WEEKLY BULLETIN 1st March 2013

Message from the Headteacher Important Dates for your Diary

Dear Parents, EVERY MONDAY UNTIL 25/03/13 15:30—17:30 Primary Netball Can I draw your attention to the Annual Schools’ Art W/C MONDAY 4TH MARCH Collaboration. For some years now Richard Lander School along with other Year 10 GCSE French Controlled Assessment Writing in lessons. local partner schools: , Roseland Community College, Truro FRIDAY 1ST MARCH - SATURDAY School, , Glynn House and Pencalenick School, have 9TH MARCH worked together on a given theme to produce exhibition pieces by Year 8 Collaborative Arts Exhibition IN students to be displayed at the Lander Gallery on Lemon Street, Truro. The Lander Gallery, Truro. Open from 10—6 This Thursday saw the official launch of the 2013 collaboration, with a 2ND/3RD MARCH formal opening at the Lander Gallery, supported by musical performance Ten Tors Camping Weekend and dance. The theme for 2013 is “Blown Away” – artwork related to the 4TH - 8TH MARCH weather in . Year 11 ICT Functional Skills Exams. Please see timetable For the next week, work from all the participating schools will be on display outside Mrs Bache’s office for your allotted time. on the top floor of the Lander Gallery. Please do go along to share in the 4TH - 8TH MARCH success of our students, not only from Richard Lander School, but also from Year 8 Paris Trip our partner schools across the city and beyond. This is a terrific example of MONDAY 4TH MARCH collaborative working, which is to the benefit of our whole community. Year 8 & 9 BBC Schools Report MONDAY 4TH MARCH May I also thank Miss Body and the rest of the Creative Arts team for all University taster day at Truro their hard work in supporting this year’s collaborative work. College W/C MONDAY 4TH MARCH Finally, may I congratulate the following students, who earned the most Year 10 GCSE French Controlled merits for their Learning Communities last week: Assessment Writing in lessons. WEDNESDAY 6TH MARCH Carrick Dance - All day workshop Willow Carter-Law: 16 (Towan) followed by performances at 1pm Miles Jago: 13 (Godrevy) and 7 pm in the Hall for Cornwall, Shane Dingle / Anya Goug / Charlotte Gibson: 13 (Rame) with a further performance at John Tipple / Thomas Grant / David Dixon: 13 (Pentire) on Thursday 7th March at 7 pm. WEDNESDAY 6TH MARCH Steve Mulcahy Year 9 Mock Trial Competition Headteacher WEDNESDAY 6TH MARCH THURSDAY 7TH MARCH World Maths Day WEDNESDAY 6TH MARCH IN THIS WEEKS BULLETIN Year 11 Catering Assessment THURSDAY 7TH MARCH Year 8 Netball Tournament Page 1: Message from the Headteacher, Diary Dates. Page 2/3: World Book Day. Accelerated Reading FRIDAY 8TH MARCH Page 4: Tony Minnion Workshop. Grom Club Update How to become an MP with Sarah Page 5: ARB Update Newton Pages 6: Further News from RLS 11TH - 16TH MARCH Page 7 - 14: Noticeboards Cornwall Music Festival

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Richard Lander School Library will it follows Gerald the Giraffe as he Child be supporting World Book Day on learns to dance so he can join other Smart young detective Ruby March 7th 2013 with FREE books, animals in the Jungle dance. Redfort has been hugely popular book vouchers plus book cover and with girls since she made her debut book mark design competitions and Horrid Henry’s Guide to Perfect in Lauren Child’s Clarice Bean book. a LIVE online book festival for Parents by Francesca Simon This spin-off book for World Book children. A brand new title from the creators Day follows her on another exciting of the hugely popular Horrid Henry adventure. Every pupil will be entitled to a series, especially for World Book free £1 World Book Day Book or day! Young children will love Tom Gates: Best Book Day Ever! (so £1 Book Voucher (which can be hearing Henry’s sneaky tips for far) by Liz Pichon redeemed at your local bookseller). getting more out of Mum and Dad. Tom Gates is a brilliant young There is a brilliant range of eight school hero for boys and girls alike, £1 World Book Day books written Tony Robinson’s Weird World of by a stellar list of authors and Wonders: Funny Inventions by Tony illustrators. Here’s a quick guide to Robinson the titles: Children interested in science and making things will enjoy this Alfie’s Shop by Shirley Hughes exclusive edition to Tony’s fact- Alfie and his sister Annie Rose set filled Weird World of Wonders up a shop in their back garden. A history series. great story to teach children about the world of adventures out of The Diamond Brothers In…Two of doors and remind them of the joys Diamonds by Anthony Horowitz of brother-and-sister love by one of A humorous new adventure from the best-loved children’s storytellers one of the country’s best-loved and illustrators of all time. children’s authors. Hapless detective Tim Diamond and his smart young Giraffes Can’t Dance Colouring and brother Nick investigate a mystery Puzzle Fun by Giles Andreae and on a remote Scottish island. Guy Parker-Rees A lively story packed with pictures Hang in there Bozo: The Ruby to colour and puzzles to work out. Redfort Emergency Survival Guidefor Based on the popular picture book, Some Tricky predicaments by Lauren

