Blenheim Bulletin

December 2015 Issue 133

Bulletin

Dear Parents / Carers, As we arrive at the end of a very successful term, I would like to thank students, staff and parents for the kindness you have all shown in supporting our charities and food bank initiative. It is wonderful to be able to share gifts with those less fortunate than us during this festive time. The newsletter is packed with reports of the exciting and enriching adventures that students have experienced recently. I am also delighted to report that in terms of academic success, our value added scores have once again increased. At this time of year, the Department for Education and Ofsted release their annual summary of GCSE results for secondary schools across the country. We were delighted that once again, students at Blenheim achieved results that were significantly higher than those realised by other students nationally. Whilst this is pleasing for the percentage of our students achieving 5 or more good GCSEs including English and Maths, of greater significance are a school’s ‘value added’ results. Each school is given a score that shows how much progress students make between Key Stages 2 and 4. Our score was highlighted in ‘green’, which means last year’s students again made significantly more progress than others nationally from the same KS2 starting points. This external validation of the significant progress across the ability range that learners make at Blenheim, is testament to the commitment of students, and indeed the staff, and was a welcome piece of news to share with colleagues at the start of December.

The last day of term is Friday, 18th December. It is a Christmas Jumper Mufti Day for a £1 donation. Proceeds going to our charities Kisumu Day High School and St. Joseph’s Miranga in Kenya. Year 11 students should be in uniform. Students will break up at 12.25pm apart from Year 11 who will leave after their exam.

Late start for students. Doors will open for registration at 9.45am.

Congratulations to Louise Groves, Year 9. She is now UK champion after winning all her matches in the Kumite area of her karate.

Well done Kate Ottaway who was crowned the Trampoline league's 17 - 18 ladies DMT National champion!

Blenheim High School

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In the New Year, we will be tightening up our security procedures at the end of the school day. All clubs and extra-curricular activities should end at 5pm and at this time students will be expected to leave the building unless attending a specific activity that has been organised by prior agreement with a member of staff (for example a coursework session). After 5pm, our front doors will be locked and from this time staff and accompanied students will exit from the Student Entrance. As 2015 draws to a close, may I thank you for your continued support and take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Congratulations to Emily Jessup, who has been selected to take part in the World Champion Cheerleading Competiton in the USA.

Congratulations also to Olivia Mellon. She too has been selected to take part in the USA Cheerleading Competition

Danielle Kernaghan has been selected to perform in Cinderella in the Dorking Halls this Christmas! Well done.

Tracey Fantham Headteacher

Blenheim High School

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Mr. G. Adams, Assistant Headteacher, [email protected] Our staff have been working hard in selecting and preparing content for the new style GCSEs that will be delivered for the first time in the vast majority of subjects from September 2016, along with preparing for the new AS and A-level specifications. INSET days in the previous Summer term, and more recently in November, were focused on giving time to departments to work together in developing the new course outlines and content. The Key Stage 4 curriculum planning is well underway for the Year 9 students. During their PSHE sessions in the morning, the Year 9 students have been working through our careers programme, and creating an iBook resource on their iPads to support them in their future decisions. Please do have a look through their iBooks to see what is being covered to support them with their future decision making in the Spring term. The Spring term will be an important time for all Year 9 students, with the Option Brochure outlining the pathways and individual subject information. This will be published via the iPads by the February Half Term. We are planning a number of assemblies in January to introduce the new GCSE subjects to help support the difficult Options decisions that lie ahead, and will provide subject related videos to offer further guidance. Key dates: 4th February 2016 – Year 9 Parents’ Evening 12th February 2016 - Options Brochure to be published 3rd March 2016 – Options Evening – 6pm to 8pm 15th March 2016 – Deadline for Option Forms to be returned There is considerable change with the introduction of the new GCSEs from September 2016, and during the Year 9 Options Evening these changes will be covered in my presentation to parents on 3rd March.

Miss Bennet, Miss Edwards, Mrs Knight and the English Department As part of our Year 7 reading programme, the LRC funded this year’s Book Trust initiative ensuring that all Year 7 students received a brand new book for their independent reading. All students were very excited and we hope they enjoy reading them over the holiday. Wishing everyone a safe and joyful Christmas.

