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Sandbach High School and Sixth Form College Autumn 16

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INTERNATIONAL & WORLD

CHAMPIONS! Over £13K raised for CRUK STEM special Buckingham Palace Page 4 Pages 18-25 Page 19 In this issue

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS

A LEVEL RESULTS DAY 2016

“Our students, male and female alike, can feel justifiably proud of their results with virtually one in ten entries achieving the top grade of A*, over 64% of entries achieving at least a B grade and a pass rate of 100%.

Our pass rate and the percentage of entries achieving the top grades, A* and A, are above national averages and this at a time when A levels continue to be increasingly more demanding.

These results are further testimony to the quality and consistency of our teaching and congratulations are extended to the students, their teachers and students’ parents on a very successful year. There are many individual success stories including Amber Sparks who is going to read History at Oxford and Laura Newell and Eva Yuen who are both off to University to read Medicine. I am immensely proud of the collective success of all our students and I wish them continued success as they embark on the next phase of their careers and above all continued happiness. Congratulations.” J M Leigh

Headteacher

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GCSE RESULTS 2016

Our high and increased success rates at GCSEs are particularly impressive especially at a time of decreasing success rates nationally. With over 32% of GCSE entries achieving top grades of A*/A and over 80% of our students achieving the national bench mark figure of at least 5 GCSE passes at grade C or above, including English and Mathematics this year’s results are rather special. Here, teachers and students have addressed successfully the challenges of a nationally changing educational climate. Students, teachers and parents can take special pride in this year’s “amazing” results and I extend hearty congratulations to all.

Once again we have seen our proud tradition of success at GCSE level and at Advanced level maintained ensuring that our students continue to succeed in spite of having to face some of the biggest developments education has ever witnessed. Well done!

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS Over £13,000 raised for Cancer Research UK! The school chose Cancer Research UK as its nominated charity for 2015-2016 in memory of its much-loved and “truly inspirational” teacher, Karen Leigh, who lost her battle with cancer in December 2014.

The year of fundraising was kick started with a charity walk last summer where the whole school took part. After this the whole school got on board to raise money with events including a swimathon, sponsored walk, Christmas fair, carol service, Christmas by Candlelight, busking in Manchester, senior citizens’ Christmas lunch, non-uniform day, pancake making, afternoon tea at Hall and home made ice-creams.

At the launch of the charity walk Headteacher John Leigh said, “ How to make someone very proud. The walk was enjoyable and the atmosphere very special. Behaviour was impeccable and was as near to perfect as perhaps any Headteacher could ever ask for, all in all helping to make the day very memorable for all the right reasons. Congratulations and thank you all.”

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Mindful Mondays

A group of us have been trying to make Mondays more mindful by meditating and relaxing. It helps us enjoy Monday, refresh our memories and escape the stress of school work. So far this year, we have encouraged other students to be mindful and calm. We have gathered information from the internet and produced posters to explain how to be mindful. As it gets closer to exams, we will create practical methods for mindfulness that we, and other students, can use at home. For #HelloYellow, we dressed in yellow and raised money for the charity. We took pictures to show our mindful posters, and did a meditation based on positivity. Our new project is to create ‘Mind Jars’ so that when they are shaken, the glitter helps us to concentrate on the importance of the moment. If you would like to bring a jar and some glitter we will be making the jars, everyone is more than welcome to join us in F9!

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS Year 7 Bushcraft Residential trip Let the adventure begin…….

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SANDBACH COLLEGE

College in Action Taster Day College 25 November in Action 9.30am—2.30pm Taster Day MALE AND FEMALE STUDENTS WELCOME 25 November 9.30am—2.30pm Email: zhughes@sandhigh..sch.uk to book a place

A JOURNEY TO SUCCESS! TRANSPORT AVAILABLE TO AND FROM:

BETLEY,TRANSPORT WRINEHILL, MADELEY, AVAILABLE , , TO , AND BETCHTON,FROM: MALKINS BANK, SANDBACH, , SMALLWOOD, , CHURCHBETLEY, LAWTON, WRINEHILL, SCHOLAR MADELEY, GREEN, STAPELEY, , ALSAGER, WINTERELY, HASSALL, ,BETCHTON, SHAVINGTON,MALKINS BANK, HOUGH, SANDBACH, WYCHWOOD RODE PARK,HEATH, WESTON, SMALLWOOD, COPPENHALL, ARCLID, SYDNEY,CHURCH , LAWTON, SCHOLAR , GREEN, , HASLINGTON, . WINTERELY, CREWE, SHAVINGTON, HOUGH, WYCHWOOD PARK, WESTON, COPPENHALL, SYDNEY, CONGLETON, NORTHWICH, WINSFORD, MIDDLEWICH.

We offer over 40 Come and see for yourself what it is like A Level courses BRAND to study in a first class - college environment! Stand alone AS NEW - qualifications One of the top - COLLEGE performing colleges in BTEC, Applied & the country Vocational Courses BUILDING - - Soaring success Extended Project at A Level ! Qualification OPENING - - Exceptional academic AQA Baccalaureate 2016! & pastoral support

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS Lifelong Learners Deputy Headteacher Mrs Carol Cooke, Senior Learning Support Assistant Mrs Julie Flaherty and Learning Support Assistant Miss Hayley Lester (not pictured) recently graduated together at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. They all studied in their own time at Manchester Metropolitan University, Mrs Cooke achieving an MSc in Educational Leadership and Management, Mrs Flaherty achieving her BA (Hons) in Education and Miss Lester a BA in Education.

Rachael is a true diamond In July Rachael Joyce organised a Wheelchair Basketball event at school as part of her fundraising activities for the 2016 Duke of Edinburgh Diamond Challenge. The aim of the 60th Anniversary challenge is for people to do something different or out of their comfort zone and raise money to help young people take part in the expeditions and residential elements of the scheme, where they may not otherwise be able to. Rachael donated £60.00 of the money she raised directly to school to benefit Sandbach students taking part in the DofE whilst the rest went to the national DofE Diamond Challenge fund and will be used to help participants in the North West of . Rachael has just received her certificate and Diamond Challenge pin (which she'll be wearing when she visits Buckingham Palace to collect her Gold DofE award) and would like to say a huge thank you to every- one who took part in the wheelchair basketball and the Scouts and pre-schoolers in Wheelock who also donated via events at their summer fairs.

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Tour of Britain comes to town! The Tour of Britain recently came to Sandbach with Olympic stars including Sir Bradley Wiggins, Owain Doull and Mark Cavendish taking part in the nation’s biggest cycling race.

Students were accompanied out on to Middlewich road where they cheered on, not only the cyclists, but the police motorcyclists too who delighted the girls with high fives!!

The Tour of Britain is British Cycling’s premier road cycling event, and the country’s largest annual free-to-spectate sporting event and has existed in various guises over the years but the modern edition was revived in 2004 and is now a firm fixture of the global cycling calendar.

