April 2008 Issue No. 4

Eggar‛s celebrates a visit to 10 Downing Street for

‘Exceptional School Leadership‛

On Thursday 6 th March, Mrs Martin was one of 90 school leaders invited to a reception at 10 Downing Street in recognition of her role in supporting struggling schools, as a National Leader of Education (NLE). Mrs Martin was delighted to have the opportunity to meet Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, who was there with Ed Balls (Secretary of State for Children Schools and Families) to greet the NLEs, along with senior staff from the National College for School Leadership (NCSL). For the last 18 months Mrs Martin has been working with Head Teachers in seven Isle of Wight Schools. “Working with

other school leaders is an amazing experience - it is all about partnership working and sharing good practice.” Eggar‛s continued success has opened up a wide variety of opportunities. Among them was a recent visit to Eggar‛s by National Consultant Educationalist, David Potter, who took time to observe lessons and talked to teachers and listened to pupils. At the end of Mr Potter‛s visit we were delighted by his comments of Eggar‛s being “like a stick of rock – whichever way you broke it, it would be outstanding, it is like an extended family full of individuals who care about learning and each other.”

Picture courtesy of The Herald Newspaper

Yours sincerely

Felicity Martin Head Teacher

Congratulations on another outstanding term at Eggar’s School. It is wonderful to see how well you have settled and the progress you are making! Year 7 Exam week has been a huge success with teachers being impressed with the maturity and focus that was apparent during this important time. I am sure this is a sign of what Year 7 will be achieving in future examinations over the next few years. On a sporty note, the Year 7 netball team have continued their success from the beginning of the year by winning a recent tournament between local schools. Congratulations to all the regular players in the team and let’s keep winning! Interform sports are still keeping all of the form Tutors busy at lunchtimes on Tuesday’s, with a very close Danish Longball competition looking to end soon. As the results stand at the moment, any one of the six Tutor groups could win the whole years competition – it is excellent to see such a closely fought event. Make sure you continue to support your groups at every match! The rewards for Year 7 this half term have again been outstanding and I am certain that we as a Year Group have now exceeded all of the past records for merit totals! Each of the tutor groups has the ability to win with the most merits, so keep working hard and trying your best. I have been taking a close look at everyone’s attendance as to achieve your full potential it is important your atten- dance is high. I would really like to be able to give Year 7s as many 100% attendance certificates as possible. Well done on all of your achievements so far Year 7!

Mr J Wordsworth Year 7, Year Leader

The dance club at Eggar‛s is really fun. We have made a dance routine already and we now have some Year 8 pupils joining us. Our teachers, Miss McCready and Miss Masterman, are just brilliant and are always happy for new people to join. We are always open to new ideas and would be really interested in anyone that has taken part in any dance festivals or already dances for a club. Please come along and share your ideas and dance moves as we can then incorporate new techniques into our routines.

Here are just some quotes from some of the Dance club girls:

‘I enjoy the Dance Club because of the fab moves and ideas that people have put into them‛. Ciara Fearn 7CMc ‘I think it is fun because of the fact that you can make up any dance moves and they will be included somewhere in the dance routine.‛ Phoebe Anderson 7CMc ‘I enjoy dance because it is a great way to improve your skills and in a fun way too, I love the routines I have put for- ward so far. I would recommend this to anyone who likes dancing or just having some fun.‛

By Zoe Bennett 7CMc

Recently 94 of our students from Years 9, 10 and 11 took part in the exacting Intermediate Mathematics Challenge. This challenge is a test of logic and mathematical skill without the use of a calculator. The pupils rose to the test with 37 receiving certificates! There was just one ‘gold‛ which was awarded to Peter Allen of 11SW, congratulations and well done Peter! Silver awards went to Year 11 pupils Rosie Croft, James Luff, Max Madgwick, Cameron James and Hayley Ward and Bronze was awarded to James Flanagan, Jonathan Cook, Olivia MacCallum, Lyssa Badger, Kimberley Brigdale, Lee Washington, Isobel Reid, Heather Rowland and Connor West. Year 10 students receiving Silver awards were Hanna Gilbert, Victoria Minett, Thomas Fabian

and Jennifer Saunders, with Bronze going to Luke Millard, Cameron Alexander, Chris Capper, Kathryn Whitehead, Rhys Lloyd and Sophia Kelly. Our Year 9 pupils did equally well with Silver being awarded to Laura Fitzgibbon, Thomas Joy, Louise Macnaghten and Travis Richmond with Bronze going to Charley Pugh, Eleanor Sorsby, Jacob White, Claudia Vogt, Alice Pearson, Jessica Lock and Olivia Walton. Well done to all those who took part and good luck to our Year 7 and 8 pupils who will be entered for the Junior Mathematics Challenge in May. Can they match the Upper School‛s success?

