Dates For Your Diary: 5/4 – Yr8 Girls’ HPV vaccinations

7/4 – Yr11 Photos

13-21/4 – End of Term holiday

24/4 – Students return

25/4 – Yr12 University & Careers

Fair

26/4 – Yr9 Subject Evening

27/4 – Yrs 7 & 8 Junior Maths

Challenge

1/5 – May Day holiday

29/5 – Half Term holiday

Vision statement:

‘Creating an irresistible climate for achievement’

We challenge, support and encourage every

student to achieve their potential.

We believe effort and dedication lead to success

and we raise aspirations.

We personalise our provision to meet the needs

of individuals.

We enable our students to flourish as confident

learners and leaders of our community.

We create a culture where all stakeholders feel

valued, supported and proud.

WORLD BOOK DAY FUND RAISING SUCCESS Mrs Bruton and Ms Plues-Clark would like to thank all that participated in the library activities on

World Book Day. It was great to see all of our favourite book characters brought to life; a 'murder' was

solved and we guessed 'who came to dinner'. The Bake for Books Sale was a huge success and we

collected £120.12. Money from the sale will go towards buying new books and hopefully a comfy

beanbag or two.

A special thank you goes out to our Community Grocer ASDA (The Shires Shopping Centre) and Aldi

who generously donated delicious baked goods.

World Book Day’s 20th anniversary was celebrated in style in the library in John of

Gaunt! The Murder Mystery drew a big crowd and saw the students turn into

detectives, frantically trying to find cryptic clues in books. Who Came to Dinner

proved to be a real brainteaser! Only a handful of students managed to decipher

the clues on the dinner plates.

The bake sale in the turtle was a huge success and raised

over £100 for new

books. Thank you to all students, parents and staff who

baked great cakes and goodies.

Staff got into the spirit of the day! It’s not every day you have Katniss Everdeen

teaching you English or Miss Trunchbull teaching

you maths. Best costume has to be the very

hungry caterpillar. Wearing a sleeping bag for a

whole day shows real devotion to your character. It certainly made

opening doors interesting!

Mrs Bruton would like to extend a great big thank you to everyone who

got involved!’

Congratulations to Christina Dainton Christina Dainton has become our first Accelerated Reader Word Millionaire!! So

far this year, Christina has read 1,200,000 words! She is now the first member of

the Millionaires Club. She will be receiving a certificate and a book in her next AR

lesson.

Ulrika Bruton

Learning Resource Manager

Can You Help?

The library desperately needs new seating that is more comfortable for our students so that they may

enjoy reading a little more. If there are any families who have bean bag chairs lying around not being

used would they kindly donate them to us.

Young Writers’ Competition

Ms Woolley and Mrs Johnson want to congratulate Ethan Hall (year 9), Lewis Clifton (year 9), Kaden

Mackenzie (year 7) and Louisa Wood (year 7), for their excellent contributions to the 'Young Writers'

competition.

They were all successful in having their work officially published in 'Welcome to Wonderland -

Gloucestershire & Wiltshire'. This is an official publication showcasing young adults' work.

They have all been attending Creative Writing Club this year on a Monday 3-4pm in L8. Everyone is

welcome to come along!

Primary Science Fair –

Thursday 16th March On Thursday 16th March 12 primary

schools from across Trowbridge came to

John of Gaunt for an action packed day of

Science during National Science and

Engineering week.

In the morning, pupils from Holt, Walwayne Court, North Bradley,

Southwick, The Mead and Studley Green came to a session run by Bath University called The World of

Particles. They found out all about Cern and the different types of particles that exist. They were even

able to make their own balloon model of a particle.

After lunch further teams arrived from Bellefield, St John’s, Castle Mead, The Grove, Paxcroft and

Staverton. All of the primary schools had been working very hard on an

exhibit that linked to the topic of Science in the Work Place.

