Easter Newsletter 2016

Fulston Manor School

Last Day Of Term 4 Thursday 24th March

First Day Of Term 5 Monday 11th April

May Bank Holiday Monday 2nd May

End of Term 5 Friday 27th May

Bude Trip Sunday 29th May —Friday 3rd June

Start of Term 6 Monday 6th June

Sports Day Wednesday 22nd June

Book Return Day (Years 11, 12 and 13) Friday 24th June Years 7-10 arrive in school at 10.15am

Sixth Form Induction Week Monday 27th June —Fri 1st July

New Parents’ Evening Monday 4th July

New Student Visit (Pastoral) Thursday 7th July

Enterprise/Camp/Work Experience Week Monday 11th—Friday 15th July

Lower School Awards Tuesday 19th July

End of Term 6 Friday 22nd July (students finish at 1.00pm)

GCE Results Day Thursday 18th August Year 13 from 8am Year 12 from 10am

GCSE Results Day Thursday 25th August—Year 11s from 9am, Year 10s from 10am, until 1pm, followed by 6th form enrolment

Staff Training Days Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th September

Start of Term 1 (2015/16) Wednesday 7th September

Fabulous New Sixth Form Centre will be ready during the Summer Term!

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Reminder re Girls’ Uniform and Appearance

Skirts Regulation school skirt is as follows: Straight skirt with kick pleat at centre back, or Box pleat

All skirts must be knee length

Hair Hair that is dyed in non-natural or contrasting colours and hair extensions are not permitted in school.

Girls’ hair bands must be plain black, red or white only. No scarves or flower accessories are to be worn.

Nails Painted and/or acrylic nails are not permitted in school.

Tights Must be grey, minimum 40 denier, black tights are NOT permitted.

Reminder re shoes for both girls and boys: Shoes should be black, leather, sensible and suitable for both indoor

and outdoor use. Boots (defined as footwear that covers the ankle), trainers and canvas shoes may NOT be worn.

If a student should arrive in school not complying to the above he/she will be given until the next school day to rectify. (nail var-nish remover is kept in house areas and girls will be asked to remove the nail varnish immediately and their responsibility card will be signed).

Important Reminders

School Closure

In the event of the school having to close, due to adverse weather conditions for example, we notify parents in a variety of ways:-

Use of local radio station announcements

Notice on the home page of the school website

InTouch e-mail message service (direct to your e-mail addresses)

InTouch text message service (direct to your mobile phones)

The text message service direct to mobile phones has proved to be very effective and provides parents with an early notification of school closure. If you have not registered for this free InTouch service or the free InTouch e-mail service please con-tact Mrs Nicole Fitzjohn, on 01795 475228 or nfitzjohn@fulstonmanor.kent.sch.uk for further details.

Students Feeling Unwell and the Use of Mobile Phones

There have been a number of occasions when students have felt unwell and have contacted home asking for parents to come and collect them from school without the knowledge of any member of staff. Can you please remind your child(ren) that should they feel unwell they should inform a member of staff or go directly to the First Aid Room. A member of staff will discuss the illness with your child and will contact you if it is necessary for them to be collected and taken home or taken for further medical examination.

If students are using their phones at unacceptable times, locations or in other ways they will still be confiscated and taken to the school office. No phone can be collect-ed before 3:15 p.m. In some cases phones may be collected by the stu-dent but generally they will need to be collected by a parent.

Collecting students by car at the end of the day We are pleased that we are able to allow parents to drive into school and drop their sons/daughters off in the mornings. However, it is not reasonable for parents to expect to collect students in the same way at the end of the day as it is so busy. It is a drop-off area but we do make exceptions for taxis and for parents of students who are on crutches etc. We therefore ask parents to make arrangements to meet their sons/daughters at a convenient location away from the school and Brenchley Road. If the present traffic and health & safety concerns continue will consider closing the school gates to all vehicles before and after 3pm. Thank you for your co-operation.

at 3.00pm

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Students Raise Funds For Air Ambulance Christmas jumpers proved to be a big hit when Fulston students donated money to wear their festive sweaters just before they broke up last term. An amazing £357.54 was raised and a cheque was presented to Mr Dennis Ines who represented the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance Trust. Dennis has been fundraising for the KSSAAT for the past 25 years and collects waste paper from Fulston Manor School each week and takes it to the paper mill to be recycled. He also fundraises at local events and, to date, has raised around £190,000 for this essential cause. Dennis commented “I got involved with fundraising for the Air Ambulance by chance when I was part of the PTA at Fulston. We had asked the students which charity they wanted to support and, by chance, an air ambulance landed in the field! The decision was made there and then!”

Money was raised in memory of an ex-student Sophie Lintott who tragically died last year. Mrs Palmer, Publicity and Events Manager at the school said, “We all know Dennis so well here at school and so there was no question as to who we wanted to present the cheque to as he works so tirelessly for the Air Ambu-lance. There was a real buzz on the day from the students who wore their jumpers and it just added to the fun of our Christmas dinner. It seems so long ago now though!”

Many thanks to all who wore a Christmas jumper and helped raise so much money for Kent Air Ambulance!

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Fulston Donate To The Needy

Following on from a Hales house assembly, students and staff collected a large amount of food items to donate to the local Sittingbourne food bank. The idea behind the assembly was to ask students to re-spond to the idea of not thinking of just themselves but of others – not necessarily people they knew, but their wider community – especially to those less fortunate, during the Christmas season. Hales students Nathan Ottaway and Emily Cale were two students chosen to help deliver the food parcels to The Baptist Church in Sittingbourne on the last day of term. All of Sittingbourne’s churches run this scheme together and help some of the neediest families and people in the town. The volunteers were in-credibly happy as their stocks were becoming depleted and, as both students said, “We were really proud to have been able to deliver these food parcels and it’s a lovely feeling knowing we have helped strangers”.

