17 July 2017 Issue 11

2016/2017

Farlingaye HIGH SCHOOL

Head’s Message As we enter the final days of the academic year 2016-17 and reflect on what has been a year of change and challenge, I would like to pay tribute to the efforts of all of the Farlingaye High School staff who have worked so hard to make this a productive and enjoyable year for the school community, despite the sometimes tragic circumstances that we have faced. Some of our staff will be moving on during the summer – to promotions in the main, but also to retirement or to new living arrangements in other parts of the country. The list attached to this edition of the Forum confirms which staff will be leaving us. We wish them all the best for the next phase of their lives, and thank them for their tremendous efforts on behalf of the students of Farlingaye, past and present.

Also attached to this edition is a list of the new staff who will be joining us in September. Given that England is in the middle of an escalating teacher recruitment and retention crisis, I have been delighted with the success of our recruitment processes for next year. We will have a well-qualified teacher leading every classroom next year, and our provision will be ably reinforced by motivated and appropriately experienced pastoral, administrative and support teams. I was extremely impressed by the way in which current staff have taken on new responsibilities and roles during this year, and for September. A list of our recent internal promotions is also attached to this edition. I fully expect to continue to enjoy working with our excellent staff next year.

Since our most recent Forum was published, there have been several wonderful events that have helped us to finish the year in appropriately celebratory style. The Summer Concert was lovely, an aural breath of summer air, while the Sports Awards Evening allowed us to provide well-earned congratulations to our fantastic young sportsmen and women. Our Acoustic Music and Awareness Evening – a brand new feature of the Farlingaye calendar – succeeded admirably both in allowing our students to express themselves creatively through music and in helping us as a community to address again the need to raise awareness of mental health issues. It is vital that we find ways to look after each other well through difficult times and that we encourage everyone within the FHS community to be open about their feelings. Events like this one, and the daily efforts of staff and students, will help us to address the needs of our community going forward.

As we look forward to a well-earned summer break for all at FHS, we remember those we have lost this year. I would like to wish all our families a summer of peace and renewal.

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“We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Battlefields Trip The Battlefields trip was an interesting, enlightening, moving and fun experience. The cemeteries and historical landmarks, were unlike anything I expected. The enormous cemeteries and large commemorative monuments brought home the enormity of the loss of life and impact the First World War brought. Our first day was spent in the Somme area where we heard some heroic stories of battles that have still left their mark in the land a hundred years later. The second day was my favourite day, where we went to Ypres and explored German trenches and their cemetery, which showed that great losses were incurred on both sides. We also visited some more British cemeteries; one of which was Tyne Cot Commonwealth Cemetery. This was one of the most spectacular places I have ever visited, the sheer scale of the cemetery was awe-inspiring. Later that day we witnessed the Last Post ceremony which seemed a fitting tribute to those who lost their lives. On the last day we stopped off in Bruges before moving onto Calais. We all went on a beautiful boat trip through Bruges then had some free time to explore the city. Overall, I really liked this trip because I learnt a lot and experienced new things. I had lots of laughs with my friends and made some new friends through the course of the weekend. I was unsure of whether to go but I am very glad I did and would strongly recommend that others go on the trip. Caroline White 9I

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Suffolk Schools’ Sailing Regatta 2017 On June 29th 2017, 19 students took part in the Suffolk Schools’ Sailing Regatta at Alton Water. The conditions were light and demanding but it was a beautiful, warm day. There were six different types of racing and we had entries in four of these. Our best result was a very commendable 2nd in the Tera class from James Russell. In the Topper class Sean Woodard was 4th, Ciara Woodard was 9th and Hugo Passmore 10th; this was a very competitive fleet. There were also excellent results in the Slow Handicap Fleet ; 4th and 6th from Hazel Whittle & Annabelle Whittle and Daisy Nunn & Lucy Rains sailing Cadets. Elsa Cooney and Rosie Seabrook stormed to a super 6th place in the Fast Handicap sailing a Laser 2. There were a number of other students involved, with one pairing doing the ‘OnBoard’ learn to race regatta. Woodbridge Sea Scouts kindly lent us three boats which meant more people could sail this year. The event was, as ever, dominated by the private schools, however, if they were taken out of the equation and the same criteria used, Farlingaye would be Suffolk champions! Thank you to all the parents who helped with the event by bringing boats and supporting on the day. Mr G Harris and Miss N Day

Refereeing Chay Hathway in Year 13 has been training be a football referee. He has recently been appointed fourth official to a Football League pre-season friendly—the highest level Chay has ever officiated at. Congratulations Chay.

