ConnectA newsletter for parents, students and the local community

Principal: Stuart Williamswww.catmosecollege.com

23 APRIL 2012 ISSUE 35

Olympic Torch

Torch Bearer

Floatilla

Master Chef

Oundle

Exhibition

Extreme Physics

Sports Fixtures

Vacancies

OFSTED - NEW RULES NEW TRICKS

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P 10OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY REHEARSALS: Page 2

On April 14, The Times Newspaper published an article titled ‘New Rules, new tricks: how Ofsted’s inspectors keep head teachers on their toes’. The story outlines the results from the first round of inspections under the new OfSTED inspection framework. This article makes particularly interesting reading because we are one of the schools to be inspected in the statistics recorded.

The article mentions that of 101 schools inspected, only 5 achieved the Outstanding grade, one of them being Catmose College. This highlights what a phenomenal job we do here at the College, not just for the two days of Ofsted but every day. To be one of only 5 schools who were outstanding nationally puts us in the top flight of educators nationally.

The article has interesting things to say about no notice inspections, my view is simple; that if you could change a school's ethos in two days and turn it from being a poor one to an outstanding one just for the inspection, we would all be doing it. There would be no failing schools. If a school is judged Outstanding it can only happen because of the way staff, students and their parents/ guardians work well together every day. This is the cornerstone of our ethos and one that all staff contribute to in the way they engage with every student both in and out of lessons.

Thank you for your continued support.

Stuart Williams

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RADIOWAVES NEWS

OLYMPIC TORCH RELAY REHEARSALS

Today we students from Catmose College experienced a once in a lifetime opportunity regarding the upcoming Olympic torch relay.

During this afternoon, after seeing many police cars, buses, caravans and sponsorship vehicles, we finally caught a glimpse of the magical, golden Olympic Torch. We had the chance to have our photograph taken with a torch bearer who was running from outside our school to the level crossing in Oakham. From our point of view it was an unmissable chance to see history in the making. Seriously, we weren’t just there to skip an afternoon of lessons. We had the exposure to be lost in the world of Olympic fantasies. After seeing various types of transport, the Olympic bus slowly made its way past us and out came the torch with its bearer…Press of all sorts came rushing in capturing pictures of the bearer including our Media Team from Catmose College. Then it was our turn. Standing up next to the bearer was the proudest moment of our lives. But could it get better?

To cut to the chase…Yes!

From our point of view, we thought that this was a wonderful chance to get involved in history.

We each got to take hold and lift the Olympic torch itself. We have considered this an honour and we thank the BBC, LOCOG and Catmose College for this exciting opportunity. Rohan Mehra 8M & Thomas Ameer-Beg 8C

OLYMPIC TORCH BEARER

In our last edition of Connect we mentioned that Christian Brookes from year 10 will be a torch bearer through Stamford. Recently a second student from Catmose College has also been given the once-in-a-lifetime experience of carrying the Olympic torch. On 3 July, Alice Evans from year 11 will be carrying the torch for 200m through Peterborough. Her close friend Clara Feely, who is also a student at the College, nominated Alice. Alice has said that she would like to jog the route and that she feels lucky and honoured to have been chosen.

To view an interview between Alice and Rohan (Radiowaves reporter) then please visit this link: https://www.radiowaves.co.uk/story/372729/title/aninterviewwithanolympictorchrelaycandidate

RADIO WAVES COMMUNITY AWARD NOMINATION

The College's radiowaves team have been nominated for the Stamford Mercury Community champions award. There will be voting slips in this week’s edition of the newspaper and the team would  appreciate  your support if you could support our nomination.

Please vote for Team Catmose  and bring your slips into college by Friday am or send them to the Mercury office.

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QUEEN’S JUBILEE FLOATILLA REHEARSAL

The Catmose College Media team had been invited by the Lord Lieutenant of Rutland, Laurence Howard, to create a video of Rutland’s contribution to the Queen’s Jubilee pageant. On Thursday 12 April, Dan, Sam and I visited the Rutland Sailing Club on the South shore of Rutland Water where Rutland Sailability is located. They have been chosen to provide Rutland’s contribution to the pageant as in 2010, they were awarded The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service.

Our task was to film at Rutland Sailability, a club created to teach disabled people how to sail, and capture the final stages of the building of the Rutland Sailability Boat, The Wally Goldsmith, and its initial launch in preparation for The Queen’s Jubilee Pageant. We undertook this task and as promised completed it within the day.

