Prudhoe Community

High School

Newsletter

Planting the School Orchard

Spring Term 2019

Issue 2

Contents

National Composition Competition

Greening the Space

Community Campaign

Performing Arts

National Careers Week

Careers Day (January 2019)

1248 Prudhoe RAF Air Cadets

Textiles

Superbugs Competition

Philosophy and Ethics conference

Future Me - North East Collaborative Outreach Programme

Individual International Success

County Champions

More impressive Sports Results

Prudhoe's Really Youthful Theatre Company

Health and Social Care

Year 11 Tutor time Maths Challenge

Apps – Advice for Parents and Carers

National Composition Competition One of our year 12 music students - Louis Wild - has made it to the finals of a national composition competition. The ORA Singers Youth Competition is open to any musician from a state school who has an interest in developing their composition skills. Louis will receive ten hours of mentorship from a professional composer in

the run up to the final to work on his composition inspired by the piece "Lobo - Versa est in luctum". The winning composer will have their piece published and all finalists will have their piece performed. Amongst the judges will be none other than Stephen Fry! More information can be found at https://www.orasingers.co.uk/finalists !

Greening the Space We were delighted to host a visit by Deborah Crombie, Head Gardener from the National Trust at Gibside. Deborah had brought a wonderful and most generous gift of 26 young apple and pear trees from the Gibside walled garden, for us to create an orchard on the North side of the school. Last year the Trust kindly also gave us several wooden picnic tables which are fully in use at breaks and lunchtimes.

Working with the Proud Hill Group, we are steadily improving the natural environment in outdoor spaces around our school site. An orchard is one of our long-term projects, with the intention of encouraging diverse insects and birds, as well as eventually being able to pick our own “homegrown” fruit with zero food miles involved!

PCHS has already achieved eco-awards for conservation awareness, and we hope staff and students together will be involved in planting the orchard once the ground has been prepared. Many thanks to the National Trust for supporting our conservation and diversity projects.

We now have enough trees to plant a second small orchard area opposite the Wellbeing Garden, near the main entrance.

We also have been successful in our recent request to the Woodland Trust to obtain a large number of young tree “whips” for planting in Autumn 2019, so our projects to enrich and improve the school environment and to encourage wildlife are moving onwards really well. The Woodland Trust will supply us with a variety of native species including crabapple, rowan, hazel, hawthorn and dog-rose amongst others.

Community Campaign Well done to our Year 10 students who attended the Community Campaign at Ovingham Middle School on Thursday 14th March. Students were set a task to create campaigns for local community projects which included litter picks, renovation of the parks, walking clubs for the elderly and recycling projects to create Artworks. The students were absolutely brilliant and they were a credit to our school and were clearly very proud of themselves by the end of the presentations. All of the other teachers from the MAT schools commented on how polite, helpful and studious they were and the younger children clearly enjoyed their support. Mr Bennet, Head Teacher at OMS was delighted with the work and commented on their maturity and their empathy towards the other children. Many thanks to all of the students who attended: Amy Spencer, Ella Miller, Anya Jowsey, Dylan Edwards, Euan Davis, Bethany Eltringham, Annie Jones, Matthew Harrison, Dominic Anderson and Emily Jenson.

Performing Arts The performing Arts Department will proudly present 2 major productions straight after the Easter Break: starting with ‘The Crucible’ - Arthur Miller’s classic tale of witchcraft, superstition and blind faith in 17th Century America (performances are on 23rd and 24th April with doors opening at

6:15pm). The week after, they will present ‘A Day in the Death of Joe Egg’ - Peter Nicholls’ 1960s black comedy about a young family struggling to bring up their disabled child in the face of 60’s British society (performances are on 1st and 2nd May with doors opening at 6:15pm). Both productions have been a huge challenge; and for some students, with over 500 lines to learn, and some with a complete 1960s living room to recreate, it’s been a test of their resilience (and taste).

National Careers Week This year’s National Careers Week took place from 4th - 9th March. The focus of this week at Prudhoe Community High School was the North East labour market. All students in Years 9-11 had an assembly on what the North East labour market looked like at the current time. Labour market information is really important in helping students understand what jobs are available to them in their local area as well as helping them to make important decisions about their future careers. This is a summary of the information that students received during the week which was last updated in January of this year and students will be provided with termly updates.

