14th February 2020

Dear parents and carers,

Our start to the year has been focused on mock exams which took place over the first three weeks of school. These have involved our Y11 and Y13 students who have had a taste of the pressure and demands of finals. With Y11 due to receive their mock results on 13 February, just prior to their parents’ evening, there is no doubt that there will be some anxiety about the outcomes. However, this is the golden opportunity to review their work carefully, reflect on their outcomes, and put plans in place to make future improvements.

Mr McLaren recently took some aspirational Y9 students to a careers event run by Gatwick Airport which covered a number of careers in the aeronautical industry. The group had a really informative afternoon at The Ashcombe School and came back with lots of ideas about future careers and exciting opportunities they had not considered before. Many thanks to Mr McLaren for taking the students, and I am sure this will have had a very positive impact on their thinking and future plans.

In true Geography Department style, the whole of Y9 was taken to the Olympic Park recently for their field trip to look at urban regeneration and its lasting impact. With the site at Stratford now being over eight years old, every year our students review the difference the regeneration has had since being built. Thanks to Mr Harrington for organising the trip, and to Miss Buckland, Mr Tattershall, Miss Bailey, Mr Harrison (HOY9). Mrs Chart and Mr Bryan for accompanying the trip. Once again we had many compliments about our students and the way they behaved on the trip. I’m sure there will be some outstanding projects demonstrating just what our students have learnt from this visit.

We have had two Duke of Edinburgh training events already this term, with Ms Crow, Miss Buckland and Mrs Bullen supporting our students for Bronze training two weeks ago, and Ms Taylor and Mrs Tanton supporting Bronze and Silver training last weekend. All students have been working hard to improve their first aid knowledge, plan their expeditions, get to grips with kit and getting started on their skills and volunteering.

Th

e P

rio

ry S

cho

ol

West B

ank, D

ork

ing

, S

urr

ey,

RH

4 3

DG

T

ele

ph

on

e : 0

13

06

88

733

7

Em

ail

: e

nq

uirie

s@

prio

ryco

fe.c

om

Issue No:

047

2019-2020

Our skiers have also been preparing for their upcoming trip over half term, so there have been fitness activities in the school hall every Friday to get everyone ski fit - thanks to Mrs Hastings Holland and Mr Loader for leading these activities as well as running the trip. Mrs Hastings Holland has also been supporting Mrs Harrison with the many rehearsals for the Gym and Dance Show which will be on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Tickets are available on the door so please make sure you arrive early as these events are really popular.

Ms Roach and the team of Young Carers once again raised our awareness of young carers in our school by running a cake sale last week in the LRC, and some were interviewed by a film crew who came into school to find out about the lives of school children who care for their relatives, and the impact that this has on their lives in and out of school. In other media experiences, Ruby Barrett in Y8 and Diana Adams-Fuller in Y10 were recently interviewed on Surrey Hills Community Radio as new members of the Youth Voice at Mole Valley District Council, not only talking about their involvement in this group, but also their membership of Brockham Young Farmers. They gave an excellent interview, talking about many issues that concern young people, and how these are being tackled in Mole Valley. I always like to hear what our students are involved in outside school, so I was also very pleased to learn that Lucia Schifano in Y11 has been selected to represent Surrey on the U18 girls rugby team. So many students to be proud of!

This week we have again enjoyed the ReadingZone Festival for our own students, but also were delighted to welcome students from St Martin’s, St Paul’s, St Joseph’s and Powell Corderoy Schools to enjoy hearing from author P G Bell. It was great fun, and the students left inspired to write! Thank you to Mrs Hall for organising this event once again.

Finally, I would like to introduce some new staff to the school. We are delighted to have Dr Furnier and Mr Zaduban join us to teach Business Studies, Miss Fincham is our new Administrative Assistant and Welfare Leader, Mrs N Browne is our new Exams and Access Arrangements Administrator, Mr Everall is now the Head of Y10 and Mrs Holt is our teacher of Food Technology and Textiles. We are also very pleased to have Mrs Howes back in school.

Many of you will be aware that Dorking has recently twinned with the Italian town of Sinalunga, and you may recall that we hosted a visit by the mayor of Sinalunga in November. Next week we will welcome a group of five Italian teachers to our school for an educational and cultural visit. I know they will be made very welcome by our school community.

With thanks

Mrs Gibb

@DorkingPriory

DorkingPriory

DorkingPriory

If you would like to endorse the school or thank any staff in a quick and easy way, please email hello@priorycofe.com and your messages will be passed on.

