The Emmbrook News - The Emmbrook School

The Emmbrook News
Friday 10th June 2016
In This Issue
• Headteacher’s Comments
• Cricket Success
• Gifted and Talented: UPB Project
• Year 8 Student Takes to the Stage
• National Maths Champion
• Football Successes
• Science Bronze Award CREST Club
• Gold Group Newspaper Project
• Art Mural Project
• PTA Veterans Thanked
Headteacher’s Comments
It is with great pleasure, and a sense of real privilege, that I am able to
finally introduce myself to you as the new Headteacher of the
Emmbrook School. Since my appointment in November I have been
working closely with Mr Matthias, Mr Bond, Mr McSweeney and Mr
Whiting, getting to know the school better and it is particularly
satisfying to have finally taken up the post.
My first week has been extremely enjoyable, as I have started to get to know the students,
staff and parents of our unique school. In particular, I will be using this half term to become
more fully acquainted with every aspect of the life of our school so that I can better
understand how we can achieve the very best for all our students. Of course, no one
knows our students as well as our parents and the partnership between students, their
parents and the school lies at the heart of everything we do at The Emmbrook, enabling
us all to be ‘learning together and succeeding together.’
As an experienced Headteacher, I very much value feedback from parents as to how we
improve their child’s experience of our school. To this end I would like to take this
opportunity to encourage you to feed back to me directly via my personal email
[email protected]. If you would prefer to give your feedback to me in
person then please contact my PA Mrs Rimmer ([email protected] or
by telephone) to arrange an appointment at your earliest convenience.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the members of our school
community for the very warm welcome this week. I am very much looking forward to
working more closely with all of you in the coming weeks, months and years.
Best wishes,
Paul O’Neill
Headteacher
Gifted and Talented: UBP Project
Several Year 9 G+T students took part in an essay writing competition over half-term, which
marked the culmination of several weeks of philosophy learning with Head of Religious
Studies, Miss Wood. Their thesis was to argue for or against the existence of Universal
Preferable Behaviour, by drawing on private research.
Judging such high quality reports was not an easy task, but very rewarding!
Bronze achievement certificates were awarded to: Mhairi Roberston, Charlie Watson,
Angel Court, Ellie Harrop, Wiktor Kepa and Mark Crawley.
Many of the contributors based their arguments around the Aristotelian relationship
between integrity, virtue and happiness; their central thesis being that it is the pursuit of
happiness that is common to all mankind.
The first prize, Gold achievement was awarded to Amelia
Abbott. She also received shopping vouchers. Amelia reflected
on a broad set of research papers, teasing out insightful
inferences, whilst presenting her own, well informed opinions.
Wiktor, Angel, Mhairi, Amelia, Charlie, Mark and Ellie
Mr Bhambra
Assistant Headteacher, Gifted and Talented
National Maths Champion
Congratulations to Year 10 student Callum Hill for his stunning
performance in this year’s national British Mathematical Olympiad
competition.
As a Year 10 student Callum entered the Hamilton paper. He
secured full marks, which placed him in the top 25% of candidates
and earned him a Certificate of Distinction.
We are extremely proud of Callum’s achievements and look
forward to sharing with you his future successes.
Science Bronze Award CREST Club
Year 7 students in the Bronze Award CREST Club have enjoyed working hard on their
chosen projects, ranging from making bath bombs, devising own toothpaste to compare
to known brands on the market, investigating the effect of acids and alkalis on a range of
foods, designing their own games controller, and a whole lot more!
Grace and Paddy Coyne
Simran Corcoran and
Elena Arizabalo-Peralta
Stuart Hoare
We are hoping to arrange a presentation afternoon for parents and teachers to come
along and see the projects the students have been working on, and hear for themselves
what their findings are. Watch this space!
Miss Bishop and Miss Athwal
Art Mural Project
Over the last 2 weeks our students
have been working hard on a sports
themed mural. This artwork is being
created in collaboration with two art
teachers from Reading University on
an area of the sports hall wall, and is
being funded by the PTA.
Mr Brennan and Mr Connell looked at
the artist Michael Craig Martin for
inspiration and have worked with a
range of KS3 pupils to create the
work.
Miss Simpson
Cricket Success
Congratulations to the U12 cricket team on their 9 wicket win against Waingels College in
the Reading Schools’ League. In only their second school game, the boys restricted
Waingels to 53 all out with Paddy Coyne the pick of the bowlers taking 4 wickets for 5 runs,
including a hat-trick (which is very rare at any level of cricket). Matthew Keaney finished
with figures of 2 for 3 and Harry Howarth 2 for 11, with two run outs.
