ST SAMPSON’S HIGH SCHOOL PARENTS’ NEWSLETTER

December 2016

Our school Facebook page for parents/carers is: St Sampson’s High School, Guernsey. We aim to keep Parents/carers up-to date with all the latest news and events, posting any last minute messages where possible. Parents/carers may find it useful to ask non urgent questions on here, of a general nature, which staff may be able to answer.

Our Facebook page for parents/carers now has PE department Twitter feeds.

epartment Twitter feeds.

A Message from our Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers

As Christmas fast approaches, we had a wonderful Carol Concert at Vale Church. Senior students joined

Santa on the Bridge to turn on the lights, he commented on how well they carried out their duties and

represented the school!

Our PTA ran another successful table top sale last month and have again, provided St Sampson’s and Le Murier with two beautiful Christmas Trees for Reception. We would like to congratulate Imogen Conlan, ex St Sampson’s student on becoming Head Girl at the Grammar School this year. We know she will do us and the Grammar proud. Sadly, we say good bye to Flo Carre next week, she has only been with us a few months, but she has built some very positive relationships with students and their families that have helped us to improve attendance in school. Our new Yr 7 have settled in well, they are proving to have a real talent for PE, particularly the girls, you will hear more about their successes later. Yr10 are settling well into their new GCSE courses and Yr11 have Mock exams after Christmas, they are not quite so keen on having to revise over Christmas but assure me they will! Rehearsals are going well for our school production Alice, tickets are on sale in the school office.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

SSHS Year group facebook & Twitter Pages The Heads of year have set up Facebook & Twitter pages for their individual year groups. Here you can find regular updates of success, photographs and useful information.

Y7: https://www.facebook.com/Year7StSampsonsHigh/?fref=ts

Y8: https://www.facebook.com/StSampsonsHighYear8/?fref=ts

D&T News Please have a look at some of the amazing work taking place in D&T Graphics. An Instagram account has been

created to show off some the amazing work that takes place in school. Find us at sshsgraphics and please follow.

Food Tech News

Rotary Young Chef of the Year 2016:

Students from across three of the islands secondary schools competed in this year's Rotary Young Chef Competition.

Competitors had to cook a three course meal for two people for no more than £15 in just two hours. Janis Bormanis

and Caitlin Le Prevost were the two students who represented our school in the competition.

Janis was pipped at the posts by a very competent young chef from Alderney. Caitlin won the coveted award for

Kitchen Craft skills (we have won this for the last three years). The two chefs had a fantastic experience and it was

lovely to see them working so hard, under so much pressure with smiles on their faces.

Children in Need

On Friday 18th November the school came alive at lunchtime and we proved once again what a generous

bunch of fundraisers we can be. Every tutor group put on an event to raise money and we had a great selection of

things to choose from including a photo-booth in the Drama studio, sponsored abseiling, a chocolate tombola and

even pushing teachers into the school pool! The total amount raised was a whopping £1015.15 with Lihou house

raising £230.12, Jethou house raising £284.39 and Brecqhou house raising the most with £499.54! Special mention

must go to 8MTS who on their own raised £190 with their sponsored abseiling. Well done everyone!

Creative Arts News:

It’s been another busy year with the students dedication to rehearsals paying off as they produced some fantastic

musical performances. Our annual Carol Service at Vale Church featured over 150 students playing, singing, reading

and rapping! The Orchestra, Recorder Consort, Brass Ensemble, Chamber Choir, African Percussion group and Choir

all gave stunning performances and the audience really enjoyed the GCSE Drama students presentations of

Christmas poetry as well as the traditional readings.

The choir have been busy in the community bringing some festive cheer to residents in some of the care homes and

the Chamber Choir additionally performed at Le Murier’s Carol service. Both the Brass Ensemble and Woodwind

Ensemble gave up their own time on Sunday’s performing for our Table Top sale at school and at Oatlands Christmas

Fayre respectively. We have received so many lovely comments from the public about how their music really added

to the atmosphere of both events.

Finally, Stage Sound played for Late Night Christmas Shopping in town and represented us superbly playing for the

community carol singing in Market Square. Well done to everyone involved…time for a rest!!

Music Exam Results

Congratulations to the following students who have recently passed music examinations. Great results!

Tyler McCarthy (9) Grade 3 Guitar with Merit

Jonah Ingrouille (9) Grade 3 Guitar

Harry Reade (9) Grade 4 Drum Kit with Merit

Jack Smith (9) Performance Award level 1 Electric guitar with Merit

Keira Taylor (8) Grade 4 Flute with Merit

Chelsea Kinney (10) Grade 6 Flute

Valerie Ryan (9) Grade 6 Flute with Merit

Key Stage 4 Maths Information Evening

Wednesday 11th January 2016 @ 6:30pm

Come and learn how we are using Mathswatch and other resources to help our students achieve the highest

possible grades. Mathswatch is a fantastic online revision tool which can help students with all topics of high school

maths. It contains full length clips to watch, one minute clips, and plenty of practice questions created by

experienced maths teachers, in an easy to understand way.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Mr G Jones, Head of Maths Department.

Careers: Barclays Life Skills and Preparation for Working Life We have been very lucky to have Barclays Life Skills representatives (Amanda and Steve) coming into lessons again this term and assisting students with employability skills. Year 9 have learnt about budgeting! All of these skills will go towards the new qualification Year 9 are undertaking Preparation for Working Life short course (equivalent to ½ GCSE to go with ½ RS).

Year 10 will also undertake the Preparation for Working Life short course this year. The exam will be in May 2017 and all coursework will need to be submitted before Christmas. Students will have this outlined on Show My Homework and Google Classroom.