Why do we have a school uniform? For many schools, it is important that students wear a school uniform in order to maintain balance and order among students. School uniforms help to eliminate bullying due to the fact that everyone is dressed the same and children can’t be teased for wearing something unusual or different. A shirt, tie or blazer may not be the ingredients for your favourite outfit, but wearing a school uniform is a badge of pride. It creates an identity for a school and is an important part of being a student. Connecting with this, uniform prepares all students for life after school. Requirements for higher education or workplaces may be for you to look smart. You also give a better impression of yourself if you look smart and take care with your appearance and presentation. Most importantly, a uniform means students don’t have to worry about peer pressure when it comes to their clothes. There is no worrying about the latest trends which could add financial pressure to parents and students. For the children who are lucky enough to get an education in poorer areas of the world, school uniform is worn with pride as they are proud to be educated. Others are respectful of the fact that they attend school and for some, it is the only outfit that they own. They keep their outfit clean and well kept. We should all be proud to attend a school like Sandbach High School and wear our uniform with Pride. Jessie Owens 9S

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS SHOWCASING EXCELLENCE IN THE ARTS

On 21 and 22 June 2016 our committed team of Arts Ambassadors, Arts staff and our chamber choir successfully highlighted the importance of the arts and the impact that Art, Music, Dance and Drama have on so many of our students, practically, emotionally and spiritually. Having secured a stand at the Cheshire Show for 2016 and 2017 we felt that this was the perfect arena to focus on and raise the profile of the arts and talents of our girls outside of our community. Whilst at the Cheshire Show in the Schools Out tent we had the opportunity to promote some of the outstanding achievements, indicative of Sandbach High School and Sixth Form College’s culture. Whilst at the ground we were interviewed by Trevor Green which was broadcast across the Royal County Show ground for all to see. “Personally, I found that this experience gave me the opportunity to engage with the general public. I felt proud to be able to tell the wider community about our school, a school that values and supports the arts. I felt proud to be at the Cheshire show with friends who like me are very passionate about the arts, share the same interest and passion for the arts, who see dance, drama, art or music as a potential vocation in later life” , says Arts Amabassdor, Zoe Paddock Year 8C.

“The Cheshire show was an amazing experience as an Arts Ambassador. It gave the ambassadors and myself, a chance to promote the arts to the public and share the unjust information that the arts are being squashed from our curriculum, but with this support and help we can still enjoy the arts in school. As an Arts Ambassador it was a very proud moment to see the chamber choir being broadcast on the biggest TV in Britain, and to be from an amazing and well-respected school. All in all it was a fantastic day and Sandbach High School represented the arts most fabulously!” Arts Ambassador, Helen McGlone, 10N.

Arts Ambassadors

Hi my name is Anastasia Cholkova-Pereira and I was appointed as an Arts Ambassador earlier this academic year. Along with other Arts Ambassadors I am now in a fortunate position to promote the importance of the arts, especially in light of the EBacc. I am able to share my love and thirst for the arts and convey my passion for the arts subjects to younger and older audiences. I feel that part of my role is to educate my peers about the many forms of art available. The arts help many students relax and find an outlet to express any repressed emotions and opinions. Over the course of the next few months the arts ambassadors will investigate how arts are used in other areas of our curriculum to support learning and teaching and we are now in the process of developing and helping to organise an arts day in school. Being an Arts Ambassador has been amazing and it has given our team a lot of professional experience, such as being able to represent our school at the Cheshire County Show.

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Record Numbers attend Open Evening! Both our open morning in July and open evening in September saw record numbers of parents and students visit our outstanding school with a view to joining us next year. Guests were greeted with canapes made by students studying catering and everyone was able to wander around the school with or without one of our fantastic tour guides. Each classroom was open and staff excitedly showcased their departments. Prospective students thoroughly enjoyed looking for the different Minion characters hoping that they would be one of the winners! If you are interested in a place for your daughter in Year 7 to 11 please contact Miss Carol Smith (Admissions Officer) for more information.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN APPLYING FOR A PLACE IN YEARS 7—11 PLEASE EMAIL:

[email protected]

Miss Darlington, Miss Whalley and Miss Smith presented the ‘Minion’ winner Emily Nixon from Offley Primary School with her prize.

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS Bronteland! At the end of September 40 intrepid explorers from Year 11 and Year 10 boarded a coach bound for ‘Bronteland’ – across the West Yorkshire Moors to Haworth in search of the birth place of Charlotte Bronte, whose novel ‘Jane Eyre’ they are studying for GCSE English Literature. We left Sandbach in glorious sunshine, but as we neared our destination, it became clear that the Yorkshire Moors wanted us to experience the true atmosphere and the harsh conditions the Bronte sisters lived with on a daily basis, as the clouds moved in and the rain began. However, not even bad weather can spoil the beauty of the wild, rugged terrain of the Yorkshire Moors and we could all imagine Jane Eyre standing on the pathway as Mr Rochester charged towards her on his horse at their first meeting. We were met by a deluge of rain as we got off the coach but received a warm welcome from the staff at the parsonage. Sue, Educational Visits Coordinator at the parsonage and expert on the Brontes gave a well-received presentation on Charlotte’s life and how so many of her experiences, from the loss of her beloved sister to the unrequited love she had for her employer at the school she worked at in Brussels, are woven into the story of Jane Eyre. As we toured the parsonage, the girls were amazed to think that they were standing in the room where the three Bronte sisters sat together and wrote their literary masterpieces of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tennant of Wildfell Hall. They were also surprised at how small Charlotte was as her stockings and gloves that are on display were almost doll-like in size.

In the afternoon Sue led us all on a guided tour of Haworth, showing us the graveyard in front of the house and explaining why it wasn’t a good idea to drink the water in Haworth in the period that the Bronte family lived at the Parsonage! She showed us the pathway that Emily Bronte would take regularly to walk the seven miles up on to Top Withen, the presumed location on which she based Wuthering Heights, before leaving us conveniently outside an old fashioned sweet shop in the centre of Haworth. Our Year 10 and 11 girls were curious and attentive throughout the day and enjoyed the real life learning experience. Even the three hour journey home, due to an incident on the M60, hadn’t wiped the smiles from their faces as they left the coach back home in Sandbach.

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Yellow Day raises more than £700 Sandbach High students and their parents are always so generous with their charity efforts and this year’s charity will be no exception. The school has chosen ‘YoungMinds’ as their nominated charity of the year and for one day only students were allowed to wear something yellow with their school uniform. More than £700 was raised for YoungMinds in just one day!. YoungMinds is the UK’s leading charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. The school has many more charity events planned for the school year including the Year 9 Christmas Fair and a Christmas Jumper Day so watch this space!

Sandbach High School’s students participated in a Swimathon to raise money and awareness of the charity YoungMinds, with an outstanding £385. We generated this amazing amount of money with family members and friends willing to sponsor these fantastic swimmers, thank you massively to those sponsors. Swimming is an incredible way to exercise as it works each muscle in our body without damaging our cartilage, unlike all other sports. Furthermore, this is why sufferers of arthritis exercise in the swimming pool as very little impacts their bones or cartilage. All swimmers competing in the Swimathon will have burnt 413 calories if they have a mass of 130 pounds/ approximately 9 stone/ approximately 59 kg. Well-done to all the swimmers who participated—you were outstanding in tactical thinking of the speed needed to swim your best throughout, and your skills were noticed by myself, other swimmers, teachers and life guards. However, a huge congratulation to 9B—swimming a massive 133 lengths of the 25 metre pool—you are very deserving champions. By Megan Brierley 9A

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS Champion School proves how many acts of kindness you can complete in 8 weeks!