We have now upgraded to the latest version of ParentMail – PMX. You should by now have received your registration email or text, and have registered your account. If you need help doing this, please click here. Unfortunately, you will not be able to receive any ParentMail letters until you have completed this verification process. Once you’ve registered, you can download the free parent App onto your Android or iPhone device. With the App, you can access ParentMail even when there’s no network connection, with no need to search through your busy personal inbox for school messages. You’ll also receive in-app notifications as soon as we send a message, which helps make sure things don’t get missed or forgotten. If you need help with the App or with your ParentMail feed, please click here to take a look around the parent help site and get familiar with your parent feed. Or, if you have any issues or queries with the process, please email [email protected] or telephone the school and ask for the Parent Gateway.

Happy reading! Blenheim High School

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Mr. S. Morgan, House Coordinator, [email protected] The House competition has really taken off this year thanks to its far closer links to the overall School Rewards system. Successes so far have been a great competitive spirit and turnout at the recent PE house events, and the already considerable impact made by the two new Heads of House, Miss Gostling (Sinndar) and Mr Millard (Octavius). Next year there will be a number of additional House events taking place, which will mean students can add to their individual house total, as well as helping their House to increase theirs. Remember everything they do at Blenheim contributes in some way, whether it’s attendance, progress and ATL or their number of merits, so if they are successful then they help their House and they might even get a mention in the next newsletter! Certain individuals are already making a huge difference and those that are currently contributing the most towards their overall House total are listed below. Well done to all these students and good luck to all Houses next term. Top House Contributors at Christmas Year Nashwan Octavius Sinndar Tulyar 7

Joseph Sbiti

Isla Williams

Manila Valenzani

Grace Jansen

8

Holly King

Holly Fisher

Josh Harrup

Emma Da Costa

9

Paul Gkimpiritis

Freya Lloyd

Katie Lane

Jessica Lane

10

Matthew Denney

Josie Ames

Merve Dinc

Andrew Modrowski

11

Charlie Eates

Louisa Martin

Rebekah Bright

Grace Monaghan

12

Rachel Mansell

Libbie Howells

Ellie Ames

Emma Delamere

13

Jordan Hedges

Alex Stanborough

Megan Bull

Michelle Lantin

NASHWAN - Mr Mulvaney, [email protected] ‘Nashwan have made another excellent start to the year, just as we did last year. We had strong performances from all years in terms of house points and attendance and it was great to see an excellent turnout in the house events. We currently sit in second position and this year I really want to see us create a gap between us and the houses below. House events, House Music, Sports Day, ATLs, attendance, merits; everything Nashwan students can do counts towards our goal of ensuring we are in with a shout of picking up the house trophy at the end of the year.’

OCTAVIUS - Mr S. Millard, [email protected] As the new head of Team Octavius I decided to set some targets for my motivated, enthusiastic and talented students, one of which was to win 12 house events. I had decided on 12 as last year Octavius had managed 10 victories over the year. During the interhouse Football, Netball and Dodgeball, Team Octavius soared to new heights, winning 8 events and almost beating the target I had set, with two thirds of the year still to go. Along with the great team performances we also have both the highest contributor in KS4 with Louisa Martin (Y11) and KS5 with Libbie Howells (Y12), but we really need a team effort if we are to climb the tables and win the House Competition at the end of the year. With so many opportunities for students to gain House points (clubs, attendance, organisation, effort) it really is a team effort and in Team Octavius there really is the potential to succeed this year. We just need to translate that potential into commitment and house points. Year 7 have been amazing so far this year, taking a clean sweep in the PE house events and making sure Team Octavius were the most successful house in their year. If we can show that commitment across the school we will be unbeatable! Team Octavius has a great set of tutors and every member of staff is passionate about lifting Team Octavius to victory this year. With the help of the parents and students I can see no alternative but a Team Octavius victory in the house competition. To keep updated with all that is going on please head over to Twitter @teamoctavius, where I will be posting news, results and updates or join in with the chat by using #teamoctavius.

Blenheim High School

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Blenheim Bulletin SINNDAR - Miss E. Gostling, [email protected] Earlier this term, I was thrilled to become the new Head of House for Sinndar, and as a competitive person I want Sinndar to build on the success of winning Sports Day last year and really compete for the House trophy. I was also hugely proud last year that the student with the highest individual contribution across the school was a Sinndar student. Well Done Katie Lane! Sadly Sinndar have had a slow start compared to the other houses this year, however, I am confident that they will soon turn things around exactly as they have done over the past two years. House Reps have been selected and there will be many House Events taking place over the next year across different subject areas in which students can get involved. There are so many ways that students can gain house points such as good attendance, working hard in lessons, in addition to participating in House Events. We need to work as a TEAM to get to the top because Together Everyone Achieves More!

