Salt Pinch of

The news magazine of Titus Salt School

VOL 11 Autumn 2013

Year 7 students settle in with our care, guidance and support

4-5

Encouragement, Progression, Achievement

The next step

Salt Pinch of

The news magazine of Titus Salt School

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We are delighted to announce that Titus Salt School now has biometric cashless catering. All students who have registered can pay for food in our canteen with a simple scan of their right index finger.

This means that queuing will be reduced and students do not need to worry about carrying cash.

Janice Attwood

Author-in-residenceTSS is one of the first schools in the country to adopt a

patron under a new scheme to nurture a culture of reading

and develop literacy skills. Writer Dave Cryer will be working

with students over the next year, and has already run a writing

masterclass for students who developed their literacy through

a fun writing competition.Chrissie Hunter

Temple tourAs part of their studies into Indian religions, Year 8 students had the opportunity to visit two local places of worship: the Sikh temple of Gurdwara Singh Sabha and the Hindu temple of Shree Laxmi Mandir.

RE in actionTSS held a district RE conference for secondary and primary school students to develop a deeper understanding of faiths. The conference was led by national RE experts, and activities involved a discussion about life’s ultimate questions and the production of artwork based on the concept of creative RE.

Britain’s heritageWorking collaboratively with Tong High School, Year 7 students took part in a competition to produce ‘Britain in a Box’. The challenge was to produce a box with items inside that displayed British culture and heritage over the years. One student had the brilliant idea of making their box from a Charles Dickens novel! Congratulations to those students who visited Tong for the final during the summer term.

Hayley BennettOur young Geographers have been busy!

During the summer term, students in Year 7 were asked if they wanted to become involved in ‘Make It Better’, a Friends of the Earth initiative encouraging our school community to recycle old mobile phones.

The phones will then be sent to

Friends of the Earth, who recycle the metal to use in new phones as part of their campaign to reduce tin mining in Indonesia.

Louise Barker

No cash required

The last word in literacy

Together we can ‘Make It Better’

Green party: Lucy Smith, Alex Slingsby, Elias McLaughlan, Isabelle Wright, Emily Prince and Yakshina Mistry, Year 7.

Biometric scan: Emily Booth, Year 12, tries out the new technology.

No Pens DayOn 19 June, staff and students put down their

pens and spent the day taking part in ‘No Pens Day

Wednesday’. The aim was to get everyone to focus

on speaking and listening skills. There were some

fantastic lessons around school, which included role

play, movie-making and a variety of problem-solving

tasks. “I enjoyed explaining my ideas to other

students as well as listening to their views too,”

said one student.James Russell

Year 7 ReadathonYear 7 students have been reading lots of books and

raising money for charity at the same time in our

annual Readathon. Friends and family have sponsored

the students for each book they’ve read, with almost

£800 raised for CLIC Sargent, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous

Children’s Charity and Readwell. Chrissie Hunter

The annual Year 9 trip to Coniston was a great success, and enjoyed by all.

We had glorious weather and students were able to take part in a wide range of outdoor activities, including kayaking, mountain biking, climbing, ghyll scrambling, sailing and walking.

Prior to the camp, students told us they wanted to go in tutor groups – rather than in bands – so they could be with their friends. We worked hard to make this happen, and as a result students had an even more enjoyable time.

Gemma Russell

As Headteacher, the last academic year has been an enjoyable one, and I would like to think that our students feel the same.

This edition of Pinch of Salt reflects the enjoyment, diversity and achievement of our students. Partnerships are vital for our school development, and I am looking forward to working with our students and their parents and carers again next year.

The focus on ‘Transition’ shows how much we value working with others and making everyone feel welcome. We have a fantastic school in which to learn and work; the commitment of our staff make it so.

Ian Morrel, Headteacher

‘A fantastic school in which to learn and work’

An enjoyable year: Headteacher Ian Morrel with Thomas Sorren and Jacob Shaw, Year 7.

Spiritual and cultural development is an important part of a student’s experience. Here are some examples from our RE department.

Reading for charity: Darcy Eastell and Matthew Padgett, Year 7.

Oarsome! Kayaking on Coniston Water.

Carry on camping!

Salt Pinch of

The news magazine of Titus Salt School

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In June, we hosted a Dragons’ Den event in order to support transition.

Local primary schools pitched their business ideas to a team of ‘Dragons’, who quizzed them about expected revenues and profits. Teams then had to sell their wares to TSS students over lunchtime.

The eventual winner was Low Ash School with an idea for hand-wrapped sweets, tied with a ribbon emblazoned with the colours of Bradford City football club. The finishing touch was a ‘Bradford fact’ included with each purchase.

A TSS student said: “The Low Ash team were really good. I wanted to buy their sweets because they were presented so beautifully.”

