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Aspire | Believe | Achievewww.ousedale.org.uk

December 2016Ousedale School magazine

When “Miss Saigon" was initially suggested as an idea for the next school production, our reaction was one of terror; how on earthwould we recreate the iconic and thrilling helicopter scene in the Ousedale school hall? Before long we were throwing ourselves headlong into “Kim’s Nightmare” at the barbed wire fence with a helicopter flying loudly overhead…and that was just the start of it all.

Our students produced an outstanding production of the highest calibre; the singing, dancing, acting and music were all of aphenomenal standard.  The sound, lighting and backstage crew, manned mostly by students, were also incredible. Thank you to somany of you for coming along and showing your support.

Miss SaigonSchool Production18th - 20th October 2016

“A performance that would have graced the stage of any West End theatre”

Reviews and more photos inside

Message from Sue Carbert, Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

I do feel I say this time after time but what a fantastic edition of Ousenews. Each page is an example of ourvision in action; to create a school giving children the same opportunities and the confidence to rival anyschool, state or private. I hope you feel this publication has plenty of examples of how we achieve this with somany students. This term I have received more positive letters and emails from parents than I have for sometime. We really enjoy receiving your positive comments, sometimes staff get a bit down when they feel theyhave spent a lot of their own time helping a child and do not get feedback - we encourage you to correspondwith individuals, it really makes a difference. We all need to know we are doing a good job from time to time. The teaching profession isgoing through a difficult time at the moment, with not enough people coming into the profession and the LA reducing our funding.

I have decided to put an invite out to parents after Christmas at each campus for those interested in attending a parent feedbacksession and for those interested in starting the PTA again. The School is doing so well at the moment and the staff tell us they are reallyhappy working at Ousedale. I want to make sure we are taking account of your views as well. As many of you know, each year we askyou your opinion via a survey but sometimes it would be useful to meet face to face. An email will come out by ParentMail afterChristmas.

Year 11 and Year 13 students are completing mocks this week. We are introducing mocks in each year to support students withpreparing for the real thing. There is no doubt the exams have got much harder and we all need to work together to help them learnthe material and learn how to apply it to questions.

This term watching Miss Saigon has been a highlight for me - the staff rose to the challenge and for those of you who watched it, andsent us letters, I know you agree. It was truly amazing. The pictures look great in Ousenews and the DVD is almost ready.

I have started recruiting additional staff for next September, but sadly we have to say goodbye to a number of people at the end of thisterm: Katie Lang, design teacher at Olney, is moving to a post which is almost exclusively textiles - her passion; Nicola Bevan, RS atOlney, is moving back to Wales to be near family; Jasmin Plummer, maths teacher at NP, is moving to Cheltenham to be with herpartner. You will be pleased to know Katie Lang has been replaced. Unfortunately, there will be supply staff covering RS and maths nextterm. In both cases we have interviewed the people who will be joining us and have chosen them from a number of possibilities. Wehave recruited RS for July, but maths is proving much more challenging to find.

Charity week has gone very well this term; the stalls at Olney and NP were outstanding. Bingo at Newport Pagnell for all Year 7 and 8went down very well and all children enjoyed non-uniform day. After Christmas we will let you know the total amount raised. Last, butnot least the School has been awarded the highest award possible by Save The Children for our charity work - it is called the The JebbAward, after the founder of Save The Children. It was a lovely surprise. Willen Hospice and Save The Children are the school’s charitiesand we all enjoy taking part in events to raise money for them.

It just goes for me to say Happy Christmas to you all. I shall be spending it with my family and my two girls. Enjoy!

Sue Carbert | Headteacher

Merry Christmas Charity Week Christmas jumpers

Christmas Carol Service

St Peter and St Paul’s Church,Newport Pagnell

With musicians fromOusedale School Music Department

Thursday 15th December at 7pm

Free Entry

A collection will be takenin aid of Willen Hospice,

St Peter and St Paul’s Churchand Ousedale School

Please join usfor mulled wineand mince pies

following the service

Ousedale SchoolYoung Musician

of the Year2016-17

Wednesday25th January

6.30pm

Main HallNewport Pagnell

campusThe GroveMK16 0BJ

Tickets £4available from

the Finance Office

Following the success of our new school uniform skirt which hasbeen worn by our new Year 7 students this term, we would like toannounce that this will be compulsory for all students inYears 7 – 10 from September 2017.

