Senior Pupil & Leadership teams It is with great pleasure that we are able to announce the results of the interviews for the 2017/2018 Senior Pupil and Leadership teams. All sixteen students interviewed equipped themselves incredibly well. We are very fortunate to have such incredible students, in saying this we are also aware of many others who just missed out and would like to thank them for their interest in representing the school. Senior Pupil team: Leadership team: Eleanor A (Head Girl) Hannah Sankar (Lead Role) Arun Barnard (Head Boy) Harry Jenkins (Lead Role Georgia Harding Saul Batts Lauren Hobday William Boles Owen McDougall Sarah Crane Charlie Phillips Megan Dixon Oliver Smith Andreas Fatta Grace Yorke-Biggs Mary Takwongi

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Arden Sta on Road Knowle Solihull West Midlands B93 0PT Telephone: 01564 773348

Fax: 01564 771784

email: office@arden.solihull.sch.uk

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Arden values: Determination : Excellence : Courage : Inspiration : Friendship : Equality : Respect

PTFA news…  A huge thank you to the PTFA for providing us with two fantas c new minibuses.  We have just taken delivery of them and couldn’t be more delighted!  We will feel very stylish arriving at events in such smart vehicles. 

SSAT Regional Awards event

Arden hosted the regional SSAT Educa onal Outcomes Award celebra on event on Monday 15th May. Over fi y school leaders from numerous schools a ended the event and were treated to wonderful music from our talented students. The delegates were also looked a er by four of our Year 10 catering students. The students did Arden proud as always and Mr Murphy was thrilled to collect Arden’s award for being in the top 10% of non‐selec ve schools na onally for a ainment at Key Stage Four from SSAT Chief Execu ve Sue Williamson.

Arden values: Determination : Excellence : Courage : Inspiration : Friendship : Equality : Respect

Six Summits Challenge Several Arden students successfully took part in the Scout's Six Summits challenge based in the Shropshire Hills over the May Day bank holiday weekend. In order to complete the challenge successfully, they had to hike 50km over three days from Stiperstones to Titterstone Clee and camp for two nights. All the students showed real determination and teamwork to complete this challenge, which for the older students was undertaken with a full pack and equivalent to Silver DofE. Their leader was keen to compliment the students and described them all as a real credit to Arden. Congratulations to the students involved Jackson Snell, Sean Dunnion, Will Rose, Will Topham-Steele, Evan Madurai, Dom Jayne, Eoghan Dunnion, Ted Fewster, Dan Turner, Alex Sutherland and Jacob Bate.

Jaguar Land Rover visit JLR recently offered a work experience opportunity to encourage young girls to consider engineering as a career. After a week of hands on experience and tours the girls gave a presentation on their week to a selection of school staff and JLR employees.

Of the 20 places on offer, Arden won ten places, significantly more than any other school in the borough. They did us incredibly proud and were a credit to the school. Many of them are now far more interested in careers in engineering.

Le  to right: Zoe Wilkinson, Grace Lord, Rosalie Carter, Harriet Lethbridge, Olivia Boam, Elizabeth Cornforth, Lillian Schroeter, Rebecca Jones, Yaslana Dhugga and Cayce Wheeler

Further Enterprise success for Year 12 students

On Thursday 11 May, five Year 12 students attended the Solihull and Birmingham final of the Young Enterprise Competition at Arup in Blythe Valley. After three hours talking to judges and presenting to an audience they won the ‘Best Company 2017’ award. This means they are now through to the regional finals which will take place in Wolverhampton in June.

This is the first time Arden have taken part in the competition in seven years and their involvement began in November when they sold mobile phone accessories at Touchwood. This resulted in a £50 voucher as they were one of only two companies organised and ready to trade.

Team ‘ZEST’ consists of thirteen students including Lottie Lack (Marketing Assistant), Alex Jenner (Operations Assistant), Katie Harcourt (Marketing Director), Zargul Zia (Operations Director) and Micah Lau-Mackaay (Managing Director) and supported by Miss Long. The product which proved so successful for them is a book called ‘Get Fit with Friends – Sam the Lion’ which aims to tackle the problem of child obesity. It includes healthy recipes which encourages parents to cook with their children and then post their photographs on the company’s social media account. Taking on board the comments from the judges, the team are now researching and designing a second book ‘Get Fit with Friends – Polly the Parrott’.

Miss Long said, ‘I am really proud of my Young Enterprise group, they have shown fantastic professionalism and innovation throughout this whole experience and as a Teacher of Business, I couldn’t think of a better way for the students to learn different business and interpersonal skills. Young Enterprise has been a great experience for this group of students and they have developed so much over the past eight months’.

