Issue No.54 April 1998
Issue No.54 April 1998
| FROM THE HEADTEACHER
Tests for Year 9 - All Year 9 pupils in state schools will be sitting their National Curriculum tests next week. The tests are in the core subjects of Mathematics, English and Science. They will be taken as part of the school day but the afternoon test may well finish before the end of the normal school day and we will dismiss Year 9s at the conclusion of the test. If pupils cannot go home early, they may stay in the Resource Centre. The test papers are sent to examiners and parents will be told the results before the end of term. Welcome to Mr Smith, who joins us as Head of Science from Hayes Manor School, Mrs Moysey in a new post as Head of Information and Communication Technology and Mr Williams from Australia who is teaching English this term. He is in this country on three month long service leave from an independent boys' school in Perth where he is Head of English. Mr Williams has family connections in England and taught in Surrey during the 1980s - he is now waiting for the weather to improve to get in some cricket, both playing and watching! We send good wishes and grateful thanks to Mrs Cox, Head of Science, who has taught at the school for 8 years, who is leaving for family reasons. Ofsted II - we are due our second Ofsted Inspection in the Autumn - more details and requests for help in the next Newsletter. New School Day - last week's trial run for our new School Day was by and large successful. As from September when the Day begins in earnest the bus timetables should have changed to meet the start and finish times. 'Slap Cheek' or Parvo Virus 19 - The Occupational Health Manager asks us to inform parents that the school should be told if a child has been diagnosed ' as suffering from 'slap cheek' as there has been a recent increase in cases. This is a viral disease characterised by a feeling of being mildly unwell and , a blotchy rash starting on the cheek which can spread to the trunk, arms and legs. There is no need to exclude children from school unless they are feeling very unwell. Most adults are immune but there is a small risk to pregnant women. Prayer Group - The next meeting of the Prayer Group for parents will be held at the school on Monday, 11th May at 8 pm. World Book Day - In common with other youngsters from all over the country, pupils were presented with £1 book tokens last week to help celebrate the joys of the written word. Mrs Burnham, Librarian, arranged for displays of books from Corbetts Bookshop and the Surrey Bookshop so that pupils could spend their tokens 'on the spot'. It proved to be popular and the 'Book of Books' on sale for £1 in which celebrities selected their favourite books was soon sold out and many pupils remembered to bring extra money to enjoy a wider choice of reading. Early driving experience - Not surprisingly, a very popular course with our Year 11s is that for young drivers. Recently, 27 of them were awarded Predriver certificates after passing the course run by Surrey County Council's Traffic and Road Safety Group. The course involves taking the official driving test written examination, information on buying a car, insurance etc. with the highlight being actually driving a car in the safe surroundings of the school tennis courts. Mrs Thomas, Head or Year said that three courses have been run over the year and all have proved to be well-attended and very successful. Spring Concert - So much seemed to be happening at the end of last term that the Spring Concert did not get quite the support it deserved. It was an exhilarating occasion, full of fun, musical expertise and talent and the young musicians conveyed the sheer joy of making - and listening to - good music. As well as solos, duets and items from the Main Choir and Lower School Singers, the evening saw the impressive debut of Therfield's own trad-jazz group The Swanee Stompers most knowledgeably and ably led by Tim Boniface. Sailing in the Snow! - The annual Sailing Holiday on the Isle of Wight was attended by 32 pupils and 4 staff over six days of the Easter holiday. In spite of very cold weather and very difficult sailing conditions, including sailing in the snow, 29 RYA certificates were awarded and all agreed they had enjoyed themselves! Other activities included ice-skating and swimming as well as the famous indoor games evening. Not such happy cruising! - The trials of cruising on the Topaz have been well publicised in the national Press. Mrs Jones and her party of pupils returned safe but indignant. Surrey County Council have now taken over the complaints department and we await developments. School uniform - The Friends will be holding a sale of second hand uniform in July. Details in next month's Newsletter. Visit to Swanage - Year 10 Geographers recently took part in a weekend visit to Swanage and the Isle of Purbeck where they studied urban land use, coastal processes near Old Harry Rocks and environmental pressures at Corfe Castle. The weather also played a part and the rain at Corfe Castle meant that the National Trust teashop may feature heavily in forthcoming projects! The students worked and played hard and should reap the benefits in their GCSEs. Thank you to everyone who collected Tesco and Sainsbury vouchers. If you still have any little pockets of computer vouchers hidden away, Mrs Burnham would like to receive them. So far we have counted 14,000 and she plans to get a special computer for the Resource Centre. Sport - in the Summer Term Clubs for both boys and girls and all years in cricket, athletics, tennis, rounders, volleyball have now started. Club sessions often include specialist coaching while matches with other schools, inter-house and in district leagues add a competitive edge. The Clubs are open to all so do urge your son/daughter to attend. The Girls Football Club will continue to run this term. Sports Days this year will be on Thursday, 25th June for the field events and Friday, 26th, in the morning for track competition. Marathon - congratulations to Mr Garner of the PE department on successfully completing the London Marathon in 3 hrs 22 mins. He described the atmosphere around the course as marvellous and very encouraging. He was bouncing along quite happily at 20 miles then hit the 'wall' and to his chagrin laboured over the last six miles thus thwarting the under 3 hour finish he had anticipated. The heavy rain did not help and he described his feelings at the end as "completely frozen" but very glad to have taken part. Golf - Under the aegis of Mr Dave Cox, we entered two teams for the First Gear Junior Golf Tournament and did very well, despite considerable interference from the weather! Our seniors (Oliver Arnell, Stuart Avory, Chris Jenkin and James Luke) came second with 36 points and our juniors (Peter Butler, Anthony Chambers, Philip Leyshon and James Molyneux) scored the same number of points and came third. Sports round-up for last term - In hockey and netball the girls had matches against other schools, both league and friendlies for all age groups. Some league results have still to come in but our U15s went through the season without losing a game so top the league. A number of team members will be attending a development course for possible county triallists. We proved our strength in cross country again, winning the district competition in all age groups and seven girls competed for Central Surrey in the County Championships with Emily Nelson and Sarah McMahon being selected to run for the county in the All-England finals. In the TSB Cup both the junior and intermediate girls qualified for the reqional final, with the juniors running in the national finals at Crawley where a young team came 19th out of 24: In the traditional Christmas Holly Run our junior girls took second place in the team event. The Boys Badminton team from Year 8 had their biggest triumph in winning the English Schools trophy for their age group. Chris Langridge, one of the team members, played in the National Finals at the end of March and was beaten in the semi-finals by the eventual champion, having beaten the No. 2 seed in the quarter finals. With his partner he went on to take the national doubles title. In the Surrey League a congestion of fixtures meant the programme was not completed, with Glyn ADT the most likely champions on matches played. Boys cross country also had a successful term, with the junior and intermediate teams coming first in the District competition and eight boys running in the County finals. Football - the 1st XI provided a first for Therfield by getting through to a national final, they also reached the last 32 of the English Schools Cup, the final of the County Cup and the semi-final of the Schools and Colleges competition. Neil Williams and Neal Churchill were selected to play for Surrey and we have eight boys likely to be Surrey triallists next year. The school played a total of 95 fixtures, winning 47 and drawing 16. On many occasions we put out A and B sides for years 7 -10 and one Saturday morning fielded 11 teams. DATES WITH THE FRIENDS: The draw for the Grand Raffle will take place at Cabaret Evening on 20th July .... still plenty of time to buy ticketsl Looking ahead - Jumble Sale on 3rd October, Craft Fair on 1st November and Christmas Fair 6th December. DIARY DATES FOR MAY June 1 Return to School |