November/

December

2013

THE COTSWOLD SCHOOL

Bourton-on-the-Water

Gloucestershire GL54 2BD

Tel: 01451 820554 Fax: 01451 810658

e-mail: admin@mail.cotswold.gloucs.sch.uk

An ‘Outstanding’ 11-18 School, Ofsted 2009

Specialist Language College, since 2002

DfES Leading Edge School, since 2004

Specialist Science College, since 2006

An Outstanding Academy, since 2010 T

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NEWS FROM THE ART DEPARTMENT A busy half term in the Art Department

The Art Department has been working hard to provide lots of exciting extracurricular opportunities for pupils this half term. Firstly, History of Art enthusiasts took to the road again on two separate occasions to see the work of Vanessa Gardiner, Rachel Levitas and Judy Buxton at Campden Gallery. The work allowed pupils to study large abstract oil paintings up close and develop a deeper understanding of the medium and its possibilities. Buxton’s art in particular had a profound effect on year 13 pupil, Abi Rillie, who is now studying the artist for her course-work project. Next we saw the launch of the BIG DRAW competition which is a na-tional Art project that aims to raise awareness of drawing as a basic hu-man skill used in all walks of life. All year 7 – 11 pupils groups were given a blank postcard and asked to “draw” on it. They were encouraged to use their imagination and creativity! Responses flooded in and pupils demonstrated their artistic skills and ability to think creatively. Many teachers got involved too and showed off their drawing abilities (Mr Marshall and Mr Edwards in particular). Winners were chosen from each year group and prizes were given accordingly. Congratulations to Huw Dickinson 7CJ, Lucy Wigg

8ASh, Meg Butler 9DA and Ellie Wigg 11RM. There were also eight runners up who received prizes and many more pupils received certificates for their efforts. A selection of postcards can now be seen on display outside the library in front reception. The House Art Competition was next on the agenda and the brief this year was to respond to the theme of People. Pupils were able to respond in media of their choice and once again entries for this competition came in quickly. Pupils were able to demonstrate their interests and skills in

a variety of areas which made the judging of the competition a joy. Sponsored by the Rotary Club, Bob Hadley and Amanda Everitt was kind enough to judge the competition and announced the winners: Olivia Brawn, Maddie Mellon, Ellie Hiscock, Freddie Hayward, Ellen Walkingshaw, Faye Bedwell. Many runners up received certificates and House Tokens for their entries. Hot on the heels of the House Art Competition was the National Photography Competition, again sup-ported by the Rotary Club. The theme was also People and pupils were able to translate this in photogra-phy. Some beautiful images were entered and overall the standard was extremely high. This opportunity exposed pupils to new artists/photographers and allowed many Gifted and Talented pupils to showcase their artistic progress outside of the classroom. Guest judge Mike Boyes felt that Alessandra Vuolo de-served the senior trophy battling off stiff competition. In second place was Andrew York followed by Ellie Hiscock in third place. The Intermediate Trophy was awarded to Emilia Laird in First place, Amber Sum-mersgill in Second place and Megan Butler in third place Next on the agenda was the popular Year 12 and 13 Art trip to London. Pupils and teachers were

treated to both Tate Modern and Britain, the latter of which had recently under-gone a new chronological hang. Visiting the muse-ums and seeing the artwork in person allowed pu-pils to develop their understanding of the formal features of paintings and sculptures such as scale, composition, use of colour, pictorial space and the materials and techniques used. Sophie O’Sullivan, in year 12, enjoyed the day and stated she wished they had more time there as it enabled her to see a wide variation of Art.

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Art continued.............................

Next in the Department’s busy schedule was the Year 1 and 2 Art Session with pupils from Bourton Primary School. On separate occasions, both years were treated to an active afternoon making a variety of beautiful handmade sketchbooks. The main focus was to introduce pupils to The Cotswold School and expose them to a wide variety of media. Pupils learnt wax resist and poly

printing techniques as well as using oil pastels, water-colour, acrylic, and ink. Underlying objectives of the session were the concepts of scale, composition and colour theory as well as a focus on literacy. The results were fabulous and all pupils left with smiling faces. The Year 8 Art Forum mem-bers helped to organise both activities which enabled the sessions to run smoothly. A BIG thank you to Abi Hall, Loren Garratt, Natalie Huckvale, Jas-mine Whitaker, Maddie Curtis, Niamh Powell, Ellie Davidson, Kate Aitkin, Beth Boydell and Antonia Oxford! To round the term off we organised the national competition ARTiculation es-

