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Weekly Entries to Website: Sixth Form Open Evening Sixth Form Open Evening flyer Tuesday 25 June 2013 Speech & Language Event flyer 6pm – 9pm

From the Headteacher

As we approach the last four weeks of term, school continues to be a busy and vibrant place. We had a slightly quieter week last week but the next two weeks are extremely busy.

We are holding our first ever Sixth Form Open Evening on Tuesday 25 June and Mr Cowling has sent out details of the Open Evening in previous Newsletters. The evening starts at 6pm with introductory talks in the Large Drama Studio. The new Sixth Form prospectus and key information has already been sent specifically to our current Year 10 pupils who will be our first cohort in September 2014.

The Borough Athletics Championships are also on Tuesday 25 June, when we hope to retain our title as overall Borough Champions, and Thursday 27 June sees the Year 11 Prom at The Richmond Hill Hotel. This is always a key highlight for any pupil at the school, celebrating the end of the GCSE examinations and of their full-time education at . Our Year 11 pupils certainly celebrate their five years at Orleans Park in style and I am really looking forward to sharing this evening with them, as are many of the staff. I am most grateful to OPSA, which has contributed towards the costs of this school event and help make it a very special occasion. On Friday 28 June our current Year 7 pupils will be taking part in a ‘The Apprentice’ style learning day in the Sports Hall. This is always a really enjoyable day and the pupils have fun working in new teams and will also learn so much.

The following week is another extremely busy one. On Monday 1 July, we have our main Primary Induction day and on Tuesday 2 July we have a very busy day with the New Intake Parents Evening and the opening of our GCSE Art Exhibition. On Wednesday 3 July we are holding a Drugs Awareness Evening for parents/carers with an external specialist drugs worker. This is aimed mainly at parents/carers with pupils in Years 9 and 10. Mrs Boys will be sending out details of this evening separately. Then on Friday 5 July we have an INSET day when all staff will be spending time planning and preparing for the new Sixth Form.

Debating Success Mr Knight has been running Debating Clubs in school and entered teams from Year 7 and Year 10 in a recent competition. Both teams did extremely well and the Year 7 team beat Richmond Park to secure a place in the All Debating Competition on Wednesday 3 July. Congratulations to Georgia Henderson, Will Charlton, Charlotte Rhodes, Issy Goffey and Rhiannon O’Connor - we wish them well in the next round.

The Frame Gardens Festival Commission 2013 – Floral Map Some of our pupils were invited to work exclusively with a local artist, Emily Allchurch, to create a 21st Century collaborative ‘map’ of the area: celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the architecture, parks and gardens in the borough. This has been a really enjoyable project and a huge success. Our work is being exhibited at the Diamond Jubilee Gardens, Riverside, on Wednesday 2 July with Lord True officially opening the exhibition at 10.30am. Please come along and support this opening and see this amazing work produced by the very talented artists at Orleans Park.

School Uniform for September 2013 I shall be sending out a detailed letter before the end of term clarifying precisely what constitutes perfect school uniform at Orleans Park. As I am sure you appreciate, it is very important that all our pupils return appropriately and smartly dressed in September 2013. I completely appreciate that enforcing the correct uniform can sometimes be a challenge for parents/carers particularly when your child says “but we are allowed to wear x” or “x wears that to school”. Hopefully my letter will help with any such disputes and ensure there are no ‘grey areas’! As always I appreciate your support in ensuring that our pupils are dressed smartly and appropriately for school. 24th June 2013 Ms J Longhurst

Sixth Form - Open Evening Tuesday 25 June

Our first Sixth Form Open Evening is taking place tomorrow, Tuesday 25 June, from 6pm until 9pm. The evening will be an opportunity for pupils currently in Year 10 and their parents/carers to find out about the subjects and opportunities that will be available in our Sixth Form when it opens in September 2014. Orleans Park will have an open access Sixth Form taking students of all abilities, and we aim to make students from other schools welcome.

Ms Longhurst and I shall make presentations in the Large Drama Studio about Sixth Form life. Senior Staff will also be available to answer any specific questions throughout the evening in the Large Drama Studio and also in Room 45. Mrs Boys will be in the Library, should you have any questions regarding Learning Support, and Mrs Owens will be in the Library for Careers Guidance.

