Southchurch

Weekly News

19 June 2020 Welcome to our weekly newsletter - No 28

As you are aware, schools have been undergoing a phased return, with children in nursery and some primary school year groups attending alongside priority groups. Southchurch High School is looking forward to all of our students returning, but for most it may not be until September 2020, as schools are following the directives of the government. This week, however, we welcomed back our year 10 students to provide face to face contact that will support and supplement their remote education, as they are due to sit their exams next year.

There are many changes Southchurch High School has implemented to reduce the risk to its students and staff including the following:

Outside Reception has hand-washing facilities that must be used for 20 seconds before entering the building

All staff and students must enter the school via Reception where they will pass a thermal imaging

camera that takes their temperature and triggers an alarm if too high

Around the school a one way system is in place that must be followed at all times to ensure social

distancing

Classrooms are set up to ensure social distancing can be carried out

Rooms and shared facilities are cleaned by the school site team after each use, with a deep clean

taking place weekly

We look forward to welcoming all of our students back into school as soon as we are able to,

but for now, thank you for continuing to support your child at home.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS

Due to the current climate and probability that some households may have unfortunately lost their income or be on a considerably reduced income your child may be eligible for free school meals. If you are in receipt of any of the benefits listed below you may be eligible to claim for your child, while the school is closed and receive free school meal vouchers. Are you currently receiving one of these benefits?

· Universal Credit with an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400. · Income Support · Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance · Income-related Employment and Support Allowance · Support under Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 · The guarantee element of Pension Credit · Working Tax Credit run-on (paid for the four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax

Credit) · Child Tax Credit (with no Working Tax Credit) with an annual income of no more than £16,190

If you do receive one of the benefits listed above, all you need to do is go to Southend Borough Council website to complete a short online form, which you can access at:

https://www.southend.gov.uk/info/200343/help_with_costs/56/free_school_meals

A simple check will be carried out and the school will be notified of the outcome of your application. You will need the following information to complete the form:

· First and Last Name of parent(s) that child resides with. · Date of Birth of parent(s) above. · National Insurance Number of parent(s) as above.

BBC Bitesize Daily – Shakespeare Fortnight!

It’s Shakespeare Fortnight on BBC Bitesize with lots of Shakespeare related lessons online, on BBC iPlayer

and the Red Button.

The life and work of William Shakespeare will be explored in Shakespeare Fortnight which runs this week

and next week and was created in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Some of the highlights on Bitesize Daily include:

Kings and Leadership in relation to Macbeth for KS3.

Interpreting performance looking at Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet - Year 10.

Next week Bitesize Daily TV programmes will see famous faces and RSC actors read adapted

Shakespeare extracts for The Big Read.

There is also a Parents' Toolkit that offers help for parents or guardians on home-schooling, supporting children's wellbeing, and SEND

Here are the schedules for the next two weeks of online lessons.

COMPUTING AND BUSINESS

For all students studying a Business related course, there are several informative videos free to view on the website www.tutor2u.net/business/videos.

They are a great resource to extend your knowledge and skills.

GLOBAL DISNEY CHALLENGE!

The geography department invites year 7 and 8 to join the ‘Global Disney’ challenge!

This involves you researching where a number of Disney films were set throughout the world and plotting these locations on a map. Once you have completed your map, we challenge you to select one location and explore the human and physical geography of that country and explain why it was a good location for the films storyline.

Additional information, including the Disney films and the worksheets will be emailed to you.

Here is this week’s GEOGGLEBOX!

There are some amazing TV shows on at the moment that have a geographical theme. Some have already aired, but if you have access to a smart TV or iPlayer, you can also watch them online anytime.

THIS is an easy way to brush up your current affairs or learn a little more about the world around us...

‘RACE ACROSS THE WORLD’ WINNERS!

Thank you to all the students who took part in the ‘Race across the World’ competition, our winners were William in year 7 and Serenity in year 10.

Congratulations and well done to you both!

Computing Fact of the week!