tablished by Roche Court Sculpture Park in Wiltshire. It involves young people develop-ing their public speaking skills in relation to Art which has inspired them. This year Mrs Grant arranged the Department’s participation in the competition and organised for actor Chris Bowen to come into school to coach the participants. Internal heats were held on Tuesday 10

th December during which Maddie Mellon was selected to represent the

School. The next round will be held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, so watch this space for exciting updates!

Animation Project

Over the last 5 weeks 8 pupils from Years 7—9 have been taking part in a fantastic ani-mation project. Laura Palmer, Zoe Lomas, Max Pilcher, Bethan Jones, Liam Robinson, Ollie Brooker, Ryan Hope and Charlene Harris worked with an artist to make their own clay ‘avatars’ which they used in their own stop frame animation films. The films were screened at a Celebratory Event at the New Brew-ery Arts Centre, Cirencester on December 17th and there will be a future screening in school after Christ-mas. Well done everyone involved and a big thank you to Hannah Brady from Brewery Arts and Rob Toone, Cinderford Artspace.

Senior Citizens Party

The Senior Citizens Party took large amount of preparation and the students of Year 11 split up into four groups to make sure everything was perfect for the Christmas celebrations. Mrs Helen Holland led a group of enthusiastic Year 11s decorating the tables and the hall with paper chains, snowflakes and an-gels. In addition they also prepared custom name tags for the front of house group and menus for the catering group. Catering, led by Mr Smith and Mme Moss, cooked up a vast variety of food for the Sen-ior Citizens to enjoy. These included many Christmas themed treats such as mince pies, shortbread, brownies, tea and coffee. They also prepared an assortment of delicious sandwiches for lunch as well as other savoury treats such as quiche and pie.

Musical Entertainment was provided by a large number of students led by Mr Briggs and Ms James including Harmonics, a talented group of Year 7 singers. Back in Black also played a series of jazz pieces for the Senior Citizens to listen too. The festive cheer spiked when Christmas Carols were sung and everyone to join in. Finally the Front of House group was in charge welcoming the Senior Citi-zen’s to the Cotswold School and waiting on the guests, as well as organising the raffle. A small group of front house students visited the village, asking for prize donations from many local shops.

The whole year worked hard in their respective groups and this really showed in the party which was a massive success and all involved thought it a fabulously festive event.

Governors News

The Governors of The Cotswold School are pleased to welcome two new Parent Governors to the full governing body: Mrs Clare Lock and Ms Laurie Baker.

For any information regarding Governance at the school, please contact the Clerk, Helen Monteith, at governor@mail.cotswold.gloucs.sch.uk.

New Look Parents’ Evening

We recently held our first ever Parents’ Evening trialling a new electronic system which allows parents to book all their appointments on line over a period of a few days the week beforehand. The online booking was overwhelmingly popular with parents with over 93% agreeing or strongly agreeing that we should continue to use the system on a permanent basis. We have taken on board all comments and feedback from both staff and colleagues in order to refine the procedure for next time. Information and guidance will be sent to Year 9 and Year 11 parents in due course, as these are the next Parents’ Eve-nings in January.

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Duke of Edinburgh’s Award News

In front of a packed and appreciative audience, six groups of Year 11 students gave a series of entertaining project presentations on the Expedition section of their Bronze Award. The teams were complimented on the success of their expeditions and project presentations by DofE Expedition Assessors Nigel Hosken and Julia Griffiths. Students are now finishing off the volunteering, skills and physical sections to gain the full Bronze DofE Award. Congratula-tions go to Adam Bray, Adam Ellison, Alex Murray, Rosie Wilson & Henry Yates who have already managed to do this.

Three groups of Year 13 students have given a series of entertaining and infor-mative Silver Award expedition project presentations on the Wildlife and Human Impact in the New Forest in assemblies and as part of Biology Week. Congratulations go to Danny Bray, Liam Hunt, Rupert Miles-Marsh & Dan Wigg who have fully completed their Silver DofE Awards and who will now get their names immortalised on the DofE Honours board in front reception. Twelve Year 12 students hoping to follow in their footsteps also completed a 22 km weekend training walk around the Crickley Hill area, as an introduction to the expedition section. The students showed great forti-tude in completing the walk in some truly atrocious weather, with visibility down to 50m at times. Many thanks go to Miss Stinchcombe and Mr MacMorland, who are still drying out after supervising the students.