TULYAR - Mr M. Everest, [email protected] As 2015 draws to a close Tulyar are still celebrating their fantastic victory last Summer and a strong winning start to the 2015-2016 House competition. We have remained consistent and have managed to steal the lead this term but are fully aware that it is still very much to play for. I have been overwhelmed with the attendance and team spirit at the recent House assemblies and they have been a fantastic introduction for the new Year 7 lions (7TX and 7TY), into our pride. Pride and achievement have been the key focus this term and Tulyar has seen some fantastic successes from our top merit earners, attendance percentages and attitude to learning scores across all year groups, aiding our current top spot. Great participation and team spirit shone through at the recent house sports events seeing victories in many of the events, helping us move further away from our rivals. This year we have a new set of Tulyar house reps, specially selected by students and staff. These reps will organise and lead within the Tulyar house system and they have been recognised and celebrated this term with a standing ovation at the House assembly. After Christmas Tulyar will launch their own House competition with a “Design an App Challenge”. After the success of the digital artist competition last year, I’m hoping to draw on the fantastic technology skills of Blenheim students further as this competition will require both creativity and design skills. More details will be available at the launch but use the festive period to start to conjure up ideas for a new type of App. Perh”apps” it could be a new game or lifestyle App that links to school? It is very easy to get comfortable at the top and with two new Heads of House this year; the challenge to topple Tulyar is even greater. HOWEVER we are consistent, focused and proud of our house and with our motto ringing down the corridors any contenders to our throne will have quite a challenge on their hands!! Clear eyes, full hearts can’t lose!! Go Tulyar”

Blenheim High School

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Blenheim Bulletin

[email protected] It gives me great pleasure to tell you last week I hosted, along with school Governors, and Ms Fantham, my first set of Rewards’ Assemblies since joining Blenheim in September. I am extremely proud to say these assemblies were just a fantastic and an extremely positive experience, with the vast majority of students in each year group given at least one award. The winning students received a certificate and/or a Bronze or Silver badge (badges to be given out after the Christmas break) and/or an email sent to their parents/carers. I have changed the Rewards System to ensure we recognise the efforts of as many students as possible and I attach a link to our website Incentives and Rewards page for you to read about these changes and the table below shows you how the total of 2002 awards were given out in these assemblies. Reward Given

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

Year 11

Whole School

Behaviour for Learning Contribution to House Merit Point Award Progress in Learning Attitude to Learning Bronze Award Silver Award GRIT Kindness Tutor Group Form Stars Attendance 98.6% 100% Attendance 95% 98.5%

55

33

39

26

39

192

14

14

12

12

14

66

5 n/a

5 61

5 32

5 n/a

5 49

25 142

33

43

54

40

44

214

123 1 4 4 16

104 7 3 2 16

72 2 5 7 16

58 2 3 16

58 1 6 2 16

415 11 20 18 80

127

93

106

102

109

537

55

56

64

60

47

282 2002

The rewards system is an integral part of ensuring all students fulfil their personal and academic potential as it encourages them to ‘believe and achieve’ in all that they do. We very much want our young people to be proud of being a Blenheim student and be proud of what they achieve. Our students have worked extremely hard this term and now deserve a break to ‘recharge their batteries’. I wish you all a very healthy, happy and enjoyable Christmas time.

Blenheim High School

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Ms. S. Davies, [email protected] A big thank you to the wonderful reaction to our appeal for items for the food bank. The food bank staff were overwhelmed by the response from our school community when we delivered the food. We collected a tonne!

The UKMT Senior Maths Challenge for students in Year 12 and Year 13, took place on Thursday 5th November 2015. The Maths Department is pleased to announce the results of this National competition.

