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St piers School news

Inside this issue:

Page 2: It’s Music Time

Page 3: Eco-Schools

Page 4: Around the classes

Page 5: More around the

Classes

Page 6: Healthy Schools

Page 7: Class News

Page 8: More Class News

Page 9: Even More Class

News

Page 10: BBC School Report

Sun is

shining?!

Summer Term

2012

We are still waiting for the glorious sum-

mer sunshine, but here at St Piers

School the weather has definitely not

dampened our spirits! We have had a

fabulous time out and about visiting dif-

ferent places, learning about different

things, and also have enjoyed being very

patriotic and celebrating the Queen’s

Diamond Jubilee with a lot of pomp and

circumstance.... she even popped in to say

hello!

Turn the pages to see what we have all

been up to- we have all worked very hard

this term and hope

you enjoy seeing what

we have been up to!

Turn the page to read

about our important

visitor!

Page 11: BBC School Report

Page 12: BBC School Report

Page 13: Class 12 News

Page 14: Out and About

Page 15: PE and Activity

Week

Page 16: New students and

news

Page 17: Diamond Jubilee

Page 18: Diamond Jubilee

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It’s Music Time! Peter Harrison Concert

On Friday 16th March Chris

Pearson, a singer/guitarist

from the charity ‘Music in

Hospitals’, put on two con-

certs for us. We were very

lucky to get these compli-

mentary concerts which

were funded by the Peter

Harrison Foundation.

The students enjoyed this

experience. They were able

to make requests of popular

songs and songs from the

shows, sing along and dance.

We will look forward to our

next concert from ‘Music in Hospitals’ in the

summer term. On Friday 11th May the students in school

were serenaded by the London Klezmer

Quartet which was

funded by the Peter

Harrison Foundation

through the ‘Music in

Hospitals’ charity.

The students learnt

about the instruments

that were played during

the concert workshop

and joined in by clapping,

clicking fingers and by

stamping feet during the

performance of several

folk songs.

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Our students have also been making good progress towards attaining Eco-

Schools status. Our Eco Committee has completed an Eco-Review of the school

and is in the process of de-

veloping an action plan for

improvements in reducing our

environmental impact. On

Thursday 24th May our stu-

dents helped with the col-

lection of bags of refuse

and recyclable material and

clothing that has been gath-

ered across the site as part

of a charity fund raising

campaign.

In addition to the good work of the

clothes collection, every class has a pa-

per recycling bin and now recycles all of

its plastic bottles. The day students also

help to compost any waste food from

lunch times.

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Around the Classes!

Class 10 have used their off-site outings this

term to purchase ingredients for their cook-

ing lessons where they have been making

some wonderful culinary delights. They have

also embraced the Eco Schools ambition and

have been key in helping to recycle a number

of things from plastic bottles and paper to

clothes for charity. The students have also

enjoyed being outside taking pride in looking

after their planter and exploring the plants

and flowers in them.

This term Class 5 have been scien-

tists learning about forces. Pushing,

pulling the force of gravity air and

water. We all had great fun and one

of our favourites was the rocket!

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More Around the Classes!

Class 4 have a had a busy

term and have been working

really hard! Our science

topic has been forces and

we’ve all enjoyed finding

things in the classroom and

things around site that we

can push and pull. We found

a variety of toys and equip-

ment including cars, wheelchairs stretching cloths and play equipment. We felt these

forces unbalanced when their weight changed, and our class quickly knew that we had

to put in more force to move the objects. We also did some experiments, testing which

materials could be pulled or pushed and whether they could go back to their original

state.

During our ICT sessions we have been exploring different ways of communicating with

each other. We all took turns in speaking to each other on the phones using mobile

phones and land lines from different rooms. We started to learn how to make a phone

call, the right buttons to press and what we should say when we pick up a phone. We

also tried video calling each other, emailing and using walkie-talkies! We found using

the walkie-talkies the best!

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On 14th -18th May 2012, school staff

and students participated in healthy

schools week. The theme for the week

was to be more physically active and to

experience new sports. Activities for

this week included a whole school

Zumba class, an off site visit to ob-

serve some Further Education students

at their Riding for the Disabled lesson,

some visits to Hindleap Warren to use

their orienteering course and a

whole school activity day.

The Activity Day gave our students

a fantastic opportunity to experi-

ence some Outdoor Education Ac-

tivities and to use a variety of

sports equipment both on and off-

site. Some of our students visited

Kent College in Pembury where

there were activities involving

climbing over obstacles, getting wet

and muddy and completing high wire activities over

water. All the students got involved in these activi-

ties and enjoyed the challenges set for them.

