MANGOTSFIELD SCHOOL BULLETIN
March 2017
Headteacher's News
Welcome to the Bulletin.
This should be the last linked to the current incarnation of the website! It has been quite some time in coming but we are nearly there - we will have a new website within a matter of weeks, approximately early April. I have included some screenshots below- it is going to be much fresher in feel, content and be much more reflective of our current ethos.
Thank you to those families who attended our Parent Information evening on Ready To Learn on 14th March. It was important to reassure parents how rigorous we have been in preparing for this by taking our time and collaborating with other schools where they have been running with this system for some time.
The message is clear - we are introducing a very clearly defined system to promote learning and progress in every lesson. It will give all of our students the same chance in a consistently-applied system to perform to their best day-in, day-out! We want to transform the climate in the classroom, eliminate low-level poor behaviour and promote outstanding learning! Key to that is building the resilience of our students and making them active learners. Please see the website where there is a detailed Powerpoint which summarises the rationale and then how it will be used in school. We are using this major change as an opportunity to look at some of our routines and other sanctions. This is detailed in the Powerpoint too but the main message is that we will be tightening sanctions around mobile phones, smoking and uniform.
On uniform, please support us by ensuring your children are in correct uniform, by Monday 27th April. We now have one entry point to the school only, and will be checking uniform every day. Part of it is also wearing discreet or natural make-up, and only one stud in each ear.
We are doing much to try to embed a more real-world, outward-orientated ethos, all designed to raise aspirations. This term there are some brilliant examples of that:
Year 9 and Year 10 Employability Group Mock Interviews
Rotarians came in to deliver mock interviews to our students, with tremendous success and thanks to Mr Planter, Mr Marsh and Ms Phillips for supporting our students with that.
Future Quest
This is a charity whose mission is to promote aspirations regarding further education. 15 of our Year 9s and 15 Year 10s will be involved in experiences at Higher Education institutions, all designed to plant a seed about university life at this age.
Careers Education
The school has been invited to share our employer engagement work this year as a case study of good practice at the Bristol Local Enterprise Partnership Network.
Attendance
Please continue to talk to your children about attendance. The target set for us is 96% and we are not on track to meet that. We will be setting up a Parent Forum group next term and this will be one of the agenda items. Please email info@ marking the email FAO Mrs J Scull, and give us your details if you would like to join that group. We collected emails from parents who attended the Ready To Learn evening.
Reports
All Year groups will be receiving their reports this week.
Year 11
The PPEs (mocks in ‘old money’) continue this week. These are vital to give our students that exam practice (and pressure) which mirrors the real thing, not so long off now.
Year 11 Support Clinic is on Tuesday Lunchtime. Please encourage your Year 11 children, who may benefit from support managing their exam anxiety, to drop into C13.
Year 11 Prom Discount Cards are available from the Heads of House office. These are linked to attendance at revision sessions.
There is an extra Year 11 English and maths Evening for Parents on 23rd March. This is to ensure that parents are supporting their children with their revision and that there are clear links with home. It starts at
Easter Revision Letters will be going out this week - these letters will formally ‘invite’ students to attend revision sessions over the Easter Holidays.
Year 10
Year 10 Parents’ Evening is on 30th March. Many apologies for the change to the calendar- there have been some amendments which will be published in the updated calendar. You should now have received a letter regarding the changes.
Year 9 PPE
Year 9 PPEs will take place during the first week back after the Easter Holidays. Letters to parents regarding this will be going out this week.
David Spence
Employability Skills Interviews
Our Year 9 and Year 10 Employability Skills groups recently took part in interview sessions with some visitors from Kingswood Rotary Club.
In the lessons leading up to these events the students had been learning about the world of work and what to expect at an interview for a job, or for a place on a college course. They looked at the sort of questions they would be asked and also how to present themselves.
After some time spent practising their interview technique, they finally met up with the visitors. These represented a range of occupations; aeronautical and civil engineering, banking and finance, a language skills expert and a church minister.
For most students this was the first time they had taken part in an interview and they were understandably nervous. After introducing themselves and shaking hands with the interviewer, they were soon much more relaxed and were able to engage well, answering and asking questions. The feedback was very positive, with comments from the interviewers such as "a pleasant, relaxed demeanor, came across clearly with positive and expansive answers and enthusiasm", , "constructive and forward thinking" "he had thought carefully about what he wants to do and had prepared well for the interview". “We all enjoyed the day and are glad it was useful to the students”
World Book Day
Bristol Cathedral Art Exhibition
Mrs Beedle put up the work and created a diverse display of GCSE and A level work. The exhibition was open to public view for two weeks during the February half term.
