Newsletter May 2010

Name:…………………………………. Form:…………………………………..

ARNOLD MIDDLE SCHOOL PAGE 2

Dear Parents/ Carers We have had a hectic half term with a number of exciting events. We have continued to work hard to ensure that you are kept informed about the developments at Arnold, not least those of your individual child. Our Reports Days were a tremendous suc-cess with most of you able to come in to meet us; many thanks for your commitment to these important occasions for communication about targets and progress. I have continued to press the Local Authority (LA) for action about the transport situation and was surprised to find one parent who didn’t think that it mattered to them because they live in Barton. Unfortunately, they will probably require transport for their child when he/she transfers to Upper School – so it is relevant to us all!

Concerns raised with the LA are: • Harlington (lack of hill gritting in poor weather);

• Poor communication between parents/school and client

transport;

• Lack of a lay-by in Westoning;

• Poor condition of some buses commissioned by the LA;

• Robust procurement controls for future contracts.

I wrote to the local Parish Councils of Barton, Harlington and Westoning and all local LA (Ward) Councillors. Martin Freeman, on behalf of Amey (the company with the road gritting contract) did reply immediately and has promised to include our grave

concerns that the Harlington Hill be gritted in dangerous weather conditions (such as snow and ice) on all occasions. Apparently the gritting was due to be carried out on that stretch of road (even thought it was ‘C’ class) but this was curtailed because of the embargo on gritting direct from

government. I am satisfied that he will be good to his word and make this a high priority with the LA. Harlington Parish Council responded that they would do anything in their power to support our aims to improve the Harlington hill safety. Barton Parish Council have written to the LA themselves supporting our concerns. Caroline Luff of the Westoning Parish Council has also spoken to me about her continuing crusade to get a resolution to the lay-by problem in her village.

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I also received reassurance from Councillors Drinkwater and Lewis from Central Bedfordshire and Mrs Edwina Grant, Director of Children’s Services who has passed our concerns on to Gary Alderson, Director of Sustainable Communities, as senior officer responsible and I await his written response. Councillor Drinkwater has similar concerns as we do about the transport: She contacted officers last year and was dismayed to find that they had no records of complaints, nothing had been logged about the state of the buses or that the drivers were discourteous in any way and had been late. She found this disturbing as she was well aware of the process officers need to go through in order to resolve problems such as these. Officers need dates and clarity on the problems all properly logged and reported. Mr Basil Jackson, Assistant Director, Highways & Transport, met with me on Wednesday 19th May to discuss our concerns. Councillors Rita Drinkwater and Anita Lewis have confirmed that the council is currently looking at the policy within school transport and subsequently the contracts and this may lead to the introduction of seat belts on all school

buses, unfortunately it will depend on budgets. Councillors Janet Nunn and Tony Northwood (Barton Ward) have promised to continue to fight our cause to get seatbelts fitted to school buses.

What has come out of the meeting and feedback from Councillors are the following proposals:

Communication: Improve communication between clients (parents and schools) and CBC Client Transport Team. Basil Jackson will feed back to me by next Friday (28th May) about the specific examples given of poor responsiveness to bus issues raised by some parents;

Procurement and Monitoring of Contracts: Ensure that the new contracts developed by CBC work towards meeting the requirements of clients (i.e. seat belts, better maintenance/quality of vehicles, bet-ter training for drivers in dealing with customers/ other road users, CCTV). Set out clearly defined criteria for meeting targets for safe and secure transport of pupils that are part of the contractors' performance indicators. These should be measured and fed back to ensure the service is appropriate (perhaps to CBC Councillors?). I will be sent the proposed documents for new contracts before the retendering process starts shortly (contracts to be renewed/ retendered by March 2011). However, I have been informed, any suggestions I make may well not appear in the proposals if they are not cost effective;

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Travel safety: CBC will try to ensure that the Harlington Hill is passable during poor weather, either through the LA working with local farmers via 'snow ploughing' or through better gritting provision through Amey. Our school does not revolve around transport issues! The feedback from our children about our Enrichment Week has been extremely positive. I have thoroughly enjoyed going round the school seeing the variety of events that have taken place: from fencing, to Ready, Steady, Cook; African

dance to pottery and poetry writing to dying with natural materials; the children have had a rich choice of activities to take part in. The atmosphere in the school has been ‘buzzing’ with interested learners and I can only begin to thank all the staff who have gone out of their way to arrange a plethora of events, including Year Seven’s trip to the National Gallery.

