BENTON PARK SCHOOL CREATING A CLIMATE FOR GREAT LEARNING, SUCCESS AND OPPORTUNITY

MAY 2018 NEWSLETTER Headteacher’s Column

The exam season has started exceptionally well We would like to give our best wishes to all our for all our students and we wish them all well with students taking exams this summer. We know their continuing studies and offer our continued they and their teachers have worked very hard in support throughout the exam and results period. preparation for these external exams and we We would like to thank you for your continued know that we will see some excellent support and for the staff who have worked tire- achievements in the summer. We thank you as lessly to ensure your child is fully prepared for parents and carers for all your hard work in their external exams. supporting your child during this time and look forward to celebrating your child’s success with We know you will fully enjoy reading this you in the summer. newsletter as it illustrates some of the many different activities we are ensuring are available for your child to experience both in school and beyond the classroom. This is a key aspect of school life and I would like to thank all staff for Exam Results Days their involvement in all aspects of enrichment th beyond the classroom. Students participating in Thursday 16 August – A level and AS The Duke of Edinburgh Award goes from strength Thursday 23rd August – GCSE to strength, with students been successful at all levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Now we are our Thank you for your continued support of the work own awarding body for this award, a financial we do for your child. implication during these increasingly difficult times Miss Martin with school budgets, we are committed to ensuring all students have the opportunity to take Headteacher part in this excellent Award. I would like to thank Miss Metcalfe for all her hard work ensuring the organisation of these awards is completed so effectively. We had a wonderful Duke of Edinburgh Awards Evening in school on Wednesday 26th May, where many of the students that have taken part over the last year were awarded their certificate, a very proud evening for all.

Year 8 Residential Year 8 students have just returned from an Students also faced the challenge of climbing up action packed residential holiday at Langdale in Loughrigg , learning the important skills of . Benton Park School in conjunction with map reading, navigating using a compass and Carnegie Great Outdoors provided an how to stay safe while walking on and off paths innovative learning experiences that combined through beautiful landscapes and scenery. adventure and education in a positive, creative and exciting environment.

Students stayed at Langdale Youth Hostel, a magical place to stay. A sprawling Victorian mansion steeped in history and perched above its own three tier arboretum managed by the National Trust.

Students had the opportunity to go Gorge Scrambling at Stickle Ghyll, climbing up a mountain water course, with waterfalls gushing down next to them and water splashing up at them. This was an energizing activity where students moved over boulders, rocks and plunging into pools. Students were also brought together with challenging and fun exercises designed to get student groups working together. Building skills in communication, team work and problem solving, finished off with an archery competition.

The canoeing experience was great fun too, the students loved paddling through the water of Lake Windermere and jumping off the pier into the freezing water at Ambleside.

All students were a credit to Benton Park School,

they displayed determination, enthusiasm and resilience throughout the week and John Proctor, chief instructor from Carnegie Great Outdoors said, ‘I have been blown away by the fantastic approach students have shown towards some very challenging situations, I hope they can take away these skills and apply them to their studies at school’.

Miss J Temple Key Stage 3 Leader Iceland - Land of Fire and Ice

In the Easter Holidays, 14 students and 3 staff, went on an amazing trip to Iceland for 4 days. This remarkable country demonstrates the power of the earth to create some extremely spectacular landscapes. We were accompanied on our trip by Jans, a retired geology teacher, who was a wealth of knowledge, and was excellent at telling us Icelandic folk stories. The trip started with one of the most famous experiences ‘Blue Lagoon’. This lagoon is geothermally heated by the power of the planet and the rich silica mud (which you smear on your face) is good for your skin! The next day involved a trip along the southern coast, visiting waterfalls, glaciers and breath-taking basalt columns. We also visited the site of the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. We watched a home video of the family whose farm was directly affected by the eruption.

