Year 7 Readathon

Year 7 will be taking part in Readathon, a sponsored read.  Since 1984, Readathon has raised more than £25 million and has helped encourage millions of children read more books.  

Readathon is a national sponsored read which aims to raise a million pounds every year for sick children.  It works just like a sponsored walk or swim, except that the children read books or do other literacy-based activities in exchange for pledges of money.  The money raised is donated to CLIC Sargent and The Roald Dahl Foundation, who spend it helping children and young people in Britain suffering from cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, leukaemia, epilepsy, blood disorders or acquired brain injury.  It also benefits ReadWell, a charity providing books and storytellers for children in hospital.  The Readathon will run from Monday 3rd March to Monday 17th March.  

Reading for pure enjoyment is known to improve a child's chances in life in all kinds of ways - plus our school will get free books worth 20% of the total money we raise. 

"Inspiring children to read is one of the greatest gifts you can give them. I'd recommend Readathon to anyone."  Julia Donaldson, author

  

Arts Awards success

Many congratulations to this year’s cohort of Arts Awards students who, following moderation, have now successfully passed their awards. Students have been encouraged to enrol into the programme, which is designed to provide inspiration across the arts to develop their own personal interests and to receive a nationally recognised qualification. Projects this year included web design, film making fashion design, dance and drama in both bronze and silver categories.

Mrs Johnson will be starting the new group in the next two weeks, so look out for information in your registers.

Key Stage 3 Inter-Form competition half-way results

The Key Stage 3 Inter-Form Competition 2013-14 is half way through the academic year.  The competition is a chance for each form group in Years 7, 8 and 9 to show their talent, team work and competitive edge! The competition has cross curricular challenges to allow all students to shine in their area of expertise. To date, the completed tasks have included Merit Mark Awards, Notice Board Design Challenge, Spelling Competition, Cross Country running, Speed Maths Challenge (see picture) and Art Attack.  There are many more other stimulating tasks ahead and the competition will draw to a close in May 2014.  The winning form group from each year group is rewarded with a 'Celebration Day' at the end of June.  Current Scores are below:

	Year 7	Year 8	Year 9
1st	Glynde – 29	Ashdown - 23 Caburn - 23 Ditchling – 23	Ashdown - 31
2nd	Ashdown – 27		Ditchling - 22
3rd	Firle - 22 Ditchling – 22		Caburn – 21 Firle – 21 Glynde - 21
4th		Firle - 22
5th	Caburn - 18	Glynde - 16

Ski Team Chailey USA 2014

Democracy and Drama in action!

King Archie chooses his loyal lords and ladies - some were chosen on personal merit, others employed a spot of bribery! 

Miss Hutton writes:

On Monday, 10^th February, the Drama department welcomed local production group ‘The Company’ to Chailey as part of their preparations for the latest site specific production they are creating.  The production is in connection with the 750^th anniversary of the Battle of Lewes.

Our group of thirty year 7 volunteers had a wonderful time exploring the theme of democracy through a series of high energy games, tasks and discussions.  All the feedback from each task will help enrich the script being created by The Company’s playwright, Suzi Hopkins.

We wish The Company every success with their new venture and look forward to the possibility of seeing a local production company in action.

Chailey saving energy

Albert Pullinger powering up the lightbulbs

 Mrs Hutchinson writes:

OVESCO Ltd came to Chailey School to do an assembly to our Year 8 and Year 9 students about saving energy and the PV panels that they erected on the school roof during the summer.  Students watched a six-minute video made by Cambridge University on how many equivalent lightbulbs (running 24 hours) are used by every person in the UK.

1 hot bath - 5 lightbulbs

Heating and Hot water in an average house  - 40 lightbulbs

Transport, driving 50 kms - 40 lightbulbs

On average each person is using the equivalent of 125 lightbulbs.

Two students, Lydia Hicks and Albert Pullinger, then took turns on a bicycle attached to some lightbulbs to show how much energy it would take to get 200 kilowatts of electricity.  Both managed 180 kilowatts and they had to cycle really fast!

In the UK 90% of our energy still comes from fossil fuels and so to replace that we would need to build 3000 nuclear power stations or 600,000 wind turbines.

Chailey School’s PV panels save us £2,400 per year on the energy bill and save 1100 tonnes of carbon emissions.  We have 14 Eco prefects and they are always working hard to think of ideas to save energy around our school BUT we can always do more:

Use less paper

Turn off computers and lights when not in classrooms

Re-use the same water bottle

Close doors and windows to keep the heat in

Thank you Chris and Nick from OVESCO for a really interesting assembly.

