Caludon Update - Spring 2017

April 2017

Headteacher’s Letter Year Group News Student Successes

Trips & Visits Sports

Photograph: Science students at Salter’s festival of Chemistry

Headteacher’s Letter

“I am so proud of our students” You will read in our Caludon Update about the fantastic activities that your children have taken part in and you must be very impressed by their achievements. I want to continue to champion the Arts (Music, Drama, Art) and Sport, as well as the core subjects of Maths , English and Science.

Dear Parents / Carers The term has ended with our graduation celebrations. I am so proud of our students who have demonstrated excellent effort and behaviour within class, commitment to their home learning and respect to all. An extraordinary number of students have completed their Caludon Experience challenges which shows how they are developing into confident young people.

As you know, there have been many changes in primary and secondary schools. In particular, standards are rising. I am pleased to say that your children are responding well to these challenges. This term, we have appointed more staff to support your children in class and offered opportunities to staff to increase the range of enrichment activities.

Yesterday, an external consultant and recent inspector in Mathematics, praised the quality of provision in year 7 and 8 Maths lessons and was

impressed by the quality of student understanding of Maths.

Students feel well supported and challenged.

The subject parents’ evenings continue to be well received and staff value meeting you to talk about your child’s progress.

Thank you for showing your commitment to your child’s education by ensuring they attend regularly, are punctual to lessons and complete their home learning. Our attendance is above that of most schools and there has been a continued improvement in home learning and punctuality I know students are looking forward to the holidays and I wish you all a happy Easter.

Mrs M Marr Headteacher

All Photography students were invited to enter this term’s Winter photograph competition. Some of the entries are shown here, with the winning entry displayed later in the Update. Look out for more photography competitions in future.

Year 7 News This Caludon Update is being compiled just 24 hours after the year 7 disco. This took place as the end of term graduation celebration for those students whose attendance, punctuality, attitude

to learning, and behaviour are all good, and who are on track with their Caludon Experience Awards. The students at the disco were excited and happy, and made great use of the

photobooth. A lot of creativity was shown with the glow sticks - the Art department would have been proud. There was even some dancing! Well done to all of you.

Other Years Application forms are now available for joining the Uganda 2018 team.

The application dead-line is 8.40am, Tuesday 25 April. There is no flexibility on this dead-line.

The trip is open to students who are currently in years 9, 10 and 11.

Year 11 students who apply must be at Caludon Castle Sixth Form next year.

There was an opportunity for parents to see what the project is all about on Monday 3 April.

Forms can be collected from Mrs Thompson at main reception.

For further details at this stage, please contact Mr Morgan, deputy headteacher.

Year 7 and Year 8 have both been treated to the talents of the staff this term. Year 7 were privileged to be able to attend the Staff Talent Show, to raise money for Red Nose Day, and Year 8 had a karaoke session as their graduation celebration for the term.

Thanks to all the staff involved in both events.

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Library Book Bout competition Monday 23 January 2017 On Monday 23rd January 2017 we hosted the inter-schools competition ‘Book Bout’.

Students from Cardinal Wiseman, Sidney Stringer, Finham Park, Finham Park 2, President Kennedy, and our own fab team, were presenting on a book from the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards.

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The students all did so well. I think that was evident by the closest voting we have ever had!

Finham Park won and we came a close second. More importantly, students showed their skills and talents by coming up with very inventive ways for promoting a book.

Pictured below from left to right are Fjori Dautaj 8.4, Sophia Kennedy from 8.4 and Michael Smith from 8.9 with their book prizes.

World Book Day Book Show On Tuesday 28 February 2017, a group of avid readers, myself and Mrs Dawes, took a group of Y7 students to the Warwick Arts Centre, as part of our celebrations for World Book Day. We were entertained and enthralled by Jessica Ennis Hill, Holly Smale (author of Geek Girl) and book illustrators who showed us how easy it looks!

See below Mia Horton from 7.1 with Holly Smale and her signed copy of Geek Girl and Caden Hadley from 7.2 with Nick Mohammed author of The Young Magicians and Thieves’ Almanac.

News World Book Day Thursday 2 March 2017 As part of celebrating World Book day Y7 and staff were invited to dress up as a book character‌ Evidence below‌ Miss Barton and Ben Hookham as Gangsta Granny ! And the lovely Miss Howell came as a library!

In the library we also did an activity called Blind Date with a Book. A book was chosen and borrowed knowing only the blurb and not being able to see the cover.

