Ulverston Victoria High School Newsletter December 2008

Page 1

Christmas 2008

UVHS wishes all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

NEWSLETTER


Mr Fay writes...

Language News

Viva Vivienne!

A Fond Farewell

I can’t believe that Christmas is upon us and I haven’t yet Another busy half-term for languages with GCSE students preparing for mocks and getting lots of speaking practice. finished my letter to Santa! I hope you like our Christmas card which was produced by a Year 10 French and German students spent an enterprising day young artist, Mia, of Year 8, as I was an avid Beano reader in visiting local hotels at Grange and Kendal. Working in pairs they interviewed hotel my youth. I always wanted to be able to write a Merry staff and toured hotels Christmas to All Our Readers! from the editor. However, I am taking photos in preparanot the editor and the credit for that role goes to the excellent tion for making their forAndrea Herman who is responsible for all our Newsplashes eign language web and Newsletters. Well done Andrea: you do a great job! (and page for the hotels to use thanks to all those who help you! - particularly John Evason). This will be a short piece as I have written about other issues elseto attract foreign visitors. where in the “Newsletter”. I would just like to thank you for Hotel staff will judge your tremendous support. Our students’ power point efforts as a team of teachers, oth- presentations. There is er staff, parents and students are, a lot of hard work init has been recognised, having a volved for students but visible effect on the school. Ofst- the incentive is a free ed were very pleased with our progress as are the Local Authority meal out for the winning but we know we still have a lot to do to make this school pair and their parents! “Outstanding” because that is what the students and wider Year 8 visited the French community of UVHS deserve. That must be our target in all town of “Petiteville” when aspects and whilst I am the Headteacher at UVHS, that is my the school hall was transpersonal ambition to lead the school positively in that direction, formed into a French shopthat means a very exciting and challenging journey. However, ping town. Students went along that path, there will be some “hard yards” and difficult, through passport control afbut vital, decisions to be made. I cannot achieve that leadership objective without your support and constructive criticism. ter answering some questions at customs. They shopped I believe with the universal good will of the parent body, using real euros and visited the café before sending postcards imbuing the students with an even greater sense of purpose home. Year 10 students helped them and staffed the shops. Our English as an additional language group is going strong and identity, we can be outstanding. Goodwill : that’s an appropriate word to end on at Christmas with Lucy, A level French student and deputy head girl, running a weekly session with Polish students Patryk and Natalia. time! Have a lovely holiday. Mr Fay

Year 12 A level textile students have been involved in an We extend a fond farewell this Christmas to the following much exciting project inspired by the work of Vivienne Westwood. In valued and respected members of staff. early September the students went to Sheffield Museum to see Mrs Lynn Wright, Joint Subject Leader of History, who retired in the retrospective exhibition of Dame Westwood's work which September has been a teacher at UVHS for more than 25 years. was both exciting and inspiring for the students. They then Mrs Pam Shore, has been a teacher of English here for more spent a day working with Julia Geere, a professional designer than 17 years. She has been very caring and supportive in her role as Pastoral Leader over many years and the student’s and and entrepreneur to look at staff will really miss her. We wish them both well in their future new ways of using fabrics and retirement! further developing their design Also, farewell to Ms Sue Tamplin who leaves History Departskills. The students were then ment and Mr Adrian Little from Geography Department. We set the challenge to come up thank them for the support they have given to UVHS. with an outfit which could be used to promote a new range of clothes inspired by the work of Vivienne Westwood. The On Wednesday 17th December we held our Prize Giving culmination of their work would be to pitch their designs and Ceremony at the Coronation Hall. We had a wonderful ideas to a 'dragons den’ of professional designers and entre- evening and the event was a glittering success. Students who preneurs. So over the next few weeks the students beavered had left Year’s 11, 12 and 13 in July attended to receive prizes, away in the lessons to come up with interesting designs and as well as their much deserved GCSE and A Level certificates. exciting ways to use fabrics. With their designs complete the Our guest speaker this year was the editor of the North West students then had just two weeks to make their outfits. In mid Evening Mail, Mr Jonathan November the dragons den was held and some amazing Lee, who delivered an indesign work and fantastic outfits were shown to the profession- spirational speech and als who were completed bowled over by the standard of work presented certificates and produced and the confident manner in which the students prizes to our winners. were able to talk about their work. The overall winner was The Coronation Hall Kristina, best presentation went to Hazel and the runners up looked as stunning as ever were Laura and Coral. Well done to all twelve students who and Governors, staff and worked so hard on the project and produced some really guests enjoyed music and outstanding work. All twelve students work will be on display refreshments provided by our wonderfully talented students. at the fashion show in March.

