January 2016 - Chancellor`s School

29th January 2016
Chancellor’s
Newsletter
From the Headteacher
It has been an excellent start to 2016
and I have been very pleased with
the mature approach of the students
in the first few weeks of the New
Year. Following the mock
examinations, Year 11 have started
in determined fashion. It was also
helpful to have the Year 11 Parents’
Evening in the first week of term at
which students received both words
of encouragement and also a
reminder of the drive required to
strive on and achieve to their full
potential. The message conveyed to
students was very much about the
importance of hard, purposeful work,
the need to thoroughly revisit topics
studied and practise exam technique.
We will be writing to year 11 parents
before the half term to inform them of
the additional help sessions which
will be available to support their child
with revision.
Year 9 students have also had a
busy start to the year. They have
been sitting exams, the results of
which will help them make informed
choices when they are required to
make their options later this term.
Whilst it is important at their age to
study a broad curriculum, the GCSE
options process presents the
opportunity for students to begin to
specialise and select the subjects
that they are particularly interested
in. In line with government guidance,
we will expect most students to
continue to study at least one
language and a humanity subject as
well as English, mathematics and
science. Students usually find this an
exciting time as they start to refine
their interests and think about their
future careers.
At a time of financial austerity, I
remain indebted to the PTA, chaired
by Julia Holm and Debbie Crowther.
Over the recent months, the PTA
have been sponsoring a number of
projects including providing financial
support to the Year 10 Duke of
Edinburgh and purchasing the
textiles computer software ‘Fittingly
Sew’. Recently, they have also very
generously pledged £5000 to
upgrade the school hall’s lights and
sound system, which will happen
during the February half term, and I
am very grateful for their work and
VI Form Dragons’ Apprentice
support. Please visit
www.chancellors-pta.org for more
information about the PTA’s work
and also ways in which you can get
involved. Also, should you have
contacts with any companies or
charities that support schools, I
would be delighted to hear from you.
The governors and I have ambitious
plans for the school and we would
like to utilise as many fundraising
opportunities as possible.
This month, we have been delighted
to welcome David Bullock to
Chancellor’s, who will be completing
his NPQH (National Professional
Qualification for Headship)
placement at the school. He is the
Deputy Headteacher at Verulam,
which is a high performing boys’
school in St Albans. So far, he has
spent three days evaluating aspects
of the school’s work. He has
observed lessons and met with
students, teachers and school
leaders. He was very impressed with
the school, particularly with the
students and staff and the positive
relationships he witnessed in the
school. He will return later this term
and he will be working on a school
improvement project with the
school’s senior leadership team.
More to follow…
This week, we welcomed four school
leaders from other schools who were
also observing lessons and meeting
staff and students in order to verify
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our self-evaluation work and provide
an objective view of the work of the
school. This is part of our work with
Challenge Partners, which is an
organisation supporting school
improvement work through brokering
peer to peer support. As a member of
Challenge Partners, the school’s
Deputy Headteachers and I will also
have the opportunity to visit other
schools and review their practice. We
have also been working with other
schools in the Herts and Bucks Hub
including St Clement Danes,
Parmiter’s, Queens, St Michael’s, Sir
John Lawes and Goffs on a number
of projects looking at improving the
student experience throughout Key
Stage 3.
I would like to take this opportunity to
thank all parents who took the time to
complete the parent questionnaire
earlier this month. It is always useful
to receive feedback and your views
and comments are helpful as we
continue to review our school
improvement plan. It is reassuring to
receive so many positive comments,
and whilst we recognise that we are
not perfect, often the aspects of
school life you identified for further
improvement are those already being
worked on by us. I will write to you in
the future sharing with you a
summary of the responses to the
questionnaire. Please can I remind
you about
www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk, which
is Ofsted’s parental questionnaire
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Parentview is often used by prospective parents and staff to help them
decide whether Chancellor’s is the
right school for them and I would
urge you take a couple of minutes to
upload your views on this website.