Carers Twitter Follow Ms Kaufman on Twitter to find out what is going on in the Careers Department and Careers in school – SSHSRKN. Please keep on looking at www.stsampsonshigh.com and go to the Careers page for up to date information and advice and guidance on Careers. We post current vacancies there too!

New careers newsletter for Parents & Carers

Click on the link below for the new careers newsletter for parents & carers produced by Careers Guernsey. This is

the first edition of termly newsletters designed for parents & carers of students in Years 9-11. Features in this

edition include, what next after Year 11, looking to the future, engineering careers, careers that use maths and other

useful information for parents & carers. We hope you find it useful and we welcome any feedback on how we can

improve the content of future newsletters. https://www.smore.com/cqc0m

Careers Advice Services You can search information about lots of things relating to careers; how to apply for a job, finding a job and help with CVs to name but a few. Contact details below:-

Contact: Sean Parry, Careers Adviser for St Sampson’s

T: 733024 E: sparry@education.gov.gg W: www.careers.gg New and Improved website!

You will find us in the Education Department at the top of the Grange.

Opening hours: Monday to Friday 8.30am – 5.00pm including school holidays

Careers newsletter for Parents & Carers

Click this link https://www.smore.com/u51ma for the autumn edition of the careers newsletter for parents & carers

of students in Years 7–11, produced by Careers Guernsey. Features in this edition include: Post-16 options

information, work experience for Year 10, new careers lesson for Years 7-9, changes to GCSE grading and University

points and the feature career is Graphic Design. We hope you find it useful and we welcome any feedback on how

we can improve the content of future newsletters. Our next newsletter will be available in February.

School Dates 2016

2017 Spring Term

Wednesday 4th January Term Starts (Staff)

Thursday 5th January Term Starts (Pupils)

Monday 20th - Friday 24th February Half Term

Friday 7th April Term Ends

Friday 14th April Good Friday

Monday 17th April Easter Monday

Summer Term

Monday 24th April Term Starts (Staff)

Tuesday 25th April Term Starts (Pupils)

Monday 1st May May Day Holiday

Tuesday 9th May Liberation Day

Monday 29th May to Friday 2nd June Half Term

Friday 21st July Term Ends

GCSE Exams

Mock Exams: Year 11 Mock Exams will take place

week beginning 9th January. Please see the

timetable below.

St Sampson’s High School - PE Results

Boys Football

Year 7 – 5-a-side Winners, beat De La Salle 4-2

Year 8 – beat De La Salle 6-3

Year 7, 8 & 9 B Team Tournaments at Memorial Field

Boys Football Cups

Year 7/8 Kinder – Runners-Up

Year 9 Sigma – Winners

Year 10/11 Spiller – Runners-Up

Girls Netball Leagues

Year 7 – lost GRA 25-8, beat GRA 8-6 (B Team), beat

Blanchelande 16-1. 3rd in tournament

Year 8 – lost GRA 40-12, beat Blanchelande 11-4. 4th in

tournament

Year 9 – lost Blanchelande 14-9, lost GRA 22-6. 6th in

tournament

Year 10 – beat GRA 27-26, beat Blanchelande 39-4. 2nd

in tournament

Year 11 – 4th in tournament + U16 Tour to the UK –Won

1 & Lost 3

Girls Badminton Results

KS3 – lost LBHS 3-2, lost Ladies 5-0, beat Blanchelande

3-2 (A team), beat Blanchelande 3-2 (B Team), lost

Grammar 3-2

KS4 – beat LBHS 3-2, lost Ladies 3-2, beat Blanchelande

5-0 (A team), beat Blanchelande 5-0 (B Team), lost

Grammar 4-1

Boys Hockey Tournaments

Year 7 – ‘Development’ Tournament

Year 8 – Winners

Year 9 - Winners

Girls Football Tournament

Development tournament at SSHS

GCSE Exam timetable

Date Period Subject Length Room

Students to register with tutor & go

to the Social area at 8:40

Monday 9th January

8:45 – 10:45

GCSE Maths Exam –

Paper 1

2hrs

Sports Hall

Tuesday 10th January

P1 & P2

Option B

Business Studies

Catering

French

Graphics

Resistant Materials

45mins

1hr 15mins

1hr 10mins

2hrs

1hr 30mins

Gym

Gym

Community Rm

Gym

Gym

P5 & P6 RS 1hr 15mins Sports Hall

Wednesday 11th January

P3 & P4 Geography

Paper 2 1hr Gym

P5 & P6

Option A

Computer Science

Graphics

History

1hr 30mins

2hrs

1hr 45mins

Gym

Gym

Gym

Thursday 12th January

P1 & P2

Option C

Business Studies

Computer Science

Catering

Geography

Resistant Materials

45mins

1hr 30mins

1hr 15mins

1hr 30mins

1hr 30mins

Gym

Gym

Gym

Gym

Gym

Friday 13th January P3 & P4

Option D

Business Studies

French

History

Media

Music

PE

45mins

1hr 10mins

1hr 45mins

2hrs 15mins

1hr

1hr 30mins

Gym

Meeting Room

Gym

Library

EF7

Gym

P5 & P6 Science 1hr 30mins Sports Hall

Students to register with their tutor

and then go to the Social area at

8:40

Monday 16th January

8:45 – 11:00 GCSE English Language Paper

1 2hrs 15mins

Sports Hall

P5 & P6 Yr10 Prep for Working Life 1hr 30mins Sports Hall

Students to register with their tutor

and then go to the Social area at

8:40

Tuesday 17th January

8:45 – 10:45

GCSE Maths Exam – Paper 2

2hrs

Sports Hall

P5 & P6 Yr9 Prep for Working Life 1hr 30mins Sports Hall

Students to go to the Social area at

13:20

Tuesday 24th January

13:30 – 15:00 GCSE English Language Paper

2 1hr 30mins

Sports Hall