Prize Giving Award Ceremony


Attendance Matters Attendance at UVHS continues to improve. Whole school attendance for the first half term stood at 94.2%, exceeding our target set by the County. Fewer and fewer students are giving cause for concern on attendance and smaller numbers are being seen on our Attendance Panel. We continue to reward good attendance with our termly draws and 3 lucky winners from each Year Group have received gift vouchers from stores of their choice. So a big thank you for your support in ensuring your child has good attendance. As you know holidays during term time will not be authorised unless there are exceptional circumstances and we particularly value your support in this area.

Visit to “Blood Brothers” at the Phoenix Theatre in London The Year 11 GCSE Drama group travelled to London on 16th October to see the live theatre performance which is an important part of their course. They saw a matinee performance of the award-winning musical: “Blood Brothers” based on the play by Liverpool playwright Willy Russell. Everyone enjoyed the experience - for many, it was their first visit to the “big smoke”!!

Gifted and Talented

UVHS Public Speaking Team

The Gifted and Talented Art/History/English after school club has been running after school on Thursday evenings for the past four weeks. This cross curricular partnership involves twelve students from Year 10 and the theme we are working towards is Remembrance and War. Each student has worked out their own ideas to create a visual response to this which will hopefully be finished and displayed in the hall at the end of this term.

On Thursday 20th November, the UVHS Public Speaking team of Katie (Chair), Paige (Questioner) and Rebecca (Speaker) travelled to St Mary’s College, Crosby for the first heat of the Liverpool and Merseyside round of the English Speaking Union Public Speaking Competition. The format of the competitions is fixed: the chair and questioner have half an hour to interrogate the speaker from the opposing team, whilst they do the same to our speaker. The key to success is not to give too much away, and Rebecca’s responses to the Archbishop Temple team were succinct to say the least! The nerves amongst our team were beginning to show but we’d had plenty of practice, and at least we weren’t first up. Rebecca’s speech on the topic of “Diet and Exercise has become an obsession” was very well received, and all of our work on difficult questions stood her in good stead for the questions posed by the questioner and the floor. Then it came to Katie and Paige’s hosting of the topic “Altruism is a myth”. We were delighted at Katie’s excellent control of the meeting (something that we were praised for in the feedback) and Paige’s questions were excellent. Then the waiting began, and it gave us the opportunity to mingle with the other teams without the nerves, and have cups of tea and caramel wafers. When the results were announced, it was really no surprise that St Mary’s College had won, but UVHS came a very creditable second; even more impressive when you consider that it was our first time in the competition. The team is now waiting to see what will happen in the next heat; if all goes well, we might go through to the next round. In the meantime, we’re getting ready to take part in the Rotary Competition in December.

Cumbria in Bloom Competition We are delighted, once again, to be involved in this year’s Cumbria in Bloom Competition which was open to all Primary and Secondary Schools in the county. This involved producing an A4 or A3 drawing or painting of flowers or natural objects. Ten Year 9 students’ work was selected for the competition. The standard was very high and although we

didn’t win, each student was awarded a commendation certificate for their work. Well done to Lori-Jo, Charlotte, Olivia, Tara, Anton, Matthew, Charlotte, Sara and Deborah.

Do you have a hidden talent? We are keen to keep track of students who are excelling in some aspect of their life outside school. Please make contact with Ms Hannam (Gifted and Talented Co-ordinator) by letter or email pha@ulverstonvictoria.cumbria.sch.uk if you know of a UVHS student who has a particular talent or gift that has not come to our attention yet!!

It’s Panto Time! (Oh, yes it is.........) On Friday 12th December, the Year 11 GCSE Drama group performed their original pantomime: Cinderella, to 200 primary school pupils from Croftlands, Sir John Barrow and St Mary’s. This was a unit of Devised Theatre from the GCSE course. The afternoon was a sparkling success and was enjoyed by all.

Lost Property Once a term we have a large lost property display. The volume of lost property is huge and all of it is unnamed. If lost clothing is named, when it is handed in it can be returned immediately to students. We would appreciate it if parents could ensure that clothing is tagged or that names are written on clothing labels in permanent marker pen. Thank you.


