Pendle Community High School & CollegeAUTUMN NEWSLETTER

Welcome from the HeadteacherWelcome to our first newsletter of this academic year.

It’s certainly been a busy start to the year, with lots of exciting learning opportunities being undertaken throughout school and college. The year 8-14 students have coped well with their changes experienced in classes or staffing, and we have also successfully admitted 19 new year 7 students from both specialist provision and local mainstream primary schools. We are currently undertaking post transition reviews with the parents and carers of all year 7 students and the majority report that they are delighted with how well the children have settled into their new high school and the progress already made.

Pendle Community High School & College is also delighted to welcome a number of new staff who have taken up new posts from this term onwards, including Cheryl Sunderland (Reception Administration staff); Fiona Booth; Halima Mahomed; Callum Broadleday; Tahir Khawaja (all Teaching Assistants); Rachel Cook; Carl Byrne; Sophie Greenwood (Teachers); Gillian Storey and Jessica Kirk (temporary Teachers); and myself as new headteacher. We also have another two Level 3 Teaching Assistants joining us in November which will further enhance our fantastic existing teaching and learning teams.

Personally, I would really like to thank all the staff and governors at Pendle Community High School and College for their warm welcome and fabulous support, for which I am so appreciative. Clearly this is already a good school, and I am privileged to be working together with such talented staff to further improve outcomes for all the students and families at Pendle Community High School and College.

I look forward to meeting you and getting to know everyone better in the near future.

Best wishes as always,

Chris Lingard

Noticeboard

Christmas Event Dates Photograph DaySchool photographs will take place on Friday 25th November. We ask that all students are dressed in correct uniform or are wearing smart casual for post 16. Unfortunately if your son/daughter is not able to attend on Friday 25th we are not able to re-arrange.

Proofs will hopefully be available on the day. Orders will need to be returned with correct monies by Friday 2nd December for photo’s to be delivered prior to Christmas holidays.

If you would like sibling photographs please speak to Kiah Harvey prior to the event.

Remembrance Day 11th Nov

Photo Day 25th Nov

Anti Bullying Week14th November

Road Safety week

21st November

Other Important Dates

1st Dec Christmas Fair 6pm

8th Dec College at Panto

8th Dec School Disco

2th Dec College Christmas

Lunch at Burnley

Mechanics

1st Dec Whole School

Christmas Lunch

School closes for Christmas on

22nd December

1

2

School re-opens on

Tuesday 8th November

Pendle’s got talent

Will be taking place on 15th and 16th December

Adverse weatherAs we are approaching the winter months it is time to prepare for adverse weather. All announcements will be made in the following ways:

Radio: Radio stations 2BR and Radio Lancashire will be advised.

Website: Our school website will have up to date news of our closure: www.pchs.lancs.sch.uk

Telephone: If these options are not available to you please call the school on 01282 682260. If you are unable to get your child to school because of adverse weather please call our attendance line on 01282 682263.

Otley Sailing RegattaOur dynamic duo of Reece and Amy steered our school

to success in the Northern Regatta at Otley.

The competition comprised of two separate heats. The first three in each heat competed in the final; in which our two

intrepid heroes triumphed. This will be our third year in a row that we have won the trophy.

Well done guys!

Wonderful Wenning!Team Wenning have been busy this Half Term in Food Technology, learning about ‘Where Our Food Comes From’. We have been using lots of different vegetables and fruits to make healthy soups, fruit kebabs and banana loafs. Everyone had a try of the different fruits and vegetables.

Tesco ‘Farm to Fork’ have also been in to show us lots of different foods including fish, cheese and fruits from all over the World. The fish and cheese were very smelly but the fruits were delicious. Well done Wenning, keep up the hard work, you’ve all had a brilliant first half term!

Duke of Edinburgh Awardby Wasib Mahmood

This year the Duke of Edinburgh group are working towards their silver award. To achieve this, they must do 6 months of physical challenges, 3 months of skills

challenges and 12 months volunteering. For our 6 months of physical challenges we are developing

skills in Boccia and rounders. For the expedition we are going camping for 2 nights and 3 days for our

silver award. The Bronze expedition was a challenge and I am sure the Silver expedition will be even more difficult.

Firstly we would like to thank everyone who helped us raise a spectacular amount of £424.40 for MacMillan Cancer Research.

On Friday the 30th September at Pendle Community College the Student Council held an event to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Research.

The students in school and college dressed in green for a charge of £1 each. There was a sea of green.