You may have heard in the news
about the recruitment challenges
facing schools at the moment. Particularly hard hit, are schools in the
Home Counties including Hertfordshire, where recruitment issues are
compounded by the proximity to London and the associated increased
cost of living. We have already started our recruitment process for teachers for September. If you know of
any ambitious and talented teachers
who are interested in working at
Chancellor’s, I would ask you to encourage them to look at
www.teachinherts.com where they
can keep abreast of job vacancies
being advertised at the school.
I remain extremely grateful to the
dedicated staff of the school who
provide some amazing opportunities
for the students at the school. There
have been a fantastic array of events
and activities in addition to the ongoing everyday work. We have had the
residential trips to Cranedale
(Geography Field Trip) and Amsterdam (Art and Photography), an Extended Learning Day which involved
numerous external visitors giving
advise on careers, interview techniques and job applications, and other extra-curricular events such as the
Rotary Youth Speaks competition at
which three groups of our students
used their public speaking skills in a
regional contest.
I will sign off with a Roald Dahl quote
about the importance of enthusaism
and passion:
“I began to realise how important
it was to be an enthusiast in life…
If you are interested in something,
no matter what it is, go at it at full
speed ahead. Embrace it with both
arms, hug it, love it and above all
become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good
either. White hot and passionate is
the only thing to be.” – Roald Dahl
Best wishes,
David Croston
VIEW FROM THE OUTSIDE
I recently approached Mr Croston
with the aim of undertaking my
NPQH (National Professional Qualification for Headship) project at Chancellor's. I have been Deputy
Headteacher at Verulam Boys'
School in St. Albans for 6 years and
was keen to explore whether the
strategies and systems that we have
successfully implemented in a boys'
school can transfer to a co-ed environment.
The project consists of nine days in
another school and I recently spent
the first three days observing lessons, meeting with staff and interviewing students.
One of the most obvious aspects of
my initial visit was the positive relationships which exist between staff
and students. Students I met from
Y9, Y10 and the Sixth Form clearly
enjoy coming to school and are good
ambassadors for it. Attitudes and
behaviour were very good and this
was evident during the Extended
Learning Day which took place on
my third day. The focus of my project
will complement the school's work on
improving student outcomes at
GCSE and I plan to work with the
Senior Leadership Team and staff to
raise the achievement of key groups
of Key Stage 4 students.
David Bullock
Deputy Headteacher
Verulam School
FOCUS ON: ARTS FACULTY - Performing Arts
On 20th January a group of students
went to see ‘Wicked’ with the Drama
Faculty. It was a fantastic show with
so much talent.
The students were chosen across all
year groups based on their reward
points gained in drama between September and November.
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All students were in awe of the fantastic production and I would like to
thank Miss Riley, Mr Clarke and Ms
Bergman for accompanying myself
and the students on such a successful trip.
Miss L Saunders
Subject Leader of Drama.
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Christmas Fayre 2015
We had attended our House meetings and planned our stall and now,
finally, the last day term had arrived it was all systems go for The Christmas Fayre 2015!
We began setting up the hall on
Thursday afternoon and Friday morning by putting the finishing touches to
our stalls. The fayre included the six
House stalls, a stall run by Year 11, a
stall by Sam Nicholson from Year 9,
a Sixth Form stall and finally a stall
from the Dragon’s Apprentices. They
were all aiming to raise money for
different causes.
The stalls included ‘Beat the Goalie’,
‘Christmas Cheer Pong’, a popcorn
stand, a photo booth, a chocolate
fountain and various sweet stalls.
The whole school helped to raise
over £2000 for various charities, including the NSPCC, Cancer Research and Make a Wish. Overall,
the day was a great success and was
enjoyed by both students and staff.
Emma Prior 12R
GCSE Photography
On the last Friday before the Christmas Holidays, Mr Galton had arranged for Rosie Barnes, a documentary photographer, to come into
our Photography lesson and give us
some advice on how to make our
photos better quality and to learn
new techniques.
