Newsletter 1

Ashton Highlights Newsletter 1

Friday 26 September 2014

Dear Parents/ Carers I am delighted to welcome you to our first weekly newsletter. I would like to extend a very warm welcome to the families of our new year 7 and year 12 students, and to families whose children have joined us for the first time this year into other year groups.

I look forward to building positive working relationships with you and meeting you at our many school events over the forthcoming months.

We have had a great start to the new school year, with our students returning from the summer break looking smart and ready for the challenges that lie ahead. I am particularly pleased to welcome year 7 and 12 students, who are the newest members of our school family. I am confident you will enjoy your time here at Ashton and very quickly see why we were the right choice for you! Many of our new year 7’s enjoyed coming to the summer school, which ran for the first 2 weeks of the school holiday. You will be able to see some of the things they got up to on page 2 of this newsletter.

This summer we celebrated success in both GCSE and Post 16 courses. 52% of our year 11 students achieved at least 5 A*-C grades including English and Maths, 93% achieved 5 A*-C grades and 100% achieved at least 1 GCSE qualification. Our Post 16 students achieved 100% pass rates in their courses and have gone off to further study at University or to employment. We wish them all well. It goes without saying that we are proud of them; these results reflect the dedication and determination that staff, students and their families have shown towards achieving the best possible outcomes in every aspect of school life.

We have a busy time ahead of us this term and we are determined to share with you the successes that we achieve along the way. I hope you come to look forward to our weekly newsletter, which will come to you via email every Friday, and you can also follow us on Twitter, @ashtoncsc, if you wish to see our news unfolding as it happens.

As always, your support is appreciated as we strive to keep Ashton “A school to be proud of”. If you wish to discuss any issues or share a good news story, please do not hesitate to contact me either by ringing the school or by email.

Best wishes, Sharon Asquith, Principal

Summer School 2014

BEAUTY THERAPY STUDENTS The International Beauty Therapy Team have been at Ashton visiting, training and performing treatments for our Sixth Formers and some of the students from the schools who attend our salon.

They are travelling to the Euroskills competition in Lille and the Worldskills competition in Brazil to compete against 23 other countries.

Our students have gained a great deal from them being here: the importance of professional appearance; how to conduct yourself in the salon and how to perform advanced treatments. Visiting schools have been particularly impressed and have organised for their students to come back to observe them in their own time.

DIANA AWARD Congratulations to Emma Riley in Year 13 who has been awarded the Diana Award for being a Champion Volunteer. Emma was nominated by Barnardos in recognition of the many hours of volunteering she has undertaken as well as the inspiration she has instilled in many young people and adults. Emma has been a member of “Power”, the SEND part of the Barnardos Charity, for the past two years; she has visited London regularly and liaised with the Children’s Commissioner; helped to run workshops and delivered presentations to adults.

In the next few weeks Emma will be visiting Downing Street and will meet George Osborne.

She is also working to raise awareness of autism and working as part of the Young Inspectors team for Lancashire County Council with the aim of improving services for young people.

Despite all this voluntary work Emma still finds time to enjoy her hobbies of dancing and attending the uniformed service Air Cadets. Well done Emma, we are very proud of you!

SCAMPs FAIR SCAMPS as an acronym encompasses the variety of our extra-curricular provision: Sport, Communication, Academic, Music and Pleasure. The annual SCAMPs fair was held on Tuesday lunchtime and students were able to see the wide variety of clubs on offer. Over 60 clubs are offered each week and vary from Sports clubs to Chess Club and KS3/ GCSE study support sessions and from Duke of Edinburgh to involvement with the Green Bull Racing Team.

The Green Bull racing Team competed in their first qualifying race of the school year on Wednesday 24 September at Aintree. Well done to the team who came 12/42 and are now waiting to find out if they have qualified for the National Finals. (Jack Pearcy, Jack Jepson, Mason O’Brien, James Fearne, Ben Lang, Josh Squires, Dominik Turiff, Matthew Moores).

WEEKLY LITERACY AND NUMERACY CHALLENGES

Y

LITERAC

NUMERACY

Congratulations to last week’s winners Matthew Leighton, Oscar Hudson 7A and Joe Lancaster 9A

Congratulations to last week’s winners Charlotte Chadwick 8S, Katie Conroy 9H, Tye McConville 7S and Ewan Burke 10A

ON THE FIELD Results (*Man of the Match) Football Lancashire Cup: Year 9 boys v Our Lady’s Skelmsersdale (5-7) (*Sam Maddox) Next week Rugby:

Yr9 at Grasshoppers

Football: Yr11 v Longridge (30/9/14 home) Yr9 v Longridge (30/9/14 away) Yr10 v Longridge (2/10/14 home) Yr8 v Longridge (2/10/14 home) Netball:

Yr9 &10 & 11 v Archbishop Temple (30/9/14 away)

Preston Schools Cross Country Championships — all year groups—at Longridge High School

26 SEPTEMBER 2014 — EUROPEAN DAY OF LANGUAGES

The European day of Languages has been held annually on the 26 September since 2001. Its aim is to alert the public to the importance of language learning, to promote the linguistic diversity of Europe and to encourage life-long language learning.

Students have completed a quiz about languages during form time this week. The winners will be announced in next week’s newsletter.

THEME OF THE WEEK Students are asked to reflect on weekly themes during form time and assembly time.

Week 1 — “PROUD”. We often ask the question “What have you done today to make you feel proud?” PROUD is also an acronym for the five elements we believe contribute towards being a successful learner and therefore underpins our school ethos. Being Punctual, Responsible, Organised, wearing the correct Uniform and being Determined to succeed.

Week 2—A*SHTON. ‘A*shton Learner’ is about giving students a framework to support them becoming a better learner. Students reflected on their Attributes, Skills, How they learn best, Toolkit, On target and their Next challenges.

Week 3—Behaviour. This week students have considered the statement “All behaviour is communication” and reflected on the question “What does your behaviour communicate?”

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 6 October

BAe Systems/ RAF Apprenticeship Roadshow Year 7 & 8

7 October

RFU Emerging Schools Rugby Year 9

9 October

Open Evening for Year 6 and Post 16 students 6pm

10 October

INSET day – school closed to students

16 October

Post 16 students visit to the Skills Festival at Preston Grasshoppers

20 October

Year 11 Challenge Day Year 7 settling in evening 4pm-7pm

21 October

“Fully Loaded”. Information for parents of Year 11 students about the year ahead. 6pm-7pm

24 October

Post 16 Public Services students visit to RAF Aintree

24 October

Close for half term 3pm

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