NewsletterPrudhoe Community High School

Spring 2015 Part 2

Sun Smiles on Prudhoe

Lessonsfrom

Auschwitz

It's That Time

of Year Again!

Introduction from Mrs Reeman Headteacher

Welcome to our second newsletter of 2015. As ever, another really busy term at Prudhoe Community High School with lots of fund raising for various charities and many sporting activities. We hope everyone has a productive Easter break, with plenty of revision from Years 11, 12 and 13. We look foward to welcoming students back on Monday 13 April 2015.

We are delighted that planning has now been granted for our new school build, work is due to commence in May with completion planned for September 2016. Exciting times ahead.

Examination Invigilators

We are looking to recruit some additional examination invigilators to join our experienced team for the summer examination season.

The hourly rate is approximately £8.16 per hour. Further details and application packs are available from Mrs Rachel Boyles on 01661 832486.

PCHS is committed to the safeguarding and welfare of young people: an enhanced DBS check will be required.

Artist's impression of our new school

Curtain Up!

On Monday 2 March we welcomed a large turnout of parents and friends to a Preview Night of GCSE

Drama exam performance pieces. Students were delighted to have a full house. This was an excellent chance to perform their exam work to a real audience and get helpful feedback which they could work on, in time for their actual exam one week later. The students had created their own original performances on the theme of “Tomorrow’s World”, and explored a dystopian future of microchips, monitoring, freedom of thought and belief, physical perfection, and the emancipation of women. Exam day went extremely well (3 examiners!) and Mrs Clark would like to congratulate all of those who took part, for their professional attitude and hard work. The Drama event raised £60 from donations; this will feed, clothe and house two Tibetan children for 2 months.

Art trip to Edinburgh

Mr Wade and Mrs Wallace took 18 of our Art 6th form students on a day trip to Edinburgh.

Students had recently received their examination starting points so were looking for inspiration for their new projects. Once in Edinburgh we started with a tour around the city seeing Scott’s Monument, The Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle with a band parade. Pupils visited The Scottish National Gallery, The Portrait Gallery, The Modern Art Gallery and The National Museum of Scotland among some smaller independent galleries. Students also had time to explore the city with food at Jamie’s Restaurant and shopping at Harvey Nichols!

Members of 9DRW held a cake sale in aid of Motor Neurone disease

Red Nose Day 2015

Over £900 was raised for Red Nose Day. Students took part in various activities including a staff vs students bake-off and a non - uniform day. WELL DONE!

Late Night Art

Year 11, 12 and 13 Art students were hard at work from 3-9pm on Thursday 5 March producing fantastic Art work in the PCHS Art

Department. Students focused on sketchbook work, ceramic dishes, tattoo art, portrait painting, fashion design and even a 4 foot fish! The Art students were enthusiastic and hardworking throughout the six hours, with a refuel of pizza and fizzy pop to keep them going. A "well done" to all 30 students who participated with Mrs Wallace and Mr Wade. We wish all our GCSE and A Level students good luck for

their exams and final exhibitions.

GCSE Exhibition Thursday 30 April 3.00pm-7.00pm

A Level Exhibition Thursday 14 May 3.00pm-7.00pm

Italian club

Italian club is a fun language learning club held every Tuesday

lunch time and led by our half-Italian volunteer classroom assistant. The club starts at 1.30 and includes learning conversational Italian and about the culture of Italy through trying out vocabulary and playing games. The group enthusiastically joins in with questions and answers, chanting and the occasional game of charades as well as other fun games. Italian Club, Tuesday lunch time 1.30pm in MFL2, come along and join in with some language learning. Ciao!!

UK Intermediate Maths Challenge

In February, 120 Year 9 and 10 students took part in the UK Intermediate Maths Challenge. Thirty four students were

awarded certificates for their achievement, with three Gold, nine Silver and twenty-two Bronze awards.

Congratulations to Andrew Lowes for receiving the “Best in school” award and a Gold certificate. He also qualified for the Pink Kangaroo Challenge, which has participants from across the world competing against each other. Daniel Lett and Niamh McAuley also received Gold certificates narrowly missing out on the Pink Kangaroo. Annabel Robson received the “Best in Year” award for Year 9.

Well done to all of the students who participated!

