Issue No.40 January 1997
Issue No.40 January 1997
| FROM THE HEADTEACHER
Presentation Evening - drew a good attendance yet again and it was gratifying to see so many former students returning to collect prizes, certificates and meet old friends. Bruce Kent proved to be an affable and skilful guest of honour. His speech was humorous yet its message was clear and he went to considerable trouble to talk to and congratulate students individually. Jon Buckley and Melanie Hall, our senior students, made effective votes of thanks and much appreciated musical interludes were provided by Joanna Cordell, Elizabeth Evans, Anna Hanson, Sarah Watts, Richard Hewitt and Kit Perona-Wright. We now need a guest of honour for 1998 - any contacts or suggestions to me, please! Sixth Form Open Evening - despite the fog, attendance on January 15th was good The majority of our Sixth Form come up through the school but increasingly we are attracting students from elsewhere who seek a change of schooling at 16 and who settle in well. The new Sixth Form Prospectus has now been published and we are grateful to Legal and General for their sponsorship. Our facilities for Sixth Form study are now excellent and Mr Cummings would be pleased to help with advice on subject choices. House Charities - Each year the four Houses choose a charity for which to raise funds. This year Juniper is supporting Care which helps children in the Third World, Polesden has chosen Help a London Child, Norbury is raising money for The National Star Centre for brain damaged teenagers and Leith is working for Oasis Child Care Centre, which has a local base in Cobham. Throughout the year events are organised - anything from a sponsored poetry session to a basketball challenge shoot and a main hall event - to raise money, with the cheques being presented in July. Uniform - Mrs Hodgson would be pleased to receive items of school uniform either as donations or for resale. Blazers, in particular, are needed. The next meeting for the School Prayer Group will be on March 3rd at the school at 8 pm. Further details about this group from Jill Poole (01932 865476) Music - An exciting series of concerts is planned for the coming weeks. On Friday, 28th February at 7.30 in the school, the Main Choir will give a performance of the famous Requiem by Gabriel Fauré. This work is one of the jewels of the choral music repertoire and is particularly suitable for young voices. The Choir will be accompanied by a professional orchestra and the soloists will be a combination of our own singers and invited artistes. As a complete contrast the Choir will then perform the thrilling anthem Zadok the Priest by Handel. Not to be outdone, the Lower School Singers will give a performance of the rarely performed Holy Moses which is similar in style to the popular Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Tickets will be £3 each (children free) and an exhibition of work by Therfield Art students will be mounted in nearby corridors. Details will be coming home in a letter soon. On March 8th the Main Choir will be performing at a charity concert in Redhill and March 25th is the date for the school's Spring Concert featuring both orchestras, the Swing Band, choirs and many soloists. February Study Seminar - on the first day of half term (Monday 17th) those students who will be taking 'A' levels or GCSEs in the Summer are invited to attend a course designed to help revision skills. The programme will include talks and exercises on 'memorising techniques', 'understanding and summarising' and 'time management' and costs £15. A similar course was held last year at Easter and out of the 45 students who attended, 43 said they would recommend it to others. If the letter giving details did not reach you - contact the school. Dyslexia - an open meeting for parents and teachers is to be held on Feb. 27th at Adult Education Centre, Stychens Lane, Bletchingley 8-9.30 pm. Reading and Spelling will be the main topics. More details from Sheena Heppenstall 01737 556173. French Exchange - reminder of the Information Evening to be held in the Resource Centre at 7pm on 6th Feb. Please make sure you return the reply slip on the letter which went home this week so that we can know how many parents and pupils to expect. Drama - Lessons on tension and suspense in the theatre were given extra meaning when 72 GCSE Drama students were taken to a performance of The Woman in Black at the Fortune Theatre earlier this month. Even the most blasé students found themselves gripping the seat - or the nearest person - as the story unfolded and the visit was voted a total success. "We loved it" was the verdict. Lockers - Mr Cockerill still has one or two lockers available to rent at a reduced rate. Macbeth - a visit to the Barbican to see Macbeth was a rewarding experience for GCSE English Literature students. The second half of the group goes next week armed with the knowledge gleaned from those on the first visit to look out for the performance of the actor playing the Porter - he really makes the most of his role! "Odd costumes, but it was useful to see the play and visit the Barbican" was a general comment. Docklands - On January 10th 60 Year 11 pupils and Geography Department staff spent a glorious day in the London Docklands. They spent the morning travelling down the River Thames studying land-use changes from central London to Greenwich and saw how the redevelopments along the river banks have changed the character of the Docklands area. The afternoon was spent travelling along the Docklands Light Railway studying the redevelopments in more depth. Students sketched the differences between old and new buildings and visited the Canary Wharf development - where it did not take much research to convince them that prices in the shops were definitely beyond their range! It was a tiring day but one which will provide a useful case study for their GCSE exams. Achievement - Emily King in Year 9 has been chosen to represent the South East at an International Guide and Scout Camp in the Czech Republic for two weeks in August. Helen Taylor in Year 12, who is a Young Leader with Ashtead Guides, has been chosen as one of the district delegates to a mammoth Scout and Guide camp in Holland in July. Another Sixth Former, Susan Kent will be spending some of her time after 'A' levels in the Sinai desert as a member of the British Schools Exploring Society. All three students went through rigorous selection procedures before being chosen and now face the daunting task of raising the money in order to take up these exciting offers. Cruising - there are still some places available on the 1998 Eastern Mediterranean cruise being organised by Mrs Jones. Ports of call include Piraeus in Greece, Alexandria in Egypt and Kusadasi in Turkey. Reminder - Monday, 24th February, following the half term holiday is an In-service training day for staff - pupils are not in school. Sports Roundup - Once again our cross country runners have achieved success. In the sub-mile relay series our Intermediate Boys team of Chris Hall, Ben Adams, Darren Marshal and Terry Lyszyk won championship medals after a return of 1st, 2nd and 2nd in the series. In the Girls district cross country we put in some excellent individual performances - notably Sarah McMahon who came first in the seniors, Emily Nelson 4th in U17s, Emma Firth 1st, Vicky South 4th and Jessica Price 5th in the U15s. Therfield had six runners home in the first 16 in this section of 70 runners. All mentioned plus Laura Stewart, Sarah Dear and Laura Richens (reserve) have been selected to represent Central Surrey at the County Cross Country championships tomorrow. Badminton - the Year 7 boys team got off to a good start in the Surrey League by beating Glyn 7-2. They have two more schools to play in their group. A clash of dates and the flu virus meant we were unable to send a team to the U13 schools tournament last Sunday. However, Christopher Langridge (Year 7) at a separate venue won the county U13 singles and doubles titles. FEBRUARY DATES FOR YOUR DIARY: 1st Friends' Dance with Ad-Lib |