Turnford School

Mill Lane

Cheshunt

Hertfordshire

EN8 0JU

Tel: 01992 308333

Fax 01992 308444

Email:

office@turnford.herts.sch.uk

Website:

www.turnford.herts.sch.uk

Twitter: @TurnfordSch

Newsletter - Week ending 14th March 2014

w/b Monday 17th March is a week 1

Dear Parents/Carers

The newsletter is designed to give you information on

events that are coming up and to celebrate student and

staff achievements. It is also written in line with the

school improvement plan. The blue headings are the

objectives the school is working towards this year.

2014

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Year 9 Options Evening

Options evening for year 9 takes place next Tuesday evening the 18th March. Attendance at this

event is really important in order for you and your child to be clear what options are available as

they move into GCSEs and how you complete the process of selecting their future subjects. Start

time is 6 p.m. We look forward to seeing our Year 9 students and parents.

Proposed strike

Please make sure you have a plan in place for March 26th. We are awaiting confirmation from the

unions as to whether the strike is going ahead and will know 7 days in advance. We are currently

exploring options to secure the school open for all examination classes but closure for the Key stage

3 and 10. However this is not set in stone as we are awaiting final numbers.

To further improve teaching and learning we are working:

T1 To ensure that all teachers have high expectations and challenge students so that they are able to

make good progress

T2 To continue to improve the quality of teaching so that all is good or better

T3 To ensure that marking gives good guidance to students on how to improve

A summary of the news this week:

Year 9 Options Evening

Proposed strike 26th March

End of term – 4th April

Year 7 & 8 intervention evening feedback

H/W guidance (attachment)

Turnford Creative Arts Presentation Evening

Sports Relief 2014

Sainsbury’s Active Kids Vouchers

SMSC revision

Canteen system

Church of England affiliation

Help for Heroes gig

KS3 water safety talks

Maths challenge success

Films for the hub please

Music concert

School security

The end of term will be Friday 4th April. Students will be dismissed from school at 1 noon. Those

students who have free school meals will be able to use their allowance at break.

Year 7 and 8 intervention evening

Year 7 and 8 Parents met on Tuesday with Heads of Year and myself to give us further feedback on

the new homework policy. Thank you to the parents/carers who supported this event.

You said we could improve the system further by We did

Making sure that the new marking procedure goes into place and that you can see the feedback coming through the planners on a weekly basis.

Updated our core key stage 3 team to make sure they are planning marking and feedback time into their lesson.

If a student loses their homework you wanted to know what they could do.

Spare copies are found in the student office. Also we will as of Monday publish all homework given out for the week on the website under the homework tab.

You would still like us to explore a book for homework that goes home to you.

This is difficult but we are thinking about what we can do to support this.

You wanted clarity about who to contact if something in the system breaks down.

If your child hasn’t received homework please contact their form tutor or head of year via email. (please make sure they pick a copy up from student office in the meantime or print off from the web). If your child is struggling with the homework or you have a query about what is being set you can now contact your class teacher or Miss Colley Maths: Victoria.colley@turnford.herts.sch.uk Mr Howells Science: Frank.howells@turnford.herts.sch.uk Mrs Sylvester English Victoria.sylvester@turnford.herts.sch.uk If you have received a text for no homework and your child was ill and we have missed this please contact Sharon Clarke on: Sharon.clark@turnford.herts.sch.uk

You liked the Science worksheets where the levels were together so that if you found them too easy you could select the work from the next level up and vice versa.

We will talk to leads to see how we can incorporate this idea into future homework.

Homework guidance

Please see accompanying guidance given out to Parents on how to support their child with their

learning at home.

New staff

We welcome the following staff to the school:

Mrs Sylvester who returns from maternity leave back to English.

Ms Elgee our new Science teacher.

Mrs Wilkojc will be returning part time over the next two weeks as she recovers from her skiing

injuries and then in full post Easter.

Turnford Creative Arts Presentation Evening ‘Applause’

You are invited to come, watch and support Turnford Creative Arts Presentation Evening

“APPLAUSE” at the Broxbourne Civic Theatre on 19th March 7pm start. Please feel free to come at

6.15pm when the bar will be open and tours of art and photography work will commence. The

presentation will include performances of dance, drama, music and fashion from the art

students.

Tickets are £8 per adult and £4 concession (please note a proportion of the money raised will be

donated to a local charity). Please be aware that tickets are selling fast so do not miss out as this

promises to be a great evening of entertainment. Please make cheques payable to Turnford School

with your child’s name printed clearly on the envelope and how many tickets you require. Tickets can

be purchased from Mrs Puchalski.

Thank you for your support

Colette Puchalski

Colette.puchalski@turnford.herts.sch.uk

Procedure for Student illness

Turnford School are supporting Sport Relief this year on Friday 21st March 2014. All students will be

asked to support this charitable cause by wearing non uniform school and donating £1. Students will

be told in assembly next week about the details of the day but it will include an opportunity to

complete a 1 mile fun run (or walk) as well as some other sport related activities throughout the

day. Students are also able to collect a sponsorship form from the PE department or can download

one from here if they would like to collect additional funds but students will be asked to send this to

Sport Relief themselves.

