JULY 2014 SUCCESS FOR STAR STUDENTS - Mark Airey · JULY 2014 The last week in June saw the first...

F I T F O R L I F E S P E C I A L I S T S P O R T S C O L L E G E 1

J U LY 2 0 1 4

The last week in June saw the first

ever North Tyneside Learning Trust

Star Awards Ceremony. The event was

held to recognise and celebrate the

achievement of children and young

people who attend all of the Trust

schools in the Local Authority.

Three hundred and sixty five nomina-

tions were received by the awards

committee, who then had the difficult

job of choosing the finalists.

A number of John Spence students

were nominated for awards and three

of them made it to the finals;

Lauren King was nominated for the

Diversity Award in recognition of the

work she has done with Show Racism

the Red Card, whilst Chloe

Burns was nominated for the Entre-

preneurship Award for her efforts in

raising money for charity. Whist nei-

ther Lauren or Chloe won their catego-

ries they were both commended for

their efforts and each received a

“goody bag” from sponsors containing

over £100 worth of gifts.

Joseph Harvey, whose huge contribu-

tion to the work of the school and to

the wider community featured in our

last newsletter, was the winner of the

hotly-contested Volunteering Award

Joseph is pictured above with host

Matt Bailey and Andrew Foster from

the Newcastle United Foundation .

S U C C E S S F O R S TA R S T U D E N T S

The first ever North Tyneside Learning Trust Awards saw success

for three John Spence students as they made it to the prestigious

Finals Ceremony at the Village Hotel

Lauren and Chloe, each pictured with the other finalists in their categories

Celebrating Success 2

Final Farewells 3

Performing Arts 4

Comenius 5

On Your Bike 7

Remembrance 8

Science Success 10

Murder At The Lighthouse! 12

I N S I D E . . .

J O H N S P E N C E C O M M U N I T Y H I G H S C H O O L 2

C E L E B R AT I O N O F S U C C E S S

SUCCESSFUL SCHOOL EV ENT CELEBRATES STUDENTS’

COMMIT MENT AND ENTHUSIASM

Students were nominated by staff in the following catego-ries:

Excellence and Achievement, Improvement or Progress, Sustained Effort, Extra Curricular Activities, Good Behaviour Service to the School.

The top 25 students in each Year Group were then identi-fied and they were awarded a £10 Eldon Square voucher each. The three students in each year who received the highest votes were then given a further award: certificates to the 2 silver award students and then the prestigious gold award given to the Student of the Year. For some of the students, this was their first award, for oth-ers this was the fourth year in a row that they have been awarded a prize as one of the top 25 students.

Ciera Reed Emily Coxon Brett Gales

Runner Up Student of the Year Runner Up

Lauren Nicholson Orla McCallion Shelly Brogden


Ethan Brown Erin Carlson Chloe Thompson


Christopher Sword Sean Mulligan Abbie Reed


On Tuesday 9th July, we held our annual “Celebration of Success” evening in the Sports Hall. This is

a celebration of the achievements of the students who attend John Spence, with awards for the top

25 students in each year group.

Year 7 Year 8

Year 9 Year 10


THE CLASS OF 2014 GA THERED TOGET HER FOR THE VERY

LAST T IME AND DRESSED IN STYLE AT THE V ILLAGE

Over one hundred and fifty of our departing Year 11 students attended this year’s Prom at the Village

Hotel. There was a great atmosphere, with lots of laughs and quite a few tears as the youngsters

contemplated life after John Spence.

F I N A L FA R E W E L L S AT T H E P R O M

And the year group delivered in style and originality! As usual some arrived in a stretch limo, others in a double decker

bus but has anyone ever arrived accompanied by sixty of his parents’ leather clad crew on motor bikes? Callum

Sowden did. This change from convention was carried on inside the Village Hotel and instead of having the same old

professional photographer, this year group defied convention. The surprise photo booth was in great demand through-

out the evening, producing some hilarious instant snaps. Students and staff had great fun decked out in mad wigs, silly

glasses and daft hats. A great night was had by all and served as a perfect end to a fabulous five years for this hard-

working group of young people.


W O R H O R S E !

We are very keen to encourage John

Spence students to engage in perform-

ing music and we provide music in-

struction both within normal lessons

and as an extra-curricular activity.

We asked Johnny to come and work

with groups of our students in order to

give them a real insight into what it is

like to be a professional musician.

Johnny is not just an extremely accom-

plished guitarist and first-rate vocalist,

but also a songwriter, so he was able

to share his experience of the whole

creative process from getting the basic

idea for a song through to recording it

and playing it on stage to a packed

venue. An excellent experience for our

students.

