www.archwayschool.net

Archway News Issue No 27

December 2017

December2017

Dear Parents / Carers

I am pleased to send you our Newsletter celebrating some of the activities students have been involved in over the past couple of months. As well as these activities we have raised money for both the annual Poppy Appeal and Children in Need charities.

As term ends we shall be saying thank you and goodbye to a number of colleagues: after over 20 years service to the school Mrs Jones will retire from Learning Support—she has contributed so much to the school in that time and has supported and encouraged many children to achieve great things; Miss

Goodall, one of our Cover Supervisors, leaves us to take up a position as a dance and performing arts teacher; Dr Hampshire, who has done so much as our Librarian, is relocating to another part of the country, and Miss Chivers, our Catering Manager, moves to take charge at College. We thank all of these colleagues for their commitment to Archway and wish them all the best.

For those who like to follow social media, we have started a Twitter account @archway_school. Whilst this won’t be a channel of communication into school, it will be another brief way of spreading news, events and reminders. It will also be a channel of communicating any forced closures because of adverse weather along with the school’s website, local radio stations and the County Council website ww3..gov.uk/closedschools.

From time to time home circumstances change and I would like to remind you that children are still entitled to free schools meals in certain circumstances. If you would like to apply for free school meals for your child, please visit the Gloucestershire County Council website by clicking this link: www.gloucestershire.gov.uk

Term will end for students at 2.00pm on Friday 15th December and the new term will begin at the normal time on Wednesday 3rd January 2018. The Ebley Coach Service which collects students from our site have been advised of the changes and will collect at our earlier finish time. The Painswick bus service will not come on to site at this earlier time, and students travelling to Painswick will need to catch the 2.40pm

bus (No 61) from Stroud Merrywalks. (The Painswick bus service will still come onto site at 3.25pm for

anyone to catch it at the usual time.)

Students who rely on catching buses on Cainscross Road which serve Marling and should be aware that those schools are closing earlier in the day and have asked buses to pick up at 1.45pm.

Yours faithfully

Colin Belford Headteacher

Page 2 Archway News

Year 9 Ambitions Day Mrs V Martin On Wednesday 8th November Year 9 students attended Stroud Ambitions, one of the county’s largest careers events, held annually at Stratford Park Leisure. Experts were on hand to talk to the students about a wide range of employment sectors including working in construction (where there is a huge shortage of skilled staff), sport and leisure, care work, catering, hairdressing, the emergency services, medicine, the law, media and many others. Manufacturing and engineering were also represented by several local employers including Renishaw. For many young people, knowing what they want to do in the future is really difficult as there are so many choices. Not only is there a huge choice in terms which employment sectors are open to young people to join but they also find it a challenge to understand about the different paths open to them – do they join as an apprentice, or stay in education. Is going to university the right choice a set career path? At Ambitions students were able to choose five workshops to attend where they could explore different job sectors and compare them with each other. The students may still be undecided at the end of the event, but they will have left Ambitions better informed. The more information they can gather on different career paths the better decisions they will make regarding their career choice. The event was interactive and great fun - the highlight being the rocket launcher supplied by the Army or perhaps the amazing brownies donated by the M5 Farm Services. For others the best bit was a chance to direct a film or try to get the record for generating the most electricity from a bicycle. I would like to thank Year 9s for joining in the event with such enthusiasm.

The Brilliant Club Mrs C Jowett

In September Miss Miles and I took eleven Year 11 students to University of Cardiff to a graduation ceremony by the Brilliant Club which is part of the Scholars Programme to encourage students from comprehensive schools to apply to Russell group universities. Whilst they were still in Year 10, the students had undertaken several weeks of study with a PhD student studying phylogenetics – the study of animal family trees, in this case through the fossil record. The students then had to submit a final assignment which was then marked to degree standard. The students had a tour of the university campus by current university students and were also treated to a lovely buffet lunch. Many congratulations to the students for all their hard work. Page 3

Vist from Mr Harry Bibring—Holocaust Survivor Governors’ News Ms J Coleman Miss A Delrosa

