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Millom School Termly Newsletter

July 2015

A Message From Simon Laheney

And so another year draws to a close and from my perspective it has been a thoroughly success-ful and enjoyable one. It is, of course, a time of significant and exciting change as Millom School welcomes its new headteacher, Mr Savidge. And of course with his arrival comes my departure. Thankfully, this term and right up until this final week has been so chocked full of activities, most of which you can read about in this newsletter, I haven’t had time to reflect and feel too emotional about going. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Millom School and have too many people to thank for supporting me through the roles I have held and had the honour of fulfilling here. It is the belief I have in the immutable qualities of the Values that bind everyone together here in a common purpose, which I witness each day, that gives me the confidence to know that Millom School will successfully manage this change. I suppose it is also that belief in a common purpose which persuades so many of our staff, students, parents and local volunteers to invest so much of themselves in our community far beyond the scope of the job and expectations of the profession or civic duty. It is this, the friendships I have made and the energy of our stu-dents that I will miss most dearly.

This year we also say goodbye to:

Gavin Stewart

A former Millom School student, Gavin has been working as a teaching assis-tant this last year and has contributed immensely to the experience of school for some of our most vulnerable students. He leaves after one year to take up a super offer to work in the USA later this year. We will also miss his undoubted musical talents and the time he has given to supporting the music department. He has been a fabulous role model and we wish him every success in the future.

Jacqui Chisem

Whilst Jacqui may have only been with Millom School for 3 years there is no doubt that she has made a huge impact on the provision of special educational needs for our students. Her dedication, care and constant championing of the students she and her team worked with is innate. I know that, like us, the students and their families are saddened by her leaving but understand her personal reasons for taking retirement early. In typical fashion, however, and we are truly grateful for this, she has offered to support our new Director of Special Needs, Sarah Mor-

ton, as she takes over the role in September.

Contents

Messages 1 - 4 Spring Term Celebrations 5 - 10 Information & Reminders 11 - 12

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Mike Moorby

Mike Moorby came to us late in his career and was appointed in January 2009. At this time Millom School was in Special Measures and, in my view, it takes a confident and courageous professional able to make such a bold career deci-sion. Mike is also retiring, but for those of us who jealously witnessed his scorching final leg of the staff 4 x 100m relay this year, he is certainly leaving with bags of energy left in the tank. Made of resilient stuff, Mike has worked

tirelessly with the highest level of professionalism and determination to help the students of Millom School with their maths. To use another sporting analogy, I know Mike ‘left nothing on the pitch’ in his endeavours to do this. We wish him and his wife a long and fruitful retirement.

Kath Giles

Also retiring after 25 years of diligently keeping our school buildings clean and in ship shape is Kath Giles. Like many others who work behind the scenes, quite often their work can go unnoticed until of course it isn’t done and then we realise just how important they are. Thankfully, in Kath’s case she has never let this happen. She will be missed by those she has worked with for her wicked sense of humour and the kindness she has always shown to everyone she meets. We wish her a long and rest-

ful retirement.

Dee Gannon

Dee has taught PE at Millom School for over 14 years. During that time she has held a number of leadership and management positions and she was integral to the suc-cessful bid that resulted in the building of the all-weather pitch: a legacy that will no doubt live on for many decades to come. She then put her burgeoning career on hold as she embarked on motherhood and now represents a group of professionals –the part-timers- whose contribution to Millom School is absolutely essential. In truth,

what we get from them is full-time commitment for part-time pay and Dee absolutely typifies this. She is not only reliable and conscientious, with a commitment to meeting the needs of the young people in her classes, but she is also immensely kind, generous and thoughtful. PE de-partment colleagues especially will miss her good humour and we all wish her the very best of luck with her future endeavours.

Jonathan Elvy

I think it is fair to say that when Jonathan started in his role as Premises Man-ager nine years ago, apart from the new buildings on site, the main buildings and classrooms had seen better days. A fitting testament to Jonathan and his team is that, on his watch, every visitor to the school for the first time now comments on how well presented and looked after the school looks. Whilst it is impossible to quantify, we cannot underestimate the subliminal contribution

this has made to the school and the work that goes on here. Thank you and you go with our best wishes in your future endeavours.

