Autumn Term Newsletter - Dec 2015

chaseterracetechnologycollege
Newsletter Edition 2
In this issue
1 In honour of
Stephen Sutton
Welcome note
Autumn Term 2015
In honour of Stephen Sutton
Local apprentices build gazebo
A group of local apprentices, from RMD Kwikform, have designed and built a gazebo
here at CTTC, in honour of the late Stephen Sutton.
2 New Design and
Engineering Centre
2 Stephen Sutton Bursaries
3 Summer School
3 Open Evening
3 Lower School Presentation
4 CTTC Sports Week
4 Year 7 Football Team
4 Girls Football Team
5 RGA and RBA Bake Off Challenge
5 Computer Science at CTTC
5 Dyslexia and Young Minds
non-uniform day
6 Gifted & Talented
8 Stem Club
In this issue
8 Carol Singing at St Giles’
9Readathon
9 Charity Walk from Burntwood
to Blackpool
9 Running for Charity
10 RAF Award
10 JCB Visit
10 NEC Skills Show
The apprentices, some of whom previously attended CTTC and knew Stephen Sutton,
decided that a gazebo would provide the high school with an additional covered space
for eating and socialising.
Sharon Thorp, Business Manager, said: “This new facility will accommodate various
events and some of our students will be adding their own touches in the New Year.
It is a permanent reminder of Stephen, and also highlights the talent and successes
of some of our past students, and the rest of the apprentices from RMD Kwikform.”
The inspirational legacy of Stephen Sutton will
live on whenever players pick up a bat at one of
two table tennis tables donated in his memory
There is one table here at CTTC and another at Burntwood Leisure Centre. Both the
tables bear the legend ‘Let Stephen Inspire You’ on the playing surface. The project
is the brainchild of Brian Watkins, former chairman of Staffordshire Table Tennis
Association and club secretary of Burntwood Community Table Tennis Club, where
Stephen played alongside his grandfather Tony Reeves.
11 Art and Photography Trip
to New York
11 India Trip
11 Geography Trip to Iceland
12 Yr9 & 10 German Exchange
12 Yr8 Trip to the Rhine Valley
12 Young Enterprise
12 Courtyard squad
13 Christmas Fayre
13 Duke of Edinburgh
13 Gangsta Granny
Theatre Trip
14 Working with
other schools
From left: John Swannell (Head of PE), Sandra Deaton, Brian Watkins,
David Crowder (Deputy Headteacher)
1
New Design and Engineering Centre
Very exciting news! We now have formal confirmation, from the County Council, that
we will be able to take over the running of the Skills Centre from September 2016.
This is a £2.5 million building, so it’s fantastic news for
the school community. There are some adaptations to
be done and some financial support will be given to
allow essential changes to be made.
We will be moving the D&T Dept. from its existing
accommodation to the new Centre and plan to start a
new Sixth Form BTEC Engineering (Level 3) course in the
next academic year. We are also making some strong
links with local engineering firms. Engineering is a key
employment growth area, especially in this area, so
this development is timely.
The old D&T block will be ‘mothballed’, rather than
demolished, as there could be a potential need for
extra accommodation in the future.
Look out for news of an event that we plan to run in Feb/Mar,
helping students of all ages to understand what’s involved in
pursuing a career in engineering, including an opportunity to
see the new Centre and find out about the new course.
We have record applications for students to start at
CTTC in September and so are heavily oversubscribed.
Consequently, we are in consultation with Staffordshire
County Council (School Admissions) with a view to
increasing our intake to respond to the
demand for places.
Chase Terrace Girls Awarded
First Stephen Sutton Bursaries
THE FIRST winners of the Stephen Sutton Bursary were
awarded by Burntwood Town Council on 10th December.
The £2,000 bursary to support local
talent in the name of Stephen Sutton
is being shared by two CTTC students:
Megan Preece (Year 9) and Rebecca
Fisher (Year11), who both received
a cheque for £1,000.
Megan is a champion black belt karate
expert, a member of the England Squad
and has competed at the European
Championships in Luxembourg.
Rebecca is a talented singer, dancer
and actor who performs in professional
productions at The Lichfield Garrick
Theatre, as well as starring in, and
supporting the production of, school
shows. She appeared in Peter Pan, A
Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland,
and Snow White, and hopes to one day
attend a top London theatre school.
This is the first year the Bursary scheme
has been run. It was set up by Burntwood
Town Council to support talented local
young people with high aspirations, and
to promote the Stephen’s. There were
eight applications from CTTC, with a total
of 11 submitted in all, and the quality of
the submissions was very high.
