 |  | Senior Girls Bulletin | | | Mr Spanswick's Words Summer 4 |  | | Dear Parents and Guardians
I hope you have had a safe and healthy week as we move slowly towards the ‘half term’ break next Friday.
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| | | Sites wide news | Academic bulletin
The academic bulletin of 12 May highlighting A Level, BTEC and GCSE news for Year 11 to Year 13 can be found on our website.
Academic programme
Year 9 are to commence their GCSE course programme on week commencing Monday 8 June. A separate letter confirming the details of these changes will be sent out early next week.
Submission of GCE, BTEC and GCSE portfolios and coursework
Where Year 13 students and Year 11 pupils have portfolio or coursework materials they now wish to submit in person for consideration for their A level, BTEC and GCSE courses, please take note that we will be opening our Senior Boys site, SL6 8TE, next Thursday afternoon, between 3.30pm and 5pm to receive those items. Please drive into the school grounds, from where you will be directed to park and await further guidance as to where the pupil is to handover their submission. All submissions will be signed for.
Materials due to be held on the central College site (Senior Girls and some A Level subjects) will be taken over to the College.
Farewell
This week we said farewell to Mr James Wong, one of our ICT teaching staff working across the Senior and Sixth Form sites, who is moving on into a new role elsewhere. His work with us has been picked up by Mr Hope and Mr Miller, who have met with his classes already.
Taskmaster
As the week four Taskmaster challenge draws to a close, please find current standings in the leaderboard.
Geeky problems
Who doesn't love a good puzzle? Senior Girls Maths teacher Mrs O'Clee certainly does and she has some ‘Geeky Problems’ for you to have a go at solving. Suitable for pupils from Year 3 to Year 13, even parents can join in. Keep an eye out for more ‘Geeky Problems’ on our YouTube channel.
Fakeaway challenge
The CC takeaway is now open for business! Mrs Irons’ cookery challenge this week is to create your own fakeaway. Look at the ingredients you have available in your store cupboards and get creative.
Full details on how to enter here. |
| | | | | Divisional Updates | From Mrs Rogers, Head of Sixth Form
Mrs Rogers shares a short film clip with an update from Sixth Form this week. You can watch the full video here.
From Mrs Heywood, Head of Senior Girls
Caring is a state of mind that becomes the action that holds us all together in all manner of circumstances.
Last week the unusual change to the calendar enabled the commemoration of VE day exactly 75 years ago on Friday. This was about achieving peace and freedom because we care for each other. The Second World War was a time when we as a nation made great sacrifices to aid our European neighbours. At home we flew a large Union Jack flag and went onto our street to meet our nearest neighbours (at a social distance) because as a community we also care for each other with small acts of kindness whether borrowing a piece of equipment, shopping for older residents or taking in a parcel. My husband left early to collect a swarm of bees, another form of caring. Here for the environment, but ultimately to the benefit of us all.
It is also ‘International Nursing Day’ this week and there is no other manifestation of caring than nursing as we have experienced during our recent global pandemic, when again we owe much to the selfless caring by those with a vocational calling that has a higher value than status or financial reward. It was Florence Nightingale that realised the importance of nursing care to rehabilitate and ward off further infection and after whom the emergency hospitals for Coronavirus have been aptly named.
Care can take many forms, without it we are poorer both emotionally and physically. When we do what might appear sometimes as a random act of kindness without any hidden motive or agenda we always feel the personal reward from giving and not receiving.
As we continue to salute the efforts of those engaged in unflagging service to others, we all have a duty to continue to look after others as well as ourselves.
Annie, Year 7, delivering medication to the community.
From Mr Wilding, Head of Senior Boys
As parents and staff well know, competition is intense between Senior Boys and Senior Girls. For the third week running Mrs Heywood has written her bulletin words before mine, as a consequence I have been relegated to second place in this list. As we liaise closely on our assemblies, it will come as no surprise to you that we cover similar themes - here’s my rerun movie of Monday’s at Senior Boys.
As I showed at Monday's assembly some of the miniature paintings that Frances Ackland-Snow, Senior Boys Head of Art, creates every day whilst we are in lockdown, these will be by now familiar to our school. This Monday, her work also featured briefly on Grayson Perry’s Art Club programme on Channel 4 - what a picture!%u200B%u200B%u200B%u200B%u200B%u200B%u200B
Other Senior faculty news
- Live link to week four activities here
- For those wishing to support Mr Cripps in his ‘40 challenges for 40’ to raise money for the NHS please find details here.
- Please do join either Mr Wilding or Mrs Heywood daily for gate duty between 8.30am to 9am; we do hope to see some others on our lonely watch.
