DISCOVERY NEWSLETTER

Discovery Newsletter

Autumn 2018

ALL THINGS DISCOVERY

A note from Mr. Lawson, Head of Discovery concrete in that knowledge or skill. Therefore if your child feels they are repeating things, this is normal at The first newsletter of the academic year and those this stage.

who have contributed to this publication may they be staff or student should feel very proud. The first term There will be mentor evenings for Year 7 in has gone in a flash with our new Year 7 cohort of just November providing an opportunity for new over 370 students settling well. In Humanities the parents/carers to meet their child's tutor and a full classes I teach have shown great enthusiasm in the consultation day in January for Year 8. Year 8 will be study of the UK coastline. I now have enough models choosing their GCSE options in 2019 and I will begin of Old Harry Rocks and Lulworth Cove to curate a to discuss this with them in assembly in the small exhibition! Christmas term.

At the start of Year 7 students can often feel they are repeating what they have done in primary school in core subjects but often feel overwhelmed when Callum studying subjects that are not as familiar. In Maths When I first came here I felt a bit overwhelmed by the size of this school but I soon got to grips with where and English staff are working hard to identify gaps in everything is. I now have a good group of friends student knowledge and skills and to make sure these particularly Ed and Sam and my favourite subjects are gaps are addressed. A widely accepted scientific English and maths. My advice to anyone struggling is to study from Bridgid Finn and Janet Metcalfe speak to your friends or your form tutor or the ladies in concluded that simply being familiar with a topic can Discovery which really helped me. convince students they know it well and have mastered the content. So often students are familiar with work they are doing but perhaps are not

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Language ambassadors

Many thanks to Louis and Lara who spoke at both Open Miss Roberts organises our Language Ambassadors. They Morning and Open Evening to new potential students and meet every Wednesday lunchtime and organise and run parents/carers. They spoke with great passion about their the MFL activities. At the end of this term they will be school and should be really proud of speaking in front of teaching all students at Bethersden Primary School about over a thousand people. This thanks should be extended European Day of Languages, this is one of the occasions to our wonderful guides and helpers who represented the when they will be teaching primary school pupils and school with an abundance of confidence and zeal. there will be more opportunities throughout the year. Next term they will be involved in the Christmas Market. The group will be joining the Languages challenge for “Making friends can seem very frightening but trust me which at the end of the year they will receive a certificate finding friends at Homewood is easy. There is such a wide from The Children's University. variety of people here that you are bound to find your next best friend. Homewood has numerous clubs from Young Farmers to Performing Arts. When I was in Year 7 I attended the tennis club on Mondays which gives free coaching by Bethersden Tennis Club coaches and on Thursdays I went to the Athletics Club which is run by the coaches from the Julie Rose Stadium. I was in the netball team and we won our league so this year we will be competing in the top league!” – Lara

“My favourite subject is PE and I really love playing football. This year I have joined the football team and am looking forward to representing Homewood when we play against other school teams. Student focus group

I really enjoy cooking and every class does cooking for one Our new student focus group is Lara, Louis, Will, Erynn, term every year where you make delicious dishes and Keira, Isabelle, Isabelle, Ava, Lucy, Katie and Paris and will crumbling cakes. be launching a survey for all our Discovery students to One of the subjects I enjoy is Mandarin, it’s an amazing complete to decide which areas of the school could be opportunity to study this language. In Year 7 we visited improved. Anybody wanting to join the group should Chinatown to celebrate the Chinese New Year and in June come into Discovery and see Mr Nisbet, Miss Faulkner or we visited Liverpool to see the touring Terracotta Army and Mrs Hayes. this year I’m hoping to join the school trip to visit China.“ - Louis

Daniel “I had a little wobble in the second week of starting here, I began to get a little worried about coming to school so I came to see the Discovery Office and gradually I started to feel much more comfortable. I know I can always come and see the ladies in Discovery, I have friends and I enjoy my lessons especially Maths, Art and Humanities.”

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Who’s who in Discovery?

Discovery office is the place to come if you need support in any aspects of your school life. We're here to help!

Mrs Taberer, Miss Faulkner & Mrs Spackman are our Family Liason Officers with Mrs Croucher, the Assistant Head of Discovery and are always available for a quiet chat. Mrs Sivyer and Mrs Castle can also help you with any administration or admissions queries.

Mrs Hayes and Mrs Whelan are also based in Discovery office and can help with anything and put together this newsletter so please let us know if you think something should be included in the next edition!

Jacob “I found Primary School quite difficult and was looking forward to starting at Homewood because I could make new friends and start new subjects. The team in the Discovery office has really helped me settle in, I have lots of new friends and I’m really enjoying Art and Humanities.” Liliana From the first week all the staff were really helpful and I soon settled in and I know that I can always go to Discovery if I need Evie any help in the future. I have “When I first came here I wasn’t sure where I fitted in and I felt made lots of friends and my quite anxious about whether my new friends liked me and then I favourite subject is Drama. met Mrs Spackman and she showed me lots of ways to cope with my anxiety. I feel absolutely fine and happy here and enjoy all my lessons especially Art.”

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Fact Sheet

SIMS Parent App Parental Communication The SIMS Parent app provides a convenient way for You will receive a letter Discovery College to communicate with parents on all home at the end of the aspects of school life. Parents with more than one child Autumn term inviting attending Homewood can access information on both parents/carers to enroll in children from the app. The app is easy to use and the SIMS Parent app and accessible from a smartphone, tablet or PC. Google Classroom guardian Whether it’s sharing information on attendance, notifications. Here is a brief timetables or school reports and achievement points, you overview of these tools and will be able to stay on top of your child’s progress. A clear their benefits to dashboard shown gives an overview of your child’s school parents/carers. life. The data collection function also allows you to keep details about your child held by the school up to date.

