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www.testvalley.hants.sch.uk Summer Term Test Valley School PTA News 2017

The new Test Valley School PTA has now been up more recent family event – The Summer Sizzler! and running for a year - Happy Birthday! It has The families had a wonderful afternoon, enjoying certainly been an eventful and challenging year swimming in our very own outdoor pool, a huge for the PTA and in conjunction with staff and array of inflatables which were extremely pupils we have organised a huge amount in quite popular, not to mention a tuck shop, BBQ, a short space of time. Slushies and rounders organised by Mr Hill. The The PTA of any school should be an integral part feedback on the Family Summer Sizzler has been of the school community, striving to provide overwhelmingly positive and we hope to make activities and events that not only help raise this an annual event in the PTA calendar. We funds to enhance the school environment for raised in excess of £500 just from this one event. teachers and staff alike, but also help create a We are already planning a bigger and better friendly and fun social community. Family Summer Sizzler for 2018 with larger inflatables, more stalls including local cottage We have run a large number of events through industries attending to sell their wares and some 2016/17 such as the Challenge Camp for the new additional activities that will remain hush, hush Year 7 intake, a Halloween Disco with a pumpkin until nearer the time. We are hoping to plan a carving competition – the pumpkins were of a much larger event in order to open this up to the very high standard indeed, a Christmas Jumper local community, so we are also in the process of Themed Film Night, Valentines Disco and our looking for some corporate sponsors in order to make this possible. However, running events such as these is no mean feat! The amount of time, resource and dedication it takes to both plan and execute these events should not be under-estimated. Whilst we are a dedicated PTA, we are a small PTA. Without the support of the teachers we would struggle to run many of these events.

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Headteacher’s Message

Dear Parent We reach the end of another school year with much to celebrate and remember. We started this school year with our Year 11 pupils from last year achieving excellent GCSE results. We await this year’s results in August with our usual trepidation but hope all the hard work by our pupils and staff is rewarded again with excellent grades. This year will see the number grades awarded nationally in GCSE English and Mathematics for the first time. Our staff continue to work hard to review our curriculum for our pupils in all year groups to ensure they are able to make progress and achieve well. This has included preparing our pupils from an early stage for the national changes to how GCSE subjects are examined and graded in the future. In February we were inspected by Ofsted and were pleased to be judged as still a ‘Good’ school. This is an important judgement for any school so we were delighted that the inspection recognised the many strengths of our school as well as recommending action points we are already working on to take the school further forward. As this term draws to a close we have had Activities Week, Year 10 Work Experience Week, StockFest, our PTA Summer Sizzler, Sports Days and various trips and experiences in and outside the classroom for our pupils. I am certain the Autumn Term will be as busy and we remain as committed as ever to the importance of these experiences for our pupils. We look forward to welcoming our new Year 7 pupils and new pupils moving into our school to join other year groups from September. Finally, I take this opportunity as always to thank parents for your continued support throughout this year. We look forward to working with you again in the next school year to ensure the best for your children, our pupils. Miss L Hiscock Headteacher

Prefect Team 2017-2018

After much deliberation and formal interviews we appointed our Prefects for next year.

Abigail Jones Rebecca Dean Amelia Zeal Sophie Yates Annabel Anderson Tizzy Stiles-Palmer Corey Penfound Wilfred Breach David Mossman-Smith Ellie Bentley Esme Wilson Finlay Jarvis Alice Woodfield- Head Girl Freya Cavill Amelia Cairns - Deputy Head Girl George Thompson Teyi Adeyeye - Head Boy Jessica Robinson Felix Hammer - Deputy Head Boy Joshua Port Karis Thomas Congratulations to all of you! Lauren Morley Lucy Greenwood Megan Lock

Library News

It’s been a busy term in the Library… Pupil Librarian of the Year Award On 6th June the Schools Library Service came to interview Connor Wheeler-Perera 8A. Connor had been nominated by Miss Needs for this year’s ‘Pupil Librarian of the Year Award’. He conducted a really good interview and they were impressed with his knowledge of the Library and pleased to see how hard he works as part of a team of Pupil Librarians. We are delighted that after much discussion and deliberation in a close run contest Connor was awarded with a Runner-Up Award. He received a £10 book token and certificate and as a school we also receive a certificate and £50 worth of books for our Library. Well done!

