www.testvalley.hants.sch.uk Summer Term Ten Years of Stockfest 2018 Can you believe StockFest has been running for Eisteddfod programme. The Eisteddfod had ten years? Originally it was the brainchild of two choreography support this year from Mrs Frost- Year 11 prefects in 2008 to raise funds for a Langley, one of our LSAs who is also a dance charity close to their hearts. At the time the instructor. school had been building a band culture and Throughout the week building up to StockFest you holding Christmas gigs for about three years. We would see pupils practising and polishing their also had a street dance club, so moving to an performances in preparation for the big event if outdoor music and dance festival seemed like an you peeked in classrooms at break and idea which could work. lunchtimes. It seemed like everywhere I looked on At the time we called upon the chair of the PTA, the day, groups of pupils were going through their Trevor Johnson, who had connections with the routines to ensure nothing was left to chance. army and was able to kit us out with a marquee Pupils from Years 7, 8 and 9 paired up to perform and a number of large tents to support the event. drum and guitar acts and pupils from our upper A PA system was sourced and ‘StockFest 1’ went school became heroes bringing a range of bands ahead in the Summer of 2009. together and blowing us away with their talents. The following year two parents from Winterslow One Year 10 band included friends from other stepped into the ring, Ian McDonald and Steve schools to perform in their band. Haines, who supplied and ran a professional Continued on page 3... sound system. This took StockFest to a whole new level. The continued support from Trevor, Ian and Steve every year since has ensured that we have an amazing platform every year which our young people can use to celebrate their talents. StockFest now celebrates talent from all year groups and this year it was great to see some dance acts come back onto the scene. Two Year 7 groups performed some brilliantly choreographed dance acts, which came from our ‘Learn to Learn’ Follow us on Facebook and Twitter Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/testvalleysch Twitter: @testvalleysch 1 Headteacher’s Message Dear Parent As I write we have two more days of the Summer Term to go and the holidays to look forward to. This term has been very busy with our Year 11 GCSE examinations and in-school examinations for Years 10, 8 and 7. Last week was also our annual Activities Week for Years 7, 8 and 9, whilst the majority of Year 10 were on their work experience placements. We look forward to celebrating the GCSE results of our Year 11 pupils in August and wish them well as they prepare for their next stage of their education in the Autumn Term. We also look forward to welcoming our new Year 7 pupils in September. It was lovely to see so many of them with their families at our recent PTA ‘Summer Sizzler’ event. Finally, I take this opportunity to thank parents for your support this year and look forward to working with you again next year. Miss L Hiscock Headteacher Prefect Team 2018-2019 After much deliberation and formal interviews we appointed our Prefects for next year. Edward Dance Holly Harvie Anna Hotchkiss Natasha Hewson Dominic Hart Cerise Day Isabel Henrys Sydney Reidy Evan Harkess Rebecca Ledwidge Jamie Meaton Noah Brown Sam Hunt Tabi Monteiro Chloe Lockyer Sophie Bushell Megan Porter Fred Hunt Ella Sturman Sam Thompson Oli Crowden Grace Cowley Russell Hart Rhiannan Buckley Abbey Barton Faith Marriott Ben Leslie Louis Weston Jakob Parkes George Dahne Katie Jeffery Isabelle Sinclair Josie Brightman Charlotte Bulpitt Jude Allenby Emma Wilson-Hebben Head Prefects: Sam Hunt and Sydney Reidy Deputy Head Prefects: Grace Cowley and Abbey Barton Congratulations to all of you! 2 Ten Years of Stockfest continued... One story stands out for me this year: Corey Penfound is one of our prefects and helped to organise StockFest. He was given a base guitar for Christmas and started teaching himself to play it as a means of ‘downtime’ from the stress of GCSE exam preparation. He played his guitar in the Year 11 bands at StockFest. This was a great achievement in such a short space of time, showing just what can be achieved when you put your mind to it. In addition to the performances, Year 7 & 8 tutor groups ran a variety of stalls and raised money for a charity to be chosen by the Pupil Council. Many pupils and visitors enjoyed having a go at the various challenges these set to raise money. As is traditional at StockFest, our staff always pull something out of the bag and this year they formed a band to join in with the performances. Thank you to Mr Wilcox, a keen lead guitarist and member of a local band, who organised the line-up with pupils for StockFest this year. Thank you to school staff for their support throughout the event. Thank you to the PTA who ran our bbq and tuck-shop. Thank you for the continued support from Trevor, Ian and Steve. I know how fortunate we are to be able to run this event and it seems obvious by the number of pupils who perform and stay after school to support this event, that our pupils value this opportunity for the coming together of our community in a truly celebratory festival way. Mr Langdown Pupil Council Event Test Valley School had the pleasure of welcoming 21 pupils from some of our local primary schools when we hosted the annual Pupil Council Cluster Event. The pupils who attended are all members of the Pupil Council within their own schools and worked alongside eleven of our own Pupil Council representatives. The pupils began by getting to know each other in small groups, they discussed their schools as well as hobbies and interests. During the morning the pupils designed a logo to symbolize what the Pupil Councils were all about and their contribution will be collated to form a logo that will be displayed not only in Test Valley School but also are local primary schools too. This logo will represent our local Pupil Council forum. After a short mid-morning break Mrs Bottle from Broughton school delivered a session on the Rights Respecting Schools Award. This was fantastic and really challenged the pupils into thinking what is a need and what is a want. Towards the end of the morning the Test Valley pupils also shared their experience of secondary school with the primary school pupils, the younger pupils really enjoyed this and asked many questions about different aspects of school life. A very big thank you and well done to everyone who participated in this event. We have already started planning for next year! 3 Talented Artist Talented Test Valley School artist David Mossman-Smith has been chosen to exhibit his pen and ink drawing called “Contrast” at The Wykeham Gallery in Stockbridge. The piece will be displayed in the gallery from 13th July for the first week of the summer exhibition. Congratulations to David on his piece being chosen to join the works of many other talented artists. Library News James Ashley 9N has received a Library Achievement Award by Mrs Needs for successfully borrowing and reading with enthusiasm 300 books since starting at Test Valley School. This is an amazing achievement and definitely something to be recognised. James visits the Library most days and loves it when there are new books to choose from. He is great at recommending books to other pupils and always enjoys talking about what he has read. The target has now been set to finish Year 11 having borrowed 500 books to read! Hampshire Book Award 2018 On Thursday 28th June pupils that have been involved with the HBA since March visited Kings School, Winchester for the grand final. The group have been meeting and reading the six shortlisted books and finally got the opportunity to vote for their favourite. The event, run by School Library Service, involved 43 Hampshire secondary schools and was organised so that the pupils from Test Valley were split into teams with other schools to join in a group discussion about the books. Everyone got involved, chatting and deciding on their favourite. While the votes were being counted everyone enjoyed a quiz, and Mrs Needs was very pleased when Suzie Draper and Morgan Evans were on the winning team - bringing a pile of lovely new books back to the library to be enjoyed by everyone. There was much excitement and a drum roll in the room before the winning book was announced, and the winner is Instructions for a Second Hand Heart by Tamsyn Murray. A book about two teenagers who are bought together when the death of Niamh's brother means that Jonny can finally have the heart transplant that will save his life. But love, like life, is unpredictable and Niamh and Jonny are about to let their hearts rule their heads. A brilliant read, available in your library along with the other five books so come and take a look. 4 Creative Forces Day On Tuesday 5th June eight of our Service Families pupils went to the University of Winchester to celebrate Creative Forces Day with Ms Attree. The pupils had lovely time exploring the university and taking part in seminars.