The MarchesThe MarchesSchool & School Technology & Technology College College M NEWS SPRING 2010

News from Performing Arts See Page 6

Winning Students in Booka Competition Page 3 Headlines Contents resilience to make a

Headlines 2 difference themselves to School News 3 - 4 other people’s International News 5 lives. I am particularly proud Eco News 5 of the Year 7 Performing Arts 6 students who spearheaded a Community 6 fund raising PE News 7 campaign to help the victims of the IT News 8 The Marches makes a Haiti earthquake; they kick started Difference an appeal that raised raise over £4,000 from our students and our

Dates for the local business partners, Richard I delivered an assembly titled Make Burbridges, The Cheese Company a Difference; as I planned my Diary and BT. presentation and reflected on the

theme, I began to draw on a wealth April Recently our Pupil Leadership Group of examples in which students and organised a 24 hour bounce in aid Thursday 22nd Yr 7 Parent’s staff from the Marches had made a of Hope House and Alice Ward at Consultation Evening difference. The newsletter will give the Orthopaedic Hospital. These Friday 23rd Yr 11 Presentation you an insight into all the activities events were a great achievement Assembly that our community is involved in. because the students made it

Thursday 29th Yr 10 Parent’s happen and, through their tenacity I am very proud once again of our Consultation Event and the support of dedicated staff to many achievements such as our help guide them, they have May Year 10 students who are working achieved remarkable things. Wednesday 5th Yr 11 Celebration their way through the regional finals

Assembly of the Young Enterprise award, our It has been a tremendous term once Year 10 and 11 students who Friday 7th Yr 11 Prom Evening again, because we have a ‘Can do participate in the Duke of Edinburgh Friday 14th Yr 8 History Trip Culture’. Our community of learners Awards, our many international is strong and able to create a Thursday 20th Yr 7 French Trip projects that have students from ‘theatre of dreams’, because we each year group interacting with June believe in one another and we help young people from all over the one another to get round or over Friday 11th Yr 7 History Trip world. Recently, we have joined a any barriers and it is this attitude number of local schools on the Thursday 17th Summer that will ensure that we continue to connecting classrooms project which Music Concert go from strength to strength. has linked us with schools in Sri Friday 18th Fund Raising Day Lanka. Our Year 11 are about to embark on

Thursday 30th London Theatre their final term at The Marches; it is Trip A highlight of the term was the M important that we all work together factor, where many of our talented July to ensure that they have the finest students gave amazing possible opportunities to achieve Friday 2nd Sports Day performances, which took courage their personal best. I would ask as there was a packed house on Thursday 8th - Tuesday 13th parents of Year 11 students to make both evenings. MARCC Days sure that their child attends all

relevant grade improvement Wednesday 14th Yr 6 Parent’s All of the above do make a Evening activities and revision lessons and difference to our young people’s that they are on time and properly lives, but what is even more equipped for all of the external impressive is that our young people For further details contact Reception examinations. have the independence and on 01691 664400 or visit the website: Mrs S Longville www.marchesschool.co.uk Headteacher 2 SCHOOL NEWS Students of recently entered a story Booka Prize Winners writing competition organised by the Booka store in . The competition was divided into age groups and the students were very successful. In the 14 to 16 age group, Julie Thomas won first prize and received a £25 Booka Gift Voucher and a trophy. Her story will be published in the Oswestry and Border Counties newspaper. Luke Gilchrist scooped third place and received a £5 Booka Gift Voucher. In the younger age group, 11 to 13, Zachary Morgan achieved second place and received a £10 Booka Gift Voucher. Freya Urquhart scooped third prize in this age group and received a £5 Booka Gift Voucher. Carrie Morris was very impressed with the stories and the winning students were invited to Booka to receive their prizes. The prizes were awarded by author Dominic Hibberd who visited Booka to sign copies of his book 'The Winter of the World'.

Girls Yr 8 Challenge 10s continued after school until Jess Prince 961 The Year 8 students have been 6pm, when 40 Year 11s arrived for working hard to collect points Grace Garry 939 Kati Jiggins 883 the overnight stint. They towards The Challenge and it is successfully completed the looking like it will be a very close Georgia Dixon 862 Ellie Hill 859 challenge; as well as bouncing, race to the end with the students they kept themselves entertained being keen to get their hands on Lucy Hughes 852 Rhianne Lloyd 839 and tried to stay awake! Scott Hill the fabulous prizes on offer. So far and Mollie Croxon worked tirelessly the girls are just managing to hang Becky Stafford- 829 Lawrence to ensure the event went smoothly; on to the lead but in the latest set many members of staff supported of Attitude to Learning Scores, the Grace Griffiths 829 Francis Phillips 821 throughout the day and night. boys have narrowed the gap! Students were sponsored for their Moving into the summer term, efforts to raise money for Hope there is one last chance to impress Bounceathon House and the Alice Ward at the teachers and get high ATL scores Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt before the final totals are added up. Hospital. The event was a huge The individual contest is also very success and will hopefully have close. The top 10 boy and girls are raised a fantastic amount for the listed. cause. By Miss Phillips By Miss Beecham