Ms Barton, Librarian

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Student Successes Headteacher’s tea parties The following students were invited to the Headteacher’s tea parties this term, to recognise their achievements: Year 7 Jacob Aristidou Esme Bennett Jaiden Greenway Emma Herbert Harry Hiskins Jamie McConnaghie Lauren O’Flynn Maria Sanchez Connor Skingle Ruben Wade Year 8 Ariyana Delai Joe Griffiths Ben Healy Zehra Kapar Lucy Noon Ellie Rice Nayana Robin

Madison Scrimshaw Ellie Smith India Southcott Year 9 Pearl Asare Sam Bestard Mohadesah Hadipour John Jenkins Joseph McAuley Lauren McConnachie Johnetta Okyere Isabelle Ross Katherine Sayers Maddie Seery Year 10 Amy Boon Chalita Thongkam Chloe Lawson Ellie-May Heames Evenir Bregu Georgia Flint Jessie Paprotny Joseph Haythorn

Other success stories Three GCSE students, Courtney Webster-RIley, Warren Pollard and Frazer McAllister planned and carried out an Indian-themed meal as part of their Hospitality GCSE. They made a range of starters, prepared an authentic curry and produced a selection of Indian sweets. Comments from staff suggested it was better than some restaurants they had been to.

Ms Ruddy, Leader of Technology

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Mason Simmonds Millie Joyce Paulina Trojanacka Rachel Cooper Robert Livingstone Xanthe Hives Year 11 Anoj Sivanathan Arnold Selimi Arun Lakhanpal Ava Bremmer Courteney Powers Davey Grady Erin Forbes Joshua Griffin Joshua Martin Katie Hallam Lauren Kieran Masooma Shah Max Ingham Stott Rose Carter Congratulations to all the invited students!

The Design brief this year for GCSE Resistant Materials was to design and make a table ... we have been very impressed with the skills demonstrated!

Futurechef

Reece McCook took part in the regional finals of Futurechef on Saturday 4th February after winning the local heats.

Although Reece didn’t win this time, he produced two amazing products and did Caludon proud.

Well done Reece.

Ms Coe

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Science News

Y7 Home Learning Project We have launched a new initiative in Science around home learning. The students have been issued with a home learning booklet which has a series of tasks to be completed throughout the half term, linking Science to the real world.

Teachers will soon be issuing certificates to congratulate students who have made a special effort throughout the

half term.

This has been devised in order to help students develop as independent learners, and make links in their learning. We are trying to develop skills that students will need in order to be successful throughout their school career. The tasks and format are based on the feedback year 7 students have given us around home learning.

Feedback from the first booklet has been really positive, and students are currently working on their second home learning booklet.

Booklet three is coming soon!

If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Duffield (stduffielde@caludoncastle.co.uk) or Mrs Collinson (stcollinsons@ caludoncastle.co.uk).

Mrs Duffield / Mrs Collinson

London Zoo skype sessions In March, year 7 and 8 students skyped scientists from London Zoo. The students learnt about career pathways involving science and the type of work they could carry out if they were to go on to work in a scientific field.

Ms Banwait

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Student Events

Arctic Live!

In March, 25 students from years 8, 9 and 11 took part in the Arctic Live! event, skyping with an expedition team based at the UK Arctic Research Station, managed by the British Antarctic Survey.

The Caludon students

were part of a larger project in which, from the comfort of their classrooms, students interacted via 115 one-to-one Skype calls and 10 YouTube live broadcasts with the expedition team in NyÅlesund, Svalbard, the most northerly permanent settlement in the world.

This year’s Arctic-based team included Digital Explorer’s Jamie Buchanan-Dunlop and British Antarctic Survey paleoecologist Bianca Perren. The team answered dozens of questions from, ‘How many polar bears have you seen?’ to, ‘What evidence of climate change have you experienced there?’.

Mr Handy

Lego League

At the start of the Christmas holiday, we had a very successful day with our two teams at the Lego League. Both teams received wonderful Lego trophies as seen in the picture.

One was for demonstrating fantastic ‘core values’, where the students had to articulate their trials/ tribulations/ successes whilst working as a team, and what they have learnt from the process.

The other trophy was for most commendable ‘Team Spirit’ after a member of their team had to go home ill and their robot malfunctioned at the beginning of the day. Regardless, they kept their heads held high, demonstrated fantastic resilience and kept a positive and enthusiastic attitude throughout the day.

The students did us extremely proud, demonstrating true Caludon dedication, taking part in a competition during their school holidays, overcoming all problems thrown at them and remaining with a smile on their faces at all times. A big thank you to everyone for their support, especially on the last day of term.

Ms Anderson-Shore

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Ski trip to Italy In February half term we took 40 students, ranging from year 8 to year 11, on a ski trip to Italy. For the first time we had a group of beginner snowboarders, making it a new experience for all of us!

At the start of the week we had over 30 beginners with us, but by the end of the week we had 40 experienced skiers and snowboarders. We even made the longest ski snake ever from Coventry…even our snowboarders joined in!

Our experienced skiers were regularly going down black runs and putting me to shame.

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Throughout the week the students experienced bum boarding, a pizza night and an amazing disco.

Our students did us proud every step of the way - their behaviour throughout the journey, snow sports lessons and evening activities was impeccable. All of the instructors commented on their lovely manners and ‘cando’ attitude.

