@newentschool

A Sense of Direction By Alex Shibli

It hasn’t been an easy year for Newent Community School and sixth Form Centre. However, Mrs Harrison describes the recent removal of the school from Ofsted’s special measures as very positive. She added that she didn’t know of any other school to have come out of spe-cial measures in just twelve months, and says that this shows just how much has been achieved. ‘It is great,’ she enthuses. ‘Every member of staff stepped up and did what was necessary.’ To maintain this, Mrs Harrison says the structures, sys-tems and processes are being put into place that will mean the school is not ‘reacting to situations as they arise but is working within systems that are consistent and clear.’ This ensures there is a framework to make sure everything follows consistent processes. ‘We are doing

“The headteacher, senior leaders, governors, and staff have worked highly effec vely, including with external support to bring about rapid improvements to leadership, the quality of teaching and behav-iour so that pupils achieve well.”

Ofsted

By Daniel Tinson

well,’ she added, ‘but it doesn’t mean we can just sit back.’ ‘We are now,’ assures Mrs Harrison, ‘having more con-versations about teaching and learning and a far better insight into what really goes on in classrooms. “Good” is great but we want to be re-endorsed as “good” when Of-sted come back in 9 months’ time - or even better.’ The most important change is that everybody has a clear-er idea about what their roles are and what responsibili-ties they have in achieving and maintaining agreed stand-ards. ‘We have looked really closely at all aspects of teaching and learning, and each individual student will be supported to get where they need to be.’ Fischer Family Trust produces a range of estimates for

achievement. It is our primary objective to set realistic targets for our students that are inline with FFT ‘D’ data – and therefore align the school with the top 25% of school performance nationally. Mrs Harrison emphasises how important it is to recognise two things: first that the school and its students have achieved a lot and should be proud; and second, that not everything about the school was identified for improve-ment. ‘Not all things were put into special measures – the pastoral team, the House System, the sport – these are-as were always good – and they are as good as ever’. As Mrs Harrison says, ‘Newent Community School is a good school – and there has always been much more to this school than an Ofsted judgement.’

Audiences were stunned, earlier this term, when Newent Community School and Sixth Form Centre pulled off one of its greatest stage performances to date. At precisely seven o’clock, after great hype and anticipation, a great fanfare rang out, beams of light shone down and a chorus sang out into the hall with a lament of toil and freedom. At the end of the dress-rehearsal Head of Drama, Marie Hood spoke about the production: “The most important thing to say is that this show belongs to the students, and it’s a testament to their hard work and dedication… the dream that we all dreamed, many months ago, about what this could be has actually come true.” Finally she added, “They’re beyond what we ever imagined they could be.”

Did You Hear The People Sing?

So finally, when the lines were learned and the scenes were choreographed to near perfection came the open-ing night. Before the play began, on Wednesday the 5th of February, I went backstage to meet the sixth form technical gurus, like Jack Coughlan, Matt Reeve and Ke-ziah Cracknell, Jessie Beach-Thomas, Eden Dyer and Tom Price, and with them the backstage folk, to finally see what their imagination had come up with. As I had outlined in my first report some four months ago, the Drama department sourced their props from a local theatre company; well when I lifted back the curtain to go ‘behind the scenes’ I saw a menagerie of wooden carts, barricades, made from battered framework, prop replica revolutionary armaments, like the 20 muskets and flint lock pistols, and 18th century styled, painted back-grounds. Not to mention the stunningly vibrant and histor-ically accurate costumes that many of the actors sported after fitting. Some of these spectacularly realistic gar-

On opening night, both Ollie Holmes (Valjean) and Lewis Allen (Javert) opened the first act with tones of a great miscarriage of justice and redemption. Their resilience overcame whatever apprehension they may have experi-enced; for their performance of pure emotion was inspira-tional and impacted tragically on the audience when they both met their destinies. Jacob Barlow’s benevolent Priest in this act added hope and humanity to Valjean’s injustice. Rosita Da-Silva Teixeira used her natural talent to convey her saddening struggle and later demise, uplifted in the finale with her supporting cast. Rebecca Millar with her flamboyance, poise and comical demeanour as Madame Thenadier, was one of the many outstanding personalities that engaged the audience due to her naturalistic accent for the part and explosive vivaci-ty. Tyla Conyers, Thenadier, became ‘the master of the house’ when the unhappily married Thenadier duo took to the stage with vilifying retorts and confident hilarity in their wonderfully satirical Master of The House number, suc-cessfully ‘cooking the books’ of their less than respectable boarding establishment. In addition, Joash Taylor, Miriam Partington and Emma Gooch gave it their all in a story of love in a volatile politi-cal climate, one of whom finds love, the other falling with the rebel faction at the cataclysm that was the ‘Barricade scene’. Hollie Mullins, a big fan of Les Miserables, put her heart and soul into her part as Feuilly. She joined forces with Ralph Prosser who played Enjolras, leading the re-bellion with Joash Taylor and Ollie Holmes, Richard

Weaver, Ellie Hall, and Theo Ravenhill on the Barricade; fighting for a world they longed to see. Archie McGhee stirred the audience with his determined loyalty and selflessness as the ‘grown up pup’ Gavroche. An enchanting Little Cosette, played by Rosie Clark, spellbound the audience with a Cinderella-esque story-line of daydreams met with the harsh reality of the Paris Uprising. My spine tingled and I felt pride and admiration as the premiere drew to a close, Valjean’s life slowly ebbed away, thus joining the phantasms of Fantine, Eponine and all those who died on the Barricade. Soon the full company chorus began to swell and burst off the stage

into the rows of amazed, star struck parents, siblings and friends. As the last notes boomed and danced from the very souls of the students who had worked so hard to make this dream a reality, the whole room rose in a standing and tearful ovation, applauding the success and achievement of their friends, family and col-leagues. I could list act after act, character after character and still not adequately convey to you the enthralling won-der of this unique musical. And of course there are many more parts to recog-nise but I think I will end with the acknowledgement of everyone’s spectacular accomplishment. From the “Chain Gang Prologue” to “One Day More”, from “The Building of the Barricade” to the “Death of Valjean” and the Full Company Finale; this young, albeit inexperienced, group of students have partici-pated in something extraordinary, something they will surely remember in later years and recall fondly with an air of nostalgia and pride. These fine, talented people, some of whom have never acted on stage before, have inspired, nurtured and written a new page in Newent School’s long his-tory: and every single one of them made it possible.

