PARENT/STUDENT BULLETIN NO 3/2009/2010 Tuesday 06 October 2009

 

 

NAME: ……………………………………………….              Form: ………………….

 

Dear Parent

 

 

Arrival and Departure from school:

 

Would parents please note that, to avoid congestion and danger to students along the school drive, children should be dropped off at convenient points in the surrounding roads, using the safe pedestrian crossing on the Wellington Road to access the school drive. Please avoid carrying students right up to the school doors at these busy times when county transport is attempting to keep to its schedule. In wet weather the wearing of a waterproof is preferable to the protection of a motor vehicle in negotiating the drive.

 

Patrick Storer

Assistant Headteacher

 

 

Half Term

The half term holiday takes place during the week beginning Monday 26 October up to and including Tuesday 3 November 2009. School returns on Wednesday 4 November 2009.

 

 

CHINWAG (Centre for Health Issues, Nutrition, Worries, Advice and Guidance)

Following consultations with students, parents and governors we will be setting up a base for Chinwag, which will be opening after half term. Chinwag will be staffed by our School Health Adviser for students to ‘drop in’ Monday lunchtimes and for appointments in the afternoon. Members of our Local Services Delivery Team will use it as a base to meet students and sometimes parents at other times.

The professionals working with us will be:

John Blackmore, School Health Adviser. John will be able to discuss a variety of Health Issues with students ranging from Emotional Health and Well-being, smoking cessation, alcohol issues, healthy eating and sexual health issues with students over 13 (including Chlamydia testing and treatment, pregnancy testing, emergency contraception and the condom-card – all of which are only offered if the student engages in discussion and follow-up appointments). John offers a confidential service but if he feels any child is at risk he must report it to the school Child Protection Designated Teacher. If he cannot deal with a student’s issue he will pass it on the appropriate professional, eg GP.

Melissa Simpson, School Attendance officer. Melissa’s role is to ensure that all students attend school regularly and that any significant absences are followed up. She works with students and families.

Clare Pound, Parent and Family Support Adviser. Clare’s role is to advise and support parents to ensure their children attend school regularly and gain maximum benefits from education.

Claire du Pontet Rei, Connexions Personal Adviser. Claire works with 13 – 19 year olds in order to support them to participate effectively in their learning, raise their confidence and aspirations and remove any barriers to accessing learning.

Ruth Gavenlock, Emotional Health Worker. Ruth works with students who have emotional health issues and can also run group sessions to raise self-esteem and promote emotional well-being.

Our Youth service team who generally work with groups of students on issues such as anger management, social skills and self-esteem occasionally work with individuals. Kate Greenwood is our school link Youth Worker, but others may work in the school.

We see the range of services offered by Chinwag as supporting the excellent care provided for our students through the House system and school-based support staff. Opening Chinwag is enabling us to focus services we already access in one place and publicising to students the opportunity to seek help and guidance for themselves. This is particularly so in the case of Health, as teenagers are statistically reluctant to access GPs and Health workers themselves. We hope this centre will encourage greater confidence and independence. Any of the workers will always encourage students to discuss issues with parents.

Chinwag will be overseen by a Steering Committee comprising: Sheila Naylor (Governor), Doctor Christine Ritter (parent), Lorraine Clark (school), John Blackmore (School Health Adviser) and a representative from the Senior Students .

 

A great deal of credit must go to this year’s Senior Students who have been instrumental in setting up Chinwag and leading the consultation with students. They are: Rob Bowler, Hetty Davis, Naomi Gachanja, George Hart, Tom Hillier, Danion Hughes, Evie Priest and Camellia Sinclair.

I would like to thank parents for their encouragement and positive feedback during the consultation period and would re-iterate that if anyone has any concerns about any of the services offered to students to contact me directly.

 

Lorraine Clark

 

Duke of Edinburgh's Award - new group starting for year 10's

 

Last Thursday and Friday I spoke to the Year 10 students to invite them to bcome involved with the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. This is an internationally respected personal development programme for young people and is also a desirable Award to add to CV's, application forms and records of achievement. To gain the Award at Bronze level, students have to commit to following a skill (musical instrument playing and cookery are very popular for this), a physical recreation (football, hockey, badminton, gym, dance, etc) and to volunteering to help others (after school clubs, brownies, junior sports clubs, charity shops) for an hour a week for 3 or 6 months. There is also a two day expedition where students get involved with navigating, camping, team work. We offer the training (including practice walks) as evening or lunchtime sessions at school (January to July).  Many past members of the bronze groups have gone on to the Silver and Gold levels of the Award.

 

It is very hard to convey the benefits and requirements in text, so there is a (no-obligation) meeting for students (and parents) on Thursday 8th October 7pm in the small hall. Application forms will be available at that meeting and from Friday 9th October from Student Reception for those who cannot make the meeting.

