Newsletter Friday, 1st March 2013 Dear Parent/Carer Welcome back to the second half of the spring term. Over 30 of our Year 11 students attended the maths master class organised by the Maths department on the first Saturday of half term. I would like to thank staff, students and parents for supporting the work that we did on ensuring that your child attended the session. Sue Ashley, Deputy Headteacher in charge of Teaching and Learning, and I attended 2 days of Ofsted training this week. It is important that we continue to be challenged with thought provoking questions in the way that we judge our school improvement work. This term we will conduct monitoring reviews in 2 departments: Technology and English. Sylvia Kopecek, our current LLP will lead the Technology review and Lesley Craig, Headteacher from Newcastle will lead the English review. Some of you may know that I sit on ASCL Council (Association of School and College Leaders. I have been invited to attend a private meeting with the Secretary of State for Education, The Rt Hon Michael Gove on 15th March in London. I will share with you the outcomes of our discussion. Please be aware that the consultation period regarding Academy status ends this week and the Governors Meeting will take place next Tuesday. Any questions received from parents will be submitted for governors consideration. Nadine Powrie, Headteacher 3 & 4 levels of Progress—Why? “Opening doors to the future” The expectation from the Government is that students will achieve 3 levels of progress between KS2 and KS4. On 3 levels of progress a student with a KS2 score of 3 is, by the end of KS4, expected to achieve GCSE Grade D. At Neville Lovett we set ambitious and challenging targets so that students are able to achieve 4 Levels of progress. Therefore the same student with a KS2 score of 3 will be working towards obtaining a C (and in some case will achieve even higher grades). Setting 4 Levels of progress also stretches our mid band students to achieve higher than expected C/B grades and ultimately will lead to more students achieving A/A*. We do this because we believe getting the best possible grade is essential for the next stage in your child’s future. It’s about opening doors. For some students E and D grades may represent an amazing amount of progress from KS2, but we believe and have a track record of moving students even further. C+ open the doors a little wider for your child – that’s why we do it. Mr I Cranstone, Deputy Headteacher Curriculum As we move into this new half term our year 8 students will start making their option choices. These students were consulted at the end of last half term and the option provision will have subjects which reflect their interests. We are convinced that the year group will find new subjects, such as photography and engineering, will provide them with a range of choices which will support them in their futures. For some of these subjects special application arrangements will be put into place. The range of subjects which will be offered in the final instance will depend upon how students select. If too few choose a particular subject it might not run as it would not be cost efficient. We will continue to guide our students into making the right choices based on an uncompromising drive to achieve the best for each student as an individual. We will continue to set our students across all years in order to ensure that they are taught at a pace designed to maximise their engagement and achievement. All students will continue to have a broad subject offer in years 7 and 8. We will continue to provide maximum provision for English, maths and science and are pleased with how the changes brought in recently, namely the increased time given to these important subjects, is having an impact on our students’ achievement. Mr Campbell, Deputy Headteacher (Curriculum) Caterlink Statement - Food Standards “Caterlink is proud of our food based heritage which ensures that we can trace the origin of our freshly prepared meat dishes. All of our suppliers are audited by an external body to ensure that they comply with our statutory obligations. We make all our beef main dishes on site from raw meat which is UK sourced. There continues to be no evidence to suggest that our UK meat supply chain has been affected or involved in the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) investigation into contaminated beef products. However, we recognise that the FSA investigation is on-going and as such, we remain committed to monitor the issue very closely.” Caterlink
Newsletter Friday, 1st March 2013 Governor News On Wednesday, we welcomed Councillor Sean Woodward to the school. It is several years since he last visited us and he was very impressed by the school and our progress towards outstanding. Mr Woodward met with Mrs Powrie and myself before being taken on a tour of the school site where he had the opportunity to speak to students and staff. Elizabeth Webb, Chair of Governors STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) On Wednesday, 6th February, 26 students from across Year 8 took part in the Motorola and National Schools Partnership “Tomorrow’s Engineers - Save the Day Challenge”. Neville Lovett Community School were visited by Fran Scott, who has worked with Prof. Brian Cox, Richard Hammond and Lord Robert Winston on a number of Science related TV programmes. The students were taken through a crisis scenario and were asked to program computer systems in order to restore power and emergency services to a city in blackout. Following this, the students split into groups and designed an invention to assist one or all of the three emergency services. After some exciting and ingenious ideas, a winning group was chosen. As a prize, the winning students were given a day tour around the Motorola Solutions Headquarters to see all of their latest inventions and developments. On Wednesday, at Motorola Solution HQ, Dylan James, Kian Merrett, Tyler Hayward, Rosie Peters and Thomas Ray presented their invention “Frankenfire” – The robotic dog that seeks out people trapped in burning buildings and delivers survival equipment and direct communication with firefighters. The group were commended by the Dragon's Den style judges on their creativity, effort and teamwork, along with a special mention for their opening statement of thanks for the opportunity to visit the Motorola site. During the day, the group were able to interact with many different inventions from the equipment installed in emergency services and F1 vehicles to shop product tracking equipment and the latest communication devices. Our group chaperone was delighted with the enthusiasm, questioning and behaviour of the students who were fantastic representatives of the school. I am particularly proud of their presentation efforts too, so please commend them when you see them over the coming days. Tomorrow's Engineers are planning to hold the event again next year and have invited us to take part again, so look out for more future STEM events! “The best day I’ve ever had” Kian Merrett (Year 8) Mr Snoswell, Teacher of Science
Dates for your Diary 2nd March 5th March 7th March 7th March 11th March 12th March 13th March 15th March 19th March
Maths Revision (targeted students) 10.00 am to 12.30 pm Governors Extraordinary meeting re Academy status 5.15 pm Visit by Author Andrew Lane for World Book Day Mock Interviews Year 10 Year 7 bring a parent to Science evening 5.00 pm to 7.00 pm Governor Finance Committee meeting 4.15 pm to 5.30 pm Headteacher Address: Year 8 Parents Evening 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm Non Uniform Day for Red Nose Day - theme RED Website: Full Governors meeting 9.00 am to 11.00 am Telephone Email:
Nadine Powrie MA ED St Anne’s Grove, Fareham, Hampshire, PO14 1JJ www.nevillelovett.co.uk 01329 318003 adminoffice@nevillelovett.hants.co.uk