Spotlight On South - CHS South Issue 3

WE ARE

CHS South

Firstly, may I wish you many happy returns for our first anniversary together as CHS South celebrates it’s first birthday.

This time last year your child had experienced their first day with us, and family members had visited CHS South on Induction Evening; all of us coming together as the founding members of the CHS South family. Here we are one year on, celebrating the creative, happy and successful moments we’ve all shared together this year.

In this issue we also look forward to an exciting year ahead as we extend our family (Pgs 4 - 5) and look forward to welcoming BAM, the building contractor appointed to construct our permanent site, in to the CHS South fold as work begins on the permanent site (Pgs 11 - 14).

Finally, thank you so much for your support and commitment over the past year. We’ve loved getting to know you and your children and feel rightly proud of all we’ve achieved together. I hope you all have a creative, happy and successful Summer break and look forward to hearing all about your adventures when we return in September!

Mr D Prophet

Headteacher, CHS South

We opened the doors to CHS South on Friday 14th September 2018 and it has been a whirlwind of creative, happy and successful activities ever since! From our Induction Day in 2018 to our vast array of enrichment activities on offer all year, we have experienced so many wonderful opportunities together in our first year as the CHS South family. Here’s to many more memories together in 2019 / 2020!

-

Wednesday, 2nd October,

CHS South journey!

TRANSITION TO CHS SOUTH

The summer term has been full of Transition activities here at CHS South.

In June Mr Prophet and Mr Mundell went “on tour” visiting local primaries. They talked to Year 5 pupils who will be making their High School decisions this autumn and told them all about our happy CHS South family.

We also held a series of taster sessions at CHS South, kicking off with an exciting practical lesson in Science. Pupils also enjoyed taster sessions in Drama, Oracy and Food Technology.

A team of Year 7 ambassadors were proud to show Year 5 pupils around our school. We even found time for a bit of table tennis, basketball and our big summer favourite - cricket!

July is the month of Induction Day when all of our new Year 6 pupils visit CHS South for a day, meet their new Form Tutors and Form Groups and experience their first lessons as CHS South pupils (nearly)! Induction day was a big success with staff and parents commenting on how much the new starters had got involved in the day, showing their motivation and responsibility at this exciting time in their lives. We wish all our Year 6 pupils and families a wonderful summer break and look forward to seeing them on 4th September 2019.

‘GREENFIELD’ AT CHORLTON PARK

CHS South were luckily enough to develop one of the green spaces in Chorlton park.

The project was created from an idea School Council had, to give Year 7 a green space to enjoy, they decided on the name Greenfield. The students wanted to learn about growing their own vegetables, the space offered the opportunity for this.

“We had a great time planting vegetables. It helps us to be more independent and we have learnt lots of skills. It is also helping our environment. It is helpful because we can make our own meals out of them. We are having fun because I learnt how to plant and now I can do planting myself. We planted many things like tomatoes, sweetcorn, strawberries and many more.” - Year 7 student

The site was overgrown when we first went over so the students did a large litter pick and weeding session to prepare the area. The School Council held a bake sale to raise funds for the vegetable plants and these were purchased at the local Chorlton Nursery.

Mr. Phillips’ D&T class were keen to get involved and helped out with weeding sessions and planting the vegetables, which are now growing and the students can see their progress. Students have done an amazing job watering and caring for these plants making a start on our first Eco project at CHS South.

“We planted vegetables and watered them. It helped us learn all about growing and helping the environment. It was fun because we got to plant our own vegetables, grow and then eat them.” - Year 7 student

CELEBRATING EID AL-FITR

Eid al-Fitr is a Muslim holiday, which marks the end of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.

Our whole school community came together to celebrate, sing and dance their way through a brilliant afternoon, filled with exciting and fun activities for all to enjoy!

Our students helped to organise this fantastic event that brought an even more energetic atmosphere to our school day. They planned and took part in a full range of extra - curricular activities, experiencing an amazing dance workshop, enjoying a special lunch time menu (with dishes kindly donated by our fabulous parents), they created art work, drama performances, henna tattoos, baked cupcakes, played cricket and even made glitter slime during science!

