Murray Road Mickleover Derby DE3 9LL 01332 515921 Twitter: @murrayparkderby murraypark.derby.sch.uk

Welcome to our new look newsletter!

We have worked with the members of our Parent Forum over the year

in order to investigate better ways of communicating with parents.

Over the coming months we will be launching a Facebook page, a

brand new website and a parent portal so that you are able to keep

tabs on your child’s homework, attendance and progress. Parents also

felt that the newsletters would be easier to access if they were

emailed out. We will always keep them on the front page of our new

website too as many of you think that this will be more reliable than

‘student mail’. We will continue to use Parent Forums in order to

review how this is going.

This has been an excellent year for Murray Park. As we have

continued to make improvements in teaching and learning we have

also continued to extend the opportunities for children to have more

experiences outside of the classroom. The events described in this

newsletter will give you a sample of the more recent things that have

happened. I am extremely proud of the many students who have

taken on positions of leadership in the school and the community this

year, be that as Sports Leaders, Peer Listening Counsellors or

representing their class on the Junior Leadership Team.

As ever with the end of the year we have a number of staff who are

leaving to go onto pastures new. The full list of leavers and starters is

to be found on page 9. It is particularly worth mentioning three long

serving members of staff who will take retirement this year. Mrs

Woodward has been an outstanding member of the Maths

department for 26 years, Mr Shiels who has inspired thousands of

children in the Art department for 26 years and our much loved cook

Margaret Reynolds who has been cooking school dinners at Murray

Park School for 28 years. We wish them well with their retirement and

also to the other staff who are moving on to new positions.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support

over the course of the last year and to wish you and your family an

excellent summer. We return to school on Wednesday 9th September

at 8.35 a.m.

Yours

Mr M Owen

Headteacher

- School breaks up on Thursday

23rd July at 12:30pm

- Autumn term begins on

Wednesday 9th September

at 8:35am

PE 2

Raising Aspirations 3

Fashion Show 4

Photo Gallery 5 & 6

Celebration Evening 7

Mobile Phones and Uniform 8

Farewells and Site Update 9

Key Dates 10

Girls Summer Rounders

The club has been well attended by all years

and many matches and tournaments have

been played so far.

Y10 narrowly missed out on getting to the

qualifiers in the City Tournament and

performed with determination, losing to Derby

High by just 1 rounder.

Y9 won the second division City Tournament

and came 3rd in the city overall. Our best ever

result for many years. The team has really

come on with extra practices to help their

constantly improving performance. 1st place

team included: Imogen Fowler, Megan

Williams, Megan Hodgkinson, Guste

Balciunaite, Sarah Brown, Evie Boyer, Emily

Blanchon, Emma Williams and Emily

Muggleton.

Y8 came 2nd in the second division tournament

and were delighted to get some of their first

wins in a while. They are hoping now to

improve their skills and do even better in their

next matches.

Y7 have only played a couple of games so far

but a mixed team with three Y8 coaches has

helped them to their first win against Derby

Moor.

With next year’s football season just around the corner, the pupils and staff at Murray Park are already eager to start the new campaign. The cup draws are in and we will meet the following in the first round: 2015/16 Season: Year 7 – St Benedicts (Away) Year 8 – Merrill (Home) Year 9 – City of Derby (Home) Year 10 – St Benedicts (Away) Year 11 – Ecclesbourne (Home)

Sports Leaders 2015 This term will have seen over 80 Year 9 and 10 Sports Leaders from Murray Park supporting primary/junior and infant school Sports Days. This has involved the Sports Leaders measuring, timing and motivating the younger students during their events. We are proud to say that the reports back from the schools have been very complimentary about the conduct and ability of our pupils. You can view the feedback from Ravensdale Junior on the Murray Park website. Well done to everyone that took part from Mrs Hollins and the PE Department. In addition Year 9 girls taught a class of Year 1 pupils from Ravensdale Infant School during their PE lesson on Monday 22nd June. This involved the girls leading and motivating the pupils with small games activities in the Sports Hall. The session was really successful and both groups really enjoyed the experience. Well done! If you would like to be involved in Sports Leadership please speak to a member of the PE Department.