Jan Taylor

Jan will be a real loss. She is one of our many unsung heroes: a modest and un-assuming person who just gets on doing a fine job, building excellent relation-ships with students and colleagues and thoroughly conscientious at all times. She is a consummate professional and has been such a reassuring presence in the sometimes intimidating world of special educational needs. I know there are many students who owe their success to the nurturing and support they

received from Jan and her team during their CoPE lessons. I often feel that one of the ways Mil-lom School has the edge is in the quality and dedication of its support staff who really bring spe-cial qualities. Jan has been a classic example of this for 16 years and fully deserves a really happy future.

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Jean Green

There is something very special about Millom School that lures and draws you in, that captures the spirit and imagination and makes you stay. Sadly, some people really are irreplaceable and this year we say goodbye to our two longest serving members of staff, Jean Green and Stewart Robinson.

Jean joined the staff as an office junior on July 1st 1974 after leaving Millom School the year before. To put that in perspective to those of you who are old enough to

know, number 1 that week in the charts was ‘She’ by Charles Aznavour, also joined in the top ten by The Drifters, Slade, Shawaddywaddy and the Wombles. A bygone musical age I hear some sigh, not for me however as at that time I was only 9 months old! It’s interesting, given the battering schools and education have endured recently, to think about the flux and change Jean has experienced in that time – 7 Prime Ministers and 4 Headteachers! However, never could a school have wished for a more kind, generous and dedicated servant, who has always been happy to give up her time and energy in pursuit of helping to make Millom School a great place to study and work. It would be impossible to try and list the contributions Jean has made to life at Millom School, suffice to say they have been numerous and far reaching. Whilst of late, her work has taken a wider path and adjustments have needed to have been made during that time, after she has left there is no doubt that the school will not be the same without her. She leaves after 41 years of continuous service, a feat I imagine that will never be matched, with our best wishes and hopes for the future.

Stewart Robinson

When Stewart joined Millom School in 1979 the educational landscape was very different to today. With a passion for sport and in particular outdoor education, Stewart must have resented the Ofsted obsessed world, the reductive obsession with exam results and the strangling constraints of accountability and league ta-bles that we find ourselves in today. For someone fired up for the values of sport and outdoor education, and the benefits they bestow on young people with re-gards to their self-esteem, personal growth and socialisation, it must have felt like

staring into the abyss at times. Despite this, Stewart has stuck to his principles and champi-oned out of the classroom education. Generations of young people have been the beneficiaries of his inspiration and commitment and he has shared in their experiences and happy memories to the full. With the successes of numerous school teams he has led and coached, the residen-tial experiences so many have enjoyed, and more recently taking responsibility for trips to far flung places of the world such as Borneo and next year to Equador, Stewart leaves us with the fondest of memories and rightly proud of his achievements during his 35 years at Millom School.

My sincerest thanks go to everyone who continues to go the extra mile and enriching what Mil-lom School offers.

Finally, have a great summer and thank you for all of your support and encouragement over this year.

Simon Laheney Acting Headteacher

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A View from the Chair of Governors

Nothing in education stands still; everything seems be subject to change. At Millom School we have been fortunate in having continuity of leadership over a considerable period. That has helped the school to develop and improve and has led to its quality being recognised both by the Local Authority and by school inspectors. But now Ian Smith is no longer with us as executive head and Simon Laheney is leaving as acting head teacher. They both have challenging posts elsewhere – up the coast in Whitehaven and across the Duddon in Barrow. As governors we are very appreciative of their work. Simon in particular has managed the school with exemplary effi-ciency since Ian Smith’s departure. As from September Matthew Savidge will be our head teach-er, though ably supported by our cadre of experienced assistant head teachers. We are looking forward to working with him and benefitting from his fresh perspective on our work with the young people of Millom and district.

The end of the summer term sees a number of staff leaving their posts including Jean Green, who will be leaving us after 41 (yes 41!) years of devoted service to the school and its students. Others include Jacquie Chisem, our SENCO, Dee Gannon from the PE department, Mike Moorby from the mathematics department, Jan Taylor from the Learning Support department, and Stewart Robinson who has been here 35 years. We wish them, and all the other “leavers”, well.

