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Newsletter May 2019
From the Headteacher As I write this, Year 11 are currently sitting one of their GCSE English examinations, pulling together for many of them five years of study at Chew Valley School. We are looking forward to celebrating with them at various events in the coming month or so but for the moment exams are very much the watchword. We wish them, and also the whole of Year 13, all the best for the time ahead. The school has meanwhile continued with many things going on. Students have returned from Ten Tors last weekend on Dartmoor with real success, other students have recently won National Championships in various events, whilst others have taken part in academic events working in conjunction with local universities. We are really proud of all of their achievements and we thank all of the staff and other adults who have taken the time to support them in everything they do. We have also appointed a second Deputy Headteacher, Mr Cocks, who is coming into the School Leadership Team to work alongside myself and Mrs Rowlands on some whole school areas. His focus will be on teaching and learning alongside achievement and standards. We had a really high quality field of applicants for the job and, following a rigorous process, we are really pleased with the appointment which will further increase the capacity within the leadership team. The summer term brings with it lots of activities including Enrichment Week between the 17th and 21st June which we are looking forward to. Some students are heading off abroad whilst others are carrying out activities closer to home or taking part in work experience. The Sixth Form will be focusing on their futures this week looking at universities and apprenticeships alongside the world of work. Whatever our students are up to, I very much hope they are able to get much from the experiences at the same time as enjoying themselves! Can I finish by thanking everyone who has supported the school recently in whatever capacity. This is very much appreciated. Gareth Beynon
Diary Dates
Tues 23rd July - Term 6 ends Thurs 15th August - GCE Results Day Thurs 22nd August - GCSE Results Day Thurs 19th Sept - Year 6 Open Evening Tues 12th Nov - Sixth Form Open Evening
Fri 24th May - Term 5 ends Mon 3rd June - Term 6 begins Thurs 6th June - Year 8 Parents’ Evening Sun 9th June - Chew Valley 10K Mon 17th - Friday 21st June - Enrichment Week Friday 21st June 7:30pm - Bishop Sutton Pre-School 50th celebration ‘Party like its 1969’ Wed 3rd July 7pm - Summer Concert Thurs 4th July - Year 6 Induction and Parents’ Evening
Chew Valley School Chew Magna Bristol BS40 8QB Telephone: 01275 332272 Email: enquiries@chewvalleyschool.co.uk
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Salters’ Festival of Chemistry On Wednesday 15th May a team of 4 Year 8 students visited the University of Bristol to compete in the Salters’ Festival of Chemistry. The students represented the school brilliantly and held their own amongst 15 other schools from Bristol and the surrounding areas. After lunch, students were treated to a demonstration by one of the university lecturers and got to see the wonders of dry ice, liquid nitrogen and other exciting chemicals!
Spectroscopy in a Suitcase On Friday 3rd May we welcomed ambassadors from University of Bristol to work with our Year 12 chemists in a spectroscopy workshop. Students were given the opportunity to get hands on with techniques and analysis used in university laboratories such as UV and Infra-red. Students worked with the research chemists on a number of samples, and worked out their chemical structures based on this information. Students found it a useful insight into the sort of work they could expect in university labs, and enjoyed the session. Mrs Hodgson
Term Dates for academic year 2019/2020 Term dates for the next academic year 2019/2020 are as follows : TERM 1 Start: Finish: TERM 2 Start: Finish: TERM 3 Start: Finish: TERM 4 Start: Finish: TERM 5 Start: Finish: TERM 6 Start: Finish:
Monday 2nd September 2019 Friday 25th October 2019 Monday 4th November 2019 Friday 20th December 2019 Monday 6th January 2020 Friday 14th February 2020 Monday 24th February 2020 Friday 3rd April 2020 Monday 20th April 2020 Friday 22nd May 2020 Monday 1st June 2020 Monday 20th July 2020
Inset Days for 2019/20 Monday 2nd September 2019 Friday 20th September 2019 Monday 4th November 2019 Friday 14th February 2020 Monday 16th March 2020 Monday 20th July 2020 2
