DearParents

This halfterm hasbeen a very

interesting period as weenter a new relationshipwith our partner school,Queen Elizabeth’sMercian, in Tamworth.In the early stages ofthis partnership I amspending most of mytime in Tamworth withMrs Hulcoop takingcharge of de Ferrers ona day to day basis. Sheand I are constantly intouch and I amabsolutely confidentthat we can continue toachieve the levels ofexcellence that you nowexpect from the college.

Part of the challenge thisterm has been the weather.I would like to thank you foryour continued supportwhen we decided to keepthe college open during thesevere icy conditions andparticularly for your atten-dance at Consultation Day.

Enjoy the half term break!

principal@deferrers

M A YorkPrincipal

de Ferrers.COMmuniquéde Ferrers.COMmuniquéNumber 050 Spring Half Term 2010

COMMUNICATING THROUGHOUT DE FERRERS SPECIALIST TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE

www.deferrers.com

De Ferrers wasrecently honoured towelcome MichaelFoster MP from theDepartment forInternationalDevelopment. Hisvisit was in recogni-tion of the collegeʼsInternational SchoolAward and he camealong with local MP,Janet Dean, to learnmore about theprogress being madeby students.Mr Foster MP met headstudents MuhammedAhmed and AmyHarrison and teachersMr Hewitt and MrsBotten, before receivingpresentations from stu-dents across all keystages.The students explained tothe visitors some of themany things being donethroughout college toimprove our InternationalMindedness. There thenfollowed a question andanswer session, which sawMr Foster MP answer arange of questions fromstudents on international

matters, most notably theUK contribution to the reliefeffort in Haiti. The visitended with the MP meetinga college football team toraise awareness for thegovernmentʼs 1GOAL cam-paign, to help support thethirty five million children in

Africa who do not receiveany formal education at all.Meeting the InternationalDevelopment Secretarywas of great benefit to allstudents. Well done to allthose involved for makingthe visit such a memorablesuccess.

DE FERRERS HOSTS VISITOF MINISTER FORINTERNATIONALDEVELOPMENT

D E S I G N E R O F T H E F U T U R E - S E E P A G E 2D E S I G N E R O F T H E F U T U R E - S E E P A G E 2

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DESIGNER OF THE FUTURE: NEW LOGOAT THE HEART OF THE COMMUNITY

ReminderALL Year 10, Year 9 C2,Year 9 P1, Year 11 C6,Year 11 C7, Year 11 P6and any students whoare retaking previousScience modules that

you have externalmodule exams on

WEDNESDAY3rd MARCH.

Make sure you are fullyprepared by revising

thoroughly.

The Towerof PowerEight intrepid studentsfrom across Key Stage 3faced their fears and tookon the challenge ofindoor climbing at TheTower climbing wall inLeicester. For the pastfour weeks the team hasbeen working hardtoward the NICAS Level 1Award which tests thestudents on safety proce-

East Staffordshire County Councilapproached the Design and TechnologyCurriculum Area and asked the Year 10Graphic Products students to design a logofor the new ʻNeighbourhood WorkingCentreʼ. Over fifty students within MissShentonʼs and Miss Mellorʼs groups enteredand Reuben Hawthornʼs simplistic, yet veryeffective design was selected as the overallwinner. Bethany Smart and Amber-LeeBlackshaw came a very close second.

Reuben attended the open-ing ceremony of theʻNeighbourhood WorkingCentreʼ on 26th January.He was awarded his prizeand certificate from theDeputy Lord Mayor ofBurton and photographed

by the local press. Look outfor his logo at the centre onHorninglow Road; it isinspirational and one thatwe are all very proud of.Well done Reuben and allthe Graphic Product stu-dents!

TeamTanzaniaThanks for all the con-tinued support receivedover the past half term.Team Tanzania hasreached an amazingtotal of £16,511!Forthcoming eventsinclude a Year 7 disco,Easter Bingo and arepeat of last yearʼsrunaway success, RACENIGHT (24th April). Theevent promises to bepacked full of fun andfrolicks, so come alongand enjoy it with us.The team would alsolike to remind you thatdonations of old orunwanted clothing andmobile phones are mostwelcome at either cam-pus reception.dures, use of equipmentand climbing skills. Mostof them are already look-ing at moving on to theLevel 2 course whichtakes twice as long andmeans they have to climbto a very high level.A big well done to all theclimbers: Ben Creighton,Oliver Benton, JoshJohnson, Tom Evers-Burke, Josh Hale, NatalieLloyd-Johnson, BethLester and CharlieTunstall.

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PSFAItʼs official!De Ferrershas nowbeenawardedBronzeEco-School Status. SinceSeptember the Eco-Committee has beenworking hard to makede Ferrers a littlegreener and this hasbeen well received bystudents and staff

alike.Recyclingboxes arenow in placeand TeamTanzania hasbeen recy-cling oldmobilephones. Wenow haveplans toplant moretrees andmake ourenvironmenta moreattractiveenvironmentfor birds andinsects.