Year 7 team

Top marks for transitionSnapshot of life in Year 7

Into the Dragons’ den: Primary pupils sell their wares.

At Titus Salt School, transition is an important part of our care, guidance and support.

The snapshots below give some insights into how our current Year 7 students have settled into our school.

Year 7 team

Snapshot 1: Working togetherThere are many opportunities for Year 7 to meet other new students. We take care to ensure

tutor groups are balanced, and offer opportunities for students to meet and mix with children

from other schools. Tutor groups are an important part of our pastoral care and academic

monitoring, with students working in small groups or pairs, including reading time.

Positive

feedback

In the summer term, we asked Year 7 parents to complete a

survey on transition to help us understand what they felt about their child’s first year at TSS. In total, 109 parents replied, and we

found out that:

100%told us they felt their child

had a good year at TSS

Positive feedback

100%

said that TSS had

offered a very

good transition

programme

Positive feedback97%said they would recommend TSS to another parent

99%told us that their

child quickly felt

comfortable and

happy in Year 7

98%felt that there was

someone in school with whom they could talk

about their son/daughter starting secondary

school

Positive feedback

We want to make sure that every student who joins us feels comfortable and happy, so they can quickly settle and get the best out of our school

Snapshot 5:

Jane and Oliver Murphy

After leaving Sandal Primary School,

Oliver Murphy quickly settled in at TSS.

Oliver’s mum Jane is delighted with her

son’s transition: “Oliver had already

visited TSS many times through

transition days, and worked in Science,

Design and Maths. He felt he knew

many of the teachers and the school

by the time he started in September.”

99%said that our school

provided high-quality

information, which helped

to prepare children

for secondary

school

Positive

feedback

Snapshot 4: Josh BrockhouseJosh Brockhouse, who came to TSS from a Baildon primary, has been voted Form Member of the Week and is an excellent ambassador for TSS. He also plays cricket for the school.

Snapshot 3: Jacob Donoghue

Jacob Donoghue joined TSS from Glenaire Primary School. A keen sportsman and an avid reader, last summer he took part in our Summer Reading Challenge. The result was an impressive portfolio of work, for which he won a Kindle. Jacob also designed a 3D poster encouraging students to talk to an adult in school about any issues that are concerning them.

Positive feedback

98% said their child

enjoys coming to our school

‘Dragons’ spark business ideas

Positive

feedback

Snapshot 2: Eve SouthcottSince joining TSS, Eve Southcott has excelled at sport, representing the school in Athletics and competing in the TSS Sports Day. Eve said: “Titus Salt School has some brilliant sporting facilities, and I enjoy using them as often as I can!”

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Salt Pinch of

The news magazine of Titus Salt School

In June, a number of our feeder primary schools took part in a Gifted and Talented Mathematics Competition.

Pupils from Years 5 and 6 competed against each other in a variety of activities designed to promote effective teamwork, as well as challenge some of the most talented students in the area.

The best teamwork prize went to Low Ash and the overall winners were St Anthony’s.

Michael Sendrove

As part of our drive to develop computing skills, a group of Year 9 students have worked after school to learn about programming in Microsoft C# and XNA languages. The focus was to introduce programming and create opportunities for students to develop their own computer game from an idea on paper to a fully working game.The group was run by Mr Atkinson, with the help of Mr Flerin and Mr Ali, and James Machell from Bradford University. The finished games were of such high quality that, potentially, they could be packaged to sell online within Xbox or Android systems.

Darren Atkinson

Musicians, singers, dancers and

actors took to the stage, battling

it out to be crowned ‘Salt’s Got

Talent’ champion 2013. The winner,

Year 10 student Robbie Miller,

who performed Tracy Chapman’s

Fast Car, said: “There were some

brilliant acts, so I’m pleased that

the audience voted for me!”

Four of our Year 8 forms also

took part in a Performing Arts

Personal Development Day.

Activities included creating models

of set designs, Bollywood dancing,

Street dancing, a pantomime

workshop, improvisations

and performance.

And, to end a fantastic year of

Performing Arts, students were

rewarded with a trip to the West

End to see the musical, Charlie and

the Chocolate Factory.Cheryl Gaukroger

The 2013 Saltaire Arts Trail ‘Lost in Space’ theme was enthusiastically embraced by our students, who dreamed up out-of-this-world activities to entertain visitors.

Alongside making wacky alien masks, sending messages to the moon, and inviting children to have their photograph taken with an alien, the main event was a little more explosive.

‘Professors’ Hawkins and Breen used their years of scientific experience to conduct an experiment involving Alka-Seltzer, water and an empty film canister: a powerful concoction, which sent a ‘rocket’ an impressive distance into the air!

