Spring 2019

Castle in the Community concert - an amazing night!

County champs for five consecutive years!

Winners of Somerset Education Business Partnerships Award

Also in this issue...

• Blood Brothers photos.• Yaaba Funk and Apollo 5

offer our students amazing workshops.

• Seren’s pentathlon success!• Amazing school trip photos

from New York & Immenstadt.• What is Cyber Discovery?• Recycled Art ...and much more!

‘An incredibly slick and professional show’

Newsletter

Castle Under-13s Regional champs

Through to the national finals at Lords!

The Castle School Girls Under 13 cricket team have been crowned regional champions in the Lady Taverners

competition and will now progress to the home of crick-et Lords to compete in National finals against 4 other schools representing their respected regions...

Read more inside!

Listen to the girls on the BBC Somerset’s Cricket Show podcast - ‘Under the floodflights’ 57 mins in!

COUNTY CHAMPS FOR FIVE

CONSECUTIVE YEARS!

We are delighted to announce that our Year 11s have won the netball county championships at Millfield which means they have been county champions for 5 years consecutively and have actually never been beaten in their school netball careers! They played incredible netball and most importantly, conducted themselves in such a fabulous manner, they had some tough games but they were so determined to win and stay focused. They were so competitive during play but with the best sportsmanship and teamwork. We are also very proud of our PE department who work incredibly hard to offer our students superb coaching; they are both amazing teachers and superb role models. They all work so hard and the effort they put in pays dividends.

CONGRATULATIONS to Years 8 and 9Another two year groups also qualified for the county netball championships. The Year 8s were unlucky as they lost their first game to Haygrove but got better as the tournament went on. They finished 2nd overall which was great. The Year 9s won all their games. They had a scare in the first game as they made hard work of it, but never looked back from there and easily won the rest. We are very proud of them all!

The Castle School Girls Under 13 cricket team have been crowned regional champions in

the Lady Taverners competition and will now progress to the home of cricket Lords to com-pete in National finals against 4 other schools representing their respected regions.

They were crowned County Champions after win-ning against Millfield Prep to book their place at the Ageas Rose Bowl, Hampshire CCC. The girls trav-elled up on Wednesday 24th April after a 6.45 leave from Taunton. The Castle team joined seven other teams, which included the County Winners from the

following regions, Cornwall, Devon, Wiltshire, Dor-set, Hampshire, South Wales and Isle of Wight. We were drawn against Hampshire, Cornwall and Dor-set with the top 2 teams in each Pool qualifying for the Semi Finals.

The girls did not play well in the first game and lost to Churchers Independent school (Hampshire) in a close match. They then had two convincing wins vs Dorest and Cornwall, which enabled them to qualify as Runners up in their group for the semi finals. In the semi final they played a confident and unbeaten on the day South Dartmoor team.

Castle Under-13s Regional champs

Through to the national finals at Lords!The girls bowled beautifully with precision and con-trol and bowled them out for 11 runs. They chased it down with ease to progress to the Regional final. At this point, the girls’ confidence was growing and they were peaking in the competition. Ironically, the team they had to play in the finals was the team that they lost to in the first game.

In the final Castle set a competitive scored of 81 in 8 overs, again fantastic bowling and fielding en-sured that Churchers were never up with the run rate and we won by 30 runs with the girls being so delighted to be crowned Regional Champions with

a trip to Lords to follow. After the presentation cer-emony, they had photos taken on the Ageas Rose Bowl outfield with Ex England Cricket Captain Char-lotte Edwards who was very complimentary of the quality of cricket shown on the day. Special thanks goes to Mrs Hughes for coaching on the day and for the local cricket club Taunton Deane CC in which all the girls are cricketing members. Next step is Lords and if the girls play near to their potential, they have every chance of doing very well. Regardless of the result, it will be an incredible experience for them all.

The UK’s top students have been honoured at a special awards ceremony in Manchester.

Seventy-six finalists travelled across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to attend the British Educa-tion Awards, on 31st January, many having to contend with adverse winter weather in order to celebrate the oc-casion.

Students and their families mingled with celebrities, edu-cators and politicians at the iconic Beetham Tower, at Hilton Manchester Deansgate, ready to hear the winners of BEA 2019 announced.

Now in its third year, British Education Awards recog-nises the outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements of students across five award categories, including GCSE or Scottish National 5, A Level or Scot-tish Advanced Higher, Vocational and Degree.

