Prudhoe Community High School

Newsletter

Autumn 2017 Second Edition

Our new Site Manager clearing the snow.

Contents

Year 12 Sports Leaders

Creative Digital Media Sixth Form Trip

Year 12 Visit BBC Newcastle’s Headquarters

Year 13 Kayak lessons

Girls’ Rugby

Sixth Form Philosophy and Ethics Conference

UK Youth Parliament, the students’ voice

Russian Enrichment at PCHS

Year 9 Netball

A Winter Concert

Curtain Up - Theatre Sans Frontieres

Sunderland Theatre trip, ‘Blood Brothers’

Voices from the Margins

New York 2019

The School Show

Newcastle University Maths Visit

Winter Wonderland

Antarctica Day

Budapest Visit 2018

Year 12 Interview Day

PCHS Engineering Benefactor

New School Defibrillator

Get Safe Online

PCHS Charity Support Feature o Year 9 Food Bank Challenge o Children in Need o Christmas Non-uniform Day

Certificate Collection

Spring Term start date 9 January 2018

Year 12 Sports Leaders Prudhoe Community High School Year 12 Sports Leaders have had a busy half term. They helped to organise and run the Year 5 Northumberland School Games - West Northumberland Area football competition. Braving the cold conditions, students took on a range of roles from timekeeping, scoring and officiating to help ensure a successful tournament which saw over 100 Year 5 students attend the afternoon at our school.

They have also been helping Highfield Middle School Year 6 Young sports leaders develop their skills by running the national qualification - The Playmaker Award.

20 Year 6 students visited our school for a morning where they took part in a range of workshops and activities all looking at helping them become more effective and confident Sports Leaders. A good day was had by all.

Creative Digital Media Sixth Form Trip

On Wednesday November 15 all of the sixth form Creative Digital Media Students spent a day visiting different media organisations based in the North East. In the morning we attended an exclusive screening of the film ‘Dunkirk’, directed by Christopher Nolan. This was part of the annual ‘IntoFilm Schools Film Festival’, at the Vue Cinema in Gateshead, the newest cinema in the region.

The film is a great example of visual storytelling, which uses minimal dialogue and an intense soundtrack to recreate the experiences of evacuations of troops from the beaches during the German invasion of France.

Year 12 learn about ‘blue screen technology’ at the BBC Weather and Traffic studio

In the afternoon we went to BBC Newcastle’s headquarters - sometimes called ‘The Pink Palace’ - for a behind-the-scenes tour through their media library, TV and radio studios. We were also

given a real insight into how the BBC regional news teams create their programmes. The students even had the chance to be part of a radio drama and short news bulletin. We also heard a few secrets such as the truth about Jilly the traffic and travel presenter’s iPad, and what radio presenters will talk about when they’re stuck for a phone-in idea.

Later in the year we will visit some smaller media companies, and media departments in local universities. These trips not only touch on parts of the coursework and exam topics for the course, but also show students the many different options they have both within and beyond the North East, if they want to pursue further study or a career in the media or related industries. We’re always keen to hear from parents or ex-students, many of whom we know work in this sector. Please get in touch if you or anyone you know would be willing to come and talk to the students about working in the ‘Media’ or related industries such as advertising, PR and marketing.

Year 13 Kayak lessons

As part of the year 13’s Cambridge Technical Sport course our students were required to participate in an outdoor adventurous activity.

We decided to make the most of North Tyneside’s amenities and headed to Cullercoats beach for a two hour Kayak lesson. During the lesson students were taught basic sea survival techniques and had plenty of time out on the water.

On a whole, the day was a success, with all students leaving the coast with new skills and another section of their course signed off.

Girls’ Rugby

On Thursday 7 December, the girls’ rugby team travelled to Novo’s rugby club in Benton for the next round of the North East tournament. The weather was bitterly cold and although the girls’ enthusiasm helped, they found it tough to warm up ready for a day of fixtures. The girls played schools from all over the North East and played some fantastic rugby. Highlights included exceptional tries from Kate Smith and Emma Boaden, unbelievable tackles from Amy Jefferson and Ellie Shears and exceptional leadership from the captain Nicole Blakeburn.

