Lytchett Minster School |Newsletter
June 2018
elcome to the June edition of the WNewsletter! In recent weeks I have had the pleasure of watching 65 of our Year 10 students completing their Bronze DofE expeditions on Cranborne Chase. I am a great supporter of the DofE programme; it really does test and develop character. With its inclusive approach, it attracts students of all abilities and backgrounds. The expeditions themselves can be challenging for some; there are the physical demands of hiking for 6 hours with a heavy rucksack, the cognitive demands of navigating with a map and compass (rather than the SATNAV), and the challenges of working in a team under trying conditions. What is striking is that the best DofE teams are not always the ones you might expect. Being academically successful does not always mean you will be able to use a compass successfully or make sense of an Ordnance Survey map. It is interesting to see how aptitude in one area does not always transfer across to other areas of experience. For some students who may be less successful in the classroom, DofE can offer a real opportunity to shine and excel.
At Lytchett, we take pride in our broad curriculum. I believe all students can excel at some area of the curriculum. The tragedy is that many schools are narrowing their curriculum, either out of financial necessity or as a cynical ploy to improve their position in school performance tables. We must not restrict students’ opportunities as we risk preventing them from discovering or developing their area of excellence.
At Lytchett, we actively promote the arts because we feel they allow students to express themselves in a creative and imaginative way. As with all things, they require discipline and dedication. For those of you whoenjoy coming to see our annual productions in the wonderful Gainsford Theatre, I am delighted to inform you that our next big production will be Schönberg’s musical masterpiece, based on the novel by the French writer Victor Hugo, ‘ Les Misérables’, or as it is now more affectionately called, ‘Les Mis’. I am anticipating that a lot of our students will want to get involved in this amazing show. Auditions for the main parts will take place at the end of June, and auditions for the chorus will take place at the very start of the Autumn Term.
Thank you for your support. I wish you all a great half term break.
Andrew Mead Headmaster
01202 622413 • www.lytchett.org.uk • /lytchettminsterschool
1 Student of the Month
Congratulations to the following students who were nominated as May’s Student of the Month:
English Science Maths Music Food Tech
Marnie Kidby Zack Little Lilly Dennett Taegan White Ella Bishop Year 10 Year 8 Year 8 Year 11 Year 7
MFL Psychology P.R.E. Computing PE
Photo not Photo not available available
Evie Tatton Natasha Short Harvey Hewetson Kyle Smith Lizzie Coad Year 9 Year 13 Year 11 Year 12 Year 11
A-Level Drama Business Dance Art Science
Miles Mitchinson Ella White Oliver Kleinschmidt Ella Wilson Joshua Wernham Year 13 Year 12 Year 12 Year 10 Year 7
Biology Geography Media History Chemistry
Photo not available
Grace McGee Romeo Bak Alexandra Lyon Eve Stickland Daisy Leahy Year 11 Year 10 Year 13 Year 9 Year 11 2 D&T Graphics Sixth Form Gault Kimmeridge
Photo not available
Raif Furmenger Alice Hooper Ella Marray Callum Bagg Rhiannon Chandler Year 7 Year 10 Year 14 Year 9 Year 7
Purbeck Wealden Portland Agglestone
Jordan Whittaker Holly James Evie Tatton Abbie Brockway Year 9 Year 9 Year 9 Year 11
Looking after your mental health
We are acutely aware of the increasing number of students (and parents) who are experiencing mental health problems. We would encourage students to talk to us about any difficulties they may be facing; Heads and Deputy Heads of House should be the first port of call. In the Sixth Form please contact Mrs Skinner (Deputy Head of 6th Form).
3 Student Achievements
Congratulations to Olivia Colbert (Year 7) who recently competed at the Starpower Dance Competition in London with some fantastic results: Duet: 1st place in the 9-11 intermediate group Group: 1st place (5th overall in group’s golden ticket to America and choreography award) Duet: 1st 5 stars and 1st overall in the 9-11 advanced group Solos 4 3/4 stars: 2nd place Well done Olivia!