Stephen’s mum, Jane Sutton, and
Councillor Pam Stokes, Chair of the Town
Council, judged the applications and,
ultimately, found it impossible to decide
between the two girls, so awarded them
each half of the money.
The winners will be able to spend their
prize on fees, expenses and equipment
to support the realisation of their
ambitious goals.
2
Rebecca Fisher and Megan Preece with
Jane Sutton immediately after their cheques
had been presented at the Burntwood Town
Council meeting on 10 December.
Summer School
During August 2015, a Summer School took place here at CTTC. The objectives of the programme were to
learn about how to work successfully in teams, to learn about and become familiar with the school, to review
and evaluate activities and to prepare a final presentation on the programme to parents and invited guests.
Day 1
Egg Parachute Making.
Student had to design and
plan a series of parachutes
and choose at least 2 designs
to take forward.
Day 5
Music Day! There was a
Samba Band in the morning
and then students had
to produce their own
ringtone/alarm call for
mobile phone.
Day 2
Crackpots! Students chose a
piece of pottery then designed
and decorated it. Then
students worked together in
groups to build wooden toy
construction kits.
It was a great evening with many
of our students helping out and
representing the school in such
a positive way.
There were various activities on
in each department and overall
the atmosphere was amazing.
Day 7
Sports Day. Students had to
create a relay style game that
they then had to teach to the
rest of the group. The afternoon
was spent in the swimming
pool with inflatables that
students could use for team
games or just to have fun.
Day 6
Black Country Museum trip.
Students were shown the
mine and the Victorian
school room where they
had a traditional school
lesson, and then they took
a ride on a canal barge.
Open
Evening
Our open evening
during September was
a huge success!
Day 3
Cakepops! Students worked
in groups with ‘Burntwood
Tasty Treats’ to design and
plan Cake Pops.
Day 4
Circus Skills! Students had the
chance to participate in a range
of circus skills, demonstrated
by “Shooting Stars” who came
into school with various pieces
of circus equipment.
Day 8
Languages Day. Students took
part in a range of language
activities including games and
songs in different languages
and then they tried food
from a range of countries.
Lower School Presentation Evening
The evening’s awards recognise the achievement of students at Chase Terrace
in their first three years of the school and this year we had the pleasure of
having Lee Westwood as our guest of honour. Lee was a great friend of
Stephen’s and has raised lots of money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Students make great progress in lots of ways
and we take great pride in showcasing their
accomplishments. There are awards for
academic achievement and for success in
sports, the arts and a broad range of extracurricular activities. Achievement outside
school is also celebrated. Furthermore,
students’ developing personal qualities are
also important to us and we have every
reason to be proud of the way the students
here support each other. Students who are
conspicuously strong in this respect are also
recognised through the awards.
3
Here are just a few of the awards:
Stephen Sutton Award for Inspiring Others:
Joe Edwards and Josh Lowndes
Governors’ Award: Sam Gillion (pictured)
Outstanding students:
Year 7 - Sophia Sweeney
- Natasha Hunt
Year 8 - Megan Preece
- Victoria Smith
Year 9 - James Ponder
- Joe Edwards
CTTC Sports Week
During one week in September, staff and students took
part in various sports challenges to help raise money
for the PE Department and also promote the sports
activities which take place within school every week.
Well done Art Department!
The following activities took place:
Football: Beat the keeper
Basketball: Free throw shots
Badminton: Shuttles into a bucket
Football: Keepy ups
Golf: Chipping target
Netball: Shots
Relay Race - Won by the Art Department and
6th Form team, who won with 32 3/4 laps
£155
was raised
which
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n
and baske
tball
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Year 7 Football team
Girls Football team
Congratulations to our Year 7’s who
won the district football competition.
What a fantastic achievement!
The following girls took part in a Level 3
Girls 7 aside tournament at St George’s
Park. (National Football Centre, Burton).
Burntwood and Lichfield league winners: 6 games, 6 wins.
In the group stage we played 4, won 3 and drew 1, which
meant we came top of our group. This meant that we played
the winner of the other group in the final. Unfortunately, we
lost 3-1 in the Final to Kingsmead. The girls had a great time,
and they were a pleasure to take. Congratulations!
Players include: Nathan Kennedy, Lewis Clement,
Mason Tyler, James Pool, Louis Wright, Ethan Jarvis,
Mitchell Barnes, Matthew Shipperly, Liam Sivorn, Ryan
Pennington, Ethan Webb, Jack Colgrave, Daniel Cheshire.