Hampshire Book Award 2017 A group of 11 pupils from Year 8 have been busy reading and reviewing 6 books from the shortlist for this year’s Hampshire Book Award. The group have been meeting every fortnight since March and met for the last time on 27th June for a celebratory lunch with Miss Needs and a lively discussion about their favourite. On 4th July we visited Applemore College for the grand final where after a great morning of quizzes, thoughtful deliberation and muffins, votes from participating schools all over Hampshire were counted and the overall winner was finally announced as River of Ink by Helen Dennis. We look forward to the award ceremony in the Autumn Term.

Come and visit the library and pick up a copy of River of Ink and the other 5 shortlisted books and judge for yourself how good they are.

Bobby’s Brain Teasers This term’s winner of the Monday lunchtime quiz ‘Bobby’s Brain Teasers’ was Nathan Crouthers 8S - well done to him.

Ebooks Looking ahead we will soon be launching Ebooks in the Library – watch this space for more information in the Autumn Term.

Easyfunding.org.uk

Join here:

http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/testvalleyschool/?v=a&u=1NI8RY

Did you know that whenever you buy anything online, from your weekly shop to your annual holiday, you could be raising a free donation to our school? There are nearly 3000 retailers (including Amazon, John Lewis, Aviva, Trainline and Sainsbury’s) who will donate a percentage of the amount you spend to our school to say thank you for shopping with them. It’s really simple, does not cost you anything and there are no hidden charges for you. It does, however, provide a fantastic opportunity for the school to raise additional funds we can use to buy vital resources and equipment to support your child’s learning in school.

Author visit—Steve Cole

On Monday 22nd May Test Valley School were treated to a visit from Author Steve Cole when he introduced his fourth and final title in the explosive YOUNG BOND series of books. Steve's work includes a broad range of books, sales of which have exceeded three million copies. He gave our Year 7 and 8s and visiting Year 6s a unique insight into 1930s gadgets and inventions. The event was engaging and interactive as Steve explained how he became such a fan of Ian Fleming's super-spy adventures. Steve shared the research behind his creation and introduced the new characters in his book. Afterwards, those that had purchased books could get them signed by the man himself and the Library were lucky enough to get a signed copy to add to the collection already in stock. Thanks to all staff involved and to P&G Wells bookshop and Authors Aloud UK who are helping Steve with his tour.

The Counsellor Contemplates

Tips for helping anxious pupils It can be challenging parenting and/or helping an anxious young person and very often parents are anxious too. As my article in the Spring Newsletter mentioned, we live in an anxious world and if anything the recent events in the news will have raised, not lowered, general levels of anxiety. So these thoughts are designed to help you and your child, or the young person you are supporting, rise to the Davina Nicholson challenge of bringing our levels of anxiety down even if the outside world seems to (MBACP Accred.) be getting more difficult.

Tip 1: Encourage your child to face her/his fears, not run away. When we are scared it can be natural to want to avoid the situation or thing that is making us scared but avoidance makes anxiety worse because the “monster” gets bigger. When we avoid a situation we never realise that the situation was not as difficult as we predicted or that we can overcome the fear. When someone faces their fears they will learn that anxiety reduces naturally on its own over time. The body never remains anxious for very long periods of time as there is a natural system that calms us down. Usually anxiety reduces within about 10-45 minutes even in the anxiety provoking situation.