Congratulations to Lauren Tyler, Josh Exley-More and Abbie White who have been selected to represent Poole and East Dorset at the County Athletics Competition on Saturday 9th June at Kings Park. Congratulations to Mia Bailey (Year 11) who recently participated in the English Trampolining qualifier competition. Mia came 2nd and has qualified to the English championships in Sheffield in October. What a fantastic achievement!
Congratulations to Year 9 Geographers pictured below who received Headmaster’s Commendations for the outstanding project work they produced on the ‘Slums in India’. Commendations were also awarded to Year 8 students for their exceptional work on the topic of ‘Oceans on the Edge’.
4 School Games Mountain Biking
15 Students from Years 7 to 10 headed off to Moors Valley Country Park on Friday 11th May for the School Games Mountain Biking Event. The event was run with the support of British Cycling who provided equipment and coaching during the day. Students completed a timed lap on the mixed terrain course before being split into four groups for the ‘Grand Finals’. Nathan Fellows won the 1st final, with Morgan Hannam-Evans in 2nd. There was a 1, 2, 3 for Lytchett in final two and Haddy Billen also won her final. It was a great event and the Lytchett students demonstrated fantastic team spirit and sportsmanship! Well done!
Team members included: Nathan Fellows, Morgan Hannam-Evans, Kieren Nisbet, Harry Somerville, Charlie Baker, Will Brown, Ethan Hiles, Thomas Goodchild, Zack Studley, Haddy Billen, Fearn-maia White, Becky White, Kaitlyn Hathaway, Kesley Brennan, Izabella Holbrook.
5 Sixth Form News
First and foremost we wish our current Year 13 and 14 students all the best in their current and upcoming exams. They have worked so hard over the last two years and we are excited to hear their achievements on results days, Thursday August 16th.
Let us not forget our Year 12 students. We have a really exciting end of term planned for our current year 12s!
Following their mock exams, Year 12 students will be receiving their grades and feedback from their teachers. We hope that these exams have helped to identify areas of weakness and will help us better prepare students for the demands of Year 13.
We are re-introducing our Sports Day purely for Sixth Formers on Thursday 19th July. This will be a fun morning for all followed by our annual hog roast for lunch! The hog roast is available on Wise Pay.
We are also excited to offer Y12s the opportunity for a trip to Oxford on Wednesday 11th July. Students will be offered the opportunity to visit a museum or gallery and then have an afternoon of free time to explore the city. The trip will cost £17 which can again be paid via Wise Pay.
In June we will be welcoming our new students for September 2018. Induction days take place on Monday June 25th and June 26th for both current Lytchett students and those joining us from different schools in the area. This year we are also introducing a parental element to this process, with a drop-in session for all parents/carers on Tuesday 26th June from 3.30pm until 6pm. Staff will be on hand to answer any questions that parents/carers may have.
Interviews will be held shortly to determine the new head and deputy head boy and girl along with the chairs of each of our committees. We have had some fabulous applications to date!
Finally, we have some big changes in the Sixth Form Team. These are effective from Monday 4th June 2018 and stand to expand and strengthen our current team.
Head of Sixth Form Andy Hannaford Deputy Head of Sixth Form (Pastoral) Kim Skinner (from May 2018) Assistant Head of Sixth Form (Destinations) Deborah Rendell (from May 2018) Assistant Head of Sixth Form (Level 2 programme) Laura Booker Sixth Form Support Managers Hannah Gartland / Mandy Franklin
P.R.E. STUDENTS: On 9th May Year 13 PRE students took part in an online sixth form conference with Mrs McCarthy and Mrs McGee with schools up and down the country.
Students are also invited to take part in the Spirited Arts competition, a national competition that asks students to create a piece of art, in any medium of their choice on one of the following themes:
Holy Space Pray, reflect, meditate Doubt and Faith Looking for God Making peace
Further details can be found at: www.natre.org.uk/uploads/Spirited%20Arts/2018/Spirited%20Arts%202018% 20entry%20form%20FINAL.pdf The deadline is Monday 23rd July 2018.
