Year 7 students were the toast ofnational charity fund raisers inLondon when they raised over £1,500towards ‘big bags’ for needy children.

The Year 7 challenge began back inNovember during Enterprise Weekwhen students were asked to raisemoney to finance Christmas bags ofessentials for Britain’s street childrenand runaways.

Head of Year, Ms Llewellyn said: “Eachbag cost £15 and I expected each formto buy one or two bags. To say thechildren rose to the challenge is anunder-statement.”

The response to the fund raisingchallenge was phenomenal. Over thecourse of just one month, the Year 7swashed cars, held treasure hunts,busked, shined shoes, guessed sweetnumbers and teddy bear names, heldjumble sales, made and sold cakes andsponsored all manner of activities.

A cheque for £1,570 was presented toChildren’s Society representative SandyDeakin in time for Christmas (seephoto).

“This is an amazing achievement”exclaimed Sandy. “Head Office inLondon called and told me about theirachievement. We’re over-whelmed withthe generosity of Tupton Hall students”.

A total of 104 bags were purchasedand distributed to Britain’s needychildren as a result of the initiative.

ISSUE 2 •FEBRUARY 2007

Tupton students wow Children’s Society

Christmas RaffleThis became a whole school eventfor the first time this year with prizedraws being held with each yeargroup before Christmas. There weresix main prizes of £100, one foreach year group, and a variety ofother prizes which brought addedexcitement to each of the draws.

The main prize winners were:Y7 - Ms . L. MonkY8 – Mrs. PeaceY9 – T. HolmesY10 – B. KnowlesY11 – B. PearsonMrs. S. Watson

We raised £1670 and donated thisat a special presentation on 30thJanuary to MacMillan nurses which isone of our regular charities. Manythanks to all of the parents whodonated prizes or bought tickets.

Our next major charity event will bea non-uniform day on Friday 16thMarch, which is coincidentally RedNose Day. We hope that everyone inschool will take part.Photo above: Year 11 reps presenta cheque to Cynthia Evans ofMacmillan Nurses.

INSIDE: Tall Ships • Drama & Music • Duke of Edinburgh • ICT Update

More fund raising...Christmas collection for Shelterorganised by the Music departmentraised £178 .

£20 was raised for AshgateHospice by Mrs. Hargreaves and8TA who made donations in lieu ofsending Christmas cards to eachother. We hope that students fromother classes will take part next year.

Below: Hands on drama – story page 2

Return to theForbidden PlanetThis year’s Christmas show took on asci-fi theme and saw the Richard SmithHall transformed into the inside of theU.S Starship Albatross. Set in the futureand based on Shakespeare’s ‘TheTempest’ the show deals with love,jealousy, betrayal and secret formulae,

all of which are set to music from thefifties and sixties. This certainly

proved to be a challenge forall involved!

Return to The ForbiddenPlanet was the biggest and

most extravagant showTupton Hall has staged. Itboasted a cast of nearly

seventy students,which included a12 piece live band,dancers and an

enormous but very impressive set. Allthe students involved worked extremelyhard to pull the show off in just 10short weeks and the audience weredelighted with the results.

The Derbyshire Times took photographsof the impressive set and costumes, which appeared in the paper. All the praise the students received was extremely well deserved, well done to you all. Let’s see if next year’s show can be even bigger….

Tupton HallSchool Drama ClubWork has already started on TheDrama Club’s next productions, ‘AdrianMole’ and ‘Sparkleshark’, which will bestaged in the summer. We have had atremendous numberof students gettinginvolved with Drama club this year andit is good to see both Year Ten and YearSeven students working together. Ifanyone is still interested in gettinginvolved it’s not too late!

‘Open your eyes’The Year 13 students performed theirdevised performance, which wasproduced for one of their performanceexams, in December. The performancelooked at the issues surrounding carefor the elderly and was a strong pieceof thought provoking theatre. In light ofthis the Nottinghamshire NHS Trust hasinvited the students to perform at atraining day. The Trust said that theyfelt it was important to consider theviews of young people. Well done to Year 13.

DRAMA

This has been a busy musical year forboth the staff and students of TuptonHall School.

A giant choir, mainly Year 8s, sang inassembly the Song for Peace onNational Peace day. The song waswritten specifically for this occasion andpupils all over the world sang the songat the same time on the same day.Pupils created an informative powerpointdisplay to accompany the song.

Pupils celebrated national Music Weekwith a variety of activities. Dedicatedpupils came to school early and playedin reception from 8am to greet staffwith different ensembles. Ensemblesconsisted of jazz musicians, a stringquartet, fluttering flutes, guitar groupand a solo pianist. Photographs of

these “early bird”recitals are

displayedthroughoutschool.Various

pupils and

staff performed in the daily ‘lunchtime recitals’.

Our Extra-Curricular groups haveexpanded and we are now offering aguitar club on a Wednesday lunchand a keyboard club on Fridaydinners for developing musicians of any

ability. These are freeof charge and all

students arewelcome. Thesenior choir has

been formed, ashave the vocalgroovy groupwhich is mainly

aimed at Year7s who want tohave fun withtheir voices.We have anupper schoolboys’ choirand an

orchestra. Weare trying to recruit

as many woodwind,

strings and brass as possible, the clubwill run Tuesday nights.

