REMEMBRANCE ASSEMBLY
FIRST CROSS-TRUST VARSITY
NEW YORK TRIP
CHRISTMAS CARD WINNERS Winter 2018
Dear Parents and Carers, The Autumn term may be coming to an end at Sir John Talbot’s but our excitement for our research-based lesson study is rapidly gaining momentum. Teachers across the school have been investigating a range of research to support developments in the classroom. All staff have been matched with colleagues and are reading up on current educational thinking and testing it out in the classroom. We are always looking to make our best better and it is evident already that this research is having a positive impact on student progress and attainment. The best outcomes and research will be shared more widely in our Trust through the ‘Alliance of Leading Learning’ and eventually in our annual education conference. This year our education conference will be hosted on 25th February 2019 at The International Centre, Telford. Our Christmas Carol Service was bigger and better than ever this term. Our thanks to Reverend Hunt for allowing us to host the service at the wonderful St Alkmund’s Church in the centre of town. Students in all years contributed to the evening and were accompanied by The Marches School choir. We were treated to a range of Christmas carols including ‘O come all ye faithful’ and ‘Winter wonderland’ supported by the excellent church organist and school music staff. This event really set the tone for the end of term celebrations and was a superb community occasion. The Marches Academy Trust welcomed Grove School into our family of schools on 1st December 2018. There is a long-standing relationship between all the schools in the Trust and this development will further strengthen our ability to provide the very best education for the young people in the local area. This term we hosted the first ever Marches Academy Trust Varsity sporting competition between The Marches School and Sir John Talbot's. It was an excellent day with both schools performing at an extremely high level. Throughout the day students took part in cross-country, netball, football and rugby games in different age groups. It was a wonderful day thanks to Mrs Newey and the PE department staff of both schools. The points were even throughout the day but The Marches gained the final 3 points giving them the win this year. We look forward to the 2019 Varsity Tournament and another chance to show our sports teams at their very best. With a vast array of extra-curricular events including visiting authors, international travel, art, sport and musical achievements we have had a packed Autumn term and students are looking forward to their Christmas break. True to our school values, charity is never far from our thoughts and students have been encouraged to do their bit for Children in Need, Macmillan and finishing the year with Christmas jumpers in aid of Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Whatever your plans over Christmas, stay safe and if any students are lucky enough to receive a new bicycle this year please remember cycle helmets and lights.
David O’Toole Headteacher
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News Remembrance
Staff and students at Sir John Talbot’s School participated in a moving, thought-provoking and poignant Remembrance Assembly on 9th November. Whitchurch Air Cadets and Army Cadets along with the Scouts and Guides assisted wearing full uniform and formed a guard of honour to welcome the students into assembly. Keith Robinson, Crew Manager of Whitchurch Fire Service and Mrs Newey, ex RAMC, also attended in full uniform. Sixth Form student and Cadet Sergeant Chloe Edwards read a verse from ‘For the Fallen’ by Robert Laurence Binyon, which was originally published in The Times on 21st September 1914. Chloe’s first official appointment as Lord Lieutenant’s Cadet for the County was to attend the Royal Wedding in London earlier this year. Head Girl Hannah Smith read Flanders Fields. All students took part in the service and left the assembly in silence through the guard of honour in remembrance of the fallen, a hundred years on from World War I.
OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD Students in Miss Brown’s form have been busy filling and wrapping shoe boxes in preparation for Operation Christmas Child. This is organised by the Samaritans and the boxes will be sent to children who are victims of war, poverty and famine across the world.
CHILDREN IN NEED FUNDRAISING Students raised a fantastic sum of £636.32 for this year’s Children in Need. Great efforts were taken with costumes and students thoroughly enjoyed their fundraising activities. A huge thank you to students, parents and carers for making this possible.
Christmas Card Competition Winners Thank you to all of the students who participated in the Christmas card competition. The overall standard was incredibly high and it was extremely difficult to decide on a winner. Congratulations to Charlotte Perkins in Year 8 who was the winner, with Ella Foster and Mica Mason coming second and third respectively. Molly Fry and Zara Leary completed the top five. 1st place
2nd place
3rd place
4th place
5th place
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York Trip Sixth Form students travelled to the university city of York and enjoyed a day of city life. Thank you to the staff who accompanied them to give the students this opportunity.
Mr Sanders, Mrs Morcumb and Dr Thorley were presented with a certificate to celebrate that Sir John Talbot’s School has become a Duke of Edinburgh’s licensed centre.
Art, DT and Photography Trip Twickenham Trip Students and staff visited Twickenham to watch England play rugby against Japan in the Autumn Internationals. In an entertaining game, England came from behind to defeat next year’s World Cup hosts 35-15.
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Art, DT and Photography Sixth Form students visited London to gather vital primary source material for their projects.
They visited the Photographers Gallery and the National Gallery to gain inspiration.
