Tibshelf Community School &" December 2019 Newsletter "&

Contents Message from the Headteacher

I hope you find much to interest you in this newsletter, which  Head’s Message for reasons of space can only ever be a snapshot of life at  School Closure Tibshelf Community School. It contains information about  Illness at school some of the ways we seek to provide opportunities within  Arriving Late and beyond the classroom for all our students. The extent of  Mobile Phones  Medical Welfare our offer continues to grow and it is something of which we Message are rightly proud. It is enabling us to really deliver on our

 South Africa 2019 promise to do everything we can to develop truly  Y11 Prize well-rounded ‘global citizens’. Presentation  Operation Once again this term our students have risen to the challenge Christmas Child this entails and have done much to make us proud.

 Iceland 2019  Sporting Success Many thanks for your continued support and  Parking encouragement.  Maths Challenges  Message from All the Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Governors Mr M Pollard  The Brilliant Club  Duke of Edinburgh  Partnership Link with China

 Pantomime  ParentPay School Closure  Key Dates We hope that the winter will not be too severe, however, should  Reminder bad weather come our way we will try to make a decision about  MYEd App

 Contact Us opening school by 6:30am. We will send text messages as well as putting information on the school website. We will also notify Peak FM and Derbyshire County Council. If you go to the DCC

website you can subscribe to e-mail alerts for school closures, as and when, they happen.

Parent/Student Reminders

ILLNESS AT SCHOOL If your child is ill during the school day they need to go to the First Aid/Medical room and if the

First Aider/Medical Officer feels that they are too unwell to stay in school then, with the Head of Year’s permission, parents/carers will be contacted.

Students should not contact home without the permission of their Head of Year.

ARRIVING LATE TO SCHOOL MOBILE PHONES IN SCHOOL Students are required to be in their form We advise all parents that their room at 8:30am. Anyone not present will son/daughter brings any items of value to receive a Late mark. Arriving late to school school at their own risk. The school will on a consistent basis can have longer-term accept no liability for lost, damaged or academic effects. If showing up late to stolen items. school becomes a habit, students may develop the notion that tardiness is Mobile phones are an increasing problem acceptable behaviour. This belief can with students using them between negatively impact their future work ethic lessons, filming staff and students in and employment opportunities. When school and parents receiving texts during students arrive late, they miss out on lesson time. essential instructions given at the beginning of the day. This can significantly reduce Mobile phones or headphones should not achievement, regardless of academic be out between: ability. Your child may also feel awkward 8:30am – 10:50am arriving to the classroom when everyone 11:10am – 1:10pm else is settled. Furthermore, when one 2:00pm – 3:00pm person arrives late, it disrupts the entire class and the teacher – everyone’s Mobile phones and/or headphones that education is compromised. New are out during this time will be monitoring systems have now been put in confiscated and placed in a sealed st place with effect from 1 January 2020 and envelope in student reception where they any time a student is marked with a Late can be collected at the end of the day. code at the start of the day this will be “IF IT IS OUT IT COULD BE CONFISCATED" recorded and actioned.

in place with effect from 1st January 2020 andReminder any time farom pupil Miss is marked Marshall with a Medical Late Welfare Officer code at the start of the day this will be Asthma/ Inhalers in School recorded and actioned. Can parents/carers please ensure that students have their asthma inhalers in school with them, alternatively they can be kept in school but must be kept up to date. Please contact me at school if you

would like to discuss further. Mrs L Crowder Medication in School If your child needs to take any medication in school time, please can you fill in the required form, which is

available on our website, or send a letter with instructions and a signature.

Crutches School can only accept your child using crutches if they have been advised by a doctor/hospital. If you are sending them into school with crutches please send a letter with a signature. Miss J Marshall

South Africa 2019

On Monday 21 October 2019, 19 students aged 14 to 18, from four Derbyshire schools within the Bolsover district - Frederick Gent, Shirebrook Academy, Stubbin Wood and Tibshelf Community - jetted off to South Africa on an adventure of a lifetime!

The students have all been involved in I-Venture, a unique programme offering opportunities for young people, who might not otherwise have a chance to participate in this kind of life changing experience.

The team spent ten days under canvas (no hotels in sight) and travelled (mostly on foot) to a variety of locations to undertake an international citizenship programme that included delivering first aid training to local communities, working with a local school, studying the wildlife population, conducting an environmental impact study and learning about other cultures.

The students had to apply and attend a team selection day and undertook a series of challenges, in order to earn their conditional offer on this experience of a lifetime.