These are in addition to all the extra-curricular groups which staff offerthroughout the year. We are extremelygrateful to all our peripatetic staff. Wewould also like to thank all parents andguardians for your continuing supportof the music department.

Next events coming up are:Feb 22nd – Glam Rock EveningMarch 6th – A-level Recital Evening.

& MUSIC

The school is startingweekly support groupsfor our children whomay be experiencingdifficulties coping with aloss in the family.

The situation could includedeath or other painfultransition. The organisationsupporting the programmeis called ‘Rainbows’.

When something significanthappens in a family, theentire family is affected.Even though death or lossissues appear to be only

grown up problems, theyhave a profound effect onthe children who areaffected. If a parent dies ora painful loss occurs, notonly do the parents grieve,the children do also.

Children may find it difficultto verbalise their feelings ofgrief because of their ageand inexperience.

We have some verysensitive, caring and trainedadults who have said “yes”to helping these childrenput their feelings into words,

work through their grief,build a stronger sense ofself-esteem, and begin toaccept what has taken placein the family. This could bean opportunity for them toshare with someone on theoutside what is happeningon the inside.

The support group will meetonce a week and your childwill have their own specialjournal to read and workthrough that will be keptlocked away. Confidentialitywill be observed at alltimes.

Your child will receive aletter and registration form.To be part of these groups,both of you must sign theform and return it to theadministration office assoon as possible.

If you have any questions orconcerns about Rainbows,please add your contactnumber and times when wecan contact you on the form.

l Copies of the form canbe obtained from theadministration office.

RAINBOWS

‘Pirates of theCaribbean’ ahoyThe opportunity toexperience life on board atall ship for a week wasone that I could not resist.For those of you who don’tknow what a tall ship is,think ‘Pirates of theCaribbean’, lots of rigging, miles ofrope and huge sails!

I joined the Prince William on a fine butblustery day in November at Portsmouthalong with 37 other teachers, staff fromthe Youth Sport Trust, volunteer crewand permanent crew – 51 hardy souls.The plan was to sail to London via aFrench port but forecast 9-10 gales inthe channel for the whole week alteredthe schedule.

I joined my ‘watch’ – a team of 11people – in carrying out duties whichincluded serving in the mess room(that’s dining room!), cleaning theheads (that’s toilets!), sweeping out thecaptain’s cabin and scrubbing thedecks. The exciting stuff, however, wasmanning the helm, bracing the mastsand, best of all, setting and stowing thesails. Climbing the rigging and goingout on the yards 25 metres above thedeck in a force 8 gale to haul in a sailwas exhilarating for me but very scaryfor others. Reaching the very top of the45 metre mast gave me a great senseof achievement.

I rediscovered how important it is to beable to work in a team, how to use mystrengths and to rely on others inhelping me to overcome myweaknesses. I also did some ‘schoolwork’ – sharing ideas and learningabout new initiatives from otherteachers and the Youth Sport trustduring four training sessions. I alsomanaged not to be seasick!

The Tall Ships Trust offers voyages toyoung people between the ages of16-25. If you are interested thenplease call in to see me.

Alison Watson – Director of Sport

Going for GoldThe Duke of Edinburgh Award hasbeen running at the school since 2003.Over 180 students have taken part in34 days of activities and expeditions.22 students have gained Bronze Awardand 11 have achieved Silver. Elevenstudents are enrolled for Gold Award.Bronze Award students recentlycompleted a pre-enrolment expeditionin the Peak District. A Bronze expeditionwas held on the 2006 Enrichment daysand we plan to hold a Silver or Goldexpedition on the 2007 Enrichmentdays. This could lead to a longerventure in Norway in the summer of2008. The new mini-bus will allow evenmore future activities. Any student whois interested should see Mr. Parfitt.

Tupton Hall School, Old Tupton, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S42 6LGTel: 01246 863127 email: info@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk www.tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk

design & print • www.pickardcommunication.co.uk

Olympics 2012?Paige Goucher ( Yr. 8 ) is a talented swimmerwho trains with Ben Negus at ChesterfieldSwimming Club in the hope of gaining a placein the 2012 Olympic Team. Recently she tookpart in a training session with Olympian SteveParry at the Queen’s Park Leisure Centre. Thetraining session was featured on the BBCBreakfast programme.

Ice EdgeWe are all becoming increasingly awareof the effects of global warming. TuptonHall students have been invited by MissCoddington, Head of Geography, totake part in a national competitioncalled Ice Edge. The aim of the projectis for students to come up with lowtechnology, practical solutions forenvironmental challenges. It is hopedthat the project will have a particularimpact on climate change in the Arctic,an area which is affected dramaticallyby climate change.

Learning PlatformStudents and parents: Please

remember to log on to our Learningplatform for Information about theschool, online resources and manyother initiatives.

Remember the student login andpassword should be used.www.tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk.

RevisionAs GCSEs and SATS areapproaching, please remember toencourage students to login to SAMlearning (link at the top of theschool site). Students should loginusing the following details:Centre ID: s42thUser ICT: date of birth and initials

(e.g. 170290nm)Password: date of birth and initials

(e.g. 170290nm)This is an online learningsystem proven to increaseresults. Any queries to Nick Melton, Head of ICT:nickm3@tuptonhall.derbyshire.sch.uk

ict@tupton