At BEA 2019 all Finalists had demonstrated an extreme-ly high level of discipline in order to achieve top grades, and this was further highlighted when taken in context with their extensive extracurricular responsibilities. These ranged from membership of the Girl Guides and RAF Cadets and volunteering within the community, to participation in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, entering national and international competitions, and numerous drama, music and sporting commitments.

The judging panel was also impressed by the extra measures students had taken to advance their learning, with many having undertaken additional study and work place-ments to achieve their goals. They had also shown significant dedica-tion to mentoring and supporting fellow students through peer study groups, after school clubs and societies.

Around 400 guests gathered for the red carpet gala event and enjoyed a three-course dinner and entertainment. The awards were co-hosted by BBC television and radio presenter Kevin Fitzpatrick, and Professor Basma Ellahi, who is an expert in public health and nutrition from the University of Chester.

The prestigious Manchester ceremony was also attend-ed by teachers, principals and university professors from across the country, as well as government officials.

Welsh Education Minister Kirsty Williams, who present-ed in the Wales A Level award category, commented: “These awards are the perfect opportunity to praise our students for all of their hard work – they should be so proud. It’s also a wonderful opportunity to recognise the support of their friends and family, and the fantastic work of our educators who work day in and day out to ensure these students reach their full potential.”

Abigail Thompson - finalist at the British Education Awards

for her outstanding GCSE results

The importance of languageMary Jess, winner of the Chinese version of the X Factor visited The Castle School to talk to all students learning Mandarin about her life, learning Chinese and her musical success around the world. She talked about the importance of always dreaming big and never giving up, as well as how useful speaking a second language is for a range of career paths.

The German exchange 2018-19 team set off on Friday the 15th of February for an overnight ferry

and coach journey through France and into southern Germany. Excited to see their exchange partners, many students spent the following day with their host families either visiting the ski jumps in Oberstdorf, swimming, ice-skating or sledging. Mrs Jones and host family spent an hour and a half walking up a mountain, then 10 minutes hurtling down to the bot-tom on a sledge! The sun was blazing and the views of the snowy mountains were incredible.

Our week then consisted of ski hire, followed by some steep learning curves on these skis and a few tumbles, supported by ski instructors Florian and Joerg. The ‘advanced’ group sped off to the top of Talkirchdorf to explore and refresh skills under the

guidance of ski instructor Willi. We spent three morn-ings visiting lessons in the four schools in Immenstadt and we also went on a cultural visit to the castle at Neuschwanstein, followed by shopping in Kempten. Most of our skiing time was spent just over the bor-der into Austria in the Jungholz ski resort.

Fabulous sunshine had us grinning all week and all skiers made it off the mountain in one piece! The grand finale was the slalom race on Friday, which was followed by our presentation meal at the Hotel Krone, which was attended by all host families, a chance to reflect on the week and thank everyone involved for their hard work and warm welcome. De-spite many references to Brexit, the exchange was untouched by politics and many firm friendships have been formed, hopefully for many years to come!

Immenstadt

2019

Year 7, 8 & 9 Art Club have been working on creating images of fruit and vegetables out of recycled mate-rials for the canteen.

All colours are using wrappers and pack-aging from food that would otherwise end up in a land fill site.

Recycled

Art

It was World Book Day on Thursday 7th March. The Castle School arranged a

plethora of activities to celebrate. The activities concluded with a fair in the library at lunch.

Students set up several different stalls: book sale, cake sale, tombola, knock down the Tin Man’s tins, guess the book in the jar and many more. The money raised was donated to the National Literacy Trust (a charity which supports the development of literacy in disadvantaged students across the UK).

NewYork

By Adam

New York exceeded my expectations completely.

I was not expecting everything to be so grand. It was the most

amazing trip and I only wish I could’ve stayed there for longer.

Saturday 16 February – Day 1

Rise and shine bright and early because we’re off to New York! The 15 hours of travelling flew by (literally) and before we knew it, we were in New York. We arrived in Newark airport at 3:30 in the afternoon. We were greeted by a host, Betty, who told us some facts about New York. She helped us out by telling us how to use a Metro card, I think some of us would’ve been a bit stuck if she hadn’t. The drive from the airport was surreal, we had waited just over a year for this moment and here we were, in

New York City. After an hour on the coach we arrived at our hostel. We settled in and rested, we needed to prepare for the insane week that lay ahead.

Sunday 17 February – Day 2

The first thing on the agenda for today was Breakfast! We were hav-ing doughnuts for breakfast, and they were huge!!! I started to think I could get used to this. We did our first (of many) Metro journeys. Due to it being a national holiday it was a lot quieter than on a working weekday. We were told that it would be a lot busier on Tuesday.