Boys Library News

Ashley Beardmore 867 Each pupil in the Harry Davies 860 school received a Bradley Coldwell 843 World Book Day David Kendrick 829 voucher entitling Sam Williams 809 The Pupil Leadership Group organised them to a free book Thomas Gregory 804 their own charity fundraiser this term. or to use as discount on a full Tim Doyl 800 They held a bounceathon, where priced book in local Connor Ford 786 someone continuously bounced on a bookshops. Toby Roberts 779 bouncy castle for 24 hours. This took The Learning Resource Centre Sam Thearle 779 th place on Friday 12 March starting at held a dual form quiz on the day 9.00am and finishing at 9am the next with competition between two morning. The task was undertaken, year 8 classes. The members of during the day by PE classes and top the winning team received prizes scoring Year 8s in the Year 8 and everyone agreed it was great Challenge. A group of Year 9s and fun. By Mrs Richards Ashley Jess 3 Mrs S Longville, Headeacher, talks about The Yr 10 Hospitality Group

The Year 10 Hospitality Group has been very lucky to be able to work with Geoff Hughes at The Walls Restaurant in Oswestry. The students needed a real experience of the hospitality industry and Geoff was gracious enough to offer that. The Year 10 students have gained experience in the kitchen and front of house. Geoff and his staff have been very supportive and given the students a wonderful opportunity for which I am extremely grateful. They now understand all the hard work that goes into running a restaurant of such high calibre.

Young Enterprise - On Edge successful for the company, and meant that vital A group of students in year 10 experience has been gained. are taking part in a project, They have created a ‘paint your own Kid’s plaque’ kit, called Young Enterprise that which would eventually be turned into a door plaque for involves starting a company, children’s bedrooms, the cost is £4.99. and selling a product to the Their second product is a house number made to the general public. The students , customer’s specifications, delivered within 14 days for a Emily Jones, Catherine cost of £6.99 including p&p. The final Earnshaw, Elise Meyer, Rhys Beddows, Lucy Meyer, product is a house name sign at £9.99 also Daisy Jones, Alice Roberts, Amy Roberts and James including p&p. If anybody Bates, have created a company called On Edge, with a wishes to order a product, or product range based on off-cuts of wood from a local find out more details, contact source. They have participated in a number of trade me in TC4 to be given an fairs where they have had to set up a stall and run it order form. for a day, in a busy location, competing with a number By Mr Harris of other companies. These have been

Student’s Short Stories Marches C3 by Abigail Hobkirk and Frankey Phillips The following 27 students in 7K1 have been selected to have their short stories published in a Mini Sagas Our school is in the planning of transforming a room book published by Young Writers. Henry Jones, Jake into a new learning space to meet the needs of it’s Oakley, Katie Griffiths, Alex Keir, Tomos Lloyd,Jodie learners, and learners of the 21st Century. Powell, Ish Rashid, Lauren Crane, Emma Hinton, As part of the project, some of us went to Yewlands Archie Burton, Ellie Clark, Hannah Beaman, Jassett School in Sheffield. This school was part of ‘Building Cook, Stuart Green, Jack Charlton, Katie Adams, Schools for the Future’ and had millions of pounds to Molly Davies, Nathan Martin, Yoli Hopkins, Derry transform and build a whole new school. We are only Faux-Nightingale, Emily Edwards, John Roberts, doing one room, yet we thought the experience would Mollie Worton, Phoebe Jones, Lauren Cameron, Louis be good and helpful for ideas. Morris, Sam Our plans so far are to agree on a colour scheme for the Davies. They all classroom, agree on some lighting and received a comfortable and relaxing seating. We have been certificate and a thinking about a dark red colour or lime green as we group of the saw them at the Yewlands School and thought they children had looked nice. The their photograph seating we thought taken. about will be By comfortable and soft Miss Reynolds from bean bags to leather seating. 4 International and Eco News