Uniform change for girlsSeptember 2017

The skirt can be brought from Maisies in Wolverton and will replacethe current black skirt option. Girls will still be able to wear blacktrousers if they prefer. We look forward to seeing how smart theyall look in the new school year!

Last Day of Term - 20th DecEarly Finish

School will finish early for the Christmas holidays at 12.20pm onTuesday 20th December. School buses and taxis will be arrangedat this earlier time to take home those students that normally catchthem.

The Spring term will commence on Wednesday 4th January, 2017.

Severe Weather Arrangements

Should the school need to be closed due to severe weather wewill endeavour to let you know by 7.15am on the day in question.

A message will be placed on our website and parents will be senta message by text or email. If you have not yet done so it wouldalso be helpful if you signed up to the Milton Keynes system. Fornew parents it is most likely to be the same system you used atprimary school, but you will need to alter the school. The link tothis system is shown below. Hopefully we will not have to closeeither campus, but best to be prepared.

http://www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/Closures/Subscribe

Miss Saigon | Photos and reviews

“Everything about the show was magnificent and if you closedyour eyes you would think you were at a West End production.How the production team managed to put on a show in theschool hall with the limited space and facilities and still get it toWest End standards is beyond me. The orchestration wasoutstanding, the singing and the emotion generated wasexceptional and made it a never to be forgotten evening.

The show was a credit to everyone involved in the production andyet again made you feel proud to be involved in OusedaleSchool.”

“I wanted to drop you a note to say how incredibly impressed Iwas with the production of Miss Saigon.  I have seen the showseveral times in London and even once in Sydney and wasn’t surewhat to expect from a school version but I was absolutely blownaway! The girl who played Kim could hold her own on a West Endstage and the Engineer gave a stunning performance.

I really am truly impressed by the quality of your version andwanted to say well done on a brilliant job.  The cast wereabsolutely excellent and I haven’t stopped raving about it!”

“I just wanted to let you know that I was blown away by theperformance last night – WOW is all I can say.

I have never seen Miss Saigon before so didn’t know what toexpect.  This was a truly professional show.”

See the full photo gallery athttps://www.flickr.com/photos/ousedale/albums

‘The students taking part were exceptional,talented and extremely professional’

“They all performed in a most professional way and were betterthan some of the shows I have seen in the West End.

Special congratulations to the students who played Kim and theEngineer. If they are continuing an acting career I am sure theyboth will go far.

I must also give a mention to your students who helped at thefront. You should be very proud of them; so helpful and polite.”

“What an excellent performance of Miss Saigon …… It wasn't atall amateurish. I'd give it 10/10 and I'm sure some of the cast willend up on the London stage in a few years' time!  …. The wholecast did a great job, the musicians must have been exhaustedand congratulations to the lighting and effects team.….. Another show to add to Ousedale's excellent reputation!”

“… a thoroughly enjoyable and professional performance… Mywife and I both agreed it was a performance that could havegraced the stage of any West End Theatre and at £12.50 a ticketit was a real bargain.”

Ousedale Debating Society

The Ousedale Debating Society has made an excellent start this academic year with lunchtime clubs for KS3 and KS4 where a variety ofcontemporary issues have been discussed including immigration, the use of the death penalty, the rise of Donald Trump and thelegalisation of marijuana. Students have been eager to share their ideas and have been developing their ability to sustain an argumentand deliver a speech in a coherent and eloquent manner.

The clubs have been ably led by a Sixth Form Committee, with Dean Murphy 13BG as President and Grace King 12MS as Vice-President.In addition a dozen other Sixth Form students have been able to develop their leadership skills by planning and delivering the sessions, aswell as mentoring younger students. The first KS3 competition required participants to produce a one-minute persuasive speech on a topicthey were passionate about and was won by Hannah Phanchang Basra 8LRP. A variety of other internal and external competitions will beheld during the academic year and all students are invited to participate.

Miss Tuxford | Debating Coordinator

First round of the MK Parliamentary DebateAt Key Stage 3 Debating club, we have around 15 dedicatedstudents who come every week to debate some rather difficulttopics such as: refugees, the US election and the legalisation ofcannabis. Last half term we had a competition that gave allmembers the chance to publicly speak on a chosen topic for aminute; the winners were awarded prizes and gained somevaluable experience in public speaking. Our aim is to increaseyoung people's confidence, public speaking and debating skillsand to provide them with more opportunities within the school.

