Millom School Termly Newsletter

December 2015

A View From The Headteacher - Mr Savidge

It has been a busy and exciting first term as Headteacher of Millom School. A key focus for me this term has been to get to know students, staff and members of the local community. I have not been alone in having a new start and the Year 7 students and the 20 new students who have started since the summer have all settled in well to their new school and are being well looked after by the older students.

We started the year with the students achieving a great set of results in the summer. In Year 13, most of the students have gone onto university to study a diverse range of courses such as computing, astro-physics, primary education and sport. Two students have progressed into apprenticeships at GEN2 and

BAE and one student into the RAF. On behalf of the staff I wish all the students who have left us success in their future and urge them to keep in touch with us.

At GCSE, the results show that the progress made by students at Millom School from Year 7 to Year 11 is better than the progress made by students nationally. This means that the “value added” during their time at Millom School is good for all students across all subjects. The English GCSE results were particu-larly impressive and were amongst the best in the county. This success at GCSE has led to an increase in the number of Year 11 students staying on with us into our Sixth Form. I would like to take this oppor-tunity to thank the staff for all their hard work in supporting students to achieve so well.

I started the term talking to students in assembly about my belief that they all have a talent which they bring to the school. The students have proved this to be the case. This term, the school table tennis team have become county champions, we have a student running cross country for Cumbria, all the stu-dents taking their music exams achieved at least a merit, eight girls have been selected to play rugby for Cumbria and 12 students celebrated their passing out parade for the Young Firefighters.

There was talent in abundance at the Christmas Concert held at Holy Trinity Church. Students sang, played a variety of instruments and acted during the course of the evening. The Christmas concert at a school always kick starts Christmas for me and the warm, vibrant atmosphere in church was a direct con-trast to the cold, wet and windy weather outside. I would like to thank Mr & Mrs Edmondson for their support for this event.

Thank you to all those of you who attended our annual presentations evening. This was a wonderful evening in which we celebrated the academic and other achievements of students who were in Year 11 and the Sixth Form in the last academic year. There was an excellent speech from Professor Nick Gra-ham, Professor of Marine Biology at Lancaster University, who awarded the prizes to the students. The evening included brilliant performances by our music students and the After School of Rock.

I have mentioned just a few of the wealth of activities which take place at Millom School. It amazes me what can be achieved by the staff and students in just one term.

Finally, I would like to thank you for the warm welcome I have received in Millom and for your continued support for the school. I look forward to working with you in 2016 and wish you well for Christmas and the New Year.

Contents

Messages 1

Autumn Term Celebrations 2 - 6

A View From SLC 6

Information & Reminders 7

A Message from the Chair of Governors

The first term of the school year has been a good one. Students are working hard, staff morale is high and the leadership of the newly appointed head teacher is building on past strengths and taking the school into new directions. The aim of all associated with the school is to make it the very best it can be. After all the young people in our community need the best start in life possible and an all-round educa-tion will provide them with the choice they need to make the most of their talents. As chair of gover-nors I am proud what the school has achieved and very hopeful for its future. On behalf of my fellow governors I would like to wish you and your families all the very best for Christmas and for 2016.

Fundraising & Charity

A total of 1513.77 has been raised this term for Children in Need and Save the Children.

The school has also been involved in the Santa’s South Lakeland Wheelie Bin Challenge. This is a spon-sored walk in aid of local charities – MIND, Copeland Citizens Advice Bureau, South Cumbria Food bank and Calderwood House.

Presentation Evening

Millom School has once again celebrated the success of past and present students in our annual awards ceremony which was held in school on 14 December. Our guest speaker this year was Professor Nick Gra-ham who presented the awards and also spoke about his work as a Marine Biologist.

The evening began with our Vocal Group singing “My Hero” by The Foo Fighters and the comperes for the evening were Clare Steele and Skye Mitchell, Year 12 Students.

Students were presented with their GCSE, AS and A Level certificates and other special awards were giv-en.

Best Year 11 results went to Emily Taylor with Melissa Bell, who was unable to attend the ceremony, giv-en Best A Level results.

The evening was rounded off with a performance by After School of Rock.

Thank you to all that attended and helped make the evening an enjoyable success.

Children In Need

Sixth Form students once again organised a successful morning of activities to raise money for Children

in Need.

Raising over £1200 students were involved in events in the Alex Hall which included guess the baby pho-

to, photo booth, penalty shootout and a cake sale. Students were asked to vote with money on three vol-unteer members of staff with the one raising the most money having their head shaved at lunchtime. Well done to Mr Vogler for being such a good sport.

Lunchtime also saw another hive of excitement with students being given the opportunity to “splat” Mr Hartley with custard pies.

Thank you to students, parents and carers who donated cakes and prizes.

Young Fire Fighters

Twelve Year 11 students recently attended The Young Firefighter’s course at Millom fire station. Their pass-ing out parade was held in November

The overall aim of the programme is to support young people to reach their full potential, principally through fire service related activities which are designed to de-velop life skills and promote a positive attitude.

