Newsletter 21

Ashton Highlights Newsletter 21

Friday 13th March 2015

Dear Readers Where to begin? It has been an incredibly busy week (again) in school and this edition of our newsletter is testimony to that.

We have always known our students are a generous group of people; read all about their fundraising efforts and the money they raised when they took part in the Big Hush. It is one of the rare occasions in school when silence reigns in year 7 lessons and is really quite amusing, watching them find creative ways of answering questions without using their voices. Their ability to communicate using their own unique version of sign language was quite comical at times!

It has been a very successful week in terms of competition entry too, with our students finding success at a number of events. As you would expect, they represented the school well and we received a great deal of positive feedback about the way they conducted themselves during the competitions. You can read more in the newsletter regarding the details of the competitions and how each group fared. Suffice to say, we are the proud owners of two new trophies!

It has also been a wonderful week for personal success as well. You will read about Sarah Collins on page 2 and in forthcoming weeks you will read more about some individual students in our school family who have achieved recognition for their talents in a local and national context. We talk about Ashton being a school to be proud of and set great store by this, so I am delighted to be able to share with you the stories of students who take that ethos to their heart and live it.

Looking forwards we have a number of events to look forward to. Comic relief on Friday and the Great Bake Off , which is a hotly contested prize amongst the staff. Mamma Mia, features staff and students on stage and our now school famous numeracy day, which sees Mr Woodcock inspiring all members of the school community with his passion for numbers As always, if you have any items for inclusion in our newsletter, please get in touch through the usual channels Best wishes

Sharon Asquith

Follow us on twitter @ashtoncsc

Year 11 Countdown to Exams

19 school days until the May Exams start

RISING STAR

Congratulations to Sarah Collins in Year 11 on her successful application to an Ogden Trust sponsored "inspiring excellence" in physics residential in Cambridge.

Sarah has gained 1 of only 26 places on the course which will give her a fantastic advantage before commencing her A level study in Physics, Maths, Philosophy and Chemistry.

The week long residential takes place in June of this year and sets out to inspire and challenge students interested in studying A level Physics in a non-competitive environment, allowing them to mix with like-minded students from across the UK and tutored by two subject experts.

As a school we are extremely proud of this achievement and are sure this is just the first step in Sarah's ambition to study Astrophysics.

Year 11 Countdown to Exams In preparation for the GCSE exams which begin in May, all subject areas are offering a series of revision sessions for students. Here is the timetable of sessions.

WEEKLY LITERACY AND NUMERACY CHALLENGES Congratulations to last week’s Literacy winners:

Bethany Sunners 10N Matthew H 7S Count the number of capital letters and full stops missing in the paragraph below. Write the total number on your paper.

Congratulations to last week’s Numeracy winners:

Matthew Parkinson 7H James Steele 9A. Numeracy Puzzle 23

• sarah was excited about red nose day, this coming friday in her wardrobe, hung her large bow, clown-like shoes and bright yellow wig she had been collecting sponsors, for the sponsored silence she was involved in, in order to raise money for her chosen charity – shelter sarah wasn’t sure how she was going to manage as she loved to chatter, but she was going to give it a go

How many squares are there in this picture?

(All sizes count!)

MAMMA MIA & S.T.A.R Mamma Mia rehearsals are well underway and are going well – the singers and dancers are now working together to perfect their moves and vocals at many after school rehearsals.

For anyone not already aware, the show is now being presented on Tuesday 28th April and Wednesday 29th April 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 or tickets are also available from Miss Ascroft.

28th & 29th April

Another event coming up in the Expressive Arts calendar is the S.T.A.R (Standing Together Against Racism) choir event, which will see 30 students from year 7 and 8 go to the Preston Guild Hall on the 20th March to sing and perform along with other schools from the Preston area. This is a great opportunity for our students and all of us in the department (and the students of course!) are really looking forward to it.

In relation to this event, yesterday we had a visitor in school, Jane Wignall, who came in to work with 2 year 7 classes on their art work for the event. The completed art work will be presented on the day at the Preston Guild Hall, and a small group of students will have the opportunity to speak about their thoughts and their work after the event.

World Book Day Highlights, March 2015 What is World Book Day all about?

World Book Day is a celebration! It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.

How did we celebrate?

At Ashton Community Science College, Y7, Y8 and staff were invited to dress up as their favourite book character. There were exciting, book-related activities taking place throughout the day, across the whole curriculum. There were prizes to be won for best fancy dress and all of our students received a £1 book token.

Which characters made an appearance?

There was a huge variety of characters that made an appearance on the day. We had our staff dressed as the likes of Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Good Witch Glenda, Wally from Where’s Wally? and The infamous Trunchbull. Amongst our students was The Mad Hatter, The Woman in Black, Lennie and many more.

Where can we find out more?

There is lots of exciting information and photographs of the day on the school’s Twitter feed, Facebook page and website.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Maths week

Maths in Nature If you look a little deeper , you can discover the maths behind more complicated things like: • The spiral of seeds on a sunflower; • The pattern of stripes on a zebra or the chaotic swirling of a hurricane; • Maths has been used to explain how we tie knots in our shoelaces; • Every kind of Music, from Handel to hip-hop has a deep mathematical pattern to it.

• The same is true for the things we find visually beautiful, which explains why maths is often used in arts.

