Issue No.49 November 1997
Issue No.49 November 1997
| FROM THE HEADTEACHER
Recruitment - The Open Day on November 12th and tours of the school attracted a good deal of attention and many favourable comments. The hard work put in by staff and pupils in mounting so many displays and exhibitions for Open Day was obviously appreciated by all who attended and parents were also happy to have the opportunity to see the school at work during the many well attended tours that followed. Carols for Christmas - This year's traditional Carol Service has a new venue - The Chapel at SeeAbility, 56 Highlands Road, Leatherhead on Monday, December 15th at 7.30 pm. Mr Pratt promises us the usual excellent evening of readings, solos and the opportunity to join in with the singing of well known carols. The Chapel holds about 300 people and there is a large car park at the rear. Do come and support us. Proceeds from the collection will go to SeeAbility. End of Term - School will close at 1 pm on Friday, December 19th. Coach companies have been informed, details will be given nearer the date. Salad Days - this production certainly added to Therfield's reputation for staging marvellous musicals. In fact, many people felt it was the best ever - Mr Anderson, headteacher of West Ashtead primary school, enjoyed it so much on the Thursday that he came again on Friday with his wife - he identified at least ten former pupils in the cast list, further evidence of the continuity we seek to establish between us and our feeder schools. Congratulations then to all concerned with perhaps a special mention for the principals, Becky Dear and Ben Freedman, Michael Traboulsi as PC Boot and a young Simon Williams, excellent as Troppo. Delighted - a pleasant surprise for Matthew Pelly in Year 9 when a fax arrived at the school to tell him he had won £50 worth of vouchers of his choice from East Surrey Health Authority as a runner-up in World AIDS Day Quiz School Meals - the value of a free school meals token is now £1.25. We do stipulate that at least 80% of this should be spent on food and not on canned drinks, crisps and chocolate. Harvest Appeal - we have received a letter of thanks from Children's Aid Direct for the learning materials we collected as our Harvest Appeal this year. These have been parcelled up and sent to schools in either Bosnia or Albania. Justice! - On Saturday, 13 of our Sixth Formers took part in the Bar National Mock Trial Competition which calls for two pairs of barristers, two witnesses and a court official in each 'team'. They pitted their wits against 15 other teams in a strongly contested London Heat. Ms. Roberts, who accompanied them and helped to train them, was unstinting in her praise -"The students were marvellous. Their legal understanding and powers of advocacy were unmatched. They were professional to the last even when they were thwarted in their attempts to get into the final". Her final dark comment was "Let's just say that the 'Therfield 7' and their teacher felt that there was a miscarriage of justice!!" Making Music - 35 pupils from the top Music sets in Year 9 had the golden opportunity to work with the Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra. Musicians from the Orchestra came into school to tutor the children who then performed their work, conducted by Keith Willis, Head of Surrey Youth Music and Performing Arts, as part of a concert by the Philharmonic Orchestra at Dorking Halls. The project was led by John Cooney, a well known young composer, who has been commissioned to write a piece for London Sinfonietta. We were one of only two secondary schools invited to take part and received extremely good reports of our pupils' performance at the concert. Mr Pratt says he felt that overall it was a very valuable experience and the children derived much benefit from it. French Exchange - Sixth Form participants in this Exchange and their parents are reminded that there will be an Information Evening in the Resource Centre on Thursday. 