Year 12 MFL trip to the University of Cambridge Bonjour! Hallo! Hola! Olá! Ahlan! These greetings represent just a small percentage of the languages available to us over the course of our day at Cambridge, with subjects ranging from French, German and Spanish to Arabic and Russian amongst others! The day started off with a sample lecture in which one of Cambridge’s renowned Modern Languge lecturers explained the truth behind some common myths surrounding linguistics. This subject was extremely thought-provoking. It allowed us to discuss and expand ideas related to the way in which languages are viewed by others, while also giving us a valuable understanding of the teaching offered at university level. We then went on to participate in two classes specific to our respective A level languages; a valuable experience as it pushed us out of our comfort zone and encouraged us to converse and listen wholly in the foreign language. To give an example, the subjects focused on in the French master classes were captivating, especially the section in which we learnt the French equivalent for Harry Potter vocabulary such as ‘poufsouffle’ for ‘Hufflepuff’. Finally, we had a beginners’ class in a language of our choice - Russian, Portuguese, Chinese or Arabic. The chance to discover a language we had never previously considered was really valuable, as it allowed us to be educated on the workings of different linguistic forms. The languages day at Cambridge was a brilliant insight into the type of teaching and range of courses available in universities and future prospects, therefore we all give a huge thanks you to Mrs Green and Ms Tyndale Hardy for making these opportunities possible! Daisy Nash, Year 12 Year 12 students’ comments: Jasmine Butcher: “It was very inspiring” Charlie Boast: “I found the experience very valuable. It helped me to break down my options for the future.” Natalie Boon: “I gained an insight into university level languages.” Jordan Baggott: “I was surprised to see the variety of languages they offered.” Moreen Lagrimas: “It gave me a whole new outlook on life as a languages student.” Lucy Wright: “Having an experience of lectures and seminars made me realise that I want to study languages at university.” Jemima Howe: “I enjoyed the insight into the different styles and functions of different languages.” Kate Atkinson: “Shukran Cambridge, it was a very interesting day!”

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Tennis This year, Farlingaye has entered a number of tennis teams into local competitions for both students in lower and upper school. It has been great to see students compete against teams from across the county, including schools where tennis is considered one of their main sports. Following the update in the previous forum, the Year 10 girls’ team took on East Bergholt. Jess Lane captaining the team won her matches with great style, however, overall, we missed out on a win there by the smallest of margins, losing in a deciding tiebreak! Fantastic effort from the girls involved. The Year 10 boys’ team have had a good season too. They have played various opposition including Framlingham College and Woodbridge School, both of whom put out strong teams. Harvey Chevous and Jack Jarvis have been switching in and out of the number 1 spot with both winning all their matches and both having competed with great sportsmanship. Zach Henstridge and Eden Rogers, have been a backbone for the team playing in the majority of matches, with them winning a good number of them, and those that have been lost have been done on final tiebreak. They both performed fantastically and to maintain their composure in such a tight contest is highly commendable. Tom Mansfield, George Fricker and Kamiar Azvine have helped us out by stepping up to the plate when our team was struck with illness, and all managing to win their matches! Thank you to all students who have been involved with tennis this year. It has been a while since Farlingaye entered tennis competitions and you have set the foundation for a tennis legacy at our school. There will be more tennis next year as we pilot a program with the Tennis Foundation to become a School of Tennis. I hope to see you on court in the near future. Mr Pullen

Cambridge Chemistry Challenge 32 Year 12 Chemistry students entered the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge. The paper is an annual 90 minute exam set by the Chemistry Department at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge. 21 students earned certificates this year on a very tough paper!!! That has smashed our previous record of 11. Special mention must go to Sam Cottee who was awarded our second Gold certificate with our high mark ever.

