Caludon Update

Caludon Update S u m m e r Te r m 2 0 1 2 July 2012 Dear Parent/Carer As you will see in this edition of the Caludon Update, the summer term has been an extremely busy and exciting one for staff and students alike. Our students have been given lots of opportunities to engage with their learning in so many challenging and interesting ways and staff have given very generously their time and energy. You will read of trips, sporting activities and lots more. In particular, we have encouraged students to develop their leadership skills and they have demonstrated this through performing and presenting to a range of audiences. Check our website for the latest updates, we like to keep you well informed.

Some dates for your diary: School closes for the summer break at 1.30pm on Friday 20 July.

School re-opens to Year 7 students at 9.00am on Tuesday 4 September, and for Year 811 students on Wednesday 5 September at 8.45am as usual.

This term has been an exciting, but busy term for everyone. Many students have been involved in taking GCSE and AS/A2 examinations and staff have spent many evenings after school supporting them to achieve their best. We wish your children good luck with their results which will be available on: AS/A2 results day – Thursday 16 August – 8.00am A2 results; 10.00am AS results GCSE results day – Thursday 23 August – 9.00am Year 11; 11.00am Year 9 and 10 We have had many visitors to our school this term and all have commented on the good behaviour of our students and the excellent relationships between students and their teachers.

We are proud of this and encourage respect for each other.

Many of our most able students have had increased opportunities to demonstrate their skills and have been working with visiting artists to develop their ability to work creatively and independently.

You, as parents and carers, are very important to us and we want to continue to keep you informed. Starting in September we will be offering monthly parent information sessions – an outline programme can be found in this update.

I wish you a good summer and look forward to welcoming all students back on Wednesday 5 September.

Yours faithfully

Mrs M Marr Headteacher

Galleries of Justice Trip During activities week 43 students joined the PSD staff to visit the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham. The museum itself looks at England’s crime and punishment throughout the ages. During the day students enjoyed a variety of activities from visiting the dungeons, becoming a prisoner and conducting their own mock trial in a youth court. Students also had an opportunity to talk with people who have had experience of working in courts

and learning about the lives of prisoners during the 1800s. One particular student was so inspired by talking to an experienced solicitor, and acting as a solicitor during the trial, that she is considering a career in law.

All students were enthusiastic about what they had seen and heard: the topics they had learnt in Citizenship were brought to life.

Medical Workshops and careers talk During the month of January Year 11 Philosophy students took part in an excellent medical ethics workshop delivered by trainee doctors. The students thoroughly enjoyed talking through ethical situations and the workshop enabled students to see how the topic can be applied to real life situations, Page 2

especially when in the medical profession. One student shared her experience, ‘I really enjoyed discussing the topics and it has helped me to see how what I have studied in Philosophy can be used in a career like medicine.’

A few year 12 students who were interested in going into

medicine also had the opportunity to take part in a careers talk with the doctors. The students involved were very inspired by the doctors’ enthusiasm for the medical profession and found their input on the work experience needed to get into medicine invaluable.

Miss Duffty Teacher of PSD

Caludon Update

Peace and Poetry

On the 22 June some of the new Year 10s and 11s had a chance to take part in a workshop with a famous US street poet, as a reward for outstanding work over the year. The poet David Bowden is the director of the non-profit ‘Give a Goat’ charity and he uses poetry to challenge and inspire people to get involved in making a change. He motivates individuals and

Summer

groups to give a voice to the voiceless, promote social justice, and care for the needy throughout the world.

Students listened to and watched a live creative performance by David, then discussed with him his work and how he has made a difference.

They then began to talk over global issues that interested them and came up with unique

ways in which to support and promote their chosen issue. Students thoroughly enjoyed the session with David and relished the opportunity to discuss and debate global concerns. The sessions were extremely thought provoking for the students and have led many of the them to assess what they could now do to get involved and have a voice.

Miss Grisedale Year 8 Leader Page 3

Design Technology Design Ambassadors This year has seen many changes in Design Technology. It is really good for the Student Design Ambassador team to be able to hear about what other people want and make impact in our subject.

We have suggested a gallery which is now in place and branded as design@caludoncastle, worked with local primary schools like Ravensdale and made trophies to award students for their work.

Design Technology is such an exciting subject, it is great to be part of the team.

Adam Timbrell, Adam Blake, Demi Rodgers, Ben Newman-Wood

Activities week “In Resistant Materials during activates week we made bowling skittles, but they weren’t any old skittles they were models of us.

To start with we had to shape the body and shoulders out of cylinder wood with sand paper and a curved rasp. Then we painted it with red, green or blue.

We then went onto the internet and created ourselves in a cartoon character. It helped us to draw our facial features on to our actual piece of wood. We used fine writer pens to draw in our small detail.

In just one lesson I had learnt lots of skills such as perseverance. I used this skill when I was making my headscarf on the head, which was very hard to stick it down on my character.”

Javeria Ahmed, Year 7 Page 4

Caludon Update

Annual Rotary Awards – Coventry Exhibition of students’ GCSE and A Level Design and Technology This year the Design and Technology entered an array of students for the Rotary Award Exhibition which was held at Coventry Transport Museum, Millennium Place.

The Rotary Awards has been an annual event for many years and the purpose of the exhibition is to celebrate the achievements of students and their teachers. The Rotary Awards encompass all nineteen Coventry secondary schools and one special school, with over 284 projects displayed.