Last Sunday the three of us were once again confronted with an exciting challenge to, this time, travel on the River Thames in London for the practice of the Pageant with ninety boats. As we walked along the pier it became increasingly daunting that all of the boats we passed seemed to look very lavish, large and luxurious. Then we came to ours; a re-vamped sailing boat with a capacity of eight people. We had to sail up and down the Thames with a wind-speed of higher than 10mph in this.

However not all was bad! As we set off from the pier the beginning of the journey was great. We got a good deal of filming done, the water was reasonably calm and it was looking to be a good day. I spoke too soon. From when we turned back downstream the weather darkened, the tide became more vigorous and our boat’s tiny engine struggled to keep up with the fleet of much larger boats ahead. We travelled from Imperial Wharf to Tower Bridge through rain, wind, a temperature of under 3°C and with the constant worry that we may capsize at any time.

After over four hours bobbing up and down on the Thames we had all the footage we needed (hopefully) and moored back to the pier.

Despite the weather, a cramped boat, grimy Thames water and very wet bottoms we had all enjoyed our first experience participating in the rehearsal for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant. We hope that everyone who watches the documentary will appreciate the great opportunities Rutland Sailability has to offer, as well as what a fantastic county Rutland is. Lewis Clark 9S

SCHOOL UNIFORM

All students are expected to conform to the College uniform policy which can be found on the college website via this link: http://www.catmosecollege.com/downloads/Policies/Student/UNIFORM%20Policy%20May%202011.pdf. The girls’ skirt is a particular item we would ask students and parents to be aware of. Our current policy states ‘Uniform is not a fashion item. It is designed to be both formal and comfortable…….Black skirt (should be) formal, knee length.

The Student Council are currently reviewing the style of the skirt with a view to recommending a new College skirt. This will be subject to consultation with parents and students this term. 

LET’S GET COOKING

With the Olympics fast approaching, Catmose College will be marking this once in a lifetime event with a series of five cooking sessions. The sessions will follow a theme of ‘Cooking Around The World’.

‘Let’s get cooking’ is open to all Catmose College students and aims to provide a fantastic opportunity to help to diversify the culinary skills of anyone with a passion for creating healthy, balanced dishes.

Each week you will be provided with a recipe inspired by the theme. Extensive support will be available to chefs throughout each session to provide advice and guidance. The ingredients for each dish must be provided by each participant.

Everyone wishing to take part will be allocated a specific five week period that they will be taking part in. The five sessions will each take part on a Monday after school between 3.30pm and 5.00pm. Anyone wishing to take part should come and see me in ‘Beeton‘ during lunchtimes to collect a letter containing more information on this fantastic event. Miss Warren

MASTER CHEF COMPETITION - THE RESULTS

Wednesday 28 March saw Catmose College host a Master Chef competition in the Food Technology room. 14 participants took part in the event.

All participants were given a brief asking them to prepare, cook and present a two course meal for two athletes from a range of countries taking part in the Olympics.

Mr Williams and Mr Marsh both judged the competition, tasting all dishes and asking students to discuss the meal they had chosen.

Both judges commented on how all students had achieved fantastic results. Due to the phenomenally high standard of the chefs, the judges could not come to a decision on just one winner. The judges picked three winners who were:

• Emellia Goodburn (Year 8)

• Luke Booth (Year 9)

• Ellie Loxton (Year 9)

All three winners won house points and a recipe book.

I would like to say a huge well done to all students that took part in the competition and to once again comment on how well everyone worked. All finished dishes were presented on tables with an accompanying menu to a fantastic standard.More cooking events will be taking place soon, so keep an eye out for adverts around College.