Kieran Murray (Silver and Best in Year) Harvey Lamb (silver) Eleanor Ames (Bronze) George Carter (Bronze) Omar El Dahshan (Bronze) Mark Bumstead (Bronze) Ramsha Ahmad (Bronze) Sabrina Hallier (Bronze)

Jordan Hedges (Silver and Best in Year and Best in School) Charlie Jones (Silver) Jason Lai (Bronze) Joshua Allard (Bronze) Cameron Barr (Bronze) Emily Weeks (Bronze)

Blenheim High School

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Mrs. S. Sykes, [email protected] Year 10 Business Studies students are near to completing and presenting their marketing campaigns for a new healthy breakfast cereal. They’re not hearing jingle bells but jingles for adverts! The business rooms are a buzz with iMovie creations, storyboards and presentations to their discerning customers. The teams will be marked on creativeness, target market, presentation style, storyboard quality and their logos and branding. Prizes will be given for the best “pitches”. Good luck teams!

HATS

BATS

AND CATS!

Year 10 Economists played the Hats, Bats and Cats game to show how supply and demand for products determines price. Students were given different quantities of each item (in the form of tokens) and had to sell in a “virtual” market (a.k.a. Ms Sykes’ classroom!). There was a frenzied race at the end to grab the last Bats, the rarest of tokens and some were unlucky. There were some serious negotiations going on but they were warned off “black market” activities in the game! Well done to all, some excellent skills of barter in our class!

Congratulations to Ella Simpson, Year 9. She entered the Rutherford Appleton School Science Prize and has been selected as a finalist! The final is on 17th December at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. She will be giving a two minute presentation about why she loves science and will be treated to a special behind-the-scenes tour of one of the high-powered laser facilities. Good luck Ella! We will let you know how she gets on in the next Newsletter.

Blenheim High School

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Mr C Mundy [email protected] Mrs M Chalke, [email protected] Mr. R. Edwards, [email protected] The Whole School GAMA programme continues to go from strength to strength and I am delighted to say that more Blenheim students are now seriously aspiring to study at some of the top Universities both in this country and abroad. To help in this process I have again managed to arrange for a small number of our current Year 10 students to visit one of the most prestigious Oxford colleges for a day in the Summer term. With only eight places available, competition amongst the students to secure a place is mounting! Many of these Year 10s (including those just outside the main Whole School group) took advantage of a recent opportunity to take part in an Enterprise competition run in conjunction with the Business Studies department. In light of the recent events in Paris, the students were set the task – at 8.45am - of creating a sustainable entrepreneurial idea that would develop greater cultural and religious tolerance in their local community. Working in groups of 5 or 6, they then only had until 2.15pm to develop their initial ideas; research into their possible competitors; and cost and market their product or service. The activity not only required a great deal of ‘thinking outside the box’, but also lots of teamwork and organisation, and culminated in groups pitching their ideas to a judging panel. The feedback from the students who were taking part was incredibly positive, with everybody commenting on how challenging and stressful it was to work under such pressured time constraints, but how it was also very enjoyable and thought provoking.

In Key Stage Three, all Year 9 Whole School GAMA students have been tasked with the challenge of planning and running a starter activity in one of their lessons. From the initial obvious anxiety of being asked to teach their peers, the overwhelming feedback from students has been how much they have actually enjoyed the challenge and also how they have felt it has given them a lot more confidence in their own ability (and respect for the job that their teachers do!). The 8 Whole School GAMA students have also been completing challenges that involve taking them out of their comfort zones. They have each been researching into topics that they previously knew nothing about and have then had to talk for a minute about their topic to an audience of their peers without reference to any supporting material. The quality (and length) of some of these presentations, on topics as diverse as Tuvalu; Chicken Itza and Aung San Suu Kyi have been excellent.

Year 10 students have now completed one fifth of their GCSE course! Mrs Chalke and I are constantly telling students how fast their time in Key Stage 4 will go, and how important it is to work hard in Year 10 in order to lay firm foundations for Year 11. This term our Year 10 students have continued to make excellent progress on all of their courses and I would like to thank Mr Adams and Mrs Watson for their help in advising and designing a curriculum to suit each individual. In the New Year we will be pleased to share with you the target grades for your child in each of their subjects. This will help you to measure their progress. Thank you to those who regularly log into the Parent Gateway to support Mrs Chalke and me in praising students who are accruing merits, and having a discussion about any demerit concerns. Please could we ask for your assistance next term in ensuring that students bring their iPad in fully charged each day, as some students are missing out on valuable learning activities by failing to organise themselves in this way. In our Rewards’ Assembly last week, it was a pleasure to see so many Bronze Merit badges being awarded and certificates handed out. In particular, there were many certificates awarded for high attendance. Mrs Chalke would like to thank you all for your assistance in ensuring that students are in school as much as possible during this crucial year of their education. Year 10 students have really embraced a recent push at Blenheim to demonstrate kindness to others. 10JB in particular have been working really hard to raise money for 'Crisis at Christmas', and all of the form groups have been donating many items to the local food bank. Fran Sheehy and Jordan Grant were awarded certificates for raising money to support cancer charities and the British Legion. It is a pleasure for us to head up such a generous and community spirited year group. We would like to wish all Year 10 students and their families a very Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing them shine further in their studies in 2016.