PCHS would like to congratulate Emma Boaden, Eleanor Ferguson and Jayne Bell on recently taking the step up to club rugby. The PE department are proud of the progress the girls have made since starting playing in September, and wish them luck playing for Tynedale RFU.

Girls’ rugby has started up again on Monday nights after school, all are welcome and it would be great to see some new faces from all year groups.

Sixth Form Philosophy and Ethics Conference This half term Year 13 Philosophy and Ethics students spent the day with renowned philosopher and theologian Dr Peter Vardy at St Nicholas’ Cathedral in Newcastle. They attended lectures on Omniscience, Religious Language and Verificationism, as well as on changing religious attitudes to gender and sexuality. Hilbert Vinkenoog and Miss Wills also got involved in the key debate that rounded up the day: “This house believes that religion has no place in the 22nd Century.” Discuss!

UK Youth Parliament, The students’ voice

On 6 December 2017, students from Prudhoe Community High School across Years 9-13 took part in Northumberland County Council’s Youth Parliament and Youth Cabinet election. UK Youth Parliament provides opportunities for 11-18 year-olds to use their voice in creative ways to bring about social change. The manifestos of some of the candidates from Northumberland this year focused on priorities for young people such as: free school transport for all students, getting young

people ready for the workplace, and better careers advice. On Election Day at Prudhoe, students from each tutor group were issued ballot papers and invited to vote in tutor time at a polling station manned by our Student Council. The following day all the ballot papers were brought together and counted and the results were announced on the County website. Mrs Williams, who co-ordinated the vote, said that “Last year, we were delighted that PCHS student Luke Shears was elected as part of this democratic process. Next

year, we would love some more of our own students to run for Northumberland’s Youth Parliament and Youth Cabinet. It is vital that the young people of Prudhoe understand the political climate and play a part in shaping the future of our country”. As a member of Youth Parliament, students get the chance to attend events such as the annual sitting (a gathering of the youth parliament from across the country) and also the House of Commons event where you get to sit on the prestigious green benches. If any students are interested in running for the Election next year, they should see Mrs Williams to register their interest.

Russian Enrichment at PCHS

Russian Lessons with Mr. Smith were engaging from the very beginning and both Mrs Clark and I are so lucky to take part along with some of our students from Y11 and the Sixth Form. It is really good to see how different linguists gather together after a long day and are still enthusiastic to keep learning. It felt so good being a student again, at least for an hour, however it also reminded me of how challenging it is, and the resilience and courage it takes, to learn a foreign language from scratch. I can also empathise with my students now too. Mr Del Pino

Year 9 Netball This term the year 9 Netball team travelled to Blue Flames for their annual Northumberland netball tournament. The girls had a tough day but after fixtures against Bede Academy, Hexham Queen Elizabeth and King Edward VI to name but a few, finished third in the whole of Northumberland. The girls should be proud of this achievement as they have only been playing as a team since September. Player of the tournament went to Annie Jones who not only played amazingly but acted as a brilliant team captain for the whole day. Netball club is on every Wednesday evening 3-4pm and anyone is welcome to attend.

A Winter Concert On Thursday 7 December, we hosted our Winter Concert in the school hall. Every year group was represented with many of our Year 9’s particularly shining. This was the second music concert of 2017 with many students choosing to perform more complicated pieces and several students performing for the first time. Audience numbers were very encouraging - particularly as it was a chilly December evening so thank you to all those who came and braved the cold! The students’ behaviour was fantastic both in helping set up the equipment for the concert and the way they conducted themselves throughout it. What particularly impressed me was their camaraderie and support for one another with many of them telling me after the concert how much fun it had been, especially when we sang Happy Birthday to one of the students.

A summer concert is on the horizon and I am sure that our fantastic students will continue to push themselves into learning new pieces for then.

