Cramlington Learning Village - Discover Spring 2016

Discover Spring 2016

CRAMLINGTON LEARNING VILLAGE

THE REAL THING CLV students are Coca-Cola business champions

AIMING HIGH CLV student wins a scholarship to the world-famous Eton College

Going Dutch Football students follow in the footsteps of Dutch masters at PSV training camp

Go Grease Lightning CLV students perform in a sell out production of Grease

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elcome to the Spring edition of our parental magazine Discover.

I hope it provides you with a welcome insight into some of our students’ activities this term.

We are proud of all of our students who, on a daily basis, show their hard work and determination to succeed in school. This edition of Discover showcases some extraordinary efforts and successes. Take the case of Adam Shewry – a Year 11 student who, through his own efforts, has secured a place to study at Eton – a truly remarkable success for a talented young man; or the students who have raised over £5,000 for a charity very close to our heart – Jessica’s Sarcoma Awareness.

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In addition, we hope you will enjoy reading about our educational visits during the Easter break to Holland, Italy and America. Our youngsters’ behaviour was praised by all as they immersed themselves in different environments and cultures.

Finally, read details of our fantastic show “Grease” which was a joy to watch from beginning to end. It is always a pleasure to see young people, who you have watched grow up in school, showcase their talents.

A parental bulletin later this term will share with you vital information for the summer and also the new academic year.

Wendy Heslop - Headteacher

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ISSUE 4 Flooding experience inspires 10 GirlsGetSet 5 6 7 8

students to victory Year 11 student wins scholarship to famous Eton college Footballers follow in the footsteps of Dutch masters The Italian (volcano) job & LA Story Raising money to support inspirational student’s charity

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13 Grease is the CLV Word!

14 ICT Aware 17 Books, books, books 18 Focus on Literacy 19 Focus on Numeracy

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FLOODING EXPERIENCE INSPIRES STUDENTS TO VICTORY

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our Year 10 students have beaten teams from 900 schools to win a coveted national business competition. Oliver Davenport, Shay Greer, Daniel Hordon and Daniel Rahman had already won the North East final of the Coca Cola Enterprises Real Business Challenge. Now – after competing against the other regional winners in the grand final in London – they have become national champions.

“It was a bit of a shock,” said 15-yearold Daniel Hordon, who is the only one of the four to study business.

“We didn’t expect to win either time.”

The Real Business Challenge was launched in 2003. Nearly 90,000 students now take part every year.

This was the third time a team from Cramlington Learning Village has reached the final and the second time we have won.

Eleven teams - which, apart from Cramlington, had eight or nine members - were set the task of designing a new and business viable product made from re-cycled plastic or aluminium. They had to work out the costings and profits, plan a marketing campaign and make a presentation in front of four judges -including the managing director of Coca-Cola UK. Inspired by their own recent experiences of flooding, the students’ product was a plastic bag with a valve, which would be filled with water and used instead of a sand bag.

Oliver, who is 14, said: “The underpasses near the school have

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been blocked by floodwater. I spoke to somebody from the council who says all he does is hand out sand bags.”

Their product would last a lifetime, be easier to store than a sand bag and could be filled with the floodwater itself.

Business studies teacher Craig Baxter, said: “The judges said it would solve a real issue. Like many great products, it seems so simple.”

Coca-Cola Enterprises vending account manager Phil Green, who mentored the team at the regional and national finals, said: “Their positivity and enthusiasm made my role very easy. They presented their ideas in a clear, professional and good humoured way.”

“If any of these students choose to pursue a career in business - and continue to develop these skills that helped them win - I have no doubt that they would be successful.”

Their road to success began during Well Being day in December where they faced their first business challenge. They were then chosen to represent the school in the regional final at The Stadium of Light where

they had to create a campaign to persuade people to stop dropping litter.

Their trip to London for the final involved a tour and reception at the Houses of Parliament - where they had to present their anti-litter campaign to MPs - and a visit to the theatre to see the Lion King.

“They are a very modest group who were genuinely surprised to win. They were a real credit to themselves and the school - and not just because they won. Passengers on the train said what a fantastic students they were,” said Craig.

Gina Solimeno, the education programme manager for Coca-Cola Enterprises, said: “Congratulations on being crowned our 2015/16 Real Business Challenge champions. The RBC continues to go from strength to strength, and the level of creativity and business nous we have seen from all of this year’s competitors has been fantastic.”

As well as winning a 3D printer for the school, the team’s anti-litter campaign will feature in posters displayed at local bus stops.