School Life for year 11 pre-public examinations

With GCSEs only handful of months away, Year 11 students of Fulston Manor prepare for the most vital few months of their adolescent lives. New and interesting revision tech-niques are being introduced to students via informative assemblies that have been held sporadically throughout the beginning months of 2016 and the last few months of 2015. Fulston Manor caters towards the needs and wants of every student within each year. For Year 11, this means various workshops for each subject. The workshops are held and organised by the teachers within their subjects. The workshops held, help students to revise knowledge learnt previously and to revise ex-am techniques which help with the coming exams. With the help of the teachers, students are reassured about the uncertainty of their exams. Students are

also helped with analysing materials such as past papers. Deputy Head Girl, Soraya Holland agrees, “At

workshops, it’s too late in the day to learn any new content so reviewing and practice is perfect for revi-

sion.”

Written by: Renee Quartey-Peluola Year 11 Student

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Sport Relief Fulston Manor School staff and students joined in the fun and raised a fantastic £827.01 for Sport Relief.

Starting on Thursday 17th March Tutor Groups held activities such as table football, mini Olym-pics, skip-a-thons and Insanity workouts to name but a few. English teacher, Mr Spedding, showed some excellent dedication when he challenged his Tutor Group to a planking ses-sion. He was, embarrassingly, beaten by some Year 8s!

Students and staff were invited to wear red on Friday 18th and the day’s highlight was a male versus fe-male netball match. This was well attended by students cheering on their teachers. The match started off well for the ladies, they were winning 3-0 at the end of the first quarter after some brilliant shots by Mrs Boichat. However, after a slow start the men found their feet and (unfortunately for the women) some goals as well. The male team, captained by Mr Deeks, showed no mercy as they fought to secure the win for the second year running. This also led to some injuries including Mr Prutton injuring his knee, though he bravely carried on to take the team to glory. Miss Heatley, who captained the female team said, “There were some excellent performances from members of staff and the ladies did not give up until the final whistle. The match was really good fun and was well attended by students and we raised a great

deal of money for Sport Relief, which is the most important thing.” George Vigeon and Matthew Bailey, Year 7 boys from Fulston each swam 100 lengths (2.5km each) at Swallows Leisure Centre on Saturday to raise money also. They swam non-stop and raised over £100 for Sport Relief.

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Students Watch History In

The Making Students from Fulston Manor School got the chance to watch the live launch of British astro-naut Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station on Tuesday 15th December. There was absolute silence and an air of nervousness amongst staff and the Year 8 and 9 students who watched the televised launch as the astronauts took off from the launch pad in the Russian Soyuz

rocket. The science students then continued their classwork and the Year 8s, having researched plan-ets in our solar system, wrote postcards home. A resounding ‘Cool’ was expressed by the stu-dents although staff wondered if they really understood that they had just watched history in the making!!

On Friday 29th January, the Business department of Fulston Manor were lucky to host speaker, David Jubb from Battersea Arts Centre who came to speak to our Year 12 students. Through the Speak-ers4Schools charity, the school and speaker are matched on interests; Mr Jubb gave an insightful and interesting talk on the balance between running a charity, being a community hub and developing ‘Scratch’ a worldwide development process. Amber Holloway stated “ it was good to find out about a

new business and be able to use that infor-mation in my future studies”. Initially Mr Jubb outlined the events and ac-tivities at the Battersea Arts Centre, ranging from a children’s soft play area to develop-ment workshops for performance artists and running a young person’s social enterprise group. These examples clearly demonstrat-ed that a business could be more than just about money and ‘bottom line’. Recently, the Arts Centre experienced a cri-

sis situation when their main space caught alight and caused millions of pounds worth of damage. The students were able to understand the response David and his team had to this potentially catastrophic event and rise via #bacphoenix using their unique organisation structure. This led to James Crayford commenting, “It was quite interesting to hear about the fire that happened and how the business react-ed to this”. Jordan Lovett summed up the talk by saying “all of it was good”.

Business students Welcome David Jubb For Insightful Talk

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Lorna Loses Her Locks Hales student Lorna Moses promised her Grandad last year that she would cut her hair and donate it to the charity Little Princess Trust so that it could be used to make wigs. Lorna’s Grandad was, at the time, battling prostate cancer, a fight which he sadly lost last October, but they had discussed her donating her hair for the good of others. One of the criteria of being able to donate was that there should be a minimum of 7” available to be cut but Lorna was

delighted that her hairdresser at Images in Sittingbourne was able to give her a new style and remove 8” of her locks. Lorna said “ I had chatted to Grandad a while before he died about cutting my hair and had thought long and hard about whether I wanted to do this but I knew it was the right thing to do in his memory. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again but next time I will raise funds also”.

What Do You Do In Your Spare Time…Mr Spedding? Word on the street was that our very own Mr Spedding recently ran the Canterbury 10 Mile race and finished 325th! Considering there were 1169 other runners he did remarkable well coming in with a time of 1 hour 16 minutes although he confessed to that not being his best time. Mr Spedding has enjoyed running since he left school but it was just two years ago that he joined the Sittingbourne Striders. Running with a club really motivated him to challenge himself to run longer distances and experiment with different types of training. He typically runs 3-4 times a week but, like most runners, spends a lot of time doing strengthening exercis-es and stretches to try and prevent injury. When asked what sort of races he enters, Mr Spedding said “I’ll en-ter any race from 5km up to a marathon. Marathons take a lot out of you though so I wouldn’t want to do more than two of those a year. Over the winter I take part in the Kent Fitness League cross country races alongside Mr Patey who is much quicker than me! I’ve done Beachy Head Marathon in Eastbourne twice now and it’s widely regarded as one of the toughest marathons in the UK. It’s all off road, includes two lots of steps

and the last six miles involves running (or often walking by that point) over a series of steep hills called the Seven Sisters. My Year 10s will tell you all about it – they did a piece of creative writing based on my experience in that race!” The next challenge Mr Spedding has to train for is the Brighton marathon which he will be running for the second time, “My training plan officially started the weekend before Christmas and I’ve run

