The Elton Times Newsletter No58 — 1 October 2019

Dozens Of Awards Distributed At Our Annual Attendance Celebration Evening

Updates From Across Departments

Lots Of Sports News As Elton Teams Start The New Term On Top Form The Elton Times Newsletter No 58—1 October 2019

As noted in the previous newsletter, it was With regards to upcoming events, this week sees our important to have a strong, positive start to this new two Open Days (Wednesday and Thursday, 9.15am - term and we have been delighted with the manner 12.30pm) and Open Evening (Thursday, 5.30pm - and attitude of our students on their return. The new 7.30pm) take place. We anticipate very high numbers Year 7 students have been particularly impressive and of visitors and are really appreciative of parental so many staff have commented on their fantastic support in allowing your children to take part in work and behaviour. The new team of Prefects have displays, activities and as tour guides. While we are also been excellent, attending duties and being on lucky to have such a modern school building, it is hand to provide help and support in so many different always the manners and confidence of our actual ways. We are all focussed on maintaining this good students that draws positive comments from the start to the year and appreciate your help in getting visitors and we are sure that this will be the case again the children to school on time and being dressed/ this week. Full details of those open events will be prepared for each school day - it has a really positive provided in the next issue of this newsletter. In the impact. meantime, many thanks for your continuing support and please feel free to contact me at any time It is not just our Prefects and the new Year 7 students regarding any questions or queries about any aspect who have impressed us with their attitude and this is of our school - [email protected] part of a continuing school focus to support Elton students to be really good, genuine young people. The Jonathan Wilton importance of kindness and honesty was highlighted Headteacher in a recent survey which polled over 2,000 adults from across the UK. People were asked a very simple question - What do you think is the main sign of strength in a person? There were various responses but it was revealing that few people thought that looks or physical strength were important. Instead, the top ten answers were as follows: “What do you 1. Admitting you're wrong (53%) 2. Having a positive attitude (52%) 3. Honesty (52%) 4. Speaking up when someone is acting unfairly think is the (51%) 5. Speaking up when people are being mistreated (50%) 6. Apologising when you're wrong (48%) main sign of 7. Being supportive to others (47%) 8. Asking for help (46%) 9. Putting you problems aside to help others (46%) 10. Being patient (44%) strength in a

These are all qualities that any school would want to promote and we try to do this as regularly as possible. As mentioned in the last newsletter when reviewing person?” the GCSE results, we are rightly proud of our school's academic record but our primary aim is working with yourselves to promote these crucial human qualities in Elton students. Attendance Awards

Hundreds of parents and carers came into school to attend our annual Attendance Awards Evening. The awards were split into two sections, Years 8/10 and 9/11, with prizes distributed for 100% / 99% / 98% attendance and also most improved attendance. This year’s ex-student who attended as guest presenter was Claire Schofield, who currently works at St John’s Primary School in Ramsbottom. She spoke of her memories of being an Elton student and obviously, the importance of a good attendance record. It was a lovely evening which recognised the fantastic efforts of dozens of students. We look forward to further events next year and maintaining our position as the school with the best attendance in all of Bury! Year 7 Big Breakfast Holiday Prize

A full English breakfast was served up to seventeen completing several tasks linked to their favorite books lucky Year 7 students last Friday. The Big Breakfast and authors; with one of the tasks encouraging prize was a top reward for students, who were chosen students to join their local library! from each form, for their fantastic effort on the This is the first of many rewards for the new Year 7 summer holiday project. Two students from each students, who have made an excellent start at Elton form were selected for completing their ‘Literacy High School. Watch out for news on Mrs Turbill’s 100 Launch into Year 7’ booklets to an excellent standard. Club prize draw at the end of each term. All students Mr Wilton served up the Friday morning feast to the start off with 100% attendance, 100% punctuality and eager Year 7 students. One student said delightedly, 100% no detentions - they receive a $100 dollar bill, ‘This is the first full English breakfast I have ever had – on which they write one thing they hope to achieve by it’s delicious!’ Mr Wilton and Mrs Turbill praised all of the end of their first year at high school; students who the students for their hard work over the summer remain in the 100 Club will be entered into the prize months and a certificate of effort will be presented to draw each term. So let’s keep up the fantastic effort every student who completed the homework booklet so far Year 7! in reward for their efforts. The initiative was aimed at Good Luck to all students in preparation for the next encouraging students to show a love of reading by Big Reward! Year 11 Art & Textiles

The Art Department would like to share some of last year’s excellent work produced by GCSE Art and Textiles students. They all produced imaginative and independent work which show-pieced their creative skills. They were given free reign with regards the use of materials and method of working. (The dress is made up of plastic sewn together! ) They worked on a general theme of ‘Blue Planet.’ We will be holding a celebration evening in the summer term (Thursday 2nd of July 2020) to celebrate the achievements of all year groups within the Art Department. Keep that date in your diary! European Day of Languages

In honour of last Wednesday’s European Day of Languages, pupils and the MFL department enjoyed a continental buffet. Pupils sampled an array of delectable delights, including French pastries, bread (le pain), cheese (le fromage) Spanish chorizo and olives (las aceitunas). The pain au chocolats in particular proved immensely popular, despite olives being considered an acquired taste by many! As an integral part of French and Spanish culture, enjoying vibrant and different food in a social way can be really motivating for budding linguists, and we’d like to thank pupils for wholeheartedly immersing themselves into other cultures with curiosity and an appetite for different food.

