Gryphon School Newsletter

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15893 - Newsletter_13778 Gryphon - Newsletter 13/03/2013 16:13 Page 1

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News 2

Trips 5

Sixth Form 7

Gryphon Spring 2013

Photograph courtesy of the Western Gazette

Our talented Year 8 The Gryphon School gets Rights Respecting Accreditation UNICEF assessors have just visited the School to assess us as a Rights Respecting School. They have given us their Level 1 Award. The assessors were delighted with our work in this area and The Gryphon School is now accredited as a Rights Respecting School. We have exceeded their expectations in informing the whole school about the UNCRC (United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child) and the school having a Rights Respecting ethos.

Naomi Dolbear and Tegan Evans

A group of Year 8 students performed this term in front of over a hundred of their family and friends and a panel of judges. The Year 8 Has Got Talent competition took place in the Quarr Hall where the atmosphere was jovial and supportive tinged with a sense of excitement. There were 16 acts displaying a wide variety of talents, from comedy to musical interludes, dancing and singing. The evening was compered by Maddie Webster-Harris, Caroline Hawkins and Charlie Rohde who were all naturals at introducing the acts. All the acts were impressive and entertaining and hugely appreciated by the audience. The judges had a challenging time deciding on the final winners who were: Lydia Robinson,

Maisie Bakewell, Naomi Dolbear and Tegan Evans with their acoustic rendition of ‘Hey Ho’ by The Lumineers. Highly commended acts were Aneeta Saji with traditional Indian dancing and Laura May Miller and Thea Burden for their cover of ‘Someone Like You’ by Adele. The audience also selected their favourite act of the evening, using text voting. Over 200 texts were sent, and

Bethany Brown and Athena Edwards came out on top with their beautiful acapella delivery of ‘Next To You’. Maths teacher, Sheree Cuff, who organised the event, said ‘It was a great chance to celebrate all the forms of talent within the Year Group.’ Many thanks to everyone who took part and who helped, the evening was a resounding success! Pamela Peacocke – Head of Year 8

Gryphon Students share honours with Tom Daley! Imagine the surprise of The Gryphon School students who took part in a languages competition this term when they found one of their fellow competitors was the diver, and Olympic bronze medallist Tom Daley. They were at the Routes into Languages speaking competition in Barnstaple. That made the non-native key stage five category particularly exciting as Year 12 student, Jake Perrett, was competing directly with Tom. Both spoke beautifully in Spanish, and Tom Daley eventually took gold with Jake taking silver. Tom gave an excellent presentation on his dream of winning gold at Rio in 2016 and was an inspiration to our students, all of whom spoke with real self-confidence and fluency in their chosen language and were a credit to the School. Special congratulations go to Luca Melville in Year 8 who won the near-native key stage 3 category, also speaking in Spanish, and to Michael Jones, Year 8, who was runner-up in his group. Clare Brignall – Head of MFL

Student joins National Youth Choir of Great Britain One of our Year 7 students has gained a place in the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. Emma Reynolds, who is 12, has won a much prized place in the Junior Girls’ Choir. Emma auditioned in Bristol last term and will now attend two residential training courses in Reading and Oxford and perform at The Royal Albert Hall after Easter.

Jilly Hillier of Unicef said ‘ It was particularly noticeable that the school has a strong inclusive ethos and places a high value on both academic achievement and students’ overall wellbeing. Students’ behaviour is exemplary and a culture of respect clearly underpins relationships between members of the school community. The Gryphon School’s rights respecting journey is building on and enhancing this ethos.’ During the assessment they observed an assembly led by our chaplain, took part in a learning walk with the students, saw our many displays and observed 2 lessons. They were happy that staff demonstrated a good understanding of the Convention and gave examples of how they were making links to rights in their teaching and that the students understood the importance of rights and respect at The Gryphon and in the wider world. We are delighted that The Gryphon School has received this important recognition and now hope to go further on our journey as a Rights Respecting School with RRS ambassadors going to other schools helping more and more people to understand and support the UNCRC. If any parents/carers would like to be a part of this journey please contact shelley.coombs@gryphon.dorset. sch.uk Shelley Coombs Rights Respecting Schools Co-ordinator

Last year, while Emma was still at Trent Primary School, she sang for Her Majesty the Queen at the Diamond Jubilee Service of Thanksgiving in St Paul’s Cathedral. Emma auditioned for this too and was one of only 40 children from all over the country chosen to perform at the Service. Emma, who will be singing with the second sopranos, says she is really looking forward to singing with the National Youth Choir. She will be singing specially commissioned works and will be given individual training as well as group training sessions. Emma is a very modest student but one who is passionate about her music. She joined The Gryphon Whole School Choir when she came to the School in September and has already demonstrated her ability, commitment and enthusiasm for singing and music performance. We are looking forward to supporting her exciting involvement in the National Choir. Non Davies – AST Music


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