1

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

A Message from our Principal

As you may already be aware, our Sixth Form students

hold an annual Christmas Party for our local senior

citizens. This year is no exception and we look forward to

welcoming our guests on Tuesday 13th December, from

2.30pm—4.30pm. If you are able to, we would

welcome any donations of toiletries, sweets, chocolates,

biscuits or small gifts that our visitors would like. These

can be brought in via your son/daughter, or you can drop

them off at our main reception. Thank you, in advance.

A quick reminder that our production of Sweeney Todd

starts on Tuesday, and promises to be a very exciting

show! I’ve been lucky enough to have a sneak preview of

the rehearsals and I was very impressed with the talent

of our students—be sure to book your ticket, as I’m sure

they will sell out fast. See more information on page 3.

This week, I also had the pleasure of breaktime ‘Hot

Chocolate with the Head’ with one student from each

house. This is a new initiative we are introducing to

include students who don’t always get recognised for

“just getting on with their work”, but who consistently

achieve their target grades, and complete homework and

coursework on time. In time, I am hoping that I can

meet with each and every student who works quietly

behind the scenes and enjoy a special breaktime treat

with them.

Finally, we are on the countdown to welcoming our

special guest, Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers,

to the grand opening of our new Expressive Arts Suite on

Monday 12th December. Further details will be given in

next week’s Spotlight, and it is sure to be a very exciting

afternoon Please be aware that this will be a closed

event and only available to members of our School.

Have a good weekend. Miss K Hayward

Principal

~OUR NEXT KEY DATES~

Tuesday 13th December

OAP Christmas Party

Friday 16th December

12.15pm closure for Christmas Holidays

Monday 2nd January 2017

Bank Holiday

Tuesday 3rd January 2017

All Staff and Students Return to School

Last Day of Term—Early Closure

As you are already aware, we will be closing the

School at 12.15pm on the last day of the Autumn

Term—Friday 16th December, and have sent a

letter home, by email or post, giving full details.

Students who walk home will be able to leave

school at 12.15 pm, if you are happy for them to do

so. However, not all bus companies are able to

meet our request to collect students early, the G17

and G18 being the only routes that can.

If you have not let us know whether your child can

leave school site at 12.15pm, would you please

return the reply slip attached to the letter, or email

us on parentcontact@sandyupper.net to confirm

arrangements for your son/daughter. Thank you to

all parents/guardians who have already returned

their completed reply slips.

Miss Hayward

2

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

Christmas Tree Festival—3rd December

Well done to all our Craft Club students Katie Ashton,

Caitlin Pearce, Sascha Jones, Maria Rhodes, Demi

Hopkins, Beth Boulton and Barry Brookes who have

decorated a Christmas tree to enter into the Christmas

Tree Festival. The festival will take place at St

Swithun’s Church on Saturday 3rd December, so

please pop along and take a look if you have chance.

Mrs Walton-Smith

“Hot Chocolate Friday”

Congratulations to Year 11 student, Liam Broadwith,

Indya Lowther, from Year 10, Year 9 student, Rebecca

Tysom and Toby Wilkins from Year 10, on consistently

maintaining a positive approach to their studies.

To celebrate their achievement they enjoyed a special

hot chocolate with Miss Hayward today.

Well done everybody!

Ms McLure

Staff -v- Students Table Tennis

On Thursday evening, approximately 40 students and 5

members of staff participated in the very first Sandy

Upper School Staff –v- Students Table Tennis

Tournament.

With a full range of year groups, including Sixth Form

students, battling on the tables for the table tennis

crown, the room was full of anticipation. There were 5

groups, with the top 3 from each group going through

to the knockout stages. There were special matches

and surprising results, as well as Mr Peters wearing

shorts, which was its own spectacle!

The tournament was very successful with a high

turnout and it was exciting to see the competitive

nature between both staff and students. There will be

more sport competitions throughout the year, allowing

students to try defeat their teachers.

As the tournament progressed, the final came down to

Mr Tubb and Zak Martillo. Zak came away champion

and is deservedly Table Tennis King.

Special thanks to the members of the sixth form who

helped organise and run the event.

Mr Tubb

Parent/Guardian Focus

3

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

Parent/Guardian Focus

Homework Club—All Welcome !

Mr Catherall is running a Homework Club in Room 104,

every Wednesday until 4.30pm. Laptops will also be

available, and help is always on hand.

All Years and All subjects

are welcome to attend!!

Science Calendars

Anyone who has ordered a Sandy Upper School Science

calendar should be able to collect it early next week.

Orders are still being taken, so if you are interested in

purchasing one at just £5 each, then please visit the

Science Department with your cash, or pay via

ParentPay.

Mr Peters

School Production –Sweeney Todd

We are delighted with the progress that our students

are making in rehearsals for our production of Sweeney

Todd.

The show takes place on Tuesday 6th, Wednesday 7th

and Thursday 8th December, and tickets are now on

sale, at break and lunchtimes, in our Café. These are

priced at just £3.00 for concessions (children, OAP and

students), and £5.00 per adult. Tickets can be

purchased using ParentPay, cash, or by cheque (payable

to Sandy Upper School)

This is sure to be another fantastic show for our

Performing Arts department, and we would encourage

you to buy tickets soon, as they are sure to sell quickly.

Mr Carter, Miss Gardner and Miss Mosedale

Christmas Angels

Thank you to all who have ordered angels! We have

managed to raise an amazing £150 which, once costs

have been taken out, will all go towards purchasing new

books for the school library, so thank you, once again.

Also a big thank you to the students who attend craft

club and have helped to make the angels.

Orders can be placed up until Friday 9th December (to

allow us time to make them).

