February 2013
Uffculme School Newsletter
Welcome to February's newsletter. The secondary school league tables were published on
the 24th January and we were delighted to see that Uffculme was once again the top
performing non selective state school, not just in Devon but across pretty much the whole
of the south west. Our headline figure of five or more A*-C including English and Maths
was better than that of every other comparable school in the region and also better than a
significant number of independent schools. Similarly the progress measures, which indicate
how well groups of pupils achieved given their starting points, were also considerably better
than other schools in Devon and surrounding counties. We are justifiably proud of these
results because they are a result of the extremely hard work of pupils and teachers and a
reflection of the very strong levels of parental support we enjoy as a school.
There has been much in the press recently over concerns expressed by Sir Michael
Wilshaw, the Chief Inspector for Schools, that comprehensive schools do not push the very
brightest pupils to achieve to their potential. I am also pleased to confirm that this is not
the case at Uffculme. Pupils who come from primary schools on level 5 would generally be
expected to achieve B grades at GCSE if they made the anticipated 3 levels of progress
over the course of their 5 years of secondary schooling. However at Uffculme the majority
will do much better than this and attain the A and A* grades of which they should be capable.
Comprehensive schools are not perfect and it is a significant challenge to cater for the
whole ability range, including pupils with SEN, in large classes. This is one of the reasons
why we decided to move to 8 teaching groups in the lower years. We know that we may not
always get it right at Uffculme for every child but we want to try. We are always keen to
hear from parents who have concerns about how their child is performing so that we can
work together to find solutions.
This year, the examination season will be a very different experience for our current Year
11. There is no doubt that GCSEs have, in just one year, got much harder. Higher grade
boundaries have been set and pupils will have to perform better to get the same grades as
previous cohorts. We are still, however, confident that we can work together to achieve the
best results for these young people. Please get in touch with Mr Lane or Mr Roberts if you
have any concerns or questions about this year's exams.
I would like to apologise to parents for the difficulties we had on Thursday of last week
communicating the decision to open the school. This was due to the sheer volume of people
trying to log on to our website at the same time as we were trying to upload the message.
Having said that, we should have anticipated this and had a plan in place to ensure that we
were able to communicate swiftly and effectively via the website. We are in the process of
rectifying this and although hopefully there will be no more snow, this situation should not
arise again.
Mrs L Heath,
Headteacher
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Over 60 Year 8 students have participated in the Reading
Olympiad. First to complete all 3 Challenges was Paige
Skudder, 8Moxey. We look forward to announcing the lucky
winners of a Kindle and Amazon vouchers at the end of the
month.
Year 8 pupils have the chance
to attend Cardiff Children's
Literature Festival next
month. Details of participating
authors and illustrators can be
found at cardiffchildrens
litfest.com
Extreme Imagination is an Exeter-based festival from
16-24th February offering a wealth of literaturebased events for and by young people, as well as for
older generations who wish to celebrate our young
people's achievements and reminisce over their own
childhood memories. There will be lots of free events
and workshops for all age ranges.
Children's author Ally Kennen will be visiting
the school on Wednesday 27th Feb to run
creative writing workshops with a group of Year
7 students. Ally has written five thrillers for
teens; Beast, Bedlam, Berserk, Quarry and
Bullet Boys, all of which have been nominated
for numerous awards and gained huge critical
acclaim. Sparks, her first novel for younger
children was long listed for the Guardian
Children’s Book Prize and shortlisted for the
UKLA Award. Ally will be talking about her craft, encouraging students to
write their own gripping tales and talking about her newest book, Midnight
Pirates.
Year 10 & 11 MONT BLANC TRIP
July 24th - August 6th 2013
The Tour du Mont Blanc is one of the
most popular long distance walks in
Europe and passes through parts of Switzerland, Italy and France. If you’re
interested in taking part this summer come along to Mike Bradford’s
information evening on Wednesday 13th March at 6pm in the Dining Hall.
You can find more information on his website: www.mike-bradford.co.uk
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We will be celebrating the Chinese
New Year on Wednesday 13th
February with a selection of Chinese
meals available at lunch time.
Next week is Whole School Literacy
week and the current term's focus is
homophones ...watch out for a full
report next month!
U13 girls’ indoor cricket team - East Devon Tournament Winners
Congratulations to our U13 girls’ cricket team who won the Annual East
Devon cricket tournament in Exmouth last week. The girls won all their
group games before beating Honiton College in the semi final and then
bowling exceptionally well to pip The Kings School in the final. The girls
will now go on to represent East Devon at the Devon County finals at
Exeter University in March.
Well done to Phoebe Killen, Yr 9 & Henry Mort Yr 7 who finished
5th & 9th respectively in the Devon Schools Cross Country
Championships held in Plymouth on Sat 19th January. They now go on
to represent Devon in the South West Championships where they
will also run for a place in the National Schools Championships! This
is a fantastic achievement and great reward for their hard work and
training.