How do I know what homework I have? Google Classroom Notifications All homework is set via Google Classroom. Once set homework is automatically recorded on a students google Allows you to be able to view homework set for your calendar so the child and in some cases keep you up to date on what homework and due they are currently studying via a daily or weekly email. date can easily be

viewed. In google classroom select the icon with three lines at the top left of the screen.

A menu will drop down and the second option should be to view the student calendar.

The calendar will display all homework and perhaps some classwork set and the due date. The work will be clearly identified as homework or classwork in the description.

This is a far easier way to know what homework has been set rather than going through all your notifications in your gmail inbox. You can access your google calendar in many ways such as clicking the 3 horizontal lines in google classroom at the top left of the screen, or clicking on the 9 dots on top right corner of your chrome browser.

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Super Stars Some of our students have done some amazing things out of school that we'd like to share with you...

L ucy in Year 8 sang a solo from the Wizard of Oz to open Jessica started Karate when she was seven, since then she the 'Love RupertBear X' fundraising event in Tenterden in has competed in a number of club and international August . Homewood School donated the Dorothy competitions. During this time Jessica has accumulated costume and constructed the rainbow set. She is very twenty one trophies and medals. keen in the This weekend Jessica attended the World Championships performing arts representing . Jessica competed in Kata, points subjects and is sparring and trio Kata, Jessica won Silver in each category currently despite breaking her toe in the first fight. Well done involved in the Jessica! 'We will rock you' rehearsals for the show next year.

Discovery Cheerleaders

Congratulations to the following Year 7 and Year 8 girls who attended the Cheerleading try outs and are now part of our successful Cheerleading team: Lily, Esther, Mia, Lana, Carrie & Grace in Year 7 and Sophie, Molly, Scarlet & Kate in Year 8.

We know we shall hear lots of exciting events that you'll be taking part in.

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Homewood Equestrian Team update games competition. Over 250 teams nationally start in the competition but only the top 6 gain places to Sponsored by Geerings complete at HOYS. This is the pinnacle of the club mounted games season. Charlie is staying at HOYS all The following three wonderful riders have been busy… week and competing each day.

Sean won the National Schools Equestrian Association Sophie represented her Pony Club at South East Regional (NSEA) BE 80 ODE League (national league) so is off to Championships this term in . She has also the NSEA Champs at Half Term to be presented with his qualified for the NSEA Plate Championships in November prizes. While at the Champ he has also been invited to again in Show Jumping. compete in a special section. This was the first All of the above were also part of our team who qualified year Sean has been old enough to complete in affiliated for the NSEA Eventers Challenge Championships at the British Eventing competitions. end of last year. Sean has also just returned from competing in the British Eventing 80 National Championships. We are about to kick off our 2018-19 NSEA season during October Half Term. Charlie is currently representing her Pony Club at the Horse of The Year Show in the Prince Phillip Cup mounted

Ethan For the first 3 days I wasn’t sure who to speak to, then I met with the team in Discovery who really helped me settle and now I have lots of friends, feel really happy here and my favourite subjects are Humanities and Art.

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Year 8 boys football team

Following on from last year's successful Year 7 team our current team are: Will, Pat, Jack, Rudi, Sam, Charlie, Archie, Jamie, Louis, Ben, Billy, Jesse, Max & Matt.

Last year they were runners up in the District having narrowly lost to the Harvey Grammar School.

Year 7 football team

Congratulations to the following boys who successfully made it through the Year 7 football trials and are now the Year 7 football team: Kian, James, Adam, Rhys, Joseph, Jamie, Finley, Aston, William, Josh & Harry

Mr Sparks was very impressed with all the players. Thank you to all the Year 7 and Year 8 students who attended the football trials.

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cancers are cured, from the most common types to those that affect just a few people. Discovery Charity Through this year every class will run a fundraising event organised by the class charity rep and our lovely team of sixth formers who are assisting us, Louise, Rebecca, Kimberley, Chloe, Fiona and Hannah. Look out for the first event in the second week of next term organised by 7D1 and 8D1 - more details to We are delighted to announce that this years Discovery follow. charity is Cancer Research UK. Once again we invited all Discovery students to create a presentation of their suggested charity to support and all our students voted for their personal favourite.

Finley and Isobel created the presentations - this is their reasons for suggesting Cancer Research UK.

'I suggested Cancer Research UK because many people suffer from cancer but they help raise money to try and find a cure for it. Another reason is that it's not just adults who get it, children do too which means they don't get to feel the full extent of life.' - Finley

'I decided to chose Cancer Research UK as my charity because I think that cancer is one of the most horrible illnesses and can be really scary to have. if there is a way to help to discover a cure for this then we should try as hard as we can Also, another date for your diary, THURSDAY 13TH to help find it.' - Isabel. OF DECEMBER - the Santa Fun Run where students will pay an entry fee, raise a bit of sponsor money and Cancer Research UK is the world's largest cancer run or walk a short circuit of the school site all in charity dedicated to saving lives through research. festive costume. Our vision is to bring forward the day when all

Mollee “I found it hard to settle in at first but with the help of Discovery I have been really well and Ruby have got good scores in my assessments. I have “I found starting at Secondary school quite tough a good group of friends and my favourite but with the help of the Discovery team I’ve subjects are Dance and Drama. I get up every settled in really well and love it here. I’ve made morning looking forward to coming into lots of new friends and my favourite subjects are school.” Dance and Humanities.”