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YEAR 11 STUDENT WINS SCHOLARSHIP TO FAMOUS ETON COLLEGE

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year 11 student is heading to the school of royalty, politicians, Olympic champions and Hollywood stars.

Fifteen-year-old Adam Shewry is one of only nine students throughout the UK this year to be offered a sixth form scholarship at the world-famous Eton College in Windsor, where fees are nearly £12,000 per student per term.

Adam was chosen after days of gruelling interviews and tests at the school which in 576 years has produced 19 Prime Ministers – including David Cameron – and educated scores of successful, influential and famous people such as Prince William, Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne, adventurer Bear Grylls and gold medal rower Sir Matthew Pinsent.

“I was in a chemistry lesson and I was asked to go to reception” said Adam.

“I walked into the head teacher’s office and there was my dad with the letter saying I’d been successful.”

Adam – who last year passed his GCSE maths with an A* - only found out that Eton offered scholarships after watching a television programme.

He went with his family for a visit and was so impressed that he applied for a place, along with around 200 other students.

After receiving his personal statement, Eton invited Adam to spend four days at the school, where he sat the notoriously challenging entrance exam, and was interviewed by the

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head teacher as well as all the heads of department for his chosen A’ Level subjects: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Economics.

When he was there, the UK ambassador to Russia and the deputy governor of the Bank of England paid visits.

“Apparently that was not unusual,” said Adam who is not 16 until June.

“It’s a whole world of different opportunities. There is an image that Etonians are stuck up, but I didn’t meet one student like that. They were some of the nicest kids I’ve ever met.”

Adam’s success in winning a scholarship – even before his sits most of his GCSE exams - means the majority of his costs will be paid by Eton.

“It will be tough being away from family and friends but I always intended to go away to university – it’s just coming two years earlier than I thought,” he said.

Adam is a gifted long-distance runner.

He is a member of Morpeth Harriers and has been selected to compete for Northumberland in the cross country race at a national schools event.

As well as his studies Adam is planning to join some of Eton’s societies and pursue his enjoyment of rock climbing, cycling and swimming. “It will be a bit different from the uniform at Cramlington,” he said. “Everybody has been so supportive here. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

Year 11 Learning Manager Dave Paterson said: “Throughout his time at school Adam has conducted himself impeccably, both academically and in his sport. He’s reaping the rewards for the effort and attitude he has shown.

“We say to students to aim high and see where you get. But it just proves that if you put your mind to it you can achieve anything you want. It’s an outstanding achievement and we are all extremely proud of Adam.”

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FOOTBALLERS FOLLOW IN FOOTSTEPS OF DUTCH MASTERS

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early seventy students have spent Easter experiencing the Dutch way of football at one of Europe’s top clubs.

Four school teams played and trained at PSV Eindhoven during a five-day visit to the club, which has been managed by Sir Bobby Robson, Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat and whose former players include Ruud Gullit, double World Cup winner Ronaldo and current Newcastle United player Georginio Wijnaldum.

At PSV’s De Herdgang training facility the Cramlington teams watched the club’s manager Philip Cocu and coaches Bolo Zenden and Luc Nilis - all former World Cup players - put their players through their paces. The students also trained there and played

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competitive friendlies against two of the top junior clubs in Eindhoven.

Cramlington won all four fixtures as the under 13s and under 15s defeated Best Vooruit and the under 12s and under 16s won against VV Acht.

As well as a tour of PSV Eindhoven’s impressive Philips Stadion, the group also enjoyed a visit to nearby Eftling theme park.

The school started taking teams to professional football clubs in 2003 with LA Galaxy. More recent tours have taken Cramlington students to Villarreal and Valencia in Spain and Ajax in Amsterdam before Easter’s trip via ferry to Eindhoven.

“It was great to travel abroad and spend time with my teammates. We were treated like professionals and we learnt a lot about being the best,” said Matthew, who is in year 9.

Passengers on the ferry, staff at the

hotel and coaches at PSV Eindhoven commended the students’ behaviour.

“When we played the matches the Dutch teams saw us as representing our country, not just Cramlington, and our students were very proud of that responsibility,” said Mr Horner, Head of Boys’ PE. Jack from year 11 said: “The whole tour was amazing as the facilities that we used were top class and to play football against Dutch teams was a unique experience. I’ll never forget it.”

Year 8 student Christian added: “The coaches at PSV Eindhoven were brilliant. The sessions were fun and they really made you think.”

Mr Steanson, Educational Visits Coordinator, praised the boys for their contributions towards making this year’s football tour one of the best yet.

