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ISSUE 1 • WINTER 2012

Students CelebrateBest Results Ever!

Table Tennis is a hit at Cantell!

Students visit Marwell Zoo

Celebration Evening 2012

Welcome

It has been a very busy term, both in the classroom and beyond. Our extensive range of clubs and activities at break times and after school, has been greatly enhanced by the table tennis matches which take place at every opportunity in our courtyard. It is great that we are now entering competitions with other schools and already enjoying deserved successes!

Sadly, the end of term brought the loss of a much loved member of staff: Maggie Maddocks.

Maggie was a very special and significant person in our Cantell Community. She spent much of her working life at Cantell, in a number of different roles. Most recently, she took on leadership of our Mediation team and made a success of that, as in all she did, because she cared so much and committed herself wholeheartedly to our students and their wellbeing.

Maggie was one of those extraordinary people who have ‘touched’ the lives of hundreds of students and staff at Cantell and other members of the Cantell Community.

Thankfully, alongside inevitable grief, this sad event has also brought out the best in our Cantell Community. A recent visitor to the school said the following:

“The climate and ethos of Cantell is a warm and supportive one that enables students to grow and flourish, become confident individuals and appreciate their own worth and that of others.”

We are certainly very appreciative of all that Maggie contributed to our community and look forward to future

opportunities to celebrate Maggie and all that she means to us at Cantell.

I wish you all a peaceful and restful Christmas break.

All good wishes

Ruth EvansHeadteacher

Cantell is a happy, thriving and successful school

Dear Students, Parents, Carers, Staff and Friends

As we come to the end of one of the longest school terms, I would like to thank students and staff, in particular, for their continued efforts, hard work and good humour.

We started the term delighted to have beaten our headline results last year, achieving, 53% 5 A*-C including English and Maths. This, despite the English debacle, which is just now going through the courts. We helped all students who were badly affected by the change in English grade boundaries to get a place in college and our current Year 11 students are working ‘flat out’ to achieve the best results they can in all subjects but with a special eye on English.

It was lovely to see so many of our ex Year 11 students return to Cantell for our Presentation Evening on the 27th November 2012. It was a great evening of celebration and we enjoyed a talk by Richard Harris, outgoing Chair of Governors and a loyal Governor for over 25 years. He reminded us of the power of education to transform lives. He was born into an ordinary working family, but success in education, including a degree achieved through the then new, Open University, saw him go on to be the Principal of a College and take a prominent role as Leader of the Council in Southampton.

Celebration Evening

News

Movember Madness!Cantell has taken the opportunity to be involved in the Movember charity again this year. A number of staff spent the month growing moustaches to raise support for men’s health and awareness for testicular and prostate cancer. Over the month of Movember students had the opportunity to witness the slow growth of some interesting moustaches as the staff and students got into the spirit of Movember. Several staff raised money outside of school and the school’s

charity Mospace page also received donations. On the last Friday of Movember a non-uniform day was held, with many students wearing comedy moustaches for the day. In total over £700 was raised by staff and

students for the Movember charity. A big thank-you to all the staff and some of the students who grew moustaches for the month, and well done

to all students for your fantastic moustaches on the day and for the generous donations.

Mr. Stevenson

“In total over £700 was raised by staff and students for the Movember charity”

I mOustaCHE yOu a quEstIOnBut I’ll shave it for later!

We were delighted to see so many Year 9, 10 and 11 pupils at our Key Stage Four Information Evening on December 6th. It was a great event with exhibitors from local colleges, universities and training providers giving advice to our students as they plan their post 16 education and training.

Year 9 students began the process of selecting Key Stage 4 options; please remember to return the Initial Choices Form to Student Services by Wednesday 9th January 2013.

Over ninety year 7 students had the opportunity to take part in a live webcast with the amazing american author Jeff Kinney. Jeff is the author of the Wimpy Kid book series - combining writing with great cartoons.

Jeff talked to the students about his own school days, and how they had inspired his writing about the Wimpy Kid. He also showed us how he draws his cartoon illustrations, using a tablet computer instead of a pencil and paper - it was really interesting!

Whilst they were watching, the students also wrote questions for Jeff, and miss sutton sent them to him by email.

Year 8 Purple went on a conservation mission to Marwell zoo. They were inspired by the many animal exhibits highlighting the plight of the animals of today.

