Ex-Chailey student selected for Oxbridge

The 57% success rate for Varndean College students applying this year to go to Oxford and Cambridge universities is one of the highest achieved by the college for many years and is almost 3 times the national average for state schools.

Oxbridge Coordinator, Dr Sean McEvoy, said: 'This was our most successful year for Oxbridge applications in a very long time, with well over half of our applications being successful. At Varndean we are able to offer a great deal of up-to-date support and advice to students applying to top universities, and we are delighted to see our students doing so well.

One of the students was Juliette Caverly, ex-Chailey student, and we wish her every success for her future.

A Holocaust survivor shares his experiences with Year 9 students

We were privileged to receive a visit on Monday by Professor Ladislaus Lob who spoke to our Year 9 students about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor after being sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 11.  The visit was organised by Mrs Michica in the school's Humanities faculty with the Holocaust Educational Trust.  He described his childhood in Hungary during the German occupation and his deportation to Bergen-Belsen where he spent five months with his father before being sent to Switzerland.  He came to the UK in 1963 where he became professor of German at the University of Sussex.  He retired in 1998 and now visits schools and colleges across the country to talk about his experiences during the Holocaust.

His book ‘Rezso Kasztner- The Daring Rescue of Hungarian Jews: A Survivor’s Account’ can be found in the school library.  For more details about Professor Lob, please see his website ladislauslob.co.uk and for information about the Holocaust Educational trust visit www.het.org.uk

Yr 10 and 11 GCSE Drama trip to see 'The Woman in Black'

Miss Hutton writes:

On Thursday, 15^th January, we indulged in a bit of a scare at the Theatre Royal, Brighton!  You think the film ‘The Woman in Black’ is scary?  It’s worse when she’s right in front of you!

We’ll have lots to write about in our controlled assessment analysis of a live performance, as the production was superb and brilliantly acted, that is once we’ve stopped glancing over our shoulder to check ‘the woman’ isn’t there…

Jenny McLachlan visits Chailey

We were delighted to welcome the author Jenny McLachlan to Chailey this morning.   The author of 'Flirty Dancing' and 'Love Bomb' (published in March), told her audience of Year 8 and 9 girls how she became a published writer and how her characters are based on her own real-life experiences, including her own.  'Flirty Dancing' is the first in a four-book series aimed at 11-15 year old girls. The series is being published in six different countries, including the USA. For fourteen years, Jenny worked as a secondary school English teacher; she now writes full time and enjoys visiting schools and sharing her passion for reading and writing with young people. 

Her presentaton was followed by a book signing.  The library has three signed copies of 'Flirty Dancing' available so now is your chance to read the whole book and find out what happens to the shy heroine Bea in her quest to win a TV dance competition.

In Jenny's own words: 

"When I began writing Flirty Dancing, I wanted to write a book that combined the warmth and realism of Jaqueline Wilson and Hilary McKay, with the humour of Louise Rennison and Grace Dent.  Being a huge fan of the classic romance novels I also wanted to give teenage readers a spine-tingling fairytale ending."

After her presentation in the Hall she gave a creative writing workshop in the library  to 40 students. 

Lucy Jackson, Year 9, writes:

Yesterday the author of the book ‘Flirty Dancing’ visited our school to tell us about her writing career and answer any questions we may have had.

During period 2 she talked to us about her ideas for the story and a bit about her life and what she was like when she was a teenager. Firstly she described her teenage life and explained that she was always shy and this is represented in the book with the character Bea. She also shared some really funny and embarrassing moment from her teenage years. Then she told us about the importance of reading, showing us a slide with the picture of the brain and how clever the brain is when we read. At the end of the session we had a chance to ask any questions we may have wanted to know, and purchase a signed copy of her first book ‘Flirty Dancing’.

During periods 3, 4, 5 we were lucky enough to experience a fun-filled workshop lead by Jenny. She gave great tips and writing skills on how to create the perfect book. Such as: have a heart beating for the book, leaving gaps for the reader to fill in and a slowing and speeding up time to make it more interesting. We learnt so much on how to write a great book and even some help about where to look to get books published. The day with Jenny McLachlan was so inspiring for us all and we hope to meet her again!