Tip 2: Encourage imperfection – Tip 3: Encourage a switch of focus – everyone makes mistakes and learns from the worry onto something from them. In today’s world it is often positive. When we are anxious or worrying our thought that we have to ‘get it right’ first time thinking can become obsessive and circular. or even all the time whereas, if we think about Encourage someone who is worrying to switch it, making mistakes can be really helpful in their focus - you could remind them of a time teaching us about how something might be when they worried yet nothing bad happened and done differently and how we might want to do everything was OK. Reminding them of their things. A mistake can simply be a learning positive skills or attributes can be very helpful and opportunity. ‘Mistake’ or ‘Failure’ have become builds self-esteem which is an antidote for anxiety. frightening words and concepts and it can be Remember to also praise them when they do good incredibly liberating and can encourage a much things because young people need seven pieces of greater willingness to experiment if we can praise to every criticism in order to build self- encourage our young people not to be afraid of esteem. Sadly, a criticism is likely to stick with a ‘getting it wrong’. Often perfectionism is born young person longer than a piece of praise, as out of low self-esteem; if we fear that we are criticisms ‘sting’ when we hear them. I call it my inadequate, there can be a strong desire not to Teflon/Velcro theory: praise can slide off as if we let others see our perceived inadequacy and so are Teflon coated, whereas criticism sticks as if to we try to ‘be perfect’, which is an impossible Velcro. All of this lets us know that young people task. Perfectionism is so limiting and a killer of thrive on praise and it helps them to learn to joy and trying to be perfect produces a lot of compliment themselves about all the things they anxiety. It is often the high achievers we see in achieve rather than focus on what they are afraid the counselling room. No one can be perfect. of or fear they cannot achieve.

Tips for helping anxious pupils continued...

Tip 4: Model thinking creatively and problem solving. Our children learn a lot from watching others, especially their parents. Fear and anxiety are often caused by a feeling that we cannot achieve something or that it is overwhelming. We can model to our children that where there is a problem there is always a solution, even if it takes time or some suggestions from others to find the possible solutions. Allow your children to solve problems at home, do not always tell them what to do.

Tip 5: Model acceptance of feelings and emotions. Feelings and emotions are not problems in themselves, they are part of what makes us human and the more we can allow our feelings to come and go, “like the clouds in the sky”, the less chance of that emotion becoming ‘stuck’ and causing problems. Remind them that a feeling is just a feeling – it will pass and just because we feel anxiety does not mean there is anything to be anxious about.

Tip 6: Encourage hobbies, sports Tip 7: Encourage a change in attitude and other activities. Learning new skills about feeling nervous. Remind Young People can be hugely helpful to boost confidence that it is normal and natural to feel nervous at and assist in someone believing in their times and the nerves can be really useful – abilities. Also playing purely for the sake of sharpening our thinking skills and giving us a bit of fun and laughter rather than for adrenalin to keep us going. Research has shown achievement can take away performance recently that when candidates going into exams anxiety. Model an attitude of doing things told themselves they were excited about the exam for fun. they performed better. Put a new perspective on the nerves – see them as a positive.

Tip 8: Encourage healthy habits for sleeping, eating and exercise. Healthier lifestyle choices fuel and maintain our bodies and they also help to ensure that we can think clearly. Having ‘wind down’ do nothing time is really helpful. As everyone knows enough sleep is vital to brain health as well as body health and teenagers can find sleep difficult. It is suggested not to watch a screen for the last hour before sleep, having a regular routine and bed time has been shown to help. Doing relax- ation techniques, breathing exercises, mindfulness or Yoga can be extremely beneficial to brain health and in reducing anxiety. You can find useful apps relating to these activities.

KS1 Movement Festival is a great success

Test Valley School hosted a KS1 festival involving seven various types of movement activity. The activities ranged from basic multi skills to parachute games and team building activities. The favourite of all the activities was the gymnastics ‘air track’ which was a giant inflatable which allowed various acrobatics to take place including a rotational roll.

Year 7 demonstrate the tuck jump

Pupils from four local primary schools enjoyed the variety of activities. The Young Sports Leaders were fully involved in their first Leader event focusing on each activity station and setting challenges for their group. The Leaders demonstrated the activity and then encouraged their groups to become fully involved in the movement station teaching the basic skills required.

Leaders demonstrate the activities

The coaching company ‘Personal Best Education’ organised and provided the necessary equipment for the event. The coaches spoke to the Leaders about each station before the primary schools arrived and the Leaders were coached in the basic movement skills for each station.

