Therfield School Newsletter February 2014

Therfield School ‘The Best for All’ - Excellence Leadership Opportunity

Newsletter

February

2014

Dear Parents I hope that you have managed to get through this appalling weather without too much disruption over the last few weeks. I know that some of our families have had problems with flooding and our sympathy goes out to them. The school has fortunately suffered very little damage through wind or rain and we are all very thankful to our site team for responding quickly to any issues. Once again we have had a number of very impressive events this term with many students nominated for awards in the Mole Valley Youth Showcase and an excellent careers fair with over 90 organisations represented. You can read about these events in more detail inside the newsletter. Also congratulations to our 3 year 13 students who have received offers from either Oxford or Cambridge and to all year 13s who have received offers from the universities of their choice. Susan Willman Headteacher

From the Headteacher

Therfield School ‘The Best for All’

Excellence - Leadership - Opportunity

Oxbridge Offers

Year 13 students from Therfield Michael Agar, Lucy Mottram and Nick Ashurst have recently obtained offers from Oxford or Cambridge for September 2014. At Therfield we have our eye firmly on the future for our students. As well as ensuring they achieve outstanding examination results, we prepare them thoroughly for the UCAS interview process by supporting them with their applications and by providing mock interviews. Therfield has exclusive links with Leatherhead Business hub; the hub together with Leatherhead Rotary put our sixth formers through their paces with mock interviews. We are extremely grateful that top executives from the local business community gave up their time together with Tim Hall from Surrey County Council and Freda Andrews Director of Education at The Royal College of Veterinary Surgery in order to prepare our sixth form students. Nick Ashurst who has been offered a place at Cambridge to read History said ‘ I had four interviews one of which was particularly gruelling.’ Michael Agar who has been offered a place by Oxford to read law went on to say ‘The three interviews were pretty intense and it was really hard to read how I was doing. It was a long wait for the offer during the Christmas period’. Lucy Mottram who would be studying Material Sciences at Oxford said ‘the mock interviews at school were a great help in preparing us for the real thing, I’d like to thank the interviewers.’

Youth Showcase

Awards



Mole Valley held it’s Youth Showcase Awards ceremony on Friday 31 January at Dorking Halls. The evening was hosted by Mole Valley's youth council Youth Voice and supported by Mole Valley District Council (MVDC). The aim of the evening is to recognise the achievements of young people in the district and those working with young people. The Grand Hall was packed with glamorously-dressed guests for this Oscars-style event, which raised £300 for Young Minds, a charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. The young people impressed with their compering skills, as did the local groups including the Therfield Jazz Band as the glamorous house band who gave super performances all night. The performances were glitzy and glamorous and songs included 'Diamonds are Forever', 'New York New York' and 'Royals'.

The Host Band - Therfield Jazz Band

Photo by Chelsea Hook Year 11



Team Work Jazz Band: Joshua Cooke, Matt James, Rebecca Swanson, Callum Smale Robert King, Dylan Hammond, Will Griffiths, Nick Bennett, Mark Castles, Hanah James, Rebecca Day, Matt Lee and Jake Calverley.

Staff involved: David Moon, Pete Cowlin, Matt Gallagher and Hilary Squire

Creativity Award: Famida Athker Georgia Ball Kyanna Boot Shreya Gupta Anna Creswell Lily Long Amy Milner Selous Nicolle Nikki Patel Jacob Power James Webb

Personal Achievement: Amie Dredge Billy Barham Thomas Inglis-Stark (ex-student)

Community Spirit Award: Lynsey Jones Ollie Hitch Dan Trout James Young Matt Fleming (ex-student) (nominated by bfree)

Team Work KS3 Girls Football Team: Sophie Baggs Sophie Elphick Sophie Waller Anya Stead Jodie Sharpe Maisy Goldsmith Emilie Budd Rosanna Bennett Sam Francis Beth Heasman Caitlin McCarthy Casey Edwell

Ashtead Youth Centre - The Bike Project David Jordan Alfie Steers Cameron Dentus Kallum Bacon (RVC)

Youth Professional: Shannon Knight

The Bike Project Team

There was also an art exhibition showcasing the talent of pupils from local secondary

schools, including Therfield.

