THE FERRERS SHOOL NEWSLETTER AUTUMN TERM 2 2019 …€¦ · & 11, Student Progress Review Evenings, The Winter Showcase and the hristmas arol Service. ... being the best that they

The Ferrers School, Queensway, Higham Ferrers,

Northamptonshire, NN10 8LF

T: 01933 313411 E:[email protected]

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Term Dates

Update from the Principal

As the autumn term ends, it is time to reflect upon what has been a very busy and purposeful term in which we saw the successful launch of both Academic Mentoring and Pledges at The Ferrers School.

Many thanks to those who supported through the Parent Forum meetings in Term 1 & 2 and all those who attended our Curriculum Evenings for Years 10 & 11, Student Progress Review Evenings, The Winter Showcase and the Christmas Carol Service.

We have been inundated with donations for the Christmas Hampers and these will be distributed within the community in the final week of term. Thank you sincerely for all the donations, which support some of the most vulnerable members of our community.

Students have also been rehearsing very hard for Matilda which takes place in February and you will be able to purchase a ticket in the New Year. There have been some great experiences and visits this term as well and a few examples of these include:

• Women into STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths)

• The Skills Show

• Visit by the Nicola Ager and her Barista Bus

• Cold War Museum at RAF Cosford

• Birmingham Christmas Market

• Visit by Graham Broughton from Truck East

• GCSE PE students climbing at Pinnacle in Northampton

Student experience and extending the boundaries of learning continue to be areas we look to enhance and develop in 2020 and beyond.

I wish you a very restful Christmas break with families and friends and look forward to welcoming everyone back Monday 6th January 2020 for the start of the Spring term. Thank you all for your continued support of all that we do at the School.

THE FERRERS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER AUTUMN TERM 2 2019

School closes for

Christmas

20th December

2019

School re-opens 6th January 2020

School closes for

half term

14th February 2020

School re-opens 24th February 2020

School closes for

Easter

3rd April 2020

School re-opens 21st April 2020

School closes for

Bank Holiday

8th May 2020

School closes for

half term

22nd May 2020

School re-opens 1st June 2020

School closes for

Summer

17th July 2020

School re-opens 2nd September

2020

School closes for

half term

23rd October 2020





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Update from the Chief Executive Officer, Mr Mark Woods

It is unfortunate that bad news makes better headlines than good news. Recently, the national news has focused on the small number of academy trusts that have let the rest of us down. The Confederation of School Trusts (CST) are working to take control of the narrative to make sure that the communities we serve are aware of what we do.

• Academy and Multi-Academy Trusts are education charities that run schools to give children a better future

• Over half of pupils in state schools attend academies

• We help our local communities thrive by giving children the best opportunities to learn inside and outside the classroom

• A trust is a group of schools working in collaboration as one entity to improve and maintain high educational standards across the group.

A trust has a single legal and moral purpose: to advance education for the public benefit.

In CMAT, mainly as a result of our Cambridgeshire Village College philosophical roots, we have a second charitable objective: to make the school a hub for community use.

Two recent examples that we are proud of that demonstrate these objectives have occurred in one village, Sawtry. The Junior Academy was graded “Good” by Ofsted for the first time since 2007 which is reflection of the excellent work of the team within the school, and of the way in which the school has been able to draw on the expertise of our wider primary team. On December 1st, the village leisure centre facilities returned to the control of the Village Academy. This will be of huge benefit to the schools in the village and the community.

Another common misunderstanding is who trustees are and what they do. They are volunteers, in the same way as school governors (academy council members). The board review their skills annually and we work to maintain a very strong group. We were joined by three new trustees at the start of this year:

Mike Griffiths – Mike was the headteacher at Deacon’s School in Peterborough. During this time, Mike appointed both myself and Martin Bacon to the school.

Sean Hayes – until April this year, Sean was the headteacher at St John Fisher in Peterborough.

Judy Slater – Until August, Judy was the headteacher of Glenwood School, a special school in Benfleet, Essex.

All three of these retired recently after long and distinguished careers “advancing education for the public benefit” and I am sure will contribute to our improvement journey.

