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Thamesview Term 3 Newsletter for the 2011-2012 academic year
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Thamesview School
THAMES V IEWS
Inside the Issue:
Headteacher’s letter 2
Maths News 3
Important Dates 4
Spring Term 3
February 2012
Business & Enterprise
Talented Artists
Year 7 have been producing some excellent
work drawing self-portraits . They have created
‗jewel like‘ printed backgrounds, inspired by the
Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, for their
compositions.
Year 8 have been studying the arts and crafts
of the Native American peoples. They have
learned about the symbolism of totem poles
and created their own designs to represent
their families and friends in
colourful symmetrical images.
BTEC students are
focussing on natural forms
– exploring the textures, colours
and patterns seen in nature. Working in a
variety of different media and techniques they
have produced stunning
images of flowers, birds,
butterflies, leaves,
bones and shells.
GCSE students are
busily preparing for
their final exam working
from the externally set
assignment
paper. Themes
such as animals, a sense of place, here
and now and structure are inspiring
imaginative and creative work.
Ms J Chester
A BRAND NEW MUSICAL – THE ELTON ESTATE
22nd & 23rd March—Don’t Miss It!
Image designed by Charlie Collier
The Creative Arts students at Thamesview have been working hard on a
brand new musical called ‗The Elton Estate‘. Students from all year
groups have worked together on this challenging new musical set on a
London estate featuring fantastic songs, dazzling routines and scenes
that will make you laugh and cry.
Students have been rehearsing after school since September and we
invite you to see the performances on the 22nd & 23rd of March as this
show will be our biggest and most exciting production to date.
Great songs, great scenes and great routines,
Great set, great cast, come have a blast,
It’s diary time, so grab a pen,
Write it down, so you know when,
Two days in March, make no mistake,
Thamesview kids and The Elton Estate.
The Creative Arts Team
More from Creative Arts on the back page .........
Mock Interview Day
On Friday 27th January we held
our annual Mock Interview Day
for Year 10 students. The
students had attended a
workshop the previous day and
applied for a job by completing
an application form.
On the official day, we had
local employers come into school to interview the students.
Staff had given up their offices for the day to make this
experience as real as possible.
Employers taking part were from
large organisations such as : KCC,
Gravesham Council, NatWest, the
Army and Jacobs Engineering as well
as smaller local companies, Ultimate
Life and Jaxx Hair Salon (pictured
right).
The students were invited
to attend in smart
business dress and really
didn‘t disappoint.
A big thank you to all the
interviewers who took part
on the day. This
experience really helps
our students prepare for
life beyond Thamesview.
Mrs N Sandy, Business & Enterprise Administrator
Community
Name
Points
Challenger 139
Discovery 160
Endeavour 191
Enterprise 200
Create a 10
question
Numeracy or
Literacy Quiz for
our next News-
letter. Win
cinema
tickets.
Page 2 Spr ing Term 3
Congratulations to - Victoria Ly in Year 7,
Discovery, who
passed her Grade
3 Piano exam
recently.
Please can all parents/carers be aware of the
importance of putting your child(s) name on ALL uniform
items, including their PE trainers. If your child should
lose any item of uniform and their name is written on it,
it will be reunited with your child. Unnamed items of
clothing prove to be a difficult task in reuniting lost
property to our students. Thank you.
Name It or Lose It
Hospitality Stars In September we started running a
Hospitality course for some Year 9
students. The students cover
various elements of the Hospitality
industry during the course and all
students need to show a good level
of customer service and provide
evidence of them delivering this.
To help the students achieve this
we have been
offering
Hospitality to
different meetings being held
within school. These have so far
included: a sixth form talk where
the heads of local sixth forms
come into school to talk to Year
11 students and also a recent
Governors‘ meeting.
Mrs N Sandy
Gravesham Council
Business Networking
Event
This term we were
invited back to
Gravesham Council‘s
Business networking
event at the Woodville
Halls. Three different
students took part this
time, all from Year 10:
Amiee Goddard, Lewis
Foreman and Mary-Ann
Owen.
The students had to man the
welcome desk and then joined the
meeting collecting lots of business
cards. Two of the students, Lewis
and Mary-Ann have since gone on
and helped at another event
through a contact they made on the
day.
Mrs N Sandy
Dear Parents, Carers, Governors, Staff,
Students and Friends
Just a short Newsletter this term, as it
has not been long since our Christmas
edition which was packed full of news.
There is much information about
Maths in this edition, so there is no
excuse for our students not to know what
is going on in Maths, and how to go about
improving their Levels of attainment
within the subject. Please support your
child using our virtual learning
environment, Fronter, during the holidays
to do revision of topics.
