Marriotts Weekly News Aim high. Work hard. Be kind. 21st June 2019

Dear Parents, Carers, Students and Families It has been a hugely positive and eventful week. Year 11 and 13 have finished all their external exams. These students have been a credit to the school and their commitment and work ethic has been hugely positive and we are expecting great things! Our Year 10 students are in the midst of their first set of mock exams and are responding extremely well to the step towards Year 11. This week we have seen students take part in Duke of Edinburgh, go to Germany on an exchange trip and visit Bedfordshire University for Post 16 guidance. For those students who have just finished their exams in Year 11 I would like parents and carers to draw their attention to our Sixth Form Induction Conference flyer later in this newsletter. I hope you have a great weekend. Kind regards Ms B Honnor Headteacher

Marriotts Life Skills On Monday, 24th June, we have Marilyn Hawes in school delivering a talk to students in Years 7, 8 and 9 entitled ‘Caught for Court’. This is part of our Marriotts Life Skills Programme, looking at the British legal system and our British Values. Marilyn came in earlier in the year to deliver the ‘Freedom from Abuse’ talks, which were very well received and informative.

Duke of Edinburgh Recently six of our Year 9 students took part in the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award as part of a joint venture with Lonsdale School. The award involves four sections, which include: volunteering, a physical skill, learning a new skill and an expedition. Our students volunteered to help with wheelchair dancing at Lonsdale, and many learnt a new skill through archery lessons and showed evidence of a physical activity they took part in. The final part of this Award was to take part in a 2-day expedition, which involved a walk with navigation skills and an overnight camp. The students coped remarkably well and should be proud of their efforts. The students were Dominic, Daniel, Millie, Archie, Nicola and Sophie. We would like to say a big thank you to all the Lonsdale staff who provided our students with this opportunity.

German Exchange Trip This year´s German Exchange trip was slightly different from the usual as the German School had their project week: teachers offer various projects for the whole week, which students sign up for. Our group was in the project ´Sports and Theatre´. The first day we spent at school and took part in an event called ´Life with Handicaps´, where students played wheelchair basketball.

We also practiced singing a German song, which students performed on the last evening for the guest families as a thank you for the hospitality we encountered. On the second day, we went to the lake, which is situated in the town centre of Hamburg to do pedal boating. The weather was extremely hot, so it was perfect to be on the water. We visited Hamburg´s impressive town centre, where students completed a scavenger hunt. Our partner school is situated south of the river Elbe and to go into town, people take the ferry, instead of the bus. On the third day we took the ferry to go out of the city centre, where we walked along the beaches of the river and had a picnic, followed by a game of bowling.

An important institution to visit for a ´Sports´ project is the St. Pauli Football Stadium, which we enjoyed touring the next day. After this we visited a park in the centre of Hamburg where we played mini golf. At the school in the evening, we had our good-bye party with students, teachers and parents. Our song was well received and we heard lots of comments about the politeness of English students. Everybody was sad that the week was almost over and some tears were spotted. For some of our students this was the second time they took part in the exchange program, for others it was the first but not the last. The idea of going to a different country and experiencing another culture, another school, other habits, was quite scary for those who came for the first time, but hugely rewarding. Everybody grew from this experience. “If I can do this, I can do anything“, one participant said, which shows perfectly to what extent this experience increases students´ self-confidence.

Post 16 Induction Conference

Please see flyer overleaf detailing our up-coming Post 16 Induction Conference from Monday 1st to Wednesday 3rd July. We look forward to seeing all our Year 11s at this event. Please also note we have places available for September 2019, should you know any other Year 11 students who are considering their options at Post 16, please inform them that we have vacancies at Marriotts and to contact either Mr M Winter via email at: m.winter@marriotts.herts.sch.uk or Mr A Ilingworth at: a.illingworth@marriotts.herts.sch.uk

5 Live Day This week we invited three primary school from Stevenage to work with our Humanutopia Year 9 Heroes: Campshill, Featherstone Wood and Lodge Farm. The schools brought their Year 5 students to Marriotts to participate in ‘5 Live’ day. The 5 Live day gives our Humanutopia Heroes an opportunity to work closely with the Year 5s to demonstrate what HARmony is (Honesty, Awareness and Responsibility), they also have a chance to come to a secondary school setting and learn about secondary school life. There are four areas that they focus on - supporting each other, what makes a good friend, bullying and peer pressure and conformity. Students are able to make friends with the other primary schools which always helps with primary transition in year 6. The heroes were amazing role models and all three schools had a fantastic day.

Word of the Week As part of the school's drive to advance the reading skills of every student we are focusing on broadening vocabulary by teaching key academic words explicitly in class. To support this, we have introduced a 'Word of the Week' (WoW) that features key, high-frequency words used by all faculties across the school. The aim is to use these words as much as possible to ensure that the precise meaning is embedded to allow students to use these words accuracy in academic writing and talk in their subjects. Please support your child and the school by using this word at home and challenging your child to use it accurately.

The WoW for w/c Monday 24th June is: link

1. A relationship between two things or situations, especially where one affects the other.

e.g. My attitude to learning links to my achievement in a subject.

2. A ring or loop in a chain e.g. The necklace has many links.

3. Make, form, or suggest a connection with or between.

e.g. The couple linked arms as they walked along.

Rewards and Recognition Teachers regularly issue Achievement Points to students who are Aiming High, Working Hard or Being Kind. Rewards and recognition of achievement are given out through Achievement Points, which are given each week we would like to congratulate the following students who have received Green slips.

Green Slips We would like to congratulate the following students who have received a Green Slip up to 20th June.

Bradley 7A

Chloe 8A

Harvey 9A

Kajus 10F

Corey 7C

Alessia 8B

Ellie-Mae 9B

Kaci-Leigh 10G

Carl 7E

Joseph 8B

Marcus 9B

Alfie 10G

Skye 7E

Nyasha 8F

Joshua 9B

Alysha 10H

Valesha 7E

Elise 8F

Denzil 9B

Kieran 10H

Jessica 7E

Roxanne 8F

Dylan 9B

Jack 7F

Owen 8F

Lily 9C

Samad 7G

Jamie 8G

Kane 9C

Jack 7H

Max 8H

Dylan 9C

Alfie 7H

Bailey 8H

Emily 9C

Emily 7H

Freya 9C

Faye 9D

Lily 9D

Mitchell 9D

Anita 9D

Ashton 9D

Emily 9E

Holly 9H

Dominic 9H

Dates for your Diary 2018/19 Thursday 20 June – Year 9 Parents’ Evening Thursday 27th June – Sports Day Monday 1st to Wednesday 3rd July – Year 11 into 12 Induction Thursday 4 July – Year 11 Prom, Knebworth Barns Monday 8 July – Year 6 Transition Evening, 6-8pm Thursday 11 July – Year 6 Transition Day Monday 15 July – Presentation Evening, 6-8pm Friday 19 July – last day of term Harmony Camp: 29th July – 3rd August. School Term Dates 2019/2020 Monday 2nd September 2019 – Inset Day 1

Tuesday 3rd September 2019 – Year 7 and Year 12 Induction from 11am Wednesday 4th September 2019 – Whole school at normal time Tuesday 1st October 2019 – Open Evening October 28th- 31st 2019 – October half term Friday 29th November 2019 – Occasional Day Friday 20th December – 3rd January 2020 – Christmas Break February 17th – 21st 2020 – February Half Term April 6th – 17th 2020 – Easter Break May 25th – 29th 2020 – May half term Friday 17th July 2020 – Last Day of the 2019/2020 term A full calendar along with inset days, parent consultation evenings etc. will be available on the website later this term