An Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ Initial
Teacher Training School
Hawkwood Lane Chislehurst Kent. BR7 5PS
Tel:
020 8467 3263
Fax.
020 8295 0342
Principal: Mrs S Puxty BSc (Hons) NPQH
Email:
[email protected]
Head of School: Mrs S Wood BA (Hons) NPQH Website:
www.coopersschool.com
’Enabling learners of today to become achievers of tomorrow’
Coopers School
Issue 2 2016/2017
22 September 2016
Dear Parents/Carers
Calendar, Contacts and Parent Events
Please follow the link below to access our events calendar and a reporting cycle overview:
https://portal.coopersschool.com/CLG/Webdocs/Lists/Parent%20Calendar/calendar.aspx
Please see the website or follow this link to the Gateway for updated staff e-mail addresses:
https://portal.coopersschool.com/CLG/Parent/Documents/Teaching%20Staff%20Email%20List.pdf
Dates for your diary :
Date
Thursday 22 September
Friday 23 September
Saturday 24 September
Monday 26 September
Tuesday 27 September
Wednesday 28 September
Thursday 29 September
Monday 3 October
Monday 3 and Tuesday 4
October
Tuesday 4 October
Wednesday 5 October
Thursday 6 October
Calendar Item
Parent Drop-In, 2.00pm-3.00pm – Parents/Carers (all years) invited to
drop in to speak to a member of staff.
Early Finish for Open Day – all students leave at 1.25pm
Open Saturday – All new Year 7 students and subject ambassadors
required to attend from 8.00am–12.30pm
INSET Day – school closed to students
 Meeting of the William Willett Learning Trust Trustees, Conference
Room, 5.00pm (Mr Carling)
 Meeting of the William Willett Learning Trust Members, Conference
Room, 6.30pm (Mr Carling)
 Parent Forum, Room PE1, 6.00pm-7.00pm (Mrs Denoon) – see
article on Page 10
Year 13 UCAS Parents’ Event, Main Hall, 6.00pm-7.00pm (Mrs Bramley)
Parent Drop-In, 2.00pm-3.00pm – Parents/Carers (all years) invited to
drop in to speak to a member of staff.
Year 12 BTEC Art and Design visit to Tate Modern (Ms Chapman)
Year 7 Residential Trip to Kingswood’s Grosvenor Hall Campus, Ashford
(Mr Watson)
Dedicated Learning Day (Mr Watson)
 Year 7 STEM trip to Tower Bridge (Ms Roshier)
 Year 8 day trip to Calais (Mrs Canning)
 Year 9 trip to Jump Giants, Thurrock (Miss Owen)
 Year 9 Art trip to Tate Modern (Miss Holloway)
Year 8 Vaccinations, HPV1 (Mr Carling)
 Harvest Festival Assemblies, St Nicholas’ Church, Chislehurst (Mr
Pinder)
 Enabling Enterprise trip to Societe Generale, Tower Hill, London (Mr
Sikora)
Chair of Governors: Andrew Downes
Senior Vice Principal: David Lucas
Vice Principals: Matthew Baker | Rob Carling | Hazel Hatch | Jane Salt
Curious Creative Resilient Respectful
Empathetic
Coopers School is an Independent Academy Trust operated by the William Willett Learning Trust which is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales with company number 07520128.
The Registered Office is at Hawkwood Lane Chislehurst Kent BR7 5PS
Tossa de Mar Watersports Trip : Activities Week 2016 – Mrs McKillen-Barrow
On Saturday 9 July, twenty-seven Year 9 students, four staff and a sombrero headed off to Spain for a
fun-packed nine days. After an epic 20 hour coach journey we arrived in the very quaint town of Tossa
de Mar, located on the Costa Brava, and were keen to explore.
Students participated in three days of watersports activities, including paddle boarding, kayaking, wet
walking (climbing and jumping of rocks) and snorkelling. Lots of fun was had by all, and students
enjoyed learning new skills and stepping out of their comfort zone. Evening activities were put on by the
Voyager team every day and included many team games on the beach as well as a fun disco on the last
night where we dressed up in fancy dress!
During the week we also had a day trip to the vibrant city of Barcelona experiencing the works of the
famous architect Gaudi, exploring the Gothic quarter, venturing down the effervescent Ramblas and
relaxing on Barceloneta beach.
At the end of the week we went to Waterworld in Lloret de Mar where we spent the day having lots of fun
in the sunshine on lots of water fumes and water rides.
Before heading home we took a trip on a glass bottom boat to explore the nearby caves. It was the
perfect relaxing activity before the long coach journey back. Both staff and students loved the trip and
are keen to return again.