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THE ITALIAN (VOLCANO) JOB

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his Easter forty seven students have been developing their geographical understanding of coasts and hazards and experiencing the Italian culture.

Students climbed Mount Vesuvius and witnessed the workings of a volcano.

With this in mind, the students visited Pompeii; the infamous settlement which was completely ruined as a result of the volcano. Students were intrigued by the casts of the animals and humans, and this enabled them to truly understand the impact the destructive volcano had. Students then had the opportunity to explore coastal landforms with a visit to the Island of Capri and their knowledge was impressive. Students were confidently able to transfer their classroom knowledge to the field and year 11 Geographers were given an intensive session with our tour guide to help them with their upcoming exams. We also visited Solfatara where students were able to experience the heat and gases that were escaping from within the volcano. Students

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witnessed first-hand the monitoring of the volcano with lasers in place, temperatures and equipment to measure the gas levels.

After full days of geography, the students took respite by enjoying the Italian culture. The local pizza festival was a hit with the students as they got to immerse themselves in a range of local festivities- including a variety of performers, pizza and most importantly the ice cream!

The students were an absolute pleasure to take away. Members of the public stopped both students and staff on numerous occasions to commend us on the behaviour and attitude of our students. Moreover, our tour guide referred to them as one of the best groups of children he has ever worked with. They were responsible and enthusiastic from start to finish, even after the seven hour drive to Gatwick!

Taylor from year 11 said: “The trip

During the Easter holidays we visited Hollywood in Los Angeles where we sampled the best California has to offer. We visited Hollywood Boulevard and saw where the Oscars are held as well as the famous stars on the street. We went to exclusive Beverley Hills and shopped on Rodeo Drive. We saw Venice Beach and Santa Monica Beach where we saw the resident seal and the end of route 66. These are also popular destinations for film sets.

On the day we went to Universal Studios we were lucky enough to go on the brand new Harry Potter ride before it officially opened on April 7th which was a real coup!

Later we had dinner in the Hard Rock Café followed by CRAMLINGTON LEARNING VILLAGE

was so much more than I expected.

I learned so much and also met so many lovely people. Capri is my new favourite place. I made memories that I’ll keep forever and it couldn’t have been done without the amazing teachers.”

Jake in year 11 said: “Italy was an incredibly eye-opening experience that has sparked a new interest in me for travel. The trip was extremely well organised and there wasn’t a moment that one of us got bored.”

Thomas from year 10 said: “Had such a great time, lots of fun and I loved the caves! I even have an indent on my forehead from a stalactite...”

Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in Universal’s City Walk. We also saw live filming of a TV show at Universal Studios when we went on the backlot tour with thrilling 3D features. We went to Anaheim to Disneyland and enjoyed the rides, parades, shops and restaurants. At the Griffith Observatory we could see a panorama of Los Angeles on a gloriously sunny day. Students all expressed their enjoyment of the trip: “An amazing trip” “Want to go back!”

“LA was an amazing experience and I loved every minute of every day, something I would definitely do again!”

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RAISING MONEY TO SUPPORT INSPIRATIONAL STUDENT’S CHARITY

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ur students have raised more than £5,000 in memory of a treasured former student.

Jessica Robson was only 18 when she died nearly two years ago from an extremely rare form of cancer.

She had started her own charity Jessica’s Sarcoma Awareness – and used social media to raise money and help other seriously ill young people.

Jessica’s charity has been continued by her sister Nicole and parents Trevor and Julie, whose fund-raising efforts have been supported by individuals, local businesses and Cramlington Learning Village.

Students have run, walked and cycled, baked and sold cakes and made donations through non-uniform days

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and sponsored silences.

“The school has been fantastic,” said Jessica’s mum Julie, who accepted a cheque on behalf of the charity after the latest fund-raising efforts. “The students and staff have really helped us carry on the work Jessica started.”

As a result the Robsons’ dream of providing respite breaks for sick teenagers and their families is getting closer.

During her treatment Jessica spent time with her family in a caravan in Cresswell. “It really helped to be together, away from the hustle and bustle but not too far from hospital,” said Trevor.

The family have now identified a site in Northumberland where they plan to build a lodge, using money raised by the charity and some of the proceeds from the sale of their home.

In the meantime they continue to support seriously ill young people.

Over Easter they visited Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle where Jessica was treated - to hand out eggs, biscuits and presents to patients and their families.

Dave Paterson,Year 11 Learning Manager, taught Jessica and is one of four members of staff who – along with the Robsons – will be taking part in the Great North Run to raise money for Jessica’s Sarcoma Awareness.

