Dear Parents and Friends,
We have very mixed feelings here at Theale Green as we approach the end of term. There have been many achievements to celebrate: academically, in sport and across a wide range of extra-curricular activities. Inevitably this is matched by a great sense of sadness and loss at the tragic death of Nick Moore. Nick was known to many of our students and held in very warm regard by all. Our thoughts are very much with Nick’s parents and sister at this very difficult time.
I have felt enormously proud of the way in which members of our school community have come together to remember and celebrate Nick’s life and to provide support for each other. It is often said that difficult times bring out the best in people and this has certainly been true of our school. I would particularly like to pay tribute to our sixth form students, who have been a great encouragement to each other and to Nick’s family.
Our congratulations go to Ms Wadland and Ms Ellis who have both given birth to daughters recently. We say goodbye to a number of long-standing members of staff who retire this Christmas: Mrs. Garford who officially retired in November and is making good progress following a long period of illness, Mr. Priest who has done an excellent job as technician to the D&T department, and Mr. Wall and Mrs. Tickle who retire from leading our thriving adult learning programme. We also wish good luck to Mr. Wellman who leaves us to become a deputy head in Maidenhead. My thanks to all these colleagues who have made an enormous contribution to our school and will be greatly missed.
On behalf of all our staff and students, may I wish you a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and fulfilling New Year.
Yours,
Mrs Marshall
NEW COVERED AREA
Quotes have now been received. Following consideration by the Environment committee we are adopting the design shown, to be built adjacent to the new drama studio.Subject to planning permission construction work should start in the early part of next term.
DIARY DATES
January 4th Inset Day
January 5th School Starts
January 10th AS/A2 Exams Start
February 1st AS/A2 Exams Finish
February 21st Inset Day
March 23rd End of Term
AVCE TRAVEL AND TOURISM TRIP TO LONDON
On the 24th of November the Year 13 AVCE Travel and Tourism class took a group of fourteen students and three teachers to London. The AVCE group consisted of five talented girls; Katie Dunn, Kerry Lovegrove, Ram Kaur, Sam Harvey and Stacey Delve. They organised this trip from start to finish, investigating various attractions and then arranging all the details with them. The trip proved to be very successful with the favourite attraction being the London Dungeons. Other attractions which were visited included the London Eye, London Aquarium and the Science Museum. The trip ended in Oxford Street where people could do some early Christmas shopping. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day and agreed the girls had done a wonderful job, especially for the very small sum of £30 per person. To say thank you to everyone who came the girls gave them all an early Christmas present each.
LIBRARY VACANCY
Theale Community Library has a vacancy for a Library Assistant to cover the lunch time period (12:30-2:30) during the school term. If you are interested in this post or know someone who may be interested in it please contact Judith Palka, Librarian on 0118 9303207
BUSINESS STUDIES
For the first time we are running the Applied Business GCSE, a demanding course which requires students to develop a grasp of ‘real world’ business thinking through understanding how real companies operate.
Late in October the Y10 Applied Business students spent the day with local agriculture suppliers Hall Plank Robinson. Managing Director Andrew Hall and his senior consultant Mike Wilson gave a full presentation of this long established local firm between meetings with the managers of the Royal farms at Windsor and Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s farm nearer here. The day included a visit to HPR’s logistics depot near Pangbourne, and finished with a short tour of Cropper’s, the Theale flower shop, recently acquired by HPR. The next visit for this group will be to Vodafone’s global Headquarters in Newbury on 19th January.
Sixteen Y12 students went to this year’s Enterprise day at Didcot Girls’ School for a day full of activities and presentations by business people focused on how to start and run your own successful business. Another mini-bus load of A Level Business Studies students spent the day at Bradfield College in December, joining their students in a conference on improving examination performance led by the AQA chief examiner and textbook guru Ian Marcouse.
A level Business Studies students will be going to France next year for a Business Students’ conference to be addressed by a parade of senior European business people; and to a similar event in Germany during the summer.
Year 11’s enjoyed a visit from Alan Finlay, marketing director from Vodafone, on November 5th. All three classes presided over a neat presentation and joined in afterwards for a question and answer session. All the students left with Vodafone baseball caps and seemed happy with this mobile interactive experience. This of course came as a welcome break from all the hard work they have been putting into their coursework, a marketing project into setting up a fast food restaurant. We’ve seen a wide variety of ideas this year, some of them even incorporating healthy food into their menus. Well done.
Benyon News
A quiet term
all round.Harrods shopping, a cancelled quiz and a disco!
We had to say goodbye to Mr Wilson (Drama) and Mr Foakes (Music) and we wish
them both well in the future.
We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Hunt House –
Once again in Hunt House we must say goodbye and good luck to two tutors who are leaving the school this Christmas.
Mr. Wellman has been a Hunt tutor for many years and it is difficult to find a more committed and dedicated tutor than he. Although it is always sad to lose a tutor, I am delighted that he has been promoted to Deputy Head, a position I am sure that he will excel at.
Mrs. Garford has also been a Hunt tutor for many years and although she has not been in school for a while. I always hoped that she would one day return to the House. However she has decided to retire and once again, I would like to send her our very best wishes and thanks.