At the beginning of the lesson we
looked through her PowerPoint
presentation of just a few of the hundreds of pictures Rosie had taken, as
well as looking through her own book
of photographs all about her autistic
son. She explained why she took
certain photos and the meaning behind them.
In a couple of the photos she showed
us an object or scene, but it was at a
new angle which we don't usually
look at it. This was interesting because she created new perspectives
of her photos.
One image I remember her showing
us was a picture of a plane in a
cloudy blue sky. Her autistic son
Stanley had said "Tiny plane", and
she said that this made her think
about perspectives as her son saw
the plane as being tiny, yet really the
plane was huge! She said this made
her think about how something can
look like two different things when
really it can only be one.
Near the end of the lesson we managed to take our own photos with
advice from Rosie. We focused on
both depth of field and composition.
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During examination of the depth of
field she spoke to us about making
sure that when focusing on your subject having a blurred background can
actually help the subject stand out
more, but you still get a feel of what
the background is. With composition
she said planning what is going to be
in your image is important, as it can
help gain a better photo.
Overall, I found Rosie very interesting and she had many tips that she
shared with us. One that stuck in my
mind was, "Never zoom into the object, get closer to it instead". I will
now put this advice into practice with
my GCSE Photography.
Amelia Ewen 10W
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Y12 & Y13 Art Trip to Amsterdam
ment of our own artwork back at
school. Thus, these excursions
proved not only to be enjoyable, but
also informative.
On 18th – 20th January, a group of
Year 12 and 13 Art students visited
Amsterdam. The trip aimed to aid us
with our current coursework and
future exam work by giving us the
opportunity to experience artworks
first-hand that had not been exhibited in England.
The first day we arrived early in the
morning and excited. We took a
canal trip through the city, which
allowed us to see the beautiful architecture of Amsterdam from an entirely new perspective, as well as
explore important parts of the city
that would have remained otherwise
undiscovered.
Despite the fact that the majority of
our time was spent visiting four mu-
seums, we were also given the
chance to wander the streets of Amsterdam and learn more about the
city. There were many fantastic photo opportunities - thanks to the gentle yet bright quality of light (making
it clear why so many artists have
flourished in the Netherlands) and
the picturesque canals lined with
unchained bicycles.
On Tuesday, we visited both the
Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk Museum - closely followed by a much
anticipated trip to Rembrandt’s
house and the Van Gogh Museum
the next day! These museums allowed us to make a number of useful sketches and artist copies of
works that would aid the develop-
We were also introduced to a number of artists and art movements that
we had previously known little, or
been unaware of. One such example was the Stedelijk Museum where
the first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of Isa Genzken’s work
(one of the largest of its kind in the
past forty years in the Netherlands)
was on display. Her work ranged
from a series of x-ray and brain
scans, to a collection of adapted
plaster busts of Nefertiti, to huge
colourful sculptures and a large
numbers of costumed manikins –
clearly demonstrating her unique
and versatile talent! Such an experience consequently opened our eyes
to a great number of significant
movements, and the ways in which
we could manipulate their influence
within our work.
Overall it is certain that the trip was
a great success, with everyone enjoying themselves and learning
something new, be it about art or
Amsterdam itself, from this wonderful city.
Jazz Wood 12A
FOCUS ON: FOOD TECHNOLOGY - FUTURE CHEF ‘16
Nicole Sullivan and Maria Christofi,
two of our very talented Y11 catering students reached the regional
finals of ‘The Future Chef Competition 2016’. They travelled to Passmores Academy Harlow and were
given one and half hours to cook
and serve their two course meal.
Both girls were a credit to Chancel-
lors and cooked to an impressive
standard. The judges, one of whom
was an Executive Chef, said the
standard was higher than many professional chefs.
Nicole who made a delicious Asian
inspired chicken dish and a fabulous
apple tart with blackberry compote
was placed second. Maria was high-
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ly commended for her beautiful
raspberry and rose water roulade.
