Newsletter 17

Ashton Highlights Newsletter 17

Friday 6th February 2015

Dear Readers We have had another busy week here in school and it was hard trying to cram everything into the newsletter this week. New year resolutions to get fit or keep fit have been kept by many of our staff and students, who are attending various fitness activities throughout the week.

Running club continues to grow and with the added philosophical dimension that Mr Barrow has introduced onto the advertising posters each week, he is making sure we all keep on our metaphorical as well as our actual toes.

The Duke of Edinburgh scheme is proving to be incredibly popular. Read about it on page 9 and if you would like to get involved, please contact Mr Wallis, who will be happy to chat to you.

A reminder that the offer for the sessions at Chill Factore is open this Sunday if you fancy trying your hand at something slightly more exotic than running. Details were in last week’s newsletter.

For those of you who prefer your fitness routine to be slightly more sedate, there is an interesting offer on page 7.

Spring is definitely in the air. The mornings are coming lighter, the days are getting longer and we have at long last got over the long winter months. This week in school it has been lovely to sit in classrooms with the sun streaming in; it seems to put everyone in a better mood for learning and staff and students alike seem to have a spring in their step and a renewed energy.

We held our year 11 parents evening this week and it was another highly successful evening.

Parental turnout was high and the feedback we received from you was excellent. You made many kind and positive comments and also gave us some suggestions on how we can improve further. A full breakdown of this will be available on our website soon. Once again thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. I read once in an advert: “if you like what we do tell others, if you don’t like what we do, tell us!” We think this is an important philosophy because we do seek to provide the best educational experiences we can for your children and it is the feedback from them and from you that allows us to make adjustments and improvements which ultimately benefit us all.

As always, your views and comments are welcome and if you have any items for inclusion in the newsletter, we will be pleased to receive them.

Kind regards Sharon Asquith

Follow us on twitter @ashtoncsc

School Uniform The U in PROUD at Ashton stands for uniform and this is what the students at Ashton feel about it.

The majority of students do wear the correct uniform but on some occasions the odd trainer will creep in and the skirts will ride a little high with the dangly hoops thrown in and a nose piercing.

We appreciate all your efforts with uniform, but would just like to remind parents/carers that trainers of any description are not allowed and only black shoes will be permitted. Skirts should be of a length that retains your child’s modesty and one earring in each ear is allowed—other piercings are not accepted and students will be asked to remove them.

If your child comes in with trainers, short skirts that can’t be modified or piercings, they will be asked to either have a pair of black shoes brought in to school or asked to wear a pair of our own shop-bought ones. Skirts of an appropriate length will be offered and they will be asked to remove piercings. However, in extreme cases children will be sent home. This of course is a disruption to their education which neither the parent nor the school would wish for.

So in brief, please can you make sure your child... wears black shoes—no trainers.

wears a skirt of an appropriate has no piercings other than one stud in each ear.

Important Uniform Information.

Bang Bang have informed us that due to shop damage they will now be solely trading as Top One at 23 Miller Arcade, Lancaster Road, Preston. Tel: 828616.

45 school days until the first exam Below is the Mock Exam timetable which start on the 26th February and finish on the 17th March. We have revision guides available from the subject teachers and extra revision lessons going on. Please speak to your subject teacher to find out when these are. There are also great revision guides and techniques on the internet so have a look.

A reminder to the Year 11 PE GCSE group to revise for your analysis of performance interviews starting on Monday 9th February. Please check the timetable down the PE corridor.

WEEKLY LITERACY AND NUMERACY CHALLENGES Congratulations to last week’s Literacy winners: Ferris Lanridge 10H Megan Bate 7T

Congratulations to last week’s Numeracy winners: Holly Goulding 7O Liam Ross 11A

Numeracy Puzzle 19

THE SUNSHINE ON MY SHOULDERS MAKES ME HAPPY !

A shift to Wednesday meant apologies from a number of regular runners as they attended other SCAMPS activities. Nonetheless, 11 runners turned out and were rewarded with glorious sunshine for our weekly circuit of Ashton Park. The year 7 contingency remains strong with good ‘mind over matter’ running from Jonathan Lang, Jack Campell and Lorren Simpson (also noteworthy as our only female student runner today) who all fought off an early stitch. Arran Baldwin completed in style with his usual smile. Year 11 have a growing presence with the addition of Reece Wright, who is using running club as training for his up and coming national boxing bout. Also in competition this weekend is Grace McGarvey, who will run in the Lancashire Schools Cross Country championships on Saturday at Witton Park – good luck Grace! Running club will be on Tuesday next week – newcomers are always welcome.