Grace King 12MS | Debating Society Vice-President

Ousedale School has continued to shine in the MK ParliamentaryDebate Competition chaired by Mark Lancaster MP and IainStewart MP. Grace King and James Winship 13AP have made itthrough to the final of the competition. This will be held in theGrand Committee Room at Westminster, the second debatingchamber to the House of Commons, on 13th December.

The first round was held at Oakgrove School with Ousedaleproposing the motion that ‘This House believes thatexpanding the grammar school franchise will help narrowBritain's social mobility gap’. A confident and impressiveperformance by Grace and James, who had never debated in acompetition prior to the event, led to an assured victory againstThe Webber Independent School.The semi-final was held at MK College with Ousedale School participating in a three-way parliamentary debate against StantonburySchool and Oakgrove School, with the motion: ‘To preserve the integrity of our democratic system, this House proposes that theHouse of Lords become a fully elected chamber’. Ousedale was opposing the motion and arguing for a partially elected chamber. Thethree-way format ensured a tense and dramatic competition with a number of eloquent arguments and superb interjections by James andGrace. Ousedale took victory with a unanimous decision by the judges and were congratulated by Iain Stewart MP, the Chairman of thedebate.

The Debating Society will be accompanying Grace and James to Westminster, and will be proposing the motion: The Government isright to argue that the EU referendum result gave it the mandate to trigger Article 50 without first securing Parliamentaryapproval’. We wish them every success on this evening and hope to come back as the winners of the MK Schools Parliamentary DebateCompetition 2016.

Miss Tuxford

Ousedale students with Iain Stewart MP

MK Parliamentary Debate competition

The evening of 2nd November marked the culmination of over 18 months of hard work and dedication by the leaders, staffand students involved in Ousedale School’s Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. The ceremony aimed to bring together thelargest gathering of DofE students and parents we have ever attempted, and it is safe to say: it didn’t disappoint. With aturnout of over 400 people as well as an exclusive guest panel, the evening was off to a good start before even a single awardhad been presented.

An evening of celebration

Our special guest Mr Phil Brown, the Regional Director for DofE inCentral England, set a great tone for the evening, with hishumorous, congratulatory but most of all inspiring speech. He hadthe whole room captivated and demonstrated his unique ability toevoke awestruck silences which seamlessly blended into raucouslaughter with every section of his address. He paved the way for thefollowing speeches and announcements which helped achieve thesense of pride that the evening was designed to create.

The awards were presented swiftly and efficiently as well as givingeach pupil time to relish in their glory on stage. The bronze andsilver awards were separated with more speeches, this time bystudents who offered some first-hand experiences as well as adviceto the audience.

The evening ended with the special awards, most notably Mr RobStretton’s own award - a gift on behalf of all the students inrecognition of all his hard work and dedication to the Duke ofEdinburgh cause at Ousedale School.

We would like to wish all those continuing with, or beginning theirDofE experience the best of luck and we hope to see them all againnext year.

Alf Cuddeford 12EY

Science Quiz1. True or false? Many neurosurgeons learn their craft byoperating on longfin squid.2. Can hairspray preserve a cut Christmas tree?3. When do you experience rapid eye movement?4. How does a platypus’ bill help it sense underwater?5. Where would you find a Goldilocks zone?

6. What is a young lion called?7. Which planet has the highest knownvolcano in the solar system?8. What is the world’s tallest flowering plant?9. Can you give the names for the following elements: Hg,Sn, Sb, W, Ag and Au?10. What metal has the symbol Pb, after the Latin word forplumber?

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

We were delighted to be able to celebrate the outstanding achievements of our students atboth GCSE and A Level on Friday 18th November.

In the afternoon, over 250 students joined us in a celebration of their success during Year11, receiving GCSE and BTEC awards, subject awards, and awards for contributions to theschool and community. The evening celebration recognised achievement in Year 13 and wewere delighted that so many former students made their way back from either universities, or employment, across Britain to join us forthis event.

Many thanks to all the parents and family members who attended events, this really helped to create a wonderful atmosphere. Yoursupport has enabled these young people to achieve such great success, and we could see how proud you were of your children!

Special thanks must also go to the guest speakers, Ian Revell and Mark Lancaster, and the local dignitaries who continue to support thework of the school and recognise its importance in our community.