Information regarding attendance can be found in our Policies section on the school website; however, parents should be aware of the following:

The Education (Pupil Registration)(England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 state that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. The Headteacher should determine the number of school days a child can be away from school if leave is granted.

In accordance with the above Regulations, requests for leave of absence are treated

sympathetically, but can only be approved in exceptional circumstances. Government policy, to

which this school has agreed, states that parents who take their child out of school for five days

or more during term time without the authority of the Headteacher will each be liable to receive a

penalty notice. Penalty Notices will be issued by the Local Authority.

The penalty is £60 if paid within 21 days of receipt of the notice, rising to £120 if paid after 21

days but within 28 days of receipt of the notice. If the penalty is not paid in full by the end of the

28-day period the Local Authority must prosecute the recipient for failing to ensure regular school

attendance under section 444 Education Act 1996.

Please be aware that each parent is liable to receive a Penalty Notice for each child who incurs

unauthorised absences; for example, if there are two parents and one child, each parent will

receive one Penalty Notice.

If there are two parents and two children incurring unauthorised absences, each parent will

receive two Penalty Notices, which in this case would amount to £120 each if paid within 21

days.

Penalty notices may also be used by the Local Authority in the following circumstances:

When a pupil is stopped during school hours by the Truancy Team, and there is a history of unauthorised absence, a warning letter will be sent to the parents informing them that their child’s attendance will be monitored for the following 15 school days. If there are further unauthorised absences, which may include a pupil arriving late after close of registration, a Penalty Notice will be issued.

Where a parent is failing to ensure their child’s regular school attendance, which may include a pupil arriving late after close of registration, and is failing to engage with any supportive measures proposed by the school or Education Welfare. Before a Penalty Notice is issued, the parent will be sent a formal warning of their liability to receive such a notice.

School Attendance Regulations

We were very pleased to welcome members of Surrey Young Carers to our support group and

cake sale to support this year’s awareness day for young carers. A group of our young carers

were brave enough to give interviews that were filmed and recorded for That’s TV Surrey. Our

young carers were absolutely amazing and were honest and open about their individual

situations.

As a school we raise awareness and recognise the work that our young carers do on a daily

basis. In our assemblies to mark the day and during tutor time, all year groups were given the

opportunity to think about young carers and what their day to day life can be like. This gives our

students an opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of a young carer and try to understand

how they may feel as a result of their additional responsibilities. Each time our group meets, I am

extremely proud of how our young carers simply get on with things and do not grumble. They are

role models to us all.

The cake sale itself brought a great deal of interest from other students and was extremely well

attended. By the end of the sale, we raised £58, which we are donating to Surrey Young Carers

for all the work that they do to help support young carers across Surrey.

Here are some of our pictures from the day and if you would like to see the numerous tweets

from our event, go to @Dorkingpriory.

Young Carers Awareness Day

Please contact Miss Roach if you have any queries about being a young carer or supporting

young carers (jrh@priorycofe.com).

I would like to thank the following for making our fundraising possible and helping us to raise

awareness:

Rosie Baglow Miriam Dodica Megan Sumner Taylor Pearce

Rose Kemp Blake Maull Daniel Newman Vaughan Newman

Sophie Conway Ruby Moore-Dominguez Mr Terry Mrs Hall

Young Carers Awareness Day

The Priory School hosted the ReadingZone Festival for Dorking.

Tom Huddlestone, author of Flood World and Dust World, delivered a talk to Key Stage 3. Flood

World is a dystopian adventure set in flooded London. Tom gently explained the world he had

fashioned out his of imagination, complete with map and neologisms (new words) to explain how

society had evolved in this flooded city. It was no surprise that Tom’s favourite book is Lord of

the Rings as he had been very thorough in developing his futuristic London.

Our students then enjoyed helping Tom form a Priory World from using a chance choice of 20

futuristic concepts – students selected a disease free world; genetically evolved monsters;

cessation of weapon manufacture. This provoked a lot of thought and conundrums which fired

the imagination.

Afterwards, Tom signed copies of his book and Year 8 Media Group filmed him in an interview.

Tom has visited several schools where students thought the future looked bleak but when he

asked our students he was pleasantly surprised at their optimism and hope for the future.

Several Priory Eco Group students are reviewing the story with the perspective on how it can

raise awareness of climate change.

In the afternoon, we welcomed 360 students from Dorking Primary schools – St Joesphs, Powell

Corderoy, St John’s and St Paul’s.

These students had the opportunity to listen to the author PG Bell who has written The Train to

Impossible Places and The Great Brain Robbery.