The week culminated at Key Stage Three, with ‘The Apprentice’ giving all children the opportunity to enhance their entrepreneurial skills; taking roles from project management to design. I have been particularly excited to see the designs for the tissue boxes coming to fruition and look forward to the final

‘presentation’ on Friday afternoon (we have to get our ‘copy’ to the Editor before Friday!). Linked to our Enrichment Week and the resources needed is the budget. I have to mention this, at a difficult time for us all, in the current economic climate. All school budgets are stretched to breaking point and the governors, our Business Manager and Budget Holders have all worked extremely hard together to ensure that the budget at Arnold can be ‘set’. Special thanks to Karen Wildey for her endeavours over a number of weeks in getting this to the LA in a fit state! Several schools have had to consider redundancies this year and tried to look at creative ways to meet the challenges of a significantly lower allocation of funding to schools. Many schools will have no money to enrich the curriculum, as we have done over the last few years, and this is also the case at Arnold. Our children raise money themselves for the ‘little extras’ that they want (such as the Trim Trail) and the governors focus on providing the ‘necessities’.

ARNOLD MIDDLE SCHOOL PAGE 5

We want to be able to continue to organise stimulating events and visits for the children to enjoy and learn from but without full support from, you as parents/ carers, we will not be able to. Lots of us have had to ‘tighten our belts’ in order to make ends meet at home but we will have to continue to ask for ‘voluntary contributions’ for

additional enrichment activities because we can not fund them from the school budget. Our ‘School Fund’ account helps to make sure that we do have a number of opportunities that are ‘subsidised’ but several parents chose not to contribute this year and this has increased our burden. We know that you will do your utmost to support us as much as possible with our enriching curriculum opportunities.

In addition, our PTA has a very small ‘core group’ of helpers who have kindly focused on helping us with the many evening events in the form of refreshments and raffles but they are not able to organise the additional fundraising events to ‘swell the coffers’ as has happened in the past. We are very fortunate to have Ady Wadsworth who has again agreed to organise our Barton 5K and 10K

Runs up Barton Hills on Sunday 13th June 2010. Thanks also go to Abby Miller and Mr Edmunds for helping sort out the refreshments for the event with Miss Truscott. Our children are the best: that’s a fact! We know that they all worked really hard with the recent assessments (Key Stage Three in preparation for the move to Harlington Upper School and Key Stage Two National Tests). I know that the parents/carers also tried their hardest to support their son/daughter during this time and in the lead up period with revision. Our staff also worked very hard to make sure that the curriculum had been covered and that brows were mopped appropriately. We can now only wait and see how we all got on but we know we did our very best.

Best Wishes Ann Payne

ARNOLD MIDDLE SCHOOL PAGE 6

Sleep in the dark. Turn off my laptop and light.

Turn my lights off for Earth Hour. Turn off the heating/ electricity at night.

Cycle to the gym. Not to be wasting electricity so much listening to Justin Bieber!

Not to keep appliances on all the time. Turn off my play station.

Use less electricity when home.

Turn things off properly when we are not using them.

Not to watch so much TV. I pledge to do nothing but sit in the dark for Earth Hour.

Not to use my hair gstraighteners so much.

I pledge to turn off my TV & laptop for Earth Hour.

Turn off lights that we don't need on at school.

I will remember not to leave my laptop on standby when I go to bed.

I am going to turn off my bedroom light when I am not in there.

I will monitor when the heating needs to be turned off at school. Then switch it off instead of opening windows.

I am going to wear more clothes instead of turning on all the radiators. I will make sure that I recycle paper after use.

I will stop leaving my tv on standby and turn it off ompletely.

I will walk to the local shops instead of driving there.

I will turn off my computer at night. Turn off the lights when I am not using them.

I will turn off the heating at night.

I am going to turn off the lights if I am the last person to leave the room.

I am going to use energy efficient light bulbs.

I am going to put the right amount of water in the kettle when I'm making my mum a drink.

I won't leave things on standby.

Arnold Middle School Pledges

EARTH HOUR

Following our Earth Hour towards the end of the Spring Term, we had an opportunity to make ‘pledges’.