This year we proudly entered the following students: Kurtis Edwards April Hartopp Sittal Patel Lewis Raishbrook Ruvan Timana

Press Out Toy Press Out Toy Press Out Toy Child’s Toy Press Out Toy

GCSE Graphics GCSE Graphics GCSE Graphics GCSE Graphics GCSE Graphics

Steven Crosby Carys Gornicki Matthew Hirons Shannon Richardson Scott Truslove

Childs Toy Jewellery Toy and Table Jewellery Child’s Toy

GCSE Resistant Materials GCSE Resistant Materials GCSE Resistant Materials GCSE Resistant Materials GCSE Resistant Materials

Beth Johnson

Catering and Hospitality

BTEC Hospitality and Catering

Abigail Dixon Giliian Dixon Jason Heer Daniel Lloyd Kumal Ram Guramritpal Singh

Jewellery and Radio Jewellery and Radio Jewellery and Radio Radio Project Jewellery and Radio Radio Project

AS Level AS Level AS Level AS Level AS Level AS Level

We are proud to announce Beth Johnson won the city-wide catering prize of £100 and a half day visit to Henley College. This has been won by a Caludon student for the second year in a row – well done!!

Carys Gornicki won the £50 prize for the Quality Award for her jewellery.

Many Congratulations!!!!

Mr A Temple Technology Teacher

Summer

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Year 7 Resistant Materials “This year,in year 7, Resistant Materials has been wonderful. I have enjoyed it and learnt things for the future. In Resistant Materials we have learnt all about soft wood and hard wood also we have learnt how they are different from each other and how they are useful. We have learnt the different types of joints and how they can make the structure more stable, we have made phone holders which was fun and it was an exciting way to learn about how to use the tools - like a rasp and a file to make the wood easy to shape. We had a chance to try the machines and discover

what they are used for . When we were making the phone holders we had to make a stand and make a joint that had to be stable to hold our phone. To do this we learned how to measure accurately. Resistant Materials has taught me a lot about how to not give up and how to handle wood and tools, also it has taught me that you can never be quite finished because there is always things that you can improve and make better.”

Hima Shaju

My metal project in Year 8 In Year 8 one of our projects was to make a garden object out of metal, a butterfly or snail.

We were put into pairs and made to decide whether we would do a snail or butterfly. After we had chosen our insect, we had to watch a demonstration about what we had to do. After watching and understanding, we were sent away to start our projects.

I think doing this project really inspired me to take technology as an option in the following year.

Designers: Chloe Arch and Calan Castano

To start with we were given just a long piece of metal, which then we had to put a template on top of, using a scribe to scratch mark on our piece of metal. Then using tin snips carefully cut along the marks. File down the burring’s from where we cut as we avoid any sharp edges. If doing the butterfly, next step was dip coating, heat it then lower into box full of powder plastic. After everything cooled, we pot riveted all the parts together, then we had our butterfly.

The skills we learnt are; Scribing metal Tin snipping Filing and sanding Dip coating Pot riveting We really enjoyed doing this project because we had the chance to do something different, learn more skills and just enjoy our learning.

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Caludon Update

Bird Box Enterprise Over the past few weeks Year 9 students have worked in pairs to manufacture Bird Boxes as part of an enterprise project to raise money for the RSPB. As team collaborators students have followed detailed plans, cut, sanded, drilled and constructed their choice of two different bird boxes Bird Boxes are for sale at ÂŁ3.50 from Design Technology.

Mr Temple Teacher of Design Technology

Caludon Achieves ArtsMark Gold for the Third Consecutive Time!

ArtsMark is a government initiative designed to allow schools to display their artistic and creative merits through an assessed and moderated process. In December, four teachers in the Expressive Arts faculty; Mr DeGroot, Ms Nicholson, Ms Gane and Mr Stokes put together an application pack to the ArtsMark team. In March an ArtsMark Assessor came into school to judge and appraise the work the school carries out. The assessor was stunned by the amount of quality Arts provision that was displayed. He assessed Art, Drama, Media, Music and Photography for their quality of student work and the level of equipment available for the students to use. He also looked at how Caludon Castle has an impact on the local community through its Arts provision. The day was very successful and highlighted how much quality work takes place within the Expressive/Performing Arts Faculty.

In June the school was officially told that it was awarded the Highest ArtsMark Award of Gold.

ArtsMark is awarded every three years. This is the third consecutive time that the school has been awarded ArtsMark Gold, and in doing so, the school has been presented with 6 specially commissioned works of art and a gold plaque to display in reception. The ArtsMark plaque was presented to the school during the annual Arts Prom this month.

Going through the ArtsMark application is a great tool for assessing the strength of the school’s Arts departments and the school comes out with flying colours yet again!

Mr Stokes Leader of Performing Art

Summer

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Media Studies filming trip Media Studies took their annual trip to Dol-y-Moch, North Wales, to enable students to film in locations outside Coventry. This year we took Year 10 and Year 12 students to make film trailers for GCSE and a 5 minute film for A level. All films are totally original and have been fully planned by the students themselves.

The skills levels were varied as Year 10 hadn’t used video cameras before, so it was a steep learning curve for them, however, they coped admirably.

The students’ requirements for locations were varied ranging from beaches and mountains to caves and woods. The activities they needed to participate in went from canoeing and abseiling to jumping off cliffs and being killed by zombies! There were some very strange looks from staff as our students went around the centre in full zombie make-up!

