iGazette - January 2019

iGazette Honywood School

Issue #4 31st January 2019

FEATURES

Spotlight on English A special focus on our English Department.

Christmas Activities Our learners put on an exceptional display of talent during the festive period by taking part in the Christmas Concert.

Learners from all cohorts enjoy Christmas lunch with their friends.

Lead Learners 2019 Welcome to our new Lead Learners.

04

Christmas Concert

08

Christmas Lunch

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Spotlight on English

18

C7 Update

22

Honywood Sports’

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CONTENTS

Learner Leadership

Virtual World Wellbeing

C10 learners attended interviews for the role of Lead Learner. The presentations and the way in which the learners approached this process was outstanding. Unfortunately, there are only 12 roles available and it was an incredibly difficult decision for the panel to make. We would like to congratulate the successful learners.

Attributes

Lead Learners 2019

Leadership Progression Environment

Caitlyn Ellis Lead Learner Attributes

Katie Gurbutt Lead Learner Environment

Roxie Orrow Lead Learner Leadership

Kate Southgate Lead Learner Progression

Fraser McLauchlan Lead Learner Virtual World

Hannah Byrne Lead Learner Wellbeing

Jess Rudling Deputy Lead Learner Attributes

Alice Forster Deputy Lead Learner Environment

Harry Ratcliffe Deputy Lead Learner Leadership

Maya Robson Deputy Lead Learner Progression

Holly King Deputy Lead Learner Virtual World

Faris Bilbeisi Deputy Lead Learner Wellbeing

Following the interviews for the Lead Learner roles, the successful learners took part in a training day on Wednesday 9th January where they met as a team to start work on their priorities for the coming year; taking their ideas which they presented at the interviews and seeing how they could put them into action to improve their school community and the experience for our learners. They also had the opportunity to meet with our current Lead Learners in C11 to find out more about their own experiences in the role.

C

HRISTMAS

C

ONCERT

Christmas Lunch

All our learners had the opportunity to have a Christmas Lunch with their friends served by their Learning Group Leaders and Cohort Leaders.

During December, our learners had been “giving back�. Learning Groups were asked to take part in the Foodbank collection.

For each day of the advent calendar, they brought a food item into school. The food was donated to both the Colchester and Braintree Foodbanks. Thank you to everyone who contributed to make sure families across our community had basic food items and a few treats this Christmas.

Cohort 7 had a competition to see which C7 Learning Group could collect the most and the winners were 7HGo. Lily Grace and Logan Pitt pictured here, helped collect all the food together and load up the car for the food to be delivered.

A special mention should also go to 8MHa, 11MGr and the staff from the kitchen who all also managed to collect a large amount of food to donate.

SUPPORTING OU

C10 learners helped to serve lunch at Christ Church in Coggeshall at the Coggeshall Old People’s Welfare Christmas lunch during December. The learners displayed great maturity and outstanding manners. The learners received excellent feedback from the guests at the lunch.

UR COMMUNITY

Honywood took part in Christmas Jumper Day in support of Save the Children. Our learners replaced their usual school jumper in favour of Christmas colours and reindeer noses! Some really wonderful jumpers worn by our learners and staff!

Afternoon Tea

On 11th December, some of our C7 learners met with their Year 6 teachers to enjoy an afternoon tea party. The children had baked and decorated cakes for the party. They chatted with their teachers about their time at Honywood so far sharing their work and their experiences. It was delightful to see them speaking so confidently and with so much excitement to their former teachers.

Scholars Programme On 11th January, 12 C9 and C10 learners took part in a launch trip for the Brilliant Club Scholars Programme. This is an academic programme which aims to widen access for outstanding pupils in non-selective state schools to the UK’s most selective universities. It is a programme that places university researchers (PHD tutors) in schools. These tutors teach university style tutorials to a group of 6 learners. Many of these researchers are lecturers to students at university level, so it is a unique opportunity for our learners to experience university teaching.

On the launch trip, our learners were given a campus tour and taster lectures, as well as taking part in their first tutorial with their course tutor. They will produce a lengthy assignment on their tutor’s area of expertise and will take part in a graduation ceremony at the end of the course, hosted by one of the selective universities taking part.