Students Celebrate 10th Centurion Award Ceremony A group of enthusiastic readers were delighted to attend the Centurion Reading Award Ceremony at Downside School recently. After spending the previous few months reading books on a shortlist selected by school children from across B&NES, students discussed the books and voted for their favourite title. This year, the Centurion Award’s 10th winner was the author Sebastien de Castell with his book Spellslinger. Sebastien, who accepted the award via a video message from Vancouver, told the audience of over 100 students, that he was honoured to accept the Centurion award, a beautiful piece of engraved glass provided by Bath Glass. Two of the shortlisted authors, Phyllida Shrimpton and Tracy Darnton, talked about their books and the art of writing, discussing their approaches and inspiration as well as their feelings about being described as an author. After the presentation, students had the opportunity to meet and chat with them, and to have their books signed whilst enjoying a slice of cake! Students from over 15 schools take part in the Centurion Award each year, which in its 10th year, goes from strength to strength. Previous winners of the award have included David Walliams, Malala Yousafzai, Sophie McKenzie and RD Palacio. Thank you to the School Society for providing the books on this year’s shortlist. Mrs Hillis
City Nature Challenge 2019 Two groups from Chew Valley School were involved recently in the 2019 City Nature Challenge: an international bioblitz-style competition to record as many wildlife observations as possible over four days from April 26th29th. The event involved 159 cities and urban areas around the world including London, New York and Hong Kong. It is organised by a naturalist who provided a free app to help with recording and identification. A Year 7 class surveyed the bottom field, woods and meadow area and recorded 21 different species of tree and wildflower, together with 12 species of Invertebrate. Nature Club also did some pond dipping, leading to a grand total of 42 different species of plant and animal. Highlights were a Scarlet Tiger caterpillar, an Orange Tip butterfly and two rare invertebrates - the Green Worm (first record for the Bath area) and the sawfly Mesoneura opaca (first record for the Bristol region). All these observations were uploaded to the website and formed part of the total (1505 species) for the Bristol and Bath Team. Bristol and Bath had the highest total of both species and observations in Europe. Our observations were checked and verified by expert naturalists and will contribute to the understanding of local and global biodiversity. Mr Mortin
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Bishop Sutton Pre-School is turning 50!!
Chew Valley Sixth Form Charity Team The Chew Valley Sixth Form Charity Team have been working hard across this school year to make connections with local organisations and to undertake projects designed to benefit others. We have recently donated over £150 worth of food and supplies to Keynsham Foodbank. Alan Hale – who runs the foodbank - provided us all with an informative and powerful assembly, highlighting the situations in which people may find themselves and advising us which items they are especially keen to receive. We are incredibly grateful for the donations from all of the Sixth Form tutor groups, with each having specific lists to focus upon. Every tutor group met our goals and special recognition should go to 6L, who provided a staggering 30 pot noodles, instead of the requested amount of 20.
Bishop Sutton Preschool is 50 years old! Come and help us celebrate on Friday 21st June from 7.30pmMidnight at Bishop Sutton Village Hall. We have the incredible TREASURY BAND playing live music from the last 5 decades, and a delicious hog roast from Hectors Farm Shop., along with a well stocked cash bar, including an exclusive new cocktail designed especially for our event! Tickets cost £15 including food and one free drink, and can be purchased either from pre-school (look out for the ladies with clipboards at dropoff/pick-up!) or on Eventbrite by searching “Party like its 1969”, or follow the link www.tinyurl.com/ partylikeits1969
Upon delivery, Alan was delighted with the haul of donations from Mr Newton, who oversees the group alongside Mr Parsons. If you would like to donate more to support this great cause, please email keynshamfoodbank@gmail.com for open donations and other information.
