ST HELEN’S PRIMARY SCHOOL

The 2015/2016 Academic Year marks the 50^th Anniversary of St Helen’s Primary School, being located on its current site in Alveston.  To celebrate this occasion, the whole school community is concentrating its efforts on raising funds to build a brand new Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) on the site of a redundant outdoor swimming pool.  The aim is to mark this special year by transforming an area of the school site and leaving something for future generations of children in Alveston to enjoy.

To achieve this, £70,000 needs to be raised.  They are hoping to reach this target through a mixture of grant funding, school PTA and individual donations.

They are going to create a paved pathway leading up to the new Multi-Use Games Area and are inviting people to purchase their very own limited edition brick, professionally engraved with your name or special message. This will become a permanent legacy to St Helen’s 50^th Anniversary project.  The pathway will be made from high quality paving bricks.  You can choose from a single paver (£50) or a double paver (£75) and then work out what message you would like to be engraved on your brick!

For more information click the link below:

MUGA LINK

TRIP TO ITALY

For the fourth time, the Humanities Faculty took 45 students on a fantastic tour of the Bay of Naples, Italy to experience first-hand things that they had studied in class, or to enhance their cultural and historical awareness. Visits to Mount Vesuvius and Solfatara gave Geography students a rare glimpse into a volcano, along with the sights; very powerful smells (Sulphur) gave them a sensory overload. They had very enjoyable visits to Pompeii, Herculaneum and Capri which gave them insights to how the famous eruption of 79AD affected the Roman world.

A guide who accompanied the trip wrote to me stating  - “I wanted to send a quick email just to applaud their behaviour and attitude to their studies during the trip, they were a real credit to Marlwood School and to Mr Helliker and the staff team, you should feel really proud of them.”

Well done to staff and students – it sounds like you had an excellent learning experience!

BRAIN TUMOUR SUPPORT

Well done to students and staff at Marlwood School who raised £197.50 for Brain Tumour Support.  A special thank you goes to Ellie Clark who organised this event.

POST-16 VISIT

A group of students from our joint Post-16 provision with The Castle School enjoyed a day out at Oxford University to give them an insight into life at university to help them make future choices.

OSCAR AND BAFTA WINNING SCRIPTWRITER BOB BAKER

Both students and staff alike were delighted to meet Oscar and BAFTA winning scriptwriter Bob Baker last Friday.

Mr Baker, who co-authored the Wallace and Gromit films and has written for Doctor Who, spent the day talking to students about life in the film industry.

Starting the morning talking to sixth formers studying creative and media courses before working with children from other years, Mr Baker shared some of his past experiences and answered questions as well as playing some of his work, including a short film he made when he was 16-years-old.

As well as copies of the Flora’s World books, he brought a range of his works and memorabilia to show the students, including a model of one of his creations, Doctor Who character K9, and two eye-catching BAFTA awards.

ROTARY YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER AWARDS

We were delighted to welcome Richard Hiscock and Richard Craddy from the Rotary Club into school on Thursday 2^nd March to present to certificates and cheques to six of our students who had recently been successful in the Rotary Club Competition.

The winners were:-

Senior Competition

Georgina Lewis

Oscar Knowles

Intermediate Competition

Simon Kitson

Megan Handover

Pippa Sumner

These students entries were then put through to the District 1100 Competition, which Freya Bigwood went on to win the Senior Age Category.

Well done to you all!

GO BANDANAS!

On Friday 3^rd March we welcomed a team in from Brain Tumor Support formerly known as Hammer Out into school to sell bandanas to raise money for families affected by brain tumors.  This is a local charity who we have supported for a number of years on their ‘Go Bandanas Day’

FAIR FUNDING FOR SCHOOLS

You may have seen in the national and local press articles related to the increasingly difficult funding situation faced by schools.  This is a national issue and schools across the country are faced with very difficult decisions.

It has been hoped schools such as Marlwood, that a government pledge to introduce a ‘National Fair Funding’ formula would alleviate the difficult financial situation we are facing.  Sadly this has proved to not be the case.

We each expect the best education for our children, quite rightly so, however all schools are faced with decisions around their expenditure as a result of the current funding that will require us to reduce the services we offer.  It is always difficult telling people that there is no longer enough money to provide the services that have been taken for granted for a long time but we have reached crisis point along with most other schools in South Gloucestershire and many across the country.  We will manage these decisions with the full intention of maintaining the quality of learning experience of our young people.

We ask for your support:

1)    Your understanding that the way our schools are run may need to change

2)     With our petition at Click here for the link

3)   By writing to your local MP asking them to voice our concerns in parliament.  If you feel so inclined I have placed a sample letter here and your MP will be either:

Jack Lopresti MP

29 The Courtyard

Woodland

Bradley Stoke

South Gloucesershire

BS32 4NQ

E-mail: jack.lopresti.mp@parliament.uk

or

Luke Hall MP
26 The High Street 
Chipping Sodbury
South Gloucestershire 
BS37 6AH
E-mail: Luke.hall.mp@parliament.uk

We hope that you feel able to support our campaign, and I thank you in advance.

PARENT CONSULTATION 2

Parent Consultation 2 will be taking place on Thursday 16^th March.  Preparations are underway for the event and we look forward to meeting parent/carers then.  Information can be found on the school website or you can follow the link below.

Parent Consultation 2 Information

POST 16 INTERVIEWS

Mrs Davies, Director of Post 16, Miss Thomas, Assistant Headteacher and I have been interviewing Year 11 students who have applied to attend Post-16 in September.  We have all been very impressed with the high quality of interviews taking place and will look forward to welcoming them back in September ready to start Post-16 study.

NEW INTAKE

We have now had our list of new students from the local authority who will be transferring from primary school to us in September.  Initial paperwork will be sent out in the next few days and we look forward to welcoming them to Marlwood.  The Parents’ Information Evening will be held on Wednesday 28^th June and the Student Visit Day is on Thursday 29^th June for all those of you who like to plan!

TERM 4

Welcome back to Term 4 – this is a little late as the blog has not been working so far this term which is all tied into the IT infrastructure changes which took place over half term.  Term 4 is a busy term for both staff and students with exam preparation for when the external exams start in Term 5.