School closes on Friday 26th October at 3.30pm .

Monday 5th November is a staff inset day.

All students return on Tuesday 6th November 2012.

At the end of our first term of the year I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate especially our Year 7 students for completing their first 50 days at Langtree! The students in our new cohort have been a pleasure to work with, and staff have very much appreciated their cheerful good humour and positive attitude to school in the early weeks. It has been such a pleasure to get to know many in lessons and around the school at lunchtime, and it is wonderful to see them growing in confi-dence and self-esteem as they settle into the school. Good luck in the months and years ahead!

Indeed it is fair to say that the vast majority of our students have sustained a very positive attitude to learning throughout the term. The ‘honeymoon’ period of the first few days of September is still very much alive in the school, and I hope that our students will return in exactly the same spirit in No-vember.

Although clearly not the sole driver for this very positive mood around the school, it is no coinci-dence that the students look magnificent in their new school uniforms. Many have commented on how much they enjoy wearing the new uniform, pointing out that it makes them feel more ‘business like’ and visitors to the school have commented on how smart they are. With this in mind I would like to take this oppor-tunity to thank all parents for their fantastic support with re-gard to the change; we have listened to all views and com-ments offered, but it was ex-tremely gratifying overall to note that the vast majority of parents clearly supported the main objec-tive of smartening up the presen-tation of students in spite of specific issues about supply and cost. Whatever your view, many thanks indeed for your on-going support of Langtree School as we move into an exciting future period.

Our newly elected Student Coun-cil has made an excellent start to the year in office. Committees have developed exciting action plans, and I have been invited to meet on several occasions with the Environment committee to hear more about the refurbish-ments and improvements they would like to see around their school during the year. In addi-tion, the Fund raising Committee has decided to adopt Helen & Douglas House as one of our school charities for the year. Why not come along and support the Forresters Hair and Beauty even-ing on the 26th November? We have an outstanding Council this year: read more about their work inside the newsletter.

One of the most exciting devel-opments this year will be the introduction of a new Virtual Learning Environment or VLE, which will allow students to en-gage in learning anywhere and anytime when out of school. Our staff working group is making considerable progress with the

Message from the headteacher

October 2012

Please pay on line for trips & visits, revision guides etc., ra-ther than by cash or cheque. If you do not have your unique pupil

code please call Sue Tamnee on 01491 683392 or email her in t h e f i n a n c e o f f i c e a t stamnee@langtree.oxon.sch.uk

development of the ‘Realsmart’ VLE, and parents will be very much involved in the launch as soon as we are ready to go live. This initiative has been funded by donations from our recent Spon-sored walk which is on course to raise a record level of over £6 000 this year. As a consequence, staff and students will be chang-ing to new email addresses in line with our new domain. Watch out for advance warning of the changeover in Term 2 after the break.

A warm welcome to Ian Barlow, our newly appointed ICT Techni-cian who joined the team this week.

Finally, I would like to thanks all

those parents who support the

school so generously through

membership of The Langtree 100

and the PTA. Donations to The

Langtree 100 totalled over £6

000 recently, and along with a

generous contribution of over £2

000 from the PTA, students will

now benefit directly from a signif-

icant injection of additional fund-

ing. The PTA donation has cov-

ered the cost of our refurbished

table tennis area which is hugely

popular with students at break

and lunch time, and the Langtree

100 donation will be used to

support the installation of a new

wireless network in the school.

During times of financial pres-

sures, I would like to thank all

those parents who have made

the commitment to contribute to

the success of the school through

these vital organisations. Your

generosity is very much appreci-

ated.

Rick Holroyd

Year 10 parents.. Look out for the letter sent

home with the English course outline for

next term.

Forthcoming

Production of

Jesus Chris Superstar

Tickets available

from 12th November

for school production

on Monday 17th,

Tuesday 18th and

Wednesday 19th

December 2012.

£6.00 Adult/£3.50

Child/concession

.. Don’t miss The Langtree School PTA Catwalk Show & Fashion Sale .. Models required ...