We had some excellent falls and every time they got back up again and kept going.

Here’s to the next ski trip!

Ms James

- Courmayer

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Drama E Drama have been very busy this term ensuring there are lots of opportunities for the students to attend theatre trips, to perform assessed performances to a live audience and to be a

part of enrichment clubs. All of these great prospects enable the students to enhance their learning within the subject and beyond.

and deliver the best experiences for the students. Thank you to Team Drama for the enthusiasm and dedication you always provide to the department and give to our students.

As a department we aim to plan

Ms Gallagher

Y10 GCSE Scripted Performances Earlier this term, year 10 GCSE Drama students worked very hard on their scripted performances. They showcased their great work during March to an invited audience.

As a department we are exceptionally proud of the way our students continue to push themselves further with each project.

Drama: Y10 Y10 Students from Miss Gallagher and Miss Jolley’s tutor group really came to the aid of the Drama department this half term. The department have had a custom-designed ‘learning desk’ made which has compartments for the growing range of ‘teacher toolkit’ resources Drama use to stretch and challenge students. One desk has now been completed, and with the help of the Technology department and the fantastic students, there will hopefully

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be three by the end of the next half term.

The students have really learned the difficulties faced by

businesses and tradespeople when having to deal with a particularly grumpy customer who is never happy – Mr DeGroot, though, is now delighted.

Events

Year 13 A2 Original Devised Performances

Year 13 A Level Theatre Studies students created their own original devised pieces of theatre and showcased them in March to a live audience.

Innocence Is Lost Lauren Harcourt, Daniel Manning, Emma Saunders, Becky Martin, Katie Scallan and Emma Johnson Our piece emerged through exploring stimulus material around two events, the murder of Jamie Bulger and the high school massacre at Columbine.

As we looked towards structuring our work, and influenced by the nostalgic revisiting of the 1990s in television, news and social media, we felt it would be interesting to try and create a theatrical montage of stories, people, events, music and footage that captures the essence of the era. This was an era long enough ago to provide an historical perspective – all of the group were born in the late 90s - but also close enough to be remembered and emotionally revisited by much of our audience.

We wanted to engage with reminiscence theatre as a form, but also to connect to the verbatim theatre movement currently in vogue. We wanted to include challenge in our means of presentation by finding abstract and symbolic ways of presenting real events as the actual event, but also as the vital and metaphysical core at the events’ centres. We wanted to layer ideas, content, verbatim dialogue, music, filmed footage, physical theatre, music, characters, and monologue – interweaving them into a performance text that would be rich, visually and aurally arresting, and emotionally powerful.

We aimed to show how the events of the decade shaped our own and the audiences’ lives and created the world into which we have been raised.

We sought to connect with the politics and culture of the events, but we wanted the audience to remain distanced from the events through the style and fragmented structure of our piece.

The year is 1999; the turn of the century is closing in, and despite the widespread belief that the world could be coming to an end, JK Rowling still manages to publish her third book in the Harry Potter series. An attack on a school forces the US to rethink gun laws, and the first film in the Star Wars prequel series arrives in cinemas.

1997: nationalist riots in Northern Ireland, the release of ‘Spice Up Your Life’ by the Spice Girls, and James Cameron’s romantic adaptation of the 1912 Titanic sinking, the death of The People’s Princess, Diana Princess Of Wales. The year also brought an end to “The Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher’s time in office. In other political news, Tony Blair became Prime Minister, and Bill Clinton became the 42nd President of the

United States.

1993: The World Trade Center was bombed by Ramzi Yousef and his partners. James Bulger was murdered by Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.

The comedy film starring Robin Williams “Mrs Doubtfire” was released.

1989 had come to a close, and just three months into the new decade the biggest private property heist in history took place in Boston, America - over $500 million worth of art was stolen. 1990 marked the beginning of a 10 year run that would change people’s perspective of politics, the royal family, and create a whole new world around “pop culture”. The liberation of Nelson Mandela sparked a hope for human rights as a whole, fuelling a new age of politics (such as the collapse of the Soviet Union and Margaret Thatcher’s resignation) and female empowerment. Science made a breakthrough by sending the Hubble Telescope into space, Madonna released “Vogue” and Billy Crystal made his debut as host of the 62nd Oscars.

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Drama Kaned Jasmine Hutchings, Megan Foster, Katey-Leigh Ray and Takudzwa Mudiwa “Doctor this, Doctor that, Doctor whatsit.”

“Kane was a dramatist original enough to communicate ultimate emotions with a strange beauty as with a frightening bluntness.” The Times In this performance we invited the audience into the depths of playwright Sarah Kane’s mind. We are a contemporary performance collective, experimenting with physical theatre and ensemble performance methods.

Using ‘The Works of Sarah Kane’ as our stimulus, we interpreted speech from a number of her plays in an innovative manner in order to demonstrate the creativity and complexity of her work. Sarah Kane was an English playwright.