The atmosphere throughout the morning was fantastic with pupils really enjoying the challenge of the various activity stations. The movement and multi-skill activities were based upon motor development for the Key Stage 1 pupils. These included balance, co-ordination, running and jumping. Pupils also developed hand and eye co- ordination with throwing and catching activities.

Mr Langdown the Year 7 Co-ordinator said: “It is so impressive to see Year 7s actively involved in supporting younger children in the movement events and sports stations.“

KS1 Movement Festival

At the end of the session the primary school pupils were presented with medals provided by our sponsor Hildon Natural Mineral Water. The Young Sports Leaders were given the opportunity to congratulate the primary pupils in their achievement by presenting each child from their group their own medal.

Well done to all the young people involved in the movement session and a big thank you to all the coaches who helped to make this event very successful.

Year 10 Work Experience

The staff and governors of Test Valley School would like to thank the following employers and organisations for their support of the recent Year 10 Work Experience programme. Work Experience is a vital part of our on-going commitment to preparing our young people for adult life and is highly valued by our pupils and parents. Thank you, we look forward to working with you in the next term.

A. Burnfield & Sons Ltd Pitton Pre School Albright International Ltd Progression Fitness Studio Amesbury Sports Centre R E Thompson & Co. Holdings Ltd Andover Food Bank Red Fox Catering Ltd (The Tally Ho) Andover Gas & Water Romsey Restorations Arqiva Rosewood Free School Artspace Interior Design Sainsburys Andover Baby Sensory Supplies Ltd Salisbury Arts Centre Barton Stacey Primary School Serious Sport Club T/A Dummer Cricket Centre Belvoir - Andover Shepherd Spring Pre-School Bodybarn Sombornes Pre School British Army/HQ Army Air Corps Sparsholt College Churchers Bolitho Way Solicitors T J Morris Clos du Marquis The Andover Nursing Home Country Cats The Hair & Beauty Boutique Creative Healing and Transformation The Museum of Army Flying Four Kingdoms Adventure Farm The Wallops Pre School Frenchmoor Racing Thrive Architects Ltd Grateley Primary School Toogood & May Auctioneers Grovely Riding Centre Top Dog Hydrotherapy Hampshire Service Centre Totcity Hampton Park Vets Transputec Limited Hayball Motorcycles Ltd Wallop Primary School Icknield School Wessex Drawing Services Ltd Jamie Bowdith Garden Services West Warmbloods Jayroma (London) Limited Western Air (Thruxton) Ltd Laverstoke Park Farm Winterslow Primary School Lillie Langtry's Tearoom Lion Engineering Marks & Spencer - Andover MOD - Middle Wallop Moleroda Finishing Systems Ltd MOT Supercentre Musicroom Salisbury National Trust Newbury Lodge Kennels Openfield Agriculture Ltd Parkwood Health & Fitness

Year 10 boys build a cart for a local preschool

Tom Wedgbury, Dylan Bravery and Ian Moody assisted by Jordan Brown and Tom Blow all helped to construct a cart for Winterslow Preschool. The purpose of the cart was to provide the preschool children with a means of transport for their entry into the procession element of this year's village fair. The preschool children were busy making items to decorate the cart and dressed up as butterflies, caterpillars and moths to fit with this year’s theme of endangered species. For the first time, this year the preschool children did not have to walk all the way in the procession which usually wears them out by the time they have arrived at the fair. However their parents were required to do the pushing and pulling. Pictured are some of the boys handing the cart over to the preschool children. Much of the construction from this enthusiastic bunch of boys took place in their lunch times and the boys gained a wealth of engineering experiences such as turning metal on a lathe and forging metal along with the challenges of measuring, cutting, drilling and fitting. Mr S Langdown

Midsummer Celebration On Friday 23rd June we celebrated Midsummer in the languages department. We created Midsummer flower crowns, learned some phrases in a selection of Nordic languages and tasted some Scandinavian food and drink which was delicious. This was all planned by language leader Sam Hunt, so well done Sam on a great lunchtime activity!

Test Valley School PTA News continued from front page...