We are always on the look out for people willing to volunteer their time to develop our governance. Whether in local academy councils, trust policy and scrutiny committees (we are currently looking for support in our Personnel and Audit committees) or when there are vacancies for trustees.





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Don’t forget, if your son or daughter takes part in any

community or regular extra-curricular out of school activity,

they may be able to have a PLEDGE awarded.

PLEDGES is an awards system which offers students a range

of character-building opportunities that enhance their

learning and development. The PLEDGE system aims to encourage and support many important qualities in students such as

leadership, citizenship, moral purpose, sense of community and collective responsibility. Some examples of students working

towards pledges below .

Caitlin from Franklin House showing off her skills, she will be using Horse Riding as one of her GCSE PE Practicals. Great Work Caitlin! Her competitions can also go towards her

Sam from Brunel House (yr10) donated 2

full bags to the Sanctuary Night

Collection

A comment from social media said

“what an absolutely amazing young man,

a credit to his parents, and a hero of

mine! He is one incredible young man”

And we all agree

Well done Sam!

Young Carers Christmas Shopping Trip

Christmas can be a challenging time for Young Carers with them often taking on additional responsibilities and feeling under additional pressure. This year we took 14 of our Young Carers on a Christmas shopping trip to Rushden Lakes where they were able to spend a couple of hours browsing the shops, purchasing Christmas gifts for themselves or others, and socialising with other Young Carers. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Demi-Lee commented - This shopping trip was a great experience, I was able to treat myself and also buy a present for my mum. It was also good to have some time to myself and be able to talk to people who have similar responsibilities as myself. I have made extra friends and it was easier to connect with them knowing that they also have a caring responsibility. I found it really supportive knowing that people are there’

We are working with Northamptonshire Young Carers to support our young people. If you think that you might be a young carer, or a parent of a young carer, please make contact the school and ask to speak with Emma Odell or Allie Orage.

Further information about Young Carers can be found at https://www.northamptonshire-carers.org/young-carers

https://www.northamptonshire-carers.org/young-carers



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Brunel House

Senior Tutor Review - Mr Matt Jackson

Term 2 has been an extremely busy term for students in Brunel and they have once again

excelled themselves with their commitment and dedication, during both lessons and extra-

curricular activities and events. Many students have continued their phenomenal start to the

school year and have been recognised for their pride, independence and collaborative approach

to school life whilst demonstrating a great deal of resilience during the past two, very hectic,

months. The focus from myself and all Brunel staff has continued to revolve around students

being the best that they can be and as such the majority of Brunel House continue to amaze with

their high levels of self-motivation and self-management.

Two groups that have particularly excelled over the past term are Year 7 and Year

11.

Year 7 have continued their successful transition from Junior to Secondary School.

They are a delightful cohort and have truly thrown themselves into the many

aspects of Secondary School life.

Year 11 have recently endured 2 weeks of Pre-Public Examinations and throughout this very stressful and challenging

time they conducted themselves superbly and were a credit to themselves, their families and their House.

Students have continued to respond positively and appropriately to messages given out regarding the importance of

attending school as often as possible. 146 Brunel students have 96% or above attendance and 90 of these have 100%

attendance for Term 2. This once again reflects the dedication and commitment from the majority of students within

the House.

There have also unfortunately been a few serious injuries and illnesses over the past six weeks and I am pleased to

report that students are on the mend and have demonstrated impressive fortitude in their battle to return to school at

the earliest opportunity.

Students and staff have been driving the PLEDGES system all term and I am immensely proud to inform you that six

Brunel students are the first students in the whole school to be awarded the Bronze award. This is a fantastic

achievement; huge congratulations to all six. The students are Euan (Year 7), Ted (Year 8), Anysia (Year 8) Millie (Year

10), Amelia (Year 10), and Jude (Year 10). Congratulations to them all.



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Brunel House

Over the past term particular successes that deserve individual recognition are identified below. A total of 6,567

Achievement Points have been awarded to Brunel students over the past weeks.

