stratton siren term—issue 3 news to shout about

STRATTON SIREN

‘NEWS TO SHOUT ABOUT’! April 2019 Spring

Term—Issue 3

Dear Parents, Carers and Pupils

Welcome to another edition of the school newsletter. It has been a busy yet rewarding

spring term. There has been lots going on this term and we are already 4 months into the

year 2019. This perception of time passing by swiftly is important for all our pupils to be

aware of and especially true for our Year 11s, who are rapidly approaching their final

GCSE exams. The vast majority are now stepping up their revision and attendance at revi-

sion sessions. Don’t forget there are Easter revision sessions being especially put on for

students, so do take advantage of them. Thank you to parents for supporting/cajoling your

young person into getting things done!

At this point, it would be good to remind Year 10 pupils and parents that you will have your

first set of mock exams in the summer term. After the success of last year, these will pre-

dominantly be held whilst Years 7 to 9 are on enrichment week.

We had excellent attendance at the Year 9 options evening, where Mr Stevens delivered

an outstanding and timely presentation about the Year 9 options process. We are now in

the difficult stages of trying to accommodate the option requirements of our pupils and give

everyone the options they want. This is, of course, not always possible and we thank you

in advance for your support and understanding regarding this process.

In addition, I’d also like to mention that our recent Year 7 parents’ evening evidenced the

highest ever attendance and I’d like thank parents for the commitment shown towards your

children’s education.

We had a great Red Nose Day with our pupils wearing items of red, organising a cake sale

and - the highlight of the day - Mr Moore and Mr Davies getting “pied”! I would like to

thank them for being such good sports. In the end, we raised over £500 for a very worthy

cause.

A further fundraising effort for World Book Day also resulted in an admirable sum of over

£300 being raised, plus the additional bonus of our pupils and staff looking amazing in their

book-themed costumes (after all, dressing up is just a bit of fun!). The sponsored

“readathon” in the library continued throughout the day, whilst staff in the classrooms all

read extracts from books of their choice to each of their classes throughout the day.

This year also saw the return of the school show “Back to the Eighties”. The pupils did an

absolutely amazing job and the whole production was spectacular from start to finish.

There were a huge number of people involved, but I have to say a particular thank you to

Mrs Ames and Mrs Banham for making this much celebrated event happen.

In addition, we have also had an “excellent but tiring” History trip to Berlin, where Year11

pupils got to empathise with the horrors experienced in Nazi Germany. Year 10 were also

taken to a very informative and useful local Careers Fair to start thinking about their future

beyond LSHS and considering the many options available to them.

I hope you have an enjoyable and safe Easter break. Remember not to gorge yourself on

too much chocolate! If you find you do have excess amounts of chocolate, feel free to drop

it into reception and we will happily “dispose” of it for you!

Happy Easter.

Dr Roger L Harris

Pupils’ Achievements

‘Back to the Eighties’

The 'Back to the 80s' play came to a fantastic finish in February, with its cast and crew thor-oughly exhausted, but no doubt satisfied. It brought an end to the months of hard work and effort put in by students and teachers alike. That hard work being very evident in the show itself, with wonderfully choreographed dances and spot-on American accents, it was very clear how much time had gone into getting the play as perfect as possible. 'Back to the 80s' is a pop-culture trip down memory lane, which centres around American highschooler Corey Palmer in his senior year, we meet his best friends, watch him beat the school bully and win over the girl he loves. There were so many colourful characters in the play, which made it a real joy to watch as you got a look into the life of an American teenager during the 80s. All of the cast had clearly worked extremely hard on the play, as not one line was forgotten, not one dance out of step and not a single voice off-key, but of course it wasn't just the cast that made the evening so enjoyable. The band brought the songs to life in a way simple recordings just couldn't, they put in hours and hours of their own time practising the music. The sound and lights were perfect and set the right mood for each scene. Stage hands were extremely efficient and discreet when moving props. And the props them-selves were excellently done and extremely eye-catching. Of course, we can’t forget the teachers who sacrificed their time to get the whole thing finished and perfect by the deadline. Overall, the play was an extremely enjoyable evening out for both myself and my family and I can't wait to see what play they put on next. By Faye Meyer


Enrich Trust Learning Book Award 2019

book award 2019

On Tuesday 26th February 2019, Long Stratton High School students visited Wymondham

Academy where we joined together to socialise, share reviews and opinions of the shortlisted

books.