Players were: Grace Tolmie, Megan Preece, Ellie Brennan,
Sophie Hodgets, Laura Hawkins, Kiya Cheshire, Lilly Hughes
(Year 7), Jessica Brennan ( Manager).
Players missing: Harris Conlon, Charlie Smith, Sam Young.
4
Computer
Science at CTTC
Raising Girls’ and Raising Boys’ Achievement
Bake Off Challenge
Mentors and mentees from both Raising Achievement
programmes took part in a ‘technical bake off’, somewhat
similar to the BBC1 Bake Off that we see on television screens.
Only brief instructions and all the ingredients were provided
for our bakers!
The Computer Science department at CTTC
borrowed a class set of Raspberry PIs from
Nottingham Trent University education department
for a week earlier this year.
The boys’ and girls’ themed activities ran on different nights.
The girls completed apple pastries, a recent internet sensation,
and the boys created Halloween cookies and cakes.
The Raspberry PI
is a credit card size
computer powered up
by a phone charger. It
was designed to inspire
computer scientists of all
ages to get creative with
lots of projects, including
tutorials shared online;
to media servers;
automating home
appliances and adding a
webcam streaming web
server to their chicken
pen (powered by a
9V battery).
Some of the final bakes were almost Michelin star whereas
others showed a great deal of fun and imagination!!
Thank you to our kitchen staff for providing their expertise,
time, facilities and ingredients. We could not have done this
without you!
The Challenge – Apple Pastries
During a lesson, students had to assemble the computers,
do their project and then return the classroom to its normal
setting. Year 9 students tried their hands at writing “superuser”
commands to take control of one of the LEDs; KS4 students
built a network of Raspberry PIs; and Year 12
students looked at running different servers
on their network they built.
Winners of 2015 RGA Bake OFF
– Miss Farrington and Miss Ruth Buchannon
Dyslexia and YoungMinds non-uniform day
A BIG THANK YOU to those who supported our Non-uniform Day on Friday 9th October 2015.
We raised the fantastic amount of £1142.02.
£571.01 went to YoungMinds, a charity
that was suggested by two Year 11 students
and supported by the Student Council. The
donation will help to continue the vital work
of improving the emotional wellbeing and
mental health of children and young people.
YoungMinds try to achieve their aims by
providing expert knowledge through: a
free and confidential Parents Helpline;
participation with young people; professional
training; work in schools; and ensuring
that mental health is placed firmly on
the public and political agenda. Without
donations they would not be able to continue
to provide support for families; improving
the lives of children and young people
affected by mental health problems
across the UK.
5
The funds raised were split equally and so
the other £507.01 is being used to purchase
an array of Dyslexia resources. These
include electronic aids such as dictionaries,
thesauruses and keyboards with coloured keys.
It is resources like these that help our students
with additional needs achieve in lesson
and yet still maintain their independence,
something that is so very important them.
We look forward to January 2016, when the
team from Staffordshire’s Dyslexia Friendly
Schools Board come and visit to see how well
students with Dyslexia and Dyscalculia learn
and what the students and staff within Chase
Terrace Technology College do to ensure sucess.
Once again, thank you for your continued
support. Mrs Kirsty Lewis (Senior
Teaching Assistant).
Gifted
& Talented
This has been a busy term for the many students who have skills and talents within our school.
We have so many reasons to be proud of what we achieve with our students and the
foundations that have been laid to help them to go on and achieve at local, national
and international levels. We will always endeavour to encourage diverse
interests and pursuit of very individual goals.
Luke Gittins
Lydia Perry
Lydia has had a busy summer competing in many cricket matches
at county level. In July 2012, she made it into the Under 13’s
Staffordshire County Team. Most recently, she has competed in the
Under 15’s and Under 17’s County Team – and she’s only in Year
10! Lydia has recently achieved a bowling award from her club and
been the opening bowler for the Staffordshire team. A great set of
achievements and we wish her all the best for her next year!
Talented sportsman, Luke, has made
a real impression on the Table Tennis
circuit throughout the Midlands.
Year 10 student Luke began taking
part in county competitions just over
two years ago. After deciding to take
part in these competitions, he has built
up a collection of over 15 trophies and
other special awards for his success.