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WORLD BOOK DAY (continued) Pupils will be able to engage with Horowitz, Cathy Cassidy Guy and Liz Pichon’s books are stuffed reading via the FREE World Book Parker-Rees, Liz Pichon and full of his diaries and brilliant Day App and enjoy nine exclusive Rachel Bright. doodles. This one follows Oakfield new stories by top YA (Young http://www.worldbookday.com/ School’s fun and games around its Adult) authors Patrick Ness, Chris biggest-book-show/ own Book Day. Ryan, Josephine Angelini, Will Hill, The Word Herd The Chocolate Box Girls: Bittersweet Alex Scarrow, Sarah Alderson, The Word herd is a new scheme by Cathy Cassidy Dave Cousins, Dawn O’Porter and encouraging young people aged This special Chocolate Box Girls Sarah J. Maas. 11-14 to talk to their friends story gives a glimpse into the ups The Biggest Show On Earth about books they have read or and downs of a school romance. This online festival for children will enjoyed . To encourage young Books Alive be streamed LIVE in the school people to get word herding you Smartphone users will be able to library. Hosted by Tony Robinson, can use the specially created bring the £1 book covers and the show will feature a host of top resources at tokens to life with the FREE World authors and illustrators including Get the buzz about books at: Book Day Books Alive App. Lauren Child, Shirley Hughes, www.worldbookday.com The World Book Day YA App Francesca simon, Anthony

celebrity autobiography. Variety we are also going to ask them to READING is important. complete a short book review so Encouraging a child they can recommend it to their to read and foster- peers. ing a love of read- Rewards: Students will receive ing is one of the merits for every book they com- greatest gifts that plete and small prizes together we can give them. with certificates will be awarded What is it? Accelerated Reader is Reading widely will undoubtedly as students progress through the a programme to promote inde- assist in their academic success programme. Those who complete pendent reading and motivate but also gives young people (and books and score highly on their students to read for pleasure. the rest of us!) somewhere to es- online quizzes will also be en- Every student in Year 7 does a cape to – an imagination tered into a prize draw for a Kin- Star Test to assess their reading workout. dle ebook reader each half term. ability. They are given a ZPD  Little and often is the key. What can you do to help? Ask (Zone of Proximal Development) Every day is brilliant! your child how many books they score which helps us guide them  Find a genre, author, series, have read so far on the scheme. towards books which are appro- topic that interests your child. Listen to them read. Ask them priate for their reading level. Our Students can get advice from our what ZPD books they are current- dedicated librarian is available librarian Mr Rose or browse your ly on. Encourage them to fill any every day to help support stu- local bookshop or online spare moments with reading. Re- dents as they select their texts. bookseller. ward their efforts any way you Once a book is completed, stu-  Get them into the habit of can. dents take an online quiz to as- reading for just 10-15 minutes at sess their compre- the end of the day. This is much hension of the better than a two hour session text. They will once a week. then be advised  Encourage through example – whether they talk about what you are reading need to continue too. Share books. at that level or are Value all kinds or reading – not ready to move up just fiction novels: ‘The West to the next one. Briton’, a national daily paper, a After students set of instructions for a product, a complete a book –

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shown new techniques in screen

printing and were encouraged to work along-side students from other secondary schools in Truro.

