king henry viii school ysgol brenin harri’r viii · y8 pupil, dwayne mitchell, pictured left with...

A group of Y8 pupils had a wonderful week taking part in the “Phoenix Project” a fire and rescue initiative. The pupils took part in a wide range of activities such as fire drills, team building, safety

awareness and pump and hose drills. It gave the pupils a valuable insight into the role of a fire-fighter as well as developing personal attributes such as working as a team and improving self confidence. At the end of the week each pupil was presented with a certificate.

Phoenix Project

Tennis with Judy Murray OBE

Hay Festival of Literature KHS Staff and pupils were delighted to hear that favourite storyteller Daniel Morden was given the Hay Festival Award for Storytelling by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall on the very day that pupils saw him perform at the festival. A group of Y7, 8 and 9 pupils had earlier watched Daniel perform in front of over 1,000 school children from all over the country. Daniel captivated the audience with one of his tales from his ever popular book “Dark Tales from

the Woods”. A group of Y9 MAT pupils had already had the pleasure of working with Daniel Morden a few days before the Hay Festival and were given an insight into his writing methods, his inspiration for his stories and the whole editing process. They were also lucky enough to see Daniel’s latest book “Secret Tales from Wales” which he released at the Hay Festival the following week.

‘Respecting tradition, embracing the future’ ‘Parchu traddodiad, camu’n hyderus I’r dyfodol’

King Henry VIII School Ysgol Brenin Harri’r VIII

Staff and pupils alike enjoyed a wonderful tennis session with Judy Murray recently at Abergavenny Leisure Centre as part of the “She Rallies” campaign. This aims to significantly increase female participation in tennis

across the UK. The activities were aimed at highlighting the wide range of skills involved in playing tennis. Pupils practised bouncing the ball to each other, throwing and catching the ball in a ‘piggy in the middle’ type activity;-firstly with one ball then progressing to two or even three balls at the same time. There were competitions to see which group could keep going without dropping the ball the longest, which revealed some highly skilled pupils. Judy finished the session with a quiz about her sons, Andy and Jamie, giving us an insight into their childhood exploits. Who’d have thought Andy forgot his Mum’s birthday last year?! One member of KHS staff commented that it was the best PE lesson she had ever had! Thanks to Judy and team, to all the staff and pupils who took part and to Bev Edwards Subject Leader for PE for organizing such a wonderful event.

Four time Olympic athlete Christian Malcolm recently held an athletic workshop with KHS pupils from Y7, 8, 9 and 10. Not only did the pupils benefit from his expertise taking part in a variety of activities but they also had the chance to ask questions such as what sort of diet did Christian have to adhere to during the Olympics? All pupils thoroughly enjoyed the day and were thrilled to have the opportunity to chat informally with Christian after the event.

Christian Malcolm


Message from the Headteacher, Mrs E Lewis

As we come to the end of another very busy year it is interesting to note the range and number of activities our pupils have been involved in. This newsletter gives but a small snap shot of these. Through our Peer Review Programme I have enjoyed watching lessons, looking at books and talking to our pupils about how they learn best. Our young pupils never cease to amaze me. They work very hard and this is evidenced in the excellent outcomes seen. I am also struck by the excellent partnership between staff and pupils working collaboratively to achieve the best possible outcomes. The third aspect of the partnership is parents and

guardians. I know I have met many of you over the course of this year and I value your time and effort. Can I thank you for your support as this is key in your child’s education. To further improve this partnership with parents and guardians we have developed a new pastoral structure for September to improve communications and deal with any concerns swiftly. Full details are included in this newsletter and in a letter sent home to all parents at the start of July. I hope you enjoy reading our newsletter and can I wish you all a safe and enjoyable summer holiday.

Farewell to Staff

This Summer term we say a fond farewell to a number of highly respected members of staff -Mrs G Binns, Mrs S Hughes-

Jones, Mrs T Mellor, Mr N Povall, Mrs R Welch, Mr H Jenkins and Mr R Melbourne. We wish them the very best in their fu-

ture endeavours.

