Sir Thomas Boughey High School

Term TimesThe

STB Gets in the Spirit

Termly updates, information & dates for your diary, stories and pupil achievements

Recognising Achievement

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Young Voices 2015 PAGE 5

Sports Report PAGE 6

Regional Final of FutureChef

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Read about the Year 10 visit to South Cheshire College on page 5

Issue 22|April 2015

Many Year 11 pupils have been reflecting on their efforts in recent weeks

as they have completed their practical exams in Catering, Music and Art. Throughout this process, pupils considered methods of striving to achieve their target grades and strategies for improvement. And the results have been incredible.

For weeks leading up to the Catering exam, pupils deliberated over the various dishes they could create, all the time focusing on their determination to demonstrate a high skill level. Their task was to create a two course meal and the food created was of an incredibly high quality.

I was privileged to be one of a number of staff assigned the role of chief taster, which is a necessary (and incredibly enjoyable) part of the process as pupils require constructive feedback. Of the feedback given, staff commented on the food being of restaurant quality, both in terms of presentation and taste, and one member of staff commented that the dessert produced was much better than one purchased from M&S! Praise indeed! If you would like to see the marvellous creations for yourself, please visit our website.

All pupils involved should be extremely proud of the food they produced, which looked professional and tasted wonderful. Thank you also to all parents for providing pupils with the necessary ingredients, especially as a number had quite an extensive shopping list! Practical exams in Music and Art have been equally as successful: the talent of our pupils

never fails to shine through.

Of course, there are many other ways in which pupils have impressed: Megan Jones and Esme Holt have recently competed in the North West Science and Technology Gifted and Talented final. During this event, they were required to construct a robotic car and program it so that the car was able to navigate itself through a maze. Both girls certainly rose to this challenge and they were an absolute credit to the school. We have also had pupils in Years 7 to 10 performing in the Young Voices concert at the MEN Arena, and four of our pupils (Aeris Finney, Caitlin O’Sullivan, Megan Perry and Megan Rushton) have performed in the Great Big Dance Off in the Albert Hall, Nottingham, where they gained a first place position. Following their immense success, they are to compete in the grand final, to be held in Birmingham. Good luck girls!

In the first newsletter of the year, Mr Gould gave the message to ensure time in school is well spent and full advantage is taken of opportunities on offer: these are fantastic examples of pupils putting that into practice. Long may it continue!

As you will know, we have recently launched an online homework system called ‘Show My Homework’. Each pupil has been issued with their log-on details, we will soon be issuing log-ons for parents. As parents, once logged onto the ‘Show My Homework’ website, you will be able to see all homework your child has received, including resources provided to help with the task, and submission dates. We hope this will ensure that as parents you feel fully informed of

homework set and it will help you to support your child in working towards deadlines. As with any new system, it may take a little time to become familiar with the new approach but we hope that you will find it beneficial.

Recently, all KS4 parents received a letter regarding three weekly tests that have been introduced in English and Maths. As a follow up to the letter, we thought it important to share with you pupil feedback regarding this process. As three of these tests have now been completed in both subjects, a sample of Year 10 and Year 11 pupils have been asked for their thoughts on the testing system and their feedback has been very positive: pupils feel they help progress to be made and targets for improvement understood.

We would like to wish a number of our pupils well on their travels. As part of their GCSE Geography studies, 25 pupils from Years 10 and 11 are going to spend 5 days in Iceland. During this time, they will visit a Blue Lagoon Geothermal Pool, go on a Glacier Hike with crampons and ice picks (this sounds very brave), experience whale watching, take in the sights of Reykjavik during a city tour, and experience a whole host of other amazing opportunities. We are sure they will return from this trip with lots of exciting tales, many of which you will read about in the next edition of ‘Term Times’.

We wish everyone a safe, enjoyable Easter break, and we look forward with great enthusiasm to the final term of this academic year.2

As we approach the end of our second term in school, it provides the perfect opportunity for reflection – something we would encourage all pupils to do...

