Uffculme School Newsletter
FEBRUARY 2016
Headteacher’s Introduction
2016 has definitely made its presence felt already and it has certainly been a busy
first few weeks of term. The Lion King is now well underway and with nearly all
tickets sold, we are looking forward to another stunning production. There are still
a very few tickets remaining for the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night
performances so if you would still like to come, you will need to be quick! Staff and
students have worked extremely hard on this and although they are now reaching
the slightly hysterical “it will never be ready in time” stage of the pre-production
process, I have every faith that it will all be all right on the night.
Our sporting teams have already had a great deal of success in 2016 with our rugby
and girls’ basketball teams particularly successful. We have taken a number of
pretty high profile scalps so far this year and look forward to continuing to
progress in the competitions. Similarly our outdoor and adventurous programmes
are proceeding nicely. In fact most who started Duke of Edinburgh awards around
this time last year are signed off or very nearly finished and the team are busy now
recruiting Year 9 students for the next cohort. It seems that Uffculme enters more
students for these awards than pretty much any other local school, which is a bit of
a headache for the staff but also brilliant that so many want to be involved and
make the most of the opportunity to participate. The Ten Tors training is also
progressing well with a larger number of students than ever. It is also great that
there are a number of former students joining our groups and luckily nobody
seems to mind very much that the moors have been typically wet and blowy for our
young walkers and adult helpers. At least it hasn’t snowed – yet!
Other highlights have been the visits to London and Exeter for Holocaust
Memorial Day, the sponsored readathon supported by visiting author Tim Bowler
and the visit to school last week by Afghan refugee, Gulwali Passarlay. Year 8 were
captivated by his story of how he left home at the age of 12 and journeyed for over
a year across the Middle-East and Europe to eventually find a home in the UK and
we felt privileged that he agreed to come and talk to us.
Finally, February is LGBT awareness month and Miss Able has been working with
a group of our older students to ensure that school remains a safe place for all
young people and one where no one should feel under pressure to be like everyone
else. As a Stonewall champion school, we are committed to recognising and
celebrating diversity in all its forms and hope that our young people can grow up to
question who they are and what they stand for in a safe and supportive
environment without harassment or fear.
Lorraine Heath
Headteacher
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2
Read-a-thon!
The community-minded students took part in Uffculme School’s first
ever Sponsored Read-a-thon where their mission was to read as much
as they could over 5 hours in the library. Students brought cushions
and sleeping bags ready to bed down for a day of sponsored reading
and everyone involved was impressed by their tenacity as page after
page was turned. Members of the teaching staff, Jon Palmer, Karina
Balado and deputy head Nikki Able also gave up their valuable time to
share extracts from their favourite books. As a reward at the end of
the day, the students were treated to a visit from Tim Bowler,
award-winning author of 20 teen novels such as River Boy, Frozen
Fire and his latest novel Game Changer. Tim spoke to the students
from across Years 7, 8 and 9 about his writing, answered many
questions from his keen audience and read a tantalising extract from
Storm Catchers. He also disclosed that he was currently writing a new
book, which he was close to finishing. Afterwards he briefly had time
to sign autographs and chat to the students. Carrie Groves, English
teacher at the school, said, ‘I’m so pleased with how the day went. We
really enjoyed having Tim in! The students really warmed to him and
loved the extract from his book. I was very proud of our students too
who showed excellent focus on their reading and wowed Tim with
their enthusiastic questions.’ The day, organised by Mrs Groves and
librarian Liz Davies, was arranged to raise money for CLIC Sargent
(Helping young people with cancer) and Roald Dahl’s Marvellous
Children’s Charity (helping seriously ill and disabled children), as
well as to promote reading across the school, a key aspect of raising
literacy levels. Students are now into the first week of the two week
challenge, to continue reading as much as they can for sponsorship.
All sponsorship money is to be handed into the Finance Office and
there will be a prize for the reader who has raised the most.
Reading Ambassadors
Twelve Uffculme students from across Years 7-10 are testing their skills as Reading
Ambassadors. The students have volunteered their time, once a week, to walk to
Uffculme Primary School to help spark a love of reading for reluctant readers in
Years 5 and 6. The first visit involved a very convincing presentation by the secondary students on why young people should read for pleasure and what makes a good
book. The younger students then enthusiastically shared books they had been
reading. The visits will take place every Thursday lunchtime until Easter, with the
older students taking the lead on encouraging the primary pupils in their reading.
English teacher Carrie Groves, who organised the visits with Claire Hayman from the
primary, said: “This is one of my favourite ways to promote reading and such a
fantastic opportunity for both sets of students. “It was lovely to meet the primary
pupils and I’m so grateful to our Reading Ambassadors for giving up their time in
this way. I know it will have a hugely positive impact for all involved.”
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3
Winning at Social Enterprise
This January Business Studies students in Year
10 were offered an opportunity to demonstrate
their entrepreneurial flare through a Social
Enterprise challenge hosted at Petroc College and
devised by the charity MyBnk . Students were
given at random a selection of products from
chocolate bars to garden seeds to curry powder
and even body butter and lip balm! The aim of
the challenge was to firstly sell the product to make a profit but, more importantly,
to be able work together as part of a professional team. Groups were allowed to
devise their own selling strategies and background stories about the products in
order to maximise potential income. Some groups tried (on many occasions!) to sell
their products to teachers, others approached the canteen whilst a particularly
entrepreneurial group even did their pitch in front of the whole of Year 10 in their
own year assembly. Two weeks later we all reconvened back at Petroc College for
the final presentations. The focus was simple: how much money did you make and
how can you demonstrate that you overcame the problems associated with working