Additionally, the students and their families had to raise funds for the expedition with each school team tasked to raise a minimum of £10,500. Therefore, they were ever present running stalls and competitions at local events, presenting to different groups and forums to secure contributions, and setting up community events to benefit local residents… all to reach their target! The expedition phase was expertly overseen and delivered by Africa Wild Trails, whose knowledge and commitment to South Africa ensured an immersive and real experience was had by all. It all started with a 30 hour journey, which saw the team fly to Durban and then spend five nights at

Tugela River Camp, in Kwazulu-Natal province.

After travelling out into the local communities, first aid and first responder training (including CPR, bandaging techniques, helping someone choking and the importance of hand hygiene) was delivered by the young people to benefit both staff and students at Lethu Colenso Orphanage and Gannahoek Combined School. The planting of fruit trees at the Orphanage ensured a legacy of the I-Venture initiative. The group also undertook a wildlife research expedition where they spent hours out in the bush observing the behaviour of giraffes and collating data.

During the second half of the trip, students travelled to a remote game reserve in the east of the country. They worked with the field guides of South Africa to track, observe and develop their understanding of South African wildlife including hippos, buffalo, lions, rhinos to name but a few!

Clare Talati, Director of Derbyshire Education Business Partnership (DEBP) who co-ordinates I- Venture said, “The programme is a 15-month intensive project starting with a rigorous recruitment process and then a huge fundraising task. All the students who went to South Africa thoroughly deserved their place and we look forward to hearing about their experiences at a celebration event at Creswell Crags on 30 January 2020.”

I-Venture is a true partnership effort between The Bolsover Partnership, Bolsover District Council, DEBP Raising Aspirations Project, Africa Wild Trails, Woodhead Group and the schools. GCSE Prize Presentation 2019

To celebrate the hard work and achievement of the class of 2019 earlier this year Mike Pollard, Headteacher, welcomed students, family and friends to the school’s annual GCSE Prize Presentation event. During the evening GCSE certificates were presented along with subject awards and a group of special awards made in recognition of outstanding contribution to the school community.

The school was delighted to welcome two special guests on the night, Mark Hitchings, Radio Producer at Capital East Midlands, who took part in a highly enjoyable question and answer session and David Pearson, Project Manager for Woodhead Group Ltd.

Tibshelf Community School would like to take this opportunity to express appreciation and thanks to those individuals and organisations who gave so generously to the provision of prizes and for their support in rewarding excellence, with special mention going to Alfreton Rotary Club, Mr & Mrs Justin Gilbody, Staffa Health Centre and Mr Matthew Wright.

The results achieved by the Class of 2019 are a tribute to the hard work of the pupils, the support of family and friends and the commitment of the whole school staff team.

Congratulations to everyone.

.

Operation Christmas Child

Tibshelf School students created and donated Iceland 2019 60 shoeboxes for less fortunate children across the world. They will receive the 31 students travelled to Iceland during generous gifts from Tibshelf students this October half term. They visited many sights Christmas. Thank you to everyone who such as the ‘Golden Waterfall’, the ‘Geyser contributed, donated boxes and was involved. Gulfloss’ and the ‘Northern Lights’. They also experienced an earthquake simulator.

The scenery and landscape of the country was truly stunning and it was a trip that the students thoroughly enjoyed along with it

being educational.

We look forward to taking another group of students next year.

Mr R Brailsford

Miss Thorpe

Sporting Success

Eva Kirkwood has been awarded the Bolsover District Sports Woman of the year for her excellent sporting achievements. This is due to her being on the County Netball team, and being County champion for her Javelin Throw.

We recently took 55 students to the Cross Country event at Sherwood Pines. The students represented the school extremely well with 22 students making it through to the County Championships in January. Year 7 Boys and Girls teams both came 2nd overall and we achieved 1st overall in the Junior Boys and Girls competitions. Well Done Everyone!

Reuben Lowe, Jake Else and George Wilkinson were runners up at the Bolsover District Sports Awards for being excellent leaders and sports men of the year nominated by Tibshelf PE staff.

Other Success Stories

Other students who are performing well in and out of school are:

Paris Goacher has been promoted to Captain of Staveley Miners Welfare girls football team and is now the highest goal scorer in her league.

Will Bland is an upcoming boxer representing his local Boxing club. He has achieved victories when fighting recently at venues across the country.

Talitha Oud has recently competed at the Regional swimming championships for her club Nova Centurion achieving some of her fastest swim times in the 100m butterfly & 100m freestyle events.

Well done to all the students who compete in and out of school in all disciplines and sports.