212 miles since then. That sounds a lot but it’s the healthy eating part I struggle with the most! I complet-ed last year in 3 hours and 38 minutes so hoping to break the 3 hour and 30 mark this time”. When it comes to sport Mr Spedding didn’t really get into it at school as, for some reason, he thought he wasn’t good enough and has regretted it ever since. He would definitely recommend students now to just go out there and give it a go otherwise you’ll never know what you are capable of. Finally, when asked if there was anything else he wanted to share Mr Spedding commented, “When I first joined the school Mr. Abbot used to call me ‘Golden Brown’ on account of all the chips I used to eat up in Cromer. Now he calls me ‘Lord Seb Coe’ so I must have done something right!

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Morrison Munchkin Treads The Boards

Morrison Student Bethany Ward spent her Christmas break play-ing the role of a Munchkin during the production of A Wizard Of Oz pantomime which was showing at The Swallows Leisure Centre. Bethany took part in 7 performances with The Kent School Of Dance following rehearsals which had started in the autumn. The Year 7 student has been learning ballet for about 6 years and loved every second of her performance in the Panto.

Dance Recital Evening – Monday 7th March

A selection of GCSE Dance and A-Level Performing Arts students presented their examination perfor-mances to friends, family and teachers on Monday 7th March. The evening was filled with an assortment of Dance performances, which were all of such a high standard. The students demonstrated such passion and commitment to their pieces, which was fantastic to see. The recital evening consisted of solo and group choreographies, which have been in the rehearsal stages right up until the event. The students have taken much of their after school and lunch times to work on their performances and ensure they are to performance standard. It was thrilling to have such a large audience who attended the evening, as it encouraged the students to work even harder to complete their work and prepare for examination performances. The Year 11 GCSE students have been working towards their final examination day, which is on Wednes-day 13th April. The three units of work include solo compositions, group performances and group chore-ographies, worth 60% of the course. The Year 11 students have been fantastic to work with and I wish them the very best of luck for their final practical exam in April and their written exam in June, before we conclude our journey of GCSE Dance.

Melody Stands Out in the Crowd Stanhope student Melody Jackson is now the proud owner of the title ‘Junior Miss Sheppey 2016’ after a recent beauty contest. Originally the competition started with about 90 entrants & after a preliminary round was whittled down to 12. Melody was obviously impressive on the night and was crowned queen after several private interviews and a speech on stage. She will spend the next year travelling with her 2 junior princesses and the senior court around almost every carnival in Kent representing Sheppey. They will also participate in various fundraising events during the year. In 2014 Melody was the Sheppey Junior Princess and had one of the best years of her life so is real-ly looking forward to being Queen this year.

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Lauren and Bradley Rock and Roll Their Way To Success

Cromer student, Lauren Damirel, is certainly one to watch as, considering her record, she could become a professional dancer if she ever chose to! Dancing with her partner, ex-student Bradley Bird, who is also her cousin, they have won the national title for Rock ‘n Roll no less than five times. Lauren and Bradley have been dancing together for many years as she began her passion for dance when she was 4 or 5. The pair practise at South Avenue School every Thursday but get more intensive lessons in Bournemouth occasionally. Lauren said “Dancing with Bradley is so easy as we already have the family connection. Rock and Roll is my favourite and we do seem to be pretty good at it. We danced just a couple of days ago and have recently been moved up to the gold category where we achieved third place out of 30 couples dancing. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future brings”.

Olivia Travels To Portugal For Acro Comp

Year 7 Hales student, Olivia Monks, has recently taken part in an Interna-tional Acrobatics Competition. Olivia trains at a club in Tunbridge Wells called NDGE (Next Dimension Gymnastics Academy) and dedicates at least 15-18 hours to practising, spread over 5 days per week. She was delighted to be asked to compete in Portugal at an International event and was happy to take 8th place alongside her partner Alice, who comes from Tunbridge Wells. Last summer Olivia competed at the British Championships for the first time hopes to be competing again this summer. Olivia said “ I really love this sport and moved to NDGE as I needed a different challenge from the local club I used to belong to. I get on really well with Alice even though she is 17, so a bit older than me”.

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Trophy Triumph For Owen 12 year old Owen Hollands was incredibly delighted

to receive a gold medal and wonderful trophy from the 2015 Wig-more Cycle Club. Owen, who is in Hales House, has been crowned Under 12 Youth Time Trial Champion at the Wigmore Christmas Party held recently. The actual trial was held back in August but the timings have just been released and Owen sped his way to victory completing 9 kilometres in 20 minutes at the Cyclopark in Gravesend. Cycling for three years now, Owen trains on his Merida bike a cou-ple of times a week and also tries to fit in some distance training with his Dad, Paul, on a Sunday. Owen said “It was a shock to win but great. Cycling is my favourite sport and you never know, I may even make it to the Olympics one day”.

Longbow Championship For Rayelle

Morrison student Rayelle Ennels-Smith has walked away with the Under 18s Junior Ladies Longbow Na-tional Indoor Championship title. Not a bad result for a young lady who is only 13! The competition held at the National Agricultural & Exhibition Centre at Stoneleigh Park, War-wickshire was a tense event with many people from around the coun-try. The Gold Medal winner is in Year 8 and trains three times a week at Sittingbourne Community College. Rayelle admits to her arm aching after holding the longbow for any length of time but loves every second of it. Mum, Carly Smith, said “ I am an incredibly proud Mum at the moment. When I heard the news I was amazed as Rayelle only took up the sport about 8 months ago but she’s really smashing it”. Miss Smith, Rayelle’s Head of House, said “ I am, like her Mum, immensely proud of Rayelle’s achievements”. We all

look forward to seeing where her new found sport takes her.

