February 2016 A NEWSPAPER FROM PARK VIEW SCHOOL Issue 52

A Feast of Festive Fun at The SageA Feast of Festive Fun at The Sage

It was with huge pride that Park View once again heldits Christmas concert at The Sage, Gateshead onDecember 14th. This year’s event was made evenmore special by the fact that not only were we joined byour partners in the Learning Alliance, PontelandCommunity High School, but also by four of our familyof primary schools, Cestria, C of E, Red Rose andWoodlea.

The first half of the concert was an eclectic mix of solo,group and ensemble pieces. Performers from ParkView included by a rock band, the junior choir, a piecefor the piano written and performed by Dominic Kirbyand the Chamber Choir, the latter inspired by their sur-roundings to take their singing to astonishing levels. Theevening was lifted to new heights by the primary choir,made up of over 100 students, who performed 4 num-bers under the watchful eye of Mrs Woods: their energy,confidence and talent were infectious, filling the arenawith joy.

After a brief interval, the audience returned to find thestage set out for a 170 piece orchestra as well as a jointchoir of all schools involved. They were treated toorchestral arrangements of the theme from ‘PolarExpress’ and a Christmas and ‘Dr Who’ medley, the lat-ter conducted by our very own Chris Turnbull, as well asbeautiful choral renditions of popular carols. Theevening finished with the audience joining all on stage ina roof-lifting rendition of ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’.

Lorraine Gowland, Head Teacher at Cestria PrimarySchool, said, “The children thoroughly enjoyed the fan-tastic opportunity they were given to perform at such awonderful venue. Our children couldn't wait to get backinto school to tell all their friends about it!”

Headteacher at Park View School, Iain Veitch, said,‘The responses I have received from those who attend-ed the concert show what a fantastic evening it was.The range of talent on display, ranging from studentsaged 8 to 18 (and adults who prefer to keep their agessecret), was simply astonishing, putting many profes-sional companies to shame. I am delighted that we wereable to give our magnificent performers an equally mag-nificent setting in which to shine and would like to thankboth Ponteland and our primary partners for making thispossible. Nothing but the best should be available to ourchildren as they are simply wonderful.’

Philip Adamson, Headteacher at Woodlea PrimarySchool, said, "Speaking on behalf of all my primary col-leagues, I'd like to congratulate all the children who tookpart in The Sage Christmas concert. To see suchimmense talent on show filled us with pride and admira-tion. The experience of performing to a packed house,at a world renowned musical venue, is one that will staywith the children for a very long-time. Evenings such asthis remind us all that it is a privilege to work with suchfantastic young people: roll on next year!”

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Peer Support atNorth LodgeThe Peer Supporters at North Lodge has grown exponential-ly this year as the Year 7 and 8 students are determined tostamp out bullying!

At the start of the school year thirty four Year 7 students andtwenty six Year 8 students were trained to be PeerSupporters.

A competition was held to compose a Mission Statement forthe Peer Supporters Team and Ben Bouet Rennison (Year 8)won with ‘Together against Bullying’.

Using an Action Plan to ensure that the profile of anti-bullyingis constantly high throughout the school, an assembly waswritten and presented by some of Peer Supporters. Theyperformed this to Year 7 and 8 students and started with avideo which had been previously been made for a GoodMorning Britain Anti Bullying Competition. After this they thenwent on to talk about the types of bullying, what to do if youare bullied, etc. The assembly was concluded with a shortrole play.

The Peer Supporters go beyond tackling bullying in school.At Christmas, 15 of them went into Chester-le-Street to giveout chocolate Santas with a greeting from Park View Schoolattached spreading Christmas cheer. This was well receivedand promoted a positive image of school and young peopletoday.

Watch this space to find out what else the Peer Supportersdo in their fight against bullying!!

Full International Schools Awardfor the 10th Year Running!

