Shaftesbury School Summer 2022 Newsletter

SUMMER 2022

Shaftesbury

Poetry by Heart National Finals Award winning teachers!

Summer Reading Challenge 1718

Shaftesbury School

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WELCOME As we approach the end of this academic year and look back on what we have accomplished together, as a community, we are left knowing that we have met this year with determination, support, and optimism. There have been some real highlights this year and these include the saving of Barton Hill House, the place that many of our students call their home. I was personally delighted that this was the outcome of the public consultation for several reasons. Firstly, I am proud that this school has boarding provision and that some students call this their home. Secondly, I have always welcomed the multicultural diversity that having boarders brings to our school community, and finally we have a chance to really grow and invest in this area of our school, knowing that it is now secure.

Another highlight must be the fact that Mr More has been named as one of 80 Pearson National Teaching Award Silver Award winners across the country. Alex is honoured with a Silver Award in The Award for Digital Innovator of the Year for his outstanding commitment to changing the lives of the children he works with every day. I also want to congratulate Miss Yeo, another of our teachers who was highly commended; she is an incredibly caring, passionate teacher. We are very fortunate here at Shaftesbury School to be surrounded by brilliant teachers and our non-teaching staff, who go out of their way daily to provide students with support and excellence in education.

My final highlight from this term must be the Poetry By Heart Competition, where two of our students reached the national finals and a chance to perform on the stage of the Globe Theatre in London. Mr Davies had the privilege of accompanying Tilly M (Year 10) and Harry W (Year 12) where these two young people really had the chance to shine!

However, the term is not yet finished, we still have more highlights to come; The School Arts Exhibition will soon be hosted at The Grosvenor Hotel in Shaftesbury where some outstanding work produced by our A level Art, Graphics and Photography evening will be on display. We have our Arts Evening where students will be showing off their musical, dramatic and public speaking talents, and we have our School Sports Day too!

So as the summer holidays begin, we have the opportunity to recharge our batteries and hope that September presents us with another chance to prove that we are the ’best that we can be!’ I wish the whole community a wonderful relaxing break.

Mrs DMLondon-Hill Headteacher Shaftesbury School

Farewell Mr Bond!

A fond farewell to Year 8 Progress Leader, Mr Bond who has been working at Shaftesbury School since 2009, (there were some career and school changes in between, but he always boomeranged back to us). He moves on to lead a team of computing geniuses, developing systems to support the Ministry of Defence!

Staff Update Congratulations to Miss Doohan who has been successfully recruited into the position of Year Progress Leader for Year 8. She looks forward to transitioning with them into Year 9 in September 2022.

We also welcome Mr Jamieson to the Year Leader team.

Mr Jamieson will be working with Mrs Barker and Year 10 in September and is keen to help Year 10 ‘be the best they can be’. We are super excited to have him on board.

ANTI-BULLYING Miss Doohan and Mrs Savage are leading the anti-bullying focus for the school for 2022/2023.

We will also have a team of staff ambassdors who will be up and running from September 2022 and our ambition is to have the team fully operational by Christmas.

The policy for this will be updated and revamped for September and will be easily accessible through the school’s website for pupils, parents and teachers to view.

.3 Such stuff as dreams are made on Every so often an event comes along which lodges in the memory. The privilege of accompanying Tilly M (Year 10) and Harry W (Year 12) to the Poetry by Heart National Finals Event at the Globe Theatre and see them perform was one of those occasions.

They were wonderful ambassadors for our school and delivered their chosen poems with rare assurance, conviction and understanding.

The event was centred around the Globe Theatre on London’s South Bank and took place over two days (June 19th-20th).

On Sunday we explored Tate Modern, checked into the accommodation at the London School of Economics, had a terrific two-course dinner and watched King Lear on the main stage. This was all a hors d’oeuvre for the main course of performances on Monday. If Harry and Tilly were nervous, they didn’t show it.

Tilly performed ‘London Snow’ by Robert Bridges and Harry delivered ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling. The moment they started reciting, it was obvious to me (not for the first time) why they had been chosen as National Finalists. For a couple of minutes, they held the Globe stage and made it theirs.

The 700-strong audience were captivated.

What was even better was that both students had performed before 11am, so they could relax and enjoy the rest of the performances, happy in the knowledge that they had made their mark on the competition.

Talking of which, Poetry By Heart is an inspiring competition for students in schools to learn and to recite poems by heart.Not in an arm-waving, propssupported thespian extravaganza, but as the outward and audible manifestation of an inwardly-understood and loved poem.

