Jan 09 – Mar 09
So we begin a new year.
There are plenty of signs around the school that 2009 will bring new opportunities for pupils at Skinners’.
You will read elsewhere in this newsletter of the successes the Upper 6th have had in their applications to universities. They will be eagerly anticipating the exciting times ahead. That seven were successful in their applications to Oxford and Cambridge is very pleasing - it is the largest group in memory – but the school’s focus is upon placing every student in the best possible course and university. There are exciting new plans to continue the improvements to the fabric of the school and our facilities. Next year will see a massive investment in IT equipment, including a doubling of the number of interactive whiteboards in classrooms. The refurbishment programme will reach the Dining Hall this summer, bringing it back to its full glory and providing it with state of the art sound and projection equipment. We also hope, with the help of our wonderful Parents Association, to buy a school minibus for the pupils’ use. Less glamorous, but just as vital, will be the refurbishment of the roof of School Hall. This will improve the appearance of the school from St John’s Road and will help ensure that – in the words of the Leopard Song – “The school will stand for ever…” The New Year will also bring new opportunities for clubs and societies in the school. Our work linking Science with Technology, Engineering and Maths has already brought us national pathfinder status. This has allowed us to develop some exciting extra-curricular opportunities. These include a magnetic levitation club, a robotics club and a Solar Thermal club. In these clubs, boys are working with real problems of engineering, using modern equipment and their minds to the fullest capacity. The complete list of the weekly cycle of clubs is given at the end of the newsletter. Happy New Year! Simon Everson Head teacher
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“We cannot change the past, but by remembering the past, we can change the future” [Sir Jonathan Sacks] Towards the end of last term two sixth formers, Josh Hooper and Luke Chattaway, accompanied by Mrs Wilson, had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. The trip was arranged by the Holocaust Educational Trust, a charity established in 1988 dedicated to ensuring the lessons of the holocaust are learnt, disseminated and acted upon. The trust has government funding to take teenage school children to Auschwitz so they can return and spread the message at school, in the hope that it may help to prevent anything comparable ever happening again. With more recent events in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda and the continuing troubles in Palestine, it reminds us that we should not see the Holocaust merely as an event in history that happened a long time ago to another kind of people. Through education we must challenge the prejudice and hatred that still destroys so many lives. A seminar before the trip gave us the opportunity to listen and talk to Josef Perl, an Auschwitz survivor- a rare privilege as their numbers are inevitably declining. Students were able to ask him questions and it was clear from his responses that he felt blessed to have survived, had never lost his faith and believed he must bear witness to the tragic events. Obviously the experience had an enormous impact on us all. Although most of us have seen films such as ‘Schindler’s List’, nothing can prepare you for the reality of the horror and the sheer scale of the extermination. We were particularly privileged on this trip as we were in the company of the leaders of the main faiths in Britain, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chief Rabbi.
Auschwitz Report The symbolism of united faiths demonstrating their solidarity and protest against the hostility and genocide perpetrated under the Nazis was very powerful. Dr Williams said “ Our hope is that in making this journey together, we also travel towards the God who binds us together in protest and grief at this profanation.” Various politicians and journalists were also in attendance and spoke to the students. Perhaps the most memorable and special part of the day was the candle-lit act of remembrance held beside the railway track leading into what remains of the Auschwitz-Birkenau gas ovens. In the darkness we listened to reflections and prayers from Rowan Williams and Sir Jonathan Sacks. A prayer was sung in Hebrew. In the surrounding silence it was an intensely moving experience, both beautiful and chilling. Standing together in the cold and dark we all realised that we were so very fortunate to walk back out of the camp and return by plane to the comfort of our lives. Millions were unable to do so. L Wilson Deputy Head of Sixth Form & Head of RE
The Skinners’ School was designated a high performing specialist school in May 2008. We already have a track record of innovation and community work in areas to do with sustainability, and have also developed strong science links with our partner organisations. It was natural development therefore to embrace the opportunity to become a DCSF sponsored STEM Pathfinder School – one of only 40 in the country – and combine our existing work in science, maths and technology with the sustainable schools agenda. One of our ideas was to introduce pupils to sustainable technologies via a sort of ‘scrapheap challenge’ – the results of which you can read in the articles below: Small teams of enthusiastic boys, led by an equally enthusiastic teacher ( STEM Tutor) have been working on projects as diverse as magnetic levitation to solar thermal panels. The only guidance they had was that their project must be cheap, reproduceable by other schools and fun to do. Early signs are that all three conditions are being met! At the same time, selected Y9 pupils are being trained to become STEM Ambassadors, whose role is to visit places like wind farms, bio-diesel plants, hydroponic greenhouses etc and then report back to others. They will be doing this via assemblies, newsletters, YouTube videos and through the school web-site. They plan to have everything finished by July 2009.