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On March 12th our AS Drama and Theatre Studies stu-dents performed to a large supportive audience of family and friends and a moderator from AQA. The first performance group performed Brecht’s ‘Fear and Misery in the Third Reich’ in an epic theatre style whilst the second group took on Kane’s ‘4.48 Psychosis’

Best Ever Results for AS Drama Performers Sixth Form Drama and Theatre Studies Students Excel in Exam

and were heavily influenced by the practitioners Frantic As-sembly. The results of all the students were phenomenal with both performances falling into the top band of marks. Of the 14 students 11 achieved A grades for their performances. Ger-ry Gibbons and Isla Thompson both received an incredible full mark for their performances. Also worthy of special men-tion is Laura Martell, who is on a one year placement at Newent from Germany, she received a C grade which is a testament to her dedication and hard work. Mrs Hood and Mrs Arrowsmith would like to congratulate all of the students for two performances that will become leg-endary in the Department. They also wish to extend a huge thank you to everyone who supported the performers both on the night and in the lead up to their performances.

On March 26th Newent Drama Department was visited by the GCSE moderator from AQA. 12 students from our Year 11 cohort represented the Department by perform-ing their own improvised pieces inspired by the horrific events of the Holocaust. All of the students are to be commended on their incredible hard work but particular congratulations go to Tom Kinsella, Rachel Price, Abbey

Key Stage Four Drama Success Too

Seeliger, Charlotte Parry and Danni Smith all of whom achieved top band marks for their performances. Year 10 Drama students have been working equally hard with Mrs Arrowsmith’s group creating their own Theatre in Education pieces whilst Mrs Hood’s group are prepar-ing to perform a 30 minute version of ‘Macbeth’. Many of the GCSE students will also be taking to the sky on April 4th to fly to Italy to take part in a range of cultural visits and Drama workshops. Next Easter a trip to Greece is planned ….start saving now!

Football has become one of the fastest growing par-ticipating sports for girls. With an increasing inter-est and lunchtime training the Year 7 girls took part in the Level 2 Sainsburys School Games, the Forest of Dean district competi-tion. Within this event the girls; Amelie Turner, Tia Manly, Beth Parish, Jayah Andrews, Alice Brett, Lu-cia Hanscombe and cap-tain Issy Dodd played Lakers School at Newent for the honour to repre-sent Newent Community School in the Level 3 games later in the month. Throughout the first third the girls stood their ground with Lakers de-fending in numbers and attacking on the break. The solid defence were able to deal with this pres-sure and come in at the break with a respectable score of 0-0. However in the second third after some encouraging words the girls pushed for-ward more using more of the space and earned them a deserved lead and holding onto that lead of 1-0 at the break. Again the girls were encouraged to use the space and attack in numbers which they did and found themselves finishing the game, well deserved winners with a 3-0 score line and the place in the Level 3 games secured. The girls of the district team went into the Level 3 games at Rednock School in Dursley, with add players of Ella Peeak, Ellie Dockray, Ellia Hall, Oliva Mayo and Frayha Hernaman. With the big event about to kick off the girls were feeling excited and proud of their achievement to make it to the event and play as many games as they could. The first game saw the girls take on Ribston and finish the game very strongly with a 0-1 score line which saw some fantastic team de-fending. With this positive result the girls went into their second game against Kingshill feeling confident. The team bat-tled well, supported each other with some great attacking play with Jayah, Issy and Ellie combining well but unluckily not finding the net. The girls finished the game 0-0. With the confidence of the team growing, the third game saw them take on a very strong Pates side that eventually ran out 5-0 winners, which for the Newent girls was a respectable score line as the Pates team were mainly county players. Elie Dockray had an amazing game in defence for Newent and helped to keep the score down! The final game of the day left the girls playing KLB. The girls had to pick themselves up from the defeat by Pates and battle for their pride. They drew 0-0 in this game with some solid defending, and overall achieved more than expected of them! The team are already looking forward to more games and next year’s events where with more experience they are hop-ing to better this amazing achievement.

Year 7 at Sainsbury’s School Games

Year 7 English students have been challenged to see Shakespeare’s work in a new light. Forty-five students were pre-sented with a famous speech from ‘As You Like It’ and asked to create masks based on their understanding of the text. Both the speech and masks chart the roles humans play during their lives on the metaphorical stage, Earth.

“All The World’s A Stage…”

Swedish Teacher, Ulla Bengtsson, spent a week at New-ent School looking at how English schools operate on a day to day basis. She spent time visiting a range of different lessons and she was particularly impressed with the staff student rela-tionship and very much enjoyed tutorial time. She thought our school involvement in extra-curricular activities was extensive and certainly not so evident in Swedish schools. Ulla enjoyed the practical subjects and 6th form Drama production after school. The visit comes at part of our involvement in the Comen ius Project which links schools and communities across Europe.

