Issue No.32 April 1996
Issue No.32 April 1996
| FROM THE HEADTEACHER
The 'Auction of Promises' one of the main fund raising efforts by the Friends of the School takes place on 11th May at 7 pm. Tickets are now available, so please do give us your support. Open to bids will be such `goods' as football tickets, theatre tickets, a round of golf and holiday accommodation, `services' up for auction include driving lessons, cake making even exam coaching! The Friends have a target of £2500 to provide the school with a CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacture) system for Technology. A catalogue for the evening will be issued shortly - enquiries about tickets or the offer of additional items for auction to Pat Williams (01372 273359) or write to her via the School Office. National Curriculum Tests for Year 9 All Year 9 pupils will be taking the NC tests in early May and parents will receive a note with more details. When there is an afternoon paper - on May 10th & 13th (for all pupils) and May 9th (for a few pupils) , they will be allowed home when they have finished at about 3.20 pm. Good luck to all pupils in their revision and in the tests. Congratulations to Mr. Pratt, Mr. Wood and our young musicians and singers who provided another memorable evening at the Spring Concert on March 26th.. Also they were warmly thanked by the organisers for their contribution to the Songs of Praise evening at the Thorndike Theatre on Sunday. REVISION SEMINAR They learned about many different aspects of revision including memorising, summarising, time management and `mind mapping'. The response to the day was enthusiastic with 40 of the 43 participants saying that they would recommend the seminar to others. "Brilliant", "Very enjoyable", "Very useful', "Time passed quickly" and "it will really help" were among the comments at the end of the day. A separate session for parents took place in the evening. Parents were guided through the minefield of living with a son or daughter who is in the throes of `exam stress' and were given tips for helping make the revision season better for pupils and parents alike. Mr. Boucry reminds parents of pupils going on Years 9/10 French Exchange in June that final payments should now be in. The French party arrives here on Tuesday (until 8th May). There has had to be a change-round in the itinerary, with the joint trip to Canterbury taking place on Friday (3rd) and the French students going to London on Thursday (2nd). Apologies! Five Year 7 pupils have won prizes in an Art competition run by Relate, the charity which offers marriage guidance plus counselling for children. The competition was called 'Family 2000 and first prize went to Alexander Balls, 2nd to William Nelson, 3rd Vanessa Sparkes, 6th Stephen Garden and 7th Ryan Jones. Becky Papworth (Year 9) won fourth prize and Alexander's entry won Therfield the main school prize of £50 and two bottles of champagne!! Surrey want to compile a list of child carers who would be available at short notice - send a large SAE to Ruth Webster, Child Day Care Co-ordinator, A.C. Court, High St, Thames Ditton for more details. William Nelson, Michael Peck, Elizabeth Cornfield and Laura Nicoll have successfully auditioned for parts in Surrey County Youth Theatre's production of `Twelfth Night' which takes place at Epsom Playhouse from 9th to 13th July. Auditions for the school's production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' were well attended and Ms. Harris and her team had a difficult task in casting. Leading parts will be taken by Stuart Turner (Lysander), Laura Bowdery (Helena), Louise Carter (Hermia), Richard See-Toh (Demetrius), Andrea Stevens (Titania), Jake Hetherington (Oberon), Oliver Bazeley (Bottom) and Michael Traboulsi (Puck). Performances will be on 12th and 13th July. Mathematics lessons with a difference were experienced by 50 Year 8 pupils who spent 3 days last month in Sussex collecting data from the beach, working out the volume of a swimming pool, calculating angles on a snooker table, practising map work and admiring the mathematical expertise of the Romans in mosaic work at Fishboume Museum. Evidence that the trip combined fun with work could be seen by the exhausted groups of pupils, staff and Sixth Form helpers waiting to be collected from school at the end of the course! Mrs Shannon and the Home & Food Technology staff would like to thank those who responded to their appeal for fabrics. They are grateful for everything and now have a particular need for plain cotton fabric, threads and buttons. The next Friends' Jumble Sale will be on Sept. 28th; the Black and White Ball is on October 5th and a new venture, a Craft Fair, on November 2nd, details from Barbara Sharkey in the School Office. Sporting Round-Up for the Winter Term In rugby, practices and training have been offered regularly for all years. The Year 8 XV had a mixed season and hope to develop next year. They were runners-up in a tournament at Effingham and had a good win over Howard of Effingham at the end of the season. The Year 10 side finished strongly with a 27-0 win over Oxted in March but, given their past form, were a disappointing third in the Effingham tournament. Year 11 made the semi-finals at the tournament but the first XV failed to live up to their reputation losing their three fixtures. Could this be due to poor attendance at training? By special request a Girls Rugby club has been started and they took part in their first triangular tournament last month. Everyone enjoyed it and they look forward to more matches next season. In Badminton we entered two teams in the national U16 Boys and Mixed competitions. We went out early in the mixed competition but the boys - James Luke, Stuart Avory, Mark Johnson, Mark Wheeler - reached the third round, - just one off the final stages - where they were beaten by a school from Essex whose team included two boys who are in the England squad. Congratulations to our netball players, particularly the U13 side who were unbeaten throughout the season and won their league. They were also runners-up to Rosebery in the district tournament. We competed in the leagues and tournaments for all year groups U12 - U16 and are still waiting final placements. Therfield's cross country runners have had an outstanding season and finished on a high note by winning the sub-mile relay series for both the junior boys and junior girls. We look forward with confidence to next season, especially as a number of our runners are young for their age group. The Sail Training Week on the Isle of Wight was once again popular and enjoyable, with 8 pupils starting off their sailing careers by achieving Stage 1 and 2 certificates, 13 gained Stage 3 and Red badge awards, 10 the white badge and James Hardwick, Andrew Hopgood and Chris Early completed Level 5. Ian Mackie, James Straker, Richard Guy and Ross Wingrove were awarded their Instructors certificates. Danny Shimmin, who left our Sixth Form last July, and took a 'year out' before commencing his studies at Churchill College, Cambridge keeps us informed of his work at Nest Phuthing School in South Africa. He is having an amazing time as a student teacher and his extra mural duties include the Chess Club, cricket coaching and running the girls tennis team. He spent the six week Christmas vacation touring and finding the 'real Africa'. DIARY DATES: |