Charlotte Evans
Year 13 student, Charlotte, has recently been successful in
becoming a UK-German Youth Ambassador for 2015-16! She
will now follow a busy programme of activities throughout the
year which include attending seminars, co-ordinating projects,
creating inter-school contacts and supporting an on-line
ambassador community. Charlotte is really excited about the
opportunity to visit Berlin in July 2016 for an international
three-day seminar. All really great news Charlotte!
Oliver Dolman
Key Stage 4 student, Oliver, has had lots of success recently
playing for Hednesford Town Football Club alongside Jack Hamill
and Max Goodier, in the Youth Football League. Oliver has now
been awarded a place on the Staffordshire County Football
Under 15’s squad. We wish you lots of success playing for
the County Oliver – well done!
Daniel Cartwright
Daniel has had a fantastic summer of sprinting. He achieved
1st place in the 200m County final at the Alexander Stadium,
competing for the Mason Trophy. Daniel is in the top 10 rankings
for his age in the West Midlands and he is well on course for
being one of the top UK sprinters in the country. His current
Personal Best for 100m is just 11.7 Seconds!
Nathan Darby
Congratulations to Year 9 student, Nathan, who has recently
won the main trophy at the Chasewater Annual Memorial
Wakeboard competition! As a result of winning this, he has also
been asked to be part of the Great British Wakeboarding team!
What an excellent achievement for someone so young!
6
As Luke continues his competitions,
we wish him every success in the future!
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Toby Gretton
Year 8 student, Toby, has been steadily
building up his repertoire of stage
performances around the Midlands
over the past few years. Just recently
he was given the exciting opportunity
to play the part of Benji in the UK
touring production of Pricilla Queen
of the Desert at the Regent Theatre,
Stoke with Duncan James from Blue.
Congratulations must go to Josh Lowndes who has not only
made it on to a county football team, but has also recently
received a £500 grant from Staffordshire County Council.
This money was part of a £15,000 fund distributed between
sporting stars in the county who would benefit from some
extra funding to support their training and costs. Josh currently
plays with the Under 16 Cerebral Palsy County team and
hopes to be able to play with the England team in the future.
Good luck to you Josh and we hope your new training
equipment helps you towards your dream!
Natasha Blundell
Congratulations must go to Natasha Blundell who took part
in the National Finals of TEEN STAR at Birmingham’s NEC on
Saturday 25th July. Making it through all the previous rounds,
Natasha achieved 2nd place in the Mid-Teens category. Recently,
she has also had the opportunity to work in a recording studio
in London with Sony Music. Well done Natasha!
Daniel Hanstock
Congratulations to Year 11 student Daniel who was offered a
residential study period at Leeds University during the summer
break! After competing in a national maths competition, Daniel
was invited to a week long course covering many areas of
Mathematics and having lots of fun along the way.
Morgan Thomas
He also appeared alongside Jason
Donovan at the Alexandra Theatre
in Birmingham. Toby is currently
undergoing performance training at
Tread’s Acting School in Cannock.
Well done, Toby!
Morgan has had a fantastic summer, competing in a high
number of national and international golf tournaments and
is now one of the top UK golfers. We are also pleased to
report that she has been selected by England to be part of
their future training plans for full caps in 2014/2015. For the
second year running, Morgan won the Beaudesert Ladies
Club Championship against all other lady players in the club.
She competed in the English Girls’ Championship, which
includes the best young international golfers and came
5th! Morgan also recently won the Staffordshire Girls’
Championship against other UK players and, for the first time
ever, shot an under par round at the Lee Westwood event
in Rufford Park, which is a great achievement for a young
person, and is generally only achieved by professional golfers.
If your child is competing in any
sport or other activity at national
or regional level, we’d love to hear
from you. Please contact Mr Tennant
at [email protected]
Congratulations to past student Louisa Cooper
Louisa has recently qualified in Floristry at South Staffordshire College
and was selected to take part in a competition at the WorldSkills
2015 event in Sao Paulo during August.
Louisa was selected as part of a 40 strong Team UK, having demonstrated a high
personal skill level, competitive attitude and maturity. She shone throughout five
days of intense competition between over 1000 of the world’s most skilled young
people to achieve her medallion of excellence. Along with her fellow competitors,
Louisa received a personal letter from Prime Minister David Cameron, who said:
“Team UK demonstrates how the best of our apprentices and vocational learners
can compete at the highest international level.
7
On Thursday 10th December, three teams
from CTTC went to the new Entrust Centre at
Stafford to compete against other schools in
the very first final of the JCB ‘Loadall’ project.
