Priory NewsPriory NewsFriday, 23rd October 2015

E‐Safety

Last night we hosted an evening for parents on E‐Safety and how to ensure their children are safe online. The evening included informa on about the current websites and apps that students are accessing, together with informa on about age restric ons, for example, children are not allowed a Facebook site un l they are 13, they are not allowed on WhatsApp un l they are 16. Parents were also informed about cyberbullying and sex ng. The main message from the evening was to talk to your children to check you know what they are looking at and who they are communica ng with. There are a selec on of useful handouts for parents which can be found on our website on the following topics:

Using Facebook AsK FM Instagram

Mrs Faye Nearney

1

Diversity Ma ers To Us!

This year sees the introduc on of a prefect‐run Diversity Commi ee, aiming to support and encourage a thriving and diverse school community; one that includes everyone regardless of their gender, sexuality, race, religion or disability. The Commi ee opens up the discussion of diversity and its importance in our school community to all interested students from year 10 above. We will be running assemblies and workshops throughout the year, encouraging all years to engage and accept the diversity of people around them, from LGBTQ+ educa on to discussing the problems of gender gaps that s ll exist today. In an age where people are freer to express themselves than ever before, we believe it is of paramount importance that we encourage acceptance and tolerance from a young age through educa on in schools, which is what we all aim to do! We hope everyone will enjoy the work we do this year.

Krys na Tyrtania (Year 13)

On Wednesday 14th October 3 of our Year 13 Health Champions (Zainab Sheriff, Fa ma Sheriff and Lexi Birks) as well as Hannah Price Year 12, a ended a workshop at the Lister hospital to give feedback on their experience of the hospital as part of their inspec on process. The students were very excited and also greatly privileged to be asked to take part in this process, as it indicates how much the local hospital values the opinions of young people. Hospital inspec ons have been in the press in recent weeks, so the students couldn’t believe that they were asked to take part in something so important!

All of the students have been supported by the Lister hospital in different ways such as work experience opportuni es, volunteering and running campaigns so they were excited to be able to discuss all of these posi ve experiences with the inspectors. The Lister Hospital commented how ar culate, passionate and eloquent the students were – well done girls, you did TPS proud!

Learning Day – Ge ng crea ve in Maths

On Tuesday, 13th October Year 7 had a whole day of Maths! There were various ac vi es throughout the day

which explored Maths outside of the curriculum and put students’ problem solving skills to the test. Students

created a robot with Raspberry Pi’s, s tched beau ful curves, looked for pa erns in a Mys c Rose, took part in a

marketplace simula on and worked in teams to win a series of compe ons.

Numeracy and Literacy...

2

#PrioryPyamid

Look what we can achieve together!

Our school‐fractal project was a great success. Every student made at least one tetrahedron, which

was used to assemble a giant Sierpinski Pyramid containing 1024 individual tetrahedrons. The end

result was big enough to stand under!

As fate may have it, there was a

ques on on University Challenge

last week on Sierpinski’s Triangle.

Sierpinski’s Triangle is a fractal

named a er the Polish

Mathema cian Waclaw Sierpinski

who first described it in 1915. A

fractal is a pa ern which becomes

more and more complex the closer

you zoom in on it. Mathema cal

fractals are ‘itera ve’ – meaning

that they are made from a pa ern

which repeats itself over and over

again. Mrs Parsons

Our Sierpinski Pyramid—suspended in the A Block stairwell.

3

Year 8 Chocolate Challenge – Tuesday 13th October Last week we welcomed back Dawn Fry, a local businesswoman who has run the Chocolate Challenge Enterprise Day for us before. Students worked in form groups as a ‘chocolate company’ to produce a business plan and presenta on. We were very impressed with the hard work and fantas c ideas, and the winning form was 8VM who received a bag of chocolate shards from Dawn. The other forms were also given bags of handmade chocolate bu ons to share and even the teachers received a chocolate lollipop each! The winners will also be appearing in The Comet.

Year 9 Post‐14 Op ons Group Mee ngs – From Monday 2nd November A er half term, Year 9 students will be mee ng in small groups with Samantha Mulholland (Head of Year) and Kate Allan (Raising Aspira ons) to begin looking at their GCSE op ons. This is an informal process to give students the opportunity to discuss ideas, ask ques ons and start the ball rolling earlier this year. Mee ngs will be held during Form Time on Mondays and we will let students know when their slot is.