We arrived at the Rockefeller Centre, home of NBC Studios. We went straight to the observation deck, and saw Central Park, The Statue of Liberty, The Empire State Building and One World Trade Centre, in all of their glory. This was the moment I realised how small The Statue of Liberty really was. After taking lots of photos and taking everything in, it was time for our NBC studios tour.

The tour started with a greeting by Al Roker, America’s favourite weather man. Our tour guides showed us around the studios where they film ‘Saturday Night Live’ and ‘The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon’. It was incredible to see the sets. We were taken to the operating room where people control sound, cameras and editing. The final stop of the tour was called ‘On Air at NBC Studios’ where we could film our own talk show. Everyone played a part in something, I was the host and some of my friends were on camera or were the band. We said goodbye to the Rockefeller Centre and NBC studios and were on our way to Times Square. It was hard to believe that I was stood in the middle of Times Square! We explored Times Square and what it had to offer. I went in the M&M store, where you could barely move because there were so many people wandering around. After a few hours of exploring we went to see Chicago. The music was phenomenal and the acting was great. We then went to catch up on some much needed rest.

curity guards. It even had a Starbucks! We then enjoyed some retail therapy and shopped for gifts for our family members. Then it snowed! We took lots of photos and Mr Adams started a snowball fight. Finally, we made it back to the hostel to catch the coach to the airport. We were extremely sad to be going home.

I’d like to thank Mr Adams, Mrs Still, Miss Steed, Mr Wilkins and Mrs Step for putting up with us all week and congratulate them on not losing one of us. It was a great trip that I will cherish forever.

Monday 18 February – Day 3

We made our way to our first workshop, based on Chicago. We arrived a little bit early, therefore got to experience what Dunkin’ Donuts and American Starbucks had to offer (even if they did constantly spell our names incorrectly). The workshop was led by a member of the cast from the Chicago show. I can definitely say that we all enjoyed it, my personal favourite part of it was the singing. When we finished, we made our way to Grand Central Station via the subway. I was shocked at the size and thought it put London Paddington to shame. We ate some of the goods the food market in the lower floors had to offer. I had pizza and it was delicious. We then made our way to Staten Island Ferry, belting out songs like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and ‘I Want It That Way’. The ferry offered great views of the skyline and of Lady Liberty. We had a spare few hours, so we explored Times Square while the teachers enjoyed some chill time. The final part of the day was our meal in Ellen’s Stardust Diner. The food was delicious, and the dancers/ singers were extremely talented. We all sang the night away.

Tuesday 19 February – Day 4

We started the week with a workshop based on ‘School of Rock’. We learnt a dance to the song ‘Stick it to the Man’. This was very different to the workshop we did yesterday, faster. We had the chance to ask the actress who ran it about the lifestyle behind being a Broadway actress. We then walked across the Hi-line to check out the views it had to offer. We stopped at Chelsea Market, for some retail therapy. Our next stop was The World Trade Centre and Ground Zero, also known as The 9/11 Memorial. It was a very som-bre place of memorial and mourning. I noticed it was quieter when compared to the rest of New York. We paid our respects to the victims of the attacks and vis-iting that area is a place I will treasure forever. After-wards we walked to Brooklyn Bridge. We then quick-ly walked to our next Broadway show ‘King Kong’. This was a brilliant show and the gorilla puppeteers were amazing. I really want to see it again.

Wednesday 20 February – Day 5 / Final Day

After packing our suitcases, it was time for a fun-filled final day in New York City. We took the subway to Central Park and admired the John Lennon Memorial and Bethesda Fountain. We made our way to 5th Avenue where we were given 4 hours of free time to explore. I went to Trump Tower, a place full of se-

In March, our students were lucky enough to have the opportunity to experience a world music residency at The Castle School, followed by an amazing Yaaba Funk concert on Friday night.

It has been an exciting and incredible opportunity for our students. We would like to say a massive thank you to Action Track, Nick Brace and Yaaba Funk, as well as Paul and Helen, for such a fantas-tic opportunity!

Thanks to iVistaphotography for the photos

CommunityCastle in the

‘Inspirational, inclusive, electric, high standards, exciting, fun, blown away, slick, professional...’On Wednesday 3 April 2019, 400 students from 6 schools came together for the annual Castle in the Community concert. Wow what a night! We’ve had some really incredible feedback! Inspirational, inclusive, electric, high standards, exciting, fun, blown away, slick, professional... The Community concert is a celebration of music and the relationships the schools have built with each other over the years. This once again, was an example of the amazing things our students can achieve given the opportunity. Thank you to Bishop Henderson, Bishop Hull, Parkfield, Trull and Wellesley Park Primary schools for taking part and showing such amazing musical talent!