We all work and have family commitments. However, we have huge ambition for what we are as a team trying to achieve. We would like to extend an open invite to other parents, grandparents and carers of children attending Test Valley School to join the PTA. We only meet once a month for a brief meeting to plan the upcoming events and we have a bit of fun along the way. Anyone that is not sure they are able to commit to this or does not fancy being a fully- fledged PTA member can also sign up to be a ‘Friend of TVS PTA’ and offer help at certain events. You can get in touch via the Test Valley School PTA Facebook Page or on our email address, [email protected] This past academic year has been packed full of fun activities but we want to make 2017/18 even bigger and better, organising events that benefit the entire school. To do this successfully we need YOU! We hope to run a wide range of activities and events in the next academic year for pupil year groups and families. More details to follow next term.

Year 8 News—Mr A Hill It's been another busy term for the Year 8s with end of year exams, Sports Day and Activities Week.

It was lovely to see a number of Year 8 pupils and parents at the Test Valley Challenge presentation evening. It was a great event and I have enjoyed seeing the pupils working through the year completing their individual challenges. I hope to see as many pupils and more taking up the new challenges for Year 9 in September.

A few special mentions: Congratulations to Nightingale who were the tutor group with most achievement points for the year. This was fitting as the tutor of 8N Mrs Crossland is retiring after 31 years of teaching. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mrs Crossland for all her hard work with her tutor group. Congratulations to Austen as Year 8 Sports Day winners. It was a great afternoon where the Year 8 pupils represented their tutor group extremely well in all aspects of Sports Day. Lastly I would like to wish you a happy, restful and safe holiday. I look forward to seeing the pupils in the correct uniform for another busy year in September.

Activities Week 17-21 July - Photo Album

Activities Week provides pupils with the opportunity to tackle different challenges, learn new skills and build new friendships. It is an important part of the school year enabling pupils to develop skills that are useful in both in and out the classroom. The week included several trips to Europe and activities taking place in and out of school including: France Black Forest Ferny Crofts Italy Creative Workshop Water and Land Fishing Horse Riding Aqua Park Laverstoke Farm Splashdown Bushcraft Racket Sport Table Tennis Tree Runners Samba and Steel Pans

Activities Week 17-21 July - Photo Album

Course Fishing at Broadlands The heaviest fish landed – Tom Brightman 8A (in 2017) Most Improved Angler – Rhys Gallagher 9D Mike Harvey Trophy – Alex Wardle- 9S John Britwell Award Last Cast Champion (for most fish caught)– Oliver Taylor 10 A Weeks Family Award for Quality of Performance – Bear Davies -Pountney 8N Tom Brightmans 9lb Pike caught on Mervyn Billows Award for Greatest Variety of Fish Caught – a single sweet corn Oliver Holdich 8A

Debbie Beale Award for Professionalism – Connor Donohue 8D Tangles Award – Cameron Crosswaite 9S

Activities Week 17-21 July - Photo Album

Skilled for Life— Mr S Langdown

My wife shared with me her delight at how lucky our daughter is to attend Test Valley School because of the opportunities available to her. This was as she boarded the coach for her trip to France for a week’s residential. My wife mentioned the generosity and willingness of the staff to not only give up their time to support the trips but also (in this day and age of extensive planning, preparation and risk assessments) step up and spend a huge amount of time planning these opportunities.

Who am I to disagree? I helped plan and execute the ‘Water & Land’ activity for the week and observed and experienced how pupils respond outside the classroom. The week offers more than just different experiences - it also builds upon their social interaction, which in this day and age of modern technology keeping them firmly indoors is somewhat refreshing and essential.

Measuring the impact of these experiences on their lives is difficult but when you witness pupils challenging themselves to try out new skills and overcome obstacles, it is obvious to see that they are pushing themselves and each other outside of their comfort zones. Daring acrobatics above

Freddie zipping through the air at speed on a low-level course

Abbie pushing the boundaries of her resilience way beyond her expectations to conquer her fear of heights 18

Imogen, having locked herself in position, is about to take that leap of faith and zip along this wire 25 feet above the ground

