THAMESV IEW S CHOOL Autumn Term 1

October 2008

THAMES V IEWS

See back page for more!

A fantastic celebration of staff and student successes took place earlier in the Term with hundreds of prizes given to well deserved students, who had reached levels of achievement in subject areas, citizen-ship, friendship, work experience, and many other notable award categories (see back for the list of special prize winners). Guest speaker, Nick Trott, Journalist of the Year, and ex-student delivered an inspiring speech to motivate all to pursue their dreams.

Record High Exam Results! Students and staff were elated as the examination result envelopes were opened on August 24th this year.

Balloons and garland banners

greeted our students as they received the great news that 66% of students achieved the coveted 5 x A*-C GCSE passes and much more above that! Thamesview also

exceeded our National target for 30% A*-C I

ncluding Maths and English! A fantastic DVD has been created to

capture the mood and emotions of the day, but nothing speaks louder than the pictures of such happy and successful students! Congratula-tions to them all!

Special Points of interest:-

Thamesview adopts an orang-utan

Last Choir Standing

Learning Community News

Parachute games

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Headteacher’s Letter 2

Festival of Lights 3

Music Instrument Loan Scheme

4

Uniform Reminder 8

Eco News 11

PTFA News 15

Tutor Time Fun 16

Win, win, win...see

our ‘Guess Who’

competition on pages 6

& 14!

Dear Parents, Carers, Governors, Staff, Students and Friends Every Term sees new highs, new challenges and new experiences for us all. What a high to start the term, knowing that Thamesview achieved its highest ever results, at 66% A*-C passes. This is a huge success, when our expected target was less than 50%. This massive leap is due to the appropriate curriculum offer for each student and to the diligence and hard working ethic of all our staff and the students; they deserve well-earned praise! So what lies ahead...well we have the additional challenge of needing to meet the Government’s 30% floor target for students to achieve 5 x A*-C including Maths and English, and this will always prove a challenging target, but one which we have already proved we can reach. We will be running a number of initiatives for our

targeted students in order that all students achieve or exceed their expected results in all areas. We have welcomed some new staff, not least in our Maths Department, where I am pleased to report we are now fully staffed after a couple of Terms without being adequately resourced. One of these new Maths appointments is an Advanced Skills Teacher, Mrs Sesay, which means she is a leader in her subject field, and another has taken on the role of Numeracy Co-ordinator, which again is an area we have wanted filled for some time. Mr Razzak offers the quality of delivering Maths in a fun and accessible way, so the students are learning new techniques as they prosper as young mathematicians. We have other new appointments to the school at a range of levels, and many from different cultures and of varying

ethnicity, which is im-portant as we unite as a diverse community to learn from one another. Two key appointments are our new Heads of Leaning Community, Dr Paul Bell and Mr Mark Hodges, both of whom I know will make a big impact in leading their

Communities to excel. Our school has officially now become a building site. The last two weeks in September saw the beginning of fences being erected, play areas moved, car parking spaces relocated and hoard-ings being placed around the field. It is really exciting to think that the new build-ing is actually underway, and in two years we will be moving into a brand new build-ing, designed with all the transformational features we have planned. In the mean-time, we continue to invest in our existing site for our current students so that they have the best provision available; this includes another 60 laptops purchased this month, the new open-plan learning space created from 5 classrooms, the inner quad, called The Haven, has been opened for use by the students at lunch and break times, so that they can sit quietly on the picnic tables, play mag-netic board games or play chess in the peace and quiet of the area around the pond...lovely! My advice to students and parents is there is so much going on, don’t miss out on the opportunities available. Don’t just read about what has been happening, take part and be an active participant in our extended learning programme!

Enjoy the Term! Rhiannon Hughes

Autumn Term 1 Page 2

New Diplomas Start at Thamesview As usual, Thamesview is at the forefront of education with the introduction of the new Diploma in Construction and the Built Environment. We are the only institution in Gravesham offering any Diplomas in round one, although five more are to be introduced across Gravesham in September 2009. This also includes Hair and Beauty being introduced at Thamesview for Gravesham alongside the Construction Diploma. Students aged from 14 years to 16 plus are studying this course at the Vocational Centre. They have all made a great start to the course which is very demanding. Good luck to all the students! P Blayney

Some things you can learn from a book and others from doing. This was the case with a

group of students, who went fishing as part of their BTEC course. On a warm Thursday, six students took part in a day at Darenth Lakes looking at the environment, fishing and concentrating for long periods of time. All students were shown the skills of fishing and all managed to catch a fish (except the teacher in charge—eh, Mr McBean), some weighing up to 7lbs. This type of learning is definitely something to be encouraged.