Blenheim High School

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In addition some of the Year 7 Choir visited residents at Appleby House to spread some festive cheer by singing Christmas songs led by Miss Gostling on keyboard and myself and Mr O’Connor as lead vocals! It was a truly rewarding experience and the Appleby House residents thoroughly enjoyed the performance. It was a pleasure to take a select group of Year 7 students to spend an action packed day at the University of Surrey. The trip enabled students to have an experience of further education and career aspirations whist developing key skills through group work and team building activities. We were delighted with the way that the students maximised the opportunities in the workshops and we are very proud of their achievements. I will be organising 2 similar events in the Spring Term with more news to follow! As we look forward to the festive break, special thanks must be given to the Year 7 team including a wide range of staff who contribute to the daily lives of our students ensuring they receive the highest level of support and pastoral care. Special thanks must go to Mrs Topson for her outstanding pastoral support and ongoing ELSA work with Year 7 which has a positive impact across the year group. As from January 2016 Mr Everest will be focusing on his new post as Head of Curriculum Area for Technology and STEM and we wish him every success in his new role. I have been fortunate to have worked with Mr Everest as Assistant Head of Year 7 for over 3 years and he has made a huge difference to the lives of many students during their transition to Blenheim. His presence in Year 7 will be deeply missed but I am delighted to announce that Mrs Topson will continue to work alongside me (Monday-Thursday) to ensure our students continue to receive the highest level of pastoral care. We look forward to welcoming our students back in January 2016 ready to embrace a variety of new challenges and opportunities with the GRIT they have already started to demonstrate.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Blenheim High School

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Mr. R. Isaac, [email protected] Uppermost in most people’s minds will be the recent technical ‘blip’ we experienced with the iPads. Not a virus as many thought, but an issue with our internet filtering that stopped the iPads seeing the internet at all, and so prevented a solution being sent to iPads. In the end, the painful decision was taken to collect all 1,400 student iPads in to check, and in many cases, reset them to overcome the problem. Needless to say, this caused considerable inconvenience to students and staff alike. Our IT team worked flat out to get the iPads working again, and stayed in close contact with Apple and Lightspeed, who provide the internet filtering, to ensure this issue never happens again. An unfortunate consequence of this situation was that some students lost work from their iPad. Under normal circumstances, the iPad automatically backups up to the iCloud when the iPad is plugged into the mains and is in range of WiFi. As a failsafe, we strongly recommend that key work, particularly for those on examination courses, is also backed up to the school network using the Foldr app. Two short videos have been produced to help check the iPad is set to backup to the iCloud, and to show how to use the Foldr app. The first of these can be found at: https://vimeo.com/148633214 and the video describing the Foldr app can be found at: https://vimeo.com/148788597 Year 7 students are now well versed in using their iPad, having learned how to create presentations, videos, music and animations. In their ICT lessons they are also learning about online safety and will shortly be learning to code using their iPads. Online safety is given a high priority in all years. Part of the purpose of the iPads for Learning scheme is to help students learn to use technology responsibly, and to know how to deal with online situations that make them feel uncomfortable. All student iPads have a ‘Whisper’ button that can be used to report instantly any online situation that causes distress. The information is received by key Blenheim staff who can then support the student in the most appropriate way. To support our online safety training, we regularly invite visitors into school to run workshops for students and staff. The most recent of these was on Friday 11th December when Year 7 and 8 students were fortunate to experience the last date in Rich Cottell’s tour of schools around the UK. This young singer/songwriter both performs live dates in large venues and works for a charity supporting online safety. The queues of students waiting after his performances for autographs and ‘selfies’ gives an indication of how effective his message was. The next online safety event is on Tuesday 12 January when Eagle Radio will be bringing experts into school to talk to Years 7 to 10. They are also running a session for parents the same evening from 5.30pm – 6.30pm in the main hall. All are welcome. Year 9 students have been using their iPads to support their modern foreign language studies. The iPad’s ability to switch to a foreign language keyboard, and to speak the text on the screen in the native tongue has been a huge help in preparing students for language speaking assessments.