M A S T E R C L A S S

L O C A L F O L K A N D

B L U E S R E C O R D I N G

A RT I S T D E L I V E R S

M U S I C

M A S T E R C L A S S

Northumberland born Johnny

Dickinson, a hugely talented gui-

tarist and singer with an interna-

tional following, recently spent a

day at John Spence leading

workshop sessions for our bud-

ding young musicians.

Seventy Year 7 students watched the matinee performance of

War Horse at the Sunderland Empire Theatre this half term, as

part of their English celebration event, and were lucky enough to

meet the star of the show.

Lee Armstrong, who played Albert in

the show, kindly attended a meet and

greet with our students straight after

the show. He discussed with the stu-

dents, his acting career, the rehearsal

process of creating such a large pro-

duction, and even took time to answer

a range of questions the students had

devised themselves.

Joseph Tully said “the whole day was

fantastic. It is the best play I have ever

seen! My favourite part was watching

the relationship develop between Joey

and Albert. It was so sad when he

went off to war. I would like to say

thank you to Lee, for giving some of

his time up to meet us at the end of

the show. It was really a fantastic ex-

perience.”

Year 7 students have recently been

working on a Scheme of Work based

on Michael Morpurgo’s book, explor-

ing topics for discussion, and complet-

ing a range of Drama, Reading and

Writing activities.

War Horses in Action at the Sunderland Empire

S U P E R B T H E AT R E P E R F O R M A N C E B R I N G S

T E X T T O L I F E F O R Y E A R S E V E N S


E U R O P E A N C O L L A B O R AT I O N

Every Friday Lunchtime this year a

Scrabble Club has taken place in

the library. The aim of Scrabble

Club has been to improve the

gameplay, strategy and spelling of

every participant.

We’ve had a lot of fun and certainly

the regular attenders, both boys

and girls, are a lot better at the

game than they were at the start of

the year.

Mr Gibson loves Scrabble; he

plays online every single day. One

of the objectives of Scrabble Club

is to wipe the smug smirk from Mr

Gibson’s face that he sports every

time he wins. We are pleased to

report that Jack Hogg, in Year Sev-

en, succeeded in beating Mr Gib-

son by one point at the end of

June.

We look forward to many more vic-

tories by the students over the

course of the next year.

W O R D P O W E R

Students at John Spence have

been passing their spare time

playing a simple board game

whilst developing their literacy

skills at the same time.

During the Easter holidays four Year 9 students from John

Spence travelled to Szombathley in Hungary as part of the Come-

nius H2O project., continuing the collaborative work begun earlier

in the academic year.

Simal Altunsoy, Megan Walker, Megan

Morley and Nicola Caygill were ac-

companied by two members of staff,

Mrs Ward and Mrs Graham. Students

stayed with Hungarian families and

took part in a range of activities along-

side students from Spain, Germany,

Denmark, Italy and Hungary.

The first couple of days were spent

exploring the town and students

worked in groups competing against

each other to find local historic land-

marks around Szombathley.

We visited a famous fortress called

Sümeg, a beautiful old castle on the

top of a volcano. We also visited

Szigliget which is a lovely place on the

coast of Lake Balaton which is a pop-

ular holiday resort in Hungary.

We went bowling twice, which was

great fun, and afterwards we went to a

restaurant with our host families.

We all had a dinner party in the school

on the last night and all the countries

took part in a karaoke competition.

It was great fun and we can’t wait to

visit Scilly in October where we will

learn how to sail a boat! Next Easter

we will visit a school in Barcelona and

we can’t wait to meet all the students

again when they come and stay with

us in December!

By:

Simal Altunsoy, Megan Walker,

Megan Morley, Nicola Caygill

STUDENTS FROM ACROSS EUROPE W ORK

TOGET HER ON GLOBAL THEME


Four students from Year 9 have been selected to visit one of the top univer-sities in the country, Durham Universi-ty. The visit is part of the ‘Future Scholars Award’ scheme, run by the Russell Group of universities (which includes the Oxford and Cambridge universities). The aim of the scheme is to inspire and motivate high-achieving students. Future Scholar events Each university will have a different day organised to inform both students and teachers, but these will typically include:

Taster lectures or seminars, de-signed to catch the interest of high achieving Year 9 students and show what university-level study involves.

Information sessions and dis-cussions for teachers e.g. on

student finance, subject choic-es, supporting university appli-cations.

The opportunity to meet current students and staff.

Tours of the university. Students will gain a real life experi-ence of what studying at university is like. It is hoped that this will encour-age them to aim high to achieve the best grades possible, and to seriously consider applying to university The four students selected for this prestigious award and opportunity are Megan Morley, Megan Walker, Amber Porter and Jack Waterston. They will visit Durham University on Thursday 17

th July for the whole day and then

will do a presentation to Year 9 stu-dents on their return to school in Sep-tember to pass on what they have learnt and experienced.