School Welcomes Swedish Teacher

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Accompanied by the school’s two veterans of the arctic wilderness, and a former student turned PGL instructor, a total of nine sixth formers completed a six-day cross-country skiing expedition through the arctic regions of Norway in two separate groups. After a minibus journey from the Norwegian city of Tromsø, each group skied through the arresting scenery of arctic Norway (plus a bit of Finland and Sweden), surrounded on all sides by mountains, ridges and vast frozen lakes. During a day of perfect visibility, a glacier could be seen in the heights of a distant mountain, while the landscape stretched on for miles in all directions. The temperatures and weather conditions fluctuated, but

The Perfection of Norway’s Arctic Wilderness

the lowest daytime temperature was recorded as -18°C, and the temperature on one evening fell to -38°C with wind chill. Luckily, the groups stayed mostly in basic but comfortable mountain huts, though the first group spent one night below the treeline whiling away the hours in a bivi. During the times in the huts, we crossed paths with hard-ened Nordic adventurers, and the second group was lucky enough to see the spectacular Northern Lights at their best. All members of the group thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and

would recommend it to anyone willing to brave the cold. This unique experience was only possible thanks to Mr Morley and Mr Naylor, who made the trip safe and enjoyable.

All Year 7s were involved in the Skills Cube Activity morning, where they used some skills General Employ-ers rank as desirable. Teams were set challenges:

Skills Cube Challenge For Year 7

Build the tallest Eiffel Tower using straws. Build a bridge Solve a sport league table and the Lego challenge. All involved developing different forms of communication skills, team skills, problem solving and application of maths, science and design technology. Activities involved action and time keeping which students found challenging and rewarding.

Year 11 students have had a Deputy General Secretary of a trade union, Linda Merrett, into PSHE lessons to look at employment law and how it affects them. The session covered areas such as equality, safety, unfair dismissal and pay. Students discussed discrimination and the law in relation to this; they looked at areas such as gender, age, race, religion and sexuality. Linda also gave the students clear information on the law in relation to social media and the work place. Not only the implications of prospective employers gathering information on a candidate but also the use of social media whilst at work. She informed students of the rights of employers to check emails and personal data if social media is used in work time or on work computers. Students were also given information regarding work whilst still in education. The age you are permitted to work, hours of work, where you can’t work and rates of pay.

Help on Employment Law in Year 11 PSHE By Di Harrill

In PSHE we are continuing to develop the extremely worthwhile dementia project, raising students’ aware-ness of dementia and its impact on the individual and the community. The Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia sets out to overturn many of the misconceptions about demen-tia and is working towards the development of de-mentia friendly communities. At the heart of this de-velopment is helping people to understand the condi-tion so that people can live well with dementia. Two themes run through the Prime Minister’s Challenge; understanding that dementia is not a normal part of ageing and challenging the assumption that there is nothing we can do to improve the lives of those living with dementia. Key to developing dementia friendly communities is an increased awareness about the impact of demen-tia both on those living with the condition and those who care for them. By educating the next generation we can begin to develop young people’s understand-ing of dementia. All of our Year 8 students, in PSHE lessons, have

Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia

been looking at different issues around dementia im-proving their knowledge and awareness. Each group has been lucky to have input from a dementia specialist to enhance their learning and understanding. The topic concluded, with all year 8’s having Dementia Friend session delivered by the Forest of Dean District Council’s Community Dementia Link officer and two volunteers, who are all Dementia Champions. Year 9 students are also currently re-visiting the topic with the aid of a game that quizzes them on their knowledge and understanding of dementia. Shepherd House are also giving the year 9 students the oppor-tunity to visit them and buddy some of their clients. The Year 9s will also gain the Dementia Friend award!

Thrilling Week of Success for Dominant Newent Swimmers What a week of success at Newent Community School and Sixth Form Centre for our excellent students, namely, on this occasion, our aquatic-minded group of swimmers – of which there are quite a lot! On a week which saw both one of the most thrilling ends ever in a race to conclude the House Swimming Gala, to a Championship victo-ry at the Gloucester City Swimming Gala, New-ent School’s Swimmers really stood up and demonstrated what unique talent, determination and skill they all possessed! On Thursday 13th March, the school took a team of almost sixty students to the Gloucester City Swimming Gala at GL1 Leisure Centre. Having not participated in the invitation-only event for the past two years, and winning it the previous two, Newent students were keen to prove their talents against some of the best swimmers and competi-tion in the county of Gloucestershire. The event itself was fast-paced and competitive throughout, highlighted by Newent being the only school to enter a competitor into every single event – that’s 118 events! Furthermore, and even more impres-sive, was that out of all of those events, the stu-dents (both individually and in relay teams) man-aged to secure ‘Top Three’ finishes in over eighty of those events – highlighted by a number of stand-out performances (to name a few) from Harry Wilkins (Senior), Harry Bloxsome (Year 9), Ella White (Year 9), Liam Bowers (Year 10), Tom Isbell (Year 9), James Cole (Year 9), Isaac Raun (Year 10) and one to definitely watch out for in the future, an incredibly talented Lilly Wood (Year 8)! At the culmination of the event, an hour over the finish time, the team scores were in. In the Girls’ competition Newent managed a third place finish, placing well behind only two other excellent teams from the High School (second) and Rib-ston Hall (first). In the Boys’ competition Newent did extremely well to finish in second place, ahead of Kings in third, and Tommys in first. Overall however, and due to our students’ consistent string of results throughout the day, Newent School were crowned as Overall event champions out of all of the Gloucester City and surrounding areas schools – a fantastic achievement! That was not it however, as less than 24-hours later, these tired yet classy students all turned out for the Newent Com-munity School & Sixth Form Centre annual House Swimming Gala. As it turned out, the event proved to be one of the closest finishes to a swimming gala in history, closely contested between Collingwood and Mountbatten on this occa-sion! Despite many aching limbs from their efforts on the previous day, the students regained their composure and again aimed to apply themselves within the pool! Similar can be said to the previous in regards to the swimmers atti-tudes and desires to do well – however the House Swimming Gala needs to be recognised for its distinct potential to all a wide range of competition, and to ‘wear the shirt with pride’ for both established and inexperienced swimmers when representing their Houses. This could be no more highlighted for example in some of the ‘distinct’ diving styles of both Rich Wintour (Senior) and Abbey Seeliger (Year 11) in the High Diving competition. However the event also proved an-other excellent opportunity for those experienced swimmers to target individual success too, as well as through their Houses, and therefore to view the individual successes of swimmers smashing long-standing school records was fan-tastic to watch. Particular recognition should be paid to Harry Wilkins (Senior Boys IM), Reece Cole (Inter Boys Back-stroke), Tom Isbell and Ella White (Inter Boys and Girls Breaststroke respectively), and Lilly Wood (Y8 Girls Butterfly). Meanwhile throughout the entire gala both Collingwood and Mountbatten traded blows, taking good leads at times in the scoring. Coming down to the final 10 races, both Houses jockeyed between first and second position on a race by race result - coming down to the scores level with two races remaining! With only one race remaining, Mountbatten had a slender lead, meaning that whoever finished in front on the final race would win the gala. In the Canon event Mountbatten took a massive lead of just over a whole length at one point - however coming into the very last swimmer of the eight person team, Gabbi Parcell made up a whole-length disadvantage for Collingwood to reach for the wall at the finish and over-take her competitor by the stretch - what a finish, and congratulations to Collingwood for their excellent win!

