December 2019 The Accolade The Monthly Celebratory Newsletter from County Upper Dear parents, students, staff and our work experience prize assembly; a got behind the Charity Team in true governors, full programme of sport and much high County style. We held our whole quality music. school assembly on the last afternoon We believe strongly in excellence, in We welcomed back last year’s year and celebrated the many successes doing one’s best, getting involved and thirteen and presented certificates since September, presented prizes giving service. Month by month, each and prizes for last summer’s ‘A’ level for last summer’s examinations and edition of ‘The Accolade’ demonstrates results. gave cheques to representatives from these qualities in abundance and this For many, December is the most our charities once the final total was edition is no different. special time in the County year as the revealed. December has been quite a month whole school, led by the Sixth Form, As the term ends, I hope that the with a huge number of activities comes together to raise money for peace of the Christ child and the across all subjects; the completion of local and national and internation- joy of the angels may auditions for next summer’s musical; al charities. The atmosphere was be yours this three theatre visits; debating success; superb again this year and everyone Christmas. Mrs V Neale National Success for the Design Department! The Design Museum are running the Design Ventura This month our team travelled to Winchester House in Competion for 2019. This challenges students in years London to pitch their design to a panel of industry nine to eleven to design a new product for the Design experts. They were an absolute credit to themselves Museum Shop. The museum, in partnership with and to County Upper. Deutsche Bank, views this as their flagship learning project for students to develop design thinking, creative Whatever the outcome, which is announced in and business capabilities and employability skills. This year February, we are very proud of Oliver Camilleri, over 16,000 students entered and just ten teams were Harry French, James O’Connor, Charlie Temple and shortlisted. We were delighted to be one of the ten and Zach Weaver. We thank Mrs Taylor for organising our the only school in the East of England to make the list. entry and accompanying the team. More creative The ESU Debating Competition Once again students from our thriving Debating successes Society took part in the ESU Schools Mace Competi- tion. Five teams from across the region participated. The Photography Masterclass As the hosts, we provided the student Chair and Our ‘A’ level photography students were fortunate to be James Merrett presided over three different debates treated to a Master Class. They enjoyed two days of involving sixth form teams. Our sixth form team of specialist tuition from Sky Arts Master Photographer Rose Bainbridge, Millie Perry and Brennan Rolfe Gillian Allard. Inspired by her widely exhibited ‘Refugee debated excellently but functioned as a swing team for Stories’ students used professional equipment to capture the evening which meant they were not allowed to go portraits which they then edited, bonded to wood and through. We fielded a young team with Alex Bolton hand finished.Gillian was particularly impressed with and Jonatan Kornak from year ten and Emily Jones in the students’ positive attitudes and excellent skills. year eleven. They were unlucky to be runners-up having We congratulate them all and thank Mrs Perry debated well on the motion of whether people should be for organising it. limited to one return flight per year. We congratulate all who took part and thank Mr Harrison for all he does for debating. Demonstrating the values of participation and The Creative being grateful Writing Workshop We encourage our students to participate in decision- Our ‘A’ Level English students have had the amazing making and to be grateful for the freedom and all we are opportunity to be part of the Theatre Royal’s ‘Big Skies’ fortunate to enjoy. Our Politics Society, our Library our project, which involves developing a piece of theatre School Council and our drama department contributed with professional writers and directors. Ideas were to this during December. conceptualised in creative writing workshops alongside writer and director Marcus Romer, from the Theatre Royal, writer Atiha Sen Gupta and writer James News from our McDermott. The plans and extracts created within these sessions will be developed in the new year. Politics Society The organisers congratulated all the students and n This month, our thriving society has led the school we thank Miss Rhodes for organising it. in ensuring that students gain knowledge of the election process, had the opportunity to find out about each of the political parties and their manifestos and then were able to participate in our own mock election. ‘The Gratui-tree’ This month our School Council involved every tutor group in producing ‘a tree’ to be displayed in the main student foyer. In keeping with the spirit of the Christmas season, each group reflected on what they should be thankful for at County, putting their gratitude onto stars that the Council put onto the tree. We thank Mrs Middleditch and the School Council members for the initiative and for making us remember how much we have to be grateful for. The Horringer Community Village light Up We congratulate Katie Fuller, Lauren Hasler, Hannah Perry and Isobel Perry in year nine who performed songs, dance and theatre from the musical At Politics Society sessions, students chose the ‘Elf’ at this annual event. The girls were much praised. representatives for each party. Candidates promoted their Well done! parties at school events and through the website and TV screen. Each team also set up temporary instagram accounts for the week before election day. Students then registered to vote and cast their votes on 12th December. With a very high turnout, all the candidates can be very pleased with their efforts. Their performance at the final hustings was particularly impressive with all the candidates having excellent knowledge and debating skills. We congratulate Alex Bolton, Emily Jones, James Merrett, Brennan Rolfe and Daniel Wilson. We thank Ms Rehan for organising it. The Theatre Visits Students from across the school have been able to n We congratulate Emily Jones in experience live theatre again this month. A large group year eleven who has been working in from all year groups enjoyed ‘Woman in Black’ at the cooperation with other local schools to Fortune Theatre in London. English literature and theatre set up a youth council for the whole studies students made the very most of the opportunity of West Suffolk. Emily and one other to see ‘Measure for Measure’ at The Barbican while member of the group were selected to another group of students were entertained by the hold a launch event. They explained much-acclaimed production of ‘The Lion, The Witch and who the group are, what they do and how to get involved The Wardrobe’ at the Bridge Theatre in London. at the Christmas Fayre on the Stage. Emily gave We thank Miss Lacey and Mrs Stevens for the speeches, handed out leaflets and talked to visitors opportunities afforded through our programme of, about the work of the group. Well done! at least, monthly visits. The Library Challenge The new intake of year nine students in September were issued a challenge at their Library inductions – to read and review on the Library’s Accessit App as many books as they could by the end of the term to win an edible prize. Each completed review earnt a Merit, so all readers were rewarded. Many rose to the occasion, but the clear winner was Holly Baglow 9J, who completed an impressive twenty- three novels. Well done, Holly! Work Experience 2019 Local employers all stress the importance of students undertaking work experience and, nationally, it is being promoted strongly that all schools should give every student a fortnight in the world of work. This gives students the chance to demonstrate the important qualities of punctuality, reliability, willingness to try new activities, interaction with new people and confidence in unfamiliar situations. At County, we have always ensured that every member of year eleven spends two weeks on work experience and this year’s fortnight went extremely well. Almost without exception, the reports from employers and the feedback to those staff who visited the placements were outstanding. As a result, a huge number of year eleven students gained ‘highly commended’ certificates and it was very difficult to select this year’s prizewinners. In a special assembly this month, we awarded the prizes to: J Molly Hughes Harley Turner O Bobbie-Rae Durant Jordon Denny K Damien Page Bethan Abberley P Aimee Francis Jack Varney L Lily Cummings William Holton R Wahida Hasan Jack Nichols M Charlotte Rice William Chapman S Daisy Alfred-Allen Oliver Moss N Amy Scopes Rhys Smith T Lily-Beau Burgess Toby Brown The overall work experience prize was awarded to James Merrett and the Runners-Up were Tom Setchell and Kieran Rolph We used the employers’ reports, staff reports and the quality of preparation to award ‘highly commended’ certificates to a huge number of the year group and we congratulate them all: Bethan Abberley Aimee Cass Samuel Ferguson William Hutchings Jack Mitchell Darja Rae Salisbury Lauren Wake Kallum Adams Millie Cass Thomas Field Riley Hutt Emma Moore Thomas Saunders Emily Wallis