Mrs Moran

Name Award Samuel Cottee Gold Euan McKenzie Silver James Liddell Silver Emily Downie Silver Otto Richardson Silver Harry Page Silver Alice Curzon Copper

Emily Walczak Copper Edward Moon Copper Andras Dervenkar Copper Beth Scahill Copper Jamilla Simpson Copper Charlotte Boast Copper Grace Cook Copper Matilda McLean Copper

Erin Hamilton Copper Sarah Llewellwyn Copper Philip Ouko Copper Alice Brown Copper Morgan Dale Copper Daisy Shaw Copper

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School of Rock What an amazing show! We knew that this would be an ambitious production for the Lower School but the cast, dancers, musicians and crew rose to the challenge magnificently. The show is currently playing to packed houses in the West End but unusually Andrew Lloyd Webber has made the performance rights available to schools for a limited time, so we just had to do it. The process started back in March when 200 Year 7-9 students auditioned. It is always difficult but we inevitably had to say no to many who gave excellent auditions. In the end there were nearly 120 students involved either on stage, in the band, backstage and front of house. We took 50 students to Drury Lane to see a performance in April and had a great evening. Even at that early stage we were all singing loudly along to ‘Stick it to the Man’! The show relies very heavily on the central character of Dewey Finn and we knew it was crucial to find the right person for this demanding role. We couldn’t have been more pleased than to be able to cast Sam Fortmann in Year 10. Sam has been brilliant, he really grew into the role, he coped with the vocal demands and he carried the show, supporting the younger cast and being a great role model for them. We had four really talented on-stage musicians who played live while acting: Noah Evans on guitar, Amélie Magotte on keys, Annabel Kimber on bass and Eden Rogers on drums. All of the kids’ band were amazing, with a particular mention also for Daisy Heron as Summer, and Olivia Steward as Tomika. All of the cast and dancers were great, and professional in their approach. Sophie Hanson in particular was remarkable as Rosalie the uptight headteacher (little did we think when we started that we had a student who could sing Mozart’s ‘Queen of the Night’ aria so perfectly!) A mention for the musicians under the stage: the band and backing singers were all from Years 7 to 10 and were amazing, and totally committed; as were the backstage team led by Emily Richards, and the technical crew. There are many people to thank after such a large undertaking: the show was a real technical challenge so huge thanks to Mr Deeble and Tom Clow for all they contributed and to Ms Martino for invaluable help on the sound desk. Special thanks to Mrs Shaw for making the excellent school uniforms that added so much visually to the production; to Mr Hall for all his work creating props; to Mr Blomfield for vocal coaching; and to Shannon Williams and Lily Jackson for helping with the choreography. And to you the parents for all your support and encouragement! The Production team: Ms Lansdowne, Miss Ring, Mr Picton

Enterprise Day On Friday July 7th, all Year 9 Farlingaye students had their annual opportunity to participate in an exciting Enterprise Day with BT. Students participated in this wonderful business simulation at Adastral Park, Martlesham Heath, for a full day of tasks and activities related to working in the business environment with the challenges of running their own business. This is the 13th year that Farlingaye and BT have been collaborating in this venture and the event has continued to grow every year in both its complexity and success. 287 year 9 students had been working within their 22 separate micro-companies for the previous month and a half, developing their business with their own structures, strategies and through completing tasks in order to sell ‘their’ brand of cars to a global market. Teams earned “money” from completing a range of group based and individual tasks and activities and used the financial rewards from these to buy resources from the stock market, commodities exchanges and banks to further their business. They also needed to participate in a Dragons’ Den style presentation to gain further business investment for their venture with many teams putting on very professional displays. Teams have been organising their company structures, with designated official roles, preparing marketing portfolios, websites and presentations. This year technology really took hold with many teams creating online adverts, animations, websites and the use of other digital media to support their efforts. The Enterprise Twitter account was buzzing before the day with questions and promotional material very much reflecting the media age we now live in. We streamed the day live to school and it was watched by students and staff on screens around the school and on the network at break and lunch. Our dedicated media team also put a great video together reflecting the challenges and fun students had on the day. Alongside the Enterprise event, the teams must also earn money for charity to emphasise the need to think about their wider corporate social responsibility. This was real money. This year was more innovative than ever before with ‘soak the teacher stalls’, cake sales, computer gaming, car washes, games, and busking! Over £600 was raised by student activity in their lunchtimes and this has been donated to the Children’s Charity ‘Barnados’ once again. Year 9 students have much to be proud of; they have raised money for charity, behaved impeccably, met and overcome the challenges of the day. This year the winning team was ‘Asterix’ : led by Archie Page as CEO, Benny McGuire, Seb Mobee, Jack Norman, Beth Marsh, Alba Perez Sanchez, Tom Rankin, William Rushbrook, Tom Shannon, George Stiff, Tom Turner and Ryan Williams. 27 Economics and Business A Level Year 12 students also helped make the day possible and of course the wonderful staff from BT. The school really values the business links established with BT. Huge thanks must go to them for hosting and working so hard on this event. Particular thanks should go to both Kevin Peirce and Andrew Trawford who are the key people to make this day as enjoyable as it is. Mr Edge