Music Tour to Austria : Activities Week 2016 – Mrs Goddard
My Austrian Musical Encounter by Carlos Nogueira
I have had an amazing trip to Salzburgerland where we brought The Sound of Music back to life on our
school music tour. I really have enjoyed going to the best landmarks of Austria and Salzburg during my
time on tour. The 22-hour journey, whilst fun in itself, was definitely worth the trip!
We had a long coach journey ahead of us when we departed on 9 July 2016. We took the ferry across
from Dover to Calais and had to sit back and relax on our coach tour through northern Europe. It was a
great opportunity to talk to other students on the tour, and I made friends with a number of students
which I knew was going to make the tour even more special. We watched quite a lot of films too! Our
teacher Mrs Goddard briefed us all on what we were to expect, and mentioned that there would be some
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‘surprise’ activities at different points of the school tour that we wouldn’t know about until the last minute.
We had a long time to discuss what these might be!
We arrived at midday Sunday at our hotel in Wagrain, Jugendhotel Oberwimm. It was a fantastic hotel: it
had a sports hall, lovely canteen, the bedrooms were lovely and there was even a trampoline room!
After we settled into our rooms and unpacked a little as well, we took a short walk to a local family fair
event that was taking place, and it was a great opportunity to mingle with the locals and take part in
some funfair events.
Our first ‘surprise’ was the zip wire. We had to climb up the side of a waterfall to our zip wire location
and take a leap of faith across the gorge. It was scary, but so much fun! It really made you enjoy being
outside your comfort zone!
On Monday we went to Hohenwerfen, a medieval castle near Salzburg. Wow, it was beautiful! Just like
the kind of castle you might see in a Disney movie. We climbed around the castle with our tour guide
who explained how the castle was built and what it might be used for, and we even got the chance to
touch the bell at the very top of the tower. We also watched a falconry display – the birds came so close
for their food and soared high above the castle. It was really enjoyable!
We walked back down to the bottom of the fortress to meet our coach driver to head off to the Salt Mines
in Hallein. It was lovely and cool down there, and we learnt about the role salt played in the
development of Salzburg – ‘salz’ being the German for salt, and ‘burg’ meaning town. So Salzburg is
literally a town of salt. We went down into the mines via a wooden slide, which was hair-raising! To help
us, the salt mine company gave us suits to wear as well.
We travelled to Faistenau afterwards to perform our first concert – unfortunately we had bad weather,
and had to perform in the community hall. We still drew a crowd though, and they loved our steel pan
performances in particular!
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On Tuesday we went on a boat trip in the pretty lakeside town Zell am See. The views were absolutely
breath-taking, and the mountains in particular were dramatic. There really were beautiful houses – I’ll
admit I was a little bit jealous! We were supposed to perform in Zell, but we had more bad weather, and
our concert was called off at the eleventh hour. However, Mrs Goddard organised a Zell am See
treasure hunt. We had ten challenges, including finding someone in traditional Austrian dress, finding
the oldest building in Zell am See, recreating the most scenic rendition of ‘The Hills Are Alive’ and finding
a Doppelganger. It wasn’t quite what we had hoped to do, but we enjoyed exploring more of Zell am
See. In the evening, we had our second ‘surprise’ activity – ultimate Frisbee. Wow, it was so much fun!
We got into teams, and it was all about being in the winning team. Mrs Goddard’s team even had a
haka! Mr Sadler, our steel pan teacher, led a competitive team too. All I can say was the best team won
on the night…!
On Wednesday we took our tour group to Salzburg and explored the stunning Hohensalzburg fortress
and its role in shaping the city of Salzburg. We took the funicular back to the city centre and went to the
Mozart museum as well – it was fascinating seeing some of the manuscripts of his works first hand. I
have even studied Mozart in GCSE, and really enjoyed remembering what I had learned about him as
well as seeing where he composed. After a little free time in Salzburg for lunch, we departed for Hangar
7 on the outskirts of town. Hangar 7 belongs to Red Bull, and they had many of their aircraft and racing
cars on display.
We returned to the hotel and performed our final concert to the hotel guests, and they received it very
well. We are grateful for the hotel in accommodating us with our concert, and we raised enough money
for a treat on the way home the next day. We entertained the Germans, the Russians and many more,
who were enjoying and getting swept up in the moment. We even had comments saying that the concert
was very fun, magical and the best they ever heard. We were ecstatic after our performance. Mrs
Goddard then presented each of us with our ‘Tour Award’ – we each got a certificate and a keyring that
we could use to remind us of our time in Salzburg.