ICT

Maths News

Year 7 are creating animations on public information and The Primary School Maths Club is underway and every week safety using a range of software including Monkey Jam and 50 of our partner school Year 5 and Year 6 pupils are having Windows Movie Maker. They have used Thaumatrops and flip lots of fun busily constructing pop-up cubes, designing snowbooks and developed them into flakes and solving maths magic tricks. animations. Again the pupils Year 11 students have have come up with some great recently sat their second ideas showing imagination and modular exam, so they now have 50% of their enthusiasm. Year 10 have produced some Maths GCSE under their fantastic creative and innovative belt. We were delighted animations using web cams to see such a large turn based on healthy eating as part out of students to the of their GCSE. They have used revision sessions that models images and software in- were held by maths cluding Serif, Monkey Jam and Windows Movie Maker. This staff after school in the unit is part of the pupils Coursework for their OCR National run-up to the exam, and which they will have completed by Christmas and is the we are sure that all the hard work put in by the students will be rewarded – informal feedback from the students suggests that equivalent to one GCSE. they felt very well prepared. Results will be in school midJanuary. Congratulations to Steven in year 13 who gained a Gold certificate in the Senior Maths Challenge and also to Fergus and Rachael (Silver) and Peter, Tom and Joe (Bronze). On November 13th, a team of four students led by Head of Drama, Miss Hicks, broadcast their own live radio show to Furness. The team: Lucy and Olivia (Year 10) and Lewis and Miss Dacre has been working hard on organising the Year 10 Leanne (Year 13) devised, work experience placements and we have nearly placed all produced and broadcast Year 10 students. It is always the last few that take the longest their own original materito do! We shall be letting the students know where they will al for one hour, using going as soon as possible. professional studio The Year 10 ASDAN group equipment set up by Abtook part in Enterprise week, bey fm radio. The project was sponsored by CBEC (Cumbria Business Education Consortium). The UVHS team scripted and presented a request show, news and film reviews as well as interviewing local businessman Lee Stoller about his sponsorship of Creative Arts at UVHS. A variety of music was produced and played, ranging from our own swing and wind band recordings to the latest chart hits. In a letter to the school, CBEC wrote that the producing a Business Plan standard of the broadcast was the highest ever since the and using a spreadsheet to annual project began. calculate how much we should charge for items in order to make a profit. They had some very good ideas for future businesses. Look out!

Creative Students Broadcast Live on Furness Youth Radio!

Work Related Learning

Welcome to New Staff

We extend a warm welcome to Miss Jamila Yousaf, teacher of Science, Ms Lucia Wiper, teacher of English and Mrs Natalie Booth who has joined the Learning Mentor team. We also welcome Miss Claire Woof to the History Department and welcome Mrs Victoria Ashburner back to Geography Department from her maternity leave.

UVHS Text Messaging System Thank you for the many compliments we have received on our Texting Message/Reminder system. Mrs Judy Higgins, our Attendance Officer, is doing a great job on this and other schools in the area have expressed an interest in copying the system. A very small minority of parents find the reminders annoying and only want emergency messages. That is not as easy as it sounds and we are looking into it. However, sometimes to gain a real benefit in communication some form of cost could be inevitable.

Parents’ Advisory Group (PAG) I thought I would give new parents of students in Year 7 time to settle in before asking if anyone wants to join the PAG from that group. The PAG is a very informal group which meets once a half term to “chew the fat” over various school issues. It is not a governors’ group and does not carry any bureaucratic obligations in its membership. PAG members signed a contract which outlines their role and that is all. If you feel able to join please contact Mrs Petersen at school.

Car Parking Although some parents have to use the car park because their children must for specific reasons, can we respectfully request that unless you have a specific reason for using the car park that you do not, for reasons of Health and Safety, simply use it as a convenient location to pick up children. Thank you.