Her plays deal with themes of redemptive love, sexual desire, pain, torture — both physical and psychological — and death. Kane struggled with severe depression for many years; however she wrote consistently, if slowly, throughout her adult life. Kane died in 1999, when, two days after taking an overdose of prescription drugs, she committed suicide by hanging herself by her shoelaces in a bathroom at London’s King’s College Hospital.

For this reason, our piece was about the fragile and dysfunctional nature of an individual who has lost control of their mind. The plays connote emotions such as denial, regret, panic, fear and confusion, all of which display the chaotic inner workings of Kane’s mind and thus the decline of her mental stability.

Drawing mainly from the play ‘4:48 psychosis’, where Kane herself noted that; “It’s about a psychotic breakdown,” we aimed to embody Kane’s thoughts through the character of “The Woman”, in order to create a sense of catharsis by utilising her honest and heart-breaking journey. Poetic dialogue was used to not only show the emotions of “The Woman”, but also the deep ingrained chaos within Sarah Kane’s mentality.

The unstructured nature of our piece symbolised the fragility of a victim of mental illness, hence portraying the fragmented parallels between her life and her art. Through the writings of Kane, we aimed to create a theatrical portrayal of depression.

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Events

Enrichment Opportunities Drama Club Since the end of January, Miss Jolley and Miss Eivin have been running Drama Club on Wednesday nights. Drama Club caters for a wide range of participants – the majority being KS3 Caludon students, as well as a handful of Y10/Y11 students, who take mentoring roles within the group.

and be part of the Key Stage 3 Drama Club, it takes place on Wednesday after school 3.15 - 4.15 in the Drama studio.

Anyone in year 7, 8 or 9 is welcome!

KS3 Dance Club If you would like to come along and be part of the Key Stage 3 Dance Club, it takes

place on Tuesday after school 3.15 - 4.30 in the dance studio. There will be a dance showcase later on in the summer. Anyone in year 7, 8 or 9 is welcome, no experience needed.

Hopefully we’ll see you there, Miss Lester

Drama Club has continued to welcome new members throughout this term and promotes an encouraging, positive atmosphere.

Drama Club offers an opportunity to improve acting skills, learn new performance techniques and, most importantly, gain confidence and build friendships.

The group have so far participated in workshops including movement, improvisation and devising skills and are looking forward to experimenting with mime and puppetry after the Easter holidays.

The group are working towards a devised drama piece that will be performed later on in the summer.

If you would like to come along

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Drama: The Tempest

Trips and

The RSC present The Tempest

by William Shakespeare For their exam in June, Year 13 students write a comparison between a modern production of a Shakespeare play and the way the same play would have been performed in Shakespeare’s era.

Not only did we give the year 13s an opportunity to watch the performance live at the theatre early on in the year, we then were able to turn the drama studio into a giant cinema and watch a live stream of The Tempest and were amazed by the new technology used to retell the magical story.

“On a distant island a man waits.

Robbed of his position, power and wealth, his enemies have left him in isolation. But this is no ordinary man, and this no ordinary island. Prospero is a magician, able to control the very elements and bend nature to his

will. When a sail appears on the horizon, he reaches out across the ocean to the ship that carries the men who wronged him. Creating a vast magical storm he wrecks the ship and washes his enemies up on the shore. When they wake, they find themselves lost on a fantastical island where nothing is as it seems.”

In a unique partnership with Intel, the RSC used today’s most advanced technology in a bold reimagining of Shakespeare’s magical play, creating an unforgettable theatrical experience.

Ms Gallagher

Science: Salter’s Festival of Chemistry Four brilliant Caludon scientists took part in the Salter’s festival of Chemistry at Warwick University.

They combined unknown solutions and used the colour changes to identify the chemicals they contained. In addition to this, they carried out chemical analyses to solve a crime. The students enjoyed their day at University as it involved using new equipment and working with new people.

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Ms Banwait

Visits

Drama: The Machine Stops The Drama department took Year 12 Theatre studies students to The Belgrade Theatre on Wednesday 5th April 2017. Part of their course is to see live theatre, so we wanted to take them to see something a little unusual...

In a dystopian world where humans have retreated far underground, Kuno alone questions their now total dependency on technology to live and communicate with each other, but in his struggle to break out, can he reach the Earth’s surface before the Machine stops?

Ms Gallagher

Other trips and visits In January, the History department took Y9 students to the Imperial War Museum.

STEM students from Y8 and Y9 took part in a project at Birmingham Airport Flight School on Thursday 9th March, with Ms Anderson-Shore.

In mid-March, the Art department took their Y12 and Y13 students to London to visit art galleries.

Students then used their visit as an inspiration for their own art work.

beginning of April, to carry out field studies in Snowdonia.

Berlin in the last few days before the Easter holiday.

On Tuesday 4 April, Y12 and 13 Music students travelled to Liverpool to visit the Beatles Story and the British Music Experience.