They were surprised to hear that the likes of the Amur tiger is hunted for its fur and to Year 8 Purple it was a shock and upsetting situation.

They left Marwell wanting to do more and will be looking into adopting an animal from Marwell. Unfortunately they will not be able to bring them home as hoped but they will be able to bring their families to Marwell to visit them.

The penguins and leopards were big favourites but I think the meerkats won it in the end.

Visit to marwell

Live Webcast with author

Cantell have secured 210 bottles for water that have been kindly

donated by

Southern Water

to help promote drinking water to students

and to help with their

forthcoming exams; the most stressful time within their

school career.

eau so good!

We hope to take part in lots more events like this, as we learnt a lot, and it was good fun too!

Ks4 Information Evening

NewsArts Faculty

The Cantell English Department have had a fantastic term.

Firstly, we have completed our first controlled assessment with Year 10. In particular, Fairus Abdikadir, Paulina Dougan, Cigdem Yilmaz, Mateusz Krol, Ismael Zainel, Lakhwinder Digwa, Gagandeep Kaur, Baldev Bhakar, Maciej Pacharew, Jade Callaway, Vanessa Oliveira, Patryk Patynski, Vijay Sandhu, Jay Parish, Liam Waddell, Wiktoria Tusien and Amira Shalaby have made an outstanding start to their GCSE.

Also, our Year 11s are continuing to make progress. In particular, we are incredibly proud of the following students: Alex Gould, Raoul Miron, Syed Imdad Agha, Joe Pegram and Tori-Ann Blake for making outstanding progress between their controlled assessments.

Lastly, we wanted to share a section of Christina munford’s latest piece of writing. She is an incredibly talented writer and we only wish we had more space to write the whole thing! This piece used ‘The Nightmare’ painting seen below as a stimulus:

The night of our Lady’s supposed demise was a dark night, a dark night indeed. The nights in its wake had been the same: one as moonless and merciless as the next. Wind whistled and wove its way through the jagged pines guarding the grand castle which looked over the village from the looming, leering cliffs, bringing with it voices of woes and despair.

English Department

to help with their tudor studies, year 5 students from Portswood Primary school paid a visit to Elsinore Castle (also known as DR2) as part of our Challenge Day 2012. With lighting, sound effects, smoke machines and costume, the castle and residents of shakespeare’s Hamlet were brought to life. year 5 were transformed into soldiers burdened with the task of delivering a message, of a rather ghostly nature, to the Prince (miss Phillips). Convinced that the ghost was Prince Hamlet’s late father, the student soldiers set about discovering what, or who, caused the King’s unusual death in a “murder mystery style” drama workshop.

Hamlet

Play in a Day!

In recognition of their outstanding commitment and progress this term, thirty year 9 Drama students were treated to a workshop by KOnFLuX theatre Company. under the watchful eye of a professional director, students learned and then performed ‘Wired’ - a theatre in Education play about Cyber Bullying. at the end of the day, ‘Wired’ was performed to our year 7’s, who all thought our year 9’s were amaZInG! Well done to all the year 9’s involved.

On Wednesday 5th December 2012, Pandemonium played in our debut performance. We performed ‘Jingle Bells’, and following the performance, the host of the Christmas Carol service, Reverend Gary Philbrick asked if our steel Pan band would perform an encore at the end of the service. the performances were great and we even got a standing ovation following the encore! the service was amazing.

Other acts included maestros Orchestra who performed a ‘Christmas Carol medley’ and ‘Winter Wonderland’, a year 7 Vocal quartet who performed ‘Let it snow’, a year 11 Vocal Duet who performed ‘merry Christmas Everyone’ and a Piano soloist who performed ‘air and Variations’. a festive evening all round!

Written by the Pandemonium students Thomas Gritt, Kyra Lee, Olivia Dickenson Forbes and Ebony Williams.

Debut Performance

Sport has gone from strength to strength this term, with record numbers of students participating in extra-curricular teams and clubs. There have been some outstanding team and individual achievements, including Mahamed Mahamed’s selection for the County Cross Country Team and Hamad Haidar and Toby Ayodele’s selection for the Southampton Schools’ Football Team. Cantell are also the U16 & U14

City Badminton Champions and U13 City Table Tennis Champions. House Sports has proved ever popular with students and there have been some excellent performances on the volleyball court and football field. Rock Challenge rehearsals have been well attended and the standard of dancing

is quite simply outstanding. Tickets for the ‘must see’ show are available from January 2013. Don’t forget to order your tickets early, to avoid disappointment.

