Term

ly N

ew

sle

tter

September—December 2017 Issue 1

Pizza Party! The winning

f o r m f o r

attendance this

term is Miss

Ogden’s form, 4G—97/.%

attendance. They celebrated by attending a

Pizza party in the canteen. Keep up the good

work!:

Budding swimming champion!

One of our learners, Oliver

Carter, in Year 7, is

proving to be a very

successful swimmer .

Oliver said “I have been

swimming for two years in

Bury and Elton swimming

club. I started in 2015. I

swim four times a week

(Monday, Wednesday, Friday

and Sunday). I really enjoy swimming in a

team and I have lots of friends there. A

couple of months ago, I was picked to swim

in counties. I got in counties by swimming

in a time trial. We had to get a certain time

for 50 metres freestyle (34.00 seconds). I

got 33.68 seconds so I have been entered in a

special race called counties against all of

the other people who had got into counties

(under 12). If you do well in counties you go

to regionals and if you do well in that (top

four) you can to go to European and you can

get picked for team GB.” We wish Oliver

continued success and look forward to

hearing more from him in the future.

Parr Lane, Bury BL9 8LP, Tel: 0161 796 982-, Fax: 0161 796 3380,

Email: castlebrook@bury.gov.uk Website: www.castlebrookhighschool.co.uk

Well done Harry!

August saw the beginning of

the British Cycle Speedway

Championships in the

Midlands. Well done to Harry

Radford in Year 8 from Bury

Cycle Speedway Club who

attended the Leicester track to

become the 2017 Under 12's

British Cycle Speedway Champion.

Congratulations!

Are you aged 11-18? Do you want to have a say in issues that affect you and your community.

Then come along to Bury Youth Cabinet, a forum made up of young people who live or study in Bury. The forum takes p l a c e a p p r o x i m a t e l y every 6 weeks from 16th October, 5pm– 7pm at the Council Chambers, Bury Town Hall. (Food served from 4.30). The next one is Monday 12th February 18. Just turn up on the day - all welcome. If you would like any more information please text 07884118718 or email: Adele Crowshaw- a.crowshaw@bury.gov.uk , or Lisa Wilson— l.m.wilson@bury.gov.uk

Welcome to our Year 7’s

In September, some of our new Year 7’s wrote down their thoughts on joining Castlebrook and they were tweeted on the school website.

History Department

The History department and Year 8 have spent the last f e w w e e k s studying the First World

War. They have investigated causes of the war and life in the trenches on the Western Front.

As part of enrichment for Year 8 they are taking part in a ‘Bury Remembers the First World War’ project in conjunction with Bury Archives. Learners have created poems, letters home, origami and art work. They have worked with lots of enthusiasm and interest. The best work will be sent to the Bury Archive project.

Prefects

Well done to all learners who were made Prefects. They are doing a great job! Also, congratulations to Harry Surplus and Libby Lockett, our Head Boy and Head Girl and to George Radford and Zainab Maqsood. Deputies.

Restart a Heart campaign As part of the British Heart Foundations 'Restart a Heart' campaign all Year 9 learners took part in Restart a Heart Day on 13th October. Volunteer visitors from the NHS Ambulance Service, St John's Ambulance Service and the Mountain Rescue Service came into school and spent the day teaching over 130 learners emergency CPR (Call, Push, Rescue).

It was a great day and all the learners were brilliant, asking really good questions and getting a hands-on lesson in CPR.

It is the intention of Castlebrook to teach everyone in school CPR, as we now have our own bank of 35 'Little Annie' dummies to use and it could save someone’s life in the future. Well done everyone and thank you to the volunteers for their time and commitment.

We would encourage all parents/carers to download the Schoolgateway App. Details are on our website as well as in previous newsletters. This at present is used for all payments but as we move forward, more information about your child will be shown on Schoolgateway and it is far easier to view on the app. As always, should you have any queries regarding payments, please contact our

Finance Office on 0161 796 9820, option 2 or by e mail

(finance@castlebrookhighschool.co.uk) and they will always will endeavour to help

Christmas Carol

48 Year 11 learners visited the Octagon Theatre in Bolton on Monday 11th December to watch a production of 'A Christmas Carol'. It was a great trip with all learners enjoying the performance and learning more about a key GCSE set text.

University of Bolton

In October, 10 learners visited the University of Bolton National Motorsports Centre to find out about the courses offered in motorsport engineering. Part of the trip also included a fascinating seminar with an aerodynamics expert who has worked with various F1 teams over the past 30 years. It was a great insight into a fascinating industry and all involved

took a lot from the trip.

End of Year Award Ceremony

At our End of Year Award Ceremony

earlier this year, two of our ex-pupils

attended to help with the presentations

and awards. Many thanks to Emma

Lunney who was the Guest Speaker

and did a great job of handing out all

the awards to learners who had gained

awards during the academic year.

Many thanks also go to Hannah

Dickinson who helped and presented

the new Head Boy and Head Girl

awards.

Congratulations also to Mr Ali, one of

our Academy Councillors who received

an award for over 25 years of service as a Governor. Mrs Armstrong and Mr Boucher (Chair of

Academy Councillors) also attended the presentation.

The Great British Bake Off! We have been contacted by a TV-production company, Love Productions, the makers of ‘The Great British Bake Off’. They are looking for a fresh batch of brilliant, amateur bakers who would love to enter the tent for their ninth series . If you are interested, please contact Sam Miller on 07384 748225 or email www.applyforbakeoff.co.uk .

