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newsletters on the Therfield Alumni website for the full, illustrated pdf version please click April 2008 (this is a large file) FROM THE HEADTEACHER Dear Parents Our School Sports Specialism has had a very positive impact on the school providing many opportunities for school and community development, this has now been extended to include the international community. In March Julie Wooding, Head of Humanities, Keith Batchelor, Director of Specialism, and I visited a school in Uganda, Lords Meade Vocational College. Therfield was partnered with Lords Meade as part of the Youth Sports Trust Dreams and Teams project in conjunction with the British Council. The project aims to build mutually beneficial relationships between people in the UK and from across the world. We were there for 4 days which was a very brief time but we feel it gave us an excellent basis from which to build our future partnership. There were many unforgettable experiences during those 4 days, some of which were -observing lessons with an average class size of 70 and hearing about primary schools with class sizes of 100; discussing teaching and learning with colleagues who balance the understanding of the need to move to child-centred learning with few resources to allow this; seeing the enthusiasm for learning that motivates students to walk more than 2 hours each way to school in bare feet. (for more info and photos please see the Uganda Visit article). We have developed a 3 year partnership action plan and we are beginning to link up students and staff in both schools. Many of our younger students already have an interest in Uganda, having been part of the Africa Revival project in primary school. We hope to take a group of students to visit Lords Meade next year and in the future to welcome students and staff from Lords Meade at Therfield. It was a fascinating experience and we hope the beginning of a link that will benefit both schools for many years to come. We will keep you informed of how the partnership is progressing. As we reach the end of the spring term students and staff are
looking forward to a well earned rest. I’d like to wish you and
your families an enjoyable spring break. BBC School News Day There were already a few interviews lined up - one with Dave Spinx, who came into the school and was interviewed by two year 8 pupils. They asked him questions about his acting career and plans for the future. A group of year 9 students held a telephone interview with Evan Davis, host of BBCs Dragon's Den, in which they grilled him about his views on the Budget. Two other year 9 students had arranged a telephone interview with local MP Chris Grayling, and after spending half an hour receiving an 'engaged' tone checked the phone number, only to find out 2 digits were the wrong way round. When they eventually got through, they were told he was in chambers and was unavailable. Nevertheless, the boys were persistent and managed to secure the interview with only minutes to go until the deadline. The morning consisted of research and planning within their teams, and there was a real buzz as everyone was busy gathering information, finding quotes and trying to speak to relevant people. By break time (10.30) most students were ready to start writing, proof reading and editing their stories. The last couple of interviews were secured and some students were about, surveying others and taking photographs. At 1:10, when the students broke for lunch, most stories were a finished product and on the website. However, there were still a couple of teams who worked relentlessly through their lunch to get their work done by the 2:00 deadline. Most stories managed to be published on the website in time, with only 1 or 2 exceptions. When we held a debriefing meeting, the students (and staff!) were exhausted, but we felt like we had accomplished a great deal. The feedback we got from the students was extremely positive - they had clearly all enjoyed the excitement and pressure of the day, and went home feeling very proud of themselves. It was a brilliant day, which was both exciting and challenging. The students did themselves and the school proud. I was so impressed by their attitude and commitment and can't wait for next year's News Day! To see the students reports please visit www.therfieldschool.org.uk and they can be found under News, sub-heading Events. Year 8 National Potato Growing Competition German Exchange German Exchange Itinerary 2008 Willi Graf
Gymnasium & Therfield School Emergency Phone number to contact Ms Buckell at any point in the week: 07910 407797 Sport Therfield Girls Football team remain on top. Hereford’s National Cup dreams end with a semi-final
defeat to favourites HEREFORD'S dreams of reaching the final of the English Schools' FA Under-18 Schools Cup for girls ended with a comprehensive defeat to a very talented side. Therfield's starting line-up were all members of Chelsea Football Club's Academy and they stormed into a 5-0 interval lead. The Surrey side scored twice early-on and then killed off last Thursday's semi-final tie with three goals in a six-minute spell in the closing stages of the first-half. Hereford battled hard with strong performances from goalkeeper