News from the Geography Department

Geo-hazards conference 27th

November, University of Plymouth.

20 of our keen A level Geographers along with Mr White and Miss Griffiths left school at 6 AM to head to Plymouth to participate in their very first Geo-hazards conference. It was being held by Professor Ian Stewart (presenter of programmes such as ‘Ring of Fire’ and ‘Continents’) The students had a day of learning about not just what causes these hazards (earthquakes, volcanoes and Tsunamis) but also about the issues surrounding preparation and man-agement. We heard from the previous Director of the Montserrat Volcano Ob-servatory, charities and Prof. Ian Stewart himself. It was a long day but everyone gained a tremendous amount from it, so much so that we have already signed up for next year!

In July the Geography department ran its very first tour to Iceland. We set off in the Early hours of Tues-day morning to hop on a plane that would take us to Reykjavik and started out adventure packed itinerary

straight away! From standing in tectonic faults, walking behind and under waterfalls, watching geysers, climbing volcanoes, seeing houses half consumed by lava flows: every minute was filled with the sorts of experiences that you would not have access to in the UK. It wasn’t all work, work, work with students enjoying a couple of visits to Iceland ‘hotpots’ (geothermally heated outdoor pools) and culminating in a visit to the famous ‘Blue la-goon’ where they all got treated to a silica face mask! Students also got to try the Icelandic hospitality and cuisine – the waffles went down very well but they were not convinced by the whale jerky or seaweed snacks!

In fact, the trip was such a success that we are in the process of booking Iceland 2015 – if it’s the sort of trip that you might be interested in then see Miss Griffiths for a letter and, who knows, maybe you will be one of the next students to enjoy the excitement of Iceland!

On Tuesday the 12th of November and Wednesday 13

th of November all of year 7 took part in a very suc-

cessful trip with the Geography department to Cheddar Gorge. The weather was glorious which helped to make the whole day very special. Pupils learnt about the formation of the amazing limestone caves with their stalactites, stalagmites and pillars and were wowed by the vast caverns including one called ‘St Paul’s Cathedral’. There was also a chance to find out about the early inhabitants of the cave, including

Cheddar Man (his is the oldest com-plete skeleton found in Britain and he even has ancestors living nearby, one of who is a history teacher!) and to learn how the caves were discov-ered and opened up by Richard Gough. The pupils were all very enthusiastic and a real attribute to the school. All the year 7 pupils are now starting to learn about limestone

landscapes in more detail in their Geography lessons.

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News from the Music Department

School Choir at Gloucester Cathedral 60 of our best musicians helped raise £6000 in one evening (yes – six thousand pounds) for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign in our Spirit of Christmas concert at Glouces-ter Cathedral. This candlelight service is an annual fixture in the school calendar and an opportunity for us to perform in the beautiful architecture and acoustics of this ancient building. This year for the first time we all went for a music department Christmas meal after the rehearsal which meant that we were properly fed, watered and warm by the time we came to perform in the evening. After the concert the cathedral organist paid us a huge compliment by emailing to say that “the choir set a high standard which many schools performing there at Christ-

mas would struggle to reach”. This is praise indeed, from someone who knows what he’s talking about – so well done, Cotswold musicians! And the manager of Pizza Express was so impressed with us she invited us back next year. All in all, a successful day musically, financially and logistically - and a great way to kick-start our season of Christ-mas events.

Late night shopping in Bourton Friday 6 December saw members of the school choir out and about in Bour-ton on the Water when we sang non-stop Christmas carols while the Christ-mas tree lights were officially switched on. The Cotswold School was also represented by the Year 11 rock band “Move Over” which played a storming set on the main stage. Well done choir, and well done Adam Franks, Matt Hill, Matt Lewis and Tom Panter. You did us all proud.