On 9th October Archway welcomed Harry Bibring back to Thank you to all parents who voted in Archway for the day. Mr Bibring is a Holocaust survivor who is the election for two new parent governors. I now 90 years old. He volunteers to speak to young people about am pleased to announce that Sarah Warner the Holocaust. was re-elected for another term, and we are He enjoys coming to Archway and our students were full of joined by a new parent governor, Martin questions for him. Many chose to have a photograph with him Ansell. at the end of the day. Over the last two terms, governors have been reviewing the GCSE and A-level results Mr Bibring told Y9 students and Sixth Form History and hearing about measures being put in students about his life and experiences in Vienna during anti- place to assist all our students in achieving Semitic attacks in 1938, his journey to safety in Britain and the results needed for them to move on to the death of his parents in camps when his family were taken the next stage of their lives. We have been away. looking at all the subject areas through our Apart from this opportunity to meet a Holocaust survivor, visits with subject heads, and have now his testimony links to many subject areas-particularly GCSE RS started gathering feedback from parents, and History and Personal Development. students and staff, through our annual Mr Bibring’s visit is supported by the Holocaust Educational surveys. Trust whose aim is to raise awareness and understanding in We are still awaiting confirmation of the schools and amongst the wider public of the Holocaust and its effects of the National Funding Formula, but relevance today. thank all parents for making education and the funding of education an important issue of debate during the General Election. I think it will continue to be an area of concern for all schools over the coming months and years. I’d like to end by saying ‘well done’ to all our children for the amazing achievements highlighted in this newsletter. It really shows the diverse range of activities that our children get involved in. If you would like to speak to any governor (all names are on the website) or email me at [email protected]

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Miss P Monk

Whilst others were relaxing for their first Friday night of half term, 20 Year 11—Year 13 students were on their way to the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury to watch The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Arriving in good time, we passed through the bustling foyer and into the cosy theatre to find our seats. The play was extraordinary in its wide variety of dramatic techniques; a cast comprising of only four actors who used a range of voice and gesture to great effect. Particularly impressive was the lead’s ability to change his presence so utterly to suit either Jekyll or Hyde, and present two entirely different personas to the audience. Those students also studying drama were astonished by the production and direction of the story – and even to those of us without such specialised knowledge, it was a very slick and gripping dramatization. However, we decided that the liberties the adaptation had taken with the story were not to its benefit. Foremost amongst our grievances was the introduction of a female love-interest in a storyline where the absence of female voices is purposefully noticeable. This, among other inventions and presentations, made for a lively conversation for the return journey to school. The general consensus was that the production was interesting and engaging, though quite inaccurate. Page 4 Archway News

Year 12 “Taste Of India” Experience At Egypt Mill Nailsworth Mrs S Bloodworth Year 12 Archway students studying Food Science and Nutrition were given an amazing opportunity to spend Wednesday 18th October working in the kitchens at Egypt Mill Hotel Nailsworth. In collaboration with Simon (Head Chef), Mike (Banqueting Chef) and Rob (General Manager), the students prepared, cooked and served a 3 course Indian Banquet. The “Taste of India” event was part of Egypt Mill’s “Taste the World” series, with the authentic meal enjoyed by nearly 60 guests including staff, family and members of the public. Students arrived at 10 am for a long, hard but very productive and worthwhile day. After a short tour and Health & Safety debrief, it was straight into preparing chicken for the chat and jalfrezi, onions for the bhajis, vegetables for the balti, and making dough for the chapatis and galub jamun. The students had never prepared food on such a large scale, astounded by the quantities required for a large scale event. Simon and Mike were always on hand to demonstrate correct techniques, provide useful tips and educate on the history and flavours of authentic Indian food. As students were being inducted in to the day to day life of a Chef, breaks were limited and students had to adjust to sore feet and aching legs as they stood for longer than they had before! All forgotten when they were served a delicious Burger and Chips courtesy of Egypt Mill. Fuelled ready for another long session where the aim was to bring all the dishes together. Spiced carrot cake to slice and decorate, Indian donuts to shape and sweeten, omelettes to cook to top the rashmi kebab and bhajis to deep fry. As well as all of the food preparation, students worked with Katie on front of house, laying and decorating the tables and room ready for guests.

Mike, Banqueting Chef demonstrating chicken preparation Steve, Head Chef teaching about the traditional sheesh kebab

Steve demonstrating knife skills

Chapati making

Large scale chicken preparation

Mike overseeing gulab jamun – Indian donuts! Deep fried bhajis Bhaji preparation Issue No 27 Page 5

The day culminated with the presentation and serving of the starters, mains and desserts to all of the guests. The students were amazed at the level of organisation required to make sure all ran as smoothly as possible, to exactly what was served, how and when. The nerves soon disappeared as they recognised friendly faces and felt more comfortable with the high expectations placed upon them! Guests were hugely complimentary about the quality of the food and the service provided by Archway students. It really was a team event, success etched on the faces of the students, staff and guests. Students were very grateful for the opportunity and developed many personal and professional skills. Steve, Mike and Rob were very impressed and plans are in place for future projects as well as offers of part-time work and apprenticeships in the future! A fantastic day for all involved.