Students developed their own print, using the Cornish landscape as their inspiration and then worked collaboratively to produce 5 large scale screen prints which will be exhibited at The Lander Gallery for the Collaborative Truro Schools Art Exhibition. and explores traditional and new technology combining active Miss Body - Head of Art participation and producing impressive outcomes. Students were Tony Minnion Screen Printing Workshop

To generate work for the year 8 Collaborative Schools Exhibition, four students were given the opportunity to take part in a Tony Minnion workshop hosted by The Roseland Community College. Tony Minnion is a Cornish based artists, who runs exciting workshops in the community. He works with textiles

for some serious testing… out their Blog at: You can find out more about what www.gromclub.blogspot.com the Groms are up to by checking Mr Everitt.

Grom Club – Bodysurfing Handplanes Update

As reported earlier in the year, the Groms have been shaping their own bodysurfing handplanes from some old blanks given to them by Mr Everitt and Mr Scott. After several sessions shaping, laser etching and oiling, the handplanes were finally finished last week. The Groms were over the moon with the results and were straight out the door with them and into the water

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Alicia and Bradley made jam ARB News! sandwiches and were lucky enough This term the ARB students are to eat them at the end of the studying ‘Habitats’. lesson! The students have been discovering different habitats in Science. Alicia and Perran are investigating an ocean habitat. The students learnt about photosynthesis. Here Alicia and Kieran are finding out if glucose is present.

Students also learn through role play in the ARB. Here Alicia and Bradley are shop keeper and customer.

In DT, we are making bird feeders. Here is Lucy filling up her feeder and Bradley mixing the bird seed ready for his feeder.

The ARB students have just returned from a fantastic trip to the Eden project, they had fun experiencing the different micro- In Art the students have been using climates. different mediums to explore the All of the students had a wonderful habitat theme. In this lesson the time and the staff accompanying students demonstrated real them complimented the students on patience and perseverance to their impeccable behaviour complete these beautiful pictures. throughout the trip, superb (From top to bottom: work by ambassadors for Richard Lander Kieran, Perran, Bradley and Alicia) School. Mrs M Cross.

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Congratulations to the silver certificate (missing out on George Jenkins gold by a single mark) and Best In Kieran Parker following students on Year 10, while James Harris was Fran Hume their fantastic recent given a silver certificate and Best In Natasha Loydell achievements Year 9. Gareth Jones Georgia Cotterill Gold Certificates Jordan Curnow Jess Dunn, Joe Richardson, Jamie Samuel Kay Kelan Pascoe Mclean and Caja Dray are all Calum Broomhead Charles Secombe Young College Students of the Tyler Arnold Week this week. Silver Certificates Alabama Seymour Dominic Firth Kelsi Russell Tayla Lawrence and Shannon Oliver Field Lucas Edwards Wolley from year 11 came 1st and Maya Sheldon Dan Woodside 2nd respectively in their category Thomas Moran Miguel Richmond at the Truro College Cornish Skills Harrison Moore competition. Benjamin White The Maths department are thrilled Charlie Tavner with your results – Well Done. The UK Mathematics Trust runs a Jack Gilbert series of maths challenges nation- Jimi Harrold wide for students to compete in. David Dixon Richard Lander entered students in Sunny Howard years 9,10 and 11 to compete in Fiona Chegwidden the Intermediate Challenge. The James Harris one hour long multiple choice paper Bryn Thomas tests mathematical thinking, prob- William Dash lem solving and mental agility. We are delighted to have been award- Bronze Certificate ed 2 Gold, 15 Silver and 20 Ishaq Olah Bronze certificates. A Year 11 stu- Benjamin Brumpton dent, Sam Kay, not only achieved a Thomas Whitworth gold certificate but was also Best In Samuel Crabtree School. Harrison Moore achieved a Harry Searle

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Key Stage 4 GSCE Revision, Controlled Assessment and Exam Advice These pages contain advice and information on upcoming events, revision sessions and assessments which will be happening in school, for Y10 & 11 students and their parents. Message from Mrs Parker regarding Year 11 French GCSE Controlled Assessment

Year 11 French GCSE controlled assessments will be taking place over the period commencing 11th February and ending 8th March. Your child will be able to give you the exact date. There will be 2 controlled assessments: a Speaking task and a Writing task on the topic ‘Future plans, education and work’. The students will know what they need to revise. They will know the date and time of both assessments. They have all the notes and help sheets necessary to create a high standard piece of work and they will have worked with their class teacher to ensure their material is correct. Please DO encourage your child to come to the controlled assessment clinics with the French assistants on Friday lunchtimes and also make an appointment with their French teacher to help them at lunchtimes or after school.