Year 10 GCSE Food Technolo-

gy students have been visiting

The French Oven in Newcastle.

The French Oven is an artisan

bakers who produce unusual

and exciting baked products

such as sourdough beetroot

bread .

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Four of our Year 10 students, Matthew Rice, Matthew Robson, Sarah Wind

and Georgia Oram took part in a residential “taster” visit to Cambridge Univer-

sity earlier this term.

The trip was organised by North Tyneside Local Authority and led by Judith Liddle, Schools Participation Officer with the E2E Team. On their return, Judith sent an email to the school stating:

“The students were fantastic and really good am-

bassadors for your school. They took part in a

range of lectures and seminars that will hopefully

give them an insight into life at university. “

The trip was instigated by student

Harry Harrison, who contacted the

company after deciding to base his

GCSE coursework on their prod-

ucts.

We found out that the vast range of

products are made in the West End

of Newcastle, brought to their store

in the Grainger market, baked and

sold fresh that day. The store was

very hot due to the ovens, and the

automatic slicer was definitely

something to avoid!

A I M I N G H I G H


O N Y O U R B I K E

HARD W ORK AND COMMUN IT Y SUPPORT BRINGS

FANTAST IC NEW RESOURCE

The project started back in 2011 when the students decorated the room and designed the areas to store tools and spare parts. With the help from Dave Buchanan, a lead mechanic at M Steel Cycles in Gosforth, the students worked closely with Southlands school to create a fully working fleet of bikes, using various parts and pieces from a collection of do-nated or unwanted cycles.

With help from the school and Sustrans, via Lucy Fenwick our Bike It Officer, we received fund-ing to purchase tools, stands and storage for a range of bike parts. The unit now boasts two fully-equipped fixed work sta-tions and a portable one.

The main aim of the Geared Up Project was to buy a fleet of bikes for three user groups, our students at John Spence, the students of our five main feeder schools and the local communi-ty. New bikes would break down the barriers to participation and allow all users to reap the enjoy-ment and benefits from cycling.

After numerous Award for All bids were rejected, a company named Royal Haskoning DHV (RHDHV) heard about the pro-ject, became interested and of-fered us £5000, which was gratefully received!

Thanks to this generous funding the unit now houses eighteen brand new mountain bikes of various shapes and sizes. and with a new lead mechanic (Ross Baldwin Year 9) in position; the bikes are in safe hands. A new workforce will be needed in the new academic year and some of our Year 9/10 pupils will be tar-geted to work alongside Ross and maintain these precious ma-chines!

The Geared Up Project was re-cently opened by Elected Mayor of North Tyneside Norma Red-fearn and visited by Richard Parsons, Project Manager/Principal Engineer, Maritime and Waterways, Royal Haskoning-DHV, who is a keen cyclist.

Richard said: “It’s fantastic to be able to provide this opportunity for pupils to learn to ride and take part in other cycling activi-ties.

“As well as being a great confi-dence booster, in the long-term the project will raise awareness of cycling as a healthy means of transport and an enjoyable form of travel.”

The bikes will be used in PE les-sons, clubs and other activities. Each feeder Primary school will receive organised rides and the bikes will be available to hire as part of a community incentive.

The project is always looking for old or unused bikes to recycle for the community and these can be dropped off at school at any time. The project is open every Monday afternoon until 4.30pm and offers free repairs to the stu-dents of John Spence. If you would like to know more about the project, or you would like to get involved, please contact Mr Pilkington.

For the past three years, four

Year 11 students have helped

transform a disused boiler room

at the school into a first-rate

professionally equipped bike

storage and maintenance unit.

Cameron Twaddle, Nathan Mid-

dleton, Sam Bennett and David

Office have worked tirelessly

every Monday after school on

gaining the relevant skills to re-

pair and recycle bikes.


STUDENTS CONSIDER TH E IMPACT OF WAR AS W E REACH T HE

100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE OUTBREAK OF W W 1

S T U D E N T S ’ R E F L E C T I O N S O N A C E N T U R Y O F W A R

2014 is a year of commemorations. It is 100 years since the start of the First World War, the

conflict people at the time were told would be the “War to End All Wars”. It is 70 years since the

D Day Landings, the greatest amphibious assault the world had ever, or has ever, seen, that

signalled the beginning of the end of the Second World War.

To someone of my age (early forties, it pains me to admit!) it seems astonishing that the First World War has effec-

tively slipped out of living memory. My own grandfather had a brother in World War I, there was an oral link to the

era in our family and that’s now long gone.