Miss Long was also delighted to report that the team’s Managing Director, Micah Lau-Mackaay won the award for ‘Best Company Director 2017’ which is a marvellous achievement for this young man.

L-R: Katie Harcourt, Alex Jenner, Lottie Lack, Micah Lau-Mackaay, Miss Long (Teacher of Business at Arden) and Zargul Zia

Sally Tomlinson (one of the Judges). Micah Lau-Mackaay – winner of the ‘Best Company Director’ award, Mayor of Solihull, Councillor Mike Robinson  

Arden values: Determination : Excellence : Courage : Inspiration : Friendship : Equality : Respect

A er a week of glorious spring weather, Friday decided not to co‐operate and dawned cold and wet. Despite this our intrepid Year 11 students arrived at school in glorious array of costumes; mermaids, bunny girls, bananas, gorillas and Snow White's seven dwarfs among them! The students enjoyed a morning concert, fun and games on the field at lunch me and a final farewell assembly a er receiving their treasured year books. Form tutors were thanked, words of wisdom were given by Mr Warwood, Mrs Crawford and Mr Murphy before it was me to wave them off. We would like to wish each and every one of our students the best for their forthcoming examina ons and look forward to celebra ng with them at the Year 11 Prom on Friday 30 June (fingers will be crossed for be er weather!)

More photographs can be seen on the website by following the link. 

Year 11 Fancy Dress 2017

To keep up-to-date with PTFA events organised to raise funds for the school, please refer to their section on the website.

Arden values: Determination : Excellence : Courage : Inspiration : Friendship : Equality : Respect

Tommy Godwin Challenge 2017

Arden is proud of it’s long-standing association with Tommy Godwin the 1948 Olympic cycling medallist, indeed one of our school buildings bears his name.

Two Arden Sixth Form students recently attended the launch for this year’s Tommy Godwin Challenge; Samantha Padget and Toby Green. Toby is the newly elected ‘Tommy Godwin Ambassador’ at Arden School and he is hoping to get more teenagers to take part.

The Challenge is now in it’s fifth year and the 2017 event will take place on Sunday 24th September with a choice of distances (30km, 50km and 100km). Last year’s event raised over £18,000 for the Marie Curie Hospice in Solihull. More information about taking part can be found on the website.

L‐R: Kay Jones (Mr Godwin’s daughter), Samantha Padget, Councillor Mike Robinson Mayor of Solihull, Danni Khan (Challenge ambassador) and Toby Green

Auschwitz-Birkenau visit

In March, four Arden students travelled with the Holocaust Educational Trust, to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former death camp, in Poland. It was a truly life-changing and unforgettable experience that has certainty left a lasting impression on them, and has helped them gain a better understanding of the true horrors many minority groups faced during the Second World War.

Before their visit, they attended an orientation seminar where they were able to listen to the testimony of Holocaust survivor Rudi Oppenheimer, who talked about his childhood memories at Bergen-Belsen, a Nazi concentration camp in Germany. Rudi’s story was extremely emotional, and hearing a first-hand account of the treatment of Jewish citizens during the Nazi regime prepared the students for their trip, which would be a poignant one.

The full article can be read by following the link.

VACANCIES Arden is looking to recruit a Cover Supervisor to start in September 2017. A Cover Supervisor provides stability and continuity for students where lessons are affected through short-term teaching staff absence, instructing pupils with work set by the teacher. An interest in PE or coaching is desirable. Please follow the link for more information.

We are also looking to recruit a part-time Administration Assistant. Further details are available on the website.

3D clay printer 

The Art Department have been fortunate to receive a prototype 3D clay printer. Donated by the company ‘ClayBot’ the 3D clay printer has been given to the department to trial and test the newfound capabili es of this fantas c machine. The machine was delivered during the last week of the May term and a er mul ple a empts and failures some products were able to be successfully printed.

Over the second half of the summer term members of the ‘3D Prin ng Club’, lead by Mr Fletcher, will be trailing out many 3D structures that they have made on Google SketchUp.

If you are at all interested to find out more about the new technology found in the Art Department come and have a chat with Mr Fletcher on a Friday lunch me and he’ll be happy to demonstrate the capabili es of 3D prin ng.

For a full report of the visit, please follow the link. MFL Visit to Florence

Year 9 & 10 students and staff who were Florence-bound met at Arden on a rather chilly Monday morning (10th

April) for the start of what proved to be a fantastic five day visit. We arrived in Florence via Gatwick Airport and Pisa - our accommodation was the family owned and run Hotel Albion which proved a huge hit with everyone. Ponte Vechio was our first destination where better to enjoy our first taste of Italy’s famous ‘gelato’ before returning to the hotel for a wonderful evening meal. The week had many hightlights; a visit to Siena, Palazzo della Signoria, the Ufffizi Gallery and Pisa.

