summer term 2014 - The Priory School

SUMMER TERM 2014
Dear Parents & Carers
This year has flown by and I have thoroughly enjoyed my first year of Headship at the Priory School. This year has seen some considerable changes to the life of the
school; a detailed works programme on up-dating the outside school environment, the establishment of the Hitchin 6th Priory Scout troop and the establishment of a
full Duke of Edinburgh Award programme to name but a few. For the first time in many years our new Year 7 intake is full and we have a large number of students on
the continued interest list.
The standing of the school within the local community has grown over the years due to our improved academic track record and high expectations. I would like to thank
you for all your support, time and effort that you have put into ensuring that your child is fully prepared for school.
I am very proud of my students who are a credit to you and the school.
Changes to the roles of the Senior Leadership Team
From September the senior leadership team at The Priory School has been re-structured. A more detailed breakdown of their roles and responsibilities can be found
on the school web-site.
Deputy Headteacher Faye Nearney: Curriculum & self-evaluation
Assistant Headteacher Dan Nearney: Pastoral (Key Stages 3 & 4)
Assistant Headteacher Lawrence Foster: Teaching, Learning & Assessment
Assistant Headteacher Sandra Hibbert: Student progress and intervention
Assistant Headteacher Zoe Armitage: Post 16 & Raising Aspirations (CEIAG)
Associate Assistant Headteacher Katie Thomas: HoY11, stakeholder voice and community liaison
School Business Manager Tony Foster: School finance, transport & trips
Changes to the start of the school day
From September the start of the school day will be 8.50am. Students will be expected to be in their form rooms by this time. The student entrance gates will be locked
at 8.50am and any student who arrives after this time will need to report to the front office. The school is well aware that some of our school buses arrive late and I
would like to re-assure you that we regularly liaise with our transport providers over this issue. If your child is late due to public transport issues then they will not be
given a late mark. Students will no longer register with their form tutor for afternoon registration. Afternoon registration will take place in the first 5 minutes of period
4 with their subject class teacher.
Communication
As with all organisations there is always the need to improve lines of communication with stakeholders. To ensure that parent/carers have more direct access to school
staff we have up-graded our telephone system and added key email addresses. Please go to the school web-site and look at the Contact tab for the new contact details.
Please can all parents ensure that they have signed up to ParentMail so that relevant documentation can be sent out in a timely, cost effective and environmentally
friendly way.
Learning days & Learning week
To support the development of enrichment activities we have planned two learning days where the school timetable will be suspended. Each year group will have a
range of activities which you will be informed about closer to the relevant date.
1. Friday 10th October 2014
2. Thursday 26th February 2015
The last week of the academic year will also see a collapsed timetable (Tuesday 14th – Friday 17th July). Year 12 and Year 10 will be on work experience and Year 7
will be at Cuffley camp. An enrichment programme for Year 8 and Year 9 has already been planned and relevant information will be made available closer to the time.
Headteacher’s commendations
The purpose of the Headteacher’s commendation is to celebrate student achievement. A member of staff or a parent can write or email the Headteacher to let
him know why they thought their child/student deserves a Headteacher commendation. There are 4 Headteacher commendations badges. Each time a student is
nominated they will receive a certificate and will have their picture taken to be placed on the school website. Jacqui Rance, (Headteacher’s PA), will keep a record of
the nominations and those students who achieve more than one nomination will be awarded a different commendation badge; first nomination – Red badge, third
nomination – Bronze badge, sixth nomination – Silver badge and ninth nomination – Gold badge.
Changes to detentions after school detentions;
From September students who fail to turn up for an after school detention will automatically be placed in an extended Friday detention. This Senior Leadership
detention will run from 3.30–5pm and students will be picked up from their classes during Period 5 to ensure that they are on time for this sanction. If a student refuses
to attend the detention then they will be internally suspended on the following Monday with parents invited in for a re-integration meeting on the Tuesday morning.