Abigail x2 (Year 7), Arabella (Year 10), Euan Year 7), James (Year 9) and Isabel Year 7) have all been recognised as

‘Stars of the Week’ in assemblies for their individual Achievement Points totals.

A total of 140 students have received 0 behaviour points over the course of the term with a further 7 students

receiving only 1 behaviour point during this time. This clearly demonstrates that the vast majority of Brunel students

are able to meet the expectations of the school and regularly work hard to be the best they can be.

The recent Expressive Arts Winter Showcase included a number of Brunel

students, all of whom performed amazingly. Miss Hirtsch has recognised two Year

8 boys, Kiegan and Niall for particular praise.

During the recent ‘Sing for Serve’ event where Ferrers students sang to a

gathering of local elderly residents Sarah, (Year 8), played a prominent role and

Daniel , (Year 9), performed exceptionally during the Carol Concert.

Inter-form Cross-country was held within PE this term and Brunel students absolutely smashed it! 21 students from

Brunel occupied a top 9 place amongst the various competitions. Charlie won the boys Year 9 event, Charlotte won

the Year 8 girls’ competition, whilst Kieran came third amongst Year 8 boys. Twins John and Stephen were second

and third respectively in the Year 7 boys’ race. A great effort all around, well done all!

The Year 7 football team recently won the Wellingborough District 7 a-side competition and Brunel were highly

represented with 5 boys playing some part in the success. Congratulations to: John, Stephen, Reuben, Callum and

Frank .

Molly, Charlotte and Emily have been recognised for their dedication to GCSE Dance; Miss Hirtsch is extremely

impressed with the practical performances of each girl. 13 students from Brunel had successful auditions for the next

school show, Matilda. Break a leg guys and gals!

As you can see Term 2 has continued on from where Term 1 finished with Brunel students excelling across all areas of

a hectic school life.

As Senior Tutor I remain immensely proud of Brunel House and I look forward to many more successes and

achievements as we move into the New Year. Finally, can I take this opportunity to wish all students, parents, carers

and colleagues a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.



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Brunel House

Art, Design & Technology

Our Year 11 students have been working extremely hard on their NEAs (non-exam assessment/

coursework) part of their GCSE qualifications and doing well keeping up with some challenging

deadlines. Whilst doing this, they’ve also been revising hard and taking their pre-public

examinations, in training for the next summer exam season.

We were also overwhelmed by the amount and high standard of student entries for The

Ferrers annual Christmas card competition.

Many congratulations go to Alex from Year 8 Turing House for the winning entry, which is

being used this year. A special mention also for the very close runners up:

Charlotte – Turing House

Ben – Turing House

Megan – Brunel House

Amber – Franklin House

Scarlett – Brunel House

Alyssa - Brunel House

Women in STEAM

Following last term’s Year 9 students visit to Milton Keynes University to find out what

engineering routes could potentially offer for their future, this term a number of girls from

Years 9, 10 and 11 went to the ‘Women in Steam’ event.

Students participated in a variety of workshops designed to highlight educational and

workplace opportunities for girls interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and

Maths related workplaces – from apprenticeships at Dr Marten’s footwear to zoological

careers.



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Franklin House

Senior Tutor Review - Mrs Fleming

Franklin House continues to go from strength to strength and some Franklin students are

really starting to shine. A special mention should go to our stars of the term:

Y7 Victoria & Charlie Y8 Amber & David

Y9 Kristers & Caitlin Y10 James & Emma

Y11 Chelsea & Josh

I have been asking different departments for feedback about our fantastic students and

here are just some of the comments to give you a flavour of what is going on in Franklin

House. In Dance Kyle , Jack, Scarlett and Jack have been ‘fantastic in their Dance lessons! They should be proud of how

much they have achieved this term!’ from Miss Hirtsch & Miss Harrison.

In Media, Mrs Daniels recognised the following students for high expectations and working to a high standard:

Year 10: Jake , Ellie , Scout , Year 9: Molly and recognised for independence and challenge Year 9: Lilly

In Spanish a number of Franklin students are smashing it!