There will be a rolling programme of subject presentations on all of our AS/A2 Level, BTEC and Diploma courses that will take place in the ‘New Block’ at the following times:

6.00-6.20pm 6.25-6.45pm 6.50-7.10pm 7.15-7.35pm 7.40-8.00pm 8.05-8.25pm

Pupils and their parents/carers will be able to attend a variety of subject presentations to allow them to find out as much as possible about each of the subjects that they are interested in studying in the Sixth Form at Orleans Park. Information about Orleans Park Sixth Form is available on our website at: www.orleanspark.richmond.sch.uk/sixthform where you can find information about all the courses we are offering, our admissions procedure and how to apply to our Sixth Form.

Mr D Cowling Assistant Headteacher - Head of Sixth Form OPSA COLUMN

Your Help Needed

St Margaret’s Fair - Saturday 13 July

Our Orleans Park Pimms stall was officially named the most successful stall at last year's St Margaret’s Fair, so we have a lot to live up to! With this year's fair almost upon us, we need you to sign up now:

• Helping prepare and serve Pimms: One-and-a-half-hour slots need to be filled, starting with set-up at 9.30am through to 6.30pm. Come along, do your bit to raise funds for the school, and enjoy meeting other parents/carers.

• Delivering programmes: Fair programmes are ready now to be put through letterboxes in St Margaret’s and in Twickenham. This is something you can do in your own time and locality – or even better you could send your children on a round. This year's programme cover was designed by Orleans Park Year 11 pupil Amber Weir. Runner-up in the programme design competition was Hannah Novakovic from Year 10. Congratulations!

• Cakes for the tea tent: Get baking and then deliver your goodies straight to the tea tent (next to the stage) on the morning of the fair.

• Bric-a-brac (though not clothes): Time to clear out those unwanted presents. Again, contributions can be delivered on the day straight to the stall – which is next to the tea tent.

To offer to help with the Orleans Park Pimms stall and/or delivering programmes please email Becky Ellison on: [email protected]

Top Weekly Attendance SCHOOL DIARY Tuesday 25th June Figures for period of Monday 10 June to 6pm-9pm Friday 14 June 2013 Sixth Form Open Evening

Year 7: 7O 99.6% Wednesday 26th June End of GCSE Exams

Year 8: 8O 100% Thursday 27th June Year 6 LS Pupils Induction Afternoon Year 9: 9N 98.8% Year 11 Prom

Year 10: 10S 98.8% Friday 28th June Year 7 ‘Apprentice’ Day

To register follow the link on the website or call the school office.

Staff Retirements

As you will have already read in Ms Longhurst’s columns over the past few weeks, a number of staff are leaving at the end of this term. We always mark colleagues’ leaving by having a collection for them amongst the staff and presenting them with a gift on the last day of term.

This term we have three long-serving members of staff retiring, in addition to the Headteacher. Although it is common practice in a lot of schools to approach parents/carers directly to ask if they would like to contribute to leaving gifts, we have never approached our parents/carers in this way, even for those members of staff who have made a significant contribution to the school and your children over a number of years.

When the previous Headteacher left, and also when Mr Walbyoff retired after 30 years of service, OPSA offered to make a donation on your behalf; they no longer feel it is appropriate to continue with this practice.

Therefore, if you would like to send in a donation for either Mr Arentsen, Head of Year and Teacher of Geography for 27 years, Ms Crockett, Teacher of Design & Technology, Food for 23 years, Mrs Donnelly, Librarian for 18 years and/or Ms Longhurst, Headteacher for 5 years, please do so by sending either cash or cheques (payable to Orleans Park School) in an envelope clearly marked to show who your donation is for, or to be shared amongst, to the Finance Office.

We would also like to encourage parents/carers to write a message to the member(s) of staff which will be included in a card for them. We will, of course, welcome messages of good luck without a monetary donation, if you prefer.

Thank you.

Caroline Brooks PA to the Headteacher

Maths Competition

QUESTION 34

What is the sum of all the factors of 2006 including 1 but excluding 2006?

Winners get a £5 voucher. Answers to Ms Koka in the Maths Department. Please support whole school literacy at home

Recommended Reading List

James Patterson ‘Maximum Ride School’s Out Forever’. It’s about a group of youngsters who have escaped from a scientific genetic engineering laboratory in America. Their DNA has been tampered with by the scientists and is now 98% human and 2% bird. The story is about how they survive when they are pursued by another group who have also been genetically altered so that they are part human and part wolf!

Steve Voake ‘The Web of Fire’ is about a plucky young boy, Sam, who is kidnapped and transported to a far-off planet. He has to struggle against forces of evil which seek to rule him and to take over the world.

