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Head Boy and Head Girl 2014 - 5 The names of our new Head Boy and Head Girl were announced recently following an election involving students and staff. Brandon Hayes and Natasha Preston were duly elected and I wish them well for their term of office. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing Head Boy and Girl, Tony Alford and Georgia Worswick for their support and hard work during their year of office.

Recently, Brandon and Natasha took assembly and announced their charity for the year. This year the good cause is The Teenage Cancer Trust Merseyside £1,000 Challenge. The Trust needs funds to pay for a brand new unit which will be in the new Alder Hey children’s hospital. Brandon and Natasha launched their charity appeal by presenting ‘Stephen’s Story’ an account of how Stephen Sutton raised funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust whilst battling cancer himself. As we know, Stephen lost his battle last month but his inspirational story is a lesson for us all.

The aim is to raise £1000 and become one of 500 organisations locally to help raise the £500,000 needed to build the new unit.

Year 7 and 8 Inter-House Cage Football Tournament On Thursday 15th May the highly anticipated Nomad cage tournament took place. The tournament was played in a great spirit and fun was had by all! Thirty year 7 and 8 students, participated in a high energy, action-packed contest. The tournament started with 15 teams, split into 4 groups, with 8 teams progressing through to the knockout stages.

With blue skies, soaring temperatures and everything to play for, the tournament got underway with a sensational first game between Priory and Castle House. Priory took a commanding early lead and went on to dominante proceedings, stamping their authority on the tournament with a mix of pace, power and well executed “pannas” (nutmegs).

Brindley put on a brave face but ultimately finished last. However, their determination and great attitude were a real credit to their house. They never gave up and committed 100% from start to finish.

Alongside Brandon and Natasha are a group of students who together form the Senior Student Council. Recently, they met with myself and members of my senior team to discuss their role and aims for the year.

They spoke passionately about the school and the improvements that have been made over the time they have been here and how they want to help to make it even better. They highlighted three areas that they felt the council should focus upon; promoting Student Voice; developing the unity of the all through school; and supporting the charity.

The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.

Third place went to Bridgewater who lost out to Castle in a tense Quarter final clash. This left first and second place to be fought out between Priory and Castle. The final was played in great spirit, with a great amount of skill displayed by both teams. On the day, the best team proved to be Connor Dennett and Jason King, winning the final to bring the trophy home for Priory.

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Buddhist Temple Visit Mrs Simpson writes about the recent visit to Runcorn’s Buddhist Temple Fifty students from year 7 visited the Wat Phra Singh Buddhist Temple in Runcorn last month. The Temple opened last year and is home to five Buddhist monks from Thailand. We had a talk about the history of Buddhism and the life of the Buddha, and were shown how Buddhists show respect to the statue of the Buddha. We meditated for a short time, listened to the monks chanting, were blessed with holy water and were all given a string bracelet to wear for three days to give us luck. “I loved doing the meditation; it was so peaceful,” said one student.

“It was really nice inside the Temple and the Buddhist monks were very friendly,” said another. Sasi, our host at the Temple, was extremely helpful and informative and all students thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was a positive and useful experience for the students to learn about a faith group growing in our community.

Attendance Matters We are delighted to inform parents/carers that students’ attendance is higher than it ever has been in the summer term at 95%. This remains above the national average of 94.2% and The Grange has one of the highest overall student attendance rates amongst Halton secondary schools.

The importance of full time regular attendance 

Regular daily attendance is important for all students in order to succeed in education. It helps socially and developmentally.

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Students who attend school on a regular basis have better income and employment outcomes across their lives.

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Students who attend on a regular basis from an early age develop this habit throughout their school life

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School also helps to develop life skills which sets students up for further learning and participation in the community in later years.

We want our students to aspire to achieve an attendance of at least 95%. A student who achieves only 90% attendance misses almost four weeks of school every year. That is over 120 lessons missed!

At The Grange we have 81 students who have achieved 100% attendance since starting in September. Four of the students are pictured right; Rachel Hunt 08CRL, Jessica Furey 08SGL, George Timms 09ATW and Karla Hulse 10HRS. Congratulations to all.

The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.

GRANGE SCHOOL

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The Grange Factor Final 2014 Gorsewood, Moore, Woodside and The Grange School contested the second final of the Grange Factor with The Grange attempting to defend the title they won last year. The Grange Factor competition consists of a number of events loosely based upon Television’s ‘The Krypton Factor’ in which pupils in Year 5 at Runcorn Primary schools compete for a trophy.

