April 2015

Headteacher’s Message

Dear Parents

We had a very busy and successful last half term – please do take a few minutes to have a look at some of the achievements listed in this newsletter.

We are now moving very quickly towards examinations and everyone should be focused on doing their best. This will require a very disciplined approach to revision; a revision timetable with clear idea of what is going to be revised and using an ‘active’ approach to retaining information.

Please encourage your child to avoid ‘passive’ revision approaches such as reading notes – this is proven to be a limited approach and will not enable students to achieve their best. There is also a very useful revision booklet on the school website and whilst aimed at GCSE students, the information will be valuable to everyone.

Finally, I would like to offer my best wishes to our students and trust they will get their just rewards.

Kieran McGrane Headteacher

Ponteland High School students sure can talk (debate)!

Congratulations to our talented EYP team who proudly represented Ponteland High in the European Youth Parliament North East Regional Forum this month!

After a day of outstanding debates and emotive speeches, our team was selected by the Jury to represent the North East at the National Session which will take place in Liverpool this July. At the National Session we will be up against the schools selected at all the other Regional Forums across the UK. Ponteland has a proud tradition of both competing and succeeding in this debating arena with several of our ex-students now Alumni of the EYP. Indeed the Vice President this year is one of our ‘old boys’ – Kevin Wilson. He was very complimentary about our team describing the speeches as ‘near perfect’ and was particularly impressed by Molly Hall’s contribution to the French debate.

EYP prides itself on academic ability, so the resolution topics for debate were very challenging indeed! Topics ranged from freedom of the press, imported energy, to the victims of Islamic State. Our team members demonstrated their excellent skills in debating and public speaking, as well as their knowledge around key issues in British and

European politics. We wish them all the best for the National Session in July!

EYP team: Elliot Barker, Michael Dwyer, Ben Eggleston, Molly Hall, Bea Holliday, Helena Grezo, Matthew Quigley, James Plumeridge, Owen Stratford

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A meeting of minds – and values!

In recent weeks Ponteland High School has joined forces with the Rotary Club of Ponteland in order to work more closely together for the benefit of the local community. Waitrose have also agreed to become a corporate member of the Rotary Club with the same aim. The Rotary Club is an international organization formed in 1905 that helps business people give back to their community. Mr Alan Hall is the current president; he was elected prior to serving in this position for 12 months. He has been a Rotarian for a number of years and enjoys it because, “it provides a chance for people who are retired to give something back after having a good life.” The Rotary Club regularly raise money for local, national and international causes, for example, they have provided funding for temporary accommodation to those who need it such as the people in the Somerset flooding. The Rotary Club has started identifying ways of engaging with a wider audience including a club for younger people from the ages 7 to 11 years old, called rotar-kids. In addition, it is hoped that the links with the high school will provide some new ideas, fresh-thinking and new initiatives. One immediate plan is for some high school musicians to play at the upcoming Seniors Christmas Lunch in February.

Future plans also include a sponsored golf tournament for Northumberland schools at Ponteland Golf Club as well as a Christmas market where it is hoped students will provide some stalls. Mr Hall said, “We are excited at the prospect of working with local organisations such as Waitrose and the high school. We feel this will be beneficial to our whole community and would like to encourage more of our local businesses and business people to become corporate members of the Rotary Club.” We think this sounds like a great idea! If you are interested then please contact Mr Alan Hall by email at alfonse2010@icloud.com

George Hunter, Year 12 entered the intermediate regional heats for the HSBC British Council Mandarin Speaking Competition in December 2014. He clearly impressed the judges as he won and progressed to the national final, held in London at the British Museum on Monday, 9 February 2015. George delivered a dynamic 2 minute presentation and was confident in the question and answer session that followed. The judges were impressed with his natural and immediate responses to the translation task and his excellent skills led him to beat 11 other students from various private and grammar schools across the country. The prize is an all expenses trip to Beijing at Easter with a member of the British Council - a once in a lifetime opportunity! George said “It was an incredible experience which I will never forget. I met so many amazing people. I can’t wait to enter another competition!”

You can see George’s performance here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ye82ezp1j9q0v8/Manadarin%20Speaking%20Competition.mp4?dl=0

George Wins Mandarin Competition!

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International Women’s Day 2015,

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2015, Bea Holliday, a Year 12 student at Ponteland High School, has been nominated to shadow Guy Opperman MP in the House of Commons for the day on Thursday, 12th March. The event, which is sponsored by HSBC, will be an opportunity for Bea to witness a day in the life of an MP and to see at close quarters how Parliament works. She will also be taken on a tour of the Houses of Parliament and attend an afternoon reception with the Speaker of the House in his State Apartments during which they will meet other students, Members of Parliament and business men and women. Members of Parliament from all political parties will be taking part in the day hoping to inspire young women from all walks of life. This is the second year a student has been invited to shadow Guy, last year Harriet Barrett took part in this event.

On Friday, 6 February, Ponteland High School was bathed in a sea of red.

Each and every student donned a red outfit in support of the British Heart

Foundation’s ‘Wear it. Beat it’ day.

