Calendar • 26-30/10 – Half Term • 30/11/15 – INSET
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Calendar 26-30/10 – Half Term News Edition 143 30/11/15 – INSET Day Monday 5h October 2015 Welcome to Edition 143 Dear All It has been a busy start to the school year for our students. Year 11 have participated in a careers fair which enabled them to find out more information about the choices open to them next September; there is further information about open evenings for colleges later in the newsletter. On the sporting field, the Year 8 Rugby team have had a very successful start to the year, with a resounding 47-19 victory over Honywood and Year 11 continued this success off the field, winning the Gosfield Enterprise challenge. Over the last two weeks we have hosted a variety of events for the parents of Year 6 students, including visits to primary schools. The feedback from all of these events has been extremely complimentary about the behaviour and attitude of our students. Thank you to all those students who have helped at one of these events. As the weather begins to turn, can I ask that you encourage your son or daughter to bring their coat with them on rainy days, and store them in their lockers, as this will help ensure they arrive at school ready to learn. Kind regards Elizabeth Robinson Headteacher Open Events Tabor Academy recently held several open events for the local community. Firstly, our annual Open Evening, opening our doors to existing and prospective families. It was a fantastic opportunity for the parents of our prospective Year 6 students to see the school in action and the amazing opportunities we have to offer. A number of our students from all years worked in departments and acted as tour guides for the evening showing our visitors around the site. Families had the opportunity to take part in many interactive learning activities. Attendance of families at this event was high and there were many positive comments received from our visitors; notably some commenting on the improvements they had already seen since the Loxford School Trust had been appointed. A presentation by the Headteacher, Elizabeth Robinson, detailed the future plans for the school. Following the Open Evening we also held coffee mornings on each day last week where our senior staff gave tours and prospective parents/carers had the opportunity to see the school in action. We operated an open door policy during the tours and visitors were able to go into the classrooms to see the wide range of learning activities which were taking place. We are pleased to say that the feedback received from our visitors was extremely encouraging with many parents saying that they were very impressed with the positive atmosphere and pleasant environment within the school. We very much look forward to welcoming our new families to the school community in the future. Year 11 Careers Event – Cressing Temple Barns On Thursday 17th September our Year 11 students visited the Braintree IAG Careers Fair at Cressing Temple Barns. Throughout the afternoon students were able to visit stands from a huge range of colleges in the local area including Braintree Sixth Form, Colchester Sixth Form, Braintree College and Writtle College to name but a few. Prospective employers from Essex County Council and Essex Business School as well as the Army and RAF were also on hand to discuss the different pathways available post 16. Tabor was represented for the entire day at the event by our Head Boy Sam and Head Girl Megan. We were delighted to receive so many positive comments from the organisers about the politeness and maturity that all of our students showed throughout the afternoon. This event marks the beginning of a number of events designed to support our students through one of the most important stages of their education. Mr Jakens, Achievement Leader Year 11 Gosfield Enterprise Challenge Gosfield School hosted its first ever business competition recently. The day was organised for Year 11 pupils to encourage creativity and enable pupils to demonstrate their communication, teamwork and time management skills. Teams of students from Tabor Academy, Alec Hunter Academy, Gosfield School and St Mary’s School for Girls took part. Gosfield School provided Year 12 and 13 Business and Economics students as mentors to support each team. Pupils formed mini marketing consultancies, developing a marketing strategy for a camping based body and laundry product. Teams had to pitch their final ideas and budget to a panel of Judges who played the role of the Board of Directors. The teams had four tasks to complete including a pricing strategy and a logo design. Points were awarded for each task with it all to play for during the final pitches. The winning team with a score of 51 out of a possible 60 points were Tabor Academy. I was really impressed to see the young people of Tabor and the other schools flourish under the pressure of the competition. Mrs Lizzie Wallace from St Mary’s School for Girls in Colchester said; “The competition today encouraged a wide