Newsletter – October 2019 Issue 3

Welcome

Welcome to the third edition of our newsletter at the end of this busy half term.

This has been a crucial half term for the school as we address the school improvements that we identified last year

and were confirmed by Ofsted in the February inspection.

We have been focusing on ‘raising the bar of expectation’, with a particular concentration on the quality of teaching

in the classroom. Teaching staff have been asked to employ a series of ‘non-negotiable’ approaches to structuring

lessons at the school, following established ‘Principles of Instruction’ as well as identifying ‘subject-specific’

approaches. We have observed some excellent examples of this taking place in a coherent manner across all areas

of the school and I have outlined this approach for you in the newsletter.

We have also enjoyed our usual array of events and activities that highlight the wonderful skills and attributes of

our pupils. The school has been involved in a variety of fundraising events from a Macmillan coffee morning to

Austen House Charity Day which have raised hundreds of pounds for worthy causes.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff who are responding so positively to changes we have been

introducing and especially for the extra time they give to enrich the experience of our pupils.

I hope that all our pupils and staff have a relaxing and well-deserved half term break and look forward to seeing

staff back on Monday, 4th November and pupils back on Tuesday, 5th November.

Best wishes

Mr Jeremy Scott

Headteacher

Teaching and learning approaches

Non-Negotiables Teachers at the school have been asked since September to follow some consistent classroom practices which I

would like to share with you all. The teaching and learning ‘non-negotiables’ encourage routines and consistent

practice from teachers as well as reminding the pupils that they should be ‘Ready to Learn’ for all lessons. I would

ask parent/carers to discuss these with their children to ensure everyone is clear on our expectations.

Start of lessons

- Teacher meets and greets at the door

- ‘Do now’ engage task

- Register to be taken

- Late arrivals (5 mins) are marked on the register with an ‘L’ code and appropriate sanctions put in place

Newsletter – October 2019 Issue 3

Ready to learn

- Uniform correct (coats removed)

- Sit according to seating plan

- Encourage SLANT techniques (Sit up, Listen, Answer/Ask questions, Nod, Track the teacher)

- Correct equipment, provided by the school if necessary

- Bags on floor

- No phones/ear phones

Behaviour for learning

- Follow BFL policy

Teaching and learning strategies

- Classwork – presentation, quality and completion

- Classroom talk managed and appropriate to the task

- Challenge is carefully pitched and responded to by pupils

- Questioning is used and responded to effectively for a range of purposes

- Feedback given using a range of methods to help pupils

Homework

- Follow homework timetable

- Homework on Go4Schools

- Students to use homework planner

- Tutors to check homework planners

- Sixth form students to engage in private study with suitable tasks and direction provided

Form time

- Students and tutors to participate in the form time

activities schedule

- Remain quiet/read in silence while the register is

being taken

- Students to organise their day, homework and

reflect on their learning

- Students and tutors to value form time

opportunities for discussion and reading

In this video you can see some of the non-negotiables in

action.

Newsletter – October 2019 Issue 3

Fundraising

Macmillan Coffee Morning On Friday, 4th October we hosted a Macmillan coffee morning in the hall.

HelloYellow On Thursday, 10th October 2019 the school raised awareness of mental wellbeing and raised money for the

#HelloYellow campaign.

Wear it Pink On Friday, 18th October the school raised money and awareness for the Wear it Pink breast cancer campaign.

Austen House Charity Day On Friday, 18th October the first of our new house charity days took place. Austen House raised hundreds of

pounds for their nominated charities, Addenbrookes Hospital and Teens Unite with cake and doughnut sales, a

silent disco and Halloween selfies.

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House Focus

Austen House Jane Austen (1775 to 1817), novelist gives her name to Austen House at The John Warner School. Austen House

represents the academic discipline of communications and the school value of creativity.