He said: “Jessica battled through every school day with a smile on her face.

She is an inspiration – not just to students who were there at the time – but even students now who didn’t know her. She’s never far from your thoughts because of the type of girl she was.”

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GIRLSGETSET - WITH GE PII

IN CRAMLINGTON

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irlsGetSet is an exciting, new programme aimed at showing girls in years 9 to 13 what Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) is all about.

One of our local employers, GE Pii Pipeline Solutions, invited students from Cramlington Learning Village to be involved in the GirlsGetSet programme this year and eight year 10 girls and ten year 9 girls signed up for the challenge. The other school involved, St Benet Biscop in Bedlington, brought along a group of year 10 girls.

In the UK only a very small percentage of engineering professionals are female and GE Pii

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wants to address this imbalance by encouraging girls to consider a career in this field. They do this by hosting a range of activity days and workshops to showcase GE technologies to give the girls an insight into a career in Engineering and Technology. They aim to encourage girls to consider SET subjects when making important decisions about their education and, ultimately, about their future careers.

The launch event was held in November 2015 and the girls got the chance to find out more about the GGS programme and to tour the GE Pii site including the shop floor, the physics lab and the 3D printing department. To finish off the first session, they were involved in a SET team building exercise in which they had to build a bridge using only the

materials provided.

The My Vision My Future challenge took place in December where the girls were asked to consider what they wanted in the future in terms of jobs and careers, lifestyle and personal ambitions. They produced their own individual vision boards to show how they viewed their future and the goals they wanted to set themselves to achieve a happy and successful life. As the GE staff involved in the project had taken very different routes to reach their current positions with GE, they were able to tell the girls how they had achieved success and talk about the goals they had set themselves when at school.

Our third session in February was a presentation by Dr David James, Professor of Marketing at Hult

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International Business School and a Personal Branding consultant. David was a very entertaining speaker who challenged everyone (including the adults present!) to consider how we present ourselves to the outside world whether in school, on social media, with family and friends or in the workplace. He encouraged the girls to be bold and brave as they move through school into university or the world of work. To finish the session, he challenged the girls to push a straw through a raw potato. This led to lots of frustration initially until he showed everyone how easily it can be done by not actually seeing it as a problem but by finding a solution. If you would like to know it is done, ask Belle-Mae Stapleton in year 10!

Session four offered the girls the chance to learn some practical job application and interview skills as the workshops involved looking at what a Human Resources Manager looks for in a good CV and how potential employees present themselves in an

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interview plus a chance to have a mock interview with a member of GE Pii staff. Angela Pickard, HR Manager at GE Pii, showed us examples of what should be in a good CV and how she decides who to invite to interview.

Two other members of GE then took us through two very different interview scenarios to show us the dos and don’ts when you are in an interview.

Everyone was then given a mock interview, which was slightly scary and nerve-wracking, but most of the CLV students came back happy with the way in which they had performed in the interview. Feedback from the GE interviewers showed that they were very impressed by all the girls as they were capable of responding well to questions asked about themselves and what they were doing both in and out of school.

Whilst waiting for the interview, a representative from Tomorrow’s Engineers UK set the girls a challenge involving a basic motor and

electronic equipment. Tomorrow’s Engineers UK aims to inspire the next generation of engineers (male and female) by providing a link between engineering companies and education and by facilitating site visits and workshops. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Ambassadors from the companies work with students in schools to help them realise the opportunities available in STEM careers. Tomorrow’s Engineers UK also has a website offering information and resources plus case studies and blogs by a range of different people in STEM roles.

Our final session of the GirlsGetSet programme is in April and will involve a GE Pii Jobs Fair with interactive booths to include Engineering, Operations and Analysis. In small groups the girls will go round the booths, being set real-life practical tasks by GE staff working in the various departments to find out more about what they do in the company, what skills are involved and how each department contributes to the success of the company itself.

The girls will receive certificates showing their involvement in the GirlsGetSet programme and hopefully some will consider a career in SET in the future. GE Pii offer work experience placements to school students so some of the year 9 girls may follow this up next year now they have contacts in the company!

We would like to thank Susan Ramshaw, Monica Slater, Angela Pickard and Lisa Hollick, plus all the other members of GE Pii staff involved in this programme, for inviting us to participate and providing CLV students with an insight into GE Pii and the range of opportunities available in Science, Engineering and Technology. Hopefully, some of our girls will increase the number of female engineering professionals in the future.

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GREASE IS THE CLV WORD! CRAMLINGTON LEARNING VILLAGE

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colourful and creative set boards, poster ideas and painting our VW Bug to look exactly like Greased Lightning, these guys never gave up in order to make the show look as visually exciting as possible.