To say that Tilly and Harry embodied this ethos would be an understatement.

The competition is a pyramid of participation from individual classrooms to whole school/college contests, then county contests, regional semi-finals and the grand final. In the process, pupils foster deep personal connections with the poems chosen and bring poetry alive for their friends, families and communities.

Shaftesbury School has a long and proud history with this great event, but we’ve never had two students make it to the national finals before! Roll on 2023!

GOLDEN TICKETS From September 2022, Shaftesbury School are introducing ‘Golden Tickets’. These are held by teachers in abundance, and they can give them out to students who they see demonstrating our Christian values through the Fruit of the Spirit, (joy, kindness, patience, peace, goodness, self-control, faithfulness, gentleness, love).

Students give them in to their YPL office as soon as they can, and they get put into a raffle for celebration assemblies at the end of every half term where prizes can be won. The more tickets you get, the better your chance of winning!

Maths Back in January of this year, UKMT celebrated its 25th anniversary by staging a one-off anniversary challenge.

48 of our Year 7 and 8 students participated, with Sam T scoring 21/25 to be best in school and Year 7, and Riley scoring 18/25 to be best in Year 8.

Well done to all who took part.

The anniversary challenge whetted the appetite of our Year 7 and 8 students, so when the Junior Mathematics Challenge came round this term, 81 of our students participated in the hour-long competition. A total of one gold, four silver, and 19 bronze certificates were awarded to our students. Our ‘best in school’ student, Riley, also qualified for the Junior Kangaroo (a follow-on round to the JMC). He scored an amazing 112 and earned a Merit certificate. We are very proud of all our students who have participated in JMC 2022.

We have had results in from the Grey Kangaroo and Maclaurin Olympiad (follow-on rounds from the Intermediate Mathematics Challenge). Both Seth and Emily were awarded Qualification certificates, and Leo earned a Merit certificate.

Congratulations again to all three!

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MR MORE WINS SILVER NATIONAL TEACHING AWARD!

Mr More was surprised with the award at an assembly in school with party poppers and a cake!

Mr More is our Lead Teacher of Innovation in Teaching and Learning at Shaftesbury School. He is an active head of faculty and leads the school’s award-winning STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) programme and the ‘Future Classroom’. He has a keen interest in teaching, learning, educational technology, and progressive pedagogy.

Mr More is currently completing his EdD through distanced learning at Bath University and has recently become a Hundred Ambassador, working in an advisory capacity to judge global innovations. He has had a significant impact on Shaftesbury School’s students, parents and the local community as well as making global connections, including with a school in Ghana.

Mrs London-Hill said “We are so incredibly proud of Mr More and he is thoroughly deserving of this national award; his energy and drive for thinking about, and bringing the future of education to the heart of our school is second to none. I also want to congratulate Miss Yeo, another of our teachers who was highly commended; she is an incredibly caring, passionate teacher. We are very fortunate here at Shaftesbury School to be surrounded by brilliant teachers and also our non-teaching staff, who go out of their way

The Sky is the limit as our STEAM program is set to grow!

In June, 78 prospective STEAM ambassadors attended interviews for a place on the programme.

STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics. Students work in teams to solve complex problems with support from outside companies within the industry.

We will be announcing our exciting ‘Future Series’ for 2022/23 very soon!

By Alex More

GHANA PROJECT

We are delighted to announce that Mr More has been named as one of 80 Pearson National Teaching Award Silver Award winners across the country. He is honoured with a Silver Award in The Award for Digital Innovator of the Year for his outstanding commitment to changing the lives of the children he works with every day.

daily to provide students with support and excellence in education”.

As a Silver Award winner, Mr More has now been shortlisted to win one of just 16 Gold Awards later in the year. These once in a lifetime achievements will be broadcast on the BBC’s The One Show as part of a weeklong celebration of teaching, which sees famous faces honour award winners every night in the run up to the ceremony. This is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the

We are delighted to announce that in partnership with Africa ICT Right we will be opening a Future Classroom in Tema, near Accra!

The Future Classroom has been sponsored by Epson, VEX Robotics, Jabra, CatchBox, and RedBox VR and will be a hub for innovation for 2,000 children based in the area. Shaftesbury School was introduced to Daniel at Africa ICT Right via Hundred.org. Twelve students in the UK learn in real-time via Zoom with 12 students in Accra.

The lessons are led by Alex More and focus on work around the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), technology, social justice, and AI (Artificial Intelligence). The students have developed

exceptional school staff who have worked wonders to bring together their local communities despite the challenges of the past few years.