Blenheim High School

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In the image below, members of Mrs Newbold’s Year 9 Spanish class are preparing the script for their assessed role play using www.Titanpad.com which allows several users to collaborate simultaneously on a document and even correct each other’s mistakes. The text is then read out in Spanish by the iPad to help students sharpen their accent and build confidence.

We still have a small number of Year 10 and 11 students who do not bring their iPads into school each day and this creates problems in lessons when iPads are required. Please help us by checking your son/daughter is charging their iPad each evening (NOT in their bedroom) and brings it to school daily, in the case provided. We look forward to welcoming a number of European visitors to Blenheim in January to look at our iPads for Learning scheme. Around 150 visitors from France, Sweden and Denmark will be shown round by our very capable Student Digital Leaders over three days in January. Finally, we will be offering a second opportunity for Year 7 parents to have a hands on session with the iPad early in the New Year, and will then offer parents of students in other year groups the same opportunity.

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Mrs Jane Watson, [email protected]

By now all Year 11s should have made their post-16 choices and put a plan into action on how to achieve those choices. Indeed, it is advisable for every Year 11 to have a back-up plan too. Young people have to remain in education or training until they are 18. Students who are interested in taking A-levels at Blenheim should have returned an Application Form detailing the subjects they wish to study. Any students interested in taking vocational qualifications should have made applications to college by now and if they haven’t it is vitally important that they do so over the Christmas holidays. There will be more Open Days to visit during the Spring term but this should not now hold up any applications. For those young people who are interested in becoming an apprentice and gaining a workrelated qualification whilst working, I suggest that they follow the steps below to find and apply for employment: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Search for apprenticeships on https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship Create an account or sign in if you already have an account Search for a vacancy using key job words and location Complete and submit your application

Year 9s have started their careers education programme which is part of PSHE and the focus has been to introduce them to start thinking about KS4 option choices. We still have access to U-Explore, a careers software programme paid for by Surrey County Council until 31st December, so I would urge students to make the most of it before the license ceases. Access to U-Explore is via the website www.u-explore.com and the Blenheim High School registration code is 64659. Year 12 students are encouraged to secure themselves a one week block work experience placement after completing their exams next summer. The week beginning Monday, 18th July has been allocated for this purpose. Work experience is a valuable addition to any CV, job or UCAS application and is essential for many degree courses such as Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, Teaching, Engineering, Business, etc. The Department of Education defines work experience as “purposeful, offering challenge and relevant to studies or career aspirations” as opposed to casual employment. All the latest evidence from employers suggests that they value work experience enormously and most will not even consider candidates without work experience. I would encourage Year 11s also to seek work experience after they complete their GCSEs. They will have approx. 11 weeks summer holiday before commencing their post-16 studies and this would be an ideal time to undertake a first work placement. If any student would like guidance on how to do this please email me.

Blenheim High School

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Miss J. Bowden, [email protected] It has been an incredibly busy term for the Creative Arts faculty and I have been blown away by the standard of work produced in and out of lessons. The Year 11 Art students have just completed their trial exam and the work created was poignant and pushed boundaries. KS4 and 5 Drama students have had the opportunity to work with international theatre practitioners and the ambassadors have been inspiring the lower years with their continued help in lessons. The Music team have been working tirelessly with the students to showcase work this festive period have held a carol service at St Mary’s Church in Ewell. The Film Studies department have been busy visiting the BFI and the Inter Film Festival with a private screening of ‘Suite Francaise’ and a Q & A with award winning director Saul Dibb and the writer Matt Charman. Maria Esposito, Creative Arts Technician has been working hard producing all the DVDs and memorabilia packs from Into the Woods, if you have any queries then please contact her on [email protected]. We sadly say farewell to Gemma Elliott, Head of Art this term who is emigrating to Australia. During her time at Blenheim she has been a true inspiration to all of the students and staff that have had the privilege of working with her. We wish her the best of luck in the future. Thanks to all the staff and students for their hard work and efforts this term and I look forward to working with you all in January.