Each school selected four Year Five students to represent them in The Grange Factor which pitted the contestants against each other in both physical and mental challenge similar to those featured on ITV’s ‘The Krypton Factor’. Over the series 10 teams battled against each other in the heats to try and reach the final by competing in four events, amongst the challenges were; a general knowledge quiz, an intelligence round - building the highest tower from spaghetti and marshmallows, an observation round and a puzzle round.

The line-up for the final was set to be a challenging encounter. Students and parents arrived early for the final so they could complete their final preparation for each round before taking their seats in the auditorium. When parents and supporters were settled, the contestants were brought in to begin their quest for the trophy to rapturous applause. As the tension mounted the competition got under way with Round 1 where pupils had to complete a puzzle on large interactive TV screens.

Round 2 where students were tasked with building the highest tower from spaghetti and marshmallows, Moore took the lead in this round only to see their tower lean over as it was about to be measured! Round 3 saw all contestants view 4 different film trailers and answered questions from their observations. This was a particularly hard fought round with one or two teams dropping crucial points..

Round 4 saw the usual general knowledge quiz with the teams very close. While scores were checked and added Mr Downey, Deputy Head of School thanked the contestants for their exemplary conduct on the night and he was impressed how knowledgeable they were. After a hard fought and tense contest Moore were victorious and were crowned as Grange factor Champions 2014. The final result was: 1st Moore, 2nd Gorsewood, 3rd Woodside, 4th The Grange Mr Downey presented certificates to the participating teams and The Winners and Runners up trophies to Moore and Gorsewood respectively with each school receiving vouchers to spend on books as an extra prize for their participation.

Mrs MacDonald, the Headteacher from Moore said:

“Please could you pass on my thanks to all involved in the Grange Factor Final – it was certainly nail biting!! Organisation as always was superb and we are always made to feel really welcome in your school. My children are so excited about winning and proudly displayed their trophy to all the school in assembly on Friday.

We are looking forward to taking part again next year.”

Invitations will be sent out to schools who wish to contest The Grange Factor 2015 in September as Moore attempt to defend their crown.

The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.

The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.

July 2013 Issue

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Parents Evening Evaluation Thank you to all parents and carers who have attended their child’s parents evening this year. A positive and cooperative partnership between parents and school is so important in supporting children and helping them to make progress and develop.

Sports Leaders We have 44 Year 9 and 10 students are currently completing the Dance Leadership Course this term. They will be teaching a range of dance skills to Year 5/6 and will complete the course in July.

Throughout the year we have been inviting parents and carers to tell us what they think about our parents evening and I am pleased by the overwhelmingly positive picture. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement and so we will continue to monitor and ask you for your views next year.

Over the year, 237 different parent/carer questionnaires were completed and the results are shown below.

I/we found the evening useful.

98% strongly agreed or agreed I/We are clear about how our son/daughter is progressing 99% strongly agreed or agreed I/we are happy with the support our child is receiving in preparation for their exams 99.5% strongly agreed or agreed I/We found it easy to access the staff I/We needed to see in their classroom.

92% strongly agreed or agreed I/We felt the evening was well organised.

93% strongly agreed or agreed Our son/daughter receives enough homework and revision material.

92% strongly agreed or agreed

The Grange Sports Spectacular Like last year, we are delighted to be able use the Select Stadium to hold our annual Sports Spectacular. The event will take place on Monday 30th June from 10:00am - 2:40pm, with lunch provided for students.

Year 5 and 6 are joining the secondary students this year and we hope that as many parents/carers, family and friends will come along to support, refreshments available during the day.

Students will be taking part in many activities during the day such as; New Age Curling, Table Tennis, Spin Classes, Archery and many more.

The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.

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The Learning Resource Centre at the Grange

Students at The Grange make the most of the facilities in the learning resource centre outside of their school day. From sitting reading their favourite books in a quiet corner

The learning resource centre is a facility that is available to all students of The to engaging in group activities such as board games, there is a variety of choices to Grange School. With an enrichment of resources provided to support the reading keep students stimulated. The Grange book club is a particular favourite of our and learning culture of The Grange, students have access to a large library of more students; we meet each month after reading our book club book and discuss the story than 30,000 books including fiction and non-fiction. Additionally students can read and characters whilst enjoying treats. This month we are reading ‘Now is the time for

daily newspapers and magazines to keep up with current affairs and also access a running’ by Michael Williams. The book ties in with the World Cup 2014 theme and is a host of computers to complete homework during breakfast, break, lunch and after thought provoking tale of survival in the harsh conditions of South Africa. school.

