December 2011 Newsletter

‘Growing together to be the best we can be’ Academic success that matters

Newsletter December 2011

Image photographed by Amber Sparrey Year 11

A prayer for Advent

Lord by your presence, light up the past that we may learn from it with thankfulness.

Light up the present that we might live in it with love.

Light up the future that we might prepare for it in hope.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Message from the Headteacher Ms J Farr Bishop Perowne: Among the Top 25% of Schools Nationally Once again this half term has been characterised by the wealth of experiences available to our students including a Junior Debating Competition with the King’s School, participation in the Shakespeare in Schools Festival, continuing success for our under 16 girl’s football team, our Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 badminton teams winning the district finals and progressing to the regional area finals and our Year 2 gymnastics festival organised by our Junior Sports Leaders. Pictures and reports of these events may be found on our website.

Two particular ‘defining moments’ of our term have been our annual Service of Remembrance held on the 11 November and our major charity fundraising day for Children in Need on the 22nd November.

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As always our Remembrance Service was planned and delivered by our Worship Team who invited the Worship Team from St Barnabas Church of England Primary School to join us. The service sheet may be accessed on our website and includes a mixture of poetry, readings and prayers many of which were written by our students. We marked the two minutes silence with dignity and reverence.

Our community once again came together to raise over £1700.00 in one day for Children in Need. It was certainly a day to remember! All was set for an assembly at which the students were participating in an air guitar competition and the ‘buskers’ for the day were to perform, when a minor fire broke out in the Design and Technology block. Two fire engines responded quickly and the fire was readily extinguished. Our students behaved in an exemplary fashion and gave generously to the fundraising events which included the sale of Indian foods, henna painting, a sponsored run. th

Our Certificate Evening was held on the 24 November. Many former students and their parents joined us to celebrate our best examination results ever which placed us amongst the top 25% of schools nationally for schools where academic results included grades A* - C in English and Mathematics. These achievements will extend the choice students have in the future. The Certificates were presented by Mr Marcus Burton, Group Managing Director Europe Yamazaki Mazak U.K. Ltd. His inspirational speech may be downloaded from our website.

There has been an increase in the uptake for trips to Italy, France and Belgium planned for next year. On the 1st December, I was delighted to attend the International Schools Network Conference in Birmingham; this year was particularly special since the Bishop Perowne folk group ‘Grannys Attic’; had been selected from schools across the country to showcase twice. Pictures and details may be found on the website.

On the 10th December a report appeared in the Worcester News of an exciting and successful Community project in which our students have been included.

On the 12th December I was invited as a guest by Worcester Rotary to hear reports from two former Bishop Perowne students, Faruq Gbadamosi and Charles Done regarding an outstanding opportunity for which they were selected and sponsored by Worcester Rotary. Both young men represented Worcester in a Leadership and Team Building experiences in the Forest of Dean in July. Both spoke eloquently of how the week had strengthened their character and further raised their aspirations for the future. We are grateful to Worcester Rotary for their support.

At the time of writing we are looking forward to our Carol Service to be held on the 13 th December in Worcester Cathedral and our end of term Community Day and Eucharists.

May I thank all parents and carers for their support this term and wish everyone a joyful and peaceful Christmas.

Ms J Farr – Headteacher

A new arrival The Bishop Perowne family grew with the birth of Ms Thorne’s son Tate on Tuesday, th 29 November. Congratulations to Ms Thorne and her family.

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On Thursday, 15 December Mr Plackman welcomed his new son Raphael.

Congratulations to Mr Plackman and his family.

HEADTEACHER’S COMMENDATIONS “growing together to be the best we can be” The following students have been awarded a Headteacher’s Commendation and four Community Credits. Their contributions to the life and success of our College are greatly valued. *These students have received more than one commendation. Many students have received commendations for their work on Open Day and Open Evening.

Brandon Rayya Suffiyah Zakhir Binyamin Thomas Claudio Diana Sophie Penelope Penny Lewis Lucy Ellen Heather Shane Kieran Callum Aaron Lucy Matthew Ben Joe Frances Nathan Jordan Liam Tom Elodie Cameron Hannah Jemima Jeremy Callum Alex Harry Peter Lily Samantha Charlie Jordan Tom

Adams Ahmed Ajmal Ajmal Ali Allan Almeida Almeida Amess Ashmore Ashmore Austin Avery Bannister Barras Barratt Bell Bellingham Bennett Berry Berry Bick Birbeck Bird Bird Blake Blake Blundell Bonnick Brett Bridge Briscombe Briscombe Brookes Brown Brown Brown Bunn Burns Burton Bushell Buteux

Chloe Becky Paisley Benjamin Robert Chloe Bethany Bethany Jade Anoushka Thomas Daniel Kaylee Alice Amelia Jessica Leah William Jade Kirsty Brennan Tia Shauna Chloe James Ryan Martha Natasha Gabriel Bethany Jesscia Georgina Shaun Sophie Clara Martha Jovan Chloe Hayley Sophie Lauren Anthony

Cadwallader Capewell Carr Carrier Challis Chapman Cheyne Clarke Clarke Clarke-Newell Cleaveley Colburn Cole Collins Collins Collins Collins Collins Cox Craven Cross Cunningham Dance Davies Davies Davies Davis De Castro Tree Dent Dickings Donaldson Donowho Duffy Duffy Dunster Dunster Duric Dutfield Dutfield Eastwood Eden Edwards

Callam Rosie Raha Abigail Ike Harrison India Lucia Millie Harvey Jake Emma Ruby Caitlin Luke Natasha Molly Bradley Bethany George Harry Nathaniel Millie Eleanor Megan Steven Beth Biba Natalie Lauren Kieran Jasmine Phoebe Thea Lee Elizabeth Charlotte Charlotte Clare Ellie Lydia Ellie

Edwards Ellis Eskafi Evans Fallon Fallon-Wilson Fanelli Fanelli Fearns Ferguson Flanigan Fletcher Fletcher Ford Ford Forsyth Freeth Frost Fuller Fuller Fuller Fuller Gaffey Gallagher Gardner Garnett Giddings Gifford Gilbert Glover Goode Goodman Graver Green Griffiths Guinavin Gwilliam Gwilliams Hampton Hand Hand Hand

Bethany Luke Shah Hussain

Handley Handley Haque

Isobel Kathryn Katie Elliot

Jones Jones Jones Kainey

Lia Abbie Elisha Chloe

Mariano Martin Martucci Matthews

Charlotte May Paige Bethany Chloe

Hardy Harrison Haughtey Hawker

Leah Ryan Kayleigh Georgia

Kainey Kearney Keeling Kelland

May May Mercer Wilson Mayor McCulloch

Kate Ellen Katie Bryn Millicent Millie Molly Benjamin Lauren Matthew John Piers Shanice William Rebekka Sonny Sam Bradley Morgan Brittany Sarah Nishaa Zaqib Thomas Tom Josh Joseph Hussan Jessica Hasnain Callum Amy Elizabeth Cerys Bethany

Hawker Hawkins Hawkins Hayes Haywood Haywood Haywood Heeks Heeks Henshaw Hewitt Hilton-Turvey Hobbs Hodges Hodson Hope Hornabrook Houghton Hudson Hughes Hull Hussain Hussain Hutt Hutt Hyett Ingles Iqbal Irish Jahangir Jaynes Jeffries Joesbury-Clarke John Jones

William Oliver Chris Jessica Faizah Humaira Ashley Connor Jem Jem Michael Aleksandra Amelia Abigail Charles Charlie Alexander Hannah Katie Eleanor Jackson Benjamin George William Bradley Molly Georgia Nick Thomas Matthew Emily Rachael William Ella Ann-Sharon

Kemp Kendall Key Key Khan Khan King King King King King Kwiecinska Lacoviello Laker Lancaster Lancaster Lawrence Leary Leary Lee Lee Lewis Loader Lockett Long Lovell MacDonald MacPherson Maiden Makepeace-Beeching Malin Maltby Maltby Manchanda Manoharan

Emily Luanne Emily Ewan LauraMay Sophie Shaunie Erinn Harry Keeley Kimberley Bethanie Laura Yaseen Luke Callum Connor Emma Jack Jack Amber Fiona Hafsah Bryn Junayed Chantelle Ellie Freya Sophie Josh Angel Ashanti Chloe Megan Oliver Jessica Phillip Shannon Harriet

McKee Meakin Mellor Melville Miller Miller Milton Minton Mitchell Mohammed Molloy Mooney Mooney Moore Moore Moore Morris Morris Muminah Myers Naim Neathway Newman Newns Northcott Nullis O'Dwyer Olatunde Panting Papazoglou Parker Parry Patrick Patrick Pickering

Chloe Anton Teagan Helainna Daniel David Joshua Jack Felix Josetta Glyn Claire Harvey Charlotte Georgina Oliver Georgia Jacob Amelia Abigail Ben Kayleigh Josie Joshua Elliot Matthew Michael Jessica Emma Michael Emily Lauren Shakara Luke Ross Will Amber Nathan Bethany Alex Jessica Kieran