Curtain Up - Theatre Sans Frontieres

The Drama department were delighted to host a visit from John Cobb, Joint Artistic Director of the theatre company Theatre Sans Frontieres. Students from Y9 and Y10 took part together in an excellent and entertaining physical theatre workshop, devising performance work based on the story of Odysseus and the Cyclops, and then a scripted extract from ‘The Canterville Ghost’. It was great to see two year groups working so well and creatively together and Mr Cobb commented that we were one of the best schools he had worked with during his tour of the UK. Mrs Clark would like

to say a big THANK YOU to all involved for representing the school in such a positive way.

TSF is a company which is well known for productions both in English and in Modern Foreign Languages. The company is currently researching ideas for their next production to make theatre for this age group more attractive and more accessible. We are hoping to be able to work with the company again soon, perhaps to trial their ideas as the production develops. We look forward to building strong links between TSF and the lower school in the future.

Students commented: "I really enjoyed being in the Drama workshop - the activities we did were fun and engaging as well as being new and different to what I've done previously." (Zachary Y9); "I found it interesting and a good experience. It made me consider Drama at GCSE because I really enjoyed it!"(Tegan Y9) "I thought doing the Drama activities was really fun because we got to co-operate and talk to people we normally wouldn't talk to." (Danny Y9) "This workshop was fun, not only because it was Drama but because I got to work with people I don't know" (Steph Y10) "An exciting experience that brought all the students out of their shells" (Amy Y10) "A really interactive and interesting experience!" (Annie Y10)

Sunderland Theatre Trip Year 9 and Year 10 Drama students thoroughly enjoyed a trip to the Sunderland Empire to see a performance of the GCSE set playtext ‘Blood Brothers’. Despite a very chilly evening and a late return, the students loved seeing the play and it was a pleasure to travel with them. We look forward to more exciting theatre visits later in the year - watch this space!

Voices from the Margins Students have been working hard on their Repertoire performance unit and this culminates in two public performances - one on December 7 at 7:30pm in the main hall (following directly on from the Music Department concert) and another in February (Date TBC). The work is challenging, hard-hitting and pleasingly political! Both performances are free of charge, but donations would be gratefully accepted.

New York 2019 The Department is also pleased to be able to offer students in Year

11 and Year 12 a trip to New York in February 2019 where we will take in the sights, sample the food, see a show on Broadway and visit a range of curriculum related institutions (The Julliard School of Performing Arts for example).

This trip is open to all Year 11’s and 12’s and further information can be obtained from Mr K Boyd or Mr T Smith.

The School Show

Rehearsals are now well underway for ‘Eternal Flame’ - our home-grown Dracula 80’s Jukebox Musical Extravaganza. The students have loved getting to grips with classic 80s tunes such as ‘Take on Me’, ‘Come on Eileen’ & ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ and they are now up on their feet rehearsing the script - rehearsal photos will follow soon… Tickets will be on sale in early March and the show will run from the 25 to the 27 April from 7:15pm in the Main Hall - free entry for anyone in 80s fancy dress!

Newcastle University Maths visit On Wednesday 15 November, 30 Year 10 students attended Newcastle University to take part in an afternoon of Maths lectures. The event was aimed at students who may be interested in a career in Maths or may go on to study it at University.

The speakers for the day were Dr Phil Ansell, the Dean of Sport at Newcastle University, who gave a really interesting talk on the analysis of sports data and the use of league tables. Our other speaker was Dr Aoife Hunt, a real life mathematician who worked in Movement Strategies, (working out how to get people in and out of sports stadia and pop concerts safely and efficiently, uses a lot of maths). This lecture was on the maths of music and how we could set up a mathematical algorithm to write pieces of music, something which is already being done today. At the end of the lecture students had the opportunity of producing their own music.

The whole afternoon was really enjoyable, even the interval, where students had great fun with the reflecting telescope mirror in the Herschel Building foyer.

Winter Wonderland

The new school faced its first heavy snowfall on the 30 November 2017, the building held up well and the school was warm and cosy. The grounds were kept clear by our site team, the new Site Manager Chris was having a great time, judging by the huge grin on his face, using our new snow clearing machine for the first time. All of our students managed to get their respective buses or lifts home and staff all managed to get home with just a few ‘dodgy’ moments. All returned to normality on 1 December.