Since September, the English department have been working hard to improve the quality of guidance we offer our learners. We know that the quality of our feedback was ‘good’ but we didn’t think that ‘good’ was ‘good’ enough! We’ve really focused on ensuring that the feedback we offer is consistent and clear so that we can drive for outstanding progress for all of our learners.

We created a new marking policy back in October which stipulates that every learner will receive 3 pieces of marked feedback a half term - two ‘milestone assessment pieces’ and a final assessed piece. In order to ensure our feedback is understood and digested by each and every learner, it is a requirement that they respond to it by redrafting a section of their written work, assuring that they hit the target or ‘Learning Point’ that has been set for them.

Below are some images of what a milestone assessed piece looks like in action (C10 learner):

This is the improved version:

This is what a final assessment piece looks like (as you can see, for this piece, the learner is required to respond on a purple sheet so that they can easily go back and remind themselves of their targets or, ‘Learning Points’).

English

Feedback from the team regarding the implementation of the marking policy: ‘Our new marking policy ensures that all learners, no matter what teacher they have, get regular and thorough feedback in English. There are now more opportunities for learners to respond to feedback and bridge any gaps in learning.

The learners are getting a good deal and we are confident that we're doing a good job too!’ Kelly Cording, English Subject Leader.

‘The new marking policy has enabled learners to understand the ways in which they can progress in the crafting of their written expression and the development of their reading comprehension skills. This is primarily through the process of redrafting.’

Sophie Dalziel, Specialist Leader in Education (English).

Struggling to engage your child in reading?

The English team sent out a survey to all C7 learners about reading. 34% of the cohort noted that they read ‘sometimes’ and 17% noted that they only read at school. This is a large proportion of the cohort, and these numbers grow as the learners do - tackling this disillusionment with reading is definitely something that needs fighting both at home and at school.

Key findings from the ‘Reading Agency’: https://readingagency.org.uk/about/impact/002-reading-facts-1/ ‘Love Reading for Kids’ is a great place to browse for books for your child. You can search by age, genre, and can even find out which children’s books are winning awards. There is even the opportunity to download the first couple of chapters of certain books so that your child can test before you commit to buying.

Reading a book for 5 minutes a day can equate to reading 2 books per month - achievable for any learner! https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/

Our English Team

Congratulations to our Jack Petchey Award winners for this term!

Lara Stevens 11MRa, Natasha Stevens 11HTr, Robyn Collison 11MGr, Amelie Cooper 7CHo, Faye Tate 11NPo, Freya Wash 9DCa, and Emmelene Watts 10SLo received their certificates and this award for their outstanding contribution to either school life or their community.

Well done to all of the winners!

Congratulations to Elliott Nash (8JLa). Elliott was part of the unbeaten Essex Youth Pool team whose victory over Norfolk meant they are now the 2018 Regional Champions. They are therefore through to the National Finals next March. It’s the first time in 17 years the Essex Youth team have been champions.

A huge achievement for Elliott and all the team. Well done to all the team!

Congratulations to Felix Standen (9RHo) who took part in his first trampolining competition last weekend (National Development Pathway Qualifier) and came first, qualifying for the regional competition in May!

Congratulations to Will Ferguson in C10 who competed in the Essex Championship Cross Country. Will came 40th (out of about 80 runners) at Hockley on Saturday. Whilst this wasn't quite enough to get to the regionals or nationals, he was very happy with his run. He says he’s looking forward to next year when he will be in the older year group for intermediate boys. Well done Will and what a fantastic attitude!

Congratulations to Gloria Nyc (7FJo) who plays netball for the Braintree Sapphires. She was one of 30 girls nominated to trial for the opportunity to train with the Essex Netball Academy. Gloria was successful! A fantastic opportunity and a great achievement.

Congratulations to Kate Edwards (10CHa) who has been scouted by Tottenham Hotspur Girls U15 football team and invited into the team training. This is a fantastic opportunity for Kate and one which she is very excited about. Well done Kate!

. c pro term e befo m ew e n LS3 ti n ts i

Literacy Cohort 7 team have been busy during their LS3 programme at the beginning of the year with a focus on Literacy. Learners across the cohort have been bringing their own reading material in order to encourage more of them to read at home!

