Issue No.78 28 June 2000
Issue No.78 28 June 2000
| Please read the letter from the Headteacher on a proposed new School Fund |
Staffing I am very pleased to report that we are fully staffed for next year. Recruitment for a number of posts, notably Maths and Science, is becoming increasingly difficult. The high cost of housing in this locality adds to the problem. |
| Relational
Youth Worker Through the
generosity of a number of local churches, especially St Giles
and St George's at Ashtead, we are hoping to appoint a youth
worker who would be based at Therfield for four days a week. Not only would he/she be available to befriend and counsel students but would be able to enrich the life of the school in many ways by assisting with extra-curricular activities and assemblies. |
| ICT
improvements Work is going
ahead with the provision of our new Modern Foreign Language
facility and with the refurbishment of the ICT corridor which
will allow one computer per student in these teaching rooms. |
| Not
this time! Sadly, Therfield
did not get its Beacon status. None of the Surrey secondary
schools that were invited to apply were successful. We have
been told that we may be considered next year and also that we
will be considered for a National Achievement Award. |
| Examination
result dates This year's
round of public examinations have now been completed. Results
for'A' levels come out on Thursday, 17th August and for GCSEs
on Thursday, 24th August. |
| Parents'
Prayer Group The next
meeting is on Monday, 3rd July at school at 8 pm. Mrs Jill
Poole (01 932 865476) would be pleased to give more
information or to hear of any requests for prayers. |
| Uniform
Sales The following dates
have been set aside for the sale of School Uniform:
Tuesday 4th July the Friends will be running a second hand sale from 3pm to 4.30pm and would welcome items for sale. Full details are given in the Friends' Newsletter. Also on Tuesday, 4th July from 4pm to 7pm new uniform will be on sale mainly for parents of new Year 7 pupils. On Wednesday, 5th July, from 4pm to 7pm, new uniform will be on sale for parents of present students. As from September, girls will be able to wear
black trousers as part of the school uniform. These will be
available to buy or order at the uniform sales, or can be
purchased from Lester Bowden of Epsom, the official
suppliers. Only uniform trousers can be worn. |
| Annual
Meeting 4th October Please
remember - the annual meeting for Governors and Friends of the
School will take place on Wednesday, 4th October. |
| Parent
Governor vacancies There
will be vacancies in September for Parent Governors. If you
would like to know more please contact the Clerk to the
Governors, Mrs Marianne Powles, at the school. |
| Practical
Geography As our Year 12
Geographers prepare to leave for a seven day field trip to
Chamonix, Year 7 pupils can look back on a happy introduction
to geographical research via the River Mole.
Measurement of oxbow lakes, flood plains and river channels illustrated the theories they had been studying since Easter. The mini-beast survey of water quality produced some shouts of excitement as one group identified fish that were far from minnows. Showers from above were avoided even though a
general dampness was evident on the return to school. "I
really enjoyed that lesson" was one comment! |
| Canterbury
in context The History
department took 200 Year 7 pupils to Canterbury. In beautiful
weather they were able to enjoy a guided tour of the
Cathedral, visiting the place where Thomas A Beckett was
murdered and the shrine where pilgrims have worshipped for
centuries.
To support work in English lessons on
Chaucer's poetry, the Canterbury Tales Museum, where the
tales are very imaginatively brought to life, proved to be a
useful addition to the itinerary. |
| Famine
Award Well done to the Year
9 Geography students - and their sponsors! - who took part in
this year's '24 Hour Famine'. The total amount raised was £250
and this money will go towards helping children in Bosnia and
the Sudan. |
| Help
wanted Are you looking for a
small part-time job? - We are looking for someone to provide
tea and coffee for staff at morning break on two to three days
a week. This involves less than two hours between 10.30 and
12.00.
Please contact Carlie Thomas for details (she
enjoys it!) or contact Mrs Kinloch, both via the school
office (01372 818123). |
| Senior
Students for 2000/2001 Staff
and fellow students have voted Heather Brown and Carl Mundy to
be Senior Students next year. |
| Water
Fees Parents who have signed
up to pay their water charges via the Internet are helping the
school by prompting a 'signing on' donation from the Sutton
and East Surrey Water Company. Therfield is among 150 local
schools to receive cheques to date and customers of the
utility who wish to sign up for e-bililing can do so by
sending an e-mail to ebill@waterplc.com
|
| Tips
for English In the Spring
you will be able to see Bitesize chunks of
Therfield students on BBC2! Ten Year 9 students have been
filmed for a KS3 Bitesize English programme. They
gave advice and tips for future Year 9s taking the English
National Curriculum Tests (NCTs).
You will have to set your video to catch them,
as the programme is to be broadcast in the middle of the
night! We will let you know details in a future Newsletter. |
| Box
tops for Education Having
eaten your way through mountains of crisps we now ask you to
watch out for the box tops on Nestlé cereals.
Mrs Swingler in the Learning Support
Department is collecting and counting and plans to receive a
healthy cash donation for the school in April 2001. Each
token is worth 10p to us. |
| Courses
on Dyslexia The Helen Arkell
Dyslexia Centre at Frensham (01252 792400) has an extensive
Summer Schools programme running throughout August. |
| Summer Cabaret This
very popular musical event takes place on Monday, 10th July.
Tickets (£5 for adults and £1 for children) can be obtained
from the School Office.
There will be music to suit all tastes, all the school's musical groups will take part, as well as a number of soloists. This is not a formal concert and traditionally ends with dancing to music played by the Swing Band. Seating is limited so please order your Summer
Cabaret tickets early. |
| Congratulations
Congratulations to Mr James
Wood, who was a Music teacher here before accepting promotion
as Head of Music at St Bede's School, Redhill. He has been
voted 'Classic FM Secondary School Music Teacher of the Year'.
|
| A
date for your diary The
Friends of the School are combining with Leatherhead
Horticultural Society in organising a Millennium Summer Fete
on Saturday, 2nd September - just before we return to school
for the new Academic Year.