Revision advice: The students who do best are those who are familiar with the material they have prepared and are able to speak clearly and with a good accent. I suggest www.linguascope.com. Our school username is lander and the password is polyglot. The students should look on the ‘intermediate’ section of the website. Also, the BBC Bitesize revision site is very good. Look under the topic heading ‘Healthy Living’.

Strategies for revising for Speaking tests include the following: • Reading aloud to a real or imaginary audience • Reading in your head and hearing how it sounds to you • Putting pictures to your phrases and sentences to help both with pronunciation and retention of phrases ( a picture of a door could help with the phrase ‘médaille d’or’) • Recording yourself reading your prepared work and then listening back to it • Writing out your prepared sentences and phrases on alternate lines of a page with a phonetic version of difficult words on the empty lines  Working with your teacher or the assistant at lunchtime or after school as above!  Strategies for Writing tests include: • Ordering notes into topic ‘chunks’ • Creating mind maps with pictures/symbols matched to certain phrases • Use of colour to highlight words that you frequently misspell • Practising spellings of difficult words • Learning opening phrases. For example ‘Je pense que….’ plus a series of possible opinions to follow this. • Creating storyboards to link words and pictures of what you want to say • Working with your teacher or the assistant at a lunchtime or after school as above!

As with all exams, it is important that your child gets enough sleep – particularly in the couple of nights leading up to the exam. A regular calm routine at bedtime helps with this. Research has also shown that a short walk in the fresh air on the morning of the exam is beneficial. Thank you for your help at this time which can be very stressful for your child. With enough revision, I am sure he/she will be very successful!

Any Year 11 students who do not do IT as an option subject should have had a letter in their tutor wallet explaining that they have been entered for Functional Skills IT in March. This is a qualification worth half a GCSE at grade B and is a useful addition to your qualifications for college and work. The qualification is gained through a two hour practical exam which students will sit in the week of 4th - 8th March. A revision letter outlining Moodle resources and revision sessions will be circulated in February. If you have any queries please see Mrs Griffiths, Mrs Bache or Mr Burn as a matter of urgency.

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Key Stage 4 GSCE Revision, Controlled Assessment and Exam Advice

Some revision advice from remember. Trouble is, they help you Avoid distractions Mr P Crawley remember the order, but not the names. Attention is the key to memorising. By The mnemonic Kings Prefer Cheese choosing to focus on something, you Over Fried Green Spinach can help give it a personal meaning that makes How your brain likes to be you recall the order of taxonomy in it easier to remember. In fact, most of treated at revision time biology (kingdom, phylum, class, order, our problems when it comes to revision family, genus, species) but that's only have very little to do with the brain's helpful if you're given the names of the capacity for remembering things; we Posted by David Cox in ranks. just struggle to devote our full attention Guardian.co.uk Nov 6th 2012 The mnemonic is providing you with a to the task in hand.