Co ho rt

7U

Friday Challenges

T

he inter-LG Friday Challenge competition was launched in June when the then Cohort 6’s attended their second Intake Day. Since then, every Friday, each Learning Group take part in a challenge or quiz to earn points for their group. 7ABr held the lead for a significant proportion of the term and held off rival Learning Groups such as 7FJo, 7NVa and 7SWo but were unable to cross the finish line in first place as 7HGo ended the term in first position. 7HGo’s success was largely down to the dominance they displayed in the ‘Foodbank Challenge’ which was worth double points. Well done to all LGs that took part, the new season of Friday Challenges has already started and pressure is on 7HGo to maintain their title, so watch this space.

Before the christmas break and for the first couple of weeks of the new term Cohort 7 learning reviews were conducted. We have all been really impressed in how the cohort have settled in to Honywood, taking to it like a fish to water. There were common themes of concerns that have been expressed mainly surrounding independent study. Below is a summary of strategies that have been put in place to help the learners become more organised with their IS. All IS is now set on Google Classroom, this will centralise all independent study that is set across subject areas so learners now have one place to look. The IS displayed on Google Classroom will have instructions from the subject teacher, a deadline, and a forum where learners can request feedback or ask for guidance.

Up da te

A summary of the IS that has been set a learner will be sent to parents on a weekly basis, in the hope it will allow parents to support learners in the completion of their independent study.

As part of the learning review process learners have set themselves targets that they believe will allow them to achieve further progress in the new term. At the end of the year we will commence a process of reviewing and reflecting on those targets in LS3 time before the learning summaries (end of year reports) are published to parents.

On Wednesday 30th January, some of our learners went to the dry ski slopes at Ipswich in preparation for the forthcoming ski trip. The aim of this visit was for learners who had never been skiing before to get used to putting on a pair of ski boots and skis for the first time. Our learners were eager to learn and took part in group sessions showing them how to position themselves for skiing, how to snow plough to control their speed and most importantly how to stop. The skiers will have another 2 hour session next week and we hope that these lessons will help banish any doubts and fears and give the skiers a head start before they head to the mountains.

Slip

ppery Slopes

C7 Essex Cup - Netball - Honywood v William de Ferrers Report by Esme Webster - 7ABr We started off the match a bit uneasy, we kept losing the ball and making a few mistakes as we were nervous and cold. As the game progressed, we started to get better and catching our passes. We eventually won the game. The score was 14-3 to Honywood! Everyone played very well and enjoyed the game.

Players: Eloise Duffy and EsmĂŠ Webster WA (captain), Georgia French and Niamh Cunnane WD, Joanne Neary GA, Olivia Wilson GD, Amelie Cooper GS, Fern Mascot GK, Gloria Nyc C. Keep this up, netball team!!!

C10/11 Badminton Well done to Harry Ratcliffe, Ben Morris, Harry Jones and Fred Barnet who

represented North West Essex in the Essex Championships at Colchester Garrison. The boys played really well and were great representatives of Honywood.

Mr Bilby

Subject Leader for MFL

What three words would you use to describe your job role?

Varied, interesting, rewarding What do you like most about your job?

Seeing people enjoy learning French.

If you had to teach a class one thing, what would you teach them?

How to ride a bike because I love cycling.

Have you ever met anyone Famous?

I have met a few sports stars such as Chris Froome. Also I met some rugby players when I worked as security for the Rugby World Cup in France 2007.

What do you wish you knew more about?

I would love to be better at DIY.

Would you rather go hang gliding or whitewater rafting?

Whitewater rafting. I would love it! I have already been canoeing down rapids in France.

What was the best book or series that you’ve ever read/watched?

Best book is Bomber Boys about the RAF in WWII. The best TV series is Last Kingdom.

If you could only travel to one other country, which country would you choose?

Canada, because it’s French and English speaking and I love skiing.

What’s your favourite family tradition?

Eating frog’s legs at Christmas.

What’s your go to band or artist when you can’t decide on something to listen to?

Craig David What’s the most recent app you’ve downloaded?

Netflix

What city would you most like to live in?

Montpellier. It’s a beautiful city in the South of France and where my family are from.

What movie title best describes your life?

I AM LEGEND

Important Dates for Cohort 11 Date

Event

28th February

Whole Cohort Photos

5th & 6th March

GCSE PE Practical Exams

1st & 2nd April

Art Exam

3rd April

GCSE Dance Exam

29th April -10 May

GCSE MFL Exams

13th May - 17th June

GCSE Exams commence

28th June

C11 Prom

22nd August

GCSE Results Day

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