Mrs Hingley - Assistant Head

ContentsRecognising Achievement ���������������������������������������������������������������4

The Great Big Dance Off ��������������������������������������������������������������������4

Grace Parker �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������4

Abbie Flowers ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������4

Young Voices 2015 ������������������������������������������������������������������������������5

College Taster Session ����������������������������������������������������������������������5

Sports Report����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������6

Regional Final of FutureChef ����������������������������������������������������������8

GCSE Catering Practicals �����������������������������������������������������������������8

Dates For Your Diary ��������������������������������������������������������������������������8

In order to help prepare them for the transition, since this is a vital part of every pupil’s

school career, we endeavour to not only guide pupils but also help parents and carers support their child through the decision making process.

Options Evening is an important event in the school calendar. Pupils have the opportunity to attend with their parents or carers to find out not only what core subjects they will be studying, but also what subjects are available for them to choose from.

Additionally, pupils will now have had a series of special assemblies where the Head of Department for every subject has explained exactly what their course entails. However, because it is so vitally important that pupils choose wisely, not based on what their friends are doing, or what subject appears to be the easiest to study, or even which teacher may (or may not) be delivering a particular course, we have invited various members of our current Year 10 and 11 to share their first-hand experiences of the range of subjects on offer.

This has enabled the Year 9 pupils to ask pertinent, probing questions about the subjects they are interested in and understand exactly what is expected of them.

Since pupils have been empowered to make an informed decision as to what subjects to choose, it is now incumbent upon them to end Year 9 well. By remaining focused and determined to realise their Target Levels, pupils will provide for themselves a firm foundation upon which to build next year.

As the end of term draws near, Year Nines have the daunting prospect of choosing their options in readiness for the start of Key Stage Four...

Mr Figgis - Head of Year 9

Parents as Partners

As you are aware, and know from personal experience in some cases, we start the day with a whole school assembly 4 times a week. These are led by Senior staff and once a week by a Tutor Group.

Assembly is a corner stone of our school life, it gives us a calm start to the day, it reminds us of standards and expectations and provides a “thought for the day.” If you would like to follow our theme or message for the day we will be including an assembly section on our website, detailing who delivered the assembly and what the message was.

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Visit our web Gallery!Whenever you see this icon in the

newsletter, you can visit our website to see more (and bigger!) photos of

the event.

Just go to:

www.stb.coop/home/gallery.html

Please note: some galleries are

located within their subject areas.

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The following pupils have been nominated this term by their subject teachers for excellent effort in their work.

Congratulations to the following:

The Great Big Dance Off

The Great Big Dance Off is sponsored by Sainsbury’s. It is a dance competition

for Primary and Secondary schools and colleges to showcase their talents.

On February 5th, Evolution crew members, Aeris Finney, Caitlin O’Sullivan, Megan Perry and Megan Rushton, represented Sir Thomas Boughey High School in the East Midlands regional heat at the Albert Hall, Nottingham. They competed against 28 other teams and gained first place with a score of 378 points out of a total 400 points, well done girls.

Evolution are now through to the grand final. This will take place on 22nd of June at the New Alexandra

Theatre in Birmingham. Good luck Evolution.

Abbie Flowers

Congratulations to Abbie Flowers from Year 7 Blue Art group, who recently entered the ‘Mad Hatters, Hat Design competition’.

Her ‘Staffordshire Hoard’ inspired design was chosen as a winning entry, which resulted in pupils from Newcastle College making her design into a real, wearable hat.

She attended a presentation afternoon at the civic offices in Newcastle and was awarded a certificate from the Mayor. Keep an eye out for Abbie in The Sentinel newspaper.

Well done Abbie!

Grace Parker

During February Half Term, Grace Parker from Year

7 attended a festival for young writers.

She took part in many activities ranging from producing a radio drama, experiencing performance poetry and writing ‘flash’ fiction stories which were no longer than 500 words.

Grace thoroughly enjoyed the festival and was interviewed for The Sentinel. She particularly enjoyed learning how to develop characters and how to create confrontation in a story.

Well done, Grace!