The Silver Award winners are being honoured as part of the wider celebrations for national ‘Thank a Teacher Day’, bringing together everyone across the country to celebrate the schools and colleges at the heart of our communities.

great working relationships and the UK-based cohort has been fundraising to purchase some educational technology equipment to help transform the learning experience for the students in Ghana.

This work and a nomination for Teacher of the Year (Alex More, Digital Innovation) had led to press interest and a healthy level of funding and support for the project, but, more input is required to deliver transformational changes.

Visit our Hundred page: for more info: https://hundred.org/en/innovations/classroomof-the-future#4c87cd29

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Year 7 Holocaust Memorials How should we remember the past? What impact do memorials and monuments have on the way we think about and remember the Holocaust? How can we ensure that this is not forgotten?

YEAR 7 & 8 TEXTILES Our Year 7 students have been busy this term making their pencil cases. They have looked at different Pop Artists and used this style as inspiration for their own design ideas. Practical techniques have included tie-dye, marbling, appliqué and stencil printing. They have practiced sewing by hand and machine and completed their own sewing machine driving tests! The results have been fantastic, and the students should be very proud of their textiles work.

Year 8 have been creating mixed media portraits using collage, couching, hand and machine sewing. Students have looked at a range of Textile artists to inspire their own work. The aim has been to create a continual line drawing and work into this. There are some excellent results!

Year 7 students in RE investigated such questions and produced some amazing ways to remember the Holocaust and the 6 million Jews that were killed by the Nazis under Hitler’s rule. Looking at “Judgment, Memory, and Legacy”, by helping students wrestle with dilemmas of justice after the Holocaust. Creating/designing their own memorial represented an idea, event, or person they believe is important to remember from the history of the Holocaust. Just like our Year 7’s, communities around the world have remembered the Holocaust through building memorials and monuments. These buildings are created for many reasons: to preserve the past, to honour heroes, to commemorate tragedies, and to inspire action or reflection.

Year Nine Students Return to The Globe!

The long-awaited return of the English Department’s regular trip to the Globe Theatre in London did not fall short of our expectations.

Inspired by our Shakespeare unit, Year 9 students were invited to apply for a place on the trip to see an innovative performance of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ in this truly iconic theatre space.

Fifty lucky students made the most of their groundlings status close to the live action; in fact, a few of them even found themselves singled out as ‘handsome’ (which caused a blush) and as keen ‘love-gods’ advising Benedick on writing sonnets!

It was a privilege to spend the day with a super group of young people, who found the combination of Shakespeare and live theatre a truly inspiring and gratifying experience!

LIBRARY NEWS

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We have had a busy term in the library (as always) – lots of books being borrowed and read with a huge surge in popularity for the Heartstopper series thanks to the successful Netflix adaptation. Reading manga-style stories also continues to be popular with many students, and the Ultimate Football Heroes series too.

Students who have reached their Accelerated Reader targets so far for this term include James W, Olivia M, Patrick A, Lexie B-D’A, Noah B, Aleah D, Benedict R, Alfie S, Iris D, Polly R, Christopher D and Natasha M. Well done to them all – they are automatically invited to the end of term reward party, which will take place outside (weather permitting) on the green in the last week of term and involve some fun party games and snacks. Keep quizzing and reading – especially throughout the summer holidays!

Speaking of the holidays – our summer Reading Challenge this year (soon to be featured on our Instagram account) will be to ‘send’ us a postcard for every book that you read.

These can be postcards bought from tourist destinations (maybe wherever you might travel to this summer) or postcards that you make yourself at home. We’d love to have the title of the book you’ve read and the author’s name along with a review – star rating or a brief sentence.

Obviously don’t forget to put your own name on it too.

This challenge is open to parents, carers, siblings, teachers and students. We are super nosy in the library and English department so love to hear all about what you have been reading! All the postcards will feature in a new display somewhere in school so make them beautiful!

Carnegie Shadowing Book Club Event: We have been reading the Carnegie Book Award Shortlisted books with our various book clubs this term and on Wednesday 22nd June we held an event in the library with another book club from King Arthur’s School, Wincanton

A special Year 10 shout out to the following individuals: Charlie M Charlie O’K Charley W Alex T Joe B These are the top 5 achievement point winners this whole year.

Well done all!

and visiting authors David Solomons, Gillian Cross and Chris Vick.

Our book clubs spent the morning getting to know each other, discussing the books they had read on the shortlist and pitching their favourites to the others before casting their votes for who they thought should have won the Carnegie medal. We were all then treated to a delicious lunch in the Bistro made by our wonderful catering students – a Mexican feast!