Instigated for the second year running by Year 12 student, Bea Holliday, the

school joined thousands of other participants up and down the country to show

their support for the fight against heart disease.

A host of activities took place on the day, including cake sales and a raffle,

raising an amazing £1800 for the charity. A stellar effort by stellar students!

Bea said “I loved organizing the event for the second time. It was brilliant to

see the school come together as a community and support a charity very close

to my heart”.

Students wear Red for the British Heart Foundation

A-Level Applied Science students recently visited

Newcastle Aviation Academy, which is now part of

Newcastle College.

As well as an engaging and informative talk from

Academy Section Manager Tim Jacklin, students

were able to ask questions about the Academy and

have a tour of the buildings to see engineering

students training on aircraft in a safe and supervised

manner.

Not only did it give our students an opportunity to

gain high quality research for their next assessed

assignment it was nice to see a number of former

High School students now at the academy training

to become aircraft engineers.

Newcastle Aviation Academy Visit

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Eclipse

At the start of period 1 on Friday 20 March students

flocked to the school yard to watch one of Natures

greatest shows, a partial solar eclipse. Along with

eclipse-viewing glasses students arrived with an

assortment of pinhole cameras, which they had

been making in registration during the week. Shoe

boxes, cereal boxes, photocopying boxes and

poster tubes were all used to project an image of the

Sun with the Moon passing by in front.

As maximum coverage approached at 9.35am the

temperature dropped, a breeze picked up, a gloomy

darkness developed and the excitement grew as

hundreds of students and staff looked to the sky and

enjoyed near perfect views of the eclipse.

The eclipse will be remembered by everyone for a

long time and probably till the next one in 2026!

The main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading. In a bid to get more of us in the community enjoying and excited to read for pleasure, we have been celebrating World Book Day with more collaborative events than ever…

READING TO FIRST SCHOOL STUDENTS Sixteen of our sixth formers went into Darras First School and Ponteland First School to read to classes and direct some fun book-based activities, all planned and delivered by themselves. Ponteland First School students were dressed as aliens and provided our students with some interesting anecdotes from their favourite alien stories. DRAMA EXPERIENCE Belsay First School enjoyed an interactive drama experience in the High School hosted by Mrs Warwicker and sixth form drama students. The book chosen was ‘The Iron Man’ and our sixth formers each directed a small group of Belsay students to act out the first chapter. The first school students were very enthusiastic and loved every minute of it. CHARACTERISATION WORKSHOP Students from Year 7 at Richard Coates Middle School joined year 9s in our school library to engage in a workshop on characterisation. The students interacted well and some interesting results were achieved.

HARRY POTTER THEMED CAKE SALE AND RAFFLE A number of talented staff made and decorated a large Harry Potter themed cake. Raffle tickets were sold as well as similarly themed cupcakes. A princely sum of £147.25; the money collected was added to the School Change Fund and we have been lucky enough to buy two iPad Air 2. These will be available for student use in the Library after Easter. DECORATE YOUR DOOR COMPETITION The idea was for each tutor group (and office staff) to decorate their door using an array of materials in a favourite book or book character. The judges, armed with a strict criterion, were ruthless. Competition was very high and there were some tough decisions to be made. However, a winner was finally decided upon…….. 9NGA/MSE were crowned winners with their adaptation of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

World Book Day—Thursday 15 March

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Sport News

U18 Netball Another hugely impressive year for the players has culminated with them winning the County Tournament, County League, being Runners-up in the Regional Tournament and qualifying for the National Netball finals.

National Netball Finals For the third year running Ponteland High School were represented at the English Schools Netball Finals. This is an excellent achievement by the team, many of whom have been at all 3 finals. Wellington College provided stern opposition in the first game and the girls struggled to come to terms with the pace and intensity of the game. Despite valiant attempts to thwart the attack, Wellington were relentless and many of the team came off the court a little ‘punch drunk’. The girls had an hour to rally themselves and rally they did. The coaching team of Mrs Chisholm and Hannah picked them up and thereafter followed much better team performances, and the girls were unlucky not to win at least two of the remaining matches against Perse School (Cambridge) and Cardinal Newman (Preston). Despite not winning a game the girls can hold their heads high knowing that they are in the top 18 of English Schools Netball. The future certainly looks bright for netball at Ponteland High School, with only 2 of the squad leaving in September and there is strength in depth coming through from Year 11. Let’s hope we see the girls in the finals again in 2016.

Players: Sophie Reay, Rachel Cripwell, Alex Reeman, Emily Grix, Julia Elder, Grace Lambert, Charlotte Fraser, Sophie Wainwight and Jenny Wainwright.

U15 Netball Having topped their half of the Northumberland netball league the year 10 team headed off to the finals evening on Thursday 19 March. In their semi-final they sailed through against Berwick and then had to play Morpeth in the final. In a furiously fast, competitive game they held onto a two goal lead for most of the match only to see Morpeth equalise within the last minute of normal time to finish 9-9. During extra time Morpeth took an early 3 goal lead but a spirited response from Ponteland saw them regain their composure and pull the match back to 11-12 only to be thwarted by the final whistle. Although understandably disappointed the girls were very sporting in their defeat and excellent ambassadors for the school.