6 Year 8 English and Art World War 1 Commemoration Project
At the beginning of this term, Year 8 students were involved in creating a poignant event to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War 1. Students studied a couple of war poems in their English lessons which they then transformed in two creative ways. One half of the year group explored poetry performance techniques and produced an audio collage of the poem ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ by Wilfred Owen. The other half of the year group attended a collage and stencilling workshop and created large scale mixed media pieces which interpreted the poem ‘War Girls’ by Jesse Pope. These two creative elements were combined in an exhibition in the Gainsford theatre which the students then experienced and reviewed.
“My group was preparing the soundscape to play at the exhibition. In our English classes, we were put into groups and given a verse or a couple of lines from the poem ‘Anthem of Doomed Youth’ by Wilfred Owen to perform. This poem is lamenting and grieving the soldiers who were sent to be killed by the generals who knew they were probably going to be killed. Owen describes the soldiers as ‘cattle’ which implies the generals weren’t treating them as humans, but as animals. The poet is trying to get across to the reader how the soldiers should be given proper funerals, not ‘hasty’ ones as well. Our class made a variety of sounds in the background while we read the poem; pens tapping on tables to represent gunshots, bells, echoing words and even a choir singing! When we all walked into the exhibition and heard it, it really set the tone of the whole experience of how dreadful WW1 was.” Bethany Prior
7 Year 8 English and Art World War 1 Commemoration Project (ctd)
“The WW1 exhibition was about Conflict. We combined Art with English to create an amazing atmosphere. We made soundscapes from the poem ‘Doomed Youth’ by Wilfred Owen to be played at the exhibition. This made the whole exhibition a more exciting and really added to the amazing pieces of art. There were multiple pieces of art in the theatre for us to look at. The lights were also dimmed to give a spooky WW1 feeling.” Tom McCabe
“In English we had been studying the poem ‘War girls’ by Jessie Pope. Using the information, we were split into groups to create a collage. We began by discussing the techniques we would be including. These were: stencilling and collaged imagery, Once we knew what we were doing we went back to our groups. Every group had a different line of the poem to illustrate. My group had ‘There’s the girl who calls ”All fares please! Like a man.”. We used positive and negative stencilling for the lettering. A few days later we were able to see our collages on display in an exhibition in the theatre.” Katie Townley
This work is also going to form part of the Wessex Festival at Lytchett Minster School on Thursday 9th and Saturday 11th August as the theme for the festival this year is ‘War and Peace’. This will be a super opportunity for the work to be experienced by members of the public. Well done Year 8 for producing such a memorable and respectful piece of work for the commemoration of those in WW1. C. Burridge Art Department
A Novel Idea!
As a warm-up for our Lytchett Children’s Literature Festival in July, we are going to be hosting a Scholastic Book Fair for KS3. It will be from 20th-25th June in Portland, Room 8. A celebration of reading that puts the best books directly into our students hands. Students will be able to visit the book fair during one of their English lessons.
Lytchett Children’s Literature Festival 2nd-11th July This will be an amazing opportunity for both our KS3 students and students from our local feeder schools to meet some very talented authors and illustrators. They will be involved in presentations and workshops with: Marcus Alexander, Joffre White, Chris Priestley, Beverley Naidoo, Bali Rai and Steve Skidmore. Further information will be sent out to parents by email after half term.
We are also busy collecting books ready for our big Book Swap Day on Thursday 5th July. Please send in any books (suitable for 11-16 year olds) that you would like to swap to Mrs Johnson in Room 7, Portland. Any student donating books will be given a raffle ticket to exchange for another book on the day.
8 A big thank you to the Vivian Theatre School
On Sunday 20th May the Gainsford Theatre hosted a spectacular dance show by the Vivian Theatre School. The show was called ‘This Is Me’ and it featured a large number of students from Lytchett Minster School. The Director of the Theatre School Ailsa Vivian very kindly agreed to donate a proportion of the profits from the evening to the school’s Music Department. The photo below shows Ailsa Vivian presenting a cheque for £653 to the Head of Music, Mr Painter, Headmaster Mr Mead, and Piano teacher Mrs de Garis, along with Lytchett students involved in the show.
We are very grateful to Ailsa Vivian for this very generous donation.