See attached flyer for further details

STUDENT COUNCIL CONFERENCE

Follow us on Twitter @ Head4094

On Monday 8th October 2012 the elected group of students arrived on a wet day at Mapledurham Golf Club for the annual Student Council Conference. Once we arrived we had refreshments. Mad-die and Philip, our senior student leaders gave us a fantastic presentation about the agenda for the day. We then decided upon the slogan for the Student Council for 2012-2013:

Open your eyes look within: how can you improve the school we are in ?

We then split up into the different committees. We had to decide upon our points of action for the year and what we wanted to

achieve at the end of the year. Once we had finished we had time to play some team building games, which involved meeting and interacting with people that many of us have never spoken to before. After lunch we went back into our groups and we finalised our actions plans and presented our ideas to the members of staff and our fellow student council members that had accompanied us. Finally, we had to come up with 10 questions for Mr Holroyd, the-se ranged from the new uniform to how much money we had to spend this year. A big thank you to all the members of staff involved, fellow stu-dent council members and to Mr Holroyd for answering all of our

questions. Good luck to all the committees this year and keep up the good work!

Ian Brakspear

Student Voice committee

SCHOOL UNIFORM

All Langtree School uniform MUST be purchased from the Trutex website A full uniform list with costings can be found at trutexdirect.com and

enter LEA00254SB

Dress for Years 7-10 Boys: Blue v neck logo jumper, white logo polo shirt or white logo shirt with school

tie, choice of two styles of black tailored logo trousers. Girls:

Blue v neck logo jumper or blue logo cardigan, white logo polo shirt or white logo shirt with school tie, choice of two styles of skirts, or black tailored logo

trousers. Dress for Years 11

Boys: Grey v neck logo jumper or grey logo cardigan, white logo polo shirt or white

logo shirt with school tie, choice of two styles of black tailored logo trousers. Girls: Grey v neck logo jumper or grey logo cardigan, white logo polo shirt or white

logo shirt with school tie, black tailored logo trousers or choice of two styles of skirts.

Coats/Jewellery/Shoes Plain Navy or Black outdoor coat - Coats/scarves should not be worn in-

side school. No other hooded sweatshirts or jumpers should be worn. Shoes – Leather or leather type only, dark brown or black, flat heels only. No

trainers, no boots, no canvas shoes. Socks – navy blue, black or white. Tights –black. No leggings or denim clothing of any sort.

Belts –black, plain, no studs. Students may wear one pair of small stud earrings, no more than one stud in

each ear, but dress jewellery and earrings may not be worn in school in line with the County Health and Safety Policy. Studs may not be worn anywhere

other than in the ears. No other form of body piercing is acceptable.

No Student should have his/her hair dyed an unnatural colour, nor should any student come to school with a shaven or partly shaven head. Long hair must be tied back for safety reasons in practical lessons – this applies equally to boys

and girls.

Discreet makeup may be worn. No eyeliner, nail varnish or nail extensions.

2012 Sponsored Walk

Friday 21st September saw our annual sponsored walk take place. This year we are raising money for a new Virtual Learning Environ-ment (VLE) for the students of Langtree School. Despite a couple of rain showers, students were in good spirits and thoroughly en-joyed their day out. The behaviour of the students was excellent, all representing Langtree at its best.

Twenty parents volunteered to help on the day, some marshalling, some at checkpoints, for which we are very grateful as we would struggle to pull off the event without their help. To date the stu-dents have raised and handed in £4500 sponsor money with an-other £2400 pledged. Looks like it could be a record year as the total raised for 2011 was a little over £5100.

Dr C Thatcher, Cover Supervisor

2012 Coin Challenge Last term students undertook to collect

2012 coins, with money being donated to

Helen & Douglas House. The final total

collected was in fact 2343 coins and

£136.24 in value. Well done to student

leaders who helped with this worthwhile

cause.

