Twynham School 2013 “Ambitious for All Our Students” February 2006
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February Snippets 2013 Twynham School “Ambitious for all our Students” February 2006 Dear Parents borderline – which is precisely how we Inside this issue: have approached students’ learning all Dr Fish - Front Cover Introduction along! I will write to explain more about this It is with great pleasure that I write the intro- in a later newsletter, but what this does Dr Fish continued 2 duction of this latest newsletter. Much con- confirm is that those students in Year 9, tinues to happen in the world of education; who are currently choosing their options, nationally and at the school. Nationally the have absolutely the right mix from which to government has finally backed down over choose – and they will be sitting GCSEs Attendance & Punctuality 3 the replacement of GCSEs with the hard to rather than some new, hastily cobbled to- Youth Speaks 3 pronounce EBCs in the face of almost uni- gether examination. Careers 3 versal opposition (More detail here if you Year 7 News 4 are reading this electronically), and at Thoroughly Modern Millie Twynham the preparations for Thoroughly Modern Millie gather apace amongst all the other activities which go on at a busy, suc- Year 10 News 5 cessful school. Holocaust Memorial 6 Year 9 Options 7 Twynham in the Top 100 Schools nation- Year 11 Workshop 7 ally I hope that you will already have read the letter which was e-mailed to all parents, or Vocational Learning 8 have read the Latest News on the school’s Year 8 News 8 website to see that the school received a Student Council 9 letter from the Minister of State for Educa- tion (Mr David Laws MP) letting us know You will see an article in this newsletter Student Support 9 that we were in the top 100 schools for the about this imminent show. At a time when Thoroughly Modern Millie 10 progress our students make between Key so many schools have almost side-lined the ICT News 12 Stage 2 and their GCSEs. To quote Mr Arts, this has not been our approach since PE News 14 Laws: “Your school is exceptionally effec- we believe that they are a vitally important tive in educating its pupils”. In a year when part of the curriculum, children’s develop- the English GCSE fiasco affected the re- ment and life generally. Also, at a time Uganda Challenge 17 sults of a relatively small number of stu- when there is so much examination pres- Community Pages 18 dents last summer, with the resulting drop sure on students and staff, I would like take Forthcoming Events 20 in the ‘headline figure’ of five or more this opportunity of thanking everyone who GCSEs at A*-C, it is reassuring to be for- is working so hard to make this production mally acknowledged that when you con- a success. I hope that you will support the sider the performance of our students in school and our students by booking tickets five GCSEs: English, Mathematics and the – please put the date(s) in your diaries – students’ three best other GCSEs, we are 7th, 8th and 9th March 2013 – at the Regent in the top 100 schools. The article with a Centre. link to the letter from Mr Laws can be seen on our school’s website or by clicking here. It is interesting to note that Twynham was Attendance Telephone the only school across Dorset, Bourne- Number mouth and Poole to be in the top 100 01202 495778 schools for the progress measure. Oak- mead College of Technology were con- gratulated for the improvement in their Sixth Form Attendance GCSE results from 2011 to 2012 and I’d Number like to congratulate them on this success. 01202 495745 Interestingly the Performance Measure for Twynham Learning Federation schools is changing and will much better Our work with the Grange school continues reflect how schools support the progress of and not long ago I had the pleasure of ob- all their children, based on 8 subjects in- serving Mathematics lessons alongside the cluding English and Mathematics, rather Head of Mathematics at the Grange, the than those who happen to be on the C/D Head and the Deputy Head. There have Page 2 Twynham School been negative comments about the Grange in the past but and perhaps parents could also write to him requesting his I wanted to let you know just how impressive their stu- support. We have even agreed to ‘match fund’ this pitch dents and teachers were. Two examples are where I ob- since it is so vitally needed. Your support would be grate- served some top sets and I commented to the Head of fully appreciated. Mathematics at the Grange that the level of the work and the engagement of the students was tremendous. There was no difference to what I see at Twynham and the stu- dents deserve real success in their GCSEs this coming summer. In addition, about 10 staff will be joining the Twynham staff for the training day on 15th February when we will be look- ing at effective classroom practice. This joint development will benefit both schools and is an exciting aspect of our Federation. We are also working much more closely with the Priory School, Christchurch Junior and Christchurch Infant Schools where a real focus has been on all of us working more effectively with the Locality Team. This is proving to be extremely successful and as well as all of us being able to provide a greater level of ‘joined up’ support for our community’s most vulnerable families, we are also bring- ing a number of policies into line – such as attendance. I will write more in due course. 6th Form th The 6 Form continues to go from strength to strength and The field being pumped! our Year 13 students are now receiving their University offers. We wish them well and I would also like to thank T and congratulate our Year 12 students who have settled Summary so well into 6th Form life and who are working so well. This Twynham continues to be an exceptionally successful bodes exceptionally well for the future. school and we are delighted to be recognised as being in the top 100 schools. This does not happen by chance and We also have over 400 applications for the 200 places we it does not happen without everyone working together. I have available for the 6th Form next year and we are now would not only like to congratulate and thank our staff but working through the interview process. For those who also to thank and congratulate you, our parents, and our have applied, my advice is to work hard for your GCSEs students who are a real credit to the school. and to do your best – it’s worth it! Yours sincerely The Field! I am sure that you will have seen the Fire Service pumping water from our field last week. You may also have read the article in the local press. Following the flooding, more than 5 million litres of water were pumped off the field and it is now in the process of drying out. This really is a ridicu- lous situation and whilst we await the result of our bid to the Education Funding Agency for a MUGA (Multi Use Games Area – basically an all-weather pitch) we are also checking all the drainage around our field to try to mini- Dr Terry Fish mise any future problems. I have written to our MP, Mr Chris Chope, asking him to support our bid for the MUGA Safety Crossing Roads Would all students and parents please be aware that it is very dangerous to cross any of the roads near the school, including Fairmile and Barrack Road at any place except a designated crossing place. There will be a fatality if students continue to cross anywhere except at designated pedes- trian crossings. Thank you for your co-operation. Page 3 Twynham School Attendance & Punctuality As you know, at Twynham School we firmly believe that ment statistics are clear about the link between atten- good working habits are formed at an early age. As a re- dance and attainment; students with attendance of less sult you will be aware that we have been relentless in our than 93% are affected by the loss of a grade for each approach to ensuring that our already excellent atten- GCSE they sit. Indeed at Twynham School in 2011-12 dance and punctuality rates remain as high as they possi- there were only 2 students with an attendance of less than bly can. In 2011-12, Twynham School attendance was 90% for the year who achieved the all-important threshold 94.9% - one of the highest figures in the County and well of 5 A*-C including English and Maths which becomes a above the national average. To put this into perspective, passport to Post 16 Education. this represents an average of 10 school days (or two school weeks) of absence. What is also clear is the link between attendance and punctuality and we make no apologies for continuing to In an attempt to maintain and improve on these figures we track and monitor individual student data to ensure that we introduced both an Attendance and Punctuality Strategy in can offer support and intervention as it is required. We September 2012 which applies to all students in Y7-11. thank you for your continued support in this matter and The strategies can be found on the Parent Zone of the hope that you will continue to encourage your children in school website under information about Attendance and maintaining their good attendance habits.