Year 11Year 7Year 8 Year 10

Year 9

Abbie Flowers, Heidi Simpson, Nathan Walchester, Rachel Sillitto,

Summer Chamberlain, Sharna Jaques, Poppy Degg,

Owen Hargreaves

Liam Booth, Jake Sant,

Emily Withington Jones, Peter Royall, Jake Thorley,

Brittany Selwood, Megan Jones, Declan Myatt

Fay Ashley, Archie Doorbar,

Shay Green, Angel Allen, Jack Harley,

Lewis Bagnall, Nieve Plunkett, Thomas Hunt

Amy McKay,

Daniel Bailey,

Francesca Cope,

Chloe Munro,

Sam Howe-Jones,

Eve Burton

Athena Heavey, Daniel Scothern, Maria Richardson, Jade Thornhill,

Ella Platt, Thomas Mason,

Meg Hall, Liam Curley

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Young Voices 2015

On Monday 2nd March, the music department took 21 STB pupils and 20 Wood Lane primary pupils to perform as part of the Young Voices tour at the Manchester Arena.

The Harmonize girls, in years 7-10, had given up numerous hours of their own time both in and out of school to practise for this event. They rehearsed both popular and classical music, with some dance movements too and performed with a massed choir of over 7,300 singers. Urban Strides were the dance crew who taught the dances to the singers. They were the first ever dance crew to open a Royal Variety Performance.

In the evening concert, the pupils were entertained by Lucy Spraggan, who performed on The X Factor in 2012 achieving ninth place, and MiC Lowry. MiC Lowry is a five-piece boy band aged 18-19 that formed in 2011 in Liverpool. Tom Billington (a singer/ songwriter) also performed on the evening – singing some Robbie Williams hits and also Radio Gaga by Queen.

Miss Miller, Mrs Trender and Ms Kay who also came along, would like to say a HUGE well done and thank you to the harmonize girls for all their hard work, enthusiasm and maturity both in rehearsals and on the day and hope that the girls will remember the fantastic experience (of both singing in a concert venue such as the Manchester Arena and singing with over 7,000 others) for a long time.

STB Pupils’ Taster Session at South Cheshire College

On Wednesday the 11th of March the whole of Year 10, their tutors, Mr Smith, Mr Antoney-Wattam, Mrs Gallagher, Mr Lythall, Mr Potts, Miss Bagguley, Head of Year - Mr Taylor, Mrs Griffin, Mrs Hassall and Mr Cumberland all visited South Cheshire College.

Pupils had been given a free choice to experience a taster session of college courses. Options had included A levels in Maths, English, Law, RE and Philosophy; practical courses such as Engineering, Music Technology, Brick Laying, Plumbing, Hair and Beauty and Electrical Wiring; physical courses including Sports and Public Services.

Complicated maths problems were solved, infinitives split, rights and responsibilities were discussed alongside moral dilemmas. Engines were assembled and hopefully not too many pieces were left over, the mantra, “lefty loosey, righty tighty” was muttered repeatedly by some aspiring Bentley builders of the future. Musicians “laid down some happening tunes,” to be mixed and mastered by the music technologists of the future.

Brickies built walls that seemed to stand straight and tall, plumbers produced soldered joints and complex bends in pipes. The Hair and Beauty group seemed content to be pampered by students at South Cheshire; nails were manicured, hands massaged and even hair washed and blow dried. Future electricians did not have any shocking experiences and produced a functional lighting circuit; they were given instructions not to practise at home.

Both sports courses ended up on the climbing wall, we found spider girl, spider boy, a few wall creepers and even one pupil who was so taken with the view from the summit she stayed there for 15 minutes.

All in all, a great time was had by all; but this experience had a serious side. Pupils in Year 10 now have just over a year until their final GCSEs, the results of which will largely determine what courses they can access at college. We invest in this experience and next term’s similar activity at Newcastle College in order to raise aspirations and get pupils thinking about their next life stage.

If you are a parent of a Year 10 pupil please take ten minutes to ask them about the experience, did it inspire them? Did it put them off a career choice? What do they need to do in order to access the next stage of their education? Most importantly, encourage them to aim high…why be content with the minimum? In the end you get out what you put in.

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All England Badminton Championships

Fourteen pupils along with Mrs O’Neill and Mr Stevenson attended the All England

Badminton Championships at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham on March 4th. They were given the tickets as part of the Premier League 4 Sport project, in which the pupils attend regular coaching sessions at STB with a Badminton coach and take part in competitions around the Midlands region.

There were five courts with singles, doubles and mixed doubles matches. We were fortunate to watch the mixed Doubles pairing of Gabby and Chris Adcock win their first round match. They won Gold for England in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the day and were excellent ambassadors for the school with their behaviour and attitude.

