Year 10 Educational Challenge Day

The winning team with the panel of judges

Year 10 Educational Challenge Day  -  Report by James Gander

  

What better way to get students interested in the world of business than to give them a day to create their own business plans, design products and pitch them to a panel of expert judges? You can’t think of anything? Oh! Well, luckily for you then, this is exactly what Year 10 students did last Wednesday, 20^th November.

The day began with a brief in the main hall, explaining that we had to create a new fashion brand as a social enterprise to support a local charity.  Everyone then split off into their PSHE groups and then into groups of between four and six people, and began to mind map all the ideas they could think of for their new brand.

Once each group had picked an idea to develop further for their final pitch, we had three lessons to plan everything – including pricing, business structure, products, marketing and channels of distribution. With some time in a computer room for each group, we also researched competitors and existing products on the market to ensure our product was unique, desirable and reasonably priced.  During our planning and preparation time we were given help, ideas and support by some of the business experts that would be judging the finalists later in the day.  Everything began to get a little tense as the end of lesson 4 approached, and each group was finalising their pitch (hopefully!).

During lesson 5 each group presented their idea to two judges and the rest of their PSHE group, and a winner was chosen from all six classes to go forward to the finals in front of all the business experts during lesson 6.  In my class ideas ranged from an app enabling you to try any clothes on a virtual version of yourself, to bags made from old clothing, and umbrellas with changeable handles and covers.  It was very interesting to see not only how different each group’s ideas were, but how most groups made very unique pitches – including singing, dancing, and clear explanations of their ideas and financial information.

The day concluded with the pitches from the six final groups made on the stage in front of the rest of Year 10, a panel of business experts and many members of staff.  As well as simply pitching their ideas, the students were put to the test by the judges who asked questions about each business idea, quizzing each group on their products, brand and financial predictions. A short break then followed as the judges left the room to discuss what they had seen and heard and make a decision on the winner of the day. The winning idea was a range of clothing for young people with disabilities, supporting Chailey Heritage School as their chosen charity (I can’t help feeling this was a better idea than the group that presented wet suits for fish – as unique as that might have been!).

I would like to say thank you to Miss Thompson and all of the business experts who made the day possible, as it was an enjoyable and valuable experience for everyone in Year 10.

The Class of 2013 Presentation Evening

The annual Presentation Evening of Certificates and Prizes took place on Thursday evening, 28th November.  Year 11 students from the Class of 2013 gathered with family members to receive their awards and celebrate their achievements.

Mrs Young welcomed them and presented the certificates with the help of Mr Harris, Key Stage 4 Director.

Mr J Paine, Chairman of Governors, was our special guest who presented the individual prizes, the Duke of Edinburgh Silver Awards and the Governors' Awards.  He gave an inspirational speech about the students' achievements and the opportunities that awaited them all in their future lives.

Mr Harris gave the students a nostalgic glimpse of their lives at Chailey with "The Class of 2013 - A Look Back at the Year".

Year 8 Research the Human Circulatory System

Science goes inspirational and creative!

Year 8 took the homework task of creating a model of the human circulatory system to another creative level.  The task was a three week project to explain the circulatory system and the journey a red blood cell may take around the body. Linking together the topics learnt in class, students could present their work in any format. The most original pieces included:

• Ed Walker-Reilly's life size model, made from paper mache, with excellent descriptions and annotations of the blood flow around the body
• Eavie Churchill's exciting and realistic game where you had to be a red blood cell and take a journey around the body
• Sam Boswell's car full of oxygen and carbon dioxide balloons and an excellent video production of the Shoreham flyover roundabout as the heart and Shoreham airport as the lungs - the satellite navigator was even programmed to say the name of major arteries!
• Finally Cleo Demetriou's poem in which she included very complex scientific detail throughout. 

Outstanding work Y8 and true Scientists to be !!

Well Done from Mrs Chalcroft.

Newick Primary School Break-Out Day

Year 6 Design Technology Visit 

A group of Year 6 students from Newick visited Chailey yesterday, (Tuesday, 26th November), to have a taste of Design Technology as part of the Newick Breakout Programme.  Students were excited to use Computer Aided Design and to learn how this is used in industry to manufacture everyday products with precision and speed.  Their brief was to create an attractive pen stand with a package label, suitable for young children to use on their desks at home.  They started by using the strip heater to bend their laser cut pen stand shapes into form and then experimented with tone, fine liners and pencils to create a unique packaging label. The final products were excellent.