Park View School has been awarded the British Council’sprestigious International School Award in recognition of itsefforts to bring the world into the classroom.The International School Award is a badge of honour forschools that do outstanding work in international education,such as through links with partner schools overseas. Fosteringan international dimension in the curriculum is at the heart ofthe British Council’s work with schools, so that young peoplegain the cultural understanding and skills they need to live andwork as global citizens.Park View’s international programme includes sustaining anddeveloping existing partnerships in The Netherlands,Germany, Lebanon and Spain as well as establishing a newsister school in France.British Council Chief Executive, Sir Ciarán Devane, said: ‘Theschool’s fantastic international work has rightfully earned it thisprestigious award. Adding an international dimension to chil-dren’s education ensures that they are truly global citizens andhelps prepare them for successful future careers in an increas-ingly global economy.’Mrs Rowell, Head of Languages at Park View School said;“We are delighted to receive the award. This is a credit to ourschool, our students, our colleagues and demonstrates ourcontinued passion and commitment to understanding andapplying the principles of international education in a creativeand imaginative way.”

In line with the new methodology forinspecting ‘Good’ schools, two inspec-tors spent a day at Park View School inNovember, observing lessons, inter-viewing students and staff and scrutin-ising policies and practice. The inspec-tion went extremely well and the wholereport is now available on the website.

The key strengths of the school wereidentified as:

• ‘Leaders set high expectations ofstaff and pupils. They create a warmand supportive climate in whichpupils thrive and make goodprogress in the lower and upperschools and in the sixth form.’

• ‘The academy has sustained goodteaching since the last inspection. Indepartments where there wereweaknesses, leaders have provided

effective challenge and support thathas resulted in improvements.Effective mentoring is used to tackleany inconsistencies in practice. Therigorous checks made by seniorleaders ensure that they have adetailed picture of the strengths andweaknesses in teaching, over time,across the academy.’

• ‘The curriculum has developed toprovide a variety of pathways thatsupport pupils’ different abilities andinterests. There are clear academicand vocational pathways across KeyStage 4 and the sixth form, under-pinned with good-quality, impartialcareers guidance.’

• ‘Leaders track the progress of pupilsin all year groups carefully, to identi-fy any underperformance. Governors

use this information to challengeleaders and swift action is taken tosupport teaching where slowerprogress is identified. For example,the governors are not content withthe gap in attainment between disad-vantaged pupils and other pupils inthe academy, despite the gap beingsmaller than that seen nationally.Consequently, leaders have goodarrangements in place to monitor theprogress of disadvantaged pupils.’

Headteacher, Iain Veitch, said; “All atPark View were delighted with thereport as it very much captures whatwe are about as a school. We wouldthank all parents/carers and studentswho completed the on-line surveys forthe inspection team: inspectors werehugely impressed by the very high lev-els of satisfaction with the school.”

A group of Year 11 students had the opportunity to take partin a residential trip at St’ John’s College, Cambridge. Thisvisit was to give students an insight into what it would be liketo study at one of the world’s leading universities. Thus, forthree days. our young people lived as Cambridge students,staying in the halls of residence, attending lectures, meetingand talking to present undergraduate students, dining in oneof the finest halls in Cambridge and attempting punting. Theywere also given information about applying to the universityand what it would be like to study as an undergraduate at theuniversity. It was a privilege granted only to them to have aprivate tour of the Department of Physics at CavendishLaboratory and Museum, a prestigious institute where manyfamous scientists have studied, including Ernest Walton andJohn Cockcroft, famous for splitting the atom. Students hada tour of the laboratories and were given demonstrations byleading scientists in their field. Asked what the visit hadbrought to them, the consensus was a deeper understandingof how to apply to Cambridge and what then life would be likethere as well as a burning passion to be a part of it.

A ‘Good’ Resultfrom Ofsted

Year 11 get Physical atCambridge

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Children InNeed 2015On Friday 13th November 2015, in the pouring rain and bittercold, over 150 Park View Sixth Form students were raisingmoney all over County Durham for BBC Children in Need.

The day began with the traditional fun run around the park inChester-le-Street (in fancy dress, of course!), before studentstravelled to their different fundraising stations all over thecounty. Most students chose to brave the freezing cold windand rain, by fundraising outdoors in Durham City or inChester-le-Street, but some decided to help their local com-munity whilst also trying to fundraise; these students organ-ised a bag-pack with Morrison’s Chester-le-Street, whichbrought in over £200!

There was also a large contribution towards the fundraisingtotal from the lower years of the school. Every stu-dent in Year 7 to Year 11 donated £1 or moreand came into school wearing non-uniform.The Sixth Form also arranged cake salesat both of the school sites where theysold chocolate brownies, fairy cakes,flapjack, marshmallow cakes and bagsof Pick ‘n Mix to the younger studentsand even to some of the teachers!