Year 12 Antarctica Day

On Thursday 30 November the Year 12 Geography students visited Northumberland College to celebrate Antarctica Day. We heard from a variety of speakers, including current PhD students and people who have been to carry out research; learning about Antarctica, how its environment is being affected by humans and about the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).

The morning included a 45 minute phone call with three members of the BAS, currently based in Rothera Research Station on the Antarctic Peninsula. We spoke to the Laboratory Manager, a Marine Biologist and the Flight Operations Manager, asking them lots of questions about their current research, their experiences in Antarctica and the career paths that led them there.

This gave us a really good idea as to how challenging, yet rewarding, their work is, and gave us a brilliant insight into the reality of Antarctica. The afternoon gave us an opportunity to carry out some experiments to show the dramatic effects resulting from changes in the environment. We enjoyed our day, and ended up bringing the snow home with us.

Budapest 2018

Time is slowly creeping by and the Health and Social Care students at PCHS have been working away, collecting for their trip to Budapest. We have been overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of the staff, students, parents and the local community. However, none of this would have been possible without the hard work of our chief organiser Lauren Pinchen in Year 12. Lauren has liaised with local businesses to raise awareness of our cause and is working tirelessly to raise funds for the orphanage we are visiting. We are still a small way off the target we have set ourselves and we would be extremely grateful if any parents visiting the school could drop a few pence into the small collection box we have placed in the school reception area, every contribution large or small will help make life a little better for the children in the orphanage. All funds raised will be going towards the cost of shipping out the care packages we have been compiling for the children in the orphanage and buying arts and crafts materials for use during our time there.

Year 12 Interview Skills Day On Friday 8 December, Year 12 students took part in the school’s first ‘Interview Skills Day’. A number of local employers volunteered to help out for the day and work with the students to help them develop more of an understanding of how to be successful in interviews in the future.

Students had been briefed in tutorial time and received a number of presentations from employers in the lead up to the event with regard to interview skills, online profiling and job applications, to develop skills for any future interviews they may take part in. The following week the students learned who had been successful and “got the job!”

All students and employers who took part in the day felt that this provided a valuable and worthwhile experience to help prepare them for life beyond their school years. Employers were highly complimentary of our

young people commenting that “they are a credit to your school” and that it had “restored their faith in the next generation of young people in our country”.

PCHS would like to take this opportunity to thank all those that were involved in the day for giving up their time and volunteering to take part in what was another successful event at Prudhoe Community High School.

PCHS Engineering Benefactor Mr Hedley Veron sadly passed away in the summer of 2015. He was the proud and loving father of Jethro, Ayesha, Zak and one of our current students Nyree who is included in the photograph. Jethro & Zak both studied Engineering at Prudhoe High School up to BTEC L3. Ayesha studied Textiles at GCSE level before all three went on to study Engineering at degree level at various universities in the North East. Following the family tradition, Nyree is currently studying BTEC L2 Engineering. Hedley was passionate about Engineering and took a keen interest in his children's education and in particular their education within the Design and Technology department. He regularly gave his time to the department and once helped repair several of the departments’ lathes. He is remembered fondly by the School and particularly by the Technology staff. Upon his passing he in turn remembered the Engineering department and left a sum of money to purchase additional equipment. After a long deliberation we decided on an air compressor, impact wrench and associated accessories. His passion in Engineering will be passed on to the many up and coming engineers in school through his generous gift.

New School Defibrillator

We are delighted to let everyone know that we have been donated a defibrillator by the British Heart Foundation, which has now been installed and is fully operational. More people can survive a cardiac arrest if a member of the public uses a defibrillator on them before the emergency services arrive, as well as starting CPR. Anyone can use it, no training necessary, just call 999 and follow the instructions given.

Key staff in school and also Active Northumberland who run our sporting facilities after school hours, have been given information on how to familiarise themselves with this equipment in the event of an emergency. The British Heart Foundation and Resuscitation Council are committed to saving lives through ensuring more people survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, by increasing public education and awareness. Having this equipment in school will also increase awareness of the young people in our community.