At the start of the Easter holiday, Ms Dawes will be taking 26 students to Wembley to watch three basketball matches. We wish them a safe journey and a great day.

Y10 and Y11 students travelled with the History department to

27 students from Y10 and Y11 attended a very exciting Maths Inspiration Day at Warwick University on the 30th March.

Y12 Geography students travelled to Dol-y-Moch at the

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Music On Tuesday 28th March, year 10 music students hosted a concert to showcase their talents. There were 5 bands performing, as well as soloists: Sonia, Tom, Eb and a duet performance from Jessie and Keely. Three Sixth Form charity bands also performed to raise money for their chosen charities.

The night kicked off at 7pm, with On Top The World (Imagine Dragons) performed by year 10 band, Déjà Vu. They also played two other songs which went down really well with the audience. The atmosphere was upbeat and was a really good start to the night.

Next were Fire At Home and they also gave a fantastic performance, full of enthusiasm. Third, was the talented In The Shadows, and vocalist Jodie-May absolutely smashed their cover of Back to Black.

The three soloists were amazing, beginning with Sonia playing a beautiful classical piece on piano, followed by Tom singing the classic Feeling Good with passion. Next was Eb, who moved some audience members to tears with his emotive piece on piano. After these talented performers, it was Jessie and Keely who gave some perfect harmonies in their cover of Over and Over Again.

Three Sixth Form bands had worked really hard writing and recording their own charity singles, and promoted them at the gig. First up was The Breeze with their single Fight Together, which is raising money for Myton Hospice. Second, was The Reason with their single Always Mine, which is raising money for the brand new charity, Sophia. Finally, it was Supernova with Paint the Grey, which is

raising funds for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. All three singles are available on iTunes.

The final two year 10 bands performed after the sixth formers, beginning with Written On The Wall, who gave some good three-part harmonies. The final spot went to Mixture, who performed three upbeat pop songs, including Treasure by Bruno Mars. This really raised the roof!

Overall, it was a fantastic night with great success from all those who performed.

The money raised from ticket sales and charity singles was phenomenal. We congratulate everyone who played and the staff who supported the night, especially Mr Myers and Tim!

By Hannah and Naomi

The Reason - Always Mine raising money for the charity ‘Sophia’.

The band consists of 5 members, Ben Marsden on Guitar, Chloe White Vocals, Yasmin Borgeat Vocals and Piano, Eleni Maoudis Vocals and Katrina Barratt on Flute.

They have written and professionally recorded their single ‘Always Mine’ and all the funds raised will be going to the charity ‘Sophia’. This is a new charity that supports parents who have lost their baby either within the womb, or shortly after birth.

The single is available on iTunes for £0.79 and available on other music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and also available to purchase as a physical CD copy. These are priced at £3.00 each. The official launch of the single will be on Friday 28th April at 7.30pm at the Wyken Working

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Men’s Club and tickets are available for the event, priced at £5 for adults and £3 for students.

By Billy Davis

Y13 Music Supernova - Paint the Grey We are a band of 6 year 13 students all of whom take year 13 music, we are: Billy Davis - Bass/Vocals Rhys Phillips - Piano David Dixon - Drums Sam Martin - Lead Guitar Fiona Bell - Lead Vocals / Rhythm Guitar Brittany Reynolds - Vocals We have been set the challenge of writing a single to raise money for a charity of our choice and our band decided to choose BCH (Birmingham Children Hospital), This was due to a personal choice, as i was admitted to the hospital for 13 years and they changed my life completely! BCH is a hospital based in Birmingham who specialise in looking after all people under the age of 18. There are people around Europe who will travel to the UK to be able to be admitted to the hospital to receive the finest of treatment.

We have now written and recorded the single and have made 200 CDs so far, with

the single also being available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. We are now looking forward to releasing the single officially on Friday 7th April at the Wyken Working Men’s Club.

By Rhys Phillips

The Breeze - Fight Together 5 students in the 6th form have written, recorded and produced a charity single for The Myton Hospice in order to raise money and awareness for the charity.

The Hospice’s purpose is to help make the last weeks of terminally ill patients bearable; the Hospice receives no funding from the government so must fully rely on fundraising from the local community.

The band, The Breeze, officially released the single, titled Fight Together, on Saturday 1st of April, when they played a half hour set at Glow in The City in Coventry city centre. The single is available on a variety of platforms including Spotify, iTunes and on CD. The band and the hospice would appreciate it if any readers stream the song for free,

download for 79p or buy a physical copy for £2 from the music department, as all proceeds will go directly towards the hospice. By Sonnie Dosanjh

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World Book Day This year, Caludon Castle once again celebrated World Book Day with passion and variety! There was a wide range of activities taking place throughout the morning, available to all of our students in Years 7, 8 and 9. Students were given the opportunity to explore books in a variety of ways throughout their lessons. In Maths, students were challenged to draw out giants from the BFG through their own calculations; in Technology students created Jamie Oliver style menus for the Dickens’ novel ‘Oliver Twist’ - their focus was based

Literacy and

around the famed scene “Please sir, can I have some more...”; in Music students were creating soundtracks for famous texts. This is just a small sample of the engaging activities across the whole school.