Calling all volunteers - What can you do for us?

At KHS we want to develop a team of volunteers from our local community to work with our young students in a range of contexts. These volunteers may be parents, grandparents or friends of pupils of the school. Volunteer activities could include:

A range of mentoring activities.

Reading with a child.

Assisting with numeracy.

Sharing business or careers expertise.

Assisting with STEM activities.

Assisting with school visits. I am sure there are also ideas we have not thought of. To be a volunteer within a school context we do have to undertake certain checks to ensure we comply with safeguarding regulations. These include:

Completion of an application form.

Enhanced Children and YP DBS.

Two character references.

Occupational Health check (required for high risk activities only). There would also be a full comprehensive induction including safeguarding Level 1 Training. Do you think you may be interested and would like to know more about volunteering at KHS in any capacity, for as much or as little time as you can? Please email your expressions of interest to [email protected]. FAO the Headteacher – Volunteering. Please include your name, contact details and area of expertise. Once we have collated all expressions of interest we shall hold a briefing session early in September. We look forward to hearing from you.



New Pastoral Structure from September 2017

To further improve communications between home and school we have redesigned our pastoral support structures. Each year group will be led by a Raising Standards Leader who will work closely with our Wellbeing and Learning Support Officers (WBLSOs) and our assistant head teachers. Our Raising Standards Leaders are responsible for embedding the school and year ethos and the academic and social progress made by all pupils within their year. Our Raising Standards Leaders are:

Our Assistant Head teachers, together with the More Able and Talented Co-ordinator will work closely with each year group

and each has a designated responsibility.


Year 7

Miss J Scott-Lowe

Year 8 (Acting)

Miss A Price

Year 9

Miss L Trew

Year 10

Miss S Keepence

Year 11

Mr G Morgan

Our Wellbeing and Learning Support Officers are new in post. The WBLSOs will be the first point of contact for any parent or guardian. These valuable support staff do not have a teaching timetable and are committed to working with pupils, parents/guardians and staff to ensure all children are ready to learn. They will work closely with the Raising Standard Leaders. Our new Wellbeing and Learning Support Officers are:

Year 6 and Year 7

Mrs K Davies

Year 8 and Year 9

Mr K Hudson

Year 10 and Year 11

Miss L Warren

Key Stage 3

Mr M Stockham

Key Stage 4

Mr M May

ALNCO

Mr M Williams

MATCO

Mr J Curran


Post 16

Post 16 we have strengthened our structures to allow us to provide additional guidance and support for our students as they enter the sixth form and during their time with us. Our aim is that every student post 16:

Receives regular advice on their progress and attainment.

Has a clear destination pathway whether this be Oxbridge, University, Further Education, Network 75, apprenticeship or employment.

Mr C Davis, Assistant Headteacher will lead the sixth form team and will oversee all matters relating to post 16 provision.

NHS Open Day

On 10th May 2017, 53 students from Y11—13 attended an NHS open day at Neville Hall hospital. This event was for all students who are considering a career as a NHS professional in the

following careers: medicine, dentistry, nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy etc. In addition to meeting representatives from these bodies, students were given the opportunity to carry out CPR and keyhole surgery on medical dummies and watched a demonstration of a knee and hip replacement. This provided a fantastic opportunity for students to plan their future destinations in terms of knowing the most appropriate choice of A-Levels, the entry requirements in terms of GCSE and A Level grades and any work experience that might be considered suitable. The nature of such degree courses with their emphasis on professional training and high rates of undergraduate employment makes them highly competitive so forward planning is essential.