11th December at 7.00 pm. All parents will receive a letter summarising the evening's main points. Sponsored Spell - Year 7 pupils have completed their Spelling Tests and the English department ask parents to see that sponsorship returns come in promptly. A prize will go to the Tutor Group raising the most money. News from the Friends - the refurbished Main Hall has looked smart and welcoming for all events this term. A frantic working day just before Salad Days ensured that curtains at the back of the Hall and the side windows were in place by the opening night - by all accounts the Chairman of Governors, Mr Hickey, provided a good balancing act at the top of a ladder to get the final hooks in place. New stage curtains are also planned plus improved lighting for the side of the Hall. We are most grateful to the Friends for their many fund raising activities and remind you that on 7th December (Sunday) from 2 - 4.30 pm the Annual Christmas Fair takes place. This is one of the most popular events of the year and also helps to raise a great deal of money. Gifts are still needed for the Tombola and can be left at the School Office but most important do try and attend. Santa and his sack will be present plus the chance to buy or win all kinds of gifts, including home-made cakes, sweets, preserves and other 'goodies'. In January to help 'shake off' any Christmas lethargy, the Friends plan an evening of 'Line Dancing' - pencil in January 31st for an energetic evening. Fabrics Wanted - two Drama productions in fairly rapid succession, together with all the Textiles classes, have almost depleted our stocks of fabrics and haberdashery. If parents can contribute fabrics, however small or large the pieces, Mrs Shannon and her team will be very grateful. Still Needed - someone willing to come into school on two or three mornings a week to make tea and coffee for the staff. It usually involves 1½ hours from 9.45 - 11.15 am and the days can be flexible. This is a paid post and details can be obtained from Mrs Kinloch, who will be very pleased to hear from you! Wanted - Second Hand Ski Wear will be on sale at the Ski Austria Parents' Evening on Wednesday, 3rd December at 7.30 pm. If you have any Ski items you would like to offer for sale, Miss Coates would like to hear from you. Please contact her via the School office. Competing - we will be sending three teams to compete in the Surrey SATRO Challenge on Tuesday, 2nd December. Brown and Root are launching their new Educational Links Programme with this Problem Solving Challenge which will be held at their Leatherhead headquarters. Surrey says thank you - Each year Surrey seeks to recognise about 60 of its 20,000 employees for outstanding contributions to the work of the County. f am delighted to announce that Mr Hill (Sport) and Mr Pratt (Music) have been chosen for this honour. Well done to them. Hopefully they will be the first of many Therfield staff to be honoured in this way. Samaritans - a representative from the local branch of The Samaritans gave an interesting talk to GNVQ students during their Communications lesson. The talk and video explained the training a Samaritan needs to undergo and discussed the work of the organisation. The Health & Social Care GNVQ students found the information directly relevant to areas of their own work: In turn, the speaker was impressed to hear that many of the Sixth Form are members of Therfield's 'ASK' counselling team which offers to listen to younger pupils, in confidence, to discuss their problems. Holocaust Days - the first hand accounts given by two survivors had a profound effect on Year 9 pupils who took part in two Education Days devoted to the history of the Holocaust. Trude Levi and Martha Blend are now resident in London but visit schools and organisations to speak of their experiences. An evening meeting was attended by parents and History students from Year 11 and the Sixth Form. Sport - one or two very satisfying sports results have been achieved recently. Our Year 9 team beat Hampton School 3-1 to go through to the last 16 of the County Cup while the Seniors go through to the Semi-finals in their group after beating Charterhouse 2-1. Our Year 7s played their first Basketball match this week and beat Howard of Effingham 32-10 and our U15 Hockey team came third in the district tournament. Cross Country - we have two teams - junior girls and intermediate boys through to the national finals of the TSB Schools Cross Country Cup. They run at Crawley next month and we are grateful to PUMA sports who have offered to sponsor them with sweatshirts. At the Boys District Cross Country held on Epsom Downs in tricky conditions we won the U15 and U17 team events and now have eight boys running in the County Championships. Discount - on the production of a gold, silver or bronze Merit Award, Therfield pupils and their parents can claim a 10% discount if spending £5 or over at the Body Shop, Epsom from 6pm-8pm on Thursday, 4th December. DECEMBER DATES FOR YOUR DIARY. JAN 6th TERM STARTS PLEASE NOTE - A Level Results in 1998 are due on Thursday August 20th and GCSE on August 27th. |