@JOGSTEM club presented their assembly to the primary schools. The

assembly was all about how your brain plays tricks on you, it had lots of

fun videos about Optical Illusions and Misheard lyrics.

During lesson 5 some of the year 7s and year 8s were able to come and look at

the Science Fair. Exhibits included: making bath bombs,

looking at the ingredients in cakes, smelling candles, taste testing, making

bridges, building barometers, fruit batteries, keeping animals safe with

electrical pulses, forensics, bubbles and investigating UV protection.

It was a fantastic day where pupils from schools all over Trowbridge were

able to come together to share a passion for Science. A massive thank you

and well done to all involved.

A WONDERFUL WEEKEND ON DARTMOOR Ten Tors training has been continuing with the participants for the

three teams nearly decided, and with only two expeditions left to

go. After successful and gorgeous recent hikes around Avebury and

South Dartmoor, we headed down to Okehampton in a sparkling

clean minibus last weekend to experience the actual tors and

terrain they'll be hiking on for the event.

The 35 and 55 mile teams were set loose on the

North Moor in brilliant sunshine and freezing

winds and did brilliantly at navigating and

negotiating the tough terrain. 20 miles were

completed on Saturday and a further 16 on

Sunday. The 55 team managed to complete 24

miles on Saturday and 14 on Sunday, although with no assistance and an

injured member. The hike included carrying tents as well as their stoves,

sleeping bags and spare tents and dealing with the tussocks, marsh and

long grass that is typical Dartmoor terrain. However, the weather was

stunning and in the past 8 years of attending these expeditions, I

am struggling to remember a weekend of better clouds,

gleaming prehistoric stones, sunsets and visibility.

We had our first recorded incident of waist-deep bog dabbing (Jasmine),

a new expert in supervising river crossings (Mo), and Daisy also enjoyed some close encounters with the

local gorse bushes. Abbie and Jasmine showed superb determination as did Martha on Saturday. We saw

ancient stone circles, a megalith standing stone, and more bizarrely a farmer riding his quad with a

naughty un-herdable sheep in a headlock and on his

lap. Curious ravens buzzed us during the day, and

we chatted and shared laughs with the other teams

out practising. The tough terrain and steep hills got

the better of a couple of students but the overall

fitness and determination levels were impressive.

Charlie showed his improving navigational skill and

the 55's also impressed their leader with their

performance over the weekend. The minibus looked as

if it had also had a great weekend.

I'm really looking forward to our next Dartmoor hike at the start of the Easter holidays, and of course our

infamous '32 miles in a day' Imber Range hike at the end of Easter. The event is between the 5th - 7th if

May and I'm excited about watching our students see all their hard work pay off.

As always a huge thanks to my volunteer supervisors Matt Wheeler, Bob Brice, Shaun White and Iain

Richards - without whom this could not be possible. My thanks also go to Matt Doughty and his

team, Fran Booth and

Fiona Simpson for

helping facilitate the

trips.

Mr Gray (Team

Manager)

Hello from Toby Corden, Governor I’ve been a governor at the John of Gaunt School now for almost two years. I have two young daughters,

Mya who is 6 and attends The Grove and Freya who is 3, and will be joining her sister in September.

I was interested in becoming a Governor at The John of Gaunt School as my dad had always spoken well

about his experience and the personal reward and value of being a Parent Governor when my sister and I

attended St Laurence School.

I joined as a community governor through SGOSS who help to match professionals to schools to ensure

they have a wide range of skills across the governing body. I have found the experience rewarding and

have enjoyed learning about John of Gaunt as a school and learning about education in general. I think

the school has great ambition and core values of inclusion, equality and creating a positive ethos around

the school and I hope that my daughters will both attend when they're older.

My role for the governing body as of Sept 2017 is that of Chair of the Resources committee which I was

interested in joining due to my background. The resource committee reports back the activity of the

meeting to the full board. One of the recent areas that we helped oversee was the approval of the

summer work that happened making some fantastic improvements to the 6th form common room and

Wingfield hall. Seeing that come together following the planning work was great and it is now a much

improved environment for the students who use these areas.