PARKING

Like many of you, we are concerned about the congestion problems at the beginning and end of the school day. To reduce the amount of traffic through the school grounds and to keep our students safe we would like to remind you that:

 When dropping students off in the morning please enter the school car park only if absolutely

necessary. This is to avoid congestion and to allow the school buses to be given priority access.

 Parents should park on the road in a safe place’ if collecting or returning students from appointments or dropping off any items students have forgotten to bring.  School car park barriers are in operation 8.30am until 3.45pm.  When collecting students from after school clubs etc. please use parking bays instead of parking on the turning circle and do not block the entry/exit road.

 Only parents who have been contacted by school to collect students will be allowed into the car park.



Maths Challenges

On Wednesday 13th November over 100 students from Year 7 to 10 took part in The Tibshelf Community Maths Challenge! Based on the national competition (UKMT – Junior Maths

Challenge) this was a great opportunity to stretch and challenge our most able mathematicians. Students from Year 7 - 9 joined together in teams of four to face three rounds of mathematical problems.

The Cross-number – a numerical take on a crossword

The Group round – 6 tough questions with an emphasis on logic and problem solving

The Shuttle – where each question relies on the previous answer

20 students from Year 10 were assigned to the different teams to take the role of ‘supervisor’.

Prizes were awarded to the top teams in each year. Each member of the winning team received a certificate and a £10 love to shop voucher. There was an additional award for our overall champions.

Our overall champions were the Year 9 team! Well done to all involved!

The Champions!

Senior Maths Challenge

A big well done to Rebecca Guy (Y11), Samson Hall (Y11), Ellie Porter (Y11) and Keenan Garcin (Y11) who took part in the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge. The four students competed at the regional event at Derby University against Sixth Form Teams from schools across the county. We were extremely proud of the team who showed fantastic resilience and problem solving skills to th come 8 ! How would you do?

How many rectangles can you see? Answer in the next newsletter!

Mr Newton and Mrs White

Message from the Governors As it’s been a while since we had a column in the school newsletter, we thought we’d take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about what we do. The governors at Tibshelf Community School are a group of volunteers from a variety of different backgrounds who work hard trying to make the school the best it can possibly be. Our job is to provide an equal and fair balance of both

support and challenge to Mr. Pollard and the rest of the school’s senior leadership team and we achieve this through various committee meetings and regular school visits into all the main faculties and areas of the school. This all helps us to understand the school’s strengths and also the areas that need improvement. We take our roles very seriously and we’re committed to improving our own effectiveness by attending regular governor training sessions and also by doing regular self-evaluation. We all think it’s important to work effectively and share our knowledge, skills and experience in order to achieve what we want for the students and staff in our school.

Inevitably, much of our work tends to take place in the background, but in an effort to be more accessible to parents and to support the staff, we will be attending Parents’ Evenings from now on. Our first one was Year 9 earlier this month and the governors who were there enjoyed it very much. We hope to meet you on these occasions in the future. Finally, we’d like to wish you all a lovely Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

The Brilliant Club This year a number of Year 10 students have been enrolled on The Scholars Programme. This initiative places doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in schools to deliver programmes of academic enrichment to small groups of students. Through a combination of university trips, in-school tutorials and online resources, it supports these students in developing the knowledge, skills and ambition needed to progress to highly-selective universities. Students were fortunate enough to attend Cambridge University in November, where they were given a rounded experience of what university life is like and took part in a lecture with their assigned PHD tutor, Mr Tim McManus. On their return from the university day, students have attended a lecture one hour per week for 6 weeks on the topic of “Law and order in medieval times”. The aim is to write a university level essay, which will then be assessed by the tutor. This will come to a close in January and those students who have passed will be invited to a graduation ceremony at a local university. Tim McManus, PHD tutor from Cambridge University, has said, “it has been a real pleasure working with your students here at Tibshelf. Seeing them grow in both knowledge and confidence has been a real highlight. They have all worked well with challenges of university style education. I’d like to wish students from Tibshelf all the best for the future.” Oscar Pearse, student enrolled on the course, stated, “It’s been really helpful for me personally, as it has improved my written work. It has broadened my horizons and helped me integrate with a new group of students and meet new people from different parts of the school/year group. The trip to Cambridge University was impressive and opened my eyes at what can be achieved if I put the work in.” Mr D Hunt, Head of Year 10, commented “What a fantastic opportunity for our students to participate in this initiative to raise their aspirations to achieve their future goals and objectives. I am extremely proud of their work ethic and conduct throughout. Wouldn’t it be fantastic in 4 years’ time to see our students accessing university courses in their chosen subject?”