Annual Battlefields Trip By Adam Warner

After a 4am start we proceeded to catch the ferry at Do-ver. We arrived at Calais around 11.30am French time and made our way up to Sanctuary Wood in Belgium. Sanctuary Wood has the best preserved trenches from the First World War. The trenches are in a zig-zag for-mation in order to make enemy artillery shells less effec-tive. There were tunnels in the trenches for the troops to gain access to the reserve or comms trenches. My emotions were very mixed there. I was happy as I had finally got there after months of waiting but I was also subdued by the thought that many thousands of men had died or been injured there. The trenches were around 5 foot deep, full of puddles and small sink holes. This made me think how soldiers had to live in such awful conditions managing things like Trench foot, Trench fever and rats. It was also possible that men drowned in these conditions as they fell forward with heavy packs and could not roll over or get up. The sides were supported by stakes of wood and pieces of tin which would be your only protec-tion as a soldier. It’s not hard to see why many struggled to survive and must have been terribly distraught. Sanctu-ary Wood is a quiet and peaceful place where all you can really hear is nature. I can’t imagine how noisy it would have been with the amount of craters that are hollowed out of the ground. In the Museum there are many pictures some showing men mutilated by artillery, gas and guns. However there were also images of friendship and how men passed the time in the trench, drinking tea, drinking rum, cleaning their guns, talking and writing letters. I thought that life in the trenches may not have been all bad when there were no major battles going on. Then we proceeded to Tyne Cot Cemetery spending half an hour there. Tyne Cot is home to 11,956 graves of lost or dead Commonwealth soldiers. It was sadly stunning to see so many well attended graves and we spent some

time looking at the names, some of which were names my friends have now which made me think of the magni-tude of those who died and how had I lived then I could be visiting my friends graves. From there we travelled onto the German Memorial at Langemarck which is very different to British ones. The graveyard was smaller and they had been buried in mass graves. The next stop was Talbot house in the village of Poper-inge. This is where soldiers came if they had time off from the trenches to rest and relax or if they had been wound-ed. We saw a remake video of a concert party held dur-ing the war and had a lovely cup of tea before we went on to Ypres to the hostel. Having unloaded our kit at the hostel we then had chicken and chips for tea, followed by a trip to the Leonidas choc-olate shop. Having treated ourselves we made our way to the Menin Gate in Ypres. We were there to be part of the Last Post which is held every night at 8pm Belgian time. It was very sombre; there was a large crowd many of whom were locals. The atmosphere was very respectful and yet glum thinking of those who lost their lives. A lone soldier played the Last Post on his trumpet which was followed by two minutes silence where we proceeded to put our wreath from the school in memory of the fallen soldiers on a stand. This ended our first day so we returned to the hostel to sleep. After breakfast the following morning we went to Lochna-gar Crater (La Boiselle) and saw the largest mine explo-sion in World War 1. British troops had been digging un-derground to reach and blow up a German strongpoint. The mine was exploded two minutes before 07.30 am Zero Hour at the launch of the British offensive against the German lines on the morning of 1st July 1916. It looked to be similar to the size of a rugby pitch and I can

only imagine the noise which would have been deafening. We then went on to the Musee Somme 1916 in Albert. This museum was a former crypt which had been used as a bunker and in World War 2 a bomb shelter. We only got to see a small fraction of the trenches that started at the Museum there and went on for about a mile. Here you could see models, pictures, diagrams and weapons that had been used in the war. The Museum was lit with artifi-cial light and was damp and cold. There were lots of inter-esting stories we were told of and one that stuck with me was that of the Leaning Virgin. This statue was hit by a German shell and local legend said the war would end when the virgin fell as she was leaning heavily from the

shell’s impact. We had a weapons’ demonstration of French, German and English rifles along with artillery pieces. For me the most enjoyable part was the Underground Museum because it was more visual and re-enacted the times of the war. However Sanctuary Wood was more graphic as photos showed what had happened there.