The Play’s the Thing

PE News

There have been a number of English trips out to the theatre In Rugby, Year 7 beat Dowdales 24-14 and will now play St this term. Edmund Arrowsmith, Wigan in the 1st round of the National Cup. The sixth form literature students spent a productive Saturday WELL DONE BOYS and in particular Morgan who scored a hat shopping and seeing a modern version of Othello at The Lowry trick of tries. Year 8 narrowly lost 12-4 to Walney. Year 9 lost in Manchester, while over fifty Year 10 students signed up for 36-24 against Dowdales in a very entertaining game. Better another trip to Manchester, this time to see the RSC perform luck next time. Romeo and Juliet. The Thursday night trip returned at almost In October, 20 Year 9 girls joined with peers from Thorncliffe to one in the morning, but everyone made it back into school just take part in a rugby festival at Furness Rugby Club. They were a few hours later! schooled by the new community coach and learned a variety of The annual Year 7 trip to see a Christmas show went to playing skills. The coach was so impressed that he asked 3 of Keswick this year for A Christmas Carol. them to play for Furness the following weekend. Five Year 11 As always, students of Ulverston Victoria were noticeably better and 12 girls play in the under 18 team. behaved than those of any other school present, and we drew In Football, Year 10 and 11 teams are through to the quarter the usual praise from members of the public. Well done every- finals of the County Cup. one! In Hockey, Great Britain men’s hockey team manager, Peter Elsewhere, English students distinguished themselves in public Nicholson, a former pupil of UVHS, returned to the area to coach speaking competitions, and a number of Year 8 students were the game to a invited to represent the school at a special day at Lancaster number of Furness University, exploring C S Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles. The sixth youngsters. UVHS form AS Language students worked with their colleagues in the pupils Kirsten, Lois, music department to produce the latest in a long line of Fred, Dan, Jack all hilarious ‘performances’ in music and words. They worked with went along and relocal comedian and writer Anne Wilson and will enter their ceived his expert work for the up-coming Anne Pierson creative writing competiguidance. tion, as well as their coursework!

Music News As usual it has been an exceptionally busy half-term for the Music Department at UVHS. The Junior Woodwind Ensemble have probably been the busiest group performing several times at the Dickensian Festival, playing a concert for Ulverston Townswomen’s Guild and the Penny Bridge Women’s Institute and also providing the musical accompaniment for Sir John Barrow’s two Christmas Concerts at St. Mary’s church. As they are all in Year 10 or below, it is a credit to them that they have represented the school so well in all of this. The choir and other ensembles entertained audiences throughout the Dickensian Festival weekend and the Brass Ensemble will be doing their annual tour of villages, playing for ‘carols on the green’ events. The Wind Band, as usual, led the UVHS Christmas Festival to a packed festive audience at the Coronation Hall - carols, seasonal readings and music from the band, choir and other groups were fantastically received by one and all, really bringing the Christmas spirit to the town. The Swing Band have fulfilled engagements for Aldingham Parish Association, the Mayor of Barrow, the Dickensian Festival and UVHS Prizegiving: as usual, they impressed all audiences with their enthusiasm, dedication and sheer quality of musicianship. Thank you to all the students and parents for their dedication and commitment, and here’s to a busy 2009!

In Cross Country, Country a group of Year 7 students were chosen to represent UVHS at the Cumbria Schools Athletics Association event at Penrith in October. All pupils acquitted themselves brilliantly but special mention must be made of Lorna (2nd), Freya (6th), Zarina (7th) and Molly (8th) out of a field of over 150 competitors. They have been selected to represent Cumbria in Birmingham on 22/23rd November. Go girls! I should also mention that the quality of the singing in the bus on the way home was fantastic. UVHS hosted the South Lakes District Cross Country at Birkrigg Common on Thursday 20th November. November. There were 500 competitors in total and 50 of those were from UVHS. Everybody put in really good performances and we expect a number of pupils to be selected to represent South Lakes in the next round. Congratulations to all the runners and a big thank you to the Year 11 and sixth form helpers on the day.

Chef Murray My name is John Murray and I am a Peripatetic Chef of Furness, I am also a Chef Lecturer from Furness College. I have been a professional chef for over 20 years, working in some of the best hotels and restaurants in both the Lake District and London. As well as teaching in many of the schools in the Furness area I still work as a chef and in the summer holidays I move to London and work in restaurants often taking students with me to gain experience. My role as a Peripatetic chef at UVHS is to support GCSE Food Technology and GCSE Catering. I am here to promote healthy eating and cooking and I hopefully achieve this by doing after school cooking clubs, Summer Schools, Hell’s Kitchens and guardian child cook and eat sessions. I was nominated for a National Teaching Award in Innovation earlier on this year and recently found out I have been short listed down to the last 10 in the country. May I say a big thank you to the staff and students of UVHS for the very warm welcome you have given me.