Assistant Headteacher

Mr C Davis

Post 16 MAT and

Destination Leader

Mr R Gilson

Post 16 WBLSO

Mrs H Williams

Pupil Assistant Learning Supporters (PALs)

Mrs A Davies

Scholarships

We offer our congratulations to the following students who have secured places on some highly competitive summer school courses—a wonderful achievement! Pictured left to right:- Catrin Lines is spending a week at the University of Aberdeen studying Natural Sciences (Physics) as part of their Explore Aberdeen programme. Falesha Lewis has secured a place to spend a week at University College London (UCL) as part of their Access to Justice summer school for prospective Law students. Chloe Neal has secured a place to spend a week at the University of Durham as part of The Sutton Trust summer schools programme.

School Council

The School Council have yet again been busy. Year 7 and 8 have been operating the Help Desk in the School Library, gathering the views of pupils upon a variety of issues such as the impact of teaching strategies, and mental health support for young people. Year 10 representatives have discussed the UT Prosim Award with a number of Form Tutors and pupils. They have been gauging their views with regards to the impact of the award and the nature of the activities that pupils are encouraged to undertake. Year 9 have helped KHS take a step closer to achieving the Rights Respecting School Award by beginning to review school policies to identify where rights respecting language is being used. They have also designed a United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), poster. This will be placed around the school ready for the start of the autumn term. Additionally, they are putting together materials to support a ‘Right for the Month’, which will also be rolled out from September.


School News

UK Maths Trust

Regional Finals

Congratulations to four of our KHS Maths pupils who did exceptionally well to come 5th out of 32 in the regional finals of the UK Maths Trust Competition. This was the best ever result achieved by KHS pupils. A superb effort -well done!

Learning Support Centre

Presentations

The Learning Support Centre students have been very busy this term. They recently conducted projects which they then presented to staff and a small group of pupils. Y8 pupil, Dwayne Mitchell, pictured left with Mr Hudson gave a fantastic presentation on his hobbies. Other

presentations were given by Josh Hinnem (Y8), Zach Powell (Y8) and John Burgoyne (Y9) who conducted 10 minute presentations on ‘Football and Music’, ‘Spanish La Liga Football’, ‘Manchester United FC’, ‘Jamaica’, ‘China’ and ‘Iceland’. This was a huge achievement for these pupils.


Library

Ambassadors

The recently formed Library Ambassadors are a group of Y8 pupils who meet once a week. Their aim is to come up with

innovative ideas which they hope will appeal to pupils throughout the school. So far they have selected a book of the month which they have read and enjoyed themselves. This is displayed by form tutors on their boards during registration -keep a look out for September’s recommendation! Another initiative is the donation box which is for any unwanted, age appropriate, books pupils would like to donate to the library. Keep your eyes peeled for posters and notices around the school and updates are also regularly posted on Twitter

@KHSchoolLibrary.

National Short Story

Competition

The results of the National Short Story Week Young Writer competition were finally announced in June and it was a wonderful surprise for Y8 pupil Eve Carey to be awarded runner up. Her story will be published in an anthology in November. Y7 pupil, Felix Coe, was awarded a "commendation" by the judges. The judges commented that overall the quality of entries from KHS was very high, and the stories showed originality and imagination. All of the pupils who took part are to be congratulated.

Fantastic Film Review

Congratulations to Cara Anderson (Y7) who has won the Into Film review of the term for Wales. Cara’s review of Twilight came top out of about 300 reviews, so she should be very proud of herself! As a prize

Into Film will be running a Film club workshop in the autumn term.

Primary School Links

On 21st and 22nd June, KHS hosted a major transition event which included a wide variety of activities ranging from Drama to Maths. Popular poet Mike Church provided his usual blend of humour, poetry and juggling over lunchtime much to the delight of the pupils. The two day event culminated in a musical

concert featuring all our feeder primary schools. A choir of 200 primary school pupils performed a short musical, accompanied by music students from KHS. A combined orchestra of 65 musicians performed a medley from ‘Mary Poppins’; this was followed by around 100 primary school pupils performing as a percussion ensemble, including a ‘stomp’ medley using domestic and everyday objects such as dustbin lids and sweeping brushes! Certainly a fitting end to their fun packed two days!


