Summer 2014 TWYCROSS HOUSE SCHOOL TIMES TWYCROSS HOUSE PRE-PREPARATORY SCHOOL The Hollies Outstanding The Hollies is celebrating after the recent Ofsted inspection hailed the school as ‘outstanding’. TheT inspectors praised the school’s high qquality teaching and the outstanding aachievement of pupils within a broad aand balanced curriculum. TThe main highlights of the report are: • Pupils learn at an outstanding rate pproviding a secure platform for learning, pprogress and personal development. The sschoolc places much emphasis on each inindividual pupil’s achievements. • The quality of the teaching is ooutstanding enabling pupils to think ddeeply. The small classes ensure that the individual responses of pupils receive individual attention. • Pupils with different abilities and talents are well planned for and children with special educational needs make aass much progress from their different sstartingt points as other children. • Learning and personal development aarre enriched with planned visits, visitors, asassemblies and charitable initiatives wwhich secure pupils’ commitment and mmotivation. ••..Behaviour is outstanding with pupils alalways doing their best and listening atattentively to one another and adults. • The leaders of the school have a clear vision about the school’s aims which includes all-round education, high quality teaching, outstanding pupil acachievement and behaviour. MMrs Assinder commented, “This is a ttremendousr result for our school. The awaward of an ‘outstanding’ judgement iiss not just based on a two day visit by inspectors. It takes the excellent efefforts of our pupils, staff, parents and susupporters over many years to achieve ththis – and I congratulate and thank them aall.”l TWYCROSS HOUSE SCHOOL | THE GREEN | TWYCROSS | NEAR ATHERSTONE | WARWICKSHIRE | CV9 3PL | T: 01827 880651 The Hollies First Years Mr Potato Head As part of our topic about plants and growing we decidedddd to make some Mr Potato Heads. We gave them cress hair, googly eyes, fl at feet and happy smiles. Some of them grew a full head of hair while others looked as if they had Looking after dogs been to see an over-zealous barber! Everyone was very excited when Rudy came to visit us, as we had been fi nding out about the things that animals need to be healthy and happy. We all know that Rudy is a very happy dog and Mrs Bryan told us all about the things that she does to keep him healthy. Rudy also showed us how clever he is by catching a ball! Thank you, Mrs Bryan and Rudy. Please come and visit us again. Mrs Makin and Miss Woolley Growing Sunfl owers We learned that plants need water, sun and soil to grow and then we planted some sunfl ower seeds in a pot. We took the pots home to see if we could get the sunfl owers to grow. Some of us have green fi ngers and some of us don’t! Twycross Zoo We were very fortunate to have good weather when we went to Twycross Zoo. The baby elephant was especially popular with both the children and the adults. Going through the lemur walk the children were able to ask the keeper questions about her charges, and she was impressed by their knowledgeable queries. Taking the children out was a pleasure, as their behaviour was exemplary and they showed interest in all they saw. 2 THE HOLLIES | THE GREEN | TWYCROSS | NEAR ATHERSTONE | WARWICKSHIRE | CV9 3PQ | T: 01827 880725 The Hollies Second Years Sharing Books With The Children From Swallows Hill Swallows Hill children came to read the books they had made for our age group. You can see everyone thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. Thank you to Mrs Alves for organising this event. Donating Books to a school in India Many thanks to all the second year children for donating toys and books to a school in India. The smiling faces show how grateful they were to receive all your gifts. A special thank you to Saiyan Gopal (and his mummy!) for making this possible. Two Of A Kind The twins Sophie and Daisy Whitehall performed a dance in front of the whole school. We really enjoyed the show. THE HOLLIES | THE GREEN | TWYCROSS | NEAR ATHERSTONE | WARWICKSHIRE | CV9 3PQ | T: 01827 880725 3 The Hollies Tamworth Castle Third Years The third years had a wonderful time visiting Tamworth Castle. Highlights of the trip were learning how to put together a suit of armour and setting the table for the Lord and Lady. Andy Goldsworthy Art We looked at some Andy Goldsworthy designs and then made our own with things we found in the garden. Minibeast Hunt As part of our Minibeast science topic the third years have spent a great deal of time in the garden. We took a large white sheet outside and examined the minibeasts we found on it. 4 THE HOLLIES | THE GREEN | TWYCROSS | NEAR ATHERSTONE | WARWICKSHIRE | CV9 3PQ | T: 01827 880725 