Congratulations to all who have led a healthy, active lifestyle this term. We look forward to building on participation and success, through our continued programme of sport for all, next term.

Healthy Lifestyles

Record numbers of students participating in

extra-curricular teams!

Since the introduction of 12 table tennis tables in

September, a large number of students and staff have gone ping pong crazy! Every break

and lunchtime, the canopy area is packed with students

perfecting their skills and competition is often fierce!

Also, over 50 students regularly attend the after school club on Thursdays, where they have the opportunity to compete against

Mr Bagust and Mr Gorman, whilst receiving coaching from an ETTA coach who is a former member of the Polish Olympic

team! All of the practice is already paying off with the

players’ skills improving each week. Our Under 13 boys team

have done particularly well, winning through the qualifying competition to compete in the Hampshire finals at Testwood

Sports College. Playing against the best players in the county

the boys (Zia Samadi, Naz Nosrati, Craig Plommer and

Hamad Haidar) acquitted themselves extremely well and

demonstrated real potential. The team (with OJ Jenkins)

have also won their first two league matches, including a 10-0 thrashing of St George’s school! We would like to see more girls playing next year.

Olivia Dickenson Forbes in Year 7 won the first girls’ tournament held against girls from Testwood

School and we have further girls’ competitions planned for

next year.

table tennis

The choreography for this year’s entry to Global Rock Challenge is almost complete. It has been a real team effort this year with students and staff creating the choreography. Miss Clare and Miss Skittrell are working together to make the costumes and have come up with some excellent ideas, we are all looking forward to what they produce, and Mr Jankowski has created 3 brilliant pieces of setting, which the art department are planning the designs for. Rock Challenge is a whole school effort.

Students are working hard to make sure they know the dance and are developing their confidence with every rehearsal. The opening scene sees a scientist and a group of school students asking the initial question ‘what is the meaning of life?’ The scenes then progress throughout the dance to ask the audience questions about what the meaning of life might be. Is it to get an education? To become a parent? Or is it simply to have a good time? The final performance on March 4th will be brilliant! Good luck team Rock Challenge!

Rock Challenge

It has been a busy term in the Science and Technology faculty with many students making outstanding progress and taking real pride in their work.

Ms Pook’s Year 8 Technology class have been designing and making jewellery from Pewter. The students were given a design brief and asked to take their inspiration from nature, geometrical shapes and letters. They worked extremely well, right from design through to production, and their final jewellery is outstanding and a testament to their hard work.

Mr Nagle took his 8 purple class on a conservation mission to Marwell zoo.

The students were inspired by the many animal exhibits, which highlighted the plight of the animals of today, and left Marwell wanting to do something to help protect them.

Not only are many of our Year 10 and 11 students working very hard towards their qualifications but we also have a group of Year 9 students who have chosen to study GCSE Astronomy with Mr Warrington after school. They are constantly producing exceptional work, which we are very proud of, and it’s great to see how enthusiastic they are when they turn up every week.

News

Science and Technology

Cantell RemembersSir Patrick Moore

We are all deeply saddened at the death of our wonderful friend and patron, Sir Patrick Moore. We remember him with great fondness and deep respect. Patrick was a legend in his own lifetime, and continued to be an inspiration to our young people until the end.

Many of us have had the unparalleled privilege of meeting Sir Patrick over the past 5 years, either when we visited him at his home in Selsey, or on that momentous occasion when he honoured us with an evening visit in 2009, here at Cantell. Patrick actively encouraged our students to ‘reach for the stars’, and actively helped many of them to fulfil their dream of visiting NASA.

We are humbled by his example and will miss him for a very long time to come. Our thoughts are with his close friends, colleagues and carers at this time. Thank you Patrick for all that you have given us. We WILL continue your legacy…

year 9 students, who will be following the EBaC pathway for year 10 and 11, will begin their GCsE in French or spanish in January. Please make sure that you have your own French or spanish dictionary to use in class. It only needs to be a pocket sized one, which can be purchased cheaply from the languages department, or discount book shops like the Works.