Therfield students and ex-students had a large number of nominations, listed in the table below. We would like to congratulate all those nominated and those who took part in the event. Therfield are very proud of the all those involved.

Photo by Chelsea Hook Yr 11



University &

Careers Fair Therfield welcomed a large number of universities and industry and company representatives to a Careers focused day at the school. A key feature of life at school is the preparation of students for the wider world of work and students attended the two events with great enthusiasm. The objectives of the sessions were to increase interest and awareness of different careers; to increase the profile of local employers; to increase student employability skills; and to give an insight into the range of career paths available. During the day students from Year 9 attended a Careers Carousel organised by Business in the Community to raise awareness and aspirations of pupils and to give them access to local employers to learn more about potential roles and career choices. This event had been showcased to students and parents as part of Therfield’s programme to help inform option choices. The event offered a unique and innovative forum that inspired 160 pupils from Therfield School through a high quality speed networking opportunity, allowing the students to ask pre-prepared questions and then to talk in depth to the business volunteers. The event also included interactive stands from each business bringing businesses and the breadth of roles they offer alive. In the evening, Therfield welcomed many more volunteers including a vast number of parents, ex-Therfield students (over 20), local business, and universities (17 including Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, and KCL) who then manned over 90 stands around the school for a Careers Fair. Students eagerly moved between the stalls talking to the volunteers about careers ranging across medical, veterinary, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths), forces, financial, and legal industries, to name a few. The buzz around the halls was great. The students had some excellent conversations and the feedback has been extremely positive from parents, volunteers, universities and students alike. As one parent wrote of her son “He talked to people on a range of careers including drama and medicine, both of which he'd already thought about, and accountancy and engineering which were new ideas to him. I think it helped him see how wide the choice of careers actually is.” Or more simply from another parent “Well done all, a fantastic event!!” We look forward to running the event again in the future to continue support our students as they prepare for life.

Mr J Place - Deputy Headteacher



Chemistry

University of Sussex – Spectroscopy Workshop On Wednesday 13th December year 13 Chemists were invited on a trip to the University of Sussex to create and analyse an organic compound. After a brief lecture from one of the Professors the students were armed with the knowledge of the procedure and went straight to the labs. Here they donned themselves with lab coats and safety goggles and set straight to work using equipment and resources normally only made available to the University students. They heated, they mixed they submerged in ice and they measured with precision in order to create their organic compound. A competition started between the two groups of Therfield students but we had to wait till after lunch to find out who the winner was. In the afternoon, the students analysed their samples. We had one group with a large sample of the organic compound and one group with a smaller sample which they believed to be more pure. They were introduced to many analytical techniques using machinery unavailable to schools in order to analyse what they had made at the atomic level. We even looked at a piece of equipment that was used to identify a different chemical, fullerenes, a discovery which led to a Noble Prize. Both samples were found through this analysis to be very pure, a reflection of the excellent technique used by the students who will bring this into the Therfield labs as they work on their practical skills in lessons.

Miss C Hughes - Teacher in charge of Chemistry



Therfield Jazz

Band - New Logo

We’ve been talking about having a Jazz Band logo for years and it’s finally come to fruition! Sam Edginton-Vigus in 8PMU created a fantastic design which was converted to a graphic by the expertise of Sam’s Dad Nigel and designer Georgina Wormald. The design was then printed onto a bass drum head ready for us to use.

Our fantastic new logo will take centre stage at its debut - a charity event for the RNLI in Ashtead on Friday 28th March. The Jazz Band would like to thank Sam, Nigel and Georgina for their time and brilliant work!

