DIXIT - 16 July 2019

DIXIT

EDITION 60 16th July 2019

The weekly newsletter for the Holyport College family

Sports Day 2019 What a fantastic day of fun, friendship and teamwork! The sun shone and staff and students alike had a really enjoyable day. Many congratulations to Brunel House who lifted the trophy after a very hard fought competition.

Huge thanks to the PE Department for organising the day, the Friends of Holyport College for providing very welcome ice lollies for all the students, the Dad’s Club for organising the tug-ofwar competition and to all the staff who came along to help and supervise.

@holyportcollege

www.youtube.com/holyportal

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DIXIT 16th July 2019

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IN THIS EDITION

From the College End of year assembly

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From the Boarding Houses Farewell from Mr Hayes

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From the Art Department Arts Week activities

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From the Geography Department Beautiful Britain competition

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From the Students Achievements and experiences

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From the Sixth Form News from Sixth Form

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From the Geography Department Lower Sixth Geography Fieldtrip

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From the DofE Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Expedition

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From the College Summer holiday activities

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From the Calendar Upcoming events and dates for your diaries

@holyportcollege www.youtube.com/holyportal 2

DIXIT

FROM THE COLLEGE

16th July 2019

End of year assembly There was plenty to celebrate at Tuesday’s end of year assembly!

 Mr McCarey presented Year 13 student Frankie Kay with her cheque having been awarded The Wales Medical Scholarship 2018.

House Masters gave House Awards to their best all round students— L-R Herschel, Fawcett, Milton, Brunel 

 Fawcett won the overall House trophy!!

 Dudley Pursuit winners—

Art Prefects 

Zafar, George, Diana, Yemi

 Science Award winners

Year 8 Maths Awards 

@Holyport_Hums

Year 7 Music Awards  3

FROM THE BOARDING HOUSES

DIXIT 16th July 2019

Farewell from Mr Hayes In June 2014 I made my first visit to Holyport College. I was given a hard hat and given a guided tour around a building site. The Quad was a pile of mud and the classrooms were empty shells. In that first year a small team of staff worked hard to create a school that could match any other state -school in the country. I have to be honest and say that we have surpassed my expectations. Holyport College is a phenomenal school and I am so proud of its achievements.

The thing that stands out about Holyport College is the breadth of opportunity for our students, especially our boarders. The attached video shows just a few of the events and opportunities that our boarders have been offered this year. A picture speaks a thousand words so I will let the video do the talking, but I am pleased to say that the offer for 2019-20 is even better.

Finally, if I am able to give some advice on my final day at Holyport, it is this: 'say yes'. Take every opportunity that is on offer at this fantastic school. Audition for next year's school musical, run the 1500m at Sports Day, learn a musical instrument and join the debating society. Get out of your comfort zone and try something new. Do the Duke of Edinburgh Award, join the CCF and volunteer at the weekends. Play cricket and tennis and rugby and golf. Get outside, walk, breathe fresh air and be healthy. Get off your phone and turn off the Playstation. Go to the theatre, attend the Scholars talks and visit the Eton Societies. Work hard, revise and don't leave it too late. Most importantly, be happy and enjoy every moment you are at this school. It is a remarkable place.

I will miss you all. Thank you for the memories. Holyport College: more than a school.

Paul Hayes https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kSkmfN0_G9u6IkTJjY6aiGHivz4cmvMh/view  Boarders of the Year 

Boarders’ Summer Barbecue 

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FROM THE ART DEPARTMENT

DIXIT 16th July 2019

Arts Week

A massive thank you to Miss Loudoun for organising Arts Week last week and to all the staff who ran activities and made sure the students had a great week.

Activities included gardening, face painting, bird box building, a spray painting workshop, textiles workshops, Drama workshops, a bench project and furniture decorating, lino printing and flag painting ready for Sports Day.

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FROM THE GEOGRAPHY DEPT

16th July 2019

Beautiful Britain Competition This summer Team Geography challenge you to find & photograph the most beautiful place in the British Isles.

Challenge: Students can submit a maximum of 3 photos, with each photo you need to say: · · · ·

Your name Where it is When you took it What you think makes it beautiful (max 80 words)

There will be prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place!

Rules: · ·

Photo must be taken by you No filters allowed (the beauty should be natural!)

Photos can be submitted digitally to f.lunney@holyportcollege.org.uk or in print

Deadline: 30th September 2019 Example entry below.

Location: Cwm Idwal, Snowdonia, Wales Date: 4 July 2019 th

Why it’s beautiful: This incredible landscape was carved by a glacier 1000’s of years ago. It’s left behind this impressive bowl shaped hollow which is much loved by climbers and walkers. In the sunshine the light glistens off the lake making you want to dive straight in!