Poolton Preen Preen Presley Price Prince Proctor Pugh Reeves Reid Reilly-Harrison Reynolds Roach Roberts Roberts Roberts Robinson Robinson Ross Rudge Russell Ryan Samuels Saunders Savage Savage Schenk Sheridan Shuard Shuker Shuttleworth Skidmore Smith Southall Southall Sowden Sparrey Stanton Steele Steenson Stone Storan

Peter Aimee Jacob Elliot Georgia Tierney Shuto Andrew Benjamin Claudia Samuel Scott Summer Joe Joseph Cameron Cameron Imogen Katie Jessica Maisie Emily Sophie Libby Georgia Megan Danielle Eleanor Zoe Bailey-Mai Aimee Bradley Chanelle Gabrielle Georgia Imogen James Aimee Max Faith Jamie Lauren

Strong Stubbins Styler Sugars Surridge Sutton Takahashi Tansell Tansell Taylor Taylor Taylor Taylor Terry Terry Thorne Tilley Tingle Tippins Tobin Tomlinson Tooth Tothill Trainer Tryner Turberfield Turpin Tustin Vernon Vinyard Wainwright Walker Walsh Watkins Watkins Watterson Whitehouse Widdus Willcock Williams Williams Williams

Alex Mark Charlotte Florence Georgia Kiera Lewis Florence Joshua Chloe Ellie Sean Marcin Afshan

Williamson Wilson Wood Wood Wood Wood Wood Wood Woodman Woodward Worthington Wylie Zatorski Zia

OUR VISION We seek to develop a caring Christian community in which we nurture individuals; encourage learning, creativity and endeavour; inspire all to excel and reach their potential and to help all young learners grow into active and responsible citizens who are able to make a difference in the World.

To make our vision a reality we aim to: 

Develop a faith- centred community based on a love of God, neighbour and self

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Create a culture of learning and achievement in which study, enquiry, innovation and aspiration are highly valued.

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Grow together to be the best that we can be.

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Establish an orderly, happy, safe and caring environment in which all members of the College community can grow in confidence and self-esteem.

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Provide access to a wide and varied curriculum that is appropriate to students’ needs and learning styles.



Support physical, social and emotional growth.



Develop a sense of responsibility and citizenship, and thereby shape the future.

In order to bring about the best we shall: 

Provide excellent teaching, in rich and varied learning environments.



Create positive challenges.

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Assess students learning and progress and report on this regularly to parents.

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Strive to develop an enriching programme of visits and extra curricular activity.

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Respond effectively to students pastoral needs.

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Develop positive relationships between staff and students.

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Promote good attendance.

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Build a strong and robust College/parent partnership.

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Develop effective links with the Church and wider communities.

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Meet and support the needs of ethnic and minority groups.

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Celebrate diversities and differences in our community.

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Work as a team towards our shared vision.

IMPORTANT DATES FOR YOUR DIARY AT A GLANCE – SPRING TERM 2011 Date Event 4th January Teacher Education Day 5th January Term Starts for Students – Week A 19th January Year 11 Parents Consultation 2nd February Year 8 Options Evening th w/c 6 February College Production ‘Hair Spray’ 10th February – 18th February Ski Tour 13th February – 17th February Half Term Holiday 20th February Second Half Term Starts 6th March Year 10 Immunisations 6th March Year 10 Parents Consultation w/c 12th March Worcester Dance Festival th 14 March Year 11 Revision Evening rd 23 March End of Term Reports issued th 30 March End of Spring Term nd w/c 2 April Llanrug Returners Course nd th 2 April – 13 April Easter Holidays ACADEMIC YEAR 2012-2013 – APPROVED TERM DATES Holiday

School closes on

School reopens on Wednesday 5th September 2012

Autumn Term Autumn mid-term

Thursday 25th October 2012

Monday 5th November 2012

Thursday 20th December 2012

Christmas

Tuesday 8th January 2013

Spring mid-term

Friday 15th February 2013

Monday 25th February 2013

Easter

Thursday 28th March 2013

Tuesday 16th April 2013

Bank Holiday

Monday 6th May 2013

Summer mid-term

Friday 24th May 2013

Summer

Wednesday 24th July 2013

Monday 3rd June 2013

Please note: Good Friday - Friday 29th March 2013 Easter Monday - Monday 1st April 2013 Whitsun Bank Holiday - Monday 27th May 2013 Teacher Education Days are set for: rd

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Monday, 3 September 2012, Tuesday, 4 September 2012 Friday, 26th October 2012, Monday, 7th January 2013, Monday, 15th April 2013

Open Tuesday All parents/carers are reminded ‘Open Tuesday’ Every Tuesday between 3.00 pm-4.00 pm A chance to meet with a member of the Senior Leadership Team without a prior appointment Parents/carers are seen on a first come/first seen basis.

The length of the meeting will depend on the number of people waiting to be seen

Safeguarding As a College the safeguarding of our students is imperative. We felt parents would be interested in the following leaflet given to all visitors to the College.

BISHOP PEROWNE CHURCH OF ENGLAND COLLEGE

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN

ADVICE FOR VOLUNTEERS AND VISITORS

Bishop Perowne Church of England College Merriman’s Hill Road Worcester WR3 8LE

Telephone No: 01905 746800 Fax No: 01905 746846 Email: info@bishop-perowne.worcs.sch.uk Child Protection Advice for Volunteers & Visitors Thank you for your interest in becoming a volunteer or regular visitor. As a College we are committed to safeguarding and meeting the needs of young people and we hope this leaflet will provide some useful advice and information when working with children at Bishop Perowne Church of England College.

What are my responsibilities as a Volunteer?

All those who come into contact with young people through their every day work whether paid or voluntary have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of young children.

CRB checks Bishop Perowne Church of England College’s Recruiting and Selection Procedures specify that all volunteers who work with children three or more days in a 30 day period, or overnight, will require an enhanced CRB Disclosure. This is to help ensure that unsuitable people are prevented from working with young people.

The Headteacher will inform you as to whether or not you require a CRB Disclosure. If you do not, you should not be left unsupervised with young children.

CRB forms are available from the Headteacher’s PA Mrs Karen Wigley who will help you complete the application form and advise which documentation is necessary for you to present for the check to be completed.

Please also inform the Headteacher immediately if you become subject to any criminal investigation, caution or conviction. This helps to protect you as well as the young people in your care.

Bishop Perowne Church of England College has a Safeguarding Policy and a copy is available from reception.

What should I do if I am worried about a child?

If whilst working with a child you become concerned about:   

Comments made by a young person Marks or bruising on a young person Changes in the young persons’ behaviour or demeanour

Please report these concerns to the class teacher, who if they feel it is appropriate will pass the information on to the College’s Designated Senior Member of Staff.

What should I do if a child discloses that she/he is being harmed?

Although the likelihood of this is small it is important to know what to do in such an eventuality as young people rarely lie about such matters         

Listen to what is being said without displaying shock or disbelief; accept what is being said Allow the young person to talk freely Reassure the young person, but do not make promises that might not be possible to keep Do not promise confidentiality but explain to the young person that you have to tell their teacher or Headteacher in order that they can help him/her Do not interrogate the young person or ask leading questions Reassure the student that it is not their fault Stress that it was the right thing to tell Listen rather than ask direct questions Do not criticise the alleged perpetrator

Immediately record details of the disclosure, including wherever possible the exact words or phrases used by the young person. Forms for the recording of information of this nature are available from reception.

The form should be completed and returned to the Designated Senior Member of Staff to enable the matter to be dealt with in the most appropriate way. Please ensure you have signed and dated the record.

What should I do if the alleged abuser is a member of the school staff?

You should report such allegations to the Headteacher.

What should I do if the alleged abuser is the Headteacher?

You should report such allegations to the Designated Senior Member of Staff who will notify the Chair of Governors.

How do I assure that my behaviour is always appropriate?

Appropriate relationships with young people should be based on mutual trust and respect.

As a volunteer you may well be working closely with young people sometimes on a one to one basis.

Young people, especially when they are young, are often spontaneously affectionate and tactile and it is important not to alienate them through lack of response or by appearing to reject this. You should, however, be careful about touching students.

If you are working with a student on his/her own always ensure that the door is left open or that you can be visible to others.

Do not photograph students, unless requested to by the class teacher, exchange e-mails or text messages, or give out your own personal details.

Please help us to safeguard the young people in our care by following these guidelines.

No child should suffer harm, either at home or at school. Everyone who works in our College has a responsibility to make sure that all our young people are safe.

This leaflet has been given to you to make sure you understand what is expected of you. Please ask the person who gave it to you if you are unclear about anything in it, and keep the leaflet in a safe place, so that you can read it again if you need to.

If you are worried about the safety of any young person in our College, you must report this to the Designated Senior Member of Staff in College.

CONTACTS Headteacher: Julie Farr Designated Senior Member of Staff for Safeguarding Children: Jane Price (Assistant Headteacher) Deputy Designated Members of staff: Helen Stanbra Debbie Thomasson Governor with Safeguarding responsibility: Dr Hugh Somervell

Uniform Rules Our new pleated skirts are looking extremely smart and thank you to all parents who have made such an effort to ensure their students are correctly turned out for college.