In the Summer of 2016 Sandbach High School was approached by the Citizenship Foundation and the Olympic Committee to be a 'Champion School'. They asked us to take part in two community-based projects, and at least one had to have an Olympic theme. A group of girls and Miss Maile decided 2 was just a starting point and challenged themselves to do as many acts of kindness in 8 weeks as possible (with two happening over the summer holidays) they managed to:

 Run a food bank collection for Congleton Food Bank  Run a clothing collection and other donations for the North West Refugee Group  Cleaned the Sandbach memorial in time for the Somme Memorial Service  Litter picked and gardened with the Town Mayor Clean, plant and tidy the Community Herb Garden with the Town Mayor (and Mr Ford's mother in Law)   Attend a meal for Refugees and Asylum seekers (and taught them Bingo, numbers, and helped with their English- and in turn they taught us Iranian and Somalian dancing!) over the Summer holidays  Feed the homeless in Manchester over the summer holidays  Host a ‘cake and a chat’ morning at the Turnpike Residential Care Home  Run a food bank collection for the Trussell Trust at Tesco on a Friday night.

This work will continue into 2016/2017 under a new name of Project Happiness- in which students will complete further Active Citizenship tasks. Currently they are tackling safeguarding, and on-line safety.

Miss Maile

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Champion School proves how many acts of kindness you can complete in 8 weeks!

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS Work Experience……. With our original plan to experience working in the Italian donkey sanctuary thwarted by cost, eighteen animal lovers from years 9 and 10 (plus two staff) ventured down to Devon, to the Donkey Sanctuary HQ in Sidmouth. After a loo break or two and of course, the obligatory visit to a well-known fast food hostelry, we arrived at our home for the week – a fabulous 13 bed house just outside Sidmouth. First things first – what’s the wi-fi password? After unpacking our supermarket order Mr Gornall and some other culinary experts rustled up a lovely dinner for us all. Although the main point of the trip was to cuddle donkeys, a bonus was for the girls to experience cooking and looking after themselves/each other, including preparing all meals, with a packed lunch every day. Those who cooked didn’t wash up; it was a pretty good system and everyone was happy to muck in. Inevitably, this wasn’t the only ‘muck’ we encountered, but more of that later. Our first two days were spent at the training centre, where we were taught Stage 1 and 2 of donkey welfare – checking for signs of illness and distress, grooming and dressing hoof wounds. Discovering that donkeys can suffer terribly when they are separated from their owners/animal pals was a shock, and we saw some pretty moving videos of how donkeys are suffering across the world. The sanctuary has raised thousands to help these long-suffering animals, and we wanted to do our bit to help. Every one of the girls had accepted a challenge to raise £30 each for the charity, raised by doing various odd jobs, with the aim of making a donation at the end of our work experience. It was a real surprise that, on day one, we were ‘let loose’ in the yard with lots of donkeys, and could practise what we had been learning. These animals were all up for adoption, and as such were meeting people on a daily basis to help their integration into their new homes. This was where the mucking out began, and the girls got stuck in with clearing each stable, and of course there was time for a cuddle or two! For the rest of the week we were in the actual donkey sanctuary demonstrating what we’d learnt and Carl, the education officer who’d come up to meet us prior to our visit, grouped us with members of staff and we spent the days grooming, mucking out and stroking these amazing animals. There was such a mix of characters, from Wonky Donk who had a deformed ear, through Blind Bobby to the magnificence of the Poitou – they were all wonderful, and each of them loved a scratch and a hug. We still can’t believe that we were allowed to go into a yard or field of donkeys – sometimes 40 of them – and put harnesses on them and cuddle them: the amount of trust Carl and the other staff had in us was astonishing, and the girls absolutely loved it. We’ve never seen so many smiling faces from young people standing ankle deep in donkey poo! Back at the house we spent our evenings eating, setting up a tuck shop or playing rounders. One evening we had to congregate in the front garden because someone had sprayed too much deodorant in their room (probably trying to get rid of ‘eau de poitou’!) but we all had a jolly good time. On our last day we presented Carl with a cheque from the girls’ fundraising, with which he was so grateful. The girls were excellent company and were all so responsible – it was an absolute pleasure to spend the week with them. We hope that they enjoyed the experience and are sure they all picked up some valuable transferable skills along the way. Ms Aldridge & Mr Gornall

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….. at the Donkey Sanctuary

A little bit of history, so a young Elizabeth Svendsen used to breed donkeys, until one day she visited Exeter Market and saw 7 young donkeys in appalling conditions in a tiny pen, she tried to buy the donkey in the worst condition but was sadly turned away. It was after this nasty experience that Elizabeth decided she would save Donkeys rather than breed them. The Sanctuary was a registered charity by 1973 and in 1974 Elizabeth was left a legacy of 204 donkeys by the late Miss Violet Philpin. The Donkey Sanctuary at Slade House Farm in Sidmouth, Devon, has become an international charity and provides a permanent home to more than 4,000 donkeys. The charity has an annual turnover of £22,000,000 a year and operates major projects throughout Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, and Mexico - offering education and easily accessible veterinary care to owners. The sanctuary also offers Donkey Assisted Therapy to children with special needs. This July our group of around 18 students went to Slade House Farm. This was the first animal welfare residential at Sandbach High School. We stayed in Devon for a week volunteering at the Sanctuary, Mr Gornall and Ms Aldridge were our drivers for the week! We stayed in a huge house that had about 12 bedrooms which we shared in pairs. The trip was self-catering, therefore all of us had to work together and make sure that all the cooking and cleaning was equally split between us all. Some of us were better at the cooking part than others… The first 2 days were spent at the training centre before going to the main farm, this was to make sure we knew how to handle the donkeys safely. We were given demonstrations and were able to practise different aspects of donkey care, this included grooming, leading and mucking out the donkeys. We also touched on donkey health; how to take their pulse and apply bandages. Here we completed level 1 and 2 of the animal welfare course. At this farm I loved the donkey called Small Paul, he was the first donkey I saw and he had little “socks” on his hooves because he was ill, he was still so adorable! After this we spent 3 days working at the main farm, this included completing the donkey’s morning routine, feeding and mostly mucking out their stables and fields, it was still worth it though. However we did get time for lots of cuddles and little bits of grooming which was definitely the most enjoyable! We got to see all sorts of donkeys and my personal favourite was the Poitou Donkeys, they are a large breed and extremely hairy. We had loads of fun inside and outside the sanctuary; in our spare time we went to the beach, to a park and all played a game of rounders, we also played many games of hide-and-seek in the house. At the sanctuary we all contributed to a piece of art work for the Sanctuary to put up and bought little souvenirs from the shop. Overall it was a really good week away and we all made lots of memories.