Libby Morton (8 Dunnett) took part in a number of sessions at Devon
Hockey's Junior Development Centre (JDC) in Okehampton in October. On the
18th November she took part in the Junior Academy Centres (JACs)
Assessment at Exeter School. Libby was selected to attend Devon's under 14s
JAC, with the first training taking place on 6th January and continuing for
the rest of the Hockey season.
Congratulations to all of our students for continuing to
represent their Houses in the many competitions organised in all curriculum subjects
at Uffculme School. Yondercott have really reversed their
fortunes from last year to take the lead,
with Gaddon hot on their heels.
Competitions are wide ranging, with Cross
Country running, basketball, rugby, netball,
castle and bridge building, short story
writing, chess, MFL cards, cake and biscuit
making all being enjoyed in recent weeks.
uffculmeschool.net
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UFFCULME SCHOOL DRAMA
Year 11 Blood Brothers Exam Performances
In early December year 11 Drama
students performed extracts of Blood
Brothers by Willy Russell for younger
students as part of their Drama GCSE
controlled assessments. All students did
incredibly well and well deserved their
marks which will contribute 30% of their
final GCSE Drama grade. Mrs Fonseca was
delighted with the performances which
had the audience crying one minute and
crying with laughter the next. It was a
pleasure to support the hard working and
dedicated students in the weeks of after
school rehearsals leading up to the exams.
A special thanks to Mr Palmer for all of his
help and support with the technical
rehearsals and to Mrs Oakes for filming
the performances for the exam board!
Don't forget year 11 Drama students that
we are going to see Blood Brothers in Cheltenham on Thursday 14th February
so that you can write about the
production in your Drama written exam.
Year 11 Drama students will be performing their final devised pieces of
performance which will contribute 30% of their GCSE Drama grade to an
invited audience of friends and family on
Tuesday 19th and Wednesday 27th March.
Year 8 and 9 Hairspray the Musical theatre trip
Good news! 100 students in years 8 and 9 signed up to
go and see Hairspray the Musical at the Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff in June. I had originally only
booked 80 tickets but have managed to secure another
20 so that all students who have signed up can come.
The trip will support the learning the students do in
Drama and across other departments in Black History
Month as well as giving them the opportunity to see a
piece of fun yet exceptionally high quality musical
theatre. Please see Mrs Fonseca if you want to check if
your name is on her list for tickets.
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Devon Youth Theatre
Imogen Sibley, Daisy Oakes, Crimson Downing-Martin,
Maddy Dampier and Emily Smith all auditioned for
Devon Youth Theatre and will be performing at Exeter
University on Saturday 2nd February. A massive well
done to the girls for their commitment and dedication.
All are very talented individuals who I am sure will shine
at the showcase. Daisy and Maddy wrote the following
about their experience at the audition:
“We were told about a drama workshop with the Devon Youth Theatre
company by our Drama teacher Mrs Fonseca. We both enjoy drama and are
interested in taking it for GCSE, so we thought we would take the opportunity to get involved and get a bit more experience, as well as working with a whole new group of people.
On the day, we had to quickly adapt to working with people we had never met before, as well
as performing small pieces in front of them, and giving and
accepting constructive criticism as well as praise! We worked on our awareness of the audience and of the other people alongside us on stage, by looking
further into soft focus and other points of view. We worked on creating a
drama from stimulus, where we were given random words, phrases and
pictures and asked to come up with a performance, and then given the
opportunity to listen to feedback and adapt them, before we did the final piece.
We enjoyed it thoroughly, made lots of new friends and learnt some new
techniques which we will use next weekend for a group performance! “
Wind in the Willows
Kiera Beasley, Oceana Leigh and Lottie Hartnack all took
part in Wind in the Willows at The Brewhouse Theatre in
Taunton from 7 December - 5 January. Kiera wrote
this: “If Mrs Fonseca hadn’t given me the confidence
that I have now I don’t think I could have
auditioned for Wind in the Willows. It was an amazing
experience working with the cast (sometimes they give
you chocolate!) and I’d recommend it to anyone wanting
to kick-start their acting or singing career”.
Year 7 and 8 Drama Club
Discovering fascinating accounts of oral history and experimenting with different approaches to devising, Year 7 and 8 drama club members have been
exploring the world of oral history performances . A soldier’s response to his challenging experiences of Afghanistan has been the
recent focus of their performance work. Fantastic creativity, sensitivity and collaboration have been demonstrated by the pupils as
they explore challenging stories and produce imaginative performances. Year 7 and 8 drama club meets every Wednesday at
1.55pm in the Drama Studio, new members always welcome!
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Students from Year 9 have been involved in
a local history project run by Tiverton
Museum. The project is titled ‘Harvesting
Memories’ and involves the creation of an
archive of recollections from people living
and working in the region. Students were
able to find out more about the history of
the local community through
interviewing a number of
interesting individuals who
were happy to share their
memories with a new
generation.