Students in Y9, 10 and 11 would benefit from

purchasing a French or spanish revision guide, which comes with a CD of listening tracks, as well as all the vocabulary that you will need to help with your controlled assessments and exams. We have arranged a 50% discount from the publisher, and these are now available from school for £7.50. If you haven’t already done so, please collect a letter from your teacher, and return it as soon as possible.

41 students braved the cold to be at school at midnight, for the long journey to Bruges in Belgium. after a rather rocky ferry crossing, and a traditional French cafe breakfast, we were pleased to arrive in Bruges! We had missed the early morning snowfall, but there was still plenty of snow on the ground as we walked to the centre of town. the students spent their day at leisure exploring the Christmas market, the many great chocolate shops, and some even braved the 366 steps to the top of the belfry tower! all too soon, it was time to make our way back to the bus, and head back to Cantell, but I think we all enjoyed our day in Belgium!

GCsE French and spanish

Bruges trip

Languages

The Geography Department has been out and about at the coast this term. The Geography team took the Year 11s to three coastal locations, to collect data for the field work portion of their controlled assessment. We went on three different occasions and had a great time, although it was a little cold! We visited Highcliff beach, Hurst Spit and Barton on Sea. Whilst we were there, we were able to use specialised equipment to collect data.

As Cantell fills with the sounds of festive cheer, we in Humanities will be preparing to say our goodbyes to two of our team. Mr Bryant, who joined the school a decade ago, will be leaving us to take up a new career outside teaching. Mr Bryant has worked hard to ensure that the Religion, Ethics & Philosophy department is a thriving and successful one at Cantell. We also say a temporary goodbye to Mrs Callaway, who is going on maternity leave and we look forward to seeing her back in 2013.

Humanities

Bipolar analysis at Barton on Sea

Beach profiling at Hurst Spit

Maths Department It has been another successful term in the Mathematics Department. Earlier in the year, we celebrated the

highest achieving mathematician in each year group. Matthew Willis has had a fantastic start, and won the Year 7 prize. In Year 9, the prize was given to Christina Munford and Peter Taylor won the Year 10 prize, and is awaiting the result of his early GCSE entry. Benjie Wang

continues to go from strength to strength, winning the Year 11 prize. This term, Benjie completed his C3 coursework, and gave an incredible presentation on “Numerical Methods for Solving Equations.” In January he will be sitting his final two exams, to complete his full A level. In Year 8, five pupils all achieved the same mark and the prize will be awarded after the next assessment. The names of the students were: Maddie Palmer, Elly Lewis, Naadrah Hussain, Lauren MacKenzie, and Eleanor Varley. Good luck next term girls.

News

A New Start; A New Life

In primary school there were lots of myths about secondary school which frightened many students.

• One of which was the level of challenge; students think the work will be too hard or that they won’t be challenged enough. However these beliefs are fiction. Cantell has sets for each core subject (English, Maths, Science and Accelerated Learning) and the teachers always make sure students are challenged, but are there to help if you get stuck.

• Another myth is about friends, enemies and bullies. People are worried about being with their

friends and getting bullied. The Cantell staff will help sort out any friendship problems. Furthermore, it is rare to be with no one you know from primary and it is easy to make new friends because everyone is in the same situation.

• One of the other things students in Year 5 and 6 worry about is finding their way around the school. Cantell is a big school and all new students are scared about being lost. I got lost a few times in the first week but there were always teachers or older students to point me in the correct direction.

By Jonah Lash

nEXt stEPs WRIttEn By: Oliver King, Owais Judge, Josh Bateman and Jonah Lash

Year 7: The Next Stepmyths Busted

the year 7 Curriculum

Year 7 Lessons

During Year 7 we have had the opportunity to experience different lessons from those we took at primary school. These include exciting new subjects such as Latin, Spanish, French, Tech and Accelerated Learning.

The really great thing about the new subjects is that there are great facilities such as science labs, drama studios, technology rooms and art studios. We didn’t have these at primary school and they allow us to do exciting new tasks and make lots of progress in our learning.

At first I had trouble getting used to having a new timetable because we have a two week timetable. The two week timetable allows us to do more subjects but you do have to remember which week you are on! It’s OK, if you forget though, because there is always a sign outside student services.

My new friends and I all really enjoy our new lessons and we have made loads of progress so far this year! I can’t wait to do even more new subjects next year.

