christmas newsletter 2008

Arnold Middle School

Christmas 2008 Newsletter

Name:………………………….. Form:…………………………...

ARNOLD MIDDLE SCHOOL PAGE 2

Dear Parents/Carers I hope that you are well prepared for Christmas. It seems almost impossible that we have already held our Christmas Concerts and are about to commence several special trips (Pantomimes at Key Stage Two and London visits for Key Stage Three). Staff put a vast amount of energy into these events and I know that the children will gain a lot from them. In addition, we are also about to enjoy the Juma Steel Band workshops and the magician’s visit so there is much to enjoy as we rush towards the festive season. The Concerts were extremely well attended by parents, grandparents and friends and they were royally treated to fine examples of singing and performing. It is lovely to note that a quarter of the pupils at Arnold take up the opportunities of peripatetic music lessons. It is rare to find such an enormous amount of talent on show at middle school level – especially a double bass player.

I was fortunate to be invited to attend several other schools’ Christmas Productions and Concerts again this year and must make special mention of the Scrooge Key Stage Two Musical Play at Westoning Lower – there was so much future dramatic and musical

talent there ably led by Mrs Dean (used to be Miss Whitcombe). I thoroughly enjoyed myself! In addition, I have recently been to the two Year Four Assemblies at Ramsey Manor and was thrilled to see their hard work on two different occasions on Anti-Bullying and the next week on their Second World War studies. They’d clearly learned a lot. Mrs Lyman and Mrs Hawkins are currently working with our partner Lower Schools on a raising mathematics project. This has received additional funding from the Local Authority (thanks to Mrs Lyman’s cunning plan). All Key Stage Two teachers are working together to ensure that the children in our area get even focussed support on understanding maths. Watch out for sessions planned for parents coming to our area soon – both at Arnold and local Lower Schools.

We celebrate the work of our School Council and the ideas that they had for improving the school goes on. Their end of year fancy dress day is becoming a regular fixture and is enjoyed by all. The children have written to the Barton Parish Council for support; their aim is to continue the eco planting around the

school site. The fun run was a great success and the children will be able to order and take delivery of the replacement seating and benching for the front playground very soon.

The government review of local authorities took place last year and so there will be some changes very soon which will result in the demise of Bedfordshire County Council. Arnold Middle School is part of the Central Bedfordshire Unitary Authority. ‘Central Bedfordshire will take elements from existing district and county councils and their services and bring them together to create a streamlined, more efficient and more effective council. This approach will focus on easier access to local services, by providing one point of contact for services including children’s services, community services, housing needs, planning, waste collection and recycling, highways and environmental health.’ You can look on the Central Beds website: www.centralbeds.gov.uk to find other information. The new authority has already appointed the new director of Children, Families and Learning: Edwina Grant. I have attached the information sheet about the new Central Bedfordshire Team to our school website: www.arnold.beds.sch.uk Many of you will recall that I explained previously about the review of school systems and we are now rallying to the support of schools in Bedford Borough who are about to undergo the consultation about the Building Schools for the Future proposed changes. This might result in a move to two tier school systems in Bedford Borough and the Sharnbrook area.

We have many events for you to look forward to next term starting with the Key Stage Two evening for parents of children in Year Six. This event is aimed at keeping parents and carers informed about the construction of the national tests and how support will be provided for our children. There will be opportunities to talk to Core Subject Leaders about the tests themselves and strategies to ensure that stress is kept to the minimum.

SATs Awareness Evening (Year Six parents) Wednesday 14th January 2009 at 19.00. FASA Meeting on Tuesday 20th January 2009 at 19.00 in the Staff Room (Main School) to help arrange the Race Night – all occasional support welcome. Wednesday 25th February Parent Awareness Raising Evening (Two) at 19.00 in the Hall – all about science! Our specialist status bid and much more! Thursday 12th March - Parents’ Forum Evening at 19.00 in the Library – all welcome. Find out more about our school and help us keep making improvements.

Wednesday 25th March and Thursday 26th March 2009 at 19.00 – our Arts Performances: dance, gym and drama! Wednesday 1st April at 19.00 our annual Recital Evening – a chance to listen to our multi-talented children performing their favourite pieces of music (with cheese and wine kindly arranged by FASA).