BBC Radio Gloucestershire – Christmas concert

Cotswold School musicians were back in Gloucester Cathedral on 11 December for the BBC Radio Gloucestershire Christmas concert. This time our senior clarinet group and the sax quintet were recorded by special request as part of the concert programme which we shared with Dean Magna School. We had a fascinating evening rubbing shoulders with the stars of Radio Gloucestershire and getting a taste of what live broadcasting is like we think we performed well but don’t take our word for it – you

can judge for yourselves. The Christ-mas concert programme on BBC Ra-dio Gloucestershire is broadcast twice over Christmas – at 6pm on Christ-mas Eve and at 9.00 am on Christmas Day – and will as usual be avail-able afterwards on iPlayer. Huge thanks go to Mrs Meyrick and Mr Adlington for all the preparation

which went into this concert, and to the pupils themselves. Thanks everybody!

Back in Black at the Senior Citizens’ Christmas Party

Our jazz big band Back in Black headlined at the Senior Citizens’ Christmas Party following a very kind invitation from members of Year 11. The band sounded great in rehearsal after a term of intensive work together, and Mr Ellis confirmed that the band went down a storm - with just the right mix of Christ-mas and non-Christmas repertoire. Thank you very much Back in Black, and thank you also to Mr Rush-ton, covering the band’s musical direction while Mrs Hamlet is on maternity leave.

School Carol Service at Upper Slaughter A congregation of 140 people shared a very special evening at Upper Slaughter parish church last Tuesday when the school choir, senior choir, clarinet groups and the Year 7 Singers entertained parents, siblings, friends and teachers in the annual school carol service. We retold the Christmas story and celebrated the season with music, prose and poetry - and raised money for the church with a retiring collection. After the service we socialized over the road in the village hall with mulled apple juice and mince pies. This event was the last in our hectic Christmas music schedule and as usual this concert was the one that made people feel most Christmas-sy. Huge thanks go as usual to everybody in the school choir for their loyalty, hard work and good humour. Thank you also to all the members of staff who helped make it happen – together with the Dean, Veronica James, to the churchwardens Anthea and Liz, to Bob Hawkes who played the organ for us, the PTA and to Bensons for the apple juice. Many thanks also to Mr Yates for taking some of these photographs.

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News from the Science Department

Chemistry Week The inaugural Chemistry Week Demo Challenge involved some fierce competition amongst the Chemistry Department. First up was Mrs Ellis, who cruelly sacrificed a green jelly baby in a fiery screaming reaction. Mr Wellfair then went for the messy audience participation option, performing a hands-on slime making demo. With fire extinguishers fully at the ready it was pyromaniac Dr Bettington and her methane bubbles and fire juggling up next. Finally, Dr Cox launched his methane bottle rocket across the lab, crashing it firmly into a window. After the audience got its breath back, a very close vote deemed Dr Cox the overall winner and he was the proud recipient of the prestigious Golden Spatula Award.

Twenty eight students from a variety of local primary schools also attended an After-School Science Session investigating various reactions as part of Chemistry Week. The keen future chemists timed reactions using an io-dine clock, tested sparklers, tried fire-writing and watched some fiery demon-strations by Mr Morrison. The Science Department hopes to continue encouraging the buzzing enthusiasm demonstrated by the students,

with another event lined up for February. Thanks go to Year 8 students Amy Kelly and Tabitha Sylvester who once again acted as marvellous scientific assistants.

Further Chemistry success has been experienced by Alaric Whitehead in Year 9 who was runner-up in a national Salters’ Chemistry Club elements competition, winning a se-ries of chemistry related goodies.

The Times Cheltenham Festival Christmas Science Lectures

Thirty Year 8 and Year 9 students got into the festive spirit as they attended the 4

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Annual Christmas Science Lectures at the Bacon Theatre. They experienced some Magical Maths with the award win-ning magician and comedian, Dr Matt Pritchard. Audience participation levels were high, with Jack Mundinano and Chloe Greatbanks ably assisting on stage. “Fireworks - real science or

just bangs?” was the title of the second lecture by pyrotechnician and TV presenter Matthew Tosh. A question he answered with a series of scientific explanations and some very loud bangs, flashes and con-trolled explosions.The event provided students with a good opportunity to see how they could exploit the skills they develop in STEM subjects in future careers. (The event was kindly sponsored by EDF En-ergy, The Honourable Company of Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire Community Foundation, Hitchins

Family Trust, Renishaw, Spirax Sarco, YES Jobs and Zyex).