A Sizzling Summer Tour

School Uniform and Personal Presentation

UVHS Wind Band further enhanced its reputation as one of the finest school wind bands in the country with three stunning performances Well done to students and their parents, our school during the short tour to a sizzling Paris late in July. The performance at Disneyland was stunning - with all players uniform is really improving on a daily basis. Ofsted using microphones under the glare of a state-of-the-art lighting rig it commented on how important a consistent attitude to was a daunting school uniform is in the life of a school and how well we prospect, but af- were working together on it. have received the ter the sound I comments from the “Great check, the artistic director of Dis- Uniform Debate” and I will neyland Paris write about them in the next rang the park’s Newsplash when I have managing direc- been able to talk about tors telling them them with the Governors that they must and the Parents Advisory come to hear Group. Thank you to all “the finest school parents who took the trouble group ever to to reply and took part in the have played debate. here”. The direc- After Christmas, dear parents, tors duly came, and after having a dance in the wings of the stage I would really like your made time to talk to some of the students, congratulating us all on support in developing a the quality of the concert. As a result, we have an open invitation to more uniform approach to return without the need to audition! The real chore following the coats. You will, of course, remember that the school coat performance was obviously receiving the free tickets to the park as is supposed to be plain not multi-coloured, ‘payment’ - we tried hard to have fun on all the rides and in camouflaged, striped, hooped or with a commercial logo. I have asked for a sample of various school coats and I scorching weather - honestly, we tried! The following day saw us in central Paris, enjoying the morning in the will discuss them with the Parents’ Advisory Group, the Latin quarter and a full evening in the ‘artists’ district’ around the Sacre school council, etc. Some student models will be chosen Coeur cathedral. In the afternoon, the band played a 90 minute and asked to trial them around the school to see what concert to an audience of over 500 in the Jardin de Luxembourg as other students think about them. Of course, if we were part of the Paris International Music Festival. Video clips can be seen to achieve a uniformity in the wearing of a plain coat, we would probably not need to go to adopting a school coat. on the school website. Also I feel we need to encourage all students to avoid Our final concert fell foul of a bureaucratic nightmare at the Palace of extreme hair styles. My rule of thumb is that hairstyles Versailles. We were to be the first school group ever to play in the should not represent: gardens. We had all the performance licences, access passes and Extremes of fashion or a sub group culture eg relevant permissions and the chairs were all set out around the main punk (showing my age!). fountain. Unfortunately, the man in charge on the day knew nothing That hair colouring should be sympathetically about us and, as it was a Sunday, no-one could be contacted to sort applied to complement the natural colour of the it out. Instead, we ended up being the first band ever to play in front hair not in stark contrast to it. of Marie Antoinette’s summer house annexe to the palace, with the That un-natural colours should not be applied band having to play for an hour standing up. Well, we always say to hair eg: purple/blue/vivid pink etc. that the band tours are an experience! Congratulations to all the members of the band and the staff for a If your child is planning a drastic new look I would respectfully request that you consult your Pastoral Leader fantastic trip and three truly stunning performances, producing a to discuss it. quality of music far beyond what is expected from a school. There is no truth in the rumour that my hair is a grey rinse. Unfortunately it is natural! Mr Fay.

Job Vacancies at UVHS

We are seeking to appoint Senior Midday Supervisors to work in school to cover the supervision of students during the lunchtime. The hours of work will be 12.15 pm to 1.30 pm from Monday to Friday. Term-time only. If you are interested in these posts please telephone 01229 483908 for more information. We also require Examination Invigilators to join our team. Examinations take place in November to January and March to June inclusive. For more information please contact Janet Caveney, Examinations Officer on 01229 483951 or call into school for an informal chat.

The Year 11 Prom We are planning a fantastic event but we are also aware that to achieve the standard we aim for to make it memorable there is a cost. We would hate to think of anyone not attending because of cost. If you write to Mr Fay, in confidence, to request a subsidy for your son and daughter he will look at each request individually and do his best to help, even if it is only a proportion of the cost.

Dance Department As part of our sixth form initiative to encourage boys to dance, the AS students (3 boys and 3 girls) performed for the whole of St Mary's RC Primary School. 'Wow' and 'How do they do that?' were heard from the young audience throughout the performance! Our dance group are performing their dance 'Void' at the Coronation Hall on 6th December as part of the South Lakes Community Dance Festival 2008. Also our dance group now has a name 'Shuv' - a jumble of the letters UVHS! The picture shows the AS students performing at St Mary's.


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