The Weeping Window at the Woodhorn Museum

NewsletterPrudhoe Community High School

Autumn 2015 Part 2

Lessons from

Auschwitz

Prudhoe High School Girls football team with their heart4rhya picture - sending our condolences and love to all Ryha's family, friends and team mates

Introduction from Mrs Reeman

We hope you enjoy reading our second newsletter of this academic year. We have had an incredibly positive start to the Autumn term, with all students settling in well to their new courses this first half term. We have been delighted with the support of our parents and carers at our year group events, which have enabled us to meet with parents and carers from all of our year groups. Should any parents need any information from these events, please check our website where you will find copies of presentations and booklets from the individual evenings.

Over the summer our 3G pitch was replaced with a brand new surface and the PE department are making full use of this combined with our indoor spaces to run a whole host of sports activities: Trampolining, Table Tennis, Netball, Football and American Football to name but a few. It is fabulous to see so many students getting involved in both training, clubs and team sport. Lunchtimes are equally busy in Performing Arts where the cast of Romeo and Juliet are rehearsing regularly in the run up to our annual school show. One not to miss…..

This half term students have also had the opportunity to get involved in a wide range of trips and visits. Humanities have been especially busy visiting the Weeping Window at Woodhorn Colliery, Auschwitz and Blencathra. Our new school build is coming on rapidly, just today we had some window panels delivered and the east side is really beginning to take shape and look like a real school. As the school site is really busy at particular times, please could parents avoid congesting Moor Lane further, by perhaps dropping off and picking up children on another nearby or adjacent road.

The Weeping Window

at the Woodhorn

Museum

PCHS Remembers

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Romeo & Juliet

Rehearsals are well underway for this year’s school show, "Romeo and Juliet." Whilst remaining wholly true to Shakespeare’s plot

and 99.9% true to his characters, this is a completely new musical from the well worn pens of Rushmere and Boyd, with songs that develop both the storyline and relationships. Bronwen Davies-Jones (Year 13) is once again a key part of the team putting her fabulous ear for potential harmonies into sophisticated use. We’re very excited by the superb quality of the singing and the fact we have been joined by so many new people, particularly from Years 9, 10 and 12 who have already shown tremendous commitment. Yes, it’s true: we sing every lunch time and we love it! Once again, the school show is proving a great opportunity for friendships to be forged across year groups. Tickets will be available from the end of February, so look out for details on the school website and in the next Newsletter.

We’re also beginning to fundraise, not only for "Romeo and Juliet," but for our senior theatre group’s prospective visit to the Edinburgh Fringe, 2016. This will be our fifth venture. 15-20 August will find us once again at our usual venue, Space Venue 9 on Niddry Street, performing a streamlined version of "Wychwood," which premiered some years ago as a school show. Set in a Victorian asylum, four Gothic ghostly horror stories are told through drama, song and special effects. We have a fabulous group of young people who will sing, act, provide live music and crew one of our favourite shows.

We fundraise because we can’t give our young people these opportunities to perform if we don’t. Bag packs are our staple and we were all decked up in spooky garb at Tesco in Hexham on Halloween. Also, look out for details of our Showcase at The Fuse on 7 December. If you have any fundraising ideas, we’re very open to suggestions, so feel free to contact any of us at school.

Yvonne Rushmere, Karl Boyd & Malcolm York.

As part of the Three Rivers Teaching School Alliance, PCHS are looking to recruit Schools Direct English & Maths teachers starting in September 2016. Please follow the link on our website for further information.

When you are calling school to report your child absent or if your

child is going to be arriving to school late

please can we ask parents/carers to select option 1 and for all other Pastoral enquiries please

select option 3.

Examination Certificates

For students who no longer attend PCHS, summer 2015 certificates are available to collect

from school on Monday 30 November. Please bring some photo I.D with you. As a centre, we are only obliged to keep them for a period of 12 months after issue. After that time we have to destroy uncollected certificates to comply with JCQ regulations. Awarding bodies charge a significant re-issue fee should you require certificates in future, in terms of proving your qualifications for education or employment purposes.

If you are unable to collect these in person, you can authorise someone else to collect them on your behalf but they must have a copy of the

collection card or a signed letter from you giving the school permission to release them to your representative. Your representative would also need to bring some form of their own photo ID. The collection card is available on the school website in the Examinations section that you print and complete for this purpose.

Year 12 and Year 13 Students who are currently in school – Exam Certificates

Your GCSE and AS certificates will be available to collect from the Sixth Form Study Centre on Monday 30 November at 1:30pm.

You must collect them in person and sign for their receipt. Any not collected on the day will be available from the Main School Office.

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15Visit to The Great North Museum: Hancock

Year 12 Applied Science students visited the The Great North Museum: Hancock and Discovery museums. The students worked alongside Newcastle University

staff to facilitate their Crustaceans assignment. The students were lucky enough to also be given full access to the Hancock’s priceless non-exhibited specimens from around the globe.

Maths Challenge

On Tuesday 3 November four intrepid Year 12 further mathematicians set off to try and

win the regional round at the Senior Team Mathematics Challenge that took place at Northumbria University. This annual competition featured twenty teams from some of the region’s top schools.