On the 10th March our twenty-eight AS Physics students visited the Oncology Department at Cheltenham General Hospital as part of their Controlled Assessment. The de-partment were amazing in giving up their time to show us round various pieces of equipment used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. These included the gamma camera, used to diagnose the function of parts of our body, the CAT scanner used to view the structure of our body and the Linear Accelerator used to deliver radiotherapy to treat cancer by exposing it to high energy X-rays. The students had opportunity to ask questions to find out about how these pieces of equipment worked, how they were used and the safety and cost implications. The med-

Real World Physics By John Goodchild

ical physics staff were fantastic in answering questions and demonstrating the processes they went through. Students also had the opportunity to ask about a career in Medical Physics as several of the staff who showed us round were trainees in either their first, second or third years. It was great to see the ideas and concepts we have been learning about in the classroom being put into practice to save peoples’ lives. I would like to thank the students who represented the school impeccably and to Mrs Price for driving one of the minibuses. Finally, I would especially like to thank Anne Welsh, the Head of Medical Physics for the Gloucester-shire NHS trust, who has been so accommodating in al-lowing us to visit. She has worked tirelessly in the organi-sation and delivery. It was a fantastic experience for staff and students alike.

Our first destination was a cemetery in a town called Oswiecim, the Polish word for Auschwitz. Unlike the rest of our trip this was meant for happiness, the grave stones were from Jewish survivors who remained in the town until they died peacefully of natural causes. In hindsight this was light relief from the emotional burden of Ausch-witz. The camp itself is split into three parts, the last of which we drove past still remaining an operational factory pro-ducing chemicals. When we arrived at what they call ‘Auschwitz One’ we were met by hoards of people and a guide, not at all like the desolate place imagined. Nothing quite prepares you for what you see. Several barracks stand, untouched in rows. Inside lies 80,000 pairs of shoes, 20 tonnes of human hair and several thousand suitcases including those clearly labelled as the property of young children. The main aim of Lessons from Ausch-witz is to ‘rehumanise’ the victims of holocaust, this cer-tainly did it. Countless pictures of the first thousand brought to Auschwitz cover the corridors and leave you with two unforgettable impressions. The first, one of com-plete terror and unimaginable pain, the second, simple despair and wonder of how their life had deteriorated. It’s no surprise the walk back to the bus was one of silence. Our last destination was to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death camp In which 1.2 million people, mainly Jews but also ‘vagrants’ and others considered to have committed a ‘political crime’, were killed. Strangely enough this didn’t carry the same weight of grief like Auschwitz One did; you

By Helen Barker and George Probert

Auschwitz and the Weight of Grief

are simply left in awe of the sheer size of it, 6km in width and 1km in length. There is still the unmistakably omi-nous feeling of destruction as you walk over grass in-grained with human ash. Again, as we walked the path the Jews walked to certain death and walked parallel with the train tracks they arrived on, we walked in silence. We would have remained sombre and silent even on the plane home had we not have the utterly inspiring and up-lifting speech from Rabbi Shaw. The gravity of the train tracks dividing through the centre of Birkenau simply has to be experienced. This became even more considerable when he stood on them whilst delivering the service. Just as the sun was setting he sang various psalms in Hebrew as well as several readings followed by a promise that we shouldn’t feel sadness but relief, if humans can be this horrific and inhumane, then we can be so good. ‘I feel two things’ he said, ‘I feel proud to be a Jew, and hope for the human race’. Once the service had ended we lit candles, not only a cultural custom for Jews but with flame as met-aphor of the inextinguishable hope that can be spread, and put them directly on the train tracks. As we walked away from Auschwitz-Birkenau, a sea of candles re-mained burning brightly as a testament to the survival of the Jewish faith, the legacy of those who sadly perished there and the potential for goodness in aftermath of un-speakable evil.

Picklenash Students Apply Science to Food

69 children from Picklenash School visited the food rooms to explore their science curriculum: solids and liq-uids. The making of flapjacks looked at irreversible reac-tions, the effect of heat on different ingredients, and in addition the property of absorbency when adding oats to the mixture. All the children were engaged with their learning and

Picklenash’s Head teacher Mrs Griffiths enjoyed seeing her pupils extending their learning through practical activi-ties. Alongside the science there were practical life skills tips and food hygiene and safety considerations. The children left with worksheets and recipes to develop their literacy skills even further when back at school.

St Mary’s C of E Bromesberrow and Heron Primary Schools have enjoyed visiting the Food Rooms to add a practical learning ele-ment to the World War 2 topic, the Victorian and Brazilian topics covered in their Key Stage 2 curriculum. The cross curricular approach gives enjoyment and meaning to their learning. A new programme was the Dragon’s Den Enterprise Challenge. Children from Coney Hill designed and created their own healthy soups for an elderly person. A range of soups were created and taken back to school for taste panels’ analysis and mar-keting. Hempsted, Staunton and Corse and Tibber-ton Primary Schools have also visited the Food Room to extend their practical food handling skills linked to their topic. Woolton pie for WW2, Easter cakes for festivals and Kenyan Bean Stew and chapattis for Kenya all went down well. Children related their science, numeracy and literacy skills to their measuring, cook-ing and reading of their recipes. Using food as the medium is a truly cross-curricular approach to learning, and was a real success. The Practical food sessions are open to all Primary Schools, simply E Mail ppalmer@newent.gloucs.uk