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Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning – SEAL

SEAL is being taught this year not only through our PSHCE curriculum but is also explored in our assemblies and whole school approach to developing the individual. The SEAL approach aims to help develop Emotional Well Being, which is defined by the World Health Organisation as: “A state of well-being in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”. Emotional Well-Being is certainly not about being happy all the time – it is about learning how to manage your emotions, having resilience for when things go wrong, and developing life skills and strategies to promote positive and lasting self esteem. An emotionally healthy young person should be able to:

• Face up to, and learn from problems

• Cope with changes and differences

• Make and keep friends

• Feel safe

• Make positive choices

• Care about the feelings of themselves and others

• Enjoy their own company

• Learn new skills and improve personal knowledge

• Know when things are right and wrong

• Play and explore

Be happy with themselves.

This is a tall order for any person to achieve but by breaking down the 5 aspects of SEAL (see below) and taking a holistic approach we can work towards greater SEAL skills development across the community

Motivation Social Skills Empathy Self Awareness & Managing feelings

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ARTS PERFORMANCE The P.E department worked closely with the Drama department to deliver this year’s annual arts performance which was themed to the story of Aladdin. Friends and family arrived on both nights performances to support our talented pupils on what was a fantastic display of the arts at Arnold. The evening opened with a dramatic trampette display from the Arabian street urchins. Through the medium of dance, gymnastics and drama, the audience were then taken on a magical journey which followed the story of Aladdin’s rise from street rat to Sultan and the downfall of Jafar. Thank you to the Art and DT department for the wonderful displays used in the performance. A huge congratulations to all of the students involved in the Arts Performance, we are very proud of you.

Miss Cooke and Miss McCrow

PARE 8th June 2010 We are a ‘Healthy School’ and as part of our Parent Awareness Raising Evenings we would like to invite you all to an evening exploring the different aspects of a ‘Healthy School’ on Tuesday 8th June from 7-8pm. You will have the opportunity to taste some food cooked by our after school cooking club, experience some of the many sporting activites that take place at Arnold and find out more about our Sex and Relationships course and the ECM agenda (Every Child Matters). Miss R Truscott

PARE – Healthy Schools

PARE – Healthy Schools

Tuesday 8th June 2010 7-8pm

Tasting sessions from our Cooking

Club, PE displays and much more!

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ARNOLD NOVELTIES

Just a reminder that Arnold Novelties can be ordered from school. Simply complete an order form, available from the office or your child’s form tutor and return to Ms Creed. Please ensure that any monies sent into school are in a sealed and named envelope and that cheques are made payable to Arnold Novelties. We have made some changes to the Arnold Novelties stock and have attached an order form for you to look at. As the warmer weather approaches we have introduced a school approved 500ml water bottle with the required ‘sports top’. The Arnold Book Bag special offer now includes; a book bag, water bottle, Berol handwriting pen, a Berol pencil, 12 colouring pencils, an Arnold 30cm ruler, pencil sharpener, rubber, glue stick, scissors, large pencil case and a spiral bound notebook for only £12 which gives a saving of almost £6.

The clear plastic book covers are particularly recommended by staff at Arnold and at the moment if you buy 5 you get one free!

Any profit made by Arnold Novelties is used to buy ’extras’ for the children of Arnold. We have recently purchased some balls and hoops for lunchtime activities together with a large store for the equipment. Mrs. Wood and the Kitchen Garden Club are about to take delivery of a much needed

tool store. Thank you to all the children who purchased chocolates to celebrate Mothers Day .The children loved making the cards and we hope you enjoyed being spoiled for the day.

ONLY £12

Article Quantity Price per Item Total

*Water Bottle £2.00

*Berol Handwriting Pen £1.00

Berol Fountain Pen £1.20

15 Ink Cartridges £1.00

*Berol Pencil .20p

*12 Colouring Pencils £1.50

*Arnold 30cm Ruler £1.00

*Pencil Sharpener .50p

*Eraser .30p

*Glue Stick £1.00

*Scissors £1.00

*Large Pencil Case £2.00

*Spiral Bound Note-Book .75p

Clear Plastic Book Cover £1.00

Large Plastic Book Cover £1.50

Arnold PE Bag £6.50

Arnold Book Bag £6.50

Arnold Book Bag complete with items marked with asterisk

£12.00 (saving £5.75)

May 2010 Grand Total

Arnold Novelties Order Form

Name: ……………………Form: ………

Cheques payable to Arnold Novelties

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Homework Projects Summer Timetable We are currently working on improvements to make to the homework project system currently in place for year 5 & 7. Staff, pupils and parents have been giving their feedback, which we will take onboard in order to move forward for September.