1/2cm Helps Josh Take Gold

Morrison student Josh Duplock took the gold medal at the recent Open International Taekwondo Championships thanks, partly, to his height. As the 12 year old has reached the dizzy height of 149.5cm he could still compete in the Under 150cm category which obviously helped him take the title. The championship, held in Swindon during the weekend of 27th-28th Feb-ruary, found Josh taking part in 3 fights – winning each one. He said “Although I was the tallest, the fights were in no way easy and I found them all a challenge. It was great fun but it’s only a matter of time before I am put up into the next category and then I’ll be starting as the short-est!”

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Fulston Students Welcome Primary Schools To Watch GCSE

Theatre In Education Productions

The plays were designed to teach the young audiences about the dangers of these issues and how to avoid or deal with these particular situations. Theatre in Educa-tion performances are designed to get the audience involved through interaction from the performers, which proved to be a real success with the Primary School students. Over the course of the day 140 youngsters visited and they all seemed to really enjoy themselves and got involved as and when they were prompted. The Q&A session at the end prompted some great questions from the Primary School children. Milton Court, Lynsted and Norton and South Avenue Primary Schools were the schools who attended on the day. Mrs Faye Oliver, Senior Teacher at Lynsted and Norton Primary School, said, ”Thank you so much for inviting our school to today's year 10 performance. Your students did a fantastic job and my class real-ly enjoyed themselves. Please can you pass on my congratulations to your students for the well thought

out, well performed productions”.

Fulston Hits the High Notes!

On 9th March, the Jazz Band and Choir attended the “Sounds of Swale” a joint schools concert hosted at Westlands Secondary School. The concert brought together thirteen primary and secondary schools from across Swale, with over 300 students performing.

It was a fabulous opportunity to showcase our stu-dents in a public arena, and staff received some excellent feedback about the standard of Fulston Ensem-bles.

The groups used this performance as a warm-up the Spring Concert, which takes place just a fortnight later.

In the last week of term, the Year 10 GCSE Drama students performed their Theatre in Education pieces to a selection of local Primary Schools. This is an annual event that is run at Fulston Manor School as part of the Year 10 assessments. These performances are the first opportunity for the students to perform to a live audience, so it was a nerve wracking experience for many of the students. The students had been given a range of theme options to choose from on the issues; Stranger Danger, Internet Safety and Bullying.

Oliver Holt

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Students Cross The Pond To Discover New York It was an early start for 30 Year 12 and 13 students from Fulston Manor School and three

staff when, at 3.00am on Monday 15th February, they departed from the school to catch a flight to New York to experience the city that never sleeps. As part of their Business and Finance studies the intrepid travellers arrived in the Big Apple and were greeted by a snow storm which meant their planned visit to The Empire State Building was post-poned. Over the next 4 days students were able to visit the 9/11 Memorial Museum, an amazing and sombre experience for students, many of which asked to spend longer in the museum as the 2 hours allocated was just not enough. The highlight of the week for many was the night time view of the city from The Empire State Build-ing. Daniel Olowu, 18, said “that view is fantastic and the best thing we have done”. Other excursions included a trip to Grand Central Station, The Statue of Liberty and a fantastic night on Broadway where the students were able to experience, first hand, the amazing quality of acting and singing in School Of Rock.

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LARCS Visits Cambridge

Sixteen members and three staff from Fulston Manor School’s Latin and Ro-man Civilisation Society (LARCS) were fortunate to visit the University of Cam-bridge for the day. Guests of the Faculty of Classics, the students from Years 7 through to Year 12 had a guided tour of the Faculty’s museum by Jennie Thornber from the university. The museum contains many life-size copies of Roman and Greek statutes. These statues looked like they were from the ancient world but were actually plaster casts of the originals which had only been made 200 years ago. The students were interested to hear the stories from the Greek myths as they looked at the statues and which Jennie seemed to bring to life with her knowledge. Orianna (Year 12) said that the “trip was extraordinarily interesting, particularly the visit to the museum in which the artefacts were mesmerising and fascinating”. The students then went to Queen’s College where they enjoyed lunch in the college’s impressive dining hall. After they had eaten, the students were split into groups and were shown round the college and its facilities by some current Cambridge students. Sixth Form student Amy said “I particularly liked the tour of the college with its amazing architecture”. Then it was back to the Faculty of Classics for a gory lecture on Roman medicine before returning home. Benedict (Year 11) said that it was “a fascinating trip. It was amazing to see the cast replicas of the Roman and Greek sculptures and to talk to some of the current students”. The LARCS students really enjoyed their day learning about Roman history and also what it is like to

attend such a prestigious university. As Year 10 student Jodie said “the trip was fun and informative. I

learnt so much about Roman medicine from one of the lecturers at the university. We also had an insight

into the art and language of the Greeks and Romans throughout time and this will definitely benefit my

studies in the future”.

Here is an account written by one of the students on the trip, Renee Quartey-Peluola: “Prestigious members of the Latin and Roman Civilisation Society of Fulston Manor School were given the opportunity to venture to Cambridge on Friday 26th February. The University of Cambridge is home to numerous colleges; the students visited Queen’s College as it has a direct links to Kent and Medway. The journey from Kent to London was filled with youthful enthusiasm. Once there, the students were giv-en a tour of the museum within the Faculty of Classics. Inside the museum, there were various replicas of sculptures that would be found in their countries of origin such as, Greece and Italy. One distinguished figure among many, was the tall brooding statue of Hercules. This was a motionless, cracked, tall giant Continued on the next page/……...