DJ MacHale ‘The Pendragon’. This series is about a young adventurer who travels down a flume into a sequence of parallel worlds. He travels with a mysterious group called The Travellers who help him fight against the arch enemy, Saint Dane.

Ann Halam ‘Doctor Franklin’s Island’. This is a more challenging read about a group of teenagers who manage to escape from a plane crash to find themselves on a remote island. Although the plot at first sounds like the TV programme ‘Lost’, it is much easier to understand and has a clear, exciting plot.

DM Quintano ‘Perfect’. Time travellers from the future visit Earth hoping to find out about our planet, and to see whether they can improve their own gene pool! This is an absorbing story as the people from the future inhabit a universe full of wars and suffering where the planet Earth is a stinking sewer, ruined by humans’ uncaring attitude.

Nancy Farmer ‘The House of the Scorpion’. This is a very bleak tale where the author imagines a wasteland world, where as soon as they reach the age of 14, children are packed off to undergo a mysterious transformation to serve the purposes of the planet’s rulers, the Overlords. There are no adult humans to be seen. A group of children attempt to evade their fate and run away. In the process of their resistance, the children learn a lot about the nature of trust!

The final book is Rodman Philbrick ‘The Last Book in the Universe’. Again a bleak vision of the future, it is set in a future world created after an earthquake, the Big Shake, ruined the natural order of society. In this new society, the rulers use gangs of thugs to maintain their authority, and many people are homeless and have nothing. Books are a thing of the past until the narrator, Spaz, meets an old man who introduces him to the idea of books and so Spaz learns about the past and the possibilities for the future. ______

SPELLING WEEK BEGINNING: 24 June 2013

WORD

1 divide or circumference

2 address or inconvenient

3 replied or publicity

4 belief or remembrance

5 equilateral

6 collectable

7 successful

8 excellent

9 column

10 supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

‘Drop & Read’ - Monday 8 July to Friday 12 July - Period 3

Following the success of last term we are going to do ‘drop and read’ again this term. Pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 will have the opportunity to ‘drop and read’ for the first 20 minutes of their Period 3 lesson throughout that week. Whatever subject pupils are in, each day after break they will have time to read a book of their choice. All pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 should get organised and remember to bring their book to read in school that week, so they have the pleasure of reading a book of their choice every day!

Ms G Negrotti Assistant Headteacher

Year 10 English Achievement

I would like to commend a group of Year 10 pupils for some wonderfully articulate, well-prepared and passionate personal speeches as part of their GCSE Speaking & Listening assignment: Lalita Intrabal, Hollie Hindley, Joe Cumner, Elise Forster-Brown, Heather Thompkins, Igor Timofeev, Charlotte Howe, Mia Llewellyn, Oli Wood, Natalie Hare, Ellen Ainger and Molly Cole.

These pupils really excelled themselves, showing great maturity and confidence.

Ms A Brown English Department

‘Aspiring High’ Programme

On Wednesday 19 June, pupils from Orleans Park and attended the first session in the ‘Aspiring High’ programme. They came to hear Emma Bausch, the Outreach Officer from Oriel College, Oxford, speak about life at the University and what it offers to students thinking of attending. It was an engaging and inspiring session, with students keen to find out more about the institution and the possibilities it may have for them. This is the first step for many students – but there will be plenty more sessions in Year 11 focussing on careers, applications and critical thinking skills, as well as opportunities to visit universities.

Mr T Pike

Senior Rounders Results

The Senior Rounders team continued with their winning streak after playing a double header against Twickenham Academy and Christ’s School. The team faced Twickenham Academy first with the final result of 13 rounders to 3½, and Georgia Lacey was awarded ‘Player of the Match’ due to her consistently good batting. In the second game against Christ’s, the team demonstrated some excellent fielding skills with some fantastic play from Abbie Gibbons at second base. Tilly Chapman was awarded ‘Player of the Match’ and the final score was 13½ to Orleans Park and 7½ to Christ’s.

Well done to the whole team on a great result.

Mrs S Hanson School Sports Coordinator

Diamond Jubilee Gardens – Official Opening

Pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 had the privilege of working with artist Emily Allchurch to create a 21st Century collaborative ‘map’ of the area; celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the architecture, parks and gardens in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

We would like to invite you to the ‘Official Opening’ of the Diamond Jubilee Gardens, Twickenham Riverside, on Wednesday 3 July from 10.30am to 12.30pm to see the artwork unveiled.

Ms C Coburn Head of Creative Arts