Spring 2015 Newsletter Beauty and the Beast
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Whitenap Lane Romsey Hampshire SO51 5SY t: 01794 502 502 f: 01794 502 501 e: [email protected] w: www.mountbatten.hants.sch.uk Founder Patron: Earl Mountbatten of Burma Executive Headteacher: Heather McIlroy Head of School: Christopher Cox Patron: The Hon. Alexandra Knatchbull Spring 2015 Newsletter Beauty and the Beast Everyone loves a fairy tale and students at The Mountbatten School certainly staged a brilliant production of Beauty and the Beast. The show told the story of Belle, an independent girl who was dissatisfied with life in a small, provincial French town, constantly trying to fight off the misplaced affections of conceited Gaston. Fleeing from home she winds up in the Beast’s enchanted castle where the furniture and crockery come to life. Around 90 students were involved in the show, either as cast members or as technical crew. Mr Whiteside and Miss Gould said, ‘The students worked tirelessly to bring the show together with stunning effect. The show featured toe-tapping musical numbers against a magnificent set, topped off with dazzling costumes.’ Letter from the Executive Headteacher Dear Parents We have completely changed our approach to the Year 11 examination countdown period. There is now a fixed point Our Music Academy, launched in September 2014, is going when all Year 11 Controlled Assessments should be from strength to strength. The Carol Service was – and completed. My senior colleagues have been terrier-like in plenty of good judges agree with this view – the best ensuring all students have completed this work. I would ever. The beautiful Romsey Abbey, which has seen many like to thank parents for their support; this will enable lovely and historic events in its 900 year history, was full to students (and teachers) to totally concentrate on the final capacity. Indeed, the school had to provide 300 additional examination preparation. We have also moved the Year 11 chairs. Student choirs, our staff choir, our community mock examinations from December to February. Feedback choir, our orchestras and our readers each played their from parents, teachers and - above all - students suggests parts to perfection. The Expressive Arts faculty have that this was a good decision; students have taken their followed up this triumph with a stunning performance of mocks much more seriously than in previous years, and the Beauty and the Beast with memorable performances by all revision they have done will stay with them for the real cast members, particularly our two leads, Freya Burnside exams. The next few weeks are absolutely and Daanyaal Khan. The Music Department will again be crucial. Students should take advantage of the revision competing in the National Festival of Music. The regional opportunities being offered by their heats are coming up shortly and we hope our students subjects. Mathematics have a particularly effective secure their place in the national finals once again. We programme known as ‘30-4-10’ which is a programme of have seen a much greater take up in the number of 30 minutes of intensive revision work over ten days. This students taking musical instrument lessons, with many will be really useful Easter revision. However, students student learning more than one instrument. We must not exclusively rely on the revision provided by the encourage every student to do this; it is life-enriching and, school; they must do their own and have a carefully thanks to the Music Academy, we have the capacity for planned revision programme. more students to take part. Contact Mr Marchant if you would like more information. Students who work hard over the next few weeks and months will be rewarded in August. We wish Year 11 well. Our fabulous third generation football pitch opened last term. It has been in intense demand and is already close to its booking capacity; even England’s youth squad have played upon it. To maintain its fabulous surface, everyone using it must use studded boots; if students wish to use it Heather McIlroy at lunchtime, they will need to have appropriate foot wear. Year 9 have completed their options process and Mr Cox and Mr Taylor have been meeting with students to finalise their choices. We know that this year group will face tougher GCSE examinations with more rigorous questions, and responses will require higher literacy skills. Last year we made some significant changes to our curriculum and school organisation. The greater literacy demands (e.g. longer free text answers) in Year 10 and Year 11 (and at A- level) has required a careful and planned response from our subject areas in Years 7 to 9. All subjects are expected to have a greater literacy and oracy focus in Lower School. Parents can support this process by talking more at home about school work, and asking students to frame their responses in sophisticated language and full sentences (as they would in an examination). We also know that students will make more progress