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS STEM UPDATE STEM Up-date

There are a wide variety of STEM activities underway this term:

 STEM Club runs after school each Monday. Students from Years 8 – 11 are working with Mr Massey, Mrs Sellers, Mrs Morgan-Evans and Mr Sherman on individual projects and research. They aim to complete a Silver Crest award as well as enter national competitions such as The Big Bang and Teen Tech. Mr Bashford and Mr Sellers are running a Year 9 club entitled Robotics: Tomorrows Engineers. Please see the relevant teachers if you would like to join one of these clubs.  CAUC, our amazing Greenpower car club team meets each Tuesday evening in the Tech Suite. The team race regularly at weekends and sometimes in the week. Please see Mr Gornall if you are interested in joining. (see article on our recent International success!)  Formula 1 in Schools is going from strength-to-strength. Mr Gornall has a successful Year 12 team and a new Year 10 team has begun to develop their car.  The STEM Careers fair is becoming an annual event, and this year took place on 20 October. Over 40 visitors from higher education

and industry were on hand to offer careers advice for Years 10 – 13.  Once again, STEM is part of our PSHCE programme. Students in Year 8 have been completing fun problem-solving tasks whilst students in Year 9 have been considering ‘technology justice’. This will hopefully lead to families sponsoring the students to have a ‘day without a device’!  The Science and Maths departments are supporting the Year 8 Technology car project by reviewing the topic of forces and developing math skills to enable the students to work with the data gathered from launching the model cars they have made! This is just an overview of the STEM work taking place in schools. If you feel you can support STEM in school, please contact Mrs Painter [email protected]

Yet more TeenTech success! As a school we have been part of the TeenTech competition since it was established in 2012/13 have Once again our STEM students have been busy this year creating entries for the national TeenTech competition. The made it through to the finals each year. In honour of our following students were awarded certificates by a team of contributions we were asked this year if two of our judges for their projects: students would like to compère the awards ceremony. Gold Certificates: Silver Certificates: Katie (Y12) and Ella Reeder (Y9) were chosen to represent the school as former finalists and winners. Annabelle Oakley Lauren Astle We were incredibly proud as our students worked Kiera Dennison Sarah Ollier alongside Maggie Philbin (CEO of TeenTech) and Amelia Sheardown Helen McGlone Professor Brian Cox and presented a variety of eminent Nicole Nuttall Bronze Certificates: scientists, business people and TV celebrites such as of Bridget Rose Megan Brooks Professor Jim Al-Khalil, Dr Christian Jessen (Dr and TV Presenter), Rory Cellan-Jones (BBC Technology Georgia Egerton Correspondent), Andrew Cohen (BBC Head of Science).

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TEEN TECH Out of 1400 entries nationally, 4 made it through to the finals held at the Royal Society in London on 20 June. TeenTech are “an award winning, industry-led initiative, founded in 2008 by Maggie Philbin and Chris Dodson to help the “X Factor” generation understand their true potential and the real opportunities available in the contemporary STEM workplace”. In this competition students are, broadly speaking, challenged to generate an idea that makes life easier, simpler or better for the user. Lucy Gregg, Lois Sourbutts and Alex Dale (Y9) presented their Great Barrier Reef project entered into the ‘Future of Education’ category. Eva Yuen (Y13) presented her ‘Should Muscular Dystrophy be genetically eradicated’ project entered into the ‘Research’ category Rachael Joyce (Y13) presented her ‘Passive Amplifier’ in the ‘Best Innovation – Model, Prototype or Product’ category Megan Hough (Y13) presented her ‘Bluetooth Speaker’ in the ‘Best Innovation – Concept’ category Competition on the day was fierce and the students were amazing ambassadors for the school. We were delighted when Megan Hough won her category for the best innovation, receiving £1000 prize money for the school and a trip to Buckingham Palace to meet TeenTech patron the Duke of York. This is a fantastic achievement and well deserved. Megan has unassumingly produced some fantastic projects in Product Design over the last 4 years and it is brilliant to see her creativity and grit being recognised in this way. Both Megan and Rachael got A grades in A Level Product Design which they can put alongside their A grades at GCSE. As our STEM activities go from strength to strength in school our students continue to be a force to be reckoned with. Congratulations to all students and staff involved.

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS CAUC:

It’s been a long time coming but CAUC are back at the top where they belong, Greenpower Trust F24 International Champions of 2016. There are some that would say the worst position to finish a race is second place. Finish third and you were never going to win; but second place, it raises all those “if only” questions. If only this had happened or if only that had not happened, surely we would have won. Wouldn’t we? Those in the CAUC team have always known they are good but a succession of second places can be a bit of a morale buster, but to finish runners up year after year and keep coming back for more, shows the resolve of the team. Greenpower Trust organise their race series as an engineering challenge to encourage students to engage in engineering with students designing, building and racing their own all electric race cars. It’s not just about having the best car, it is about being the best team and working together to ensure that you win. The race format is endurance racing, with the winner covering the greatest distance within either of the two 90 minute races in the day. This means that efficiency rather than speed becomes key to the success of a race and, just like Formula 1, the on track action is close, hard fought and races can be won or lost during the pit changes. Dylan was a long time in the making, collecting a second place at his race debut at Croft in July 2015. Through the season he managed to collect a couple more second places including a second place at the International Finals that October.

The 2016 season started on May 4th, “Star Wars Day”, but the team may have been more focussed on birthday cake than “the force”. Not our best performance but opportunity to dig deep and remember that resolve, after all we may win as a team but so long as we learn as a team, we never lose. A few short months later, having got those pesky exams out of the way, CAUC returned to Rockingham Raceway with a sense of determination. Dylan had received his full `Faux-rrari’ livery and all the top secret technical developments that the team still refuse to discuss were implemented. He collected two 1st places during the day and achieved a distance that proved impossible to beat all season, placing him on pole for this year’s International Finals in October. Two days later, full of confidence, the team took on a new challenge and a new track in Anglesey but instead of breaking track records, proceeded to break the car, setting a precedent for the remainder of the season. Despite this CAUC achieved a 3rd place and learned a great deal about both the team and the cars, all of which could be fixed. With Dylan out of action but sitting on pole for the finals allowed an opportunity for the team to focus on Dougal. So it was a depleted team that

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COMPLETE AND UTTER CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD! accompanied Dougal up to Croft to prove that despite his age he was still very much the racer with a couple of 2nd places. At Aintree Dougal proved himself with another pair of 2nd places and importantly improving his finals placing to 15th. Dylan on the other hand was a DNS for the afternoon race after the team decided they had not broken him enough in the morning, they decided to break him again. He did however manage to take another 2nd place before being scuppered. The final qualifier of the season was at Castle Combe and the team defiantly had something to prove. A newly rebuilt Dylan was available and was defiantly not sandbagged in any way, with the focus very much on qualifying Dougal as high up the grid as possible for the International Finals. Dougal finished, you guessed it, 2nd place, just being piped to the post by the Chipping Sodbury team on their home ground, but importantly moving Dougal up to 9th on the finals grid. 2016 International Finals: Rockingham Raceway