Summary of Life

A happy childhood

Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire in 1775. Her father,

George Austen, was a rector in Anglican churches who came from an

old, respected and wealthy family of wool merchants. Unfortunately,

George’s side of the family had fallen into poverty and they frequently

faced tough times. Her mother, Cassandra Austen, came from a

prominent family and her father was also a rector. Jane was the

youngest of seven children and was particularly close to her sister

Cassandra. Jane grew up in a loving, intellectual family who often

discussed social and political issues. She attended church, socialised

with friends and neighbours and read novels, including her own

compositions

A disrupted education

Austen and her sister Cassandra were sent to school in Oxford to be educated, however, Austen nearly died of

typhus in 1783 after which she was educated at home. In 1785 she entered a boarding school in Reading but had

to return in 1786 because the fees were too high. The rest of her education was at home guided by her father

and older brothers. Austen had access to lots of reading material and her father encouraged her to experiment in

writing. Austen would stage plays with friends and family – mostly comedies, giving her an opportunity to

develop the style of writing she would become famous for.

Early writing

From about the age of eleven, Austen wrote poems and stories which she shared with her family. These works,

which brought huge joy to her family were later collected together in notebooks now referred to as Juvenilia. The

stories are often boisterous and anarchic, involving fantasies of female power and high spirits, quite different

from the formal and romantic style of writing that was popular at the time.

By the age of 17-18 Austen’s writing had become more sophisticated and she started to consider writing

professionally. Becoming a published female author in the late eighteenth century was not straightforward. The

role of women was still very much seen as being centred on marriage and motherhood. Through a combination

of circumstances and choice, these were issues that would become a barrier to Austen’s literary contributions.

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A brief romance

Austen met neighbour and trainee barrister, Tom Lefroy in 1795 aged 20. They spent considerable time together

with Austen writing to her sister Cassandra, “Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the

way of dancing and sitting down together.” ‘Dancing’ and ‘sitting down together’ would have been seen as quite

intimate behaviours between an unmarried couple at the time. Austen described Lefroy as a “very gentlemanlike,

good-looking, pleasant young man”, however, the friendship did not last long as Lefroy had to move to London in

1796 for his training in law and they never saw each other again.

It is likely that, despite their affection for one another, Austen would probably not have been considered a

suitable bride for Lefroy who had a promising legal career in front of him. For Austen, no other suitor would ever

quite match up to Tom Lefroy and the topic of love and marriage would be a strong feature in many of her

published novels.

A published author

Although it wasn’t published until 1811, Austen had begun to write her first novel Sense and Sensibility as early

as 1796. She would read her early manuscripts to her family and her father started to make efforts to get the

work published, unsuccessfully to begin with.

This period of productive writing came to an end in

1800 when her father announced his retirement and

decided to move the family to Bath which some

suggest put Austen into a depression. During this

period, she also received her only known marriage

proposal from Harris Bigg-Wither which she initially

accepted then withdrew. Although she could see the

financial benefits of the marriage both for herself and

the family, it seems she had the strength to refuse the

proposal mainly due to the fact that by all accounts he

was a hard man to like. She would never marry. She

advised a niece who asked for advice in 1814 about a

relationship to “not commit yourself farther, and not to

think of accepting him unless you really do like him.” A recurring theme in her novels is the high ideal of love as

well as the difficulties associated with women marrying unsuitable men.

In 1805 her father died suddenly leaving her mother, Austen and Cassandra in a precarious financial situation

until 1809 when older brother Edward offered them a more settled life in Chawton village in Hampshire, allowing

Austen the opportunity to have her work published. Like most women at the time, Austen would have to publish

her novels anonymously “By a lady” as women were considered to be wives and mothers, not full-time writers.

All of her books, except Pride and Prejudice were published ‘on commission’, which meant at the author’s own

financial risk. Fortunately, her novels got good reviews and became fashionable amongst young aristocrats often

selling out of the copies produced. The six novels she had published were Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and

Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1816), Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (posthumously in

1818).

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She made £140 for Sense and Sensibility (nearly £7,000 in today’s money) which gave her some independence.

Unknown to Austen, her novels were translated into French and smuggled into revolutionary France. In 1815,

Austen learned that the Prince Regent was an admirer of her novels and she was asked to dedicate Emma to him

which she did even though she disliked him for his famous womanising, gambling, drinking and disreputable

behaviour

Illness and death

By 1816 Austen was feeling unwell. It is believed she was suffering from Addison’s disease which leads to chronic

fatigue and low blood pressure. Austen continued to write despite her illness but was confined to her bed by

April 1817.

She was taken to Winchester to receive treatment but died there on 18 July 1817.

Contribution and Significance Jane Austen was a giant of English literature

whose literary techniques and fabulous story

lines have ensured her work has remained

popular over many generations.