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Surface Trial At Farlingaye we aim to provide the best quality education that we can. Despite recent cutbacks we are determined to stay at the forefront of educational developments. Technology plays an important part in all our lives and this can only increase over the years. It is therefore important that technology plays a significant role in our classrooms as well. Thanks to money raised through FHSF events such as our very popular quiz night and brilliant 80’s night we have been able to fund a trial of two potentially exciting and useful technologies in the classroom. With funds from the FHSF we have purchased five Surface tablet PCs and 3 visualisers. Mr Gemmell, Mr Barrie, Mrs Spearpoint, Mr Pullen and Mr Tighe have all agreed to try them out and explore how they can be used in the classroom. The tablets can connect wirelessly to the projectors. Mr Pullen writes about his experiences. The tablet allows staff to walk around the room, and continue to interact with IT rather than being tied to the front of the classroom where the laptop is connected. It allows the teacher to move freely and work with students whilst still commanding use of IT. Other uses discovered so far include: allowing students to write on the tablet, modelling their answers for the rest of the class to see, which is particularly useful in Maths and Science. The camera on the device can allow photos of good work to be displayed easily on the screen and this can be used as peer assessment, comparison and again modelling good work. These are just a few of its uses so far. With each use we are finding new ways to develop and improve teaching and learning in the classroom. The picture shows 2 students engaged in work on the tablet. This is immediately shared with the whole class. Visualisers are good quality cameras (a bit like webcams) mounted on a stand. They connect through the teacher’s laptop to the screen and again allow students to share their work easily. Teachers can also use them for demonstrations. One of the visualisers has been given to humanities and Mr Webb used it for the first time last week. His comments were: I have used the visualiser today to show all students in the class the work of others in the group, showing them the ideas of others. I intend to use it with GCSE and AS/A Level classes to go over model answers to help them highlight good aspects of responses to exam questions, and which parts need further development. I also intend to use it to offer opportunities for peer assessment by photographing work for later grading and feedback. Thanks to our parents supporting events and organising events we can continue to develop teaching at Farlingaye. Please continue to support our events and join our committee to help continue with this good work. Mr Moran

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Golf On Friday June 23rd, Farlingaye entered two teams into the Suffolk Golf competition held at Ufford Park. It was a warm, dry and blustery day and the course was in great condition. For the first time in many years we were able to field a team of three girls. Ava McGreal, Juliette Coffey and Grace Fricker made up the team. It was their first time in a school’s competition and all did very well. Stableford scores meant that the high handicappers were able to score well or pick up their ball if the hole was not going to plan. Juliette picked up a prize for being the highest scoring girl. A proud moment! Ava and Grace also played well. I was impressed with Grace’s first tee shot that landed a good distance down the fairway. Although Ava had a shaky start she composed herself and settled into her round nicely. A good achievement having not played for a while. The boys’ team consisted of Taylor Crisp, Kamair Azvine and Ryan Goodarzi. Taylor was moved up the field to play with two boys who were on very low handicaps. This was a good experience for Taylor and he held his own playing some lovely shots. Ryan also had a reasonable day but it was Kamair who played some steady golf and also picked up a prize for his consistent scoring. Well done to all six players who represented the school. George Fricker was unavailable for this competition as he was representing the region at U18 level. He had a number of rounds to complete over the weekend and into the early part of the following week. This is a schools competition and George is proudly representing Farlingaye. George managed to finish 4th place in the regionals then an impressive 6th in the Nationals. This is a superb achievement! George will now become a part of the England Squad. His first fixture with them will be in September when they take on Scotland. Well done George a lot of hard work and determination has been put in to reach this stage. Mr Sparkes

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Charity Week 2017

The week of July 10th was Farlingaye’s first Charity Week. Every year group arranged events on specific

days of the week. The aims of the week was not only to raise a little money for various charities, but also to

raise awareness of how we can help charities and the wider community.

