2011-2012 Term 3

Thamesview School

THAMES V IEWS

Inside the Issue:

Headteacher’s letter 2

Maths News 3

Important Dates 4

Spring Term 3

February 2012

Business & Enterprise

Talented Artists

Year 7 have been producing some excellent

work drawing self-portraits . They have created

‗jewel like‘ printed backgrounds, inspired by the

Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, for their

compositions.

Year 8 have been studying the arts and crafts

of the Native American peoples. They have

learned about the symbolism of totem poles

and created their own designs to represent

their families and friends in

colourful symmetrical images.

BTEC students are

focussing on natural forms

– exploring the textures, colours

and patterns seen in nature. Working in a

variety of different media and techniques they

have produced stunning

images of flowers, birds,

butterflies, leaves,

bones and shells.

GCSE students are

busily preparing for

their final exam working

from the externally set

assignment

paper. Themes

such as animals, a sense of place, here

and now and structure are inspiring

imaginative and creative work.

Ms J Chester

A BRAND NEW MUSICAL – THE ELTON ESTATE

22nd & 23rd March—Don’t Miss It!

Image designed by Charlie Collier

The Creative Arts students at Thamesview have been working hard on a

brand new musical called ‗The Elton Estate‘. Students from all year

groups have worked together on this challenging new musical set on a

London estate featuring fantastic songs, dazzling routines and scenes

that will make you laugh and cry.

Students have been rehearsing after school since September and we

invite you to see the performances on the 22nd & 23rd of March as this

show will be our biggest and most exciting production to date.

Great songs, great scenes and great routines,

Great set, great cast, come have a blast,

It’s diary time, so grab a pen,

Write it down, so you know when,

Two days in March, make no mistake,

Thamesview kids and The Elton Estate.

The Creative Arts Team

More from Creative Arts on the back page .........

Mock Interview Day

On Friday 27th January we held

our annual Mock Interview Day

for Year 10 students. The

students had attended a

workshop the previous day and

applied for a job by completing

an application form.

On the official day, we had

local employers come into school to interview the students.

Staff had given up their offices for the day to make this

experience as real as possible.

Employers taking part were from

large organisations such as : KCC,

Gravesham Council, NatWest, the

Army and Jacobs Engineering as well

as smaller local companies, Ultimate

Life and Jaxx Hair Salon (pictured

right).

The students were invited

to attend in smart

business dress and really

didn‘t disappoint.

A big thank you to all the

interviewers who took part

on the day. This

experience really helps

our students prepare for

life beyond Thamesview.

Mrs N Sandy, Business & Enterprise Administrator

Community

Name

Points

Challenger 139

Discovery 160

Endeavour 191

Enterprise 200

Create a 10

question

Numeracy or

Literacy Quiz for

our next News-

letter. Win

cinema

tickets.

Page 2 Spr ing Term 3

Congratulations to - Victoria Ly in Year 7,

Discovery, who

passed her Grade

3 Piano exam

recently.

Please can all parents/carers be aware of the

importance of putting your child(s) name on ALL uniform

items, including their PE trainers. If your child should

lose any item of uniform and their name is written on it,

it will be reunited with your child. Unnamed items of

clothing prove to be a difficult task in reuniting lost

property to our students. Thank you.

Name It or Lose It

Hospitality Stars In September we started running a

Hospitality course for some Year 9

students. The students cover

various elements of the Hospitality

industry during the course and all

students need to show a good level

of customer service and provide

evidence of them delivering this.

To help the students achieve this

we have been

offering

Hospitality to

different meetings being held

within school. These have so far

included: a sixth form talk where

the heads of local sixth forms

come into school to talk to Year

11 students and also a recent

Governors‘ meeting.

Mrs N Sandy

Gravesham Council

Business Networking

Event

This term we were

invited back to

Gravesham Council‘s

Business networking

event at the Woodville

Halls. Three different

students took part this

time, all from Year 10:

Amiee Goddard, Lewis

Foreman and Mary-Ann

Owen.

The students had to man the

welcome desk and then joined the

meeting collecting lots of business

cards. Two of the students, Lewis

and Mary-Ann have since gone on

and helped at another event

through a contact they made on the

day.

Mrs N Sandy

Dear Parents, Carers, Governors, Staff,

Students and Friends

Just a short Newsletter this term, as it

has not been long since our Christmas

edition which was packed full of news.

There is much information about

Maths in this edition, so there is no

excuse for our students not to know what

is going on in Maths, and how to go about

improving their Levels of attainment

within the subject. Please support your

child using our virtual learning

environment, Fronter, during the holidays

to do revision of topics.