The students were encouraged to debate and discuss the books they had read. This was a

great opportunity for students to develop their debating skills and share their love of reading

with a wider group of peers.

Author Nicky Singer

The Enrich Trust Reading group visited Wymondham

Academy on Monday 18th March to meet author of ‘The

Survival Game’ Nicky Singer.

Students enjoyed an interesting and inspirational talk by

Nicky.


Celebration of World Book Day

World Book Day by Sophie Rice

Thursday 7th March 2019: two immense dinosaurs, the Empire State Building and the Three Little

Pigs are spotted on the grounds of Long Stratton High School. Where had the pupils gone? Eve-ry corner you walked around, another surprise was waiting. From magical creatures to a whole gaggle of muggles, you couldn’t predict what you were going to see next. Where had the normal school day gone? Why had this happened? Three words: World Book Day. The perfect excuse to have fun, celebrate the wonder of books and dress up as your favourite book character for a day.

Last year’s World Book Day set the bar on the costumes people could think of, but it seemed like the students really pushed the boat out this year. It wasn’t just the students who went in disguise. No, the teachers of LSHS went that extra mile with their costumes and they were unrecognisa-ble. Students had lessons from Gandalf, Mary Poppins and the Mad Hatter! In every classroom, the variety of characters was amazing; it was like walking into a different land.

Certain students went that extra mile this World Book Day by being sponsored by friends and family members to spend their whole day in our exceptional library, reading all day. It was a huge success and the library was jam-packed with eager and enthusiastic readers all raising money for a good cause. All the money raised from this year's Readathon will go to children’s hospi-tals.

Our students don’t go home empty handed though; every student received a book token. This means all our students can get a choice of something different to read from a range of books in exchange for their token or get £1 off a book they have wanted to buy.

I believe everyone should read in their life and experience the joy and knowledge books can give to you. Books aren’t just pieces of paper with ink printed on them. They provide a wider imagina-tion, knowledge and creativity to children and people every day. Books have the unique ability to teach us life-long lessons and morals. They transport you to new places which you would not normally go to. More people need to start reading before the number of people who do start de-clining. Our world is technology driven and we can’t get to a point where books are no longer cel-ebrated and written. World Book Day is a great thing which needs to continue to keep the amaz-ing spirit of reading alive.

Who knows what surprises World Book Day 2020 will shock us with next year...


Readathon - ‘Read In’ Day

Students at Long Stratton High School took part in a Readathon Sponsored Read the week of 4th - 8th March and on Thursday 7th March we held a day long 'read in' in the school library and this tied in well with World Book Day. Some incredible home made costumes again this year from our brilliant students. We raised a

fantastic £334.00! Thank you to all the parents who sponsored their child. Readathon is the U.K's national sponsored reading event for schools. Readathon motivates re-luctant readers to give reading a go, and keen readers to read more widely. The money raised helps the charity Readathon to regularly give brand new books and storyteller visits to children in hospital across the U.K. The 'read in' was great fun and Long Stratton High School library was heaving with students who took part and read a tremendous amount of books. The atmosphere in the library was just won-derful; it was fantastic to see how absorbed our students were in their books and their passion for reading.


Readathon - ‘Read In’ Day

Comic Relief at LSHS 2019

Comic Relief was held on Friday 15th March 2019 and Long Stratton High School held a

range of activities to support the charity.

Everybody was allowed to swap an item of clothing for something red. Most people wore a

red tie or jumper - it was very colourful! We also raised money in the fortnight preceding the

15th: a number of teachers volunteered themselves to be “pied”! The person who had the

most money in their jar by 9 o’clock on Red Nose Day had to have a cream pie thrown in their

face in the hall, in front of most of the school (staff and students alike). Mr Moore was the first

to be pied, followed by Mr Davies (who was told off by Nikki Goodall because he threw some

cream at the students!). We also held a bake sale in the gym, where many students and

teachers brought in their baked goods to raise even more money for Comic Relief.

By the end of this eventful day, LSHS had raised over £500 for Comic Relief!

Can we beat that next year?

By Hannah Trim

Comic Relief


On Sunday 27 January, Scott competed an indoor athletics event. The competition comprised of the Keith Ward Memorial award open to all East Anglian counties combined with the Norfolk Indoor County Championships. Scott won the long jump event, taking the gold in the memorial medal and also making him Norfolk County Champion. Scott came 2

nd in the triple jump, but as the person who won was

from Cambridgeshire, it meant Scott was the Norfolk County Champion. He did really well considering this was his first competition since the outdoor season finished in September. Well done Scott; what an achievement!