The key word for the week was most definitely resilience because the weather was easily the wettest I have seen it in the

summer – not very conducive for using cameras in, but our students put their brollies up, donned their wet weather gear (several sizes too large in most cases) and went out to get the job done without complaining!

As a reward for their hard work students were able to do a nightline at four in the afternoon, just to make it harder they were blind-folded and sent out into the woods following a rope course, it provided staff with a lot of amusement!

The whole group were a pleasure to take away as they worked really well together and supported each other, sharing ideas and being encouraging. They deserve praise for achieving what they set out to do despite adverse weather conditions.

Alison McDougall Subject Leader of Media Studies

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Caludon Update

STEM Club As another school year draws to a close Caludon Castle STEM Club takes time to reflect on the events that have taken place since our last Update.

We have hosted visitors from Jaguar Land Rover and built egg landers, launched parachutes and designed and tested our dynamic paper aeroplanes. Research Scientists and Drug Developers from the School of Cancer Studies at the University of Birmingham delivered a fascinating presentation on Cancer, DNA damage and how this research is being used to develop new drugs. The session was interactive, informative and gave our students the opportunity to talk to people who are working at the cutting edge of new cancer treatments.

In March the STEM Club visited Mrs Poole’s new school in Leamington Spa to launch the STEM Olympics. This was a series of fun activities, each with a STEM/Olympic theme that our students devised, resourced and delivered to the primary school children. It was a great day and a chance to inspire the school to start their own STEM Club.

A trip to Snibston Discovery Museum in April got the Students fired up for the STEM Fair.

This is an annual event where we challenge the students to come up with a problem or question which they have to research and investigate. The STEM Fair will take place

on the morning of Tuesday 17 July 2012 and will be a celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The students will be presenting their projects to a varied audience including Caludon staff, teachers from local primary and secondary schools, governors, parents and STEMNET staff who organise the STEM club network nationally. There will be prizes for the best projects so watch out for the winning team’s names in the next Caludon Update.

And finally, the STEM team are busy sending out letters and application forms to our new STEM club hopefuls as we recruit for the autumn term. So, if you have received an application and haven’t completed it yet, return your form by Monday 16 July to Miss Miller or Miss McManus. You never know it might be you next year taking part in Missions to Mars, building and programming Lego robots or even designing the latest solutions to green energy.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all students involved in STEM this year and we are looking forward to lots of exciting projects and experiences in the new school year.

Miss Miller Assistant Leader of Science

Earl Radtschenko at Sainsbury’s school games Earl has achieved a fantastic result. He won a Gold medal in the 400m Individual Swimming Medley which is a gruelling race. A Gold medal in the boys 800m Freestyle Relay race and a Silver medal in the 200m Individual Medley.

Earl has represented Great Britain and has done us all proud. It is also a relief that Earl is still on target with his studies despite his demanding schedule.

Mrs Maroke Year 11 Leader Summer

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Enrichments The students in Caludon Post 16 are all involved in an enrichment activity to support their courses and develop their skills along with studying their academic work. They give their time and dedication to many diverse causes. Some have completed Duke of Edinburgh awards and challenged themselves, and their stamina, to completing this work.

future career interests in a really practical way, understanding fully what their career paths could lead to.

Here are some quotes from the students:

Some have worked in areas which would support their future career aspirations. This involves working in solicitors, helping with sports activities, helping in health care areas such as local doctors and in hospitals. All these placements show that that they are learning much more about their

“During my time at Walsgrave Hospital I was located at the Renal Department within the Neurosurgery unit. I was involved in many activities such as shadowing many highly skilled doctors who were still in training and completing their surgical work. I also shadowed consultants. I learnt the life of a doctor in training and how the processes work, seeing things from the ‘bottom’ perspective was a real eye opener. It showed me how their time management skills are really high and the stressful making of decisions every few minutes is so fast and scary.

One of the other roles I undertook was to work as a volunteer serving teas and coffees to patients in the hospital. I also accompanied patients to appointments.

I really enjoyed the work I did at the hospital and, though it gave me insights in many ways I had not thought about, it still confirmed the career path I want to follow.”

Hamza Tariq

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Caludon Update

“I worked as a sports coach in a local primary school. Once On the 22 June and some of the to coach the students alongside a week I went helped new year 10’s and 11’s had the teachers.

I would help coach athletics to much younger a chance to take part in a students. I helped them learn skills such as throwing workshop with a famous US accurately to a target, running and jumping. From this I street poet, as a reward for learnt manywork skillsover such outstanding theas team work, working with younger children to get across a sports coaching element. year. Theand poethow David This wasismuch harderofthan Bowden the director the I had anticipated.” non-profit ‘Give a Goat’ Rugiba Sribaskaran charity and he uses poetry to challenge and inspire people to get in “I helped out involved in languages to both develop the students who were struggling but also making a change.

Helanguage skills. I worked with two particular students as a TA, to improve my own motivates and madeindividuals sure theyand stayed on task and kept up with the tasks set. I had to ensure groups to give a voice they also made notestotothe work from for future work as well. This enrichment benefits voiceless, promote social me as it has developed my leadership skills. This will benefit me in that it has justice, and care for the developed my confidence and language skills and in passing on skills to others. I needy throughout the world. have alsolistened developed Students to andmy questioning, instead of asking closed questions that do not really geta students thinking I now ask more questions to prompt them to think and watched live creative work for themselves” performance

by David, then discussed with him his work Lisa Hancock and how he has made a difference. They then began to worked talk overwith global issues “I a reception class helping out with activities; reading, painting and that interested them and using ICT skills. The placement was really helpful in developing my skills in working came up with unique ways with younger children.