On 18 June 1992, a high school student in Los Angeles, Kevin Chang, won a competition with his new traffic flow program. This enabled automatic acceleration and braking by using an infrared sensor that monitored the distance between cars and instructed the car whether it should speed up or slow down.

A huge congratulations to four of our students who have managed to win a Jack Petchey Award despite being in lockdown!

These students have worked extremely hard, completing all set work and more. They have challenged themselves to improve and been in constant communication with staff, striving to reach targets and engaging with every possible opportunity.

Each one of these amazing students wins a certificate, a pin badge for their blazer, a medal (which will be presented by the mayor at an awards ceremony next year) and £250 to spend within a club or subject of their choice. They could purchase a new football kit if they are in the team, or maybe some new musical instruments, resources for science, or books for the Hub. However during lockdown, they can also choose things like art or baking kits to use at home, board games and much more….

There are two more awards to be announced next week.

Well done to you all!

Miss Cassar.

Korey was nominated by the Hub team.

Ms Moore says… “Korey has completed 148 units on Lexia and

dedicated nearly twice the amount of hours we asked for. He has

made amazing progress in the past 7 weeks of term time.

Korey has also engaged in all of our weekly reading challenges, winning on numerous occasions and has taken 16 Accelerated Reader quizzes since the school was closed. He had remained committed to improving his reading level and has gone above and beyond our expectations for him.” Korey – “I was surprised when my mum got the message, she played it so that I could hear. It's nice to have the feeling of winning. I have enjoyed taking part in the reading challenges and getting good results when I do the Kahoot quizzes.”

Vanessa was nominated by Film Studies.

Mrs Agguini says… “Vanessa has shown excellent engagement and development of skills during lockdown. Fantastic written work. Not only has she completed all set work to the highest standard, she has spent her time discovering a new talent in photography. Well done Vanessa, the photos are amazing!” Vanessa – “I’m so happy to be receiving this news as it’s my birthday Saturday so it’s like a birthday present!”

Grai was nominated by Mrs Gilbert

Mrs Gilbert says… “This is such a wonderful achievement and Grai has worked incredibly hard to achieve it. His consistent dedication to his learning and self-motivation is a tribute to you and everyone at Southchurch High School is proud of his continuous efforts. Grai embodies everything that a Southchurch student should be and is exemplary in all aspects of his learning which has been proven during this period of home schooling especially during such a time of uncertainty.” Grai – “I’m so excited to have won this award and actually kept asking what I have done to deserve it?”

Mark was nominated by both Mrs Daly and Ms Andrews.

They both feel Mark has worked so hard over the past couple of months. He has completed his work to the highest standard and has put in lots of effort, proving that nothing will stop him!

Mrs Daly Says… “What a fantastic achievement! Mark has demonstrated incredible resilience and determination throughout the lockdown period. Mark has progressed significantly during his time at Southchurch and is a model student around the school. His work ethic is exemplary and to top it off - he is a joy to teach!” Mark – “Wow I can't believe this. Thank you so much!”

“If you think you can,.. you can!”

Announcing the Winner of the Southchurch High Film Competition 2020!

The Film and Media Department is very pleased to announce that the winner of this year's Southchurch High Film Competition is Samuel, Year 8, for his excellent short film ‘The Fox Man’ (Jobling-Briggs, 2020). Mrs Agguini, Subject Lead for Film and Media, made the following comments regarding the film: "I have to say that I really am incredibly impressed by so many aspects of Samuel's short film: his use of sound, his selection of shot sizes, the ingenious way he's used the lighting at home to create atmosphere so very effectively, the convincing performances of both actors in the film, the chilling psychological twists and turns in the narrative.... it has so many excellent aspects, and I'm delighted to see such a talented young film-maker in our midst!" Students will have the opportunity to view The Fox Man at school next term.

Congratulations to Samuel for this wonderful piece!

Motiv8

We are continuing to reward our students for their efforts while working at home, with our ‘Motiv8’ initiative!

We would love to see what the children have been getting up to during June, so please email us if they have been taking the initiative to actively seek out additional learning. Thank you to everyone who has already emailed us with the fantastic work your children have been doing!