You will note above that we have applied for Specialist Status in Science and Mathematics along with Harlington Upper and Parkfields Middle Schools. We await the results of the submission but I would like to publicly mention the additional hard work that went into the

writing of the bid with a particularly special mention for Miss Rachel Clark who co-ordinated it all. Have a great break! Best wishes Ann Payne

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ATTENTION!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

DID YOU ATTEND THE CHRISTMAS CONCERT ON WEDNESDAY 3RD DECEMBER?

DID YOU BUY A RAFFLE TICKET?

IS IT YELLOW TICKET NUMBER 157

(SERIAL NO: AB 356511)?

YOU ARE A WINNER! PLEASE CALL INTO THE SCHOOL OFFICE TO CLAIM YOUR

PRIZE WITH YOUR RAFFLE TICKET.

Get to Know the Governors

Rhys Chesters-Lewis (Chair)

I graduated from Queen Mary and Westfield College with a BA in Law and Politics having decided that an Archaeology degree would not necessarily translate into a job similar to Indiana Jones. Unfortunately after completing a law degree I also decided I didn’t want to be a lawyer either and took some time out to try and work out what I really wanted to do with the rest of my life. For most of the last 10 years I have worked as a civil servant in central government, primarily focusing on

improving public services and using various analytical techniques to challenge assumptions and existing thinking. This has involved at different times working with Ministers, preparing new legislation for parliament and researching what people think about the service they receive. My current role covers looking at what some of the challenges for the UK will be in the future, looking out to 2020, 2035, even 2050, and using what we know about issues such as the ageing population of the UK, new technologies or climate change to question whether current plans are robust enough to withstand future changes. Away from work I am married with 1 child, currently in year 4, but who will be joining AMS next September. Most of my spare time is taken ferrying him around to different sporting events but in the odd free moment I like watching sport (football, cricket, rugby union, American football and pretty much anything else) and using gadgets.


ART IN FOCUS

Having spent just over a year at Arnold, I am beginning to look with pride at the super work some of our pupils are beginning to achieve in Art. It has inevitably taken me some time to settle into the school and at times it has been a very steep learning curve, but nonetheless

progress looks good. Christmas and the New Year period is a great time to reflect on the past year and also to look forward to the future. Last year the ‘Design a shoe’ competition in year 6 was a great success and pupils made some very original and interesting designs. These were judged by Mrs Browning, a very experienced Artist, who was originally Head of Art at Sandy Upper School. She was very impressed with the standard of work presented and highly commended James Wildey who was the overall winner. She has offered to judge other competitions, which is encouraging.

In December 07, Year 8 helped to produce paintings for the Christmas music concert at Art club in the evening and in some of their lunch hours. They thoroughly enjoyed the experience and their work was most appreciated. This year, once again, the current year 8 have produced a set (backdrop) for the same event. I would like

to highly commend Christopher Boyall and Jake Short for their hard work. The Set looked splendid and was a fitting background for the theme of Africa, a reflection of this years concert performance.

Last year we embarked on the first enrichment whole school activity. A day was set aside for this purpose and the timetable was frozen for that day. Key stage 2 pupils were asked to design a wall mural to celebrate Arnolds 50th birthday and pupils produced large scale ideas in year 6 based on each decade. These are now being adapted, in Art club, onto large scale canvasses, painted by some of the pupils who took part in the activity.

Key stage 3 designed, made and marketed boxes of tissues, mimicking the Dragons Den activity on TV. Team work was essential and pupils were encouraged to use their creativity and their initiative.

At the end of the day teams were judged on their performance by Governors of the school. The School was a hive of activity and the whole experience was-judged to be very valuable and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