Mrs S Woodward Mathematics Teacher

Just before half-term, our Year 10 Food Technology students enjoyed an Indian cookery demonstration by Mr Anil Sharma (Indiacallingcuisine.com). Mr Sharma visited our Food Technology Department to give our Year 10 Students the experience of watching and taking part in a professional cookery demonstration. Mr Sharma cooked a 4 course meal for the students which they enjoyed for their lunch!

This was a fantastic experience for the students, which allowed them to broaden their knowledge of multi cultural cuisine. Thank you for supporting this event.

Mrs A Roy and Ms R Hey Food Technology Department

School Calendar 2008 ­ Dates for your diary April 7 ­ 18 Easter Holiday SUMMER TERM 21 INSET DAY— No pupils in school

21 Y10 GCSE Geography trip to Calshot departs 23 Y10 GCSE Geography trip returns from Calshot

Y7 ‘Dr Dolittle’ trip to New Victoria Theatre, Woking from 18:00­23:15 24 Trip to ‘The Lion King’ at the Lyceum Theatre, London 17:00­12:00 28 Y10 Exam week 29 Y7 X­half Geography/Art trip to Kew Gardens 30 Y7 Y­half Geography/Art trip to Kew Gardens

Farnham College Y10 Opening Evening 18:00­21:00

May 1 Junior Maths Challenge

Y11 Music Showcase at 19:00 Bank Holiday 5 School closed

6 Y9 KS3 SATs tests begin 12 Y10 Work Experience begins

Y8 depart for residential trip to Fairthorne Manor, Botley 14 Y11 GCSEs begin

Richard Robinson lectures for:­ Y7/8 – Sense and sensibility Y10 – Why the one you fancy never fancies you? Community Lecture from 19:00 – Why toast always lands butter side down?

16 Y8 Return from Fairthorne Manor, Botley 20 Y5 Wootey Primary pupils visit for the day 21 Y5 Andrews Endowed primary pupils visit for the day

Y7 reports to parents 22 Y5 Bentley primary pupils visit for the day

26 ­30 HALF­TERM June 2 Return to school

5 Y7 Parents Evening from 16:00 in the hall 6 Y10 Drama exams 9 Y9 Field studies all week

Y10 Leisure & Tourism students visit to Guildford Spectrum Y10 Health & Social Care students visit to Treloars College this week

10 Y7 Art experience 11 Y7 Art experience

16 Y9 Field Studies Y9 Non core exam week

18 Y10 Reports to parents 19 Y6 Induction Evening 20 Y10 Drama exams 21 Eggar’s School Fete 24 09:15 Open morning for Ys 3­5 25 09:15 Open morning for Ys 3­5 26 Y10 Parents evening from 16:00 in the hall 27 Evening with the Big Band from 19:30 in the hall 30 Y10 Modular Science exams

July 1 Y11 Repeat module Science exams 2 Sports Day 3 Y11 Leaver’s Dinner at The Grange Hotel 8 Y7 X­half Geography/History trip to Winchester 9 Y7 Y­half Geography/History trip to Winchester

Holocaust Survivor visiting Y9 10 Awards Evening from 18:30 in the hall 11 Y9 GCSE History trip to Ypres, Belgium

Y6 Induction Day Reserve Sports Day

16 6th Great Music Challenge from 19:00 in the hall 22 Y9 Reports to parents 23 Last Day of Term

13 Y10 Imperial War Museum trip

Eggar’s Music Department proudly took the Chamber Choir, Big Band and the Rhythmatists to perform at the National Music for Youth Regional Festival on Thursday 13 th March. The Regional Festival of this National series was held at Taunton’s College in Southampton. All three groups performed exceptionally well and made a real impact on the audience and the judges. Positive comments were plentiful about the musical performances given by each of the ensembles. The Chamber Choir performed three pieces including a jazzy arrangement of the song Fever famously sung by Peggy Lee. The Big Band performed two pieces with soloists Kati Whitehead, Chris Capper and Talie Burkitt­Jones being very well received by the judges and audience alike.

