Therfield News Issue No.83 December 2000

FROM THE HEAD TEACHER

Good Wishes and Good News May I take this opportunity to wish all of you a very happy and peaceful Christmas. It has been a very long and hardworking term, not made any easier by the bad weather.

Meetings with County advisers have revealed that Therfield is one of only two schools in the County which have done exceptionally well in examination and test results at the end of all Key Stages.

Early indications are that we are going to be heavily over-subscribed again for entry into Year 7 in September 2001.

Farewell Very sadly we say farewell to Mrs Hrouda who has headed the Modern Languages Faculty so ably. With her family, Mrs Hrouda is accompanying her husband, a leading surgeon, to Brisbane in Australia where he has been offered a one year secondment.

This will obviously be an exciting time for them, but we shall lose a very successful Head of Faculty, who has been instrumental in significantly raising the profile and achievement of Modern Languages in the school. Mrs Hrouda has also overseen the introduction of our new computerised Languages Unit which is proving a great success. We shall miss her very much.

Her successor is Mrs S Landsmann, who is Head of Year and Deputy Head of Modern Languages at Desborough Community School in Berkshire.

We also say farewell to Mrs M Powles, who has been Clerk to the Governors. She is taking a well earned break and plans to spend some time travelling to many parts of the world. Mrs J Gosling, who has been teaching Food Technology this term, is returning to her previous school, Matthew Arnold in Staines. We wish both of them well and thank them for all they have done.

The new Clerk to the Governors is Mrs Dawn Dodd.

Academic Tutoring Please note that the next Academic Tutoring Day is Thursday, 18th January. Letters with individual appointment times will be given to pupils in the first week back in January.

Early Closures A reminder that school will close at 3.15 on 24th January (Year 10 Parents' Evening) and on 31st January (Year 12 Parents' Evening)

Presentation Evening This is the time when we recognise the efforts of our senior students and it will take place on Friday, 12th January. The Guest of Honour will be the Chief Constable of Surrey, Denis O'Connor. Many of those receiving awards and certificates have just completed their first term at university, so it is also a grand reunion evening.

Open Evening January 17th is the date for our Sixth Form to show what we have to offer those who want to continue their education. The evening starts at 7pm. Present Year 11 pupils will have the opportunity to chat to subject staff and current Sixth Formers beforehand.

If you know of anyone looking for a good Sixth Form education for their son/daughter please tell them about the Open Evening. Clearly we offer plenty of opportunity to go on to higher education - we have just completed 117 applications for university places!

Prayer Group Dates for the next Prayer Group meetings for parents are Monday 29th January and Monday 12th March. Meetings are held at school at 8pm and anyone wanting more information should contact Mrs Jill Poole on 01932 865476.

Maths Challenge Congratulations to the 15 Sixth Formers who gained certificates in the Senior UK Maths Challenge. Gold awards went to Simon Matthews and Adam Baxter, who also gained Best in School.

Silver awards went to Howard Ebison, Tristan Blood, George Kamel, Robert Caldwell, Sarah Waldman and Jennifer Lawrence.

Bronze awards went to Aida Emadi-Allahyari, Richard Griffiths, Stephen Garden, Chris Day, Ed Austin, Robert Harwood, and Matthew Scrivener.

This national competition sets very high standards - only the top 6% earn gold - and attracts a huge entry - so well done to all our 35 candidates who volunteered to take part in a competition which is deigned to 'make students think'.

Carol Service Yet again our annual Carol Service was much enjoyed by all who attended. This year it was held at school and contained the traditional messages and well loved carols that are so much a part of Christmas.

We were sorry that Mr Pratt was unable to be present for an occasion in which he took great delight and thank Mrs Junge and Mrs Daune who have stood in for him so splendidly, assisted by Jamie Cordell and Louis Zurnamer.

Talented Pupils The Gym and Dance Clubs put on a wonderful display for parents and friends in their first ever show earlier this month.

The girls practise their routines at lunchtimes and after school under the direction of Miss Jefford and Miss Jackson and showed here a wealth of talent and enthusiasm. The gymnasts demonstrated their skills on apparatus and in floor exercises and the dancers performed a lively mixture of Jazz, Contemporary and Latin numbers.

Year 11 Ball Earlier in the day Year 11 pupils were sitting at desks in the Main Hall wrestling with the problems of their final GCSE mock exam, yet by evening the hall had been transformed into a beautifully decorated ball room.

Many arrived for the evening celebrations in eye-catching limousines and all were elegantly and smartly dressed. Staff and pupils worked hard to organise such a marvellously happy occasion in which the Staff Band (Messrs Mayhew, Horder, Pordage, Winchcombe and particularly Sadikali on the bongos) were a big hit in the Cabaret!