Students also entered competitions during tutor time, created short stories and reading slogans, and created their own images of World Book Day characters.

Year 7 once again rose to the challenge of dressing up as their favourite characters!

There was a huge buzz around the school and we can’t wait to follow this with an even bigger event next year!

Competitions We currently have a range of competitions taking place which are collaborations with Literacy and other subjects across the school.

A number of our KS3 English students entered the Radio 2 500-word writing competition: we are waiting to see if any students have progressed to the next stage.

This term we posted our entries to the IFAW Art and Literacy competition where students across KS3 entered both posters and written entries with a focus on elephants.

We are currently running a writing competition with

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History – Descriptosaurus.

Students in KS3 can select and write a 350 word description of a time period (past, present or future).

We are excited to see whether some of our talented writers and artists will progress through to the final stages of these competitions and hope that you will join us in congratulating their efforts and achievements to date.

Mrs Marshall

Literary Events The word from English Year 13 English Literature students were given a universitystyle experience when visiting lecturers from the University of Warwick delivered fascinating talks on Shakespeare and William Blake this term. Our students worked really hard, extended their learning, and the buzz in the room was fantastic.

Year 7 students chosen for the Creative Writing Club are moving from strength to strength. Every week, I am astounded by their creativity, thoughtfulness and skill.

So far this term we have used music, paintings, illustrations, and the classroom itself for inspiration and our Year 7s have produced wonderful writing. I am keeping my fingers crossed that we may have a winner for the Radio 2 500 Words Competition, which all of the students have entered.

On 30th March, high attaining Year 8 students were treated to a special live streaming of the most recent RSC production of ‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare.

Students were amazed by the special effects used and were able to apply their learning about the play, from earlier in the term, to make it a really enjoyable and enriching morning.

Miss Knight

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History

History: The Holocaust On Tuesday 7th February a group of Citizenship and Philosophy students got to skype an extraordinary man.

David Tuck is an 88 year old Jewish man born in Poland, and now living in the USA. Life drastically changed for him on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. He was 10 years old. By December of that year he was forced to wear an armband and then a yellow Star of David.

David was eventually deported, with other skilled workers, to Auschwitz where he arrived on August 25, 1943. He worked in a sub-camp of Auschwitz, called Eintrachthütte, in a factory building anti-aircraft guns.

In January 1945, David was deported on a train to Mauthausen in Austria, a brutal 370-mile trip over four days. To survive, he scooped snow from the ground using a tin cup tied to During the Holocaust skype call I felt very emotional when David was explaining the horrific conditions and what he had gone through in his life. It was really eye-opening because he didn’t hold any grudges, and was extremely positive. It showed us how lucky we are and how we have nothing to feel angry or upset about when he has gone through hell and is happy. It was interesting to hear how people treated him, some Nazis showed no mercy, however, some helped him and gave him left over food.

Over all I am extremely happy that I was included in the skype

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his belt.

During the skype conversation, students got to hear about David’s experiences in the concentration camps and how his time there affected his life; they then asked him questions about his life today.

It was an amazing experience for everyone involved; David made the horror of the Holocaust come back

call as it was eye-opening, once in a lifetime opportunity.

Holly Kingswell On Tuesday 7th February, a group of students , including myself, were lucky enough to be involved in a skype call with a Holocaust survivor. His name was David Tuck, and he told us how at the age of 10 he remembers Germany taking over his home country, Poland. The struggle and the hardship that he went through in the years to follow was unbelievable. He was forced to work in a labour camp,

to life and revealed a reality for those who are too young to remember the devastation the Nazis caused.

“Don’t think this couldn’t happen again…because it could! That power is in your hands.”

Mr Brown

spent four days in a locked train carriage, had to eat wood to survive, and was sent to Auschwitz. He was incredibly emotional, and he believed that teaching everyone about what had happened was extremely important.

David Tuck is admirable, and speaking with him and asking him questions is an experience that I believe none of us will ever forget.

Joe McAuley cDougall

Other News

Student Council The final week of term saw the culmination of six weeks of hard work towards a new Student Council, overseen by Ms Barlow and Mrs Mitchell.

Students from Y7 to Y10 were invited to stand for election to the new democratic body. Those who decided to stand then worked on their election pledges, creating Powerpoints for assemblies, and attending a ‘Meet The Candidates’ session in the school hall.

As we go to press, the voting is still in progress. Good luck to all the candidates.

Ms Banwait

Caludon Experience Awards All students at Caludon are now working through the five stages of the Caludon Experience Awards. These awards have been created to help our students develop skills and aptitudes beyond the curriculum, and to recognise their contributions within the life of the school and the local community.

