Clifton High School Highlights
Clifton Highlights Issue 11
June 2015
Issue 11, June 2015
Summer Term at Clifton High... The Summer Term at Clifton High School has seen many of our pupils looking to the future: Year 6 learnt skills for life during their trip to the Create Centre, Year 12 have been beginning to think about their university applications and we said goodbye to the Year 13 boys and girls following their hugely creative ‘alien invasion’ of the school! As always there has been a huge number of opportunities for creative learning to take place, with trips to Vienna, Forest School and Bristol Zoo seeing year groups across the school contextualise their learning in new ways. Visits to school have also been enjoyed by both Junior and Senior pupils. An architect visited Year 2 to talk to them about town planning, Aardman ran an animation day for Years 3-6 and a theatre company put on a production in German for Year 7-13 pupils from Clifton High, Badminton and Clifton College. In the coming weeks, we look forward to welcoming to you to our Rose Day service of Thanksgiving, Commemoration and Prize-giving on Saturday 20th June to celebrate the achievements of our pupils.
Inside this issue:
Year 12 UCAS Convention
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Forest School
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Senior Sports Lunch
German Play
Clifton High School Highlights
Issue 11
June 2015
UCAS Convention Year 12 students visited the UCAS convention in Cardiff at the beginning of term. The support our Year 12 and 13 students receive in their university applications is second to none. This trip is just one of many sessions regarding their UCAS application that the students will take part in over the course of their time in the Sixth Form. The convention allowed the students to talk to representatives from the universities they are interesting in applying to in person. Decisions about which course they will pursue and where they will study will be discussed with parents, tutors, our Head of Futures and Skills and more over the coming months. By visiting the UCAS convention the Year 12 students have begun the extensive university research process early - this is vital for the boys and girls to be able to make an informed decision about their futures.
Vienna At the end of the Spring Term pupils from Years 8 and 9 enjoyed a varied range of activities on a Food and Nutrition and German trip to Vienna. On arrival, an evening walking tour of the city gave the group a taste for Vienna and a chance to see a variety of architectural styles, ranging from classicist to modern. The following morning they watched a training session at the Spanish Riding School - or Spanische Hofreitschule - a traditional riding school for Lipizzan stallions also offering performances and public viewing of some training sessions. After lunch, the boys and girls went to Schönbrunn Palace, a former summer residence of the Austrian Emperor with 1,441 rooms and gardens. The next day the Year 8 and 9 pupils took part in an apple strudel making workshop. Apple strudel is considered to be the national dish of Austria, along with Wiener Schnitzel (a thin, breaded deep fried cut of veal). After the workshop, they went to Belvedere Castle and viewed an impressive collection of Austrian art dating from the Middle Ages to the present day, including the world’s largest Gustav Klimt collection. On the final day, they visited St Stephen’s Cathedral and climbed the South Tower, enjoying a panoramic view of the city at the top. Finally, they visited the ‘Hundertwasser’ House. Architecturally, Hundertwasser was inspired by a love of nature and a dislike for the traditional. The House features uneven floors, a roof covered with earth and grass and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with branches extending from its windows.
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Clifton High School Highlights
Issue 11
June 2015
Year 1 Forest School Dr Pascoe, Deputy Head of School, visited Forest School with the Year 1 boys and girls. They all had enjoyable trip, learning by exploring and interacting with the environment around them.
Year 6 Lifeskills Learning Experience
Year 11 Life Skills Sonya Nutter, Clifton High School’s ceramics specialist, ran a Life Skills session for the Year 11 pupils and was extremely impressed with their efforts. Many of the pupils had never worked with clay before so it was a great achievement that they managed to produce vessels that did not crack in the kiln. They also used their creativity to produce some unusual shapes and wonderful colours with glazes and oxides. Well done to the twelve pupils who attended the session; Pearl Leung, Elena Dinning, Ana Hosty, Lucy Williams, Heather Churchfield, Maddy Kesterton, Sze Shan Cheang, Sophie Cotter, Lisa Coppock, Campaspe Leach Clay, Katie de la Lynde and Enric Ventura Ripoll.
Year 6 visited the Create Centre to enjoy a Lifeskills Learning Experience. At the beginning of the day everyone filled in an electronic questionnaire of how they might respond to various hazardous situations. They then split into groups of three and four to be shown around realistic scenarios by the knowledgeable staff guides. In each scenario the boys and girls had to decide, or were told, what to do. After they had experienced the scenarios they filled in the questionnaire again. The results showed that the children had learnt a lot and now felt more prepared to deal with any hazardous situations they may see. Not only this but some of the pupils said they would be talking to their parents to make sure they know what to do as well!