Finally, I would like to wish all our students and staff a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Enter the Dragon: All the news that is fit to print from Piper House
I have been impressed this term at the excellent behaviour and attitude of the students in Piper House. They have made our job in Piper office much easier and we would like to thank them all and wish them a well earned, enjoyable Christmas break. A very big thank you also goes to all the Piper tutors for doing such a marvellous job this term and especially all the effort they put into making Academic Mentoring Day the success it was.
Piper House PTA: Unfortunately we had to cancel our PTA meeting on Thursday 25th November, but all being well we will re-arrange for the beginning of next term. If you are interested in joining the Piper House PTA, please contact Mr.Upton on 0118 9308511.
Senior Prefects/Prefects: A very big thank you to all the Piper prefects who have helped with a range of events this term, but a special thanks to the Games Captains for their efforts with house matches last month. I am very proud of Piper’s prefects this year, they have been fantastic with everything they have been asked to help with, nothing has been too much trouble, thanks again!
Trips and Discos: We had an absolutely smashing trip to Coral Reef in October and it was a pleasure and an honour to accompany such a lovely bunch of students.
Dougie Upton, Mark Shears and Spike, the Holly and the Ivy Dragon, wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
SCOTTIE NEWS
This half term in Scott House, has of course, been a sad one, with the loss of Nick Moore.
Nick was a leading student in Scott House – the boys’ House Captain for Sport and fully involved in all the Prefect responsibilities and activities. He was a superb support to the House; we are very proud of him, and he will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with his family and friends over the Christmas holidays. We have decided to have a new trophy in Scott House in Nick’s memory – a cup, which will be the “Nick Moore Award for Achievement in Scott House” – to be presented at the end of each term.
Nick was fully involved, too, in our House Evening this half-term. This was a fantastic event and brilliantly organised and wonderfully entertaining. I would like to thank all who took part, especially the Prefect Team who were amazing, and all those who supported the evening – PTA, parents, students and staff.
Our biggest sporting success this term was winning the Senior Boys Football (again!). Well done to all involved.
Finally, I would like to wish all our Scott families a peaceful and happy Christmas
ART, DRAMA, MUSIC
Introduction of AS Dance – The new AS Dance course started and has been a great success so far with students working hard to learn new dance choreography skills, improve their knowledge of the dancer and perfect their performance skills. This half term has seen the GCSE and AS Dancers experience a new style of dance - ballet! The students range in ability, some being very talented ballerinas, others having little or no experience of this disciplined dance style. Students have worked hard to perfect the basic techniques in order to improve their performance skills.
Community Performance Evening – a popular annual event owing to the wide variety of contributors and performances. This year, Adult Education evening class students showed off their new found skills in Line Dancing and Belly Dancing, whilst students from Y7, Y10, Y11, Y12 and Y13 demonstrated a range of musical and dance skills in imaginatively choreographed groups and as accomplished soloists.
Sansome & George Christmas Card – The Art department has once again been commissioned to design this year’s card.
Pensioners’ Party – This annual event, run by the Sixth Form for local residents, was held on the 15th and a fantastic time was had by all. Our drama students produced some fabulous festive entertainment so thank you and well done to all of you!
Christmas Carol Concerts – These were held on the 14th December and all ages were involved in making them a great success.
DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY NEWS
KEN PRIEST IS RETIRING
Many of you know Ken through the work that he does in technology and around the school. He is a ‘Mr Fixit’ and adviser for those jobs that “only take a little time”, especially those emergency ones!
Ken has been at Theale for 14 years seeing many changes in staff as well as the buildings. Through that time, much credit must be given to Ken for constructing the display cabinets and fixtures that make the Design & Technology department the pleasant working area that it is and a great debt of gratitude is owed to him for all of his hard work.
Ken deserves a long and happy retirement to do all those jobs in life that never quite get finished and enjoy many relaxing holidays in Portugal.
Many thanks Ken for all of your work, we shall miss your patience.
Ken has a replacement however, he is Mr Tom Bayley, and I’m sure that he will be able to step straight into Ken’s job, but do give him a little time to settle in.
BUS PARK
We are delighted to have planning permission for a new bus park which will be built along the side of our playing fields next to the Bradfield Road.
Plans can be viewed from the start of next term in the school foyer.
Work will start early next term and be completed by Easter.
YOUTH SPEAKS OUT
On the 22nd November three sixth form students represented Theale Green in The Rotary Club Youth Speaks Out competition. Emily Russell, Laura Myers and Lucy Houldey formed a public speaking team, consisting of a chairperson, main speaker and a vote of thanks. Whilst our team was eventually beaten by Queen Anne’s, the girls gave assured, intelligent and thought provoking performances against fierce competition from a wide range of local schools. In particular, Laura’s main speech – on the Western world’s misplaced priorities – received several compliments from members of the audience.
Well done to all three girls. Ms Hanle
TRAMPOLINING NEWS
A senior girls' team was entered into the Regional competition and once again we did very well. The team of Rebecca Stretton, Jenny Godding, Helen Morris, Lucy Knight and Kay Addyman came third in the overall team competition. Rebecca Stretton did us all proud by winning the individual contest.
The Year 8’s have just completed a terms trampolining and all seem to enjoy the club.
Letters for the next set of 10 sessions are now ready for collection from the PE office.