It also helped me complete assignments in Health and Social in which to support and Care, and gave me lots of sources to refer to. I am also able to quote this now on promote their chosen issue. my CV and in applications; this will be really great to use to show what I have done Students thoroughly enjoyed independently to support my career.” the session with David and relished the opportunity to Samantha discuss and McAllister debate global concerns. The sessions In all extremely the work that the students in post-16 have participated in they are showing to were thought future employers that Caludon students are not just academically successful, but provoking for the students and have led many also fully involved of in the the school life and the local community, actively working to students to assess broaden their ownwhat skills and strengths. Caludon sixth formers are showing they could now get for excellence in both their studies and also their themselves to do be to striving involved andunderstanding. have a voice. community Miss Grisedale

Mrs Wears Enrichment Co-coordinator

Summer

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Modern Foreign Languages Italian Day 2012 On the 2 and 4 of July children across the entire year 7 (now 8) community at Caludon Castle took part in a Modern Languages day, where they learnt about the Italian language and some traditions.

Initially the children were learning the words for ingredients that can be found in a pizza, Italy’s most famous food. Miss Tondello, one of our language teachers who originally comes from Italy, together with Miss Blud, Miss Harris and Miss Paddock, helped them to learn this.

After this, the children designed their very own pizzas, (non-edible ones made out of paper) and labelled them using their fresh knowledge of Italian.

When this task was completed they went to a computer classroom to compete in a web quest which would include various questions to do with the Roman Coliseum and much more. During this activity, Mrs Mitchell and Ms Casey took half of the students out of the classroom for Italian food tasting.

Italian Day was fun and creative for the students and they hope for more of this kind of thing next year.

Arrivederci!

Tanisha Modesia and Maneet Matharu

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Caludon Update

Flamenco Workshop During two special Spanish lessons, two cohorts of Year 10 students had the unique opportunity to experience a taste of the Andalusian art of flamenco in their very own classrooms.

Students learnt about the four components of flamenco: the dance, the guitar, the singing and the percussion. They found out information about its geographical origin, its multicultural element, its international status and asked numerous questions, displaying great curiosity and cultural awareness.

By listening to famous flamenco songs, students were able to recognise the most popular palos, different styles within the flamenco genre, such as alegrías, bulerías, tangos and soleá. Classes then learnt to keep the rhythm por tangos, by marking the compass (rhythm) with hand clapping. At the end, most students also attempted a basic dance sequence (llamada por tangos) proving to embrace the flamenco spirit to the full!

It was also interesting for the students to see and touch a lot of the accessories and clothes that flamenco dancers wear, from long, wide skirts, to flowers, to shawls, to flamenco shoes. Great was the temptation to try some of them on and become part of the wonderful world of flamenco for an hour…

Miss Tondello Teacher of Spanish Summer

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Bagatelle For the third year running, the MFL department made the trip to Parc Bagatelle Theme Park in the seaside resort of Le Touquet, France. Leaving in the small hours on Monday 2 July, a group of 41 very excited students and 5 very brave teachers took part in the fantastic 24 hour experience.

Our first stop was an authentic French breakfast in Calais, after arriving via the Eurotunnel, followed by a drive down the coast to our destination. Much fun was had on the rollercoasters and water rides (by staff and students alike!) and some extremely brave students went on its newest ride, Triops, 5 or 6 times!

En route back to Calais, we stopped off at a crêperie in the fishing town of Boulogne, where the students all had a go at making their own French pancake. They even learnt a bit about French pâtisserie whilst they were waiting to make them! We watched in awe as the chef made an edible commemorative plaque for us, drawing a castle in chocolate and making a rose from marzipan.

The trip was such as success that some students didn’t want to get off the coach when we arrived back at school! In the words of one student: “Well Miss, I never thought it was possible to go to France and back in a day!”

Well done and thank you to all who took part - you were an absolute credit to the school.

Mrs R Bilsland

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Caludon Update

Disneyland Paris During activities week, year 9 students of French and Spanish were rewarded for their hard work this year with a trip to Disneyland Paris. They travelled over night and arrived early at the park. After some shopping in Disney Village, the park opened, and they enjoyed a day of rollercoasters, parades and more shopping in the glorious weather that lasted until 3pm...

They used excellent French and really soaked up the culture and atmosphere. Mrs Mitchell, Miss Blud and Ms Lord were very proud of the students, who were a credit to the school.

Mrs J Blud Student quotes: ‘I really enjoyed practising my French.’

‘It was an opportunity of a lifetime.’

‘I had to keep pinching myself to believe I was really there.’

A level Languages Taster Day On Thursday 5 July, year 12 students hoping to study A level languages in 2012 had the chance to perfect their language skills in a special ‘taster’ day which gave them a glimpse into what A level languages are all about.

Students were given an overview of the course and exam structure and took part in activities such as ‘countdown’ (practising the present tense in Spanish), ‘Ojalá’ (listening skills at A level), and ‘para la mano’ (a game similar to ‘stop the bus’ in English which is used to revise vocabulary from the GCSE course. ) Mirs R Bilsland

Summer

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Drama Trip to see Matilda the musical in London On Wednesday 4 July, 48 students in Years 8-10 went to see ‘Matilda’ at the Cambridge Theatre, London.