We will be rolling out the system to all years which involves one subject setting an extended activity each fortnight. Core subjects will not be setting projects, instead they will be setting weekly homework tasks. Homework projects will be on a fortnightly cycle, giving more time for pupils to complete the projects to a high standard. Key Stage 2 tasks should take between two and three hours and Key Stage 3 tasks between

four and five hours. We will be sending marked projects home with the feedback sheet, with a space for parents to sign and add a comment if needed. We will also be limiting the amount of research based projects, reducing the amount of time pupils spend on the internet. Whenever research is required, we will aim to give hyperlinks to speed up the researching element of the task. We will be constantly evaluating this system, as we try and make it as effective and constructive as possible. Please see the next page, which has a quick guide for parents on how to log onto the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), this is where homework tasks and timetable are posted.

11-Jun Science Science

18-Jun Geography Maths

25-Jun French ART

02-Jul ICT RE

Year 5 Year 7

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Logging into the ‘Net Media’ Virtual Learning Environment Open your browser and navigate to the Bedfordshire schools homepage, http://www.schools.bedfordshire.gov.uk Scroll down to view the link for logging into the learning platforms (about half-way down on the right). Click on this link, (See below)

Click here from the Bedfordshire home page to access the Learning Platform.

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The next screen you see will be the Learning Platform log in screen, this is where you insert the code for your school (Arnold Middle School is bf9,) Insert bf9 here When you have inserted the code click on ‘Go’, you will be taken to a Login page

Enter in the username and password you have been given, and click on OK. The next screen you see will be your ‘My desktop’ screen. Click on the link for ‘My Classes’ which is located in the top right hand side of the screen. The next screen will be the ‘My Classes’ foyer. Look for the link to the ‘Year 5 or 7 ( The appropriate year for your child) homework projects and click on it.

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NEWS FROM OUR CHAIR OF GOVERNORS Mr Rhys Chesters-Lewis

Firstly I would like to thank the 120 of you who took the time to talk to School Governors during the Reports Days. Your thoughts, opinions and views really matter to us and we appreciate you devoting your time to give them. We will be considering all the comments in detail but in the interests of openness I thought you might be interested in reading a flavour of the comments given. The overwhelming tone of the comments provided was positive. With comments like: “Arnold has given my son so much encouragement with his work and regularly gives award certificates which boost his confidence” “My child has settled in well and the school has a lovely welcoming atmos-phere” “My son has become more sociable and has improved his social skills. He has met his academic goals. Very pleased with his report and I feel he has an ex-cellent form tutor.” “Friendly, approachable staff”.

In terms of what was driving this positive impression the main areas you focused on were improved communications, the support for pupils and the ability of the school to deal with situations as they arise. Many of you also commented positively on how the school dealt with the snow affected days. Of course there were also negative comments. Prominent among these were issues around school transport, school discipline, the reward system and views on how individual complaints were handled. The Governing Body strongly agrees with the need for a better service from our transport providers

and is continuing to chase short term improvements with the Local Authority and impress the need to design into the next set of contracts stronger levers to drive improvement.

PAGE 15

By definition many of the comments are subjective representing personal opinions. For instance some believed there was too much homework other not enough.

In terms of priorities the overriding theme was the need to “keep up the good work”. Some of the strongest reoccurring themes are set out below: • Continue to develop good communications and relationships with parents;

• Increase emphasis on values and positive behaviour;

• Provide extra help with core subjects;

• Help children improve their confidence and achieve their potential;

• Look at how homework is set and explained;

• Continue to improve facilities;

• Develop more extra curricular activities;

• Place greater focus on sporting activities;

• Continue to encourage children to enjoy school life;

• Continue to maintain strong discipline;

• Improve the reward system.

Many of these will be reflected in the new School Development Plan and I hope all of you will see the link between the comments you have made and where the school is focusing its energies over the coming year. In the meantime if you have any further comments on the above feedback or simply a comment you want to make (positive or negative) feel free to come and speak to any governor whenever you see us around.

SRE @ AMS

As part of our commitment to ECM and Healthy Schools, all pupils will be participating in an SRE (Sex and Relationships) topic as part of their weekly PSHCE lessons. This topic will run for 6 weeks after half term. An overview of areas studied is available on the school website, and in addition to this, all parents/carers will receive a letter outlining the course. If you have any questions please contact Miss Truscott at school.