Chris Whiting | Assistant Headteacher

GCSE and A Level Awards

Computing and Digital Applications

Success in the Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge 2016This year we have again encouraged the students to take part in the Bebras Challenge, an internationalcompetition that is held in over 30 countries.

The Computational Thinking Challenge is designed to get students excited about computing and computationalthinking. Computational thinking is a collection of diverse skills involving problem solving that result from studyingthe nature of computation. It includes some important skills like creativity, ability to explain and team work. It alsoconsists of some very specific problem solving skills such as the ability to think logically, algorithmically and useprocedural decomposition, which is breaking a big job into smaller jobs. The students answer a number of challengesand they are scored on how well they do on each. This challenge is a good indicator as to whether the students wouldbe suited to a career which requires computational thinking.

A great number of students took part in lessons and they will all be awarded with a certificate for taking part in thechallenge. Several students managed to gain either a Certificate of Distinction or a Certificate of Merit. The Beststudents in the School got a special Certificate for their accomplishment. Congratulations to Luke Hulmes, Zoe Wu,Shivali Raichura and Rowan Smith.

This year Luke Hulmes and Zoe Wu also performed well enough to be included on the Bebras Challenge ‘Hall ofFame’ on their website. We are hoping that both may be invited to the finals in January at Oxford.

Mr Willans | Computing and Digital Applications Teacher

A huge congratulations and thank you to all the competitors that took part. We were lucky to start the daywith sunshine, although sadly for the older age groups the rain did descend! It was as always a pleasure forthe staff to see the real team spirit amongst the Ousedale students and the determination from all of themto do their best on a challenging course. As a team we had the following results:

MK Schools Cross Country | Ousedale overall winners

Year 7 Girls: 1st Lily-Mae SmithYear 7 Boys: 1st Seb Henry and 2nd Jayden Hill

Year 8/9 Girls: 1st Barbara De KoningYear 8/9 Boys 1st Leo Freeland and 3rd Tomas Billenness

Rugby Round Up

All year groups have had a number of fixtures this term and there have beensome notable successes. The Year 10 rugby team had a fantastic win over RoyalLatin to reach the semi-finals of the Bucks Trophy.

The Year 7 team have swept all before them including an excellent win over astrong Lincroft team and played their final fixture against NSB on 3rdDecember.

For the fifth year in a row the Year 11 rugby team won the MK Schools Rugby 7s Tournament at MK RUFC on 20th October, goingunbeaten and playing some fantastic rugby along the way. Pat Bull was instrumental in providing a link between the forwards andbacks and a constant threat to the opposition, but the whole squad played their part including the Year 10 boys who played up a year. Specialmention must also go to Mr. Gareth Beynon (who coaches the Olney RFC U16 team) who rotated the squad round brilliantly and managedto give everyone plenty of game time and win the tournament!

Mr Hurley  PE Department

Badminton Success

Cara Bateson 9NB won the MK Schools' singles title at Lord GreySchool on 17th November and then teamed up with Anna Charles9MRG and won the doubles as well! Congratulations to both girlswho regularly represent the school team.

Zack Hooton 8RV (aged 12) recently played in the MK U15 SilverTournament in the boys’ doubles and managed to win the goldmedal! (Zack was unable to enter the singles tournament as hisgrading is now too high.) He also recently represented Bucks in anU14 fixture against Suffolk, winning all his matches. He played forthe U16 Bucks team against Oxfordshire and won his singles,  mixeddoubles and one boys’ doubles match. As a result Bucks were overallwinners for both age groups. Zack has also represented Ousedalein a number of successful school matches. Congratulations Zack andgood luck for your upcoming tournaments and county fixtures.

Year 7 Boys: 1st placeYear 7 Girls: 3rd Place

Year 8/9 Boys: 1st PlaceYear 8/9 Girls: 2nd Place

Year 10/11 Boys: 1st PlaceYear 10/11 Girls: 1st Place.

There are far too many students to mention individually as all made brilliant contributions to the whole school result to finish first. We lookforward to watching them compete in future events.

Miss Green, Head of PE

National Dance ChampionGeorgia Marsh 8RV

Georgia Marsh 8RV competed in the IDTA National Freestyle andRock and Roll finals in mid-November (after achieving her placethrough the South-East regional qualifiers). She was up against thetop 114 under 13 year olds in the country and she won 1st place.She is now the National Champion in Slow Dance. Congratulationsto Georgia on her tremendous success.