The coffee afternoon started at 1.45pm and finished at 2.45pm. It was amazing to see all of the cakes people sent in. The cakes were yummy!

Lots of people came, including ex-staff, parents, governors, pupils and teachers. It was manic and the students helping were running round like headless chickens!

The Student Council would like to thank everyone who took time to make delicious cakes for us to sell and all those who spent their hard earned pennies in our own cake heaven.

Macmillan Coffee Afternoon

A big green caterpillar was found on the willow tree in the Sensory Garden in September. We researched it, and found that it was the larvae of a Poplar Hawk

Moth. It has now pupated and hopefully the large Poplar Hawk moth will emerge in the Spring.

Sensory Garden News

Written by Post 16 Literacy Group

ScoutsWhat an action packed couple of months we have had at Scouts this year already. With another half term signed sealed and delivered all I can say is “Wow”. We started the year with a few new members joining the adventure and even gained two new volunteers to help deliver the amazing programme to our members. We have done so much in a short space of time and this is reflected in the awards scheme. We should be seeing some amazing awards coming out of Pendle Community Scout Group soon.We have done some team building, practicing shelter building in preparation for our camp in the summer term and we have been looking at the Photographers and Digital Citizen badges. We have some great activities to look forward to over the next few terms.

We will be holding a whole school & college remembrance on Friday the 11th November at 11 o’clock.

Scouts that have uniform are allowed to wear it on the day. Poppies are being sold week commencing 7th November and also crosses that you can dedicate to a loved one will be £2 each.

Remembrance Day

Make Every Step Count! (2016-2018)Following on from the success of our last 2 European projects we are delighted to announce that we have had another application approved.Our partner schools are from France, Lithuania, Turkey, Italy, Portugal and Reunion Island and the focus this time is on personal development.The students involved will be encouraged to develop new skills, try different things, think positively about themselves and set personal goals to name just a few of the activities planned. More details and regular updates will be available throughout the year.

Bag Books are special stories aimed at those who cannot benefit from mainstream books. They can be enjoyed without the plot of the story having to be understood as they are told interactively through voice and emotion rather than words and pictures. Wenning, Ribble, Pendle, Calder and

College were fortunate enough to have a visit from the ‘Bag Book’ lady who came into school for an interactive and multi-sensory story telling workshop. There were lots of things to touch, smell, look-at and experience. All of the pupils had a fantastic time!

Bag Books

School Nurse Deborah McKenna has just returned as Nurse Volunteer from a successful trip taking 72

sick children to Florida with the North West Children's Charity "Destination Florida". Two children from

our school have had the pleasure of being part of previous trips!! Deborah will nominate children for the next trip (2018) who fit the criteria. If you would like to

know more check out the website destinationflorida.org.uk.

Destination Florida

NEWSHOUNDS…Welcome to the first Newshounds contribution of the new academic year as we kick off in style with the big interview! Yes, Newshounds gets to meet the ‘Boss’, finding out all about Mrs Lingard, our new headteacher! What did we discover? Loads of interesting things, some of which might come as a big surprise to our readers! Our intrepid band of journalists got together to put eight tough questions to her that will lift the lid. Off we go!

Can we buy a PS4 for use in school and have FIFA 17 loaded on it?

That’s a really good question, Farhan. We already have some great interactive games to play in college such as X-Box and Wii, but guess what? I’ve already been thinking about arranging for our Year 11 prefects to be able to have some special privileges, so maybe that could include a special college ‘games’ room. We need to meet separately to discuss ideas for how we might do this. As for FIFA 17, we would definitely have to save up for that…

Is this headteacher’s job turning out like you thought it would?

Well, Chelsea, I’ve actually been coming into school before the new term started, to get a ‘feel’ for what goes on. I came in once or twice each week, so some of you may have seen me around before the summer holidays. I was also involved in appointing some of our new staff! It’s hard work and lots of things are still very new, but I’m loving every minute!

If you had to teach a subject, what would you teach?

Although I taught all subjects when I worked in a primary school, Chelsea, my favourite subject is Science. I would like to teach Biology, which is about plants, animals and people!

What do you like doing when you are at home?

Great question Awais! It’s often quite late when I get home during the week, so if I’m feeling really tired, I might just curl up in front of the telly! I’m usually more relaxed at weekends, when I can spend time in my garden and working on my house. I live on a farm so there’s always loads to do! I do love meeting friends and having a chat over a nice meal. I also just enjoy being with my family; my granddaughter Poppy often comes to stay, which is lovely.

What did you do before you worked here?