Emma Roche, right-back Amy Wilkins, defender Deb Jenkins and
captain Simone Quinn. Hereford entered the match with high hopes and were backed by a throng of vocal supporters in the main stand at Allpay Park. Hereford made a promising start and a second-minute through-ball from Katie Evans was marginally too strong for striker Emily Lovelock. But the warning signs arrived as early as the fourth minute when Therfield's left-back Alice Wheeler unleashed a 25-yard rocket which crashed against the underside of the bar. Therfield took the lead a minute later after Vicky Vickery latched on to a through ball and placed an angled shot across Hereford's goalkeeper, Roche. The visitors doubled their advantage from the first corner in the 14th minute. Wheeler's inswinging flag-kick deceived Roche at her near post and Katy Ling headed the ball home from close range. Hereford skipper Quinn tested the Therfield goalkeeper, Daisy Smith, with a long-range free-kick before the visitors extended their advantage in the 31st minute. Shannon Cambridge evaded a challenge to curl an effort inside the far post from the edge of the box and Therfield hit their fourth goal two minutes later through Ling's angled shot after good approach play from Emily Wall. Therfield were now dominant and scored their fifth goal from the best move of the match in the 37th minute. A series of neat, one-touch passes opened up the Hereford defence for Jenny Banfield to drill a shot past Roche from the edge of the area. Jenkins made a timely goal-line clearance and then Roche made an excellent stop from former England Under-17 player Vickery on the stroke of half-time. Roche made another good save from Vickery's lobbed cross-shot six
minutes into the second half and she pulled off a superb double
save in the 56th minute. Vickery was a constant thorn in Hereford's side and she raced clear of the home defence in the 66th minute only to steer her shot wide. The Leatherhead school almost hit their sixth goal in the dying minutes when Vickery took the ball around Roche but Quinn got back to make an excellent last-ditch tackle. Hereford's supporters kept encouraging their side throughout and they nearly had a goal to celebrate in injury-time. Hereford broke at speed and, although Laura Davies tried a low shot from 18 yards, it drifted wide. Football Boot Appeal Year 11 GCSE Full Course The “Revision Booster Day” will run from 8.45am-3.00pm and the
format will be as follows: Those undertaking the Full Course Exam will already have received an invitation to the day. Those interested in taking up this opportunity, should ensure they return their reply slips to Miss Rennie, before the end of term, so the appropriate revision package can be created. Badminton Goes National!... The girls now face the toughest match of their School season,
when they play in the National Inter-Schools Badminton
Championships Finals in Derby, on Thursday 24th April 2008. The
girls will represent the South East Region, in the hope of
claiming their, and Therfield School’s, first National Badminton
Title! The girls go there with every good wish for a successful
day, in the hope this will be the start of “something big” for the
sport at Therfield! Uganda Visit We have been linked with Lords Meade Vocational College in Jinja, Uganda. The African Dreams and Teams project is funded for three years and supports our sports college programme in many ways, the D&T project aims; to broaden the international view of young people in the UK and Africa, ensure perceptions of young people in Africa and the UK will no longer be governed by stereotypes, to develop young people as global citizens, to develop leadership skills and a legacy of participation in sport and to contribute to the international dimension of the school curriculum in Africa and the UK. If you would like to find our more about our Dreams and Teams project please email sportscollege@lhead.therfield.surrey.sch.uk You can find out more about Lords Meade Vocational College by visiting their website http://www.lordsmeade.org/ All Years Interested in Competing in the Surrey Youth
Games! Year 11 PE Moderation Young Enterprise Young Enterprise
Therfield Gets Enterprising—Again Their next product was hand made cards made out of recycled paper and silk red roses which they sold for Valentines Day achieving record sales. The students had an opportunity in November to take part in a Dragon’s Den competition run by Young Enterprise at CLFS in Ashtead, along with a number of other local schools. Their ideas impressed the judges and they won the £100 prize for most innovative product. The next competition was the East Surrey Area finals on 7th March and once again they triumphed by winning best report and second place for best company, meaning they go forward to the Surrey Area Finals at Surrey University for the second year running. This year’s group has shown great commitment and excellent team
working skills, lead by Anna Trebble as Managing Director and
Rachael O’Leary as Financial Director. The company has held weekly
meetings during the Autumn and Spring term and attendance has been
excellent. Every single person has pulled their weight and they
have all benefited from a taste of the business world.