NOTE TO ALL PARENTS: A reminder to all parents that pupils should be dropped off and picked up outside the gates before and after school. Please avoid driving in to school as it causes problems for the buses trying to get in and out and also increases the risk of accidents due to excess traffic.

All pupils travelling on a school bus must make sure they have their bus passes with them at all times or they could find they are refused transport on that day, also they must make sure that they travel on the correct bus that the pass is issued for. Could you also please ask your son/daughter to remain in their seat during the journey to and from school and make sure they are wearing their seatbelts. Many thanks for all your support.

News from the English Department Year 11 pupils recently competed in the regional heat of the ESU Public Speaking competition at St Ed-ward's School in Cheltenham. The Cotswold School team, comprising Adam Ellison, Jordan Ellis and Rebecca Danks did incredibly well, delivering the topic 'There is no good and evil: there is only power and those too weak to seek it'. Overall, Adam Ellison's impressive speech and delivery earned him a prize for being the Best Speaker of the evening.

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The Cotswold School Academy Trust is a company incorpo-rated in England and Wales, limited by guarantee with registered Company number 7338767.

Girls Get SET Year 9 girls had the opportunity to be part of Girls Get SET, a scheme set up by GE Aviation to en-courage girls into Engineering. Pupils attended a day at GE Aviation in Bishops Cleeve along with other local schools and took part in some problem solving activities. The Engineering challenge was to make an emergency vehicle with flashing lights. Each team had to understand the elec-tronic circuit required to make the light flash, they then had to construct a vehicle that could house the circuit. The added challenge for the vehicle to carry an egg down a ramp to impact with a wall and still stay intact made for some interesting solu-tions.

The winning team included Charlotte Sibbons,

Izzy Swallow and Grace Clare. It was a great day

and we are looking forward to the next challenge

from GE Aviation in the spring term. Thanks go to

The National Grid get year 10 in a Spin

The National Grid kindly sponsored a STEM event for 50 of our year 10 pupils. The pupils worked in teams of 5 on an ice breaker activity of building a tower out of only 10 sheets of A4 paper to hold a 100g weight. Some interesting designs varied in their success with the winning team gaining a height of 32 cm still had plenty of room left for improvement. The main activ-ity challenged the pupils to make a wind turbine. The pupils were in a spin from the start, but with some excellent team work some great solutions were being generated. Indi-viduals came up with some fantastic gear box designs and ways of mounting them on the tur-bines, to compete for the highest voltage output. Joe Harper, Adam Witt, Larrissa Dalgarno, Charlotte Wright and Alex Barter produced the winning design and presentation. Four pupils from various teams impressed the representa-tives from The Smallpeice Trust and Julie Lin, Kyla Bentick-Hinton, Joe Harper and Charlie Taylor won a week’s residential work experience in July. Congratulations to all pupils who took part on the quality of their work. Thanks go to Mrs Clarke for organising the day.

News from the Modern Language Department

Our annual French exchange was with us at the end of November and we are thrilled to have welcomed 15 pupils and their teachers from Lannion. This is now an estab-lished part of our school calendar and it was ex-cellent to see them again. The weather was not unkind to us and everyone was warmly wel-comed in the families and at school. We had an enjoyable joint trip to London which included the Natural History museum , a river cruise and the London Eye for a glorious view of all the main sights. Other ventures included Stratford, War-wick, Bath, the Chippy pantomime and a tradi-tional Cotswold cream tea. They also experi-enced an assembly and sampled a school din-ner courtesy of Mrs Wrightson and her team.

The family party at school on the Sat-urday night was a great success too. Thank you to all the families, to Mrs Moss for organising it and also to Pul-

hams for driving us around all week. We shall now be planning the return leg in March.

Family support charity Home-Start Cotswolds are training a new group of volunteers. If you are a parent or have parent-ing experience and can spare three hours each week, then you are just what we are looking for! If you have brought up your own children then you know just how hard it can be, we are looking for parents to give their time and practical assistance to families who are experiencing difficulties. We support families experiencing isolation, disability, illness, post natal depression, multiple births, separation, bereavement or families who are sim-ply struggling to cope with the pressures of day to day family life. If you would like to volunteer or you know someone who may benefit from our support then please give us a call to find out more. Lesley & Helen Stow@home-start-cotswolds.org.uk

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Rotary Young Chef of the Year Competition.