The DT and Art departments were recently delighted to be asked to put together a display at Cardiff MET University’s first ever creative exhibition. They were asked to provide work of excellence from GCSE, AS and A Level pupils some examples of which can be see here.

In March two local artists Matt and Amanda Caines visited King Henry VIII School to deliver a two day workshop with a group of Year 9 pupils. The workshop was based on their study of applique textiles inspired by the Mexican Festival “Day of the Dead”. The pupils involved really enjoyed the two days and the end results as seen above were excellent.

Art Workshop

Operation Wallacea

The Mexico Expedition students have made their final preparations and have embarked on their expedition, which consists of one forest week based in the ancient Mayan ruins of Calakmul. Here they will be collecting data on the flora and fauna. In the second week they will be undertaking a PADI dive qualification and recording data on the marine environment in Akumal Bay. Look out for a full write up on this wonderful experience in the autumn newsletter.

In May, the Drama and English departments took a group of Y10-Y13 pupils to see “WICKED”, the West End musical phenomenon that tells the incredible untold story of the Witches of Oz. Staff and pupils agreed the performance was stunning and all involved thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Glanllyn

A number of Y7, Y8 and Y12 pupils have just returned from the Urdd Outdoor Education Centre at Glanllyn. The centre gives pupils the opportunity to develop their Welsh language skills in a fun relaxed environment. The pupils especially enjoyed the water sports and climbing activities and were lucky to have three days of beautiful sunshine. They were accompanied by Dewi the Dragon who thoroughly enjoyed the trip!

Art & DT Exhibition Cardiff MET

Drama and English Trip



Girls Rugby

This term has seen two large festivals for girls rugby. The first was a sevens festival at Tredegar for Under 13’s. Our Y7and Y8 girls played four games, they drew one, lost two but won their final game 39-5! There were many tries scored during all the

games—a very enjoyable and challenging afternoon for the U13’s. Well done girls! The second festival was the Urdd National 7’s held at Llanelli college. It was a wonderful day with lots of rugby played at a very good standard for our Under 15’s team. Again, four games were played by KHS Under 15’s with a fabulous number of tries scored. Their final game against local rivals Monmouth showed just how much KHS had developed this year. The final score—Monmouth 26-19 KHS—a brilliant game to watch between two evenly matched teams. Great effort!

Team Sport and Individual Success

Sports Day Congratulations to this year’s winning house Howard and to Y7 pupil Bethan Parry-Jones who broke the triple jump record set by Amy Bradley in 2005. Bethan scored a distance of 9.03m. Our annual Sports Day was celebrated in the usual good natured but competitive manner. It was great to see so many of our pupils participating and to hear the enthusiastic support from spectators.

Sky Sports Project

Pupils from Y8 and Y9 spent a day with Paralympic Swimmer Liz Johnson, who has won gold medals in both the Paralympic Games and World Championships. As the Sky Sports Ambassador, Liz started with an assembly that focused upon raising pupil aspirations and what it takes to overcome barriers that may be in the

way of success. She then went on to deliver a series of workshops and activities that helped to build pupil confidence through teamwork. We are very proud to announce that all pupils have been awarded both a Sky Sports Achievement and Coaching Certificate for their efforts.

Triathlon at Caldicot Castle

A group of 57 pupils from Y7, Y8 and Y9 had a fabulous day at Caldicot Castle recently taking part in a fun Triathlon run put together by Monmouthshire Youth Service. It included a 1.5k run, 1.5k bike ride and a 160ft inflatable obstacle course. The pupils involved loved the experience.


Individual Successes

Cyclist Megan James (Y12) took her second Downhill World Cup win!

Nell Butler (Y11) has had a busy term, not only being selected for the Welsh U16 Hockey Squad but also playing for the Welsh U18 squad.

Christopher Taylor (Y10) has also been selected for the Welsh U16 squad.