Year 10 9-A-Side Rugby Tournament

On the 12 Febuary a bus-load of excited lads headed off to Druid Park for our first tournament

of the year. We had a strong team and a good mind set, going in for our first game. We played our first game well but lost by a try. Not letting that stop us, we entered the next game and came out with a win. Bringing the energy with us, we played our next game but drew after a hard time on the pitch. Our final game called and after a long afternoon we lost to the hardest team who put up a strong fight. All in all it was a good day.

Matt Beatie Year 10

Fuse Community Cinema is One Year Old

The Community Cinema at Fuse Media Centre has recently celebrated its first birthday, and in the last twelve

months we’ve sold over 4,000 tickets to 61 films.We would like to thank all of our volunteers, including a number of students from PCHS, who have helped to make our first year such a success.

The 100-seat cinema at Fuse is fully equipped with an industry-standard 2k digital projector and Dolby surround sound system. There is also a small shop, selling popcorn, sweets, ice cream and hot and cold drinks.

The cinema currently screens a broad range of films on general release two days a week – on Thursday and Saturday. Details of all upcoming films can be found on the website: www.fusecinema.co.uk. Bookings can also be taken for private screenings and parties.

Fuse Community Cinema is happy to boast the cheapest standard ticket price in the North East and not only do you get a great cinema experience that doesn’t break the bank, but any profits generated are used to support the running costs of Fuse Media Centre and our work with the local schools and the wider community.

Before and After!

PCHS

students are well known for taking action to help others. Well done to Zach Vernon 11YC, who recently had 54 cms of his hair trimmed, (around 200g) which will be sent off to support the charity Little Princess Trust. This organization helps children who are undergoing intensive cancer treatment. This is in fact the second time Zach has individually supported the charity, and he will be sending off both batches of “haircut” very soon. His tutor group are very proud of him!

Sun Smiles on Prudhoe

Staff and students gathered on 20 March at 9.20am to observe the last solar eclispe in the UK until 2026.

Students were under strict instructions not to stare directly at the sun so came armed with colanders, welding masks, pin hole cameras some even had solar glasses!

With much excitement, students took turns to watch the sun disappear behind the moon until almost 90% was covered.

It’s That Time Of Year Again!

Anyone wandering past Studio 2 during lunch breaks since October has been in for a treat – the fabulous cast of this

year’s school show doing their tuneful stuff as they learn the music for ‘Kind Hearts and Coronets’. Rehearsals have proved a bit too much of an attraction to uninvolved students who have taken to hanging about in the doorway and it’s no accident that Studio 2 has suddenly featured much more on the route duty staff take, so they can drop in and get a very positive earful!

Let’s answer the most frequently asked questions… Yes, it is an original musical, first performed at PCHS seven years ago, so no, you won’t have seen/heard it anywhere else. Yes, it does involve a lot of murders. Yes, it is VERY funny. Yes, it is suitable for children, but we’d reckon middle school age and up. And no, it’s nothing at all to do with the new kid on the block, ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder’ which is also based on ‘Kind Hearts.' This show was written and performed long before the newbie was even thought of.

Starring Simon Weatherspoon as murdering anti-hero Louis Mazzini and Ruby Simpson and Bronwen Davies-Jones making up the rest of a peculiar love triangle, teachers (and writers) Karl Boyd and Yvonne Rushmere have been blown away by the quality of the singing. With an excellent supporting cast, many of whom trod the boards in last year’s ‘Out of the Woods’, and a smattering of newbies, Prudhoe’s Really Youthful Theatre Company continues to go from strength to strength.

Based on the old Ealing comedy in which Sir Alec Guinness memorably played Louis Mazzini AND all the rest of his large family, including the women, this is black comedy melodrama at its sharpest. We can guarantee you a couple of hours of excellent entertainment in our usual style, so if you’re up for a toe-tapping laugh, the show is on from Wednesday 22nd – Saturday 25th of April at 7.30 pm in the school hall, adults £6 and concessions, £4. Tickets will be on sale after Easter and can be reserved by contacting the school in the usual ways. You know you want to…

Basketball Coaches

Kevin Mooney, Tristan Santiago, Sean

McDougall, Grey Ur, Panupan Makklang and Cameron Grant all successfully completed the basketball coaching course held by Newcastle Eagles.