Our budding cooks are now practicing for The Rotary Chef and St Albans ‘Chef of the Year’ competitions. We wish them luck!
Mrs S Rowe
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FOCUS ON: PE & SPORTS FACULTY
For a full round-up of all results please see the school website.
Football
Year 7 Boys’ Football
County Cup Quarter Final
The Year 7 boys played Sandringham in the quarter finals of the county cup on 25th January 2016, they
played well and it was a very even
contest.
Henry Allen scored in the first half to
make it 1-0 to Chancellor's. The
team had a couple of chances to
make it 2-0 however it was not to be
and unfortunately Sandringham
scored in the last minute with a great
header to take the game to extratime. The boys put plenty of effort in
during extra-time but Sandringham
scored to make it 2-1 with an excellent finish.
The boys couldn't quite get the
goal that would have taken the game
to penalties and were frustrated that
it was not to be their day. The team
now have set their sights on reaching the Mid Herts district final.
Well done to all the boys that have
played in an excellent county cup
run.
Girls Football
The Year 7 girls' football team recently had their second tournament
this year. Unfortunately, the 7 girls;
Jessica Moore, Sylvie Maddock
Lyon, Tabitha Mabbutt, Hannah Parkinson, Lily-Rose Davies, Isabelle
England and Charlotte Riches, finished third in their pool, meaning
they did not make it into the semifinals.
The girls worked extremely well together with great determination in
every one of their pool games and
were extremely unfortunate to not go
through. Well done though girls!
Girl's football training is still running
every Monday night afterschool until
4pm. It would be wonderful to see
some more faces attending. The
Year 8 and 9 team and the Year 10
and 11 team have tournaments coming up very soon!
Basketball
The Year 8 Boys basketball team
recently competed in the Mid Hertfordshire Basketball Rally, hosted by
Chancellor’s School. This year the
annual tournament saw eleven
teams competing from across the
district with a number of schools,
including Chancellor’s, fielding two
teams.
In what was a very hectic and busy
tournament, Chancellor’s finished
second and third in their pools which
unfortunately was not enough to see
them through to the final. It was
pleasing however to see all members
of the squad develop their skills
throughout the tournament and pro-
duce some good Basketball resulting
in a number of wins.
Chancellor’s ‘A’ team secured
enough wins to finish third overall,
with more basketball games to be
played this is encouraging for the
rest of the season.
Chancellor’s Young Sporting Talent
Kelsey Clifford
Year Group: 9
Rugby Union
Under 15’s South East Regional Trials
Chancellor’s newsletter will see a
new addition to the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport section. In
each addition, the Faculty will focus
on the promising young sporting talent within the school, profiling a student and highlighting their outstanding achievements within sport.
Women's rugby is one of the fastestgrowing sports in the country. It's no
longer a sport just for men and boys
and there are more and more wom-
en's clubs developing all over the
country. More than 18,000 women
and girls play rugby regularly in England. England Women won the Rugby World Cup in 2014 after beating
Canada 21-9 in Paris, France. The
victory followed a record-breaking
seventh consecutive 6 Nations crown
in 2012 as well as the Grand Slam.
Kelsey Clifford, Year 9, has been
playing Rugby for a number of years.
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She currently plays for Old Albanians
Rugby Club who she trains with twice
a week. She joined OA’s one year
ago when she went into year 8, it’s at
this age group that boys and girls
have to split and play with their own
genders. Before joining OA’s Kelsey
had played for Finchley Rugby Club
since the age of 5 years old regularly
playing alongside boys. When Kelsey was in year 7, she played an
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FOCUS ON: PE & SPORTS FACULTY
important role in the schools Year 7
rugby team who won the Herts
County Trophy tournament.
Kelsey has been selected on numerous occasions to represent Hertfordshire County Rugby Union representative teams. Through her hard
work and consistently strong performances at both club and county level, Kelsey’s county coach put her
forward on 17th January 2016 to attend the under 15’s South East Regional Trials for the England Rugby
Union Academy.