IAG Portal addedto the VLEThe IAG Portal is now "live"!IAG stands for "Information,Advice and Guidance", on any-thing from work experience tocareers, to personal healthissues, bullying, exam stressetc... It's far from complete yetbut there are already lots ofreally useful features.In the "crystal slider" section atthe top of the page is"Subjects". If you click on thislink, one of the buttons you'llsee is IAG PORTAL. From hereyou can access a menu of threedifferent options:WORK EXPERIENCE is whereyou will find important informa-tion about vacancies, as well asreminders, downloadable formslike CV's, and other useful stuff.Keep checking this as WorkExperience week approaches.CAREERS / CONNEXIONS iswhere you'll find lots of usefullinks, downloads and other infor-mation about careers, pathwaysand options for post 14, post 16and post 18. Plus, you can nowcontact your Connexions PA'sdirectly by filling in the webformwith your name, email addressand tutor group, as well as yourquestion. If you need somehelp from, or an interview with aConnexions PA, this is for you!There is currently a survey inthe Careers section about ourCareers Exhibition last week.Please take a moment to com-plete this survey.ONE STOP SHOP is not yetcomplete but we will be addinga wealth of useful telephonenumbers and websites on allaspects of keeping yourself safeand well. Watch this space!Students can visit the IAGPortal now by visiting our FrogVLE - http://www.defvle.com

Our first event of 2010 wasQuiz Night on Friday 5thFebruary at Dove. Aroundtwenty teams registered - amix of adults, SixthFormers, Key Stage 4 andKey Stage 3 students. It wasa good night with ourQuizmaster, Neil Upchurch,keeping everyone on theirtoes.The overall winners were ʻTheVisitorsʼ, with a score of 98. ʻTheShrimpersʼ were runners-up with88 points, third ʻMust BeatBrownieʼ with 80, fourth ʻTo BeConfirmedʼ with 79 points.ʻWe're Only Here For TheSupperʼ were Key Stage 5 win-ners. Key Stage 4 ʻWe ThoughtIt Was A Beach Partyʼ also wontheir category. ʻThe Jelly Babiesʼwalked away with the Key Stage3 Prize.The PSFA will next be seenmanning the bar at the Eveningof the Arts later this month andplease check out our webpageto keep up to date with our forth-coming events.In the meantime thank you forall your continued support of thePSFA – if you want to knowmore about who we are or whatwe do please contact me via thecollege.Thank youAnita Mclean

THE 6Rs CHALLENGE DAYThe 6Rs (Resourceful,Resilience, Reflective,Reasoning, Responsibleand Relationships) at deFerrers are an integral partof learning. As part of thiswe dedicated two days inJanuary to develop theselearning skills in a differentway for Year 7.Students worked intheir form groupswith their tutor tocomplete a set ofchallenges whichthey do not usuallyencounter inCollege. The chal-lenges ranged fromportrait drawing, tobridge building, tofilm-making anddance devising. Theday finished withstudents looking ateach othersʼ workand being assessed.

At the beginning of the day all ofthe groups collected their box ofresources and went away to planas a team how they would achieveall of the challenges set. Somestudents participated in a GreenScreen Challenge in which theyhad to write and present a newsreport. The winning forms, 7.2 and7.7, produced very professionallooking clips. During the daymembers of the form volunteered

to say hello and goodbye in tenlanguages; a particular well donehere goes to forms 7.5 and 7.8.The students also attended a halfhour Relationships workshop asthis is a particular college focusthis year.Overall the days were a great suc-cess with students developingtheir understanding of the 6Rsand how they make us all betterlearners. In particular forms 7.6and 7.12 stood out as winners,they completed the challengesusing great team work, imagina-tion and cooperation.

“A simple solution tosolve lifeʼs tangles”We are ʻGeniusʼ, the deFerrers Young EnterpriseCompany. We are a group offifteen Sixth Formers lookingto fill a gap in the market. Asa team, we have held meet-ings and developed an inno-vative product to meet theneeds of our target market.We have designed a new ear-phone tidy which enables youto eliminate all of your mp3earphone problems.Our product is ʻThe Peanutʼand is available for only 99pwith the option of beingengraved with any text of yourchoice for only an extra 50p(£1.49). With six differentcolours available (pink, blue,orange, black, red and pur-ple), you can have a Peanutthat suits you. Also we havedecided to donate a percent-age of the money to the Hopefor Haiti appeal.

Please allow up to 3 weeks for deliveryEmail - genius-deferrers@hotmail.com

for any enquiries.Please contact Jamie Boast (S8), Kamal Manek(S12),Kunal Manek (S6), Alex Hall (S1) and Edward Roe (S1)

about ordering.

