Gordano School Newsletter

Transcription

1 Gordano School Newsletter No 2 26 September 2014 Attendance Line Year Attendance Line Year 12 and attendance@gordanoschool.org.uk Term dates and past newsletters can be found on our website Diary Dates: Year 8 Girls HPV Injection 1 of 2 Annual Careers Convention Debate What do young people want (and get) from Policing? Kenya Evening Year 12 Parent Meet the Tutor Evening MyLife Parental Information Evening for Year 9 Change to advertised date Head s Blog Thursday 02 October (9am) Elliott Hall Thursday 02 October (6 8pm) Main Hall Tuesday 07 October (3.30-5pm) Sixth Form Lecture Theatre Thursday 09 October ( 7 9 pm) S Sixth Form Lecture Theatre Tuesday October 14th Sixth Form Lecture Theatre Wednesday 22nd October (6 7pm) Main Hall It has been a great pleasure to welcome children and parents from Year 6 to the school over the last week for our Open Evening and Open Morning. I am always really proud to receive s of thanks from visitors who always praise the engagement and charm of our students at Gordano. If your son or daughter helped out at open evening you can be confident that they were superb ambassadors for our school and community. You may have noticed that along with our changes to uniform we have refreshed our logo and updated our website. I am very pleased with the crisp and positive tone that these have set in school. I very much hope that our priority of building school spirit and pride will be supported by the new look. Do bookmark our website in your browser and perhaps follow our twitter feed as our new Communications Officer, Elizabeth Woolford, will be keeping you fully up to date on all our news and events. One example of an event coming up is the Careers

2 Convention in our Main Hall on 2nd October. We will have dozens of employers, universities and colleges available to advise young people about exciting opportunities ahead for them. Students from all year groups (and their families) are welcome to attend. The format is that of a Trade Fair with stands to browse. The school s extracurricular offer is being expanded this year and my colleague, Beth Davis, will be launching the Gordano Extra brochure very soon. Please look out for this and encourage your children to dive right in. We set great store on the values of enrichment at the school and the students who are most active enjoy school the most. One student who doesn t want for things to fill his time is Joe Cemlyn-Jones in Year 11. Joe competed for Great Britain at the 29th International Tournament in Cottbus, Germany last weekend. He took gold in U16 on the pommel, bronze on rings and won the overall U16 competition. He now has his eye on a place in the GB top flight. We are all very proud. Are you ready for a teenager? Come and find out How to Get the Best out of Family Life Are you a parent of a Year 8 or 9 student Would you like to: Be prepared for changes ahead? Learn strategies to deal with teen behaviour. Discuss parenting issues in a supportive environment. Have a calmer household. Our 10 week Family Links Support programme starts on Tuesday 7th October at Gordano School. Numbers are limited Call Gordano Family Liaison Adviser Emily Tovey to book your place ext 512 (Limited Spaces- book early to avoid disappointment) Gordano School Annual Careers Convention- Thursday 2 October Please feel free to come along to Gordano School s Annual Careers Convention. With over 50 stands expected, the evening will provide an opportunity to see a large variety of display stands and to discuss with Employers, Universities and Colleges of Further Education, opportunities and changing needs in the world of work. 6 8pm in the Main Hall.

3 Activities Week 2015 Residential Trips Information The planning begins for Activities Week runs between Monday 29 June - Friday 03 July. The launch of residential trips for Years 7-9 will begin at the beginning of October. Plans for Year 7 A 3 day house trip to a PGL Centre, Beam House located in North Devon, 1 day at Bristol Zoo, 1 day in school activity workshops Plans for Year 8 5 day Language trips to Spain (Andalucia), France (Paris) and Germany (Moselle region) Plans for Year 9 Trips to Ardeche (France), Barcelona (Spain), Sorrento (Italy), Pembrokeshire Adventure Centre (P.A.C.) When the residential trips are launched, students will be given an information booklet to bring home. At this point a non-refundable deposit* to indicate your commitment will be requested. In turn, these deposits are passed on to the Tour Operators to secure the booking. These deposits will be collected using ParentPay so please ensure you have activated your Parent Pay account. I appreciate that the cost of a residential trip can be quite expensive so we will set out a monthly payment plan to help spread the payments and to ensure that the full balance is paid by the end of March This also means we can fulfil our contractual obligation to the Tour Operators. *The deposits required for the Year 9 residential trips abroad are going to be in the region of which will be requested in 2 instalments due by Friday 17 October & Friday 31 October. For Year 8 and 9 students not wishing to go on a residential visit, the "Go Gordano" range of activities and day trips will be launched in March. As always, I am open to suggestions as to what activities the students would like to be offered. Don't forget that information is updated on the school website throughout the year. gordanoschool.org.uk/news-and-events/trips-activities-week Thanks Katie Watts School Library- Scholastic Book club Great reads to encourage reading! All Year 7s will receive a Book club magazine. They are able to purchase some great books at reduced prices. A commission of 20% on orders help towards buying new books for the Library shelves. Book orders need to be returned to the Library by Thursday 9th October, in time for delivery for the October half term. All cheques need to be made payable to Gordano School, although we prefer cash in this instance! Receipts will be given for all monies. Happy Reading! Mrs Chatfield School Librarian