Once again the lingering smells of some most fabulous foods wafted through the corridors of The Cotswold school early in November as the school played host to the North Cotswold Rotary club, club round of the Young Chef of the Year competition. Students from years 10 and 11 entered this prestigious competition to cook a three course healthy meal for two people for a lowly fifteen pound budget. To some this might sound impossible, but for our budding young chefs it was as natural as riding a bike. This was the third year the school has had entries in this competition and as the judges commented at the end, ‘This was by far the best display of culinary skills that they had seen’. The mouth watering dishes that were produced included; Roasted Pepper and Goat’s Cheese bites, Caramelised Onion Tartlets, Baked Goat’s Cheese and Beetroot, with Watercress and Hazel-nuts, Mushroom Ravioli, Tamworth Pork Loin Steak with Creamed Savoy Cabbage and Black Pudding, Rack of Lamb on a bed of Lentils with a Red Wine Jus, Chestnut, Thyme and Mush-room Risotto, and that was just the main courses. One of the judges, our very own Principal, Mr Morgan especially enjoyed the desserts; Baked Pears with Molten Chocolate, Dark Chocolate and Orange pot with Tonka Bean foam, and Chocolate, Orange and Cinnamon Soufflé. It is a good job all the judges liked chocolate!! The competition was so close this year, that the judges, Mr Morgan, Mrs Everitt, Mr Hadley, Mr Boyes and Gloucestershire Colleges very own Shaun Naen found it very hard to decide between them. But there had to be a winner. And this year that accolade went to Adriana Dzalbe in year 11, who prepared a starter of Creamy Mushrooms served on Toasted Soda bread, followed by a main course of Honey Spiced Lamb cut-lets served with a Mediterranean cous cous, and finished with a wonderfully silky Lemon and Lime Syllabub, a personal favourite of Mrs Everitt’s. Adriana demonstrated great calm and composure under what was intense pressure and will now rep-resent the North Cotswolds Rotary Club and the school in the District Semi Final held on the 4

th of

January in Cirencester. Before then, Shaun Naen has kindly offered to mentor Adriana in prepara-tion for this round. We all wish her good luck, and hope she can progress even further to the District Final which for the second year running will be held here at school in our very own state of the art catering room. A big thank you to all the judges, Miss Franklin, Mr Davies and Mr Hannargarth for giving up their Sat-urday morning to support this event.

Chefs on Tour

Once again this year a group of year 10 catering students were visited by Gloucestershire Colleges very own Chefs on Tour. Two chefs from the college visited the school to demonstrate a number of culinary dishes to tickle the taste buds and inspire the catering students.

Shaun and Mark had the students mesmerised with the skill and finesse that they showed to produce over 15 dishes, off the cuff, in just over an hour and a half. The smells of the Pollack Goujons, Spicy Thai meat-balls, Spanish Curros, Spiced Squash soup, and even a twist on students own packed lunches wafted down the corridors. So much so that staff from the office were enticed down to the catering room, al-though that could have something to do with Shaun’s charm!!

A big thank you must go to Shaun and Mark. It is experiences like this that will stay in the memories of students for a long time to come taking the skills forward into their controlled assessment and most importantly inspire them into pursuing a career in catering.

A booking has been made for next year already.

PE Department News Gifted and Talented Gymnastics Trip to GL1 Pupils who have been training with Martin Collett on a Wednesday lunchtime in the gifted and talented gymnastics club and those who have been developing their skills in the Community Link Club recently attended a two hour training session in GL1’s specialist gymnastics facility. Students were able to sample new equipment and extend their skills further. The trip was greatly en-joyed by all and we hope to use these top class facilities again soon. Many thanks to Martin and Simon Collett and Miss Nicholls for sharing their expertise with pupils. University of Glos Trip A level PE students enjoyed a specialist day at The University of Gloucestershire. They had a tour of the facilities and an opportunity to talk to students and sample a ‘Sports Psychology’ lecture. They also used specialist fitness testing facilities to complete an individual fitness profile. The day ended with a bio-mechanics workshop. Thank you to Mrs Lewis for organising the trip. Netball News The U14 Year 9 Netball Squad played in the County Netball Tournament held at Cheltenham La-dies College. There was some fantastic play by all squad members. Player of the tournament was Augusta Townley.