We are very happy to report that every one of the three teams we
entered, picked up an award – including the overall top prize! This was a
project that used the skills and technical knowledge of JCB apprentices,
along with hardwear provided by them to enable students to undertake
a challenging and inspiring project, run through CTTC’s established
STEM Club (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).
Teams had to construct a boom arm based around the extending arms
currently used on many of their diggers, including the use of hydraulics,
electronics, and gearing. Each team then had to design a new, innovative
design for the attachment that could be fitted to the end of the
arm before presenting a report and presentation to a panel of judges
from JCB and Entrust. Our teams had tough competition - not least due
to many of our students being in Years 8 and 9 – compared to the
Year 10’s competing from other schools. Team ‘JCBest’ won best
presentation for their concrete cutter attachment. Team ‘JCBetter’
won the prize for best teamwork demonstrated.
Finally, team ‘Cool Kidz’ won the top prize for their
attachment for moving flat sheet material. The
judges thought their team could have potentially
won in multiple areas. ‘Cool Kidz’ have won a VIP
tour around the JCB factory in Uttoxeter and all
students in the STEM Club who worked on this
project have won a five day residential trip at
an outward bounds activity centre! Well done to
all students involved in this project, who worked
so hard and so effectively in their teams
– a great set of results!
Carol Singing at St. Giles’
A small group of Performing Arts students made their (now) annual visit to St. Giles’ Hospice
yesterday to sing cristmas carols for the patients, staff and volunteers.
The staff and volunteers, who do so much for our local
community in their care of terminally ill, enjoyed our
music whilst tucking into their Christmas dinner, and
our joyful singing drifted down the corridors of the
Compasses Ward, were we hope it brought happiness
to the patients and their visiting relatives. It is so
important to give back to the community that you
live in and we were privileged once again to see the
wonderful work that goes on at St. Giles and do our
(very small) bit. Thank you to all of the students, who
sang so beautifully and to Mrs Jacques who organised
the trip – you are all wonderful people.
Mr. Chamberlin
8
Readathon
Starting on Monday 19th October, for two weeks,
Years 7, 8 and 9 took part in Readathon to raise money
for children with terminal illness.
The charities which benefit from the money raised are: Clic Sargent
for Children with Cancer, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s
Charity; and Together for Short Lives. Some of the money
also went back into school, which meant new books were
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Charity walk from
Burntwood to Blackpool
On August 28th, Reece Young set off on a
106-mile journey in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust.
‘‘
Reece walked for a whopping 12 hours a day, over three days, to reach the
iconic Blackpool Tower. He took on the challenge as part of his Duke of Edinburgh
Scheme Bronze Award and was inspired by Stephen Sutton to take on the
challenge and continue to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.
Everyone at the school is very proud of your achievement, Reece!
‘‘
I was a bit nervous on Thursday night, before I
started but I was also really excited to get going.
Running for charity
Mr Heaven, from our PE Department, raised money for Teenage Cancer Trust by running
2 half-marathons during October. He ran the Cardiff Half-Marathon on Sunday 4th October
in 1 hour 49 minutes and then ran the Birmingham Half-Marathon on Sunday 18th October
in 1 hour 48 minutes.
He is also running the London Marathon for Teenage Cancer Trust in April 2016 and needs to
raise £2000. There are a few fundraising events that he will be running from January to the end
of April including; a non uniform day on 17th March 2016; throw sponges at teachers; bake
sale; guess the sweets in the jar; 5 aside football tournament (£1 entry per player); sponsored
marathon run through the PE department; bring your foreign currency in, plus there will be 4
Aston Villa stadium tour tickets which will be raffled. If any students would like to get involved,
please let Mr Heaven know. To donate to Mr Heaven, please visit the link below.
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/simon-heaven-SAVMLMBONDS3332016-5207
Mr Bradnick, from the English Department, also ran the Birmingham Half-Marathon, raising
money for Leah’s Wish. He set a new personal best of 1 hour 33 minutes and 9 seconds, well
under his target of 1 hour 40 minutes!
9
Well done!
RAF Award
Chase Terrace Technology College were chosen by the RAF to be awarded with ‘a platinum plaque’.
‘‘
Mrs Poppleton, Head of IAG, pictured alongside the students
receiving the award, commented,
We were delighted to be chosen for this award. It is the
highest level which can be awarded to a school. As a school,
we pride ourselves on the strong relationships we build and
develop with our employers, including the Public Services.