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Friends of Arnold School Association

The FASA committee would like to thank those parents who have already generously volunteered to help out with events over the next few months. It looks like it will be a busy but enjoyable time and we are very much looking forward to supporting the following:

Sunday 13th June – 10K/5K Barton Run

Wednesday 7th July – Summer Concert

Friday 9th July – Year 8 Leavers’ Disco

Friday 16th July – Sports Events

Monday 19th July – Sports Events

We would like more volunteers to help with the 10K run on 13th June – please contact us at [email protected] if you can offer assistance on the day – and remember, it’s also a good opportunity to enjoy the Barton countryside! For the Year Eight leavers’ disco, we are also requesting donations of big decorations for the Hall. If you have any spare items that would be suitable, we would be grateful if you could bring them into school as soon as possible – thank you. Now we have a few ‘events’ under our belt, so to speak, the ‘new’ committee are now ‘gelling’ as a team and becoming more confident in organising and co-ordinating events. Consequently, we hope to be able to offer a wider variety of fund-raising activities next year. Watch this space ! We look forward to seeing many of you at the above events over the coming months. Best wishes The FASA Team

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THE ARNOLD SWIMMING POOL

Following some feedback from parents at Reports Days and

some very eloquent letters from pupils asking us to

reconsider our decision to close the pool It was agreed at our recent Resources

Committee meeting that I would use this newsletter to explain why we believe it is the right decision to

close the pool.

As many of you may be aware our school finances are extremely tight. From a mixture of prudent budgeting and applying for additional funding when we could we have managed to make substantial improvements to our learning environment over the past few years. However, we are anticipating that this pressure on our budgets will increase further over the next few years meaning we have to prioritise our spending.

For the current financial year we had to find resources to: • Make essential health & safety improvements that we are obliged to make

to comply with our statutory responsibilities,

• Maintain our ICT infrastructure in particular the wireless network that is

essential to our interactive whiteboards;

• Renovate our art room; and

• Continue with the programme of basic redecoration around the school to

prevent the school site from becoming tired.

The swimming pool with the cost of chemicals, maintenance and essential training to enable it to be used is a significant fixed cost on our budget. Moreover as a result of regulations and the depth of the pool we are unable to use the pool to raise funds out of school hours.

Of course financial reasons alone do not justify the closing of the pool. Other factors we considered were: • The widespread availability of free swimming provided within

Bedfordshire;

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• The amount of time the swimming pool is used throughout the year – on

average approximately 6 weeks per year;

• The cost and complexity of taking pupils to an external swimming pool;

• An indication from the PE department that they could fill the time currently

earmarked for swimming with alternative summer sports.

Taking all these factors into account and the likely unsustainable future costs of maintaining the pool we concluded that the best decision for the pupils was to close the pool. It was not a decision any of us arrived at lightly or one that any of us enjoyed taking. However, it is the right decision.

BLAST OFF

Pupils have been rehearsing for this production all term. The performances will take place on Wednesday and Thursday 26th & 27th May starting at 7pm. Tickets are available from the school Music Department

GUITAR WORKSHOP & FIDDLE FIESTA

On Wednesday 5th May a number of Arnold guitar pupils went to Redborne Upper School to take part in the Annual Guitar Festival. Later on this term many of our violinists will go to Harlington Upper School to take part in the Annual Fiddle Fiesta. These events are organised by Bedfordshire

Music and provide a valuable opportunity for pupils to meet with colleagues from other schools and make music.

FUTURE EVENTS

At the end of the Summer Term we have our final concert of the year. This takes place on Wednesday 7th July in the school hall starting at 7.30pm. This will again feature the school ensemble groups that rehearsal weekly in school as well as many solo and small group items. In addition the school has been invited to Barton Fete on Saturday 26th June where some of the school ensemble groups will perform. C Cadd Leader of Music

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YEAR 5 PUPILS SCRUM DOWN FOR VICTORY

Members of Year 5 playing for Dunstable Rugby Club won a great victory in the East Midlands Cup. Louis Brandham, Kyle Mcswiggan and Luke Joyce played important roles in beating Towcester five tires to one in the finial to take home to the cup. The tournament was held in the Northampton Saints rugby ground, a fantastic backdrop to this great victory for our Year 5 pupils and Dunstable Rugby Club. After their match they had not only won the cup but also where crowned Bedfordshire County champions. From all the staff at Arnold Middle School, congratulations on your hard work and victory in the cup. Well done boys.

