theatre's Chief Executive Mike Levitton. Maths Request Please can you remind students to bring all the Maths equipment required to every lesson and that they must keep their textbooks in a good state of repair. Thank you. Mrs Foley. Parenting Class 'Refresher' In the Autumn Term there will be a short five week course of 'Refresher' parenting classes beginning on October 1st, from 2pm to 4pm. All who have attended previously are invited to attend. For further details please contact L Noble on 01372 814431. Our Specialist Centre From September 2006, Therfield Language Unit is to become a Specialist Centre for Speech and Language and communication needs. This change in designation is the outcome of a county wide review and will not affect the provision for students currently in the unit. Our Young Enterprise Company This year saw the first ever Young Enterprise Company run by Year 12 students. After a relatively slow start while the team brainstormed a number of business ideas and spent a lot of time completing the paperwork for Young Enterprise, opening a bank account with HSBC and waiting for a cheque book to arrive, the idea of a tuck shop was given the approval by Mr Tuck. The students voted for Jeff Ormiston as Managing Director, Stuart Cork as Financial Director and Tom Irwin for Company Secretary. The rest of the team included Tom Bingham, Chris Hargreaves, Sophia Sweeney, Chris Woods, Tom Rushton, Holly David, Chris Bishop, Hazel Saunderson, Nishanta Balasubramaniam and Lewis Higgs. They all bought shares in the company valued at 50p a share and sold shares to family and friends. This money was used to buy their first supply of stock, pay the £80 registration fee to Young Enterprise and other expenses. Market research was carried out by the girls on the team, a rota was organised for manning the tuck shop at lunch times and in no time the company was earning £100 a day sales revenue. Young Enterprise provides an Advisor who is a local business person. The Advisor attends as many of the weekly meetings as possible and advises the team on action to take and how to solve problems. There is also a Link Teacher (Mrs Moore and Miss Sykes) who keep an eye on things and make sure nobody can be harmed by the action taken by the company! The students all worked incredibly hard throughout the year and achieved much success at the Surrey Area finals where they won Best Presentation and received a cheque for £50, narrowly missing out on Best Report as well. During the sixth form Rag Week they supplied drinks and snacks at the Rag Ball and donated £120 to charity. Their dedication, professionalism and entrepreneurial talent paid off as they made a total profit before tax of £944. After paying tax to Young Enterprise they gave each shareholder a dividend of 25p per share which is a 50% return on their initial investment and refunded the money paid for shares - not a bad investment! The students also paid themselves a wage of £40. This left £719 to be donated to the Sixth-Form Committee funds enabling the whole of the sixth form to benefit. Taking part in the Young Enterprise experience has been great fun and stressful at times but as one sixth former said to me, they have learnt so much about setting up and running a business and a bank account, experience they would not have gained otherwise. Due to this success we will be offering Young Enterprise to Year 12 next year and hope to set up two companies to increase competition and raise more money for the school. Mrs Moore Visit from Holocaust Survivor - by Mickie Green (10NMI) On the 3rd July Mr Harry Bibring visited us to discuss his experiences during Hitler's Nazi regime. As a Holocaust survivor, Mr Bibring had an incredible story to tell. The Year 10 and 12 History students were enthralled by his story. Mr Bibring had actually witnessed Hitler's arrival in Vienna, and then later was lucky enough to escape the Nazis by leaving on the famous Kindertransport with his sister. Sadly he never saw his parents again. Listening to Mr Bibring is an experience we will never forget. I was particularly moved by his final message on racism, I believe he inspired many of us with his heartfelt words. European Experience by Maddy Reeve (8PHE) On 25th of June, some Year 8 students travelled by coach to Russ in Germany. The journey was twelve hours long, but all students managed with a few half-hour stops. On arrival bags were left at the hotel and students went on a short walk around the area they were staying in, for some fresh air! Of course, the teachers; Ms Marrill, Mrs Devonshire, Ms Jackson, Mr Bates and Mr Batchelor, went too. That night, although everyone had been up since 5am, it seamed they were still full of energy and keen to stay up late as they were all extremely excited. The next day we enjoyed a German buffet breakfast before travelling; to Strasbourg, going on tours around a Cathedral and Petite France, shopping in Colmar and relaxing in the evening. On the third day we went on a waterfall walk in the Black Forest followed by a town quiz in Trieberg. After lunch we visited the clock museum in Freiberg where there are many new and exciting clocks that none of us had seen before. That evening, students enjoyed a game of rounders or football in the fields near the hotel. It was a hot evening and everyone was worn out when it came to bedtime. We were all looking forward to the next day when we would be going to Europark, and when it finally came we were all buzzing with excitement. There were loads of interesting rides, each with a theme and country. Some of the Year 8s went on the Silver Star. This is the steepest ride in Europe. Even some of the braver teachers gave it a go. That evening, everyone did Ms Jackson's hard, but fun quiz. The last day was a long and boring trip back to England. Everyone said they had a brilliant time. All in all I think it is safe to say the trip was a great success and everyone went home feeling tired, but happy; so on behalf of Year 8 I would like to say a big thank you to all the teachers that went on the trip, because we couldn't have done any of it without them! Gareth Thomas (10LEL) and Rebecca Thomas (9ABA) - Fencing Report Gareth started fencing a little under three years ago, after watching his father competing at the Commonwealth Fencing Championships in 2002! Fencing competitions are structured so that there are plenty of youth and age group events. The first level at which a National GB Squad is selected is at the U17 (Cadet) level but National Rankings are maintained based on competitive results at selected competitions, which includes some youth events, plus selected adult competition results, together with results from overseas events. Technically, fencers are entitled to compete in adult events from the age of 13. Gareth started to enter