Cross-Curricular Fun for Primary Visitors

Busy Spring in the School Library

Spring Term has been a busy one in the Library. 7PM have been busy creating work based on their fa-vourite Michael Morpurgo books for a national competi-tion. They have worked so hard and produced some fabulous pieces of work which are on display in Miss Kelley’s room. Well done to Daisy Raun (M6), Will Elen (M10), Joe Haswell (M8), Amy Davies (M13), Amelie Turner (M1) and Steven Worrall (M5) February saw the launch of our Postcard Exchange. We’ve been busy swapping postcards with schools from London, Kuala Lumpar, Italy, Somerset, Devon and still have others arriving weekly. It has been really interesting to see what students in these countries have been enjoy-ing. The postcards are all on display in the library so come and check them out. March saw World Book Day. We had a great time doing the “Name the Book” competition. Everyone who took part had a free lollipop, so there were lots of entries! Over 50 of you won the quiz and collected your prizes and of course, collected your free £1 World Book day books. We also ran the “Design a Bookmark” competition and the entries have been sent off for marking. Fingers crossed…… . Year 11 and Year 13 As you get ready for study leave why not get everything cleared before the exams? This is a great chance to make sure you have no outstanding library books or lost property. Just pop into the library for 5 minutes to make sure you’re up-to-date.

Year 10 Catering students were delighted to receive a visit from a team of Royal Navy Chefs. The visit involved demon-strations and practical ‘hands on’ activities. The chefs demonstrated a chicken curry with an unusual twist, adding a se-cret ingredient! The students were able to then make their own which was described as ‘one of the best curries I have ever eaten’. The chefs spoke about careers within the Navy and also gave insight into what foods were included in a ration pack.

Navy Chefs Visit Year 10 Catering - Fit for Life Course

ried out further fieldwork over two days including visits to the SSSI (sites of special scientific interest) at Kenfig dunes to see how the natural landscape and features have been disrupted by human interaction. This was all done with the help of the specialist group leader provided to us by the field study centre. Regardless of the weather, it was certainly beneficial to all us especially in terms of our exam.

The aim of the trip was to gather fieldwork data to support our exam for which we have been studying about re-branding of urban and rural areas, and pressures and management along the coast. Our base for the trip was Margam Discovery Centre which is a Field Studies Coun-cil centre in South Wales. This provided us with a perfect location to study both aspects of the course. On our first day we visited the internationally renowned mountain bike centre in Glyncorrwg to look at rural re-branding. During our visit we interviewed various stake holders to investigate the success of rebranding in the area. On day two (despite the bitter cold) we visited Swansea to investigate urban rebranding including areas which had already been rebranded like the SA1 development but also looking at the Sandfields estate which is an area still in need of rebranding. Moving to the Crowded Coasts section of our course, we visited the local seaside town of Porthcawl. There we car-

By Di Harrill

Margam Discovery For Year 12 Geography Students By Helen Barker and Emily Davies

In year 10 PSHE, sexuality and sexual orientation is an area covered with in the Sex and Relationship curriculum.

Year 10 PSHE Visitors Mark Ten Years of Support

We have been very lucky to have Gay Glos come in to school on a yearly basis for the past 10 years, working with year 10 students. The sessions are invaluable. They deal with many issues around sexuality, including the use of homophobic lan-guage; even if a gay student has not been bullied a cul-ture of homophobia has an impact on their sense of be-longing. Gay Glos helps young people question their personal views and opinions and encourages them to be accept-ing.

As part of the 2014 Sport Relief efforts, Newent School PE Department gave a group of students the opportunity to participate in the Run, Swim or Bike a Mile Challenge in support of this worthy cause. In raising sponsorship for welcome charities, as well as through the whole-school non-uniform day, around forty students completed either 102 lengths of the swimming pool, or attempted to com-plete as many laps of the 1-mile cross country route around the edges of the school as possible on either their bikes or by running. The event itself was well supported by the enthusiastic children, many of who simply turned up in their non-

school uniform and participated then and there …… many though soon discovered that it wasn’t as easy as they thought it would be on some of the steep inclines especially! What was fantastic however was to see the complete range of stu-dents from across the school will-ing to challenge themselves to try something new, and to try some-thing tough! Massive thanks for all your efforts! A special mention must go to (Name removed) who cycled all day from 8.40 to 3.20 without a break to raise £80 for Sports Re-lief on his own. And it was his own brilliant, eye-catching idea.

New English Incentive Kingsholm Stadium Visit for Year 11 Way back on Thursday 19th December, twenty-six year eleven students visited Kingsholm Rugby stadium in Gloucester to reward them for their improved work in English. The students were given a tour of the stadium via New-ent School’s community link with the club. During the trip the students saw all the facilities that the club has to offer to both fans and players. This included the pitch, chang-ing rooms and the hospitality available on match day. “The trip was a really good incentive to reach our targets in our GCSE controlled assessments.” Bobbie “We caught a glimpse of Mike Tindell during our visit!” Myles

As part of their preparation for English Language A Level ex-ams later this year, six students from Year 13 visited Countryside Day Nursery in Corse on Tues-day 10th December to see how very young children begin to ac-quire and develop language. We are extremely grateful to Grace Raines, who has run the nursery for 22 years, for making us so welcome on the day. She provided us with an extensive and detailed tour of the nursery, and allowed us a privileged in-sight into language learning in all of the classrooms, ranging from babies of a few months old, right up to pre-school. Having spent a sequence of lessons prior to the visit exploring different theories and stages of language acquisi-tion, the trip gave us the oppor-tunity to see first-hand how the classroom learning relates to real children, and we will be studying audio transcripts from the visit as part of the prepara-tion for the exam. Grace was also kind enough to give us her valuable insight into how the nursery runs, as well as some extremely useful resources for further study. We look for-ward to returning immediately before the summer exams to see how the children are progressing

with their language acquisition and development.