Year 7 boys meanwhile are carrying out a broad cross-curricular project designing and testing wind turbines and at the same time thinking about the bigger issues these technologies bring through their regular ‘COGS’ (meta-cognition) lessons. Linking STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Maths) with sustainable technology in this way, is a logical extension of what we are already good at in Skinners’ and we are hopeful that it is a model that can be used and applied by other schools. Mark Moody
Old Skinners' Gift to Science Dept Tony Holding, on behalf of the Old Skinners’ Society, recently presented the Science Department with a digital visualiser. This clever device can give greatly magnified images of 2D or 3D objects so that the whole class gets a good view of text, pictures, objects, apparatus, or electronic components. It can also quickly photograph pupils’ work, produce videos, or create animations.
STEM CYCLE POWER PROJECT The team are involved in designing, building, testing, and demonstrating a bicycle powered generator to produce electricity to power mains appliances. The generator is in fact an alternator from a car producing 12V dc. This is then converted to 230V ac mains by using an inverter. Pedalling is easy enough with 1 lamp but is heavy going with all 4 lamps.
Tony Mead, Head of Science
Sam gets ready as the team wires up the power capacitor
Our first trials with an inverter: Alex pedal-powers a TV
LEADER: TEAM:
Mr Mead Olly Eades L6K4 Andrew Lilly 10R Philip Matos-Glover 10R Alex Baldwin 10R Sam Clarke-Knowles 10B Matt Davey 10B Robbie DeSmith 10Y Matt Allen 10G
Success!
STEM AT PADDOCK WOOD Term 3 involved Skinners’ providing a maths club at Paddock Wood Junior School each Wednesday afternoon. The club included boys and girls from their Gifted and Talented register from years 4 to 6. I was pleasantly surprised to find 25 children attended the first club evening. It’s great to see how enthusiastic these children are when a subject like MATHS is presented as a fun club. Activities ranged from making nets, playing fighter jets with algebra (yes Algebra!!!...the year 4’s quickly learned how do solve these just so they could shoot the enemy!!) to measurements. Each activity always involved a competition and so the pressure was always on. The children just tackled each task with gusto, often prompting animated debate about who actually finished first. Of course the decision was always split so all got prizes. Unfortunately the term had to end and so did the club. I promised that Skinners’ would return again next year. Presently we are holding clubs at St James C of E primary and next term it will be St Peter’s. Anthony Stone , Community Co-ordinator for Maths
An eager bunch of year 8 and 9 boys have been work on a STEM project to capture thermal energy radiated by the sun to heat water. This involves designing and building a device to capture as much thermal energy as possible, as well as allowing water to be passed through the device, thereby heating the water using the sun’s energy. This project will complement the electrical solar panels which have already been installed to power the science block. A working model is to be built and tested by Easter, so watch this space!
H.E.A.L Miss Moss-Montoya with a group of L6 boys led by Will Vernon are taking the initiative to encourage the school to eat healthily and recycle. The aptly named Healthy Eating And Living (H.E.A.L.) project hopes to have master classes and assemblies to help boost positive attitudes towards healthy eating and recycling. The group has been researching and preparing since September. They hope to have a working vegetable patch within the school grounds and will be going on a course to Bore Place the week after half term for training and to help develop their ideas. Look out for can crushers and recycling bins around the school soon!