From left to right

Louis Brandham (5JS), Kyle Mcswiggan (5AW) and Luke Joyce (5AW)

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SCHOOLCOUNCIL @AMSSCHOOLCOUNCIL@AMS It’s been another busy half term for our school council. We have finally seen the installation of our long awaited trim-trail and look forward to all our pupils being able to enjoy the equipment that they have worked so hard to raise money for. Our pupil led learning walks group continues to develop and next half term will be assessing the impact their suggestions have had throughout the school environment.

Our entire school council will be attending the next Governors meeting on Thursday 17th June. Here they will work alongside the Governors to investigate ways in which our pupils can support the school moving forwards.

As we come to the end of this academic year we need to start planning for next year’s council elections They will be taking place over the next 2 weeks. We need to elect a new Chair, Treasurer and Secretary who will take over the fantastic work currently done by Jack, Charlotte and James. Miss R Truscott

Advance Warning!

School Council are running two stalls at the Barton Fayre in September. One of the stalls is a cake sale and we would like to invite all parents/carers to donate any cakes etc……

More details to follow in the end of

term newsletter!

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YEAR 6 PGL ACTIVITY WEEK

As I write this article about our Year 6 PGL trip we are actually still here! Well, it’s been a fantastic week with thrills and a few spills along the way! Monday started well with everyone receiving a bright purple ‘hoodie’, the children loved them and

it made spotting everyone at the service station very easy. After a long but comfortable journey we arrived to find all our rooms have been recently refurbished and now all rooms have full bath and shower facilities – bliss after a long day climbing and building! The week has been fantastic and our pupils have, as always, shown themselves to be ambassadors for our school. We’d like to share with you some of our ‘best bits’ from what has proved to be an exhausting but exhilarating week:

“I really enjoyed the fencing—we learnt how to

do lunges and defend ourselves.”

“My group worked to-gether to build a raft

from barrels, wood and rope—it floated! …..but I

fell in!”

“The crate challenge was really good fun but a bit scary as we went really

high up.”

“On the challenge course we had to work as a team to move through different

obstacles without dropping the bomb!”

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NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK 2010

Following the activities enjoyed by the pupils across all years we carried out a brief pupil survey to ascertain the reaction to the week. Below are the statements with a graph showing their responses.

Based on the above responses and the specific comments made by the pupils we are already planning for next year. The pupils particularly enjoyed the cross curricular approach and thanks must go to Art, French, Maths, PSHCE and RE for their participation this year.

National Science Week pupil feedback

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1 2 3 4 5 6

Question number

%

Agree

Disagree

Statement

1 I enjoyed my lessons in science week.

2 I learnt more about coca cola in other subjects.

3 I have learnt some new science this week.

4 I would like to do more themed weeks.

5 I talked about my science this week at home.

6 I would like to write a short report for newsletter.

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SCIENCE SPECIALIST STATUS Being designated a specialist school in Science gives us the opportunity to showcase some of the fantastic work achieved in the department. I have had a very busy time as temporary leader of the department since Miss Clark left a year ago exploring opportunities to not only fulfil our specialist plan but also to investigate other avenues. The developments we have engaged in as a whole school include:

• National science week

• Sundon Cub Scout group science badges

• Silsoe Lower school science club

• Support training at Ramsey

• Supporting all Lower schools with apparatus ‘Loan’ as requested

• Specialist TA providing additional science coaching sessions

• Incorporating Science as a main subject during the usual Maths and

Rounders Year 4 day at AMS

• Creating new learning opportunities in KS3 through curriculum review.

• Raising enjoyment and standards in science.

If any parent has a keen interest or employment in the sciences and would be willing to talk with a group of our pupils to show them the wealth of opportunities open to them, we would love to hear from you; please contact Linda Sides at school. Without the work of the dedicated science department team this work would not have been possible. Many thanks to all staff for their hard work which made this year so successful.

Linda Sides

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PE NEWS It has been another very hectic and eventful term for the PE department. The cricket and rounders leagues are now in full swing. There has been an excellent turn out for the numerous practices that have taken place, maximising participation levels.