I have been working on Cyber Discovery competition. The overall programme was eye-opening for me. I explored in-depth how easily cyber criminals can gain access to your data and the techniques they use, and I learned valuable skills that go way beyond GCSE and A-Level. I have been motivated to work outside of school and at lunch to try and complete the tricky challenges that cyber discovery has put forward. So far I have completed two stages cyber start assess, cyber start game and I am currently work-ing on cyber start essentials. If I pass this stage I will be put forward to go to London to battle against other students who have taken part to be an Elite Cyber Champion.

Will Waugh Year 10

What is Cyber Disovery?

Cyber Discovery is an extracurricular learning programme for students aged 14-18 across

the UK. Its goal is to ensure that many more people enter the cyber security profession in the coming years. At Castle, all of the Year 10 Com-puter Science students entered the competition and are currently still competing within Stage 3 Cyber Essentials. GCHQ will select students at the end of this stage to compete in the final stage in London called ‘Elite’.

We are very proud to announce that Seren recently entered

the England Nationals Combined Events Championships in Sheffield and won the bronze medal with a total score of 3,171 points!

She achieved PBs in 4 out of the 5 events and was so pleased to medal against 50 of the top under 15s multi-event athletes in the UK. Seren also competed in the Somerset Schools’ Junior Girls’ Pentathlon in April and won the silver medal!

Well done Seren, what a fantastic achievement!

Pentathlon success for Seren

It has been the most successful year ever at The Castle School for girls’ football. Participation at our Friday afterschool football club has increased sig-nificantly and we have had over 50 girls attending every week from September until March. We have had competitive matches for all year groups in cen-tral venue tournaments, friendlies and in the county cup.

A group of 11 students attended an FA Initiative ‘Game of our own’ to develop their leadership skills in order to further promote girls’ football and take responsibility for delivering coaching sessions. The day also focused on developing life skills such as confidence, self-esteem and resilience through par-ticipation in football. With funding from this event,

ParticipationGirls football

the girls decided to purchase a girls’ football team kit and additional equipment

Our U14 and U16 teams competed in area futsal tournaments with the U16 team progressing to the county finals to be held later on this year.

Our year 7, 8 and 9 girls’ House football tournament was hugely successful with all Houses fielding teams in a round robin tournament over 5 weeks. Special thanks to Paige, Emily and Tegan who officiated all of the games throughout the competi-tion. Congratulations to Windsor who won overall and well done to everyone who rep-resented their House.

Participation

Leadership

Futsal

House Football

The commitment and enthusiasm from the girls has been incredible and it is hoped that even more will attend when football club resumes in September.

The foundations of footballing skills offered at The Castle School set our students in good stead beyond their school years; ex-student Emily Syme, has signed for Yeo-vil Football Club and she has also been playing in the Womens Super League and representing England ladies. We wish Emily all the best for the future.

Beyond school...

The Castle boys’ Year 11 team is through to the final of the

Somerset Cup after a convincing 3-1 win vs Churchill.

It’s the first time in 5 years they have progressed this far, absolutely delighted for them all, they were a credit to the school.

Well done boys!

Through to the SOMERSET Cup

Final!

The Castle Under 15 Indoor cricket team are through to the regional finals after being crowned County Champions. The boys played superbly in both games and saved their best to last in a great win over Haygrove who played outstanding cricket on the day too. Fingers crossed that the Boys Under 13s and Girls Under 13s and U15s can follow suit in the up and coming finals days. All to play for.

Indoor CricketCounty Champs!

Another fantastic opportunity on 26 March for our musicians! London based acapella group Apollo5 gave 80 of our talented singers an incredible performance & workshop session focusing on choir techniques.

A huge thanks to Apollo5 and Sound Foundation Somerset.

The Castle School is thrilled to win the Somerset Education Business Partner-

ships Award for Careers Inspiration in Educa-tion. Julia Corbett, Careers Leader says “en-gagement with the local business community has been vital to the success of the school’s careers education programme. Businesses have shown their commitment to the pro-gramme by continuing to offer employer visits to Year 9 students and by delivering careers talks or assemblies”. The careers education programme encourages students’ aspirations and self-awareness so that they leave school with a clear idea of their next steps and their ability to achieve.

What is the Somerset Education Business Partnership (EBP)?