Magnetic Levitation Club ‘Mag-lev’ stands for magnetic levitation. Mag-lev trains can achieve huge speeds because they do not touch the track and so are limited by air resistance only. This method has the potential to be faster, quieter and smoother than normal trains, so could be the trains of the future. For the last six weeks the club has been trying to produce working models that demonstrate the mag-lev principles using permanent magnets and electromagnets. The tasks have ranged from making tracks out of MDF to complex electronics. It is great to see what the students (years 11, 12 and 13) have made so far and we look forward to completing some models next term and introducing some propulsion systems. This is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) ‘Pathfinder’ project. In addition to enriching our curriculum we aim to produce guides to other schools so they can start their own STEM clubs.
In one month we have saved 600 kg of
West Kent Secondary Schools Lead the Way in Sustainability Three Months ago, 8 young enthusiasts met, to create the first Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells EcoForum. This forum gives students a chance to have a voice and speak up about the current environmental circumstances of their local area. It is said that for every 30 junior schools only 1 secondary school is a holder of the prestigious ‘Green Flag’ award. Skinners’ is one of the latter! Discovering a fact like this influences secondary students to get in gear and make a difference. On the 14th December 2008, Skinners’ hosted a meeting of representatives from Bennett Memorial, Tonbridge Grammar School, Weald of Kent Grammar School, St Gregory’s School, The Judd School and Combe Bank School in Sevenoaks. All had a chance to express their concerns. The meeting also gave the opportunity for each school's reps to give a short presentation about their achievements in recent years. These included Skinners’ installation of solar panels and TGS raising funds for a ‘ROLI pig’ to be used for composting. Rewarding as the schools' successes are, the meeting agreed that it is the future that counts and an important part of the future is analysing the past. Where have we gone wrong? What could we do to make it better? Staff from each of the schools meet on separate weeks from their students. The students, as an independent group, are given responsibility for organising future events, meetings and projects. Three sub-categories are discussed during the meeting: recycling, connections with the local and global communities and future events. At each meeting, there are no more than three adults. Sarah Moy, the Eco-Schools co-ordinator for KCC attends every meeting and provides helpful advice and suggestions. The group owe a lot to Sarah due to her hard work and determination for this forum to succeed. It is a forum where we have a chance to voice our ideas; not the teacher’s ideas, not the government’s ideas, not always the most practical ideas but they are OUR ideas. So what comes next for the ‘eager beavers’? The next meeting is to be held on 27th January at St Gregory’s. The students plan to talk about the proposed cycle tracks in Tunbridge Wells and the proposal to support a sustainable school in Rwanda. The work does not stop there! The number of schools represented is increasing but all local schools need to add their voice to our group. Emmerson Wood member of U6 & Co-Chairman
The Spring term sees the responsibility for the school’s fundraising efforts pass into the capable and enthusiastic hands of the Lower Sixth. They are already off to an impressive start, staging a Christmas Ball at High Rocks with the help and support of friends and parents. Each January the newly elected committee votes upon which charities to support for the coming year. Traditionally one local, national and international charity are chosen. However, there is also the flexibility and generosity to support a variety of other worthy causes upon request throughout the year. For example, committee members have helped send much needed Textbooks to Tanzania through Read International. Many tutor groups also support their individual charities. 8K has already raised more than £300 for Street Children in Kenya with their Smarties Tube initiative and our Carol Service at St John’s Church
raised more than £600 for Help for Heroes. Information on the 2009 charities will be given in the next newsletter. A special thank you must go to retiring chairman Joe Hibbard and the rest of the current Upper Sixth committee, for their marvellous hard work and commitment in raising much needed funds for Hope HIV and Demelza House. The legacy of this inspirational and dedicated group is the now annual ‘Skinners’ got Talent’ shows staged each Spring. Their participation and support in organising this event will mark their fundraising ‘swansong’. Plans are well underway for this extravaganza which will doubtless raise impressive funds. If you want tickets, you will need to act promptly! I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed in some way to the huge success of the Charities Committee, and urge all parents and students to give their full support to future Skinners’ fundraising efforts. Lindsey Wilson
Form Group Charity Events 8K – Gave out 240 tubes of Smarties with a challenge to eat, enjoy then fill with loose change. They’ve raised over £300 so far for Harambee for Kenya to support schools and improve educational opportunities. 8H – Wore silly hats, sang carols and sold cakes to raise £85 for Help for Heroes. Future Charity Initiatives: 8H – Great Ormond Street; 8A – NSPCC; Year 10 – Kent Air Ambulance. Now you know where all the small change disappears!