The new jumpers become regulation at Christmas. These can be either a plain black v-neck (long sleeved or tank top) or the Bishop Perowne College design showing a blue flash which is available from School togs. Thank you, again, to all parents who have already purchased these items for their students. _____________________________________________________________________________________________

Holiday and Absence As a College we would be most grateful, if parents/carers could ensure that holiday is taken out of school time. We are only able to grant authorised holiday in certain circumstances such as:       

Is part of a treatment/recovery plan flowing injury or illness; Is part of a special family occasion e.g. wedding or funeral; Can only occur because parents/carers can only take a holiday together because work arrangements prevent holidays being taken during College holiday time. This would need to be supported by evidence from the employer that a holiday cannot be taken during College holiday time; Is part of a planned activity in which the student is representative/participant in a sporting event and the student is representing his/her county or country; Is connected to the observance of a religious festival; Is part of a programme of respite for a student who is a young carer; Is in the judgement of the Headteacher, sought in exceptional circumstances.

Absence disrupts a student’s education. One absence is enough to miss the introduction of a key skill, or a vital piece of knowledge, that is the foundation for the next stage of learning.

Students who attend regularly:     

Make faster progress than those with poor attendance.

Achieve higher results in tests and examination.

Are more successful in maintaining friendships.

Participate more extensively in extra-curricular activities, social events and extended day activities.

Are less likely to be involved in crime and anti-social behaviour.

Parental illness, alleged bullying, shopping, visiting family or simply not wanting to attend College are examples of unauthorised absence. Truancy is unauthorised absence.

Students classified as ‘Persistent Absentees’ whose attendance is below 85% attendance, in effect miss a whole year or more of their College career.

Congratulations to all students and parents for showing the strongest attendance figures we have ever had. Our overall attendance has been above 95% for the entire term. This places the College firmly in the ‘outstanding’ category for school attendance.

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Year 11 Revision Evening for Parents and Students for Mathematics and Science 5th January 2012 The aim of the evening is to provide students with guidance on revision outside of College and to advise parents how they can help and support their child. _____________________________________________________________________________________________

Rewards Our celebration assemblies and reward lotteries are proving very popular at the end of each half term. Students with 20 credits or more have an entry into the lottery and a chance to win i-pods, vouchers and the ultimate prize is a chip pass!!

We now have interest from local businesses meaning we will be able to expand the numbers of prizes available enabling us to reward a greater number of students for their hard work and diligence over the previous half term. Please see below the local businesses that are already sponsoring our rewards scheme. Any business interested in being a sponsor should contact Steve Farmer at the College email: farmers@bishop-perowne.worcs.sch.uk.

Community News This term has been incredibly eventful and productive within the four communities. Our Year 7 students have settled so well into the life of Bishop Perowne College. It is most pleasing to see so many students involved in extra curricular activities and taking advantage of the wealth of activities on offer after College.

Tutors within each Community have continued to mentor students this term with a particular focus on Year 11 as they prepare for their forthcoming mock examinations. Students have had the opportunity for one to one discussions with their tutor and to set targets for their own personal development and progress. We hope students have found the mentoring process to be a positive experience and worthwhile.

This term has also seen the further development of Community Parliament. This year we have a Year 11 team leading Community Parliament. The team consists of Captains and Vice Captain from each of the four Communities. We also have a Parliament representative from each tutor group .They have worked collaboratively together to plan for upcoming events. They lead our fundraising activity this term which was ‘Children In Need’ and did us proud. They are currently planning for the activities day at the end of term which promises to be just as successful.

All tutor groups were encouraged this term to produce boxes for our Operation Christmas Child appeal. Many students contributed to the boxes produced within form groups and some students produced a box individually. We would like to thank all students for their generosity and kindness in making another child’s Christmas special this year.

Our Year 11 students are in preparation for their mock examinations and forthcoming modular examinations. We wish all students every success and look forward to congratulating them on their results in due course.

Finally, we would like to wish all Parents, Carers and students a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. We would like to thank you for your continued support this term and look forward to a successful 2012.

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Certificate Evening - Speech by Marcus Burton GMD for Mazak Europe 24th November 2011 First of all I would like to thank the Head Teacher Julie Farr and the Governors of the school for inviting me to join you for this evening’s celebration of success.

As Managing Director of a significant local company I think it is important that we maintain strong contacts with local schools to give students the opportunity to understand and experience more about the world we live in.

In order to put my comments this evening into perspective I would like to explain a little bit about Yamazaki Mazak.

I am the GMD for Mazak Europe. Mazak is a Japanese company and the worlds number 1 Metal Cutting Machine Tools.

The European Head Quarter is in Worcester – employing more than 500 people locally and more than 900 people across Europe. The company was started in 1987 and have continued to invest ever since.

Our customers buy our machines to make metal components for automotive, aerospace, energy and medical. One of our high profiled customers is the McLaren formula one team that use our machines exclusively.

We have sales of more that £250m and 95% of our production is exported earning money for Britain.

We regularly invite groups of students from schools and universities to tour our manufacturing facilities and get a better understanding about modern manufacturing and engineering.

I think this is particularly important at the present time. The last deep recession caused by the banking crisis and the continuing problems of governments and private debt has caused uncertainty and fear in many countries about future economic growth and job prospects.

Britain has for too long been dependant upon the financial sector, however it is clear that Britain must now adjust and place more emphasis on making products to sell and also to increase our exports, I think political parties of all colours at last recognise this and we as a company play our part in promoting the importance of manufacturing to the government and the opposition.

I can tell you that despite the gloomy economic news our company is extremely busy and I think the future of manufacturing is strong.

But what our country needs for the future in all areas, whether it is the public sector, private sector, social business or manufacturing are well educated, well trained and well motivated young people. In that sense our future success is going to depend on your individual success.... And that is what we are celebrating this evening.

I first visited Bishop Perowne earlier this year when I was invited by the Head to make a short presentation about Yamazaki Mazak to Year 10 students and also offer some advice concerning career choices.

I was extremely impressed by what I saw. The behaviour, attitude and interest shown gave me a positive impression that was a credit to you and this school.

I believe that the culture and environment of Bishop Perowne is an asset that you can all take with you as you move on to new opportunities.

Considering these new opportunities I am often asked to pass on advice to those choosing subject options for further study and to those trying to decide their future direction. I have to say that there are no simple answers.

My own experience was that I did not have any strong vision about my future when I was at school – I was often content to just achieve a pass grade.

My favourite subject was art and spent most of my time on my hobby which was, and still is, Music (mostly electronic and noisy rather than classical).

I studied Art to A level but luckily and by a fortunate accident concerning the school timetable I had to study Maths and Physics. That led me into a career in Manufacturing and Engineering which I studied at University. It wasn’t until that time that I developed my vision to work in Manufacturing. The earlier you can create your vision the better, but it is never too late.

If you have a clear vision it is easy – that is the best situation. Set yourself a target and aim for it – better still aim beyond it (“if you want to get to the moon aim for the stars”).

Think about future study choices if you have a real passion for something then you may want to study that (eg Music), but it may not lead to a job or career. Just because you are good at something does not mean that it can be a career – you can enjoy it as a hobby but if you can make it your career I will be extremely envious. In the modern stressful world having interests and hobbies outside of work will give you great satisfaction and ultimately help you be successful, but you also need to consider carefully what knowledge and skills you can acquire that will be valuable for future employment.

If you do not have a clear target or a passion (which is true of most of us) then the best advice I can give is to talk to as many people as you can and try to experience as many different things as you can to help make up your mind.

University isn’t the only option. Apprenticeships and skills can offer an excellent route into a career and higher education qualifications can always be studied later. Many of the managers at Mazak have followed this route.

Whichever path you choose do not waste any opportunity. Hard work and dedication builds a virtuous circle of success.

The more you have success the more you want success.

Often the most important qualities to a successful career are your own personal qualities – and you have total control over that.

Once in a job, strong personal qualities such as reliability, honesty, hard work and education can lead to rapid advancement.

Always do what you say you are going to do. Think about your friendships – who are the friends that let you down, who are the ones that say they are going to do something and let you down, the friends that cancel arrangements at the last minute or just fail to live up to their promises. Develop the good habit of reliability. In today’s world good intentions count for nothing.

In my job I work with people from all over the world and Britain has a high reputation for creativity and innovation – unfortunately we are also know to be the country that can think up the best excuses for failure.

Don’t use all your creative energy to think up the best excuses for not doing something.

Use that time and energy to do what you said you were going to do. Think of that when you are stressing over what excuse to give to your teacher or boss when you did not hand in your assignment on time or complete the task you had promised.

So to return to this evening’s celebration it is very clear to me that your time at Bishop Perowne has helped you develop the personal qualities that you will need for success that will open up new opportunities for you.

If you have not already done so you now need to work on developing that vision and deciding how to obtain the additional knowledge and skills necessary to realise that vision. Talk to as many people as you can about your future options. I know that this school will continue to help you and we will continue to support the school.