There’s a new craft group in the Flexible Learning Centre on
Thursday lunchtimes 1.50-2.30pm. They’re learning various
crafty things over the term, at the moment it's knitting, but
come along if you'd like to request/learn/teach another craft!
NEW SCIENCE BLOCK
The new science block is really taking
shape now—although not quite as quickly as we would have liked due to the
weather and problems with the Ground
Source Heating System. As you can see
from the photos, the space inside is
going to be a fantastic environment for
the students with big, bright labs and a
spacious entrance and landing. We are
still aiming to start the move to the new building before Easter.
uffculmeschool.net
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Music Department News - by Mr Weston, Head of Department
What a wonderful role to have in life, enriching the lives of our fantastic pupils by helping
them to develop and expand their musical knowledge, allowing them to experience the
variety of sounds that have been created throughout time.
I moved to Somerset in January 2009 and had 4 wonderful years as
Head of Faculty for the Arts at Ladymead School (which after 18
months became The Taunton Academy). During my time there I had
the pleasure of performing music with many wonderful musicians,
mostly as a regular member of the Mama Stones house band, playing
keyboards and saxophone, and with one of my bands, Graffiti, (who
happen to be playing in Taunton this weekend!). Performing in bands
has always given me that extra knowledge of music that can be
immediately taken into a classroom.
Last month former pupil and BBC The Voice quarter finalist Adam Isaac visited the school,
giving master classes to our pupils and performing a gig in one of our music rooms. The room
was packed with over 200 excited music fans, all waiting to hear Adam perform some of his
own compositions from his debut album, Train Tracks, as well as a few well known songs
that he performed on The Voice. I have had the pleasure of
performing with Adam on several occasions, so was delighted to
perform with him again. After this performance and signing
around 100 autographs Adam officially opened the recording
studio for us. The studio allows us to record up to 18 different
instruments or performers at one go, using our Apple Mac
machine and Logic Pro software, so look out for some recordings
of our choirs, rock bands and Jazz band soon.
Within the department, there is now a full timetable of extra-curricular activities ranging
from our Rock School, to Choir, to Music Technology Club, to Studio Club, to Jazz Band, to
Guitar group, to Heatwave Samba Band. Our Friday Lunchtime concerts give pupils the
experience of performing to a good sized audience, be it as individuals or as part of a group.
We even have teachers jamming with pupils which is magical to see.
Over the next few months, our aim is to build up the numbers that attend the Rock School,
create lower and upper school choirs, an acappella group, a boy and girl band from each year,
small orchestra, saxophone quintet, a studio club which will be run by our pupils and a musical
theatre club that can prepare for our whole-school production
of……… Sorry, you will have to wait a little longer for that to be
announced!
The Music Department is a flourishing, inclusive area which is
full of young aspiring musicians, all wanting to eagerly create
and produce music with their friends and fellow musos. If you
wish to find out what is taking place within the Music
department, please follow us on twitter @uffculmescmusic
uffculmeschool.net
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Key Dates This Term
Tuesday 12th February - Year 11 Parents Evening
Thursday 7th March - Year 9 Options Evening
The Art
Department
would be
grateful for
donations of
newspapers
and
polystyrene
pizza bases
please!
18th – 22nd February - Half Term
Tuesday 26th March - Year 10 Parents Evening
Thursday 28th March - Last Day of term
Summer Term
Monday 15th April - Term begins for Pupils
Monday 6th May – Bank Holiday
27th – 31st May - Half Term
Monday 6th July - Presentation Evening
Friday 19th July - Last day of Term (Pupils leave at 1.15pm)
STOP PRESS : Following the recent cancellation of the Year 9
Parents' Evening this event has now been rescheduled and will be
integrated into the Year 9 Options Evening. Both events will now
Uffculme
Pre-School and
Out of Hours
Care Holiday
Club
Monday 18th
February to
Friday 22nd
February
8am to 6pm
for children
aged 2 to 11
years
please ring
01884 841010
or email
Admin
@uffculmepre
school.org.uk
for more
details.
take place on Thursday 7 March. Full details will be sent home
shortly.
This year’s Exmoor Challenge is on Saturday
4th May. It’s a 16 mile trek across Exmoor,
with teams using written directions and basic
map reading skills to find their way around
the unmarked course. All interested Year 7
and 8 pupils should have received a letter
giving further information.
We have planned a number of sessions to help
students prepare for the Challenge:
Tuesday 19th March
Thursday 21st March
Sunday 24th March
Sunday 21st April
– Theory session in school
3.45pm to 5.00pm YEAR 7
– Theory session in school
3.45pm to 5.00pm YEAR 8
– Practice walk along the Culm Valley
– Practice Walk on Exmoor
Please send items for the newsletter to Rosey Oakes
[email protected]