We hope this equipment is never needed, however having it in school and available for the community users after school hours is a valuable asset for which we thank the British Heart Foundation.

Get Safe Online

Mobile devices, game consoles and wearables make great presents …

… Are you buying one this Christmas? In all the excitement, it can be easy to forget to make sure it’s set up and used safely and securely, so we’ve brought you some expert, practical tips to help.

Download an internet security app on mobile devices – including Apple – and ensure you keep it updated. There’s a wide choice available, some cover several devices, and some have advanced security features to reduce the impact of loss or theft.

Download app updates when prompted, as they frequently contain security updates. Update operating systems when prompted, as this will also ensure you benefit from the

latest online security. Download apps only from official sources such as App Store, Google Play or Microsoft

Store. Protect all mobile devices with a PIN or password, even if they feature biometric

protection. Keep devices secure and out of harm’s way, as the information on them – and accessed

from them – could be worth a lot more than the device itself in the wrong hands. If you’ve bought a second-hand mobile device, remove the previous owner’s settings and

data if this hasn’t already been done. If you’re selling, carry out a reset. Find out how by reading the manufacturer’s website. Ensure the device is running the most up-do-date version of the operating system and apps before using it.

Change factory-set passwords to your own secure passwords as soon as you connect the device to your Wi-Fi.

Never leave mobile devices or wearables unattended in vehicles, cafés, the gym or other public places. Take advantage of the safe in hotel rooms.

Keep phones, tablets and wearables protected when out and about in crowded areas. They make attractive targets for pickpockets and ride-by thieves.

Remember that clicking on email attachments or links in emails, text messages and social media posts could infect your device with malware, including ransomware and spyware. Think before you click.

Back up all your devices regularly so that your data, photos and music will be protected in the case of theft, loss or damage.

If the device is for a child or young person, sit down and speak to them about safe and responsible use of the internet, including what they say and who they communicate with. You could also download a respected parental control app to block unsuitable content. And make sure that bills aren’t being run up for in-game purchases.

PCHS Charity support feature

Year 9 Food Bank Challenge

Head of Year 9 Mr Gray and Year 9 tutor Miss McDonald, along with all of the Year 9 students, have organised a food bank collection on behalf of West Northumberland Food Bank, which is a charity set up to help people in hardship in our local area. Their motto is “together we can make a difference”. Whilst people are generally aware of the need to distribute food, the cost of toiletries can also be very high for such essential products. We therefore specifically focussed on toiletries such as soap, shampoo, etc. The collection was open to all year groups and the response to this was great. We sent a bulging trolley of donations to the Food Bank. “Together we did make a difference”, and many thanks to those who contributed.

Children in Need ‘Non School Uniform Day’

Once again for Children in Need this year we had a ‘Non School Uniform Day’. So on Friday 17 November students and staff wore their regular clothes and raised the brilliant sum of £810.68

Save the Children ‘Christmas Non School Uniform Day’

We are also supporting Save the Children’s ‘Christmas Jumper Day’ again this year; however because of mock exams ours will be a week later on Friday 22 December. Students can wear something festive of their choice.

Friday 17 November

2017

Exam Certificate Collection Certificates for GCSE, AS and A levels taken in the summer 2017 exams will be available to collect from the main school office from Monday 11 December, If certificates are being collected by a third party such as a sibling, parent or friend, a signed candidate collection form will be required, which can be downloaded from the school website. www.pchs.org.uk. Please call into the main office after 9am Monday to Friday. Unfortunately because of exam board regulations we are unable to post certificates to students.

Spring Term start date 9 January 2018

Following the Christmas break there will be a teacher training day on Monday 8 January 2018.

Students should return to school at 8.30am on Tuesday 9 January 2018.

We hope you have a lovely break and look forward to another exciting term here at PCHS in 2018.

The staff and students at Prudhoe Community High School

wish everyone a Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year.

Prudhoe Community High School

Moor Road

Prudhoe

Northumberland

NE42 5LJ

Tel: 01661 832486

Email@ enquiries@pchs.org.uk

Website: www.pchs.org.uk

Facebook: facebook.com/PrudhoeHigh

Twitter: @pchsnews