We believe strongly in raising our students’ aspirations
and awareness about all of the career opportunities and
paths there are for them and we are proud so that
many of our students have chosen a career in the RAF.
Squadron Leader Carrie
Rossi commented, ‘The
Royal Air Force have over
2,000 vacancies per year in
a variety of roles, including:
engineering (ICT, aircraft and
motor vehicles); catering;
logistics; personnel; aircrew;
airfield support; and
medicine. Many roles have
an attractive apprenticeship
programme for school
leavers (recently rated
Outstanding by Ofsted).The
Royal Air Force are keen
to promote these careers
opportunities across various
sections of society and run
a variety of programmes for
educational establishments’.
Squadron Leader Carrie
Rossi is the Senior Careers
Engagement Officer for the
West Midlands and
she is working to build
relationships with schools,
offering presentations,
team-building activities, and
support to careers fairs and
visits to RAF establishments.
She presented a Platinum
Award to Chase Terrace
Technology College in
recognition of their support
to the Royal Air Force over
recent years in encouraging
students to apply for a
variety of roles and their
continued close relationship
whereby staff from the Royal
Air Force regularly visit the
school to actively promote
their careers opportunities.
‘‘
NEC Skills Show
visit
A group of Year 10 students were accompanied
by Mrs Poppleton and Ms Beech for a ‘Careers
Masterclass’ visit to JCB headquarters in Rocester.
The event gave students:
• An overview of engineering careers
• Career profile interviews with JCB employees and STEM Ambassadors
• A factory tour
Cameron McCarthy Peters commented
‘I enjoyed this event.
I particularly
enjoyed interviewing
the different JCB
employees and
finding out about
what they did in their
roles. The factory
tour was also very
interesting, to see
how all the different
processes worked‘.
10
A group of 46 Year 10 students were taken to the NEC
World Skills Show by Mrs Poppleton, Ms Beech and
Mrs Bynt. What an amazing day this was, with tens of
thousands of other young people. Students were able to
have a go at skills experiences, meet staff from colleges,
employers and universities, watch the WorldSkills UK
Skills Competition finals, listen to inspirational talks and
discover amazing career opportunities!
Sam Gillion, Year 10 student, commented after the event:
‘I feel so lucky to have been able to attend this event.
This has raised my awareness even more about the
different career opportunities and paths that there are
out there for me’.
Leah Steed additionally commented: ‘This has been an
absolutely brilliant event which has been so useful! I
want to come back again next year and spend even
more time here‘ .
Art and Photography New York Trip 2015
During October half term, 21 pupils from Years 11-13 took part in a visit to New York.
We visited many world famous landmarks, including the 9/11 memorial, Grand Central Station and the
Rockefeller Center. We also took a trip on the Staten Island ferry, on a beautiful sunny day, to have a close up
view of the Statue of Liberty and went to the top of the Empire State building at night, which for many was the
highlight of the trip.
Along with visits to the Guggenheim Metropolitan Museum and Museum of Modern Art, on a very stormy Wednesday we
stumbled across an amazing little gallery on tenth avenue called Tagiatella, which had work on display by Warhol, Hirst, Banksy,
Swoon and Robert Longo, to name a few. As the students are very familiar with these artists, this was a real treat!
A trip to New York would not be complete without a decent amount of retail therapy, including a stop off at the biggest store in the
world, Macey’s. And then, of course, there was the food! We ate at Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square which
were experiences in themselves. A few of us also ate our body weight in peanut butter M&M’s!!!
India - July 2015
On the 11th July 2015, 2 members of staff & 10 students
embarked on an international expedition to Himalayas, India.
Our adventure took us firstly to
Delhi, after spending a day in Delhi,
we took an overnight bus to Manali.
From Manali our transport was then
a 12 hour 4X4 journey to Demul.
Here in Demul we completed our
community project of building an Eco
Greenhouse, this enables the locals
to grow crops throughout the winter
months as well as doing laundry. Ours
was the first in the area to include a
laundry section. All students had an
amazing time with the locals as well
as feeling proud of the completed
greenhouse. We then took a 6 day
trek taking us to the summit of
Kanamo, a 6013m peak.
All students did a wonderful job
out there and should feel
immensely proud of themselves.
Landafræði
ferð til
Íslands
(Geography trip to Iceland)
This Winter will be the first year that the Geography Department takes
Key Stage 5 students to the heart of Iceland. The group will experience
the amazing sea, sky and landscape that this amazing country has to
offer. From the Aurora Borealis to climbing Solheimajokull Glacier,
and from witnessing the roar of Gulfoss waterfall to the eruption
of a geyser every couple of minutes, the students will have a truly
remarkable time. In the next edition, you’ll be able to see what a
fantastic time the pupils had, where the Land of Fire and Ice meets
Geography at CTTC.