Finally I would like to close by once again thanking the Head Teacher for inviting me this evening and I want to congratulate you on all your achievements so far and I wish you every success for your future.

Thank you

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Worship Team Update During this half-term, the Worship Team have had yet more interesting events. We greeted visitors from an international pilgrimage site, Taizé, and were given the opportunity to go there next year, which all the team snapped up. Some great insights into how to worship in a new way were provided, and we are going to hold a Taizé service next week, with the help of Sarah Brush, Diocesan Youth Worker.

We also lead an inspiring Advent service, with great music by our Year 9 music GCSE class, despite their lack of any practice, and Hallam delivered a great Advent monologue.

We are constantly working to develop our ‘Worship Space’ and feel that it is really coming together as a useable room.

We are going continue the refurbishment at the beginning of the Spring. These are exciting times for the Worship Team.

Jacob Robinson.

Christian Union Our Christian Union meets once a week on a Tuesday in the Worship Room. The group is led by two pupils and is made up of students ranging from Year 7 to 11. We gather for an hour after College to have fun, food and read the Bible. Our aim is to encourage those that attend in their Christian faith. We do this by Bible study and prayer (and a huge amount of chocolate biscuits1). Our hope is that students will feel built up and inspired to share the good news about the gospel with their friends. Anyone interested in coming along is very welcome. _____________________________________________________________________________________________

Learning and Teaching and Quality Assurance Update Teacher Education Days The Teacher Education day on the 5th September focused on a review of the college’s exam results, the year ahead and developments in monitoring and evaluation. The day also gave the opportunity for subject and community teams to meet and plan for the year.

On the teacher Education Day in October staff looked at an interactive program which enables all staff to manipulate data to ensure effective tracking of students within individual classes, year groups and specific groups. All staff are now able to identify quickly students who require intervention across all year groups.

Learning and Teaching training sessions (Tuesday) This term sessions have focused on “Reflecting on Learning”. We have revisited plenaries, assessment, feedback , intervention, revision and catch up using research by Hattie to support our learning. Developing our work on Hattie’s research sessions have been led on Graphic Organisers. These highly effective learning and teaching tools have been used in classrooms and discussed at department level. Work has now began on developing literacy across the curriculum.

Students Learning and Teaching group This term the student group are looking at “reflecting on learning”. For three weeks they monitored the use and effectiveness of plenaries in lessons and then focused on plenaries in the observations they carried out.

The students learning and teaching group have now observed two sets of lessons and have learnt the following:          

How to be professional and observe well To ask questions that you want the answer to To listen and understand more Teachers have different teaching styles Mixed Media helps to further and extend knowledge Close communication between student and teacher helps when improving work Students like a relaxed atmosphere Students like working in groups so they can bounce ideas off each other.

What helps people learn Effective communication is the key to successful learning.

The most successful aspects of the observations were:  

Interviews with teachers and students Interviews helped to distinguish four different perspectives of the lesson.

Monitoring and Evaluation Senior Leadership Team links have met with subject leaders on two occasions to monitor teaching and learning and quality assurance, monitor progress toward completion of department developments plans and ensure that these reflect whole college priorities. A work scrutiny of year 9 and 11 work has taken place to identify areas of strength and areas to be improved in student work, marking and feedback.

Review of the first half terms observations of Learning and Teaching 48 observations took place during September and October of which 85% of learning and 87% of teaching was considered Good or Outstanding. Many joint observations were carried out to ensure accuracy in judgments. many areas of excellence were observed including student acquisition of new skills, learner engagement and resilience, students ability to work independently and collaboratively, pupil progress , effective teaching, and subject knowledge.

Nicola Raggett December 2011 _____________________________________________________________________________________________

Literacy Across the Curriculum – Miss Patricia Butler, Subject Leader of English Literacy, in its simplest terms, means understanding or communicating information through reading, writing or spoken communication. Proficient literacy skills empower and enable our young people; they are essential for learning and for life. I was delighted, when appointed last year, to be asked by Ms Farr and the Governors to take on an additional schoolwide responsibility: raising awareness of literacy and the standards of writing.

A highly successful preliminary ‘Focus on Literacy: Current Best Practice’ session, involving all teachers, was held in November during a Tuesday Learning and Teaching meeting. The discussion and feedback from all curriculum areas reflected extremely positively the, effective and frequent, use of a wide variety of Literacy-based activities and strategies to promote and assess learning. From the teaching of how to structure a written argument in History, to the use of both verbal and written explanations of how to solve problems, used to consolidate and assess students’ knowledge, in Mathematics.

Literacy is already at the heart of learning at Bishop Perowne, therefore a focus for next term’s Tuesday Learning and Teaching meetings is sharing this best practice between different subjects. Cross-curricular activities will also be implemented to raise students’ awareness of literacy and importantly, to help them to transfer the writing skills they learn in English (and other subject) to every piece of writing they complete, particularly in their assessments and examinations.

Valuing and teaching Literacy skills is, of course, not a new concept; however, Literacy will take a higher profile in the new OFTSED framework from January 2012. In addition, Michael Gove has re-introduced marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar to several GCSE examination papers. It is pleasing to share with you that Literacy is already a valued part of learning in every subject taught at Bishop Perowne and I look forward to updating you on the progress of the Literacy project in the near future.

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Arts College - First Term 2011 The Shakespeare Schools Festival - 8th November 2011.

A group of Year 10 students performed an abridged version of ‘The Taming of The Shrew’ at the Artrix Theatre in th Bromsgrove on 8 November to an audience of 200 people. It was an enormously successful evening at which the Bishop Perowne production was praised by the organisers for its originality and depth of character.

Following the Artrix the students then gave another performance in the Bishop Perowne Theatre for Year 9 English students to support their curricular learning.

Hairspray - The Musical The next full scale College Production is the musical Hairspray due to be performed on 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th of February.

The full stage and costume sets have now been found and these will be available four weeks before the production’s opening night. There are plans to extend the set out into the main entrance of the school so that the theatrical experience for the audience begins before they even enter the theatre. Posters, programmes and tickets are being produced by one of our ex parents – Linda Clarke – who is also a semi-professional graphic designer.

CarnaudMetalbox Visit For several years we have received generous funding from CarnaudMetalbox. Last year we used the funding to purchase an Intaglio Printer for the Art Department and two SLR digital cameras for use across the curriculum. On Thursday 29th

September Julia Duckworth from CarnaudMetalbox visited the College. Whilst she was here she was given a tour and was able to see much of the equipment they had previously funded being put to good and creative use. This included:  

Mr Hewson running a workshop in the Art Department which was delivered by one of our ex parents - Mrs Moore - and which made full use of the Intaglio Printer.

At the same time Dan Morgan, our new Creative Advisor, was seen working with a group of students on the beginnings of the arts in maths project as they photographed and measured up the Maths Quad in readiness for the memorial garden development.

Julia was extremely impressed and offered future funding before leaving. She also discussed the possibility of holding the next CarnaudMetalbox Conference here at Bishop Perowne.

African Drumming This year's African Drumming sessions will be led by some of our previous Year 11 students. This gives the previous students an opportunity to keep in touch with the College and for our present students to have role models and to encourage them to try and make similar achievements. If any students are interested in joining this group they should speak to Mrs Raggett.

Specialist Intake Group The Specialist Intake Group now consists of 39 students in Years 7, 8 and 9 and they have already begun their programme of events for this year. Greg Clarke, our theatre manager, has delivered a five week series of workshops on Technical Theatre to the Year 8 students. Dan Morgan (Creative Advisor) has worked with the year 7s on a video production to launch the Primary Film Festival and there are a range of activities planned for the group throughout the year.

The first of their all day arts workshops took place on Thursday 24th November and was delivered by Dan Morgan and Jackson Gleeson from Worcester University. They focused the day on developing the individual talents – whether they be musical, dramatic or dance – of each of the students into a single performance piece. This was presented at the end of the day to a group of 90 year 7 students.

Vamos Theatre Company The Vamos Youth Theatre Auditions took place in the Drama Department on September 26th. There were several students from Bishop Perowne attending the workshops and we were successful with two of our students – Chloe Jaynes and Rachael Maltby – gaining a place in the company.

On Tuesday 11th October Vamos Theatre Company visited Bishop Perowne to perform their new production of 'Much Ado About Wenlock'. This was shown to all of our Year 8 students and followed by a workshop for 60 of our students including the Specialist Intake Group.

As in previous years it was a tremendously successful event with all of the students involved gaining a great deal from the day. Vamos Director, Rachael Savage and the Company members, were extremely positive about their visit and commented on the creativity, sensitivity and positive attitudes of our students.

Christmas Dance Show Preparations for the annual Dance Show are now well under way. The show will take place on December 14th and include more than 20 dance pieces from students from all year groups.

Carol Service Preparations for the Carol Service in Worcester Cathedral on 13th December are now well under way and it promises to be the best ever. Three primary schools, St Barnabas, Northwick and St Georges, will be playing in the Orchestra and many students and staff from Bishop Perowne will be singing.