Maths Maths Revision Classes Mathematics Challenge Congratulations Imperial College Visit Simon Singh has published a number of books including Fermat's Last Theorem and The Code Book. In 2005 he appeared on a radio show with Katie Melua after rewriting her song Nine Million Bicycles to reflect what scientists do know about the size and age of the universe. Our students also took part in some challenging activities and saw an original Enigma machine in operation. Intermediate Mathematical Challenge Drama The Trial This is the fourth year we have entered the Leatherhead Festival. Our 2008 cast is made up of Year 10 GCSE students who are new to the Festival and Year 12 Theatre Studies students who have appeared in either 2006 or 2007. In 2005 we won the Michael Caine Leatherhead Festival Richard
Houghton Award for Blue Remembered Hills and in 2006 we
won Junior Production, Best Actor and the Richard Houghton award
for Innovative Director for Grimm Tales. We were Runners
Up in the National U21 All Winners Finals and won The Buxton
Trophy for The Most Promising Youth Theatre Grou”. We also took
the show to The Edinburgh Festival in 2007. In 2007 we won Junior
Production and Best Actor for Graham. We were Runners Up
in the National U21 All Winners Finals and Joe Newton won The
Buxton Trophy for Most Promising Youth The Trial by Stephen Berkoff: K is an innocent man who wakes one morning to find he has been accused of a crime he hasn’t committed. K is interpreted as a gentle, naïve ‘everyman’ who is easily manipulated by both women and the corrupt justice system of a society where the proletariat are dehumanised. The director uses the concept devised in Berkoff’s original production of wooden rectangular frames that stand by themselves and are used as both set and props. They represent the series of doors referred to in the door-keeper parable told to K by the priest in Cathedral. Man must not wait by the door for what is due to you, wait for justice, but seize it. Berkoff wanted the set to “melt in the instant and never represent … pseudo reality.” The ensemble’s use of the screens graphically dramatises the claustrophobic sense of confinement felt by Joseph. Web Site New Website Goes Live The site is now based around 7 key areas that act as gateways to submenus and specific information. The intention was to ensure that all pages were accessible in no more than 3 clicks, which we have achieved in all but a few cases, hence making navigation an easier and less time consuming process. Whilst the previous website held a lot of subject specific resources (such as schemes of work etc) these will now be held on the new Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) which is currently being developed in conjunction with Surrey LEA’s ICT providers. It is hoped that this division in holding data in two separate areas (Website and the VLE) will enable users to access the information they require far more efficiently. As ever we welcome your comments (good and bad) on the website and should you wish to contact us please drop us a line at webmaster@lhead.therfield.surrey.sch.uk Email Addresses Please include your name as well as the name of your son/daughter. Geography Parents have your say! Parent Focus Groups We would like to run the groups in the same way that we structure the student council in that each tutor group has a representative thus hopefully giving us a diverse range of participants. I will be sending out a letter inviting all parents to become a ‘focus parent’ shortly after Easter (both in email and hard copy initially) with the intention of running the first session towards the end of next half term. Should more than one parent from a form wish to be involved then I suggest rotating attendance term by term (2 meetings each). Whilst unfortunately we cannot offer any form of financial
reimbursement for attendance there will be plenty of refreshments
available to keep you going. I do hope you decide that this is a
worthwhile project and investment of your time and I look forward
to meeting you at the first meeting next term. Last Day Of Term School Day EXAM INVIGILATORS SCHOOL MEALS WEB LINK Mrs. C. Stedman Music DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
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