On our final day in Austria, we had three hours of pool time at Wasser Welt, near our hotel. It was a
wonderful way to end our tour, and we enjoyed the flumes and the opportunity to relax and enjoy
swimming with our friends before the long journey home.
I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and was so thrilled that I could be a part of it. Music tours are a real
experience and I cannot recommend it enough. Thank you for helping me to be part of the tour to Austria
– I’ll never forget it.
Outlook Expedition to Zambia and Botswana – Miss Donegan
Having worked so hard fundraising the money both in school and out of school for two whole years, the
trip was finally here, we were off to Africa for a whole month.
We all met at school so we could check through our equipment and make sure that we weren’t carrying
too much stuff – we would have to carry it all with us. I remember looking in our rucksacks wondering
how on earth we were going to fit a tent in there along with all our clothes! We spent the morning
practicing putting our tents up – we would be camping for most of the trip so needed to get used to
putting the tent up and down very quickly.
After our safety briefing and teamwork chat it was time to stuff our faces with a Domino’s pizza – we
were being rather dramatic that this would be our final meal but it really seemed like it – none of us knew
what the African food would be like especially as we had to cook it ourselves on trangiers –most of us
had been on DofE and knew how bad trangier food really was.
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We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to check in and get ready for the first leg of our journey, a ten
hour flight to Johannesburg. Unfortunately the whole team was split up around the plane but we made
use of the in-flight entertainment and tried to have a sleep but most of us were too excited.
Eventually we touched down in South Africa
only to find that the queue for immigration was
so long we were going to have to run to get our
next flight to Livingstone. Thankfully a small
delay meant we made it with minutes to spare.
We were nearly there!
It was a warm afternoon when we landed in
Livingstone and we were all excited to see
what Africa was like. It was certainly different.
Everywhere seemed to be concrete buildings
with barbed wire and it was very dusty. You
could see brightly coloured murals painted on
the walls and people cooking food on street
corners. We arrived at our hostel and put up
the tents before having a wander around
Livingstone to get our bearings. The first thing
we noticed was ‘Hungry Lion’, Livingstone’s
version of KFC, so we knew we could take a
trip there if things got desperate.
We had dinner at the hostel, burgers and
toasties as we were too late for the
supermarket and still only had US dollars
where we hadn’t been able to find a currency
exchange as it was bank holiday and they
were all shut. Luckily the hostel took dollars or
we wouldn’t have been able to get any food.
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The next day was an orientation day. We managed to exchange some money, go food shopping and
get used to the Zambian culture. Some of us even managed a dip in the hostel swimming pool. Our
main priority that day was to book our bus tickets to Mwandi for the project phase.
The next morning we had to leave early to get to the bus station – that was an experience, loads of taxi
drivers all trying to offer us the best lift in their cars and trying to grab our bags. We had so much stuff it
was hard to keep a track of where our bags ended up.
Our first bus ride seemed pretty normal. It was a large bus and we all had seats but a lot of the locals
didn’t. The journey took three hours. We saw a giraffe as we were coming out of Livingstone which was
incredible and our first sight of the Zambian wildlife – it became a joke that Miss Donegan always missed
the animals – we would shout out to her but she was always too slow in looking for them. The project
phase was working for the charity ‘Homes for Aids Orphans’ run by a lovely lady called Paula. She
picked us up from the bus station and took us to the compound. She explained to us all about the
education system and who had to pay for the schools and uniforms for the children.
Our job for the week would be working with a
gentleman called ‘Wise’ to help build a home for one
of the families in the village. On the first day we had
to tie all the sticks together to make the frame of the
house and after that we were mixing and making
mud to fill the walls and make them stable. We had
some successes but also some disasters like when
one of the mud walls we had been working on all day
collapsed! The local children would come round and
help us. They would meet us at the end of the road
and walk along holding our hands and then walk us
home again. It was like a family. The children we
helped wore torn and dirty clothes and didn’t have
any toys to play with so we were lucky that we had
so many toys donated from school that we could take
them and give them out to them. It was such a magical moment seeing all their faces light up when we
were handing them out gifts. We were sad to leave the project but it had been such a rewarding
experience.
We made our way up to the capital city Lusaka after the project ready for the next phase of the journey,
the trek. We had to take two, seven hour bus journeys and we were all excited when we saw the DVDd
player and TV on the bus, until they started playing religious music for the whole journey really loudly –
all the African people knew the words and were singing, it was such an experience.