Germany and Poland Trip February 2010 We arrived in Berlin on Friday 12th of February and started straight away with a look around the city. We visited the fascinating East Side Gallery, which told us lots of information about the Berlin wall, and we also saw Check Point Charlie, an American base on the border between East and West Berlin. On Saturday, we started with a bus tour of Berlin, this was a good opportunity to take photos and to learn a bit more about the culture and history of the city. We stopped at the Holocaust memorial and at a section of the Berlin Wall with some amazing artwork displayed on it. For dinner, we went to the Hard Rock Café. This was a great way to end our time in Berlin. We spent all of Saturday travelling and on Monday morning we had a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. Many of the exhibits and the areas of the camp were deeply moving. At the execution wall we laid flowers and had a few minutes of silence in remembrance of the many victims who lost their lives within the camp. During the afternoon a tour guide gave us a walking tour of the Jewish Quarter of Krakow and explained how it had been affected during the Holocaust. That evening, we all went bowling which was good fun and finished off the trip well. By Hannah Fell 10 LAW

Haiti Earthquake Appeal Planting Trees

In response to the unimaginable disaster which struck In March, students from Year 8 planted trees sent from The Haiti on 12th January, members of Year 7 decided to Woodland Trust with the help of Mrs Hayes and Miss Morris. take action and write a letter to Mrs Longville to see if Students learn about environmental issues in Geography and the the school could raise money to help the victims of the students hope that by planting trees it will make our school more earthquake. This marked the beginning of a very environmentally friendly. lucrative fundraising fortnight in which a grand total of By Miss Peck £4357.17 was raised. A ‘Hats for Haiti’ day took place on 5th February where staff and students donated money to come to school in non- uniform and many wore hats of varying fashions! The Cheese Company, Richard Burbidge Ltd and BT all supported the event by raising funds Celebrating the 'Connecting Classrooms' on that day Link with Sri Lanka! which they kindly donated to our appeal. The Marches School and our feeder primary schools are now linked The ‘Penny Appeal’, a competition to see which form with 8 schools in Sri Lanka. The school is hoping to set up pen could collect the most pennies, raised £871.06. pals, learn about Sri Lankan culture and work closely with the local Congratulations to 7SF who were the winners after primary schools. New International projects will be planned and collecting a fantastic £125.53. reported on 'Todays Notices' in form time. On Wednesday, March Year 7 student, Thomas Taylor, became a local 3rd the Sri Lankan teachers visited the school and described The celebrity appearing in newspapers and on the radio Marches as an 'outstanding school with amazing facilities'. Many after raising an amazing £932.78 by completing a thanks to the hospitality team who provided delicious tea and cakes sponsored walk with his Mum from Oswestry to for our guests! Shrewsbury. By Miss Crowson By Miss Walker 5 By Mr T Coupe - M Factor performers giving them a great Students from across the school opportunity to gain invaluable Director of Performing took part in this year’s M-Factor on experience of performing with an Thursday 18th and Friday 19th March. ensemble. Most of all I would like to Arts As well as solo singers, recognise the courage and instrumentalists and dancers, the commitment shown by all of the Music Festival performances featured the school performers and hope that the I am pleased to report that many choir and orchestra. I would like to experience will remain with them and students from The Marches entered say a big thank you to Clare-Rose help them to take on more this year’s music festival. The Gilpin, Sali James and Dan Deakin challenges in the future. We are all talented entrants took several first who were heavily involved in very proud of your achievement. places and cups and notable assisting with the production and participants include: Timothy Doyle; coaching of acts in the run up to the Abbie Morris; Megan Elliot; Kizzy- performance. We are lucky to have Mae Rowbotham and Bradley such talented and dedicated McCulloch. I would also like to members of staff. I would also like thank out percussion teacher Brian to thank the staff band who Stone who entered our Percussion accompanied many of the Ensemble.

Music Festival

parental initiatives and generally Community and Parent be part of the community partnership. If you would like to News be involved, or just know more about this opportunity could you Parent’s Forum please contact John Burton on: As a school we have not had a PTA [email protected]. for a number of years due in the main to a number of stalwarts retiring and Rotary Club International not being replaced by other parents. Dinner We are well aware that parents form The evening was a fascinating a major link in the learning insight into the culture of different displayed. They far outshone the partnership and contribute to their countries, but also into the other students who were child’s success. With these ideas in outstanding calibre of students that there, despite there being an mind, we would like to implement a we have at The Marches. Mrs Parry obvious age gap. I received parent body in school who could and I were bowled over by the compliments from many of the share an involvement in contributing confidence and conduct that Rotarians, as well as from to decision making about whole Glenn Pritchard, Warrick the staff of the other schools. school issues, deliver a range of Railton, and Shaun Adams By Mrs Longville 6

