December 13

Christmas Jumper Day

Thank you for helping our students make that special

effort today and pay £1 for the privilege of wearing their

Christmas jumper, donning a Santa hat or sporting

Rudolph antlers. All the money raised will go to the

Philippines via Save the Children.

In total we have raised £1316 – all of this will go via

Save the Children to the Philippines Aid effort. It has

been a fun day, with Christmas dinner at lunch adding

to the festive spirit; the countdown to Christmas really

has begun! In the meantime, however, learning

continues to make the most of the end of term.

School closes at 1.15pm next Friday, December 20th. School buses will be available.

https://twitter.com/igspost16/status/411424415948492800/photo/1/large

Headline 13 December 2013

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Email: [email protected] @ilkleygrammar

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Children in Need Update The total raised for Children in Need just keeps growing! With our Year 8 three legged walk raising £2662.02 and adding to the other donations, we have raised a monumental total of £4011.82. With some donations still to come in, we may even reach £5000! 8KL in particular deserve a well done – they raised over £500 as a tutor group for the walk.

Philippines Phoenix Band Concert Thank you to everyone who attended the Phoenix Band fundraiser on Thursday night – it was a real treat of music from the movies and we raised £628 for the Philippines.

School Holiday Dates for 2014-15 Our term dates for 2014-15 have been finalised (with some additions of Training Days required). Please see the dates below and please bear in mind the recent changes to the Education Regulations which limit authorised absence during term time.

Absence during term time is only granted under exceptional circumstances as absence during term-time interrupts continuity of teaching and learning and disrupts the educational progress of individual children. We aim to minimise the amount of time lost to term-time holidays through a policy which actively discourages parents from arranging family holidays during term time and supports schools to authorise absence for such holidays only in exceptional circumstances. Families do not have a right to take their children out of school for the purposes of family holidays or trips abroad.

The Education (Student Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 allowed Headteachers to grant leave of absence for the purpose of a family holiday during term time in ‘special circumstances’ of up to ten school days per year. Headteachers could also grant extended leave for more than ten school days in exceptional circumstance. Amendments to the 2006 regulations remove references to family holiday and extended leave as well as the statutory threshold of ten school days. The amendments make clear that Headteachers may not grant any leave of absence during term time unless there are exceptional circumstances. Headteachers should determine the number of school days a child can be away from school if the leave is granted.

If parents take their children out of school without first seeking the school’s permission or take their children out after permission has been denied,

could receive a penalty notice fine of £60 per parent per child. A family of two parents and two children would receive a fine of £240. From 1 September 2013 parents have 21 days to pay the fine. If the fine is not paid within this period the fine doubles to £120 per parent per child and has to be paid within 7 days. Failure to pay the fine at all will result in Bradford Children’s Services taking the matter before the Magistrates Court where they could be fined up to £1,000.


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The procedures are clear:

Parents do not have a right to take their children out of school during term time for holidays or trips abroad

Families must seek permission from the school before taking their children on holiday. Every school has a policy and procedure for applying for leave of absence during term time which will be available from the school. Many schools within their policies will describe circumstances where leave of absence will NOT be granted. For example during national tests or exams

Headteachers will only grant permission for leave of absence from school in exceptional circumstances. If permission is granted the school will determine the number of days of absence they will authorise

Before granting a request for leave of absence in term time a Head Teacher will consider, the time of year of the request and the duration of the leave of absence, the child’s attendance record and the child’s ability to catch up and the schools policy on holidays in term time

If a family go on holiday without permission, their child’s absence will be unauthorised and the family may be fined £60 per parent per child.

If a child does not return to school on the agreed date after leave of absence they could lose their place in the school which would mean the child would have to start a new school

AUTUMN TERM 2014

Monday 8 September Training Day (School closed for students)

Tuesday 9 September Years 7 12 13 start

Wednesday 10 September School opens fully

Friday 24 October Close

Half term holiday: Monday 27th October – Friday 31st October

Monday 3 November Re-open

Friday 19 December Close (1.15pm)

Christmas: Monday 22rd December – Friday 2nd Jan

SPRING TERM 2015

Monday 5 January Re-open

Friday 13 February Close

Half term holiday: Monday 16th February – Friday 20th February

Monday 23 February Re-open

Friday 27 March Close

Easter holiday: Monday 30th March – Friday 10th April

SUMMER TERM 2015

Monday 13 April Re-open

Monday 5 May May Day (School closed)