variety of skills including business modelling, art work, communication, maths and improvisation”. The winning and second placed teams were awarded with Amazon vouchers and the school was awarded £100 to use for resources within the Department. Mrs Catherine Redfern, Director of Studies at Gosfield School, is looking forward to making the competition an annual event; “It was fantastic to see pupils from local schools rising to the various challenges with maturity and professionalism. They all demonstrated and developed a number of employability skills including teamwork, communication and working to deadlines and should be very proud of both their team and individual performances”. Tabor staff and students very much look forward to taking part in this event in the future. Mr Halstead, Head of Business Studies Year 8s Start the Season with Convincing Win Our outstanding Year 8 rugby team continued their success from Year 7 where they won the District Championships by dismantling a strong Honywood side 47-19 on Tuesday afternoon last week. The boys travelled across to Coggeshall feeling a little nervous as this was to be their first 15 a side match. Nerves were further heightened when two key players became unavailable for selection on the day due to illness. They had no need to worry however with Captain Jack and debutant Jordi scoring early tries to settle any nerves. The boot of Joseph kept the scoreboard ticking over with a number of impressive conversions. Tabor had to withstand some Honywood pressure near the end of the half but the boys showed they had been listening in training by working as a team to repel the Honywood attacks. Ben epitomised the Tabor spirit by making tackle after tackle throughout the entire match. Further tries from Harry, Jack and three more from Jordi made for a convincing victory. Well done to all of the boys who played and as always thank you to Mr Brand for his expertise both at training and during matches. Mr Jakens, PE Dept Attendance News Best Tutor Group Attendance This Week YEAR 7 – 7FRE– 96.21% YEAR 8 – 8BAI – 94.59% YEAR 9 – 9JAW – 93.42% YEAR 10 – 10LEW – 94.76% YEAR 11 – 11GLT – 95.12% Attachments Careers Bulletin Autumn 2015 Autumn Term Clubs GCSE Support Sessions Professional Learning Network Information Evening Braintree Museum Medieval Day Reminders Please ensure that all students remove their bike locks before 26th October 2015. After this date the school’s Site Team will remove them. Thank you. Until next time If you have any questions or opinions on any of the items in this newsletter, please email us at: [email protected]. Thank you for reading this 143rd edition of the Tabor News. Careers Bulletin Autumn 2015 Dear Students, Parents & Carers Raising of the Participation Age (RPA) It is now a Government requirement for young people to stay in some form of education or training until their 18th birthday. This can be any of the following:- Sixth Form Employment (with accredited training) Further Education College Volunteering (with accredited training) Apprenticeships There is information below on when students should begin to apply for Sixth Form or College. Careers information, advice & guidance is available from the schools Careers Adviser, Lynne Pembroke who is normally in school on Monday each week. Group work and 1:1 guidance is given, but it is vital that students also investigate their own career pathway. Important: Sixth Form application deadlines are approaching for September 2016 entry Sixth Form & College Open Events 2015 Braintree Sixth Form Tel: 01376 556353 Open Evening is Wednesday 11th November from 6.00pm -8.00pm Online applications open from Thursday 12th November Deadline date for applications is Tuesday 15th December 2015 and it is vital that students meet this deadline Colchester Sixth Form Tel: 01206 500700 Open Evenings are Wednesday 21st & Thursday 22nd October 6.00pm – 9.00pm International Baccalaureate Information Evening is Wednesday 11th November at 7.00pm Online applications open from Friday 23rd October Deadline date for applications is Sunday 31st January 2016 and it is vital that students meet this deadline Applications to be made by 31st January 2016 Colchester Campus Saturday 17th October 2015 from 10.00am – 1.00pm Monday 19th October 2015 from 5.00pm – 8.00pm Tuesday 20th October 2015 from 5.00pm – 8.00pm Braintree Campus Thursday 22nd October 2015 from 5.00pm – 8.00pm Saturday 7th November 2015 from 10.00am–1.00pm Book your place online at www.colchester.ac.uk Tel No: 01206 712777 Monday 19th October 2015 from 6.00pm – 8.30pm Monday 30th November 2015 from 6.00pm- 8.30pm Book your place online at www.chelmsford.ac.uk Tel No: 01245 265611 Wednesday 7th October 2015 from 6.00pm – 7.30pm Saturday 14th November 2015 from 10.00am-2.00pm Wednesday 3rd December 2015 from 6.00pm – 7.30pm Book your place online at www.writtle.ac.uk Tel No: 01245 424200 (Check on individual websites before travelling in case of any amendments) Applications for College are accepted throughout year but students can start applying from October onwards.