By Mr N Martin, Under 14 North Tough tackling fly half, Jack Martin, Basketball went down injured but the brave team fought on. Meole Brace beat Late in December, The Marches Director of Sport The Marches team, 3-2. There was hosted the North Shropshire under a 3rd / 4th place play off game 14 Basketball competition. A strong between Church Stretton and The link has developed with Oswestry Shropshire Schools Cross Marches. It was a great game to Arrows Basketball club. Their Country Championships 2010 finish the day and the team won 2 coach, Chris Powell, has been rd tries to 1, finishing in 3rd place over- On Saturday 23 January, 29 coaching the boys both at the all. There were some fantastic tries students travelled to Oswestry Arrows club and at school. After a from Liam Beeby, Kieran fox and School to represent The Marches very close evening of competition, Jack Fox but the whole team at this annual competition. There The Marches boys finished as contributed to the success on the were some notable performances winners of the tournament. from Emily Ball and Niamh day. th th It really is a squad game so many Maguire who finished 13 and 16 congratulation should go to all who respectively in the Junior Girls played – Matthew Powell, Oliver th U13 Netball County Plate race, Sam Lewis who finished 18 Edwards, Luke Griffiths, Dan Champions in the Junior Boys race and Ryan Griffiths, Jordan Tsang, Alex Jones, th On Wednesday 10th February Stokes who came 14 in the Josh Coleridge and Jamie 2010, the U13 Netball team Senior Boys race. Chloe Barton McGowan. (7th), Lauren Bathers (9th), James competed in the Shropshire Morris (6th) and Joe Morris (2nd) Schools Netball Tournament, in impressed the organisers so much the plate competition, at that they were selected to Sundorne Sports Village. The represent the county in further team consisted of Chelsea competitions in Leicester and Davies, Georgia Dickson, Molly Manchester next month. Hanson, Abbie Hobkirk, Alisha Congratulations to all the students Lane, Rhianne Lloyd (Captain), who took part. Stacey Richards and Louise Mortlock. The girls defeated four schools in their heat, Moreton Hall (4-1), Primary Football Festival Sundorne (8-0), Thomas Adams th On Thursday 28 January, The County Representation (11-1) and Burton Borough (6-1). Marches hosted the Girls Primary Congratulations to Oli Balcombe, After coming first in their heat, The Schools Football Tournament Oliver Booth, Jack Morgan, Ed Marches came up against which was attended by Bryn Offa, Jones and Matt Napper who have Belvidere in the semi-final and won Gobowen, Ellesmere, Ifton Heath, all been selected to represent 10-3. The Marches played Lacon Shropshire at Hockey. Childe in the final and even though Many congratulations also to Jack Lacon Childe played very well, The Martin in year 9 who has Marches triumphed winning 11-3 represented Shropshire at Rugby and should be commended on throughout this Season. their excellent play throughout the tournament. Congratulations to the U13 Netball team for becoming Under 14 Emerging Schools County Champions in the plate Rugby competition and the school hopes The Shropshire under 14 Emerging for further success in the future. Schools Rugby tournament took place at on 24th February. Drawn in a tough group with , Bridgnorth Endowed School and The The Meadows, Whittington, Burton Burough it was going to be Selattyn and the overall winners Cockshutt. The tournament was difficult to qualify for the knockout stages. The first game was a 1 try organised by a group of Year 10 each draw with a strong Church boys. The Marches students have Stretton side. An amazing try from followed a Junior Football Jack Fox tied the scores. The Organiser course, within their PE Marches went through as the lessons, to enable them to have the skills needed. strongest runner up and went on to play Meole Brace in the semi final. 7 Get on in school Get online at home

Home Access is a government drive that helps low-income families who currently lack access to a computer and/or internet to get online at home.

A computer

The programme is 1 year’s internet access aimed at those that need it most. If you are a low-income family in receipt of Service and Support certain benefits you could qualify for a grant to buy a Safety Features computer and/or a minimum of one years’ internet access.

Do you qualify? If you think you might qualify for a Home Access Grant please call the Home Access Grant Helpline on 0333 200 1004 to get an application form, visit the website

or return the slip below to Mrs S Davies - School www.homeaccess.org.uk Business Manager who will arrange a time for you to visit the school to help complete your application form.

Home Access Reply Slip - Return to Mrs S Davies, The Marches School Term Dates and Technology College Easter Break April 1st - April 17th Name of son / daughter Half Term May 25th - May 29th Tutor Group Summer Term End July 17th Name of Parent Autumn Term Start September 8th Contact Details

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