Duke of Edinburgh 2019 – 2020 This year our Year 9 students have the opportunity to complete their bronze Duke of Edinburgh awards. This is a great chance for students to learn new skills and build their confidence, resilience and team working, all working towards an award that raises their aspirations and increases employability. As well as taking part in a 2-day expedition at the end of the year, students also complete three sections of activity designed to develop their knowledge of the world beyond the school gates through voluntary work, physical activity and learning a new skill.

So far our students have shown great attitude to this part of the award and have embraced the opportunity to try something new. Examples of what they are currently doing include: Volunteering – Helping in elderly care homes, making dog beds in for local shelters and working as teaching assistants in local primary schools. Physical activity – Cycling, attending extracurricular clubs at school and horse riding. New skills – Singing lessons, embroidery and even beer and wine making! Once this section is complete, pupils will then start to prepare for their expedition; a 2-day, overnight, camping trip. Through PE lessons and sessions after school, they will have the opportunity to fine tune their map reading, first aid and survival skills before heading off into the great outdoors once the weather improves.

Partnership Link with China Last week we had the honour of hosting a delegation of Headteachers from the city of Hefei in China. They were very impressed with everything they saw and the generous hospitality and warm welcome from Tibshelf students and staff. This was the first stage in what we hope will be a successful ‘sister school’ link with Hefei, the objective of which is to give our students and staff the chance to visit China. We are one of four schools from Derby / Derbyshire who have been invited to take part and we welcome the opportunity.

More details to follow in 2020!

Pantomime

It’s that time of year again.

“Oh no it isn’t…Oh yes it is!”

In November 2013, following a long anticipated wait, we moved into Tibshelf’s brand new school and our first production was Norman Robbins’ ‘Cinderella’. It was the second time I had used his Cinderella script, following a successful production at my previous school and I loved it then and I still love it now. It didn’t take much convincing from the pantomime committee to get me to agree to run Cinderella once again.

This story is particularly brilliant as it allows for not only one dame, but two, and this provides opportunity for some hilarious capers on stage (and during rehearsals) as we design and shape our characters differently each time.

Each year we try to improve our productions and this year the cast has really risen to the challenge. We have also increased the level of responsibility the students take off stage and look for new ways to provide leadership opportunities in a range of areas and develop new skills in lighting, sound, choreography, stage management, costumes and props. This year over 100 students have taken part in the performance or production of Cinderella, our best number yet! Their commitment and enthusiasm is infectious and we hope they get as much out of the experience as they appear to.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us in any way, shape or form, from providing or creating costumes, scenery, props, giving up their time, leading dance or choir groups to creating programmes, organising the online booking system, parents/carers dropping off and picking up at all sorts of hours and of course to the cast and crew themselves for being, once again, truly outstanding young people who we are privileged and blessed to work with.

Mrs Tipping

Please remember to use the secure online payment system, ParentPay, to pay for all school trips and activities. If you have any questions, concerns or experience any difficulties using ParentPay, please see our website for further details or contact the Finance Office and speak with: Suzanne Greenhalgh ext. 241

Alternatively, email: [email protected] and a member of the finance team will contact you. Thank you for your continued cooperation.

Some Key Dates for 2020

6 January School Opens 7 January Y9 Options Evening 14 January Y11 Parent & Student Consultation Evening 1 7-21 February HALF TERM 24 February INSET DAY

25 February Y10 Parent & Student Consultation Evening 9-16 March Y11 Core Mock Exams 19 March Y9 Immunisation 24 March Y10 Art trip to Chatsworth 31 March Y8 Parent & Student Consultation Evening

4-10 April Ski Trip to Italy 6-17 April EASTER HOLIDAYS

Contact Us Telephone Options As part of our continuing attempt to communicate effectively with parents

we frequently update our website. Option 1 Dial Extension Doe Hill Lane

Tibshelf Similarly, you can obtain useful Option 2 Report Student Absences updates on school and community life Alfreton by following us on twitter DE55 5LZ Option 3 Student Services @tibshelfschool

www.tibshelf.derbyshire.sch.uk Option 4 Report Staff Absences We are increasing the use of email

communication wherever we can. T: 01773 872391 Option 6 Finance Please ensure we are kept informed of F: 01773 873900 any changes to your email address by Option 7 Site Staff either contacting Student Services

Email directly or by emailing us at [email protected] Option 8 Leave Message [email protected]

alternatively you can use the contact Option 9 Reception form on our website.