‘Stars in their Eyes’ - a successful charity event, in collaboration with TWGGS, was held over 2 nights: Wed 26th and Thurs 27th November 2008. This annual event offered a wide range of acts including members of Skinners' Upper Sixth as the comical Backstreet Boys. Winners were Year 11 Rosie Elliot from TWGGS who sang the wonderfully obscure "My Boy Builds Coffins" by Florence and the Machine, and Year 9 Sophia Wallace whose version of Adele's "Chasing Pavements" was impressive. The entertaining and expertly run evenings were masterminded by Joe Hibbard, Holly Mouland and Sally Longhurst with the other members of the Skinners' and TWGGS' Charity Committees. Musical talent was on display in abundance. The final, show-stopping extravaganza of the combined committees ' I Need a Hero' routine reminding us, yet once again, that give Skinners' young men the chance to dress up then cartoon underpants and rather dubiously coloured tights will appear! The event attracted over a dozen local sponsors and raised in the region of £4000 for Hope HIV and Demelza House. Both committees are to be congratulated.
A New Beginning in Rwanda: The PSHE department have decided, wholeheartedly, to support a charity called A New Beginning in Rwanda. Every pupil in years 810 at some stage in the year will study an issue associated with Rwanda (Children’s Rights, Human Rights, The UN) They will also learn about the 1992 genocide and the current crisis overwhelming the Congo-Rwanda border. On Monday the 8th December the year 8’s, 10’s and 12’s attended a talk by the charity’s founder Malcolm Clear and his partner Jacqueline Turner, herself a survivor of the genocide. The pupils were presented with a slide show that outlined the charity’s plight and desire to build a school and sustainable farm for the village of Mushenyi. Its aim is to give hope to the widows and orphans of this village who have absolutely nothing. The students were able to ask Jacqueline about her experiences and hear first hand about the terrible events that took place in the small country in the middle of Africa. It is a sad fact that many Rwandan families are now left without their fathers. Over 100,000 families are headed by a child, with children constituting a staggering 50% of the population. The devastation of the male population led to huge skills shortages, preventing even the simplest steps to regeneration. Rwanda’s women have filled the gaps left by their fallen men, and now form over 60% of the entire workforce of the country. Due to the skill shortages regeneration can be very slow. This barrier to development means the people of Rwanda continue to suffer the horrific affects of the genocide.