Sainsbury’s Active Kids Vouchers

Turnford School are collecting these vouchers and we would be extremely grateful for all vouchers

that you could donate to us. They can be used to order new equipment for all of our students to use

but we need as many as possible to make a difference. When you shop in any Sainsbury’s store

could you please ask for the vouchers and then send them into school with your child. They will be

To further improve the behaviour and attendance we are working towards:

BS1 improving attendance

BS2 improving the progress of our most vulnerable students

BS3 encouraging a positive attitude to learning in students

asked to either give them to their form teacher or bring them straight to the PE department where they

will be collected and counted.

We really appreciate your help with this. P.E. Department

SMSC Revision

‘The SMSC team have been running revision sessions for the year 11s every Thursday lunch time.

This is a great chance for students to chat to their teacher about exam technique and any areas that

they are struggling with. Each week we have been getting students to complete exam questions

whilst having a cup of tea and a biscuit; it’s the perfect combination! Please encourage your son/

daughter to attend as the feedback from students is really positive. They feel this is helping them to

improve their exam technique. Many thanks Miss Blank

Canteen system

A group of volunteer students are currently working with me to review the current changes to the

canteen system and to look at more sustainable strategies to further improve our eating habits

ensuring that sit down meals become the preferred option. We are also exploring with a local

recycling firm how we can improve our recycling system. Further updates at the end of term.

Church of England affiliation

We are currently in the process of affiliating to the Church of England in order to support the

significant work that already takes place in helping students to gain an understanding of their

spirituality and supporting them in providing a moral compass in their future lives.

Key Stage 3 Water Safety Talks

On Thursday 13th March Years 7, 8 and 9 had a presentation from Kelly-Sue Axford a Senior Youth

Schools’ Education Officer from Lee Valley Regional Park. The presentation covered the following:

Highlighting that rivers, lakes and navigations can be just as, if not more so, dangerous than the White Water Rafting Centre. The presentation highlighted what dangers there can be in areas such as the Lee Valley Park.

Dangers associated with rivers, lakes and canals/navigations (flow/currents, weeds, litter, locks, steep banks, unable to know what's underneath the surface)

Dangers in different seasons/situations e.g. Ice, duckweed (can look like solid ground to the unaware such as toddlers and dogs), temperature of water

Wildlife (disturbing habitats, protective water birds) Do's and Don'ts of rescuing people including showing of props that can be used to assist

rescue ( a student demonstration using a lifebuoy correctly) Q&A section

Students were keen to ask good questions about water safety showing they were thinking about the

information carefully.

Student Responses to the presentation:

Danny Phillips in Year 8 said he learnt “Not to go near rivers when you don’t know how deep it is and

never to jump in to rescue someone who you think is drowning.”

Tori Deluca in Year 8 said he had understood “Even if the river is calm don’t jump in after someone

as the current could be fast underneath the surface.”

Selen Yalcin also in Year 8 mentioned, “I learnt how to rescue a person in difficulty and not to lean

forward when going to rescue someone from a river.”Mrs Goodes

Maths Challenge

Well done to our Teams who did very well in the National Maths challenge. Our Team 2 went through to the final after they came second in the regional heats. Congratulations to:

Team 1 Basleale Tesfaye Ellie Robinson Ethan Morter Taylor Mackay Team 2 Holly Bennett Mark Thurlow Tommy Reeves James Evenden

HUB Club – U, PG and 12 film rating donations needed please!

We have recently had a new television installed into the HUB that we are using for break time and

lunch times as a time out tool for our most vulnerable cohort.

If anyone has any suitable films indoors which they no longer watch we would really appreciate

them being donated to our area. Thank you, Kathryn Webb Senco

Music Showcase Concert

Many thanks to everyone who supported this event. The organisation and performances were

outstanding. We raised £400 towards the cost of our Frankfurt trip - Brilliant!!!

(This includes Mrs Puchalski buying the Spurs tour for her husband – an ARSENAL supporter!!)

Congratulations on a wonderful concert Mrs Gant, Mr Barrow and Mrs Berry would like to add their congratulations on the wonderful concert. It certainly was a showcase for Turnford talent. Sincere thanks to the students and staff who worked so hard to prepare this first class show and to the families who supported it.

To further, our students’ outcomes we are working towards:

A1 making sure all subjects are able to show that their students have made good progress.

A2 establishing effective and consistent teaching of Communication (Literacy), and Maths across

the curriculum

To further our leadership capacity we are working towards:

L1 Ensuring that the leadership are unrelenting in their drive towards a good and outstanding

judgement in the next Ofsted.

School security All parents/carers coming onto the school site are asked to sign in at the Main Reception and at Community Sports after school hours. Visitors to the school during school hours will now be issued with a Visitors’ badge and lanyard that must be worn at all times whilst on school premises. Please do not be offended if you are challenged in school if you are not wearing the badge. Thank you for your help with our continued efforts to improve safeguarding around school. Rachel Engel Director of Finance & Resources.

18th March Y9 options evening

19th March Civic Hall Creative Arts Presentation Evening

April 1st Y7 parents’ evening

April 3rd

evening event Y10-13 dance performance 4

th April Y11 history day

School Holidays

Easter

Monday 7th April 2014 –

Monday 21st April 2014

(Return to school Tuesday

22nd April 2014)

May Day Bank Holiday

Monday 5th May 2014

(Return to school Tuesday

6th May 2014)

Whitsun Week

Monday 26th May 2014 –

Sunday 1st June 2014

(Return to school Monday

2nd June 2014)

Year End

Friday 18th July (time to be

confirmed)