@HolyportExpArts

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FROM THE STUDENTS

DIXIT 16th July 2019

Remy Stannard in Year 9 got an invitation to the preview of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the London Palladium! He got to meet the cast backstage including Sheridan Smith and Jason Donovan. 

Reece (Year 10) and Connor (Year 9) Jones have had the amazing opportunity to attend the Maidenhead Fire Cadets, also known as young firefighters, for a full school year.

It's an amazing opportunity for young children to learn, make friends and have fun along the way.

They have learned so much within this time. They have completed first aid training, team building activities, and also received a lot of training on how to battle fires.

Their family attended the Fire Cadets’ passing out parade last night and watched as they calmly dealt with a car and building fire in their demonstration. It was amazing to see all that they had learnt thought-out the year.

They are sad their time has come to an end, but they have so many new skills to take forward, and have enjoyed every minute of it.

Cate Cowper in Year 9 has been invited to join England's Hockey Performance Centre! She attended the all day trial a few weeks back (in fact had to miss DofE training weekend to attend) and just heard this week that she got through. It's going to involve a big commitment next year and will certainly take her hockey to the next level. Cate is thrilled that she got in! 

@Holy_Sport

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DIXIT 16th July 2019

FROM THE SIXTH FORM

The A Level Economists have entered the annual Royal Economics Society Essay Competition. There were 5 topics on which they could write their 1500 word essay, the most popular among our students being the Economic viability of HS2, the concept of Universal Basic Income, and the likely success and impact of a Carbon tax.

Whilst all essays are submitted to the RES, we held a pre-submission Holyport competition. The quality of all essays was extremely high - making the decision making process very tough! However, the three students who ultimately were selected to win our Holyport "Economical Economics" prizes were Deirbhile Durkin-Badham, Babasola Sowole and Linus Scotchmere. Mr McCarey presented each with The Economist publication " The World in 2019" in recognition of their efforts.

Mr Hardee jetted off on holiday yesterday and who should he meet on the check-in desk but Year 12 student Giulia Moretti who is doing her work experience at British Airways! ďƒ¨

Early morning running club Final run for the year last Friday.

Mr Slyper would just like to thank the students who joined him for a run every week through rain, wind, snow and beautiful mornings like this one. ďƒ§

@HPCSixth

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FROM THE GEOGRAPHY DEPT

DIXIT 16th July 2019

Lower Sixth Geography Fieldtrip to Snowdonia Lower Sixth geographers had a very successful (and sunny!) five day fieldtrip to Snowdonia. During the week they visited two main areas. Starting in the former glaciated landscapes of Cwm Idwal and Lyn Ogwen the aim was to see in real life the landforms they had previously studied in addition to learning the variety of fieldwork techniques they could use to investigate how ice shaped the region.

They also visited the coastal town of Llandudno to determine how regeneration through investment in tourism has helped to revitalise and rebrand the area.

Having spent some time getting to know the region and having trialled a wealth of fieldwork methods the students then had to decide what they were most interested in so that could design (and conduct) their own innovative independent investigation which when fully completed and written up will form 20% of their final A level grade!

Having decided on their area of interest the students swooped on the shelves of the incredibly well stocked geography library (that handily was our classroom for the week!) at the Rhyd-y-creuau field studies centre to allow them to develop the necessary literature review and build a solid theoretical basis for their investigations. With the geographers choosing a mixture of human, physical and environmental topics to investigate it was then a matter of planning where, when and how all the data collection was going to be possible within 2 1/2 days! This year, with the encouragement of Sam (their tutor for the week), the geographers chose to use a number of GPS linked methods to allow them to make use of the many new apps and data presentation meth-

On Wednesday we all headed back out to Cwm Idwal where Bismah, Grace and Rollo took the helm, directing the other students and staff in what to do in order to help them collect the data they needed. Grace’s team seemingly clambered everywhere, walking up and down many hills and measuring lots of boulders (they apparently hit a massive step count!) Meanwhile Bismah and Rollo took to the carpark and information centre with questionnaires attempting to accost all the friendly looking visitors possible (if you ever see school students with questionnaires please do stop and answer, it’s a pretty scary thing to do to approach strangers!) before they headed up the hillside with their teams to investigate the environmental impacts of human activity on the region. Miss Lunney’s comment at the end of the afternoon, having worked with the team of boys, was that she hadn’t laughed so much in ages (apparently there were many poo prodding and throwing moments!)

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DIXIT 16th July 2019

FROM THE GEOGRAPHY DEPT

Thursday saw the human geographers leading the data collection in Llandudno with many choosing to conduct questionnaires and interviews with local business owners. It was also the ideal opportunity for the students to test a few more ice creams (it was a hot day after all!)

Being in a more urban environment the groups didn’t need to be accompanied by staff all day giving Miss Tatton and Miss Lunney the opportunity to explore the town a little more and find extra information that the students can add to their case studies!