The remainder of the students who did not attend

Kent College, participated in an activity day on site

where they were set challenges to find medals on

our Olympic themed nature walk, to see how far

they could go in the sports hall using Go Karts,

adapted bicycles, exercise bikes and rowing machines. In addition to a circuit of co-

ordination, there were also activities outside the sports hall. All class groups em-

braced the challenge and enjoyed the day.

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Class News As part of this term’s Moving On Foreign Cultures topic

Class 9 have been experiencing aspects of Greek culture

especially those with close links to the Olympics due to

the 2012 Olympics being held in London this summer.

Class 9 made their own set of Olympic rings, the five rings

representing the major areas of the world. The colours of

the rings were chosen as every country in the world has at

least one of the colours in their national flag. Our rings

were made out of dough flavoured with different ingredients for

the colours, Black – black olives, Blue – damson jam, Yellow –

cheese, Red – sun dried tomatoes and Green – green olives. We

made laurel head dresses, which changed from green to brown as

the leaves dried. Class 9 tried

their own versions of some Olym-

pic events; throwing fabric jave-

lins, putting the shot with bean

bags and trying to throw balls into

a target. The students also en-

joyed tasting Greek foods such as honey and the spinach and feta

filo parcels which we made in class.

This year, Class 8 has worked extremely hard

both as individuals and a group. A highlight for the year was receiving

the‘Class of the Week’ trophy for outstanding group art work. When looking

at Greece, we made a mosaic coliseum, considering the colours of the Greek

flag and each student contributed to the final product.

Another area in which the group excelled was during our ‘Dick Whittington’

sensory story. As a group we explored and learnt about the UK culture

whilst developing ICT skills. We also visited a number of churches while learn-

ing the Wider Culture of the UK.

More recently the class has been investigating mini beasts and insects and has

taken part in Bug Hunts off-site as well as using songs and

videos to find key information relating to

each insect/mini beast.

Well done Class 8 for such a fun

and productive year!

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More Class News!

Class 3 have really en-

joyed their athletics ac-

tivities in P.E. Over the half term, each

student has learnt what was required

for each event and

has worked hard to

achieve their indi-

vidual targets set

by the P.E. Team. In fact, they have

worked so hard and focussed so well,

that some of them smashed their tar-

gets! Wonderful progress!

Class 6 are very proud of their Numeracy learning this term.

We have combined number rhymes and counting activities

with Olympic themed games to make it fun and exciting!

Students have enjoyed throwing and placing Olympic rings

onto a hoopla or aiming for a target in the middle of the floor.

Everybody was really supportive of their peers by clapping

and cheering when a ring was thrown like people will do at

the games. This has helped us learn our colours as well, as

we had to match our rings.

Alongside our games we have

been enjoying two new num-

ber songs ‘5 little firefight-

ers’ and ‘5 sharks swimming’.

We have all worked really

hard during these to use

some signs, and to follow the song and add firefighters to

our individual engines or sharks to our pond. We have then all

been using our ‘counting’ finger to count our items after each

verse. We have had lots of fun and so many other people have

joined us and enjoyed it

too!

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Even More Class News!

This term Class 14 have done lots of different things,

like trampolining, cooking, looking for bugs, visiting

Chiddingstone Castle and Penshurst Place as well as

looking at the Queen and her long life. We also had

some crickets, locusts and other creepy crawlies visit

us to help us with our work on Minibeasts. We visited

Purple Pets, and saw a huge millipede as well as a locust

sitting on a Bearded Dragon’s nose waiting to be eaten!

We were very proud to be the Class of the Week

for team work in and out of the classroom. We

were lucky to have the chance to go on Weirwood

Reservoir to

sail on a boat.

We were lucky

to have hot

weather!

Class One have been very busy looking at different

forms of communication,

for our work in ICT. We

have done this through the

story of the ‘Jolly Postman’,

which has been adapted a little

bit and brought up to date, so

that it not only includes letters,

but also phone calls, text mes-

sages and emails! Everyone has

enjoyed dressing up as a post-

man, learning how to post let-

ters into the postbox, and we

have all learnt the importance

of putting stamps on letters or they will not get delivered!

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Our students had a chance to discover what it’s like to be at the cutting edge of journal-

ism thanks to a BBC-backed project.

Students have written news stories about the latest happenings at school. They have also

recorded short videos while interviewing both students and staff.

It has been a great experience for the students and they’ve done some really creative

work. The School Report project has given them a taste of what it’s like to be a news re-

porter and some of them are really keen to work in the media in later life. We were for-

tunate to receive a visit from a BBC news producer and she really inspired the students.

Who knows, maybe the next Huw Edwards or Sophie Raworth is at St Piers.

“My family and friends are looking forward to watching it!” “It would be good to see our

work on television!” “I feel fantastic, nervous and very excited about the BIG DAY – 15th

of March – when our news go LIVE to the whole nation!” “I feel very happy and proud to

be on the BBC!”