Frighteningly quickly, the same thing is happening with the Second World War now. When I was a child, every “old

person” could talk to you about the war. Not any more, of course. To me, the Second World War is still recent and

because I knew and talked to people who had first hand experience of it, it’s still alive to me. Mrs Yellowley

Out of the events of World War II, the

Holocaust had one of the biggest im-

pacts. It is still very relevant to today’s

society, as in the modern world we

still have injustices and prejudices

that mirror the same kind of hatred

that urged the Nazi’s to eliminate any-

one who hadn’t achieved their per-

ception of racial purity. Even today,

the remembrance of the millions of

people who were maliciously killed

urges the realization of the extent ha-

tred can reach. In our history lessons,

we have studied the chronology of the

Holocaust and have been informed on

many topics concerning it, such as

the causes of the Holocaust.

Throughout the lessons, we were able

to sympathise with those who were

too afraid to speak out against the

Nazi regime. This is because alt-

hough someone was needed to speak

out against the terrible treatment of

the minorities within the Third Reich,

cruel punishments awaited anyone

who dared to do such a thing, hence

the lack of people who openly disa-

greed with the Nazis. We are now

aware of the power of propaganda

and how it can turn good friends to

enemies, from brothers to rivals and a

decent heart to a heart filled with ha-

tred, without any facts or proof to

prove their allegations. We have re-

searched the most tragic stories of

the unfortunate individuals who were

subjected to the horror and those who

took part in it and every one of those

stories has brought us closer to famil-

iarising ourselves with the Holocaust.

Within them, we could visualise our-

selves as the very victims themselves

to better understand the trauma they

must have endured and attempt to

understand what the Nazis initiatives

really were as well as how they felt

about it.

To me, the Holocaust was a manifes-

tation of how human nature can go to

such extremes. To me, it was the lit-

eral 'hell on earth' and it still baffles

me today when I remember that many

people thought it was justified, let

alone that some people thought it was

a favour to the rest of mankind. I ex-

pect most people agree with my

thoughts on the subject, as anyone

with an inkling of humanity in them

should be able to see the utter injus-

tice of it. I think we should continue to

learn about the Holocaust in schools

because if we don't educate the future

generations on this subject, how can

we ever say something similar can't

ever happen again? Children must

know the capability of pure hatred and

how to prevent it from spreading, as

discrimination and hatred still exist in

the modern world. They must be able

to differentiate right from wrong when

it comes to the treatment of social

groups, ethnic groups and so on, it is

essential for the progression of hu-

manity.

In conclusion, I think as human be-

ings we can all learn great lessons

from the Holocaust. Simply, always be

appreciative and kind to your earthly

neighbours, hate will produce more

evil than good no matter how much of

it there is and you should stand up

against injustice. To be the best peo-

ple we can be, we should keep these

lessons as close to us as possible

and remember what can often come

out of resentment; evil.

Şimal Altunsoy


S T U D E N T S ’ R E F L E C T I O N S O N A C E N T U R Y O F W A R

World War One has left a significant

impact on the history of Great Britain

to this day; however since it ended

ninety-six years ago people tend to

forget the importance of it.

In class we have thought about how

much WW1 impacted on all the coun-

tries involved immediately after the

war. As time has gone on, there have

been other events which have drawn

our attention away from the im-

portance of the First World War such

as World War 2, The Falklands War,

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 1, 200,

000 men lost their lives fighting for the

country during WW1, since this was

such a long time ago it is difficult to

connect the meaning to modern soci-

ety. The 100th anniversary of the war

should develop our understanding of

the events of World War One as well

as World War Two because they have

affected the way we live today.

Continuing to learn about the First

World War in school is important as it

has played a crucial part in how Brit-

ain has developed over the years as

well as its relationships with other

countries. It began alliances, chang-

ing the way countries interacted. To-

day, I think learning about the events

of WW1 is important because this war

changed the way wars were and are

now fought, for example introducing

new methods of fighting like chemical

warfare and air combat. The Treaty of

Versailles was signed after the First

World War which contributed to the

start of WW2, which also had an im-

portant impact on Britain.

To me and many others, the huge

amount of casualties in World War 1

is difficult to comprehend, especially

because we cannot relate to it. How-

ever, the 100th anniversary of the First

World War is making more people

aware of the sacrifices the soldiers

had to make when joining the army. It

makes us more grateful for those sol-

diers as well as the current army. Alt-

hough I am not directly affected by

this war, my great grandpa lost two of

his brothers and he returned with long

term effects which in turn affected my

granny (his daughter) because she

had to live with him and his illness.

The commemorations on TV make

people acknowledge the horrors of all

wars, not just the First World War but

also WW2 in particular, a war that

many older generations today can

relate to as a lot of them lived through

it and have first hand experiences

from it. Younger people today are also

aware because they can still talk to

some of those people who were alive

during it. To me personally when my

granddad talks about his experience

of being evacuated at the age of sev-

en I can understand how frightening

that must have been, not knowing

when you would see your parents

again.