In the afternoon we had some fascinating talks from our visiting authors, and Gillian even brought her Carnegie medal in to show us all. Local bookshop, Winstone’s (in Sherborne) supplied us with a ‘pop-up bookshop’ for the day so students were able to purchase books by the visiting authors and get them signed as well as browse some other interesting titles that are available in Winstone’s. We all had a fabulous day and can’t wait to do it all again next year! The official Carnegie Book Award winner this year was ‘October, October’ by Katya Balen and we picked ‘When the Sky Falls’ by Phil Earle as our Shadower’s Choice Winner.

‘I met new people and had an awesome day’ – Amelie Year 9

‘It was really cool meeting students from other schools and authors to talk about books.’ – Alex Year 10 ‘It was an experience to meet students from another trust school and interesting to hear from the authors.’ – Fin Year 10

Library Visits: We will have two Year 5 groups from Shaftesbury Primary visit this term. They are coming to experience what we have on offer in the ‘big school’ library so will get some bookmarks to colour in and take home with them, as well as a chance to find some books they would like to read after they have completed a library shelf scavenger hunt. A select few of our transition groups have also tested out the scavenger hunt this term too and luckily most of them have been able to find all of the books on the list to earn their enjoyable reading break in the library. It’s been wonderful to meet everyone before we welcome them to the school properly in September.

‘It was really nice meeting people from other schools in the trust. It was also really cool meeting like-minded people.’

– Christopher Year 9

A-Level Theatre Studies – Year 12 Performance Success The Year 12 students recently completed their Component 2 exam performance and what an incredible performance it was! Applying Mike Leigh’s approach to devising, the group improvised, wrote, edited, directed and performed in their

own devised performance, which followed the peculiar habits of an older married couple Pat and Val, who kindly welcome another member into their home, disrupting their domestic routines. Full of subtle observations, painful pauses, and tackling

themes of faith, the menopause and love and loss, the students created a piece that was both heart-warming and touching, whilst at other moments hilarious. A thoroughly accomplished piece that was a joy to watch – well done Year 12!

6th Form and discuss the following progression activities and pathways:

Year 13 Leavers It was a bittersweet moment as the May half term came to a close, with the Sixth Form team bidding farewell to our wonderful Year 13 students. The journey with these young people has certainly been eventful and filled with much emotion. They abruptly finished their Year 11 studies due to the pandemic, having never really had a chance to celebrate a prom or experience a full transition programme into Sixth Form.

There was also the small matter that they had never sat formal GCSE exams but then had to work through their A Level and BTEC exams!

However, the year group have continuously shown fortitude and resilience, growing immensely over their two years with us and we quite rightly wanted to celebrate the end of their journey with us.

Our Leavers Assembly followed the theme of their ‘journey’ through Shaftesbury School, providing much sentiment to their time with us. We started the assembly with a redcarpet entrance and afternoon cream tea, and followed this with a video presentation featuring baby photos and more than a few embarrassing videos and photos spanning their 7 years with us.

We then held our Year 13 Prom at the Cricketer’s Pub, Shroton, with the student committee doing a wonderful job decorating the pub in the style of a Hollywood ‘Oscars’ ceremony. Following a sit-down meal, students enjoyed the photo booth and celebrations in the garden, finishing the evening on the dancefloor, letting their hair down. It was a fitting end to a fantastic two years, and we wish all our students the very best of luck in their future ventures.

Prefect Team Update Since our Spring newsletter, the new Sixth Form Prefect Team have been appointed and are busy working on various projects within the school and developing the student leadership profile at Shaftesbury.

We took the opportunity this year to restructure the Prefect System in Sixth Form,

in the hope it would allow more focus and direction for students and a chance for them to really drive forward school improvement in a specific area. We created a selection of Prefect departments and invited students to choose which area they wished to work within.

Students were invited to apply using targeted job descriptions and once appointed, were put to task to develop their area, liaising with subject departments and partnering with staff and lower school students to achieve their desired outcomes.

So far students have been busy supporting Sports Day sign ups, developing an extracurricular lunchtime club programme for September, providing tours of the school for prospective parents and starting to develop initiatives involving peer mentoring and pastoral support for lower school students.

The peer mentoring in particular has seen a really positive impact and we are excited to develop this further as we move into the next academic year.

The Sixth Form staff are excited to facilitate our Prefect Team in their endeavours and look forward to seeing outcomes Headtheir Prefect x2 throughout the summer term and into

•

Gap Years

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Apprenticeships

•

Employment

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Further Education (College)

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Higher Education (University)

Students can explore our careers platform Unifrog to help research the pathways open to them and will also register with UCAS and make a start on a personal statement.