 

If you would like to find out more, the national website is www.dofe.org and I can be contacted via reception or by email at dofe@beckhelling.net 

 

Clive Beckhelling

DofE Centre Leader 

 

 

Friends of Castle School Fete

Thank you to all those who donated items, bought raffle tickets, attended the Fete and helped on

the day which was extremely successful and raised  £162.20 on the bottle stall and £1,223.85 on the raffle. Raffle Prize winners of the fantastic prizes which were donated (see attached poster) are as follows:

 

£50 Cash Prize                                                                                      J Ireland

Girls Bike                                                                                              Josh Bentley

Boys Bike                                                                                             Josh Virgin

Berrys Coaches – 2 Adult Day Return Tickets to London                         Brenda Brock

Bristol Ice Rink – 2 tickets for skating                                                     L Absolon

Cheddar Caves – Explorer ticket for Caves and Gorge                            J Hussey

County Stores - £10 Gift Voucher                                                           Jaker

Curves Ladies Only Gym – Month Free Membership                                Mrs Gould

Hestercombe Gardens – Family ticket                                                     Tom Wintrip

Judith Goss – Pot plant                                                                         Tom Hillier

Monkton Elm Garden Centre - £10 Gift Voucher                                      Jayne Wise

Oak Barn Photography – Free One Hour Photo Session                          D Trick

Odeon Cinema – Tickets for 2                                                                Becca Macleod

Somerset County Cricket - 2 tickets to LV County Championship             Mr Hancock

Taunton & Pickeridge Golf Club – Vouchers to play golf                         Rebecca Gibbs

Tournedos No1 - £20 Meal Voucher                                                        Mrs Watson

Tropiquaria – Tickets                                                                              S Pywell

Wookey Hole – Family Ticket                                                                 T Grabham

 

Further donated prizes from parents and friends are as follows:

Glenfiddich                                                                                           J Hardy

Champagne                                                                                          I Woollen

M& S Port                                                                                             D Tilley

Churchills Port                                                                                       M Graham

LBV Port                                                                                               E Bishop

Madeira                                                                                                Lawson

Coffee liqueur                                                                                       Jasmin Ballardie

Crème de Framboises                                                                           J Nuttie

Wireless Thai Boxing Game                                                                   R Dyer

Wireless Bathroom Speaker                                                                   Jacqui

Baileys Set                                                                                           Nadia Atherton

Continuo Game                                                                                     D Sprague

Body Shop Gift Box                                                                              Mr S Holmes

Guest Soap Set                                                                                                M Holmwood

Mouse Mat                                                                                            Mr Howse

White Wine                                                                                            L Troake

White Wine                                                                                            Mrs Knight

 

The total money raised is over £2,900 and this represents a magnificent effort by students, families and members of staff. We will be asking students to identify projects that they would like to fund using this money.

 

 

The Times & The Sunday Times Free Books For Schools

We are collecting tokens again!

By collecting the special tokens printed in The Times and The Sunday Times you can help us claim free books for the school library. The tokens are available from September 13 to December 6.

Please collect as many tokens as you can and give them to your child to bring in to Mrs Stothard in the library by December 11.

Many thanks for your support.

 

 

Christmas Shoe Box Appeal - The Samaritan's Purse Christmas Shoe Box campaign will be run again this year.  This is an opportunity to pack a shoe box full of presents for a child somewhere in the world that otherwise would not have any gifts.  Last year the school sent off 100 boxes and it would be fantastic to exceed that total this year.  Leaflets with further information about what to include are available from Miss Shallow in T15.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AGM  NOTICE

 

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN by the committee that the Annual General Meeting of “The Friends Of The Castle School” will be held at 7.00pm on Wednesday 18 November in the School Library.  The AGM is to enable the Group (Registered Charity No:1076848) to present their Annual Report and Accounts for approval by the Group.

 

An election of officers will be taking place and the Current Chairperson Julie Watson and the Current Treasurer Caroline Lewis are offering to stand for re-election.

If you would like to join or find out what  “The Friends of The Castle School” are doing please come along  

You are all are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be served.

 

50/50 Club - We are enclosing a form for another chance to join our 50/50 club – this is a way of supporting the school with the possibility of winning some money!

 

Quiz Night – Our next very popular Quiz Night is on Friday 20 November 2009 at 7.30pm – so plenty of time to gather your team together! See cut off slip at the end of this Bulletin for entry details.

 

Lost Property Day – Once more we are collecting a considerable amount of unclaimed lost property - we will be having a clearance day on Wednesday 21 October with the property on display for students at break times and after school for parents. Any remaining lost property will then be donated to a local charity.

 

Active Hestercombe – Do Something Different this Holiday

 

Somerset Leisure has asked us to bring to your attention a series of activities for young people taking place at Hestercombe Gardens on Monday 26th, Wednesday 28th and Friday 30th October 2009. 

 

The days involve den building, survival skills, puzzle solving, climbing, go-kart racing, fun construction challenges, forest skills, climbing and trail trekking. The activities are available for the 8-14 age range and cost £15 per day. Further information can be obtained from the Castle Sports Centre, Tel: 01823 322934.

 

Bulletin by Email

 

Approximately half of our families now receive this Bulletin by email. We are keen to move to a position where we reduce the number of paper copies that are issued. Therefore, it would be helpful if families who do not currently receive the Bulletin by email would let us have an email address that we can use. A reply slip for this is at the end of this Bulletin, alternatively you can inform us via the office email:   office@castle.somerset.sch.uk

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

 

 

 

K J FREEDMAN

Headteacher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends of The Castle School

 

QUIZ NIGHT – Friday 20 November 2009 – 7.30pm

Please return to the School Office.

 

 

Name of Team ……………………………………………………………………………………………...

 

Name of Team Members (Maximum of 6)

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

Cost @£3.50 per head

 

Total Enclosed:           £ ………………………………………… cash

(Cheques should be made payable to “Friends of The Castle School, Taunton).

 

Child’s Name: ……………………………………. Form ………………………………………………..

 

 

 

 

 

Please return to the Main School Office

 

Name of Student: ………………………………………………………………………… Tutor Group: ……………….

 

I should like to receive the Bulletin by email. Please use the following address:

 

 

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