This year’s cast of Grease excelled beyond

The show started back last summer when Miss Peters, Mrs Patrick and I started the Grease is the Word project for Project Fortnight. An incredibly talented group of year 7s, 8s and 9s slaved away doing scaling lessons, visiting a real theatre and working on the challenging task of creating Rydell High in the Hub. From beautiful wall-hanging artwork to

media headlines – that the Arts are not only a valuable aspect of school life but also enable our wonderful students to thrive as aspiring performers.

The Grease band were a true highlight at each show and our musicians received

his year’s show of Grease has been the hardest and yet most rewarding show to date and it all began a mere seven months ago!

Back in September, ‘THE ACTING , DANCING , auditions saw SINGING AND MUSIC WAS, a CLV recordI BELIEVE, SOME OF THE breaking one BEST I HAVE SEEN IN THIS hundred and twenty students SCHOOL.’ MRS HESLOP audition for Grease and a any of our expectations and took to the whopping eighty make the final cut – stage with the professionalism and natural our largest cast ever! The cast and enthusiasm that is the reason I love crew have been hopelessly devoted to this project, giving two days a week teaching at CLV! Each of our incredible students not only learnt all the dances to rehearsals and intense Sunday and songs, but also acquired a beautiful practices and spending countless sense of confidence, increasing their selfhours learning lines, hand jives and esteem, and proving – despite the recent dance numbers.

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so much praise from the audience for their complex playing and enthusiastic renditions of Grease’s greatest hits.

Consisting of Jason Ying, Dan Newberry, Kieran Falcus, Kay Watson, Sophie Purvis, Molly Dungate & Mr Rigby they were beyond incredible and once again proved how amazing our Music Department is at CLV. The range of lead performers this year included some old Music & Theatre Production faces but also lots of new ones. With Luke Davies and Georgina Burke landing the lead roles of Danny and Sandy, it was inevitably going to be a huge success. They were supported by the witty humour of our T-Birds: Robson Scott, Callum Picton, Lewis Leng and Cameron Swan, fantastically contrasting with the sassy Pink Ladies: Charlotte Small, Sophie Butler, Morgan Butler and Abigail Simpson. From laugh out loud responses to our little heartthrob Doody (Callum Picton) desperately trying to land a date with Frenchy (Sophie Butler), to

‘VERY WELL DONE FOR ALL YOUR MARVELLOUS ENERGY AND EFFORTS.’ MR BRECHIN

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our T-Birds rocking their finest Greased Lightning moves and Rizzo (Charlotte Small) having us on the verge of tears with There are Worse Things I Can Do…there was no doubt that this emotional, musical rollercoaster was heading for one stop…

TOTAL SUCCESS! As with every year of Music & Theatre Productions the chorus were equally incredibly talented, filling the stage for group numbers…from romantic couples in Mooning, jive partners at the High School Hop and Hairdressers in Frenchy’s Beauty School Dropout dream sequence…multi-talented is an understatement. These guys were triple threats on stage: singing, acting and dancing their socks off consistently!

Finally, I just want to say a massive thank you to all our parents and local community who supported us by attending this show. The fact that time after time we have such enthusiastic audience members is what really makes it worthwhile for our budding actors.

Music & Theatre Productions have excelled beyond our expectations once again and we hope they all return next year to take on a new musical, a new challenge and become part of a new family of friends. If you saw Grease and want to be involved get along to our September sign-up!

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‘THE SHOW WAS AWESOME AND I WAS STAGGERED BY THE TALENT OF THE WHOLE CAST. IT WAS WONDERFUL!’ MISS NIGHTINGALE

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ICT AWARE Social Media Advice for Parents CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) are an organisation tasked with helping to keep young people safe online. They run a website called www.thinkuknow.co.uk The following advice is from their website and used with their permission. There are a whole host of further resources on their website if you wish to find out more.

Parental advice on contacting social media sites It’s so easy for young people to share online that sometimes they might post something and wish that they hadn’t. If your child has posted something that they regret onto Facebook,YouTube, Instagram, ooVoo or any other site you should advise them to delete it from their account as quickly as they can.

What if someone else has posted something about your child?

Most websites provide an option for users to report to them to request removal of content – such as videos, pictures, comments or profiles – that might be upsetting.

It’s important to know that making a report doesn’t mean the content will definitely be removed.