We have again focused on supporting students

throughout the year with academic projects and

careers. Here is a selection of what has taken

place:

- Derbyshire Skills Festival

- Y11 CEG day

- Y10 and Y11 NHS Careers Event at Royal

Derby Hospital

- Y11 Toyota visit

- Y11 college visits

- Y11 World Skills Show NEC Birmingham

- Y11 Royal Marines presentation

- Nuclear Graduates supporting Y8 Science

clubs

- Y10 Nestle UK workshops

- Liaising with employment team at Derby

City Council to arrange Mock Interviews

and C.V session for Y10 students

- Y9/Y10 – “Women into Engineering”

session at Derby Uni

- Y11 Raising the Grade Maths and English

- Y9/Y10 - Royal Derby Hospital career

website meeting

- Toyota Open evening

- Y11 Apprenticeship sessions

- Y8 Big Bang STEM event NEC Birmingham

- Y8 STEM Faraday Challenge

- Y10 Nestle UK Assessment Finals Day

- Y10 C.V workshop sessions

- Y10 Health Care Insight Day

- Y9 Nottingham University Info day

- Y10 Bombardier Visit

- Y7, Y8 and Year 9 ‘Run and Read’

Breakfast Club

- Y11 Careers Interviews

- Employer/Partner networking

Murray Park School’s inaugural Fashion Show debuted in style on Thursday 9th July, with Textiles teacher, host and MC, Mrs Scoffings, kicking things off in a crazy, comic strip dress. She walked on stage to an instrumental version of Right Said Fred’s ‘I'm too sexy’ and set the tone for a fun evening showcasing student designs, GCSE coursework and a real community spirit. There were models and designs from every single year group represented throughout the entire show.

First up were the youngest students who had embellished t-shirts with patchwork images, ranging from fruit, flowers and fish to animals, letters and musical instruments.

Next up, the audience were promised a surprise. Visiting Year 5 students from local primary schools had done such a good job when asked to design for Year 10 boys, that their work had been deemed cat-walk-worthy, too.

A Year 9 project on upcycling followed. Students had improved and changed existing garments to suit their style and the opening model provided the first twirl of the show, wearing an unusual white skirt over dark leggings. There were fashion highlights galore: a stunning ‘lbd’ with wrap and an especially well-modelled red-toned strapless dress with blue bandeau top and skirt trim.

A vision in gold sequins, Mrs Scoffings donned a full length gown with slash neck, low back and fishtail hemline as she returned from the interval to introduce the Year 10’s sustainability project. Emphasising the environmental aspects of this collection of work, each model carried a green gerbera flower, giving cohesion to the group. Year 10 student, Darcy Blaney made an impression on everyone in the audience with her statuesque form and natural talent on the catwalk.

The biggest cheer from the students in the audience came as a treat was announced, in the form of teacher models, sharing their fashion ‘blast from the past’. The evening was rounded off with the most amazing outfits from the Year 11’s. The GCSE celebration outfits project.

As the hall cleared, Mrs Scoffings told student reporters that it had been a ‘great night’ and was keen to emphasise that the event had been a whole school effort. It is her intention to make this an annual feature of the school calendar, and money raised through ticket sales and from refreshments will be used to fund supplies for an even bigger affair in 2016.

Murray Park School Press Packers: Courtney Kirk, Emma Williamson, Beth Warner, Megan Austin. Student Photographer: Maria Altera

Models included: Zainab Bhatti, Sarah Brown, Filip Lewkowicz, Charlie Ride, Damien Flinn, Kaz Karim, Abigail Wigley, Aisha Mahmood, Emily McGowan, Darcy Blaney and Fidya Irakoze,

On Wednesday 8th July, Year 5 pupils from Reigate Primary, Mickleover

Primary, Silverhill Primary and Ravensdale Junior School joined up with

our Year 7 pupils for a special concert. Each school received three

hours of singing coaching from the Derby and Derbyshire Music

Partnership ahead of the event, called Singing2gether.