When we got to the wilderness we met our guide called Victor – he used to be a poacher years ago to
feed his family but realised the error of his ways and became a guide for the area. Everywhere looked
the same to us but Victor knew exactly where we were going. We carried all of our food and drink with
us and it was a very tough journey, going up and down valleys and through spider infested forests but it
was breath-taking. We swam in a cliff-top pool and bathed in the waterfall and saw the sunrise over the
vast expanse of valley. Victor was brilliant, helping carry our bags and pointing out the hyena tracks.
Some of us managed to see some monkeys swinging through the trees and we even managed to get a
few porcupine quills. We just about got used to having no toilets!
After the trek, we arrived back to camp to a huge BBQ where we celebrated climbing up a mountain and
making it back to the camp in one piece. We had sore backs, blistered feet, we smelt a bit having not
showered for four days and were very tired but there was a huge sense of achievement.
After the trekking phase we made our way back to Livingstone, via Lusaka on the buses that played
gospel music full blast and prepared for our few days in Botswana. Botswana is very close to Zambia –
only the Zambezi river separates them. We got a minibus down to Kasane and managed to hop on a
passenger ferry to cross over into Botswana. Here we made our way to Chobe. Chobe is a vast
National Park most famous for safaris and viewing ‘The Big 5’. We were lucky enough to have a game
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drive in the National park and a river safari along the Zambezi. We saw so many wonderful animals in
their natural habitats. Unfortunately we didn’t see a lion but we did manage to see a herd of elephants,
giraffes, many deer and two wild honey badgers – a very rare sight to see them in the wild.
From here we made our way South to the salt pans – you may have heard of them from Top Gear. At
the salt pans there is a famous island called Kubu Island. It is in the centre of the salt pans or salt flats
and is very majestic. All of the local people go there for pilgrimages as it is such a special place. It is
very weird, as when you look around it really is like you’re on a deserted island – all you can see is the
blue sky and the white salty floor. We hiked over to little Kubu whilst we were there and had a tour of the
island where we learnt all about its history. On one of the days there was a dust storm which was really
awful as everything got covered in dust and meant we couldn’t go out trekking but it was still a brilliant
day as we got to play on the island.
Our trip was coming to
an end. All that was left
was to make our way
back to Livingstone for
our final trip to Victoria
Falls, which didn’t
disappoint. It was so
incredible to hear the
roar of the water and
feel the spray on your
face and feel the power
of this amazing
waterfall. It took our
breath away and was
certainly the best way to
end our amazing African
adventure.
The trip was possibly
the best experience of
our lives and made all
the hard work leading
up to it so worth it. It
was amazing to see so
many different cultures
and experience new
foods and a different
way of life. It has made
us all more confident
about travelling around
and has certainly
developed our
independent and team
working skills. If you
have a chance to go
and do something like
this, you should – it
really was ‘once in a lifetime’.
Report by Paul Gurney, Luke Doughty, Harry Parrett, Sam James, Tom Searle, and Ryan Davies
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News from the Sixth Form – Mr Baker
Each week, members of staff nominate students in their subject areas to be their “Stars of the Week”.
Stars of the Week – Year 13 (week beginning 12 September 2016)
Lauren Aldridge
Rhea Bellenie
Emily Burrows
Tayjvon DhanaMcKie
Keeleigh Hart
Craig Kenney
Kiera Moore
Charlotte Owens
Tom Searle
Abbie Smith
Nathan Williams
Joy Appliah
Toby Bennett
Molly Cooper
Laelle Disu
Scott Banks
James Borgese
Ryan Davies
Marta Dobrowolska
Lola Barnes
Louis Bruce
Ervette De Vera
Luke Harland-Cole
William Housden
Nicholas Kim
Ronnie Newman
Bailey Parker
David Sharp
Brandon Stockford
Deborah Iyere
Sami Latif
Gabriele Nikitinaite
Ellis Parkinson
Dayo Shonubi
Emily Townsend
Charlie Jackson
Luke Miller
Holly Norris
Edward Pond
Olga Kripnichenko
Alfie Whiting
Advice and guidance for both parents and pupils to understand how to use digital technology
safely and responsibly – Mr Welch
This Issue: Passwords
Encourage your child to learn to create strong passwords for anything that they sign up for. A strong
password should be hard to guess and use a combination of numbers, capital letters and symbols.
They should also be aware of not sharing their passwords with anyone, including their best friends.
Year 10 Rugby – Mr Golding
The Year 10 rugby team took on a very good grammar school in
their first match of the Kent Cup U15 Tournament. Despite
coming out on the wrong side of a 58-0 scoreline, there were
positive aspects from the Coopers team.