Changes to staffing
It is this time of year when we say good-bye and thank you to those staff that are moving to further their careers;
Cara Mathews (Head of Science), Roisin Breslin (Science) Julie Corrigan (Science), Gurmeet Pawar (Science), Greg McGuiness (Maths), Paul Haig (Maths), Jack Andrews
(D&T), Aoghan Cooney (D&T).
We welcome the following new staff;
Helen Bonner (2nd Science), Stella Brennan (Science), Alan Reid (Lead Practitioner Science), Richard Parmar (Science), Gillian Greig (Maths) Emir Sheikh (Maths), Debbie
Hann (Maths), Jon Welch (D&T), Lisa Glithero (D&T),Alice Anderson- Bonner (English), Ryan Florence (HoD Geography) and Richard Stranks (History).
The Priory School is fully staffed for September and our new colleagues a well aware of the high expectations we have of them.
Key dates
In the two tables below are the key term dates. Please go to the school web-site for more detailed information regarding other calendared events.
Term Dates 2014/2015
Autumn Term: Tuesday 2nd September – Friday 19th December 2014
Professional Development Days: (School closed to students)
Half Term:
Monday 27th October – Friday 31st October 2014
Monday 1st September 2014 Professional Development Day
Spring Term:
Monday 5th January – Thursday 2nd April 2015
Thursday 2nd April 2015 Staff conference
Half Term: Monday 16th February – Friday 20th February 2015
Monday 20th July 2015
School closed
Summer Term: Monday 28th April – Friday 17th July 2015
Tuesday 21st July 2015
School closed
Half Term:
Monday 25th May – Friday 29th May 2015
Wednesday 22nd July 2015
School closed
Occasional Day Friday 5th December 2014 (School closed)
Expectations for September
The success of every child is at the core of our school ethos. As a parent/carer you should have high expectations regarding the standard of learning your child receives
at school. If you feel that your child’s work is not being marked, homework not being set or lessons are not challenging enough please contact the school so that we
can resolve your concerns.
As you are well aware The Priory has very high standards regarding attendance, uniform and behaviour. Our policies and systems are very clear and can be found on our
web-site. Please support your child to start the next academic year successfully by ensuring that they;
1. Have spent time doing background reading or reading for pleasure
2. Have identified which clubs and activities they are going to get involved with
3. Have the correct uniform , hair cut & colour
4. Have all the correct learning resources for the start of term and have read and understand the ‘Making the Right Choice’ poster.
We are all aware that there has been and continues to be a huge focus on students not being taken out of school for holidays. At The Priory School we follow the current
county and national guidelines and parental requests for term time holidays will not be authorised.
The staff at The Priory School wish you all a safe summer and look forward to continuing our journey in providing the best educational opportunities for your child this
coming September.
Yours sincerely
Geraint Edwards
Artaud Performance (Year 12 Btec Performing Arts)
Blood, guts and gore. From the toilets to the skips and circus’ to exorcisms. These are all merely a fraction of what occurred on Thursday
10th July when the Year 12 BTEC Performing Arts students took over the school for their exam.
As a group of 7 students we have been studying a unit in which we had to develop our understanding of Theatre of Cruelty, both
practically and theoretically.
We were involved in devising and playing all parts in this promenade performance to an audience of just under 50. The audience were
led into a surreal world where organs were eaten and demons cast out; all were made to feel uncomfortable and scared. As the audience
walked from their destination to the next performance space they screamed and feared what they would be confronted with next.
The performance was successful in attacking the audience’s senses in every way. For most, it was a performance which they have never
experienced before.
We are glad that we received such a strong and positive reaction from our spectators and we thank them for all the support that they
have given us.