¡Muchas gracias! / Merci beaucoup! The MFL Department In Geography this week……. Welcome back!!! Keep your eyes open for new and exciting clubs being launched in the Geography department and competitions running with great prizes to be won!!! Welcome To Year 7 At the end of last year, Summer and Ruby both helped to design a ‘Welcome’ leaflet for the new Year 7 students starting at Elton in Geography. They included helpful information about what Geography is like at Elton which has really helped the Year 7s to settle into their new Geography lessons. Thanks for your hard work girls! Iceland 2020 Itinerary for the Iceland trip 2020

Day 1: Day 2:  Arrive  Secret lagoon  Bridge between the  Gullfoss waterfall continents  Geysir Geothermal  Krysuvik Mud puddles  Ice cream farm  Thingvellir National Park and Mid Atlantic Ridge Day 3: Day 4:  Heimaey day with walk  Skogafoss waterfall and up to Eldfell Reynishverfi beach  Reykjadalur Hike  Solheimajokull glacier and  Quake Exhibihat glacier walk ShakeHase  Seljaklansfoss waterfall  Mariuhellar (Lava Cave) and lava centre

Day 5—Home

Interested in the planet? Want to help your school become more eco friendly? Then look out for information in assemblies about the new Geography eco- group!

Ronny will return in the next edition with his holiday adventures!! Ellie's Jigsaw

Ellie has a three dimensional puzzle made from cubes.  There are six pieces altogether, but unfortunately one has gone missing.  All six pieces are different shapes.  The pieces fit together to make a 3 by 3 by 3 cube.

Here are diagrams showing five of the pieces:

Can you figure out what shape the sixth piece is? Is there more than one possible shape that the sixth piece could be?

Send your working out and answers to [email protected]. All correct entries will gain an Achievement Point and be put in a hat. The first name pulled out wins a £5 Trafford Centre voucher! Parent Governor Vacancies

Due to the terms of a previous members expiring, we have vacancies within the school Governing Body. If you feel that you could make a strong, positive contribution to our Governing Body then nominations are welcomed from parents/carers. Nomination forms can be downloaded through the school website (under the 'Vacancies' section) and must be returned to the Clerk to Governors, Mrs Foster ([email protected]) Deadline for nominations to be returned is Monday 7 October 2019. Year 11 Basketball Our Year 11 basketball team made a winning start to the new term by winning all three games in the first round of the Bury Schools’ Competition. They beat St Anne’s 26-12, Parrenthorn 20-0, and Hazelwood 22-6. They are looking to build on this great start with the second round of games taking place at Phillips High School on 22 October 2019.

Year 8 and 10 Netball Our Year 8 and 10 netball teams played their first match of the year against Hazelwood High last week. Both teams were victorious with Year 8 winning 22-0 and Year 10 winning 9-4. The Players Player for Year 8 was Monique Hall and for Year 10 was Gemma Foy. Thanks to all the support from pupils, staff and parents. Friday’s ‘schoolrun’

These are the results of schoolrun (Event 1) Friday 20th September 2019. school runners:- 8

1 Luke Gisbourne 7.21 (11B) 2 Joe Livesey 7.46 (11B) 3 Anna Gisbourne 8.18 (8G) 4 Isabelle Oxley 8.57 (7G) 5 Corinne Newton 9.41 (7G) 6 Ethan Jackson 9.55 (11B) 7 Ben Pickford 9.57 (11B) 8 Miss Pickering 10.32 (WS)

The first ever ‘schoolrun’ took place on Friday 20 September. The schoolrun is a brand new event which is open for all Elton staff and students and will take place every Friday at 3.30pm (weather permitting). The course goes around the perimeter of the school grounds and participants can do the event entirely at their own pace. T-shirts and wristbands will be available for regular participants and we hope to have plenty of staff and students involved on a weekly basis. See Miss Jones if you wish to take part and we hope that the numbers will increase as it becomes a regular feature of the Elton week. Year 7 Trampolining Taster

Year 7 hugely enjoyed the trampolining taster sessions that took place in the Main School Hall. Lots of girls tried trampolining for the first time and were really brave throughout the taster session. Well done to our new students!