With so many children being forced into an adult life providing for their siblings, education is a luxury, second to the need for survival. On a local level in poor areas, education is still almost totally inaccessible to the majority. Education is so important to the regeneration of the nation, but this basic human right is still out of the reach for millions of children who would love the opportunity to learn. New Beginning intends to build sustainable community centres across the poorest areas of Rwanda, giving the people the building blocks to development. By supplying a sustainable source of education and healthcare where it is needed most, this charity hopes to give the people of the poorest areas the resources they need to breakthrough the barriers to development left by the genocide, and give them strength to find ‘A New Beginning’. It is the charity’s intention, wherever possible, to source and use locally provided materials and workers to build the community centres. Thus, the very act of building the centres will contribute skills to the community through training and site work. I was fortunate enough to meet A New Beginning’s founder Mr Malcolm Clear through a family contact and was overwhelmed with his project and firmly believe that we as the Skinners’ community can help in a big way. We have already pledged our old computers from L6 and 7 to his project and with your help can make and even bigger contribution in the form of children’s clothes and donations. Should anyone like any more information regarding the charity and its project please feel free to log onto www.anewbeginningrwanda.org. where you can contact Malcolm directly or keep checking your parent mail for regular updates. I believe that the Skinners’ community can make a difference here and help people gain a new start in life. It costs as little as £20 to put an orphaned child through school for the year and £300 to put an 18 yr old through a 4 year University course. Together with the charities committee we plan to help this project in every way possible. Many thanks for taking the time to read this. N.E Oldham
Skinners’ Music Department The autumn term as usual was a busy one for the department with three major public events: Skinners’ Day, the St Cecilia’s Day concert and the School Carol Service. The November concert was the first chance to use the newly refurbished theatre and this went remarkably smoothly despite a local power cut three hours before start time! All our extra-curricular groups performed and we particularly enjoyed having the newly refurbished Steinway piano in service at a concert for the first time in many years. There was only space for a few solo items because we have so many thriving regular groups running now. A capacity-filled Thomson theatre gave us a warm reception. The Carol service in St John’s went very well with a strong and musical choir performing a range of music from the 16th to the 21st century, as well as the usual mix of congregational carols. The wind quintet were very impressive at the start of the evening providing Chrismassy muzak. The Barbershop – on good form- serenaded whilst mulled wine was served. In the last week of term the junior orchestra provided Christmas lunch time background music in the dining hall getting a warm response from their colleagues to their performances of well known Christmas tunes. The barbershop also turned out for a couple of final week assemblies. Several of our pupils took part in representative county courses and concerts over the Christmas break both for Kent and for East Sussex bands and orchestras. Associated Board exams were taken by quite a few boys in the last weeks of term but results are only just coming in now: James Turbett Year 11 gained an impressive Distinction at Grade 8 on the bassoon. It is good that so many are still taking on this considerable challenge and reaping the rewards for perseverance and commitment. The coming term promises to be active with our Joint Concert in the last weeks of term [2nd April] and the Junior Concert just before that. We also have the GCSE and A level recital on the 24th Feb – an important dress rehearsal for our public exam candidates. John Hendry, Head of Music
Art - Royal Academy Outreach Day Year 11 art students were involved in a whole day life drawing workshop provided by the Royal Academy Outreach programme, organised by Mrs Tappenden. During January there will be two hour, afterschool sessions when any AS or A2 student can draw from life. In early March the Art department is running a joint trip to Paris with the Modern Foreign Languages department. Mike Taylor ,Head of Art
Year 9 Gift Bag Enterprise
Year 9, sold gift bags at the Skinners’ Christmas fair and raised £25o. These were no ordinary bags. The boys took elements of their still life drawings, enhanced sections of the design with contrasting colour, rotated and repeated the images on the computer to form a composite image like the inside of a kaleidoscope. Finally they reproduced their designs on sheets, ready for the production line where the sheets of card were turned into beautiful gift bags. As Josh Leybourne commented ‘We worked well as a team and all gained a sense of real achievement when a final bag was formed from all of our efforts on the production line.’ Under the watchful eyes and directions of Miss M Howard and Mrs F Tappenden, their art teachers, the boys had fun in taking an artistic idea thorough every stage of design to production and successful marketing. Anyone who was lucky enough to find a Christmas present inside one of the boy’s bags would marvel at the creativity and professionally produced, additional gift.