The link below is for the SGOSS website which was started by the Department of Education in 1999

offering free services to volunteers, schools and employers and I have found them personally to be very

good. https://www.sgoss.org.uk

Italian Erasmus + student meeting 17th-24th March 2017

Four very lucky students got the opportunity to visit Lucca in Italy last week.

The students stayed with Italian host

families and attended school with them for

the week.

Our students had the chance to participate

in Italian lessons and attend day trips with the other students.

The fantastic thing about Erasmus + is that we are grouped with

schools of all different nationalities. Our students were mixed-up into

teams with the Portuguese, Italian, French, German and Turkish for the duration of the week.

This gave them the opportunity to meet students of similar ages from different countries.

Some highlights of the trip were visiting Florence, Pisa and a

museum of HUGE papier mache carnival floats. It really was an

experience the girls will never forget.

The girls will be doing an assembly soon to share their

experiences of the trip- and keep your eyes peeled for the

updated Erasmus + board which will be in the canteen later in

the week. Mrs Gibbs

Year 9 Theatre Review On the 15th of March, our Year 9 GCSE Drama class went on a trip to the

Bath Theatre Royal to watch a theatrical play called ‘The Curious Incident

of the Dog in the Night Time’. This was a very educational trip that we all

enjoyed.

“It was an amazing and truly fantastic experience for us all”

Our Drama group were really impressed with the outcome of the performance and also think the trip

would have helped us all to improve on our own drama skills. The play was about a teenage boy with

Asperger’s, he finds a dead dog in his neighbours back garden and goes on a journey to discover the truth

about what happened. The whole play is also about how he sees life and what life is like for him. We

would rate the play a 9/10 because of the way they used physical theatre and only changed the stage

fully at the break. They had all the characters and the props on stage all the time, which was very clever.

“The breath-taking use of physical theatre, helping to tell the story and show the different locations, was

a magical thing for us to witness.”

This use of Physical Theatre was smooth enough that it almost looked robotic, as if the actors had been

practising it their whole lives. Christopher, the main character, acted so well that we really believed his

story and forgot we were watching an actor. He was truly magnificent in the way that he expressed the

emotions he was feeling. The flashing lights and harsh sound effects helped us to feel how Christopher

was feeling, confused and dazed by his surroundings. Overall, the performance was fabulous and a

wonderful play to watch. We really enjoyed the trip and hope more experiences like this come along

again.

By Olivia Clarke, Kia Rawlings, Erin Thorne, Olivia Woolston and Noah Heard.

Cashless Catering Governors are pleased to announce that cashless catering is coming to The John of Gaunt School. The

cashless catering system will be used for the purchase of all food and drink that is available from the

canteen and The Pod, the schools ‘grab and go’ facility.

Benefits include:

Convenience – no need to look for change every morning

Confidence that dinner money is spent on food in school – not in the shops on the way to or from

school

Healthy eating can be encouraged – parents can access details of what their child has purchased

Children on free school meals remain anonymous – their accounts are automatically topped up

each day

Problems related to carrying cash are reduced – no loss or theft

The cashless catering system is planned to be in place by early July. We will require written consent from

at least one parent/guardian before being able to use your child’s biometric information (thumbprint) in

the system and you will shortly receive a permission slip that will need to be completed and returned to

the school.

More detailed information and a biometric permission slips will be sent out via ParentMail this week.

Additional information and a FAQ’s will be published on the school website in the coming weeks.

Exam Stress in Year 11 – this is normal! Here are a few useful websites which may help :

www.thesite.org how to manage your panic monster www.nopanic.org.uk has a 4 minute relaxation section

www.thecalmzone.net section under exam stress

www.youngminds.org.uk

Our main advice is for the students to talk about their stress, as they need to offload their worries and fears onto someone and feel heard.