Congratulations to Lilly Dennett and Charlotte Holt who competed in the Poole & District Pony Club Senior Mounted Games on Saturday 19th May at Devon County Show. Their team was placed first. Well done Lilly and Charlotte!
9 Bronze DofE Expeditions
Sixty-five Year 10 students have successfully completed their Bronze DofE expeditions. These took place on Cranborne Chase, a particularly beautiful part of rural Dorset. Students had to hike without the aid of any adults to the chosen destination with nothing but a compass, a map and a route card. Mobile phones were banned for the duration of the weekend. The starting points on Day 1 were Ashmore, Berwick St John and Tarrant Gunville. The destination for all the students was the campsite in Sixpenny Handley. Most teams (made up of between 5-7 students) took between 6-8 hours to complete their hike. A few teams required a little longer due to some navigational issues! Once in camp the teams had to put up their tents and cook their meals. On Day 2 the teams had to hike for another 6 hours to Cranborne. Congratulations to all the students for successfully completing their assessed expeditions. A massive thank you to all the staff and parent helpers (Rich and Garry) for giving up their weekends to support the students. We are very indebted to Julie Woods who assessed teams on two successive weekends and Miss George who assessed teams on the first weekend. Con- gratulations to Mrs Popham who took over the leadership this year of DofE at Lytchett and did an amazing job. Her organisa- tion of the training sessions, the route maps and the expeditions was superb.
10 School Uniform
We would like to remind parents that students are expected to wear full school uniform throughout the summer term. This includes ties!
Parents are asked to check that students arrive at school wearing their ties. Students who are caught not wearing their tie in or between lessons face being sanctioned. The only exception to this is when students are playing football on the field at lunchtime.
On a beautiful day in May...
On a beautiful day in May, 14 students started the process of reclaiming 6 of the raised allotment beds back from the weeds. The allotment area at the bottom the school field has been unused for some time and we thought it was about time to start growing! Since that day, over 250 seeds have been planted, beds have been cleared and we are about to start planting out dwarf beans, runner beans, courgettes, broccoli, sweetcorn and many other vegetables. We are still looking for more exotic varieties to grow so if you have a few spare seeds please send them in!
We are really looking forward to harvest time but we have a lot of work to do before then!
The Allotment team
11 PTA News
Second Hand Uniform Shop
Lytchett Minster School PTA runs the Second Hand Uniform Shop which usually opens once a month. Please note that this is a shop selling second hand uniform. If you are looking to purchase new items of uniform, this needs to be done online using the link on the school website: www.lytchett.org.uk/wp/information/uniform
The Second Hand Uniform Shop does not normally stock new items of uniform. However, it does currently have brand new girls’ shirts in larger sizes (both long and short-sleeved) while stocks last. These are priced at £10 each.
The Second Hand Uniform Shop will hold ‘trying-on sessions’ where you can bring your child in to try on sample uniform for sizing. Please come to the main reception on the following dates: Thursday 21st June: 3.30pm -4 .30pm Wednesday 27th June: 3.30pm - 4.30pm Friday 13th July: 3.30pm - 4.30pm Friday 20th July: 3.30pm - 4.30pm
Please note that these are the only dates for trying on sample uniform. The samples are not available during normal Second Hand Uniform Shop opening times.
The Second Hand Uniform Shop will also be open in the summer holidays on the following dates for any last minute purchases: Thursday 23rd August: 10.00am -1.00pm Wednesday 29th August: 12.00pm -3.00pm
The Second Hand Uniform Shop has their own official Facebook page: ‘Lytchett Minster PTA’. Please note that the Facebook page called ‘Lytchett Minster Used Uniform’ is not affiliated to the school or PTA.
For all second hand uniform enquires please message via the official Facebook page or email: [email protected] .
If you have any unwanted uniform in good condition that you wish to donate, please send this in to main school reception, marked for the attention of the PTA.