Motionhouse Dance Theatre Visit The Company will be visiting College on the 8th December to work with the GCSE Year 11 dance students on the set piece for their examination. In past years this event has proven to support and increase student achievement in this element of the examination.

Peregrine Theatre Company Visit On the 4th November Peregrine visited the college and worked with the Year 9 Arts Award students on a skills workshop.

This was important to the students as it forms part of their Arts Award assessment in working with other professionals.

Rockschool Band Performance: One of the Bishop Perowne Rock School bands performed at Keystones Pub on Friday 25th November as part of the Worcestershire Arts and Music Showcase. A tremendous opportunity for the students and representation for Bishop

Perowne. Students from the Rockschool group have also been invited by Rockschool to perform at their annual showcase in Birmingham.

Ex -students James King and Matthew Evans completed the level 2 Rock school course while at Bishop Perowne, we are delighted that are returning to talk to present students about their huge success since leaving Bishop Perowne. Their talk will include the performing opportunities they have had across Europe and the Music Degree courses they are now studying.

SSAT, iNet international conference. st

On the 1 December Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, Lewis Wood, and George Sansome performed at the international iNET conference in Birmingham. All three students deserve our huge congratulations for two superb performances which attracted many complementary comments. Granny’s Attic website gives an up to date list of their upcoming gigs www.grannysattic.org.uk Raw Dance Energy Bishop Perowne student Rachael Maltby and her dancers from year 11 GCSE Dance, along with Wire Boyz, have auditioned for Raw Dance Energy, a regional dance platform, due to be staged in February 2012 at Dance Exchange in Birmingham.

Visit To Malvern Theatres - Year 10 Drama and BTEC Performing Arts.

On Wednesday 7th December a group of 35 Year 10 students visited the Malvern Theatres. The aim was to give the students a backstage tour and to give them an insight into the workings of a professional theatre from the technical point of view. The visit definitely achieved all of this and was invaluable to the development of the BTEC students who are required to make contact with the professional theatre world as part of their assessments.

Year 8 Sixth Form Visit As an Arts College we see taking students out on theatre visits and getting them to work with professionals and higher education as an essential part of the extended curriculum.

On 7th December a group of forty-five year 8 students visited the Sixth Form to see their latest production of the acclaimed musical 'We Will Rock You'. It was a fantastic afternoon and an excellent production which all of the students enjoyed. It gave them an opportunity also to see the work of the Sixth Form students and to get a taste of what might be available to them, in terms of the Performing Arts, in post 16 education.

In the evening of the same day a group of 20 Year 11 students visited the same production and were equally as impressed with the evening.

Christmas Performance - Specialist Intake Group The Specialist Intake Group of students have been working with our Creative Advisor, Dan Morgan, in devising and staging a short Christmas production. This will take place outside (weather permitting) in the English quad when the whole area will be decorated and dressed up like a winter wonderland.

The Shakespeare Schools Festival - 2011 The Shakespeare Schools Festival is an annual event which gives students from schools all over the country the opportunity to perform at a professional theatre and to gain a new insight into the dramatic works of William Shakespeare.

Bishop Perowne has taken part in the Festival for the past five years and, during that time, has staged 'Macbeth' 'Richard The Third', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'King Lear' and, in November this year, 'The Taming of The Shrew'.

A group of 11 students performed at the Artrix Theatre in Bromsgrove on November 4th to an audience of 200 people.

Students from Year 10 took part in the performance and gave a memorable interpretation of Shakespeare's comedy.

Using a minimal set, essential when touring a production, the cast called upon the many performance techniques learnt during Performing Arts lessons and developed characters and relationships which captured the imagination of their audience and made them laugh at the same time.

Always a valuable experience for our students the build up to the Festival involves them taking part in a workshop, based on the play, with the National Theatre, developing a deeper understanding of performance techniques and how to

interpret the language of the play. Performing in a professional venue gives them an opportunity to experience life in a main stream theatre and to understand how all elements of a dramatic performance are brought together.

Following the Festival performance the cast then presented 'The Taming of The Shrew' in the College Theatre to an audience of Year 9 English students. As a cross-curricular event it was designed to give the cast a second chance to perform their work whilst also supporting the learning of the English students within their curriculum.

DramaComm The Autumn term has been a hugely successful term for our Community Drama group, DramaComm. Year 7 & 8 Specialist Intake students have been working in collaboration with a number of adults with both learning and physical disabilities from across Worcester. This term's project has seen students and adults dealing with issues around safety for vulnerable people in their care settings, and we have then moved on to make a short episode of our very own soap. A massive well done to all involved, and a big thank you to staff who have released students from class to participate in the project.

The Arts across the Curriculum Its been a busy term for the Arts across the Curriculum. Lots of work has been taking place with Creative Advisor, Dan Morgan, in English, Geography and Maths. As well as with ICT, the Creative Media Diploma and Creative Crafts, where a certain year 11 has been discovered to have a passion for knitting!

Work has also included an increased use of the Green Screen studio, although more is needed. Health & Social Care and French are also getting creative with some teaching & learning ideas, with skype becoming a feature initiated by Mrs Windows-Yule as part of the GCSE in partnership with a link school in France.

All in all, the first term of the academic year has been a very creative one, and a really positive start for me as a full time member of staff. A massive thank you to all who have been supportive and participated in and out of class, and a special thanks to all who have given up their Mondays, Wednesdays and/or Thursdays to join me with various drama clubs after school. Have a great Christmas everyone! _____________________________________________________________________________________________

History Department Update The History Department are delighted to announce that this year’s battlefields trip was a great success. It was a more ambitious venture than in previous years as due to student demand we took 66 children instead of the normal 40.

It was with weary eyes that I welcomed all of the staff and students at 4.00 am on a Friday morning in October. Despite the coach having some difficulty in getting to the College due to all of the bridges we were soon well on our way to Maidestone services where we picked up our guides Ashley and Tim and then a quick trip on the Euro-Tunnel to start our voyage of discovery.

We went to an original World War One Trench and re-enacted an attack in order to capture enemy secrets. A number of our students greatly appreciated the opportunity to handle original artefacts from the Great War (decommissioned of course!). It was also fascinating to visit the Falkland memorial One of the highlights of the trip was stopping off at the Ulster Memorial Tower where our students’ got to try out a World War One Rifle, complete with bayonet! Not to mention the delicious hot chocolates and magnum ice creams which were enjoyed by all.

There was a very reflective stop off at the Germany cemetery where students were able to contemplate about the loss of one life and the impact that this would have for that soldiers friends and family rather than seeing the deaths in war as merely a statistic. This was achieved firstly by our guide Ashley sharing a very personal experience of his Grandfather and how despite surviving the war a significant majority of his brothers did not. At this point we felt that it would be appropriate to say a prayer. I was personally moved by how well the group responded to this and the respectful maturity which they demonstrated.

After lunch we made our final stop off of the visit at Deville Wood. This I found to be the most emotional and upsetting part of the trip. This wood is an unmarked grave for thousands of soldiers who died in the Great War but instead of a giant monument the war graves commission has simply laid a protective barrier around an original tree from when the fighting took place and the original bullet holes can still be seen within its bark. The place was very calming and peaceful. Ashley

our guide read a brief poem and prayer, after which each student took a personal moment to choose their own special place to remember a soldier of the Great War who has never been visited before and to reflect on the individual stories that this World War in made up of. It was with great pride and a tear in my eye that I watched as our students walked into the wood in silence with their own personal thoughts whilst the birds were singing and the last of the days sunshine was peeping through the trees in order to remember that soldier who gave his life in order to ensure our freedom. I know that more than a few of our students were spiritually affected by this experience and were emotionally touched by all that they had learnt and experienced in the last 24 hours. This was a very emotional part of the trip and students responded with a decorum that was exceptional and our guides were very impressed with the emotional response of our school party.

The guides and our driver were very impressed with the behaviour, attitude to learning and general reflective spirituality of our students. I know that I personally felt very humbled and privileged to take such a delightful group of children on such a trip and I have already begun to plan next years visit.

Mrs Reeve-McKew Subject Leader of History and Health and Social Care

_______________________________________________________________________________________ Science Department Update Reminders that Year 10 have their Science Exams in January 2012.

Sets 1 and 2 have B1 on 12th January C1 on 18th January P1 on 20th January Sets 3 and 4 have B1 and C1 ONLY on the above dates.

Make sure you use the revision guides and that you are fully prepared for the exams.

A few basic tips for revision:  Start revision early;  Set time aside for revision – make a timetable;  Study for 45 minutes then have a break;  Giver yourself a small reward for revising i.e. time with a friend or doing something else;  Divide your time evenly between subjects;  Make sure you know exactly when and where the exams are – Don’t be late!

Also remember it’s important to:  Eat well – have a good breakfast;  Sleep well – remove all distractions from the bedroom, like televisions and game consoles. Turn that mobile phone off as well.

Year 11 will have their exams in Science in March 2012. More on that in the next Newsletter.