With Thursday being Jemima’s 18th birthday, and since everyone had worked so well, the teachers decided to forgo the 7pm classroom lesson and instead lay on a campfire with smores (it was the 4th July after all!) and birthday cake!

Before heading back on Friday afternoon the entire group headed out to see the impressive Roche Moutonne in the valley below Cwm Idwal and the well disguised Kame. The drive back to the field studies centre through Llanberis was stunning, with incredible views of the awe inspiring peak of mount Snowdon.

Overall it was a fantastic week, full of work and much laughter. Miss Tatton and Miss Lunney would like to thank the students for being such an awesome bunch to work with!

More photos can be found @HolyportHum on Twitter 10

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FROM THE DofE

16th July 2019

Silver Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

Expedition in the Brecon Beacons Last Friday, 35 Year 10’s, Mrs Day, Mr Macaulay, Mrs Weller and Mrs Belbin set off bright and early on the last DofE expedition for the year.

We went to a different area of the Brecon Beacons to previous years, so we had no idea what to expect.

The first day was spent mainly walking alongside the extensive canal system that links the valleys around Crickhowell. We arrived to a lush green campsite up on a hill, all to ourselves, with a quaint but steep walk up and down through some woodland to the main campground for facilities. We were a bit worried it may start raining after dinner, as the Kings of the Mountain group looked like they were kite-surfing while pitching their tents right at the top of the hill.

They had fun for ages, doing forward-rolls down the steep slope. 

Saturday was a bit cooler, the perfect day to climb the Table Mountain across the valley from our campsite.

Everyone mastered the mountain, with some adding an extra few miles onto their journey by venturing across the top of the mountain to the second trig beacon. (Rian, the less said about that the better!) We camped that evening in another awesome field, with great views of Sunday’s quest, the Sugar Loaf mountain.

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DIXIT

FROM THE DofE

16th July 2019

Having walked a total of 21 hours over the 3 days, 35 tired but exhilarated students met us at the finish, back in Abergavenny, with loads of stories to tell of their adventures over the weekend.

As staff sharing their weekend with them we were all impressed throughout the time, with the mature, kind, polite way our students worked together to conquer their challenges. They came home tired, but with a lot to feel proud of.

Well done, we hope to see some of you signing up for Gold in a couple of years time!

Duke of Edinburghs Award Update That’s now a wrap for the 2019 Holyport College DofE expedition season. We want to say a big thank you to Mrs Day for organising 4 very successful expeditions and to all the staff that have helped out. We really couldn’t run DofE without the support of our wonderful staff who volunteer their time at weekends to accompany the expeditions.

The DofE awards ceremony this year will be at 6:30pm on Thursday 10th October. All participants need to ensure they have signed off their volunteering, skill and physical before 13th September to guarantee receiving their certificate at the ceremony.

In September we will once again be offering DofE to the following groups so look out for the letters!

Bronze

Year 9 (& any interested Year 10s)

Silver

Year 10 (who’ve completed Bronze)

Gold

Year 12

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DIXIT 16th July 2019

FROM THE COLLEGE

Once again Holyport College will be hosting stimulating and fun coding and tech camps for students—for more details please visit their website https://funtechsummercamps.com/ If you do wish to book your son/daughter on any of the courses please use the following code: SSFHOL3519 as Funtech will offer us a reward of £15/camp booked so while your child has a fun and educational experience you will also be supporting the College!

Greenredeem’s current school donation scheme has been extended for a further 3 months, so it will now end on the 1st September.

This gives you more time to donate to the College if you would like to - you can continue to donate points during the summer holidays.

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DIXIT

FROM THE CALENDAR

16th July 2019

Some Dates for Your Diaries Monday 2nd September—Inset day Tuesday 3rd September—Inset day/Sixth form boarders arrive 5.00pm Wednesday 4th September—Sixth form only. Year 7-11 boarders arrive 5.00pm Thursday 5th September—Start of term Today we have said a fond farewell to the following members of staff who are moving on to pastures new: Mr Hayes – Deputy Head Master and House Master of Herschel House Mrs Calcott - Matron

Miss Shears – Teacher of Art Mr Khan – Teacher of Maths Mrs McQuillan – Teacher of History Miss Gallop – Teacher of PE Mr Grimble – Resident Fellow Mr Smith - Resident Fellow Miss Redwood - Resident Fellow

Miss Sharp - Resident Fellow We would like to thank them all very much for their contributions to the College and wish them all the very best for their next adventure.

Sixth Form Open Mornings and Evenings Thursday 19th September - 10.00am Wednesday 9th October - 5.30pm and 7.30pm Thursday 7th November - 10.00am Thursday 14th November - 10.00am Thursday 21st November - 10.00am Thursday 28th November - 10.00am 14