Year 11 team

I have decided to highlight, over the next few months, a group of women who changed the course ofChemistry. The first women chemist I want to tell you about is Gertrude Elion. She is rightly famous because ofthe drugs she discovered.

Everyone is familiar with chicken pox and herpes. Well, Gertrude Elion developed the drug: Zovirax which isused to treat both of these diseases. She also discovered a drug used in the fight against leukaemia(Purinethol). She then went on to develop a drug that is used to stop the body rejecting transplanted organs(Imuran). Anyone who suffers from gout may well use another drug that she developed (Zyloprim). In fact her work was so prolificthat she is named on no fewer than 45 patents.

Her research led to the development of the AIDS drug AZT, which I think was her most powerful contribution.

Gertrude Elion was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1988 for discoveries made about the important principles involved indrug treatment. She was also the recipient of: Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award (1997), National Inventors Hall of Fame(1991), National Medal of Science (1991), and the Garvan-Olin Medal (1968)

Gertude was born in New York in 1918 and died in North Carolina (USA) at age 81 in 1999. The world is a richer place for the workshe carried out in the fields of both biochemistry and pharmacology.

Dr Bruce Rae CChem FRSC

Famous Women ChemistsGertrude Elion 1918-1999

Science Quiz Answers

1. True. Neurosurgeons do surgery on the human nervous system. Theyfirst learn their techniques on squid because they have much largernerves than humans.2. Yes, hairspray can help preserve Christmas trees.3. Rapid eye movement is a stage of sleep.4. A platypus’ bill senses electrical signals from other animals.5. The Goldilocks zone is the habitable zone around a star where planetswith enough atmospheric pressure could support liquid water.

6. A young lion is called a cub.7. Mars has the highest volcano in the solar system.8. Mountain ash is the world’s tallest flowering plant. It grows in Tasmaniaand Victoria.9. Hg (hygrum) – mercury; Sn (stannum) – tin; Sb (stibium) – antimony; W(wolfram) – tungsten; Ag (argentum) – silver; and Au (aurum) – gold . Allthese elements were known to the Romans – hence the Latin names.10. Lead was known to the Romans and its Latin name was plumbum,hence the symbol Pb.

On Thursday 10th November, myself and other students attended the latest (at the time of writing) presentation. Thesession in question involved how to cope with exam questions. I must add, at first I was dubious of how good the sessionwould be. As it turned out, I was to be very much surprised...

After Mr. Whiting had braved the busy roads from Newport to Olney, we sat round a table. Mr. Whiting played a game focusing on ournames; Jack for example was beanstalk and another student was thumbs.

After this we all worked together debating the best way to decode and answer examination questions. I know that this sounds rather dryon the surface but the way it was presented – together with the input of all of the enthusiastic attendees - actually made it one of thebest sessions that I had attended. Perhaps Mr. Whiting’s unique method of remembering our names (back to the beanstalks andthumbs) had something to do with it!

Overall, I found that the was great fun, as we learnt and had a laugh at the same time! I would thoroughly recommend thisand found it very useful.

KS4 Aspire | Coping with exam questionsReport by Jack Rodden 10AG

On 8th November sixty of our Year 9 students took part in a STEM* day organised and presented by five graduate engineersfrom Network Rail’s headquarters in Milton Keynes. (*Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths)

Most of the day was focused on two challenges where the students competed in teams against each other to build a bridge and todesign and build a working level crossing using motorised Lego. However, for many of the students, the best part was hearing how thegraduates got into engineering and about the different types of specialist engineers in the company. For many of them, this was the firsttime they had really thought about the work of an engineer and they really appreciated the activities and the opportunity to talk to youngpeople from the world of work.

On 25th November, the winning team of five girls from Olney joined winners from nine other local schools for a tour of the Network Railheadquarters building in MK, where they were wowed by the impressive work environment and facilities, such as “street” cafes, gamingroom, subsidised gym, convenience store and most of all, the free stationery bar!

The graduates spoke of their excitement for the future “Digital Railway” network and we watched presentations by various members ofstaff, including Jane Simpson, the first female Head of Engineering at Network Rail. Jane spoke enthusiastically about her career and theimportance of engineering.