By Owais Judge

Accelerated Reader

In Year 7 we do A.R which stands for Accelerated Reader. This is a reading program which is designed to improve our reading age really quickly. It also helps to expand our vocabulary and ability to write fluently, which increases our chances of reaching A*s in Year 11. We read a book, then log on to a laptop and we do a quiz based on the book to see how much we have understood.

Every book has a certain amount of points, depending on the difficulty and length of the book. If you get 100% in the quiz then you will get the full amount of points and if you read over a million words you get to join the millionaires club!

We all really enjoy doing the programme and I think it has improved my reading age already!

By Owais Judge

We have covered some big issues in our governors meetings this term. The first was our decision to opt to convert to be an academy on 1st November. However, we have been delayed by a number of issues relating to the contract for our school building – which is a PFI build. We are not sure when this will be resolved which is frustrating. The Cantell website will keep you updated – just have a look at the governors’ pages.

The second issue is also frustrating – our GCSE results. Along with other schools across England we were affected by marking changes especially for English. The governors understand the Government may wish to make exams harder, but we think it is unfair that changes happened mid year – papers were marked to different standards in January compared to June. So, we have joined with other schools to mount a legal challenge to try to get the marking changed.

Despite this we got another set of good results, beating our target and the results for 2011. However, for the 20 or so children affected by the marking changes, this has been very hard. We are also disappointed by comments from the board in charge of exams –Ofqual – criticising teachers for lenient marking. We have received very positive feedback from the exam board about English marking at Cantell saying:

Overall, the Centre (Cantell) should be congratulated for its work, effort and attention to detail. The Centre’s marking of the controlled assessments for all three specifications (papers) was accurate. The work was annotated in detail and the marks awarded were justified by close attention to the Assessment Criteria.

Governors fully support the school’s legal challenge, and staff in the English department who are doing an excellent job.

A real achievement this term has been all the work going into our very successful open evening. It was a great event, very well attended. The new look reception area and website give prospective and current parents and students a very positive image of the school. Governors are particularly pleased with the new display in reception showing some of the great things our students from previous years have gone on to do after Cantell and college. We even got a mention in the Daily Echo newspaper for this Wall of Fame. Please get in touch if you know of someone you think should be included.

Finally, we have three new governors, Mike James, Rod Varley and Nicola Jefferies. They are already making a very positive contribution to our journey to be an outstanding school. Read more about them on the Cantell website.

Elizabeth Hale - Chair of Governors

Houses and Behaviour

Life at Cantell is great. The competition between the four houses is really exciting. The four houses are Itchen, Chapel, Northam and Kingsland. To get points for your house, you will have to be outstanding in your lessons or extracurricular activities. If you’re not outstanding you might get a behaviour point. This is really bad because you will lose your house a point! Students love to WIN house points because if you WIN you will get special prizes such as non-school uniform days and days out. Having the house system is really good fun as we get to do competitions and everyone is involved in it.

By Oliver King

Clubs

At Cantell there are a huge range of clubs, from football to chess and rugby, to cooking. In Year 7 there are loads of clubs to choose from. Some clubs are just for Year 7 and others are for just girls or just boys, so you can choose the ones that best suit you. Here is an example of the clubs you could choose to do in an average week.

Monday Homework club Tuesday Football training Wednesday Rugby or Cooking Thursday Table tennis or Netball Friday Badminton or Trampolining

Cantell finishes at 2.35pm so there is always an opportunity to take part in an after school club. They are really good fun and an excellent way to make new friends.

By Josh Bateman

This Term So Far...

Cantell’s Governors

Dates for your Diary

monday 7th January - INSET DayWednesday 16th January - Parent Voice Meeting

thursday 17th Jan - INSET Daythursday 24th Jan - Year 9 Options and Progress DayWednesday 30th January - Year 11 Parents Evening

Wednesday 13th February - Year 10 Parents EveningHalf term: Monday 18th – Friday 22nd February

monday 4th march - Rock Challengetuesday 5th march - Parent Voice MeetingWednesday 13th march - Enrichment Day

tuesday 26th march - Year 5 ‘Olympic’ Taster Daytuesday 26th march - Open Evening

Wednesday 27th march - Year 10 Progress Daythursday 28th march - INSET Day

Easter Break: Friday 29th March - Friday 12th April