Guiseley School Summer 2019 Newsletter

SUMMER 2019

#4

By Jenny-Mae GCSE Art

ISSUE #4

CONTENTS

Note from the Headteacher

3 NOTE FROM THE HEADTEACHER Paul Clayton, Headteacher, reflects on the 2018-19 academic year as well as offering an insight into what we can look forward to next year.

5 ART EXHIBITION A selection of pieces from this year’s GCSE and A Level exhibition.

8 MUSIC REVIEW A celebration of the wonderful music going on in and around Guiseley School.

10 OTHER GOINGS ON A recap on some of the favourite events of the year at Guiseley School, plus a selection of photos of the standouts.

12 SPORTS DAY AND CELEBRATIONS A selection of photos from this years Sport’s Day, plus a look at a number of personal celebrations.

15 NEW BUILD PROGRESS

It is hard to believe that another academic year has so quickly come to an end.

Photos from the progress so far with Phase 1 of the new building project

Throughout a year which has seen some considerable changes to the ways in which we operate, I have been constantly impressed with our young people. Year 11 and 13 students prepared hard for their GCSE and A level exams, responding well to the challenges that this always brings. We wish them the very best and look forward to sharing in their successes at results days in August.

Students in all year groups have shown their willingness to get involved in school life and develop their skills and talents. The sports successes, music performances, drama productions, art exhibitions and even ‘talent shows’ seem to keep coming and the standards achieved are often remarkable. My congratulations to all students on their achievements this year.

By Owen GCSE

September will bring more changes and developments as we all strive to improve our school and the quality of education for our young people. There will no doubt be challenges to accompany those changes but I am sure that students and staff will, with the continuing support of parents, be able to rise to the challenges ahead. I am looking forward to welcoming students back in the Autumn. In the meantime, I hope that everybody has a great summer break.

- Paul Clayton, Headteacher

guiseleyschool.org.uk 2

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By Francesca GCSE

Headteacher, Paul Clayton said; Creative, skilful and expressive pieces of work by students from Years 13, 12, 11 and even Year 7, and ranged from oil paintings to woollen knitted installation pieces.

Staff remarked that the exhibition was “stunning” and left them shocked by the sheer quality and bravery of much of the work.

Charcoal portrait by Maisie A Level

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The Art teachers in the department led tours for KS3 and KS4 groups to tour the exhibition, raising aspirations of those who may wish one day to study Art or Photography at Guiseley School.

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“It has been amazing to see both the variety and quality of art produced by students this year.

Another fantastic exhibition of the creativity of our young people and also the amazing things they can achieve when given the opportunity.

Our Artsmark status is recognition not only of the school’s commitment to ensure opportunities exist to study the arts at this level, but is also recognition of the incredible engagement that our young people have with those opportunities. Everybody who has contributed should be incredibly proud.”

“The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.”

- Neil Gaiman

Fish Portrait by Chloe GCSE

By Jenny-Mae GCSE Art

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Charcoal portrait by Olivia A Level

Oil pastel portrait by Maisie A Level

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“Music is to the soul what words are to the mind.”

- Modest Mouse

The Guiseley Soul Band performed a well received concert at this year’s town carnival, which also saw a great performance from resident school band Backspace. Backspace have been making waves across the local music scene, so keep an eye out for forthcoming performances at local venues.

This is another fantastic achievement for Guiseley School and a celebration that shows the hard work and dedication of our Music Department and talented students.

Guiseley School students performed a number of successful concerts across the school year. Recently, the school choir performed at an Aireborough Learning Partnership Trust event which also saw the school awarded Music Championship School status. This is in recognition of exceptional Music provision both within the curriculum and in extracurricular activities over a sustained period.

Several students from Year 10 have been taking part in a collaborative music project with Green Meadows Primar y School. The project sees Guiseley Students sharing their knowledge and skills with Garageband on the school’s recently purchased Apple Mac suites, and teaching the younger students how to compose and sequence their own compositions. After a number of successful sessions this year, students can look for ward to the collaboration continuing in the next academic year.

Mr Jones and Mrs Turner collected the award along with students Izzy and Rosie from Year 9, who also performed at the ceremony alongside other Guiseley School students Charlotte and George.

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Special congratulations to Pippa in Year 13 for passing her Grade 8 trumpet exam, Charlotte also in Year 13 who is spending the summer performing with the City of Leeds Youth Orchestra during their summer programme and Alfie in Year 11 who has been performing with the Leeds Jazz Youth Rock Orchestra, with performances at The Wardrobe in Leeds and Kirkstall Festival amongst others. Good luck to all of our music students who have forthcoming instrument exams.

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“When in doubt go to the library.”

- J.K Rowling

The Librar y has been busy this year with a visit from Geek Girl author Holly Smale in September.

In May, students were treated to a trip to the Leeds Book Awards ceremony. The winners were Child I by Steve Tasane in the 11-14 categor y and Rosie loves Jack by Mel Darbon in the 14-16 categor y.

In February, parents and carers were invited to a seminar to help improve their confidence on dealing with internet safety. David Tidman, a Data and Safeguarding Manager from InVentry was invited to share his advice and expertise on how students and parents alike can protect themselves against the negative aspects of the internet and social media, and feel more in control of the data and images that they might share online.