Kate Taylor

As a young person today, it is very

easy to get caught up in the present

and forget the past. As we now mark

the 100th anniversary of the begin-

ning of World War I and the 70th an-

niversary of the D-day landings, it is

still of great importance for the young

generation to remember the history of

our country. You may now be asking

yourself, why should we remember

these events?

There are many reasons why we

should all take a moment from our

busy lives, to visualise and honour

the hardships of many of the soldiers

suffered during World War I. Over

700,000 British soldiers died attempt-

ing to keep a firm grasp on the future

of our country and it may be difficult

to sympathise with such a colossal

number, however, the centenary me-

morials taking place aim to inform all

of us about the mass importance of

our history.

As a school at this time, we have

partaken in supporting the Common-

wealth Games, a massive sporting

event which helps students at John

Spence unite by participating in sport

and other enjoyable activities. In His-

tory lessons especially we have fo-

cused on the events taking place in

World War I and II and the role of the

Commonwealth within them. The

investigative nature in which we have

analysed the events plays a vital part

in aiding each student’s remem-

brance of the soldiers’ parts in the

wars.

The Normandy Landings, better

known as “D-day” still plays equal

importance in British heritage and is

a symbol of overwhelming pride and

courage. We should all admire the

unbounded efforts of all the men that

landed on the mined and barbed

beaches of Normandy to endeavour

in overcoming the war. On June 6th

1944, 156,000 soldiers parachuted

and landed on French soil, yet over

4,500 of them would be dead by the

first day. Future generations should

be educated about the sacrifices our

servicemen and women made, as a

pure sign of respect for those who

may be considered a memory. Our

country’s future was carried by those

soldiers and it is now our job to carry

on their legacy in the form of a cele-

bration for all the parts they played,

whether they be colossal, or minute.

Reece Monaghan


I N V E S T I G AT I N G S C I E N C E

SUCCESS AT SALTERS C HEMISTRY FEST IVAL

Four students were selected from Year

8 to take part in the Salters Chemistry

Festival hosted by Newcastle Universi-

ty.

Salters are a national chemical compa-

ny that have an outreach programme to

try and inspire young people to consid-

er a career involving chemistry.

Geraldine Sword, Daniel Myers, Olivia

Harvey and Thomas Bolt donned their

lab coats and safety glasses to visit the

chemistry department of Newcastle

University.

In the first challenge the team were

asked to identify a murderer from a

series of suspects. The team were

judged on the quality of their laboratory

report and their laboratory working

skills. To identify the culprit they need-

ed to conduct chromatography at a

much more accurate level than they’d

done previously. Then the team need-

ed to learn some qualitative analysis of

chemicals. Both of these techniques

are seen in shows such as CSI. The

team pulled together working well but

the top three spots for this challenge

were awarded to other schools.

After the first challenge the teams were

allowed their lunch and were then invit-

ed to view a fun and exciting chemistry

demonstration informing them of some

of the chemicals found in our everyday

shopping baskets and the many inter-

esting careers involving chemistry. We

learned about the uses of carbon diox-

ide and nitrogen in our food through

some impressive demonstrations in-

volving dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide)

and liquid nitrogen.

For the second challenge all the teach-

ers were removed and the students

were left in the care of the university

staff for a challenge where they could-

n’t ask their teachers for any help. Stu-

dents were challenged to design a

chemical reaction that would achieve a

temperature of exactly 10.5°C in exact-

ly 1 minute. The team had an hour

where they experimented with various

ratios of the chemicals before the judg-

es asked to see their reaction. The

John Spence Team managed to

achieve a temperature of 10.3°C in 1

minute grabbing them the third place

position, beating local rivals Kings

Academy and winning some new sci-

ence equipment for the whole school to

use.

The annual Salters Chemistry event sees pupils from schools all over the region pitted against each

other in two chemistry-based practical challenges.


E N T E R P R I S I N G Y O U N G S T E R S

Year 10 Business Students were set an enterprising challenge this year. Students were given £10 to

buy all the resources they needed for their chosen project. The challenge was to find out which

group could covert £10 into the largest amount of revenue (money coming in to their business).

The winners were: Sarah Wind, Chloe Burns, Caitlin Rich-

ardson and Samantha Turnbull, who made and sold cakes

for a week in school.

We had many other different enterprise projects running

this year, which also included washing staff cars, a car

boot sale getting rid of unwanted and unloved items, ebay

sales again selling items no longer required, football and

even fixing small computer problems.

Well done to all those who participated in this event and a

big thank you to all those lovely customers out there!

W O R L D C U P M AT H S W I N F O R G E R M A N Y !

Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 have been taking part in a Mathematics based simulation of the FIFA World Cup. This has involved looking at the different symmetries of flags for the 32 participating Nations. We have also includ-ed some number and algebra tasks alongside a dice game. However these lessons were not all boring point-less Maths. Students have had fun. 8X3 and 8X4 combined to provide two different halves of the draw during one lesson, which saw some students ex-citement levels grow beyond anything seen previously in

their Maths lessons. At the end of the semi-final of Groups A, B, C and D the winner (Cameroon) got so excited he was seen rushing around the room, arms in the air trying to “kiss the camera”. He thought he was the overall winner! He soon came back to earth when he discovered he still had to play the final when the other half of the group re-turned. First the playoff for third place took place, with Switzerland taking the honours. The final between Came-roon and Germany was a very tense game, and ended in a controversial manner with Germany the overall winners.


A F T E R - S C H O O L S C I E N C E C L U B T H R I V E S

We kick-started the term with a 'make your own make up' session. Pupils were able to make a range of cosmet-ics such as lip glosses, foundation and shower gels to take home using a range of ingredients (kindly donated by John Spence staff - thanks!). We then went on to making pendu-lums, model volcanoes (complete with eruptions) and carried out some foren-sic detection and crime scene investi-gation. We even developed our own 'mini beasts game' (10 points for a centipede?!) and made delicious ice cream and sherbet.

As a reward for attendance pupils were given the opportunity to visit 'Forbidden Corner' in North Yorkshire - an amazing labyrinth where pupils could 'lose themselves' in some very creative engineering. This was also an opportunity for pupils to observe the on-site deer herd and herb gardens. We are now offering places to our Year 7 students! Any Year 7 students who are interested in joining STEM club should speak to Mrs Owens or Mr Patterson.

A generous STEM budget and enthu-siastic students means we have one of the most successful, long-running STEM clubs in the area. We've received a positive response from STEM outreach at Newcastle College about our club and we appre-ciate the continued support from them.

STEM club pupils have been at it again this term with another round of experimentation, making,

investigating and generally getting messy!

John Spence students and staff have been spending time in some of our local Primary Schools, delivering hands-on sci-ence days which allowed Year 4 pupils to take part in a crime scene investigation. The 'Murder at the Lighthouse' day allowed children to try their hand at fingerprint analysis, chromatography, microscopy and even searching a mocked up crime scene for evidence! Pupils used their problem-solving and investigative skills to determine the murderer from a list of suspects, using a range of scientific experiments. We hope that 'Murder at the Lighthouse' demonstrated our commitment to creating engaging lessons with opportunities for pupils to develop a variety of skills. We also enjoy building good links with our fantastic feeder schools. Pupils at the schools we visited: Spring Gardens, Christchurch and King Edwards Primary school were so enthusiastic and a pleasure to work with and as always, our pupils were fantastic in helping the children throughout

M U R D E R AT T H E L I G H T H O U S E ! ! !


W O R K S H O P S E N C O U R A G E U N D E R S TA N D I N G

The school has been working with the Show Racism the Red Card organisation for a number of

years. Below, a Year 9 students writes about the school’s recent Show Racism the Red Card Day.

A local charity: Show Racism the Red

Card (SRTRC), which has recently

turned national, was founded in Janu-

ary 1996 in order to educate the

young people around the UK on the

effects of racism.

Originally formed in Whitley Bay by

footballer Shaka Hislop, many stu-

dents and adults have now had some

connection with the organisation in

one way or another. On average,

SRTRC provides training to 50,000 cit-

izens a year, and has been awarded

the title of the UK’s prime anti-racism

association. Whether it’s in a school,

in a football stadium or in work envi-

ronments, the experiences given are

second to none.

On Thursday the 8th of May, Year 9

students were fortunate enough to

take part in one of their sessions, de-

livered by John Anderson (ex-

Sunderland player), Richard Offiong

(who played for the Newcastle Youth

team and the 2nds team), and the

main staff: Lizz and Laura. In addition

to this, a refugee named Ali (working

with the West End Refugee Service

WERS) also came in to present us

with his story.

Throughout the day, we participated in

learning about Ali’s emotional tale of

his youth (something you can only

come across once or twice in your

lifespan or indeed in a film), taking

part in a football skills session with

Richard and John, and being educat-

ed in workshops about the extreme

consequences of subjecting people to

Racist remarks and abuse. Plus, in

the opening assembly, we were taught

about Islamophobia, which is the ex-

treme fear or hatred towards the Is-

lamic religion.

Personally, the most memorable part

of the day was witnessing the story of

despair and tragedy that Ali suffered

during the Civil War of Rwanda. With

a constant anxiety that his end was

near, or that he would find his family

dead just because of his religion, it

was inspirational to see a man who

had lived through so much, but had

asked for so little. He simply had

wanted to provide his family with safe-

ty, but unfortunately, he could not res-

cue the majority of them. How could

one country progress to wipe out

around 30-40% of the population? And

how can we treat the survivors with a

lack of respect, especially when we

don’t know what they have been

through? I’m certain that this story

touched and enlightened students in

Year 9, and I hope you get to witness

something that can inform you of this

issue too.