The Hollies Our trip to Tesco – a letter from Ava Dear Tricia and Matt Thank you for inviting us. My favourite part was the bakery. I liked seeing how the bread was made. I liked it when we got to try some food. Love from Ava Fourth Years Leavers’ Concert Once again another year has fl own by and another Fourth Year concert has been and gone. Not to be outdone by previous years, the ‘Class of 2014’ rose to the challenge and put on a fi ne display of musical talent. Singing songs through the decades revealed some hidden talents from Brinn Lilley as Elvis Presley and Emily Gibbs as our very own Audrey Hepburn. Alex Wylie and Olivia Cox joined forces for their rendition of ‘Thank You for the Music’ by ABBA and Isabel Whitehall, Bea Pound and Alex Wylie gave a confi dent performance as the tribute band ‘Beyonce’. Well done to all the Fourth Years on a superb performance and may their music-making continue to fl ourish next 4th Year report on the Willow Man What a lovely time the 4th years had sitting out in the sunshine in the garden of year! the Hollies with Chaz the Willow Man! Each child (and teacher) went away proudly Miss Williams clutching a willow fi sh and the garden received fi ve new willow obelisks. THE HOLLIES | THE GREEN | TWYCROSS | NEAR ATHERSTONE | WARWICKSHIRE | CV9 3PQ | T: 01827 880725 5 The Hollies Author Visit Award winning author, Caryl Hart, visited the Hollies for a day of fun and wacky writing. After a whole school assembly, Caryl spent the day visiting each class to inspire imaginative stories, poems and art work. The fi rst years wrote poems and made some very unusual bunting out of different sorts of pants!nts! (inspired by “Don’t Put Your Pants on Your Head, Fred!”) The second and fourth years based their activities on “Whiffy Wilson”, whilst the third years wrote stories based on “TheThe PPrincess and the Peas”.P Caryl’sC books, coupledc with herh sense of the absurd,a inspired all of the children to producep interesting and imaginative reresults. Writing never seemed so much fufun! MMrs Makin Sports Day At the end of term the Hollies children enjoyed their school sports day. In addition the children were nominated for awards by their teachers for all the hard work during the school year. The names of the winners were:- The Harrison cup for personal development - Emily Carley Francesca’s cup for reading - Emily Gibbs The merit cup - Isabella Kluger The music cup - James Callaghan The art award - Seth Ellar 6 THE HOLLIES | THE GREEN | TWYCROSS | NEAR ATHERSTONE | WARWICKSHIRE | CV9 3PQ | T: 01827 880725 Twycross Times Examination Results GCSE The GCSE results were once again impressive with 42.6% at A* and 70% at A grade. In fact, 89% of all the grades came out at A*, A or B. There were many very creditable performances, but Charlotte Lynch deserves particular mention for achieving 11 A* grades including a score of 100% in classical Greek which she took up rather late in the day as an extra- curricular subject with the minimum of tuition. Congratulations also to her fellow-students William Evans, Molly Goldspink, Freya Hartshorn, Toby Marshall and Amelia Springall who amassed between them 45 A* grades. However, we must not forget the students with more modest grades who nevertheless worked extremely hard and fully achieved their potential. We look forward to welcoming back a large number of S5 into our 6th form and wish them luck in their A-level courses. A-level This year our U6 students sat a total of 80 A2 examinations in 16 different subjects and passed them all, with 93% at A* - C. The A* grade accounted for 16% off the passes, A*/A 54% and A*/A/B 83%. This represents an improvement on the percentage of A* from last year and maintains the overall high standard achieved each year by our students. We are all delighted by the results, of course, as they refl ect the hard work and dedication of students and staff over the last two years (and further back). Although we feel that they all deserve praise for their achievements, special mention must be made of the 8 candidates who achieved all A* and A grades. The highest total in school was obtained by Callum Wordsworth who acquired an outstanding 4 A* grades in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology and a further 2 A grades at AS level in Further Maths and Electronics; he will be taking a place at Durham to read Natural Sciences. Laura Baxendale achieved an excellent 4 A* gradesades and will study medicine at Leicester; Ellie Lundberg gained A*/A*/A and is taking a gap year before studying Translating and Interpreting at Newcastle; Natalie Milner achieved A*/A/A and will read Classics at Somerville College, Oxford; and Alexandra Milner achieved an impressive 4 A grades and goes to study Biochemistry at Bristol.