Dr Challoner`s High School

Dr Challoner’s High School
30th March 2012
We enrich, we educate, we enable
Spring Term Newsletter
Message from Ian Cooksey, Head
We have had yet another very busy and
successful term with plenty to celebrate. Many girls have achieved in a
wide variety of contexts and some of
these feature in this newsletter or our
other newsletters (PE, MFL). They
deserve our congratulations. Thanks
must also go to all of the staff and
parents who have worked so hard to
support the girls in their activities.
There have been numerous trips this
term including our French Exchange,
English department trips to Dublin and
Whitby, the Slapton A level Geography
field trip, RS trips to places of worship
and an opportunity for the whole of
KS3 to see ‘Swallows and Amazons’ in
High Wycombe. Some of these are
included in the main body of the newsletter. As well as the trips we have had
several successful events:
At our Reflections evening we were
able to see our talented students in a
wide variety of dance routines and we
also hosted an Instrumentalists evening
which involved performances from
students who have music lessons in
school with their teachers.
We have staged two joint events with
DCGS this term; both the Cabaret
evening and the ‘Night at the Musicals’
were wonderfully entertaining and a
joy to watch. I would like to convey my
thanks to all of the staff and students
who made these occasions so successful.
The girls at Challoner’s have also been
very fortunate to hear from a fantastic
range of people who have come to the
school to share their passion and skills.
We have been joined by, amongst
others, Chaconne Brass, Charlotte
Edwards (England Cricket Captain),
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell (discovered
pulsars) and Mark Palios (former FA
CEO). Our new lecture series for sixth
form students has been a great success
and we have all been inspired by a
wonderful range of talks from the
worlds of academe, business, politics
and the media – many of these have
been given by parents to whom we
owe a debt of gratitude.
one for a great term and have a really
lovely holiday. A happy Easter to you
all.
Ian Cooksey
A huge thanks to the school’s Parents
Association who raised considerable
sums of money .
Finally I would like to offer my thanks
to two members of staff who have
provided superb cover over the last
couple of terms. Alex Vaughan will be
leaving us at Easter, having provided
sterling support within the Technology
department, and Lucy Baker is leaving
us for Foreign climes upon the return of
Rachel Smet (Head of PE) from her
maternity leave. Both of them will be
sorely missed and we wish them well in
their careers ahead.
We have had a lot of fun and pleasure
and now that we have finally arrived at
the end of term, there is no more for
me to say except thank you to every-
Message from Lyn Williams, Chair of Governors
Student Associate Members of the
Governing Body - At the end of this
term, we are saying goodbye to our
current Student Associate Members
(SAMs) – Charlie Gleadle, Eleanor
Kershaw-Green and Lucy Tibble. I thank
all three for the contribution they have
made to our discussions in Governing
Body meetings – as always, it has been
extremely useful to hear the student
perspective on the topics we are addressing. At our meeting in early
March, the SAMs gave us a report on
the work they and their colleagues in
the Head Girl Team and wider Prefect
Team had been doing over the last
year, and we were all very impressed
by how much they had achieved.
School’s ICT Strategy - At our informal
Full Governing Body meeting in January,
the main agenda item was the strategy
for the school’s ICT infrastructure for the
next three years. Mr. Cooksey and Mrs.
Russell presented the proposed vision
and strategy, which had been developed
after extensive consultation, and which
Governors enthusiastically supported.
Next term, three new SAMs will be
joining us – Evie Butcher, Kayti Moran
and Flora Stevenson (all members of
the new Head Girl Team). All three
joined us for our Governing Body training session this week, and we look
forward to working with them over the
coming year.
At an extraordinary meeting held earlier this week, the Governing Body
approved the final policy for admissions in September 2014, taking into
account also some changes to the 11+
selection appeals process which Grammar School Heads have agreed with
Primary School Heads, Upper School
Admissions Policy—Having become an
Academy and therefore its own admissions authority, the school now has to
have an admissions policy. At the end
of last term, the Governing Body and
the Senior Leadership Team put our
proposed policy out for consultation
for the required two-month period,
which finished at the end of February.
Heads and County to streamline the
process and make it more consistent.
The policy will be published in due
course.
Governing Body Training Session—
Although our school is now an Academy and no longer dependent on the
Local Authority, we still purchase from
County its Governor support package,
including various training courses,
which individual Governors are encouraged to attend. We also try each year
to have one training session for the
whole Governing Body on a topic of our
choice.