þakka þér og gangi þér vel.
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Y9 and 10
German Exchange
From 21st - 28th November, Mr Lancett went on the
trip with 15 students from CTTC and 16 students from
King Edwards, Lichfield with their teacher, Mrs Dunn.
They had 3 days in school, attending lessons with German partners.
The group also went to a history museum in Bonn, “Haus der
Geschichte” and then the Bonn Christmas Markets. They had
breakfast with the German partners in the school library and
also went to Cologne and up the “Hochhaus” tower for a view over
the city. Finally they spent some time at the Christmas markets.
Y8 German trip
From 5th - 10th July, 58 Year 8
students visited the Rhine Valley.
Here are just a few of the activities they did that week:
- Went to a music museum
- Did a Rhine cruise
- Went to a wave pool in Cochem
- Did a tour of a castle (Burg Rheinfels)
- Went on a cable car in Boppard
- Had a day at Phantasialand
Overall, they had a fantastic week.
Young Enterprise
A number of students are taking part in the
Young Enterprise Scheme and manufacturing wooden gifts.
The students, Daniel Broadhead, Stefan Spurrier, Nathan Athersmith, Emily Farr and
Emily Poxon, have founded a company called The Chase Wood Company, selling bespoke
hand-crafted wooden products, as part of their Business Studies course. The products are
designed and hand-made by the students using locally sourced wood from Cannock Chase.
They sold their exclusive Christmas tree decorations at the school Christmas Fayre and they
are now available to buy from the Sixth Form office for £1.
The products available are: ‘Snowmen’,
‘Reindeer’ and ‘Happy Christmas’ tree
decorations.
Future updates and products will be
displayed on our social media pages:
www.facebook.com/TheChaseWoodCo
www.twitter.com/TheChaseWoodCo
www.instagram.com/TheChaseWoodCo
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Courtyard Squad
The year 7 Courtyard is in
need of a makeover!
Mrs Gilbert and Mrs Rawlings are leading the
Courtyard Squad. If you would like to get involved
and make the Courtyard look great again then
please see either Mrs Gilbert or Mrs Rawlings to
share your ideas and make a difference.
So far, students have been really keen and have come up
with some great ideas of how to improve the courtyard.
One way to raise funds was a non-uniform day on
16th December (Christmas jumpers were optional!).
Christmas Fayre
On 8th December a group of students, Olivia Morgan, Mel Brindley,
Faye Turnbull, Rory Valance and Brandon Forbes, organised a Christmas
fair as part of their CoPE Level 2 Award. Lotty Clarke, Chelsea Stanton
and Millie Price helped out as volunteers. Mr Chamberlin supplied the
live music and Santa was amazing. The ponies were kindly supplied by
Miss Hickin. The total raised to date is £350.25 with some still to come in.
Feedback from the public was very complimentary on
both the way the students behaved and the overall
atmosphere. Well done!
Gangsta
Granny
On 7th December, a group of
Year 8 students were taken to the
Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham
to see Gangsta Granny.
They behaved perfectly and were a real
credit to the school. The show was great,
but the highlight came when the writer,
David Walliams, appeared on stage for
the production’s opening night!
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Duke of
Edinburgh Awards
This is our first year as a direct licenced centre
for D of E, and what a fab year its been.
We currently have 57 students about to complete
their Bronze award, with 8 students going in as
direct entrant to silver. We meet each Monday
& Tuesday evening in school from 6pm – 8pm.
During this time we teach the students First Aid,
Map Reading, Food, Kit etc. We also engage
the students in team building challenges in
preparation for working together on Expedition.
We have been very lucky to have received funding
from Burntwood Lions, along with fundraising
events we have held ourselves, this has enabled us
to purchase equipment required by the group and
also for future groups. Our Bronze group are out
on qualifying expedition in April. Once the current
Bronze group are complete this will allow us to
open up Bronze to our current Y9’s.
Working with other schools
Autumn term is a busy time behind the scenes, communicating with schools about
new possibilities for inter school collaboration and confirming schools involvement with
projects that have run previously.