Year 7 Alfie Ruby & Viktorija

Year 8 Lexie & Dylan

Year 9 Jack

Year 10 Eleanor

In January we will be launching our 20 day attendance challenge for students whose attendance is between 90-95%, to

help them achieve the school target and improve their attendance. However, a significant number of Franklin students

have 100% attendance and will be rewarded in the final week of term. Attendance is key to academic success.

It has been a very busy term 2, but I am proud of the way in which the students have conducted themselves. Year 11

Franklin students were excellent during their two-week Pre-Public Examinations (also known as Mocks!). Let’s hope

the hard work has paid off. In January the Year 11 students will be introduced to the Passport to the Prom and other

revision steps to success. As I write this there are only 19 school weeks left before exam season kicks in for our

students.

Thank you to all members of Franklin House for another excellent term and, on behalf of them all, I would like to take

this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I look forward to the continued successes of

Franklin House students in the new term.



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Franklin House

PE Department

Year 7 CV Football Competition

Over the last 4 weeks, Ferrers have been a part of a new 7 aside district football competition for Year 7. There have been many boys involved with Mr Freris and Mr Jackson rotating the squad regularly to ensure all students have had an opportunity to play following large numbers at training each week. During the main phase of the competition Ferrers finished unbeaten in their qualifying games; winning 4 and drawing 2 games. This meant that we qualified with Huxlow, Manor and Wollaston for the finals night of the cup competition. After a sluggish start in the first game with many missed chances, Wollaston nicked it with a few minutes left thanks to a fantastic half volley from 20 yards. A disappointing start but credit to the boys for not letting their heads drop as they entered the second match against Manor School.

With some renewed energy, the Year 7 boys started quickly and were soon 2-0 up. With Mr Freris rotating the team to keep them fresh, the boys competed well right up to the final whistle where they ran out 3-0 winners. With the other result going the way of the losing team in the other first round of games, this meant that all 4 teams had one win and one loss going in to the last round with everything to play for.

After a quiet first few minutes in the third match against Huxlow, the boys came in to life and within the space of 5 minutes were 3-0 up and cruising. Like the match against Manor, the boys put in a very professional performance dominating the play running out 4-0 winners eventually. This meant that due to our superior goal difference, Ferrers Year 7 students became district champions. The boys have been an absolute credit and have so much promise for the future! Special mentions of consistent performances week in, week out go to George, Jake and Reuben.

District Cross Country Competition

Over 40 students from Years 7-9 represented the school at the district cross-country competition. All the students competed brilliantly with a number of students qualifying for the county competition below.

U13 Boys – Reuben, Callum, Steven.

U15 Boys – Charlie, Keiran..

U13 Girls – Viktorija, Olivia, Myah.

U15 Girls – Lucy, Charlotte, Zara.

Year 9 County Cup Rugby

On the back of finishing second at the County Schools Rugby Competition last Year, the year 9 rugby team took on a strong Bishop Stopford side in the hope of progressing in to the next round of the county cup. A close game between the two sides was separated by a couple of small errors and the run of the ball with Ferrers losing 21-7. The boys really do have fantastic potential and hopefully they can come back strong from this and work to keep getting better individually and as a unit.



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Franklin House

Inter-house Cross-Country Competition

During PE lessons, the first house competition took place with all students in Years 7-9 competing in a x-country competition. There were many standout individual performances but one house dominated across most of the age groups. Please see the results below. Congratulations to Brunel.

Final Totals

Under 18 ESFA National Cup Game

With a number of sixth form students unavailable, a mixture of students were thrust together to play Moulton in the 3rd round of the ESFA National Cup. A sloppy first 15 minutes meant the game was going to be a real struggle with the score line quickly going to 3-0 down. The boys showed great grit to get themselves back in to the game; pulling it back to 3-1 and dominating the play in large periods but with a number of missed chances could not fully complete the comeback. Special mentions to Year 11’s Alfie and Dan as well as sixth former Max.

Year 7/8 District Dodgeball Competition

The dodgeball club on Fridays after school has been very popular with many students from year 7, 8 & 9 turning up, enjoying a very active and fun activity with their peers. Over the weeks, numbers have been growing and every Friday there are at least 25 students there. The club has been a great start to the weekend for many students with many developing several skills and tactics that proved to be very useful in the recent District Dodgeball competition. Our school was represented by 2 teams, a Year 7 and a Year 8 team, many members of which had been identified through the afterschool club.

