NEWSLETTER22nd June 2018 | Issue 44

PREFECTS ON PATROLFor the first time ever we held a training day with 40 Commando for our new Prefects. Three officers came to the academy to speak to the Year 10s, to prepare them to take on their new roles after half term. They ran various leadership and team management tasks with them, including taking apart and running with a large field gun. Year leader Tamara Dixon, who organised the training, said:

“This is the first time we have done this and certainly the first time 40 Commando has been invited into a school to actually train students! We want to make sure they are ready to take on the responsibility of being a prefect, as it’s not just about wearing a badge. The aim is also to teach our young people to be resilient and have the inner strength to be confident and authoritative in their roles.”

Mrs Wilde

Year 8: Kacey-Mai for being a lovely, helpful, hardworking student. William for offering amazing help in the music department and with a sports activity.

Year 9: Alfie and Karen for just being amazing.

Year 7: Ellie and Ryan for being fabulous, working hard and having a positive attitude.

Year 7:Nathan and Nicole for being constantly fabulous.

Year 9: Junior for great improvements in class. Molly for consistent high standards across school.

Year 7: Radiana and Lewis for continued outstanding effort and positive attitude.

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK:

BBC Radio Somerset last week broadcast two lovely items about our prefects training session with 40 Commando (full report below). I was particularly proud to hear our new senior prefects being interviewed and explaining how seriously we, and they, take the role. It’s no longer about being handed a badge and being told to get on with it; we expect them to be active participants in our leadership team, to manage their responsibilities and to communicate their expectations whilst being respectful to others - all things the marines were happy to be able to guide them with on the day.

If you missed it please do listen on the BBC iPlayer or follow this link https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p066vrvl we feature at 52 seconds into the programme, when you can hear Mrs Dixon and one of the commandos being interviewed; then again at one minute 52 seconds in when you will hear contributions from the prefects themselves.

Another key moment this week was the Year 11 leavers’ event. The students had their last exam on Friday and we held a celebration of their time with us following this. It was a lovely event; tutors and staff spoke so warmly of students and it was illustrative of the superb relationships which have been established over a long period of time. It was touching and inspiring all at once. I am not sure there were many dry eyes in the house when Mr Brown announced he wished to buy the students in his form group a meaningful gift and then proceeded to tell them they were now sponsoring a young person’s education in Africa.

We are extremely proud of the students and we wish them all the very best for the future. Mrs J Veal, Head Teacher

HEAD TEACHER’S MESSAGE

GOODBYE YEAR 11Some photos from the Year 11 leavers’ assembly and BBQ on Friday. We wish them all well for the future and best of luck with their results in August!

We have our end of year Creative Showcase on Monday 25th June, 6.30pm start. It will run for about two hours, with a 20 minute break. Family and friends are welcome to view the art and photography exhibition in the interval and a cream tea will be available to buy.

Year 8/9 vaccinations for those who missed them last term will be at 9.30am on 29th June (after the Year 11 exams).

This years’ Prom is being held at the Woodlands Castle Hotel, on Thursday June 28th 2018, starting at 6:45 – 11pm.

DIARY NOTES

WORLD CUP FEVER

Being like a child at Christmas with the World Cup, I have been running a whole school competition to celebrate all things multicultural. With 32 countries taking part, we have come up with 32 different groups across the school of which each of these groups has a team. The groups are made up of tutors/faculties/deputy heads/site teams and so on, whereby everyone is involved. Each group was given a flag of their country to display with pride on their door/area and they decorated the area with their country’s theme.

The winners were:1st place - 10KLA Colombia 2nd place - 8JST Mexico3rd place - 8TKI DenmarkThe faculty award went to the English Department with Serbia.

Opening will take place on 11th July 4.30 to 6.30pm. All prospective students are welcome but the evening is especially aimed at Year 5 students and their families. We look forward to seeing you there!

OPEN EVENING

PRIORSWOOD PAST

Join our friendly group at the

Priorswood Community Centre

Tuesdays 4pm – 6pm to research our local history, share photos and memories of times gone by.

Do you remember Avimo – Cheddon Road Hospital – Somerwest –

The Brewery – The local Trams – Bishops Fox’s School and other places lost to time? If so, please call us on 01823 353643 or

email; Lesley.priorswoodcc@yahoo.co.uk or just turn up on a Tuesday we would love to hear from you.

Individual prizes were awarded to Leonard and Josh for their superb performances. The response from students and staff has been fantastic and I am so proud of the effort everyone has made. The school looks terrific and is filled with a diverse range of cultures and traditions. Mr Cox

YEAR 5 OPEN EVENING IS ON WEDNESDAY 11TH JULY 4:30-6:30PM

The students rewarded for consistent creativity, leadership and effort in Drama in the Spring term were:

Year 10 Tamzin (Double Award), Kayleigh and George.

