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
Runner Up Student of the Year Runner Up
Ethan Brown Erin Carlson Chloe Thompson
Runner Up Student of the Year Runner Up
Christopher Sword Sean Mulligan Abbie Reed
Runner Up Student of the Year Runner Up
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
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 3
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.
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 4
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
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 5
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
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 6
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
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 7
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.
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 8
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
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 9
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
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 10
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.
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 11
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.
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 12
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 ! ! !
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 13
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
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 14
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!
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 15
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
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 16
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
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.
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