We look forward to celebrating this momentous occasion with you all. Whether you have previously attended the pre-school yourself, or had children attend, or, if you just fancy a really good night out!! This promises to be a night that is truly out of this world! Bishop Sutton Preschool
Y13 Genetics workshop ‘We The Curious’ At the end of April the Year 13 Biology group went to use the labs at We The Curious to put into practise what they had been learning about genetic technologies in the classroom. In the labs they extracted their own DNA, amplified it using a PCR machine, broke their DNA into ‘pieces’ using restriction enzymes and analysed it using gel electrophoresis to find out who has the gene for finding that sprouts taste incredibly bitter. Afterwards some of the students said ‘it was interesting to use the techniques we’d learned about so that we could really understand the principles of genetic tech’ and ‘Doing the experiments actually helped me to remember quite a tricky set of ideas’. Mr Walford
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Easter 2019 Ski Trip to Les Menuires
Snow conditions in the French Alps were amazing once again and for our week of Easter skiing we enjoyed great snow conditions. The weather was a bit mixed during our stay and we did get a little bit of everything, including snow and sun. We returned to Chew Valley on Saturday 13th April exhausted, but having had a wonderful time. During our stay we had ski lessons every day and also managed to pack in other activities such as: bumboarding, swimming, Speed Mountain (roller coaster), pool, film night, as well as eating a few crepes! This year our ski instructors were exceptional and they made learning to ski really enjoyable. We always receive positive comments from our ski instructors and this year was no exception. We had three ski groups, which ensured a high level of instruction and this enabled everyone to progress at a suitable pace. One ski highlight was the fun park with its various jumps, rails and assorted obstacles. What a setting! As you can see in the photos a splendid time was had by all and the instructor landing a 3600 jump was amazing. Everyone did their utmost to develop and push themselves to achieve things that seemed out of reach; whether that was getting up after a fall, conquering the ski lifts, or skiing down a steeper slope. Each day there was a ‘skier of the day’ award, with honourable mentions for students who went the extra mile, sometimes unintentionally! We also had a ‘Resilient Tortoise’ award for those who made light of adversity, or showed determination to succeed. Winners of the prestigious skier of the day award included: Jessica Bowden, Diesel Newman, Edward Heath, Jane Jennings, George Hamerton and Georgia Marsh. ‘Resilient Tortoise’ awards went to: Jess Bowden, Archie Hallaran, Stuart Parsons, Alfie Jenkins and Nathan Lotter. Many students and parents/carers commented on their experiences, ‘it’s been the highlight of his year’, ‘it was a brilliant trip, thanks for organising it and for taking us’. The attitude and approach of all students on the trip was first class and it was gratifying to spend time in such a wonderful environment together. Whether on piste, during meal times, or during social activities the group showed that they are a talented, sociable and considerate group. Next year’s trip is heading to La Plagne, again a high altitude resort in the French Alps. The trip is currently fully booked, however, please e-mail dkenny@chewvalleyschool.co.uk if you are interested and if necessary I will approach the travel company to request further places. Mr Kenny
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Ten Tors After spending three overnight training walks on Dartmoor and facing the gruelling conditions of Storm Freya, we could not have been tested any more by the weather and over these trainings we experienced the most challenging conditions Dartmoor could possibly throw at us. As a result of this our teamwork improved and we thrived together as we learned more about how to navigate the challenging terrains of the moor. On the 10th May, we travelled down to Okehampton camp for a day of briefings and route preparation for the weekend ahead of us. We enjoyed a nice day in the sunshine and before long we had all eaten and were off to bed for some well needed rest. In the morning, we were woken at 05:00 to the sound of Chariots of Fire on the loud speakers and, after a great breakfast cooked by the teachers and watching a parachute display team, we set off to the traditional sound of the cannons. It was a sunny and windy day and we departed as a team in the hope of making good progress on day one. The team did lots of hard walking throughout the day, walking from Okehampton past Princetown, checking in at many tors along the way, our seventh and final tor was Rough Tor which was about 5km out from Postbridge so we made camp at about 20:00 in a sheltered spot along the route. After a hot meal, we then went straight to bed and then in the morning, we got up at 04:00 and packed away our tents and began walking at about 05:00. Despite being tired from the previous day, after a few hours of quick walking to Fernworthy and the Hound Tor, we made it back to Okehampton Army Camp at a time of 09:48 while keeping a good team spirit throughout and a few blisters to show for it. Many thanks to all the parents, teachers and staff who helped us throughout the event and on all the training walks, we are all very grateful. Click here to view ITV NEWS piece on CVS teams. https://vimeo.com/337272644 William Loosley Y12
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House Activities Results for Term 5
1st
Rodney
2nd Bilbie 3rd Hauteville 4th Moreton
Year 11 Revision Loyalty Cards
1st
Bilbie
1st
Hauteville
1st
Rodney
4th Moreton
1st
Rodney
2nd Hauteville 3rd Bilbie 4th Moreton
Year 8 PSHRE poster competition
1st
Hauteville
2nd Moreton 3rd Bilbie 4th Rodney
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House Activities Results for Term 5 continued
1st
Bilbie
2nd Hauteville 3rd Rodney 4th Moreton
Sixth form Rounders and Tennis
1st
Hauteville
1st
Moreton
3rd Rodney 4th Bilbie
1st
Bilbie
2nd Moreton 3rd Rodney 4th Hauteville
1st
Bilbie
1st
Rodney
3rd Hauteville 4th Moreton
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House Activities Results for Term 5 continued
1st
Bilbie
2nd Hauteville 3rd Moreton 4th Rodney
Term 5 House Champions
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