Friday 22 May Close

Half term holiday: Monday 25th May – Friday 29th May

Monday 1 June Re-open

Friday 24 July Close (1.15pm)

Summer holiday: Monday 27th July


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Coming Up Wednesday 18th December: Year 13 Presentation Evening 6.30 for 7pm, King’s Hall

Thursday 19th December: IGS Swing Band concert at St Margaret’s Church 7pm

Friday 20th December: School closes 1.15pm

Monday 6th January: School re-opens

Monday 6th January: GCSE Art exam paper issued

Mosaics Sheila Woodhead, a local artist and musician, has joined our Wednesday gardening club for the last two weeks. The students produced designs for mosaic stones and with Sheila's help have produced some beautiful and original work. The mosaics have gone home with Sheila for a final polish and will be placed around the time capsule in the bungalow garden next term.

Our thanks go to the PTA for providing the funds to pay for Sheila's time and the necessary equipment and to Sheila for her time and expertise, we look forward to working with her again in the future.

Sharing Success

Attendance

Year 7 Well done to 7DSF who achieved 99.1% attendance this week Year 8 8KL secured the winning position this week with a top attendance of 97.8% Year 9 9AHF achieved 96.6% attendance. Year 10 10FV achieved the highest attendance rate this week with 94.4% Year 11 Top attendance this week in Year 11 for 11JB with 98.2%


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Congratulations to Emma Powell (8JP) who has been climbing her way to success again! Emma took part in the Scottish Tooling Series at Glenmore Lodge in Scotland, where she competed for the Youth Ice Cup. Emma is so good she was included in the senior’s category and qualified in 2nd place. The finals included 11 routes which were outside and pushed the climbers to climb

through tyres up to the stones and chains. She did incredibly well, securing a 4th place. Well done Emma! Emma is now in fulll training mode ready for the Junior Ice World Cup in France in February. Well done to Sam Harris (7DSF), Ben Bearpark (8GPS) and William Lovell (10PPB) who have just taken their piano exams. They all passed with distinctions and as their piano teacher said, ‘Distinctions are rare enough, so for all three of them to achieve this is really pretty exceptional!’

Netball News Our U13A team drew against Skipton this week 10-10 player of the match went to Izzy Atkinson (8HM). The U14B team lost with player of the match going to Roisin Ramage (9DMM).

Our teams were successful against Holy Family on Monday. U13A won 14-1, player of the match Sophie Armitage (8ADM). The U15A team won 27-8, player of the match going to Maya Booton (10VEB). On Wednesday our U14C team were narrowly defeated 3-4, player of the match Mackenzie Shearn-Miller (9JLF).

Finally on Wednesday the U15 team took part in the Bradford Tournament, they reached the semi-finals but were pipped to the post by BGS. Well done girls!


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Well done to Adam Leach (11KPC) who travelled to Birmingham with 19 other textiles students to see his textiles project on display at the Clothes Show Live event. Adam did fantastically well to get through as one of the final ten and the quality of workmanship on display was outstanding. There could only be one winner and unfortunately it wasn’t to be Adam this year. The event was a great opportunity for the Year 10 and 11 textile students to see fashion and design at its very best – they also managed to catch glimpses of a celebrity or two including the illustrious Zandra Rhodes. Well done Adam – we are very proud of you!

Well done to Aisling O’Neill and Matthew Spencer (both 8JP) who are our first Year 8 students to achieve

their Bronze Awards.

Congratulations to our U19 squash team who beat Hull 5-0 for a place in the National Schools

Competition semi-final.

Well done to our Year 7 hockey team who played the Grammar School at Leeds on Thursday night and

came away with a 2-2 draw.