For myself the most valuable achievement was the way that subjects cooperated in order to produce the work. Maths, Art, CDT, Drama, English and ICT were all major aspects of this project and this was truly a cross-curricular approach. The results of pupils’ effort are still on display in the glass cabinet on the first floor of the new block! Students who were left behind when our year 7 pupil’s went on the French Trip, also had chances to take part in a variety of workshops and the timetable was once again collapsed. Every pupil who took part made a clay mask and learned some new skills. ( See the examples in The Gallery!) In Year 8 pupils produced still life pictures of Fruit and Vegetables as part of their Transfer project for Harlington Upper. These were all put onto a power point presentation and shown to their parents for the Awards evening. One of our Year 8 pupils, Abi Shattock, who won the Award for Art, was given an opportunity to have a ‘One man show’, which was admired by all. This year is going to be a very important year for all the Arts subjects at Arnold, as we are trying to obtain Artsmark Status. By next year hopefully we will be able to really celebrate our success and raise awareness of all the work we do in Drama, Textiles, Art, Music and Dance. Forthcoming events; • Year 8 Trip to the National gallery and the British Library. Dec 10th • Spring Term; Year 7 Art trip to the National Gallery to look at Portraits. (Date to be confirmed.) • ‘Relatively Artistic’ ; An exhibition of work by relatives of the pupils of

Arnold . This will be Artwork produced by family members who paint, draw, design and make in any material, who are artists in the field or who have made Art/Craft an important pastime in their lives, or who are studying Art at university and for A level.

The date and details for this exhibition has yet to be decided, but will probably be part of our Summer activities. Summer Term; ‘The Great Year 8 Water exhibition.’ An exhibition of painting by all the pupils in year 8, on the theme of ‘Water.’ Mrs L Baker (Formally L Shrehane) Head of Art

ART GALLERY

YEAR 7 MASKS

YEAR 8 TRANSFER PROJECT

News from the Music Department

Writing this piece just days after the Christmas Concert, I am feeling very proud of the 150 or so musicians who shared their time and talents in two performances to celebrate the end of the Autumn Term and the beginning of the Christmas season. Thank you, to the pupils, staff at Arnold and the County Music Service for your hard work and dedication. Thanks too, to all parents and friends who attended our concerts and support our pupils in so many ways.

This week we welcome back to our school the Juma Steel Band who will bring us a little taste of the Caribbean through their music performed on steel pans.

Sadly, the County Music Service will not be organising a Gala Concert at the Royal Albert Hall this year, but the usual County Ensemble days will take place. The first is a Keyboard Day on Tuesday 3rd February 2009 at Redbourne Upper School. In the Spring term at Arnold, we are looking forward to rehearsing the String Orchestra, Windband, Recorder Group, Percussion Group and Rock Band in readiness for our usual school concerts and the East of England Show on Friday 19th June. Mrs S Madden Head of Music

PALM CENTRE Since September the palm centre has been open every break and lunch time offering a drop in centre for each year group. This has proved extremely successful with the majority of the school using the service. Each year group

is allocated one day per week. Activities include: Friendship groups Enrichment groups One to one mentoring And sorting out problems children may encounter on a daily basis.

Anti- Bullying Report We have made a good start to the new school year recruiting more members on the team, pupils from years 5, 6, 7 and 8 are keen to push forward the anti-bullying focus at school. One of our first activities was to design some anti – bullying logos to decorate our meeting place to help everyone feel at ease and understand the meaning of anti-bullying. Everyone at school has a part to play in making our school a safe place but unless we know of the worries we can’t do anything to stop bul-lying. Please talk to the anti-bullying group (see our notice board in the en-trance hall) we can help. In January we will have a special assembly to explain what bullying is and how it can affect people. It is also time to share our ‘See Something, Say Some-thing badges to show our support for Anti Bullying, look out for these being sold by the Anti-Bullying group in January.

Look out for the following special dates next term

• January 6th Pupils return after Christmas break • January 14th KS2 SATs preparation evening for Y6 parents. • February 10th Y8 Upper School Transfer evening. • February 13th Break up for half term holiday. • February 23rd Pupils return after half term break. • February 25th Parent Awareness Raising Evening. • March 12th Parent Forum evening. • March 20th Citizenship Day for pupils • March 25th and 26th Arts Performances evening event. • April 1st Music Recital evening. • April 3rd Break up for Easter.

SCHOOL TRANSPORT The complaints keep coming regarding the unacceptable behaviour of children who travel on the buses; this has resulted in many warning letters being issued. There is limited provision of escorts and the onus to behave is placed in the hands of the individuals. It is essential that you reinforce the consequences of misconduct as it could lead to a serious incident if the driver loses concentration due to the children’s antics. Children have been out of seats during the journey, throwing items around on the bus and also being so noisy that the driver has had to stop, on more than one occasion this term the drivers have been left with no alternative but to return the children to school to be spoken to. Further complaints have been received from residents of Pulloxhill regarding the children who wait for the bus in the village who are kicking and in some cases deliberately throwing stones at passing vehicles. This appalling, inconsiderate and dangerous behaviour must not continue. To those parents who have children on any of the buses it is most important that you remind your child of the need for adherence to the rules as on the reverse of the bus pass, further incidences of this kind will result in a transport ban.