Some key fixtures/dates in the school sporting calendar

Tuesday 7th

January

Ski Trip Snowdome Trip @ Xscape, Milton Keynes.

Tuesday 14th

January

Year 7/8 Girls District Futsal Competi-tions @ SCH/Manor School.

Thursday 16th

January

Year 7/8 Boys District Futsal Competi-tions @ SCH/Manor School.

Tuesday 21st

January

Year 9/10 Girls District Futsal Competi-tions @ SCH/Manor School.

Thursday 23rd

January

Year 9/10 Boys District Futsal Competi-tions @ SCH/Manor School

Thursday 30th

January

Year 11 Boys District Futsal Competi-tion @ SCH/Manor School

Friday 14th

February

2020 Ski Trip to St Anton, Austria.

Brunel Franklin Turing Woolf

Year 7 447 251 310 292

1st 4th 2nd 3rd

Year 8 473 278 278 271

1st 2nd 2nd 4th

Year 9 348 326 337 289

1st 3rd 2nd 4th



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Franklin House

On the day our teams played in two different groups with the year 7s finishing top of their group and the year 8s finishing 2nd ,after losing the extra-time against Huxlow. That meant that one semi-final would be the two Ferrers teams against each other.

The first set was won by the year 7s who put the pressure on the year 8s. The year 8s came back winning the 2nd set which meant that it was all down to the 3rd and final set to find out who would make the final. After a nervy final set where both teams took the lead at times, the Year 8s edged it in the final minute taking them to the final against Huxlow. This was a very close game, but again it was decided in the final game with Huxlow beating us 2-1. In the other match, the Year 7s comfortably beat their opposition to finish 3rd overall.

This result means that the Year 8 team qualify for the County Finals in February where last year our school finished 2nd in the county. The Year 7s received some valuable experiences as they will have another opportunity in the same competition next year. They demonstrated great resilience, teamwork and discipline throughout the competition. A number of rival students and PE teachers from other school commented on their excellent game plan, team work, communication and the manner in which the Year 7s carried themselves through the competition.

One thing is certain that both teams represented our school with pride and equally our school should be proud of their character, attitude and achievements.

Science

Science are pleased to announce the introduction of the new online learning platform EDUCAKE for Keystage 3 and 4. This enables students to take charge of their learning, instantly get feedback on what they know and what they don’t, and extend any areas which are proving troublesome. Most of Educake's questions are not multiple choice. Instead, the student types in a short answer (up to three words). This means teachers can see what students really think, rather than just their best guess from a list. Parents, watch out for links to Educake on student’s homework !



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Turing House

Senior Tutor Review - Mrs Dean

‘’This is only a foretaste of what is to come and only the shadow of what is going to be’’

Academic Mentoring Students in all year groups have now had discussions with their form tutor since September

about progress in this academic year so far. Please contact your child’s form tutor if you would like further

information on this.

Attendance Turing House average attendance since September is 96%.

We have a pleasing number of students who have achieved 100% attendance, as the figures below show:

Term 1 93 students

Term 2 102 students

Sept 4th – Dec 6th – 57 students.

Well done to these students and I look forward to seeing this number increase in

the new year

Achievement Points Once again, I am proud to be able to say that we have continued to lead the way since the

start of the new academic year with House points. Our total as of 6th December is 11,196 points, but the gap is

closing!!

Well done and congratulations to the following students who have been our House Stars of the week:

W/E 8th November: Syrah-Rose [T6]

15th November: Cassie [T1]

22nd November: Alexandra [T8]

29th November: Callum [T6]

6th December: Ellis [T1]



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Turing House

Turing House Stars of Term 2 will be announced in our final House assembly on the last day of term for 100%

attendance, zero behaviour points and highest number of achievement points.

As always, it’s been a very busy term 2, but I am proud of the way in which the students have conducted themselves.

Year 11 students were fantastic during their two-week Pre-Public Examinations and I hope their hard work has paid

off.