Matthew

Spencer Aisling

O’Neill


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…IGS SPORT…IGS SPORT…IGS SPORT…IGS SPORT…IGS SPORT…IGS SPORT…IGS SPORT…

B AFTER SCHOOL CLUBS AND FIXTURES

MONDAY 16 Dec

Y9/10/Sen XMAS NETBALL! (SHR/SMB) SpHall 3-4.30pm Street Dance -All ages (JW) Gym 3.15-4.15pm Y7 FOOTBALL Club CANCELLED

TUESDAY 17 Dec

Y10 Boys’ Rugby v Rydale (H) (SB/BC) Leave school @ 12.30pm, walk

to IRFC

Y7/8 XMAS NEBALL! (SHR) SpHall 3-4.30pm Sports’ Leaders - NO fixtures Y9/Sen HOCKEY Club CANCELLED

WEDNESDAY 18 Dec

Y9 Basketball Cup @ Bradford College (SP) U14C Netball Emerging League v Dixon’s (A) (SHR) Girls’ Synchro (Mrs Gooch) Pool 3-4.30pm Y7/8 Boys’ + Girls’ SpHall ATHLETICS CANCELLED

THURSDAY 19 Dec

Y9 Boys’ Football v Horsforth (A) (SP) Y9 BASKETBALL Club (SP) SpHall 12.10-12.55pm (*week B only) Y9 NETBALL Club (SHR) SpHall/Cts 3-4.30pm Y9/10/11 BADMINTON Club (AJH/KPC) SpHall 3-4.30pm Y7/8 HOCKEY Club (AJK) BR Astro 3.15-4.30pm Sports’ Leaders - NO fixtures Y9 NETBALL Club CANCELLED

FRIDAY 20 Dec


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If you missed the show click here to listen again!

It was great to see our radio stars of the future

feature in the Gazette this week

http://www.strayfm.com/your-community/school-dinners/ilkleygrammarschool.php


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IGS Hour of Code Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the IGS Hour of Code this week. We hope that they enjoyed their introduction to Computer Science and continue their quest in learning to code.

Challenge and Celebration Week Friday 20th December is an important deadline day for the second payment for Challenge and Celebration Week. If your son/daughter is participating in any of the activities and visits you will have already received a letter outlining the schedule of payment deadlines. This can also be found on the school website. It is important that these deadlines are met as the school has payment deadlines of its own to make. I would be most grateful if you could make sure that all monies are uploaded to ParentPay for this date. If you have any issues with ParentPay please email the school Business and Finance Director, Mrs Alison Kaye. [email protected].

Lost Property 21 memory sticks, 2 watches, 1 calculator, a pair of glasses, several bunches of keys and assorted items of jewellery – these are just some of the items handed into the Library as lost property last week. Larger items can be found in the Key Stage 3 Hub lost property box – please encourage your son or daughter to go and have a rummage if they have lost anything this term. Both the Library and Key Sage 3 Hub will be clearing out lost property before the end of term. They have until Wednesday 18th December to be reunited with their items.

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mailto:[email protected]


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Art Dates and Deadlines Final Portfolio Unit Deadline The final Portfolio Unit deadline for GCSE students is Monday 3rd February 2014 at 3pm. On this day students are required to present to their teacher, for final assessment, work selected for the Portfolio Unit (coursework). GCSE Art External Exams The exam paper for the Art Terminal exam will be given out on the 6th January 2014. From this date onward all lesson and homework time will be dedicated to the process of preparing for the exam; researching, looking at artists, developing ideas and experimenting with materials. During this period the nature of the exam may require students to do extra work; in the same way that revision is required for other subjects. We would ask that you encourage your son/daughter to work effectively during this period by setting aside time for their studies. The exam is very early compared to most GCSEs and some students do find it difficult to get into exam mode when the other summer exams seem some way off. The 10 hours of actual exam time will take place over two full days in the art rooms:-

Group 1 – Wednesday 8th April and Wednesday 29th April

Group 2 – Thursday 9th April and Thursday 30th April

Group 3 – Friday 10th April and Friday 1st May Your child will be informed which group they are in next term. Please avoid making any appointments for your son/daughter on these days. To support students throughout the run up to the coursework deadline and the exam period The Art Department will be dedicating each Wednesday evening to GCSE exam students. The Art rooms will be open until 4pm and staff will be available for guidance and support. Additionally the rooms are open most lunchtime and evenings, if pre-arranged this with staff.

Literacy Fortnight: Colons for Christmas Well how did you do last week with the colon challenge?

The Rules: Colons Rule 1: To introduce a list The subjects I have today are: history, maths, technology, English and Spanish.

Rule 2: To introduce a quotation (when not embedded in a sentence) Macbeth asks: ‘Is this a dagger I see before me?’

Rule 3: To introduce an explanation in a sentence or title Tropical rainforests are facing a serious problem: deforestation on a large scale. (Note: the bit after the colon doesn’t have to be a full sentence.)