Year 9 Table Tennis Tournament Winners

Alumni

Stuart Coulson

Software Architect

After finishing Sixth Form at Prudhoe back in 2002, I went off to study for a masters degree in Computer Systems

and Software Engineering at York University. Four superb years later I still had the studying bug, so went off to the University of Abertay Dundee to do a second masters in Computer Games Technology. All finished I was lucky enough to get a traineeship as a Web developer at ITV in Gateshead in 2009. Initially updating a site for parents to teach their young kids sign language, my work impressed enough for me to become a permanent member of staff. Still there today, I am now a Software Architect managing a number of sites as well as a family of apps called Signed Stories that present animated children’s books in sign language and this has proved a huge hit in many special needs schools in the US. Prudhoe definitely played a huge role in getting me where I am today. Without the mathematics, science and technology departments with their fantastic teachers, I would not have been able to form the foundation of knowledge that has allowed me to develop into a successful IT professional. The art and design staff were also brilliant and left me with a creative streak that definitely serves me well working within a media company. But the biggest thanks have to go to the amazing Individual Needs department. As a wheelchair user high school could have been extremely difficult. But their tireless work meant I wasn’t disadvantaged and could concentrate on my studies and normal high school life as much as possible!

Adam Pope

Undertaking A Master Degree In International Security

After five happy years of studying, I left PCHS with three A Levels and an

unconditional offer to the University of Glasgow. Last month I graduated UoG with a first class honours degree and the University’s Best Dissertation Award in Politics. Following this, I will be pursuing a Master’s degree in at the University of St. Andrews in September.

For these achievements, I owe a lot to the staff at PCHS, and for more than just the obvious (helping me achieve the A grades I needed for Glasgow!). It was their time and support that steered me to the academic level I’m at today, and their advice that helped structure the decisions I made after leaving school.

In particular, I wouldn’t have got far without the support of my sixth form tutor Jill Davidson. Jill’s guidance inspired me to pursue a degree in politics, and her patient tutelage strengthened the writing skills that I’ve used to excel in it. Achieving a First and receiving the award for best dissertation are certainly products of Jill’s teaching. Her unabated refusal to let me slack off (despite how much I wanted to), and her commitment to improving my essay technique have got me further in academia than I ever thought possible.

Prudhoe Community High School, Moor Road, Prudhoe, Northumberland, NE42 5LJTel: 01661 832486 Fax:01661 832859

E-mail:Admin@prudhoe.northumberland.sch.uk Web:www.pchs.org.uk

Lessons from Auschwitz

After visiting Auschwitz Concentration Camp in

October of last year as part of Holocaust Educational Trust "Lessons From Auschwitz" programme, Fintan Kealy and I decided we needed to share all we had learned on our visit. There was no better way for us to do this than to invite Holocaust survivor, Eva Clarke, into school to talk to our History students and share her and her mother's testimony. This was the second time we had heard her incredible story , as she had spoken at the orientation seminar prior to our visit to Poland. It was just as interesting and heartwrenching the second time around, and all of the other students I have spoken to seemed to find it equally brilliant.

Eva was born in Mauthausen Concentration Camp on 29 April 1945, weighing only 3 pounds. Her story is an incredible one, a story to which I could not do justice. Eva and her mother Anka share their experiences in a BBC documentary entitled "Baby Born in a Concentration Camp" which can be found on Youtube.

We are extremely happy that we managed to get Eva to come into school to talk to the students, and can not thank her enough for doing so. Hopefully the lessons we learned have been passed on to more people, as they are important.

Hearing the testimony of an individual who was affected so strongly by the Holocaust helps us to comprehend the terrible things that happened during the Second World War. They were not numbers and statistics, they were human beings, whose lives and identities were stripped from them. We mustn't forget their stories.

Ailsa Bennett Year 12

Mrs Williams (Assistant Headteacher) who helped organise the event along with Mrs Warkman (Assistant Headteacher/Head of Humanities) said that: “It was a privilege for us to welcome Eva Clarke to our school and her testimony will remain a powerful reminder of the horrors so many experienced. We are grateful to the Holocaust Educational Trust for co-ordinating the visit and we hope that by hearing Eva’s testimony, it will encourage our students to learn from the lessons of the Holocaust and make a positive difference in their own lives.”