A picture tells a thousand words as these two discuss their next move

Skills for life is not just about education in the classroom, it is about those wider skills gained from an holistic education. The beauty of this week is that much of the growth which takes place in our children is subconscious. The challenge is to bring the awareness of these skills to the conscious and build on them back in the classroom and beyond. Working as a team with a game plan to Even the journey home was memorable thanks to Rosie and adds to the soft skills which employers Harry. But that is a story for another day. yearn for

Jono competing for his team in a relay race to get to the top and belaying back before swapping with a team member. For some just 30 minutes previously putting their faith in the belay to lower them securely to the ground would have been a significant challenge

Carting offers an exhilarating experience, which is both about personal best and the race against your friends 19

Activities Week 17-21 July - Photo Album

Year 7 End of Year Round Up— Mr S Langdown

The end of the first year has arrived for Year 7 and I can hardly believe we are looking at moving into Year 8 already. It has been a big year for the pupils with many new friendships and growing up so that their adjustment to secondary school is now well and truly in place. As I look back over the year many in the year group have engaged positively with the opportunities provided for them and should be very pleased and proud of themselves for their fantastic attitude. These opportunities include: Challenge Camp, Sporty Challenge, Eisteddfod, Test Valley Challenge, clubs and sports teams, drama productions, discos, film night and StockFest. All year groups have a unique identify and from my observations Year 7 appear to be very good team players and able to get along well which are great soft skills. The majority of Year 7 engaged positively with their examination revision this term. It is so important that we embrace these opportunities for exam preparation to form good study habits early on and embed a good attitude and routines for future years. I wish all Year 7 and their families a lovely long summer break and look forward to seeing you back in September fresh and ready for a new set of educational challenges.

Reminder—Cashless System We are moving over to the new cashless system in the cafeteria next term. The majority of pupils are already registered for the new biometric identification system. Parents will receive further logon information shortly to set up an online payment account. This will enable your child to use the cafeteria. Pupils will be able to purchase with cash in the first few days of term only to allow a short period of transition.

We now have some items of second hand school uniform available in exchange for a donation to school funds. If interested please contact the school office by email on

[email protected]

Year 9 News—Mrs N Osborne

The Spring Term has flown by but has been packed full of events and opportunities for our pupils. Shortly after our return to school for the Summer Term we held the Test Valley Song Contest organised by Sam Hunt from 9A. He did a fantastic job in organising the event for the whole of KS3. Year 9 pupils have also chosen their options this term and are already studying material for their GCSEs in some subject areas. During the second half of the term pupils had the opportunity to sign up to be pupil mentors to our new intake. They did a fantastic job looking after their younger charges on the Year 6 Induction Day on the 4th July and I’m looking forward to seeing them develop in confidence and self-esteem as they mentor the Year 7s from September.

Year 9 Bake-Off This term, instead of a tutor quiz, pupils have been bringing in cakes for the Year 9 Test Valley Bake-off. The only criteria given were that it needs to be a single cake and the theme is ‘school’. Each tutor then chose two finalists who brought in a further cake to be judged by Miss Hiscock, Mrs Cross, Mrs Hudson and Mrs Osborne. There were some amazing entries and the final decision was a tough one to make. The finalists were: 9A – Elyssa Newell and Ayla Eddery 9D – Ella Sturman and Mia Ciutto 9N – Henry King and Fin Cavill 9S – Dominic Hart and Ellie Carr

The winners of the Year 9 Bake-Off competition are:- 3rd place Elyssa Newell 2nd place Mia Ciutto 1st place Dominic Hart

Bake-Off Winners

Year 9 News continued...

The Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award will again run from September. We’ve had a fantastic uptake with well over half of the year group signed up. As well as two new members of staff training up to support the Duke of Edinburgh award, staff already qualified have undertaken a refresher course in preparation for training pupils for their expedition.

Golden Hour Over the course of the year pupils have been gathering achievement points in lessons for good work, attitude and home learning tasks. The points have all been added up, both for this term and for the whole year. The winning tutor group for the term is 9D – less than 1 full point per pupil ahead of the runners up. As a reward for their hard work throughout the term 9D received one hour of ‘golden time’ on Friday 14th July. Well done 9D. The yearly points award goes to 9S who average out near 120 points per pupil, a clear 8 points ahead of the nearest runner up.