The show was spectacular, with a set that was full of surprises, very humorous script and lyrics, catchy music and a superb cast of young performers. We enjoyed lunch in Leicester Square and a walk through the West End to the theatre, spotting landmarks along the way. Our students were excellent ambassadors for Performing Arts at Caludon, and we hope that the show will inspire them in their lessons and extra-curricular Drama, Dance and Music. Everyone certainly enjoyed drawing on the chalkboards on the walls of the theatre!

The day started by a 3 hour journey into London. When we reached London it was great as along the way we got to see all the attractions and buildings that we had never seen before. There were lots of things ready for the Olympics and it was so busy we had to be dropped off at a corner to avoid the big traffic queue ahead. It was only a little walk until we reached Leicester Square to have our lunch. I loved it because there were so many different shops that were amazing to see as they had a range of better clothing and sweets that were unique from the normal shops.

Once we had our lunch we got back together in a group and made our way to Cambridge theatre at half past one. In the theatre there were lots of pictures that represented the Matilda musical and there were lots of shops selling souvenirs. It was very posh and I liked the chalk boards that you could draw on. In the theatre it was huge; we sat at the back of the dress circle where we had a great view of the stage which was really good as you could see all the action! It was brilliant as the stage was full of bright colours and they had made lots of things to do with the performance which made it very realistic. The theatre was full because there were no seats left anywhere. The performance started and lots of bright lights shone down on the stage and the magic began!

The actors were brilliant as they really looked like they were enjoying themselves on the stage while making it look real. Also they really played their part like they were the actual characters. It was great to see people of such a young age performing so well and being brave to go in front of all those people. Their singing was fantastic as they made it into a real musical while telling a story at the same time.

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Caludon Update

Our favourite parts: Cara: My favourite part was when they were in a PE lesson with Miss Trunchbull and Lavender put the newt in her glass. Miss Trunchbull started panicking and scaring the children when it wriggled into her underwear! Also the part where the little kids sang “my mum says I’m a miracle” Lauren: My favourite part was when Miss Trunchbull asked one child to spell a made up word and they got it wrong. So that the child didn’t have to go to the Choky the other girls and boys started to spell things wrong like: “Dog, DFT, Dog!” it made everyone laugh as it was extremely funny! I also liked it when Miss Honey and Matilda walked off to the back of the stage at the end, and did a cartwheel in unison. It was emotional as you were happy for Matilda.

Here is the link to the fantastic clip of some of the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjj56XZcCAc Overall the performance was phenomenal! Thanks to Miss Burwell for organising such a fantastic trip.

Cara and Lauren

The Roses of Eyam At the time of writing the Drama department are exceptionally busy rehearsing two plays for presentation during Arts Week.

The Keystage 3 Drama Club are presenting a condensed version of Shakepeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Whoever thought year 7s and 8s, and also primary school children from Richard Lee, couldn't do Shakespeare clearly hasn't met Miss Nicholson! The language is Shakespeare's and finding the way to make it sound 'real' has been a challenge but one the cast have risen to superbly well.

Years 9 to 10, have been rehearsing Don Taylor's play 'The Roses of Eyam'. It's about the Derbyshire village of Eyam where, in 1666 after an outbreak of bubonic plague, the villagers shut themselves off from the surrounding towns and villages to contain the virus. Although two thirds of the village died in the process, they were successful and the disease did not spread further.

Similarly to Midsummer Night's Dream, the challenge of this play has been huge and again, the cast have really risen to the task. This became more important to many of them after the cast, some of the choir and the Shooting Stars video group (who have created film footage to be used during the performance) visited the actual village to see some of the places from the story and graves of the real people at the heart of the story.

Mr De-Groot Teacher of Drama Summer

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Photography Paris April 2012 Just as the last copy of the Caludon Update was going to press, 14 sixth form Moving Image Arts and Photography students and 2 members of staff were travelling to Paris for the European Independent Film Festival.

Staff and students had a brilliant long weekend in the French city. We spent much of Saturday and Sunday in two cinemas in Montparnasse and the centre of Paris, watching 14 different films, ranging in length from 3 minutes The whole group on top of the Montparnasse Tower (the to 2 hours, and covering a variety of tallest building in France). languages and cultures. There were stunning documentaries: the art of filming surfing off the west coast of Ireland, a four and a half year old Buddhist master in Mongolia; fabulous fictional films: a Swiss film about a psychiatric patient’s recovery, a German film about a little girl who prays for her violent stepfather’s recovery from illness; and a great Swiss paper animation about a drowning village, a girl and a hunter. At each screening there were film directors, cast and crew to talk (briefly) about the films they had created. We also attended two workshops with film professionals, one on screenwriting and one on sound mixing for films.

We also had time for sight-seeing, with trips up the Eiffel Tower at night and the Montparnasse Tower just before sunset, a visit to the Louvre and the Tuileries, and of course time for shopping for the all-important souvenirs.

We became very Part of the group at the top of the Eiffel Tower, at night. accomplished at using the Paris Metro, developing team tactics to ensure we all got on and off before the doors closed.