Miss Warren

Photo 3: Supplied by The Oakham People who also covered the event, their article can be found via this link:http://www.oakhampeople.co.uk/Catmose-College-Students-Compete-Olympic-Master/story-15657568-detail/story.html

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This was by far the biggest year for Catmose College in the music classes at Oundle. It has always been traditional for the Chamber Choir to compete in each year’s festival; however, this year the newly formed Junior Choir took to the stage in their first ever competition. The Junior Choir performed the mandatory song, ‘Little Spanish Town’ followed by ‘I’m yours’ accompanied on the guitar by Mr Barlow. The adjudicator commended the choir by stating how well the singing was executed with ‘such vigour and excellent diction.’ Following on from the Junior Choir’s earlier success, the Chamber Choir was up next in their class (18 years and under). The Chamber Choir performed three very contrasting pieces – A pop ballad, an upbeat gospel song and a traditional Choral piece. The adjudicator was impressed with the talent from the Chamber Choir and gave very complimentary feedback stating, ‘A stunning repertoire performed extremely well.’ Both choirs gained a wealth of experience and enjoyed performing on the stage in the Great Hall. During the course of the day, many students performed in the different music classes. Rosie Wilkinson, Cyrus Kettle, Freddie Ray, (Year 7) and Louisa Orchard (Year 8) performed in Class V24 (13 and under). The four students chose their respective songs and performed in a very large and tough class. The students gained a wealth of knowledge from the adjudicator’s comments which they can use to aid in future performances. Chloe Berridge, Sophie Worrall, Megan Spencer and Ellena Taylor performed in the evening’s classes; ‘Duet from Musical Theatre’, ‘Solo from Musical Theatre’ and ‘Under 18 Solo Choice.’ The four students showcased their talent throughout the evening and accomplished some very high and respectable marks, including first place for Chloe and Sophie and second place for Megan and Ellena in the ‘Duet from Musical Theatre class.’ Following on from her success in the Duet class, Chloe Berridge went on to clinch second place in the ‘Under 18 Solo from Musical Theatre class.’

Eighteen students took part in Drama at the festival involving Solo acting, Duologues and Group pieces. Rohan Mehra won first place in the Junior Solo acting class with his performance as Sebastian from ‘Twelfth Night’. The Adjudicator was impressed by Rohan’s eloquent delivery, confident stage presence and the challenge of taking on such a demanding role. Chloe Booth came second place in the same class with her very lively performance of Violet Beauregarde from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate factory’. Indira Carter and Jessica Curtis, Jo Geraghty and Lucy Hinch performed their duologues confidently showing a real potential in their acting. In the Senior Solo acting class both Amber Goddard and Jordon Poole wowed the audience as they brought loads of energy to the stage with their characters. Will Kettle and Cara Smithson brought sensitivity to their scenes with characters that portrayed more serious situations. All of the duologues in the Senior class were both sensitive and dramatic and drew the audience in with their confident character portrayals. Lastly, Seb, Jordon and Gianluca performed an extract from ‘Blood Brothers’ for their group piece. They were commended for their energy on stage and the ability to portray children much younger than themselves (7 years old!). Below is the placing of the top students but all did amazingly well and did the College proud.

Junior Solo Acting 1st – Rohan Mehra (Yr 8), 2nd – Chloe Booth (Yr 8)Junior Duologue 2nd – Indira Carter & Jessica Curtis (Yr 7), 3rd – Jo Geraghty & Lucy Hinch (Yr 7)Senior Solo Acting Joint 2nd – Amber Goddard (Yr 9), Jordon Poole (Yr 11), 3rd – Will Kettle (Yr 10)Senior Duologue 2nd – George Harries & Loz D’Angelo (Yr 10), Joint 3rd – Amy Thomson & Matt Cooper (Yr 11), Grace Tebbatt & Sophie Worrall (Yr 11)Group Piece 2nd – Seb Quinn, Jordon Poole & Gianluca Floris (Yr 10/11)

Mrs Mitchell & Mr Sammy

OUNDLE MUSIC AND DRAMA FESTIVAL 2012

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NATIONAL YOUTH THEATRE - WILL KETTLE

My name is Will Kettle and I am a young actor who has recently auditioned for a place in the National Youth Theatre. The National Youth Theatre is the oldest youth theatre in the world and has a very good reputation although, with this reputation comes high standards meaning that places in NYT are very hard to come back. An audition process is therefore put in place where young actors and actresses, between the age of 14 and 21, take part in workshops and individual auditions in venues all around the country. However, the National Youth Theatre only offer 500 places nationally so the competition was very intense.

For my personal audition I travelled down to London where in the morning, I took place in a workshop with 30 other auditionees. This was led by two National Youth Theatre auditioners and was supervised by 4 NYT members. This workshop lasted 2 hours and consisted of an array of things from friendship and rhythm exercises to team and ensemble work. In the afternoon individual auditions were held. In these a monologue, no longer than 2 minutes, was to be performed to a National Youth Theatre auditioner who then asked questions and gave advice about your performance. With the advice of Mrs Mitchell I chose to perform an extract from the book ‘Man in Motion’ by Jan Mark.