OUTDOOR ADVENTURE ACTIVITY On Friday 23rd January, the PE GCSE group headed to the Lakes to take part in an Outdoor Adventurous Activity weekend as part of their course. 37 Students and 4 members of staff wrapped up warm and braved the Lake District elements to climb and paddle their way through the weekend. Upon arrival at the Water Park they were split into their groups and after filling their faces with a good hearty meal it was all to play for with manhunt.

True to say the staff team won, they were well and truly hidden and probably still would be if they hadn’t have given themselves up. After a late night and a very early morning, breakfast was eaten and the butties were made. The groups set off for a full day of hard work. Half the group headed to Kendal’s indoor climbing wall home to the highest wall in the UK, while the other half of the group faced the freezing temperature of Lake Coniston. The climbers became efficient in rope tying, climbing, belaying and abseiling while the paddlers capsized! As well as capsizing the paddlers spent the morning rafting and learning key strokes before spending the afternoon putting it all into practice with tandem paddling. With a compulsory capsize to finish the first day a group deal was made with Mr Waring that he would jump if they all took a dunk. To quote Kieran Molloy “oh, I don’t know if that’s even worth it”. The second day saw the climbers headed outdoors to put the previous days learnt skills into practice. It’s fair to say the wall looked scary and the weather was just as bad; typical Lake District rain! The paddlers took to the lake once more and played numerous games of canoe polo, reverse races and water paddling tag. After drying off and thawing out the efficiently run tuck shop by Miss Lindley and Mr Waring had all but sold up; Mr Murray had put the kettle on for the last time; the bags were packed and some very tired looking students (and staff) boarded the coach home.

Until next year…...!

THEME OF THE WEEK

Digital Footprint • Do you know what your digital footprint is?

• What would someone find if they looked for you online?

• Twitter are bringing out a new feature that will allow anyone to search all the public tweets that have been posted since the service started in 2006 • https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/11_13/News/Yourold-Twitter-posts--now-available-to-anyone/

Cyberbullying Cyber-bullying is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones THINK about what you are sending

MAMA MIA….. HERE WE GO AGAIN

Mamma Mia rehearsals are going well – the singers are getting to know their songs and adding in some lovely harmonies. Last night I popped in on the dance rehearsals (see photos attached) which are also going well!

For anyone who is coming to watch Mamma Mia (or even thinking of coming to watch at this stage!) when it is on, maybe this can persuade you: The staff will be doing a dance to the song Money Money Money! This is surely a must see!

The show is being presented on Tu e s d a y 1 0 t h M a rc h a n d Wednesday 11th March at 7pm both nights. Tickets cost £3 each with family tickets also available.

To purchase tickets or for any other information please see Miss McClelland.

NEW @ Inspire Beauty Salon Faradic Muscle Toning Treatment Body Contouring, Slimming and Toning Well known as electrical muscle stimulation, this treatment is used to tone and tighten the muscles of the body.

The great thing about this treatment is that the client lies on the couch and the muscles are exercised for them. So for those of us who do not enjoy physical exercise this is the answer. One important point, this treatment will not increase the heart rate therefore cannot be classed as a cardio-vascular form of exercise.

The treatment involves pads strapped to the area to be treated. The pads deliver a low faradic current into the skin and muscles stimulating nerve ending to provide a muscle contraction. The muscles will contract at regular intervals as selected by the Therapist.

The treatment is comfortable, many clients finding the sensation relaxing. It is necessary to have regular treatments to reinforce the effects. It is an advantage for the client to follow an exercise routine to reinforce the effects of this treatment.

Average R.R.P per treatment £20.00 Inspire Price ONLY £6.00 per treatment or

£42.00 for a course of 8

Year 8 Challenge day 12th February

Year 11 Fully Loaded evening 5.30pm-6pm

Year 8 Options Evening 6pm-8pm 13th February

School closes for half term

23th February

School re-opens

19th March

Year 10 Parents’ evening

26th March

Year 9 Parents’ evening

27th March

INSET day school closed Ski trip leaves and returns 5th April

ON THE FIELD Congratulations to the year 7’s and 8’s who took part in the indoor athletics competitions. The year 7’s worked hard and efficiently and as a team the girls battled into 3rd place. A special mention to Keisha Clarke who won her 2 lap race and the long jump. The Year 7 Team; Grace McGarvey, Keisha Clarke, Katy Higham, Lauren Skerritt, Jessica Melia, Oscar Hudson, Thomas Hoole, Damon Moxham, Archie Brook and Oliver Newton.

For the year 8s Lucy Larby and Faith Parr both won their 2 lap race and then Faith went on to win the vertical jump. Adam Dodd won his 2 lap race and Ellis Wallbank and George Noblett both won their vertical jumps.

