Prudhoe Community High School

Newsletter

Summer 2018 Second Edition

PCHS win ‘LOVE Northumberland’ Award for recycling projects.

Contents

Year 13 Prom

University links

Curtain up

The European Apprentice

The Bright Ideas Challenge

Year 9 and 10 Beach Rugby

Year 9 And Year 10 Awards Evening

Blencathra

South Africa

Social Mobility Pledge

Y10 Geography fieldwork

Baltic Art workshops

LNER Competition Winners

Athletics 2018

Sports Clubs Autumn term 2018

Public Health from your School Nursing Team

Y13 Prom End of year celebration for Y13 at the Hilton Gateshead on 25 May 2018. Take with you your enthusiasm, humour and work ethic. You will be very much missed.... see you on Results Day.

More photographs are available to view at: https://www.ivanburnphotography.co.uk/v/photos/pchsball18

University Links

Current students from Newcastle University giving our Maths and Physics students an insight into applying to university.

Curtain Up Year 10 showed their creative side in their examined performance of "Tomorrow's World" which was a completely original devised piece. Their play was an ensemble performance incorporating Brecht, DV8 and Frantic Assembly influences. They challenged the audience to think about their attitude to modern technology, its impact and misuse, considering social media, and devices like Alexa, and included a multi-role courtroom as a secondary plot. Well done all!

The European Apprentice The MFL Department took ten Year 10 students to Newcastle University to take part in the European Apprentice competition organised by Routes into Languages. The students had to use their French skills in order to advertise Bishop Auckland using their translation, speaking, listening and writing skills.

The students really enjoyed the day and got a lot out of it. We didn’t win but the students showed great teamwork skills and made the school proud.

Prudhoe students have bright idea to turn sewage into energy

A team of five students from Prudhoe Community High School will represent the North-East future.

The Year 9 students, who called themselves ‘Our New World’, became regional winners for the North-East in Shell's annual national schools' science competition, The Bright Ideas Challenge. The challenge asks young people aged 11 to 14 to address the complex energy challenges of the future and come up with innovative solutions for making cities in the future clean, efficient, vibrant places to live. Prudhoe students Max McDonald, Euan Davis, Oliver Hodgson, Jonah Burt and Danny Hollings had the idea for a simple underground turbine system that would harness the huge amount of potential energy available in the increasing volumes of sewage flowing under cities. They also devised a plan for mini turbines that could be incorporated into domestic drainpipes to convert waste water and sewage into electrical energy to power USB charging points and LED lights in homes. They won £1,500 to boost the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) experience at Prudhoe Community High School, and have been entered into the national final of the competition. Tim Smith, Design and Engineering teacher at Prudhoe Community High School: "They were a really well organised group, who put in a lot of their own time. Everyone at school is very proud of their success. "The prize money will go towards equipment they can use in lessons next year, and the team will help choose what it will be spent on.” The team received a VIP trip to London for Shell's four-day festival of innovation, Make the Future Live, where the national champion will be announced on Friday, July 6 and will win a total of £5,000.

Hexham Courant

Year 9 and 10 Beach Rugby

Year 9 & 10 Awards Evenings Celebrating the achievements of our Year 9 & Year 10 students.

Blencathra South Africa

Year 12 students on the Geography fieldtrip Students at Project Gateway, South Africa July

to Blencathra benefited from glorious 2018

weather this summer.

Social Mobility Pledge

The Rt Hon. Justine Greening MP visited PCHS along with Guy

Opperman MP to discuss the ‘Social Mobility Pledge’ with a group of

PCHS students.

"Britain should be a country where you can get on in life, regardless of your background. Improving social mobility is a defining challenge for us as a nation. We have talent spread evenly across this great country, but opportunity isn’t. Businesses, with the prosperity and careers they create for people, are key to improving social mobility”.

Rt Hon. Justine Greening MP

Year 10 Geography fieldwork

Our Year 10 Geography GCSE students recently battled some tricky weather when they visited Newbiggin by the Sea as part of the fieldwork for their GCSE in Geography. Over 100 students travelled with staff to the town over the course of two days, to complete activities which covered both the Physical and Human Geography components of the course. Students looked at the potential risks of coastal erosion and flooding and how they are being managed by local government. They also looked at whether Newbiggin is a 'clone' or 'home' town and what is being done to regenerate the area.

A windy but very successful two days out!

Baltic Art workshops

A selected group of students enjoyed a day at the Baltic! We were given the opportunity to work with Cath Campbell a locally based artist. She created an excellent workshop for the students encouraging 3D and textural pieces, where the students worked in groups and independently to use everyday objects to create seaside themed pieces. Following a busy morning we finished the afternoon at the Tynemouth seaside to collect some imagery for sketchbook work...and enjoy the sunshine.

LNER Competition Winners Students from Prudhoe Community High School are celebrating a double victory today after taking home two top prizes in the LNER Platform X competition at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle. The competition invited schools from across the North East to present their innovative ideas to improve rail travel to a panel of industry experts. 15 teams from 11 different schools made it through to the finals, with 3 coming from Prudhoe.