P Blayney

Paige Green holds her prize winner!

Catching an Education

School Cook, Jenny Burns receives her Level 2 Award from KCC Cabinet Member for Education Operations, Re-sources and Skills, Mark Dance, after a 12 week intensive course.

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Thamesview Numeracy Competition 08/09 Thamesview School Numeracy competition is a community celebration showcasing numeracy to promote having fun in Maths. The competition started in the first week of September and is run by Mr Tomkins (Head of Mathematics) and Mr Razzak (Numeracy Coordinator). The competition involves problem solving and mathematics quizzes, which runs every fortnight with each of the school’s four communities taking part. Each fortnight the winner of each community will be put in a hat and one lucky name will be drawn out and go forward to the Christmas Draw. In the final draw, each lucky person drawn from the fortnightly one will have the chance to win £60 of Bluewater vouchers. The final name will be drawn by Miss Hughes (Headteacher).

Gravesend Festival of Light We took part in the ‘Festival of Light’ and it all started when we made the lanterns in one of our art rooms. There was a man called John and a lady called Sue helping us and showing us how to make them correctly. First of all we used willow sticks and found they bent really easily. We then made the shapes and stuck them together with masking tape. Next we covered them in this special strong tissue paper and stuck it around our template. After it had dried completely we started to do some patterns on the side of our lanterns. We used an Olympic theme as the Festival of Light celebrates the Olympic torch coming to England. It took us all day to make the lanterns, but we were pleased with the end result. Friday 26th September was the night of the festival. We all met up at the Woodville Halls and began to parade our lanterns. Some of the lanterns were ok but some of the lights inside got so hot they started to burn through the tissue paper but some got a lot worse and set on fire!! But it was still great fun and we all found it very funny. When we got to the prom there were these brilliant dancers who stood on each others’ heads as they spun round. There were also some cool local bands, who did lots of different types of dances and moves. St Georges’ did a really good funny dance with 5 or 6 girls all in black. The mayor did a good speech and raised the Olympic flag. Miss Rogers and Mr Belsey really embarrassed poor Aaron by jumping and dancing around him; he wasn’t happy. The night ended with a fantastic firework display; we really enjoyed the evening. By Beth Springett and Jordan Meade, Year 8

We are fully committed to life-long learning, and to this end, many of our staff are working towards higher level qualifications up to degree level. Our latest achievers are an LSA and two Teaching Assistants, who have taken GCSE examinations with our ex-Year 11s in the Summer. Congratulations to Mrs Flowers, who achieved a high grade GCSE Maths, Mrs Haigh and Mrs Finch who both achieved high grade GCSE English passes.

Mrs Finch proudly shows off her ‘B’ grade

certificate.

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Notices to Parents

Coffee and Cakes On Monday 29th September, Thamesview hosted a coffee morning to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. The admin staff baked various cakes and sold them with tea or coffee for £1. The cakes were so delicious that many came back for seconds (or even thirds!!), and in total we raised £310!! Thanks to everyone for their support and especially to our Exams Manager, Jackie Reilly, for organising the event! Hayley Evans

CAN YOU HELP? Due to the building of the new school some of the outside play areas have been lost. We therefore need to find alternative activities for students during lunch breaks. If you have any unwanted Play Stations or suitable computer games, your donations will be very much appreciated by the school and students. Thank you.

Take It Away—Loan Scheme (England)

‘Take it away’ is an Arts Council England initiative that offers an interest free loan (0% APR) between £100 and £2,000 for people to buy musical instruments, supporting musical equipment and tuition, through a network of participating retailers across England. The loan is repayable in 10 parts, made up of a minimum 10% deposit and 9 monthly instalments. The scheme is open to anyone over the age of 18. This scheme was launched a year ago and

since then over 8,000 people have used ‘Take it Away’ to buy £5 million worth of instruments nationally, boosting music retailers and helping produce the next generation of home-grown pop, rock and classical stars.