The Rhythmatists exploded on the stage with a loud and confident performance, expertly showing how 26 percussionists can perform together with great accu­ racy. Selected groups from the Regional Festivals held all around the country, are invited to perform again at the National Festival in Birmingham in July. However, it will not be until the end of April before we find out if Eggar’s has been chosen! What­ ever happens, fun was had by all and we are looking forward to performing in the Festival again next year.

Mr M Farris and Mr N Smith Music Department

GCSE MUSIC SHOWCASE CHANGE OF DATE...

This year‛s GCSE Music Showcase has been moved to Thursday 1 st of May, a change from the original calendared date. This will be the second showcase following last year‛s very entertaining concert and is a chance for you to hear compositions and performance submitted as part of the GCSE course. The event is free and will start at 7.00pm

in the school hall. We look forward to seeing you!

EGGAR‛S 6TH GREAT MUSIC CHALLENGE

Wednesday 16th July

The Great Music Challenge is now in its 6 th

year and has established itself as one of the musical highlights of the year. The beginning of the summer term will see the launch of this annual competition to hunt out the most talented performers in the school, as pupils sign up for their chance to wow the judges at the audition stage. Successful acts will then perform live to a packed hall on Wednesday 16 th July in the Grand Final. When tickets go on sale for this popular event, snap them up quickly as every year has been sold out by the first week of release.

Mr M Farris and Mr N Smith Music Department

Congratulations to all of the performers who participated in the Spring Concert on Thursday 27 th March. The evening was very well attended by parents who were entertained by all of the school’s groups and ensembles, with well over 100 pupils performing in total.

After a crisp and polished performance by the Big Band, hot from their performance at the Regional Music For Youth Festival a couple of weeks ago, the evening continued with a whole host of musical styles from different parts of the world. Notable performances came from the newly formed barbershop ‘The Blue Notes’ singing ‘Goodnight Sweetheart’ and ‘Blue Moon’, the Rhythmatists performing ‘Nanamba’ written by our drum teacher Simon Mellish and the concert band ending the evening with a rousing selection of pieces by Henry Mancini. After such a busy term, all of the ensembles will enjoy a well deserved rest over the holiday before the hard work starts once again. Is it too early to start rehearsal for Christmas?!?

Mr M Farris Music Curriculum Leader

Finally, all of the hard work put in to this amazing project involving nearly 300 pupils from Alton was put into action. On Sunday 30 th March the performers played to a packed audience at The Anvil Theatre in Basingstoke. If you were lucky enough to get a ticket for this event, then you will know how spectacular the concert was – a once in a lifetime opportunity to perform with some of the country’s greatest jazz musicians! I am sure that this major event will get excellent press coverage and a full report will appear in the next newsletter. Congratulations to all of the performers involved from Eggar’s.

Year 9 excelling again! It has been a busy time recently for the Year 9‛s after completing their Mock SATs which lead to the real thing in May. Mr Eost is extremely impressed with the quality, determination and sheer enthusiasm shown by the Year 9 Girls PE groups. They just keep going when most would falter and are performing better than any other Year group he has seen before! I have had a similar report from Mr Rabani and his BTEC Science group as their work is to a very high standard and this would normally not be tackled until Year 11. Mr Wordsworth was highly complimentary of those pupils sitting the GCSE Science paper, showing a most mature attitude towards the exam. Recently some of our Year 9 boys formed a ‘Practical Project‛ group which has begun work on an outdoor problem solving course. Already they have demonstrated their considerable skills at fencing, ground preparation and level setting of construction materials. Mr Campbell, who is overseeing and guiding the students, is very impressed with the hard work and excellent attitude that the boys have shown. Laura Fitzgibbon 9RCo and Harriet Granville- Jones 9KM have got the Year 9 notice board up and running for which we are all very grateful. It will have a range of information including exam details, the latest in the competitions, future events and photos of trips. If there is something which you think should be on the notice board then please let Laura, Harriet or myself know. So a big ‘pat on the back‛ to Year 9, keep up the great work, keep collecting those ‘oranges‛ and lets see just what you are ALL capable of!

Mr J Foley Year 9, Year Leader

Homework Project Launch! After the Easter holiday, the Year 8’s will face a new challenge with the launch of ’Project Homework’. The departments setting projects will be Art, Geography, History and Religious Studies. Each project covers a four week timetable. Some of the projects overlap, but that will be part of the challenge for the Year 8’s to organise themselves. We believe this project style homework will give students the opportunity to take more responsibility and develop their independent learning skills in terms of meeting deadlines, similar to those they will face during Key Stage 4. These projects offer students exciting tasks involving research, investigation and planning. Also importantly, students will have the opportunity to express themselves in a variety of different ways and capture their imagination. Each department will launch their projects during lessons, with students being required to carry out their own research. They can make use of the internet and Learning Resource Centre at school which holds invaluable resources. From past projects completed, as an example the recent excellent work on Japan for Geography, students clearly benefit from this type of challenge. All departments are looking forward to seeing the results in the summer!