Tim Smith, Design, Technology and Engineering Teacher who accompanied the teams says “We were excited to make it through to the finals and then absolutely delighted to come away with two of the top prizes. The teams have worked very hard on their ideas, and one of the judges commented that their presentation was better than some of the companies they have seen. Deborah Reeman, Headteacher says “This is a huge achievement for our students, especially to have worked so hard on their presentations right up to the end of term. This just proves that Prudhoe students really are some of the best in the North East.” As well as winning £2000 for the school the winners received family vouchers for first class travel anywhere on the LNER network, and host of other goodies. They also had a chance to see Stephenson’s Rocket on its return to the North East, as part of the great Exhibition of the North.

Jonah Davies-Jones, winner of the category looking at how the East Coast Main Line could help support the Government's Northern Powerhouse initiative, says “I thought the presentation went really well but I was still very surprised to win as it was a very tough competition. I really hope they can take on board some of my proposals to make rail travel more sustainable, provide better facilities for cyclists, and also more opportunities for young people like me and friends at school who are looking for apprenticeships and training.”

Dan Bell, half of the Station Compass team who won the category looking at how to make rail transport the first choice for future generations says “Our idea is to create an Augmented Reality app which helps people find their way around rail stations. We even managed to work with a real company Ooh-AR from Leeds and make a prototype showing how it would work at our local station.” Emma Boaden, the other half of the team says “We surveyed people to find out things that put them off train travel, and most said finding their way around stations. We also thought about how difficult it must be for people who don’t speak the language when all of the signs are in English. Our app could easily translate the information and directions into any language needed.” Katey Ellen, from the Innovation Team at LNER, who organised the competition says “This is the first time we have run the competition with schools, but it was such a success we really hope it will become an annual event. It was really inspiring to hear so many new and original ideas from all of the teams, congratulations to all of the finalists, and to Prudhoe for such an impressive set of presentations.”

Athletics 2018 This has been an outstanding year of athletics. Our students have been magnificent in all competitions, here are the highlights: The summer started with excellent performances at the Area Championships where we had a record number of students qualify for the County Championships. Of the 36 athletes who qualified Kate Smith, Amy Jefferson, Sophie Walsh, Matthew Cant, Archie Leonard, Rowan Bennett, Ellis Leonard, Lottie Murphy, Lewis Cant, Roman Scott and Rhys Findlay all qualified to represent Northumberland. The English Schools Cup National Final. – The English Schools Cup is the largest athletics competition for schools in the summer. We started in May at Gateshead Stadium winning the boys’ event with the girls’ team finishing 2nd in the Northumberland round of the competition. The boys’ team progressed to the Northern final at Middlesbrough where we again won, posting an impressive 450 points. This was 30 points clear of our nearest rivals. Wins for Lewis Cant 100mts and Archie Leonard in the high jump were the highlights.

The National Finals were held at Gateshead Stadium and we were the only non-selective school to qualify, in fact it is the first time a boys’ team from this School has qualified for the Final. The competition is run like the Olympic games and the standard of athletes on display was exceptional in all events. Ollie Outterside displayed typical determination and the courage of the team as he sprinted the last 150mts of his 800mts overtaking 4 other athletes, crashing to the ground over the finishing line with a new personal best by 5 seconds, totally exhausted. Lewis Cant finished 2nd in the 100mts and Sam Jolly threw 43.99mts in the javelin only to be pipped into 2nd place with the last throw of the competition. Our boys performed well in all their events and can be proud of their achievements with lots of personal bests set. Lewis Cant and Kate Smith have both qualified for the English Schools athletics Championships and will be representing Northumberland in the 100mts and hurdles respectively.

Public health from your school nursing team

Yet again we’ve had a successful year in achieving Immunisations in Year 9. The programme will

continue for our Year 9 students in September 2018. Thank you to the school for their support and

to students and parents for their co-operation.

School Nursing will continue to be available directly to students via the school Drop-In facility in the

Pastoral Area of the school on Monday lunch-times. No appointment is necessary and it is

confidential to students. So if you have a problem call in and have a chat with the school nurse.

All students can

access anonymous

support via the Chat

Health texting

service which runs

52 weeks of the

year, Monday to

Friday, office hours.

On mobile number

07507 332 258

(why not save it

your phone!). You

will be charged the

price for a text and

the service is

staffed by School

Nursing staff all

year.

Parents are welcome to contact School Nursing at Oaklands Health Centre 01661 832512 should

they wish to discuss any aspects of their child’s well-being.

And finally – a thought for the summer! We would like to encourage

everyone to follow the 1500ml daily water challenge to ensure this is the

minimum volume of water you drink each day. Evidence demonstrates

that young people (and adults) generally don’t drink enough water to

support their own well-being each day. Check to see if you are drinking

enough, put 1 ½ litres of water into a 2 litre bottle, if you are drinking

enough your bottle should be empty by the end of the day.

School Nurse Drop-In Monday Lunch times

Pastoral Area All Welcome

No appointment required Confidential

Prudhoe Community High School

Moor Road

Prudhoe

Northumberland

NE42 5LJ

Tel: 01661 832486

Email@ enquiries@pchs.org.uk

Website: www.pchs.org.uk

Facebook: facebook.com/PrudhoeHigh

Twitter: @pchsnews