Once again, we are very grateful to ReadingZone and Caroline Horn for giving us this

opportunity. Please visit ReadingZone.com for inspiration on everything you need to know about

teen books and their authors.

ReadingZone Festival 5th February

Over the past 12 weeks students in years 9 and 10 have been working towards gaining their skills section for the Duke of Edinburgh award by learning basic British sign language. For three of the weeks they were taught by Bob who was profoundly deaf who explained to the group that a hearing aid was unable to help him hear so he had to rely on lip reading and sign language. For one session he had an interpreter which the students found interesting to see how they were able to communicate by just using sign language.

For the remaining sessions Golda taught the group. She is deaf and was happy to share her experiences and explained that she could hear due to having a cochlear implant. During the sessions the group learnt basic signs, including, the alphabet, numbers, animals, colours and moved onto words to help with questions, giving directions and asking for help including contacting the emergency services. Other sessions included subjects at school, careers and hobbies. By the end of the 12 weeks all students were able to hold a basic conversation just by using sign language. The students who completed the course were:

Year 10 – Siler Award Scarlett Francis Thomas Smith Sophia Taylor Naomi Chillingworth Alice Harper Cerys Manwaring

Year 9 – Bronze Award Abigail Francis Miriam Dodica Jessica Harrington Mary Nevins Molly Palmer Megan Sumner Esther Bambridge Henry Edington Anna Lewis Poppy Callicott

Well done in completing your skills section. Keep practicing your new skill. Thank you to Mrs Bullen and Mr Bryan who also came along to each session.

British Sign Language

We are now well in to the spring term after the break and it is time for a newsletter update.

Students in Year 13 have been through their mocks and are now receiving their results. Along

with praise for those that have done well there are also those who will look at their results with

disappointment. It is so important that this disappointment is turned in to a positive approach to

the real exams in the summer. Consider what went wrong and change this, analyse what worked

well and build on this.

Some Year 12 and 13 students have also received results from their English and Maths GCSE

resits. Again, the results were a mixture of success for some and disappointment for others. Well

done to those who have passed these important milestones and good luck to those who still need

to retake.

Year 13 university applications.

10 of our Year 13 students made university applications and I am pleased to report that all 10

have received offers. Included in this we are delighted that one of our students has been offered

a place to study Geography at Cambridge University and two students have received

unconditional offers. This is a reflection of the outstanding applications that the students were

able to put together and the work of the sixth form pastoral team along with them to ensure that

all applications were checked and rechecked before they went off. Congratulations to all those

who now have some difficult choices to make.

For those off to university in September, The Money Charity offer a free guide to making your

money go further. There is advice on all student money matters such as managing credit and

debt, budgeting for essentials and how to avoid those people who drain your finances. You can

click the link below and either order a printed copy for just £1.25 or scroll down the page and you

can download a free PDF copy.

http://themoneycharity.org.uk/resources/

We have invited all our Year 12 students to the UCAS exhibition at Surrey Sports Park on 24

February to start thinking about making applications later this year. For Year 12 students who are

interested in attending university there are some wonderful opportunities to attend free taster

days at London universities in a wide variety of subject areas. Students can book direct and we

would authorise a day off school to attend a taster day in a course of their choice. Please use the

link below to find out more details;

https://london.ac.uk/ways-study/study-campus-london/university-taster-courses

It should be noted that some of our Year 13 UCAS students are also considering higher level

apprenticeship applications. More and more these days, level 4-6 apprenticeships (equivalent to

a degree) are a genuine option and offer an effective alternative to the traditional university route

as well as offering a salary alongside the chance to get work experience as you train. With this in

mind I advise all Year 12 and 13 students to consider these opportunities in the areas they are

interested in.

Priory6

The Priory6 committee is now turning its attention to planning and organising our Raising and

Giving (RAG) week. RAG week is an important part of being in Priory6 and we expect to see all

of our students involved at some point during the week. The aim of the week is to raise money for

local and national charities and the committee will discuss and agree on where the funds will go

over the next few weeks.

Student Absence

Could I please remind everyone that if Priory6 students are absent from school for any reason

this still requires an authorisation from a parent/ carer. Parents/ carers can ring the school

reception and leave a message under the appropriate extension or can email

studentservices@priorycofe.com Priory6 students cannot authorise their own absences.

Mr P Harrison

Head of Priory6

pha@priorycofe.com

If you have any school uniform items that are now too small or maybe no longer required, but are still in good condition, please donate them to the school’s ‘preloved’ stock. We are trying to make second-hand school uniform more available to parents. Please drop any items you may have to the main reception.If you would like some second hand uniform, please send a request to Mrs Weeden simsoffice@priorycofe.com with item and size and we can put some items aside for you to take to try on at home.