Any instrument can be bought using ‘Take it Away’ but sales statistics for the first year show that guitars are the most popular instrument totalling 33% of all sales, followed by keyboards 17% and percussion 14%. A map of participating stores is available at http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/takeitaway/stores.html

LOST PROPERTY There will be an after school “rummage” on Wednesday 12th November in the Drama Hall from 3pm. Anything not collected will be given away free from 4pm. M Todd

This year, Thames-view Parents will be putting on our very own musical: We Will Rock You, and we are looking for performers! Can you Act? Sing? Dance? Or do all three? Then come along to the Drama Hall after school on WEDNESDAY afternoons from 3.15-4.15 this term. We are looking for people with all types of skills, as well as people interested in working backstage, and helping out with the technical side of the production. For more information speak to Mrs Beaumont, Ms Cormack or Ms Banens.

French Clubs (anyone can join) Aurélie, our French Assistant will run two clubs: 1.20 - 1.50pm in EBL2 —French games for Years 7 and 8 Mondays 3pm - 3.30pm— GCSE practice/help with coursework.

Introducing Jenny Parris Our New School Nurse

Jenny Parris is the new school nurse for Thamesview and will be holding regular drop-in sessions for students and parents. If you have any health related issues please feel free to call in to the drop-in sessions at the school. Look out for posters around the school, which give details of times and dates of sessions. Telephone or text on 07769883179.

Thamesview’s Christmas Cracker

a night of dance, drama and music Thursday 11th December @ 7pm

Thames Views Page 5

Amana Rahman is taking flying lessons after school.

Wow!

Rael Green Thompson was ‘man of the match’

in Cricket!

Jason Haigh is now a red/black belt in Taekwondo –

Awesome!

Danny Whiteford caught a 21lb Common Carp

a few weeks ago Incredible!

I couldn’t think of anything To put in this poem

About my community Endeavour Of course I’m kidding there’s lots to say

It’s the best community ever!!!

I really do know That Thamesview is bigger

And different to Riverview Junior But when I found out

What Thamesview’s about And I would have left Riverview sooner!!

The community colour

Is my favourite colour pink We wear blouses with a black skirt or trousers

Black shoes and socks All in one box

Which we find in mum’s lunch break hours!!!

It’s a fabulous school With fabulous teachers

All of which I hope like me If I make any more friends

I really do hope they’re lovely!!!

And now I conclude My short and sweet poem

Which took me almost forever And now I only have one word left

With 3 syllables and that’s ENDEAVOUR!!

By Laura Hobson, Year 7

What a talented bunch we are….. Here are just some of our individual talents and achievements over the last few weeks….

Two of our artistically talented Endeavour students show off their wonderfully creative interpretations of a class task set by Mr Curtis.

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SPLAT THE TEACHER Mr Belsey next!!! All funds raised for Lions Hospice.

Miss Hughes joins in the fun in splat-ting Dr Bell, Head of Enterprise Community, as part of EpSAF’s raising money for Lions’ Hospice Charity (read more on page 7).

Enterprise’s Head of Community Gets a Soaking!

Whilst there is not homework given out as per a timetable, there should be extended learning opportunities in all curriculum areas at specific times in Schemes of Work. In other words, students should have some work that they are able to do over and above the ‘normal’ class lesson expectation, so that they can acquire further skills and reinforce the learning that has already taken place. These extended learning pieces may be given out at the beginning or during the project and the onus is on the student to submit the work for marking, so that teachers are able to feed-back extended progression targets. I hope students are taking advantage of these learning opportunities to show that they can work more independently on specific topics.

Guess Who Competition (see page 14)

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EpMI have chosen to support the charity ‘Operation Christmas Child’. As part of our assembly we have to present to the rest of the community, who we hope will help us reach our target. This charity allows volunteers to create and decorate a regular shoebox and fill it with gifts such as hat, gloves, sweets, stationery and soap and send it off to less fortunate children in other countries. This charity gives us a chance to allow deprived children a chance to have something they didn’t have before and a chance for us to do something to help them. It is not just our Form and community that want to donate boxes, we wish for everyone to be involved and help a child today! All you need is a simple shoebox and a few inexpensive gifts. Come to ask us for a leaflet or look at the Enterprise notice board. Go for It!!

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD EpMI

EpSB are supporting the Kent Air Ambulance as we feel that they could be called upon to save our lives sometime whether we are twelve or one hundred and twelve. Kent Air Ambulance is supported entirely by donations and it costs over £1000 to keep the helicopters flying daily. Charity events will be taking place during the school year.

This term our tutor groups have all chosen a charity that has a special meaning for us and are competing to raise the most money! Here are some of our causes and why we have chosen them.