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supporting a weary expression whilst holding several apples in one hand which he placed be-hind his back. Head Boy, Benedict Croft agreed that the statue was impressive, “The statue was very imposing and structurally dominant”. There was a sense of appreciative awe as students huddled together and stared up in wonder at one of the most commonly known characters of Greek mythology. Students were then treated to a well delivered lecture on Roman Society by Dr. Rebecca Flem-ing. Over an hour was spent listening on how the doctors of Roman Britain used unique and inter-esting techniques within the field of medicine. At the end, students agreed that they had learnt a great deal. On the ride back, students chatted pro-fusely about the knowledge that they had just attained, agreeing that their visit at Cambridge had been profound and thought-provoking. “ Renee can be seen in the picture above, second person in on the right .

This September Fulston Manor School will be host to 35 students and 20 teachers from across Europe

Firstly I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of the families who have already agreed to host pupils. Students involved in previous exchange visits have repeatedly testified to the special nature of the exchange and how it has provided them with opportunities to forge friendships with students from across the continent. Fulston Manor students have experienced warm wel-comes from host nation families and we would love to provide the same hospi-tality to our visitors, most of whom are visiting the UK for the first time.

If you feel you could be part of this unique project, please contact me at your earliest convenience before spaces run out.

Miss S Corbishley (scorbishley@fulstonmanor.kent.sch.uk) Erasmus+ Co-ordinator

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Students Decide "C’est Délicieux"

40 Year 7 students from Fulston Man-or School travelled to the picturesque French town of St Omer, on Wednes-day 2nd March. Whilst visiting the town they were able to practise their French phrases to buy boxes of Mac-arons, some frites and chocolat! Daisy Payne said the shopping was “Fantastique!” The highlight of a day, following a magical mystery tour into the country-side, was the visit to The Beussent Chocolate Factory. The students met Beussent’s answer to Willie Wonker, a lovely chocolatier called Jacob. He was able to capture the students’ attention with his enthusiastic explanation of all things chocolate from the growing of the cocoa pods in Ecuador, drying them under banana leaves and finally the magic of turning bitter tasting chocolate nibs into the smoothest most delicious truffles. After pa-tiently watching chocolates being handmade and listening to the talk, the students were able to try the product, it was an instant hit. As the freebie taster was such a hit, all the students headed to the shop to buy edible souvenirs and gifts from white chocolate chickens to dark ducks. Mrs Collins, Head of Modern Foreign Languages, even managed to come home with two Eiffel Towers, all in chocolate of course! Oscar Bennett stated ‘it was a brilliant day and I would recommend it to all new Year 7 students”.

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WW1 Battlefields Students from Fulston Manor School were recently invited to attend a 4 day residen-tial trip visiting the battlefields of World War One in France and Belgium. This was a government funded scheme to com-memorate the centenary of WW1. All of year 9 were invited to apply for the oppor-tunity to go on this trip. They had to write a letter explaining why they felt they should go, what they would bring to the trip and what they would gain. Lewis Had-low, Matthew Wetherall and Hayden Wood were selected from the applicants.

The students joined other delegates from around the country and embarked, along with teachers, a tour guide and serving soldiers, on their jour-ney of discovery. The students were shown how to research an individual soldier – their target was to trace a soldier from their local area with the aim of finding out what happened to him in WW1 and where his final resting place was. The Fulston students focused on W H Dunk who came from Sittingbourne, Terrance Donnelly who was related to staff member Karen Groenhuysen and Lewis’ Great Great Grandfather, Frederick Edward Bullock.

Students have been challenged with being ambassadors for the project and to complete a ‘Legacy 110’ project. Their aim is to share their information with 110 people (outside their school community). The idea behind this is that if all the 8,000+ pupils who take part in this scheme are able to do this then the number of people affected by this scheme will be the same number as those commonwealth troops who died in WW1.

All of the boys reflected on the vast number of headstones in the cemeteries. Matthew said “The most shocking part of the trip for me, has to be when we visited Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium, and we wit-nessed the sheer size and greatness of the place. It was hard to accept that every grave we saw, repre-sented one man who died in WWI, and to see tens of thousands of graves, is purely shocking. Further-more, seeing the number of people honoured on the plaques, scattered across the graveyard, was just as shocking to see”. He also commented, “The most moving part of the trip for me, has to be the Menin Gate ceremony. It was such a beautiful building, and it was an even more moving ceremony. It warmed my heart to see so many gather, and lay down wreaths, to the sound of calm music, in memory of those who died. It has been an unforgettable trip. At one point in the trip, we were asked to sum up our feel-ings so far, with one word, I chose ‘speechless’. This was because it sums up exactly how lost for words I was and how shocked I was by the sights we visited”.

Hayden thought that the most interesting moment throughout his trip was when he realised that the trenches were still standing after 100 years! “I was really shocked to find out how many people had died in the Battle of the Somme and it is so very sad to see how many soldiers have a headstone on their grave but not a name as they could not be identified. The whole trip left me feeling grateful for the thou-sands of people who died for their country”.

Lewis agreed with everything his peers had said and added “The most shocking part of the trip was learning how brutal the war was. It was very shocking to know how both sides of the war did horrible things and the fighting was brutal. The most moving moment for me was finding my Great Great Gran-dad’s name on the Menin Gate. It was certainly an emotional trip and has left me feeling devastated because of the many men and women who died for their country.”.