SCHOOL GAMES GOLD AWARD

We are delighted to announce that we have achieved the School Games Gold Mark Award for the 2018/19 academic year!

The School Games Mark is a Government led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.

With a high amount of young people competing in local inter-school competitions this year, we are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our competitions possible.

As part of our application, we were asked to fulfill criteria in the areas of participation, competition, workforce and clubs, and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year. We look forward to applying once again in 2020!

INTRODUCING OUR NEW SCHOOL BUILDING

We are delighted to announce that plans for our new school building have reached a significant milestone.

Following the formal tender process and competition the Department for Education (DfE) have announced that the contract for the construction of our new building and school site will be awarded to BAM Construction Ltd.

The school will now continue to work alongside BAM to further develop the plans for the site and building leading up to the formal Planning Application process. The building design conforms to a standard DfE model but we have been able to influence the design to incorporate the features we want to see in our new school.

The pictures enclosed are taken from the ‘proposed design’ that has been developed so far and although they are ‘artist’s impressions’ give you a good idea of what the new building will look like and how some of the internal and external facilities will appear. These designs will obviously develop as we consult over the next few months and we will keep everyone up to date with the process of design and construction.

This is an exciting time for the school as we work with our partners in the DfE and BAM Construction to deliver our new site and building ready for opening in September 2021. We hope the information enclosed gives you a flavour of the tremendous opportunities our new building will provide for all our students and for our local community.

Planning Application - Public Consultation:

One of the significant next steps in the building project is the application for Planning Permission for our new school. As part of that process we have to undertake formal consultation with members of the public and our local community. Public consultation meetings have been arranged for:

Thursday 15th August 2019, 10.30am to 1pm

Thursday 15th August 2019, 5pm to 8pm

The meetings will be held in ‘The Green Room’ at Chorlton High School, M21 7SL. (Parking is available on site).

We would like to extend a warm welcome to all our parents, prospective parents and members of the local community to attend one of the consultation events where you will be able to find out more information about our development proposals.

Proposed Site Layout:

ENGLISH AT CHS SOUTH

Our English department has enjoyed a fantastic summer of events and literacy activities!

BOOK TOUR

All students created their very own Adventure story based on a Classic text they have been studying and used this as a stimulus for their own story. Students were able to showcase their work on their very own book tour around Primary schools. The Year 4 and 5 students were impressed with the CHSS students’ content and impeccable illustrations.

HOW WE TEACH ENGLISH

Parents attended this engagement event and discussed the different reading strategies we use to support students in reading. Miss Iredale guided parents through what skills and knowledge students are working through in English and explored interesting strategies and useful tips which support children in accessing new texts to deepen learning.

DROP EVERTYTHING AND READ

Students dropped everything and read in their period 5 lesson on Friday 28th June, to fundraise for the Read For Good initiative. This initiative raises money for children in hospitals, providing new books and speakers who go into hospitals to entertain poorly children.

HEALTH AND WELLBEING

This academic year, the staff body at CHS South have made a commitment to health and wellbeing.

INCLUSIVE HEALTHY ACTIVE LIFESTYLE CLUBS

This academic year, the staff body at CHS South have made a commitment to health and wellbeing. Part of this commitment was to ensure that all our students have the opportunity to be active after school, regardless of their sporting ability. We have offered Thai boxing, Karate, Cycling, Yoga and Girls Skateboarding, all of which have been well attended.

CYCLING CLUB

Mr Jameson and Ms Burke have been running cycling club since September, taking our students on local cycling routes in the area. On average they cover around 12km a session and our stu dents are always asking for more. In addition, we have also focused on cycling proficiency on site, which has upskilled less confident riders on mountain bikes. We will continue to push these health clubs next year and we hope to include a cycling unit in our PE lessons.