Mrs Walton-Smith

4

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

Stars in the Spotlight

Maths Stars in the Spotlight

The UK Senior Maths Challenge for the Sixth Form took

place on 8th November.

Three Year 13 and four Year 12 students sat

an hour-long paper and the results were as

follows: In Year 12 Conor Hurman

gave a creditable performance

while Zac Martillo and Alfie

Gathercole both were

awarded bronze certificates.

Top in Year 12 was Alex Clarke who was

also awarded silver. In Year 13 Tom

Germany also made bronze while Lap

Yin Chen and Rosie Barrows both

achieved the gold standard, Rosie

coming out slightly on top by a single

point over Lap Yin.

Many congratulations to Rosie and Lap

Yin who were selected for the next

round, which includes them in the top

3000 of pupils nationwide. The one-hour

Senior Kangaroo, as it is called, takes

place on Friday 2nd December at 9.00am.

Results to follow…

Textiles Stars in the Spotlight

Further to Students visited the Keech Hospice Care shop

in Sandy this week to see their garments on the display.

The manager has had many offers from customers

wishing to purchase the clothes, but they are going to

be reserved for the students to keep themselves in

return for a donation to the charity. All the students

were impeccably behaved and fantastic representatives

of the school.

The clothes will be on display in the Keech shop in Sandy

until this Saturday, so please take the chance to have a

look for yourselves. Well done, girls, on a brilliant

achievement!

Non-Uniform Stars in the Spotlight

Many thanks to all the staff and students who took part

in today’s non-uniform day in aid of the OAP Christmas Party on Tuesday, 13th December.

We are extremely pleased to announce that, at the last

count, we raised £660.00. This amazing amount will go a very long way to make sure our local senior citizens enjoy a very special afternoon, so a huge thank you.

Miss Hayward

5

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

Expressive Arts Suite—Grand Opening … Monday 12th December

We are thrilled to reveal that Chad Smith, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers will be opening our brand new Expressive Arts Suite !!

6

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

7

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

AS / A2 Resources and Support

Details of Websites and Resources (Alphabetical by Subject)

AS / A2 Computer Science

8

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

AQA A level English Literature A2 Resources—One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~leila/documents/VitkusonKesey.pdf (Misogyny and Madness)

http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/149/149 (Disability and Gender)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/26/ken-kesey-s-wars-one-flew-over-the-cuckoo-nest-at-50.html (Author’s viewpoint)

A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams

http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/streetcar/critical.htm (Author’s viewpoint)

Feminine Gospels – Carol Ann Duffy

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/sep/14/featuresreviews.guardianreview (review)

AS/A2 Resources: Othello – William Shakespeare

http://www.morelearning.net/KS5/Othello/Critical%20views%20of%20Othello.pdf

The Great Gatsby – F. Scot Fitzgerald

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/10/great-gatsby-fitzgerald-jay-mcinerney

http://www.pulib.sk/elpub2/FF/Kacmarova2/pdf_doc/strba.pdf

http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft167nb0r5&chunk.id=d0e2333

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/jane-eyre-and-the-19th-century-woman (19th century

women)

http://crossref-it.info/textguide/jane-eyre/9/1097 (Feminist approach)

AQA A level French A level Year 1 and As Student book – ISBN: 978019836688 1 Price: £22.50

A level Year 2 Student book - ISBN: 978019836685 0 Price £22.50

Vocabulary Express Student book - ISBN: 978019837663 7 Price: £ 120 + VAT

Website: WWW.oxfordsecondary.co.uk/kerboodle-terms

New Advanced French Vocabulary: MOT A MOT by Hodder Education

ISBN: 978-0-340-915020-2

Practice in French Grammar 2nd edition by Michael Gross

ISBN: 0-7487-6291-4

Elan Grammar Workbook by Marian Jones and Gill Maynard

ISBN: 0-19-912306-3

As requested for French As/A2 level Resources

9

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

Mot a Mot by Paul Humberstone

Holder Education

ISBN: 978-0-340-91520-2

Practice in French Grammar by Michael Gross

Nelson Thornes

ISBN: 0-7487-6291-4

AQA –As Levels- French Grammar workbook

AQA – A2 Levels -French Grammar workbook

French As/A2 Elan Grammar workbook

French TV5 channel 825 with Virgin Media

French 24 channel 832 with Virgin Media

Europe 1, France inter, RFI radio.

AQA Grammar Work book by Jean Claude –Gilles

ISBN: 978-1-4085-2011-6

AS and A Level Sociology Suggested revision websites:

https://sociologytwynham.com/

https://revisesociology.com/

Exam board website (with links to specimen exam papers):

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/sociology/as-and-a-level/sociology-7191-7192

Suggested revision guides:

For AS Level topics (material covered in year 12): Succeed at A Level Sociology (Book One) by Webb & Trobe, Napier Press ISBN: 9780954007997

For A Level topics (material covered in year 13): Succeed at A Level Sociology (Book Two) by Webb & Trobe, Napier Press ISBN: 9780954007942

Each guide costs £12.99 and both are available from http://napierpress.com/buy-books-3

FURTHER DETAILS FOR BIOLOGY, COMPUTER SCIENCE, ENGLISH,

FRENCH, HISTORY, PRODUCT DESIGN AND PSYCHOLOGY

WILL BE SENT HOME SEPARATELY

10

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

11

Issue 12, 2nd December 2016

Christmas Lunch 2016

Our catering suppliers, Innovate, are pleased to offer

Christmas Lunch to students and staff on

Thursday 15th December, for just £2.00.

To assist with the catering order, we are asking that students buy tickets from

the Café during Breakfast Club, Break or Lunch times