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More News On the Varusschlacht Talk Latin and Sixth Form students were lucky enough to attend a talk on the Battle of Kalkreise (The Varusschlacht) given by Dr Anthony Garrett, a local historian and former Cambridge University lecturer. The battle took place 2009 years ago in 9AD in what is now known as Northern Germany between the ancient Romans and a group of Germanic tribes. It is an important battle in European history, because the Germanic tribes united to inflict a rare major military defeat on the Romans. We were also pleased to welcome Ellesmere College classics students and their teachers for this lecture.
Rotary Interact Christmas Lunch The Rotary Interact Club celebrated 2018 with their Christmas lunch in the Coach House and spoke about their plans for 2019. We would like to thank the local Rotarians for their help and support in running the club and congratulate the Interact Club for their hard work this year.
AUTHOR VISITS We were lucky and delighted to welcome author Joseph Delaney, who is currently on tour with his new book, ‘Aberrations’. The popular author, who has sold over 3 million books and had a movie made of one of his books, complimented the Years 7 and 8 students on their attentiveness. He also spoke of his enjoyment of coming to Sir John Talbot’s School and mentioned that this stop on the tour ‘stood-out’ amongst the others. We would like to thank Joseph Delaney for calling by at Sir John Talbot’s and thank Mr McIlhatton for organising this fantastic opportunity.
Higher Education Fortnight We recently held ‘Higher Education Fortnight’ which was organised to give Year 11 students an opportunity to see the courses available at the more local higher education institutes.
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Sport Congratulations to the five students in Years 7, 8 and 9 who were invited to represent North Shropshire in the School Games Shropshire Cross-Country. Nell Warner, Prue Noss, Michal Kozlowski, Henry Appleby and Chester Romei represented North Shropshire in their age groups and did exceptionally well in a very competitive field. The Year 7 Boys won their team race as well as winning the Overall Boys’ Competition. Well done to all.
NATIONAL CUP FOOTBALL The Year 9 Girls’ Football Team made the short trip to Bishop Heber High School, Malpas, to play their National Cup Third Round fixture with a prize of a place in the last 32 for the winners. The girls made an uncharacteristically slow start, and they were 2-0 down within 15 minutes. When many teams would have crumbled, Sir John Talbot’s redoubled their efforts and enjoyed the majority of possession and chances, only to be denied time and time again by Bishop Heber’s Welsh international goalkeeper. The girls were rewarded in the final minute as Ebony Cooper scored with nearly the last kick of the game as the girls went down 2-1 despite being the stronger side for the majority of the game.
Ciara Bebbington Year 9 student Ciara Bebbington has been 'air shooting' for just over one year. Ciara first started shooting with Whitchurch Scouts. During the last year Ciara was selected to be part of the National Scout Shooting Squad. This has led her to shoot in more competitions including the Junior International, as well as the Annual National Scout Shooting Championships, where she won one silver and two bronze medals. Ciara trains with Sedgemoor at Yate in Bristol for target sprint. In the National Target Sprint series, she came 7th in her age category in the UK. Well done Ciara.
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Varsity The inaugural varsity took place this term as the Marches School visited Sir John Talbot’s to compete in a range of sporting matches, including football, netball, rugby, hockey and cross-country. We would like to thank the Marches for an excellent day and Mrs Newey for her help in organising and setting up what will be an annual tradition between the schools. The final result was a Marches win by 24-21 so it was a fantastic day with some excellent contests between the cross-trust schools, further strengthening the relationship between them in the process.
NETBALL Both Sir John Talbot’s sides found the going tough against their cross-trust opponents as they were defeated by excellent teams at Year 9 and Year 7 levels by scores of 30-1 and 28-0 respectively. The energy and enthusiasm of the girls, despite being the second best team for the entire contests was superb and they were a credit to the school.
FOOTBALL
HOCKEY
The football teams gained mixed results at the Varsity tournament as both boys’ sides were defeated with the Year 7 team losing 6-2 before the Year 9 side lost to their wellorganised opponents 5-0.
Sir John Talbot’s put in two excellent performances against the Marches in hockey as the Year 9 side comfortably beat the opposition by a score of 7-0. The Year 7 team had a closer game but managed to win by a score of 2-0.
The girls’ sides were excellent, with the Year 7 side winning a close-fought match 1-0 before the Year 9 team put in a quality performance, winning 8-0 with Ebony Cooper scoring 6 goals.
RUGBY CROSS-COUNTRY The honours were even in the cross-country races, as the Marches won both the boys’ and girls’ Year 7 races, and Sir John Talbot’s won both the boys’ and girls’ Year 9 contests.
The Year 9 rugby team made a slow start against their opponents and did not improve until the Marches School had developed a healthy lead. Despite improving as the game went on, the Marches were victorious by 9 tries to 3. In the Year 7 game, the boys struggled to get going but did manage to score a good try against their strong opponents in a 9-1 defeat.