Cricket

With many new faces in the year 8 boys cricket team, the experience has been an enjoyable learning curve for our team members. Showing excellent dedication training, the boys have to date played one league game against Marston Vale. Despite fielding extremely well and restricting Marston to 48 runs our boys managed 28 in total, which resulted in a defeat. The boys however can use this experience for their remaining fixtures.

The year 7’s have also begun their league, with our team travelling to Alameda for their first fixture. Unfortunately on this occasion they too came away with a defeat. With many pupils standing in for many missing regular players, the whole team put in a great effort. They can now look forward to their remaining league fixtures and use their great dedication in training to develop their performance as a team. Meanwhile, our year 6 team, possibly including some year 5’s, can look forward to the upcoming kwik-cricket festival in Flitwick and an additional festival in London, both days should prove to be thoroughly enjoyable and a really beneficial experience for all involved.

Athletics

With the year 7 and 8 league having begun, the first fixture saw us visit Alban Middle School to compete against Alban and Daubeney Middle School. In what was a enjoyable evening of athletics we finished 3rd on this occasion and had some excellent individual performances. This was followed by a home fixture against Henlow and Marston Vale. On this occasion, our team, including many new

competitors, used their previous experience to good use, and put in fabulous performances that resulted in us winning the girls event and jointly winning the boys event with Marston Vale. With many of our

PAGE 25

competitors performing in events which they are relatively new this was a huge achievement. It was nice to conclude the evenings events with a fantastic boys relay performance by James Wildey, Scott Bayliss, Connor Clifton and Aaron Bean. We look forward to the year 5 and 6 athletics events which begin in the second half of the summer term. It is really pleasing to see so many turning up to the practices and using the time on offer to great effect.

Football

With our football seasons coming to a close, year 5 & 6 matches were arranged against MK Dons academy. It was a great experience for the boys to play at the Dons training ground against such strong opposition. It hopefully provided them with an experience to always

remember. Well done to all of you for all of your efforts this season.

Rounders

This term has seen the start of the rounders league for all year groups. The girls have been practicing hard since the beginning of term, after school and during lunchtimes. The year 5 & 6 teams played their first game of the season on Friday 14th May against Alameda Middle School. Both teams were victorious. Score lines for the games are as follows:

Considering this was the first time our year 5s have played a competitive rounders game as a team they performed superbly. The girls put into practice all the tactics, skills and techniques learnt in training. This resulted in some amazing individual performances on the day as well as a great team performance.

The year 6 team continued their winning streak from last year, although the team is different, again the girls put into play all they have learnt during practices.

Year 5 Arnold – 11

Alameda - 2.5

Year 6 Arnold - 16

Alameda – 7.5

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Well done to all the girls involved:

Lets hope that all the rounder’s squads are successful and continue this winning steak, hopefully they can then progress to the finals due to be held in July. During the enrichment week 12 carefully selected pupils were taken to Kempston Outdoor Adventure centre. They were chosen because of their positive attitude and contribution to school sport. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the day in which they took part in indoor climbing, a high rope team challenge and also spent the afternoon on the river canoeing.

Year 5 Shanice Marshall Aoife McDonagh Charlotte Eagles

Sophie Arnull Emily Carter

Kelsey Martin Millie Jennings Lucy Treacher

Year 6 Jessica Jones Jessica Pitts

Hannah Underwood Rebecca James Shannan Ewen

Freya Green Joanna Saunders

Daniela D’isola

ARNOLD MIDDLE SCHOOL PAGE 27

Multi Skills Days 2010 The PE department has decided to change the format of the original sports day and swimming gala this year. The main reason for this change is to maximize pupil participation in intra curricular competitions. The school believes that pupils should receive as many opportunities in sport as possible and during previous sports days it appears that not all pupils take the opportunity of competing or representing their houses. This year the PE department will run two multi–skills days on Friday 16th July for KS2 pupils and Monday 19th July for KS3 pupils. Pupils will have the opportunity to compete in at least two different activities for their House. We aim for the activities to consist of an element of Athletics, including a sprint, a middle distance event, a throw, a jump and a relay. The other activities include Crazy Catch, Rocket ball, Brazilian Soccer and Softball. The activities have been carefully selected to maximize participation. We hope to have A and B league competitions in each year group and separate competitions for boys and girls. It is our intention for our pupils to embrace the changes and we hope they enjoy the different elements of competition these new activities will offer. We will be supported by the Redborne School Sports Partnership with the delivery of both days. More details will follow nearer the time. Miss J.Cooke & Mr K Tfifha

Enrichment Week

The week beginning 17th May has been our Enrichment Week at Arnold. Key Stage 2 have been exploring a theme around the painting of ‘Tobias and the Angel’ by Andrea del Verrocchio; whilst Key Stage 3 pupils have worked on a range of activities from finding out about Barton and the wider community to African Dance and Ready Steady Cook. On Thursday and Friday they competed in the Apprentice competition.