Here are some comments from The Grange book club students about book club The learning resource centre is a thriving facility that is utilised during the school day for class reading sessions and group study, reading mentors also use the facility to

“Book club is about books; you can eat food, you can read books, and they relate to life”. Amelia

assist younger readers to improve their reading. Staff and students submit reading reviews and recommendations that are published on screens throughout The

“I think that book club is very good because it is about books and food” Robyn

Grange. The learning resource centre also works in partnership with national “Good so far, great hospitality and readers” Callum reading organisations such as booktrust.org in order to promote reading events such as world book day.

This summer we will be encouraging our students to

Follow The Grange learning resource centre @grangelibrarian

participate in the ‘read every day challenge’.

The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.

GRANGE SCHOOL

Headlines Maths Puzzle

The answer to last month’s puzzle

This month’s puzzle

The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.

GRANGE SCHOOL

Headlines Whodunnit?

NASA hero to visit The Grange On the afternoon of the 27th June, The Grange is looking forward to hosting the visit of Sy Liebergot.

Sy is a retired NASA EECOM flight controller, serving during the Apollo program. Sy will talk to our Astronomy and Science students about his key role in the Apollo 13 crisis. Apollo 13 was to be the third Lunar landing until an explosion in an oxygen tank crippled the spacecraft, leaving the three man crew in grave danger 200,000 miles from Earth. In his talk, Sy will talk about his key role in the Apollo 13 crisis, how he made the call that ended the mission to land on the Moon and how, as part of the Mission control team, returned the crew safely back to Earth.

Sy will continue his UK visit with the Knowledge Observatory at The Heath Business & Technical Park in Runcorn from 6.30pm to 8.00pm. He will talk about his experiences during the Apollo 13 mission and answer questions from the audience. From 8.00 pm until 9.30 pm there will be a social gathering where you will be able to have a drink, collect your signed book and, if you have purchased a book, have your photograph taken with Sy. You can buy tickets for the evening and pre-order a signed book here

On Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th July we will be warmly welcoming our new Year 7 cohort into school for their Induction. During the two days they will be CSI investigators with the task of solving a murder mystery! We are all very excited about this as we will be working alongside professional actors to be fully immersed in the crime (Don’t be alarmed if you spot anything unusual or a victim on the day! – It is NOT real!!) During the two days the students will familiarise themselves with our state of the art building, get an opportunity to meet and work with our staff and establish friendships with their peers in their form groups through a range of team and confidence building activities. Our Induction days have been planned carefully with our Primary colleagues to ensure the experience builds upon primary practice as we feel passionate about a seamless

and successful transition into Year 7.

An Induction Meeting will also take place for Parents and Carers on Monday 7th July

http://www.theknowledgeobservatory.co.uk/events/ There are a limited number of tickets still available and please note that that there will not be tickets for sale on the night and so pre - purchasing is essential.

at 6pm as well as a family assembly on Tuesday 8th July at 2.40 pm to share and celebrate the success of our Induction days

at The Grange. Please join us for both events.

The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.

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Hair today, gone tomorrow

Term Dates

Phillip Carruthers from 10ROM has donated his hair to charity! After deciding to cut off his locks, Phillips and his mum had a chat about donating his hair to the ‘Little

School closes on Friday 18th July and re-opens for students on Wednesday 3rd September.

Princess Trust’, a charity to provide real hair wigs for children suffering hair loss. A close friend of Phillip is undergoing chemotherapy which often results in significant hair loss, so it seemed quite a good idea to Phillip and his mum to put those long wavy locks to some good use.

Graduation Dates It took over an hour to remove the hair because it had to be done in such a way that it was kept clean. The result of Phillip’s visit to the hairdresser can be seen below.

Well Done Phillip!

Before...

After.

Year 10 Graduation

Monday 14th July

Year 9 Graduation

Tuesday 15th July

Year 8 Graduation

Wednesday 16th July

Year 7 Graduation

Thursday 17th July

Invitations will be sent out soon.

The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.