The whole visit had been hugely enjoyable and this was due to the behaviour and engagement of our students. They were a joy from start to finish – they listened to and complied with any requests without they tried their language skills out wherever possible, dressed appropriately and were keen to embrace everything the visit had to offer. They were all fantastic ambassadors for Arden and we couldn’t be more proud of them.

For a full report of the visit, please follow the link.

Food & Catering students at UCB

The Year 9 group of students who have opted to study Food and Catering next year recently spent the day at UCB University College Birmingham). During the main session, they were taught the correct way to wait on tables to paying customers. The students were shown how to manage dinner plates when serving and clearing tables ready for the lunch session.

Other duties they undertook included laying tables, serving bread, water and pouring wine. The bar crew made “mocktails” and served pre- lunch drinks to the diners.The students were a credit to Arden and many UCB staff, students and the customers commented on their confident, polite manner when serving their lunch.

Arden values: Determination : Excellence : Courage : Inspiration : Friendship : Equality : Respect

Alumni news Congratula ons to Calum Bruce, a former Senior Pupil and Sixth Form Prefect at Arden (2006‐2012) who has just received a dis nc on in his MA in Parasitology at Aberystwyth University. He will now be going on to study for his PhD at Westminster University studying Sleeping Sickness (Trypansomes).

Instagram rated worst media for mental health Instagram has been rated the worst social media site for young people's mental health, according to a survey. The platform has the most negative impact on users and puts them at risk of suffering loneliness, depression and body image anxiety, the Royal Society for Public Health has warned.

Their words come following a survey of almost 1,500 people in the UK aged 14 to 24 which asked them to score each social media platform on its effect on health and wellbeing.

As a school we will be highlighting the issues of social media through assemblies with all year groups.

NSPCC advice

A er the terrible events at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester on Monday night, the NSPCC have published advice to help parents talk to their children about terrorism.

Listen carefully to a child’s fears and worries.

Offer reassurance and comfort and avoid complicated and worrying explana ons that could leave them more frightened and confused.

Help them find advice and support to understand distressing events and feelings.

Children can always contact Childline free and confiden ally 24/7

Any adult worried about how a child is coping following a terrorist a ach can contact the NSPCC Helpline for 24/7 help, support and advice on 0800 800 5000 or help@nspcc.org.uk

Sports News Year 10 student, Elise now trains at a gym in Warrington, Cheshire, under the guidance of a female Team GB coach, Amanda Groarke and the Headcoach of England Boxing (Sheffield) Amanda Coulson.

Recently Elise has boxed six mes, including three mes in four days, winning them all with unanimous point decisions. In Rotherham, she represented England in the Tri‐Na ons where in the semi‐final she defeated another England interna onal and in the final beat the Sco sh na onal champion, securing the gold medal for England at 54kg.

On Easter Sunday Elise boxed in the final of the England Na onal Championships at Greenbank, Liverpool, having previously won a hard fought semi‐final in Grantham. Elise won with an outstanding display bea ng a young lady who had recently won gold in Sweden and who had not lost in over two years.

The following day she was asked to a end a four day tournament in Cheshire to represent

England against the Republic of Ireland. Officials from both na ons were judges/refereeing. On Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th April, Elise boxed and beat the Irish na onal champion with two unanimous point decisions.

It's a measure not only how far Elise has come but also the growing popularity of women's boxing in general that in the last two years Elise has not previously boxed any of these recent opponents.

She has been studying for her mock GCSE's and will now be taking a break from training to concentrate on her studies. England Boxing are not only extremely happy with her development in boxing but also praised her general behaviour and manner outside of the ring.

Everyone at Arden is very proud of Elise’s success and wishes her well for her future.

At the end of April, Mr Spence took the Year 8 & 9 trampolining teams to the Coventry, Warwickshire & Solihull county competition.

They performed extremely well throughout the whole day and were successful in medalling in the their age groups.

The Year 9 team came third in their age group for the county.

The Year 8 team won the competition and are now county champions!

In the individual scores: Lottie Mason won the Year 8 competition for the highest score, Gabi Woodward was second and Abi Kelly was third

Trampolining success

Arden values: Determination : Excellence : Courage : Inspiration : Friendship : Equality : Respect

Elise Glynn—boxing champion

 

The new extra‐curricular  me‐

table is now available to view 

on the website! 