Most websites, including social media sites, have a set of rules - ‘Terms of Use’ - which they expect people using their site to obey.You or your child should check if any of the rules have been broken because websites will only take content down if this is the case. Facebook calls their rules ‘Community Standards’,YouTube’s rules are called ‘Community Guidelines’ and other sites like Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram have their own sets of rules and ways to report.

You should also make sure your child understands how to report content to the site. The quickest way of removing content posted by others is to ask the person who has posted it to take it down - if known to your child.

If your child has been a victim of online bullying and has had a nasty message, picture or video posted about them, you can ask the school for support to help find out who might have posted the content. In addition to your child

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speaking to you, they may wish to talk to someone outside of the family about what has happened to them and how it made them feel. Let them know that they can always call Childline with any worry, big or small, on 0800 11 11.

How to reduce the risk of your child being in an upsetting situation In order to avoid these sorts of situations in the first place, it’s worth sitting down with your child before they start using any website and reading the terms and conditions to learn what is, and what isn’t, acceptable on the site.

You should check whether your child is old enough to have an account with a particular social media website.

Many sites, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Ask. fm and ooVoo, require users to be 13 years old and will deactivate the accounts of any users suspected to be under this age.

Other tips for increasing your child’s online security: * Set their privacy settings to medium or high. Without updating their privacy settings, anyone can contact them and their profile information is visible. * Explain to them that you should not share personal information with people you do not know, such as your address, school, parent’s name, etc * Children often share their passwords. Know your child’s passwords and discuss that passwords are secret words and should not be shared with friends. * Children sometimes leave themselves signed in at friend’s house on someone else’s mobile device or computer. We suggest that you remind them to always be sure to log out. * If your child receives an unwanted friend invitation be sure to ignore the request and also block this person from contacting them again.

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BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS Cuckoo Young Writers

Bookbuzz

The Cuckoo Young Writers programme is organised

by New Writing North and gives young people the opportunity to work with a professional writer to gain advice and feedback on their own writing. Some of our KS3 students took part in a fun and interactive outreach workshop with local poet, Paul Summer, to create their own poem about Cramlington. Several of our students have now signed up to the Cuckoo Young Writers group which meets each Saturday at Cramlington Library. As well as reading out their own protest poems at the Juice Festival in Newcastle, these aspiring writers have also had their work published in a magazine and are working towards the Arts Award.

Y7 students were very excited this year to receive their very own Bookbuzz book to kickstart their reading. Bookbuzz is a national scheme which gives y7 students the opportunity to choose their own book to keep from a specially selected list. Titles on offer this year included the haunting Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge (this year’s Costa Book Prize winner) - the most popular choice for the girls - and Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder by Jo Nesbo - a winning choice for the boys! The books available included comedy, poetry, nonfiction, mystery, history, science-fiction and much, much more. There really was something for everyone.

Book Prizes JLV students this year were offered the opportunity to judge the prestigious Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize. This prize aims to encourage young people to read more about science and our y7/8 judging panel was tasked with the difficult job of selecting their winner from a shortlist of six stunning and innovative books. Think Physics at Northumbria University generously provided copies of the shortlisted books and after much discussion and heated debate our panel chose Utterly Amazing Science as their winner. The Royal Society judges agreed with them and awarded Robert Winston the prize for his exciting pop-up book. You can read more of our panel’s comments on the Think Physics website: cramlv.co.uk/thinkphysics SLV students had the chance to hone their judging skills as they took part in the North East Teen Book Award. Each

year, the best in UK YA fiction is shortlisted for teenagers from schools across the North East to read, discuss and ultimately vote on to decide the overall winner.

As over 300 students from across the North East gathered at the Centre for Life, there was real excitement about who would win. Our student judges were lucky enough to meet shortlisted authors Susan Fletcher, Melinda Salisbury, Simon Mason, Moira Fowley-Doyle and Abbie Rushton, all of whom talked about their inspirations, the reasons why they chose to write their books and why they wanted to become writers. This year’s NETBA winner was Susan Fletcher, an adult thriller writer, with her debut YA novel, A Little In Love. Inspired by the best-selling musical and multi-award winning movie, Les Miserables it was our judging panel’s favourite too!

Page Turners A new initiative in the SLV this year is Page Turners, a group of enthusiastic booklovers committed to getting other students more motivated to read for pleasure by running positive reading activities, displays and promotions throughout the school. Their campaigning started with a World Book Day competition for y7/8 and a promotion of their favourite books in the LRC. Next the enthusiastic volunteers will give out copies of specially commissioned titles to celebrate World Book Night to people in our community who don’t normally read. The group has many exciting ideas which they will roll out over the next few months. Watch this space and be prepared to get reading!