Remote Learning reminders
- Please remind your son or daughter that ‘school’ starts 8.45am with a year group assembly on Monday and form tutor time Tuesday to Friday. Academic lessons start at 9am, 10am and 11am each morning, and pupils should arrive in their ‘classroom’ promptly for the advertised start times. The video conference MEET can’t start until the teacher arrives, and will stay after the main lesson briefing concludes to help any individuals, so do stay back and ask for support when you need to.
- Thank you so much parents for spotting our advice to push your sons and daughters to attend the live ‘MEETs’ at the start of lessons, and thank you to the boys & girls for their feedback too. We are still seeking to get the work balance combination right, with some students in all years working into the evening on their part 2s. If you are a parent who sees their child saying their work is complete by 12 noon, please do have a check because that simply is not possible! During next week, our quickest workers are going to have their collars felt, and as their work also highlights a ‘rush to get it done’ approach, there will be plenty of feedback for them to read (I hope)reminding them to spend more time on the process.
- Our next whole school assembly is to take place on Monday at 12noon.
From Mrs King, Acting Head of Junior Girls and Mr Richards, Head of Junior Boys
Wow - another week of super involvement with some great additional extra activities in the afternoons. Many pupils and their families have participated in the live cook along with Mrs Irons, live story time on Tuesday where pupils shared some pages of Roald Dahl’s ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ and our live family quiz with Mr Laouira on Thursday! All new groups that we can feel a part of, sharing some fun and laughs along the way.
It does only seem like yesterday that we were all listening to and interpreting Sunday’s announcement. Whilst boys and girls have continued to produce great pieces of work and shown much effort and application we have met, with appropriate social distancing, to begin the process of untangling the slightly harder process of reopening than closing. Seeing and talking to a real person and not just a screen was a delight and the problem solving and thinking through the process a really good exercise. Mr Spanswick will have sent those age groups selected by the Government a questionnaire. Please do return it as it will help enormously with our planning.
Last week we celebrated VE Day and so many of you have shared photos and stories of how your family chose to mark this very special commemoration. There were lots of cakes, bunting, Tommy soldiers, dressing up and even some wonderful ‘social distancing’ street parties. It was so nice to see and hear about the community spirit being shared not only locally but all around the country. Dame Vera Lynn was played on the radio and in the gardens, belting out the classic “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day.” A song that has come to have resonate with so many of us in recent weeks!
One potential exciting new venture from our wonderfully creative performing arts teachers is the Juniors’ Concert. Teachers will be in touch so do get practicing your verses, solos, songs and the like.
Have a safe and healthy weekend.
Mrs King and Mr Richards
Other Junior faculty news
- For Junior Girls: Please join Mrs King daily for gate duty between 8.30am to 8.50am
- For Junior Boys: Please join Mr Richards daily for gate duty between 8.30am to 8.50am
- Please remind your son or daughter that ‘school’ starts at 8.45am. Academic lessons start at 9.15am, 10.15am and 11.15am in the morning, and the pupils should arrive in their ‘classroom’ in advance of these times, so they are ready to start learning promptly.
- If your son or daughter is unable to attend lessons due to illness or ‘absence’, please contact the school office via:
Junior Girls: girls@clairescourt.com or leave a voicemail message on 01628 327500 before 9.30am
Junior Boys: Juniorboys@clairescourt.com or leave a voicemail message on 01628 327400 before 9.30am
This is to let us know if your son or daughter is not well, or is not going to be accessing the morning sessions. That way we know not to expect them to submit work and therefore will not mark it as missing. Thank you.
From Mrs Wilding, Head of Nursery
This week the Transition children have focused on weather as their topic and they will certainly have experienced some changes in temperature from frost covered lawns and roofs in the early mornings to cloud and sun in the afternoons and some wind to get everyone excited. The only thing they couldn’t make would have been a rain collector and observational rainbow pictures but the topic continues the week commencing Monday 18 May so maybe they will get the opportunities to do these this coming week. The letter of the week is “h”.
The three Nursery classes have been looking at frogs and I thank you for some lovely pictures of your children making these. Next week there is a change in topic for them with a focus on minibeasts, the colour red, the number 4 and the letter m and the planning for this will be emailed to you for some ideas to do at home.
I wish you all a happy and healthy weekend with lots of fun together.
Other Nursery faculty news
- You may continue to contact the Nursery School Office on nursery@clairescourt.com or you can leave a voicemail on 01628 327500.%u200B%u200B%u200B%u200B%u200B%u200B%u200B
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| | | 1 College Avenue, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 6AW
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