From the day, I learned that genocide

(the mass killing of a race) is still oc-

curring today, yet most will not come

to realise that. Furthermore, I was

able to empathise with those who are

forced to endure this abuse each day.

Having friends from countries with dif-

ferent religions (such as Muslims and

Jews), this made me want to help

them battle the trauma, attempt to

overcome it, and also give them

someone to talk to who is able to un-

derstand.

I hope that, at one point or another;

you can have this exceptional experi-

ence, and help others fight against

Racism.

Bethany Richardson


E A S I N G T H E T R A N S I T I O N

CHALLENGING

MATHS

The Junior Maths Challenge is

aimed at pupils in Year 8 or

below in England and Wales.

The challenge involves answering 25 multiple choice questions in one hour and is sat in school under normal exam conditions. The competition is only suited to the best mathemati-cians nationally and certificates are awarded at three levels; gold, silver and bronze. 30 students were en-tered and just to be entered is recog-nition of a very high level of achieve-ment. Students are not coached to pass this test at all and as such the results we have received below for Year 8 are a real testament to their problem solving ability.

Gold

Geri Sword

Silver Olivia Tudor Thomas Bolt

Bronze

Lauren Moore Charlie Olive Lisa Ramsey Olivia Harvey

Jay Moore Steph Boast

Katherine Bal

During the past six weeks the

school has hosted various

events to introduce Year 6 pu-

pils to high school life. The

move from primary school is not

always easy and staff have tried

very hard to make the transition

as smooth as possible.

Eight transition days ran back to back and, in batches of twenty-five, each pupil experienced a timetabled day of lessons which included a mixture of maths, science, technology, ICT and PE lessons. They were introduced to the cafeteria style dining at lunchtime and met the Learning Mentors who answered lots of questions about the worries and fears pupils had about starting in September. On Monday 30

th June the whole year

group came together for the first time and competed in a sporting event or-ganised and supervised by the Year 9s who have opted to study PE at GCSE next year. 177 pupils from 16 different primary schools ran, jumped and hur-dled their way around a very demand-ing circuit of activities; the leaders counted, timed, recorded and general-ly encouraged their efforts. The scores were added up and the group led by Abby Waterworth took first place. All leaders nominated a star performer in their group and the Year 6 stars were rewarded with certificates.

Two days later and the whole cohort

were back in again for a STEM day

experience. The pupils took part in

six different lessons including English,

maths, science, technology, PE and

drama. The English session took

place in the school garden and used

living organisms as a stimulus to write

poetry. Pupils made healthy kebabs in

technology and in science they investi-

gated the claims that low fat crisps

contain less energy. They developed

data interpretation skills in maths and

learned how to freeze frame and inter-

pret freeze frame in Drama. The

weather was kind and the planned ori-

enteering PE activity was able to go

ahead on the school field. The pupils

thoroughly enjoyed the day and all

staff involved were very impressed

with the level of engagement shown by

all pupils.

Finally, all the pupils and their parents

and carers attended school on the

evening of Monday 7th July to meet

with their Head of Year and Form Tu-

tors. We think they are happier about

the big move and all that remains to be

said is that this lot look ready to adopt

the year group motto of nil satis nisi

optimum …… only the best is good

enough!


T E A C H E R S W A P W I T H K O R E A

This January saw a group of teachers from the Republic of Korea

(South Korea) visit the North East as part of a teacher exchange

programme run by the Asia Pacific Centre for International Educa-

tional Understanding (APCIEU) — a part of UNESCO, The pro-

gramme aims to allow teachers to develop their skills by teaching

in another culture and to broaden of the cultural horizons of stu-

dents in Korea, the UK, Australia and the US.

John Spence was chosen as one of the partner schools in this exchange and

one of the Korean teachers, Ms Hyun-Suk Kim was with us for a period of three

weeks. In addition senior staff from APCIEU and the Korean Ministry of Educa-

tion visited the school towards the end of the programme to meet with Mr Ste-

phenson and observe the Korean teacher’s lesson.

After a period of observation around the school Ms Kim taught our students

about parts of her culture with a diverse range of topics, covering traditional

dress making, the Korean new year festival, with pupils designing Korean style

lanterns using a UK theme to decorate them, basic Korean language and a

chemistry lab being used to produce Korean style pancakes (who knew that

Bunsen burners and tripods can be used to cook food?).

I am currently in Korea on the second part of the exchange, after a week spent

in Seoul I have begun teaching at Yangsan Samsung Middle School. The stu-

dents are enthusiastic to learn about the UK’s culture and have already learned

about famous British scientists and inventors and their contributions to some

famous Korean products like Hyundai cars and Samsung mobile phones. With

10 more lessons to follow in the coming week, there will be plenty of opportuni-

ties for the students here to learn about British culture. A notable shared point of

interest with the Korean students has been the equally dismal performances of

our football teams at the World Cup in Brazil!