School Captains

Valentine’s Day Roses

By Sophie Rice 9LAM

Did you receive a rose this Valentine’s Day?

Love was in the air more than ever this year. The Student Leaders for community and charity made the decision to spice up Valentine’s Day this year by selling roses for £1 each; to send to a loved one, or just to say thank you to someone for something they have done. Their goal was to raise as much money as possible for the amazing charity: Mind. This great charity works to combat mental health by trying to make more people speak up about it and their aim is to help as many people as possible by giving help and support. This charity is trans-forming lots of lives every year and I believe more people need to support them to show that it’s ok to speak out and it’s the right decision.

The main idea of using the roses was to spread love and cheer around the school. As the roses were at such a cheap and affordable price, I believe this was a massive selling point and one of the main reasons why so many of the roses were sold. In the end, we managed to sell all 120 of the roses, resulting in raising £120 for Mind.

Student Leaders’ job on the morning of Valentine’s Day was to deliver all the roses to the forms. They were the Cupids of the school, spreading love as quickly as saying ‘you have a rose’. From spreading thanks to starting new romances, the roses were a great idea which I strongly believe we should do next year.

Community and charity student leaders have plans in the future to raise more money for some other amazing charities, to support the community and become a bigger part of it.


Glow Disco

Enterprise Scheme Disco

Some students of Long Stratton High School were selected to raise money for a charity called

‘The Community Sports Foundation’. We started off by making a mind map of all the charity

events we could possibly do, then we started crossing some out one by one and we came

down to a glow-disco, a bake sale and an Easter egg hunt. In the end we chose the disco.

We were given a budget of £50 to make it happen. We found out that the other group wanted

to do the disco as well, so we partnered up giving us a budget of £100 in total. We made post-

ers and tickets on the school computers and made a playlist on a phone, so we didn’t need a

DJ. We told Years 7, 8 and 9 about it during their assembly. We got permission to hold it in the

hall and permission to enable pupils to buy tickets on +pay. We spent money on glow sticks

and refreshments. Some had spare glow face paint which was donated to us.

When it came to the night, we had about 100 pupils show up and the face paint and glow

sticks sold really well. In the end we had hardly any refreshments left. We made a profit from it

and people had a great time!

By Leah Watkins

Year 11 Student Captains


As the current team of Year 11 Student Captains prepare for their final exams, we asked a

couple of them to reflect on their time at the school…

As my five years at Long Stratton High School come to an end, I look back at the years with

a great sense of nostalgia: whether it’s drinking questionable hot chocolate at Year 7 Camp,

being the best all-time champion of Splat in History, or even having lunch on the field in Sum-

mer. I can honestly say that I will miss the vast majority of my time at this school and hope

my fellow students understand that when it is their time to leave, they will feel a sense of sad-

ness too! As we move on to bigger things, we will always remember how High School helped

shape us into who we are. I wish to thank all the teachers doing all in their abilities to help us

achieve the very best we can and being supportive when we needed it the most.

Millicent Dyer

Long Stratton High School has given me multiple opportunities since Year 7. I have been

able to excel in my favourite subjects thanks to our school and it has given me so many

chances to explore the world, with cultural trips to France, China and Berlin. I have also been

able to complete my Duke of Edinburgh award, which I would never have thought of doing if

it wasn’t for the support everyone gave me. This has turned out to be one of the best experi-

ences of my whole school career, apart from getting lost in a pig farm. That was scary! Eve-

ryone in the school is very welcoming and has helped me through tough times and academic

wobbles, so I am going to really miss it when I must leave in June. To bring this to a close, I

would like to thank all the teachers and other members of staff for helping us all throughout

our school careers.

Ruby Mamattah

Wizards, witches and muggles, please join us for an afternoon of

activities and quizzes at the Harry Potter Themed Event on

Thursday 2nd May 2019

from 3pm—5pm in the School Library.

Tickets £2.00—this will include entry and refreshments.

Additional refreshments will be available to purchase.

There will be prizes for the best fancy dress costume and winning

house.

Tickets available from Mrs Bell. Proceeds from this event will go to

the

School Library.

Harry Potter Event for

Year 7 & 8

stratton siren term—issue 3 news to shout about

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