In reply, Emmbrook reached 57 for the loss of just one wicket (Ashley Cable bowled for 9),
with Coyne and Howarth 11 not out and 20 not out respectively. All boys displayed
excellent enthusiasm and sportsmanship.
Despite losing their first game to Maiden Erlegh by 5 wickets, the boys still performed very
creditably that afternoon, Cable top-scoring with 21 and Howarth taking 3 for 15. The other
wickets were shared between Coyne, Cable, Keaney and Connor Turner (with his first ball
in Emmbrook cricket!).
Rear: Connor Turner, Dan Goodfellow Jamie Jearum, Harry
Howarth, Robert Barlow, Max Asater and Adam Dar-Palethorpe
Front: Oscar Griffiths, Cameron Hughes, Paddy Coyne,
Matthew Keaney, Jack Pulleyn and Ashley Cable
Paddy Coyne
Cricket Club runs every Monday after school and is open to anyone interested. Over half
of the squad have no club experience and it’s exciting to see them wanting to get
involved in a different summer sport. New students are very welcome.
Mr Bayliss
Year 8 Student Takes to the Stage
We were delighted by the news that Lilly McDermid was part of the cast for South Hill Park
Theatre’s recent production of The Wizard of Oz. Our own Mrs Hodgson was in the
audience of one of the performances and greatly enjoyed the whole experience.
Football Successes
Many congratulations to Abi Whistler (Year 9)
who has been a member of the Berkshire
Girls’ U14 football squad this season.
A series of very strong performances saw the
girls crowned South-West League Champions
and Abi is pictured here receiving her winners’
medal from Mr O’Neill. Abi plays for Reading
Academy and has been part of the
Emmbrook U16 side which, led by Mrs Rogers,
reached two semi-finals this season.
Year 11 student Lauren Smaje, who also plays
at Reading, was a member of this year’s
Berkshire Girls’ U16 squad, having retained her
place from last season.
At U14 level, the boys’ team led by Mr Maskell reached the East Berks League semi-final.
Kyle Moorcroft and Curtis Pate went one stage further with their club, Wokingham and
Emmbrook, winning the Slough and Windsor Cup. Congratulations to all of the above.
Mr Bayliss
Gold Group Newspaper Project
The Year 7 Gold Group has been working on a project
about newspapers with partnership teachers from
Reading University. The students have learnt about the
key features of tabloid and broadsheet publications, the
difference between fact and opinion and the role of
headlines. The class has also produced a newspaper
around the theme of school, and students were able to
interview Mr O’Neill and Mr Bond about their experiences
of education. A copy of their newspaper has been
included as an attachment with the newsletter email.
Parents joined us for afternoon tea before half term to
see what the class has been working on and we were
pleased to award certificates to all the students for
making progress on Lexia.
We thank Miss Earl, Mr Haldane and Miss Anderson for
their hard work with this project and wish them all the
best in their new schools in September.
Mrs Maclean
PTA Veterans Thanked
The PTA met this week and committed nearly £2,000 of spending for the benefit of our
students. They agreed to fund a wide variety of projects, which included scientific
equipment, a mixing desk for music and a film studio for media. This was the final meeting
for three PTA veterans who have contributed greatly to the school over a number of years.
We sincerely thank Matt Tuckey, Claire Richards and Liz Reed for their commitment and
enthusiasm.
Announcements
There were many new parents and staff who have joined the PTA this year. We will meet
again in September and if you feel you could contribute to the PTA then please do
consider coming along. It is not time-consuming but, is so important for the school.
Please continue to collect Sainsbury’s Active Kids vouchers. There is a collection
point in reception. Students can hand in vouchers to their tutor.
We launched our new website this week to coincide with the arrival of Mr O’Neill.
We hope you enjoy using the new site and welcome your feedback.
GCSE Art Collection for Current Year 12: If you completed your GCSE art last year
you only have until Friday June 17th to collect work before we must dispose of any
undisplayed work due to limited storage space.
Please ensure that all students attend school with the correct uniform and necessary
equipment. Please see the planner or website for details.
Upcoming Dates
(Please keep an eye on our website in case new dates are added)
22nd June
Yr12 Tutor Only PCE