We are on track for our highest ever

results again, and this is a credit to all the

hard work of the staff and students, and

we thank parents for their part in

ensuring students, particularly Year 11s

and 10s, use the holiday time for focus-

sed revision. There is only 11 weeks left

before Year 11 have their Prom, final

assembly and all the major final exams

commence. Students should be well into

their revision programmes

already, although if some

students need more guidance on how

to set up their programme, please see

an Aim Higher Mentor or a member of

their Community Leadership Team for

support.

We are looking forward to another

fantastic theatre production in March

from our Creative Arts team, and hope

you are able to join us for what will

undoubtedly be both ‗sell out‘

performances—don‘t miss out

I appreciate the cold snowy spell will

mean more layers to school, but please

help us ensure smart appearance by

getting uniform items sorted over the

half-term in readiness for a sharp start

back on the 20th!

I hope you enjoy a warm and safe

half-term.

Best wishes,

Rhiannon Hughes

Headteacher

For Students and Parents:

A guide of what you need to know when choosing to study a GCSE in Humanities...

When studying a GCSE it is important that

you have a true understanding of what is

involved and what you will be required to do.

No GCSE is the same as any other and when

choosing which one to study you need to

make sure that the course content appeals

to you and that you will stand every chance

of getting the best result possible to you.

At Thamesview you have

the choice of two differ-

ent Humanities GCSE’s:

GCSE History

And

GCSE Geography

GCSE History looks at two key periods of time in World history as well as British history. Our topic on World history looks at the American West and the topic on British history looks at Medicine through time. The GCSE also has a third component with a piece of Controlled Assessment. The Controlled Assessment is a stand alone investigation which focus’ on key skills required by Historians to research and find out key facts to report on.

GCSE Geography looks at two key areas of Geography, Human Geography and Physical Geography. The exam is divided into the two areas with a Geographical investigation as part of the Controlled Assessment. Students will look at topics such as, Plate Tectonics, Coastal and river areas, Global Population and Global development as part of their two examinations. The Controlled Assessment will be a field investigation within the Kent area looking at local Geography.

Key skills that students will develop in this GCSE are:

Investigation, problem

solving, research and reporting, presentation, analysis and data interpre-tation, written, team work and independent learning skills.

Why not register your interest in one of our

courses now by texting 34867 for History or

75633 for Geography to: 07624806527

(you may be charged by your network provider)

Year 11

Congratulations to

all of the Year 11

students on their

results from the Linear

November paper. There

are 8 students, already,

who have exceeded the

national expected

progress rate and have actually

improved by 4 levels based on the

current results.

A huge and well deserved

congratulations go to Jack Crabtree,

Michael Seaney, Ben Hopson,

Connor Murphy, Courtney King,

Natasha Hollowell, Jack Elmes and

Julia Johnson for this amazing

progress.

(It is expected that 65% of all students

improve by 3 levels from KS2 to KS4.

This means that 65% of students who

start at Thamesview with a level 3 at the

end of primary school should leave us with

a Grade D, level 4 students progress to a

Grade C and level 5 students progress to a

Grade B or higher.

As a result of the successes in the

current cohort many of the Year 11 classes, where possible, are now

even smaller, allowing us to give greater support to those students in

preparation for the next exam.

Some Year 11 students will be taking unit exam retakes in March

(letters have been sent home) and all Year 11 students will be taking the

Unit 3 exam on 13th June.

Page 3 Spr ing Term 3

Year 10 Congratulations to the following students in Year 10,

who achieved maximum points on the Unit 2 GCSE paper :

Jack Head, Daniel Large, Amy Niblett, Mary Ann Owen,

Blake Taylor

Also well done to Charlie Collier on achieving an A*. A

fantastic achievement.

We now have over 40 students who will be taking the

Higher Tier for the next unit, the biggest number ever. Well

done !!

All Year 10 students, except Mr Manktelow‘s 10c

group, will be taking their next unit exam on 5th March.

This unit is based on statistics and probability and is worth

27% of the final GCSE.

Key Stage 3 News Our ‗stage not age‘ KS3 scheme of work has been

described as innovative and many schools have been

interested in our approach and keen to share its structure.

We have also developed resources within lessons to

include a more engaging approach to teaching and

learning.

In addition to using standard texts and worksheets we

have been developing resources using QR codes and

IPADS, treasure hunts and speed dating to name a few !

If you have a bar code reader, try this QR code :

All KS3 students will have just taken an assessment at the

end of January, similar to a SATs paper, so that we can

monitor progress. All KS3 students will next be assessed in

May as an end of year progress check.

To aid with revision, I would recommend that students use

mymaths (www.mymaths.co.uk login : thamesview

password : money) . There are lots of practice papers

available at http://www.emaths.co.uk/KS3SAT.htm which

students find useful. Mrs. M. Sesay

Supporting Key Stage 4

Students

For both Year 10 and Year 11, there is a wealth of

resources, including revision packs, MathsWatch video

clips and practice papers accessible from home on the Year

11 Maths Revision Page on Fronter.

If you are unsure as to how to access this, please email

Mrs Dean on [email protected] and she will

email back details of exactly how to get to this page.