Well done to: Ben Ireland, Ben Pratt, Arron Perry, Leah Carvell, Cain Carvell, Nicole Turner, Harvey Turner, Ryan Bridgewood, Ella Myatt, Charlotte Fone, Megan Jones, Ellie Eccleston, Niamh Hartless and Will Bailey.

Premier League 4 Sport Badminton

The STB Badminton club is going well with Becky Lunt, from Stoke City, coaching

the pupils every Thursday after school. Six STB pupils were selected to take part in a competition at Everton over the half term, against other Premier League teams to represent Stoke City along with some pupils from Ormiston. They were given a Stoke City kit to wear and worked well as a team with the Ormiston players. They finished a very respectable third out of nine teams overall.

Well done to: Megan Jones, Arron Perry, Ben Pratt, Nicole Turner, Leah Carvell, Ellie Ecclestone.

Premier League 4 Sport Football

The girls at STB are coached by Andrew Frost, from Stoke City, every Friday after school as part of the Premier League 4 Sport project.

The Under 16 girls’ six-a-side team took part for Stoke City in the Premier League competition run at Wolverhampton Wanderers Training Academy on Thursday 11th February. Stoke City provided the kit and the girls looked very professional as they ran onto the 3G pitch in the Wolves Dome. They played a round robin competition against teams representing West Brom, Wolves, Derby and Aston Villa.

The games were only seven minutes one way, on small pitches and every game proved to be a tight affair. In total, STB won 2, drew 4 and lost 2 games so just failed to make the final (West Brom beat Wolves 1-0). The girls did themselves proud and were a credit to STB. Andrew Frost, the coach for the Womens and Girls teams at Stoke City, commented on the excellent attitude and behaviour of the girls throughout the day.

After the games, there was a question and answer session which involved England women’s footballer Emily Westwood and Wolves first team players, goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak and captain Sam Rickets.

Well done to: Evie Holt, Charlie Awde, Beth Askey(c), Caitlin Phillips, Grace Machin, Abbie Mae Rathbone, Abbi Roberts and Jade Thornhill.

S P O R T S R E P O R T

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District Swimming Gala 2015

STB took part in the Newcastle District Swimming Gala in February

at Clough Hall Leisure Centre. The team faced very strong opposition with club swimmers and even a British record holder. All the swimmers performed to the best of their ability. Ashleigh Barnett finished second overall in her race and Sophie Barnett finished third in her race. Overall the teams did not make the top three places but enjoyed the experience.

Well done to: (Girls) Mia Hughes, Alice Nixon, Isabella Clarke, Fran Cope, Fay Ashley, Ashleigh Barnett, Sophie Barnett, Leah Carvell, Shannon Fahey, (Boys) Sam Windsor, Harvey Todd, Mason West, Cain Carvell,Callum Allport, Robbie Cotterill, Harrison Beard, Jack Pitchford, David Benton, Nathan Williams.

AthleticsMollie Morris represented Stoke AC in the Midlands Counties competition at the Birmingham NIA last weekend. She finished third in the 200m final and now qualifies for the next race. Well done Mollie and good luck in the next round.

County Cup Semi Final

The under 15 girls football team played in the semi -finals of the County

Cup this week at Clayton High School against Kingsmead School of Cannock. The first half was a close contest with Evie Holt making some good saves in goal to keep the score 0-0 at half time.In the first minute of the second half, STB conceded a free kick just outside the area and the Kingsmead England triallist scored with a curving free kick in the top right hand corner.They then scored a second goal shortly afterwards to make it 0-2. STB fought on and had three close chances in the second half that on another day would have gone in. Two late goals by Kingsmead put the game beyond doubt but the STB players can hold their heads up high for their attitude and endeavour during the game.

Well done to: Evie Holt, Courtney Bridgwood, Charlie Awde (Captain), Savannah Matthews, Sophie Roberts, Emma Hancock, Nicole Turner, Caitlin O’Sullivan, Megan Askey, Esmee Holt, Megan Jones.

STB U13 Netball League Winners

The Year 8 netball team have been playing matches on Wednesdays over December

and January. They have done extremely well and, with Wolstanton and Madeley also having strong teams, the fight for the top position was fierce. At the end of the league, the Boughey girls had won four games and lost one. However, in the four games that they won, they managed to tot up an impressive 58 goals and the defence only let in 14 goals. Our loss was to Madeley where they only just beat us by two goals.