Language Learning Comes to Life at Countryside Day Nursery By Tony Clarke - English Department

It has been yet another busy couple of terms for the excellent Sports Lead-ers at Newent Community School & Sixth Form Cen-tre. As ever, the PE De-partment has busy organis-ing a vast array of sporting opportunities, both partici-pation and competition, for many of its feeder primary schools within both the Newent area, and in the wider context as a host school for many of the For-est District Sainsbury’s School Games events. The newly developed ‘Fundamental Movement Skills’ festivals have provid-ed an excellent opportunity for Primary children in Foundation, Year One and Year Two, to engage with many others from around the area to learn basic skills such as coordination, balance and locomotion, whilst providing an invalua-ble teaching and learning

Sports Leadership Academy Fit and Healthy

tool for Primary School Teachers to take back to their own environments to implement – all thanks go to the support of Glebe Infant School in their de-velopment of this fantastic resource. In preparation for both the upcoming Tag Rugby, and previously delivered Quick Sticks Hockey and High Fives Netball, both community and governing body links have been fur-ther entrenched with the delivery of excellent Sports Officials training for our talented Year Nines and Tens by the RFU, GB Hockey and Newent Hockey Club, and GB Netball respectively – all providing an excellent insight for the students into how to use their al-ready existing high levels of leadership within a more ‘refereeing’ and ‘umpiring’ context. These excellent collaborative opportunities proved very tough for some of the stu-dents, but the outcomes have been superb in their application at Primary School events hosted by Newent Community School, and now many of the students look forward to the prospect of being selected as potential ‘officials’ at upcoming District and County events. Of the almost two-hundred strong sports leaders across the school, many of the top performers have been given the opportunity to further their skills with a number of specific training sessions outside of school. Of the nominated sixty Year Nines who have been very gratefully assisting with a range of activities, such as Cross Country and Sports Hall Athletics, whilst undertaking leadership training over the year, twenty were selected to participate in a ‘District’ Leader-ship Training Day at Forest E-Act Academy. The day provided an opportunity for these selected individuals to receive some very specialised training delivered by Hartpury College Student Sports Leadership Tutors, whilst also allowing a small number to demonstrate that they de-served the opportunity to undertake higher level ‘Ambassador’ training in association with the Youth Sports Trust. As a result of this, and along with a number of highly talented Year Tens handpicked from the pool of talent with the Core PE Sports Leadership Academy, a group of around ten students have been selected as some of Newent School’s top lead-ers, or ‘Gold Ambassadors’ – whilst at the same time working to mentor those nominated Year Nines as ‘Silver Ambas-sadors’. The opportunity was developed through a YST delivered training day at the University of Gloucestershire, along with many other nominated students from around the County to give the students an even greater insight into higher level sports leadership and skilling-up the students to begin planning their own sports events for the future. These students are now motivated by the prospect of delivering their own Paralympic themed event for the upcoming National School Sports Week later on in the year! Lastly, but by no means least, association with the Gloucestershire School Games 2014 has allowed members of the Year Ten Sports Academy the opportunity to apply to become ‘School Games Makers’ for the wide range of events pro-vided at the county level. These fantastic students applied in writing to be selected as such, and as a result of Newent School’s excellent reputation as a sports leadership provider, all of the students who applied secured a position on the training day at Hartpury College! Now in receipt of a classy School Games tracksuit, the students have been allocated a vast range of opportunities to coach, officiate, score, manage and time keep at upcoming events, including the ‘Spring Games’, the ‘Special School’s Swimming Gala’ and the County Finals for ‘Primary Cross Country’ – well done to all of you!

Appearing in Panto...

Year 9 Drama students have been exploring the histo-ry and traditions of pantomime and celebrated their discoveries by producing their own pantomime perfor-mances! As the photographs show they had a great deal of fun whilst simultaneously pushing their Drama achievement levels even higher by actively exploring a new genre of performance!

On Thursday 6th March 13 girls from Years 9 and 7 took part in the dance fes-tival. It was a fantas-tic event which in-volved primary, sec-ondary and commu-nity groups. Working together as a group we choreo-graphed the dance that we performed to Candyman and Hair-spray. The theme of a 1940s style partner dance created an interested dynamic where half the group performed as men and half as women. We rehearsed over a number of months culminating with many lunchtime and after school practic-es. We were excited to perform and be a part of the festival. The girls were brilliant and danced fantastically on the night performing to a packed audience at the Royal Forest of Dean Theatre Coleford. We look forward to being a part of this great community event again next year.

Forest Community Dance Festival 2014

Recently, in our PSHE lesson, we had a visit from retired magistrate, Peter Spicer. He was explaining to us all about the role of a Magistrate. He was talking about the legal power a Magis-trate can hold and the entry require-ments for people who may wish to become a Magistrate. Towards the middle part of the les-son, there was a set of crimes out-lined to us and we had to work out the punishments we would give out. Dur-ing the final part of the lesson we set up a mini – Magistrate’s Court and we had to find out whether a person was guilty or not guilty. Peter had said we had to listen carefully and only judge on the evidence we were given. There were three witnesses, a security officer, the police officer who arrested the defendant and finally, the defendant herself. We were all listening but as it turned out we didn’t listen hard enough. The defendant was accused of shoplifting and her excuse for the act was that she had had to rush to meet a friend at 4pm. But she was arrested at 2pm and only a couple of people picked up on this vital piece of evidence, which obviously led to her conviction. Overall we had a great time and it was extremely interesting to hear all about the law and the session made us appreci-ate the importance of evidence and clear judgement in a Court of Law.