The Rules: Semi-colons Rule 1: To separate long phrases (groups of words) in a list In your introduction outline your main idea; use separate paragraphs to explain each point clearly; in your conclusion pull your ideas together and leave time to check your work. Rule 2: To join two sentences together which are about the same thing George Orwell wrote ‘Animal Farm’ in 1943; it was difficult for him to find a publisher. (Note: for a semi-colon to work, the sentences on each side of the semi-colon have to make sense by themselves.)


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Here are the answers

It was Christmas Eve; Santa was busy packing his sleigh. Normally he would take the usual gifts:

toys, sweets, clothes, electronic equipment and board games. But this year he decided that children

should be given something different: punctuation.

He would often moan to his wife, Mrs Clause, about the children’s declining standards in punctuation

in their Christmas letters; she would just laugh. So this year, improving children’s punctuation

became his main priority: his mission. He packed his sleigh with everything he could think of: commas

with all their uses; apostrophes for omission and possession; capital letters for the starts of

sentences; colons to introduce lists, related explanations and quotations; and semi-colons for

separating long phrases in a list and joining two related sentences together. He remembered Julius

Caesar’s famous saying: ‘I came, I saw, I conquered.’ And thought he’d do the same thing with

punctuation.

A few minutes later, Santa and his team were high up in the snowy sky. But suddenly disaster struck.

The large sack of punctuation was too heavy for the reindeer to pull; they began to fall to earth. He

quickly pulled out his mobile and phoned the only person he knew who could help: Mrs Clause.

A few seconds later she pulled up beside him in the emergency sleigh; she swapped the punctuation

presents for real presents. Santa set off again. He thought punctuation could wait until next

Christmas. Then he texted his wife: Thanx c u l8r. Lol. But didn’t know whether to end it with :-) or

;-).

PTA Our next PTA meeting is in the New Year, Tuesday 21st January. Why not set a New Year’s resolution of ‘Join the PTA!’ We welcome all new members to our PTA – so join up and join in! The remainder of the meetings are due to be held on: Wednesday 12th March, Tuesday 29th April and Wednesday 11th June. Meetings start at 7pm and are held in the Lower Library in school. If you can’t make our meetings but would like to be included then email [email protected]. Watch out, too, for our 2014 Car Boot Sales: provisional dates are Sundays 6th April; 18th May; 22nd June and 20th July. The PTA also have their own Twitter feed now, follow them on @IGSPTA or like them on their Facebook page IlkleyGrammarSchoolPta.

Student Company Idents

If you have some free time (2mins 41 secs to be precise!) please have a look at the latest show reel of AS Media students’ company idents (the little clips that announce who has made a film), one small part of their

coursework task. They’re short, fun and creative – and one even features a driving dog!

Please feel free to add comments on the channel (and help us move closer to 50,000 views!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15T7Ri3gXuM


https://twitter.com/IGSPTA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15T7Ri3gXuM


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Condolences Many of our parents will remember Michael Cumbers (a bus driver with Transdev Keighley and District) who used to regularly take students down to the fields on the games bus. Sadly, Michael has died following a long battle against cancer. I’m sure you join us in passing on our respects to his family.

GCSE Overview It is important for students, staff and parents to have the overview of what GCSE commitments Year 11 have over the next few weeks. We have provided them all with this information in the form of a bookmark for their planners. Please see the calendar below.


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Free parking in Ilkley every

Tuesday leading up to

Christmas – get your space

early!


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Calendar

December January Friday 13 Year 11 Craven College taster

morning Monday 6 School re-opens

GCSE Art exam paper issued Wednesday 18 Year 13 Presentation Evening 6.30

for 7pm Monday 13 Year 11 mock exams start

Thursday 19 IGS Swing Band concert at St Margaret’s Church 7pm

Tuesday 21 PTA Meeting 7pm

Friday 20 School closes 1.15pm Thursday 23 Year 11 mock exams end Friday 24 Year 11-12 Taster Day

Next Week’s Menu

Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 01943 608424

Website: www.ilkleygrammarschool.com

@ilkleygrammar

Get in touch and stay in touch! We would be interested in any feedback on these bulletins. Also, if you would like further information on anything within them or, wish to request other information items, please get in touch! It is really important we can stay in touch with you; if you need to change your contact details please email [email protected] or contact the school office.


http://www.ilkleygrammarschool.com/

https://twitter.com/Ilkleygrammar


Documents

December 13