Dragons’ Den On Tuesday 16th December, Year 11 Design and Technology students had the opportunity to participate in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ event at Skinners’. A group of experts were invited to form the review panel. These consisted of senior staff members, experienced exam moderators and a creative director of a successful Graphic Design company. Pupils pitched their GCSE products to the panel and received honest and constructive feedback on their presentation and coursework. This was a valuable experience that has helped students develop their GCSE submissions, benefiting from industry style feedback. In true Dragons’ Den tradition, pupils were apprehensive before facing the panel but left this testing arena with a huge smile and lots of ideas. Miss M Howard Art & Design
Year 8 Visit to Aachen Christmas Market
On 5th December 5 staff and 50 Year 8 pupils embarked on an extended day visit to Aachen Christmas market in Germany. We arrived at lunchtime after several delays and a coffee break in Belgium, where the boys were shocked that they had to pay 30 cents to go to the toilet! Aachen market as usual did not disappoint. As soon as we walked through the festive arch ,the colourful Christmas displays and wooden huts with aromas of traditional German fayre made the long journey seem worthwhile. The boys practised their German buying lots of goodies for themselves and their families and they particularly enjoyed trying the German potato puffs with apple sauce. The most unusual gift was a shiny red festive gnome! Sadly as it started to get dark and the lights brightened, it was time to walk back through the decorated streets to the coach park. The boys commented also on how clean Aachen was. We had a smooth journey back, despite a brief delay near Bruxelles and arrived at Skinners’ on time at 11.15 PM somewhat tired but happy to have had the experience.
Christmas Decoration Challenge All form groups fully embraced the spirit of the challenge, with competition being fierce – indeed, I am aware of minders being employed by various Form groups to prevent sabotage and the copying of ideas! • 7 Knott were judged winners. They produced an outstanding array of hand-made window and wall decorations with 5 foot tree, complete with flashing lights, as their centre piece! A smashing effort from the whole class. • A very narrow second was 7 Hunt; their industrious workers were busy under the watchful eye of their tutor Miss Moss-Montoya, creating colourful and eye-catching paperchains and ornamentation. • Let’s not forget 7 Sebastian who sported FOUR Christmas trees, no less! • 7Atwell's last minute burst of activity, once again proved that it's never too late for Skinners' boys to have a go! Thanks must also go to the commitment and enthusiasm of form teachers.
One tutor is reported to have said:
“
I think we need to introduce a handicap system when it comes to these sorts of competitions as it is clearly unfair that 7K have an art and design teacher as a form tutor; it’s not that I’m competitive it’s just my Form really , really wants to win!
”
So speaks an un-competitive PE teacher?
House Debating
Results: Joint First – Sebastian (Dom Dark and David House) and Hunt (Nathaniel Rowan and Harry Cain) (350 points each) Second: Swing Team (Brad Muggeridge and Anthony Asundi) (125 points to Hunt and to Sebastian) Third: Knott (Dorian Macaborski and Ben Arnold) 175 points Best Speaker: Harry Cain (20 points) The Year 9 House Debating Competition was characterised by very boisterous exchanges and skirmishes with the Standing Orders. The judges did question whether some kind of restraint should be used for a certain gentleman, but everyone else behaved very well – delivering their barbed Points of Information with careful politeness. British Parliamentary debating has been described as ‘verbal boxing’. You have to play by the rules to win; but you sail as close to what is allowed as possible. It requires a good knowledge of the subject and the ability to think on your feet. Above all, it requires listening very carefully and the ability to turn this into high quality rhetoric. The motion was ‘This House would ban online gambling’, and it is a tribute to their research that the students managed to talk so knowledgably and fluently about this subject. Sebastian were ahead on having done the hard graft and had the facts and figures at their fingertips to demonstrate that online gambling would (clearly) lead to suicide and societal breakdown. However, the stylish Mr Cain ‘rinsed’ the Opposition with his pithy and incisive rebuttals. The Opposition won the day and those gamblers amongst you will be pleased to know that online gambling lives to fight another day. Thanks go to our timers: Valdemar Moller and Owen Miller, VI Form coaches and to the photographers for constantly reminding us that a debate is a performance. We were impressed by the quality of this debate and look forward to a bright future for Skinners’ Debating Society as these chaps come through. D HALIFAX, Head of English
Mathematical Challenges The UK Senior Mathematical Challenge was taken by 48 of our Year 11-13 mathematicians, on the 6th November 2008. Our overall results in this national challenge were very good, with Stephen Loke from the Upper Sixth taking both the ‘Best in School’ certificate and a Gold certificate. As a result of his success, Stephen also qualified to take part in the British Mathematical Olympiad Round 1 in December. We eagerly await his result. Skinners’ pupils were awarded: 2 Gold, 10 Silver and 18 Bronze certificates in what proved to be a particularly grueling challenge. We are very proud of all the participants and look forward now to the UK Intermediate Mathematical Challenge which takes place on the 5th February. Mrs J Stone KS3 Maths Co-ordinator
6th Form Civics talk on Islamaphobia
Oxbridge Success The school is delighted to have received offers from Oxbridge Colleges for our present Upper Sixth. The successful candidates are James Hedgeland, Alasdair Reed, Guy Tonkin, William Rigg and James Myers for Oxford, and Edward Tait and James Patton for Cambridge. The vast majority of candidates have also received offers from their first choice universities and we look forward to reporting on other successes later in the year. We would also like to thank Dr T Walsgrove, Mr PCD Braggins and Dr MJPD Davies for all of their help with mock interviews for all of our students applying to Oxford, Cambridge, Medicine, Veterinary Science and Dentistry.