Well done to all Turing House students who took part in the Winter Showcase and for their commitment and

dedication to the Expressive Arts.

Congratulations to the girls and boys in years 7, 8 & 9 for their effort in the first Inter-House Cross Country

competition – I’m delighted that Turing House were 2nd overall in the results.

Huge congratulations to Alexandra [T8] for her winning Christmas Card design which is stunning.

Students have been busy making and preparing their Tutor group Christmas Hampers – a longstanding tradition at the

Ferrers and greatly appreciated by members of the local community.

Thank you to all members of Turing House for another excellent term and, on behalf of them all, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas and New Year. I look forward to the continued successes of Turing House students in the new term.

GO TEAM TURING!!

Geography

Over this half-term, the Geographers have been exploring aspects of the world around them. Years 7 & 8 have focused on how water effects the land we live on with Year 7 studying on River Landscapes Year 8 investigating Coastal Landscapes. Year 9 have been investigating how the weather around the world is changing and can affect the ways in which we live. Year 10 have visited to Cambridge to investigate traffic within a city also experiencing aspects of the world famous University and even a Climate Change protest!

Finally, Year 11 have continued to look at the economy of the world, particularly the UK and began to perfect their examination skills in completing their Pre-Public Examinations.



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Turing House

History

“Raise the drawbridge!” Year 7 made a real impact by producing some castle homework models worthy of a King. They have also been getting to grips with how William the Conqueror kept himself firmly in control of an England that positively despised him, while also deciding whether King John was really a cowardly king.

Year 8 have been learning about the terrible Atlantic slave trade, and its effects on the people and world it was part of, while also assessing how Britain was changed by the Industrial Revolution.

Year 9 and Year 10 have been learning about how the cultured men of the Renaissance helped medicine progress, as well as how “bloody awful” operations in the Victorian period were. Bang and the world is gone!

Year 11 have been learning just how dangerous the 1940’s and 1950’s were, as they analysed a world with the constant spectre of nuclear destruction hanging above the heads of the superpowers. Year 11 were also enthralled as they went on a trip to the National Cold War Exhibition at RAF Cosford, where they could get hands on with the weapons and hot spots of the apocalypse that, thankfully, never happened.



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Turing House

Maths - Supporting Maths Learning

A reminder of some useful websites that you should be using:

Maths Genie - www.mathsgenie.co.uk/gcse.html

Corbett Maths—www.corbettmaths.com/revision/practice-questions/ - Graded GCSE practice questions, solutions and videos

to support your child through each topic.

Mathedup -www.mathedup.co.uk/gcse-maths-takeaway/ - GCSE Maths takeaway. Past paper questions and answers by topic including videos to support their learning.

Mathsdoctor -www.mathsdoctor.co.uk/resources/ - Useful video clips to assist understanding of topics

Maths Homework

Homework is set once a week by your child’s Maths teacher. Homework is set to ensure your child reinforces what they have learnt in lesson and to support their extended learning.

We have a designated Maths Homework club, every Thursday lunchtime in H6. Laptops will be available to allow students to complete their MathsWatch homework.

Students login go in the following format: Username: surnamefirstname@theferrers Password: Students should be aware of this

Any difficulties with MathsWatch and homework please contact your child’s Maths teacher.

PiXL details include: School ID: FR5527 UserID: surnamefirstname Password: Students should be aware of this

Next Term’s Topics—Below are the topics that are coming up next term. Why not do some flipped learning and find out about these topics before the actual lesson. Search each topic in MathsWatch.

Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Year 10

Angles Constructions Percentages Introduction to algebra

Special triangles and

Quadrilaterals Angle facts and properties Sequences Rearranging formulae

Unit Conversions Unit conversions Perimeter and area Volume

Symmetry Area of 2D Shapes Circumferences and area Sketching graphs

http://www.mathsgenie.co.uk/gcse.html

http://www.corbettmaths.com/revision/practice-questions/

http://www.mathsdoctor.co.uk/resources/



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Woolf House

What a fantastic Term 2 we have had as Woolf House! As always, I am very proud to call

myself Woolf House Senior Tutor as this term we have had a rise in achievement points and

are now narrowing the gap on Turing House, but also our attendance is showing

improvements too. It has been lovely to see all of our Year 7 students now settled within the

school and really finding their feet.