Young Rotary Chef Competition

Three Year 9 girls have taken part in the prelim-inary round of the Rotary Young Chef competi-tion which was held in school earlier this month.

The winner was Charlotte Robinson, who will now go on to compete in the next round.

Xmas Jumper Day

Following last year’s successful Xmas Jumper day, the school has once again participated in raising funds for Save the Children. The event held on 10 December raised £230.11.

Year 11 Mock Interviews

Year 11 students took part in a mock interview programme on Friday 23 October, as part of their prepa-ration for the world of work. Students had prepared CVs and submitted application forms for mock jobs, and were interviewed by representatives of different companies from the local area. The prospective employers represented were BAE Systems, GEN 2, Furness College, The University of Cumbria, Millom Network Centre, the NHS, the Army and ATM Orchard Investments Ltd. Students this year attended their interviews in work wear rather than school uniform, and feedback re-

ceived from the employers was extremely complimentary. Following the lunch break students had a series of careers talks from BAE Systems, GEN2, The Universi-ty of Cumbria and Furness College. Millom School wishes to thank all those employers representatives who gave of their expertise and time

to offer our students a most valuable and worthwhile experience.

Remembrance Assemblies

Every year Millom School holds a remembrance service for the staff and students of the school. On these occasions the school focuses on the local element, as well as national, and remembers individuals who attended Millom School and whose names feature on the school war memorial as well as individuals who lived and worked in the community. As it is 75 Years since the Battle of Britain, the school this year has chosen to focus upon airmen who lost their lives in the war.

One former student of the school who is being remembered this year is Desmond Bernard O’Neill, known as Dessie. Desmond joined the Royal Australian Air Force and was part of

460 Squadron, Bomber Command. On Tuesday 22 June 1943, the crew of W4939 (AR-L), including Desmond O’Neill, took off from Binbrook Airfield at zero hundred hours for a mis-sion to Krefeld in Germany. They flew in an Avro Lancaster plane. On that same night 705 aircraft were involved in attacking German targets in the Ruhr, including 262 Lancaster bombers and 209 Halifax bombers. 44 aircraft headed to Krefeld. 17 Halifax bombers, 9 Lancaster’s, 9 Wellingtons and 9 Stirling bombers were lost, including W4939. Desmond was listed as ‘Killed in Action’.

The school also remembered this year Thomas William Jupp. He was based at R.A.F Millom from the summer of 1942. On the night of September 19th at 11.11pm the 5 man crew of the Anson Mark 1, flight number 4869, took off from R.A.F Millom on a navigational flight exercise; their pilot was Tom Jupp. It was a fine autumn night but around 1am the cloud base lowered and it began to rain. At 1.40am the aircraft collid-ed with the ground at high speed at Gowdebarrow Crag, Muncaster. The plane disinte-

grated. Tom is one of 18 servicemen buried at St Luke’s Church, Ha-verigg.

The school has worked closely with John Nixon from the Millom Dis-covery Centre who kindly shared his research about Thomas Jupp.

In the remembrance service students of the school shared these sto-ries and present a dramatic poetry reading. The list of names from the school war memorial was read out and the memorial was re-dedicated.

Table Tennis Tournament - by Jack Cullen (Year 11 student)

On Friday 27 November the Millom School team of Jack Cullen, Scott Barker, Tom Huddleston and Kyle Jones played in the county finals table tennis competition at St Bernard's School in Barrow.

In the group stage there was a group of 3 schools, and a group of 2. We found ourselves in the group of 2, and played Queen Katherine. Tom and Jack won both of their two matches respectively and Scott add-ed another, giving us a 5-3 win against Queen Katherine in our only group game. This meant we pro-gressed straight to the semi-final.

We faced Dallam in the semi-final, in what turned out to be an extremely close game. After all the 8 games had been played against Dallam, the score was level at 4 matches each. A count back of who had won the most games was needed to see who was to play the hosts St Bernard's, who had cruised to the final, with 2 of their players still unbeaten. However, in this tense match against Dallam, the count back revealed we had won 16 games to Dallam's 13, and were to play the reigning champions St Bernard's in

the final.

The final proved to be just as close as our semi-final encounter. Losing 0-3 with only 5 matches left to turn it around Jack and Scott won a match each leaving the score at 2-3, but crucially should the score be level and a count back be required again we were level at 9 games each. Kyle put up a brave defence win-ning a game but unfortunately losing the match, leaving the score at 2-4, meaning we would need to win the last 2 games to take it to another tense count back. Against the odds, Jack and Tom managed this leaving the final score at 4-4, meaning a count back was once again needed to determine the winner. Just like in the semi-final we won on count back with us having won 16 games to 12, and we were now county champions!

Well done to everyone who played, and the next round is to be held near Newcastle at the end of January.

Girls Rugby Union

Eight girls have recently been picked to represent Cumbria in U15 Rugby Union. The girls were put for-ward by Miss Kinrade , PE Teacher and Mr Fisher from Millom Rugby Union Club.

