Therfield School Trust Fund

With the first full year of the fund now completed, this is a perfect opportunity to tell you how the voluntary donations from parents have been used.

The Trust Fund is committed to financing projects which cannot be accommodated within the school's annual budget.

There is a heavy focus on the provision of learning tools which complement traditional teaching methods and enhance the delivery of the National Curriculum and the School Development Plan. At all times the Trustees remain mindful that students will naturally prefer to enjoy the way in which they are taught, which leads to improved learning disciplines and higher personal achievements. Many of the projects are information technology based, a key strand in the development of current educational strategies.

These are some of the main projects which have been financed by the Trust Fund during 2001. It is entirely due to parents donations that these in have been possible.

30 lap top computers have been leased. They are totally portable and therefore benefit a wide range of students. They are helping students to gain confidence and expertise through their own use of the equipment and state of the art information technology based teaching aids.

In the English Faculty, a laptop computer with DVD player has been linked with a multimedia projector (also financed by the Trust Fund) to deliver large screen moving images for analysis by student groups. The use of information technology within this Faculty is helping to improve literacy skills thus ensuring that the learning programme underpins Department of Education and Skills guidelines.

The Science Faculty has also benefited from a multimedia projector, which can be used with a flex cam to project large images from microscopes. This enables larger numbers of students to study and analyse difficult features together.

New stereo recording equipment, with high quality reproduction, ha been used in the Modern Foreign Languages Faculty to support the analysis of oral presentations and examinations, whilst over 40 year 7 students have formed a band using instruments purchased by the Trust Fund. This music initiative has proved to be highly successful with progress exceeding expectations.

In the Technology area, the purchase of a Cutter has promoted considerable improvements in the mix of display work and student presentations.

More generally, the Trust Fund has supported merit awards (in the form of vouchers) and a number of the school's clubs.

None of the above would have been possible without voluntary donations from parents. The Trustees acknowledge this level of voluntary support with gratitude. As we said in our previous newsletter, we believe that the donations to date have been translated into benefits which add value to both the learning and teaching disciplines.

None of the above could have been funded by the school's annual budget.

In order that the Trust Fund can continue to provide funding for projects such as those described above, your generous response to the recent mailing will be very much appreciated. The more money that can be donated, the greater the benefits to the students. Your support will be very highly valued.

Yours faithfully
The Trustees of Therfield School Trust Fund

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