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Staff Surprise Students For World Book Day World Book Day is celebrated in 100 countries around the world and teachers at Fulston Manor School highlighted the fun factor in reading by dressing up as characters from literature. There were 2 Miss Trunchbulls (1 male, 1 female), Peter Pan, Harry Potter, Jack Sparrow, Tin-tin, Mary Poppins, Faramir, Alice and many others including a memorable Tigger. Staff reported that they had lots of chats with students about books, and there was a great buzz around the school. Mr Brookes Tigger Mr Patey Jack Sparrow Mr Abbott Hannibal Lector Mr. Matthews Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea” Mr Spedding Dracula Miss Robbens Tin Tin Miss Heatley Wicked witch from Oz Mrs Evans/Mr Deeks Miss Trunchbull Mrs Wootten Hobbit Miss Corbishley Alice in Wonderland Miss Cazaly Peter Pan Mrs Osoba Huckleberry Finn Mrs Mitchell Harry Potter Mr White Cat in the Hat Miss Jeffrey Mary Poppins Mrs Deeks Mrs Rochester 1st Mrs Relf Wally Mr Allison Vicar of Nibbleswicke Miss Newsome Convict Mrs Hay Clive Woodward Mrs Jeffery Bellatrix Mrs Ottaway Dick Turpin Mrs Smith Winnie the Pooh Mr Seppala Faramir Mrs Franks Little Red Riding Hood Mrs Wicks Julia Becket Mr Lawrence Frodo Miss Baker Holly Golightly Mrs Wisbey Prof McGonagall Mr Rayfield Hagrid Mrs Groenhuysen Paddington Bear Mr Dunt Charlie Bucket Mr Sealey Sherlock Holmes

Competitions included a Teacher in Costume Treas-ure Hunt, quizzes and a chance to write about “Where does your reading take you?”, and a well-attended “pop-up bookshop” was held in the library courtesy of Andrea Don’s Nickel Books. Mrs Evans who organised the event said “Reading is such an important skill and making it enjoyable is one of the components of success”.

A normal day for Mr Brookes at his desk!!

Mrs Gash continued the theme for assembly the following day!

WBD Cakes made by Damilola Gbinigie Many thanks to all who participated and donated to Book Aid International!

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World Book Day Competition Winners:

Teacher Treasure Hunt – Ben Collins 1st, Joseph Shackleford 2nd.

“Where does your reading take you?” James Harvey 1st, Bethany Ward 2nd, Liv Frost and Nishi Patel runners –up. Highly commended –Marta Poikane, Archie Wells, Toby Tickner, Oliver Burr, Rachael Wilson, Emilia Zarychta, Jenny Walsh.

Wordsearch – Alicia Adams

Quiz -Katie Phillips, Illustrations- Katie Jane Phillips

Mrs Evans looking after the Library! The following poem won first prize in the "Where does your reading take you?" competition :

Where does your reading take you?

by James Harvey

Where does your reading take you?

For me, it takes you to a whole new view,

It can transport you to a brand new tale,

To vast oceans where only imagination will make you sail,

It can fill you with a sense of relaxation and peace,

Where all troubles and worries begin to cease,

Perhaps it can bring you success and all that of which you desire,

To fame and glory and happiness for when you decide to retire,

Indeed reading is a powerful fuel,

Expelling you to experiences anew,

Reading can guide you through the toughest of times,

And steer you away from the most terrible crimes,

It can teleport you to a world of inspiration,

Where put to work are your gears of imagination,

Reading has a large abundance of ingenuity, curiosity and complexity,

And that is where my reading takes me.

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Accelerated Readers

Siblings Take Medals In Taekwondo

Rhys and Hannah Davies, Stanhope and Cromer students, are still improving their skills in Taekwondo and have re-cently participated in the British International Taekwondo Open. Rhys, already a black belt, picked up the silver medal for his sparring although had been given an extra minute he was told that he would have achieved gold. His sister, Hannah collected a bronze medal for her patterns. Hannah may still only be 12 years old but she cer-tainly packs a punch and has moved up to a black striped belt. Hannah said “I am now in the 150cm – 170cm so am one of the shortest so it was hard competing against the tallest”.

The Accelerated Reader Scheme continues to provide a frame-work of attractive reading resources, quizzes to ascertain compre-hension and small rewards for many of our Year 7,8 and 9 stu-dents and a Kindle will be awarded to one of the students who has made the most progress. The list includes Henry Mills, Ahmed Ally, Darcie Lillie, Emilie Weller, Porch-Marie Maryott, Cameron Leech, Lily Smith, Jacob Seers, Thomas Large and Oliver Burr. Well done to all of these and to others who have worked hard to improve their reading. Certificates also go to students who have exhibited stamina in reading long, complicated books and successfully answering ques-tions on them; George Wells is a Word Millionaire with Evie Han-son, Lucy Burns and Jessica Barnish reading half a million words. All have received book prizes . Quarter millionaires include Emilia Zarychta, Spike Sweeney, Cadence Shaxted, Lenna Slaughter, Dar-cie Lilley, Isobel Evans, Oscar Bennett, Isabelle Keirle-Simpson and Joseph Knowlton.

Congratulation to all!

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Josh Robbed Of Gold

Cromer student Josh Caulfield, was robbed of the gold medal when he recently took part in a boxing competition in Sweden. Fighting in the 48-50kg category Josh headed off for the International fight representing his local club, Swale Gloves on Thursday 7th January. Boxing is his great passion, having been in training for the past four years, and Josh explained the outcome “there was a huge confusion when the other competitor was announced as the winner but they lifted my arm as if I had won and then they changed their minds. My coach wasn’t happy at all. I was annoyed too but it has made me even more determined to work hard and claim gold next time! It was a challenging few days but fun at the same time”.

King Of The Ring

Year 10 student Joshua Gillie, travelled to Boras, Sweden to take part in an international Boxing

tournament. Josh, who is in Stanhope House and trains with Sittingbourne’s Swale Gloves club, fights in the 54-57KG category and beat off strong competition against a Danish opponent in the semi-final and then took the Gold medal off his Swedish counterpart. Fighting for five years now Josh said “It was a great experience and it is the second time in a row that I have taken gold. I’m hoping for the hat trick next year!”.