At the end of the day, the efforts of allwere hugely rewarded when it was con-firmed that they had managed to raise animpressive £5156!

Head of Sixth Form, James Cooper, said; “The generosity ofthe local community and the drive and commitment of theSixth Form students at Park View never fail to astound me.From Spiderman to Wonderwoman to IgglePiggle to Where'sWally, our students surprised and delighted us all. Well doneon the amount raised this year. I am proud of you all and lookforward to you beating it in 2016!”

Playing our part in theCommunityThe School Houses, Franklin, Darwin, Wilberforce andNewton, all came together to deliver a joint house project whichcentred around collecting food for the most vulnerable familiesand residents in the Chester-le-Street area for the festive peri-od. Students from each house were encouraged to donatefood, with the house which donated the most being declaredthe winner. Staff and parents were also involved in the chal-lenge. A staggering 345kg of food was donated in total, withmany giving real thought to their donations. Wilberforce Housewere declared the winners with Mrs Clancey-Maley, its jointleader, commenting, ‘The beauty of this competition was thatthere could be no losers as we were all doing the right thing! Iam really proud not only of my House but also of the staff, stu-dents and parents too: the importance of giving somethingback is the message we are constantly giving at Park View andit is tremendous to see so many families embracing it.’Mr Veitch, Headteacher, said, “The response was simply over-whelming - in a commercial age, it was fantastic to see that thetrue spirit of Christmas is alive and well in our community.”

Enhancing HamletThe Year 8 Gifted and Talented students in English are further-ing their study in William Shakespeare in an after school club.After completing some research, they decided that they want-ed to focus on the play 'Hamlet', a tragedy about the Prince ofDenmark and his quest to seek revenge for his father's death.

During the meetings, the group have read sections of the play,took part in role play activities and created a wall display for thelibrary at North Lodge that depicts the mixed emotions of thecentral character. As a finale to the project, students are nowcollaborating to produce lesson resources that Year 7 studentswill use when they study Shakespeare later in the year.

Miss Smith, Gifted & Talented Coordinator for English, said;"I've really enjoyed working with the pupils on this project. It'swonderful to see them enthusiastic about Shakespeare andthey've had some very creative and mature ideas about thetopic."

Park View Community Association(PVCA) was set up in 1981, operatingas an independent charitable organisa-tion. Its relationship with Park ViewSchool was on the basis of sharing theschool’s amenities, such as its Theatreand Sports Hall, in order to provide arange of activities for local people dur-ing evenings, weekends and holidayperiods. Initially, it was generouslysubsidised by Durham County Counciluntil the funding cuts back in 2011.Since then, a total withdrawal of fund-ing in 2013 means that it has had to runon existing resources and membershipfees, leaving the Association to facepotential liquidation within the nexteighteen months. Unwilling to contem-plate the end of community activity onits Church Chare site, Park ViewSchool has become the sole owner ofPVCA. With the unanimous support ofthe School Governing Body, PVCA willnow operate under the direction of anew group of Trustees and will berebranded as Park View CommunityCentre.

Dr Bill Dennison, Chair of the charity,said, “We are intent upon becoming amore dynamic, outward-looking organ-isation to serve the children, families

and local community of Chester-le-Street and its surrounding area. Thereare difficult decisions to be made inorder to ensure our survival but wehave had an influx of ideas on how totake our provision forward. It is gen-uinely an exciting time!”

For more information visitwww.pvca.org.uk or follow Park-View-Community-Association on Face Bookor parkviewca on Twitter.

Supporting Our Local Community Centre

Performing Current AffairsA Level Drama students wrote and performed an originalpiece of drama, ‘Exodus’, to an invited audience of familyand friends. The piece focused on the current Syrianrefugee crisis and Europe’s response. It combinedhumour with a serious message, highlighting the hard-ships experienced by refugees as they travel to Europe tostart a new life and satirising the lack of a coherent politi-cal response. Their audience found it both thought-pro-voking and entertaining. Miss Moore, Faculty Leader forPerforming Arts, said; “Students worked with great cre-ativity and performed the piece with confidence and pur-pose.”

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Sport at Park View IndividualAchievementsJudo Jane

Jane Thomas (Year 10) became the British National JudoChampion! She had three fights in her pool, winning allthree by Ipon (knockout) including the eventual Silver andBronze medal winners. Jane was in the 13-15 year oldcategory. Since that momentous achievement, she hasbeen named in the GB Squad - with a view to the 2020Olympics.