Cooking Sheesh Kebab Omelette making to top kebabs

Starter Dessert Main

Year 9 Netball Mrs G Bridgman

Our Year 9 Netball Team are unbeaten in the district and will qualify top in the district to have a final play off with second place. This year I also entered them in the county tournament which took place a couple of weeks ago. There were 22 teams in it. The team were outstanding. We qualified as second in our pool, only going down 7-6 to . We played Pates Grammar School in the quarter finals, and smashed them off the court. Next came the semi finals against Farmor’s School, who we had beaten only the week before. We lost very narrowly—I think we ran out of steam. I was so proud of them. Next year we will work hard and hopefully take the crown of county champions! Page 6 Archway News

Carnegie Medal Review Minnie, Year 8 Pastoral Column Mr D Barry

Where do I start? This year the Carnegie Medal was a Cheltenham Literature Medicines in School Festival award that we took place in. The books that have previously won came back to May I take this opportunity to remind fight for the winner of all winners. you that medicines must not be brought into The Cheltenham Literature Festival was like a patchwork quilt of literature. We school without the school’s knowledge and arrived on a coach and walked into the gates; I felt a breeze of excitement! There was approval. The school should be informed so much to see. via form tutors if your son/daughter is We were first ushered into a small, pointy, white tent. We had no idea what to bringing medication into school. Please note expect; we took our seats and had a briefing. And, when we least expected it, an author this excludes asthma medication which came out, bright and bubbly, ready to share her writing experience! I was astonished. I should be kept on the student at all times. love reading and to hear her inspiring story made me feel like I could connect to what In some situations it may be necessary for your son/daughter to receive medicines she was saying, and I am sure many more people could too. during the school day. If this is necessary After the speech, we had lunch and the author that had talked to us was signing you will need to complete and sign the books. We had a talk with her and I realised that she didn’t set out to be a writer; she “Parental agreement for setting to had other jobs before her writing career. administer medicine” form. This form is After we visited the author, we had a look round Waterstones bookshop and there available from main reception at school. were some amazing books, and – even better – signed by the author. Please do not hesitate to contact Sian Finally, we made our way down to the town hall to debate. The town hall was Biddlecombe or Kerrie Thulbourne at main stunning and filled with so much history and beautiful designs. We were all very reception if you have any queries. nervous as it was our first time; we took our seats and our main debater, Eden, took to the stage! I was shaking but I smiled and made eye contact with her. Attendance All of a sudden, Archway School was called out – this was it, our moment to shine! Maintaining high levels of attendance at Eden read the speech out with confidence and passion and made us all proud. The school remains one of our key priorities. other contestants were so good and their books were very well known; it was a tough Thank you to students, parents and staff for competition. Once all the contestants had finished they were then asked several working so hard on this key area of school different questions, for example ‘how is the setting presented?’ and ‘are the characters life. You will recall that students with a different?’. These are just a few of the questions that they used, there were so many figure of 90% or below are now regarded as more! It finally came to the voting time; we were hoping that, with all the students we ‘Persistently Absent’ by the Government. bought with us, we would get a great vote but, unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to vote Please expect contact from us if your child is and we ended up only getting one vote. We were really disappointed that we didn’t get in or nearing this category. many votes, but we realised we were so proud of what we have achieved and to get It is also very important that your child is that far was such a result. Eden got choose a book of her choice from the Waterstones in school on time in the morning. Please bookshop. ensure they arrive in school by 8.45am. The Cheltenham Literature Festival was an amazing experience and I would definitely go again. It was an unforgettable time; it was so much more than just a school Thank you for your continued support. trip; it looked amazing and was amazing!

SuperGroup School Experience Days Rachael and Ellie, Year 13 On Friday 6th October, Ellie and I went on a trip to SuperGroup Plc (Superdry) HQ which is located in Cheltenham. On arrival, we couldn’t believe it was Superdry as it looked like a standard office building that any employee might work at. Inside however, was a well- designed modern office space which spanned across most of the industrial estate. On arrival we met Aled, our supervisor for the day, he was well presented, fun and approachable. We were split into two separate groups; had a tour of the building and competed in various activities such as a quiz about the businesses background, a dress the mannequin challenge and a design challenge with a designer who designed a dress for Beyoncé! At lunch, we had been prepared sandwiches and everything was laid out for us in the café. We ate lunch with staff members and where able to talk to them about their contribution to the business, which was very insightful. Throughout the day we were also introduced not only to the different departments within the organisation but also different roles and responsibilities within functional areas for example human resources, design and technology. At the end of the day we were given access to the staff shop which was full of Superdry clothes and merchandise and everyone who took part in the day was given a Superdry bag as a memento for the day. We would like to thank SuperGroup for the opportunity, as business students it really helped us to understand how an international business operates whilst giving us an idea of the type of job roles and opportunities there are. Page 7