Demelza is the only residential hospice in Kent, East Sussex and South London providing a wide range of services to life-limited children and young people who are expected to die before reaching adulthood. As a Form we decided on this charity as a result of class discussion on the services provided by such organisations. As this hospice is local it was the obvious choice to all. We are hoping that over the coming academic year, we can raise as much money as possible for this charity whilst raising its profile within our school. EpJR

EpLLE students came up with their first idea of raising money, selling cups of squash to students during lunch and break for 20p. This event took place on Tuesday 7th October, and they were pleased when they found out they had raised £10. Thank you to all those students that supported us and bought a cup of squash. There will be further events coming up to raise money for this charity, and this will be advertised with posters. EpLLE’s Next sale will be cakes.

The Lions Hospice, a voluntary organization, which opened in 1992, provides residential hospice care and day therapy for adults with twelve in-patient beds and eighty day places a week. In addition to clinical treatment, individuals are provided with a range of activities and services to build confidence and improve quality of daily life. EpEA—We as a tutor group, were moved by the plight of residents of the Lions Hospice. We wanted to be part of relieving pain, sharing fears and rebuilding hope. It is therefore our hope that you will join hands with us in contributing towards a worthy cause. EpSAF - We are also raising money for the Lions Hospice, we chose the charity as some people in our Form have had relatives cared for at the hospice. We have done Splat the Teacher and ‘guess how many sweets are in the jar’ and are presenting this money on the 13th October to Linda Wood from the hospice! EpARA decided to

pick Cancer Research because a lot of our families in one way or another

have been affected by cancer. Cancer is one of the biggest killers in this country where a lot of students close family and relatives have died of the disease. EpARA decided to give a talk to their fellow students in the form of a presentation to raise awareness within our community and raise money through selling cakes, washing cars and shaving Mr Razzak’s hair!!

Page 8 Autumn Term 1

On Monday we arrived at school dressed to go see We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre. We almost didn’t go because before we even left Mr Robinson jumped out of the minibus and hurt his ankle and had to go to hospital. Luckily, Paul Henderson came to our rescue, and we arrived just before the show began. The show was phenomenal. Our favourite parts were the joke that Ms Banens won’t let us repeat and the bikini wax scene. James Willmott and Ryan Danton, Year 9 Performing Arts BTEC Group

This Trip Rocked!

School Uniform Expectations

Blazers to be worn at all times.

Black enclosed shoes.

Tie for all the boys and for the girls in the old style uniform.

Coats to be worn outside only.

Thank you for your support in raising our standards of appear-ance for all our students.

Trainers are not to be worn (even black ones!)

No hoodies on site! Failure to comply with the uniform

rules on a regular basis may result in placement in the Inclusion Room.

Jackets , jewellery and phones confiscated will need to be col-lected by an adult parent/carer.

Have your say at the next Parents’ Forum on Thursday 27th November. These are held three times per year, where parents can hear more about their child’s education, and you can contribute to future school developments. At the last meeting, a parent proposed the new uniform style, which was selected as the final uniform option by a resounding all out win from parents, students, staff and Governors in the vote. Three parents were co-opted on to our Assessment Working Party, so we shall hear their feedback. Want to know more about a certain area of the school, receive some training to help your child, then this is the meeting to attend!

Year 8 Girls Cancer Vaccine A VACCINATION programme that could prevent over two-thirds of cervical cancer cases will start soon. The HPV vaccination, if given before girls become sexually active, offers the potential to dramatically decrease the number of new cases of cervical cancer. Cervarix protects against papil-loma viruses 16 and 18, which are responsible for about 70% of all cervical cancers in England. The school nurses will start administer-ing the vaccine to all girls in Year 8 at the start of the autumn term. Full details will be given to the girls and their parents, and the nurse will be avail-able to answer any questions prior to obtaining their informed consent.

the students in Challenger have shown in all the activities and events they have been involved with. This was especially true at the Awards Evening where I had the honour of handing out prizes to Challenger students who had put in a considerable amount of effort last year, and who fully deserved the recognition they received on the night. Congratulations to all the prize winners, especially those in Challenger. Lastly, I would like to say that communication is key to achieving success. To help this I have put together a Challenger website which will give parents and students more information about what is happening throughout the year. The address for this is shown below. I hope you can have a look at this, and check every now and then to see the great work that is happening in Challenger Community.