Year 10 Ryman Na onal Enterprise Challenge – Tuesday 13th October This is the first year that we have run this event, and the feedback we had from staff and students was extremely posi ve. A na onal compe on with over 40,000 students taking part, the winning group will go through to the finals in Yorkshire next year. Students were broken up into random groups of six and the challenge was to design an enterprise idea that would benefit their community and could be rolled out to other schools. Students had to come up with the concept and put together a pitch in under three hours! There were some fantas c ideas and the winning team led by Lian Po er were: Jamie Wiseman, Alex Walby, Emil Wheatley, Hannah Isbister, Amy Warren and Storm Clements. They will be appearing in The Comet, so look out for them! Very well done to everyone who took part and worked so hard.

Year 11 Post‐16 Planning The Post‐16 Planning Mee ngs with Youth Connexions are ongoing, and we are grateful to parents for their support. Alongside these mee ngs, we have had a large number of students seeking advice and guidance for themselves: coming along to Kate Allan’s office at lunch mes to discuss ideas, carry out research online or asking to meet with Sixth Form staff. It is great to see so much posi vity around what can be a challenging process.

Thank you for returning your Planning Ques onnaires; we have had a good uptake on these and they have been very helpful. It’s not too late to hand one in if you haven’t already! Please return them to Kate Allan in her office (next to B5).

College open evenings will be coming up a er half‐term, so a reminder to those who are considering this pathway to ensure you go along, have a proper look around, meet the course tutor and pick up the literature you need.

A reminder that the deadline for applica ons to Sixth Form is Friday, 6th November. Please return your paperwork on me to Mrs Luckman in the Sixth Form block.

Raising Aspirations...

Dates for your Diary

2015

Monday 26th—Friday 30th

October

Half Term

Monday, 2nd November

Year 13 Parent Forum starts

And

BTEC Shakespeare Event,

Tuesday, 3rd November

Year 9 Disco

Wednesday, 4th November

Year 13 Parents’ Evening,

4.30—7.30pm

Friday, 6th November

Deadline for 6th Form

applica ons

Monday, 9th November

Library Book Week starts

Friday, 13th November

Deadline for Reward S ckers

Wednesday, 12th November

Year 12 Parents Forum starts

Raising Aspirations...

Year 11 Trip to The Skills Show at the NEC, Birmingham We have booked 80 ckets to this na onal show on Friday 20th November. Year 11 students will be given first refusal and have permission to be off metable for the day if they would like to a end. The only excep on is students who will be taking their Drama Mock GCSE Exam, which unfortunately takes place on the same day. If you are interested in work‐based learning such as appren ceships, either now or in the future (or you’d just like to find out more), then this is for you! The trip is FREE to all students, you will just need to bring a packed lunch. This is the largest careers and skills event in the country with 75,000 visitors over three days. The show provides hands‐on experiences that inspire young people to explore careers and mo vates them to find out more about the world of work. There is also a Have‐a‐Go sec on, Expert Careers Advice, Showcase showing the UK’s finest students and learners showcasing their skills, and Spotlight talks from employers as diverse as NHS Careers and Jaguar Landrover. You can find out more at www.findafuture.org.uk/the‐skills‐show

If you would like to a end, please email Kate Allan before Friday, 6th November: kate.allan@priory.herts.sch.uk. We do need an idea of numbers as soon as possible ‐ this is a fantas c opportunity so we hope to hear from you soon!

Inspire Me! We are very proud of our new RA supersize “magazine covers” in the Café showing the essen al tools students need in their Careers Toolbox (Character, Quali es, Skills, Qualifica ons and Careers Knowledge) and the pathway op ons that are open to them a er they leave TPS (college, work with training, Sixth Form, appren ceships and university). Shown here is Character and the posters all feature individuals who took part in our Inspire Me Project 2015 for Na onal Careers Week, or have commi ed to for 2016. Have a look next me you’re in there!

Find Out More Don’t forget our Friday Lunch me Drop In, which is proving very popular, and the RA Blog which has all of the informa on about our ac vi es and your child’s careers pathway at TPS: www.tps‐raising‐aspira ons.com

Kate Allen

4

A endance The school’s a endance target is 96%.