Flower Festival 2017—St Peter’s Church, Stockbridge

This year’s Flower Festival at St Peter’s Church in Stockbridge was held on Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th June. The theme was Back in Time and our title was 'Looking Back at Test Valley School'. We looked back over the last six decades in the World of News, Music, TV, fashion and at Test Valley School. 23

Test Valley Challenge Award 2017

On Thursday 13th July Year 7, 8 & 9 pupils from Test Valley School celebrated completing their Test Valley Challenge and received a certificate and medal at a special presentation evening. Over this school year pupils in Key Stage 3 have been given the opportunity to undertake a range of challenges to achieve their award. Those challenges were different for each year group and there were also three levels to reach based upon the number of challenges completed. The award works as shown in the table below.

Year 7 Year 8 Year 9 Completing Bronze Award Silver Award Gold Award 6 challenges Level One Level One Level One 8 challenges Level Two Level Two Level Two 10 challenges Level Three Level Three Level Three

Challenges included: writing a poem, volunteering, horticulture, arts & crafts, maths, drama, music, baking, a residential challenge, an open challenge, clubs, charity work, photography, reading, sports, Eisteddfod and practical activities. Pupils were also invited to comment on what they have most enjoyed during this year at Test Valley School. These are a selection of their comments:  overcoming new challenges and learning to be myself. Year 9 will stay with me forever  all the different lessons secondary school has to offer  how everyone helps you in the classroom when you need them  making new friends and starting new subjects  swimming where the teachers taught me to swim  the opportunities given to pupils, such as pupil mentor training and becoming a sports leader  the friendly atmosphere and kind teachers  taking part in extracurricular activities and new clubs  the challenge camp and making lots of new friends  being in the football team  significantly improving in maths, moving all the way up to the top set  environment club, visit to a Hindu temple and making a bird feeder  making a flashing pencil case in Textiles  taking part in the Hampshire Book Awards  all the sport competitions such as swimming gala, cross country running and Charlton athletics  playing at the Christmas gig and StockFest  the Eisteddfod, discos and the Year 7 camp  looking forward to the Italy trip Thank you to our Test Valley Challenge Sponsors

Maths News—Mr E J Whatley

What a great year for Maths at Test Valley School! 2016-2017 saw some changes with the new Head of Maths, Mr Whatley, hoping to build on the successes of previous Maths departments. The Maths GCSE has changed. There are now more topics to teach. Some A level topics are now included in the Higher papers - meaning that half of the exam paper questions are aimed at old grade A or above! The Foundation paper has also been made harder (and is similar to old intermediate GCSE papers) with the inclusion of some old grade B topics. Added to that we have more questions on the application of pupils’ maths knowledge meaning the questions are less straightforward in the way they are asked. This presents plenty of challenges. To help meet these challenges we now start GCSE Maths in Year 9 enabling a bit more time to cover all topics relevant to each set in more detail - including over-learning of the key skills required in each topic (e.g. practising calculations with fractions and decimals before learning about probability).

A Maths clinic has run every Thursday for Year 11 and that will continue next year. On top of KS4 intervention we will be launching a "Maths Mentor" system to support KS3 pupils and hope to start up a lunchtime club for all years.

We also want to promote the fun in Maths. There have been maths challenges during tutor time which have intrigued pupils (and confused some staff)! We will be launching "Numeracy Ninjas" to add to the excitement in September. We also had a very popular "Maths Memes" competition. In third place was Aaron Shirley with "Maths Chivalry". In second place was Owain Bravery with "Baa Graph". Our winner was Poppy Henderson with "Plotting". A special mention has to go to Imogen Hammer who inspired the competition when she found a meme by accident which reminded her of a recent Maths lesson - "Purrpendicular" is also included. Well done to those pupils (see me for a prize!) and I look forward to keeping you up to date with more maths news soon.