By Dafi Griffiths

How the Court Works

In structure, Boccia is very similar to the sport of Curling, recently highlighted through the amazing success of the British Teams at the Sochi Winter Olympics. A sport in which you aim to get as many of your team’s ‘balls’ as close to the ‘jack’ as possible whilst limiting the number from the opposition is a Paralympic inspired event, de-veloped from Lawn Bowls, that allows an opportunity for mass participation on a small scale. Recently Newent Community School and Sixth Form Centre sent three teams of four students to Lakers School, Coleford, to

Boccia Team Through To County Finals

compete against a number of teams in the District Cham-pionships from both Heart of the Forest School and Lak-ers School themselves. The ‘Projectability’ event, part of the Gloucestershire Sainsbury’s School Games, was a thrilling affair, allowing all of the teams to compete over a number of Heats, be-fore the medals were decided in a third and fourth place play-off, and a winners final. Newent ‘C’, captained by Joe Lyne, and consisting of Kai Dryden Chouen, Bradley Smith and Sam Letschford, finished the competition in fifth place. Newent ‘B’, captained by the highly motivational Ben Wentworth, assisted by Fenn Edwards, Tom Cleverly and Marcus Hopkins, did very well to reach the semi-finals and secure an excellent Bronze Medal. However it was the Newent ‘A’ team of Brandon Smith, Josh Ormond and Martine Wentworth that performed con-

sistently well in support of their excellent captain of Tamsin Kornik, to reach the District Final. In a close and captivating final, the Newent ‘A’ team were able to put on an excellent performance to win a fantastic Gold Medal and secure the school a place at the upcoming Gloucestershire County Finals at Cheltenham College. The hard work now begins for all, and any, of these students to earn their place within the team that will go ahead to represent Newent School against some very tough competition from around the county. Congratulations to all once again!

On Friday 7th March, 9 Year 8s and 8 Year 7s departed from Newent for Shropshire for the PGL Netball tourna-ment at Boreatton Park. We anticipated a weekend of

netball and activities and that’s what we got. We played netball in the morn-ing and enjoyed activities in the afternoon. The Year 8 team were fantastic winning 2 of their games, drawing 1 and los-ing 2. They were unfortu-nate to lose the last game and missed out on a place in the final. The Year 7s also played really well to hold their own to win 1 game, draw 2 and lose 3 games. The girls quickly got used to the efficient umpiring and their play improved greatly. Despite the cold weather on Satur-day the girls gave their best in each game. Fortu-nately the weather was much warmer on Sunday for the conclusion of the tournament. Saturday afternoon saw the girls embrace a num-ber of the outdoor and ad-venturous activities that PGL offers. They had a go at the leap of faith, the zip wire, giant swing and climbing. Some particularly conquering fears of heights which was fantas-tic! Sunday morning brought more activities for the Year 7s who had a go at the giant swing, firing rifles and the climbing wall. In the evenings the girls enjoyed a challenge night and a disco. We had a brilliant time and very much look forward to tak-ing another two teams next year. Year 7: Laura Evans, Dai-sy Raun, Isobelle Lewis, Tia Manley, Sophie Wil-

PGL Netball

liams, Leah Sampson, Amelie Turner, Sian Levell Year 8: Gabi Adams, Sam Creese, Frankie Cox, Lucy Buckley, Meg Johnson, Beth Broady, Izzy Fraser-Townsend, Lydia Kelly, Sophie Pritchard

PGL - Off Duty! Over 80 Year 9 students were selected to attend an all-action sports afternoon in January. The aim was to offer students a pathway to extend their skills outside of school sport. Newent Rugby and Hockey Club delivered expert sessions along with Dave Lucas from the Forest of Dean Athletics Club. Students also received specialist coaching in cheerlead-ing from an ex-student, Charlotte Phelphs who now stud-ies at the University of Gloucestershire! All students en-joyed the afternoon and were exhausted by the end!

Year 9 PE Day

Year 8 in Top 3 Spot Our Year 8 girls travelled to Hartpury to compete in the Gloucestershire Rugby Final. They fought hard, showing skill and perseverance in full contact matches against top opposition. Many of the teams we faced played for a club outside of school but that didn’t stop the girls from digging deep and scoring some spectacular tries. Consequently their efforts (and bruises!) were duly rewarded with a bronze medal which was presented to them by Sarah Hunter who is the England Women's Captain.

This year the Applegates Ski Shield was presented to (name removed) for his contribution to the trip. (Name) has joined the trip for the past 4 years and is now in the advanced ski group. To quote (Name) ‘It just gets better and better every year!’

We left Newent at 10:30 am on Friday 14th February and arrived at our hotel in Austria at 8:15am. Our journey flew by (!) compared to a number of schools who were booked on the ferries which were unable to sail due to the bad weather. The Schneerose Hotel welcomed us, and the ski school which we have used for many years organised our ski, boot and helmet fitting, ready for our groups to hit the slopes Sunday morning. The week of skiing gave the students a mixed weather experience of clear blue skies, sun, thick snow, fog and fine snow. All the groups made progress in their skiing ability. Evening activities saw students working in teams with people they didn’t know before the trip. The fancy dress, drama night, quiz night and bowling evening were enjoyed by all. The other adult guests in the hotel en-joyed seeing the various activities especially the fancy dress and the final dinner evening. They complimented our students on their good behaviour and table manners. Thank you to parents and carers who supported this trip.

The 2015 Austrian Ski Trip is already

Austrian Skiing Trip - 2014

full which is most encouraging; students on the reserve list will be first choices for the 2016 trip.

Austria 2014