Year 7 look at castles

Corin Beckwith of 7 Caburn writes:

On the 20^th January 7 Caburn went to the library in History for a lesson about castles.  We were split into groups to do some creative writing about medieval sieges and feasts. We got to play with the toy castle donated to the school by the Friends of Chailey School. There was a tent, a castle, a trebuchet, a battering ram and lots of unique knights. The pieces were really realistic so that we could think about how we could invade if it were in real life. We found out that we would need to find the castle’s weak point and use the battering ram to knock it down! The trebuchet could have been used for clearing out any soldiers on the tower.

 It was a great experience and was also really fun because there were plenty of parts to go around so everyone got a go. The castle seemed to have the same details as a real castle including archer windows so archers could shoot their bows.

I think that all year 7s should get a go at least once with this castle for the castle topic in History.

Southern Schools Book Award

Anne Cassidy, Phil Earle and Sally Nichols

The 2014 Southern Schools Book Award came to an exciting conclusion at Roedean School in Brighton last Friday evening when the Award ceremony took place.  Mr Smith and Mrs Duck accompanied the Year 9 reading group who have been reading and discussing the five short-listed books since last September.  

The SSBA is now in its tenth year and has grown to include 35 schools in Sussex, Kent and Surrey.  There were 350 students with librarians and teachers from across the region in Roedean's theatre to see who won this year's prestigious award. 
 
Kevin Brooks, last year's winner with 'Bunker Diary', hosted the evening.  The short-listed authors were Anne Cassidy 'Finding Jennifer Jones', Phil Earle 'Heroic', Nick Lake 'Hostage Three', Sophie McKenzie 'Split Second' and Sally Nichols 'Close Your Pretty Eyes.   


This year’s winner was ‘Split Second’ by Sophie McKenzie and the runner-up was Nick Lake’s ‘Hostage Three’.  One of the highlights of the evening is being able to see the authors talking about their writing and then, after the presentation, having the opportunity to meet them personally at the book signing.  It was unfortunate this year that Nick Lake was unable to attend due to a prior work commitment and, at the last moment,  Sophie McKenzie was unable to be there because of illness in her family.  Both authors provided video clips giving their thanks and appreciation for being included in the Award. 

In addition to these authors, Helen Watts, author of ‘One Day in Oradour’, received a special award to mark the tenth anniversary of the SSBA and she spoke movingly about her book which describes a true incident in France during World War II.

All the students were given a book voucher to spend on the night, or at a later date.  Long queues for the authors showed students' enthusiasm for the books they have read, and for the love of reading the awards is here to celebrate.

A report from the PE Department

Six students from year 9 and 10 travelled to Waterhall in Brighton for the Sussex Schools Cross Country event on Wednesday, 14th January. The event is used as a selection process for the Sussex Schools representative team with the top 20 in each race qualifying for the next round.  Although none of Chailey's runners qualified this time around, Alex Monson, Joey Webbon, Toby Potter Drake and Steph Eke from Year 9, and Louis Attfield-Davis and Charles Taylor from Year 10 all completed the race with most finishing in the top half of the field.

All students in Key Stage 3 were recently given a taster session of Judo during curriculum time by coaches from the Mid Sussex Martial Arts School. The taster session was designed to encourage students to come along to the newly relaunched Chailey Judo Club which runs every Tuesday after school. The sessions clearly had a positive impact with 28 students attending the club last week. 

After-school PE clubs are currently thriving at Chailey School with record numbers turning out each week to take part in our extra curricular programme. With over 60 students staying for an additional hour after school last Tuesday alone, it is clear that PE and sport is on the up at Chailey School. 

  

After-School Clubs at Chailey run by the PE Department

DAY	LUNCH	AFTER SCHOOL
MON	TRAMPOLINING Year 10/11 (GCSE) LT AESTHETICS SHOW PRACTICE KD	BOXING CLUB TRAMPOLINING
TUES	Boys INDOOR FOOTBALL Year 7 DH	INTERHOUSE JUDO CLUB
WED	Girls NETBALL ALL YEARS JM AESTHETICS SHOW PRACTICE KD	AESTHETICS CLUB TABLE TENNIS
THUR	AESTHETICS SHOW PRACTICE KD	PRIMARY FESTIVAL RUGBY CLUB RUNNING CLUB
FRI	Boys INDOOR FOOTBALL Year 10/11 BA	BASKETBALL CLUB

Football at Chailey

The school football season is almost finished. Chailey have football teams in every year group. The boys pictured are the Year 10 team fresh after Mr Simmonds had taken them to Uckfield TC. The boys battled out a 2-2 draw and put in a good performance. Reuben Haynes scored both goals.