One of my main highlights of this term is how amazing our Year 11 students have been

during their Pre-Public Examinations. They have been impeccably behaved and tried their

very best, which is all I can ask for. Woolf House Champions of

Term 2 will be announced in our final House assembly on the last day of term, so watch this

space as I don’t want to give away any spoilers just yet!

Achievement Points

Woolf House has had a second term with a total of 10,903 Achievement Points! This is an

amazing achievement and we will be praising all Woolf students on our final rewards

assembly on the last day. We are currently in 2nd place now which is a vast improvement

over Term 1. I am so proud of all of my Woolf students who have worked hard and really

come together to boost our achievement not only individually but as a House. As well as the House Achievement

points competition, I am running an interform Achievement Points competition. Here are the current totals:

Well done to all tutor groups in Woolf House but in 1st Place we have W2 with 1790 points! Let’s see if they can hold

their lead during Term 3.

Tutor Group Achievement Points

Woolf 1 1737

Woolf 2 1790

Woolf 3 1445

Woolf 4 956

Woolf 5 1199

Woolf 6 1009

Woolf 7 906

Woolf 8 924

Woolf 9 937



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Woolf House

Now to the Top 3 students with the highest Achievement Points in Term 2. Well done to:

3rd – Shay W1 137 points

2ND – Katie W2 162 points

1st – Maisy W1 168 points

Also, a special mention must go out to both Maisy and Katie as they are

currently the 1st and 2nd place highest achievement points in the entire

school, across all year groups! Well done girls I am very proud of you.

Attendance

We have 45 students in Woolf House who all have 100% attendance! Huge congratulations to you all, it is very

important that students are punctual and are in lessons, so they can achieve their full potential. Every lesson really

does count! These students will receive rewards during the last week of term.

Our House Attendance for Term 2 is 94.4%, which needs to improve to 96% or higher for Term 3. It is vital that each

student, and our House total is 96% or above. Having good attendance will have an important part to play on each

student’s overall progress.

Christmas Hampers

In Term 2 we launched our annual Christmas Hamper competition for 2019 and can I say Woolf House is looking

strong! We have a very competitive team of form tutors and their tutees all battling it out to win the Christmas

Hamper competition. I will share photos of our top hampers in a future newsletter but watch this space they look

fantastic already!

Winter Showcase

I had the pleasure of watching so many Woolf students perform in the Winter Showcase again this year, and as always

you make me so proud. I even shed a tear watching from the wings! It was lovely to see so many Woolf students

singing, dancing, or performing - we have a talented bunch. But what I enjoy seeing the most is the backstage

memories that are created. Some of my favourite memories of being at school are the shows I was involved in as a

student. With it being some of our Year 7’s first ever Ferrers school show, to our Year 11’s possible last ever Winter

Showcase it was a delightful evening! Well done to all who took part, you are a credit to our House and the school.

Term 2 has been a promising term for our Woolf team and students, and on behalf of myself and the team I would like

to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2020! I look forward to welcoming all students back in January

with their new year resolutions and get ready to help them achieve them.



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Woolf House

English

Year 7 BookBuzz

Bookbuzz is a reading programme from the BooksTrust which aims to help schools inspire a love of reading in 11 to 13-year-olds. For the second year running, all students in Year 7 have been given the opportunity to choose their own book free of charge to take home and keep, from a list of 17 titles. Each book in the title is carefully selected by a panel of experts to ensure quality, suitability and to encourage reading for pleasure. At present all students are reading their free Bookbuzz book as part of their dedicated weekly Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar lesson, during the Literacy slot of their Tutor programme and as part of Drop Everything and Read (DEAR). In the new term, students will also be able to participate in a Book Review Competition of their BookBuzz book, as well as a book exchange. This will give students the opportunity to enjoy other books from this year’s Bookbuzz programme.

Year 7 students enjoying their new Bookbuzz book.