This just leaves the Science Department to wish everyone A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS! ____________________________________________________________________________________________

PSHCCE/Peer Mentoring December 2011 It has been a busy start to the academic year in the PSHCCE department.

Visit from the Fire Service: Shortly after half term Year Seven and Eight students were visited by members of the Hereford and Worcester fire service who spoke to them regarding safety in the run up to Bonfire Night. Students were able to contribute to an interactive assembly which taught them the dangers of playing with fireworks.

WCH Project: 8Y1 8Y1 have been completing a study of their local area supported by Worcester Community Housing. The group have been working with WCH to consider the opportunities available to young people in their local area and any issues that they feel affect them as young people. The students are currently devising a map of the area around the school to highlight where they feel there are both positive and negative aspects of life in Worcester and are researching how different issues such as graffiti and antisocial behaviour can affect both areas and people.

Flourishing Fivers: Year Eight Once again, Year Eight are taking part in a mini-enterprise project to raise money for St Richard’s Hospice. Flourishing Fivers involves students using £5 to set up and run a fundraising activity, with all of the profits raised donated to the Hospice. Students have been using time in their PSHCCE lessons to plan their activities and fundraising is now underway. If any student would like to become involved in the project but has not yet registered their interest, they should see Miss Allport in M5 as soon as possible. A reminder to students that any money raised should be kept in a safe place as the donation to the Hospice will take place in April. Students have until the end of March to raise as much money as possible!

Last year Year Eight raised in excess of £850 – we are challenging this year’s Year Eight to beat this total!

Cedar Tree Visits: This term Year Nine have received visits from the Cedar Tree organisation during PSHCCE lesson time, they spoke with students about self esteem, relationships and parenthood in an interactive and interesting lesson. We will be welcoming the Cedar Tree back in January to speak with Year Eight about body image and self esteem.

Peer Mentoring: A variety of students from years 9-11 will be taking part in our annual peer mentor training in the weeks beginning the 5th and 12th December. Peer Mentors offer valuable support to students in Years Seven and Eight who are in need of a friend or someone to talk to. The Peer Mentors are trained in listening skills and work closely with Miss Allport and Mrs Stanbra, our Family Liaison Officer, to ensure that all students have someone that they can talk to. If any students are interested in becoming a peer mentor please speak to Miss Allport in M5 as soon as possible. If any students would like a peer mentor to support them, mentors can be identified by their peer mentor badge, their pictures are on the peer mentor notice board and a lunchtime drop in service will be running every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the new year – check the notice board by the PAST for details.

Year 7 CAT tests Year 7 have recently completed their Cognitive Ability Tests (CAT Tests) and are to be congratulated on their approach to these assessments. Some students will have taken CAT tests before in their primary schools, but for many it was the first time. It was also the first time for all of the students that they will have completed the tests on line.

The CAT tests have three components – a Verbal test – which assesses thinking with words, a Quantitative test, which assesses thinking with numbers and a Non-Verbal test, which assesses thinking with shape and space.

The main uses of the CAT scores are : To identify an individual’s strengths and weaknesses in order to inform teaching and learning.  To identify needs of groups of students and target our resources accordingly.  To inform target setting and give an indication of future attainment.

The scores are always used in conjunction with ongoing teacher assessments and evaluation of student progress throughout the year.

Trish Eames SENCO ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Sporting News Participate to Reach Potential Girls Football th

On the 5 October the Bishop Perowne Year 10 and 11 Girls Football Team travelled to Chantry High School with high expectations and confidence after 1 4:0 win over Droitwich High School the week before.

Arriving at the Chantry we started a warm up and got ourselves warm. We started practising passing and shooting.

Eventually the game started and we could feel the tension and anticipation. Bishops dominated the game and had a great deal of control of the ball. We felt comfortable in possession, but unfortunately Chantry scored on the counter attack.

However, we kept our heads up and equalised just before half time – a shot in the top corner by Emily Burton landed in the net.

The whistle went for half time with both teams disappointed not to be ahead. We (Bishops) reflected on the first half and thought although we had control of the ball a great deal, our final attempts generally weren’t good enough. We made sure that changed for the second half.

As the second half started it was end to end with both teams creating good chances. But a few minutes in the team worked well to create a good scoring opportunity for Abi Laker which was put away to the delight of Bishop Perowne players. We kept pressing for more goals and that paid off with a bullet of a goal from Emily Burton with a fantastic assist from Gabbey Morton. Chantry started to create more good chances but great defending from Nicole, Shanice, Claire and Shahena prevented this. The truth is there could have been a lot more goals for Bishops but we were, overall, happy with the 3 points, which has kept us stop of the league for the fourth consecutive year.

Manager Miss Spink Players: Emily Burton, Abi Laker, Gabby Morton, Shaunie Mellor, Shahena Sultana, Nicole Le Poidevin, Clair Hampton and Shanice Hobbs On 7th December Bishop Perowne’s Girls Football Team took part in a friendly tournament at Blessed Edwards. The team consisted of the following players: Abi Laker, Emily Burton, Jordan Blake, Claire Hampton, Shahena Sultana and Nicky Le Poidevin. We managed to come second place with Droitwich High beating us to first place as they managed to not loose a game. Our first game was against Blessed Edwards in which the score was 3-1 to Bishops. The second game was against Droitwich High School and we lost that game 2-0. Our last game was against Tudor Grange and we won 3-0.

However it was a great team performance and the team played to a very high level. Well done girls!!!

The Under 16s Girls Football Team have continued their run of success with two more consecutive wins. They beat Nunnery Wood convincingly 8-1 with Abbie and Shahena scoring two goals each and Emily scoring 4 goal. The following night they beat Blessed Edwards 4-1 in a close game with Blesseds scoring first from a defensive error, but Bishops equalised just before half time. After a good team talk the girls settled and produced the style of football they normally play. Shahena scored a goal and Emily scored a hat trick. The girls have not lost a game so far this season. Well done Clare Hampton, Shannice Hobbs, Gabby Martin, Shaunie Mellor, Nicky Le Poivenden, Jordan Blake, Shahena Sultana, Abbie Laker and Emily Burton.

The Under 13s Girls Football Team also played Nunnery Wood and Blessed Edwards where the results were reversed with Bishops losing both games, although they played some really good football at times. Team: Millie Gaffey, Jess Suthard, Cerys John, Faith Williams, Meg Gardener, Brittany Ratcliffe, Hafsa Muminah, Bethany Steele and Elodie Bonnick.

Badminton Bishop Perowne’s KS3 and KS4 teams were successful on the evening of Tuesday, 29th November and out ran district winners in 3 out of 4 competitions. The College competed against Droitwich High, Tudor Grange and Blessed Edwards.

The College is now through to the regional finals.

KS3 Girls Winners: Lizzie Balwin, Elizabeth Guinavan, Emily Studholme and Abbey Fallon Wilson.

KS3 Boys – Runners Up: Ollie Biddle, Will Henshaw, Owen Hewitt and Matt Sowden.

KS4 Girls – Winners: Jordan Blake, Lucy Berry, Kayleigh Cole and Summer Mae Taylor.

KS4 Boys – Winners: John Hewitt, Nicholas McPherson, Jack Moore and Will Sowden.

Basketball th

16 November: The Year 8 basketball team won against Droitwich High 10-19.

17th November: The Year 10 basketball team won against Droitwich High School 30-16.

23rd November: Year 8 won against The Chantry 32-16. th

24 November: Year 10 won against The Chantry 42-16.

Year 5 Olympic Cross Country As a part of the Btech sports course the Year 11 students used their leadership skills to organise this event for 210 children from Claines, St Barnabas, St Georges and Northwick Manor.

Each class was given a country to represent from GB, Australia, Usa, China, Canada and New Zealand and points were awarded to give an overall result.

Each Country was allocated a leader to supervise them for the afternoon and encourage them all. The course involved running around the rugby pitch, down the path around the bottom of the field and back up to complete the race, quite a testing run.

The children did extremely well with the following individual winners: Girls: Gold – Chloe Hopper

Silver – Emily Calwell

Bronze – Melissa Griffiths

Boys: Gold – Nick Matthews

Silver – Dan Fisher

Bronze – James Mann

Overall results: Gold – Great Britain (Claines)

Silver – Newzealand (St. Georges)

Bronze – Canada (Northwick2)

Well done to the Btech group for their contribution in a great afternoon of sport. Dan Colburn, Charlie Burton, Luke Molloy, Cameron Thorne, Bradley Houghton, Ben Heeks, Callum Bellingham, Cameron Tilly, Rebecca Hodson, Lauren Williams, Georgia Wood, Clare Hampton and Amy Jefferies.

Gymnastic Festival We were very lucky again to have the opportunity to use Worcester City Gym and their fantastic facilities to hold our Year 2 Gymnastics Festival. Children from St. Barnabas, Claines, Northwick Manor and St. Georges all arrived keen and enthusiastic to experience top class facilities.