The final three positions were as follows:

3rd - Madeley with 20 points.

2nd - Wolstanton with 21 points.

And in 1st position was Sir Thomas Boughey with 22 points.

Congratulations girls - a well deserved victory.

The U13 netball squad consists of:

Rachel Glover (Captain), Loan Nuguyen, Mollie Davis, Faye Ashley (most improved player), Maddison Smith, Lucy McManus, Rebecca Day, Dilara O’Donnell, Rachel Sillitto and Maia Nistoreanu.

U13 Girls Football Tournament

STB entered two teams into the Stoke City organised six-a-side girls football competition. 27 teams entered the competition, played at Power League

in Trentham Lakes. The A team consisted of Year 7 and 8 players, whilst the B team had all Year 7 players.

The B team struggled against older opposition and lost their games, but it was a good experience for them to see how the competition runs and to be ready next year, when they are Year 8s. The A team’s league was a close affair and they won two games and lost two games. Unfortunately if they had scored one more goal, they would have gone through to the quarter finals.

The girls were a credit to the school and tried their best. Well done to: Charlotte Parry, Brooke Phillips, Hannah Grocott, Sophie Gilbert, Eleanor Connelly, Lottie Carman, Summer Chamberlain, Chloe Matthews, Chloe Pointon, Georgia Draper, Megan Jackson, Lucy Benson, Alice Nixon.

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Regional Final of FutureChef

Well done to William Axon who competed in the Regional Final of the FutureChef competition, in Birmingham on Saturday 7th February 2015.

William arrived at the College of Food with slight nerves but settled himself quickly. The hour and half began. He worked exceptionally well, with an audience of parents, teachers, mentors and judges eagerly awaiting the outcome.

His paella dish was outstanding, the Bakewell Tart and Crème Fraîche ice cream were also extremely well presented. William had practised his dishes over and over again so Saturday was all about going out there and showing the judges what he could do.

It was a tough call for the judges; one of the seven would go through to the National Final in March. On the day, it was a 16 year old from Bromsgrove who won. He had won the same Regional Final last year but had gone away and made his dishes better this time around.

A huge well done must go to Will. The effort and continued practice is what gets people to this level. What an experience! This news should inspire everyone and encourage those of you interested in cooking to practise at home and perfect your recipes in time for next year’s competition. It takes time and continued effort to improve the dishes you have, especially when they are judged by some of the UK’s top chefs!

GCSE Catering Practical Exams – March 2015The GCSE Catering practical examinations were held March 2nd - 4th 2015. Students were tasked with producing a two-course meal within three hours.

The meals were planned out carefully over many weeks, and all of the students practised making their dishes before the examination. It was a pleasure to facilitate these exams, and the standard of cooking skills was incredibly high. Students had thought about the table decorations and how to present their foods.

The examinations were worth 20% of the students overall GCSE Catering grade. This piece of Controlled Assessment contributes to 40% overall, with the planning and evaluation work being very important too. Well done to the Catering students involved.

The Term Times is produced twice a term by Sir Thomas Boughey High School. Some copies are printed, but it is also available from our website www.stb.coop. If you have an active e-mail address and would like to be

informed when a new issue is available, then please visit our website and sign up to our e-mail distribution list newsletter.stb.coop.

Wednesday 1st April ������������������� 3rd Annual Memorial Evening in honour of Mrs Thorley PlattThursday 2nd April ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������school closes for EasterThursday 16th April ������������������������������������������������������������������������������� school reopens for all pupilsMonday 20th to Friday 24th April ������������������������������������������������������������������� Yr 10 ExaminationsThursday 30th April ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������Yr 7 Parents’ EveningFriday 1st May ����������������������������������������������������� Staff Training Day (school closed to all pupils)Monday 4th May ����������������������������������������������������������������school closed - May Day Bank HolidayTuesday 5th to Friday 8th May �������������������������������������������������������������������������� Yr 8 ExaminationsThursday 21st May ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Celebration of MusicFriday 22nd May ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������school closes for half termMonday 1st June �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� school reopens for all pupils Thursday 4th June�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Art & Poetry Evening

Dates for Your Diary