PROJEKTS SKATEBOARDING

The Projekts team have been working closely with our girls this year, fostering a love for skateboarding. Our girls have been focusing on basic balances, seated tricks and speed play on the boards. The attendance to this club remains high and we urge our girls to continue their passion for skateboarding at the Projekts Manchester Skate park over the summer. www.projektsmcr.com/kid-s-sessions

WALK/ CYCLE TO SCHOOL WEEK

CHS South took part in the National Walk to School Week and our students really did embrace the challenge. Around 85% of students walked or cycled to school in that week and we wanted to thank all parents who supported the event. The students really did develop more independence and many students have continued to walk in after the week was over.

SCIENCE AT CHS SOUTH

Tie dye, Bottle Rockets and cars in SCIENCE CLUB!

Science club have been making their own branded t-shirts this half term and have used chemical techniques to both dye and imprint their personalised logos. They developed chromatography techniques to learn how dyes travel through absorbent material and then used these skills to produced the tie dye t-shirts shown in the images.

This ended a fantastic half term in which our students have also built bottle rockets and rocket cars.

ATHLETICS SPORTS DAY 2019

Our inaugural athletics Sports Day was held at Longford Athletics Stadium providing further competition for our students.

Our students performed in all track and field events throughout the day and showed great commitment and resilience throughout the day. We were so proud of their conduct, sportsmanship and competitive spirit.

SOUTH SPORTING SUCCESS

Students at CHS South have embraced all their opportunities to take part in our extensive extra-curricular sporting provision.

TABLE TENNIS

Following on from our success in the Manchester Schools Under 13 singles and doubles competitions, our Year 7 table tennis teams have grown significantly, with over 45 students competing every week in interschool events. More recently, our teams attended our annual tournament with MEA Central, where we competed against their Year 8 cohort. We had a number of wins and we played over 60 games in both the singles and doubles format. We are really proud of our students’ commitment to the sport and I am sure they will look forward to new competitions next year!

FOOTBALL

This term we have seen our numbers grow at our Friday football club. Our boys continue to demand competitions and love playing across Manchester Schools. This term, our B team competed against Chorlton High School, beating them 3-2 in a very well contested game.

ATHLETICS

This term our boys and girls entered the Manchester Schools Year 7 Championships, winning individual heats in a number of events. We were really impressed with their competitive spirit and thirst for winning throughout the competition. Kamal Williams secured the gold medal in boys Javelin event, resulting him ranking as the best boy in Manchester Schools.

SPORTING STAR STUDENT

Our star Aryan, also took part in the Lancasterian Sports Festival at the Manchester Regional Arena. He competed in a number of events against other schools and achieved a Gold Medal at the end of the competition. A super athletic achievement!

SOUTH SPORTING SUCCESS

YEAR 7 BASKETBALL

Our basketball squads have been competing throughout Manchester this term and have been involved in the Manchester Schools Under12 Basketball competition at the National Basketball Centre. We have had wins against Cedar Mount, Chorlton High, TEMA and Manchester Cooperative Academy this year. Next year we will enter the Manchester Schools Leagues and Junior NBA tournaments to provide consistent competition throughout the Academic year.

YEAR 7 ROUNDERS

Over the Summer Term, rounders has grown in popularity with our girls. They took part in the Manchester Schools Rounders competition and we finished second in our group. The girls will now use this success as a spring board to engage in a more intensive rounders competition calendar next year.

WRESTLING CHAMPION!

Taylor Everett Jones - Ulster Champion 2019 at 43kg.

Well done to our wrestling champion. This year Taylor has been involved in a number of intense competitions throughout the UK. Taylor now holds the title of Ulster Champion 2019 at 43kg. He competed in group of five other boys from Ireland, Scotland and England. He came very close last year, coming second in the group, but after training hard and working on his technique, he beat all his opponents and didn’t lose a point throughout the competition.

In addition, he also competed in the English Championships in Nottingham, where he competed in an older age category. He only lost two points on the day, however he still finished third and won the bronze medal. Taylor should be very proud of his achievements this year; we applaud your commitment to the sport!

“I AM PROUD TO TELL FRIENDS AND OTHER PARENTS THAT MY CHILD GOES TO CHS SOUTH”