With personal Engravingfor only £1.49

ʻThereʼs A Peanut For Everyoneʼ

The Peanut

99p

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Trent CampusSt Mary’s DriveBurton upon TrentDE13 0LLTelephone: 01283 239936Fax: 01283 239950

e-mail: office@deferrers.staffs.sch.ukwww.deferrers.com

Dove CampusHarehedge LaneBurton upon TrentDE13 0ASTelephone: 01283 239961Fax: 01283 239971

de FerrersSpecialist Technology CollegePrincipal: Mr M A York BA (Hons) BEd MBA

SPORTYOUNG STARSMAKE IT TONATIONAL SEMIFINALS!After winning the CountySchoolsʼ Team Table TennisChampionships, our Under 13Boysʼ, Under 13 Girlsʼ and Under19 Boysʼ teams competed at theRegional Finals in Bradford, com-peting against the championsfrom Derbyshire and South, Westand North Yorkshire.All three of our teams did extremelywell in what was an incredibly highstandard of competition across all ofthe age groups. A strong Under 19Boysʼ team had a mixed day butdespite that, Number One Seed,James Ward, led by exampleremaining unbeaten all day to allowthe team to finish in a very crediblethird place.There were high hopes for both theUnder 13 Boysʼ (Joe Byrne, AndrewHeathcote, Liam Burt, LiamCallender-Welsh) and the Under 13Girlsʼ (Bekki Lycett, Milly Bowering,Holly Webster, Sophie Richardson)teams although the standard of thecompetition was completelyunknown ahead of the day. Bothteams played some of their bestTable Tennis of the year to both fin-ish as regional runners-up. A fantas-tic achievement and one thatmeans that both teams nowqualify for the National Semi-Finalin Blackburn on Saturday 27thFebruary and placing both teams inthe top 16 in the country for their

agegroup.Welldone toallinvolvedand wewish theteamswell inBradford!

Gold Award ForJenny HeathcoteJenny received a prestigious GoldLeadership Award for her work in the com-munity as a sports volunteer and leader.Jenny was presented her award at the recentEast Staffordshire Schools Sport Partnershipconference, which was held at the PirelliStadium. Jenny is the first person in EastStaffordshire to have gained this award.Jenny signed up for the Sports Youth Trust “Stepinto Sport” scheme in November 2007. During

this time Jenny has devoted over 200 hours of her time to volunteering herwork in the community. Jenny has helped as a leader at a variety of sportsevents based at schools within Burton on Trent. Her enthusiasm and hardwork have served to ensure continued opportunities for young people to enjoyphysical activity and competition.During this time Jenny has also gained a number of leadership qualificationsfor badminton, football and sports leadership. Well done, Jenny

Bronze, Silver and Gold Dukeof Edinburgh candidates havetaken part in the annual fund-raising events over Christmas.Bronze candidates helped verygrateful busy Christmas shop-pers in Sainsburyʼs pack theirshopping bags, whilst Silver andGold candidates towed Santa inhis sleigh around Stretton,Rolleston, Hilton, Stapenhill andBarton.Altogether we managed to raisea staggering £10,000.00 whichwill help us buy new equipmentfor all candidates. Thanks andvery well done to all candidatesthat took part.This year we have 130 Bronze,64 Silver and over 80 Gold can-didates all getting ready for avery busy expedition season.

Canoe Talent IDTesting for de FerrersAs a result of our continued successin sport across the local area, wehave been invited to take part in aproject aimed at identifying theOlympic Champions of the future!Working alongside Canoe Englandand the World Class Start project,some of our students have beeninvolved in a series of baseline teststo identify those with the characteris-tics and potential to develop into acanoeing star of the future! Thirty sixstudents have been involved in theinitial round of testing and it is hopedthe project will be repeated in futureyears to allow more of our studentsan opportunity to take the first stepson the ladder towards future Olympicsuccess!

Basketball keepsNational Cup hopesaliveThe Sixth Form Basketball team isthrough to the knockout stages ofthe National Cup after destroying allcontenders in the area group stage.The squad, that has been strength-ened this year with the addition ofthe Year 12 players, has cruised tovictory in all competitions so far thisseason and is preparing for somebig games ahead. The players arealso hot favourites to retain theCounty Cup that they won last year.Keep up the training, lads, and wewish you the best of luck!

Sixth Form NationalCup dream comes toan end!The Sixth Form football teammembers were disappointedwith their sixth round perform-ance against BeauchampCollege. The lads, who beforethis game were undefeated,went down 4-0 to a team thatwas not as good as those from

previousrounds, buttheir perform-ance on theday was apoor show bytheir stan-dards.

GIFTED AND TALENTED UPDATEThe brand new Gifted and Talented webpages can now be found on the FROG. Asthese will be continually updated it is worthchecking them regularly. Information canbe found about identification criteria, extra-curricular groups, external courses andbursaries, along with links to websites thatgive further information for G&T studentsand their parents.I would also like to receive any information aboutsuccesses your child may have achieved in order todisplay them on the “celebrating achievement” page.You can get in touch with me directly through thecontact page on the website. Feel free to contact meabout any area of G&T provision you would like moreinformation about or if you think your child should beconsidered for the register.Mrs Glover

However, the dreams of cupglory are not completely shat-tered. The Sixth Form are stillin the semi final of theStaffordshire County Cup andare due to play the fixture atsome point next month.

The Sixth Form team is not theonly one with cup glory in itssights. The Year 10 football teamplayers have made a massiveimprovement after their shakystart to the season. They recentlywon their semi final match againstJohn Taylor in the Burton andDistrict Floodlit Cup, 1-0. They tooare waiting to play their semi finalmatch in the Staffordshire CountyCup, so it could be a cup doublefor the 10ʼs!