Priory6

Second Hand Uniform

Have your circumstances changed and you now believe you are entitled to claim Free School Meals? Please send an email to Simsoffice@priorycofe.com

Mrs Weeden will be able to send you a form to complete and we will apply to Surrey County Council. In order to qualify for free school meals, you must be in receipt of one of the following:

Income Support

Income Based Job Seeker’s Allowance

Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

Child Tax Credit, provided that you are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and that your annual income is less than the current threshold of £16,190

The ‘Guarantee’ element of State Pension Credit

Income Related Employment and Support Allowance

Universal credit Even if you do not want to take the Free School Meals, the school gets funding, so please apply if you are eligible. Even if you don’t want to ‘take’ the Free School Meals, the school will receive funding, so please apply.

Y7 Football

Free School Meals

Why take part in DofE at Priory? When a young person does their DofE programme they’ll develop the skills and attitudes they need to become more rounded, confident adults. These are all qualities that employers and Universities are attracted to. Whilst taking part in the Award at Priory, you can expect your young person to develop the following: self-belief, self-confidence, a sense of identity, initiative, a sense of responsibility, a real awareness of their strength, new talents and abilities, the ability to plan and use time effectively, the ability to learn from and give back to others in the Community, building new friendships, problem solving, presentation and communication skills Leadership and teamworking skills Spring Term plans In the Spring term we are completing lots of training. With Bronze, we teach them the basics for their expedition, navigation, campcraft, cooking, menus and route planning. Their practice expedition is at the end of March, so preparation is key. Silvers will be planning for their Assessed Expedition, completing their route plans ready for the summer. Gold students will be completing a night navigation exercise, straight after school in January! They will then be helping the Bronze students with their training and planning for their own expedition in June. All students should be collecting their assessors report for their sections and keeping their edofe records up to date! Remember the app is now available to make this process much easier. The welcome pack has been sent to students homes. It contains a discount card for major outdoor shops. It not only provides a reduction on your purchases but gives loyalties to DofE, which the charity depends on.

Important dates for 2019/20 Bronze dates – Year 9 Practice expedition Friday 27th-Saturday 28th March 2020 (South Downs) Assessed expedition Friday 12th - Saturday 13th June 2020 (North Downs) Silver dates – Year 10 Practice expedition Thursday 10th—Saturday 12th October 2019 (New Forest) Preparation day Sunday 2nd February 2020 Assessed expedition Thursday 25th - Sunday 28th June 2020 (White Peak) Gold dates Training Spring term—night navigation

Spring term – tbc – in school and navigation training.

Practice expedition Thursday 25th - Tuesday 30th June 2020 (Dark Peak) Assessed expedition tbc

Duke of Edinburgh

Please help raise FREE donations for The Friends of The Priory School by using #easyfundraising when you shop online with 3,600 well-known retailers. It’s FREE to use and doesn't cost you anything extra, so it’s an easy way to make a real difference. To get started, just visit the link below and search for The Friends of The Priory School Dorking PTA. When you raise your first £5, #easyfundraising will match it.

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk

Y7 Football

FREE Fundraising for the school

Upcoming Dates for your Diary

W/C 24th February

Week A—Menu Week 1

ERIC—Lesson 2

Monday 24th

February

Tuesday 25th

February

Wednesday 26th

February

Thursday 27th

February

Friday 28th

February

Y12 UCAS

Expedition—Surrey

Sports Park 11.30-

3.30pm

Y11 Macbeth English

Trip 6-11pm

Y13 Parent’s

Evening 4-7pm

W/C 2nd March

Week B—Menu Week 2

ERIC—Lesson 3

Monday 2nd March Tuesday 3rd March Wednesday 4th

March

Thursday 5th

March

Friday 6th March

Book Week

Y9 GCSE Ready

Parents Evening 6-

7pm

Book Week Book Week Book Week

World Book Day

Book Week

W/C 9th March

Week A—Menu Week 3

ERIC—Lesson 4

Monday 9th March Tuesday 10th

March

Wednesday 11th

March

Thursday 12th

March

Friday 13th March

Science Week Science Week Science Week Science Week

Leading Learners 6-

7.30pm

Science Week

W/C 16 March

Week A—Menu Week 3

ERIC—Lesson 4

Monday 16th March Tuesday 17th

March

Wednesday 18th

March

Thursday 19th

March

Friday 20th March

Post P6 Leading

Learners 6-7.30pm

Y7 Parent’s Evening

4-7pm