This year, we chose as our topic “The
Role of Governors in the Monitoring
and Evaluation of Teaching and Learning”. The session was led by Lorna
Piper, one of County’s School Improvement Advisers. We all found the session very stimulating and shall follow it
up at our Governing Body meeting in
April, when we shall discuss what
actions (if any) we need to take in
future in addition to what we are already doing in this area.
Dr Challoner’s High School
We enrich, we educate, we enable
Year 12 Geography Trip to Slapton
The Year 12 Geography trip to Slapton was not only a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the breathtaking views of the Devon coastline but
also enabled us to extend our geographical knowledge. We spent the
first part of our trip admiring the coastal views of Start Bay and studying the various hard engineering defences implemented by the local
villages such as Torcross, Beesands, North Hallsands and Slapton
Sands.
This has allowed us to understand the importance coastal management in greater depth and feel more confident with this aspect when
revising after having seen it first-hand. During our visit we also visited
the city of Plymouth where we collected primary data on the differing
settlements of Hartley, Mutley and Stonehouse which again can be
used to support our learning within the population topic and in the
skills paper.
The trip has not only taught us valuable information for our course, but
has also encouraged us to look beyond the syllabus and enjoy all the
varied aspects of geography.
Helena Griffiths & Sara Sideeq
Whitby
Perched on the windswept
coast, Whitby was quaint, mysterious, cold, and a little bit
spooky. Combine that with a
class of enthusiastically geeky
English students, two favourite
teachers and a pile of Dracula
hoodies, and you have the recipe for an unforgettable weekend. Add in a ruined abbey and
a night-time ghost tour with a
man in a top hat, and I think
you'll find that unforgettable
just became magical. We learnt
so much more about Bram
Stoker and the Dracula legend
from our top-hatted guide,
Harry Collett, who seemed to
be a walking encyclopaedia of
Whitby knowledge as well as an
expert on the best ways to thoroughly frighten a group of teenage girls (and their teachers).
We ate fish and chips on the
beach and did geeky things like
discuss coursework questions in
addition to the obligatory boy
gossip that is a part of any
school trip. Whitby Abbey was
beautiful – I almost forgot I was
in the 21st century while I was
exploring its ancient ruins. But
every good thing must come to
an end and we soon returned to
the modern world, though the
looming coursework deadline
now seems just that bit less
scary.
Bliss Jennings—Year 13
Sam Styles—Olympic Torch Bearer
Sam Styles
We are incredibly lucky to have
many outstanding teachers at
DCHS; however one in particular, Sam Styles, has been such
an inspiration to her students
that, to honour her, they nominated Sam to carry the Olympic
Torch.
Sam has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help,
support, nurture and care for
the girls she teaches. In the
words of one girl “Mrs Styles
has been a Head of Year, a
mother figure and above all, a
friend to every single one of the
140 girls in my year group. She
is always there for anyone who
needs a chat and no matter
how much work she has to do
(which is a lot) and how
stressed out she is, she will
always pull you aside to chat if
she knows something is wrong”
“Without Mrs Styles our High
School would not be the same
and we all love her so much”.
We are very proud to say that
Sam Styles will be carrying the
Olympic Torch on the 9th July
through Dunstable.
Dr Challoner’s High School
We enrich, we educate, we enable
English Literature Trip to Dublin
The influence of Irish writers on English
Literature has been immense and, to
discover more about it,32 girls from
Y12 and three staff went to Dublin at
the beginning of March. Our first visit
was to the Dublin Writers’ Museum
where we were given an overview of
Irish writing by internationally recognised expert Robert Nicholson and
afterwards looked round the extensive
display of books photographs manuscripts and letters.
The main focus of our visit was James
Joyce and Modernism and in the afternoon we moved on to the Joyce Centre
for engrossing lectures on both these
topics. As well as many other interesting Joyce memorabilia and manuscripts,
the Centre has the most famous door in
literature, Leopold Bloom’s front door
at number 7 Eccles Street, rescued
from a building site when the houses
were knocked down.
On Saturday the sun shone and we took
the train out to Dublin bay where the
James Joyce Museum is sited in the
Martello tower at Sandycove. We met
Robert Nicholson again for an entertaining account of Joyce’s brief stay at
the Martello tower, which forms the
basis for the opening of Ulysses. In the
afternoon we were shown around the
reading room of the National Library of
Ireland and the imaginatively designed
exhibition of the life and work of W. B.
Yeats. On the way back to the hotel we
visited the statue of Oscar Wilde next
to a memorial covered in a selection of
witty quotes from his work.
key sites around the city, including
Trinity College.We were told about
their significance in Irish history as well
as having extracts from a wide range of
Irish writing performed for us.