From the start, our offense was admittedly not up to its usual
standard, giving away a knock-on in our own half. Throughout
the game a strong level of defence was shown against the strong
Borden side, putting in big tackles all the way through. While this
level of defence was upheld for the majority of the match it was,
unfortunately, too focused on one or two Borden players which
created a lot of width and space for Borden to score try after try.
Despite the big loss, the Coopers Year 10 team now faces a new challenge in the Kent Shield U15
Tournament where the team should be able to show their true ability against more evenly matched
opponents. The two men of the match were Rock Amouzou for his strong defence making huge hits,
and Aaron Thorpe for his commitment to the team and playing through injury until he was physically
unable to play any more.
Report by Robert Hart
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Work Experience: Years 10 and 12 – Mrs Palin
We are pleased to report on another very successful year for our Work
Experience students, with an increase in the number of students that
took the opportunity to experience ‘real work’ during Activities week
(11 – 15 July). Over 225 students gained employment across a wide
range of professions. The feedback we have received from employers
has been extremely positive, and many students were a real credit to Coopers.
Just a few of the wonderful comments received:
“Fantastic role model”
“Lovely student, one of the nicest they’ve had”
“Showed a willingness to learn which is very refreshing”
“A bright future ahead”
“A pleasure to have her in the office”
“A wonderful person to have on the team”
“Absolutely lovely lad, bright friendly and enthusiastic attitude”.
Thank you to all parents and carers that supported the programme this year.
English Youth Ballet – Mrs Denoon
Further to the report in Issue 1, Mrs Willsmer (mother of Year 8 student Winnie Willsmer) has sent
through an update following Winnie’s success at her audition to dance in Swan Lake with The English
Youth Ballet.
Casting took place on 13 September and consisted of another tough, four hours of auditions. Winnie
had hoped to be a Swan, but those roles went to the tall 18 year olds of similar height, and the Cygnets
went to the 9 year olds (no pointe work). However, Winnie has been cast as a Little Mariinsky, a
professional Russian Ballerina where Odette was the Principal from the world famous Mariinsky Theatre,
home to the resident classical ballet company in Saint Petersburg, circa 1895. Winnie will be required to
dance en pointe (one of the youngest in the production to do so), and she beat off stiff competition from
some of the older girls en pointe. This is a wonderful part and Winnie will wear a beautiful romantic tutu.
The Little Mariinskys’ will be in the opening scene. All the children appear in two acts and the finale and
have lots of time on stage supporting the Professional Principal artists.
Performances will take place on:



Friday 25 November 7.30pm
Saturday 26 November 2.30pm
Saturday 26 November 7.30pm
BOX OFFICE 01293 553636 (concessions available)
www.hawth.co.uk
The Hawth, Hawth Avenue, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 6YZ
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Enrichment – Mr Watson
We run a full programme of Enrichment activities throughout the year and are constantly on the look out
for new and diverse additions to the Enrichment offer. If parents/carers would like to contribute to the
Enrichment programme for the next academic year, please contact Mr Watson for further information
[email protected].
Can you answer the following conundrum? If so, email your answers to Mrs Armstrong at
[email protected]. If you are a parent/carer your child will receive House Points for your
entry. If you are a student you will receive the House Points so come on, give it a go to improve the
points total for your House.
Issue 2 Conundrum:
The diagram shows a regular pentagon CDEFG inside a trapezium ABCD. Prove that AB = 2 x CD.
(Look out for the answer in the next newsletter)
Answer to Issue 1 (2015-2016) Conundrum:
We note that being divisible by 15 is the same as being divisible by 3 and by 5.
We also note that a number is divisible by 5 if, and only if, the unit’s digit is 0 or 5,
However, our number cannot end in a 0. Indeed, in Mathematics every number begins with a non-zero
digit. A palindrome had equal first and last digits, so the last digit is non-zero.
Hence we seek a particular six-digit palindrome which begins and ends in 5, and which is divisible by 3.
The largest six-digit palindromes beginning and ending in 5 have the form 59dd95, for some digit d. This
is divisible by 3 when the digit-sum is a multiple of 3 and therefore 5 + d is divisible by 3. So d = 1, 4 or 7.
Hence the number required is 597795.
Parent Forum
Parent Forum is made up of interested parents, and meets once every half-term to discuss matters
important to Coopers’ Parents and their child’s education. Meetings are at 6.00pm and normally last
approximately 90 minutes. Minutes and dates of meetings are available on the Gateway. If you are
interested in joining Parent Forum, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Denoon at
[email protected]. The next Parent Forum is on Tuesday 27 September at 6.00pm.
Yours faithfully
Shirley Puxty
Principal
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