Ms Hutchinson Teacher of photography

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Caludon Update

Photography—A-Level students create a classroom sized camera As part of their transition to A2 Photography students in Year 12 have been learning about the inner workings of a camera by turning their classroom into a huge pinhole camera, known as a camera obscura. This involved blacking out the windows with paper and cutting a small hole to create focus and allow light to flow into the

classroom, projecting the outdoors onto the inside walls of the room. Through this students were able to understand the way that light travels in straight lines, along with the principles of aperture and focal length. It also offered them some insight into the history of the invention of photography and the use of camera obscuras by artists to reduce 3D forms to 2D shapes. Students then documented the experiment using slow shutter speeds to gain more experience of photographing in low light conditions.

Miss Gane Teacher of Photography

Summer

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Year 7 Super Learning Day On 23 May, the whole of year 7 took part in their ‘Olympics’ themed Super Learning Day. The day was a collaboration of arts, Music, IT and Languages and incorporated both physical and mental challenges throughout the day.

Our aim throughout the day was to have students ‘working together’, to build a team ethos and to enable students to work collaboratively. The day kicked off with an inspirational assembly and short speeches from members of staff from the year team telling students what their proudest achievements have been to date. This led on to our guest speaker who had her audience gripped with little challenges and short stories about how to achieve your potential.

The day continued with students designing and making flags, they rehearsed and performed dance and show acts, made costumes, put together musical pieces, designed video clips and even made puppets and performed shows.

The highlight of the day was our closing ceremony which saw all of the hard work which had gone on throughout the day showcased by students in our Olympics closing assembly.

Both staff and students had an amazing day.

Trip to Drayton Manor On Tuesday 3 July Year 7 students and staff managed to dodge most of the rain at Drayton Manor theme park. That said, most students (and some brave staff) did end up soaked anyway on the water ride Storm Force 10.

Everyone that went had an amazing day out, and as Head of Year 7 I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of our year 7 students who were an absolute credit to Caludon Castle.

Mr M Williams Head of Year 7

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Caludon Update

Year 8 Enterprise Fair

Following the success of the Children in Need Enterprise Fair last November, it was decided to hold a similar event for the Year 8 who have had Enterprise lessons since February.

However, the fundraising focus at the summer Enterprise Fair would be the Family Primary School, Uganda as part of the school’s involvement in Africa Inspires.

Year 8 students were challenged to organise a stall for an Enterprise Fair and utilise the enterprise skills they have developed such as creativity, decision making, responsibility and leadership. The enterprise fair was the culmination of 4 weeks preparation, during which students worked in groups of 4 or 5 to develop their fundraising stall. Initially, ideas were generated and further research was carried out to establish the viability of the ideas. Students then Summer

worked together to market their stall and also gather the necessary resources required on the day.

June 15 arrived and half of Year 8 students met in the hall to set up their stalls. Once the stalls were ready the remainder of Year 8 joined us in the hall and had 40 minutes of entertainment and fun. There was an abundance of cake stalls, however, students had been very creative to make their stall attractive and appealing. Students had also been very creative in devising a variety of games for students to participate in. Each stall included homemade sweets, jewellery, tombola’s raffles, a no-hands donut eating competition, treasure maps and a beat the goalie competition, plus many more.

Staff participated in both the ‘beat the goalie’ competition, where Miss Grisedale demonstrated excellent football skills, and the ‘eat the fish’ challenge.

In total £229.72 was raised for Africa Inspires.

Mrs Detheridge Subject Leader Business Studies

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Library Hunger Games On Friday 15 June we went to the Warwick Arts Centre to watch a free showing of ‘The Hunger Games’ movie. Four of our students needed to have read all three of the books to take part in the inter schools quiz which was based on The Hunger Games trilogy.

Amy Hutt 7.6, Danielle Payne 9.7, Alisha Butle 9.9 and Emma Sherriff 9.9 were our quizmasters. Jonathan Letts 7.6, John Mitchell 7.7, Poppy Woodier 8.8 and Kirtan Kaur 9.8 were our supporters, we didn’t win but had a great time and it was fab to meet students from other schools who were as enthusiastic about reading as we are!

Miss Barton and Miss Roche

The Carnegie Medal The Carnegie Medal is awarded by children's librarians for an outstanding book for children and young people.

Our reading group read the following 8 shortlisted titles from April through to the middle of June. The theme this year was loss. Stories of survival dominate the lives of teenagers in this year’s books in different ways from bereavement; poverty, corruption and tyranny, to the harsh conditions of the outback, and the difficulty of finding the right words.

The winner!

We were pleased to hear the announcement that Patrick Ness won the award this year with the amazing ‘A Monster Calls’ Miss Barton School Librarian Page 22

Caludon Update

Summer Reading Challenge is now available in your library The Summer Reading Challenge is a flagship library success story. It focuses on reading for pleasure, and involves 97% of UK local authorities.

This challenge is up and running in our own School and Community Library.

This challenge is a free event and you only need a public library card to join in.

The challenge is simple - to read six or more library books over the summer!

How it works: Children aged 4 to 11 are invited to read six books over the course of the summer holiday. They join at their local library and a summer reading challenge pack gets them started. There are stickers and rewards to collect along the way, with a certificate and often a medal, if they read six books.

Each year the Summer Reading Challenge has a different theme. The 2012 theme is Story Lab - a celebration of story and the imagination.

Mrs Barton School Librarian

Summer

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Year 11 It is with great sadness that I have to say a very fond farewell to this year’s Year 11 students as many of them are leaving.

Some will stay on in the sixth form, others will go to college, apprenticeships or even start at a new work place.