Meanwhile the work of the school goes on – with year 11 and 13 students now anxiously await-ing their exam results and but with a host of activities taking place this term. The Year 11 prom proved as colourful and sociable occasion as ever. The swimming gala and sports day went off well. School teams were successful in Cumbria technology competitions. Our youngest students took place in the “Big Clean” sponsored by the Evening Mail. A group of year 9 girls spent a week sailing off the south coast and the members of the bike club have their sights set on attempt-ing the Coast to Coast trail. Oh to be young again!

Lots of other activities could have been mentioned but I would like to make a personal apprecia-tion of the Summer Music Festival which was a wonderful evening showcasing the creative tal-ents of so many of our students. I came away overawed, appreciative of the efforts of the crea-tive arts staff and really proud of my association with the school. Though a marvellous occasion, sadly it saw the last public performance of my favourite singing group “Minor Details”; they have brought so much enjoyment and been so inspiring over the five years of their existence. If only I could have had their talent and their self-confidence when I was their age (soon after the middle of the last century!).

The school is living up to our aim to encourage students to the best they can, to realise their ambitions and, very importantly, to enjoy themselves at the same time.

As governors we hope that they and all of you connected to the school enjoy a summer charac-terised by unseasonable sunny weather!

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Summer Music Festival

Millom school pupils joined forces on 2 July to present an evening of live musical entertainment. The programme featured a diverse range of styles from Classical to Musicals, Rock to Hiphop. Highlights included a five movement rendition of Phantom of the Opera conducted by Ruth Cul-len and featuring a stunning vocal performance by Melissa Bell of ‘Think of Me’. Ex-student Gavin Stewart returned to the school this year to lead the Woodwind Group with his own ar-rangement of Mozart’s, “Eine Kleine Nachtmuzik”. The first half staged some outstanding solo and duet performances from singers ranging from Year 8 to Year 13, highlights included Gina Evans performing ‘In the Arms of an Angel’ by Sarah McLachlan, Chloe Temple singing ‘Jar of Hearts’ by Christina Perry, and new student Chloe Pinney with her rendition of ‘I See Fire’ by Ed Sheeran.

The second half of the programme showcased the talents of the new Year 7 Rock group, a per-formance of Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ by Peter Gaythorpe accompanied by community beatbox-er Siwayu Suvannakum alongside other members of ASOR. The After School of Rock group, now in their 4th year of performing and jointly directed by local guitar teacher James Lowdon, pre-sented ‘Whistle for the Choir’ by The Fratellis and ‘Hold Back the River’ by James Bay and later joined forces with the Brass group to play ‘Everybody Needs Somebody’ from the Blues Brothers Soundtrack as the grand finale.

Annali Lowdon, Music Teacher and lead organizer of the annual event commented: ‘There is so much homegrown musical talent in Millom. Every year this concert goes from strength to strength and all credit must go to the students who are putting in the hours of rehearsal and who are willing to share their vocal and instrumental skills and musical passion with a large au-dience. We’re already looking forward to next year’s event.’

“Big Bang” Competitions

During June our Year 8 an 9 STEM students attended the Cumbria Big Bang at Whitehaven Golf Club. Year 8 presented their project Submarine Hull Design Using Bio-Mimicry, while the Year 9’s project was Colonisation of Mars. The Year 8 students won the junior competition with the Year 9’s runners up.

Both teams again competed at the North West Big Bang during July with the Year 8’s winning and they will now have the opportunity to compete in the National competition at Birmingham in March 2016.

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Activity Week

Students have been involved in the first activity week to have taken place in school for the last few years. One of the school’s priorities this year was to ensure that all students climbed Black Combe. On Monday Year 8 attempted this, however, due to poor weather conditions the walk had to be abandoned. The weather on Tuesday was much better and Year 7 reached the top.

The art department was responsible for cellophane sculpturing and numerous models have been found around school. Science and Technology departments have had students doing STEM projects and gingerbread castle baking. We have held an alternative sports days with events such as “welly throwing” and “speedgun football”. CSI Millom was also another event taking place within the Maths department, while the Music department ran a percussion work-shop.