Players: Libby Oakes, Olivia Dixon, Emma Feechan, Gracie Chambers, Emily Herford, Annabel Cardno, Megan Roys, Beth Doyle

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Sport News

U14 Netball Year 9 have continued their winning ways by being undefeated in the Northumberland netball league. At the league finals they ran out comfortable winners against Berwick and then went on to put in another confident performance to beat Morpeth in the final.

RUGBY

U15 Rugby Semi Final v Bede Academy For the second consecutive season the Under 15 Rugby team have won their way through to the County Cup final. The semi-final match against Bede Academy was a one sided affair, the tone for the game set straight from the kick off when James Mould caught the ball and ran half the pitch to score virtually unopposed! The match was won well before half time allowing the boys to practice their set plays and giving all replacements a good run out. No doubt the final will be a different proposition with the RGS offering much stiffer opposition.

U15 Rugby Final v RGS Ponteland 52 – 10 RGS Knowing how successful RGS had been in the National Cup, and how easily they had beaten Dame Allan’s in their semi-final, Ponteland were under no illusion about how hard this final would be. The score suggests a very one sided affair, but this result was built upon solid defence and precision in attack. RGS had plenty of ball and should have made more of their possession, but rarely broke the gain line during a first half dominated by big tackles. When Ponteland won possession they moved it wide and attacked the outside channel scoring 3 tries in quick succession; a brace to Adam Thomson and one to Ryhs Edgell. Man of the match Ryan Gerrard orchestrated the Ponteland back line and the strong running of Robinson and Blain in the centre was too much for RGS to handle. By half time the result was not in doubt and it was understandable that Ponteland relaxed a bit and allowed RGS to score two tries. However, Ponteland had the last word with Gowing intercepting the ball on the 10m line and scoring under the posts. The crowd were entertained by two teams who gave their all to this game, but in the end, the strength and fitness of Ponteland proved crucial; County cup winners for the second consecutive year.

Players: Mia Andreyeva, Lucy Dodd, Elsa Atkinson, Lucy Walby, Francesca Burrin, Lucy Fraser, Ashleigh Clayton, Catherine Walby and Yasmeen Amer

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Sport News

James Cripwell Not to be forgotten amongst all the team success James Cripwell was running for Northumberland at the National Cross Country Championships on Saturday 14 March. James came a very commendable 52nd out of a field of 200+. Good luck James with all your running in the future.

Callum Chick All at Ponteland High School would like to offer our sincerest congratulations to Callum Chick. Following on from receiving his professional contract with Newcastle Falcons he was handed the great honour of leading out his country as captain when England played France in a recent Under 18 international. It must be every sportspersons dream to be captain of their country. This is a well-deserved reward for all the hours of hard work that Callum has put into his rugby over the years. We wish him well in the future and who knows, he may be leading the full England team one day!

Chess Tournament On Saturday, 21 March, Matthew O’Hara attended a chess competition here at Ponteland High School. He played 6 games and won half of them. There was a good turnout and everyone had fun. Congratulations to Matthew who won a trophy for ‘Best Ponteland Player’. He was very happy with his result. Everyone had a great time and we hope there will be another competition soon.

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Dates for your Diary

Date 2015

Event Date Event

27 Mar 13 Apl 25 Apl 4 May 11 May 13 May

School Closes for Easter Year 9, 10, 12 grade cards home School re-opens for all students (Week 1) Year 11 Prom May Day Holiday Exams Start Arts Showcase Evening

22 May 1 June

School Closes for half term Year 9 and 10 grade cards home School re-opens for all students (Week 1)

Examination Information Summer 2015

Some important dates for you to note regarding our examination programme for Summer 2015 All examinations, GCSE and GCE, take place between Monday 11 May and Wednesday 24 June inclusive GCE AS and A2 results day is 13 August GCSE result day is 20 August If you are unable to collect your results in person, you can ask a responsible adult to collect the results for you. You will need to give the exams officer the name of the person collecting your results. We are not able to give result information by e mail or telephone, or release results without a signed letter from the candidate. Uncollected results will be posted out at 1.00 on the given dates. The final day for AS and A2 candidates to request priority scripts and priority remarks is 20 August.

Car Parking an Issue

When collecting your child from school can we ask that all parents park with due consideration to the Highway Code, the safety of all students and the needs of local residents.

It is only a short walk to the car park at the Memorial Hall, or other local car parks. As the better weather arrives, please consider whether there may be a suitable alternative venue from which to collect your child. Thank you.

Y11 Study Groups K12

Every Tues 1.35-2.10 & 3.30-4.30pm Come in groups of 3-4

Have a goal in mind beforehand (e.g. to practise q4- comparing texts) Bring revision guides and/ or past papers to work through

Good quality non-fiction texts available to read

GCSE Exam Dates: English Language 02.06.15 am

English Literature 18.05.15 am & 22.05.15 am See Mrs Routledge for more details