Thanks to Network Rail for this new STEM initiative and we hope that it will continue to grow and help to introduce many more youngpeople to the exciting and varied opportunities in engineering. We hope that we will be able to join them again next year.

Mr Coffey | Teacher of Science

An Insight into Engineeringwith Network Rail

Halloween in the canteenThanks to the catering teams who put on a specialHalloween themed menu. This was greatly receivedand created lots of excitement for the students.

Congratulations on achieving Music Exam Grades

GradeCharlotte Bruce Flute 9KRM 5 DistinctionKlara Filip Flute 11KTL 4 MeritSasha Mortimer Violin 7FW 2 PassHenry Smith Cornet 10GD 6 PassHenry Smith Drum 10GD 1 PassRowan Thomas Trombone 9MRG 2 PassJack Honour Jazz Trumpet 8JA 2 PassOliver Butterworth Jazz Trumpet 8KAL 3 MeritAidan Fraser Keyboard 8JNB 1 DistinctionSamuel France Piano 12SMC 5 PassElsie Daniells Piano 11GM 3 Merit

The Music Department would like to thank all students who participated in the Autumn Concert in front ofan audience of over 250 strong. All of the school's music ensembles were involved, making for a variedand entertaining evening.

Ousedale String Orchestra started the evening with a performance of Bach's 'Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring',led by Emma Wenham. Many Year 7 instrumentalists got involved by performing 'Make you Feel My Love'with Big Band's Little Brother (BBLB).  The Jazz Band swooned the audience with a performance of 'AllBlues' by Miles Davis and Men's Chorus clearly enjoyed performing their own arrangement of 'Budapest'by Ezra. Encore and Anacrusis sang beautifully, and the Guitar ensembles provided some lovely moments of music.

A special mention must go to Darragh MacManus, Hugh Langridge, Cameron Sheehy and  Dominic Hindley who performed solos inthe concert. Thanks must go to all students who performed, making the evening a most enjoyable event.

The Music Department

Autumn Concert

We had a lovely cast of 18 students who performed at Stantonbury Theatre on the evening of 10th November. Shakespearefor Schools is a national project that hundreds of schools get involved in every year. Its purpose is to inspire school children ofevery age to have an opportunity to tread the boards of a theatre space using an edited version of one of the Bard’s famousplays. It is all about having fun and installing confidence in young people. Hopefully they have come to realise thatShakespeare’s plays can be accessible to everyone.

We were all so proud of our talented students who had been working hard for the last few months. When the big day came they certainlydelivered. We also performed in school to Year 11 students who study ‘Macbeth’. Not only did all the students who participatedthoroughly enjoy themselves, but they have done themselves a great service by learning  and interpreting the script of the literary textwhich they will be studying in Year 11. The Year 11 students who watched will also benefit from having seen a live performance of theplay which they will be examined on this summer. A completely invaluable experience for both performers and audience!

A big thank you must go to all the team involved and we must not forget the back stage and technical crew. We have set our eyes onanother play for next year. Please watch this space!!!

The Macbeth Bard Team

Shakespeare for Schools Festival

Macbeth at Stantonbury Theatre

When I found out that I was doing Macbeth I was really nervous. I had neverperformed in front of so many people and we were really nervous in theauditions. However, when we had the first rehearsal our confidence was boosted.We went through the production and got a feeling of what the play was aboutand we had loads of fun in the rehearsals.

I have met so many new people and talked to people I wouldn't normally talk to aroundthe school. Midway through the experience, we worked with Shakespeare companyprofessionals and learnt so many new things. We performed a scene to another schooland vice versa and picked up on things we did well and needed to improve on for nexttime. My favourite scene is the fight scene between the English and Scottish sidesbecause it involves the whole cast.

We all feel really confident in speaking the lines from Macbeth and know the storylinewell. This will really help us when we study it in Year 11 so we performed it to someclasses in that current year group and it really helped them to achieve a greaterunderstanding of Macbeth for their GCSEs.

Shakespeare's plays use a completely different style of drama from what we are used tobut I absolutely love being Macduff and we have all developed a real passion forShakespeare.

By Radhika Raichura 9JCB

Library Corner

Visit by author Alan Gibbons

KS4 Book Groups

On Friday 2nd December Alan Gibbons visited Ousedale for the second time. Alan has been writing children'sbooks for twenty three years. He is the winner of the Blue Peter Book Award 2000 'The book I couldn't put down'for his best-selling book Shadow of the Minotaur. He has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 2001and 2003 and twice for the Booktrust Teenage Prize.