Congratulations to all the team members: Year 8 Gabi Woodward Lottie Mason Georgia Cutter Abi Kelly Year 9 Ryan Cambridge Liz Cornforth Lauren Greenwood Corey Allen

Arden's KS3 badminton team successfully defended their National School title on Sunday 7 May at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes. A Badminton England initiative that is growing each year with over 8,000 schools taking part and 44,000 students. The team include three of Warwickshire's County members, Milly Evans, Mia Kirk and Tessa Franks. Also on the team was Francesca Barbieri, a member of Knowle Badminton Club. The girls succeeded in local, county and regional rounds to reach the final and the final was competed by nine schools, three groups of three teams. Arden went into the competition as a seeded school supported by their coach on the day, Mr Hunt. In their box the girls defeated Sheffield Girls High 5-0, followed by a more difficult draw against Kendrick School 3-2. The winners of each group then played against each other for the medal positions. Arden held their nerve with a 4-1 victory against Queen Elizabeth’s Academy Trust and then a nail-biting 3-2 win for the gold medal over Chelmsford County High School. Another fabulous day and an amazing achievement. Everyone at Arden is incredibly proud of the girls and their success.

National Badminton Success

Sports news continued...

Arden U14 boys were beaten into second place by a margin of 0.25 of a mark. The team of Corey Allen, Chris an Mobsby, Jenson Williams, Reuben Dudley and Rex Winslow acqui ed themselves really well and were very unlucky not to finish as winners.

Special men on has to be made of Rex who only learned to vault two weeks before the compe on and stepped in at the last minute to replace an injured Ma Bambrook. His score of 13.5 was incredible for a newbie. Corey came out with highest score on both floor and vault. He also competed in the tumbling compe on and won silver.

It’s been an outstanding year for our gymnasts and while squad training has concluded for the year, gym club is open to everyone on Wednesday lunch mes.

Arden values: Determination : Excellence : Courage : Inspiration : Friendship : Equality : Respect

British Schools Floor and Vault finals

Important dates for June:

04‐11.06.17 Year 9 German Exchange partners in the UK 07.06.17 09.30‐17.00 Travel & Tourism Year 10 students in London 19.00‐20.00 Online Safety Mee ng—School hall 08.06.17 08.45‐09.30 ‘Pop in and Meet the Principal’ sessions 15.30‐17.15 Conference Room, Arden 08.06.17 19.00‐20.00 PTFA Ladies Night—School hall 12‐16.06.17 Sixth Form ‘Futures’ week 15.06.17 14.45‐18.30 Year 8 Parent Consulta ons—school closes          to students at 14.15 16‐18.06.17 Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedi on 19‐23.06.17 Year 7 residen al visit to France Year 12 work experience week 27.06.17 09.00‐15.30 Year 12 Induc on Day (September intake) 19.00‐20.00 New Year 7 Parent Informa on Mee ng 28.06.17 Year 10 MFL visit to RAF Cosford 29.06.17 19.00‐24.00 Year 13 Ball 30.06.17 09.00‐14.30 Year 8 Science visit to Think Tank 30.06.17 18.15‐19.30 Year 11 Prom at school (then coach to Wroxhall Abbey)

U12 West Midlands Transport Trophy

Arden won the U12 cup for the first time after an excellent second half performance at Wast Hills Training Ground.

After a tight first half, the only thing that separated the two sides was an own goal from Alderbrook following excellent pressure from Ryan McCourt. After the break, the game carried on in the same fashion with Alderbrook and Arden battling away in the middle of the pitch, and both teams hitting the woodwork. The game quickly changed after a great strike from distance from Kieran Cooney, which came off the bar and ended in the back of the net. Alderbrook fought back and came very close to scoring with a great spell of pressure. With time running out and Alderbrook pushing for a way back in to the game, Louis Hutton grabbed a brace as Arden took control of the game before Ben Rafferty scored the final goal on the stroke of the full time whistle making the final score 5-0.

The final score didn't really reflect the game as both teams were evenly matched for the majority of the game except Arden were more clinical taking their chances.

Congratulations to all the students who represented Arden so well.

Pop in and meet the Principal session

These sessions, in which parents and members of the local community are able to ‘pop in’ and meet Arden Principal Mr Murphy, were first held on Monday 8th May and proved hugely successful. The invita on is open to people who would just like to pop in for a chat, request an update, raise a concern, offer support to the school, share an idea, praise a member of staff or simply introduce themselves.

The next sessions will be on Monday 8th June in the School Conference Room, at the following mes.

08.45—9.30 16.30—17.15

Rounders success!

A fantas c final against St Mar ns saw Arden win 91/2 to 5 in the final. Most of the team contributed to the score ba ng superbly. Top scorer was Kiera Henry. Their fielding really came together against Tudor Grange in the semi‐final – they had the whole team out in 13 balls with three excellent catches from debutante player Tara O‘Baidy. The secure fielding con nued in the final. Huge congratula ons to:

Sarah Crane Tara O’Braidy Lauren Hobday Rebecca Stanton Kiera Henry Ka e Fagg Marianna Drinkwater Georgia Fair Mary Takwoingi