Mrs Bryson, Teacher of PE

REVISION GUIDES for all Y10/11 students

available from the English department £4.50

Please check the website for letters home

SPORTS RESULTS

On October 9th, Mr Murray’s Resistant Materials class were taken to Philip Koomen’s workshop in Checkendon. Here, the students were taken on a short tour of the workshop, visiting the wood storage shed, the design room and the main workshop. The class were given lots of information about all the areas, as well as plenty of inspiration for future design ideas.

At the wood shed, Philip discussed all the different woods he uses at the workshop; this included ash, oak, pear and cherry. He also told us that drying wood without the use of a machine would take 1 year per inch. This surprised a lot of the class.

We then visited the Design room, where Philip showed how he made his furniture prototypes. Some of the items were made of cardboard, others were made of ply-wood.

The showroom was the best part of the workshop. It was full of all the designs and pieces of furniture that he’d made– they were all amazing.

Jessica Rainsden

WARHAMMER CLUB: Owing to popular demand the Warhammer club will be opening again for business and will meet on a Wednesday from

3.30-5.30pm in R64. Founder members Henry Stevens and Ewan Marsden are organising the purchase of some new stock and all new members will be welcome.

TECHNOLOGY VISIT

Y11 Football Vs Wood Green W 2-1 (County Cup) Vs Park House W 4-1 (National Cup) Vs. St Gregory’s W 3-1 (County Cup) This puts the team through to the quarter finals !

Y10 Football Vs Highcrest Academy W 5-2 (National Cup) Vs John Mason W 1-0 (County Cup)

Y9 Football Vs Gosford Hill W 6-2 (National Cup) Vs Cokethorpe L 4-0 (National Cup) Y7 Football Vs Cherwell L13-0 (National Cup) Y9 Rugby Vs Gillotts L44-0 Vs Carterton L35-10 Area Tournament L3, W1, finished 4th

Hockey Club Hockey Club has been well attended and with additional help from Miss Mottram, students have been consolidating and further developing their range of skills. The first match against Walling-ford ended in defeat, however students gained first-hand experience of playing on an astro-turf pitch.

Langtree PTA The PTA would like to extend their thanks to all parents and

students for making such a huge effort to get all unwanted

uniform items into school on the last day of Summer Term.

Many thanks also to the Students and PTA members that

helped collect, sort and bag up the uniform so efficiently!

We were able to donate 25 bin liners full of clothes which

were packed into the School Minibus and transported by

Ian, myself and Alison Stevens to the nominated charity

Global Hearts For Children Depot in Twyford.

Global Hearts are an established charity that recycle clothes

to raise funds and also donate clothes to schools and fami-

lies in troubled, and impoverished parts of Africa and other

Countries throughout the world that are in crisis. The chari-

ty was most grateful for such a large amount of clothing

and whilst they couldn't guarantee the exact destination of

the uniform we

were assured that

it would be donat-

ed to schools and

villages in coun-

tries where it was

most needed.

J a n H o s k i n g

Co-Chair Langtree

PTA

Anyone for Lego, Chess or Warhammer ?

LEGO CLUB: The Lego club is thriving again and urgently needs more bricks for the members to build with! Do you have any Lego sitting un-used? The club would really appreciate any bricks families can donate! These can be taken to Lego Club on Wednesday lunchtimes or ad-dressed to Mr Close at the LSB. CHESS CLUB: Langtree Chess club will be starting up in November to give the schools' Chess players a place to play and learn about the game. There are a lot of students who play and even more who want to learn. The club is short of equipment and could do with any boards or pieces that are sitting unused at home! These

can be taken to Mr Close at the Learning Support Base - we are keen to help as many students as possible take part!