If you have children in primary school, you will be aware that pupils’ achievement at KS1 and 2 is no longer measured in levels, but
by yearly attainment. As a consequence, the language that staff and pupils now use to talk about their learning and achievement
varies between schools. As a secondary school, we need to be aware of these differences to ensure that pupils make the transition
from primary to secondary as smoothly as possible. Therefore, over this term I have been meeting with each of the schools
in the local area to talk about how their curriculum has changed and consider how we as a school need to respond.
Mr Mulvey (Cross-Phase Lead Practitioner)
Network
What else has been going on this term? meetings
Due to the success of the
regular network meeting
Sports Leaders
The programme was set up by Mrs Ware and Mrs Tooth several years ago and has
proved to be a superb opportunity for students to develop their leadership skills.
For me it is one of the reasons why Chase Terrace is such a fantastic school. I thank
Mrs Ware and Mrs Tooth for developing such ambassadors, who enable transition
links to flourish.
between teachers last year,
more dates have been fixed
for this year to include a
wider range of subjects.
As I wrote in the summer newsletter
there are already regular meetings
between local schools for English,
Maths, Science and SEN. These
are now also meetings for PE and
Computing. These are areas that
all schools felt that there would
be benefit from learning what is
happening in each other’s schools
and working together to improve
the provision for all the children in
Burntwood.
In the next newsletter I intend to
share what happens at a typical
network meeting and how this
benefits our students.
Treasure Hunt
This was conceived as an idea by one of our own students
Mia Roberts (Yr13) three years ago in response to a
conversation she had with a parent at Open Evening.
Chase Terrace is often perceived as being a big school where it’s easy to get lost!
Mia was determined to show that in fact the site is very logically set out and finding
your way around is actually quite easy after initial orientation. Our Open Evening
is proving more popular than ever and the school does tend to fill up, making the
exercise of getting to know the site quite tricky.
Therefore, on Friday Oct 16th we invited pupils from years 5 and 6 to join our sport
leaders (pupils from year 9 to 13) for an evening of sport and orientation around the
school when the site is empty, apart from staff preparing for their Monday morning.
This year had the largest turn out of prospective students (over 40) and they were
met by the same number of our young sports leaders to guide them round the school.
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Maths Master-Class
This project is now in its third year and
is proving more successful than ever.
For twenty two weeks, pupils from eight Burntwood
primary schools, who have been selected as having
particularly strong ability in maths, are picked up by
CTTC minibuses and come to together at the school
for an hour to join in maths lessons with teaching staff
from CTTC and other schools.
This year, Mrs Brooks (Key Stage 3 Maths Coordinator)
has been joined by staff from Highfields (Mrs Phillips),
Springhill (Mrs Jowett), Ridgeway (Mrs Middleton) and
Boney Hay (Mr Wood). These staff are also assisted
by maths leaders from Yr12.
Primary School
Football Tournament
On Monday 12th October, a fantastic event was
held by CTTC. We hosted eight primary schools
for a 7-a-side tournament.
There were also ten Year 10 leaders who were each assigned a
primary school and also led the younger students through warm
ups, coaching practices between games, and helping to manage
and support the teams throughout the games. The feedback from
parents and staff was very positive, with lots of comments on the
professionalism and enthusiasm of the students.
Three year 12’s also supported the event by acting as referee for the
games and again the feedback was very positive.
Performance Poetry
This is a new project that started as
a pilot in the summer term with our
very talented Head of Performing Arts,
Mrs Maymand.
Mrs Maymand worked with another very talented
teacher at Highfields (Miss Banks) to develop pupils’
ability to write, perform and express poetry. This was
a great success and this term Mrs Maymand has been
putting the programme into action with pupils and
staff at Gentleshaw Primary School.
I was lucky enough to be invited, along with parents
and carers, to the final performance in morning
assembly just a couple of weeks ago. After the
performance, one parent exclaimed to staff that
she has never seen her son so expressive in front
of an audience before. We hope to report further
developments and outcomes with this project in
the summer term.
Are you a qualified teacher?
Would you like to return to teaching?
Chase Terrace Technology College is a strategic partner of the National Forest Teaching School Alliance,
we are part of a pilot project to assist qualified teachers to return to the profession.
Maybe you’ve had a break for family reasons, or sought a career change and now miss the
classroom environment. If so, we can help! We have secured funding for a programme
through which you can refresh your subject knowledge and gain classroom experience
to strengthen your confidence and support you with job applications and interviews.
There is funding available for teachers of the following subjects: English; Maths;
Science; MFL; History and Geography.
If you’re interested, please contact Leah Axten by emailing [email protected]
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