HOUSE MERITS

Thanks to their efforts they have made significant contribution to their House totals. The winning House for the Autumn term 2008 - 2009 is St John.

BRUCE CONQUEST St JOHN GREY

Y5 385 386 559 461

Y6 241 224 183 122

Y7 218 151 134 174

Y8 56 86 85 125

TOTAL 900 847 963 872

REWARDS AND RECOGNITION

VALUES AWARDS

This term has seen an increase in the number of pupils receiving Values awards in recognition of their positive approach in supporting Values Educa-tion. All Values tokens are entered into a draw the winners of which may choose from a range of small gifts. The awards will be presented in the final celebrations assembly on Friday 19th December. Many thanks to FASA for their support providing these rewards. The winners of the Values awards this term are:

Congratulations to you all and keep up the brilliant attitude.

BRUCE CONQUEST GREY St JOHN

Connor Clifton Chloe Graves Kim Mead Chloe Payne

Sarah Tilleray Jamie Lousvet Kirsty Kay Toombs

Michael Harris

Danielle Callaghan

Imogene Plater

Alice Fish Rhys Puddiphatt

Ellis Orsborn Adam Joyce Natasha Wolfe Lucy Steele

Taylor Fowler Sam Sun Chris Markwell Taylor McShane

Emma Short Jamie Lousvet Jordan Upton Lucy Steele

Prian Chauhan Danielle Yates Kara Scott Mark Miller

Kimberley Green

Michael Cummins

Rhys Horan Scott Bayliss

Parental Concerns

We are happy to receive contact by e-mail, telephone or letter

Please don’t let concern or issue build up; an early contact is always best. If you are still unsure who to contact then the school office staff are always helpful and will point you in the right direction.

Possible area of concern

First contact Follow-up contact

if required

Welfare Attendance Bullying

Miss Reeve (Year 5&6) Mrs Madden (Year 7&8)

Mrs Sides

Homework Subject teacher Mrs Lyman

Progress in a specific subject Form tutor, who will inform the Subject teacher

Subject Leader or Mrs Lyman

Special educational needs Mrs McKenna Mrs Jones

Mrs Payne

Off-site visits including organisation and costs of visits

Teacher in charge of visit Mrs Lyman

Health and safety Mr Childs (Site manager) Mrs Payne

General day-to-day arrangements

Miss Reeve (Year 5&6) Mrs Madden (Year 7&8)

Mrs Sides

School policies Mrs Payne Mr Chesters-Lewis

Individual member of staff Mrs Payne Mr Chesters-Lewis

Headteacher Mr Chesters-Lewis (Chair of Governors)

What is Books for Schools?

Times Education is committed to helping teachers, parents and children to gain access to some of the best books for young readers, and to help spread the enjoyment of reading. We are delighted to offer every school in the country the chance to increase the number of books in their library – absolutely free.

Our aim is to help you to encourage your pupils to read, giving them the chance to develop their imaginations and improve their literacy skills.

Each day during the school term in 2009, readers of The Times and The Sunday Times can collect tokens that can be redeemed for free books. With books available for as little as ten tokens, your school could benefit from hundreds of books next year. Please start collecting and bring your tokens into Mrs Bassill in the library.

ACTIVE LISTENERS WHAT WE DO By Adam Neill

In the Active Listeners we: • Help people that are being bullied. • Help people with friendship problems. • Help people with disagreements. • Settle difficulties. • And much more!

You can find us in the quiet room in the Year 5 block (if you don’t know where it is, it is the room by the exit to the ramp.) Please use the entrance by the Chiltern Class side of the ramp to save monitors and staff hassle. When you arrive you can choose which active listener you talk to; a boy or a girl. There may be some problems we can’t keep secret and will have to tell an adult, but don’t be afraid to come and see us!