Year 7 Cheerleading

Year 7 have been enjoying cheerleading sessions in their PE lessons since the start of term. They have learnt different routines as well as choreographing their own dances. They are looking forward to performing their routines at this week’s open evening on 3rd October. Year 9 and 10 Girls Football

Year 9 and 10 got the girl’s football season underway with a recent tournament Ainsworth Academy. The Elton team competed against Bury Church, Academy and The Derby and surged to 1st place! Thank you to SK Kits for our new playing kit. A special mention for Mia Gatenby who captained the side and to Nicole Lomax in her debut game for school.

Lunchtime Dance Club

Pupils from all years have been working every lunchtime to take part in our dance club. Students from Year 11 have been supporting the younger students and so many of the girls have been able to meet new friends, chorography new dances and enjoy the physical activity. All students are practicing for Open Evening to put on a dance routine in the dance studio. We look forward to seeing the result of their hard work. A Gold Medal for Lauren!

Congratulations to Lauren Heyes (Year 11) who competed at the FARS Novice Free Skating Roller Skating Competition on Saturday 27th July 2019 in Kettering.

Lauren came 1st place winning the gold medal and trophy.

Well done Lauren! Katie Rayner, Year 9, Selected for Manchester Thunder U15’s

Following a two day trial in September, Katie Rayner, Year 9, has been selected into the Manchester Thunder U15s netball training programme for 2019/20 season. This will run alongside her YWCA Bury Netball club commitments.

Congratulations Katie- a fantastic achievement!!

Catering £5 Daily Spend Limit

We have been highlighting to students the need to spend their lunch money as wisely as possible. In September, there was an increase in school meal prices (the first increase for several years). Students need to take care not to exceed their daily spend limit of £5 and also make sure that they have enough money in their accounts to buy a lunch following breakfast and break time. We ask for the support of parents in monitoring the childrens’ accounts and making sure that their money is being spent in an appropriate way. Accessit Library

At the end of last year, we changed to a new library create a list of books to read. They can see which management system called Accessit. The new books have just been returned, or look at the list of system makes it much easier for students to search new resources and be the first to borrow them. for and borrow books from the Learning Resource Non-Fiction Centre. Accessit can be used from home, or from Accessit has a number of ways to help students find any device with internet access, giving students the useful resources to help with homework, research and opportunity to use the resources at any time of day. revision. Visual Search allows you to search for books Anyone can search Accessit as a Guest user, but by subject and topic, making it easy to find the students will need to log in with their username and information needed. Some resources also have links password to access their account. to useful websites, allowing students to visit the Fiction website with a simple click. If you have a QR reader, Students can search for, reserve, or renew their you can use the QR code to download the website to reading books, as well as write and read reviews or your phone, Ipad or other device.

The new One Search facility will search a number of reliable external websites such as BBC, National Geographic Kids and DK Findout to provide access to reliable, appropriate resources. It gives students the opportunity to read more widely around the topics they are studying at school, or to keep up to date with the latest news and developments in subject areas

There is a whole host of news items and information on the Accessit website. We will be adding new events and articles throughout the year, so there is always something different to see. Students can access the Accessit web app from the Student Network page on the school computers, or from the LRC webpage on the Web Site. https://uk.accessit.online/thl02/#!dashboard Mrs Barker, Learning Resource Centre Manager Rugby World Cup

To celebrate the start of the Rugby World Cup former student Glyn Smith came into school to run a number of taster sessions with students from Year 7-10. Glyn plays professionally for Sale Sharks and we were delighted to have him in to pass on his tips to the students.

RugbyFest at Sedgley Park

A number of girls from our school joined 100’s of other girls from across Bury at a RugbyFest held at Sedgley Rugby Club. The girls watched play Japan in the clubhouse and then spent time on the training ground doing drills and playing against one another. They also got to meet a current under 21s England player! We hope to further develop their access to this sport over the coming weeks and months. Safety Tips

Road Safety

Walshaw Road is an extremely busy thoroughfare and whilst we are pleased that so many of our students are keeping fit and healthy by cycling to school, we are also very concerned to make sure that they are safe on the busy roads. A major study of bike helmet use around the world from more than 64,000 cyclists found that helmets reduce the risk of a serious head injury by nearly 70%. The same study also found that neck injuries are not associated with helmet use and cyclists who wear helmets reduce their chance of a fatal head injury by 65%. Please can parents encourage students to wear helmets when cycling.

Online Safety: Where To Start The most important thing you can do is talk to your children about what they do online and how they can stay safe. But it can be difficult to know where to start. Watch the following short video for further advice and guidance.

https://youtu.be/_XIAY3B4AUMhttps//youtu.be/_XIAY3B4AUM The next edition of the Elton Times will be emailed on Tuesday 15 October 2019