On Monday Year 7 supported Just 42 with a raffle and cake stall.

Tuesday, Year 8 collected soup and toiletries for Ipswich Soup Kitchen.

Wednesday, Year 9 raised money for Ipswich Night Shelter by collecting for a “wear a Silly Hat” day and by

busking at lunchtime.

Thursday, Year 10 supported Outreach Youth by paying to teach 15 minutes of a lesson and holding small

group discussions for the whole school. Everyone joined in with running Art workshops and performing and

attending the Acoustic Evening and BBQ, all in aid of raising awareness of mental health issues.

On Friday, everyone joined in with karaoke in the library, wearing funky socks or shoes to school and Year 7

walked a mile for charity.

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Acoustic Evening On Thursday July 13th we held our first outdoor acoustic evening – a festival-like musical event involving the whole community. Local and national charities were invited to raise awareness for their causes with particular emphasis on local issues and on mental health and wellbeing. Guests enjoyed a barbecue before relaxing on the field to enjoy the wonderfully talented students performing a range of songs including Johnny Cash, Whitney Houston, Oasis and the Arctic Monkeys. The charities who attended included stem4, Suffolk Mind, Dementia Friends, Headway Suffolk, Action (supporting medical research for children), EACH, the East Anglian Children’s Hospice appeal and Farlingaye’s own online safety group. Local author Iain Maitland, representing stem4, a charity devoted to supporting teenage mental health, said: “Your students were warm and welcoming and receptive and we were pleased to meet them. Some really good music too!” Natasha Brame from EACH said: “A huge thank you for letting us attend your awareness concert yesterday evening. It was lovely to meet so many enthusiastic individuals! Everyone was incredibly generous with our collection pot but most importantly, they wanted to hear what EACH does and I even signed up 9 volunteers for one of our upcoming events which is absolutely fantastic!” Midway through the evening, sixth form student Iona Balleny spoke about the need to remove the stigma around mental health and issued a call for students, teachers, parents and charities to work together to raise awareness and support. One of the audience members said afterwards: “The evening not only showcased some very talented musicians (we are very proud parents!) but also raised much needed awareness of mental health… I strongly believe that the event last night and the work I am sure you will continue to do, will enable people to get help much sooner. It is a must. The young lady who spoke at the event captured it beautifully.” Head of Music, Ms Martino, who organised the evening said: “'I really wanted to create an evening where students, their families, the local community and local charities could come together to listen, to talk and share thoughts and be able to access specialist support. It has been a tough year for the school community and we wanted to acknowledge this but also the fact that we have survived it, together. We wanted a mix of ages to be able to enjoy an evening of music and food, a community that could come together in support of one another. It was a really fabulous event. Working in partnership with some of the older students we set out to create the right tone and musical programme for the evening. Student performers were from Year 9 and above and the performances were powerful and sincere. The students committed totally to the event, believing in what they were doing. The whole evening shows what can be done when we all come together for a common purpose.” Farlingaye continues to work closely with its community through concerts, fundraisers and links with parents and local businesses. The issue of mental health and wellbeing in young people is currently hitting the national headlines and we have made a commitment to addressing and supporting this in the coming year.

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Sports Day We had a really fantastic sports day earlier this month. This year we combined the traditional athletics events with some activities on the Tennis courts in order to support our School of Tennis status. It was a lovely atmosphere on the day and many students had made elaborate banners in order to support the members of their forms. As always, the standard of the athletics was very high; it’s a chance for some of our elite athletes to attempt to break school records but more importantly it’s an occasion where tutor groups work together as part of a team to gain as many points as possible. A particularly memorable part of the day was the year 10 boys high jump. Teddy Ntuli somehow managed to get the whole of the field clapping in time to encourage him over a bar that was higher than his head! He broke a record that had stood for 21 years and I think there’s a high probability it will now last for another 21 years at least! The overall tutor group winners were: Year 7 7H Year 8 8R Year 9 9E Year 10 joint winners, 10R and 10G Well done to everyone who was involved in scoring points for their team. Miss Alexander