Year 9 Ollie, Maddy, Harry, Tilly, Jay, Vince and Caitlin.

Year 8 Chris, Imogen, Lewis, Tyler, Lydia, Emilly, Destiny and Teegan.

Year 7 Amber, Bertie, Hannah, Amy, Sasha, Jemima, Leon, Radiana, Alistair and Taylor (Photo of Bertie and Taylor, 7JSI) Mr Kerr

DRAMA STARS

Year 10 students visited an exhibition at Hestercombe House last week and made drawings and took photographs in the garden, as part of their coursework.

Mrs Logsdon

AMAZING MATHEMATICIANS

Year 11 stepped up in the half term with about a third of the year group coming in in sweltering heat to enjoy five sessions on the different sections of English Language Paper 1, with pizza afterwards. There were some lovely examples of narrative writing, excellent attitudes and the canteen was left immaculate too! Students’ feedback on the day was really positive and they were grateful to the Year 11 teachers who made the day possible. Well done and good luck to all.

Mrs Wilde

Our Year 8 young leaders were brilliant in the Year 2 multi skills festival. They remained enthusiastic and motivated throughout the morning, despite the hot conditions and many said they were exhausted at the end. They impressed many staff from the primary schools, who provided me with some very positive feedback.

Pictured are Anya and Phillipa on the assault course, Joe and Will on golf putting, Imogen and Emilia on athletics and Carina, Lara and Allana on the parachute.

Tyler was a fantastic ‘meet and greet’ leader whilst Reggie and Alfie courageously led a warm up for all of the students.

Mrs Ardren

Year 10 lunchtime revision in English. A total of 23 boys and 14 girls have turned up to revise this week. The Head of English Mrs Wilde said she was impressed by their hard work and dedication and that they are a lovely year group.

LOVELY REVISION

SOMERSET CRICKET SCHOOLS’ DAY

DISTRICT ATHLETICS COMPETITION

Somerset Cricket Club threw open its doors to local schools on schools’ day, when two of county cricket’s great modern entertainers, Somerset and Sussex, quite literally showed the kids how it’s done. There were 1,000 such youngsters in the crowd, on a particularly sunny Tuesday and we took forty of our Year 9 students.

All pupils received an activity booklet, which consisted of a treasure hunt and some simple games. Cricket-based activities took place in the Indoor Centre of Excellence throughout the day and inflatable cricket nets were also in place outside the Somerset Cricket Museum.

Somerset and England spinner Jack Leach was on hand to take part in a number of signing sessions. During the interval between the innings all of the schools joined together and took part in a parade on the outfield before gathering in front of the Marcus Trescothick Stand.

Mr Cox

MULTI SKILLED

PIZZA PAPERS

We went to Taunton School to do a Maths challenge and we were unsure about how well we would do. It was

so fun! The best part was the treasure hunt, trigonometry and the tangrams. Overall, our school came second which we were so shocked about but so proud of how well we did.”

Jasmin and Chloe

Last week I took twelve of my Year 7 Maths students to Taunton School to take part in a Maths challenge against

five other schools from the area. Each school split their twelve students into two teams of six. This meant there were twelve teams in the competition who each completed a range of Maths problems over seven different rounds throughout the day.

Our students were tremendous and The Taunton Academy A team managed to secure second place out of the twelve which is fantastic! When the points from each schools’ A and B teams were added together we also finished second overall, which shows how well all twelve students did!

Mr Cox

On Wednesday 13th we went to a Maths competition at Taunton School. It was very fun and we had a

great time. We came second best school out of six which included Bishops Foxs, Uffculme, Heathfield, Chilton Trinity and Kingsmead. We were just three points away from winning! Our favourite parts were the real life trigonometry and the Maths relay race that we did.”

Alex and Mason HESTERCOMBE VISIT

This was a team event at The Castle School last week and although none of our teams had podium positions, the Year 8 boys finished fourth! We also had some outstanding individual results as detailed below. There were approx 14 competitors in each event so you can see how well these students did!

Year 7

Jasmin, 1st in high jump.

Abi, 1st in discus and 4th in shot putt.

Phillip, 2nd in 200m and 3rd in 100m.

George, 4th in 800m.

Abi, 4th in shot putt.

Year 8

Cullen, 1st in 300m and 3rd in long jump.

Callum, 2nd in 300m.

Diana, 4th in 100m.

Ollie, 2nd in discus.

Joe, 4th in javelin.

Jasmine, 1st in javelin (by miles!) and 3rd in discus.

A huge well done to all.

Mrs Ardren