Before the event 15 gymnasts from Years 8, 9 and 10 all received training on the activity they were going to coach. There were 12 stations where the children experienced many different gym movements and learnt new skills, some on the sprung floor and others on apparatus. This included work on the beams, parallel bars, jumps into the pit, swings and circles on the high bars.

The leaders really worked hard to get the best out of the Year 2 children and they all had a fantastic time. To finish off the event the children were treated to a display from a member of the gym club who showed them work on the high bars, leaving them inspired for the future.

A big thanks to Worcester City Gym Club and the Coleges leaders for making this a very special event.

Jordan Blake Summer Taylor Kayleigh Cole Abbie Laker Chloe Matthews Millie Ferns Jess Colins Imogen Tingle Georgina Donowho Eleanor Lee Georgia Surridge

Paisley Carr Georgia McDonald Jess Key Suffiyah Ajmal ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Gifted and Talented Again this term we have seen many significant successes from our Gifted and Talented Performing Arts students. The preparations for Hairspray are going well, as is the preparation for the Carol Service. There have also been some exquisite performances within Acts of Collective Worship this term. The performances in both the Remembrance Service and Advent Service are particularly worthy of note. Impressively as well this term, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, along with two former students, was not only invited to perform at this Year’s Head Teacher’s National Conference, but also to lead the performances. This was a real honour and a testament to, and acknowledgement of the quality of their musical ability.

There have also been many Sporting successes this term as we have come to expect, as well as lots of other successes in other subject areas.

Students studying Latin this term have again enjoyed the continued support from the Head of Classics at the Kings School Worcester and we thank her for now giving up her time in order to be present every week. Some students have even now progressed on to their second unit and others soon will. These students will be assessed in January and it is our hope that they will be entered already for their first WJEC qualifications in June. I would again like to take the opportunity to invite any student interested in studying Latin to attend. All students are welcome, regardless of age or ability.

This year’s Mock Trial Competition has now also begun. We have some excellent candidates this year for the various roles and with the help of Dan Morgan (Creative Adviser) we hope to make an improved mark on the competition this year. Next term we will be attending work shops with the King’s School Worcester on the art of cross examining and visiting a real Magistrate’s court to watch some cases in action to help with our preparation. All of which should prove to be not only a very memorable and enjoyable experience but also one of real value to our students.

King’s School Debate So there I was, the ship sinking, my radio burned in a fire and no one knows were the cruise ship was going. There was an estimated two hours till the ship sank, the three captains there decided to see who should survive in the life boat by holding a debate. There was a small uninhabited island 200km away and one life boat, it would only hold six people, three people and three captains.

That was the situation at the King’s School, Worcester on Thursday, twelve children from Bishop Perowne and twelve from Kings – six characters from each school with partners. There were three rounds: number one was the first speech, number two was a second speech with arguments and number three was mainly arguments. The three captains were Mr Hawking, Miss Applegate, and Mrs Friend from Kings. Among the three survivors was the radio operator, or Jon Haynes, who was played by Freddie Lockett, Katie Hawking, the diving instructor who was from Kings and a nurse from Kings.

Characters from Bishops included an ordained minister, the engineer’s wife and a radio operator. Characters from Kings included a diving instructor, a nurse, and a banker. The arguments for keeping the radio operator centred upon him being a survival expert and a fitness fanatic. The other argument for keeping the diving instructor was about how he used to be a stock broker and how he could ration things easily.

The event ended with all the competitors having Ribena and Kit Kats. Bishops did very well, with our students representing three out of the final five characters, and enjoying hearty debates throughout. Both schools employed well reasoned arguments and demonstrated excellent team spirits – especially in the mini bus on the way back to school!

Report by Freddie Lockett ______________________________________________________________________________________________

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Re-design of the Mathematics Quad The mathematics quad is being re-designed as a learning space, but also incorporating an area designated as the memorial area for the school. The plans for the development of the quad are well on their way with several groups of students contributing to the final garden.

Year 7 and some of Year 8 have been involved in the design of the quad during mathematics lessons, measuring the space and existing features, and you can see this in progress on the school website. The best ideas have been included in the final design, for example planting fruit and herbs to encourage wildlife. Mr Hartley’s set have also designed some games to support the learning of maths and the videos of these can also be viewed on the website.

The Eco-group are involved in the planting scheme, helping to decide which plants should be included to give the most benefit to wildlife and what else is needed: bird boxes, log piles, composting… The University of Worcester will be supporting our students with various aspects of the design.

Key areas Wildlife area. The ponds will be re-sited together and surrounded by low flowering plants. A water butt will be installed nearby to help top up the ponds in summer. The planting will provide cover for frogs and toads and encourage insects to visit the area. A fruit corner will also be planted to encourage birds to make their homes in the garden.

A low retaining wall will be built and topped so that it can double as seating for students working in the quad. The students whose ideas have been incorporated in the plan will each paint one of the bricks for this wall and add something mathematical of their choice – and of course sign their brick!

Memorial area. The area will be levelled and planted with scented plants in pinks, blues and whites. There will be a trellis of climbing roses and clematis at one end and a seat at the other, and planting to partly enclose the area to give some feeling of privacy. Memorial plaques to commemorate those in the school family that have passed on will be fixed in the area. Poppies brought back from the battlefields will be planted.

Activity areas. Area 1 will be levelled and cleared to create a learning space. Area 2 is currently an 8 by 8 block of slabs which will be re-laid and extended to 10 by 10. The central 8 by 8 will be painted as a chessboard and the surrounding slabs painted in colours to match the retaining wall. This can then be used for a variety of activities, particularly related to multiplication tables and number properties.

Art installation. Students will be involved in a project to design a structure which can be installed in the quad. This will commemorate all that have had a significant contribution to the life of the school: small plaques (to be designed as part of the project) will be added each year as a living memorial.

What next? The next phase is to get all the hard landscaping in place ready for planting in spring. The Creative Crafts group will be helping to install the pond, re-organise the rockery and prepare the site. Site staff will help to set slabs in place and install lighting. The Creative Crafts group will be exploring setting up a nursery to ensure a supply of spring and summer bedding, and the Eco-group will help them with the planting out. The trellises, seating and other garden ‘furniture’ will be designed and built by students as much as is practical. The Eco-group will be seeking donations of materials and plants from local companies and finalising planting schemes. …and students will be in the garden, learning mathematics!

The future The garden is not going to be designed this year and seen as a finished item, like all gardens it is an on-going project which should grow in all senses each year as new students and new opportunities present themselves. The planting scheme may change, additional seating and storage may be needed, we may be able to add height through a pergola, we may be able to install a weather station… It will be an invaluable addition to the learning spaces around the school.

Wildlife area

Memorial area

compost bin and water butt

lighting trellis low wall lighting art installation

Activity area 1

fruit corner

Activity area 2

shrubbery

How can you help?

Are you sowing seeds for next year? Could you spare a couple of seedlings in spring to help get the garden off to a fantastic start? Please keep us in mind when sowing, and when clearing your gardens and allotments – donations in spring will be gratefully received! Unwanted garden tools that still have some life in them would be very useful.

Do you have any suggestions or amendments for the plans? Ideas for future additions or changes are also welcome.

Email Ms Watson on watsonc@bishop-perowne.worcs.sch.uk. _____________________________________________________________________________________

Foundation Learning Tier Community Garden Project Since the beginning of October a group of twenty two Year nine students on the Foundation Learning Tier course have been involved in an exciting community project in partnership with the Tolladine Mission.

The students were asked to design and create a community garden in the grounds of the vicarage in Tolladine. The garden would be a place in future that could be used and enjoyed by all generations and help to forge strong community links.

This was at first a daunting task. When we visited the garden back in September it was almost impossible to see how we were going to turn this overgrown piece of land into a productive garden. Since the beginning of October the group has been hard at work every Thursday afternoon and visiting the garden and has now become a highlight of the week.

Together with Richard Tett the community minister and his wife Debby, whose garden we invade every week, and the many talented volunteers from the church the garden has been transformed already. Under their expert guidance the students have learnt so many new skills and forged new friendships. They have turned a bare patch of land into a thriving garden.

Each week the group arrives and is assigned to various tasks, working alongside adult helpers. They have cleared land; built raised beds and planted out the first vegetable crops. The group has also planted spring bulbs made scarecrows and are now embarking on the ambitious task of building a garden shed out of old wood and pallets.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Rick and Debby for welcoming us to their home every week and their team of volunteers. We have had a lot of fun and have all been really proud of what everyone has achieved.

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Outdoor Classroom for the College Thanks to a successful bid from The Duckworth Trust, along with match funding from College a 25 foot x 10 foot Polytunnel is being erected at the rear of the Malvern Block.

This will give a 250 square foot ‘classroom’, growing area, and demonstration facility to enhance the Garden Design Course being run under the Creative Crafts umbrella. With 10 raised beds constructed and cultivated by the previous Garden Design group, the Polytunnel will effectively expand the growing period, and facilitate propagation for school and prospective ‘Garden Shows’.

Delivered in 22 parcels, the Polytunnel is slowly being erected. When reading the instructions, the introduction says; ‘Make no mistake constructing a Polytunnel is not a little project to amuse yourself over an idle Sunday afternoon.....First; find a comfy armchair and armed with a cup of tea (Tea bag enclosed)...........’