Key Stage 2 (Years 5 & 6) The activities have been many and varied; creative activities included painting, making three dimensional models, felt making, and dyeing. More physical activities were exploring Barton Springs on foot, finding out about herbal remedies and uses of plants and making riverbeds in the science laboratory as well as fencing (with foils rather than posts!). The children also learned Braille, heard stories, and wrote scroll messages.

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This is what the pupils had to say…….

Key Stage 3 (Year 7 & 8)

The year 7 children went to the National Gallery this week, and along with the year 8 pupils, had a rota of different activities.

Dance included English Folk Dancing of various traditions and also African dancing, accompanied by drumming. Even those reluctant to dance were encouraged by the news that, ‘If you can move you can dance’!

Artistic endeavours ranged through sketching outside, making clay models of imaginary monsters – and some of the children certainly have vivid imaginations- to print making and illustrating. Ready Steady Cook was a particular favourite with the Year 8 pupils who could bring in their own ingredients to cook anything they liked. There was also a Maths project involving measuring historic buildings to make a scale model of some of the older parts of Barton and the School.

‘My favourite was dyeing as we worked with my science teacher and

we got to squish blueberries’

‘I enjoyed the walk most because there were hills and

trees ‘

‘My favourite activities were fencing and walking because they were moving about and not boring’

‘Healing was the best as Mrs Hewitt told us how to heal lots

of accidents that happen at home’

‘Fencing was the best because it was fun and I hadn’t done it before.’

‘Drama was good because we got to work as a team’

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Drama was also used to investigate the history of the village and to imagine where things may go in the future. This is what the pupils had to say…….

On Thursday and Friday, Key Stage 3 worked together in teams to create a new brand of tissues. They had to design and make the box, create a TV and magazine advert. The activities focused on creativity and team work. The end results were amazing and the final winners were 4 girls from 7LGK:

Sophie Wilson, Katie Hall, Millie Hayward and Emma Bush. Well done!

‘Usually I don’t like to perform in Drama but in this activity I

did and had fun.’

‘I really enjoyed sketching and drama because I learnt new things

about Barton’

‘My favourite was the African dancing because it was fun and

different.’

‘I liked the folk dancing because everyone was smiling’

‘My favourite was drama because I enjoyed the role plays’

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WESTONING CLASSIC CAR SHOW Saturday 8th May 2010

Held at Westoning Recreation Ground

It was a bit of a cold and wet day for the car show which was a shame as people with classic cars don’t like to bring the cars out when the weather is wet, however we did raise a lot of money. We had around 15 classic cars that came on site, 3 police

cars, 1 ambulance with the Red Cross and 1 fire engine! We had a reconstruction of a car accident in an arena in the centre of the field when the fire service cut up the car to get the injured person out. It was so good and noisy as they had their sirens on and used massive clippers to cut the roof and doors off!

At the car show we also had a driving school where you could drive a car for £3 around a track made out of cones with a driving instructor. How cool is that? We raised £242.00 for Keech hospice & £155.00 for the changing rooms at the recreation club to be re-furbished. Westoning PTA had a stall and so did the church

which was my idea and I would like to say a big thank you for coming along.

Georgina Burgess 5NP

ARNOLD MIDDLE SCHOOL PAGE 31

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT THE SCHOOL OFFICE

ARNOLD MIDDLE SCHOOL

SITUATIONS VACANT

CLEANERS

We are seeking 2 cleaners to start as soon as possible, who will work under the direction of the Assistant Site Agent to maintain the school premises to the

required standard of cleanliness and undertake any required training.

10 hours per week

Level 1B points 5-8 (hourly rate £6.38 - £6.84)

Please apply to the Arnold School Office

VISITING ARNOLD MIDDLE SCHOOL ON

THURSDAY 10TH UNTIL

TUESDAY 15TH JUNE 2010