The Somerset EBP is a free service, aiming to improve connections between employers and education providers throughout the county.

Business-education collaboration enhances careers education, inspires learners, show-cases career opportunities and fosters a future talent pipeline.

Supporting employers to develop and secure the skilled workforce they need to grow and advance, we help education providers deliver effective career programmes by showcasing locally available opportunities on our directory.

We help learners gain a better understanding of post-16 options and the work place, along-side publishing local vacancies, including ap-prenticeships, here.

Somerset EBP AwardsOur awards showcase those who have in-spired, raised aspirations and developed a fu-ture local workforce. Free to enter, there are 10 award categories celebrating team and indi-vidual achievements.

Winner!

The Somerset Education Business Partnership Awards for Careers Inspiration in Education

On Tuesday, almost 50 students went to Taunton School to take part in the Skirting Sci-ence event organised by Soroptimist International. There were 18 different workshops

on offer for the girls to experience a wide range of STEM based activities and be exposed to a number of career opportunities. Some students had the chance to analyse blood splatters in the forensics workshop, create their own beauty products with Swallowfield, investigate air accident investigation with Rolls Royce or explore optometry, podiatry, radiotherapy, driverless ships and coding among many others.

A class of Year 7 students has written letters to Taunton Deane’s MP (Rebecca Pow) in their recent English lessons. The students implore Rebecca to help them raise awareness of deforestation in Borneo and the effect that this is having on the Bornean orangutans living in this area. They ask her to look into the distribution of palm oil products in the local area to see if Taunton can help stop the species’ population decline. The letters were posted on 1 April.

Orangutans will be extinctin 10 years...

...if we ignore the palm oil crisis

A free app designed to help teens and young adults improve their mental health.Manage your personal wellness journey and earn achievements as your sidekick guides you through a series of daily quests designed to establish and sustain positive habits.

• Check-in with how you are feeling each day• Use coping skills• Keep track of appointments and medications• Get started on tasks• Follow self-care routines

The CBT-i Coach mobile application (mobile app) is designed to help you develop good sleep habits and sleep better. Also uses tools to ‘Quiet Your Mind’ which uses relaxa-tion exercises to help your body learn to relax

SAM is a friendly app that offers a range of self-help methods for people who are seri-ous about learning to manage their anxiety.

A simple tool that helps put a smile on your mind anytime, anywhere and everyday. Mindfulness Meditation proves that regular practice helps combat stress, improves focus and increases resilience. Smiling Mind has been created to take these positive effects to the masses

Mindshift is an app designed to help young people cope with anxiety. The app will help you change how you think about anxiety.

Sleep cycle is an intelligent alarm clock that analyzes your sleep and wakes you in the lightest sleep phase which helps you start your day feeling rested and relaxed.

Useful apps to tryBooster Buddy

CBT-i Coach

SAM: Self help for anxiety

Smiling Mind

MindShift

Sleep Cycle

Before you set out

ips for staying safe when you are out and about

Remember self defence should only be used as a very last resort.

Get away - Stay safe

123

Let people know where you are going and how you are planning to get there.

Always choose routes that are well lit and have lots of people along them.

If you have a phone take it with you and keep it within easy reach - but not where it can be seen or snatched.

If you run into trouble when you are out

TELL Let a responsible adult know (this could be a parent/carer your teacher or someone you trust) as soon as you can. They can then call the police.

RUN Always try to get away first

TALK If you cannot run try to talk your way out – try to be calm and confident when you are talking.

sHOUT If you are trapped or in danger shout things like ‘get away’ or

‘call the police’ to attract other peoples’ attention.

T

www.standagainstviolence.co.uk

Spring 2019

The Castle SchoolWellington RoadTauntonTA1 5AU

Telephone: (01823) 274073Fax: (01823) 274080Email: office@castle.somerset.sch.ukwww.castleschool.co.ukTwitter: @TheCastleSchool

If you need to call the student absence line please ensure that you leave your child’s full name, tutor group and the reason your child is absent. As these details are recorded on your child’s records they have to be accurate.

Calling student absence line

Somerset College and The Castle School would ask parents dropping off students in the morning not to park in the disabled bays which are reserved for staff and visiting members of the public with disabled badges only. Thank you

Dropping students at school

Just a reminder to parents that all students should be in school by 8.40am and in tutor rooms by 8.45am. Frequent lates will be picked up by the Attendance Officer.

Getting to school on time

PaymentsPlease don’t forget you can now make payments via the online payment system on the school website, using your link code.