Taking English Football toGermanyJackson Ward (Year 9) rep-resented Chester le Street,Washington and Derwent-side Schools FA on theirfootball tour to Dortmund,Germany. The trip includ-ed stadium tours ofSchalke 04 and BorussiaDortmund, training ses-sions at Borussia Dort-mund and attendance of aBundesliga game betweenBorussia Dortmund and FCAugsburg, in a crowd of over 82,000 supporters at theWestfalenstadion.

Making WavesOliver Lovell (Year 7) has been sailing nationally this yearand is currently GBR ranked at 21st in his age group. Hesails, either competitively or as training, each weekendand can be anywhere from Weymouth and Portland,GBR National Sailing Academy to Pwhelli, GrafhamWater, Rutland, South Shields, Hartlepool, Kielder Water,Poole, Hayling Island, Ulswater etc.... some extensivetravelling! He is on the RYA Olympic pathway and repre-sented the North of England at the Eric TwinenameChampionships May this year. A future Olympian, he is afine addition to Park View’s elite!

Park View Swimmers Rule the North

Year 11 Sport Students Go with the FlowMr Finley and his class of Cambridge National Sport students inYear 11 have been experiencing alternative, adrenaline sportsas part of their work in their course. The class have recently chal-lenged themselves on the FlowRider, a surfing simulator atHeworth Leisure Centre in Gateshead. The group have beendeveloping their skills in bodyboarding and surfing and over thetime period have really excelled. Confidence has started to growand the execution of tricks and skills have shown that this is a

sport that can really take off in the area. All who have taken parthave really loved the experience, with some hoping to go backto develop their skills in their own time. Mr Finley said, "Thebeauty of this course is the fact that students get credit for tak-ing part as well as excelling in particular sports. The practicalnature of what we do shows real life learning whilst building otherskills such as confidence, communication, listening andresilience. it also helps that it is really good fun too!"

In only the second year of competing in the English SchoolsSwimming competition, Park View’s talented young swim-mers made the National Finals at the London Aquatic Centre,the Olympic Pool which housed so many memorablemoments in 2012. They qualified for three events; the JuniorBoys team made the Medley and Freestyle events and theJunior Girls qualified for the Medley.

In the build up to the finals, the swimmers received a hugeboost when Alphagraphics North East decided to sponsor theteam by providing kit for the big day.

Mr Finley, Deputy Head, said; “The day was everything wehoped it would be. The pool was amazing and the team spiritand comaradery was special. We were one of only a few stateschools to qualify for the finals and one of even fewer schoolsfrom the North. This just made us even more proud and deter-mined to do ourselves justice in the water.” The boys madethe final of the Medley relay, eventually finishing 9th in thecountry, with personal bests for all as well as the satisfactionof finishing as the top state school in the country and the bestschool in the North. The girls had a tougher time to qualify forthe finals but eventually came 23rd in their Medley andsecured top school in the North East along the way.

In the afternoon, the boys didn’t quite make the final of the

Freestyle, finishing 14th but going faster than the regionalrounds. It was nonetheless a great achievement.

Mr Finley added; “Personally, I am really proud of all of theswimmers. The future is bright for Park View as many of themare swimming a year early for their age groups. We fullyexpect to fly the flag for the North East next year and for manymore to come, looking at the performances of some of the pri-mary school swimmers!” The boys swimmers are: JamesDavison (Y8),Thomas Adamson (Y7), Lewis Maxwell (Y8),Ben Ward (Y7) and Joshua Savage (Y7). The girls swimmersare: Grace Maskell (Y8), Molly Finley (Y7), Emily Dolman (Y7) and Ella Hall (Y7).

Football RemembersGifted and Talented students from the Year 9 French and German language classes spent a day talking and learning aboutthe World War 1 Christmas Truce. They looked at whether the Sainsbury’s Christmas advert from last year depicted theevents of the truce accurately, read some letters from the trenches in German and French and then wrote their own lettersfrom the trenches. The day ended with some creative work in German and French; some wrote scenes from the truce, oth-ers wrote an article about it while the more artistic wrote poems based on events surrounding it. A fantastic day was had byall! Mrs Goad, Subjject Leader for German, said; “We were extremely impressed with the students' imaginative use ofFrench and German and their commitment during the day.”