Along the way there have been many other events such as a World War One exhibit in November where students and staff wrote over 1000 thank you poppies to commemorate the fallen soldiers. We also took part in the Bookmark exchange where students made and sent bookmarks to a school in Hungar y. And in Februar y, we celebrated Harr y Potter night and then World Book Day in March.

Following the positive feedback from the evening, Guiseley School will look at similar events for parents/carers in the future.

The Accelerated Reader programme has been going well with 148,943,719 words read across Years 7 & 8 this school year.

There are currently 31 word millionaires, 11 of those have read over 2 million words.

Violet came top in Year 7 with 4,597,762 words, whilst Rebecca in Year 8 came top in her year with 3,029,925 words. Well done also to Reuben in Year 8 who managed to maintain 100% pass rate and hit all his AR targets.

___ This year’s Chess Championship was won by Povilas in Year 10, who took the cup this year in a thrilling, and well attended final. Jack from Year 8 was a worthy opponent and took the runners up medal for this year, with his sights clearly set on the top prize in next year’s final.

Ms Dunn would also like to thank her team of Student Librarians who have been a great help throughout the school year and the students who volunteered as part of their Sixth Form Community Placement or Duke of Edinburgh, especially Boris in Year 9 who has continued to run and develop the Dungeons and Dragons group, even training Ms Dunn on the rules and how to be a dungeon master.

___ In April, students from across the Outer North West Leeds area visited the Civic Hall in Leeds to consult with local councilors on the allocation of the Youth Activity Fund. You can read a summary of the day written by Ron in Year 10 on the Guiseley School website.

Ms Dunn’s suggestions for summer reading Child I by Steve Tasane, Extinction Trials

by SM Wilson, Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay, The Land of Neverendings by Kate Saunders and Dragon Daughter by Liz Flanagan.

Have a good summer.

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Charlotte and Eve from Year 10 and Imogen and Grace from Year 8 joined Team GB in Austria for this year’s World Gymnaestrada Exhibition.

It was a fantastic experience for the students to show their skills at the prestigious event and to represent t h e i r c o u n t r y.

SPORTS DAY

based players being split into two teams: the Reds and the Blues, and Scottish Qualified players who are residing and playing outside Scotland forming the Greens squad. ___

“My motto is: I’m alive, so that means I can do anything.”

- Venus Williams

Guiseley School has a proud history of sporting achievements and this year was no exception.

Out of school events saw several students shine brightly in their fields.

George Brooks received gold medals in the 50, 100 and 200 meter breast stroke events in the Swim England North East Region Finals. Ranked #2 in the country at these events, he has his sights set on more medals in the future at national finals. ___ Josh Dunn was selected to play as part of Scotland’s U16 Rugby Union team. The Scotland U16 programme is a pivotal stage in the development of young players, with the selected home-

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Tom, captain of the U16 Leeds Rhinos team, was also selected to play for the U16 England Rugby League team. ___ Congratulations and good luck to Jack from Year 10 who will be representing England in Marshall Arts in Las Vegas during this summer.

One of the most anticipated events of the year is always the Guiseley School Bake Off. After ever yone had made their way through tasting a massive 28 entries, the votes were tallied and the winners were announced: 1. Corey and Jemima 9R (Sigma) 2. Helena 9P (Omega) 3. Katie 9P (Omega)

Huge congratulations to everyone who took part. Until next year!

And the overall staff winner was: Miss Sheard.

The work on phase 1 of the new school build has progressed well and we are still on track to move into the 1st building in January.

This building will hold the school’s canteen, gym, theatre, offices, music and art departments. Check our website to watch a timelapse.

Prior to the Bake Off, another fantastic House Event took place in the form of the first ever Guiseley’s Got Talent. After weeks of auditions, the final came down to a hugely exciting final with eight performers left. The two winners of the competition were Ben for Year 7, who shared his fine magic skills, and Megan for Year 9 for a performance on piano.

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O ver 100 students are treated to a trip to the cinema for their outstanding performance across the board.

Sixth Form students again raised money for Children in Need

Your school PTA have worked hard to support the school with our fundraising and representative efforts, with the Christmas raffle and Quiz Night proving popular. Several active members have stepped down recently, a huge thanks to them for all their efforts over the years.

parents and families to make sure that changes are made with good parental input, and a chance to gain better understanding of decision making.

We’re looking for ward to the exciting developments coming next year, and welcoming new PTA members.

People sparing a couple of hours to help each term really helps! Please email pta@guiseleyschool.org.uk if you want to know more.

With lots of changes at the school we have been keen to play our part, including helping with recruitment; as a forum to discuss issues like uniform and behaviour policies; make progress in dealing with the last Ofsted report and seeing how we can best make a positive difference for as many students as possible.

HAVE A FANTASTIC SUMMER ASPIRE CARE

We hope to increasingly have a chance for the PTA to be a forum where the school can meet with

GROW SUCCEED

Good luck to all of our Year 13 leavers

REMEMBER TO STAY SAFE 16

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