Once the audition was finished, there was a 6 week waiting process to find out the results, it was later announced that the results would be released on 6 April (Good Friday) via email, so you can guess I was eager to hear the outcome. For the whole of that day I was constantly cheeking my emails, borrowing my friend’s phone, running back and forth to my house and just generally being very irritating. However, by the time it had reached 7.30 I was desperate for my results. The email came. I had succeeded! The National Youth Theatre had offered me one of the 500 places for a training course down in London and the chance to become a NYT member, following in the footsteps of Dame Helen Mirren, David Walliams and Daniel Craig.

The course lasts for two weeks and is held down in London where I will be staying at Greenwich University, I cannot wait! I would like to thank everyone for the support they gave me during the process but I would like to say a special thanks to Mrs Mitchell, Mr Parsons and an ex-student Chloe Cusition who helped me with my monologue and gave me special advice and tips.

Will Kettle 10O

Photo 1: Will performing in the Christmas Play, ‘Christmas Spirit’, 2011Photos 2 & 3: Will performing during rehearsals as Edna in the Colleges’ performance of ‘Hairspray’, 2011

RUTLAND SCHOOLS EXHIBITION

ODFAS Young Arts for Rutland Schools will be holding an exhibition in the College gallery from Thursday 26 April. Last year’s exhibition, also held at the College, was a great success.

The work shown will comprise of works of art created by children and teenagers aged 7 to 14 (KS2 and KS3) from schools and colleges across Rutland. The younger age group produced work themed on the Olympics and the older age group (aged 11 to 14) designed and painted pieces that were based on the magical and well-known story of Alice In Wonderland.

The work was judged by Alan Oliver for ODFAS (Oundle Decorative and Fine Arts Society). Prizes, donated by Goldmark Gallery, will be given to those artists who have exceptional talent. All are to be congratulated however; it is a great experience for all who take part as they have their work on show to the general public.

The exhibition will be showcasing from Thursday 26 April at 4pm – 6pm and will run untill 11 May during the hours of 4pm – 6pm on weekdays and will be based in the Gallery.

EXTREME PHYSICS COMPETITION

Saturday 30 March. Four excitable teenagers and one solitary teacher braved their way to Rugby for a weekend of physics; Extreme Physics. You see, every year Catmose College is invited to take part in a weekend physics competition, which one teacher and four GCSE students must complete. This year it was held at Rugby Private school, where student and teacher alike marvel at their wide range of scientific knowledge and equipment dating back to the 17th century. The weekend started with a brief introduction to the school and the competition. From then on, we were plunged in the deep end with orienteering, a multitude of physics related puzzles, and many other challenges including measuring the mass of an alien and the four individual challenges; manual dexterity; spatial awareness; memory; and something unashamedly physics related.

The standings were taken after each challenge, achieving a score and a chance of four rosettes (achievement, knowledge, team work and creativity) Catmose College started well, achieving third place at the end of day one.

Day two started very differently, with a trip to a shopping centre to experience rock-climbing, indoor skydiving and delicious homemade milkshakes. We then had time out for shopping and to marvel at the shopping centre which was quite unlike any we had seen, featuring a gym and indoor ski-slope. Finally, our last day in the competition came as a whirlwind as all teams were given a topic to produce a presentation on. Our only catch? We couldn’t use electricity. Our group was given the topic ‘Balance and Stability’ which we took to with much zest. Unfortunately, our inaccurate scaled model of an orbit was not exactly to the judges taste in the previous round (apparently super massive black holes are not accepted) meant that we didn’t place in the final scoring, but we more than won in the creativity stakes, finally taking three creativity, two teamwork and one knowledge rosette (note the lack of achievement) which included the famed ‘If in doubt use glitter’ award, for our zeal of the stuff. Trailing home with the lack of a trophy but a mound of certificates, we reflected on our weekend with a broad smile on our face. After all, it is not every week that you learn to fly, rockclimb, and set fire to one of your teammates (sorry about that Grace).