Congratulations to the Year 13 Drama and Theatre Studies students who on the 8th December performed their devised pieces for examination. The Year 13 students have been working hard over the last eight weeks to create their devised pieces. They are encouraged to use as many drama techniques as possible, drawing upon everything they have explored since starting AS together. All of the pieces were based on extensive research of the stimulus and most of what was shown were real life events dramatised for performance. There were four examined pieces performed to an audience of over 80 people. Thank you to all who came to support the students. The feedback from parents, staff and students was overwhelming and the students should be extremely proud of their efforts.

Congratulations to the Year 11 drama students who completed their practical controlled assessment in the style of physical theatre with the theme of persecution. All the students performed to an amazingly high level, well done.

In October, the distinguished company ‘Frantic Assembly’ visited Blenheim to work with the Year 13 and selected Year 11 Drama students. Working all day at the weekend, the students explored the world of physical theatre honing in on the techniques and style of the world renowned company. We were incredibly fortunate to be able to work with the artists and they commented on how talented our students were.

In September we had our annual visit from Splendid Productions who are a professional touring company. Splendid Productions came in to work with our A-level students. The students spent an evening immersed in practical workshops studying two very different practitioners. Feedback from students was extremely positive.

Blenheim High School

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Mr. S. Morgan, [email protected] It has been a very busy term in the PE Department, with hundreds of Blenheim students regularly being involved in sporting fixtures and at our large range of extra-curricular clubs. This amazing commitment by the students has led to some very impressive achievements this term and we thank the dedication of the PE staff in providing these opportunities for the students. For information on what extra-curricular activities are available for students to attend please visit the school website.

. Once again the extent and diverse nature of Blenheim PE’s extra-curricular provision has been rewarded by achieving the BRONZE Sainsbury’s School Games award for the second year running. This nationally recognised award highlights schools that are providing a whole host of extra-curricular PE activities and fixtures but more importantly actually engaging a significant proportion of the student body in performing and leading activities. We are extremely proud of all the students at Blenheim who have helped us to achieve this award as we quite literally couldn’t have achieved it without their enthusiasm and commitment!

The girls Under 16 have been amazing this year in both the National and County cups. The girls were unfortunately knocked out of the National Schools Cup in the 5th round but managed to score 27 goals in the competition, conceding just 5! The girls are through to the semi-finals of the Surrey Cup in the New Year and we have high hopes of doing well this year. The girls have been amazing throughout the year and have the buzz of a side that can go all the way in this year’s competition.

Breaking News! Our KS3 Girls basketball team has just qualified to represent North Surrey at the County Finals in January. This will be the second time in Blenheim’s history that the students have qualified for this event but with a 28-14 victory over St Andrews to qualify we have high hopes for the team and look forward to reporting and tweeting on their success.

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An exceptional night of gymnastics, dance, cheerleading and trampolining graced the sports hall on December 8th 2015. The Showcase enabled students to take charge and piece together a jam packed programme full of their own choreographies to display to parents, carers, friends and teachers. And what an amazing job they did! The show was exciting from start to finish! The children excelled themselves in their professionalism, maturity, performance skills and technical ability across the 4 disciplines. The PE staff were blown away by the level of talent the students displayed which made prize giving a difficult task! The following students were awarded for their efforts and talent:

Follow Blenheim PE on Social Media As well as the established twitter account @BlenheimPE, the PE department now have an Instagram account @blenheimpe where you can check for fixtures, results and sporting news. You can also get involved with us by using #teamblenheim on both Twitter or Instagram