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World Book Day

Accelerated Reader

Thursday 3rd March saw another great celebration of books and reading in the JLV with students receiving their World Book Day vouchers. Many students chose to exchange these vouchers for a special World Book Day book during the break time book swap in the Knowledge Cafe with the brand new Star Wars adventure, World of Norm and David Baddiel titles proving particularly popular. Students were also treated to a special assembly where teachers talked about their own favourite books or chose extracts from their favourites to read aloud.

English teachers entered into the spirit of the occasion too, sporting an accessory pertaining to a particular book character throughout the day leaving students to work out their identity!

This year has been a phenomenally successful one so far for Accelerated Reader in the JLV. At only two thirds of the way through the school year, over 9900 quizzes have been passed, and over 251 million words have been read across y7 and y8. Whilst as a whole, the JLV is doing brilliantly, individual success is also incredible. We already have 50 word millionaires, the most we have ever had, and one of our y7 students has even passed the 6 million word mark!

Competition is fierce between the home groups and English classes alike, with regular updates on who is top of the leaderboards in terms of quizzes passed, words read and percentage correct, ensuring students continue to push themselves to do well and carry on quizzing. Miss McVay’s y7 home group have taken the top spot almost all year and are setting an impressively high standard for the rest of the JLV.

Countdown This year has also seen the continuation of our Countdown programme. This exciting project aims to ease the transition process for our year 7 students through a series of fun, family-oriented activities and trips as well as boosting literacy and numeracy skills. Activities are planned each half term holiday. So far students have enjoyed a visit to the spectacular Birds of Prey Centre at Kielder where they had the opportunity to handle a variety of birds including owls, hawks and kestrels. Head Keeper, Ray, showed students some of the gorier aspects of handling these birds, such as feeding them with bits of baby chicks – and allowed the less squeamish members of the group to have a go themselves!

The aim of the day was to collect enough information to create fact sheets for visitors to the Kielder Birds of Prey Centre and students worked hard researching, writing and illustrating to create a product they can be proud of.

Liz Million, cartoonist and illustrator extraordinaire,

worked with students during February half term. Together we created storyboards for our own comic books and created some awesome superheroes.

Easter saw the JLV Knowledge Cafe transformed into a tea-room! After learning the ins and outs of a professional kitchen from Head Chef, James, our year 7 students had just three hours to work in teams to plan and prepare afternoon tea for their families, creating everything from quiche and scones to chocolate brownies and truffles - from scratch. Students greeted parents, took drinks orders, handed out menus, place cards and recipes and served up some very tasty treats, experiencing for themselves just how important literacy, communication skills and numeracy are in the real world. Everyone worked exceptionally hard to ensure that the tea was outstanding and the comments from the families - and the empty plates - proved this was definitely the case!

Get Caught Reading!

Last term saw the launch of a hugely popular JLV competition aimed at encouraging all students (and staff!)to read for pleasure. Students were asked to submit a photo of themselves reading in an unusual location. The entries were spectacular - from the Millennium Bridge and St James’ Park to the inside of a washing machine and upside down on a trampoline. Winners included Jessica in y7 reading a book about a cat in the cat cafe in Newcastle and Rachael in y8 snapped with David Walliams himself at Seven Stories national Centre for the Children’s Book!

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Author Events This year students in the JLV have enjoyed not just one but three author events. These events are proven to increase students’ enthusiasm for reading and encourage students to try books they might not otherwise pick up.

The first event was a highly entertaining talk by the horror writer, David Gatward, acclaimed for having “one of the darkest imaginations in teen fiction”.

David detailed his inspiration for becoming a writer and outlined the various jobs he undertook along the way, donning the relevant items of clothing as he described each stage in his career.

Students were engrossed as he put on a curly wig (rock star), terrible psychedelic climbing tights (rock climber), wellies (salmon farmer) and velvet jacket (accountant). As well as reading from his (extremely gruesome) horror novels David encouraged all students to follow their dreams. Budding authors were also privileged to take part in a creative writing workshop with David.

A soundscape of spooky music set the scene as students created some stunning writing using a variety of seemingly unrelated objects. Our y7/8 students amazed themselves with the quality of the work they produced in a very short space of time and enjoyed seeing their work posted on David’s website to receive comments and critique from other authors and readers.