Cara Smithson 10M

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GIVING SOMETHING BACK

On Sunday 22 April at 9.45am Nicola Ray, the College art and design technician, stood with thousands of other runners at the starting line in Greenwich Park, to embark on the 26 mile route of the London Marathon. The reasoning behind Nicola’s decision to run was to give a little bit back to the Meningitis Trust, who twelve years ago supported her and her young family through a difficult time when her husband was in hospital with severe meningitis. The trust supported her by giving her the funds to be able to visit him in hospital.

As Nicola stood on the starting line she started to believe the stories she had heard from people who had run the marathon in the past and could see that it would be the best run that she would ever do. The atmosphere astonished her, it was absolutely amazing. ‘Going over Tower Bridge was like a football crowd screaming my name. I was overwhelmed.’Nicola had her name across her vest so that people could cheer and support her. The first 13 miles was enjoyable especially running past famous landmarks, the second 13 miles which involved going over Tower Bridge was tiring and Nicola was gritting her teeth to complete the 26 miles. She completed the marathon in the impressive time of 5 hours and 24 minutes.

Nicola has managed to raise about £1,700 so far and has an aim to reach £2000. If you would like to support Nicola then you can sponsor her by going to this link: www.virginmoneygiving.com/NicolaRay

You can watch an interview between Nicola and Callum Smith (Radiowaves reporter, video by Luke Booth) by visiting this link: https://www.radiowaves.co.uk/story/378716/title/givingsomethingback

Catmose College recently represented Rutland in all age groups after winning the first round of the indoor athletics competition against Uppingham and Casterton. Schools from around Leicestershire had their own competitions, with the winners travelling to Braunston Leisure Centre for Round 2.

The teams had to compete in both track and field events with the year 7 boys receiving medals and certificates for coming 2nd – they even had their photo taken with GB athlete Gemma Steel! Gemma is 26 years old, and obtained a bronze medal at the European cross country championship this year. She is hoping to represent Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics in both the 5,000 and 10,000m.

Year 7 girls, who were missing one of their key team members, pulled together, coming a credible 7th in the competition.

The year 8 competitions were very close with the girls coming 5th and the boys 7th. 

An additional award was given to year 8 boys who received a trophy for displaying good sportsmanship behaviour throughout the competition.

Congratulations to all students for their effort and behaviour which was faultless.Mrs Powell

INDOOR ATHLETICS ROUND 2 COMPETITION

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Boys CricketDate Year Against Home/ AwayWed 25 April 7 Belvoir A

Tues 1 May 10 Belvoir H

Wed 2 May 8 Belvoir A

Tues 8 May 9 CBEC A

Wed 9 May 7 CBEC H

Tues 15 May 10 CBEC A

Wed 16 May 8 CBEC H

Tues 22 May 9 John Ferneley A

Wed 23 May 7 John Ferneley H

Tues 29 May 10 John Ferneley A

Wed 30 May 8 John Ferneley H

Girls Rounders

Date Year Against Home/ AwayThurs 26 April 7 & 8 Belvoir H

Thurs 3 May 9 & 10 Belvoir A

Thurs 10 May 7 & 8 CBEC 

A

Thurs 17 May 9 & 10 CBEC H

Thurs 24 May 7 & 8 John Ferneley A

Thurs 31 May 9 & 10 John Ferneley H

SPORTS FIXTURES

We are collecting Tesco Sports Vouchers again this year There will be an inter-house competition and the winning house will gain valuable points towards their final score. Individual house boxes can be found in the library and there is a collection box in the sports hall reception area. Please help us achieve our target of 24,000 vouchers for new sports equipment.

TESCO VOUCHERS FOR SCHOOLS AND CLUBS

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VACANCIES

LOCAL ADVERT

LUNCHTIME SUPERVISOR Catmose CollegeRequired as soon as possible£9.00 per hour 1.5 hours per day, 12.25pm-1.55pm term time onlyFor supervision of students during lunch break.

LUNCHTIME SUPERVISOR Catmose PrimaryRequired as soon as possible£7.63 per hour, 12.20-1.20pm, Monday-Friday, term time onlyFor supervision of pupils during the lunchtime break

Application forms and information are available online or email the school at office@catmoseprimary.com or office@catmosecollege.com

The closing date is Friday 11 May 2012.

Completed application forms should be sent to Virginia Savage, Vice Principal, Catmose College, Huntsmans Drive, Oakham, Rutland, LE15 6RP.

The school is committed to safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of young people and expects all staff to share this commitment