Our brave team of challengers had never experienced this kind of competition before and the atmosphere inside the room was electric. However, the buzz inside the Great Hall in Northumbria University failed to intimidate the Prudhoe team and they acquitted themselves superbly throughout the three rounds of intense competition. Not only were they great ambassadors for Prudhoe Community High School, they also demonstrated the Prudhoe Learning Apps so well – more so their resilience against some very challenging mathematics questions. The team’s maturity and talent was on show for all to see and they exceeded their own expectations as the final results were announced.

A great afternoon was had by all and this was a valuable learning experience for all four mathematicians involved. Well done Archie Castle, Jacob Dillerstone, Tom Kennedy and Chloe Stimpson. There’ll be a chance for younger mathematicians to get involved in a similar mathematical challenge soon, so ask your maths teacher for more details.

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Lessons from Auschwitz

On Thursday 22 October, I accompanied 2 year 13 students on a day trip to Poland, to visit the Museum and Memorial at the

site of former Nazi labour and death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. This opportunity is provided annually by the Holocaust Education Trust, whose aim it is to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, so that the atrocities may never be repeated. Each year they offer 2 sixth formers from every UK school the chance to visit Poland and see the scene of the horrors, with the understanding that the students will then become ambassadors of the trust, taking back the lessons that they have learned, to spread amongst their schools and communities.

This year the successful applicants from PCHS were Lily Kroese and Rhiannon Stevenson. They attended an orientation seminar in Newcastle to prepare them for the emotional journey that they were about to take. As part of this, they heard a talk from a Holocaust survivor, Ziggy, who was able to personalise the experience for them in a unique and inspiring way. The focus of the Lessons from Auschwitz project is very much the re-humanising of those involved; both victims and perpetrators, and so this really set the scene for the experience to come.

The day of the visit was long and emotional. We checked in at Newcastle Airport at 5am, and all agreed that it was

an odd sensation; were we excited? was that the right word? The experience itself was harrowing, as one might imagine. The site of Auschwitz 1, the labour, and eventually, death camp, is now a museum. The exhibits are shocking: baby clothes, mountains of shoes, and even hair. Despite this, I think we all agreed that it was Birkenau that affected us most; the iconic watch towers, the train tracks and the famous gateway, along with the sheer scale of the site. This felt more real somehow, and really brought home the horror of what this place was built to do, especially when coupled with the quotes, poems and first-hand testimony of victims, provided by our guides.

We finished the day with a memorial service, led by a Rabbi, at dusk, with fog settling in on the tracks. This was the first time that we had really had time to reflect on the human cost of the statistics that we had been hearing on our visit, and it was very moving indeed. Lily, Rhiannon and I returned to England tired and dazed, but ‘enriched’ and very glad that we had been given this rare opportunity. Our next step is to make good on our promise; to find creative ways of helping others to understand what we saw and experienced, in the sincere hope that no comparable event shall ever be allowed to happen again.

Miss WillsHumanities Teacher

The Weeping Window at the Woodhorn Museum

It was a great experience at Woodhorn, it was fascinating learning about the lives of the miners and how much they risked

their lives to take care of their families. The museum itself was very interesting because you learned about the conditions the miners worked in, also we got to see some of the miners' paintings and we got to experience how to use a graphite pencil to draw one of the paintings called ‘The Dawn’. It was great learning about George who signed up for World War II the same day we went to visit Woodhorn,16 October.We also got to see ‘The Weeping Window’ that was featured at Woodhorn altogether there was 5200 poppies and also we learnt that each poppy represented a brave individual soldier. Altogether our trip at Woodhorn was an inspirational experience in Art and Humanities.

Lauren Pinchen, Amy Waterhouse & Sophie Whitelaw.

PCHS Remembers

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marks the point when the

armistice brought an end to conflict in the First World War. It also provides an opportunity for people today to pause and reflect on those who have lost their lives in various conflicts around the globe since the start of the Great War of 1914 to 1918, right up to now in 2015.

The ceremony at the PCHS flagpole is always something of which we are immensely proud, and on which visitors and new staff also frequently comment. The turnout of staff and students is always excellent, and we were very grateful to Tom, Megan and Callum, all students in Year 10, as well as Mr Lewis for the moving rendition of "The Last Post". It was also good that the building site observed this important act of remembrance and we were glad to welcome so many of the site staff to share in this moment of reflection with us.

Danish Visitors

Prudhoe Community High School welcomed a group of Danish teachers. Our student council gave a brilliant set of talks about how we assess and mark work (STAR), and how we use data to improve students’

performance.

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Our visitors said..

"You have got very polite and well behaved young students here. They were very proud of what they were doing and that was nice to see."

"What lovely students and teachers! As a visitor you feel the good atmosphere in the house!"

Year 9 Netball Team - top of the league

The Year 9 Netball team took part in

the Northumberland Schools annual netball tournament at the Blue Flames Sports Centre.

The girls had an excellent start beating Ashington High School, James Calvert Spence and Bede Academy, however after being defeated by KEVI and QE they missed out on reaching the semi finals due to goal difference. The girls played brilliantly all day and the 'Woman of the Tournament' title went to our captain Erin Newton.

In terms of their position in the Northumberland League they are undefeated and currently top of the league.

Prudhoe Community High School, Moor Road, Prudhoe, Northumberland, NE42 5LJTel: 01161 832486

E-maill: Admin@Prudhoe.northumberland.sch.ukWeb: www.pchs.org.uk