Evie Downie 12LE
SP
ORT
S
Fresh Horizons Day –
Thursday 3rd July 2014
On Thursday 10th July The Priory School Community Ambassadors, Health
Champions and TPS Dance Troupe were invited to attend the Annual General
Meeting (AGM) for North and East Hertfordshire NHS to showcase our charity
and community work. The students took part in a presentation of all the work
First of all, I think I speak for every sixth form student when I say that it was
great not having to go into school until 11 o’clock, but apart from experiencing that we have been doing over the past 12 months such as working with the residence of Westbourne Care home, taking part in the Hitchin Big Tidy up project,
a brief hiatus from our education for the morning we were given access to
collecting goods for the local food bank, carrying out computer training with
a significant amount of useful information and experience by virtue of the
members of the local community, running an afternoon tea dance for members of
lecturers at Hertfordshire University.
We arrived at Hertfordshire University around lunch time and we were greeted the local community and hosting a health conference for 3 local primary schools.
by a welcoming ceremony which provided an outline of the events. Following Also, Hannah Price in Year 10 delivered a presentation to 500 people on her recent poster campaign, which is currently being rolled out in the Lister Hospital to
this we were given the opportunity to explore various stands in the main
inform hospital staff on how to communicate with young people. Hannah did a
lecture hall which advertised a large variety of different opportunities for
fantastic job and we are very proud of her achievements! We are looking forward
post sixth form life which included training programs on careers in catering,
to starting new projects and making more links within the local community in
guides to financial support during university and business management
the next academic year. Finally, a huge thank you to the commitment and dedicaapprenticeships with organisations such as John Laing Training. The latter of
tion of the students, who without, none of this would be possible.
these I personally found very interesting as I’m a business student and so it
opened my eyes to the reality that alternatives to university are available and
can provide as much projection in terms of future careers as universities.
The next part of our day began after lunch when we attended 2 different
seminars after choosing out of an extensive list of options which included
a wide range of seminars such as medicine, finance and computing. Firstly
I attended a seminar on the personal statement which provided me with
countless helpful hints about writing the personal statement as well as the
wider university application process. After the seminar I was also able to ask
the lecturer some other questions which again was extremely valuable as it
came from someone who is directly involved in the application process. My
second seminar was about studying abroad at university, as this has interested
me for a long time, it was invaluable being able to learn more about how the
process worked, any difficulties which could occur and how to finance the year
overseas.
To conclude: Fresh Horizons
Day allowed the students of
sixth form to experience firsthand what university seminars
could be like, as well as gain
useful information in different
subjects with all of this coming
directly from lecturers at
Hertfordshire university.
Ben Ruffell
Head Boy
On Wednesday 2nd July, Year 9 celebrated their achievements during the Year 9
Party Night. To mark the passing from red to grey jumpers, they had 2 hours of
fun on a bouncy castle, bungee run, rodeo rugby ball, sumo suit fighting, bouncy
boxing and a surf stimulator. They also had a supper of sausage and chips and
all was accompanied by music. Although the party was all about having fun
with friends, it celebrated the last 3 years of Key Stage 3 which has gone by
extremely quickly! It was especially important to celebrate students’ successes
as the next big year event to celebrate will be the Year 11 prom! The last 3 years
have been filled with hard work, perseverance and development of new skills, so
we celebrated that with fun, silliness and lots of laughs.
Ms Mariola Bochnak-Sales
Head of Year 9
LRC Primary Schools Week 2014
Each year the LRC invites Year 5 students from our local Primary Schools to take part in literary based activities
in our LRC. The 2014 Primary Schools Week was, once again, a very successful event involving nine visiting
Primary Schools and a host of well-known children’s authors.
Our week started with a bang as Whitehill and St Andrew’s schools were “hypnotised” and sent back to the
1970s to share the teenage world of Ali Sparkes author of “The Shapeshifter“ novels.
“Young Samurai” and “The Bodyguard” author Chris Bradford enthralled students from Wilshere Dacre and Our Lady’s schools with displays
of Samurai swordsmanship and practical lessons in how to work as a close protection bodyguard!
Author and journalist Christopher Lloyd took students from Oughton, Codicote and William Ransom schools on a journey through time as
together they explored the development of science and technology from the “Big Bang to Facebook” and the evolution of the natural history of
the world.