For the second year, the International Finals were held at Rockingham Raceway over the weekend of the 15th &16th October. The Saturday is very much a practice day and following birthday celebrations for Georgina and Victoria a quiet night was had by all at the hotel. Sunday morning brought the rain and given the teams history for competing in a wet finals, it was decided to sit out the morning practice. It was still pouring as the cars headed out for the first race, but as the race got underway the rain eased and the weather improved. Dylan starting from pole position, held first place through the opening lap and stayed there for the first hour. Relentless hours of pit practice paid off as the pit stops went like clockwork, fast clean and precise. It was all going smoothly and feeling just a little too easy and we were right. Just over an hour in it was clear we had made an overestimation and were going to have to go into damage control mode. Even as Dylan was losing places on the track the team was gathered in the pits and the captains gave an inspiring speech. With the words of their captains still ringing in their ears and realising they still had everything to play for, the team reset for the afternoon race. This time, even the weather was on our side with the sun making an appearance. Dylan started from pole and once again held on to it through the first lap and was soon pulling clear of the field. For the adults involved with the team this is the point where nerves start to kick in, but the team played it cool. Following the plan and making it work; the pit stops came and went precisely on time and some of the fastest yet. With 20 minutes to go we could see that the batteries were starting to fade, but this was part of the plan. The only problem was that nobody shared the plan with the other teams and they were starting to eat into Dylan’s lead. From the live timings we could see that Dylan might be over taken on the last lap, surely we couldn’t finish second again? The gap between 1st and 2nd was 1:10, 1:05, 1:00 second place was making steady ground, 0:55 how much longer could Dylan hold this lead? 0:50 surely their batteries have to fade soon? 0:45 this is not good!!! 0:52 wait a minute? 0:59 it can’t be? 1:10 they’ve gone 1:20 and third place are way too far back, we’ve won the race! But will it be enough? A couple of minutes later there was a very satisfying moment when Dylan lapped the second place car that had been so threatening just a few minutes earlier. Even as Sophie B crossed the line in Dylan, we all knew we had a race win but we couldn’t confirm the championship win. The live timings were showing the same number of laps as the winning car from this morning and it would come down to which team had started the last lap earliest. With winning cars having to be re-scrutineered, speeches to be made and all the prizes awarded from throughout the weekend, it would be another hour before the International Champions were confirmed. CAUC had become Complete and Utter Champions and the team erupted and the tears began to flow, even from Mr G. Fortunately the CAUC team believe that champions never rest and preparations for the 2017 season have already begun. We hope to start racing next year with a new faster more efficient, more advanced car and construction began over October half term. The team is still looking for finances in order to complete Dylans Lil’ Bro’ and looking for a new car sponsor . If you feel you can help please contact the school directly to speak to Mr Gornall and don’t forget to follow the team on Twitter @CAUC_SHS. Roll on the defence of our title! 21 ontrackSTEMnews

...and YET MORE SUCCESS Learning Opportunities CAUC team members are guilty of taking their racing very seriously, it is after all `the winning that is important not the taking part’ and while every team member accepts that this is not always possible, every race is however, an opportunity to learn. The team formally meets on a Tuesday night and the sessions are packed full of learning and development activities, usually run and organised by the students themselves, with older students taking on leadership roles. Tuesday night activities include CAD/CAM, aerodynamics and virtual wind tunnel analysis through to pit practice and car maintenance. As with all the CAUC cars, it’s the technology that separates them and we often have students developing the programming of the cars’ control systems; with fully automatic gearing, to interpreting the cars’ telemetry results and using this to develop race and driver strategy, along with future developments for the cars. The Tuesday night before a race is all about preparing the cars for the race and planning the race strategy, with every student clear on their role throughout the day. The Tuesday following a race, or in the case of this year, series of races, is an opportunity to pour through the race data to identify successes and areas for further development in the cars, the driv- ers and the support the team provides.

As with Formula 1, a race can be won or lost in the pits and with having to make at least four driver changes in a race day, practice is key. The students themselves have put together a rota for team member to spend two lunchtimes a week taking part in pit practice. Over the last couple of years analysis of these procedures has seen an 85% improvement in the pit change time with the need for repeatability being recognised. In addition to the normal weekday activities both during and after school, the team regularly take part in promotional and fund raising activities with appearances at Autosport International, Big Bang, Sandbach Transport Festival and Car Fest North in the last few years. Due to the time intensive process of working high tech composite materials like carbon fibre, it’s when a new car is in construction that the whole team swings into action during the off season. Small components can be produced over a number of Tuesday evenings but a whole new car can often consume entire weekends and even whole half term weeks. All the time, students are learning not only the technical skills and requirements of the materials but also the teamwork and leadership skills of managing a multi-disciplined team. In July 2015 a group of student made up mostly of car club members took a trip to Italy to tour the motor industry in the Bologna area. At Ferrari they achieved no- toriety for the development of their race craft, at Lamborghini they impressed the production workers with the build quality of their race cars and at Pegani the car- bon fibre workshop manager was amazed at their understanding of the industrial practices involved in working carbon fibre. Following this trip, it’s fair to say that there is no such thing as being too car obsessed for these girls. We are currently planning a trip to Germany in the summer of 2017 to tour the car plants of Munich and Stuttgart.

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The Future of Engineering? The future of F1 and NASA?

Over the years some of the CAUC team members have expanded their activities into other challenges including the former Scalextric 4 Schools competition. In 2015 a student came asking about an additional activity in which she could showcase the skills she had learned at car club. Within a few weeks she had assembled a team of 5 girls, all now fully fledged CAUC members and was ready to make their first assault on the F1 in Schools challenge. It was recognised that their 2015 attempt, while still being competitive, was an opportunity to learn how the competition worked. Their 2016 attempt at the competition was a different matter, with all their CAUC skills and determination they entered the North West Regional heat under the name Storm Racing and collected 3 prizes for the fastest car, best use of R&D to develop their car and the overall North West Regional Champions and earning a place at the UK National Finals.

With over 750 teams entering the competition nationally, at the UK National Finals at Silverstone in April, Storm Racing finished 8th overall, produced the 6th fastest car and collected the Dare2B Different award from Dr Kathryn Richards of AMG Petronas for the best all girl team. Their reward for this was a garage tour of the Red Bull pits during 2nd practice of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Ever the self-promotional experts, they managed to Tweet selfies with several of their future F1 bosses including Jenson Button and Suzie Wolff. The team are now preparing to compete one more time, with the backing of Bentley motors and Barden bearings with the aim of a place at the F1 in Schools International finals in 2017. In addition to this, two of the F1 in Schools team have quite literally just received notification that they have been accepted for an Arkwright scholarship to continue their engineering studies for the next two years through A-level. Both these students have also signed up for a STEM trip myself and Mrs Painter are running to take part in a NASA challenge at Mission Control in Huston Texas in 2018. Over the past 15 years a great number of students have gone on to study courses from Architecture to Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Product Design at various universities and a number have entered straight into industry through apprenticeship schemes. We have however also had a number of students who have gone on to other areas due to the skills they have learned through CAUC in logistics, marketing and promotion and business management. We have recently had one team member who has been looking at university options, particularly to study motorsport engineering who has turned down an offer at one particular renowned university due to their Formula Student team not having high enough expectations and not allowing a Fresher with her experience to becoming involved in their team. Her feeling was that she did not wish to have to wait three years before being able to share her learning in order to bring the university teams expectations up to the level of our Greenpower school team. At all levels we have found that interviewers are far more interested in the application of our students skills through car team than the academic grades they have written down before them, and one thing our girls can do is talk about the car team.