Miss A Fuller - Subject Leader for Music



Drama

Trestle Mask Workshop. On Tuesday 12th February the Gifted and Talented Drama cohort took part in a Trestle Mask Workshop. “Trestle is a mask and physical theatre company based in St Albans, at Trestle Arts Base. Trestle has been making innovative and inspirational physical storytelling theatre since 1981. For 25 years, they have worked mainly with full masks. Over the past seven years, they have collaborated with UK and international artists, from Spain, Eastern Europe, Africa and India, unifying movement, music and text to create compelling theatrical experiences. Their productions engage a diverse range of audiences and reach out to as many people as possible”. ‘www.trestle.org.uk’ The students took part in non-mask preparation activities which saw them considering isolating different parts of the body and experimenting with the idea of leading with weights to create characters. After this the students were allowed to handle the masks and look at the different expressions each mask has. The students were taken through the basic rules of mask and then began to create body shapes that matched the masks they had and begin to play with the characters the masks provide. From this the students began to explore the constraints and possibilities of mask on stage with simple storytelling scenarios. One student commented that they felt more “comfortable on stage” and another felt that they could be “more exaggerated” as they felt less “self conscious with a mask on”. Another student commented on how disorientating it was to wear a full mask as they “couldn’t see all of the other actors on stage, all of the time” and that it was quite a “claustrophobic” feeling having a mask on. All of the students enjoyed the experience and enjoyed the comedy that the masks instantly bought to the stage and the characters they began to create.


Art A2 Art Exhibition January 2014: On Friday 31st January, Therfield’s A2 artists exhibited work at the Mole Valley Youth Awards. The class, who consists of Hailey Sarson, Hannah McCarthy, Emma Hill and Abbie Winterford, each exhibited one piece from their A2 Art coursework portfolio. Abbie, who hopes to accept a place studying Photography at the University of Portsmouth, also showed a film she made for her A2 Photography coursework unit. Abbie’s painting in acrylic on canvas is a bold and confrontational piece, which is based on a self-portrait photographic image taken by the artist. Several of the organisers were initially a little taken aback by the subject matter of this piece. The subject of the work is horror and with a definite intention to provoke. Abbie began work on this piece months before the exhibition and returned to it repeatedly in small sittings. Her practice involved taking teacher advice and developing small sections of the canvas, a bit at a time. As a consequence, the piece is fully realised and captures a true likeness of the subject.

One piece entitled ‘Emotive Blue’ by Hailey Sarson was exhibited at the entrance to Dorking Halls. This piece was seen by all on arrival to the venue and positively praised for its Expressionist style and deep blue hues. Hailey has worked really hard in recent months, practicing her exploitation of mark and line to create portraiture with heavy brushstrokes. Hailey has written a research paper on how emotion is displayed through colour and expression.

Hannah McCarthy’s work shone at the bottom of the stairwell to the Nominee Lounge. Her detailed portrayal of a wolf in pencil is exquisite and forms the final element of her coursework portfolio. It took Hannah hours of painstaking work, with each pencil line complementing the other in opposite tones. Hannah’s project initially began with her studying the life and work of Walt Disney and then evolved to involve her creating her own imaginative narratives.

Abbie Winterford ‘Psychotic’ acrylic on canvas - 2014

Hailey Sarson ‘Emotive Blue’ oil on card

Hannah McCarthy ‘Fairyale Response’ pencil on card - 2014



Emma’s piece entitled ’A study in emotion’ was displayed under spot light in the Nominee Lounge. This piece is a copy of a photograph, which the artist took as part of her studies into the emotional content of Manga. The painting has an uncanny resemblance to the model in the photograph who posed for Emma. Emma depicts the pattern and texture of the model’s jumper with accuracy and realism.

The exhibition was successfully received by the students involved and their parents, by the Award nominees and winners, guests and Dorking Hall organisers. The A2 artists have celebrated the submission of their coursework unit and are now in the midst of their ex-ternally set assignment. The exhibition has really given them a renewed enthusiasm for their artistic practice. It has set high standards for future displays of their work and given them a taste of what is expected during further study in the Arts.