Careers Day (January 2019)

Students in Years 9, 10 and 11 took part in a full day of careers information, advice and guidance earlier this term. Year 9 had the opportunity of exploring a variety of career pathways they may like to pursue in the future. Year 10 learned about higher education opportunities, student finance and the different employability skills required for the future career prospects. Year 11 had the opportunity to learn more about the process of applying for jobs and becoming ‘career ready’, gaining information about CV’s, interviews and the job application process. A small group of students also took part in an Apprenticeship workshop, which has since lead to one student gaining an apprenticeship place and some beginning to attend interviews.

1248 Prudhoe RAF Air Cadets

Congratulations to Harry Boyles in Year 11. Harry is a First-Class Cadet in the 1248 Prudhoe RAF Air Cadets and was accepted to go to RAF Leeming for an ‘Initial Flight Instruction’ course in a Grob Tutor light aircraft. Harry flew over the Yorkshire Dales at 5,500ft and took over the controls for basic manoeuvres then practiced barrel rolls, loops and banking. Well done on your fantastic achievement!

If you are aged between 12 and 17 and interested in finding out more about the brilliant opportunities and activities the RAF Air Cadets have to offer, they meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 19:00 - 21:30. Please email 1248.oc@aircadets.org for an informal chat and to arrange a visit.

Textiles

Well done to all of our competition winners. There were some fantastic entries and the standard was really high. We are always surprised and delighted at the time and effort demonstrated in the creative competitions. Easter eggs and chocolate treats for the winners and runners up. 1st Prize (2 winners) Emma Armstrong 9JL-Quilted Blanket Daisy Macaulay 9JL-Knitted Bunny and Chick

Runners Up Katie Anderson 9RAP-Rabbit Painting Dylan Curry 9LET-Rabbit Cupcakes Sophie Laidler 9TLA-Chicks Alina McLaren 9TLA-Roses Hannah Day 9RW-Bunny in a Basket Molly Dixon 9TLA-Polka Dot Bunnies

Superbugs Competition

31 Science students in Year 9 flew down to London to celebrate the victory of Katy O’Sullivan Guy and Archie Murray as the secondary school winners of the Pfizer Superbugs competition. The group had a tour of the London Science museum and attended the awards ceremony where Katy and Archie’s initial storyboard idea had been turned into a video clip and they received trophies for their win.

Philosophy and Ethics Conference Year 12 A Level Ethics students attended a Philosophy and Ethics conference this week with renowned Philosopher and Professor at Cambridge University, Dr Peter Vardy. The conference, held at St. Nicholas’ Cathedral Newcastle, included lectures on issues such as Utilitarianism, the Teleological argument for God’s existence, and the nature of evil and suffering. The day finished with a debate on Euthanasia, in which the students performed brilliantly.

Future Me - North East Collaborative Outreach Programme

The North East Collaborative Outreach Programme (NECOP) is a regional collaboration of the universities and colleges in the North East working together to deliver a targeted programme of information and support relating to higher education options in the North East. The aims of the programme are for students to:

• Have the opportunity to plan for their future and gain an understanding of what can support them in reaching their goals.

• Have access to high quality information and support to help them consider whether higher education is the right option for them.

• Have an increased awareness and understanding of higher education opportunities and progression pathways in the region.

Our Year 9 students have been working closely with Newcastle University for group and 1:1 sessions to learn more about University and apprenticeship options for the future. They will follow this up with an on-campus visit in the summer term. Our Year 10 students will be starting their online mentoring with Newcastle University next term where they will focus on improving their English and Maths skills. Our Year 12 students have enjoyed workshop sessions about University life and applications for apprenticeships, as well as study skills and revision tips. Some of our Year 12 girls have also taken part in the Youth Injustice Commission and George Orwell writing workshops at the Hancock Museum collaborating with Newcastle University