Vicky and Charlie Aldous (Y7 & Y9) competed in the Gemau Cymru Canoeing Competition in Cardiff. Both made it to the finals of their categories with Vicky and her partner winning Gold in the U13 Two Person Canoe Sprint.

Cameron Ferrie (Y12) competed for Wales at The Tae Kwondo European Championships winning Gold in the individual event making him the European Tae Kwondo Champion at his weight. In addition, he competed in two further team events at the competition and won Silver and Bronze.

Jack Powell (Y9) represented Wales in Archery at Lilleshall National Sports Centre in which Jack and his team came 3rd in the U16 Metric Round.

India Lesbirel (Y11), Clarke James (Y10) and Harry Wood (Y10) took part in the Gwent

Schools Golf Tournament-wonderful performances from all three.


KS4 Homework Club

Mon, Tues, Wed and Thurs

Sixth Form Resource

Area

3.15pm – 4.15pm

KS3 Homework Club

Mon, Wed and Thurs

Lower School Library

Tues in Room 224

3.15pm - 4.15pm

Clubs, Societies and Parent Information

Communication

To help us to improve school communications please ensure we have an accurate email address from every

parent with a pupil in the school.

Follow us on ‘Twitter’:- KHS Abergavenny@Kinghenryschool

Please make every effort to check out our website. This holds key information about our school:-

www.kinghenryviiischool.co.uk School Email:- [email protected]

PTCA

As always the PTCA have been doing a wonderful job of

supporting KHS. They are currently looking for new members

to help with a wide range of activities throughout the year. If

you are able to help either regularly or occasionally then

please contact Sacha Corrado (School Support Officer) on

01873 735373.

Dates for the Diary

INSET DAY - Monday 4th September 2017 New Term Starts -Tuesday 5th September 2017

For all pupils

LUNCHTIME AFTER SCHOOL

MONDAY Orchestra Drama MUGA Activity Football Y9 Dungeons & Dragons Y7-9

Boxing Y8-13 Football Y9 Netball Y7 Study Skills Y10-13 Business Studies Y10,11 HW Club Y7-9

TUESDAY Business Studies Y10,11 Full Choir Warhammer Club Basketball Y7 Athletics (All)

HW Club Y7-9 Study Skills Y10-13 Resistant Materials CAT Club Y11 Film Club Y7-9 Netball Y8,9

WEDNESDAY Maths Club Health & Social Care Chess Club Y7-9 Senior Choir Cross Country Boxing Y7 Football Y7 (Astro)

HW Club Y7-9 Study Skills Y10-13 Netball Y10,11 STEM Club Y9

THURSDAY Junior Choir Y7,8 Football Y8 Athletics (All) Library Ambassadors Y8

HW Club Y7-9 Study Skills Y10-13 Girls Rugby Girls Cricket

FRIDAY Wind Band Science Catch-up Christian Union Football Y7 (Astro)

Lunchtime and After School Sports. Please ask the Leisure Centre/PE Department for further details or

check out our plasma screens.

Dungeons & Dragons

Earlier in the year a group of Y8 Dungeon and Dragons enthusiasts Gethin Clement, Luke D’Souza Smith and Thomas Bevan formed their own club which now runs very successfully, every Monday lunchtime, in room 109. Uniquely it is run entirely by pupils with no staff involvement. Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy board game, usually set in the Middle Ages, with a Dragon Master creating a game for the players to play through. Non-Dungeon Masters create a character, choosing race, class and various abilities. New members are always welcomed by this friendly group! Gethin Clement, Luke D’Souza Smith (pictured here with Y8 club members Michael Jones and Rhys Llewellyn-Holley).

Lunchtime and After School Clubs


http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjTl4Gmw7XSAhVJtRQKHUtTBTsQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwebarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk%2F20081023083128%2Fnew.wales.gov.uk%2Ftopics%2Fcultureandsport%2Fsportandact

king henry viii school ysgol brenin harri’r viii · y8 pupil, dwayne mitchell, pictured left with...

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