medlink
In December we were also pleased to send 8 Lower Sixth Form students to the University of Nottingham on a medlink course to prepare them for applications for medicine for 2010 – we look forward to celebrating their success in the future. The students reported back on a memorable experience and returned enthused and motivated.
Oxbridge Conference 35 Members of Lower Sixth and Year 11 attended an Oxbridge Conference host by Walthamstow Hall in Sevenoaks. The group heard a very interesting presentation given by the main admission officers from St John’s College, Cambridge and Christ Church College, Oxford. We were very pleased to be joined by pupils from Tunbridge Wells Girls’ Grammar for this event and we hope this will have inspired our young people to be the best they can.
Skinners' CCF Welcomes New Recruits The first Friday of term, 9 January 2009, was an especially significant date for the CCF as it marked the first ever occasion on which girls paraded as members of the Contingent. Eleven young ladies from Year 10 at TWGGS responded to a presentation from the OC a few weeks before Christmas to turn out in uniform for the first time alongside 160 or so Skinners' cadets. They were joined, as they will be on future training occasions, by Ms Aimee Reynolds, a teacher from TWGGS, who will be joining the Officer strength. They are all very welcome and I hope their initiative will be fully rewarded as they embark on the rigours of training in alien disciplines such as drill, weapon training and fieldcraft. A J Holding, Lieut Col., OC
Oh no they didn't..... Oh yes they did! As the Christmas term began, the Form prefects took up the annual challenge to write their version of a well-loved pantomime. This year's choice was 'Jack and the Beanstalk' but whenever one or more Skinners' lads get together, the result takes creativity to its limits and beyond. This imaginative bunch were not content with the familiar Jack, panto cow, dame, ogre and 10 metre 'growing' beanstalk. They introduced guest appearances from Snow White, numerous, underpant-on-outside-of-clothes wearing dwarves; two interestingly wigged ugly sisters; a semi-retired, umbrella wielding fairy godmother; balloon-chested Cinderella, lumberjack and the juniors' favourite - Captain Willy. The hero prince was identified by a CCF boot and Mr Johnson's quest for stardom was decided by an enthusiastic game of musical chairs. The result was a laughter filled, musical and dramatic entertainment. A fun way to end the term. Of course no self respecting Skinners' event would be complete without a roof raising rendition of the School Song. Tradition was upheld!
Parents Association & Future Events
Champagne reception Four Course Dinner Dancing to Maverick Carriages at 1.00am Ticket requests: details by parentmail.