Individual International Success

Luke Doneathy has been selected to represent the U19 England Cricket team. Luke is an outstanding ‘allrounder’ who will no doubt make his Durham senior debut this year having already been 12th man for their first game of the season. Sam Irons has been selected for the U15 England football team. Sam who is at Sunderland Academy is having an excellent season playing up a year group for Sunderland and has been rewarded with selection and a trip to St Georges Park where he has been training with the England team before the summer tournament programme. Congratulations to Josh Ward and Jack Armstrong who have both signed professional contracts. Josh has signed for Hull FC and Jack for Sunderland AFC. They have been exceptional performers for the school team. They thoroughly deserve their contracts and we hope they can follow in George Honeyman’s footsteps in making a successful career in professional football. Ed Coady in year 9 has also gained selection to the U15 England sailing squad. Ed will be training with his fellow teammates before competing in Italy. Congratulations to Rowan Bennett who after being crowned Area XC Champion went on to win a silver medal at the County Championships and then represented the county team at the English Schools’ finals. Congratulations to all of the following who have represented Northumberland in rugby over the last term Keira Beck and Holly Longstaff for Northumberland U15 Maisie James, Emily Longstaff, Nicole Blakeburn - Northumberland Under 18 Henry Aitkenhead, Thomas Williams, Josh Porter, Nick Beatty - Northumberland Under 15 Matthew Jackson, Kieran Akkaya, Ben Robinson - Northumberland Under 16 Well done to Zak Campbell, Sam Jolly, Dominic Anderson who won the Northumberland Indoor Rowing Championships for their age category and qualified for the Regional finals.

County Champions

After winning Division 2 last year and gaining promotion to Division 1, Prudhoe 1st X1 have gone

on to dominate the County League. They were crowned League Champions, for the first time in

PCHS’s long history of participating in the league, after a 1-0 win against RGS in their final game.

The boys have gone all season undefeated in the league (14 games) and have finally broken

Monkseaton Football Academy’s stranglehold on the league taking the league title from the

National finalists for the first time since they became a football academy over eleven years ago.

The boys have continued their impressive form this term winning all their games and have also

reached the final of the Tyneside Schools’ cup (date for this is to be confirmed). The team

completed the double on Monkseaton and went on to win games against RGS, St Roberts of

Newminster, Cramlington and Heaton Manor. Congratulations on a magnificent achievement.

If students are interested in being part of the squad next year watch out for the trials that will take

place next term and the new sixth form football training programme that will include individual

training schedules, diet and nutritional advice, weekly strength and conditioning sessions as well

as regular football training.

More impressive results from our teams Football Year 11 Boys team are in the final of the County Cup Year 10 Boys team in the semi-final of the County Cup Year 9 Boys are in the semi-final of the County Cup Futsal Tyneside schools’ finalist final (tbc) Netball Y10 finished 2nd in Under 15 League Y9 qualified for finals night 28/3/19 Year 11- Tyneside Schools’ champions for U16 league. Basketball Year 9 Area champions and play in regional finals this week Badminton Year 11 Area champions Cross country Year 11 Boys Area champions

Thanks Again! Prudhoe's Really Youthful Theatre Company, currently 'full of busy preparing for our production of 'The Addam's Family', would like to extend the thanks of all involved to Prudhoe Town Council which once again has given us a grant, this time of £700. We will be able to make very good use of such generosity for this year's show as well as enabling us to invest materially for the future. We would like to cordially invite Prudhoe Town Councillors to the production in July so that we can thank as many of them as possible in person.

Health and Social Care

The Health and Social Care students were a credit to the school. They took part in a debate on the post-Brexit impact on childhood, challenged a lead lecturer’s perspective on poverty and life expectancy, and reflected on the issues faced by vulnerable people in prison.

Year 11 Tutor time Maths Challenge To help prepare for their GCSE Maths exams Year 11 students have been involved in an inter-tutor problem solving competition. This involved them working in small groups to answer weekly mathematics questions during Friday tutor time. All six tutor groups rose to the challenge and collectively produced some well-reasoned and often creative solutions; weekly prizes were awarded to the groups who had produced the best work. Week by week the questions became more demanding but despite this, the standard of answers remained high throughout the competition. 11TMP consistently produced a very high standard of work and were the league winners this year. Well done 11TMP!

Prudhoe Community High School

Moor Road

Prudhoe

Northumberland

NE42 5LJ

Tel: 01661 832486

Email: enquiries@pchs.org.uk

Website: www.pchs.org.uk

Facebook: facebook.com/PrudhoeHigh

Twitter: @pchsnews