The BBC News School Report project involves schools across the UK. With support from

the BBC, it gives young people aged 11-16 the chance to develop their journalism skills and

make their own news reports for a real audience.

All participating schools publish their news online at the same time on annual News Day,

15th March, simultaneously creating a series of news reports to which the BBC aims to

promote on its own news website. Read on to find out who was interviewed and what we

discovered about some people in our school!

Jordan interviewed our inspirational PE team

about the way our school is preparing for Lon-

don 2012 Olympics. Olly, the PE teacher, ex-

plained that all the students at school take part

in the Olympic Swim with a total of miles to

match the distance between Beijing and London.

The students have a fantastic opportunity to be

a part of the Olympic groups that offer a vari-

ety of sports to be engaged in. Our Olympic val-

ues – Respect, Courage, Determination, Equal-

ity and Excellence are celebrated every week with a nomination of student candidates

meeting the above criteria at the school assemblies.

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Daniel interviewed Greg

about his hobby – football.

He reported that Greg is not

just a keen supporter of

Manchester United football

club but also a hard working

member of the Oxted FC Un-

der 17s taking on a ‘forward’

position on the pitch. Greg

proudly revealed to our re-

porter that he had scored

for his team on a number of

occasions!

Our students visited the enchanted Circus

at the Creative Arts Department and

interviewed Jacci to find out the answers

to the burning questions:

How did your career start?

How long have you been working in Creative

Arts?

Where do you get your brilliant ideas from?

How long does it take to write a new

song? ......

Tune into BBC School reports website to

find out!

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Greg interviewed

Chloe about her

hobbies. She had a lot to talk

about her passion of hip-hop danc-

ing. Chloe enjoyed teaching the

filming crew a few dance moves.

Chloe believes in herself and is

planning to go back into dancing in

the near future.

Daniel interviewed the Head of St.Piers

School, June Atkins. He carefully

planned this interview thinking of very

interesting questions:

“How long have you worked at this

school?”

“Is this what you always wanted to do?”

“What job did you do before this one?”

“How have things changed since you’ve

been here?”

“How do you spend your summer holi-

days?”

Curious about June’s answers to these

questions?

Login to the BBC School Reports website

and find our school on the map of UK.

Manuel was interviewed about his nomi-

nation to be an Olympic Torch Bearer.

He told our reporters that he got cho-

sen to be one of 8000 proud winners to

carry the Olympic Flame. He also re-

viled the date of the special day – 20th

of July, 2012. On this day he will take

part in a Torch Bearing relay between

Maidstone and Guildford.

“I feel both very nervous and proud. I

am very lucky to have my family and my

school supporting me on the day!”,- says

Manuel finishing the interview with a

proud smile.

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Class 12 used their map reading skills to locate Great

Britain and Greece in their atlas books, the class was

split down the middle and each group took on their

given lifestyle. James, Dave and Manuel gave a strong

performance as to why the Spartans, with their shel-

tered life styles and reluctance to trade, made them a

more secure and fierce army. However, they also

showed their weaknesses as they were unable to read

or write and their reluctance to teach their children .

We then used the references given to measure the dis-

tance between Britain and Greece, and identified capi-

tal cities. Whizzing through time, Class 12 then trav-

elled back to Ancient Greece and independently calcu-

lated how far back in time we would need to travel:

3012 years ( 1000 BC – 323 BC ). Along their journey

they each received a cryptic clue and using

the Greek alphabet translated 4 messages –

“Please help”, “Spartar or Athens”, “Come

quick” and “Good luck”. Equipped with these

clues, we researched the two life styles and

watched Horrible Histories to illustrate how a

typical Spartan and Athenian family would live.

Greg, Daniel and Arthur took on the role of

the Athenians and shared their love of thea-

tre, books and reading with our inquisitive

time traveller – Olya . Dan explained that

Athenian people were open to democratic deci-

sion making and enjoyed a healthy trade with

other countries and Greg shared how their

children enjoy a good education. Arthur was

the perfect thespian! After much delibera-

tion, our avid time traveller had to settle with

her family in 1 of the 2 city states – visit Class

12 to hear where Olya will be flying off to

next!

Class 12 News

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Out and About! Arc Theatre trip – 26th April 2012

Nestled in the leafy back streets of Caterham, 6th form

and upper school classes attended a ‘Charlie and the Choco-

late Factory’ workshop. Having already studied this Roald

Dahl classic, the students were very familiar with the

story line and quickly fell into the acting positions given to

them. These consisted of Willie Wonka, Oompaloompas,

Charlie Bucket and the other main characters. Very little

props were used, so the students had to use their knowledge

and imagination to bring life to the scene they were rehears-

ing- including sailing a boat down the chocolate river. Every-

one participated and looked like true actors. Speaking to the

students afterwards, they said how much they enjoyed being

in the theatre environment and working with the professional

actors giving them guidance.