There is much for me to learn about South Korea’s excellent internationally rec-

ognised education system and I hope to bring a lot of this knowledge back to

John Spence with me after the exchange has ended! I also hope to begin forg-

ing links between our outstanding school and our counterparts in Korea, which

will continue years after the exchange has finished.

A further report will follow in the next newsletter, with many images of my

(successful) lessons in Korea and further news from Yangsan Samsung Middle

School. Mr Dodd

To do so has required them to attend

meetings after school during which

they have planned and prepared for

the expeditions by working out

routes; practicing map and compass

skills; and selecting appropriate

equipment to bring.

Both weekends were completed in

quick succession in areas around

Matfen and Chollerford, and in both

cases the groups were soaked by

downpours and then dried by hot

sunshine. The weather conditions

were particularly demanding as they

meant the participants arrived at

each campsite cold and wet but, to

their credit, at no point did the condi-

tions seem to dampen their spirits.

Their expedition success means they

are now on the way to gaining their

full Bronze award and all participants

are engaged in activities which

should mean that the other three

sections of Physical; Skill and Volun-

teering needed for the full award can

be completed in the near future.

Our current group of Year 9

Duke of Edinburgh Award

(DofE) participants has recently

navigated and camped their

way through two tough week-

ends of hiking to successfully

pass their Bronze expedition.

OUTDOOR

PURSUIT S


S TAY S A F E

John Spence

Community High School

Preston Road, North Shields

Tyne and Wear NE29 9PU

0191 200 5220 Fax 0191 200 5225

[email protected]

www.johnspence.org.uk

NT POL ICE .

SUMMER EVENT

Richardson Dees Park. .Pavilion House.

Tuesday 22nd

July 10am-2pm

This event, organised by Northumbria Police, will allow parents and stu-dents to find out what is happening in the local area over the summer.

Numerous organisations will be in attendance to highlight activities that will interest young people. These in-clude Wallsend Air Cadets, the Sub 21 youth activity group, North Tyne-side Council’s Ban Boredom team and North Tyneside Council’s Parks and Leisure staff.

Northumbria Police will be marking bikes and mobile phones with the new IMMOBILISE system and Home-group will hand out bike locks to any student who attends on their bike.

This event is an open forum for par-ents and students to attend.

P E A N D S P O R T — P R I M A R Y Z O N E

This has been a fantastic sporting year

in our Primary schools, with more pu-

pils and leaders being involved than

ever before! This year has seen ten

main festivals being held at John

Spence in range of sports, with every

child in our feeder schools being given

the chance to compete against pupils

in neighbouring schools in every year

group.

To support these primary competitions we have provided around

296 leadership opportunities for our students at John Spence!

For each competition, the schools have had the support of our primary PE liai-

son teacher Mr Pilkington. He has delivered high quality PE lessons in the run

up to each competition and taught the relevant skills and rules for the pupils to

participate. Most competitions have seen full attendance, with a record number

of our primary pupils competing.

With the help of the School Sport Premium money we expect the high quality

provision of PE to increase and raise not just the standards of the pupils, but

teaching and leadership of PE in our schools.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our local feeder schools for sup-

porting the extensive PE and School Sport program in their own schools, espe-

cially the primary link teachers who work very hard to support their pupils.

Miss Smith – Christ Church Mrs Udberg – Preston Grange

Miss Mood – Spring Gardens Mrs Cunningham – King Edwards

Mrs Watts – Whitehouse

Congratulations to all the teams who appear on this year’s honours list. Each

pupil receives a medal for their winning performance and also a trophy for the

school to keep for a year!

High 5 Netball – Preston Grange Year 1 Multiskills – King Edwards

Year 2 Multiskills – Preston Grange In2 Hockey – Christ Church

Year 3 Skipping – Preston Grange Year 4 Skipping – Preston Grange

Year 3 Mini Tennis – Whitehouse Year 4 Mini Tennis – King Edwards

The year closed with two huge events, the Year 5/6 Indoor Athletics Challenge

and more recently the annual Lloyds Fun Run to celebrate National School

Sports Week. On this day alone, twenty-four leaders helped approximately 600+

pupils around a one- or three-mile route inside the school grounds!

We look forward to working with all our primary schools in the new academic

year and building upon the successful year we have just had.

JULY 2014 SUCCESS FOR STAR STUDENTS - Mark Airey · JULY 2014 The last week in June saw the first...

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Transcript of JULY 2014 SUCCESS FOR STAR STUDENTS - Mark Airey · JULY 2014 The last week in June saw the first...