Tue 13th—Thurs 15th February 2018

Open Evening—Science In September, the Science team gave potential learners and their parents the opportunity to experience some of the practicals that we do in the Science Department.

Highlights included Mr Richardson’s laser guided bullseye challenge and Miss Osbiston setting fire to some crazy chemistry flames. Mr Hewitt explained how lungs and hearts work with some real life examples (see picture). Since then, during Science club, Year 7 learners have made some science slime. Back to the Future!

Year 9 IT learners have had a look into the past to develop their programming skills. On Tuesday, 12 December, a group of Year 9

learners spent the morning at Bury College developing their programming skills. Their task was to use the programming language C# to program one of the first ever computer games, Pong. All learners thoroughly enjoyed the session and were not only able to create the game but also develop it further, making it more challenging and bringing it up to date with bright backgrounds and colourful characters including footballers and politicians. The college were massively impressed with the attitude, behaviour and progress of the group. Well done!

SET Year 9 Graduation Ceremony

Well done to the 15 learners in Year 9 who attended the Shaw Education Trust KS3 Exceptional achievement Award Ceremony in October. They were the learners who made the most progress in Year 8.

One of our learners who attended, Caitlin Mason in Year 9 wrote the following: “I am, amongst others, very proud to have been invited to take part in this ceremony at Keele University from receiving our invitation letters to posing for photos sporting the gowns and hats in front of the grand entrance to Keele Hall. I believe this was such a great experience that my parents and I will not forget. Thank you for making the day so memorable.”

The learners who were attended were: Megan Connolly, Jake Gardiner, Marshall Longworth, Thomas Moran, Ben Walsh, Ella Daly, Megan Hawley, Caitlin Mason, Evie Skinner, Georgia Willis, Ashley Dickinson, Chinemelum Izuchukum. Anya Mills, Josh Taylor, Ellie-Marie Ratcliffe.

Christmas Card — winning design Well done to Aimee Price in Year 7. She designed this year’s Christmas

card. Castlebrook Factor A fantastic night took place last night at the Castlebrook Factor 2017. Thanks to all the staff who helped out and to the Senior Prefects, as well as Harry Surplus and Remi Skuce who were superb as judges on the panel. 3rd place went to Thomas Moran, singing and playing guitar. 2nd place went to Paul Gardiner for playing the piano and 1st place went to Raegan Patterson who sang the ‘Cup Song’. All participants were amazing and

the judges had a very difficult decision to make. Congratulations to everyone who took part.

Community Coffee Morning We held our first community coffee morning this week. Thanks to all who attended. This gave members of the local community a chance to come and see what goes on at Castlebrook and see a video of our new build, as well as a preview of our forthcoming school production, The Wizard of Oz.

Christmas Jumper Day! Staff and learners dressed up in their Christmas jumpers at the end of term and raised money for charity. Donations were made of £1 for wearing jumpers and a

cake was raffled.

UCLan Visit GCSE PE Students at

Castlebrook High School

The 8th of November 2017 saw the start of an

exciting new partnership between Castlebrook

High School and the University of Central

Lancashire (UCLan). Andrew Sprake who is

an ‘Associate Lecturer in Physical Education

UCLan, came to visit the PE department and

delivered a talk on the ‘exploration of gender

stereotyping in sports culture’ and an

‘introduction to academic study at university’.

The session was geared towards supporting

the learners’ current level and subject

relevance (GCSE PE /Syllabus) whilst at the

same time challenging them to engage with the

material at a higher level of intellectual

curiosity. He followed up the lecture with a talk

about the alumni students' international

successes.

The event was enjoyed by staff, lecturer and

learners alike. Andrew commented that:

‘It was an absolute pleasure to visit the GCSE

PE pupils from Castlebrook High School. Their

intrigue about gender inequality within sports

culture was clear, and their energy to engage in

the debates was excellent. I’d like to thank both

the staff and pupils from Castlebook High

School for the warm welcome and good luck

with your studies going forwards!’

Four of our Year 10 pupils have also been kind

enough to express their delights with the

seminar.

‘In the seminar, I liked how the lecturer from

UCLan presented a presentation standing up

for girls. He got everyone involved and spoke

to us in a professional way; he also took his

spare time to visit Castlebrook. This shows he

takes his job seriously and stands up for girls.’

Aaron Kent Y10 GCSE PE

‘During today’s seminar, I learnt that men’s

rights in sports are more talked about than

women’s rights in sport. I was interested to see

how many people really cared or were

interested about women doing sport at a high

level and also people’s viewpoints.’ Reece

Boys Y10 GCSE PE

‘In the seminar, I liked how the lecturer got all

the class involved. I also liked how he didn’t

treat us like 5 year olds and spoke to us like

young men and women.’ Kurtis Hardman Y10

GCSE PE

‘The talk the lecturer gave today from UCLan

changed my opinion on the way women are

treated in society and sport. He changed this

because he showed us a video and quotes

from famous people and asked us our

thoughts. This changed my opinion in just 1

hour.’ Owen Crabtree Y 10 GCSE PE

We look forward to building on this and

developing our relationships in the future.

Mr P Fletcher

Mrs Armstrong sends her

best wishes for a safe,

peaceful and restful

festive season and looks

forward to welcoming all

learners back on

Thursday, 4th January

2018.