in school if there is stimulating reading material at home. Young people who read a daily newspaper will have a particular advantage in job interviews and other business/industry- related situations. Technology Tournament On Wednesday 4 March, 3 teams, each of 4 Year 9 students, attended this year’s Technology Tournament at the Cross- field Hall in Romsey. It was an exciting day that involved students designing and building a powered cable car to travel across a gap carrying a pay load, safely deliver it and return. Competition was tough with lots of varied ideas on how best to solve the problem. All students enjoyed the day, their behaviour and commitment were a real credit to the school. One of our teams did particularly well, earning 3rd place. ‘Bright Sparks’ IBM STEM Challenge Six Year 8 Technology students recently attended an all-day event at IBM Hursley. They were competing in ‘Bright Sparks’, a challenging STEM project. During the day they made excellent use of their IT and computer programming skills to solve various problems. Students attending took on board all that IBM could throw at them and performed exceptionally well. Students to be commended are: Ryan Pollard, Fraser Henderson, Charlotte White, Grace Nesbit, William Poulter and Athenya Hardy. PE Department Artur Veeck, a Year 10 student, represented Hampshire at table tennis in the Cadets County Championship. This is a team event involving 3 boys and 2 girls from each county. Hampshire did extremely well and finished as run- ners up of the County Premier 2015. Having started table tennis at the age of 9, Artur has progressed well with the guidance of his coach, Adam Proszko, at Waterside Table Tennis Club. His training and dedication to the game have led to great opportunities such as taking part in his first international table tennis tournament - the Portuguese Youth Open in December. As the only delegate from England, Artur had the opportunity to train with delegates from France, Luxemburg, Spain, Japan, Netherlands and Portugal, teaming up with a Portuguese delegate to take part in the team events, finishing in 6th place (out of 18 teams). The Mountbatten School’s U14 Basketball team had a very strong first sea- son together, reaching the Hampshire Schools’ Plate Final. For many of the boys in the team, this was their first time playing competitive basketball. They were matched against St George's, who were tough opponents when they faced off in the league, with Mountbatten winning by only 2 points! The game started slowly and was very close after the first quarter, with the score 15-10 to Mountbatten. Mountbatten then stepped it up a gear and began to dominate the game. The score ended up 79-36 to Mountbatten. Marcus Peach top scored with 26 points, ending the game with 33 re- bounds!! Everyone involved played superbly every second they were on the court, and the team thoroughly deserved their victory. Zac Booth was awarded MVP for the final with a defensive master class and Marcus Peach was awarded MVP for the season for putting up fantastic numbers in every game he played. Ben Nelson was 'Surprise of the Sea- son'. Ben deserved this award for his outstanding commitment to both the lunchtime and after school sessions, his support and encouragement for his teammates at every game he was in the team, and his progression and de- velopment on the court throughout the season, culminating in scoring the final basket in the Plate Final itself! The Mountbatten School’s U15 Rugby team travelled to Cams Hill School, Portsmouth to play in their first ever Hampshire County RFU Bowl Final. The squad of 22 players, was made up of 13 students from Year 10 and 9 students from Year 9. It was a tough match with plenty of huge hits and big tackles. The set piece was dominated by the strong Mountbatten for- wards pack, exceptionally marshalled by Year 10 Captain Finn Goodridge. There was a great atmosphere with a large crowd of parents, staff and friends. The match was very close, with no more than 7 points dividing the teams throughout the entire match. Tries were scored by Charlie Good, Year 9, Matt Scrase, Year 9 and exceptional in their play were speedsters Nick Comer and Theo Wolfarth, with some brute strength from forwards James Sidhu, Ethan Hunt, Graham Bovis and Rafel Moran. However, the winning try was scored by Theo Wolfarth, Year 10, who out sprinted three opposition players on the wing to score un- der the posts, giving an easy kick to Nick Comer, Year 10. The final score was 19-12. Breakfast Club The Mountbatten School’s Breakfast Club celebrated its 1st Birthday on Tuesday 3 February with an abundance of pancakes, sugar, lemon and strawberries! Every year, people strive to make the perfect pancake, but The Mount- batten School’s Breakfast Club has been a recipe for success from the start! Studies have shown that little or no breakfast can lead to poor concentration and behaviour and, with people leading such busy lives, some students were arriving at school not having had time for breakfast.