The year 8 team; Lucy Larby, Caitlyn Richardson, Yasmin Dos Santos, Faith Parr, George Noblett, Thomas Craven, Thomas Childs, Tomas Roberts, Adam Dodd, Elliot Brook and Ellis Wallbank.

Congratulations to the year 7 boys who played in the league final against Broughton, Longridge and Corpus Christi on Wednesday evening.

UP AND COMING EVENTS

Grace Mcgarvey

Following the successful performance of 3 Ashton students at the Preston Cross Country Championships, they have been chosen to represent Preston schools City Team at the Lancashire Cross Country Championships at Witton Park in Blackburn this Saturday 7th February. Unfortunately, due to injury, Kyle Sharkey won’t be able to attend. We wish him well.

Kyle Sharkey

On Monday 9th February the Yr8 are playing Rugby.

Good luck team Ashton.

Alex Alston

6TH FORM LEARN ABOUT DISEASES Students from Health and Social Care and Science visited the Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds. They enjoyed a journey through the streets of Leeds as they would have been in the 1800’s and followed the history of medicine. The old style chemist gave them a chance to look at different medications and they had fun investigating different diseases, illnesses and infections. The bones and skeletons on display gave the students an opportunity to see how our understanding of anatomy and medicine developed. Students were fascinated by the different medical instruments on display and the ‘live’ amputation had everyone on the edge of their seats. “The iron lungs were really interesting and the displays gave us lots of information about diseases and how they spread”.

The trip gave the students a chance to put into perspective how much medicine and our understanding and approach to diseases has changed over the last 200 years.

Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award after school club has continued very well in the New Year.

32 enthusiastic students attended on Tuesday this week to continue practicing the essential skills. Session 10 focussed on planning a route; with and without route cards, compasses and the formula to calculate distance and time. New and exciting equipment is arriving all the time in preparation to take the keen teams on an expedition. Places are still available and new members are welcome from Year 9 and 10. For further details please see Mr Wallis or Mr Day. We look forward to welcoming Joanna from Duke of Edinburgh next week

FILM CLUB IS BACK Film Club will be in Room 2 (auditorium) on Mondays 3.00 to 4.30 (approx.) and Thursdays - 3.00 to 4.00 prompt .

ALL

year groups are invited to come along.

If anyone is interested, particularly Year 7. You will be given a letter, which will be a parental consent form for every new member. This needs to be signed and returned. There is a wide range of film genre to be watched.

Here are some of the films coming up:

Ender’s Game (2013) 12 cert. Action/Adventure

Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (1969) 12 cert. Western 12 Years a Slave (2013) 12 cert. Drama Dead of Night (1945) PG cert. Horror, Thriller Films already watched are :

Hannah, 50 First Dates, Hancock & The Others.

FILM CLUB IS BACK

As a promotion Bee Radio 106.5fm are running an advertisement for our Sixth Form Department, starting next week. This radio station is a couple of years old and are an up and coming station for the Preston, Chorley and Bury area. Please tune in next week to listen to our 20 second ad and let us know what you think.

Following the loss of one of their players, Melissa Smith, in October Cadley FC have been looking at ways in which they can increase access to heart screening opportunities in Preston.

As a result they are facilitating a private screening event on May 2nd & 3rd 2015, which will be held at CPC. The screening will be undertaken by CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young). Each week 12 young people aged between 14 - 35 years die from undiagnosed heart conditions. The cost of an individual screening at this event is ÂŁ40 per person. Candidates must be aged between 14 and 35 years of age on the date of the screening.

Screening will identify most cardiac abnormalities. At least 12 young people die suddenly each week in the UK of previously undetected heart problems.

Raise awareness of symptoms amongst coaches and physiotherapists.

Raise awareness throughout sport of the risk of Sudden Death Syndrome / Sudden Cardiac Death and highlight the families that are most at risk – particularly those that have already had a young sudden cardiac death in the family and who might not be aware that other family members must be screened.

Encourage young people to take better care of their heart/health in a broader sense.

Reassure parents who are well aware that these tragedies occur and often cannot gain access to further information at a time when there are increasing demands on physical fitness in all high profile sports.

Symptoms are: Chest Pain (exercise related) Severe Breathlessness Palpitations Prolonged Dizziness If you would like to register for this event please visit the Cadley website, http://www.cadleyfc.com/ and select the "Heart Screening" option on the left of the screen and follow the instructions given.

Please note Cadley FC are not making any profit from this event, they are simply facilitating the booking between CRY and yourself.

If you have any questions please get in touch with Jo Burrow either by email joburrowcadley@Hotmail.com or via mobile 07815694482.