Presently

The team have been working over the summer holidays on refining the aerodynamics of Dylan and carried out a number of trials to develop the production processes to be used on the team’s next car ready for full production in the autumn. This should allow the students to implement what they learned at Pegani. Mr Kevin Gornall

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS MORE SUCCESS AT ……..

STEM success at the Big Bang North West

On Tuesday 5 July seven teams competed at the Big Bang North West Regional event, at the Liverpool Exhibition Centre. Our teams were supported by member of STEM club, Mrs Morgan-Evans, Mrs Hudson and Mrs Painter.

All of our competing students proudly displayed and explained their projects to a host of judges and the public and we are immensely proud of them. The feedback from the judges for all seven teams was extremely positive

We are pleased to announce that 3 teams have been chosen to represent the North West at the Big Bang national competition in March 2017. Our finalists are:

Winners of the Communication Award and Finalists for the Big Bang national competition in March 2017 Project title: Eco-Globe Shopping Mall of the Future Mille Cullen Year 8 Sarah Williams Year 8

Finalists for the Big Bang national competition in March 2017 Project title: The Great Barrier Reef Education Model Lucy Gregg Year 9 Lois Sourbutts Year 9 Alex Dale Year 9

Winner of the Endeavour Award Project title: Incinerators and Greenhouses Matilda Richards Year 10

Winners of North West Young Scientist of the Year award and

Finalists for the Big Bang national competition in March 17 Project title: Natural Skincare Remedies Imogen Dowell Year 10 Jennifer Sunderland Year 10

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……….THE BIG BANG FAIR On Tuesday 15 March 2016, a group of STEM students from Year 9 and Year 12 travelled to the Birmingham NEC to compete in the Big Bang National Science and Engineering competition. After months of hard work in STEM club, developing our projects, we were both excited and nervous for the climax! The STEM competition, for students ages 11-18, is part of the Big Bang fair; a huge, annual STEM fair, held at the NEC. The fair is a celebration of the STEM subjects; Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, and aims to inspire and entice young people into these subjects. Directed at students aged 7-19, the event showcases the amazing opportunities and possibilities within STEM. The event holds plenty of exciting activities, interactive workshops, theatre shows and interesting exhibits, guaranteed to spark the interest of both adults and children. Additionally, numerous major Science and Engineering companies, such as Siemens and the ESA held extravagant stalls at the fair, as well as many universities. This also gave the invaluable opportunity for students to talk to professionals about their subject area and work, and hopefully become inspired to pursue a STEM-related career. I personally found this really beneficial. There were so many fun activities to get involved in and things to see; there wasn’t a boring moment! The atmosphere of the event buzzed full of energy, and as I am sure the other competitors from Sandbach will agree, this trip was a thoroughly brilliant experience. From Sandbach high school, four projects made it through the regional heat; held in June 2015 at Aintree for the North West competitors. The Year 12 entrant was Olivia Jeffries, with her ingenious Fold-out balance bike project. The groups behind the three Year 9 projects included Niamh Darbyshire, Ella Reeder (myself), Rosie Darracott-Gray and Belle Holdcroft-Clarke with our ‘Lights out’ Emergency street lighting project; Bethany Sherborne, Hanah Uzzell and Amy Vickers with their School Planner app project, and finally Anya Burnand, Leah Lucas and Dimah Al-bayati with their ‘hearing aid of the future’ project. It was both exciting and quite daunting to finally present the work we had done in the competition final. For the intermediate (ages 15-16) and senior (ages 16-18) age categories, part of the project judging process included being judged by a celebrity judging panel. On the Wednesday, the majority of the judging took place, and we had an early start before traveling to the NEC. Despite everyone being quite nervous, as a result of the relaxed and exciting atmosphere of the whole event, presenting the projects came quite easily. Taking turns to occupy our stands, we had the opportunity to explore the exhibition and take part in many of the fun activities, as well as learning more about careers within STEM. After a whole day on our feet, we all sat back and enjoyed a show about the science behind Hollywood special effects, before returning back to the hotel and enjoying a meal out. The majority of the Thursday allowed for us to enjoy the event and talk to visitors about our project. Fellow competitor Niamh Darbyshire (9H) said of the event; “It was a really fun experience. It was great to see other peoples’ projects, and I also enjoyed the special effects show.” At around 4:30, we started to pack up our stalls in preparation for attending the much-anticipated awards ceremony. After a musical performance, the prizes began to be awarded. In each age group, there were two categories, Science or Engineering, which a project would fall under. There was an award for the winner, the runner up, and the two highly commended projects within the two categories in the Junior, Intermediate and Senior age groups. To our excitement, our ‘Lights out’ Emergency street lighting project was awarded the highly commended award within Engineering, in the Junior age category. We were thrilled to go up on stage to be photographed and receive certificates! All of the groups from our school gained some really positive judging feedback, and to get to this stage in the competition was definitely a huge accomplishment. To summarise, everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable time at the Big Bang fair!

Ella Reader Year 9 (currently Year 10)

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS A taste of Cambridge! The Languages Day at Girton College Cambridge was absolutely superb! As well as giving me a taste for what life at Cambridge University would be like, the day gave me an insight into careers and opportunities with languages. And wow...lots of opportunities there are! During talks from various staff at Girton College, I learnt that studying languages opens doors to charity work, marketing, banking, education and not forgetting opportunities to work, study or live in countries abroad!

At one workshop on the Spanish Civil war, I learnt the story behind Picasso's masterpiece of Guernica, the overview of the Civil war and, about the impact the war had on Spain. Next, onto Italian ab initio, where I picked up some handy Italian phrases to keep up my sleeve - pensa un po'!

The atmosphere in the university was fantastic with everyone so passionate about the subject they studied. During one talk from a staff member at Cambridge, they told us about the amazing opportunities the university offered: a library holding every book ever published in the UK, lots of groups and clubs to be part of and the pièce de résistance...that Girton college is the only college in Cambridge with an indoor heated swimming pool!

I was really happy with the opportunity to go on the day and it left me full of enthusiasm and excitement for the future! :)

Grace’s very generous gift

Grace Pirrazzo had her beautiful long hair cut into a modern crop for “The Little Princess Trust”.

This selfless act meant that over 12 inches of Grace’s hair was sent off to make wigs for children.

Although it was Grace’s decision and she was so determined, her mum couldn’t go with her to the hairdresser as she was too nervous so big sister went!

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Exam success in Chinese, Arabic & Latin!