The girls , Antonia Eastland-Cole, Bethany Pattinson, Gretta Procter, Abbie-Leigh Cole, Taleesha Pennington, Caitlin Minter, Mia Dobson and Chloe Procter fought off competition of 70 other girls

Their first game was due to be held in Tyneside on 15 November, however, due to the recent poor weather the game was postponed.

Other Sports News

The Year 9 rugby team took part in their first "All schools" festival at St.Bees. The team were presented with a new Canterbury kit as part of the school's agreement with the RFU.

Year 10 students were triumphant at the Furness schools 9 a side football tournament held at Chetwydne School, winning 2-1 in the final.

Year 9 and 10 girls have competed in Netball tournaments in Barrow and Workington.

Emily Swarbrick came 3rd in the county cross country event held in Penrith. She has now qualified to run for Cumbria.

A View from the SLC

Mr Vogler has continued to facilitate the Student School Leadership Council this term. Two council meet-ings have taken place this term, with a focus on two main areas.

The first is to explore, research and investigate how the school can achieve ‘eco-school’ status. Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a framework to help embed these principles into the heart of school life. This has in turn created a stu-dent working party, headed by sixth form and year 11 representatives and overseen by Mr Vogler. Their job will be to undertake the task of putting the application together. As a part of this, the SLC have made

a bid for a £5000 grant from NuGen to assist in launching an environmental project around the school site. The SLC have also made an application to the Woodland Trust to help with a tree-planting initiative as part of this project.

The second task of the SLC will be to support the ‘Love Yourself Be Yourself’ campaign to help raise the importance of self-esteem and to further encourage an ethos of pride in our school.

Members of the SLC have also been involved in supporting the Santa’s South Lakeland Wheelie Bin Chal-lenge. This is a sponsored walk in aid of local charities – MIND, Copeland Citizens Advice Bureau, South Cumbria Food Bank and Calderwood House. Millom School providied the start point of the walk and stu-dents on the SLC volunteered to collect the food parcels from the tutor groups and assist all in loading these on to the Food Bank lorry as part of the launch of the sponsored walk event.

“Good as New”

Year 13 Drama and Theatre Studies students have recently presented their new piece of fringe style theatre as part of their course.

Inspired by practitioners such as Steven Berkoff, the surrealist theatre maker Antonin Artaud and German social theatre pioneer Bertholt Brecht, the students sought to create a drama that cap-

tured the pain and angst of a young man who suf-fers a breakdown due to feeling under too much pressure over having to perform and meet unreal-istic parental and social expectations.

Dialogue was inspired by the poems of Philip Lar-kin and Sylvia Plath, whilst costume and make-up inspiration was drawn from Japanese Kabuki The-atre and the workings of Steven Berkoff.

Music Department

Mrs Lowdon has overseen the staging of two suc-cessful showcase opportunities this term for stu-dents.

The first took place in The Alex Hall and gave our guitar students the chance to show their playing skills to a small invited audience.

The second was our annual Carol Concert at The Ho-

ly Trinity Church which included performances from the Vocal Group, Afterschool of Rock, Wednesday Band and solo musicians.

The evening was well attended by Governors, Staff, Parents and the community.

Millom School

Salthouse Road

Millom

Cumbria

LA18 5AB Tel: 01229 772300 Fax: 01229 772883 Website: www.millom.cumbria.sch.uk Email: genenquiries@millom.cumbria.sch.uk

Reminders:

• If your child is unwell and not able to attend school, please would you contact reception before 9.30am on their first day of absence and continue to keep the school informed with updates should the absence continue.

• Please send a letter to school confirming the absence once your child returns to school.

• In order for the school to authorise medical appointments, a copy of the hospital letter/appointment card needs to be seen by school. Please note that optician and dental appointments should be made out of school hours.

• Holidays should not be taken during term time. School is only able to authorise any holidays in ex-ceptional circumstances and all applications will be considered on an individual basis.

• Should you need to visit the school we would ask that you use the main entrance, signposted left as you enter the school site from Salthouse Road and report to Reception. Due to the safeguarding and welfare of our students we ask that this is the only entrance you use.

End of Term Arrangements

School will finish at 1.00pm on Thursday 17 December . Transport has been organised to leave school at

1.10pm for all students who would normally travel to school by bus.

Term Dates:

2015-2016 2016-2017

Autumn Term: Monday 7 Sept - Thursday 17 Dec Autumn Term: Monday 5 Sept - Friday 16 Dec

Half term: Monday 26 Oct - Friday 30 Oct Half Term: Monday 24 Oct - Friday 28 Oct

Spring Term: Monday 4 Jan - Thursday 24 Mar Spring Term: Thursday 5 Jan - Friday 7 Apr

Half Term: Monday 15 Feb - Friday 19 Feb Half Term: Monday 20 Feb - Friday 24 Feb

Summer Term: Tuesday 12 Apr - Thursday 21 Jul Summer Term: Monday 24 Apr - Thursday 20 Jul

Bank Holiday: Monday 2 May Bank Holiday: Monday 1 May

Half Term: Monday 30 May - Friday 3 June Half Term: Monday 29 May - Friday 2 June