Attendance September 1st – December 10th 2008

Many congratulations to all pupils named below for the amazing achievement of 100% attendance this term. All pupils will receive a certificate in assembly and a letter home.

Ben Adams Chloe Dewar Hannah Gillings Jessica Jones

Millie Anstee Jack Dimery Darian Graham Samuel Jones

Thomas Ayres Aimee Dimmock Travis Graham Chloe King

Summer Bailey Emma Dolling Kieren Hagger Emily King

Sophie Baldock Alice Double Claire Harris Jamie King

Olivia Barton Luke Draper Michael Harris Jack Large

Kelsey Bassett Lauren Eagles Will Hart Robbie Large

Connor Beck Chloe Eaton Billy Higgs Ruth Linney

Rachael Bowtell Alex Evans Jonathan Hillyard Daniel Lowe

Adam Brown Shannan Ewen Summer Hopkinson

Abigail Lugg

Kate Busby Joshua Ferguson Elise Horne James Mackey

Danielle Cal-laghan

Michaela Finn Jasmine Horne Grace Maitland

Miran Chauhan Lydia Flack Lexie Huseyin Samantha Mann

Tayler Clayton Rachel Forder Luke Hutchings Jake Martin

Connor Clifton Harry Foulkes Aaron Jackson Theo McLaren

Samuel Cook Michael Fowler Jake Jefcoate Fred McMenamy

Jamie Corley Harry Frost Luke Jeffery Taylor McShane

Bethany Creed Karis Gallafent-Day

Seb Jenkins Nicholas McTaggart


DRAMA NEWS Some of you may have been wondering what the noise is on a Wednesday after school... it's 35 Arnold students from Year 7 and 8, Miss Hubble and myself all getting together for Drama Club. That's right, Drama Club is back and what a great start we've had starting with improvisation and short script work. We will be working towards the Arts Performance in the New Year, I have been overwhelmed with everyone’s commitment, energy and imagination and look forward to the New Year - Well Done Everyone! Miss C McCrow Drama teacher

Amy Morgan Danielle Pearson Danielle Robinson Rebekah Smith

Faye Moxon Misty Penning Nicole Robinson Conor Steele

Amber Murphy Jamie Pepper Stephanie Rolson Lucy Steele

Connie Nash Jessica Percival Nathan Router Hannah Stonier

Conor Naylor Bethan Phillips Ryan Schrader Samuel Sun

Adam Neill Jessica Pitts Jodie Sheppard Cameron Watson

Evie Newton Matt Pritchard Emily Shipley Matthew Watson

Seb Newton Alex Puddiphatt Jake Short James Wildey

Kieran Norman Jagjit Rai Thomas Silk Katherine Wildey

Adam Osborn Kayleigh Ramsay Lucy Simpson Joshua Wilson

Liam Palmer Chetan Rayat Izzy Sims Natasha Wolfe

Niall Palmer Holly Richards Chloe Smith Lauren Woodbridge

Chloe Payne Alex Robins Jolene Smith Hannah Wright

Miss Truscott, a weekend in Belfast & some exciting news!

No, I’m not writing to tell you all about my weekend away but rather to share with you some exciting developments regarding Arnold and links with other schools. At the end of November, I was lucky enough to be awarded a place on a conference organised and fully funded by the British Council. The aim of this conference was to develop links with other schools across the UK & Ireland. The weekend was fantastic, meeting teachers from different areas and age phases, sharing ideas and forming community links. We have now made the first step towards linking with four other secondary schools in Brighton, Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin. We anticipate that these links will be underpinned by ICT, using blogs, podcasts and much, much more…. As an initial starting point, Year 8 pupils will be studying the History topic ‘What does it mean to be British?’ after Christmas. This topic will support our links with the twinned schools and help us discover other pupil’s perceptions of their local and global community. If you would like to know more about this exciting development, please feel free to contact me at school. Miss Rachel Truscott Leader of History, Values & Life Skills.

• Do you have a special talent or interesting job that you’d like to share with our pupils as part of our PSHCE programme?

• Could you talk to some of our children about your faith linking with our RE

lessons? • Can you bring and added dimension to the lives of our pupils so they

relate what they learn with everyday life? We would love to hear from you if you think you could give up an hour of your time to help enrich the lives of our pupils. Please contact Miss R Truscott for more details……….