We welcome Mr Burt, who joins our Food Technology

team; recently arrived from Australia, and once a chef

himself, he has been inspiring the students with his varied

recipes, including an alternative approach to Chilli Con

Carne (add a

tin of baked

beans). The

group below

were certainly

tucking in for

their taster

plate, and I

know Miss

Hughes was

also eagerly

queuing with

her fork at the

ready.

On the other side of the Food

room, we had Ms Jarvis turning

the area

into a

little bit

of Italy,

with

students

making

their very

own

pasta!

Page 4 Spr ing Term 3

Diary Dates Staff Development Days:

Wednesday 7th March 2012

Friday 29th June 2012

Bank holidays: Monday 7th May

Please note that the school will be

closed on these days for students.

Key Events: Friday 10th February - Last day of Term 3

Monday 20th February - First day of Term 4

Thursday 1st March - Year 9 Options Fayre

Thursday 8th March - Year 10 Parents‘ Evening

Thurs 22nd/Friday 23rd March - School Show

Thursday 29th March - Year 11 Parents‘ Evening

Friday 30th March - Last day of Term 4

Monday 16th April - First day of Term 5

Thursday 26th April - Year 7 Parents‘ Evening

Thursday 10th May - Parents‘ Forum

Thursday 24th May - Year 8 Parents‘ Evening

Friday 1st June - Last day of Term 5

Term Dates

3 Wednesday 4th January to

Friday 10th February

4 Monday 20th February to

Friday 30th March

5 Monday 16th April to

Friday 1st June

6 Monday 11th June to

Friday 20th July

On Monday 12th December, our school

hosted yet another sell-out success. Family,

friends, staff and students gathered together

to enjoy Music, Dance and Drama acts from all

year groups across the school. The evening

was mostly planned and organised by the Year

9/10 BTec Music class. As part of their

course work they were responsible for roles in

advertising, scenery, front of house,

backstage, performing or presenting for the

Christmas Concert.

The night itself opened with the Year 9/10

BTec Dance class, with a wonderful medley of

Christmas tunes. There were plenty of

talented group acts to follow such as the Year

7 Pantomimers, the Thamesview Singers,

instrumental and dance groups and the school Soul Band.

Solo acts and duets were also plentiful and ranged from

Amelia Burgess and Shannon Presland‘s P.Y.T dance

routine, to Kathlene Irwin‘s lovely rendition of White

Christmas. There was, of course, the traditional comical

performance from some Thamesview staff, which, as

always, was interesting with its very own Prince, Muddles

and Harry!

It is safe to say that an excellent evening was had by all

and if you missed it then you definitely missed out. It was a perfect way to show case

the magnificent talent of students here at Thamesview, as well as coming together

as a community at Christmas time.

We look forward to seeing you there next year, but if you can‘t wait till then, you

don‘t have to—there‘s our ―Evening of Drama and Dance‖(February), ―Elton

Estate‖(March) this year‘s school show and hopefully another outdoor ―Summer

Concert‖(July) all to look forward to.

Miss J Cormack

I am pleased to announce that TVAS (Drama Club) submitted

an entry called ‗Travelling Through Time‘ to the Kent County

Alcohol & Drugs Drama Competition and have won their

region, beating all schools from Gravesend, Dartford and

Swanley & District. The group will now compete against five

other finalists at the grand final at The Stag Theatre in

Sevenoaks on 14th March.

Last year a group of Year 9 students made it to the final with

an alcohol piece titled ‗A Night In The Park‘, but unfortunately

lost out on the night. It was a fantastic experience for the

group, including performing at a professional theatre as well

as winning a host of prizes.

This year the competition was based upon raising awareness

on the issues of smoking and the TVAS group have created a

very entertaining and positive look at how smoking has

evolved throughout the years…and added a positive little twist

at the end.

The students should be really pleased with their achievement

and have once again

proved the outstanding

talent that we

have in the Creative Arts

Department at

Thamesview. Let‘s hope

we can go one better

this year and win the

whole thing.

THE STUDENTS ARE:

Tonicha Gilbert (yr8),

Olivia Devaney (yr8), Stanley

Clarke(yr8), Luke Bainbridge(yr10),

Kayleigh Hill(yr8), Jessica Knowles (yr8), Cerys Knowles

(yr9), Gaby Hutchinson (yr8), Zaynab Bankole (yr8) and Tanya Hills

(yr7)

Mr Ferguson (Drama Teacher)

Travelling Through Time – TVAS Travelling to the final!

Our Own Masterchefs