On Tuesday 49 students went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and each day Mr Vogler and Mr Rob-inson took students to Coniston for canoeing lessons with the company, River Deep Mountain High.

Science in Paris

This week 35 Year 10 students and 4 staff set off to spend 3 days in Paris. Following their long journey on Monday they eventually arrived on a lovely warm sunny evening.

During their stay they will have a cruise on the River Seine, passing Notre Dame Cathedral, visit-ing the Science Museum and will be going to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

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Year 9 Girls go Sailing

On 25th June Miss Quinn once again took a group of Year 9 girls a Sailing expedition. The excur-sion was for one week and was in corporation with the Rona Sailing Project which is based in Southampton.

The trip included students crewing a 60-foot sailing yacht. The girls slept and cooked on board while traveling around the South coast of England.

Coast to Coast

Over the past year Miss Quinn along, with volunteers, has run an enrichment class with students across all years,teaching then the basic skills of how to refurbish old cycles in preparation a coast to coast bike ride.

On Sunday 12 July students travelled from school to Whitehaven to begin their journey. The weather wasn't good but students were not put off by the rain and all were looking forward to putting the last few months of training into use.

Day 1: Whitehaven to Thornthwiate. 27 miles including travelling through Whinlatter Forest Day 2: Thornthwaite to Little Salkheld. 33 miles Day 3: Little Salkheld to Alston. 20 miles with many hills Day 4: Alston to Consett. 29 miles Day 5: Consett to Sunderland

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Students of the Future

We have recently welcomed Year 5 and 6 students from the local primary schools to come and spend the day with us. Year 5 students enjoyed PE activities in the morning which included ca-noeing, Kwik cricket, dance and orienteering. In the afternoon they had a “spy mission” within the Maths Department.

Year 6 students (soon to become our new Year 7s) spent the within the Technology, Science and Languages departments. Students were able to build their own “Eiffel Tower”, go “spinning” on bikes, bake energy bars and sing in French.

We look forward to welcoming back the Year 6’s on 7 September.

Hinning House Adventure

On the 28th April a group of Year 9 and 10 students visited Hinning House Outdoor Edu-cation Centre, in the Duddon Valley. The stu-dents completed a lone journey, a ghyll scramble and took part in bushcraft activi-ties.

Year 10 CoPE Visit to Ulverston

On the 16th June Year 10 CoPE students visit-ed the Buddhist Temple in Ulverston, as part of the Beliefs and Values Module of the CoPE course.

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Year 11 Prom

On Friday 26 June the school held its annual Year 11 prom at The Abbey House Hotel in Barrow. Despite heavy rain during the day the sun managed to make an appearance just in time for the students’ arrival at the venue. A great night was had by all (including staff) and congratulations to Aeron and Anna on becoming this year’s Prom King and Queen.

A Report from SLC

Mr Vogler has taken on the role of overseeing the Millom School Student Leadership Council while Miss Hillman is on maternity leave. Mr Vogler met with the Student Council on 13 June along with the chair of governors, Professor Richards and shared with the students the selection process of finding a new Head teacher and how Mr Savidge, the new Head teacher from Sep-tember, was appointed. The students appreciated this feedback very much.

Mr Vogler then discussed a variety of matters with the students, the most prevalent being which charities the students would like to support using their reward system, ‘Vivo Miles’. It was decided that local community groups and wildlife action groups would benefit and students would be able to see the result of their donations in action.

Mr Vogler set out proposals for meeting again toward the end of term to discuss the student feedback offered to the Senior Leadership Team as part of their Strategic Review Day, which was held in the Network Centre on Friday 26 June. The council will then meet again at the begin-ning of the new academic year in September.

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Sports Day

Millom School held yet another successful school sports day on 1 July, thanks to the staff and student organisation behind the scenes. The participation rate of students was excellent, with all tutor groups fielding full teams. The day was very successful with nine records being broken. These range from the 100m for girls in both Year 7 and 8 to the triple jump. This was of course the last sports day to be officiat-ed by Mr Robinson as starter.