Chailey victorious in English Speaking Union competition

Tom, Rhiannon and Odhran

Mr Dale writes:

Chailey – in the form of Odhran O’Donoghue (Speaker), Rhiannon Goss (Chair) and Tom Stone (Questioner) - emerged victorious in the area heat of the English Speaking Union competition held at Brighton College and comprising teams from Priory, Brighton College itself, Moira House and Brighton and Hove School for Girls.

All three were highly commended for their contributions. Odhran’s wonderfully inventive rumination on the title ‘The search for extra terrestrial activity is a colossal waste of government time and money’ won him plaudits from every sector of the transfixed audience – but in particular from the judges who regarded it as ‘superb’.

He spoke without notes for 5 minutes, riding the laughs, as he very cleverly and often satirically attacked the proposition. Equally eloquently he then defended himself against a barrage of questions from the audience and other students.

Just as important – as this is a team competition – were the contributions of Rhiannon and Tom, both of whom had to join the team from Priory for their presentation. Rhiannon commanded the stage increasingly ‘developing a good rapport with the audience’ as one of the judges remarked. Tom had the potentially tricky job of probing a very clever speech about dying with dignity but he carried it off with aplomb and emerged as the best questioner of the night.

The school together with Priory go forward to the area final leaving three prestigious public schools in their wake – all the more piquant in the light of Mr Gove’s recent remarks.

Year 11 trip to Poetry Live Brighton 6th February 2014

The Poets appearing at Brighton Dome

Simon Armitage

Gillian Clarke

John Agard

Carol Ann Duffy

Imtiaz Dharker

Grace Nichols

Miss Hall and Ms Burke accompanied Year 11 students to the Brighton Dome to see and hear performances from these poets.  The day provided a wonderful opportunity for the students to see the poets they have been studying for their English GCSE Poetry exam.

Year 11 being creative with Romeo and Juliet

Shannon Beardsmore Year 11 writes:

For our GCSE English Literature Controlled Assessment we are studying Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. To help us understand relationships and status in the family, we had to create both formal and informal portraits of the Capulet and Montague families. There was a general consensus that the males of each family would be standing up and the females would generally be sitting down in the formal picture. Also the master of the house would be standing in the middle of the picture, showing his authority. This was a good way for us to learn and understand where power lies and consider the status of men and women in the late 1500s.

As well as doing the photos we did a drama activity called: ‘Whoosh!' which gave us an overview of the play in an active way instead of just reading the play from the book. This has all made it easier to learn the play, as it is more interactive and it is making you think more than just sitting and reading the play out of the book.  Just as Shakespeare intended!

Year 7 Trip to Lewes Castle

On Monday 3^rd February, Year 7 went to Lewes Castle. We went because at the moment we are learning about Normandy and the Battle of Hastings, so Lewes Castle was the perfect place to go.

The day started off with a tour of the castle and the story behind it.  It was an amazing tour in which we all learned a lot. We started off at the bottom of the castle and made our way up to the top. It was very, very windy but we persevered and made it right to the top! We even discovered how William, Duke of Normandy, managed to attack.

After the tour we went to the museum which was very interesting.  We learned from old artefacts how Lewes grew as a town.  There was a presentation and a very interesting detailed model of Lewes.  There was also a gift shop which everyone enjoyed!!!  Then it was lunch.

After lunch we did some role play.  Everyone had to dress up as a king or a queen and then make a speech about how they would attack the castle. Everyone came up with different ideas but they were all fantastic and cunning!

Finally we all looked at local artefacts such as pottery and knives and found out what they were and everyone enjoyed it!

Then it was time to go home. We all very much enjoyed the day and we learned a lot. So thank you very much to all the teachers who took us there and to everyone at Lewes Castle.  We all had a lot of fun!

By Imogen Smith and Katy-Mae Gibbs

The Lewes Castle trip was fascinating and thought provoking.  We learned the most effective ways to attack the castle using the landscape around us and the 3D model. Our group was lead by Mr Cullen who was very useful as a great source of information. We also did three other activities including the castle work sheet, the guided tour of the castle and an artefacts workshop.  We really enjoyed the trip and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys history.

By Sam Hollingsworth and John Macleod