The trials took place at Allianz Park,
the ground of Saracens Rugby Club.
The girls were coached by some of
the Head Coaches for Saracens
Women’s Team.
A few days later Kelsey heard, from
the coaches, that she had been successful in the trials so therefore has
now entered onto the Academy program. This means that Kelsey will be
attending numerous weekend camps
during March and April which results
in three games against the other regions before the summer. She will
also have to attend another camp in
the summer. This will provide Kelsey
with an amazing opportunity to develop as a rugby player within a very
competitive and high level.
This really is a fantastic achievement
and testament to Kelsey’s passion,
commitment and talent within the
game of Rugby Union. Kelsey hopes
this is the first step in realising her
ambition of becoming a full international England player and we wish
her all the best for her future Rugby
career.
Sainsbury’s Active Kids Vouchers
Once again we are collecting the
Active Kids vouchers. In the past we
have been able to get some additional equipment for the school which is
always helpful.
This year, instead of lots of little
vouchers, Sainsbury’s will print one
voucher with the rewards numbered
on them. This may be easier to lose
so we would welcome them coming
into school as soon as they arrive in
your households. Sainsbury’s are
distributing the vouchers between
27th January – 3rd May 2016 and
the deadline date for them coming
into school is the beginning of July.
Please can students hand them into
their form tutors or PE teacher.
Thank you in advance for all your
contributions.
PE Faculty
Junior Inter-School Team Maths Challenge
On 16th December 2015, the Maths
Faculty ran an inter-school team Maths
Challenge for the top sets in Year 8 and
9. This was to help choose a team to
represent Chancellor’s at the regional
heats in April.
The team who came first, by a margin of
only 1 point, consisted of Sam Putman,
Aaron Mays and Dan Hearn from Year
9, and Luke Cosey from Year 8.
All students performed enthusiastically
to complete a series of very challenging
questions and should be proud of their
efforts. The students commented on enjoying the great comradery between
pairs of Year 8 and Year 9 students and
the competitive environment which was
generated.
Congratulations go to all the students
who participated and thank you to the
staff and sixth formers who made the
day run so successfully.
Mr B Legarda
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‘Meet a Teacher’ - Mrs S Choudhury - Teacher of Physics
local school. I found this very rewarding and the experience seemed to
complement my attributes.
Where were you before you joined
Chancellor's?
I was Head of Physics at Copthall
School for eleven years and before
that at Preston Manor for five years.
Why did you become a teacher?
I come from a family of teachers.
Both my grandmother and father
were teachers so it became a natural
vocation. Whilst I was at university I
took part in their student tutoring network which involved supporting a
What are your hobbies and
interests?
I am a devoted mother of three
young children. I recognise that they
are growing fast so spending quality
time with them is very precious.
What do you like about
Chancellor's so far?
Chancellor’s has a great science department with regards to teachers
and technicians. I wanted to be part
of a team and environment that
strives for excellence by empowering
students to reach their full potential.
In addition, I have found the students
very enthusiastic and eager to learn.
Chancellor’s Carol Service 2015
On the 17th December, I was involved in my last ever carol service.
There were many performances and
there was also a speech from Mr
Croston. All the students involved
had rehearsed throughout the day to
make the service the high quality
event that it was.
This year is also my final one in the
Chamber Choir. The standard of
singing in the Chamber Choir has
always been good but I thought the
sound was quite breath-taking this
year. The younger school choir led
by Miss Riley, did themselves proud
with fabulous renditions of ‘White
Winter Hymnal’ and ‘Jingle Bell
Rock’.
