Over 100 gymnasts took part inthis year’s festival from fivesecondary schools.

Tupton students had a great afternoon.The whole event started with a bangwhen our vaulting team performed theirdisplay. Both the year 7 and year 8teams won their competitions. LaurenJevons and Tamar Cole (Y.9) won gold

in the pairs competition and AmberJenner and Katie Downing (Y.11) wonbronze. 24 medals were awarded thatafternoon and Tupton students won 22of them. Not a bad result!!

Schools taking part in the festival:Tupton Hall, Deincourt, MortimerWilson, Swanwick Hall, St. Mary’s.

ISSUE 3 JUNE 2007

INSIDE: Out of Africa • London Eye challenge • Star:Track • D of E expeditions

Gym Festival 2007...

... and record student numbers

Literary starsOver 180 students from years 7 to 13entertained parents and fellow studentsto a spectacular three hour gym anddance display in the sports hall.

The programme included our year 10and 11 GCSE dance students, 6th Formdance leaders and dance clubs. Therewere also dance items from KS3 lessonsand year 8 boys performed their streetdance routine to huge applause andcheers. The girls and boys waiting toperform were able to watch theperformance thanks to a live video link.

Our gym teams from years 7 and 8showed their festival sequences.Acrobatic pairs from years 9, 10 and11 performed their routines and for thefirst time we had groupitems from Year 9

lessons The vaulting team scaredeveryone with their somersaults anddive rolls at ever-increasing heights!Junior and Senior Trampoline Clubs alsoshowed off their skills.

And then they did it all again the nextmorning for year 6 students from theprimary feeder schools – phew!

During the summer term, the gymnastsand dancers are taking a rest, but thereare 30 year 10 and 6th form studentscoming up to finishing their danceleader courses. There is also theopportunity to learn some street dancetechniques on Tuesday evenings in thedance studio. This session is led by oneof our ex-pupils Simon Cox who is now

working for Directions TheatreCompany.

Members of Year 9 performed TheMuch Reduced Tempest in theirassembly last term. Students arestudying the Shakespeare play inpreparation for questions in theirEnglish SATS. The students performeda 15 minute Reduced ShakespeareTheatre Company version withxcellent acting skills shown by all.

Meanwhile, the Literary Quiz(pictured below) was again a hugesuccess. Organised by schoollibrarians, the competition involvedover 20 teams. Plenty of prizes werewon and the format has been such ahit that it is now being copied inother Derbyshire schools..

This Easter we held our most ambitiousexpedition tasking 19 students to thePeak District. And back in January, apre D of E weekend for twelve Year 9students took place at Ravenstor YouthHostel.

In July, a Gold Practice expedition willtake place in the Yorkshire Dales andwe are also planning a WorldChallenge to Norway in the summer of2008.

Our expertise was in demand when agroup of Netherthorpe School studentsvisited to share experiences and askquestions of our Award veterans.

So it was fitting that in March we hostedthe North East Derbyshire AwardPresentation Ceremony in the RichardSmith hall.

Tupton students receiving awards were:

Bronze: Rebecca Stevenson, Abbey JoMoores, Alex Thirkett, Amy Goulding,Alice Corker.

Silver: Cameron Ward, SophieWardlow.

The D o E Awards began at Tupton Hallin 2003. Since then over 20 walksand expeditions have taken place and34 days of activities involving over 180students.Twenty two students have gained theirBronze Award (with 5 awaiting theirPresentation and 12 approachingcompletion) and 11 students havegained their Silver Award.Approximately 50 Tupton Hall studentsare currently involved in the Scheme.

Duke of Edinburgh’s AwardDuke of Edinburgh’s Award

Foreign LanguageLeader Award Three groups of Year 10 ModernForeign Language students signedup to the new FLLA course last term.

Tupton Hall School is currently theonly school in Derbyshire runningthis new and innovative award foryoung leaders in MFL.

Ten students have embarked uponthis award per language (French,German and Spanish) run by SportsLeaders UK, the body behind themore well-known Junior SportsLeader Award (JSLA).