The next day involved a trip round the ‘Golden Circle’ – including sites of Gullfoss, Geysir and Pingvillar National park, the site of the first parliament in Iceland. The sheer size of Geysir was incredible, it truly showed the power of the planet! The final day involved going underground into a cave that was created by the lava flows of previous volcanic eruptions. We experienced what total darkness was like in this underground world. Finally, we headed to the capital Reykjavik. The city of only 200,000 people is on the sea front and was a nice way to end an action packed trip. The students were an absolute Mr N Gadsby credit to the school and we all had a great Geography Curriculum Leader time! Duke of Edinburgh Awards Success On the 26th April we held our 3rd annual Duke of Edinburgh Awards Evening. The evening is a fantastic way for our young students to share their experiences and showcase their success. Over 85 students have completed all 4 sections of their bronze or silver awards. This is a superb achievement and demonstrates the resilience and passion for success our students have. A special thanks to Jessica Saunders for sharing her experience for the physical section, in which she took part in the Benton Park running club and completed the 5k Race For Life event at Harrogate. Her weekly training allowed her to improve her cardiovascular endurance and built on her determination to succeed and between herself and the rest of the group they raised over £500. Amy Dunne shared her volunteering experience, in which she helped at GOALS and finally thank you to Sam Hargreaves and Ruby Nott who told us about their experience in completing their GOLD expedition in the Lake District. They were the first Benton Park Gold group to reach the summit of Helvelyn. Guest Speaker Luke Dowling, shared his experience in completing the Gold Duke of Edinburgh award and how this steered his career choice in become an Outdoor Instructor. His personal accomplishments in expeditions and climbing are extraordinary and it was nice to see so many of our students intrigued with the possibility of leading such an adventurous life with the right mind set. This year we have seen 4 students complete their GOLD Duke of Edinburgh Award. Paris Lee, Ruby Nott, Megan Dunlop and Hannah Robertson have worked extremely hard in achieving this alongside their A-level studies. Three of these students attended Buckingham Palace on 24th May to receive this prestigious award. We hope that the Duke of Edinburgh Award will continue to be a positive success next year and allow our current year 10’s to complete their Bronze awards. Thank you to all the students who have worked so hard towards the completion of their awards and to all the staff who have given up their time to enable the expeditions to run smoothly. Miss D Taylor Teacher of PE Post 16 Theatre Trip Post 16 students had the opportunity to see some fantastic inclusive drama at West Playhouse when we went to see ‘Our Country’s Good’. The performers showed their outstanding ability to act, whilst incorporating the creative use of audio description, signing, captions and ensemble work to support the actors, and audience, with their varied needs. It was a fantastic chance for students to see an impressive production, which had creative flare, and gave them an insight in to overcoming barriers when they are hearing-impaired. What a fabulous experience! Miss C Veigas Leader of Drama Peru Expedition 2018 This July the school will be waving off 20 very excited Year 11 and Year 12 students, who will be travelling to Peru during the Summer Holidays on a Camps International School Expedition, accompanied by Miss K.Garvie and Mr C. Dewhirst. In Peru, the students will be working on a number of sustainable community based projects. In the remote Colca Canyon region, greenhouses will be built to support the local community in establishing a nutritious diet. Whilst, in Moray outside the Inca city of Cusco, students will be finishing a community centre. For the ultimate challenge, students will trek the spectacular Salkantay Trail to the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu. This is the culmination of a long planning process where students have been busy fund-raising for 20 months. The students have demonstrated a huge resolve to hit their fund-raising target of £4,170. In addition to hundreds of bags packed in Morrisons and thousands of buns made and sold, students have been very creative in their individual efforts, such as offering a post- Christmas tree collection service; party hosting and dance instruction. Some of the students have been combining fitness preparation with sponsored activities such as The Yorkshire Three Peaks and a bike ride along the Leeds Liverpool Canal. Earlier in the school year, students and their families staged two successful and entertaining events - a fun quiz night and a charity auction. Thank you to all the school community for supporting their venture. Keep a look out for the launch of our next expedition: Ecuador 2020! Miss K Garvie Teacher of History PE & Sport

Now that the Beast from the East is a distant memory it has been fantastic to move onto summer sporting activities this term in some glorious weather. The students have enjoyed running, jumping and throwing as we embarked upon the Athletics season. Students are not only competing to represent their forms at the forthcoming Sports Day but also to represent our school at the Leeds Schools Athletic league at Leeds Beckett University, Headingley campus that takes place throughout the summer term. A huge congratulations goes to our Sixth Form BTEC Sport students who ran a very successful primary schools football competition recently. Over 100 pupils from 6 different schools took part and a fantastic time was had by all. The event was organised by a group of our post 16 students as part of one of their ‘Leadership in Sport’ BTEC units. They can be rightly proud of themselves for what was a brilliant day, enjoyed by many. This term has seen the start of many Duke of Edinburgh expeditions going out into the local countryside. Students have enjoyed navigating their way around the beautiful Yorkshire countryside and also cooking for themselves. It’s been fantastic to see so many young people involved in this amazing opportunity. The Friends of Benton Park have again kindly agreed to support our annual Sports Day where all of Key Stage 3 take part in a thoroughly inclusive and fun event that is always the sporting highlight of the academic year. The Friends of Benton Park will be selling refreshments on the big day, Wednesday 20th June with all proceed going towards good causes. Students are welcome to bring in pocket money so they are all able to stay suitably refreshed in what promises to be another brilliant sporting day.

Mr D Furniss Director of PE Race for the Line The whole of year 7 have competed in a national STEM competition called “Race for the line”. Every student had the opportunity to work as a team, developing, manufacturing and racing their own rocket powered car! The fastest 2 cars from Benton Park’s school race day were selected to compete against 20 other schools in the regional final at Catterick Garrison. Our teams performed admirably, and all involved had a fantastic day. We came extremely close to winning, coming in 3rd place, but only 1/1000 of a second behind the winning team! Well done to Oliver Appleby, Sana Nazir, Joanna Whyte, Frankie Green, Grace Rhodes, Charlotte Livock and Katie-Mae Rule” Mr T Longley