FIRST PLACE FOR ROTARY TOURNAMENT

On

On Friday 6th March Ashton Community Science College won this year’s Rotary Technology Tournament at both the Foundation and Advanced levels.

Rotary Technology Tournaments, held annually, are a day out for teams of four students with an interest in engineering, design, technology and science, to design and build a solution to an unseen technical task within a specific time frame. The teams need to have good communication skills, be well organised and able to show the stages of development of their task solution in a design portfolio. Each team’s solution as a working model is competitively tested and assessed by a team of judges. Recognition is given to the winning teams in each of three age categories.

This year, escorted by Mr. Houghton, we took two teams of 4: a lower school Foundation team (Dom Turriff, Zac Huntriss, Ben Lang, James Fearne) and a 6th Form Advanced team (Jordan Smithies, Josh Leeming, Alison Burke, Jake Wilkinson).

For this year’s design and make challenge all teams had to build an emergency vehicle that was powered by a motor. The students worked together all day to produce two winning designs, beating competition from 15 other schools and colleges from around the North West.

Congratulations to all the students involved in winning this important tournament.

THE BIG HUSH On Friday 13th February all year 7 students took part in the annual “Big Hush” event.

Megan Bate

Thomas Parkinson

Kathryn Midgely

Ashlee Meggison

Sam Marshall

Students were asked to donate £1.00 of their own pocket money to work in silence for their morning lessons and as they travelled around the school building. Staff had to think of inventive ways to teach without the use of the spoken word and it was very interesting to see how quickly the students adapted to alternative methods of Oliver Hurst communication. The use of portable whiteboards to write messages or ask questions was very popular and some students came wellequipped with their own notepads and pens to make themselves understood. There was also lots of hand movements and head nodding at times – sometimes leading to a mutual understanding but at other times to lots of furrowed brows and puzzled looks. If nothing else, the Kimberley Greer big hush always highlights how fortunate we are to be able to use our ears and voice and gives us more understanding and indeed admiration for our deaf peers at school. At break time the whole year group filed into the sports hall in silence and sacrificed their break time as part of the event. However the peace and quiet is always short lived as Mrs Barrow challenged the students to raise the roof off the hall after a ten second countdown to break the silence – they did Cieran Greer not disappoint!! Some students in the year took the event to their hearts and aimed to raise extra funds through sponsorship. These students really excelled themselves and I can confirm that the students listed below, collectively raised more money as a small group than the whole of the year group put together!!! An extra special thanks must go to these students and their families. A Holly Goulding particular mention must go to our two highest fundraisers: Charlotte Piercy 7T - £45.00 and Lauren Scott also 7T with a whopping £60.00 - Wow! Well done to all pictured for raising so much. The final amount of money raised was in excess of £450.00 - which beats any other year group that has gone before them. All proceeds will go towards local charities of the students’ choice, at Megan Bate the end of the school year.

A sincere thank-you to all our Year 7 and their families and friends – your support is very much appreciated.

Lauren Scott Kieran Emmett

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

13th April

Return from Easter Break

16th April

Year 7 Parents’ Evening

28th & 29th Mama Mia Production April

Year 10 Mock week 20th – 24th April.

Grand Final - of The Beats, Tuesday 10th March 2015 On Tuesday evening five performers and a sound technician performed in the Grand Final of 'The Beats' competition, at the Charter Theatre, Preston. These students were, Olivia Baron, Johnny O' Reilly, Ellie Woods, Chloe O' Donnell, Charlotte Crookes and their music and sound operator, Beth Kirkby. They were accompanied by me, Mrs Barnes.

The competition is run by Lancashire County Council and aims to engage with high school students across the county, by asking them to explore their attitudes towards road safety. Their performance piece, 'TwentyTwoFifteen', tackled a particularly sensitive and moving issue, especially for a couple of performers within in the group. The work began life as a tribute to a teenaged boy; a young cyclist; a friend of one of the group. Whilst on his bike, he was involved in a collision, with a car, near to his home in Preston and lost his life. 22:15 was his time of death and we tried to weave in subtle references to this number throughout the piece. As the storyline and issues emerged though the devising process, we introduced fictional characters and situations. We even found ourselves adding in some light-hearted moments. All of this helped us explore the wider issues of road safety and some of the feelings of those who have lost a loved one; as well as the impact on others too. Our piece, this year, has not just been about creating a performance to raise awareness of road safety, it has been good therapy and we hope, a fitting tribute to a friend. The group didn't win the competition - and they were quite disappointed by this, but they really shouldn't be. To make it through to the final, against a large number of other Lancashire schools, was an achievement in itself. I have found it a pleasure and a privilege to work alongside the students this year for 'The Beats'. They saw an opportunity to explore their own feelings of loss and grief and have produced a piece they should be proud of. They pay tribute to a friend and raise awareness of many issues around road safety.

Some of the photos and information about the evening can be found at www.saferschools.lancsngfl.ac.uk in the Parents' section.

FILM CLUB IS BACK

Film Club is in Room 2 (auditorium) on Mondays - 3.00 to 4.30 pm (approx.) and Thursdays - 3.00 to 4.00 pm 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.

RUNNING CLUB

If you do to, then join running club on Friday 20th March at 3:15pm by the quad – all welcome.