Music Department News Miss R Auster Library News Dr E Hampshire & Mrs S Walton It has been another busy term in the Library. Archway School What a fantastic start to the school year in was selected to take part in the Carnegie ‘Winner of Winners’ music! Clubs are all up and running and numbers debate in October, which took place at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, championing Theresa Breslin’s Whispers in the continue to grow. As this is being written, Graveyard. This was a fantastic opportunity for the school to be students are all working hard towards the involved in such a wonderful celebration of children’s and young Christmas Concert which is set to be a people’s literature. Please see other articles in this newsletter for further details! fantastic, festive evening. I have particularly loved working with the choir this term who have been taking on much more challenging pieces, developing some really beautiful harmonies and singing their hearts out every week – fabulous stuff! Year 7 and 8 started the year singing and really impressed with their weekly performances. Year 7 are now working on ukulele Christmas pieces and Year 8 composing music for different film clips. The attitude in lessons has been fantastic and there has been some truly outstanding work produced. GCSE and A Level classes are studying hard on their listening and appraising set works and This year the school has taken part in the Bookbuzz reading are gearing up for a trip to see Wicked next programme, which is organised by the Book Trust, which provides year! Alongside this, students have been working every Year 7 student with their own book to keep! The students were able to choose from a wonderful selection of books, which hard on their composition and performance they have now been given. The photograph below shows some of elements of their coursework which have seen our Year 7 students with their books! The Bookbuzz website some well organised and impressive work. Year 11 provides lots of useful information about the books, the authors, as well as quizzes and competitions. It can be found at: are performing their final solo recitals this week https://www.booktrust.org.uk/supporting-you/practitioners/our- and have worked so hard preparing for them. programmes/bookbuzz/. Well done Jack, Luke, Ellen, Jamie, Oliver, Pademay, Isabel, Hamzah, Stan, Megan, William and Libby. You make me incredibly proud. Beauty and the Beast rehearsals are in full swing with singing, dancing, acting and the fantastic costumes all starting to come together. Tickets for the production will be available after Christmas – make sure you come and join us for what is set to be a truly memorable week. Well done to everybody this term in music and all the successes it has brought. Have a very happy, healthy Christmas and I look forward to the New Year and its new projects, performances and challenges.

The Stroud Book Festival took place in the town during early November, and Archway Library got involved! A number of students were filmed by Y13 student, River Driversharp, talking about their favourite books, and these video clips were shown between events at the festival! Also, a number of Year 7 Library Helpers created some beautiful book-related posters to be displayed at the festival (see above photograph). Many thanks to all those students involved for taking the time to make such a brilliant contribution to the festival this year. Page 8 www.archwayschool.net

Bundle of Books for the Library! Year 8 Rugby Miss T Hurst Mr S Piper

The Year 8 Rugby team travelled to Dursley Rugby Club Following our success with the Carnegie on Thursday 12th October to compete in the B team Medal trip to the Cheltenham Literature tournament. festival, Archway school luckily won over In our first game we played against Thomas Keble £300 of new books for the library! These School, we started strong with Fin Bell scoring early to give us the advantage. After we began to look comfortable, the books include many of the titles spoken boys started to drop their performance levels and TK got a about at the Festival, along with some of try to put them back in the game. We worked hard to turn it the front-runners for the Carnegie around and we were the eventual winners. Winner of Winners medal. Myself, Dr In our second game we played Maidenhill, who we knew were going to be strong and the boys knew it would be a Hampshire and Miss Monk are extremely battle after losing to them weeks before in a friendly. pleased with this result and hope that Archway consistently made strong runs from the back and many of the students take the time to managed to be up by 3 tries early. Later in the game explore these new, contemporary reads! Maidenhill pushed on and scored 2 late tries to set up a nervy finish, we held strong and won. We knew we'd need to win our last game against Sir William Romney’s to be crowned B league tournament champions. The boys did not disappoint and won comfortably!

Creative Writing Club News Miss T Hurst

This term has been extremely productive for Creative Writing Club! Our writers have submitted work to the Stranger Sagas 100 word competition, the ongoing Young Writers Ghost Stories competition and other, more advanced competitions. Many of our young writers have been published this term, with many of them having four or five publications under their belts now! We look forward to the new year, with new creative ideas and hopefully some new budding writers!