Italy 2018

For the third year running the ski trip visited Italy. Snow conditions were one of the best at Easter for many years. As a result , progress for all students was outstanding with everyone able to make a trip from Folgarida to the neighbouring resort of Madonna di Campiglio which required the decent of a very tricky red run. As well as skiing the students were involved in evening events including quizzes, karaoke and ten pin bowling. Mr C Dewhirst Teacher of PE Benton Decides

To tie in with the recent local elections we held our own mock election in school. Educating our Party % of the vote students to be active citizens when they leave Labour 47% school is an important part of our curriculum provision. Conservative 19% Throughout the year we ensure we cover key aspects of ‘Core British Values’ which include Green 14% democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and the need to show respect and tolerance. Liberal Democrat 11% After a number of discussions and debates in form period the results were as follows: UKIP 9%

Mr M Foster Director of Humanities

Attendance News

The overall attendance figure for Years 7-11 so far this school year is 95.1%. Congratulations to students in 7KT who have had the highest Form Group attendance this half term with 99%. Very well done to those students! The other leading Form Groups in each year are: 8AE – 97.7% 9YS – 96.6% 10MI – 97.3% 11JMU – 98.6% Good school attendance is vital. Evidence shows a clear link between high rates of attendance and high levels of achievement, both in and out of the classroom. Attendance of 90% means that a student has missed the equivalent of one full school day every fortnight. It is important that parents support the drive for good attendance in school, by ensuring positive routines at home and asking for help if they encounter any difficulties. If you have any concerns about your child’s attendance, please contact the relevant Key Stage Team. Maths Day On Wednesday 16th May we saw National Numeracy Day sweep not just the Mathematics department but also the entire school. Students were in encouraged during form time to take part in a quiz that showed us how numbers affected our every walk of life. Various activities were held across the whole school from measuring distances in P.E., to drawing Celtic knot patterns in art, from using scrabble in languages to compete for the highest word score to finding scores of words in music. The whole school truly embraced numeracy and its importance on this day. Parents also received an email outlining the importance of numeracy in life and employment and you can still find out more through the national numeracy website by following the link: www.nationalnumeracyday.com Thank you to all those who supported this fantastic day and to all parents who have encouraged their sons and daughters to value and work hard with their numeracy skills. Mr J Macrow Director of Maths

Help us reach our Twitter target

You will recall in the last newsletter that we launched our school Twitter account. So far, we have 239 followers many of whom have already liked and retweeted the photos and updates we have posted on a wide variety of events and activities, all of which have been happening around school during the last half term. Our target before we finish for the summer break is to reach 500 followers so we can be sure we are starting to share our news with a larger percentage of our families Please help us to reach this target by following us @BentonParkSch. Schoolwear update

As it is almost the end of the school year we would like to update parents and carers with our uniform providers’ details. Benton Park School uniform is available from the following local suppliers: PC Sports, High Street, High Street, Yeadon, Leeds, LS19 7SP. Tel: 0113 2566020 PC Sports website www.pcsports.co.uk will be available to take orders from 1st July. Uniformity, Town Street, Farsley, Leeds, LS28 5EN. Tel: 0113 2566020 Uniformity schoolwear is available to purchase online. The website is www.whittakersschoolwear.co.uk Rawcliffes, Darley Street, Bradford, BD1 3HN. Tel: 01274 724698 Rawcliffes schoolwear is available to purchase online. The website is www.emblazon.biz Site Safety Dates for your Diary

The safeguarding and safety of our students, Monday 4th June staff and any visitors is of paramount importance  School reopens for Summer term to us which is why we continue to include reminders in our newsletter about safety around Monday 11th June our site.  Year 7 and Year 8 Awards Evening Please can we ask that parents park responsibly when dropping off or collect their child from Wednesday 13th June school. Ensuring that you do not obstruct residents  Year 9 and Year 10 Awards Evening drives or park on private land and avoid narrow roads. Students should be dropped off on Harrogate Thursday 14th June road in a safe place or a short distance away from the school. Please encourage your child to ‘’park and  Arts Celebration Evening stride’ ’ Monday 18th June Quaker Lane next to Benton Park School is a narrow  Year 6 Transition Evening road, one which our school buses use to enable them to reach our bus park. Please try and avoid this road to ease congestion around the school at busy times. Tuesday 19th June  Year 6 Transition Day Outside the school gates there are yellow "keep clear’’ signs at the entrance; please do not drop off Wednesday 20th June on here or use the drive as a turning circle. There are also double yellow lines on each side of Harrogate  Sports Day Road close to the school gates. Please refrain from parking on these. Thursday 21st June  Rewards Day Your help and support in ensuring the safety of our school community is greatly appreciated. Friday 22nd June Vehicle access to school is not available during  Training Day (Students not in school) the following times for the safety of all students: Thursday 28th June  8:15am - 8:30am  Year 11 Prom  10:45am - 11:00am  1:00pm - 1:45pm  2:40pm - 2:50pm Friday 6th July  Training Day Visitors are more than welcome to walk into school during these times but staff are unable to Friday 20th July open the gates to permit vehicles.  School closes tor Summer Your help and support in ensuring the safety of our school community is greatly appreciated.