cue but, if you haven't memorised the Playing music while revising will make Profile: David Cox is a computational names, the information you want to your task harder, because any speech- neuroscience student and freelance recall is not there. You're just giving like sounds, even at low volume, will writer. your overflowing hippocampus yet automatically use up part of the brain's Summary: A neuroscience student another pattern of activity to store and attention capacity. harnesses his knowledge to advise retrieve. Sleep is vital fellow students about memorising Repeat yourself We spend approximately a third of information. Pathways between neurons can be our lives sleeping and it's never as If you're a student, you rely on one strengthened over time. Simple important as during revision time. Sleep brain function above all others: repetition – practising retrieving a plays a critical role in memory memory. These days, we understand memory over and over again – is the consolidation – this is when the brain more about the structure of memory best form of consolidating the pattern. backs up short-term patterns and than we ever have before, so we can Use science to help you retrieve info creates long-term memories. The find the best techniques for training Science tells us the ideal time to revise process is believed to occur during your brain to hang onto as much what you've learned is just before deep sleep, when the hippocampal information as possible. The process you're about to forget it. And because neurons pass the patterns of activity to depends on the brain's neuroplasticity, memories get stronger the more you another part of the brain called the its ability to reorganise itself retrieve them, you should wait neo cortex, which is responsible for throughout your life by breaking and exponentially longer each time – after language and the generation of motor forming new connections between its a few minutes, then a few hours, then a commands. billions of cells. day, then a few days. This technique is Recent research in Nature Neuroscience How does it work? Information is known as spaced repetition. has shed new light on how memories transmitted by brain cells called This also explains why you forget are decluttered and irrelevant neurons. When you learn something things so quickly after a week of information is deleted during this new, a group of neurons activate in a cramming for an exam. Because the process. This results in the important part of the brain called the exponential curve of memory retrieval memories (the pathways that have hippocampus. It's like a pattern of light does not continue, the process reverses been strengthened through repetition) bulbs turning on. Your hippocampus is and within a few weeks, you have becoming easier to access. forced to store many new patterns forgotten everything. Control your emotions every day. This increases hugely when Take regular breaks We remember emotionally charged you are revising. Provided with the Breaks are important to minimise events far better than others, and this is right trigger, the hippocampus should interference. When your hippocampus especially the case if the emotion was be able to retrieve any pattern. But if is forced to store many new (and often a positive one. It is not always possible it keeps getting new information, the similar) patterns in a short space of to have warm feelings about your overworked brain might go wrong. time, it can get them jumbled up. revision, but if you can associate a That's what happens when you think The best example of this is when you particular fact with a visual, auditory you've committed a new fact to get a new telephone number. Your old or emotional experience from the past, memory, only to find 15 minutes later number is still so well-entrenched in then you have a better chance of that it's disappeared again. your memory that remembering the remembering it, as you have created So what's the best way to revise? new one is a nightmare. It's even worse multiple pathways for retrieval. Here are seven top tips to get if the new one has a few similarities to Try to reduce anxiety, because it uses information into your brain and keep it the old. up working memory, leaving a much there. Plan your revision so you can take smaller Forget about initial letters. breaks and revise what you've just capacity available for processing and Teachers often urge students to make learned before moving on to anything encoding new information. up mnemonics – sentences based on the new. initial letters of items you're trying to

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Richard Lander Notice Board

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Richard Lander Notice Board

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Support for parents and carers of challenging teenagers Take 3 A ten week course of skills and strategies to help parents deal with challenging teenagers.

This free, informal and friendly course is about:

 Putting in rules and boundaries that work

 Encouraging and supporting young people

 Helping parents look after themselves

Everyone is welcome (Mums, Dads, and grandparents, anyone who looks after a teenager). Whether you have current worries about your teenager, such as school attendance, drugs and alcohol, disrespect etc, or would just like to understand your child better and get less stressed, this course will have something for you. Date: 24 April 2013-19 July 2013 (Excluding Half Term) Time: 0915-1130 Venue: Contact : Bex Kessell or Jackie Pellow Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Tel: 01872 326782 or 01326 372379 Ext 280

Disclaimer: Whilst all efforts have been taken by Richard Lander School to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information provided on our Community Noticeboard page(s), Richard Lander School accepts no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or misleading statements on this page and is not liable for any action you may take as a result of relying on such information or advice or for any loss or damage suffered by you as a result. 11 RICHARD LANDER SCHOOL WEEKLY BULLETIN : 1st March 2013 12 12 Community Notice Board

Disclaimer: Whilst all efforts have been taken by Richard Lander School to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information provided on our Community Noticeboard page(s), Richard Lander School accepts no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or misleading statements on this page and is not liable for any action you may take as a result of relying on such information or advice or for any loss or damage suffered by you as a result. 12 RICHARD LANDER SCHOOL WEEKLY BULLETIN : 1st March 2013 13 13 Community Notice Board

Porthtowan Youth Project Launch Event Saturday 9th March 10.30 am til 1 pm

YOUNG PEOPLE OF PORTHTOWAN AND SURROUNDING AREAS WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE A YOUTH CLUB IN THE VILLAGE AGAIN? The new Porthtowan Youth Project Committee and RedYOUth are working together to provide activities for 7-14 year olds in the area and we’d like you to get involved. We want to know what YOU want to do, what interests YOU and what YOU would like to see happening here in the future. Like us on https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Porthtowan- Youth-Project/151734581590597 to keep up to date and let us have your comments there too.

Disclaimer: Whilst all efforts have been taken by Richard Lander School to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information provided on our Community Noticeboard page(s), Richard Lander School accepts no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or misleading statements on this page and is not liable for any action you may take as a result of relying on such information or advice or for any loss or damage suffered by you as a result. 13 RICHARD LANDER SCHOOL WEEKLY BULLETIN : 1st March 2013 14 14 Community Notice Board

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