The awards encompass five different strands - Adventurous, Creative, Global Citizen, Independent, and Leader.

Students have to complete an activity within each strand to gain their staged award.

The Awards are part of the graduation programme, with specific stages required for each year group. All students can achieve awards beyond the minimum requirement, with Star Awards available at each of the five stages, and with the potential

for accelerated progress through the stages.

Students who have completed the five strands of a stage are given a certificate for their graduation folder.

being rewarded for activities such as attending after school sessions for a term, raising money for charity or performing in a school play or concert.

Thirty Y11 students have completed Stage Three, and After two terms, almost two-thirds Olivia Cozza has completed of students in Y11 have completed Stages Four and Five as their required stage for graduation well. This is a fantastic and at the end of the year, Stage Two, well-deserved achievement.

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History Y9 Bright and early one Wednesday morning, 49 Y9 students arrived bleary-eyed and sleepy, ready for their trip to the First World War trenches. After a long coach journey to Dover, students were treated to a very calm crossing to Dieppe.

Once on French soil, the excitement rose and was reaching fever pitch as we pulled up to Sanctuary Wood. Here students were able to don their wellies and experience what it was like to walk along the duck boards of reserve trenches from the First World War, through the mud seeping up from the ground. They crouched down whilst walking though the dark tunnels that connected different parts of the trenches. This experience gave students the first sense of the conditions that soldiers Mrs Marshall would have lived through and was an eye opener for many, with Amelie Widdowson commenting, “It was really fun and interesting to see the trenches. Being in the trenches made it feel more real and made me realise the reality of it,” and Simerpreet Dhaliwal stated that being in the trenches, “really helped me understand the conditions the soldiers were in”.

Arriving at the hotel, students quickly found a punch bag that allowed them to measure their strength. The award for the strongest punch went to Mckenzie Pollock. Mr Faulkner was sadly unable to take up the challenge due to

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Battle Fields

a pre-existing injury. Dinner was gratefully received by all before heading to bed.

Thursday morning, after a mixed night’s sleep by some, saw students heading to Langemark Cemetery. Langemark is a German cemetery where the remains of 44,294 German soldiers are buried. Students were very quiet as they made their way around the cemetery, reading the names of the soldiers and paying their respects.

After Langemark it was off to the Passendale museum. Here students saw artefacts from the war and walked through a dugout, where they discovered that the beds the soldiers slept in were not the most comfortable!

Then it was through a mock trench before lunch beside a fishing lake.

Tyne Cot, a British cemetery where 34,949 soldiers are buried, was the next destination.

As Britain fought alongside her Empire in World War One, there were also numerous graves of soldiers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Arriving at Tyne Cot, students listened reflectively as staff read poems, before walking through the cemetery looking for soldiers with their own surnames and placing a card of thanks for their sacrifice. Some students chose to place their cards at the graves of soldiers whose identity is unknown, as they were shocked at the number of graves with the phrase “Known Unto God”. One student remarked, “seeing all the graves and names made me realise how many people died because hearing the number isn’t the same”.

From Tyne Cot it was off to Ypres for a bit of chocolate shopping before heading back to the hotel for fish fingers and chips for tea.

Students didn’t have much time to rest as we were soon back to Ypres and the Menin Gate to witness the Last Post Ceremony.

The Menin Gate is the archway that the soldiers of the First World War marched through on their way to the battlefields of Flanders. Many

and Trenches thousands never returned. The Gate has been transformed into a memorial to the missing soldiers of Flanders, with the names of 54,398 men who have no known grave chiselled onto the stone. Every night of the year, except Christmas Day, a Last Post service of remembrance takes place to commemorate the dead. Our students were in awe of the Menin Gate; the sheer number of names really stunned them, with Callum Collinson-Rogers saying, “It was crazy seeing all the missing soldiers, knowing their bodies were never found.” Students began to really understand the impact that the First World War had.

The last day of the trip began earlier than the others, as students had to pack for the journey home, with many struggling to fit everything back into their suitcases. The day was spent in France, on the Somme battlefields that students had learned about in their lessons earlier this year. Our first stop of the day was Vimy Ridge, a trench system and memorial to the Canadians who fought in the region. The Vimy memorial is a shimmering white memorial that stands out against the countryside. Students walked to the bottom of the memorial and saw the daunting task facing the Canadian soldiers who were trying to take the German stronghold on top of the hill. Students commented on how exhausted they were simply walking up the ridge, and could only imagine how soldiers tried to fight their way up.

From Vimy we headed to the Thiepval memorial. Thiepval is a massive memorial that dominates the landscape and has inscribed on its walls the names of 72,246 soldiers who are the “missing” of the Somme battlefields. Students stood speechless at the sheer

size of the memorial, with one student commenting, “I never really understood the war until now”. Thiepval is a joint memorial between the British and the French, and students were able to compare the very different gravestones of the two allied countries. The mood was a sombre one as we boarded the coach, with students reflecting on what they had just seen.