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Clifton High School Highlights
Issue 11
June 2015
‘Action Research’ in the Nursery School As part of the Nursery School’s ’quality assurance plan’ the staff have been working to improve the children’s learning opportunities and experiences in the top garden. In order to achieve this they undertook research which included talking to the children to discover how the garden was used and perceived by them. Other research techniques included an audit of resources, weekly observations of the children using the garden and photographic evidence. The findings have been applied to ensure the environment best enables the children to learn, allow staff to provide the children with the resources that reflect their own interests, provide the children with new opportunities to explore learning in all areas of the curriculum and recognise the top garden as an outdoor classroom. The research will continue as an ongoing reflective process, however, our ‘photographic tree’ gives an insight into the success of our action to date—you can visit the photographic tree in the Nursery School top garden to see photographs of the children using the garden and read their comments .
Architect Visit Mr Nichols, an architect and a parent of the school, came to talk to Year 3 about town planning to tie in with their learning theme last half term. The children enjoyed an interactive workshop and an interesting presentation. The children learnt all about the designs of buildings, different types of building and what makes up a town, including transport.
Year 8 Bonding Trip Year 8 enjoyed a fun night of bowling at Hollywood Bowl, Cribbs Causeway with their friends, their tutors and their Head of Year. The trip gave friends from the two Year 8 forms a chance to integrate socially. Prizes were awarded to the top scorers on each of the eight alleys and a great time was had by all!
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Clifton High School Highlights
Issue 11
June 2015
German Play A theatre company called Onatti visited school to perform a play for all of Clifton High Year 7 and all German students from Year 8 to 13. We also invited pupils from Badminton School and Clifton College to visit to enjoy the play alongside our boys and girls. The company write plays especially for pupils studying German at the Key Stage 3 and 4 levels. This particular performance was entitled Meine neue Schwester (My new Sister) and told the story of two girls, whose parents have just started dating so the girls meet for the first time. Some of the Year 8 and 10 German pupils commented: “I really enjoyed the play, I thought it was extremely funny.” “The play was really good and I was amazed at how much I could understand.” “It was a good and funny play. It helped me learn new words.” “Das war fantastisch!”
Charity Performance at RWA In May, Sixth Form pupils Catherine, Letty and Freya provided musical entertainment for a fundraising dinner, held at the RWA for over 150 major Southmead Hospital Charity donors. The students were invited to perform during the drinks reception prior to a gala dinner. Well done girls for supporting this prestigious event! Photographs courtesy of Barbara Evripidou.
Link School in Beira Mozambique We have received a letter and photographs from our link school, 1ero de Maio in Beira, Mozambique. In previous years teachers from Clifton High School visited the school in Beira and the 1ero de Maio teachers made a return visit to Bristol. The school wishes to continue to nurture our partnership between our schools and to undertake any project available to strengthen the link. Year 2 are going to write back to the school, sending the children in Beira some photographs of Clifton High School and British food. Watch this space for more news and projects!
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Clifton High School Highlights
Issue 11
June 2015
Year 2 - Keen to be Green As part of their PSHCE work, the Year 2 children have been thinking of ideas to help improve their local environment. As part of this Mr Walmsley, Lead Specialist on Photography and the Environment, came to talk to the children about the things that Bristol is doing as part of its European Green Capital status. The children then shared their ideas with Mr Walmsley which included making cars so expensive that no one could afford them, planting more fruit trees around Bristol, having surf lanes by the side of the road so that you could surf to school and establishing recycling robots at the end of our streets.
Song of the Whale Year 5 and 6 enjoyed a live Skype call with the 'Song of the Whale' research boat, experiencing mathematics in action in the 'real world'. The children studied data from the boat in their lessons - looking at how the boat's location is charted using mathematics and how the locations of whales and porpoises are tracked - whilst exploring co-ordinates as part of the Key Stage 2 mathematics curriculum. They had a lot of questions regarding the data when they were looking at it in their lessons; during the Skype call they not only had their questions answered by a research scientist and but also had a video tour of the boat. The event took place as part of the Global Classroom program run by Mr Walmsley which can set up live links to divers in the Pacific, biologists in Madagascar and explorers in the Arctic.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Congratulations to the talented Year 4 pupils for a fantastic performance!
Spanish Letter Exchange Over half term Señorita Sobey hand delivered the Year 9 pupil’s letters to their penpals at a school in Santomera in Murcia, Spain. The Spanish pupils were delighted with the letters they received. Our boys and girls have been honing their writing skills by writing to them in Spanish and their pen-pals have been responding in English. As well as letters the pen-pals have also exchanged a number of presents including jewellery, door signs - which were made on the school laser cutter, sweets, chocolate, a video tour of our school and clips from Spanish lessons. The letter exchange has been taking place for the past four years and Señorita Sobey really enjoyed having the chance to meet the pupils and teachers in Santomera first hand. A number of our pupils over the past years have organised exchanges over the summer holidays with our contacts in Spain, proving extremely beneficial in helping them improve their language skills and their GCSE and A level grades. If parents and pupils would like help in organising an exchange please contact Miss Sobey lsobey@cliftonhigh.bristol.sch.uk.