The Learning Challenge! At the beginning of the summer term Year 8 Tutor groups will be taking on the Learning Challenge. The aim of the Learning Challenge is to help students improve the organisation of themselves and of their learning. The Learning Challenge is a flexible ‘little and often’ scheme, which is broken down into eight themes, these will be :

Organisation Challenge, Memory Challenge, Revision Challenge, Working Challenge, Subject

Challenge, Thinking Challenge and the Reflection Challenge.

Within each theme there are short activities to complete during Tutor Time. Each tutor group will do one or two of the themes during the Summer term and this will help students gain new skills or improve on existing ones. Have a safe and relaxing Easter holiday and keep up the good work!

Mr A Wheeler Year 8, Year Leader

Critical Thinking Conference

Thirteen of our AS Level Critical Thinking Students joined 600 other students, mostly from sixth form colleges, at a conference in London to prepare for their three hour exam ‘marathon‛ in a few weeks time. The venue was the Conway Hall in Holborn. The day comprised of six intensive sessions where leading examination officers from OCR took students through various ways to prepare for the exam. As Critical Thinking is skills led rather than content centred, students were urged to practice by listening to all kinds of arguments, watching good news bulletins as well as reading plenty of newspapers. Most found that the day was helpful. Alison Overton 10HR reported “Everything that was said was really useful.” Catie Davis 10AV added “the whole experience was truly amazing, I think that I‛ve learnt a lot, so this will help me with the exams.” A final comment by Chris Best 10HR of “I thought that the speeches were mesmerising and I am sure this will improve my grades” is evidence that this trip was an excellent opportunity for our promising AS students.

Mrs C Gerlach Critical Thinking Teacher

Congratulations and best of luck to Charlie Bonner of 10DS

We would all like to wish Charlie the best of luck in May, when he captains the Under 15s England Roller Hockey Team in Germany! This is a fantastic achievement and opportunity and we wish Charlie and his team every success at this international tournament.

Mrs D Smith 10DS Tutor

It is with amazement, bemusement and even a touch of sadness that I write this, as it will be my last official entry in a newsletter as your Year Leader prior to you all leaving on 13th May. It seems only yesterday that I took over a fresh faced and still so new Year 7 group from Miss Yabsley! Then we had the excitement of Calshot in Year 8, moving on to a very successful SATs in Year 9 which led to all the challenges of Year 10. A memorable moment in Year 10 that I cannot leave out is the prefect process and interviews for the head boy and head girl positions. I think our current prefects and our Senior Team, including head boy Richard Hibbert, head girl Hayley Ward, deputy head boy Richard Jarvis and deputy head girl Rosie Croft have all done us proud. Thank you and well done to you all! And now, unbelievably, it is ‘the final count down’ for us all in Year 11. I am confident that you are all studiously preparing for the approaching exams and also looking forward to your Leaver's Assembly and then, we have the finale of the Prom! How exciting it all sounds. I would like to thank you all for some of the most challenging, memorable and exciting teaching years to date. I wish you all the best of luck in the exams and look forward to seeing you all dressed to the nines for the Prom! Here's to a successful end to your Eggar's Academic career.

Miss N Curtis Year 11, Year Leader

Louise Small of 11SKi must be congratulated for coming second over­ all in the National Cross Country Championships last week… fantastic news… well done Louise!

On 18th March our Year 10 and 11 GCSE Science and Geography students went to Southampton University to attend a conference specifically designed to enhance their studies. We were joined by schools from all over the South East, with an audience of approximately 200 students. The day started with the Keynote Speech by TV Presenter, Chris Packham, who spoke very passionately about the worries and fears he has for the wildlife in our oceans and how they can be affected in particular, by our use of plastics. One example he gave

was when he attended an autopsy of a giant turtle that was found on a beach in Spain. When the animal‛s stomach was examined they pulled out 100‛s of plastic carrier bags. This turtle was probably born 100-120 years ago, before plastics had been invented, and this was the cause of his death. Following Chris Packham, there were three more extremely interesting lectures including giant floods and ice dams covering 15,000 years ago, environmental impacts of shipping, where we learned that the humble dog whelk has an extremely difficult time at sea due to the chemical Tributyltin (TBT). TBT is used as an anti-fouling agent on the bottom of ships to stop barnacles attaching themselves.