In Sixth form we had to

choose a subject for our

work experience. We all de-

cided to open a car washing

service. We came up with the

name Bubble Car Spa. We

worked out as a group that

we would charge £3.00 per

car. We made some posters to advertise our company. We

were very lucky and had a number of requests for a wash at

Bubble Car Spa. We brought car shampoo, sponges and other

stock which cost £20.00. In our first week we washed 3 cars

and had some very happy customers, in fact they booked

their cars in straight away for another wash. We made £9.00

on our first week, and we hope our company continues to be a

success.

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PE and Activity Week

This has been a busy term for the PE department with regards

to activity weeks and sporting events.

We hosted the Surrey Special Schools fun sports day, where we

had five schools taking part. Lynn Parker’s class represented St

Piers school at the event. They were a credit to themselves and

the school, well done Class 3.

The school activity week was a great success. It coincided with

National Sports Week and World Sports Day. Students

took part in a variety of activities both onsite and off-

site. Offsite activities included boating at Weirwood

reservoir and cycling along Forest Way. Onsite stu-

dents participated in trampolining, badminton, archery,

dance, golf, football, interactive play and creative

arts. In addition on Friday all of the students from

school and sixth form took part in the annual St Piers

School sports day.

Activity week by Kristianna

On Monday we did football Chris was our coach and first we

did some warm-ups with dribbling and then we had to dribble

the ball around the cones and try and kick the balls over the

cones.

In the afternoon we had creative arts and they massaged

your hands with this cream that smelled nice.

On Tuesday in the morning we did archery and you have to

pull the arrow back and let go and you have to get it on 10

and that’s called a bull’s-eye.

In the afternoon we did outside trampolining and you had to

do the things what your coach tells you.

On Wednesday we did boating and you had to row the boat.

To row the boat you use oars to row the boat.

On Thursday we did dancing and you had to follow

the moves that your teacher is doing and then they

play the music and follow.

On Friday we had sports day and we had 10 activi-

ties you had five minutes to do the activity and

when you’re done you go to the next one.

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Welcome to our new

students! Report on our first term at Young Epilepsy

By Tom and Matthew Oxley

On the first day we were a bit shy but later on we felt a bit better. We really like the circus in

creative arts; it was really fun swinging on the trapeze swing and going through the hoops. Mat-

thew has enjoyed the history lessons on the Kings and Queens of England. Whereas I have par-

ticularly enjoyed the geography lessons. We have both enjoyed the science experiments we

made hot air balloons and parachutes to test forces and motion.

During activities week Matthew did football, box hockey, trampolining and boating. I did trampo-

lining, box hockey and boating. Matthew enjoyed boating as the best whereas my favourite was

the trampolining.

Class 11 News Class 11 have been very active this

term in their sporting activities, as

well as gathering and sharing lots of

information about our 2 big national

events, the Diamond Jubilee, and the 2012 London

Olympics. Ian in particular, ensured that our visiting

‘pretend’ Queen was well looked after! As part of Healthy

Schools Week, we joined other groups to visit a Confi-

dence Course at Kent College near Tunbridge Wells.

Becky, Hannah and Charlotte used their problem

solving skills as well as displaying amazing agility and

balance to get under, over, up and down, or through

a wide variety of obstacles! Ian has been excelling in

his digital photography, in particular, working with his classmates to

produce Olympic sports symbols for his Olympic project. The whole class have very recently

been pleased to welcome Sarah into their class. Sarah has settled in quickly, joining in all of

the lessons, and taking part in the recent activity week where she tried lots of unfamiliar ac-

tivities such as archery, tri-golf and boating. We also enjoyed a very interesting visit to the

Science Museum at Herstmonceux. Through all that they do, the class are working hard to

achieve the Olympic Values of respect, excellence, friendship, courage, determination, inspira-

tion and equality. Well done to Ian, Becky, Hannah, Charlotte and Sarah, as well as the great

staff team!

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The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

Street Party

On Thursday 31st May, the whole of St Piers School were ea-

gerly anticipating the event of the year– the Diamond Jubilee

Street Party! All the tables and chairs were arranged outside,

a buffet feast had been prepared, and metres of red white

and blue bunting were hung all round school.

The whole school gathered, awaiting the arrival of our VIP

visitor..... Yes, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2nd popped in

for tea! She was very gracious and posed for pictures with all

her loyal subjects, but sadly she couldn’t bring her corgis. We

then had a fabulous party on the playground dancing to a rock

and roll band until the end of the day, and even the rain

stayed away!

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The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

Street Party