Joyce Tibbetts or Barbara Leyshon will be
pleased to give more details. Please contact them through
the School Office (01372 818123). |
| Science
opportunity Mr Jordan has
some free tickets for the Tomorrow's World Live Exhibition at
Earls Court on Saturday (1st July). Anyone interested - pupil
or parent - should contact him promptly. It will mean making
your own way there as all places on the coach being organised
by the Science department have been taken.
This offers an excellent opportunity to
witness Science in Action as there are numerous impressive
displays and interactive exhibits to keep you busy. |
| School
Musical In November (23rd,
24th, 25th) the school will be presenting the popular and
lively musical Oliver. This is a show which gives
marvellous opportunities both on stage and back stage.
Auditions will be taking place next month - on Wednesday 12th
and Thursday 13th July. |
| Seeing
Paris A five day field visit
to Paris was enjoyed by 58 Year 8 Geography students when they
visited many of the famous sites and landmarks. Some pupils
now fancy a career in Urban Planning after pooling their ideas
on the good and not so good aspects of life in the City.
A river trip down the Seine and a lively disco
evening were among the highlights of their stay. |
| Good
Luck Mr Smith, Miss Wooding
and 21 students leave on the 14th July for their four week
'Venezuela Challenge' expedition. |
| Art
on display An impressive
display of Art work from our 'A' level students went on show
in the New Dining Hall last week. Eight students mounted
excellent exhibits of their work, which were viewed the
following day by the Examiner. |
| Success
at Athletics Congratulations
to Emily Parker on being selected to represent the UK in an
U18 Athletics international in Budapest at the weekend. Emily
has achieved the qualifying distance in the triple jump and
was one of our successes at the County Championships. She will
be competing for Surrey in the All England Schools' Track and
Field Championships next month.
Chris Tuke won the triple jump in his year group at the County finals - an outstanding achievement in only his second competition at this event. Michael Moore took second place in the javelin
while Warren Gale, Simon Holmes, Stephanie Hughes, Diane
Kraku, Clare Smith and Ellen Andrews all qualified for the
finals of their respective events. |
| Sports
Day There was an excellent
turn-out from all year groups, the overall winners being Leith
House, followed by Polesden, Norbury and Juniper.
Winners of the individual awards for outstanding performances were: Year 7 Chris Scott and Annelise Torode |
| London
Marathon Miss Lansdown
completed the course in 3 hours 2 minutes and 36 seconds. She
raised £380 in sponsorship, half going to the Sixth Form
Charity and half to St Giles School for children with physical
disabilities. Many thanks to all staff, students and parents
who donated and paid up so willingly. |
| Lost
Property As well as the
usual collection of coats, PE kit and sweaters we have now
acquired three pairs of nearly new shoes. We cannot keep them
forever. |
| Africa
Evening The traditional
Africa Evening played to packed houses last night. Some Year 7
students had a 'taster' last week when they attended an
'African Sanctus' evening at the Royal Albert Hall. |
| Pupil
Post Letters home that you
should have received this month include: The Friends'
newsletter, Details of uniform sales, Summer Cabaret
information and Tomorrow's World invitation. |
DATES FOR THE DIARY
also see the School Calendar
| 29th June | Y7 Maths/Science visit Marwell Zoo (J/L) |
| 30th June | Y7 Maths/Science visit
Marwell Zoo (N/P) Y13 Leavers' Tea |
| 30th June - 7th July | Y12 Geographers visit to Chamonix |
| 3rd-7th July | Year 12 'Links Week' |
| 4th July | Evening for new Year 7 parents |
| 10th July | Summer Cabaret - 7.30pm |
| 19th-21st July | Y10 Science visit to Swansea |
| 21st-25th July | Year 7 visit to Rhine Valley |
| 24th July | Y10 trip to Thorpe Park |
| 26th July | Last day of term - school finishes 1.10pm approximately |
|
Letter to all Therfield
Parents from the Headteacher, Dear Parent, I am pleased to inform you that the school has been able to agree a Budget for the coming year. However this has been a close run thing. What is clear is that the level of funding coming from both Central and Local Government is only going to be enough to meet the basics. Governors, Senior Staff and the Friends are therefore proposing to set up a new school fund which will seek a termly subscription for each pupil. Obviously it would be sensitive to those families who would find payment difficult, or who have more than one child in the school. Recent changes in the law make the recovery of tax on gifts very much easier. For example, a termly subscription of £20 per child, if everyone was in a position to pay and all were tax payers, would raise in the order of £107,000 per year. This fund would replace the existing fund and all other requests for general funding, such as that to support the purchase of technology materials and art equipment. It would also replace the covenant scheme run by the Friends. The fund would be used to continue to support the extra-curricular life of the school and to fund the prizes and rewards that are so helpful in motivating students. In addition we could start to make significant improvements to the equipment of the school and to begin to build a fund against which we could bid for extra Government help to improve the buildings and, who knows, one day get the Performing Arts block that is so urgently needed. It is intended that the Governors, with the help of the Friends, will administer the new fund and ensure that parents are kept fully informed of how the fund has been managed, with full annual audited accounts presented at the Governors' Annual General Meeting for parents held each Autumn. This letter is to give you advance warning of our thinking and to seek any responses that parents may wish to make. These should be addressed to me at the school. Yours sincerely, TJ Reddin Therfield School, Dilston Road,
Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 7NZ |