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Hockey News Year 7 Hockey played their first tournament against Cheltenham District Schools at Balcarras. Un-fortunately the team did not qualify for the later stages of the tournament. The squad performed well individually and we look forward to their continued development in the second half of the season. There have been some excellent performances on the hockey pitch at all age groups with only one defeat all season. Well done to all players! Football News The U14 girls football are again on a winning streak! Only one loss against Cleeve 2-1 dampened their mood. However there were some fantastic performances winning against Bournside 10-0 with Emma Parker and Phoebe Rosborough scoring 5 goals each! With a game in hand we look for-ward to hopefully celebrating another top of the league performance. Many thanks to Mr Steve Lee for his continued support in developing girls football at school, Mr Rich Wills who has been leading football training for year 7 and 8 boys on Tuesday lunchtimes. The U12 football season starts in the New Year with a floodlit tournament at Winchcombe. Cross Country News Well done to all Cotswold School pupils who competed at the Cheltenham District Schools Cross Country Competition. There were some impressive individual and team performances. In particu-lar the Year 7 Minor Girls’ team came 3

rd narrowly beaten by Pates and CLC. The Year 8&9 Junior

Girls’ team finished 2nd

behind CLC. Well done to the following pupils who were top finishers in their race and qualified for the District Cross Country Competition representing Cheltenham: Josephine Mutsaars, Kate Edgerton, Sally Cannon, Ollie Sammons, Rosie Mutsaars, Niamh Pow-ell, Fee Darwent, Jacob Hawley, Alfie Howells-Smith, Peter Wood, Rachel See and Lucy Agg. Particular well done to Rachel See, Niamh Powell and Josephine Mutsaars who have qualified to represent Gloucestershire in the Inter-Counties Cross Country Competition in the New Year. Rugby News Well done to the U13 Rugby players who represented the school in the Engage-ment Tournament – The squad fully embraced our school values and were awarded ‘The Spirit of Rugby Award’. The U13 A Rugby Team has had a fantastic season unbeaten in all but one game; an unlucky defeat by a strong Bournside team. The U12’s reached the final of the 10s Rugby tournament held at Balcarras. They drew against Pates but lost in extra time. They have now started their 15 a side Rugby season. We hope they continue to build on this success. The U16 Rugby team have been involved in The Stow on the Wold RFC Three Counties Floodlit Rugby Competition this term. They unfortunately lost to Warriner School, Banbury in the cup compe-tition so they now enter the Plate competition. 1

st XV Rugby team had a great win in the 5

th round of the Natwest vase national competition,

winning 25-22 against Royal Latin School, Buckingham. They proceed through to the next round drawn against St Pauls, Milton Keynes. The PE Department would like to take this opportunity to thank Stow RFC who help develop our pupils through their club youth system and allow us dual use of their facilities for floodlit fixtures. Basketball The U15 boys’ basketball team has been performing well and theU15 district league continues af-ter Christmas. House Matches 500 pupils have been involved in the 12 a side House Rugby Competition and House Netball Competition. Students have been in charge of squad selection and rotation. It has been great to see so many pupils involved in intra-school sport, developing values of determination, passion, re-spect, honesty, self belief and teamwork. Community Link Clubs Cotswold School Community Link Clubs (CSCLC) restarted this term it has been great to see so many pupils sign up for these opportunities and extend their skills in gymnastics, dance and floorball. More details about next terms clubs and new opportunities will be available at the start of next term. Continued thanks to Mrs Debbie Honour, Miss Mya Roberts and Mr Martin Collet. GB Rowing Sceening GB Rowing Team Start Programme have requested that schools in Cheltenham screen pupils in Year 9-11 to see if we have the next Olympic rower in our midst. Screening is based purely on measurements of height and arm span. The criteria is 178cm for girls and 190cm for boys, however there is flexibility particularly in the younger year groups. The PE department will be screening pupils in the New Year! Individual Sporting Achievement Well done to George Loat who has been selected to represent Warwickshire U14 County Rugby. Congratulations to Eva Shoemark who has been selected to represent Gloucestershire U14 La-dies Cricket and has been put forward to trial for regional selection.