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Miss E. Gostling, [email protected] The Music Department have been extremely busy over the past few weeks preparing for the Christmas Carol service held at St Mary's Ewell. The service opened with 'Once in Royal David's City' and the first verse was sung beautifully by Roddy Macauley. This was followed by brilliant performances from Both the Lower School Singers and the Upper School Singers, interspersed by readings from our Head Girl and Boy, Manila Valenzani, Marcus Pryke and Lucy Bushaway. Blenheim Band also entertained everyone with their festive performances in addition to accompanying all the audience carols, helping everyone get into the Christmas spirit. It was an extremely enjoyable event and we are very proud of all the students. Not only have students worked hard for the Carol Service, but a handful of students from Year 7 and Year 8 have also entertained residents at Appleby House by singing carols and sharing Christmas cheer. Their performance was welcomed with enthusiasm and many of the residents also joined in with the singing. Finally, the Rock Project have had another successful term working with our students. Their hard work culminated in a fantastic showcase of all the songs that the students have been working on this term. The concert consisted of students performing some of their favourite pop songs and they all really enjoyed themselves. The Rock Project will be continuing in the New Year and any students that are interested in being part of a band, either on vocals, guitar or drums, are welcome to take part in a free taster session. For more details, please contact Miss Gostling.

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Year 7

Cells

Homework

Mrs. N. Horton, [email protected] This Half Term, Science Club had an amazing time carrying out lots of fun science experiments, including making our own ‘operation’ game. This was complete with lights and buzzers and make the retrieval of organs from the bodies quite exciting! We also had fun with static electricity. We had tin can races using static electricity to push along the cans and made our hair stand on end with the Van De Graaff machine! We used our creative side, making thermo chromic mugs where the pictures changed colour when we put hot water in them, some very impressive art work went on! We are now looking forward to making light up Christmas cards which will be ready to take home at the end of term. Everyone is welcome to Science Club and we invite students to come whenever they can. We have lots of fun exploring science that we don’t do in science lessons. Every Thursday from 3.30pm to 4.30pm in Hodgkin.

In November we took twelve Year 9 girls to St Bede’s school in Redhill for a STEM ‘Science: It’s a People thing’ activity morning. This was an event run by STEMNET Surrey and Berkshire to encourage more girls to study science after GCSE and on into further education. The girls had a chance to meet twelve women who work in science related jobs and spend ten minutes chatting to them about their careers and what qualification they had achieved to get there. It was a great morning and the girls were very inspired by the number and variety of science careers there are available to them.

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In December, the A-level Physics students went on a trip to the Institute of Education, at UCL. We were given five lectures with an overlaying theme of Physics. One lecture on futuristic “smart” cities compared them to the starfish’s uglier cousin, the sea cucumber, and the lecturer also told us how he had previously turned people into vampires. We learned about the Physics of Global natural disasters, and saw how previous global events that have been measured using geophysical techniques have shown how close to extinction the planet has come to before (several times). Holidaying in space led us to understand the “astronomical” cost of space flight, and how engineers are trying to bring that cost down. Currently, if your parents sold their house, their favourite child (which is obviously you) may be able to join them in a space flight, which is only 100 kilometres away. We learned about what happens when we push the Universal speed limits; which includes making loud noises (sonic boom), floating (reaching escape velocity), and then slowing time down (time dilation and length contraction). Finally, a scientist from the National Physical Laboratory told us of his work on how they are re-defining the Kelvin, and how by measuring the speed of sound they are able to make the world’s most accurate thermometer. The A-level Physicists all enjoyed their trip, and left UCL with a greater appreciation for the Physical Scientists.

05/01/2016 11/01/2016

Late start for Students, Doors open 9.45am 19/01/2016

Parent Gateway Open for Booking Year 10 Parents' Evening Appointments

12/01/2016

Eagle Radio Social Media Workshop Year 7 and Year 8

14/01/2016

History Workshop Year 9 - Guardian Media Centre

18/01/2016

26/01/2016

Parent Gateway Open for Booking Year 11 Parents' Evening Appointments

18/01/2016

Year 11 Trial Results' Day

19/01/2016

Year 11 National Citizenship Assembly

21/01/2016

Year 10 Parents’ Evening, 4.30pm - 7.00pm

25/01/2016

02/02/2016

Parent Gateway Open for Booking Year 9 Parents' Evening Appointments

25/01/2016

29/01/2016

Sixth Form Trial Exams

28/01/2016

Year 11 Parents' Evening, 4.30pm - 7.00pm

04/02/2016

Year 9 Parents’ Evening. 4.30pm - 7.00pm

04/02/2016

04/02/2016

UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge

08/02/2016

23/02/2016

Parent Gateway Open for Booking Sixth Form Parents' Evening Appointments

12/02/2016

20/02/2016

Ski Trip to Austria

15/02/2016

19/02/2016

Half Term

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Christmas Carol Concert St. Mary’s Ewell December 2015

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