It helps them to know that they are not alone in feeling the way they do.

Welfare Concerns If you have any concerns about your child, from the very small to more significant ones, The John of

Gaunt School has someone in place to help and support you and your child. For most minor issues the

first person to contact is your child’s tutor. They see your child every day and can deal with issues that

arise from time to time such as minor friendship issues or worries about schoolwork or homework. The

email for your child’s tutor and house leader is in their planner.

For more serious welfare concerns we have a very experienced pastoral team including a Pastoral

Support Manager linked to each House. Helen Kerr is the Assistant Headteacher who has overall

responsibility for welfare and child protection and she heads up these teams and works with the House

leaders and their teams to ensure that all students are supported and cared for during their time at The

John of Gaunt School. All of these people are available to be contacted via the telephone or via email –

see below. Please do not hesitate to let us know if there is anything you are concerned about.

Helen Kerr: Assistant Head Teacher Tel: 01225 762637 Ext 203 Email: hkerr@jogschool.org

Pastoral Support Manager: Sarah Hill Tel: 01225 762637 Ext 255 Email: sjhill@jogschool.org

Franklin House: Jill Taylor Tel: 01225 72637 Ext 258 Email: jtaylor@jogschool.org

Greenfield House: Katie Galbraith Tel: 01225 762637 Ext 254 Email: kgalbraith@jogschool.org

Hawking House: Sarah Stewart Tel: 01225 762637 Ext 256 Email: sstewart@jogschool.org

Newton House: Samantha Cuff Tel: 01225 762637 Ext 257 Email: scuff@jogschool.org

04 April 2017

Dear Parents and Carers,

As a school, we believe that the use of

technology can bring many advantages to young

people, improving their learning opportunities,

giving them different ways to have fun and giving

them a multitude of ways to keep in touch with

each other via social media. Young people must

be aware that there are laws governing when

and how images can be taken and used and also

how and where drones can be operated. Drones

must not be brought into school. Students

should also be aware that they must not use

recording devices to record people who are not

aware that they are being recorded.

These devices can also bring risks and we would

encourage you to speak with your child about

how they can best stay safe whilst using them.

We know that although covered in school, this is

most effective when supported at home by

adults talking about what their young people are

doing on-line, checking that they are safe, and

acting correctly.

We expect to work in partnership with parents

to address and challenge any issues that arise

from the misuse of technology and social media

and particularly those that arise from the misuse

that happens on home purchased devices or

outside of school hours. In these cases, although

we are supportive, we would expect parents /

carers be primarily responsible for monitoring

and dealing with the consequences of the use of

the technology that they have provided or that is

being used outside of school time.

We will respond to any negative behaviour in

school time which results from the misuse of

social media or technology following the

guidance in the school’s Behaviour for Learning

Policy. Parents will also be told of all instances

where social media / technology has been used

inappropriately and if it is on a personal device

or out of school hours we will ask them to deal

with this at home, providing consequences

where they consider it necessary.

Issues where there is a safeguarding concern will

be shared with the appropriate outside agencies;

this may be social care and / or the police.

If a student is repeatedly using social media

inappropriately during school hours we will ask

that the student hand in their devices each

morning to be kept in the safe and collected

each evening or asked not to bring them to

school. Students found misusing technology will

be banned from using the school internet for a

period of time.

For advice and support on setting up parental

controls, adjusting privacy settings,

understanding social networks and other issues

that may relate to these matters please go on-

line and visit the following website:

www.nspcc.org.uk/onlinesafety or you can call

the NSPCC for support on 0808 800 5002

If you have any further questions, please contact

Helen Kerr, Assistant Head Teacher on Ext 203,

Eugene Spiers, Assistant Head Teacher on Ext

204 or Gareth Lister Director of Learning for

Computing and Business on Ext 236.

Yours Sincerely

Helen Kerr

Assistant Head Teacher