Miss C Upson Subject Leader for Art

Emma Hill ‘A Study in Emotion’ acrylic on card - 2013

Stills from Abbie Wilfords film she made for her A2 Photography coursework unit


Leadership at Therfield Opportunities for leadership continue to thrive at Therfield. In year 9 we have a cohort of students who are dedicating time to develop their skills through Literacy and Language Leaders. Both groups are busily underway planning exciting events for World Book Day and Primary school visits. This week has been 6th form Rag Week, where a number of fundraising events have occurred every day. This has been organised completely by the 6th form committee, who have had to dedicate a considerable amount of time and effort to raise money for charity. Further information about these events will be in future newsletters. On Tuesday 4th February some of our Higher Sports Leaders helped to support the Surrey School Games Winter Festival held at Surrey Sports Park where they had the opportunity to interview Steve Brown the captain of the Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby team and Tom Middleton MBE, coach of the Paralympic seated Volleyball as well as many young participants and their teachers. We also took two photographers, Kaitlyn Pym and Aaron Poplett who did a great job of recording the day’s event and the fun had by all. Sarah Williams, School Games Organiser for NW Surrey said ‘I just wanted to say a personal thank you for the 8 wonderful leaders Therfield provided yesterday. They were polite and hugely pro-active and managed to collate a lot of real life case studies from participants, guests and schools and this would not have been achieved without your support!’ This group are also completing 10 hours of volunteering each at Woodlands School, supporting physical activities at lunchtime and Wheels 4 at Leatherhead Leisure Centre. Their support is greatly appreciated by the school and gives our leaders the valuable opportunity to experience working with youngsters with a range of different disabilities. So far, all are having great fun!

Leadership

Dates for your Diary 24 Feb 2 Mon Return to school

25 Feb 2 Tue A2 photography trip

28 Feb 2 Fri Options Form Deadline

3 Mar 1 Mon

Yr11 reports available this week

Yr12/13 Assessment Fortnight begins

Yr11 Catering exams all week

Yr 9 English Functional Skills Exams - Reading AM – Writing PM

School Council Meeting this week

Reading week

Science inter-house event this week

4 Mar 1 Tue HPV Vaccine yr 8 girls pt3

6 Mar 1 Thu World Book Day

10 Mar 2 Mon Yr 11 Catering exams all week

Inter-House Hockey starts

11 Mar 2 Tue Yr11 English revision evening (tbc)

12 Mar 2 Wed Yr8 Parents evening 4pm - 8pm

17 Mar 1 Mon

Yr10 reports available this wk

Yr 11 Catering exams all week

Norbury House Charity Week

National Science & Engineering week events

Creative Arts inter-house event this week

20 Mar 1 Thu Inter-House Hockey ends

School production

21 Mar 1 Fri End of GCSE Drama Controlled Assessment

School production

22 Mar Sat School production

24 Mar 2 Mon

Yr 11 Mock Exams start

Yr 11 Catering exams all week

House Council Meeting all week

Yr12 WEX week 1 Level 2 Employability skills

25 Mar 2 Tue Yr5 Football Tournament 3.45-5.30

26 Mar 2 Wed English GCSE Yr11 Study Evening 7pm to 8pm

31 Mar 1 Mon

Yr7/12/13 reports home this wk

Yr12 WEX week 2 Level 2 Employability skills

Maths inter-house event this week

4 Apr 1 Fri Yr 11 Mock Exams finish

END OF TERM SCHOOL FINISHES AT 1.10PM

5 Apr Sat Easter Break

21 Apr Mon Easter Break (Easter Monday) National Student Drama Festival 12-19 April (Y12&13)

22 Apr 2 Tue INSET DAY

25 Apr 2 Fri Mock Results assembly

Bronze practice expedition grp1

Therfield School Newsletter February 2014

Documents

Transcript of Therfield School Newsletter February 2014