The course and certification involvesthe students, who are all talentedlinguists, coaching youngerlanguage learners. Our studentswill visit three local primary schoolsand lead activities with KS2children.

The students have prepared manyresources already and will utilisethese and more in the visits they willmake this term. The students shouldgraduate from the course inSeptember, in time for the finalactivity created especially for theEuropean Day of Languages.

We have established a link withAguda Senior Grammar Schoolin Lagos, Nigeria.

This is part of the Dreams andTeams project set up by theYouth Sports Trust and TheBritish Council to link Englishand African schools in the runup to the 2010 World Cupwhich will be held in SouthAfrica.

In December 2006 all of theschools involved met up nearHeathrow for the Africanseminar and the NigerianHeadteacher Rev. Dr. Mrs.Owade visited our school. Shewas amazed by our facilities andexperienced Return to the

Forbidden Planet and Christmasat Chatsworth during her stay.

In February 2007 Mr Cook andMrs. Watson, our Director ofSport, visited Nigeria. It was aneye – opening experience. Lagosis one of the biggest and busiestcities in the world with overeleven million people. It is atrading centre for the regionboth at corporate and streetlevel. The traffic is congestedand chaotic at all times.

Despite being the tenth largestoil producer in the world, livingstandards are poor for manyNigerians as corruption is rife.This was apparent not only inthe decaying roads but also at

the school, which was in verypoor condition. They had noelectricity or running water andvery few educational resources.Lessons were taught in verylarge classes of over 60 studentsusing only worn out blackboardsand exercise books. Discipline isvery strict with corporalpunishment used to punishstudents on a daily basis.

Both boys and girls play footballas the school doesn’t have othersports facilities. They did,however, have a sports daywhile we were there whichconsisted of processions andtrack events. Mrs. Watsonintroduced them to Rounderswith over 90 students joining in

Dreams and TeamsDreams and Teams

and followed this with EnglishCountry dancing accompaniedby African drums!

So what are Nigerian studentslike? They were very friendlyand excited to meet us Theirrapturous welcome wasoverwhelming. They are keen tolearn and do well in life – the‘whatever’ attitude wascompletely absent. They arehealthy and energetic and takegreat pride in their appearancewhether wearing their smartschool uniform or a premiershipfootball shirt.

Since our visit some of our Year10 students have written pen palletters to Aguda students andtheir link teacher recently visitedTupton. Our staff and studentswere very interested to meet herand broaden their culturalawareness. We have donated alaptop computer to the school toenable us to have e mail linksand they will also be able toaccess our website and itseducational resources.

Where do we go from here? Allbeing well we will send a smallparty of staff and students to

Lagos during the next schoolyear and host a visit from Agudastudents later in 2008.

Patrick Cook May 2007

Award-winningAlice appears onNewsroundA Tupton Hallstudent’s prize-winning tale of lifeas an African slavewas broadcast onnational radio andBBC’s Newsround.

Alice Corker won first prize in theBBC competition commemorating the200th anniversary of the abolition ofslavery. The competition was part ofthe BBC World Class initiativeconnecting schools in the UK withthose in Africa and other countries.

Her story about Beth, a young slaveon an American plantation in the1800s, was broadcast on Radio 4’sprogramme Go4it on Sunday.

The 13 year-old, who is a memberof Derbyshire County Council’sChesterfield Write On group, wasalso interviewed on the show. Sheappeared on the CBBC newsprogramme in March.

n The Write On group is a writinggroup for people aged from 11 to14 years-old which meets atChesterfield Library. For moreinformation about ChesterfieldWrite On group contactDerbyshire County Council’sliterature development officerAlison Betteridge on 01773831359.

Tupton Hall was one of seven localschools challenged to build amodel of the London Eyewith just paper andstring. Thecompetition wasled byengineersfromSheffieldHallamUniversityand hostedby LadyManners Schoolin Bakewell.