Science Extra Over the last month a large number of our AS scientists have visited the National Grid as part of the Engineering Development project. The students met with Johnny Ball of Blue Peter fame and were lectured by him on subjects such as global warming and 'Electricity and Magnetism'. They were then shown round the various laboratories at National Grid including the oil lab and the high voltage work centre.

Allied to this has been an opportunity for some of our AS Biologists to use the electron microscope at the research centre. This has led to a better understanding of the complex apparatus and equipment necessary to compete in today's scientific environment. Mr Rolaston, Head of Biology, and students were grateful to have an opportunity which provided such a relevant focus for 'A' level study.

Poetry Day 2000 Year 10 students had an exciting day of poetry when 100 of them attended the GCSE Poetry Live Conference in Guildford. Here they were entertained and inspired by poets such as John Agard, although disappointed that they did not meet Simon Armitage, due to a last-minute change in the line-up.

Those who stayed in school were equally entertained by a sequence of poetry workshops run by the English Faculty in which they focused on bringing poems to life by using their drama and creative skills.

Oscar Wilde As part of their English Language and Literature AS course, 23 Year 12 students visited the British Library recently to see the Oscar Wilde exhibition.

Apart from learning more about Wilde, their main focus was to produce an audio-guide for other AS students to accompany the exhibition. The curator, Sally Brown, has offered a copy of her new book on Wilde as a prize for the guide which sheds most light on this fascinating display of letters, photographs and memorabilia to mark the centenary of Wilde's death.

Young Lifesavers About 30 pupils from Years 7, 8 and 9 have joined the newly-formed Young Lifesavers Club.

Here, under the leadership of Miss Smeaton, they learn how to deal with an emergency, for example, putting people into the recovery position, learning how to help someone who is choking or having an asthma attack. Most students will be ready to receive their first certificates from St John Ambulance by the end of January.

Lost Property A request from the Office Staff - please could the labelling of all school items be included in your New Year resolutions!

Counselling It is surprising to read in the National Press of how the recruitment of senior pupils to help with counselling of younger ones is regarded as a new and welcome initiative. This has been in place at Therfield for some time. Each year a group of our Sixth Formers go on a training course and are available for consultation every lunchtime.

contact the ASK team

Books for Schools Following last year's successful collection (13,000 tokens yielding 104 free books), the Learning Support Department will be collecting again in 2001, starting in January.

Tokens will appear in The Sun and the News of the World and on packets of Walkers crisps. Please send your tokens into school, there will be a collecting box in the Resource Centre. The department is looking to better last year's total!

Free software for schools Also please look out for tokens in the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph when making purchases pertaining to computers from various stores and the Internet.

This promotion starts in January and Miss Peel and the ICT department will be happy to receive your contributions, which enable them to collect stocks of helpful and educational software.

Thank you Mrs Shannon (Home & Food Technology) is grateful to the Year 7 and Year 11 parents who have returned the questionnaire she sent out earlier this term. A reminder that there is still time to reply as she will be analysing the findings over the Christmas holidays.

Pantomime fun The end of term for pupils was enlivened by performances of the Staff Pantomime. Written by Mrs Thomas and with Mr Cox, recruited as producer, 24 staff presented a lively and much appreciated modernised version of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Tough Guys Once again we are sending a strong contingent to this national 'torture run' next month. Details of runners and casualties in the next Newsletter!

Congratulations Ben Adams, Guy Head, Dean Matthews, Warren Gale Richard Derrick and David Francis have been selected to run for Central Surrey in the County Cross Country Championships.

Julie Hunt in Year 10 qualified to compete in the British National Swimming Championships; Rebecca Langridge in Year 7 is appearing in Snow White at Wimbledon Theatre and Gillian Fox, Year 8, has had a letter about the floods published in the local paper.

Party time Transport, food, entertainment and prizes needed to be organised by Sixth Formers as they prepared for a record attendance at this year's Christmas Party for local senior citizens. A clash of dates meant that it had to be held in the Sixth Form centre but guests and hosts alike agreed that it was a thoroughly enjoyable occasion.

Help please The Junior French Exchange needs seven families to accommodate students from France, 19th to 27th March 2001. Please contact Miss Collier for more information next term.

8 Jan 2001	New terms starts - week 2
11-25 Jan	Y13 Mock exams
12 Jan	Presentation evening
17 Jan	Sixth Form Open Evening
18 Jan	Academic Tutoring day
24 Jan	Y10 Parents' Eveneing (early closure)
31 Jan	Y12 Parents' Eveneing (early closure)
3 Feb	Friends' Jumble sale
6 Feb	Staff INSET day (pupils not in school)
7 Feb	Y9 Options Evening for Y10 courses

THERFIELD NEWS Issue 83 20th December 2000