Students Rugby Tackle The Final

Sittingbourne Rugby Club U16 team boasts no fewer than 6 Fulston Manor School students. The team in-cludes Luc Jeffery, Jake Jeffery, Charlie Hider, Jamie Gash, James Hayward and captain, Harry Talbot. The boys and their team mates are now due to play in the final of the East Kent Plate having beaten Ash 12-8 recently. The final, against the strong team from Canterbury will be held on 3rd April on neutral ground. Mr Bendon, Assistant Headteacher, said, “ It’s so nice to see these students from Fulston doing so well in a local team. They are all so enthusiastic and I wish them and the other players all the very best of luck for the final”. The boys have been playing from between 1 year and 10 years so the experience is vast and the enthusiasm enormous. James Hayward, vice-captain, said “We are in with a real chance and, if we play as well as we know we can, have every chance of winning”. Photo: Back Row, Left to right: Jamie Gash, Luc Jeffery, Jake Jeffery Front Row, Left to right: James Hayward, Harry Talbot, Charlie Hider

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Holocaust Remembrance Evening; Why We Should Never Forget

On Wednesday 9Th March, a Holocaust evening was held at Fulston Manor School to honour and remember the victims of the atrocities. The event was organised by two Sixth Formers; Ellie Colegate and Holly Bringes. The two students travelled to Auschwitz, Poland in November and were inspired by the awful things they had seen to honour the people who had experienced the Holocaust. During the evening, attended by 100 students, parents and staff, Holly and Ellie were joined by Janine Webber. Janine lived in Poland during the Nazi occupation and experienced constant raids by the Gesta-po and lost her father, mother and brother due to the treatment of the Jews during World War II. Janine spoke candidly about what it was like to be a Jewish person living under Nazi occupation and had her au-dience enthralled. The evening ended with the Mayor Of Swale, Councillor Anita Walker, talking to the audience about how we must learn from the Holocaust and treat all people with respect. Miss Heatley, said, “This was wonderful experience for all those who attended. The majority of people have learnt about the Holocaust in one way or another, however, it is when we have the privilege to lis-ten to someone like Janine that we can truly start to understand how awful the atrocities were. I am very proud of Holly and Ellie for arranging such an inspirational evening.” The evening was also a fundraising event for the Holocaust Education Trust; £444.78 was raised for the charity which aims to send two students from every school around the country to Auschwitz as part of their Education Programme. Photo left to right: Ellie Colegate, Janine Webber, Madam Mayor Anita Walker, Holly Bringes

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Year 9 Girls Badminton Tournament A group of four enthusiastic Year 9 girls travelled to QE in Faversham in January to com-pete in a badminton tournament. The girls worked exceptionally hard and came fourth in the tournament behind QE, Barton Court and Kent College. The girls competed in some close contests and gained experience playing in both singles and doubles match-es. They thoroughly enjoyed the event and were a credit to Fulston Manor School. Team: Amelie Fryer, Erin Foot, Grace Ware, Bobbi Shadlock

Year 10 Kent Cup Football Result Harvey GS 3-1 Fulston Manor The Year 10 football team travelled to Folkestone to take on last years finalists Harvey GS in the quarter final of the Kent Cup. Unfortunately, following an intensely fought battle between two strong sides the Fulston team were unable to progress to the next round of the competition. Harvey GS started the game the stronger of the two teams and were determined to stamp their authori-ty on the game. The home team pressed high and applied early pressure on the Fulston defence with shots firing in from all angles. Fulston managed to weather the early storm and settled into the game producing some good passing play of their own. The second half was a well contested battle but unfortunately as Fulston pushed forward in search of an equalising goal, Harvey GS caught them on the counter attack late on to ensure their place was booked in the semi final of the competition. The Year 10 team have had an excellent journey in this competition this year and were disappointed not to progress to the final. It is now back to the drawing board and the team look forward to one more throw of the dice in Year 11. Squad: Ross March, Josh Gillie, Taylor McHardy, Tom Ines, Frazer Allen, Ellis

Trinkwon, Ajibola Lawal-Ogunyemi, Matt Shave, Ethan Riggs, Tom Calladine, James Hursey, Zack Wellard, Adam Silveston

Kent Secondary School Swimming Championships The Fulston Manor Swimming Team assembled again this year to represent the school at the Kent Sec-ondary School Championships. All the swimmers were a credit to the school and supported each other

in a great spirit of camaraderie and performed to high standards, in most cases surpassing personal best times. Special mention to Edward Dickinson, Cameron Bailey and Margo Koets who achieved medal positions in Butterfly, Breaststroke and Freestyle respectively. Swimming Team: Cameron Kemp, Edward Dickinson, Samuel Dickinson,

Cameron Bailey, Sarveshkumar Karthikeyan, Leo Snare, Isabella Kemp, Leo Snare, Margo Koets, Lucy Hoare

Sports News

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Handball – Kent School Games Finals Following our recent success at the district handball competition in November, we were invited to compete in the county finals at Medway Park. This event consisted of 8 schools who had either won or finished runners-up in their respective districts across the county. The finals were split into two groups: Group A Group B Fulston Manor Chatham and Clarendon Manor Maidstone Grammar Canterbury High Hayesbrook Howard School Wilmington Grammar Harvey Grammar The boys performed exceptionally well and reached the semi-final of the competition but were unfortu-nately eliminated by eventual county champions Canterbury Academy. The match results were as follows: Group: Fulston Manor 0-1 Wilmington Grammar

Fulston Manor 5-1 Maidstone Grammar Fulston Manor 1-1 Hayesbrook

Semi-final: Fulston Manor 2-6 Canterbury Academy Upon arrival we were informed that Wilmington Grammar, Hayesbrook and Maidstone Grammar would be in our group, and that the top two teams would progress to the semi-final. The boys instantly looked across to the pitches to see 13 year old boys in excess of 6ft warming up! If you look at the average size of the boys in our squad you may understand their concern, however the Fulston team were confident in their own ability and game plan of short passing and moving into space. Fulston narrowly lost their first game 1-0 against Wilmington Grammar despite playing exceptionally well enjoying a large majority of possession. In the second game Fulston made the most of their chances and thrashed Maidstone Grammar 5-1. Fulston then went into the final game knowing that a draw against Hayesbrook would take them through to the semi-final. Fulston were trailing by one goal until the last mi-nute of the game when Ben Jemmett launched the ball into the top corner of the goal. Fulston then unfortunately lost to champions of ‘Group B’ Canterbury High in the semi finals - who even-tually won the competition to qualify for the regional finals.