The Bristol Savages judge the exhibition each year and award students accordingly.
This year we had two students receive awards. Wanda Davis year 11 was awarded the prize for ‘Best in School’ for her fantastic clay sculpture of an octopus. Freya Steadman was highly commended for her clay matchbox sculpture. Both students received certificates and cash prizes.
Well done to all students involved in this years exhibition.
Mrs Beedle
House News
Chase
Lots of new initiatives have been starting in Chase House. We have our new logo 'Chase Cheetahs' and, demonstrating that we are a very hard working house, we have consistently been top of the table for the number of logins to Show My Homework.
Also, there has been a concerted effort to award students who are in school every day. The Chase Loyalty Card has been rolled out over each mentor group and every week on a Thursday students have their card signed off if they have attendance of 100% for the previous week. There are 5 weeks to sign off on each card and when they are completed they can enter a prize draw on the 19th of May with a top prize of £50. There will be other smaller prizes as well. It is proving to be very popular with the students.
The following students have agreed to be a Show my Homework Ambassador for the house. These students have volunteered from different year groups and took part in a training session on the 10th of January. Chase students include Curtis Dunn, Talia Scott, Michael Macintyre Nash, Paris Lercier Hill, Robert Williams, Isabel Gowen–Bailey, Aimee Burrill, Harry Gainey, Kallum Sten Burke Kalling and Emily Warr. We wish them the best of luck in their new role. Ambassadors will be meeting with staff and parents to discuss the setting and completion of homework at Mangotsfield School as well as helping at parents evenings and in mentor time.
We also have some new members to the already active Chase Leadership team. The plan is to meet regularly to organise house matters e.g. fundraising events, student voice and participation in house events. The students filled in an application and were interviewed for these new and exciting posts. Matthew Phillips, Curtis Dunn, Bryce Gapper, Matt Riley, Bradley Day, Brock Gouldthorpe and Kara Spratt all interviewed really well and I am looking forward to working with them.
It is lovely to have so many students involved in the house projects. I would also like to thank the Chase mentor team who have helped to facilitate all of these ideas.
Miss Hawkins
Pomphrey
Rodway
Rodway students are continuing to thrive in the classroom and wider life! The termly 'Cherries on Top' ceremony celebrates excellence in all areas of school life and is already filling up!
We are neck and neck with Pomphrey in the House Competition and together we are continuing to chase down Chase - it could be a very close first final result - we want to be at the fair!
In other news, the new House logos are revealing the varied identities of the Houses. We are the 'Ravens' - the Raven is a sharp, intelligent, no nonsense bird, that does not flock with the others but flies high and thinks creatively around problems for the best end result! We have made 'fly high' our Motto as we continue to aspire to future success.
Mr Fear
Siston
Siston students have been working hard over the last few weeks in closing the gap with house points. We have earned a large number of tokens between us for hard work, meeting and exceeding targets and contributing well to lessons. Participation in competitions has increased and we have had a growing number of wins. Notably, Josh Donovan (Year 8) who won the KS3 table tennis and Eva James (Year 7) and Diana Wola (Year 9) who won the bake off competitions for their year groups. Miss Orford (one of the judges) commented that Eva’s cake was one of the best tasting ever! Well done to all Siston students who have taken part in representing the house. Remember we are the tortoise who is slowly but consistently earning points for our team, we can do this!
At the start of February, students voted for a house mascot. We are now known as the Siston sharks. During assembly we have explored the attributes of sharks and how we can show them in our time at school. These are outlined in the annotated diagram. Our new logo has also been designed to reflect this.
'Siston Shark' attributes: Tough, resilient, effective, sharp, powerful, independent with drive and flexibility, dynamism and balance.
Congratulations to Luke Iles (Year 9) who ran for South Gloucestershire in the Avon Schools Cross-County Championship. He finished in 9th place and qualified to run for the South West Schools Cross-County Championships in Truro.
Katie Robbins (Year 11) had her first trial with Team GB Target Sprint on 4th March and it went fantastically well. All the coaches were very positive about her chance of going to the World Championships in Germany in June and potentially the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo – good luck Katie!