Dance Festival 2017

The annual dance festival for the seven local Primary Schools was themed ‘SUPERHEROES’ with morning workshops working with the Gremlin dance company. The Gremlin Dance Company taught the primary school pupils a morning workshop based around the theme SUPERHERO with choreography around their understanding of what makes a hero. The children explored the idea that even small, everyday acts of kindness constitute being a superhero and working together to make the world a better place. Children learned set dance phases whilst embedding the curricula objectives, as well as composing their own motifs to beat the evil ‘Dr Groove’! The primary schools had been asked to base their showcase performance around the theme Superheroes and pupils performed their own school dance in the afternoon.

Primary School Teacher: Mrs Emma Procter West Tytherley School “Amazing learning opportunities in a fun packed day. A chance to be part of a bigger group and to work with peers from other local schools. The best Dance Festival yet! “

Primary School Teacher: Mrs Ruth McNee Wherwell Primary school “It has been great to see the children taking part with such enthusiasm. They have thoroughly enjoyed their day. Test Valley staff and pupils are perfect hosts! “

The VIP guests presented gold medals to all the primary school pupils. These medals were presented for enthusiasm with 100% effort throughout the day and excellent team work.

Dance Festival 2017 continued...

Medal Presentation

The special VIP guests on Weds 28th June included the Mayor of Test Valley Councillor Mr Neal and the Mayoress Mrs Neal with the Town Mayor of Romsey Councillor Mr Hibberd. Both Mayors attended the dance showcases in the afternoon and presented the Gold medals to the pupils at the end of the day. Mayor of Test Valley Councillor Mr Neal said : “Just been entertained with three amazing dance performances illustrating the theme Superheroes. Well done to the West Tytherley and Wherwell primary schools.”

Romsey Town Mayor Councillor Mr Hibberd said : “I thoroughly enjoyed the dancing. Clearly much preparation went into the routines and everyone performed to a very high standard with much energy and enthusiasm.’ Without the key sponsors this event could not take place. The key sponsors were Hildon Natural Mineral Water, represented by Debbie Jones (Executive Director), Simplyhealth represented by Mrs Warwick (Community Fund Co-ordinator) Michael Austin Harlick Awards represented by Mrs Mills [Programme Manager of PE and School Sport] Debbie Jones Executive Director Hildon Ltd said: “Hildon are very proud once again to be able to support the Primary School Dance Festival at Test Valley School. It was delightful to see all the children enjoying themselves and using their imagination to create such lovely dances”

Dance Festival 2017 continued...

The Managers 2017

Linda Sheffield of‘ The Trophy Box’ providing the medals: “At this year’s Dance Festival the children gave a truly WOW performance as they presented their own interpretations, through dance and music, of what it means to be a ‘superhero’. They were literally all ‘superstars’ themselves. Well done everyone.” Louisa Hiscock Headteacher: ‘This event goes from strength to strength every year and I am delighted this year has proved to be such a success again. A tremendous amount of planning and hard work goes into the organisation by staff and pupils. This is rewarded by the positive responses and enthusiasm of the primary school pupils participating. I also thank those who support this event, especially our sponsors.’

Area Athletics 2017

The annual Primary Schools’ Area Athletics took place at King’s Somborne Recreation Ground on Monday 19th June in temperatures over 27 degrees.

Area Athletics 2017 continued...

Despite the hot conditions the pupils performed to a very high level and achieved some excellent results both track and field.

Sprints and speed bounce challenge The Young Sports Leaders were given instructions regarding the scoring and competition format. They were then able to record the necessary results for each competitor. Every athlete had to complete 3 field events, long jump, over arm throw and a chest push as well as 2 track events which included two sprints. Due to the hot weather conditions the 300m race became a ‘fun’ run for those that wanted to have a go but was not recorded. The Young Test Valley Sports Leaders Year 7 and 8 did a fantastic job on all the disciplines and were praised by the PBed coaching company who had organised the competition. Scores were totalled for each year group Year 3 / 4 / 5 and 6 and points allocated according to the best performance of each athlete. The top 3 team scores were very close as the team with the lowest score would be the winner.

WINNERS 2017

Scores of the top 3 : Broughton 1st 286 points Wherwell 2nd 301 points Wallop 3rd 303 points

We are delighted that Stockfest raised £980.00

this year due to the hard work, commitment and energy of all involved.