So having drunk said cup of tea, it is with eager anticipation that we enlist the services of some students as part of their Creative Craft course.

It made interesting reading in ‘Country Gardener’ (issue 80 Winter 2011), that a survey from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) found that parents are lagging behind children and grandparents when it comes to gardening knowledge. It appears that todays’ parents, who attended school during the 1980’s and 90’s, missed out on a huge opportunity, when gardening dropped off the teaching agenda.

When children learn to garden, according to the survey, ‘it is a skill that stays with them for life, something they will use and fall back on as they grow up’.

What a fantastic opportunity we have here now with so many ideas to push forward children’s knowledge of gardening and to make them excited about gardening. Chris Beardshaw is a great example; a former student and an ambassador for garden design and gardening.

Here we see the ground being levelled by Andy; not a good day as it poured relentlesly as he dug, levelled, and flattened the area.

The area at the rear of Clent Block Coupled with the plans to build a ‘maths’ garden, the Polytunnel will provide a twelve month growing season for all weathers, in which student’s can sow seeds, take cuttings, propagate plants, develop their skills and gain knowledge about sustainability, self sufficiency, and create an environment for future continuous development.

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Students get to grips with measuring and building the frame.

With a pipe laid to feed a hose through, the whole tunnel will have an irrigation system set up to water plants and seedlings. Ideas to harvest rainfall are in progress. Composting bins are in situ, and a leaf mould cage.

Looking to create a living structure, Willow reeds are being considered. Renewable and sustainable, it is the ultimate green product, absorbing carbon from the atmosphere as it grows. Tunnels, domes, wigwams, and sculptures can be created and built.

“The versatilty of willow provides an opportunity to engage, enable and include all learners across the age range. The importance of outdoor learning opportunities have long been advocated by OfSTED as providing additional value to the experiences of pupils across all Key Stages”.

Scott Buckler, PhD, MSc, MEd, BEd (Hons) Senior Lecturer in Education, University of Worcester.

Any help with supplying seeds, plants for taking cuttings, plant pots, growing medium, tools, and time would be appreciated to enhance learning and help reduce our carbon footprint by producing fruit and vegetables.

Dave T D&T Technician

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‘Lizzie the Laser’ Blog December 2011 It has been quite eventful over the past few weeks; a steep learning curve for staff getting to grips with materials, two dimensional drawing, attempted three dimensional modelling...

Dave has been re-named Prince Philip (as well as Matron – but that’s another story) as he has spent so much time with me. I have cut out snowflakes, angels, Christmas cards, earrings, rulers, jig-saws, and most recently Tea-light holders. I have cut acrylic, photo-paper, magnetic photo-paper, and wood in a range of thicknesses.

My latest success is the Tea-light holder; it took Dave over three weeks of trial and error drawing, cutting, modelling, re-drawing, re-cutting etc to finally achieve a five piece ‘push-fit’ Tea-light holder. The cut-outs on the sides depict a range of ‘Christmas Scenes’; from a snowman. To Christmas trees, snowflakes, angels, nativity scenes, and most recently.....the three wise men....on camels.....following a star!! The set comes with acrylic in-fills which add quite an effect when the candle is lit, (it comes with the usual safety warning about candles).

I have cut out tree decorations in the form of angels with children’s’ names on, numerous snowflakes, ‘Santa stuck up chimneys’, reindeers, skating penguins, snowmen (or should it be ‘snowperson’)?

A ‘left-handed’ ruler is under development, as are ideas for events in 2012; but as Christmas looms ever nearer, it is decorations and tea-light holders I am cutting at present.

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I work at my own pace; as long as the drawing is colour coded correctly, I ‘raster/etch’ first of all, then if there is any engraving/writing I will do that next, and finally I work around the design, cutting out the shape.

From drawing in 2Ddesign

Laser cutting

Finished sheet

Tea-light holders Watch this space!!!

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Enterprise Activities It has been a busy few weeks for the Enterprise teams at Bishop Perowne.

‘Cutting Edge’ our Year 11 Young Enterprise Team and the form groups F008 and P006 have been designing, creating and selling products created from our new laser cutter ‘Lizzie’.

They have sold Christmas decorations and Christmas door hangings at events within Bishop Perowne including the Year 7 and Year 8 Parent’s Evenings, Awards Evening and the Dance Shows.

Their entrepreneurial skills have led them to trade at local Primary Schools Claines, Gorse Hill and St Barnabas during their Christmas Fairs. Whilst the Young Enterprise Team have also entered competitions within the Bewdley and Worcester Victorian Christmas Fairs following strict competition guidelines.

During these selling opportunities not only have the students raised in excess of £500 but have learnt a lot on their journey, including managing stock, meeting deadlines, marketing and communication skills. The experience these activities have given the students will stay with them for life and be a really useful introduction to the world of business.

Students involved: Young Enterprise – Shane Barratt, Harry Miller, Matthew Savage, Charlie Burton, Lauren Heeks, Holly Page, Louis Woodhouse, Jack Cooper, Robert Graham, Tyler Parish, Porphiris Porphiriou, Daniel Till, Bradley Webb.

Enterprise – Students in F008 and P006. ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Children In Need This year saw students taking part with great enthusiasm in a variety of activities based on our chosen theme of music. The combined Community Parliament Captains and Vice Captains planned and organised events and encouraged tutor groups to participate.

The fund raising got off to a flying start on the Thursday lunchtime with an Air Guitar competition. The atmosphere was electric and the students and staff that took part were fantastic! The winners were Elliott Kainey and Nicholas Stanton from Fearnley who both won Friday chip passes for the half term. Will Lockett and Luke Southall in Duckworth had been sponsored for taking part and raised over £60. Ollie Roberts and Emily Shuttleworth compared the competition and our panel of judges were Mr Hewson, Mrs Windows-Yule and head judge Mrs Raggett.

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The staff performances by Mr Plant, Mr Morgan and Mr Bethel were well received by the audience and we raised over £70 on ticket sales. The local press were in attendance and printed very complimentary pieces about our events.

Friday saw busking acts from each community performing for change from students around the College site during breaks. The day started with a Full College assembly led by the Captains and Vice Captains to get us all into the swing of things! Wearing hats and non uniform swelled our coffers still further. Some of the Air Guitar acts performed for us including the winners, as did some of our busking acts.

A group of Year 11 students did a 118 sponsored run in costume and raised over £200, over half was raised by Ike Fallon. We also had an Indian stall in the Green Room selling food, bindis and henna painting which took nearly £80.

Our total amount for Children In Need is approximately £1700! Our thanks to all those that helped in making the event so successful and enjoyable.

Community Leaders. ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Driving Awareness & Safety Course I would like to congratulate the 13 students, Liam Freeman, Amber Clarke, Michael Williamson, Joshua Hyett, Alex Brown, Emily Jane Turner, James Collins, Sam Lewis, Rhian Myers, Faizah Khan, Danielle Haynes, Shemeka Semple and Nathaniel Fuller who have just completed the Driving Awareness Course. This has given them developing awareness of the key skills and activities that promote road safety, and basic understanding of how to drive a car.

All students were presented with a certificate from Alan Fairbrother the driving instructor, with Head Teacher Ms Farr. Students in year 10 or 11 interested in finding out about the next course starting on Monday, 23rd January 2012 need to speak to me in school. Letters will be sent to tutors in the new year.

D Thomasson (Home Liaison Support) ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Granny's Attic - 'Mind The Gap'.

To say that 'Granny's Attic' have made the best of 2011 would also be the understatement of the year.

The Folk Group, made up of Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, George Sansome and Lewis Wood, all current or previous students of Bishop Perowne College, have gone from strength to strength as the year has progressed.

Throughout the year they have played in various venues around the area and make several appearances on You Tube. In early December they played two sets of their music at the Schools Network (The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust) conference at the International Conference Centre in Birmingham - to great acclaim.

As if that wasn't enough they have now released their first CD of music. Called 'Mind The Gap' it has four of their most well known tracks on it (including the title track) and gives a real taste of the musical skill, creativity, dynamic and sheer enthusiasm, which goes into the music of 'Granny's Attic'.

The CDs will be on sale at various events in College and are priced at £5. 00.

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_______________________________________________________________________________________ Ike Fallon raised ÂŁ118.00 for Air Guitar and the Indian Stall.

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College Christmas Card December 2011 - Image photographed by Amber Sparrey Year 11

I was inspired to create an image such as this because I thought it represented Christmas in a more delicate and beautiful way, the original colour of the flower was purple, I changed it using colour variations on photoshop to change the colours to cold light blues with the contrasting black background to give it a sense of winter. The original design for this entry was to just be the flower alone but then I decided to add the blurred lights in the background as I felt it would give the photograph a more Christmassy artistic feel making it more attractive and dreamlike and to fit the genre in which it needed to relate too. ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Poppy Appeal This November the College raised ÂŁ180.81 for the Poppy Appeal.

Community News

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