ASSEMBLIES&VALUESASSEMBLIES&VALUES

As you know, Values Education plays a vital role in the ethos of Arnold Middle School. We believe that incorporating Every Child Matters (ECM) into our assemblies and linking these with our Values will help all our pupils understand their role within the school & wider community. Listed below are the ECM elements and Value to be covered next term in assembly time. Please take the opportunity to discuss with your child/ren these themes and feel free to contact the school with any questions. Week

commencing ECM impact Value

12th Jan Stay safe (Anti-bullying)

Consideration

19th Jan Stay safe (Internet safety)

Understanding

26th Jan Be healthy (Nutrition)

Co-operation

2nd Feb Be healthy (Fitness)

Co-operation

9th Feb Achieve economic well being

(Careers)

Unity

23rd Feb Achieve economic well being

(Sustainable communities)

Trust

2nd March Achieve and enjoy (Talents)

Caring

9th March Achieve and enjoy (Gifts)

Fairness

16th March Make a positive contribu-tion

(Citizenship Day)

Self-esteem

23rd March Make a positive contribu-tion

(Law abiding citizens)

Making the most of your opportuni-

ties

30th March Easter

Love

3rd April Celebration

All values

The Huff Puff Activity Programme We are pleased to announce that as from 1st December the children from years 5 & 6 have been offered the opportunity to take part in The Huff Puff Activity Programme. The most important factor in this programme is to get the pupils to see the link between eating well, physical activity and feeling good about themselves. Staff at Arnold Middle School want to increase the number of pupils making healthy lifestyle choices about diet and exercise. We also want to improve pupils behaviour at lunchtime. We aim to combine these two objectives and have trained some of our responsible year 8 students to become Lunch Time Physical Activity Leaders. We are doing this to: • help improve the children’s levels of fitness; • promote the concept of regular physical exercise and the importance of

exercise; • teach the children how their body works, for example what happens to

their pulse rate when undertaking physical activity; • improve levels of co-operation and trust/self control/greater inclusion by

sharing and communicating with fellow students; • improve co-ordination, reaction, strength, endurance and balance; • provide more opportunities for better social interaction; • develop language and listening skills; • promote respect for their own abilities and that of others; • stop boredom bullying/general behaviour improvement; • channel normal energy positively; • help children find activities they enjoy doing; • provide opportunities for creativity and adaptation • give more opportunities to be successful • reduce stress levels — for staff as well as pupils; • engage the children in organised fun activities. Our thanks to Sue Robinson and Amanda Wilkie (SSCo) based at The Redbourne School Sport Partnership who are supporting AMS in this exciting programme.

Physical Education

Another hectic and eventful term has passed, and once again our children have been benefiting from the vast array of opportunities provided through Physical Education.

Our year 8 Netball team have played some outstanding Netball through the season, working hard in every game and showing a true dedication to beat all opponents. Their hard work and determination deservedly paid off as they finished in first position, top of the Mid Beds league, having won all their games and drawing only one game, which was to Holywell. Well done to all the following team: Eleanor Keep, Kirsty Foster, Ruth Harley, Olivia Murphy, Beth Creed, Samantha Mann, Louisa Laviola, Kayleigh Eaton and Chole Graves. The girls are a credit to themselves, the

school and the PE Department. The year 7 team also performed well with some fantastic results, victories across all games including, Henlow, Holywell, Woodlands, Marston Vale, Etonbury, Alameda. These impressive performances resulted in them finishing in 4th place in the league. It is always a bigger challenge for the year 7s as they move from playing high 5s to the full game of Netball. The team however, coped well with that change and also fought hard as a team to achieve some outstanding results. Well done to all the girls involved: Kelsey Bassett, Megan McDonagh, Amy Govier, Isabelle Whinnett, Ellis Osbourne, Katie Cusack, Katherine Wildey, Danielle Anness, Henny Horsler. The ‘B’ Netball teams: Year 7&8 were also in action last term competing in the Mid Beds Tournament. The year 8 ‘B’ team performed really well finishing in 2nd postion with the year 7s in 3rd position. Well done. We now look forward to the Netball County Tournaments in March and will be training hard until then to ensure more outstanding results. The year 5&6 Netball teams were also in action during last term. The year 5s started the season with friendly matches against local rivals Robert Bloomfield and beat them in both games. Netball tournaments then began with our year 5s competing against the year 6 teams of other schools. The year 5s played some outstanding Netball and competed to a high standard often drawing or even beating these teams. Well done to Jessica Pitts, Jessica Jones, Rebecca James, Freya Green, Joanna Snowdon, Ria Pachnanda , Daniela D’Isola.