Of course it wasn’t all work; there was
time to look round the city and we had
an evening of Irish folk music and
dancing, combined with an evening
meal as well as time to enjoy more
music and dancing at the hotel.
Tim Shepherd
On our last day we joined two actors
for the Dublin Literary Walk. They
began by acting a scene from Waiting
for Godot before we moved on to visit
Music at DCHS this Term
The Music department has had a busy
and exciting term. Our annual Instrumental Lessons evening took place on
February 27th. This year the evening
began with performances by the First
and Second Orchestras and the Senior
Guitar and it was good to see the hall
full to capacity. There were then 4
‘mini’ concerts at different venues
around the school , where pupils taught
by our visiting instrumental teachers
performed to appreciative audiences.
A number of our most talented pupils
took part in the Junior and Senior
classes of the Wycombe Orpheus Festival for Youth Music in High Wycombe.
Results were published in the weekly
email, but it was good to see that
several of our pupils achieved success
in this highly competitive festival.
On March 2nd the Swing Band performed at the annual ‘Cabaret Evening ‘
at DCGS. This event is always a sell out
and in addition to a great hour long
performance by the Swing Band our
Senior Vocal group also entertained the
audience.
Finally, last week saw the culmination
Connie Lewis Cross Country Achievement
Connie was selected to represent Buckinghamshire in the
English Schools Cross Country
Championship as a first year in
the intermediate girls race. On
the 17th March she ran in Somerset and led home the Buckinghamshire Schools team and
came an excellent 11th place out
of 330 girls.
Connie’s finishing position
meant that she has been se-
lected to run for England in the
Schools International Athletic
Board international cross country match against Scotland,
Ireland and Wales in Perth,
Scotland on March 31st.
of the term’s work in our musical production ‘A Night at the Musicals’. This
show included songs from favourite
musicals form 1920 to the present day.
Thanks go to everyone who took part –
both front and backstage. The audience
clearly enjoyed themselves and left the
hall singing the songs!
The last event of the term is the House
Music Festival which takes place on the
last day of term. This is always an entertaining occasion and is organised
and rehearsed by the Heads of Houses
in conjunction with the Music Prefects.
Jane Partridge
Dr Challoner’s High School
We enrich, we educate, we enable
Parents Association
During 2010 – 2011 the PA
raised over £26,000 for the
school, which contributed
towards the refurbishment
of the school library and
the outside eating areas.
Our annual quiz night in
January was a great success
providing a fun evening for
staff, parents and friends
and raising over £3,000.
In partnership with the
boys’ school we have organised 4 Discos and these are
still one of our most popular
events for pupils in years 7,
8 and 9.
For 2011 – 2012 the PA is
raising funds for Electronic
Display Boards for the
school, a project chosen by
the school forum.
What have we done so far:
The Spring Draw has been underway this month and the girls have
been busy hoping to raise valuable points for their House teams
by selling as many tickets as possible.
What next
Our 200 club which provides a
prize draw every month to 3 lucky
winners with half the proceeds
going to the school. Please see
the PA website for more information on how to join in September.
On Sunday 24th June we will be holding a
summer event where teams will be able to
compete in fun games. Look out for more
information on this event.
Last month we held our first
ever movie night at the
school and pupils from the
boys’ school were also invited. The students enjoyed a cafe style social
The PA has supported the
evening followed by a
school by providing catering Movie in the Courtyard; an
for the New Year 7, GCSE
event we hope to repeat
and A level Certificate Eve- again.
nings.
this month and the girls
We will be providing catering for the leavers’
ceremony on the 18th May at the Watersmeet
Theatre in Rickmansworth.
The school sports day in July will see the traditional PA BBQ providing lunch for the girls
alongside drinks and ice cream.
We will also be hosting the Sugarloaf evenings in July for new year 7 parents and their
daughters.
Library News by Tracy Pushong
It has been a busy time in the Library
this term. The library is regularly
packed both during lesson time (by the
sixth-form) and during break and lunchtimes. The newly refurbished Library is
proving very popular with the girls!
Loan Statistics
So far this school year we have issued a
record number of books, both fiction
and non-fiction. Since September 2011,
we have issued over 4000 books to
students!
Traditionally Year 7 are always the top
borrowers in the school, but this year,
Year 9 have marginally pulled ahead of
Year 7 as the top library users! I’m
hoping that this interest in reading for
pleasure will carry on next year when
they are in year 10 as traditionally this
is when their borrowing habits start to
wane (as their school workload increases).