Alan treated all students in Years 7 & 8 to an entertaining talk about the life of an author followed by workshopswith smaller groups.

Olney KS4 book group have met twice since the last edition of Ousenews. Not everyonemanaged to finish Cuckoo Song but some felt it had been better than The Lie tree; alsowritten by Frances Hardinge and nominated for this year’s Carnegie medal.

We have also read Shine by Candy Gourlay (chosen by Daisy Roughley 10MG) This had areally promising start and was a quirky story let down a little by a disappointing ending.We are currently reading Looking For Alaska by John Green chosen by Poppy Lovatt 10JOM.

Newport Pagnell KS4 read The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson and found itinteresting, refreshing and thought provoking. We are currently reading Demian by HermanHesse chosen by Alice Bhebhe from 11EL.

Mrs Campion | Librarian

‘The Dark Lord’ - by Emily Robbins 8STCThe blood scarlet Ferrari screeched around the corner with its freshlychanged tyres. Lilly Turner, aged 15, was unsteadily at the wheel of her newcar. Listening to Rockabye by her favourite artist, her eyes were gluedtowards the road scanning for any road signs. In the distance she could seea beautiful-coloured sunset above the iridescent sea. The only thing thatbothered her was that it was quiet, too quiet. With her trembling hands sheheld onto the wheel; her knuckles piercing out of her skin. She was ready,she was determined to win……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The workshops gave students the chance to practise their creative writing.Here is the start of a piece written by Emily Robbins:

On 17th November we took a group of Year 10 and 12 students up to the NEC Birmingham to attendThe World Skills Show 2016. This is the largest skills, apprenticeship and careers event in the UK. Itshowcases education providers and employers across five industry sectors including Engineering &Technology, Media & Creative, IT and Enterprise, Hospitality & Lifestyle, Construction &Infrastructure.

Visiting the event provided students with the opportunity to explore a range of different roles within each sector, being able to chat toemployers, apprentices and craftspeople about what they do and the path they took to get there. There were even some interactiveexperiences to engage with. The main problem was getting to see everything in the time we had.

For those students who missed out on a place – it was very popular and heavily over-subscribed – please don’t be disheartened. We willhave more events coming up soon. Keep an eye on the careers notice boards for more information.

Andrew, Year 12, said “The Skills show, hosted at the NEC, was an experience I really enjoyed. Attending the show has been eye openingfor me as it has made me realise there are more options than just university. I have now gained some motivation for what I would like todo after Sixth Form and for that reason would strongly recommend for anyone to go if given the opportunity.”

Did you know….  Bletchley Park has just announced it will be opening a 6th Form College of National Security to teach cyber skills to anew generation of code breakers? It is scheduled to open in 2018. Also, Sir James Dyson (of revolutionary vacuum cleaner fame) is planningto open his own Institute of Technology in September 2017? Working with Warwick University, students will study alongside Dyson engineersreceiving a salary and will not have to pay any course fees.

Latest News from the Careers Centre

Monday 19th December 2016 | Moulton College Taster Day | 9.30am – 12.30pm

Thursday 12th January 2017 | Bedford IT Training Centre | 10am – 8pm

Saturday 21st January 2017 | Milton Keynes College Open Event | 10am – 1pm | Chaffron Way & Bletchley Campuses

Tuesday 24th January 2017 | Bedford College Open Day | 5pm – 8pm | Cauldwell Street Campus

Saturday 28th January 2017 | Bedford College Open Day | 9.30am – 12.30pm | Shuttleworth Campus

Upcoming Events

Mrs Griffin and Mrs Campion | Careers Advisors

We would like to give a huge thank you to all form groups that took part inthe Hamper Competition on 5th December. There were snowmen, trains,Christmas dinners, advent calendars and glitter galore! Students at bothcampuses have obviously been giving up their time willingly to create somespectacular displays of festive fun!

The food collected in the hampers has already been distributed to MiltonKeynes Foodbank. Huge gratitude was expressed and grateful thanks wasextended to all students and parents who generously donated to thecollection. Thank you and Merry Christmas.

The PER team

Christmas Hamper Competition 2016 WINNERSNewportPagnell

Olney

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