Then, on Monday the 11th and 18th July, we are taking all Year 12 students to Bath Spa University so they can experience a day on Campus.

This fantastic opportunity will expose them to life at a university, and a chance to immerse themselves in the life of a higher education student. As well as a campus tour, our sixth form will receive a bespoke day of seminars that will cover student life, student finance and a lecture experience opportunity.

Sixth Form Support and Guidance As we end the summer term, Year 11 and 13 students will no doubt be enjoying their well-earned summer break, along with the school staff who will also take time off to refresh and recuperate. However, the Sixth Form team are fully aware that results days in August come around quickly and during this period, anxieties about university

September.

Charity & Inclusion & Diversity Progression Fundraising PrefectActivities Prefect

It is crucial that as students in Year 12 enter the final few weeks of the term, they are seriously Literacyconsidering & Reading their next steps Sports Prefect after YearMentors 13 andPrefect making plans for what they intend to do next. Part of making an informed decision is the exposure to the Extra Curricular & open to students many different pathways Wellbeing Prefect Societies Prefect so they can come to the best decision for them.

We have Public already offered the chance for Relations Peer Mentor Prefect Prefect students to visit the National Apprenticeship show and the UCAS convention this year and are looking forward to our next two progression events for Year 12 in the summer term.

The start of July sees our annual Progression Day. This event involves a series of workshops and seminars designed to expose

Head Prefect x 2

Charity & Fundraising Prefect

Inclusion & Diversity Prefect

Literacy & Reading Mentors Prefect

Sports Prefect

Extra Curricular & Societies Prefect

Wellbeing Prefect

Public Relations Prefect

Peer Mentor Prefect

progression or Year 11 into Year 12 transition can build and develop. We would like to reassure students and parents that on both results days, experienced Sixth Form staff will be on hand to guide and support everyone through their decision making.

There will also be limited access to the email sixthformoffice@shaftesburyschool. co.uk over the summer holidays, but we would encourage parents and students to get in contact if they do have a question and we will do our best to answer as quickly as possible.

GCE A Level & Level 3 BTEC Results Day – Thursday 18 August 2022 GCSE & Level 2 BTEC Results Day – Thursday 25 August 2022 The Sixth Form team wish all the Shaftesbury Community a wonderful summer break and look forward to welcoming new faces in September and supporting returning students in their final year.

Mr Motteram, Mr Almond, Ms Botterill and Miss Jones

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Climbing club trip to Frome Boulder Rooms With the climbing wall temporarily out of action due to exams the Climbing Club ventured to Frome Boulder Rooms for an afternoon of “crimping”, “rockovers” and “toe-hooks”. A great mix of students from Years 7 to 11 joined Mr More and Mr Dhruev for a session focussing on climbing techniques for steeper overhanging routes.

Everyone made lots of progress, persevered on some really tricky climbs and left with tired hands and big smiles.

LEAVERS’ BALL As many of our current boarders are leaving Barton Hill at the end of this academic year, it felt only appropriate that this year’s Leavers Ball should be a little extra special!

So instead of arranging just one event, it was decided that the festivities should start after school on the evening of Friday 10th June and end on Sunday 12th June. In effect, it would be a Leavers weekend, with the main event taking place on the Saturday evening.

We began by hiring a number of hot tubs, which were extremely popular, and an outdoor cinema.

Added to this was the attraction of the final night of the Shaftesbury fairground, just across the road from the boarding house. The first night was a success and the pressure was on for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday was another very eventful and enjoyable day. There was an inflatable Disco Dome and assault course, to add to the hot tubs during the day, but the main event started at 6.30pm in the student

Massive thank you to the team from Frome Boulder Rooms for hosting us.

reception area of the boarding house. A selection of wonderful canapés and drinks, and Roger Lapin, a magician from the Magic Circle, entertained us. This was followed by a buffet supper served in a very large marquee in the gardens of Barton Hill.

The evening ended with a late night disco and chocolate fountain.

An official photographer, snapped the evening’s entertainment away leaving lots of very happy memories for those students saying goodbye.

There was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the whole weekend and we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in making this weekend such a great success.

To all those leaving, we hope that it is not goodbye, just Au Revoir!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for being such a great group of students.

By Ben Hillier and Simon Bonelli-Bean

Shaftesbury School, Salisbury Road, Shaftesbury SP7 8ER • 01747 854498 • shaftesburyschool.co.uk