As always, the boys represented the school exceptionally well.

Squad: Tom Hodgkinson, Jacob Friar, Joshua Willis, Hayden Barden, Ben Adams, Ben Jemmett, Kai Parkinson, Joe Knowlton, Lee Smith, Phar-rell Akpokomua

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Year 7 Rugby Tournament The Year 7 boys attended a Rugby Festival at Queen Elizabeth School. Eight schools in to-tal participated - FMS, Westlands, Queen Elizabeth, Borden, Oasis Academy, The Abbey, SCC and Canterbury High. (In the following results the numbers refer to tries scored). Group Stage: FMS v QEGS FMS v Oasis FMS v Westlands

0-3 2-1 0-2

Play Off: FMS v SCC 3-4

Team: Oliver Fox, Elijah Way, Jared Buston, Ben Tolhurst, Jack Elderfield, Flynn Fitzgib-bon, Owen Wise, David Shoboyede, Josh Shangobi , Spike Sweeney, Spencer Nounke , Finley Roberts, John Obembe, Cameron Stockdale The Year 7 rugby team performed exceptionally well in their first competitive rugby fixtures for the school. For a majority of these boys it was the first time that they have represented the school through sport. The team grew with confidence in each game and played some excellent rugby. Fulston progressed to the finals of the tournament but were unfortunately eliminated by SCC following an exciting and tense game full of tries. The Fulston team were praised by the RFU coaches for their sportsmanship and conduct throughout the competition. Well done to all involved! Year 8 Rugby Tournament The Year 8 boys attended a Rugby Festival at Westlands. Six schools in total participated - Westlands, FMS, Queen Elizabeth, Borden, Oasis Academy and The Abbey. (In the following results the numbers refer to tries scored). FMS v QEGS FMS v Borden FMS v Westlands FMS v Oasis FMS v Abbey School 0-3 1-3 2-3 5-0 4-4 Team: Jake Hirons, Jacob Friar, Harrison Slaughter, Jack Richmond, Hayden Barden, Tom Hodgkinson, Kye

Jones, Isaac Graham, Lee Smith, Alfie Darling I am extremely proud of the students that participated in the tournament. This is the first time that they have played together as a team. They grew stronger through each game and were working hard for each other. They came up against some big players who attempted to run through the middle of our team. If you look at the av-erage height of our team you can see that, with a few excep-tions, they are not the tallest! However the Fulston boys hunted

like packs of wolves and pressurised the opposition. They were rewarded for their efforts and scored some superb tries. Well done to all involved!

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Year 9 Rugby Tournament The Year 9 Boys attended a Rugby Festival at Westlands. Seven schools in total participated - Westland, FMS, Queen Elizabeth, Borden, Oasis Academy, Abbey and SCC. (In the fol-

lowing results the numbers refer to tries scored) FMs v Oasis FMS v Abbey School FMS v SCC FMS v QEGS FMS v Borden 1 v 2 2 v 2 4 V 2 2 v 6 3 v 4 FMS v Westlands 1 v 1 Team: Muammer Cinar, Oliver Pridmore, Shane Finn, James Hursey, Morgan Laws, Nathan Gash,

Martyn Gbingie, Kieran Russell, Jake Aldridge, Rhys Roberts, Gareth Holland, Cameron Kemp, Hayden Wood, Bradley Hales

The level of commitment to the game and to each other grew as we journeyed through the tournament. Overall the boys improved with each game they played. Their confidence levels rose as did their mind set. You should be very proud of the manner in which they conducted themselves and how they played their hearts out this afternoon because I certainly am. Congratulations to all who took part - they really played as a team. It was great to see.

Year 8 Netball Result Year 8’s played a Netball match against Highsted. The girls played well

and were winning up to the third quarter but lost 4-2 in the final quarter. Well played to the following girls: Rebecca Long, Jasmine Barker, Eloise Turner, Lucy Wakelen, Chloe Amie Ayres, Megan Young, Katherine Adams, Laura Hunt

Year 7 Netball Result Our Year 7’s played Netball at home against SCC. The score was 0-0 through to the last quarter, then our girls scored 2 in the final 2 minutes. Fulston 2 – SCC 0 Congratulations to the following girls: Courtney Evans, Storey Tubb, Lucy Davis,

Kiele Kemp, Phoebe Coppin, Millie Stears, Georgia Holland, Katie Phillips, Erin

Hughes

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School Facilities Available for Hire

At Fulston Manor School we have a wide range of facilities available for hire that can suit any needs. Whether you are an organisation looking to hold an event or conference, a sports team looking for a regular venue to train, or you may be just looking to hold a private function, we have facilities to offer. We also have an off-site playing field available for hire. Our facilities are available during weekday evenings and weekends during term time and throughout the week during school holidays. If you would like further details on the availability of our facilities please con-tact Nick Thomas in the Finance Office on 01795 412600 or nthom-as@fulstonmanor.kent.sch.uk.

Fulston Manor School Brenchley Road Sittingbourne Kent ME10 4EG

Tel: 01795 475228 Fax: 01795 428144 website: www.fulstonmanor.kent.sch.uk e-mail: abrookes@fulstonmanor.kent.sch.uk