serious (i.e. national) competitions in 2004 and quickly climbed the national age group rankings. He was sufficiently highly ranked to qualify for the first international trip of the season in 2005, travelling with the British Team to Bonn in Germany. Given that Germany have won more Olympic medals at fencing than most other sports, this was somewhat of a baptism of fire as a first international event. Gareth gradually improved his national ranking over the remainder of the season and was subsequently selected for the remaining season's international trips to Dinant in Belgium and Pisa in Italy. He achieved results in both, the latter being an extremely tough event where he finished as second best placed British cadet. In between these trips, Gareth was 5th at the British Youth Championships, and 1st at the SE Region Youth Championships. He commenced the new 2006/7 season last month, ranked 2nd in the British U17 rankings, and inside the top 15 of the U20 British rankings. He had a good result at the first adult event in June which should see him cement this position, and may well take him into the top 100 of the senior British rankings. A recent bonus at the start of the 2006/7 season, has been selection (in 1st place) for Wales at the UK Schools Games to be held in Glasgow in September. This was a double celebration as his sister Rebecca has also been selected for Wales (in 3rd place) for the ladies team. Rebecca, who has been fencing for less than two years, is in the top thirty of the girls U17 rankings, with three years at this age group remaining! Report on Maths Conference at Surrey University by Max Green (7LCA) On Friday 7th June I attended a Maths Conference with Megan Chierighini (7NLT) at Surrey University in Guildford. After meeting our peers we were set some maths puzzles. We were given some extremely advanced calculators and some problems to solve, such as creating a Fibbonaci sequence. At the end of the day we were given a free book of logic and maths puzzles. Below is a puzzle, see if you can answer it. 'divided by' 'divided by' 'equals' 50 'divided by' 5 Move one thing to make the sum make sense. Click here for the answer. Year 10 Council Review of the Year Every Thursday afternoon registration we meet to discuss current issues within the school. As a council we have organised many events. These include Cake Sales which have in total raised over £150. The money raised went to the charity Children in Need. We have also raised money to purchase water fountains which we are now waiting to have installed. Looking to the future we have been raising funds for our Year 11 Ball in December which we are looking forward to. The Battle of the Bands held in October, an event in which the whole school is involved, raised over £400 for Children in Need. Our final event for the year was a BBQ for Year 10. A live band and a DJ provided the entertainment. A good time was had by all and we even raised over £80! Student Update This is a feature that we would like to run each month. If you know of any past student of Therfield who would like an update on their achievements to appear in a future issue of The Therfield News then please email details to headteacher@therfield.surrey.sch.uk marking it for the attention of the Newsletter Editor. James Haslam (2001) Congratulations to James who has graduated from Loughborough University with First Class M.Eng degree in Systems Engineering. James was an editor of the Green Bottle and won an Arkwright Scholarship for when in the Sixth Form. Although he has been offered a Ph.D place at Loughborough James has had enough studying after his five year course. He is now working for British Aerospace's Insyte division at Warton in Lancashire and is shortly off to visit Lockheed in the USA. University has not been all work for James - he has also won the Sir David Wallace Cup for 2006, presented to the student who has contributed most to the life of Loughborough University. At Loughborough he was sponsored by BAe, for whom he worked during summer vacations and his industrial year on the Eurofighter, Nimrod and Joint Strike Fighter projects. Philip Haslam (2003) Has been working for the last year as Assistant to the Head Coach at Wimbledon as part of his Sports Training degree at Bournemouth University and has run courses for over 10,000 schoolchildren in the Borough of Wandsworth as part of the Wimbledon Tennis Initiative. Phil was keen to do something for Therfield during his time at Wimbledon and recently ran a tennis coaching day at school. Robert Haslam (2005) Youngest brother Robert has successfully completed his first year at Lincoln University where he is studying PR with Advertising. Cabaret Evening Over 220 guests enjoyed this annual event which celebrates the hard work of all the music students throughout the school. A full programme of entertainment including the Year Seven Band who performed together after only one year of tuition. Following an interval, when supper was served, the Swing Band played tunes from their repertoire. This band is made up of students and all the staff from the music department and is always very enjoyable. Students' family and friends thoroughly enjoyed their evening giving a standing ovation to the delight of the performers. Sports Review Sports Day Roundup Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10 Congratulations to all who took part for a very enjoyable event. Sports Relief All students took part in the Therfield Sports Relief by running a field relay in a team of six. In total we ran 435 miles which is approximately the distance from here to Glasgow! Students are reminded to hand in their sponsorship money when they return to school in September. World Cup Fun Day In the last week of term we will be holding this special event to celebrate the World Cup. Each tutor group has been given a country and they must wear items of clothing of the colours of that country. A team of players has been selected to represent their tutor group. The qualifying rounds will take place in the morning with the finals in the afternoon. At lunchtime there will be a staff charity match which will certainly be a good laugh for all. The proceeds from the World Cup Fun
Day will be going to the sixth form charity and Sport
Relief. Sainbsury's Vouchers A big thank you to all who handed in their Sainsbury's Vouchers, we have collected over 40,000! The School Council were given 8000 to 'spend' and chose items including a CPR mannequin, netball bibs and wall basketball hoops. The PE department used the remaining vouchers to purchase various items, the main one being a New Concept Rowing Machine for the new Fitness Suite which will be built over the summer holidays. Colours for Creative Arts and Sailing
Dates for Your Diary
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