Mr M Hodges, Head of Learning Community

Challenger community has gone through a number of changes in the past few months, and has had many successes and achievements to boast about. The first big change has been the retirement of Mr Wallis, who was look-ing after Challenger Community over the summer term. He and Miss Hudson gave the Community an excellent start, which meant that I have come into a very strong Community with a clear identity, and a supportive ethos. I am very proud to have taken over as the Head of Challenger Learning Community and I am keen to see Challenger students go from strength to strength, both academically and in all other aspect of school life. This is made easier to do by having an excellent team of tutors in

(Two off our Year 7 winning quiz team

from CIT)

Page 9 Thames Views

Challenger. These tutors do an excellent job for the students, and are the first person students should be turning to if there are any issues or problems they have. Also, tutors really want to hear about all the fantastic things their students achieve outside of school. We know that many of our students do amazing things in their own time, and it really is great to hear about these things, but sometimes students feel shy or embarrassed about letting us know, but they shouldn’t. The year started off with our Year 7 students winning the Year 7 quiz on the first day of school. They had obviously heard that Challenger are the ‘number 1’ community who every-one else likes to beat, but can’t! That set the bar at a high level, but not to be outdone, the Year 8 Challenger football team won the inter-community competition for their age group. Well done Year 8. It was also pleasing to see that in these competitions there remained a high level of respect for others, and it was only Connor in Year 8 who (rightly I think) taunted Mr Sorby about his football management skills. It has been really satisfying to see the enthusiasm and great attitude

New Head of Challenger Community!

www.challengercommunity.wikispaces.com

The new school year has brought a new focus to the International Community at Thamesview. Challengers have been looking to the continent of Africa this term for their studies in tutor time. We began the year with a study on South Africa. We have looked at the country’s history, development, political regimes and of course, the great president Nelson Mandela. We also looked at tourism in South Africa and the students created some excellent brochures that the South African Tourist Board would be very interested in! Ashley Sta-pley from CGB developed the best pamphlet in this competition. Well done Ashley!

We then moved further up the continent to Zimbabwe for our next study. The focus of this study was on elections and the way in which democracy runs. Some forms were holding their own elections the real democratic way and when democracy goes slightly wrong! I hope we elected some fair form reps eventually.

Our next area of study will be Egypt where we will be focusing on culture and history of one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Keep your eye on the notice board for on-going competitions.

Kate Hudson, Learning Stage Leader

Challenger’s African Focus

(Two of the winning Year 8 football team)

Page 10 Autumn Term 1

Year 8 Road Safety Day

If you have seen steam coming from the Technology Department in the last couple of months it is due to the speed of knitting needles clicking as they have been busy in the name of charity. At every possible moment, the knitters in the Technology Department have been busy making woolly hats for

Year 10 Health and Social Care Students Work With St. Josephs Prep School As part of their BTEC Level 2 exam, students from the Year 10 Health and Social Care invited St. Joseph’s Year 6 into school so that they could help them with their Communication Unit. On Wednesday 15th October all students came together for their first meeting. Students were divided into groups and were shown around the school by the TVS group. After a quick tour it was down to tea and crumpets to help the two schools get to know each other. This was the first time that St Josephs had been to Thamesview and we look forward to a continued new friendship.

Pauline Blayney

All of Year 8 had a focussed morning of Road Safety education, as part of our annual Personal, Social & Health Education (PSHE) conference days’ programme. The Kent Police were part of a large team demonstrating such things as what happens when a car has to stop suddenly even at 30mph! The stark facts we hope will be a constant reminder to all our students to be safe at all times around Britain’s busy roads. Our Thamesview community is too aware of the dangers on the road, with the tragic loss of Luke

Squires last year. Thanks must go to all involved in making this a really valuable session that we hope has a positive lasting memory in everyone’s minds. Thanks to Mr Morrell for organising the event.

Innocent Smoothies. These hats will be sold by Sainsbury’s during November as part of a National charity

appeal. Each woolly hat sold during the campaign will raise 50p for Help the Aged. The knitting extravaganza has been helped by mums, past employees and other willing relations to produce hundreds of hats in a ariety of colours and styles. This means our efforts will raise about £200. Mr Cooper stayed out of

the way in fear of being given needles and yarn – he thought it would be bad for his reputation!! If anyone wants to help

us in next year’s efforts, please speak to either Mrs Smith or Mrs Fishenden. The earlier we start, the more hats we can knit and the more money we will raise for Help the Aged.

