CCS Review of 2011 2 3 guess that we will look back on 2011 as a year of change at Caroline Chisholm School. This is the I year in which we became an Academy. This is the year in which we became the largest single-site school in Northamptonshire. This is the year when the children who joined our first ever reception class moved into secondary phase in Year 7. And the children who joined our first ever Year 7 got all the way through to Year 13. Changing to become an academy has proved a success so far—we are on a stronger financial footing, we have more flexibility in rewarding staff and we have a stronger Contents voice in managing our admissions procedures. Howev- Parents in Partnership 4 er, the process of becoming an academy took its toll on Young learners in action 5 our school—too much time was spent arguing over de- tail and some legal processes became too drawn out. I Year 4 residential 6 was extremely grateful for the support of the school’s Year 6 residential 7 Governing Body in getting us through that process and in Year 5 and 6 Ballroom Dancing 8 particular for the responsibilities taken on by Gill Amos, In memory of Alice 9 David Atkinson and Christine Sullivan (Our Chair and Vice Secondary learning highlights 10 Chair of Governors, and Chair of Finance Committee). I really appreciated the trust shown by parents, staff and Sixth Form Life 14 students that we were doing the right thing. Governing Body and CCS Friends 16 Support is vital to us if we are going to keep developing The Australia Connection 17 our school and provide excellent resources for our Shakespeare Schools’ Festival 18 children. CCS Friends Association provided us with a Performing Arts highlights 19 great range of fund raising activities last year and I am most grateful to Paul Cross and the Friends’ Committee CCS visit to 10 Downing Street 21 for all their endeavours. Business and Enterprise 22 The pages following this capture some of last year’s Innovation Week 24 highlights and illustrate the range of experiences that we Expedition to Jordan 25 want for our students. However, last year was also World Challenge India 26 marked by tragedy. The death of the Ding family Big Health and Happiness Week 28 shocked all of us. We have included a page in memory of them and some details of the steps we are taking to Sports Highlights 29 remember them. I hope you enjoy reading these highlights. They remind me how lucky I am to have such a fantastic staff and how fortunate we all are to be working with our students 4 Parents in Partnership Highlights Over the past year we have been developing our community work to provide regular opportunities for parents to engage in and support their children’s learning more effectively. Feedback from parents has highlighted the success of various events, in particular, the Summer Celebration open afternoon and evening, the launch of on-line reporting and the Mathematics Workshop for parents which was very well attended, where together, parents and teachers tackled the CCS approach to calculation. Summer Celebration At the end of the summer term we held our first Primary Celebration Day when the school was open from 2-7.30 pm for par- ents to visit. Thank you to everyone who attended– we have received much positive feedback about the opportunity to meet new teachers, visit classrooms, see and take part in learning including art, cooking, ICT, PE & Spanish. Everyone enjoyed The Early Birds and Primary Choir performances and the performances of children who have peripatetic music tuition at CCS. The Art exhibition was a real highlight and it was great to see parents working alongside their children in the still life workshop. Foundation Stage Stay & Play Session Parents were invited to come into school and spend time with their child in the Reception learning environment. Parents joined in with the learning activities and experiences and gained a valuable insight in to life in the Reception Year. Foundation Stage & KS1 Phonics Workshop The mysteries of systematic, synthetic phonics were unpacked during a very well attended parents’ workshop. Parents learned about the schools approach to teaching phonics, including , the alpha- betic code and the skill of seg- menting and blending phonemes. 5 Young Learners In Action Children learn best when they are actively engaged in heir learning. Here are some of the highlights of the opportunities for children to learn from first hand experience both on and off-site. After a very long wait the Foundation Stage outdoor learning area was completed. The children were very excited with the new deep sand pit and the opportunity for large construction on the new all-weather, grass safety surface. The Friends of CCS also provide a pergola for imaginative play and 2 large planters for YR crops! Mathematics has been the focus of improvement over the past year. Reception children learned the concept of ‘heavier and lighter than’ while Y5 students fine tune their under- standing of units of measure. The school continues to appreciate the generous support of parents in enabling the school to provide a rich variety of day trips which help bring the curriculum and learning to life. Year 4 children’s visit to Sulgrave Manor provided an excellent insight in to life for a Tudor child which helped the children to appreciate the advances of modern technology! Y3 benefited from a visit to the Birmingham art gallery where they were able to experience the ‘wow’ of the scale and detail of original paintings. Business & Enterprise is a distinctive feature of the CCS curriculum and Y5 students demonstrated their skills through their Home Learning Challenge which was a collaborative project to invent a new product. The Hamster Grooming Tube was an ingenious design consisting of a tube and two nail brushes! Meanwhile outdoor learning has been a focus for development with the introduction of the ‘Forest School’s’ initiative in Reception Y1 & Y2. 6 Year 4 York Residential City Walls Walk Year 4 started their journey in the city centre, near to Bootham Bar, where they saw one of the most important defences. Roman Fort A fantastic opportunity to travel back in time and to experience becoming a Roman for the day! The children, in role, completed different activities around the fort including a drill session, guard duty, dummy weapons practice and general household duties. Jorvik Centre DIG A virtual experience that A great experience to get into transported the children character and become an back in time to the Dark archaeologist for the morning! The Ages. They travelled children took part in an excavation around a mock Viking ‘digging’ for real artefacts found from village and used their different time periods, including the senses to hear, see and Romans and Vikings. smell (!) what Viking life was like. Team Building As this is the first time many our children have stayed away from home there is plenty of opportunity to build teams and affirm many friendships. 7 Year 6 Residential—North Wales The Year 6 Residential Visit was the highlight of the final year in KS2. The week was an action-packed experience in the great Welsh out-doors. The Bryn-y-Moel Centre is set in heart of the Snowdonia National Park surround by majestic mountains and breath taking beaches. A memorable week was had by both students and staff. Here are some of the week’s highlights. During Bushcraft the students learned all about survival! They learned about plants that are safe to eat and the art of fire making which was a particular highlight of the session! The groups worked together to build a waterproof (well almost!) shelter by constructing a sturdy frame and insulating with suitable vegetation. Everyone enjoyed the archery session in which the students learned to handle a bow and arrow successfully. By the end of the session they had quite a few bull’s eyes under their belts and great fun was had by all in the ‘Mission Impossible’ team challenge involving a Mars bar! Kayaking on the estuary was a new experience for many and despite a number of capsizes everyone was still smiling at the end. Can you spot the Vice Principal, thinking that something might be missing to achieve a successful kayaking lesson? The overnight expedition proved to be the overall ‘Wow’ of the week. Each group walked for nearly three hours before arriving at their campsite for the night. The challeng- es included: driving rain, plague of midges and noisy bullocks. No-one got much sleep that night. Fantastic! The beach BBQ was a great evening of fun, freedom and lasting memories as the sun set on a wonderful week in Wales. 8 Schools’ Sports Partnership Ballroom & Latin Dance Champions—Strictly Sensational! Y5 & 6 students entered the Daventry & Southwest schools’ Ballroom Dancing Competition after 6 weeks of learning in school with an expert dance teacher from the Step by Step dance school. The children thoroughly enjoyed learning the steps and were all fantastic sports, happily pairing up into mixed couples and giving their all. The students learned the waltz and cha-cha-cha dances and it was wonderful to see the students working togeth- er o effectively and rising to the challenges of co- ordination and concentration! Two teams were chosen to represent CCS in the competition at Roade Sports College on a somewhat cold and rainy Saturday afternoon in early March. The teams really excelled with their smart appearances and fabulous footwork and made it to the final four teams.