I’ve done a lot of work in education, Awais, as you might expect. I’ve been a deputy headteacher in a school that was similar to this one, but have also worked as a headteacher in a school that was very different to this one. I’ve also had a job as a psychologist, because I’m interested in understanding how people behave and how they are with one another.

What would you do if you weren’t a Headteacher?

Wow, Laura, what a great question! Since I first went to college, I’ve wanted to be involved with young people in education. If I could have had the chance, I would really like to have been a children’s television presenter! Maybe one of the BBC children’s programmes that Beth, our Music Therapist, used to be on! I’d love to have been part of the Blue Peter team!

What is your favourite vegetable?

Now there’s a tricky question, Ayman, because there are lots of lovely healthy foods which many people think are vegetables, but which are really fruits! I eat a lot of salad and probably my favourite food to include is the red pepper. However, I’d better check with Mr Owen first, because I think he might tell me that red pepper is a fruit!

What time do you get up for work and how do you manage to wake up in time?

A very important last question, Laura! I have an alarm clock that rings at six o’clock in the morning and gets me out of bed! I’m usually off to work by a quarter to seven and get into school between a quarter past and half past seven. I can’t afford to be late, as there’s always so much to fit in each day!

Many thanks to all our ‘Newshounds’ who took part; Ayman Afsar, Farhan Ahmed, Chelsea Jones, Awais Nawaz, Ummer Shaffi, Laura Tillotson and Marshall Vickers. A special mention must go to Ayman, who came up with the brilliant idea of making a ‘Good Luck in Your New Job’ card for Mrs Lingard, which he presented to her before the interview. As you can see, she is wearing a red dress on the card, which is her favourite colour! You’ve got to be a really great ‘Newshound’ to get that kind of detail right!

“What time did you say your alarm clock rang, Mrs Lingard?”

As part of 14-19 mini enterprise, we have formed a seed company called the Poppy Seed store. This Autumn we have been collecting seeds from some of the plants in the Sensory Garden, drying them and then putting them in our own seed packets made from templates found on the internet. We test a sample of the seeds to see if they are viable before making up the packets. We hope to offer marigold, poppy, tree mallow, corn cockle, ox-eye daisy and tomato seeds.

The Poppy Seed Store

Pendle had a go at making drinks using our own home grown herbs and spices. We used five different types of mint, lemon verbena, ginger and fennel. Some combinations were better than others!

A sample of red poppy seeds germinating in a petri dish. Any seeds that do not germinate are rejected.

Seeds are collected from the dried flower heads, cleaned and counted.

Last October Sophie and Danielle planted a crop of Japanese onion sets. These grew steadily, and by July were ready to harvest. They have been used in a variety of dishes by classes in Food Technology. We have grown our own potatoes, herbs, tomatoes, carrots, swedes, chillies, peas and beans.

We’re off to see the Wizard!

Year 11 and Blacko will be visiting Burnley Youth Theatre in December to see the Wizard of Oz!

Burnley Youth Theatre say “Our full-scale original winter production of The Wizard of Oz will re-imagine the story based on the book by L. Frank Baum, with Burnley Youth Theatre’s signature style, characters and a little bit of magic. Join Dorothy on her journey along the yellow brick road as she tries to get back home. Discover unlikely friendships, triumph over witches and meet the Great Wizard of Oz”.

The theatre company are also offering a workshop based on the production.

We can’t wait!

Drama WorkshopsFollowing the success of the work between Burnley Youth Theatre and Year 10 last year, we have been invited to work with the theatre company again!

Students in both Ribble and Wyre will be taught a variety of skills and techniques to enhance their drama abilities.

We are all excited about the project and look forward to seeing any mini-performances in assembly.

We even have a mention on Burnley Youth Theatre’s website: www.burnleyyouththeatre.org - check out ‘Work in schools’

Our day out to the ZooTeam Ribble enjoyed a brilliant trip to Blackpool Zoo as

part of our English topic ‘Our Day Out’. Our Day Out is a book, film and play written by Willy Russell telling the story

of a group of school children from Liverpool going on a school trip to the zoo, a castle and the beach.

The pupils role played different

scenarios from the play which has been put together as a short

video and will be put on the school website for you to view.

Everyone had a fantastic day

exploring and learning about the animals, a firm favourite

being the Giraffes.

Team Ribble will also be visiting Clitheroe Castle and Lytham St

Annes beach in the Autumn term so look out for us in the next

newsletter.

Look out for the next edition of our newsletter at the end of next

term. Have a great break!