We are on track for our highest ever
results again, and this is a credit to all the
hard work of the staff and students, and
we thank parents for their part in
ensuring students, particularly Year 11s
and 10s, use the holiday time for focus-
sed revision. There is only 11 weeks left
before Year 11 have their Prom, final
assembly and all the major final exams
commence. Students should be well into
their revision programmes
already, although if some
students need more guidance on how
to set up their programme, please see
an Aim Higher Mentor or a member of
their Community Leadership Team for
support.
We are looking forward to another
fantastic theatre production in March
from our Creative Arts team, and hope
you are able to join us for what will
undoubtedly be both ‗sell out‘
performances—don‘t miss out
I appreciate the cold snowy spell will
mean more layers to school, but please
help us ensure smart appearance by
getting uniform items sorted over the
half-term in readiness for a sharp start
back on the 20th!
I hope you enjoy a warm and safe
half-term.
Best wishes,
Rhiannon Hughes
Headteacher
For Students and Parents:
A guide of what you need to know when choosing to study a GCSE in Humanities...
When studying a GCSE it is important that
you have a true understanding of what is
involved and what you will be required to do.
No GCSE is the same as any other and when
choosing which one to study you need to
make sure that the course content appeals
to you and that you will stand every chance
of getting the best result possible to you.
At Thamesview you have
the choice of two differ-
ent Humanities GCSE’s:
GCSE History
And
GCSE Geography
GCSE History looks at two key periods of time in World history as well as British history. Our topic on World history looks at the American West and the topic on British history looks at Medicine through time. The GCSE also has a third component with a piece of Controlled Assessment. The Controlled Assessment is a stand alone investigation which focus’ on key skills required by Historians to research and find out key facts to report on.
GCSE Geography looks at two key areas of Geography, Human Geography and Physical Geography. The exam is divided into the two areas with a Geographical investigation as part of the Controlled Assessment. Students will look at topics such as, Plate Tectonics, Coastal and river areas, Global Population and Global development as part of their two examinations. The Controlled Assessment will be a field investigation within the Kent area looking at local Geography.
Key skills that students will develop in this GCSE are:
Investigation, problem
solving, research and reporting, presentation, analysis and data interpre-tation, written, team work and independent learning skills.
Why not register your interest in one of our
courses now by texting 34867 for History or
75633 for Geography to: 07624806527
(you may be charged by your network provider)
Year 11
Congratulations to
all of the Year 11
students on their
results from the Linear
November paper. There
are 8 students, already,
who have exceeded the
national expected
progress rate and have actually
improved by 4 levels based on the
current results.
A huge and well deserved
congratulations go to Jack Crabtree,
Michael Seaney, Ben Hopson,
Connor Murphy, Courtney King,
Natasha Hollowell, Jack Elmes and
Julia Johnson for this amazing
progress.
(It is expected that 65% of all students
improve by 3 levels from KS2 to KS4.
This means that 65% of students who
start at Thamesview with a level 3 at the
end of primary school should leave us with
a Grade D, level 4 students progress to a
Grade C and level 5 students progress to a
Grade B or higher.
As a result of the successes in the
current cohort many of the Year 11 classes, where possible, are now
even smaller, allowing us to give greater support to those students in
preparation for the next exam.
Some Year 11 students will be taking unit exam retakes in March
(letters have been sent home) and all Year 11 students will be taking the
Unit 3 exam on 13th June.
Page 3 Spr ing Term 3
Year 10 Congratulations to the following students in Year 10,
who achieved maximum points on the Unit 2 GCSE paper :
Jack Head, Daniel Large, Amy Niblett, Mary Ann Owen,
Blake Taylor
Also well done to Charlie Collier on achieving an A*. A
fantastic achievement.
We now have over 40 students who will be taking the
Higher Tier for the next unit, the biggest number ever. Well
done !!
All Year 10 students, except Mr Manktelow‘s 10c
group, will be taking their next unit exam on 5th March.
This unit is based on statistics and probability and is worth
27% of the final GCSE.
Key Stage 3 News Our ‗stage not age‘ KS3 scheme of work has been
described as innovative and many schools have been
interested in our approach and keen to share its structure.
We have also developed resources within lessons to
include a more engaging approach to teaching and
learning.
In addition to using standard texts and worksheets we
have been developing resources using QR codes and
IPADS, treasure hunts and speed dating to name a few !
If you have a bar code reader, try this QR code :
All KS3 students will have just taken an assessment at the
end of January, similar to a SATs paper, so that we can
monitor progress. All KS3 students will next be assessed in
May as an end of year progress check.
To aid with revision, I would recommend that students use
mymaths (www.mymaths.co.uk login : thamesview
password : money) . There are lots of practice papers
available at http://www.emaths.co.uk/KS3SAT.htm which
students find useful. Mrs. M. Sesay
Supporting Key Stage 4
Students
For both Year 10 and Year 11, there is a wealth of
resources, including revision packs, MathsWatch video
clips and practice papers accessible from home on the Year
11 Maths Revision Page on Fronter.
If you are unsure as to how to access this, please email
Mrs Dean on [email protected] and she will
email back details of exactly how to get to this page.