Mr Emery
Concorde Book Award
Voting for the award took place on Word Book Day. The students had read the shortlisted books and only they could vote for the winning book.
There were various presentations, a question and answer session with the authors and then a 'Room 101 ' event. This allowed the authors to recommend something to go into Room 101.
The authors, Andrew Lane (Night Break - a Young Sherlock Holmes story), M.G. Leonard (Beetle Boy) and Ali Sparkes (Car-Jacked) and answered questions on their books and how they got their ideas.
The short-listed books were:
'Beetle Boy' by M.G. Leonard, 'House of Secrets' by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini, 'Night Break - Young Sherlock Holmes' by Andrew Lane, 'Murder Most Unladylike' by Robin Stevens, 'Lies We Tell Ourselves' by Robin Talley and 'Car-Jacked' by Ali Sparkes.
The winner was Lies We Tell Ourselves. Robin Talley sent a video message from her home in Washington D.C. thanking the students for their votes and the South Gloucestershire Council, and librarians and for their work organising the event.
Jess and Evie got to meet the other visiting authors after the prizegiving.
There are copies of all the shortlisted and winning books available in the LRC.
Mrs. Wells
Ali Sparkes, M G Leonard & Andrew Lane
Robin Talley - Winner 2017
The Lies We Tell Ourselves was also shortlisted for the 2016 Carnegie Prize and was the winner of the 2016 Inaugural Amnesty Honour.
The Presentation Ceremony
Careers
Lyons Davidson Visit
Lyons Davidson Solicitors visited our 6th Form on 21st Feb to present opportunities for work experience and internships as well as a non-university route into law. More info on www.joinlyonsdavidson.co.uk
Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships Talk at School on Tuesday 28th March at 6.30 – A talk in the school hall about Apprenticeships – what they are, how to find them. Speaker from National Apprenticeships and T2 Academy in Bristol. Year 11 and 12 parents/carers and students. If in younger years and interested to attend, please contact Miss Phillips
Civil Service Fast Track Apprenticeships currently being advertised on www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeshipsearch - excellent opportunities.
Work Experience
Work Experience – Year 10 – please continue to return placements to Miss Philips as soon as possible.
Contact e-mail addresses
To ensure your emails get quickly to the right member of staff, and to respond to parental feedback, we have created the following dedicated e-mail addresses:
exams@mangotsfieldschool.org.uk
studentabsence@mangotsfieldschool.org.uk
sixthform@mangotsfieldschool.org.uk
teaching@mangotsfieldschool.org.uk
E-mails to any of these accounts will be directed immediately to the department concerned who will reply via that e-mail address. If you know the name of the teacher you wish to contact, please add it to the subject line to ensure a prompt reply.
Thank you.
Dates for Your Diary
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Term Dates 2016-17
Term 1
Thursday 1 September 2016
Friday 21 October 2016
Term 2
Monday 31 October 2016
Friday 16 December 2016
Term 3
Tuesday 3 January 2017
Friday 10 February 2017
Term 4
Monday 20 February 2017
Friday 7 April 2017
Term 5
Monday 24 April 2017
Friday 26 May 2017
Term 6
Monday 5 June 2017
Friday 21 July 2017
Inset Days 2016 - 17
Thursday 1st September 2016
Friday 21st October 2016
Tuesday 3rd January 2017
Monday 20th February 2017
Monday 24th April 2017
We are heading into the final couple of terms and it is still all to play for to be the Mangotsfield first House Competition champions. Chase still lead the way but the other houses are clawing back the lead. If Chase become complacent the others will pounce and steal the prize of the day in July.
My personal highlights have been the Bake Off where we had some fantastic entries throughout the age groups. The most high profile event was the Table Tennis competition where we welcomed Will Bayley (MBE and Paralympic Table Tennis champion). The day was fantastic with the Mangotsfield students getting some coaching tips before the house competition won by Josh Donavan (KS3 winner for Siston) and Dan Northcott (KS4 winner for Chase).
The day was a great example between Mangotsfield School and the CSET Sports Partnership Lead & School Games who are based in school. Table Tennis club runs every Thursday after school at 15:15 in the sports hall for all Mangotsfield students.
Mr Jordan (House competition Co-ordinator)