I have been involved in the carol services for many years now and my
last one was very emotional. My voThe orchestra and choir began the
cal group, Blend, performed their
service with a resounding perforfinal Christmas performance for the
mance of Handel’s ‘Hallelujah Choschool.
rus’. The school orchestra have nevY7 Rugby
Team as festive as when they
er sounded
The range of solos were quite amaz- accompanied the congregation in the
ing, including James Smith in Year 7
carols throughout the service. The
singing the first verse of ‘Once In
string group led by Mrs Grant perRoyal David’s City’, Lorna Proudlove formed the Bach Double Violin Conon the flute and Lucy Mellenfield on
certo which was outstanding, it made
the piano.
the hairs on the back of my neck
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stand up!
We had many Year 7s participate
this year, in not only the choir but
also the readings and I was impressed by their confidence and
skills with public speaking. As a consequence I feel quite relieved in the
knowledge that future congregations
can continue to expect carol services
of a high standard.
For me, the carol service has always
been the most prestigious school
event, and I have always thoroughly
enjoyed myself at them. I will be sad
to be leaving Chancellor’s School in
the summer but will hopefully attend
many carol services in the future to
get me in the Christmas spirit!
Carla Husband 13T
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Headteacher’s Commendations
A Headteacher’s Commendation has been awarded to a student for sustained effort and achievement.
Here are the award winners for this month.
Subject
Year 7 student
Year 8 student
Year 9 student
Art
Moni Williams
Joseph Ward
Jemma Munn
D&T
Lily-Rose Davies
Katie Coan
Max Pressland
Drama
Nicolas Seyedzadeh
Jordan Judge
Josh Over
English
Jack Pixner
Jake Anderson
Cece Gordon Hill
Geography
Elizabeth Ayirebi-John
Scarlet Reid
Anna Shipman
History
Arin Hattrel
Evie Lovett
Sam Barrett
ICT
Lois Pinnock
Sophie White
Cynthia O’Reilly
Mathematics
John Daniel Chapman
Ben Clayton Harris
Eleanor Fisher
MFL
Louca Yu
Ellie Batchelor
Hannah-Mae Johnson
Music
Bill Barber
Noah Nicholls
Bailey-Mai Mosley
PE
George Westmore
Millie Northfield
Thomas Pritchard
RE
Serena Azagbadah
Ella Cockayne
Sam Peacefull
Science
Alex Kyriacou
Shane Lee
Erin Smith
Subject
Year 10 student
Year 11 student
Year 12 student
Year 13 student
Art
Evie Herrick
Lydia De Matos
Eva Povey
Leyla Salih
Business
Luke Simpson
Ashleigh Dickman
Elliot Brown
Kim Basford
D&T
Molly Dyer
Maria Christofi
Jessica Boyd
Jess Waterhouse
Drama
Emily Poulton
Paige Connolly
Evie Hanford
Megan Roper
English
Alex Errington
James Dodd
Jasmine Wood
Amber Culley
Geography
Stephanie Attipa
Maddie Panther
Chloe Webb
Chloe McKeever
History
Caragh Hesketh
Poppy McDonnell
Julia Everett
Maddie Reed
ICT
Samee Ahmed
Taylan Yalkin
Neha Santhosh
Pia Kanzaria
Mathematics
Ben Harrison
David Shipman
Amy Clayton
Trisha Goel
MFL
Evie Herrick
Joffe Walters
Farida Ibrahim
Nicolas Pedraza
Music
Callum Richards
Jeyhan Davut
Caleb Bather
Victoria Absolon
PE
Mark Titley
Lucy Waddup
Chloe Webb
N/A
RE
Molly Sharkey
George Hartley
Aaron Fitchew
N/A
Science
Parees Kanzaria
Emily Lunnon
Samuel James
Sam Over
Sociology
Tanya Goel
Georgia Clifford
Henry Peters
Briony Day
Psychology
N/A
Callum Reid
Andre Theophani
Prerna Khetia
Computer Science Freddie Cooke
Shashvitha Dharmapuri
Tom Munn
Jake Whitear
Economics
N/A
N/A
George Fennell
N/A
Photography
N/A
Heather Woodcock
N/A
Phoebe Cohen
Government/
Politics
N/A
N/A
Tarik Salih
Kuran Phull
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