This year group have achieved so much, including raising bucket loads of money for various charities throughout the year.

They have taken part in almost every event that the school has hosted and thrived on all challenges thrown at them. They have still come out smiling each and every time. So, to reward them for all their efforts and continuous hard work, they were invited to attend the Year 11 Prom. This took place at The Royal Court Hotel on Friday 29 June. It included a three course meal, a brilliant DJ to dance along to, and having a professional photo taken as a souvenir of the evening. We even took many photos ourselves of the students and staff enjoying the evening.

I hope that the Year 11s will one day look back in their Year Book and remember just how much the staff at Caludon Castle School have helped them along their way to achieving bigger and better things. Who knows, we may have educated a future Prime Minister or Pop Star amongst other things!

Mrs Maroke Year 11 Leader

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Caludon Update

Work Experience Photos attached are of Ciaran Hill at Spwatforce and Callum McEneaney at Sherbourne Fields School.

This year we held Work Experience Week from 2nd-6th July 2012. Almost 250 students faced the challenge of working in an unfamiliar environment in order to sample a slice of working life.

Placements ranged from butchers to builders, and farms to solicitors, who have given students a wide variety of opportunities to engage in the world of work.

Although the vast majority of placements were in the Coventry area, some students went a little further afield and worked in Aston Martin in Gaydon, The Falstaff Experience in Stratford and Football America in Leicestershire One student, Richard Preston, even worked for the Premier Group who manufactured 8000 Olympic Torches here in Coventry. His work experience has certainly been very interesting especially as the torch has passed through Coventry on Monday 2 July. Another student, James Flynn, received an outstanding report back from his work experience placement at Brandish Ltd, who described him as ‘a credit to Caludon Castle School’ and ‘the kind of student who we would love to take on as an apprentice’. Well done James!

Mia Clark worked at Cabello’s Hair and Beauty and commented on how she had been able to use some of the skills that she has learned at her Work Related Learning Course in hair dressing at City College. She felt that she had been challenged to put these skills into practice and had been allowed to perform some of the salon duties because of her previous experience and knowledge.

Work Experience week has been a resounding success, with many students now having a clearer idea of their career paths and the processes they need to put in place to make this happen with help from Caludon Castle School.

Miss E McFadden Enterprise Development Manager & Work Related Learning Coordinator

Summer

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Year 13 Prom On Friday 1 June, our Year 13 students played a big part in the celebrations signifying the end of their school life. This comprised the leavers’ assembly, followed by the Year 13 Prom. The leavers’ assembly was a fantastic event with live music, performed by our own band Bohemian Moths. This was followed by Miss Roberts’ leavers’ speech. The room was silent as all listened with intent to her words, which were inspirational, funny and from the heart. It was a truly memorable and emotional moment, which all our Year 13 students are sure to remember for a very long time. This was followed by a number of excellent video clips from staff with messages to their students, which went down brilliantly, thanks to Izzy Khatkar who coordinated and edited all of the videos so professionally. The highlight of this, however, had to be Mr Knight who had the whole room laughing the loudest.

The Prom night followed later on that evening and was a fabulous event. It was a truly great night and all the staff and students had a great time after eating a lovely meal and then dancing the night away, after Dr Jones and Miss Roberts won the most prestigious award of Prom King and Queen! The atmosphere in the room was predominantly an emotional one with a positive vibe from all the students, as the reality of the situation sank in for many of them, realising that their school life was close to coming to an end. A huge day for all involved.

Good luck in your exams Year 13, and all the best for the future.

Dr Jones Teacher of Maths

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Caludon Update

Post-16 Post 16 Summer 2012: Preparation for the Future Much of the work in the Sixth Form this term has been aimed at preparing students for their next steps. For the new Year 13 the following programme is in place: UCAS convention at Birmingham University: On Friday 29 June students were able to access advice and vital information from over 160 of the UK’s universities represented. It was a very useful day for students as they were able to collect prospectuses and information which they needed. They also had the opportunity to have a look around the campus and gain a little insight into the feel of university life.

Examples of courses, institutions and entry requirements researched by students included: Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester for Pharmacy mainly AAB with one of the A grades being chemistry.

Southampton, Bristol, Reading for Psychology mainly ABB Liverpool John Moores and Dundee...Forensic Anthropology..AAB Activities Week: For students interested in university, Tom Ledgard from the Phoenix partnership, which links our school to Coventry University, came during activities week to talk about university life and the application process. He was accompanied by a recent undergraduate, who talked about her student experience at Coventry. There was also a session given by Adele Ruston from De Montfort University, which gave students an overview of how to write personal statements.

Mrs Carter explained how to apply through UCAS at Caludon, and students learnt about how to research courses and what they needed to know about finance for Higher education. For those interested in Art Foundation degrees, Craig Barber from Coventry University gave an overview of what the course involved and how to apply.

For students not considering university, Mr Knight and Mrs Sherry talked about writing

Summer

applications and CVs, and gave students individual interview practice. Mrs Carter and Mrs Wears have been supporting students with applications to college and for apprenticeships, as we want to maintain our excellent record of ensuring all our students continue to follow appropriate pathways.

Birmingham University trip: On 10 July the whole of year 13 will again visit the university, but this time will be able to meet current undergraduates studying a wide variety of subjects and gain a greater insight into university life. There will also be seminars about finance and managing money, as well as further support about UCAS applications and writing personal statements.