Well done to all involved - from Mr Deacon.

Mrs Scott-Smith

Stem Co-ordinator

Year 11 Drama trip to Brighton to see 'Kindertransport'

Miss Hutton, Curriculum Leader of Drama, writes:

On Friday, 22nd November, Miss Hall and I took the Year 11 GCSE Drama students to see Diane Samuels' play 'Kindertransport' at the Theatre Royal, Brighton. 

The production was a brilliant realisation of the play and brought home the terrible survivors’ guilt felt by many of the Jewish children who escaped Nazi Germany.  The production will certainly give us a great deal to work with as we begin to write our assessment review of a live performance.

On behalf of the Drama department and my Year 11s, I'd like to extend my thanks to Miss Hall for giving up her Friday night to assist on this trip.

Children in Need

Children in Need

Every form in Years 7, 8 and 9 had a stall in the Sports Hall to raise money for this annual fund-raising event.  Cake stalls, confectionery stalls, Tin Can Alley, Pin the Eye Patch on Pudsey, Guess the Name of the Teddy, even a Chailey Mocktail Bar.  The Sports Hall was packed with most of the school and staff and an amazing £750 was raised in an hour during the lunch break.

Switch-off Fortnight 2013

Chailey School is taking part in Switch Off Fortnight 2013 and saving energy!

Switch-Off Fortnight has been organised by EDF Energy’s national education programme, the Pod, to encourage schools to reduce their energy consumption and inspire families and friends to adopt the same good energy habits. The campaign runs from Monday, November 18th to Sunday, December 1st and schools across the country are taking part.

The campaign will focus on the ‘take it home’ message, encouraging pupils to take their awareness of energy saving into their homes, to inspire families and friends to adopt the same good energy habits.  Mr Cossutta, our Eco Co-ordinator,  will be challenging the Year 7 students to be ‘energy secret agents’ who will be on a ‘secret mission’ to audit the energy wastage in their households, from appliances on standby to lights left on and talking with their family members about why it is important to save energy – not only will it help reduce carbon emissions but help save money on energy bills.   They will be reporting back their findings so you have been warned!!!!!

GCSE Poetry with Year 10 students

How can a mobile phone, a gun, cowboy boots and hats, an empty beer bottle and love sweets in a bowl be used in a Year 10 English lesson?  Miss Hall used these objects to help students understand and relate to 'Quickdraw' , one of the poems Year 10 are studying in their English GCSE poetry anthology.  The students all found the lesson creative, enjoyable and effective and are now hoping 'Quickdraw' comes up in the exam!

World War One Poetry

Year 9 English students have been teaching their peers World War One Poetry.   The class discussed what made an outstanding lesson and how they learned best.   In groups, they chose the poem that they would like to teach and prepared their resources and activities.  The lessons were varied: one group made a video to accompany a reading of the poem, another used role play to explore the themes and many lessons involved visualisation tasks on mini whiteboards.

Year 7 rise to the challenge!

On Saturday, 12^th October, Year 7 went on their first Chailey School trip. They started off at the school, bright and early, with everyone buzzing with excitement (even the teachers!)  Everyone got put into groups of around 15 people, and then got onto the coaches.  After the 30 minute ride, they were there - Trekco at Blacklands Farm.

Firstly, the groups met their team leader who would guide them round their activities. There were lots of different activities for everyone to do from tree climbing, to abseiling and different group activities where you had to work as a team; otherwise you wouldn’t pass the challenge.  The most popular one was probably the tree climb.  In the tree climb, the target was to ring a bell, but to get there you had to complete different obstacles such as climbing big staples and going across wobbly swings and bridges 10 metres up in the air!!!  The next challenge was a team challenge called the Titanic.  In this challenge you had to get the whole team from one side to another with out touching the ground and all you had was a rope swing to get across!  Most teams succeeded if they worked together well.  Then it was lunch!

Most groups had only 20 minutes for lunch, and then as soon as the groups had finished it was on to the next activity.  Our next activity was abseiling.  In this activity you had to climb lots of stairs to get to the top of a 15 metre wall.  Then you were harnessed on to drop down the wall and land on a coloured square.  Most people did it but some people were scared of heights.  There was lots of cheering as everyone encouraged their own team members to complete the task.