If anyone would like to dip into the worlds of our visiting authors, why not have a look at their websites:
www.chrisbradford.co.uk
www.alisparkes.com
www.whatonearthbooks.com (Christopher Lloyd)
Last but not least, students from Purwell, Cockernhoe and Samuel Lucas schools were given the chance to
experience our dance studio and music rooms, as local choreographer Joe Sheehan and TPS Head of Music
Lyndsay Creak held two very interactive dance and music workshops.
A busy, but very successful week, in which we were very ably assisted by our group of excellent Year 7 helpers who were superb ambassadors for the school. We are already thinking how we can make next years’
Primary Schools Week even better!!
DIS
TRIC
T
DAY 2014
ATHLETICS 2014
Yr 11 Prom
Yr 13 Prom
Music Department News!
Headteacher’s
Commendations
Our new rewards system!
This is our new rewards structure from September.
Each level will have a sticker/postcard worth that
amount. For example if you receive a sticker from
SLT which is an R3, your sticker is worth 3 points.
Remember to log your rewards through your
mystickers account to earn items from the school
shop and have a chance at winning the prizes in the
raffles.
Information about what you can purchase through
the school shop is now on the notice board and in
the cabinet which can be found in the cafe. The online school shop can be seen through your accounts
from September.
If you have have any stickers or postcards from this
year which you have not logged, these are still valid
in September. So remember to cash them in!!
Class teacher sticker
Producing quality work in
Form tutor sticker
lessons or at home
Trying your best in lessons
(1 reward point)
Excellent presentation of work
Contributing to class discussions
Having a positive attitude in school
100% attendance in 2 weeks
Consistently high standard or work
Contribution to year group events
Charity work
Head of Year sticker
Mentoring work
Postcard home
Attending Out of School Hours Events
(2 reward points)
Community Service
Helping other students to improve behaviour and learning
Demonstrating leadership
Representing the school
100% attendance for a term
No consequences (every half term)
Student Voice representative at interviews
Signicant contribution to year group events
Signicant charity and fundraising
Exceeding minimum target grades
SLT sticker
(3 reward points)
Nominations for impressive
progress or attainment
Roll of Honour sticker
and Hall of Fame
(4 reward points)
Signicant achievement in out of school activities
Signicant achievement and progress
Headteacher’s
100% attendance for the year
commendation and
Achievement of aspirational target grades
sticker
(5 reward points)
It has been a wonderful year for the Music Department. We have had
huge exam successes from grades 1 right through to Grade 8 this year,
as well as Abby Bowen being offered places at every music college she
auditioned for in the UK. She has decided that she will be attended the
Royal Academy of Music in September and we wish her well.
Our choir tour to Paris was another success – a standing ovation at La
Madeleine and the first choir to ever perform on the Sleeping Beauty
Castle at Disneyland. Truly amazing experiences. Hopefully next year’s
tour to Belgium will build some more wonderful memories for the
students.
More recently, there has been the summer concert and then a few more special mentions for
two students who have had personal music successes.
Sarah Tooke – Year 12 – has been offered a place on the summer school at the Royal Scottish
Conservatoire this summer. We hope that she finds it rewarding and I am sure it will stand her in
good stead for her forthcoming Music College auditions next term.
Finally, we have a student who sings in ‘Cantate’ – a choir which rehearses in Bishops Stortford
every week. For those of you at the summer concert, you will recall the adverts for the choir in
the programme and also the introduction of their Music Director – Nick Shaw – who came along
to watch us.
Jamie Milne (Year 10) represented our school in Cantate as
they competed in the World Choir Games in Latvia last week
and we are extremely pleased to announce that the choir
brought back two Gold Medals and are now the highest ranking mixed youth choir in Europe. Well done to Cantate and
well done to Jamie for all your hard work. (Further details on
www.cantate.co.uk)
There are lots of opportunities
for the students to be involved
in music making outside of
school – if you would like any
ideas or contact details for
anything – then please do not
hesitate to contact me.
Lindsay Creak
Head of Music