We have a long and proud tradition at Sandbach High School of supporting our students who wish to gain qualifications outside the languages they are studying in school and this year has been no exception. In addition to celebrating the achievements of all our students who sat their French, German and Spanish A Levels and GCSEs in the summer, we are delighted to share in the success of our students who this year sat additional exams in a variety of languages. Three of our students who left us in the summer, Cindy Tsang, Jonathan Vu and Eva Yuen achieved an excellent set of results in A-Level Chinese. Not to be out done by their older brother, Jonathan’s sisters Stella and Jacqueline Vu along with Chrinny Dong who are now in Year 11 achieved a fantastic 2 As and a B in AS Level Chinese, having all gained A* grades in Year 9 for GCSE Mandarin. Carol Nahkla, also now in Year 11, sat her GCSE in Arabic and achieved an excellent grade A. We were lucky to have an Arabic-speaking member of staff, our Spanish assistant Mariola, to help out with the speaking exam. Having lived in France from the age of 2 until the age of 6, Nadia James (currently in Year 9) has worked hard at home with her mum to keep her French up to a very high standard and was rewarded with an outstanding A* and the joint second highest mark in the school for French GCSE. Current Year 13 students Emily Radford and Annabel Elleray started studying Latin at lunchtime in Year 10 at a club run by Mrs Milnes, Head of RS and Classical Civilisation. They achieved A* at Level 1 in Year 11 and this summer they went on to gain A* grades in Level 2. It is very pleasing that the exam boards have worked hard to maintain such a choice of languages at GCSE and A Level and we look forward to supporting our students this year to achieve another excellent set of results across a diverse range of languages.

Last term, both our Year 10 German and Spanish classes had an amazing opportunity to visit Manchester University. We had the chance to experience their linguistic course and have an insight as to what it’s all about. For the first part of the day, we had a tour of the campus followed by an activity which involved creating subtitles for a video clip in the language that we study. In the afternoon, we also had the chance to experience learning a new language. We chose Russian, so we learnt basic conversation phrases. This gave us the chance to try something completely different and some even decided that they may like to continue with Russian in the future. Overall, the day was both enjoyable and beneficial to our language skills. Many of us have come away considering a degree of languages at Manchester University.

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS Level 1 school games Netball The standard of netball was fantastic this year with all form groups in Years 7 8 and 9 taking part. The majority of the forms in Years 10 and 11 were involved in the event and provided some exciting and quality netball games. Excellent sportsmanship and team sprit was evident throughout the two weeks of netball and the tournament was enjoyed by all, thanks to form tutors who also came out to support!

Overall the Year 7 winners were 7B who demonstrated excellent skills and reading of the game. The deserved winners in Year 8 were 8E, who displayed lovely Netball throughout the rounds to take them through to the final. 9S were victorious in their competition. After winning all their matches to get through to the final, Year 10 winners were 10N, winning their tournament for the 4th year in a row! And finally, there was a good turnout for the Year 11 tournament, and 11H were crowned the winners.

Congratulations to all girls who took part! We hope to see the same enthusiasm during all the remaining whole school Level 1 competitions.

Mrs Nicholson

Rugby

Rugby Festival – A small group of girls travelled to Crewe Vagrants and were given a fabulous coaching session from Niall and Jules. They were eager to get started and showed no fear getting down and wrestling on the floor and practicing their tackling skills. They showed great passion for learning new skills and finally got to put these into practice in a game. The girls didn’t hold back and played a game against each other and some girls from another school. Hopefully, this is good preparation for the tournament later on during the term.

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Cross Country Cross Country – School Series

Our Minor, Inter and Junior cross country squads have again, performed fantastically during the series of four races that have taken place this half term. The determination, team work and commitment displayed has been second to none, and our new cross country captain, Lois Gillespie (9N) has worked hard with our new Y7 athletes, ensuring that they were prepared and warmed up for each race. Final results are in, and congrat- ulations are due to our Y7 team, who have won the series for Sandbach High School. To our junior team who finished in second place over all, and finally our intermediate team who finished in third place. Congratulations are also due to Ellie Bushill, Ruby Bowie, Rebecca Griffiths and Olivia Fowler, who have been selected to represent Cheshire on the 12th Novem- ber.

Cross Country – English Schools Cross Country Cup

Our junior and intermediate cross country squads competed at the first round of the English Schools Cross Country Cup on Friday 7th October, at Walton Hall Gardens. We witnessed some extremely gutsy performances from both teams, resulting in our junior team winning the event, and going through to the regional round, representing South Cheshire, on Saturday 12th November. We wish the girls the best of luck, and are hopeful for a place in the National Championships.

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS Gifted students had a chilling time Chill Factore - On the 3rd of October 30 Gifted and Talented pupils had a reward day at the Chill Factore in Manchester. It was a fun filled day consisting of an hour in the ‘Snow Park’, time on the slope skiing, climbing and not to mention a Nando’s lunch. The girls from the ages of 13- 18 had a great time and it was great for many of them to take part in an activity they have never done before. They all had a great day out, with many funny moments.

Under 15 Rounders County Champions!

Last year saw the end to an amazing season for the Year 9 rounders team. With already being South Cheshire Champions, we progressed through the Level 3 School Games County competition. The day started well with our team winning the first game to really set the tempo off to a good start for the rest of the tournament. One win wasn’t enough for the team and we went on to win all of our games with some games really going down to the wire. We had excellent batting, fielding and our communication skills shone throughout. Amy Cruxton, Chloe Ciupek, Hannah Williams, Issy Wilton, Hanah Uzzell, Grace Dyson, Maddie Goodman, Anja Ellwood, Ruby Rushton, Hollie Richardson and I had an amazing day out and are very proud to be Cheshire Champions. Bethan Williams

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Manchester Invitational Indoor Athletics

We kicked off the indoor athletics series in style with a fantastic 2nd place from 11 participating schools, from across the North West and Greater Manchester. Our intermediate squad performed exceptionally, even with depleted numbers due to illness amongst the athletes. Congratulations to Ruka Shonibare who took gold in the 200m, and bronze in the 4x200m, to Maddie Goodman who took gold in the 800m after dominating the race, and to Louise Elleray for taking Silver in the High Jump (equalling her personal best!). Amy Keeble, Jennifer Palin and Louise Elleray also helped the team to bronze in the 4x200m. Special thanks to Charlotte Keeble who contributed greatly to the teams overall success by competing and gaining points in two events that were not her usual choice; the 60m sprint and the 300m. Well done to our athletes and we look forward to what the athletics season has in store for this squad.

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...and YET MORE SUCCESS

ELITE LEVEL SUCCESS Sports Officials UK - Junior Official of the Year Award

Abi Blythe in Year 11 has been shortlisted for the Junior Official of the Year award for Sports Officials UK. This prestigious award is a recognition of her pure talent and dedication to netball umpiring over the last couple of years. Having completed her C award umpiring course with full marks and record time for someone of her age, she has now started her B award and is continuing to impress netball players and officials where ever she goes. International umpire Gary Burgess makes regular contact with Abi and she is mentored by expert officials to ensure she receives the support she needs. As a school we are super excited and proud of Abi and we wish her the best of luck on the 26th October at the awards evening in Warwick.

Abi just missed out on the England Netball Young Volunteer of the Year award earlier in the year, she was successful in the Regional awards and made it to the main event in London. Again an absolutely great achievement! She is definitely one to watch for a future England Netball Umpire!

FA U14 National Performance Camp

Eleanor Heeps in Year 9 has successfully completed the first stage of the National pathway for football and is working hard to impress at the second residential camp in November. Eleanor is an extremely talented goal keeper who is fearless in any situation. She is a fantastic role model and team player and to watch her play is simply amazing! Well done Eleanor, keep up the hard work!