It was nearing the end of the day, but there was still one challenge left - the egg challenge!  In this challenge everyone had to wrap their group egg which they had managed to look after all day.  It was a challenge where you had to drop your wrapped up egg from the very top of the abseil tower!  Only one egg survived!!!

Too soon it was time to go home.  Everyone had an AMAZING day and had made some new friends, so a big THANKS to the all the staff at Blacklands Farm, all the teachers from school who came along and of course, Mrs Hickman for organising it all.

 

Highlights from Twelfth Night

The storm begins.......

The storm rages.......



Sir Toby and Sir Andrew living the good life!

The ensemble

 

Real Life Drama

On Friday, 8^th November, the Year 10 GCSE Drama group were visited by the TIE (Theatre in Education) company ‘Ice and Fire’ who work on behalf of the charity Amnesty International.  It was perhaps the most emotional and uplifting two and a half hours we’ve spent in school, challenging our assumptions on asylum seeking not only in Britain but also France. 

Sue ran the powerful and thought provoking first session, ending in her taking on the role of ‘Marjorie’, a Ugandan woman who was arrested and tortured for daring to stand up to her country’s political regime.  The performance she gave brought to life the emotional journey Marjorie took from capture, to escape, to the emotional pain of the British asylum system and finally the joy of being granted permanent refuge in the UK.

We were then introduced to another lady, who had arrived a little later in the session.  Her name was Marjorie.

After hearing her story brought to such vivid life by Sue, it was with great emotion that we welcomed the real life Marjorie.  As you can see from the picture that the class, in a spontaneous act of welcome and admiration, embraced her!

We would like to thank Mr Dale for taking the first steps in creating this link with Amnesty International and Ice and Fire.  We look forward to working together as a class and later as a school to forge closer links with the two organisations, along with Priory School.

 

 



 

Workshop leader, Sue explains the work 'Ice and Fire' do in partnership with Amnesty.  Her passion and drive when talking and performing made the theme of asylum seeking immediate and compelling.

 

 

 

 

After seeing Sue perform a harrowing account of human rights violations in Uganda and asylum seeking in the UK, made by a Ugandan woman named Marjorie, we were overwhelmed with delight to met Marjorie herself!

 

 

 

The Year 10 GCSE Drama class with the 'Ice and Fire' team.  A morning we're sure we won't forget.

 





 

 

 

Fantastic Footballers!

In September the Year 7 Chailey football team were invited to trials for the Under-12's East Sussex District Football Club.  There were two rounds of trials,  with approximately  70 children taking part.  From this large number of participants, a team of 18 players were chosen.

From Chailey the following students have been selected for the team:

Daniel Allen

Harry Reinecker-Found

Scott Ridley

Scott Robinson

Marley Stoner

The team train in Paddock Wood every other Monday and play on Saturdays.  They travel across Kent, Sussex and into London to play their matches and we congratulate them all on their success and commitment to their sport. 

Dutch visit to Chailey

We hosted a visit from 24 Dutch students and their two teachers on Thursday, 7th November.  Their school is in Utrecht and they have been learning English for one term.  This was their first experience of an English school and they accompanied their Chailey 'buddies' to lessons during the day.  The Dutch teachers, who were Drama and Geography specialists, also spent some time in these departments and were interested to see how their subjects are taught here. 

It was a successful and enjoyable day and contact details were exchanged by the students so they will be able to keep in touch.

Bringing Shakespeare to life!

On Wednesday, 23^rd October, Roedean Theatre in Brighton was taken over by the Shakespeare Schools' Festival, along with four local schools and their half-hour versions of four different Shakespeare plays. 

Our production was ‘Twelfth Night’ and it really captured the beauty and humour of the characters (even those playing drunkards)!  "This is the eighth Shakespeare Festival I have directed while at Chailey", writes Miss Hutton, "and each year I am continually bowled over at the talent, enthusiasm and passion of all the actors involved; it really is a festival atmosphere at the theatre.  Thank you to everyone who supported us and for your feedback and emails, they have helped make this a truly memorable event."

Come and see our production of ‘Twelfth Night’ on Wednesday, 18^th December, as part of our Christmas Show!