in a group and the actual selling of products? Of the 8 presenting teams the
eventual winners were team ‘4 Leaf Clover’ comprising of Jodi Clarke
(10Maddicks), Jordan Smith (10Bertram), Sapphire Hobbs-Wright and Sasha
Westcott (both 10Sanghera). This group of students were commended on their
professional presentation and mature approach to the project. Overall the total
amount of money raised for the chosen Year 10 charities of the Teenage Cancer
Trust and Exeter Paediatric Oncology Ward was an incredible £270. This works out
at just over £30 raised per group – a fantastic effort and well done to everyone who
took part!
Sainsbury’s Active Kids Vouchers
The time has come to start collecting Sainsbury’s Active
Kids Vouchers. Please take them if you are offered when
shopping in Sainsbury’s and drop into Reception. It
would be great if we could beat the 3000+ points we
collected last year.
Ink Cartridge Recycling
As a means of raising money for Uffculme School Trust, and to help
protect the environment, we are now recycling ink cartridges. Please
consider donating your used ink/toner cartridges to us and help
raise money for the school. Please drop them into Reception or pop
them in the Recycling boxes by the Finance Office window. Thank
you.
Uffculmeschool.net
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4
Inspirational and Humbling!
It was an absolute pleasure to welcome Afghan refugee, Gulwali Passarly,
to Uffculme School in January. Gulwali was just 12 when he left the
terrors of Afghanistan 9 years ago; it was a case of join the Taliban or flee
for his life after the US forces killed five members of his family. He spent
the next year of his life travelling alone after being separated from his
brother, covering hundreds of miles through the Middle East and Europe,
whilst being forced from ‘people trafficker to people trafficker’. He
eventually arrived in England, in the back of a lorry packed with ‘Unripe’
Bananas, but, with no official paperwork, the authorities refused to believe
where he was from, his age and his harrowing story. He was eventually
placed with a foster family and integrated into British society. He
attended a main stream school, where he learnt to speak English, now his
5th language, and after only 2 years of schooling left with 9 GCSEs.
Gulwali now attends Manchester University, studying politics, and has
aspirations of one day becoming the President of Afghanistan, putting a
stop to the atrocities many children are still facing as he did. Our Year 8’s,
who had the privilege of listening to Gulwali, sat in stunned silence, not
quite believing what he had
experienced at the same age as
them; they also had the chance to
ask him some very mature and
thought out questions. Head of
Geography, Mrs Zoe Leaver, invited
Gulwali to Uffculme School as the
Year 8’s have just completed a
scheme of work on the moving
stories of migration and to help
them understand the plight of many
others like Gulwali.
Here are some thoughts of Year 8 pupils who listened to Gulwali’s talk:
“Before listening to Gulwali I didn’t care about people coming over but
now when it is on the news I will care. I will think of Gulwali and what he
went through” - Shannon S
“After hearing Gulwali’s story I feel privileged on being born in a healthy
country and having the opportunities I have had” - Harvey S
“Having met Gulwali and hearing his story I feel like I have been taking
school for granted and I now want to do better in school” - Elen O
Thank you so much for visiting us Gulwali—it was a very thoughtprovoking morning and a real eye-opener to our Year 8’s; good luck in all
you go on to do.
Uffculmeschool.net
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5
Holocaust Memorial Day 2016
Our RE Department’s work on anti-Semitism, prejudice, racism and modern day
genocide was bought to life on Wednesday 27th January as a small group of Year 9
students attended Exeter’s Holocaust Memorial event. The event included an
exhibition about the Holocaust and later genocides, a talk by a survivor from the
Bosnian genocide and a film about the Nazi persecution of Romany communities;
our Year 9’s also had the chance to read aloud their poems which they penned
especially for the occasion. The event
culminated with a very moving and
thought-provoking talk by Holocaust
survivor Leslie Kleinman. Our students
felt very privileged to have been able to
listen to Leslie’s memories and were
amazed by his fortitude and courage. He
thanked our pupils for their presence
and encouraged them to always stand up
for what is good. The pupils’ poetry and
intelligent questions throughout the day created an enormous sense of pride and
optimism. Each of the pupils received a HMD lapel badge and an RE award. Earlier
in January Year 9 students visited the Holocaust Exhibition in London’s Imperial
War Museum. This really helped them to visualise the awful conditions and terror
of Auschwitz-Birkenau as Leslie told his story.
Florence McEwan-Mills and Lily Mackay: A lady began telling us that she
had visited schools in the last few years and collected children’s opinions about
gypsies. It was shocking to see the similarities between some of the opinions
expressed and those put forward in Nazi propaganda in the 1930s and 40s! We
didn’t know that so many gypsies were annihilated in concentration camps.
However, the thing that upset us most was that when Exeter was trying to build an
official site for the gypsies, people protested and said such things as, “Hitler knew
how to deal with gypsies”, “They should all be shot” and “Build concentration
camps and put them in there”. We think we need to be educated more about gypsies in the modern day and their suffering in World War 2. We were truly moved on
Holocaust Memorial Day.
Philippa Budgell: In the early evening of the trip, we listened to Leslie
Kleinman’s story. A Jewish Holocaust survivor and amazing storyteller, Leslie had
the audience transfixed. My strongest impression of Leslie was that he could turn
any situation into a positive and into a situation in which he could see God at work
and praise God for it. One of these was when he was first taken into Auschwitz and
he was in a crowd of prisoners being systematically sorted. A stranger approached
him and asked him his age. “14,” he replied. “No,” said the stranger, “you say 17”.
This saved his life as when he was sorted he was deemed suitable for work, and
spared from the gas chambers. Another situation I think is more representative of
Leslie’s character was when he was tattooed with his number on his left arm: in
Hebrew numerology the number meant ‘love’! Leslie’s faith, which survived the
Holocaust, despite the loss of his whole family, amazed and inspired me.
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EH4MH—Early help for Mental Health
Devon County Council has commissioned a new support service to
improve the emotional, psychological and social well being of children and
young people. Part of this new service is ‘Direct Support’ for secondary
aged young people delivered by Young Devon and Kooth.com.
The online service:
The face-to-face service:

Can be accessed by young people
aged 11 to 18 years



Is available by registering with
Kooth.com
Can be accessed on a self-referral
basis by young people aged 11 to
18 years

Provides access to online advice,
self-help tools and counselling
Is available by contacting Young
Devon

Provides access to Young Devon’s
trained counsellors

Is available in safe settings across
Devon

Is available 365 days a year

Provides interactive counselling
until 10pm every night.
www.Kooth.com
www.youngdevon.org
These services are available to all of our pupils. For further information
about what Uffculme School provides in school, please see the student
support area of our website, or contact the Student Welfare Officer, Karina
Balado, at [email protected].
Music Achievements
Congratulations to Ben Simpson, 7Bertram, who has passed his
Grade 2 Piano and also to Abigail Farr, 9Hayden, who passed her
Grade 5 Violin Exam. Well done both!
Football
Huge congratulations to the Under 14 and Under 16 Futsal teams who won
the area tournaments and will now take part in the county finals in
Paignton on February 25th. We almost had a clean sweep, unfortunately
the Under 12's were runners up, losing the final after a penalty shootout.
We have many more fixtures to follow and the Under 13 and Under 14
teams are still in the County Cup competitions and we are hoping to make a
return to the finals this season.
Uffculmeschool.net
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School Nurse
Here in Uffculme School
our drop in sessions are for
pupils on Monday
lunchtimes, in the flexible
learning centre, and for
parents on the 3rd Tuesday
of the month, either at
Uffculme Primary School
or Hemyock Primary
School.
You can contact your local
School Nurse, Sandra
Williamson, by ringing
01884 836001 or texting
07854653122.
Sandra is also running
some Parenttalk courses,
please contact her if you
would like to attend or for
more information.
Uffculme School Trust 100 Club
Congratulations to the following winners in
our January 2016 Draw:
£30—Colin Butt (67)
£10—Tim Radford (52)
£10—R.Elliott (70)
You can become a 100 Club Member for only
67
52
70
£1 per month. Contact Tony on
[email protected] for more information. Got to be in it, to win it!