Lytchett Minster School has a very friendly and lively PTA Team. The team are always keen to recruit new members who are willing to join the committee and help out at events. If you would like to find out more, please contact Louise Christopher (Chair of the PTA) at [email protected]
12 Governor News
We are delighted to welcome Rev. Stephen Partridge to the Governing Body as a Partnership Governor: Having grown up in a large village in the South Midlands I moved to the University of Bath to study for a BSc in Maths. Following that I gained a PGCE at Swansea University and came to the south coast to take up my first post as a teacher at Lytchett Matravers Primary School. Over the next 18 years I married, started a family and became more involved in my local church in Creekmoor. During that time I also played for Poole Rugby club and developed my guitar playing both at school and in church. After 14 years at Lytchett Matravers Primary School, I moved to teach in Poole. In 2011 I began to train as a vicar, first at a college in Nottingham followed by 3 years as an assistant curate at Canford Parish Church near Wimborne. I was excited to return to Lytchett Matravers in July 2016 to take up my first post as Vicar. I now spend my time praying, visiting people in the village, leading services, taking assemblies at the Primary school and doing all I can to help people grow in their walk with God. I am especially keen to develop links between the Church and the Community.
The Governing Body currently has a number of vacancies.
We are particularly interested in welcoming to the governing body people with the following areas of expertise: education, law, finance, human resources, communication, business, hospitality and marketing.
For further information, or to put forward your name for consideration, please contact Judith Hayward, Clerk to the Governors at: [email protected]
Reminders
Just a quick reminder that students are permitted to be on site between 8.00am and 5.00pm during term time, and outside of these times if engaged in an authorised and supervised school activity. Students should arrive before 8.45 am in time to be registered at 8.50 am. Students who arrive after 8.50 am or 1.25 pm will be recorded as late.
The school buildings normally close from 6.00pm. Students who have to wait to be collected or for a late bus, should either work quietly in the library or in a supervised House or subject area with staff permission or at an after school club.
A list of our school clubs can be found on our website: http://www.lytchett.org.uk/wp/information/extra-curricular-activities/
13 Leave your mark at Lytchett Minster School!
As part of our Sunken Garden/Outside Eating Area project, our landscape architect, Nick William-Ellis, has designed a floor surface made up entirely of bricks – engraved with the names of students/parent/staff/ governors of Lytchett Minster School on them. We are we are offering parents, students, staff and governors the chance to buy a brick with their name engraved upon it. This could be a lasting reminder of your involvement with the school. You can buy a brick with your name on it for £15. The maximum number of lines permitted is two, with a maximum number of sixteen characters per line: e.g.
The Smith Thomas and Thomas Smith Family Sarah Smith Year 7 2017
If you would like to order your personalised brick(s), please go onto our WisePay page on our website, and write the names of the people you would like engraved on it. If you don’t have access to WisePay, cheques will also be accepted (made payable to ‘Lytchett Minster School’).
Please remember: £15 per brick Two lines maximum A maximum of 16 characters per line Maximum of 10 bricks per family
14 Important Dates
Monday 4th June: Year 7 exams start Monday 4th June: Year 8/9 non-core exams start Thursday 7th June: Manor Mile (at Sandford Primary School) Friday 8th to Sunday 10th June: Silver DofE Practice Expedition Monday 11th June: Year 12 Work Experience starts Monday 18th June: Year 10 exams start Monday 18th June: Year 12 Progress Reports go home Friday 22nd June: Year 11 Prom Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th June: Sixth Form Induction Days Wednesday 27th June (7.00pm): New Parents Evening (Year 7 Sep 2018 admissions) Friday 29th June to Sunday 1st July: Silver DofE Assessed Expedition Friday 29th June: Year 8 Progress Reports go home Thursday 5th July: New Pupils’ Day Friday 6th July: Sandwalk Friday 6th July: Year 9 Progress Reports go home Monday 9th July: Senior Band Tour of Feeder Schools Friday 13th July: Sports Day Friday 13th July: Year 7 Full Reports go home Wednesday 18th July: Sports Day (Reserve) Friday 20th July: Prize Giving Day Friday 20th July: Year 10 Full Reports go home Tuesday 24th July: Prize Giving (Reserve) Wednesday 25th July: Last days of term (12.15pm finish)
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