Watch out for further information relating to the BookBuzz Book Review Competition and Book Swap.



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Hughes House

Hughes House

Hughes House has enjoyed a fantastic term two with much to celebrate. Year 12 have settled in to Sixth Form life

incredibly well and are already proving to be an asset and a talented group of young people; we are very excited to see

how the Sixth Form continues to develop with them on board.

Year 13 students are all focused and working hard in their final year. Most UCAS applications

for university courses have now been sent and offers are coming in daily. So far just over one

third of all offers have come from prestigious Russell Group universities. We would like to

extend a massive ‘Congratulations’ to all students who have received offers to date, and the very best of luck to those

awaiting offers, are on interview over the next few weeks or are still to complete their applications. The deadline for

application through UCAS is 15th January, so do not delay.

Attendance: Attendance has been good this term. Whilst it would be unfair to judge Sixth Form students on the

number with 100% attendance in this term with so many attending University Open Days and interviews, we are still

very impressed with the 24% of all students maintaining full attendance – well done to those students.

Congratulations to Hughes 1 for the highest attendance of the term and with 60% of students maintaining outstanding

attendance.

Silent Study Sessions As a TENC-wide initiative, all students have now had a Silent

Study Session added to their timetable. The intention of this is to provide at least one hour

per week in which students are given a focused environment to study without distractions.

After our first week, we have had very positive feedback from many students who are

experiencing the benefits and have packed in loads of revision and preparation work. We

would like to remind students that the Study Centre and the Computer Room in the Sixth Form are both intended to

be quiet working spaces; please respect the needs of other students around you. There is also a small bookable room

for silent study – please see Mrs Austin.

Trips, Elections and Lead Students

This term has seen a number of exciting trips going out, including the PiXL6 ‘Getting into your Top Choice Universities’

conference; the EPQ University of Northampton Library trip and the Year 12 Maths Conference at the University of

Cambridge.

We took the General Election as an opportunity to introduce students to their first experience of voting with students

experiencing a ‘Mock Election’ on 12th December.

Our Lead Students, Cynthia and Adam have been working hard to support extra-curricular activities in the main school,

by engaging volunteer Sixth Form students to run clubs on behalf of each of the faculties.



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Hughes House

Hughes House

Year 11 applications

Mrs Wilson, Mr Judge and I have been conducting interviews with the students applying for

Sixth Form at The Ferrers over the past 2 weeks. It has been a delight getting to know some

of the students who I have not had the pleasure of teaching in the lower school. We are all

really excited to be welcoming you in September. If you did not have an interview and would

like one, please contact Mrs Austin in the Hughes House office.

All applicants are invited to attend a residential trip to the University of Kent in Canterbury from 22nd to 23rd June

2020. This is a fantastic opportunity to socialise, mix and get to know the staff and other students from the three TENC

schools, and includes a range of activities. Letters have been sent to all Year 11 parents this week. The deadline for

reserving your place is 6th March.

Mock Interview Week

Year 13 students who have applied to Oxford or Cambridge Universities, or medicine, dentistry, veterinary or nursing courses can all expect to be interviewed as part of the university application process. To ensure that TENC students are well prepared for the rigours and challenges of an academic interview, we organise a programme where outside specialists are invited in to carry out mock interviews. The evening is intense and challenging, and we are

hugely grateful to our team of interviewers (Doctors Dentists Lawyers and other academics) who gave up their time to help our students in such a professional way. Although very nervous beforehand, our students were amazing and the interviewing team were very impressed with their performance. Dr Stovin described our medics as "the best" he'd ever worked with! We hope that the preparation pays off and they perform really well at their forthcoming interviews.



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Hughes House

On Tuesday November 12th, Year 12 students from the three TENC schools were invited to attend a conference at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry to find out more about applying to top UK universities. They all found the event helpful and informative and felt it had really given them guidance in terms of them making successful applications of their own next year.

Documents

THE FERRERS SHOOL NEWSLETTER AUTUMN TERM 2 2019 …€¦ · & 11, Student Progress Review Evenings, The Winter Showcase and the hristmas arol Service. ... being the best that they