Parents Association
MONDAY
Before School
LUNCHTIME
TUESDAY 8.40am Win d quintet and Sax quartet. (JH/JPH) 12.55pm Seni Christian Union or Choir (JH) in School Hall/ E1 (DH) 1pm German Club
AFTER SCHOOL
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY Mentoring in Conference Room @ 8.30am (SP) 12.55pm Junior ‘Medics Club’ Choir (JH) (RB) 1pm Conference Room ‘Pedal Power’ 12.55pm Big generator (ABM) Band (JH)
FRIDAY
RE Club, 12.40pm in K1 (LW)
12.55 pm Juni or Swing Band. (JH/JPH) 12.40pm Film 12.55 pm Juni Solar Thermal Society in K7 or Orchestra (MRP) (JSS) (JH/JPH) 1pm French Year 7 & 8 Maths Club (PRG) Club 1pm (JJ/TS)
12.55pm Barbershop/ Choir (JH) ‘Creative Club’ in Year 11 & SixthE2 (CJ) form debating in E1 (DH) Web Design Club A-level Maths in L7 (NH) Support (KAA)
Spanish Club (CMW) – terms 5 & 6 Art Homework (MFT/FMT)
Drama Club in Byng Hall, 1pm (FL) Touch typing – 12.35-1pm in E5 (MF)
Robotics Club (L7)
1pm Environment Committee in S2 (MSM) French GCSE (CMW) Drama Club in Byng Hall, 1pm (FL) ‘Warhammer’ 3.45pm Se Year 7 5-a-side Club in L7 (NH) nior Orchestra football on tennis courts in Byng Hall (CJ). (finish at (JH) 5pm) Art Homework Art Homework Club in AR2 Club in AR2 (MFT) (MFT) Magnetic levitation Club in S3 (DM) Duke of Edinburgh (JB)
CCF band in Gym
Drama ‘Stage Crew’ Club in Byng Hall, 1pm (FL)
Art Club(MFT/FMT) Spanish – Terms 1 & 2 (CMW) Homework 3.40pm- 4.40pm (MF)
Photography – 3.35pm-4.30pm (FO)
Click here for printer friendly version
TERM 3 January 6 Term 3 starts 8 – 16 U6 Study leave 13 PA committee meeting – 8.00pm 15 Year 11 Parents Evening – 5.00 – 8.00pm 19 U6 return to School 29 Year 11 Options Evening – 7.00pm 30 Year 9 Reports to parents February 5 Year 7 Parents Evening – 5.00 – 8.00pm Intermediate Mathematics Challenge 9 Culture Week 13 Year 8 Reports to parents Term 3 ends 15 Ski trip to Les Menuires, France 22 Ski trip return 23 Term 4 starts 24 GCSE/A Level Music Recital – Byng Hall 7.30pm 26 Year 10 Parents Evening – 5.00 – 8.00pm 27 CCF Weekend exercise to Folkestone
March 5 Year 9 Parents Evening and GCSE Options Evening 5.00 – 8.00pm 6 Careers Fair Years 12/13 Art trip to Paris and Barcelona until 9 March 17 PA Committee Meeting – 8.00pm 19 Year 12 Parents Evening – 5.00 – 8.00pm Year 11Reports to parents 20 Field Day 26 School Drama production until 28 March BBC School Report Day 26-28 ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ – School Production 30 Year 12 AS Geography field trip to Devon until 3 April April 2 3
Joint Music Concert at St John’s Church – 7.30pm Year 12 AS Geography field trip return Year 13 reports issued to parents Term 4 Ends
With Thanks.... to the PA, all parents and friends who supported the Christmas Fair. A record £4200 was raised! I would also like to express special thanks to Ben Leeds from the Lower Sixth whose technical skills and patience responded to every editorial whim. In addition, many of the photographs that help the articles to live were taken by Mr Oschilewski and the boys of the Photographic Club. I'm sure you'll agree, they are a talented crew! In this issue of the January newsletter we hope that we have given a taster of the past term and in particular, an insight into what the boys (and the staff) do in their spare time at school. I hope that you have enjoyed reading the latest edition. Whilst it is designed to be read on the screen, there is a printer-friendly version accessible by clicking here, if you prefer a paper copy. Susan Phyall
The Right to Reply..... yourvoice@skinners-school.org.uk