Liverpool FC Academy and Cheshire Squad

Both Jessica Smith and Eleanor Heeps in year 9 have worked hard and have successfully been selected to play for Liverpool FC academy and our Cheshire County team. We are so proud of the girls and we wish them all the luck at the clubs.

North of England Star

Maddie Goodman in year 10 is one of our rising stars, ever since she started here in year 7 her talent had the PE department in ore! Her determination, hard work ethic and shear talent has not gone unnoticed as she has been successful in being selected to play for the North of England. We wish Maddie all the best in her hockey career and we can’t wait to see her with the Team GB jersey on !! Goooo Maddie!!

County Success

Huge congratulations to our students who were successful in the Cheshire Netball trials. Safiyah Kandeh, Georgia Donald, Molly Rowland, Emelia Malcolm and Charlotte Verbicas in Year 7 and Katie Hockenall in Year 8. Well done girls and we wish you all the success playing for Cheshire. MEGAN IS A SHOOTING STAR! Megan Joyce (year 9) took part in her first GB Junior International shooting competition over the Summer holidays and as well as shooting in the 10m Air Pistol and 25m Sports Pistol categories she was also required to be the medal cushion bearer at the awards ceremony each evening by virtue of being the youngest competitor. Having got a taste for competitions Megan is now busy training with her pistol squad and with the local Scout shooting squad ready for her next international competition, Intershoot, at The Hague in February 2017.

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FOOTBALL UPDATE

U13 Football team update On Thursday 13 October we travelled to Alsager high school to complete in the English Schools first round. On a 9v9 pitch, we were focused on Miss Jackson and Miss Friends tactic of five shots in the first five minutes. Unfortunately, we were not able to achieve this as Alsager put very high pres- sure on us, however after 15 minutes we settled our nerves and created more chances. We took the second half kick off at 0-0 and were already looking better as we were achieving much more passing, movement off the ball and were much more successful in attacking and defending. Unfortunately, after the end of the second half it was still 0-0, resulting in the game going straight to penalties. Everyone was a bit concerned as we never really practiced penalties, however some great support was shown by Miss Jackson, Miss Friend and the rest of the team towards the penalty takers and keeper. We ended up winning 2-1 on penalties, with some excellent penalties from Alex and Eloise and a few outstanding saves from Alex. On Tuesday 18 October we travelled to Fallibroome to compete in the first round of the Cheshire Cup. On a 11v11 pitch, Fallibroome kicked off. Once again, we focused on Miss Friends tactic to score 5 goals in 5 mins. We had much more success with the tactic in this game, scoring 3-0 in the first half with Eloise scoring 1 and Jess Walker the other two. We took the second half kick-off and we were straight in with another goal, scored by Katie who played at CAM. Unfortunately, we couldn’t continue because the referee made the decision to stop the game due to awful weather conditions and water logged pitch. Due to our amazing win, Miss Friend decided for us all to do a mud slide, although it was definitely fun, we all ended up being freezing, wet, muddy, however worth it! Alex Ciesielska & Penny Russett ROUNDERS SUCCESS The PE department would also like to recognise the success of all years Rounders teams over the summer season. All teams were outstanding and achieved success across the course of the season. In particular the Year 7 team who were unbeaten in their league games and Years 9 and 10 who were both crowned South Cheshire Champions!

CONGRATULATIONS LADIES!!

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SPORTS AWARDS EVENING Thursday 30 June saw a dazzling event to celebrate the success and achievements of all athletes that had represented Sandbach High School. The impressively dressed main hall hosted over 80 students, parents and staff in order to recognise the outstanding performances and triumph over the course of the year. The evening began with an opening celebration of the numerous amounts of success that the students had accomplished, ranging from the success of our Year 7, 8 and 9 Hockey teams becoming South Cheshire Champions, Year 8 Level 3 Indoor Athletics Winners and the U13 Football team being crowned Cheshire Champions. A special thanks are due to Sports Coaching North West who sponsored the event, without which it could not have taken place. There was plenty to celebrate in each sport, each captain speaking in front of the audience, commending their team for all the dedication and commitment throughout the season. All members of the Physical Education department were delighted to present the awards alongside Chris Regan from Sports Coaching North West, recognising the hard work, dedication and outstanding achievement of all awardees. Although there are a vast amount of exceptional students that attended the evening, some regularly go above and beyond our expectations, achieving not only individual success but also assisting others in their team and contributing to school sport in an exceptional manner. The winners of those awards were:

Vitrix Award – Louise Elleray Leader of the Year – Laura Kirby

Outstanding Contribution to School Sport – Gaby Goodman Final celebration videos were a wonderful closure to the night, allowing all to celebrate their individual and team achievements, reflecting on the success of the year. Staff, parents and students showed immense pride in what all the students had achieved and the PE department look forward to the celebrations of the year ahead.

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Player’s Player Coach’s Player Netball Year 7a Katie Hockenhall Rebecca Griffith Year 7b Millicent Bradbury Emily Braviner Year 8 Lucy Rookes Anna Hanson-Isasi Year 9 Grace Dyson Ella Reader Year 10 Evey Duncan Megan Barnett Hockey Year 7 Eloise Goodwin Hannah Wright Year 8 Amelia Paton April Roome Year 9 Maddie Goodman Amy Cruxton Year 10 Carmel Barwick Jessie Dickson-Evans Football Year 7 Alex Ciesielska Eloise Goodwin Year 8 Eleanor Heeps Jessica Smith Year 9 Madeleine Kent Josie Pordes Year 10 Tabbi Carson Emily Howarth Volleyball Year 7 Alyanna Mae Trivino Elle Cullen Year 8 Hannah Bennett Abigail White Year 10 Alicia Deighton Kathleen Trivino Cross Country Year 7 & 8 Jessyka Walker Jessica Nelson Year 9 & 10 Charlotte Keeble Caitlin Dimmick Cricket U13 Award Libby Mae Darlington U15 Award Bethan Williams Rounders Year 7a Penelope Russett Casey Beamon Year 7b Daisy Hickman Abigale Garrett Year 8 Hannah Whitfield-Green Amelia Paton Year 9 Hannah Williams Isabelle Wilton Year 10 Kiera Skerratt Hannah Gillespie Vitrix Award Louise Elleray Leader of the Year Laura Kirby Outstanding Contribution Gaby Goodman to School Sport Award Team of the Year U13 Football Cheshire Champions Half Colours – for dedication and outstanding achieve- Charlotte Keeble, Amy Keeble, Amy Cruxton, Alex Milnes, Bethan Williams, Holly ment in a variety of sports. Richardson, Hannah Williams, Isabel Wilton, Esme Baston, Ruka Shonibare, Rochelle Ramroop, Jessica Harvey, Olivia Harvey, Anja Ellwood, Amelia Paton, Hannah Whitfield Green, Grace Dyson, Kiera Skeratt, Rowena Jones, Rebecca Staccini & Hannah Gillespie. Full Colours - for continued dedication, commitment and Maddie Goodman, Jessie Dickson Evans, Caitlin Britton, Kyra Simpson, Tabitha elite level performance in a variety of sports. Carson, Samantha Taylor, Danielle Johnson, Louise Elleray & Megan Barnett.

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