Miss Pelham

TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT HAS BEEN AT IT AGAIN!!

Please

pack a box and make a

child like me happy! Bring your box to

EpMl, room 41 by 18th November. For more details look at our article on page 7 of this newsletter or see notices around school. Help us achieve our target of making 100 children happy.

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We have returned to school with many

celebrations. With the amazing GCSE results of 66% A*-C’s from our previous Year 11s, we also have many Eco celebrations in hand: We are proud to announce the adoption by our students of yet another endangered animal – this time an orang-utan. Prior to the end of the summer term, three of our students entered the Big Green Poetry Machine Competition and I am very proud to report that Louise Church, Holly Payne and Chris Hutchison were chosen from thousands of entries across the country and will have their poems published in the Young Writers’ Book in November. Our third, but by no means least, celebration is obtaining the coveted Silver Award from Eco Schools.

Thamesview Off to a Great ‘Enterprising’ Start!! To kick off another exciting year of enterprising activities, 30 Year 8 students competed in the ‘Environmental Challenge’. Since September, all Year 8 and 9 students are studying a new subject called Enterprise Education. The aim of this subject is to provide our young learners with the necessary enterprising skills they will require for the workplace, whilst working towards a qualification. These lifelong skills include managing risk, communication, being creative, leadership, financial planning, problem solving. Since the start of term, some Year 8 students have performed to a notably high standard. These students were hand selected by their Enterprise Education teachers to compete in this competition. As a school that is becoming more aware of their social and environmental surroundings, this junior programme proved to be fun-packed, where teams produced a

board game made out of electronic waste materials. This activity was practical and fun but also challenged the learners to perform in an enterprising manner. The winning team received a generous voucher as well as a glass trophy. Well done to all the Year 8 students who participated and special note to the winning team for their innovative board game, which they presented to the judging panel in a professional and confident manner.

Miss Ryan

Our school has also been registered with the current ‘Green’ projects being run by Asda and Morrisons, so please collect your vouchers and send them in. Also don’t forget to check out British Gas’ ‘Generation Green’ project for ways to support our school. Community Mobile Phone Challenge - Want to blast your community into 2009. The community that collects the most mobile phones will be able to adopt an endangered animal for their community. Give phones to your tutor or Ms Dean. Endeavour is in the lead at the moment!

Miss Dean

Recycled Phone Appeal

Funds raised are then used to adopt endangered animals and this month we proudly welcomed Koyah into our family. Koyah lives in Ula Segama Forest

Reservation in Borneo. He is an orang-utan and his kind is under threat due to destruction of their habitat and illegal poaching.

Miss Dean

Did You know In Malay, ‘oran’ means 'person’ and ‘utan’ is derived from hutan, which means 'forest.' Thus, ‘orang-utan’ literally means 'person of the forest.’

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Dear Parents, Carers and Friends Another term has flown by and I am pleased to say it has been an amazing time for all of us in Discovery Learning Community! Just six short weeks ago we welcomed 40 new students to our Community (and a couple of new tutors) . Our new Year 7 students soon settled and have proven to be real assets. You will see on these pages that 11 boys represented Discovery in the first inter-community clash of this academic year and got us off to a winning start with a stunning victory in the Year 7 Football competition. They were proud to be announced as the first Discovery Heroes. This is a new weekly award for students who display exceptional effort in lessons, produce outstanding work, demonstrate a talent, show real community spirit or have been excellent ambassadors for Discovery. In the first six weeks of this term, 38 students have been recognised as Discovery Heroes… most of them can be seen on these pages. We’ve got off to a flying start! We lead in the Community Competition. Our attendance is high....and our students are striving for success. I look forward to working with you over this coming year to make sure your child reaps the rewards of their efforts. Mr M Sorby Head of Discovery Learning Community

Head of Learning Community: Mr M Sorby Learning Stage Leader: Mr B Chapman Tutors: DRC = Mr R Curtis and Mrs S Finch DMD = Miss M Dugmore and Miss G Turton DMSe = Mrs M Sesay, Miss L Trill and Mrs L Clark DSFr = Mr S Franks and Mrs S Climpson DJB = Mrs J Bambridge and Mrs N Davies DLH = Miss L Howe and Mrs S Flowers DBB = Mrs B Beaumont and Mr A Bambridge DTSy = Ms T Syrett and Mrs S Cave

Our first recipients of the Discovery Heroes Awards...the Year 7 Football team (pictured above: Daniel Large, Kieran Treleaven, Aaron Rayner, Harry Cook, George Drynan, Jack Barham, Bret Hill, Anthony

Rice, John Massey, Wade Manville (not in picture) and David Shenton-Phelps (not in picture).