However, the poor old female dog whelk is strangely affected by this chemical in the sea and even a tiny amount can mean that the female dog whelk grows male genitals. This prevents the dog whelk from breeding and can wipe out whole populations! The last lecture was on giant waves and we learned about Tsunamis and how waves can be our friend as well as our enemy. Following lunch there was a question and answer session with a panel that included lecturers from the Schools of Geography, Civil Engineering, Ocean & Earth Science as well as Chris Packham. There were lots of questions asked and answered, but in my opinion, the best question was from Jenny Saunders of 10JS, who asked a question of shopping locally against buying Fair Trade goods from abroad. Well done Jenny! It was an extremely interesting day and all the students enjoyed the experience. Once again they were all a credit to Eggar‛s School.

Mrs A Sutehall Geography Curriculum Leader

On Friday 15th February 41 eager students set off on a 22 hour coach trip to Nassfeld in Austria for the Eggar‛s annual ski trip. Although the journey was very long it was all part of the holiday experience.

We were extremely lucky as most days the weather conditions were superb with great snow and sunshine. Each day of skiing proved to be just as much fun as the first!

The days were filled with a handful of crashes and other crazy incidents such as skiing straight into piste markers, making yellow snow and hugging trees!

After a hard (but fantastic) four hours of skiing we had hot chocolate, with cream, at après ski to soothe our muscles.

Our holiday would not have been complete without the evening activities which included swimming, skittles and speed dating...

Nice hair Mr Laycock!

Pictured above are the ‘speed dating‛ winners Emma Young & Jamie Rawlings …. better luck next time Mr Laycock!

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this trip especially Mr Laycock, for giving us one of the most enjoyable weeks of our lives!

Leo Rossiter 8JH

We are pleased to announce a new link on the Eggar’s School website www.eggars.net under services, the Science Microsite. This will give information on dates of examinations, pictures of trips, competitions and lecturer visits. There is a vast amount to see and read. Please use the site and we would welcome any feedback.

If you need help with homework then check the links, if you cannot remember when your school trip is, then check the calendar. This service is continually updated and this is a new way to find out more about the Science Department, the Specialist Status and everything scientific in‐between.

Miss McAulay Teacher of Science and OLC Co‐ordinator

Year 11 Art students have come to the end of their Art course this week. They have worked incredibly hard for ten hours, the equivalent of two days in the classroom, in order to make their 'Final Designs'. There will be an exhibition of their work in the summer term.

Mrs S Kinteh

Anna Youngs 11SL

Charlie Hughes 11SW & Emily Hatcher 11SKI

Emily Brown 11MR

Charlotte Withams 11KMc

By Jack Burcham 11SL

Ed Barney 11SW Josh Brown & Hamish Hewitt 11MR

Jack Barney 11SW Alex Drinkall 11KMc Eddie Barney 11SW

Jack Burcham 11SL & Mrs Brohier

Isobel Reid 11SL

To access the service at www.samlearning.com, students will need the following three details:

Mr A Carter Miss N Curtis Assistant Head Teacher Year 11, Year Leader Science Curriculum Leader

Centre ID: GU34ES

User ID: Date of birth followed by two initials; first name then last name. Example: 010895DJ is the User ID for David Jones born 1st August 1995

Password: Initially same as User ID, Learners are encouraged to change this to something difficult to guess or work out.

As you know we are continuously looking for ways to raise the achievements of our students. One of the ways we do this is by subscribing to SAM Learning Secondary, an eLearning service used by over 800,000 students. During the Easter Holiday we are encouraging our Year 11 students to take up the SAM Learning Secondary 10 Hour Challenge. This challenge will remind them that they have access to this online service which will help them to improve their attainment in the GCSE examinations. The main initiative of this challenge for SAM Learning Secondary is to raise attainment. SAM Learning Secondary is proven to improve GCSE results with 10+ hours of use, therefore we are challenging students to use it for at least 10 hours across all subjects.

We would appreciate the support of parents in encouraging their child to use SAM Learning Secondary and take part in the 10 Hour Challenge. Our students should know how everything works and this may be of interest to parents, especially the area that reports on their progress and shows their marks! In addition to this we also suggest a couple of useful revision websites:

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize www.eggars.net and follow SAM

Learning or OLC links to subject revision and information.