The years that have the top three
borrowing statistics so far for 2011/12
are:
Year 9 – 868 loans
Year 7 – 855 loans
Year 8 – 638 loans
World Book Day
One of the biggest events we organised
was on World Book Day when all the
girls in Year 7 were given the opportunity to dress-up as a favourite book
character. There were some very inventive costumes this year, but the winner,
as decided by the sixth-form prefects,
was Molly Smith (8T) who came
dressed as the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’.
Future Events
Next term I hope to run a ‘Book Art’
session during lunchtime, where unwanted books are transformed into
mini sculptures. And as always there
will be a couple of fun quizzes thrown
in for good measure!
Library Blog
The Library@DCHS has just started a
regular blog to inform students and
parents of events and news in the
library. The blog can be accessed via a
link from the homepage of the main
website or you can connect directly via:
http://
drchallonerslibrary.wordpress.com.
The blog contains regular updates, a
link to the on-line catalogue, new book
lists as well as regular fun polls. This
month is all about the ‘Hunger Games’
so please take a look if you have time.
Thank you!
Finally, I would like to thank all the
parents from Years 7, 9 and 10, who
visited the Library stand at the recent
Parents’ evenings and generously
donated £5.00 to the library to purchase new books. Your support is very
much appreciated!
Dr Challoner’s High School
We enrich, we educate, we enable
Sustainability
This year we’re making a huge effort to improve the sustainability of DCHS. Our two groups: the Sustainability Committee (the staff and environment prefect
group) and the Eco Warrior Team (pupil eco group) meet regularly. The Sustainability Committee has decided to prepare a bid for the Green Flag Eco Schools
Award in the forthcoming term.
Tracy’s Garden and the allotments are flourishing thanks to donations from parents. We have a new link with Van Hage Garden Centre. The Eco Warriors took
a trip to the Chenies centre to chose equipment. When we arrived the centre treated us to tea and their donation allowed us to buy most of the seeds and
bulbs needed for the allotment. On Thursday 29th March John (from Van Hage) came into school to help the team with planting and taught us some complex gardening techniques.
Recent eco awareness events have included the ‘Climate Week One Hour Challenge’ which was won by a group of Year Nines whose idea for eco-friendly horse
stables caught the eye of the judging panel. The panel included Mr Cooksey, Mrs Barnett, Mrs Russell and Evie Butcher. We will be having more exciting
events and competitions over the coming months.
Modern Language Spelling Bee
On Thursday 29th March three Year 7 Spanish students did us proud at DCHS.
Vedanta Patel (7C), Orla Fawcett (7B) and Ravneek Baht (7B) competed in the
South East Modern Languages Spelling Bee competition in Brighton.
This was no mean feat at out of the original 32000 participating only 60 students were selected to compete in the Regional competition. Vedanta Patel
came 1st in the Spanish competition, winning a medal as well as a cup for the
school and Ravneek Baht came 4rth also winning a medal. her day to drive us
to the competition.Both of them will go on representing the school in the National competition which will take place in Cambridge in the Summer term.
Well done and a big thank you to Vedanta's mum, Mrs Patel, who kindly gave
up her day to drive us to the competititon.
Miss Laurence Devaux
Head of Spanish
R.S.
Once again it has been a busy time for the RS Department.
On the last week of term Year 8s went off to the Mandir in
Neasden and the Islamic Centre in Stanmore. They were
given the opportunity to ask questions and Mrs Murali, as
usual, kept them riveted with her enthusiasm for her
faith. Of course the Neasden Mandir cannot fail to impress
with the wonderful architecture. Thank you girls for being
so wonderful and thank you to Mrs Gladman for organizing
it and all the staff who accompanied the trip.
Some of the Year 11s were given the opportunity to talk to
Professor Jocelyn Bell – Burnell the world famous astrophysicist who had been asked to speak to some of the 6th
formers by Eleanor Kershaw-Green. The GCSE course has a
section on Religion and Science and Professor Bell – Burnell
was more than happy to answer question on science, being a
Quaker and holding both together. Our girls loved her down
to earth nature and the way she put them at ease.
The RS Department organized the Chief Examiners Sarah
Tyler and Gordon Reid to addressthe 6th form on their Philosophy and Ethics courses which again was really helpful in
giving the experience of markers and what they are looking
for. Thanks to Mrs Gladman for organizing this.
A copy of this newsletter can be found on our Website www.challonershigh.com
Additional Newsletters on line from Year 9, PE and MFL Departments.
Dr Challoner’s High School
Cokes Lane, Little Chalfont, Amersham, Bucks, HP7 9QB
Telephone: 01494 763296 Fax: 01494 766023
E Mail: [email protected]