They won the competition with victories over Challenger and Enterprise, and a nail-biting draw with Endeavour! Well done!!!

See the rest of our Heroes from this term on the next page.

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Discovery Stu-dents in Year 7 were asked how they felt at the end of their first term.

“I like Thamesview because I have some new friends! I have joined the music club after school and I go trampolining.” Carlie Bowden DJB “On my first day I was scared but it was great and I really liked it. It is better than primary school. I feel brill! I play football for Year 7. I really like Thamesview.” George Drynan DPBe “On my first day I felt quite nervous but I was really looking forward to going to my first lessons. Now I know my way around I feel brilliant. My favourite thing is Art and English because I’ve got Miss Howe.”

Charlotte Hall DLH

Amy Eve and Leanne Gabbitas (above). Outstanding conduct on the Welcome Desk….excellent ambassadors for Discovery.

The Year 8 Football team...a close second in their inter-community competition. Toby Boyd, Harry Bunce, Mitchel Cook, Danny Gildea, Arthur Harrison-Burbridge, Daniel Higgins, Peter Kirk, Barney Kurek, Billy Mancini, Jez McCann, Connor Mould, Max Quinnell, Lewis Raine, Ben Weir and Ryan Wells.

Oliver Saward (left) is a true Discovery Hero with amazing comic talent! He gave his own “interpretation” of the Natalie Imbruglia hit ‘Torn’ at Awards Evening.

Kirsty Gibson and Lauren Rogers (below)...Heroes for their outstanding efforts in helping new Year 7 students settle into Thamesview School.

Year 9 Football team...joint first in their competition—Craig Smith, James Trueman, Connor Abrey, Cian Arnold and Sam Fudge.

Stephanie Weir (above), a Hero following her exemplary work and conduct on the ‘Raise the Roof’ Project. Not pictured is Candice May who became a Hero thanks to the Maths Faculty for her amazing efforts in that subject.

Term Dates 2 4 November—19 December 2008 at 1.15pm

3 5 January 2009—13 February 2009

Page 14 Autumn Term 1

Thong Lane Gravesend Kent DA12 4LF

T HA MES VIEW S CH OOL

Phone: 01474 566552

Year 7 Puzzle Day On Thursday 2nd October Thamesview School hosted the Happy Puzzle Company as they gave everyone in Year 7 some thought-provoking challenges. Students worked in teams to succeed in finding solutions to different puzzles! Here are some of the comments from students: "Really enjoyed it!",

"Good to work with friends", "I want to do more puzzles". Thanks to Mrs Burns, Mr Atiase, Mrs Flowers and Mrs Leadbetter for their

help in ensuring the day went well.

Last term’s Newsletter I-Pod Competition Winner is Year 7 Tony White in CRF.

Young Apprentices in Construction and Hair For the second year running, Thamesview hosted the annual Young Apprentices Soft Skills Day at the Riverside Centre. All the Young Apprentices in Year 10 from Gravesham came together to work on their skills which will be required in the

World of Work. As usual, Thamesview Young Apprentices took centre stage both in appearance and ability showing teamwork and initiative. Well done to all!

P Blayney

Enigma Day On Tuesday 7th October Miss Nadia Baker visited Thames-view and brought with her the only travelling Enigma machine in the world. In the

Second World War the Enigma machine was used by Germans sending messages in code. Students learnt how the British mathematicians cracked the code and made a massive contribution in winning the war. Students then got a chance to try to become code-breakers themselves, and several of them proved worthy of a prize.

I Tomkins

Name the hidden student who is in between the art drawings Entires to Miss Hughes by Friday November 7th. Win bicycle equipment.

Thamesview Build a Go Kart On the 3rd November Thamesview Year 11 try to keep the KCC Go Kart Challenge Cup, which they won last year. The big difference this year is that they have built a Go Kart which will be judged for appearance and racing ability. Make sure you read the next newsletter to see what the outcome is. Ms Blayney

Thursday 27th November 7pm—Parents Forum

Thames Views Page 15

THAMESVIEW ’S TEAM SPIRIT !