We welcome Mr Burt, who joins our Food Technology
team; recently arrived from Australia, and once a chef
himself, he has been inspiring the students with his varied
recipes, including an alternative approach to Chilli Con
Carne (add a
tin of baked
beans). The
group below
were certainly
tucking in for
their taster
plate, and I
know Miss
Hughes was
also eagerly
queuing with
her fork at the
ready.
On the other side of the Food
room, we had Ms Jarvis turning
the area
into a
little bit
of Italy,
with
students
making
their very
own
pasta!
Page 4 Spr ing Term 3
Diary Dates Staff Development Days:
Wednesday 7th March 2012
Friday 29th June 2012
Bank holidays: Monday 7th May
Please note that the school will be
closed on these days for students.
Key Events: Friday 10th February - Last day of Term 3
Monday 20th February - First day of Term 4
Thursday 1st March - Year 9 Options Fayre
Thursday 8th March - Year 10 Parents‘ Evening
Thurs 22nd/Friday 23rd March - School Show
Thursday 29th March - Year 11 Parents‘ Evening
Friday 30th March - Last day of Term 4
Monday 16th April - First day of Term 5
Thursday 26th April - Year 7 Parents‘ Evening
Thursday 10th May - Parents‘ Forum
Thursday 24th May - Year 8 Parents‘ Evening
Friday 1st June - Last day of Term 5
Term Dates
3 Wednesday 4th January to
Friday 10th February
4 Monday 20th February to
Friday 30th March
5 Monday 16th April to
Friday 1st June
6 Monday 11th June to
Friday 20th July
On Monday 12th December, our school
hosted yet another sell-out success. Family,
friends, staff and students gathered together
to enjoy Music, Dance and Drama acts from all
year groups across the school. The evening
was mostly planned and organised by the Year
9/10 BTec Music class. As part of their
course work they were responsible for roles in
advertising, scenery, front of house,
backstage, performing or presenting for the
Christmas Concert.
The night itself opened with the Year 9/10
BTec Dance class, with a wonderful medley of
Christmas tunes. There were plenty of
talented group acts to follow such as the Year
7 Pantomimers, the Thamesview Singers,
instrumental and dance groups and the school Soul Band.
Solo acts and duets were also plentiful and ranged from
Amelia Burgess and Shannon Presland‘s P.Y.T dance
routine, to Kathlene Irwin‘s lovely rendition of White
Christmas. There was, of course, the traditional comical
performance from some Thamesview staff, which, as
always, was interesting with its very own Prince, Muddles
and Harry!
It is safe to say that an excellent evening was had by all
and if you missed it then you definitely missed out. It was a perfect way to show case
the magnificent talent of students here at Thamesview, as well as coming together
as a community at Christmas time.
We look forward to seeing you there next year, but if you can‘t wait till then, you
don‘t have to—there‘s our ―Evening of Drama and Dance‖(February), ―Elton
Estate‖(March) this year‘s school show and hopefully another outdoor ―Summer
Concert‖(July) all to look forward to.
Miss J Cormack
I am pleased to announce that TVAS (Drama Club) submitted
an entry called ‗Travelling Through Time‘ to the Kent County
Alcohol & Drugs Drama Competition and have won their
region, beating all schools from Gravesend, Dartford and
Swanley & District. The group will now compete against five
other finalists at the grand final at The Stag Theatre in
Sevenoaks on 14th March.
Last year a group of Year 9 students made it to the final with
an alcohol piece titled ‗A Night In The Park‘, but unfortunately
lost out on the night. It was a fantastic experience for the
group, including performing at a professional theatre as well
as winning a host of prizes.
This year the competition was based upon raising awareness
on the issues of smoking and the TVAS group have created a
very entertaining and positive look at how smoking has
evolved throughout the years…and added a positive little twist
at the end.
The students should be really pleased with their achievement
and have once again
proved the outstanding
talent that we
have in the Creative Arts
Department at
Thamesview. Let‘s hope
we can go one better
this year and win the
whole thing.
THE STUDENTS ARE:
Tonicha Gilbert (yr8),
Olivia Devaney (yr8), Stanley
Clarke(yr8), Luke Bainbridge(yr10),
Kayleigh Hill(yr8), Jessica Knowles (yr8), Cerys Knowles
(yr9), Gaby Hutchinson (yr8), Zaynab Bankole (yr8) and Tanya Hills
(yr7)
Mr Ferguson (Drama Teacher)
Travelling Through Time – TVAS Travelling to the final!
Our Own Masterchefs