Heather Graham

Titus Salt School students, posing as ‘Men in Black’, invited visitors to Saltaire Festival and the Saltaire Arts Trail to be involved in the next mission to land on the Moon.

As part of the International Space School Educational Trust’s (ISSET) mission to send a ‘Message to the Moon’, a probe will land and carry out experiments on the surface of the Moon in November 2013. It will hold

photos, stories, poems, videos, pictures and designs from people across the world – and the messages we collected will be among them!

Participants will be sent a certificate and regular updates on the progress of the project.

Heather Graham

Year 7 students recently explored our local textile dyeing heritage through a series of hands-on activities during Personal Development Day, with the help of Claire Wellesley-Smith from the Fabric of Bradford project, Martin Bijl from Roberts Park, and Salts Walks.

Heather Graham, TSS Creative & Community Projects Manager, said: “This project is a unique way of introducing our students to their local history, and encourages them to take a genuine interest in their local community. A history walk around Saltaire with Salts Walks to see how fabrics were dyed in the 1800s, followed by a planting session in Roberts Park and a fun, hands-on approach to the dyeing process with Clare, proved to be a fascinating and enjoyable day. I can’t think of a better way to learn.”

Heather Graham

Natalie Graham, a former student at TSS, recently achieved a first-class honours degree in Landscape Architecture. She was also awarded the prize by the Institute of Landscape Architecture for most outstanding overall performance for a student at Leeds Metropolitan University.

In July, Natalie produced a show garden, as part of a small team, for the Royal Horticultural Society Show at Tatton Park. The garden has been relocated to St Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds after the event.

Simon Hawkins

Always performing!

Learning a new language: Alex Sant and Jake Ejraee, Year 9.

Audience favourite:

Robbie Miller, Year 10.

Arts Trail is out of this world!

Message to the Moon

Activities to dye for

Talent in spades!

Close encounter: Children come face to face with a friendly alien.

‘Men in Black’: aka Year 10 students Cortnie Fenton and Megan Carson.

Dyeing to learn: Alex Butler and Ayush Sunil, Year 7.

Creativity in the community

On the winning team: Pupils from St Anthony’s.

Ahead of the game

Primary pupils master Maths

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Titus Salt School, Higher Coach Road, Baildon BD17 5RH.Tel: 01274 258969. Fax: 01274 258970.Email: enquiries@titussaltschool.co.ukWebsite: www.titussaltschool.co.uk

Salt sport Pinch of

The news magazine of Titus Salt School

On Friday 12 July, students in Years 7, 8 and 9 took part in our annual Sports Day. Each form represented an Olympic country, with ‘China’ eventually winning first place. In contrast to 2012, when Sports Day was cancelled because of

poor weather, it was a scorching hot day.As a result, 11 school records were

broken, including the 400m won by Emma Kerrigan, Year 9, which had stood since 1987.

James Russell

Following an invitation to take part in the Bradford Schools Super 8 Athletics Competition at Horsfall Stadium, TSS put forward a team of boys and girls from Years 8 and 9.

Competing in eight events – 100 metres, 400 metres, hurdles, 1,500

metres, javelin, long jump, high jump and shot put – each member of the team, and our Post-16 Young Leaders, showed a great deal of skill and determination. The event finished with the 4 x 100 metre and Medley relays.

Nat Kerray

This season, the boys’ cricket teams have played more than 20 matches against several local schools.

Each of the teams has shown a great deal of commitment and performed to an excellent level. Highlights have included Oli Williams’s hat-trick and Amaan Zia’s 34 runs from an over.

The Year 7 and 8 teams played in the National Hardball Competitions, where the Year 8 team was beaten by a very good Benton Park side and Year 7 made it to the third round, eventually losing to Ermysted’s Grammar School.

Nat Kerray

In July, approximately 300 pupils from Years 5 and 6 attended the Primary Olympics at Titus Salt School.

The pupils, from ten local schools, took part in a wide range of events, including a fun assault course.

A big thank you to the Young Leaders who helped with the scoring and supported the pupils at each station.

Madeline Parfitt

Thanks to the RFU All Schools’ programme, girls’ rugby has really taken off at Titus Salt School.

Rugby has become a regular fixture of Year 7 PE lessons, and the girls’ rugby teams have been involved in the West Yorkshire Girls’ Rugby Development Days.

In a short space of time they have developed both a number of different skills and a genuine love for rugby. Here’s to next season.

Nat Kerray

‘Olympians’ fly the flag

Faster, Higher, Stronger

Cricketers excel

Girls tackle rugby

A fun time was had by all!

Multi-talented: Team TSS rise to the challenge.

Seasoned veterans: The Year 8 team.

Good sports: Rhea Southcott, Geremy India and Emma Kerrigan.