Dean Close, Teaching Assistant

Mon 5 Nov Staff inset day, no students Tues 6 Nov Start of Term 2 for students Tues 6 Nov am: Maths Unit 1 exam Thurs 8 Nov pm: Maths Unit 2 exam Mon 12 Nov am: Maths Unit 3 exam Tues 13 Nov 5pm Post 16 Options Evening Thurs 15 Nov Creativity Day 1 for Years 7-10 Y11 Henley College Taster day Fri 16 Nov School Photos Wed 21 Nov 7.30pm GCSE Presentation Evening Fri 30 Nov KS3 Inter tutor Rugby/Girls football Thurs 6 Dec 5-7pm Y8 Parents’ Evening Fri 7 Dec Y11 Reports to Parents Wed 12 Dec Y8/9 Theatre trip, Stratford “The Mouse & his child” Fri 14 Dec Langtree School Christmas lunch for students Sat/Sun 15/16 10am-4pm Rehearsals for school production Mon 17 Dec 7.30pm School Production, main hall Tues 18 Dec 7.30pm School Production, main hall Wed 19 Dec 7.30pm School Production, main hall Y11 composition deadline Fri 21 Dec End of Term 2 School closes at 12.30pm Mon 7 Jan 2013 Start of Term 3 Y11 Art & Design coursework deadline Wed 9 Jan am: Biology 1 exam Thurs 10 Jan am: Eng/Eng Lang exam

The Langtree School Academy Trust Company, a company limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales, company registration number 07980335. Registered Office: Langtree School, Woodcote, Reading, Berkshire, RG8 ORA.

Lunchtime clubs around the school from 1.10pm – 1.45pm

Just turn up! Monday Badminton Y10 & 11 (Sports Hall) Computer Club (Comp Rm 1 or 2) Homework/Quiet Games Club (LSB) Homework/Coursework (Comp Rm 3) Library / Chess sets in the Library ‘My Place’ Y10 & 11 (Village Hall upstairs in Youth Club) Tuesday Homework/Coursework (Comp Rm 3) Homework/Quiet Games Club (LSB) Computer Club (Comp Rm 2) Library / Chess sets in the Library ‘My Place’ Y10 & 11 (Village Hall upstairs in Youth Club) Wednesday Homework/Coursework (Comp Rm 3) Homework/Quiet Games Club (LSB) Computer Club (Comp Rm 2) FAI TO! Manga High Maths Club (Comp Rm 1) GCSE Art Club ‘My Place’ Y10 & 11 (Village Hall upstairs in Youth Club) The Drop – In: ‘Lion’s Den’ (KS3, side of the Library) Girls football Y9,10 & 11 (Sports Hall) Lego (Room 33 English Rm) Warhammer (R64, Maths Rm) Thursday Homework/Coursework (Comp Rm 3) Homework/Quiet Games Club (LSB) Computer Club (Comp Rm 1or 2) KS3 Art Club (Room 10) Library / Chess sets in the Library ‘My Place’ Y10 & 11 (Village Hall upstairs in Youth Club) Basketball Y7,8 & 9 (Sports Hall) Friday Homework/Coursework (Comp Rm 3) Homework/Quiet Games Club (LSB) Computer Club (Comp Rm 1or 2) Library / Chess sets in the Library Badminton Y7, 8 & 9 (Sports Hall) ‘My Place’ Y10 & 11 (Village Hall upstairs in Youth Club) LAMDA Drama by Berzerk (C5)

Forthcoming Y8/9 Theatre trip to

Stratford Wed 12th December

Tickets £24,

Only 51 places available !!

Student Receptionists The Admin team would like to comment on the immaculate-ly presented students who have taken a turn on duty as student receptionists this term. Students in Years 8 & 9 have displayed a mature and professional approach to any requested tasks at all times. They clearly have a natural

talent for welcoming visitors and responding to staff requests. Well done—you are a credit to Langtree School.

Mrs Stephens, Headteacher’s PA

Message from the Art department:

Please send in old newspaper and materials that can be used for Art. Please note that GCSE Art club sessions run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3.30-5.00pm and KS3 Art club is after school on Thursdays 3.30-4.30pm.

Look forward to seeing you there! Mrs Bainbrigge