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SIXTH FORM NEWS

Ms Rapson Head of Sixth Form

It has been another amazing term for the sixth form. It has been a busy term for both year groups with Year 13 revising and taking their mock exams and Year 12 preparing and then delivering EPQ presentations. This alongside their commitment to such worth-while extra-curricular activities are a testament to the fantastic students we have.

Over the last weeks, Year 13 have managed a heavy timetable of revision and exams. Their commitment to their own learning, with outstanding attendance at all exams was exemplary. They managed their time effectively and throughout maintained such a positive spirit and good humour. Year 12 delivered superb EPQ presentations. All supervisors were delighted by the high-level quality of research, the confident delivery and attention to detail with power-points, posters, and handouts. These presentations showed how lucky we are as a school to have such dedicated students who are both interested and interesting!

In September we asked our sixth formers to apply to become sixth form leads; supporting the school community on key areas within our school. Our current leadership team were selected from over 70 applications and our sixth form leaders are growing into their roles. Lead for Dance, Freddie Buchanan is now regularly working with key stage 3 running dance sessions after school with great success. Evelina, lead for performing arts, is heavily involved with key stage 3 Orchestra and our Sustainability Leads, Grace and Tiye have been meeting School Governors and Mr Price to put forward plans for sustainability at Cherwell. Diane and Kayan ran a successful bake sale, raising over £100 in one morning for their respective charities supporting Inclusion, Diversity and Freedom from Sexual Harassment and are planning to get the sixth form involved in 'Denim Day' in April. Again, the commitment of students involved with all our enrichment and extra-curricular activities reflects their willingness to be involved and to lead our sixth form community.

We hope all our students have a relaxing and well-deserved Easter holiday, and take this opportunity to say good luck and ‘Turavallista Matkaa’ (safe journey in Finnish!) to our intrepid 32 Year 12 students and 5 staff going to Finland and Estonia through the Turing scheme.

Ms Rapson Head of Sixth Form

Huge congratulations to Linnea in Year 13 who won the school’s annual

Dan Hemingway award, which recognises and rewards creative potential in any field broadly within the arts.

Linnea’s entry was a beautifully crafted collection of poems entitled ‘Home’ (an extract from her title poem) which wowed the judges with their ability to evoke a sense of time and place..

The £350 prize is open to all final year students at the school. Students are invited to demonstrate their creative potential by entering one piece of work in any medium they choose. This year we had a vast array of differing styles including SFX make up, work in textiles, a short black and white film, fine art and poetry. Our judges were delighted by the most amazing and varied creative potential, and thoroughly inspired by our young writers, artists, and poets. We had an intimate ceremony at school to hear the judges’ comments for each candidate, and not only were we amazed by the quality and creativity of the entries, but also the support our Year 13 students offered each other and their delight in each other’s success. The judging was carried out totally independently of the school by our judges, Sue Hemingway, Miles Waters and Will Wiles, who I would like to take this opportunity to thank for their efforts and expertise every year, but also for their constant encouragement of our students over the last 20 years. The annual prize at The Cherwell School was established in memory of Dan Hemingway who was a student at Cherwell School from 1985 -1990. The prize is one small encouragement to other young people who have the promise and ambition (like Dan had) to make a lasting contribution in the field of creative arts. Our Year 12 students have watched a brief video of the awards ceremony and as they have now submitted their EPQ’s we are actively encouraging our diverse and talented students to get involved with the award this year. Over the past years our winners have submitted film, ceramics, graphics novels, poems, music composition both classical and modern, fine art, a ‘zine’, and photography. The award is open to ANY of our Year 12 students and we’d love them to get involved. Our judges are particularly keen to mention that this is an award for potential, so students are encouraged to submit work at any stage of the process. Home It’s hard to explain It’s a bundle of feelings The smell of the cold air in your lungs The taste of early morning coffee Your fingers going numb in the snow All of those feelings Wrapped up into one Into a thing I’ll always call home. By Linnea Year 13

We really look forward to seeing the entries for this year and congratulations again to Linnea for her inspiring win!

Painting by Siena Jacobs

Ms Rapson Head of Sixth Form