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Clifton High School Highlights
Issue 11
Sport at Clifton High Senior Sports Lunch
June 2015
Our annual Senior School Sports Lunch
took place in celebration of the sporting achievements of our Year 10 to 13 pupils. For each sport Player’s Player, Most Improved Player and Captain’s awards were presented. The boys and girls enjoyed a lunch, the award presentations and talks by two guest speakers Martha Watson - GB Hockey goalkeeper and Laura Normand - GB Equestrian.
Avon Doubles Tennis Ella from Year 10 and Charlotte from Year 8 joined forces to represent the school in the U15 Avon Schools Doubles Tennis Competition held at Clifton College. Both girls performed excellently throughout the competition, winning all their matches in the preliminary rounds, beating Colston Collegiate 6-1, Prior Park 6-1 and Royal High 6-4. In the semi-final they faced Colston Girls, again maintaining their winning form, beating them 6 games to love. This placed the girls in the final against a Year 10 pair from Clifton College, against whom they played magnificently, gaining a well-deserved 2 sets to love victory! The girls now hold the title of U15 Avon Schools Doubles Winners 2015. Well done to both girls.
Athletics
Cross country: Oliver Lock has become the Avon County U13 800m
champion and the Avon County 1500m champion, running a new personal best time of 4m56.7s in the 1500m. Bristol School Athletics: Congratulations to all our pupils from Year 7 to 9 who took part in the Bristol Schools Athletics trials, from which pupils are selected to represent Avon Schools Athletics. Clifton High competitors showed enthusiasm and determination across a range of events with a number finishing in the top three. Particular congratulations to Lucy Snow who came second in the Junior Girls Javelin and to Oliver Durie from coming third in High Jump, first in his 100m heat and first in Shot Put; both will represent Bristol at the next stage.
Hockey Congratulations to Catherine Allin who has been re-selected for the JRPC Hockey squad for the second time, following a year out of hockey! Well done for working so hard to bring yourself up to this extremely high standard again.
Active Travel Week Bristol City Council sponsored Active Travel Week, with many schools taking part. In total Clifton High handed out 650 stickers to pupils for completing an active journey of over five minutes to school and 110 people were entered into the prize draw for managing three mornings of travel or for travelling for over 25 minutes on one journey. Also, three classes from the Junior School kept a travel diary and are entering a competition to draw their ideal, imaginary, journey. Congratulations to everyone who took part and prizes will be distributed in assembly soon.
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Clifton High School Highlights
Issue 11
Spotlight on a Former Pupil Former pupil Edward West is now pursuing his pilot training after working hard to save up for his course for two years after leaving Clifton High. Congratulations to Ed for being accepted to the CAE course on his first attempt, a very rare achievement.
Clifton High in the Community Visit Gromit at the bridge: You can visit Polygrom at the Suspension Bridge Centre for the month of June! BBC Music Day: Emma Rose in Year 10 took part in BBC Music Day on 5th June as a member of the Bristol Youth Choir. The high profile event was broadcast on BBC Local Radio, BBC Radio 3 and BBC One. Bristol was one of ten UK cities involved in the event and the Bristol Youth Choirs and City of Bristol Choir accompanied by the Para-orchestra and an orchestra of disabled musicians from around the South West.
June 2015
Don’t forget… Thursday 11th June School Open Morning Saturday 13th—Sunday 14th June Bronze Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Assessment Hike Monday 15th June Senior House Swimming Gala Tuesday 16th June Junior House Swimming Gala Tuesday 16th June Nursery School—Year 6 ‘Move on Up’ Visits Saturday 20th June Rose Day Wednesday 24th June Year 3—6 Summer Music Concert Friday 26th June Sports Day
Holiday Sports Camps
Saturday 27th June PA Summer Fair
Clifton High will be running Sports Camps in the summer holidays from 3rd-14th August, 9am-4pm, for boys and girls in Year 3-8.The camps are priced at £30 a day. Extended day options are available: 8am drop off and 5pm pick up for an extra £10 per day, 8am drop off and 4pm pick up or 9am drop off and 5pm pick up for an extra £5 per day.
Thursday 2nd July Art and Design Open Evening
Please visit the school website to download a booking form.
Monday 6th July Year 6 Science Fair
Thursday 2nd—Sunday 5th July Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Assessment Hike Friday 1st July House Challenge Day
Contact us: Tel: 0117 973 0201 Email: enquiries@cliftonhigh.bristol.sch.uk Visit our Facebook page at: facebook.com/CliftonHighSchoolBristol
www.cliftonhigh.bristol.sch.uk 8
Tuesday 7th July Term Ends Monday 3rd—Friday 14th August Holiday Sports Camps