4 Library News Visiting author to give talk to Year 8 Pupils Thursday 9th October To continue our emphasis on promoting and encouraging reading, we have invited Tanya Landman, a prolific and well-known author of Young Adult Fiction to give a talk for teenagers to every Year 8 student. Tanya s books will be available to buy at a discount prices of 4 and 6.40 and she will be on hand to sign all copies. Her latest book, Buffalo Soldier will also be available for purchase. All cheques to be made to Gordano School, or cash on the day please. Why not pop into the Library and try one of her books before she arrives? We have the following books available to borrow: Buffalo Soldier Mondays are Murder Dead Funny Best wishes, Mrs Chatfield, School Librarian MyLife Parental Information Evening Change of date Wednesday 22 October The Year 9 MyLife Parental Information Evening scheduled to be held on 16 th October has been rescheduled for the evening of Wednesday 22 nd October (6-7pm).We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. The information evening provides details about what topics students study. It also provides parents with information about the positive developments that are currently being made for PSHE and citizenship at Gordano School. More information will be sent out about this evening in due course. Business Breakfast Update 11 September marked our first Business Breakfast of the year. Over 30 business colleagues, staff and students gathered to listen to Andrew Buffrey, the Regional Director of the Digital Media Association, talk about the industry and the impact it can have on a business. This was followed by the launch of Gordano Partners. The mutual benefits of businesses and schools working together were shared along with the positive impact this relationship has on our students education, life and work experience. A few of the these benefits include advertising through the school newsletter and website, which have large audiences. They also can take advantage of staff discounts for membership to the new sports facilities. Students have already greatly benefitted from this scheme, as business partners have worked together with school staff to inspire students in their career aspirations and to further develop their employability skills.

5 Sixth Form upcoming events Kenya Evening: October 9th 7 9 pm. Sixth Form Lecture Theatre. Join us for a Celebration of the 2014 Sixth Form Trip to Kenya. Students from Gordano and Clevedon will be presenting on their work in schools, hospitals and orphanages, and showing where the red jumpers knitted by the Gordano community went! If you would like to join us please phone Sixth Form office on ex 527 or dlennon@gordanoschool.org.uk for a ticket. Sixth Form Peer Listeners A group of Year 12/13 students have chosen to do Peer Listening as one of their Sixth Form electives, and many of them completed a two hour training course on Monday 22nd September. The training included peer listening skills and safeguarding. Peer Listeners will be offering a lunchtime listening service to younger students, and also assisting with the lower school reading scheme. Gordano School Pupil Springs to International Victory Gordano School pupil, Joe Cemlyn-Jones sprang to international success this weekend at the 29th Junior International Gymnastics Tournament in Cottbus, Germany. Joe s dedicated efforts awarded him a gold medal on the Pommel, and a bronze medal on the rings. He also achieved overall first place in the under 16 s competition this year. This fantastic result places him in good stead for continuing to represent Great Britain at future events. The success is not without extensive work, as Joe travels across the country to Barnstable each week for 23 hours of hard training. He previously represented England, helping his team win Team Gold in September 2014 at the UK School Games. He has also represented England in the London Open in 2013, where he achieved 5th place. Gordano School wish Joe all the best with his training and look forward to supporting him in future competitions. Gordano Extra launches October 2014 Gordano Extra, a new Electives scheme for Year 7 10 launches next month. The scheme will provide a wide timetable of different electives for students to select from throughout the year. This is a great opportunity for students to develop a range of employability skills, whilst having fun and experiencing new activities. Timetables and information about all the electives available are due to be sent home in the first two weeks of October, and pupils will have a chance to learn more about the scheme during assemblies and tutor time. For more information about Gordano Extra, please bdavis@gordanoschool.org.uk.

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