The final stop of the day was for ice cream, as students refuelled before the journey home. The ferry ride back was far rougher than the outward journey, but all survived the sway of the ship, making it home just before 11pm, with very tired students.

All the students really enjoyed the trip, with Georgina Smith

commenting afterwards that the trip “was truly mesmerising,” whilst Teona Anderson said that the trip was “a truly haunting and humbling experience which aided me in further understanding why these brave men should be eternally commemorated.”

The History Department would like to thank all of the students who went on the trip. Every student behaved wonderfully well, showing the respect due to the brave soldiers who fought and died on the battlefields of France and Belgium so that future generations could enjoy a life of freedom.

We look forward to returning next year.

The History Department

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Student Success Royal Institution Engineering Master Classes at the International Manufacturing Centre (IMC), Warwick University On Saturday 18th March 2017 Ajay Singh and Ben Walmsley, both in Year 9, graduated from the Royal Institution Engineering master classes at the IMC, Warwick University.

Ajay and Ben were nominated by their Maths and Science teachers to attend the master classes, the aim of which is to stimulate and encourage young people in the art and practice of STEM subjects and to develop a sense of enjoyment in them! The masterclasses are intended to widen students’ areas of knowledge and interest in STEM and to hopefully inspire the next generation of scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

Caludon has nominated students to attend these master classes for the past three years.

The classes took the form of talks interspersed with interactive workshop sessions. Each master class focused on an aspect of modern engineering and was presented by engineers actively involved in research, or working in industry.

I would like to take this

opportunity to congratulate both Ajay and Ben on attending the master classes and graduating with flying colours!

If you are interested in taking part in similar opportunities please contact Miss Miller in the Science Faculty for more details.

It takes resilience and determination to attend a series of classes on a Saturday morning for a whole term, but both Ajay and Ben stayed the course, demonstrating the enthusiasm, commitment and determination needed to succeed.

Winner of Photography Winter Competition - Hannah Curtlin 26

Other News There’s a new addition to the school team, in the form of a shiny new minibus. The old bus, still very much with us, had done a lot of miles and was showing its age, so a new young pup has been purchased to stand alongside it. The new minibus also has a lft to enable wheelchair users, and those who find steps difficult, to travel alongside their peers on school trips.

Swimming team On Thursday 22nd March our swimming team entered into the Coventry East swimming gala and won overall. Every swimmer competed to a high standard in their race, and we are extremely pleased with this result.

The students involved in this team were: Courtney Spokes Jack Graham* Alexia Mouzakitis Eddie Dalton Roberts*

Saskia Howe Jamie McConnachie* Sarina Somal Chris Marsden* Maariyah Harry Witt* Cameron Farthing Luke Winiarski* Georgia Eaton Jude Small* James Taylor* Joe Harrison Charlie Faulkner* Lauren McConnachie* Lucy O’Shaughnessy Zoe Lancaster Ben Walmsley *

Jack Dougherty Joe McAuley* Ben Cranston* The students with a * next to their name were then selected to represent Coventry East at the County Finals on Thursday 29th March. Although the team were not placed in this event they came very close to getting a medal and all performances were outstanding.

Well done to the Caludon Castle Swimming team.

Miss Harborne

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Sports News

Boys’ football The Y11 team played in a semifinal fixture on Tuesday 21st March. Mr Herlihy, Mr Grant and the team had worked hard to get to this stage, and the boys were relieved to be able to let off some steam between revision and mock exams.

The following boys represented Caludon Castle School.

Luke Phillips Jesse Masih Danny Bull Jevon Fraser Callum Mack Billy Morrison Jamie Williams JD Sawbridge Sahil Thakrar Bradley West (c) Riley Davoile James Friday Ryan Hall Luke Weatherby Zane Oliver

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Well done to them all for their commitment during this season.

Girls’ football After winning the Year 7 and 8 Coventry East girls football tournament in November at the Alan Higgs Centre, Caludon Castle were recently invited to compete at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Centre in Rugby. This was a Level 3 County tournament involving the best teams from Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire.

Caludon Castle safely manoeuvred themselves through the group stages without defeat, despite coming up against a very dangerous and organised team from Arden.

Finham awaited Caludon in the semi-finals, with players from both teams knowing each other from Sunday league football.

Friendships were put to one side

and the two teams went head to head, with Caludon scoring the winning goal to set up a final with Stratford Grammar.

Despite dominating the play, Caludon couldn’t find a goal, with a penalty shootout the only way to separate the two teams. Heroics from our star goal keeper Ellie Smith put Caludon in front, before our captain Cameron Farthing slotted home the winning penalty. As the ball slammed into the back of the net, the team erupted with joy and celebration in what was a fitting fairy tale ending.

With over a hundred secondary schools competing in this event, the Caludon girls can be really proud of this amazing achievement.

Mr Holland

The Sport and Leisure Faculty