The winning Tutor Groups were: 7O - Miss Hillman 8M - Mrs Ribchester 9C - Mrs Smith 10O - Mr Barrett

Record Holders: Nevaeh Eland - Year 7 girls’ 100m Olivia Rae - Year 8 girls’ 100m Hannah Pinney - Year 9 girls’ 300m Nadine Hughes - Year 7 girls’ Rounders Ball Charlie Emslie - Year 9 boys’ Shot Keira Reid - Year 7 girls’ ‘Triple Jump Alexandria Lowery - Year 8 girls’ Triple Jump Katherine Armstrong - Year 9 girls’ Triple Jump 9M - Year 9 Boys (Bailie Kershaw, Connor Terrill, Ethan Bickerdike, Liam Brockbank)

Swimming Gala

This year’s annual swimming gala was held on Thursday 30th April 2015. The gala was organ-ised and run by the Year 13 PE students as an essential part of their course. Students ran sever-al races including front crawl, back stroke, breast stroke and two relays. It was a great success with many participants from years 7, 8 & 9. Congratulations to all, we are happy to announce that the winners of this year’s Millom School annual swimming gala are 7M, 8M and 9O. A spe-cial mention to Imogen Park & Braith Connor from Year 7, Olivia Rae from Year 8, Leigh Phillips & Peter Gaythorpe from Year 9. The sixth form PE students would like to thank everyone who took part to make the event happen.

Year 10 Cricket

The Year 10 cricket team progressed into the county finals day at Netherfied Cricket club. The team had previous defeated UHVS and Chetwynde School to reach the finals. The strength in depth of cricket at the school was shown as the team was reduced by players being selected to player in county fixtures. All the players performed well in the semi-final and the team was narrowly beat needing 12 runs off the last 6 balls. In the third and fourth place play-off game the whole team per-formed well and the team defeated a strong Keswick School to finish third overall in the county at this age group.

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Millom School Salthouse Road Millom Cumbria LA18 5AB Tel: 01229 772300 Fax: 01229 772883 Website: www.millom.cumbria.sch.uk Email: genenquiries@millom.cumbria.sch.uk

Reminders:

If your child is unwell and not able to attend school, please would you contact reception before 9.30am on their first day of absence and continue to keep the school informed with updates should the absence continue.

Please send a letter to school confirming the absence once your child returns to school.

In order for the school to authorise medical appointments, a copy of the hospital letter/appointment card needs to be seen by school. Please note that optician and dental ap-pointments should be made out of school hours.

Holidays should not be taken during term time. School is only able to authorise any holi-days in exceptional circumstances and all applications will be considered on an individual basis.

Term Dates:

2015 - 2016

Autumn Term Monday 7 Sept - Thursday 17 Dec Half Term Monday 26 Oct - Friday 30 Oct Spring Term Monday 4 Jan * - Thursday 24 Mar Half Term Monday 15 Feb - Friday 19 Feb Summer Term Tuesday 12 Apr * - Thurs 21 Jul Bank Holiday Monday 2 May Half Term Monday 30 May - Friday 3 June

2016-2017

Autumn Term Monday 5 Sept - Friday 16 Dec Half Term Monday 24 Oct - Friday 28 Oct Spring Term Thursday 5 Jan - Friday 7 Apr Half Term Monday 20 Feb - Friday 24 Feb Summer Term Monday 24 Apr - Thursday 20 Jul Bank Holiday Monday 1 May Half Term Monday 29 May - Friday 2 June

* Please note—dates differ to the published Cum-bria County Councils dates

End of Term Arrangements

School will finish at 1.00pm on Friday 17 July . Transport has been organised to leave school at 1.10pm for all stu-dents who would normally travel to school by bus.

Examination Results

AS & A2 - Thursday 13 August. Year 13 - 9am in M7 and M8. Year 12 to collect at 10am in M8 GCSE - Thursday 20 August Year 10 GCSE Science only -10am - 10.30am in M18 Year 11 and Sixth Form - Between 11am and 11.45am in The Alex Hall

We hope that you have a happy and safe summer holiday. We look forward to seeing all stu-dents for a new school year on Monday 7 September.

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