Curtis Jobling was another huge hit with students. Curtis began his career as an animator, (working on Bob the Builder!) and he instantly had students hooked with his live cartooning using character suggestions from the audience. Curtis’ newest book, A New Hero, is the novelisation of the hugely popular World of Warriors game so CRAMLINGTON LEARNING VILLAGE

all students came away with packs of trading cards and many also bought copies of the book to have signed by the author himself courtesy of Seven Stories bookshop. Having trained as an illustrator and animator in the North East, Curtis too was keen to impress on students the importance of believing they could be anything they wanted if they followed their dreams.

Our third author, Katherine Rundell, came to CLV as part of the annual Hexham Book Festival. Katherine grew up in Zimbabwe, the setting for her first book, and shared her writing

habits and love of research with students in an absolutely fascinating talk. Students were riveted to find Katherine walks a tightrope in her office each morning before starting writing, ties herself to the chair if she starts getting distracted, walked across the rooftops of her Oxford College while writing Rooftoppers and cuddled baby wolves in North Wales while researching The Wolf Wilder. Several students rated this the best author visit we have ever had at Cramlington - and there have been a lot!!

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FOCUS ON LITERACY Having good literacy skills is key to making progress in school and life in general. Here at CLV we are continually working with the students to help them develop their literacy skills.

Here are some ways you can improve literacy through everyday activities at home.

Literacy at home •

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Prepare shopping lists together and compare prices, sizes and brands Talk about language. Discuss unusual words and the meaning of words you come across in everyday life Have a word of the week Cook or bake together; let your child choose a recipe and then make it together Discuss topical issues such as the environment with your child.

Play spelling and language games—like Scrabble, Boggle or Trivial Pursuit—and look for the correct spelling and meaning of words.

Spelling Strategies

The Literacy Toolkit

Often it is difficult to know how to help with spelling.

Here are a few strategies you could try:

The Literacy Toolkit can be found on the FROG home page, under the Learning Toolkits link. This continues to be an excellent resource for students to help support their progress.

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Read, watch, listen to and discuss newspaper articles, television and radio news coverage, journals and magazines Ask your child to explain their ideas rather than giving one word answers Visit the library Encourage reading different types of texts – fiction, non-fiction (cook books, instruction manuals), magazines and newspapers Set a good example—read on your own Encourage talking about reading in your family Make a time and a place for reading in your home Use a dictionary to find the correct spelling and meaning of words

Break into sounds (u-n-i-o-n) Break into syllables (con-tin-ent) Break into affixes (dis + appear) Use a mnemonic (Necessary – Never Eat Chips Eat Salad Sandwiches And Remain Young) Refer to a word in the same family (chemist, chemistry, chemical) Over articulate it ( Wed – nes – day) Words within words (argument) Refer to word history (bi – cycle, two – wheels) Use analogy (through, rough, enough)

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FOCUS ON NUMERACY Businesses know the importance of numeracy, and there is no doubt that being numerate and understanding how and when to use maths is crucial to being able to function effectively at work and in everyday life. 78% of working-age adults have maths skills below the equivalent of a GCSE grade C - and that half only have the maths skills of a child leaving primary school.

As with reading, maths and problem solving can be great fun - games, puzzles and jigsaws are a great way to start.

Identifying problems and solving them can also help develop maths skills. Puzzling over something, talking problem solving strategies and discussing solutions together will enhance confidence as well as understanding.

Keep it Real – Everyday Maths •

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Going shopping is a necessity. By selecting items and keeping a mental total can help develop estimation skills. Is the total at the till what you expected?

Buy some items with a percentage extra free. Are multi-buy offers all that they seem? What is value for money?

Plan an outing during the holidays. What time do you need to set off? How much money you will need to take?

Using a TV guide. Work out the start times, finishing times and length of their favourite programmes. Can you calculate how long you spend watching TV each day / each week?

Using a bus or train timetable. Work out how long

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a journey between two places should take? Go on the journey. Do you arrive earlier or later than expected? How much earlier/later?

Planning a meal and following a recipe can help with proportional reasoning, from scaling a recipe up or down to feed the right amount of people and organising cooking times.

Work together to plan a party or meal on a budget.

These are just a few ideas to give you a starting point.

Try to get involved in as many problem-solving activities as possible. The more ‘real’ a problem is, the more motivated and relevant the maths becomes.

Half Term Challenge When you go to the shops do you ever look for special offers like two for the price of one?

Or buy one, get the second half price?

See how many special offers you can find by looking in a shop or online – are they all good bargains?

Sometimes offers are not as good as they seem.

For example, two 1 litre bottles of Ribena for £5.00 when a 2 litre bottle costs £4.99! Can you find any interesting offers? Can you choose something you like to eat or drink and make up a good special offer for it?

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