UCAS parents’ evening: On 12 July, parents of the new year 13 are invited to a presentation about applying for university and will be able to begin the process with their children, supported by staff, and Tom Ledgard will be available to answer specific questions about studying at Coventry University.

Year 11 taster days: Students in year 11 hoping to join our Sixth Form in September had the opportunity to spend two days in school. They were able to attend taster sessions of subjects they hope to study and experience life in the Sixth Form. They enjoyed exclusive access to the common room and work area, and were able to leave the school site when they did not have sessions.

Students made the following comments after the two days: ‘It’s made me think about which options to take.’

‘It backed up what I thought.’

‘I was worried about starting in the sixth form, but now I feel more confident.’

‘The taster sessions made me realise which subjects to take and not to take.’

‘Teachers were straight with us about the courses.’

Mrs Waring Head of Post-16

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PE Activities Week Students enjoyed a whole range of sports throughout activities week ranging from Olympic Sports such as athletics competitions and a European Championships football competition.

Year 7 competed in an ‘inter- form athletics competition’ in which all students could participate in throwing, jumping and running events to achieve points for their form. Although the rain eventually led the competition to an early finish the eventual winners were 7.2- well done!

The Year 8 and 9 boys competed in a European Championships Football Competition. This was lots of fun with students playing some very competitive football in some very wet rainy conditions. The students played with great spirit, emulating their sporting heroes from Euro 2012.

The Year 9 competition was won by Spain and the Year 8 competition was won by that well known European nation – Afghanistan!!

Mr Shepherd, Teacher of PE

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Caludon Update

Year 7 & 8 Athletics It has been a successful athletics season with some outstanding individual performances helping Caludon’s Athletics teams to perform well throughout the City.

In the Coventry Schools Relay completions, held at Lyng Hall, Caludon’s Year 7 boys finished in third place with the Year 7 girls finishing in second place, narrowly losing out on first place to Blue Coat School. This was followed by the ‘Super Six’ multi-event completion. This involved 6 boys and 6 girls from Year 7 and Year 8 competing in events such as long jump, javelin and 100m. All of Caludon’s teams performed well, especially the Year 7 girl’s team, who won the event and were East Coventry Champions!

The Year 7 and 8 qualifying competitions held at Warwick University had over thirty students from Caludon taking part in all manner of athletic events. This was a fantastic opportunity for students to

experience athletics competition against the best athletes across the City. Eleven students across Year 7 and 8 qualified to compete in the Coventry Schools Championships on Wednesday 27 June. There were some very strong performances from all taking part and the standard of competition was very high! In particular Kye Burgess (Year 8) who finished second in the 100m and Long Jump, Tom Hopkins (Year 8) who finished first in the 800m and Joe Gilkes (Year 8) who finished first in the triple jump.

Year 10 football At the time of writing for the Easter edition of the Caludon Update, the Year 10 boys had reached the semi-final of the Coventry Schools Cup and were due to play Blue Coat School.

The boys played a hard fought semi-final tie which went to extra time after a 0-0 stalemate during normal time. A Liam Woodbridge goal in the second period of extra time secured a 10 win and passage through to the final for a second successive year.

The final was played against Cardinal Newman School and after an encouraging opening period, Cardinal Newman scored with the last kick of the first half to take the lead. This visibly deflated the boys, and a good Cardinal Newman side took control of the game and added a further two goals to run out deserved winners and claim the trophy from last year’s winners.

As stated in the last edition of the “Update”, this has been another pleasing season which has seen many players develop further, with Jamie Healy and Ben Ellis continuing to represent Coventry Schools, the former having also been selected in the West Midlands County side this year.

Mentions must also go to Kai Williams and James Madison who again represented the school at the Coventry City Academy.

Mr Shepherd, Teacher of PE Summer

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Primary School Olympic Torch Relay

Caludon’s Sports Ambassadors in Year 8 were delighted to be involved in a ‘Mock Olympic Torch Relay’ between local Primary Schools. The torch was designed by a Year 4 student from Ravensdale Primary School. The torch was brought to Caludon Castle by two Year 3 students from St Gregory’s Primary School on Thursday 28 June. They were greeted by Caludon Sports Ambassadors who received the torch and were told how it had been on a journey around local Primary Schools to teach children about the upcoming Olympics in London.

on its final leg of its journey from Caludon Castle to Ravensdale Primary School.

Caludon’s Sports Ambassadors had the privilege of presenting the torch to Ravensdale students in front of the whole school during assembly. It was a privilege for our Sports Ambassadors to be part of such an event and learn what the Primary school children had been learning. Our students shared with the primary School children what they had been doing as Sports Ambassadors at Caludon and made an outstanding contribution to the whole event. Well done!

Yr 8 Sports Ambassadors: Tom Hopkins, Dayna Plumb, James Cooper, Olivia Whitehouse, Shayna Sullivan

On Friday 29 June the Year 8 Sports Ambassadors ran the ‘Olympic torch’ Page 30

Caludon Update

Parent/Carer sessions From September we have devised a series of monthly sessions for parents/carers to enhance our partnership with you in supporting your child at school. The sessions will be delivered by a range of experts including staff from Caludon and speakers from appropriate external agencies. Each session will start at 6 pm and finish at 7.30 pm. The programme is detailed below;

Summer

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In September we will be asking you to register your interest for the sessions that appeal to you.

We look forward to working more closely with you.

Ms Dudgeon, Senior Deputy Head