Maths and Enterprise Theme Day

All the 11-16 students at Somervale School took time out of their normal lessons at the end of term to respond to a challenge: to present a case for Bath to host the next Commonwealth Games.

 

All students had the morning to experience lessons ranging from working out the carbon footprint left by the people who attended the game in Maths to identifying the cultural centres in Bath that would attract visitors and selling their appeal to all visitors in technology. All tutors groups had to nominate two teams to represent them in the final in the afternoon, where the students had to present their ‘pitches’ to an external audience of 22 students from the University of the West of England.  Steve Cox, the Head of Maths and Enterprise came up with the idea.

 

‘We are always looking for ways for students to apply their Maths & Enterprise skills in real life situations,’ he said. ‘The day gave students at school to see that Maths skills are needed to plan designs and assess the impact of change.’

 

The students rose to the challenge of coming up with a presentation to an outside audience in just a day. Mark Kenny, the Deputy Headteacher was delighted with the day. 

 

‘We are really interested in whether the students felt they learnt more on a theme day than they do in their normal lessons,’ he commented.  ‘The idea is that theme days fill in some of the gaps in their skills development which aren’t always covered in the formal curriculum, for instance team building and problem solving. We were thrilled that the students put so much into the day and produced such imaginative outcomes.’

Sixth Form News

 Sixth Form Information Booklet  Available from the school web site – link here. This booklet is primarily aimed at students entering Y12. 

 

Tutor team Alison Henderson joins the Sixth Form tutor team this year alongside Jacky Carter, Al Hannan, Sue Stannard, Nicola Bailey and Sue Galton, who will be sharing a tutor group with her. We said goodbye and good luck to David Cass, who has moved to a new school in London. Mr Cass was a very popular tutor, well respected for his sound advice and support. Parents will be able to meet myself and tutors on Academic Review day – Friday 24^th October. Do contact us sooner if you have any queries. We intend to continue to focus heavily on one-to-one academic mentoring this year, with every student having a 15 minute meeting with their tutor each term. Our aim is to support students in their studies and ensure that they are organising themselves appropriately and meeting or exceeding their academic targets.

 

Educational maintenance allowance (EMA) You should have received notification by the Government of this scheme, enabling students who are eligible, to receive weekly payments for 100% attendance at school. Payment is direct to a student’s bank account. Do check your eligibility. There have been recent technical problems with the EMA helpline, so the deadline for getting backdated payments has been extended to the end of October. I’m afraid that we have no control over this in school, so please bear with us.

 

Year 13 students who intend to continue in to higher education should be visiting university open days to choose their preferred courses and institutions. Please let your teachers know if you are going to miss lessons. University websites have all the information required and most operate an ebooking system for open days. All applications through UCAS will be completed online at a cost of £17 and students need to be completing their personal statements now.

 

Most Y13 students have dropped to three A2 courses, leaving them with more independent study periods on their timetables. It is essential that this time be used wisely for extended learning, ideally in school. To get the most out of an A level course, all Sixth Formers should be spending an extra 5 hours on each subject, each week.

 

It is really important that when Y13 students are on-site at registration time they see their tutor in their tutor base. Ideally they should ‘check-in’ at least twice a week minimum to ensure that important information and appointments are relayed.

 

Key dates:

 

Year 12	Year 13
18th March 2009 – Parents evening	3rd December 2008 – Parents evening

Mrs Pratt, Head of Sixth Form

Author Visits at Somervale School for Children’s Book Week

Somervale School hosted two author events during Children’s Book Week. Award winning author Julia Golding spoke to Year 8 pupils about her new book ‘Dragonfly’ as well as her adventure-thrillers starring Darcie Lock. Julia has had many other careers, including working as a diplomat in the Foreign Office and for Oxfam as a lobbyist on conflict issues. Her other books include the ‘Cat Royal’ series and the ‘Companions Quartet’.

 

The following day teen author Kate Cann entertained Year 10 and 11 pupils, reading from her books ‘Leaving Poppy’ and her gothic novel ‘Possessing Rayne’. Followed by a gothic workshop, the visit was a resounding success. Kate’s other titles include the ‘Moving..’ trilogy, ‘Sea Change’ and many more.

 

The photo above shows students with Julia Golding.