The year 6 Netball team were amazing winning every single game by many points. They remain unbeaten and credit should be given to the great skill, teamwork, tactics and understanding this young team display when they play. Well done to the year 6 team, Anna Savage, Lauren Eagles, Holly Thompson, Debbie Bolland, Evie Lawrence, Lucy Wolfe. This term has seen the start of our Basketball fixtures. Both the year 7&8 boys and girls teams have been privileged enough to receive specialist coaching from qualified MK lions coaches. At present both the year 7 & 8 girls sit at the top of their leagues. The year 8s were in action on Tuesday night, and subsequently achieved some outstanding results in beating Woodlands and Parkfields. The year 7s have also been on a winning streak again beating Woodlands and Robert Bloomfield. There has also been notable improvement in boys Basketball in both years 7 and 8. Impressive victories and dramatic fightbacks have put us in a good position with the league. The boys can now look forward to their one remaining fixture.

Indoor Athletics and Cross-Country has also been the subject of much effort this term. We look forward to the upcoming Cross-Country season which kicks off in January. Many children have been training hard every Tuesday morning since September in preparation for these competitions.

A special mention must go to all the athletes who competed in the Indoor Athletics events. All the children who competed performed with great dedication and concentration, and as a result we impressed throughout all year groups. The children had the opportunity to practice throwing, jumping, and of course running. We’re confident that these competitions will act as great preparation for the Athletics season that takes place in the summer term. Rugby has also been an area of improvement this term. Our Year 7’s and 8’s continued the progress they have been making with a great amount of effort being put in. Year 8s in particular have been very successful, having gone on a four game winning streak .A special mention must go to Kane McKenna, Matt Watson, Sam Jarmin and captain fantastic Luke Lewis, who has led by example throughout. Meanwhile, our Year 6 Rugby team competed in the Rushmoor u11 Rugby tournament, which is a county-wide tournament. The boys’ came second in the

qualifying group which put us into the plate competition, which took place on the Saturday morning of 6th December. Playing Henlow in their first plate match we won in sudden-death which put us in the final where we faced Harrold Middle. Impressively, we won by six tries. Congratulations to the following squad of: Luke Jeffrey, James Moxon, Daniel Holland, Reece Smith, Alex Evans, Josh Wilson, Oliver Malczyk, Sam Pointing (captain) and Ciaran Nippard.

Huge congratulations to all the children who have been competing in highly competitive house fixtures in the sports of Netball and Rugby. The commitment and performance shown by many has not gone unnoticed. Congratulations to all the boys and girls who have also turned up to regular football practices throughout the term. Despite the league not beginning until later in the school year practices have been taking place weekly for all age groups; these will act as excellent preparation for our competitive fixtures. We look forward to the upcoming season which will provide lots of excitement and enjoyment for all involved. The PE department would like to congratulate all the children for all their efforts and achievements, and for making 2008 such a great sporting year. We wish you all a happy Christmas, and look forward to another successful sporting year in 2009!

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m

12.2

0

12.2

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12.5

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12.2

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12.5

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Thur

sday

Com

pute

r C

lub

Re

cord

er C

lub

Win

db

and

All

year

s

Ye

ars

5 &

6

Mrs

. D

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Mrs

. Woo

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Mr.

O’M

alle

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3E

1D

Mus

ic R

oom

12.2

0—

12.5

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12.2

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12.5

5

3.3

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4.3

0

Friday

Com

pute

r C

lub

Roc

k C

lub

Perc

ussi

on G

roup

All

year

s M

rs.

Dye

Mr.

Sh

eff

ield

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Wic

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3E

Mus

ic R

oom

Mus

ic R

oom

12.2

0—

12.5

0

12.5

0—

1.2

0

12.2

0—

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0

Club T

imeta

ble—Janu

ary

2009

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