Form A endance

to

Merits as

at Form

A endance

to

Merits as

at Form

A endance

to

Merits as

at

7NW 99.6% 276 9AM 96.6% 138 11TC 95.1% 57

7NS 96.4% 156 9MF 92.1% 133 11BS 97.8% 0

7JT 98.0% 85 9NJ 94.2% 6 11RO 94.8% 72

7AR 99.5% 292 9CN 94.8% 76 11RC 94.7% 0

7SF 96.3% 123 9SO 96.8% 123 11CH 96.5% 0

7CT 96.3% 104 9TV 94.9% 26 11EG 95.7% 43

7CJ 97.2% 124 10RP 97.1% 5 FP 92.7% 0

8LC 96.9% 89 10MH 97.1% 62 LE 95.0% 0

8AA 97.3% 106 10RS 98.5% 24 LJ 96.9% 0

8VM 92.5% 75 10DM 97.4% 80 RF 96.6% 0

8HB 94.7% 196 10LP 96.8 4 JH 95.7% 0

8GG 96.9% 98 10SB 95.5% 9 AX 97.1% 0

8MC 96.4% 29 VS 92.7% 0

5

Collec ng for Calais... On the 4th October 2015 The Priory School hosted a fantas c charity event: Collec ng for Calais. Organised by Felix from Farley’s hairdressers, it was a joint effort by The Priory School students, parents and staff as well as the Hitchin community. It was heart‐warming to see the community pull together to help those in need and make their lives be er. We collected 18 vans full of stuff: camping equipment, toiletries, shoes and clothes, baby equipment, books, toys and more. We also donated a large amount of food to the local Food Bank. It was remarkable to see the Hitchin community get together and make a difference. A MASSIVE thank you to all involved, especially our fantas c students:

Noah Allan 7NW Josh Warwick 8VM Ella Watson 8GG Nathan Jennings 8VM Bethany Woodhouse 8GG Tamzin Antony 9SO Hannah Bricke 9CN Stan Taunt 9CN Amy Warren 10LP Kerry Higginbothom 10MH Kaitlin Pope 10DM Daisy Stewart 11RC

Grace Goodwin 11TC Charlo e Crabtree 11EG Freya Gillard11EG Abbi Burrows 11EG Esta Norton 11CH Kara‐Mae Burt 11EG

Sam Challis 11EG Aby Ladyman 11BS Natasha Antony 11BS Praveena Benedick 11RC Ciara Hughes LJ Caitlin Yap‐Young LE Kris na Tyrtania RF Liam Brennan JH

THANK YOU!

Ms Bochnak‐Sales (Head of Year 11)

Collec ng and sor ng...

Packing and labelling...

Personal message...

Members of the team… thank you!

Loading for the journey...

Fes ve Market 2015 ‐ Saturday, 21st November, 12 noon – 3pm

Join us for a great a ernoon of pre Christmas fes vi es. There will be lots of stalls to hunt out those

unique Gi s and Stocking Fillers and you’ll be suppor ng your school community whilst doing some

Christmas shopping.

There will be:

Performances from The Priory School Choir and Orchestra.

The Student enterprise zone, games challenges and have a go on the new Climbing Wall!!

Refreshments ‐ a chance to sit down and enjoy a cuppa.

Stalls include:

Grand Draw: Tombolas: Refreshments: Cake Stall; Jewellery; Games and new for this year –

Personalised Baubles with names wri en in calligraphic wri ng.

We are in need of raffle, bo le and chocolate/gi tombola prizes and would be very grateful if

dona ons for these could be brought to Recep on from now onwards.

We have a few stall holder places available, if you are interested complete and return booking form

below. Please note that to ensure a wide selec on of stalls, where we have applica ons from

similar vendors, we will confirm bookings on a first come basis on receipt of payment.

This event can only be a success and fun for the school community, if everyone gets involved where

they can. If you can volunteer some me on the day, please complete and return the reply slip below

or email Prioryschoolassocia on@googlemail.com

I would like to help with the Christmas Cra Fair on Saturday 21st November:

Morning set up During the event Clear up a erwards (please ck)

Name:

Telephone: Email:

PSA News...

6

************************************************************************************

PSA 100 Club Winners

The PSA operates a well supported 100 club and a draw takes place each

month with 3 lucky winners ‘pulled from the hat’ To par cipate in the 100

club, please contact us.

The September winners are:

Simon Rose, Claire Bristow and Caroline Leach

************************************************************************************

7

Sports, Clubs & Activities....

8

Sports, Clubs & Activities....

Year 9 Tex les Club—Star ng 4th November

Are you considering doing tex les

GCSE?

Then come to B10 on Wednesday

lunch me at 12.45.

We are going to make felt Christmas

tree decora ons.

You can also find out more about

GCSE Tex les!

9

10

11

12