House Name Points

Challenger 32

Endeavour 28

Discovery 34

Enterprise 16

Sports Department News 1) If you have any unwanted old trainers, black shorts, black tracksuit bottoms or white T- shirts we would be very grateful for them. 2) The new fitness room will be open after half term. The winning name is FIT-NET. Miss Skipsey’s Form gave the winning name. 3) Football results: Year 7 lost 2-1 to Hextable Year 9 won 6-3 to Swan Valley Year 10 lost 1-0 to Hextable Year 11 won 2-0 to NTC and lost 6-3 to Meopham

THAMESVIEW PTFA

Welcome to all our new Year 7 parents. Our recent PTFA fund raising activities have contributed to the purchase of the following items for use by Thamesview students: Outdoor Game Sets – for use at break & lunchtime Football Kit Netball Kit Balloons for the Year 11 Prom Drinking Flasks and Pens Talent Night Award Trophies After half-term we will be holding a QUIZ NIGHT on Friday 21 November at the school. Bring your own drinks and nibbles but hot food will be available. Adults £2.50 and U16s £1, teams will be between 6-8. If you would like to join us, have any suggestions for fund raising or services that you might be able to offer the PTFA or if you would like to join our mailing list to be kept informed of forth-coming events, please send an email with your name, your child’s name and year group to paulat@blueyonder.co.uk. Paula Twitchett, Chair, PTFA

ATTENDANCE FOR THE YEAR 2007-2008

Challenger 92.9% Discovery 92.4% Enterprise 91.6% Endeavour 91.4%

The Last Choir Standing

School Choir rehearsals are Mon-Thurs lunch time (room 37), on a come when you can basis.

Current Hits – Take That, Ben E King,

Amy Winehouse and Desree

YOUR COMMUNITY NEEDS YOU!

Friday 21 November, 7.30 pm Thamesview School

Adults £2.50 U16s £1 Teams of 6-8

Raffle Bring your own drinks and Nibbles

Hot Food available

Further information ring Michelle Todd on 01474 566552

Or Email paulat@blueyonder.co.uk

Tutor time in the morning is now either dedicated Commu-nity Assembly time, or

time given to activities that help in the students mixing with others, reflecting on local and global issues, discussions and cooperation team building games like our newly intro-

Autumn Term 1 Page 16

SPECIAL AWARDS

Thatcher Mug (2008 best GCSE results) Jamie Speake Residential Trip Award Mark Smith New Leaf Award Luke Hogg Skills for the Working Life Candice May Reach Out Award Jamie Sheldrake & Metin Terlemez CITB Construction Award Carl Mercer

(provided by the North West Kent Business Education Partnership) Merit Cup Tony White Glass 2000 Kimberley Redsell Peer Mentor Award Hannah Strickland Welcome Desk Award Ryan Beck Christchurch College Award Hannah Cox

Work Experience Award 2008 Glen Stevens Work Experience Diary 2008 Rachel Weatherley Year 7 Friendship Award Jordan Meade presented by Mrs Squires (Luke Squires’ Mum) Literacy Achievement: Daniel Bignell Governors’ Challenge Cup: Nichola Aspinall Griffiths Rose Bowl: Lewis Saward & Toni Allen

Are you the Next Spielberg? A wannabe filmmaker? Studying media? Then come along to Film Makers’ Club. Use our professional recording and editing equipment. Learn new skills. Most importantly… HAVE FUN!!!!!

Pink Mood Pink is the colour for the young ladies doing hairdressing in the Hair Net. With their new very pink uniform they stand out from the crowd. The uniforms where chosen by the students who are keen to wear them with pride.

P Blayney

Tutor Time Takes on a Whole New Meaning

duced balloon, fish blowing and parachute activities. A whole class can engage in working together through the fun of such games as keeping up 25 balloons without letting them touch the ground. Parachute games, where you have to work together to create a rhythm that keeps a ball rotating around the chute with-out falling out, or there is the game where you have to get all the balls off the chute in the quickest time. Also there is the

game of Cat and Mouse, where the poor mouse is scurrying on the top of the chute as the mice try to escape under the waves of the fabric, ably assisted by their class mates making the ripples with the nylon parachute. Blowing the fish across the floor proves a real challenge, especially for Mrs Gordon, who was all hot air and not a lot of puff! All good fun, and all about life skills and learning!

Phillip tries to take his fish blowing to new levels, whilst Miss Ryan and Mrs Cox’s Form play Chute Games.