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Information Year 11 - Thursday 28th March 2019 Year 10 - Thursday 24th January 2019 Year 9 - Thursday 7th February 2019 (Options Evening) Year 8 - Thursday 9th May 2019 Year 7 - Thursday 11th October 2018
TERM DATES Autumn Term Tuesday 4th September to Friday 21st December 2018 Spring Term Monday 7th January 2019 to Friday 12th April 2019 Half term: Monday 18th to Friday 22nd February 2019 PD days: Friday 15th February, Monday 25th February Summer Term Monday 29th April to Friday 19th July 2019 Half term: Monday 27th May to Friday 31st May 2019 PD day: Monday 22nd July
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EXAM CHECK LIST
SUMMER EXAMS
● Students must be on time for their exams. Morning exams start at 9 a.m. and afternoon exams start at 1 p.m. Please ensure that you allow plenty of time for your journey, you should arrive at least 15 minutes before the start. ● When taking exams, bags, coats and mobile phones should be left in the designated area. It is recommended that you do not bring any valuables with you to the exam. ● Mobile Phones – Students must not have mobiles phones, smart watches or any technological/web enabled sources of information in their possession (either on or off). Please do not bring them to school. ● You should bring with you the correct equipment needed to do your exams as these will not be provided in the venue. Only clear pencil cases are allowed on your desk - any others should be left in your bag. Do not use gel pens. ● In an exam where you have the use of a calculator, you should not have a calculator cover on your desk. ● Sshh! There is absolutely no talking or communication between students once you enter the exam venue. If you have any questions, you should raise your hand once seated and an invigilator will come to you. ● You should wear your full uniform for all your exams. ● No food is allowed in the exam venue. If you have a special requirement, please see Miss Downward before the exams start. ● Water bottles are allowed in the exam if necessary. These should be clear bottles with a spill-proof cap. There should be no label on the bottle. ● If you are ill on the day of the examination, please contact Miss Downward by 8.30 a.m.
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A Level 13th May 2019 - 19th June 2019 GCSE 13th May 2019 - 14th June 2019 Please note that exam dates are subject to change
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School Trips and Visits New York Trip
Year 11 students and staff from both Sir John Talbot’s School and the Marches School headed to New York during October half term where they enjoyed a cross-Trust trip in a breath-taking city. Students and staff visited a variety of iconic structures which included the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center memorial where they listened to a retired NYPD Officer’s memories of 9/11. The visit to Ellis Island enabled students to learn about the history of the USA. Students also enjoyed a picnic in Central Park and visited the site of John Lennon’s memorial. Students had a truly memorable experience and represented the Trust admirably.
NEW YORK TRIP 2020 Following the success of the trip to New York, we would like to confirm that the Marches Academy Trust will again be visiting New York in the October half-term in 2020. . There will be an assembly in the first week back after Christmas, which will give further details of the trip. Letters will then be available from reception. The cost of this trip will be £1,180, which can be paid in four payments of £100 followed by sixteen payments of £48.75.
Lake District Fieldwork Trip Year 12 A Level Geography students visited the Lake District in order to complete their fieldwork. They stayed at the Derwentwater Independent Hostel in Keswick and were studying glacial erosional and despositional features on the landscape and rural rebranding.
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What’s on? Join Today ● No contract ● Low monthly membership fee ● No cancellation fee ● Student discount
NEW FITNESS CLASSES
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TALBOT THEATRE - WHITCHURCH LEISURE CENTRE EVENTS
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Winter 2018 | 9
Post-16 SIR JOHN TALBOT’S SIXTH FORM Shrewsbury College Visit Year 12 Engineering students were inspired by a ‘Women in the Built Environment’ talk and networking event that took place in the Origins Restaurant at Shrewsbury College.
UNIVERSITY VISITS
Year 12 students were invited to a Rolls Royce sponsored engineering careers event at Wrexham Glyndŵr University. They had a tour of The event featured three inspiring the workshops including the speakers who are all successful women flight simulator, wind tunnel in the construction industry. The host and were provided with and organiser, Ruth Shepherd, is the engineering careers Founding Director and owner of Results information from industry Communications. This is a specialist experts. Students found the engagement and communications Years 12 and 13 Chemistry day extremely valuable. consultancy which provides independent, students visited Warwick integrated and bespoke services to all University to attend a sectors of the construction and Chemistry in Action event. development industry. The Sixth Form They learnt about advances are looking forward to welcoming Ruth in nanotechnology, and our new contacts back to SJT for microscopy, forensic further events in the New Year. chemistry and were captivated by the colourful chemistry demonstrations.
Christmas decorations The Common Room is filled with hand-made decorations as Sixth Form students have decorated the room with paper chains and snowflakes to go alongside their tree.
Winter 2018