The pupils sang together for the first time at the event which was a big

success. The children really enjoyed it and it was a great way for them

to get to know Murray Park School. It went so well the event will run

again next year at the request of the primary schools.

On Thursday 9th July we held the Murray Park Sports

Day. The weather was glorious and a fantastic time was

had by all. Events included the egg and spoon race, the

sack race and of course the thrilling staff vs student

races and baseball game. The day was complete with

face painting and ice creams.

Building Work

LA Building Work

On Tuesday 14th July we held our Celebration Evening. Our special guest was Martin Care, the Bid Director at Bombardier. He was an inspiration to all who attended and his enthusiasm about his work and achievement at Bombardier was a shining example to others. One hundred students were invited to receive certificates and awards for their academic and sporting achievements. These were only a small representation of many young people at Murray Park who will also be receiving certificates in due course. We are very proud!

Head Girl Beth Cox Head Boy Aporva Varshney Dep. Head Girl Emma Diep Dep. Head Boy Luke Durose Dep. Head Girl Andisiwe Ndlovu Dep. Head Boy Daryl Oldham

Community Captains

Griffon Holly Sandall Amir Qayyoum

Kestrel Carys Coppen Nikita Kovalskiy

Merlin Beth Smith Thomas Silkstone

Pegasus Cait Ogan Andrew Brundish

Department Awards

Creativity Holly Sandall

Design and Technology Kate Alderson

English Thomas Silkstone

ICT Samiya Saleem

Language and Business Enterprise (Buxton Languages Award) Chloe Priestly

Mathematics Aporva Varshney

Science Nathan Radford

Society and Environment Charlotte Allen

Sporting Excellence

KS3 Tony Brittain Imogen Fowler

KS4 Liam Whitbread Andisiwe Ndlovu

Academic Achievement

Year 7 Ruta Celma Yosef Adamu

Year 8 Yordanos Gebre Mohammed Ali

Year 9 Zainab Bhatti Jamie Corkin

Year 10 Emily Corbin Aaron Luckett

Rewards

Harriet Lees

Governor’s Award for Improvement in Literacy

Jack Corbin

Sports Leaders

Jessica Curtis

Luke Durose

Attendance 100%

Year 7 Ceri Amison

Year 8 Bradley Luckett

Year 9 Ryan Lawton

Year 10 Cait Ogan

Over a long period of time the school has been monitoring the use of mobile phones by our pupils and the potential detrimental effect this may, or may not have, on pupil progress and safety in school.

We have had an open dialogue with pupils using the forum of the Junior Leadership Team as we realise this is a subject that pupils are very passionate about. The Junior Leadership team appreciated the Schools reasons for not allowing phones out and felt that if maybe they had more access to computers at lunch time would make the process easier.

For this term school continued with the current ruling that phones were allowed at break times and lunchtimes only. This was monitored over this term and put in the hands of the pupils so that they took collective responsibility for following the current rules. If the inappropriate use continued the decision would be taken to ban phones which will bring us into line with the majority of schools. Unfortunately, following this discussion there has been a rise in the inappropriate use of mobile phones in school. This has clearly taken up staff time that should otherwise have been spent on student learning.

We have therefore decided to change our policy to the following:

Mobile phones must be switched off and kept out of sight at all times whilst on the school site.

Any mobile phone seen by a member of staff on the school site will be immediately confiscated and can only be collected by a parent or carer. No warnings will be given. Phones will be kept in the safe.