Ten of our most ableyear 7 pupils took part.After engineering andarchitectural lectures, our students wereshown how to make paper tubes thatwould be strong enough to withstandopposing forces equivalent to their ownbody weight. The teams were given justthree hours to complete the model – theprize being a ride on the real thing.

Chelsea Hardy took charge of thegroup Chloe Knowles quickly calculatedhow many of each size tube wereneeded and Joel Beer beganformulating a plan for the passengercapsules.

When enough tubes had been made foran eighth of the wheel, MatthewHawkins methodically constructed astrong triangular design that wouldserve as a pattern for the rest of the

circumference. He then taught the restof the group how to replicate the

structure.

Time was running outand panic began to

creep in as thepupils in searchof power toolsdid not return.More handsweredespatched to

recover the crewmembers.

Eventually amessenger returned to

tell us the battery on thedrill was flat. Not

disheartened the girls turned theirattention to completing the passengerpod. Joel’s original design wasmodified and the component began totake shape.

Eventually the base makers returnedwith their foam and tubes drilled andsawn to order. They were now ready toerect the wheel. There was an air ofceremony until they realised it had anunbecoming lean. The masking tapewas deployed to reinforce the structurejust in time for the judges.

A single point separated our buddingengineers from the ride of a lifetime.However, they brought their constructionhome to Tupton Hall where it nowstands in reception as a testament totheir gallant efforts.

Tupton Hall School, Old Tupton, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S42 6LGTel: 01246 863127 email: info@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk www.tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk

design & print • www.pickardcommunication.co.uk

Rock NightRock Night

Year 7 Millennium Wheel Challenge

What a fantastic year the Y8 and Y9netball teams have had! Both teamshave remained undefeated in localmatches and in North-East Derbyshiretournaments and have often playedteams a year older than themselves.Training has been very well attended,usually by 12 to 14 players per squad,and all of the girls have worked hard todevelop their skills and tactics.

This hard work has brought greatrewards at the end of the season. TheY8 team have successfully retained theircounty title, conceding just two goals ontheir way to victory. This places themwell above all comers in Derbyshireand bodes well for next season whenthey will be attempting to representDerbyshire by qualifying for regionalfinals and then, hopefully the nationals.They have also played in the SportsColleges tournament for Y9 this yearand have acquitted themselves very wellby reaching the regional round whichwas played in Cumbria in March.

Two Y9 teams have played throughoutthis year with a great rate of success.The second team have played themajority of the Y9 local fixtures andhave been undefeated, while the firstteam have played all of the Y10 fixtures

and they too have been undefeated Thefirst team finished third in their countytournament, losing very narrowly to theeventual winners in the semi-finals. Inthe Sports Colleges Tournament theyhave played a consistently highstandard of netball and qualified for theNational Finals.

The team played at Chorley, Lancashire,on 21st April. After a nervous start theysecured victories over schools fromWarwickshire, Cornwall andLancashire. They were beaten narrowlyby the three teams who finished in thetop spots in the tournament, schoolsfrom Shropshire, Warwickshire andKent. The final position of the team was5th – a fantastic achievement.

The teams are:Y8 – Bethany Clarke, Megan Willis,Courtney Turner, Melissa Hobson, SallyJones, Paige Goucher, Jessica Pickering,Jenna Wallace, Lily Hammond.Y9 – Chloe Smith, Emma Booker,Sophie Burrow, Ruby Brunt, MeganSims, Natasha Illingworth, EvieWhittaker, Bobby Fox, DanielleGleadhill, Leah , Ainsley Cross, DemiMcCluskey.

National netball success

Star:TrackDuring the second week of the Easter holiday 15 pupils took part in a Star:TrackAthletics course in partnership with Matlock Athletics Club.They took part in a variety of fun activities including long jump, discus, javelin,hammer, and running. This is the second time Tupton Hall has run this course anda bigger one is already planned for the coming summer. Tupton is nowestablishing itself as a wider community venue for holiday activities andthroughout the summer there will be a full programme of activities for all ages,with local clubs being involved in the delivery of these activities.