We hope that you will support the school with this ruling and we hope to reduce the number of incidents related to inappropriate use of phones. Hopefully this will also support the continuation of pupils engaging positively with each other and staff, which is a strength of our school. If you wish to discuss this further then please feel free to attend one of our calendared Parent Forums or if you cannot make these dates then contact your child’s Head of Year in the first instance.

At Murray Park we expect all students to wear

the uniform with pride. We do not allow

students who fail to wear it to attend lessons.

Our uniform is as follows:

- A plain navy blue v-neck school cardigan (girls

only) or jumper with the school logo (stocked by

the school)

- School tie (only stocked by the school)

- White formal shirt with collar (long or short

sleeved)

- Black formal full length trousers that are

loose fitting and not tight at the

ankle/knee- length formal skirt

- Black shoes (low heel) – no trainers or

trainer type footwear. Velcro fastening

shoes or shoes with plain black laces are

acceptable. If you are not sure then check

with the Head of Year before purchase.

Please note that neither black jumpers nor cardigans without the school logo are permitted.

PE Uniform

- White polo shirt with the school logo

- Blue rugby shirt or sweatshirt with the

school logo

- Blue shorts with the school logo

- Blue football style socks for outdoor

lessons and white sports socks for indoor

lessons

- Appropriate footwear for the activity

being taught under the guidance of the

member of staff

Informal jackets and hooded tops are not

permitted but winter coats can be worn.

The Local Authority have a planned summer

programme of building work at the school which

will continue through until the October half-

term. This work will affect one of the main blocks

of the school which includes the English, Art &

D&T classrooms. The scope of work includes;

improving the condition of the roof, replacing of

ceilings, installing new energy efficient lights,

improving the IT infrastructure and also Fire

Prevention improvement work throughout the

site.

The Local Authority and the school are working in

close partnership to keep disruption to a

minimum during this period of time whilst

completing this major project.

It’s that time of year again where we have to say

goodbye to members of staff who are moving on to

pastures new. They will all be missed dearly by

students and their colleagues and we wish them all

the best of luck in their new endeavours, whether it

be a new challenge or a relaxing retirement.

- Mr Ashwell Teacher of Music

- Mrs Bentley Director of Teaching and Learning for Science

- Mr Blood Director of Teaching and Learning for D&T

- Mrs Bromley Assistant Headteacher Teacher of PE

- Mr Conyer-Davies Teacher of Maths

- Mr Elliott Teacher of Music

- Miss Harvey Teacher of PE

- Miss Morrey Teacher of Geography

- Ms Lynch Teaching Assistant

- Miss Ramskill Director of Teaching

and Learning for Society and Environment

- Ms Smith Teacher of English

- Mr Shiels Teacher of Art

- Mrs Smolenski Teacher of ICT

- Mrs Woodward Teacher of Maths

- Mrs Reynolds Cook in Charge

MacMillan Cancer Support £317.20 Children in Need £262.18 Readathon £36.58 Christmas Boxes £212 Children in Need £456.54 Christmas Jumper Day £136.15 Christmas Café £301.72 Ebola Appeal £170.50 Enrichment Day £222.52 Red Nose Day £717.76 Umbrella £55.36

TERM DATES

2015-2016

Please check the school website throughout the year for more important dates.

Last Day at School

For Students First Day Back at School For

Students

AUTUMN 2015 Wednesday 9th September

October 2015 Half Term

Friday 23rd October Monday 2nd November

CHRISTMAS 2015 Friday 18th December Monday 4th January 2016

February 2016 Half Term

Friday 12th February Monday 22nd February

SPRING 2016 Thursday 24th March Monday 11th April

May 2016 Half Term

Friday 27th May Monday 6th June

SUMMER 2016 Tuesday 26th July

Inset Days

Monday 7th September 2015

Tuesday 8th September 2015

Friday 13th November 2015

Friday 12th February 2016

Monday 4th July 2016

GCSE Results - Thursday 20th August

PTA Meeting - Monday 5th October

Parent Forum - Thursday 3rd December