Austen was a critique of the sentimental

novels of second half of the 18th century, but

she also rejected the gothic horror genre that

was also popular at the time, where the

heroine was often stranded in a remote

location – the damsel in distress trope. Austen’s heroines are sometimes imprisoned, but their experience is

more mundane and real than other authors.

Her characters are complex and often use free indirect speech, the first English novelist to do this extensively.

Dialogue is used to reveal a character’s frustration, anger or happiness. Her plots highlight women’s traditional

dependency on marriage. She uses comedy and irony to delve into the psyche of her characters.

Her books have now been translated into 35 languages and turned into major blockbuster movies, propelling her

into international stardom over the last 20 years starting with Colin Firth’s famous portrayal of Mr Darcy in the

1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Sometimes her work has been used to feed off the nostalgia for a

simpler, prettier and happier England, but this is neither historically accurate nor why Austen was writing.

Her novels were about poor but clever girls who get transformed into something. They were about love and

virtue overcoming the injustice of society. Her novels were delightfully revolutionary without inciting aggression

or anger. Often copied, but never bettered Jane Austen overcame the prejudice of the society she lived in to

write beautiful novels that will last forever.

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House Reps Congratulations to the following students who have been selected as house representatives (house reps)

House Year Name

Austen 7 Sofia Johnson

Austen 9 Lilly Thompson

Austen 10 Summer Reilly

Austen 10 Faye Dickens

Austen 11 George Anderson

Austen 11 Katie Mitchell

Hawking 7 Nancy Shelsher-Penn

Hawking 7 Jake Wall

Hawking 8 Daniel Ryan

Hawking 9 Alex Quintin

Hawking 9 Victor Radoslavov

Hawking 10 Sophie Barr

Seacole 8 Hugo Valencia

Seacole 9 Scarlet Sayers O'Shea

Seacole 9 Ellis Woods

Seacole 9 Youness Aich

Seacole 10 Reggie Wilson

Seacole 10 Albert Corpe

Seacole 10 Steven Barnwell

Seacole 10 Vicky Kawrygo

Turing 8 Freya Osborne

Turing 9 James Rivers

Turing 9 Megan Strauss

Turing 10 Eniola Omotade

Turing 10 Hannah Smith

Turing 11 Annabella Filocco

Turing 11 Shaun Abaje

Newsletter – October 2019 Issue 3

Sixth Form Open Evening On Thursday, 14th November we will be hosting our annual Sixth Form Open Evening at the school between 18:00

and 20:00. The evening will start with a presentation in hall with Mr Scott, Headteacher and Mr Cove, Assistant

Headteacher: Director of Post 16 Education followed by subject stalls around the site providing information and

the opportunity to discuss the sixth form experience with teachers and current students.

The evening is open to all students in our Year 11 as well as students from other schools. We have some exciting

curriculum developments that we are keen to share with prospective sixth form students and would encourage

as to attend as possible to discover what post-16 options are available.

Newsletter – October 2019 Issue 3

Forthcoming Events (selected) Monday, 4th November 2019 Training Day (no students in school)

Tuesday, 5th November 2019 School returns (normal timetabled day)

Tuesday, 5th November 2019 School Shakespeare Festival (Hertford Theatre)

Thursday, 7th November 2019 Year 8 Parents’ Evening (16:00-19:00)

Monday, 11th November 2019 Remembrance ceremony

Thursday, 14th November 2019 Sixth Form Open Evening (18:00-20:00)

Monday, 25th November 2019 Start of Year 11 and Year 13 Mock Examinations

Wednesday, 27th November 2019 Camps International Parent Presentation (18:30)

Thursday, 28th November 2019 Year 7 Parents’ Evening (16:00-19:00)

Friday, 29th November 2019 Occasional Day (school closed)

Saturday, 30th November 2019 Hoddesdon Loves Christmas Parade

Wednesday, 4th December 2019 End of Year 11 and Year 13 Mock Examinations

Thursday, 5th December 2019 Hoddesdon School Trust Christmas Market (16:30)

Tuesday, 10th December 2019 Dance Showcase (18:00)

Wednesday, 11th December 2019 Christmas Lunch

Thursday, 12th December 2019 Year 13 Parents’ Evening (16:00-19:00)

Friday, 13th December 2019 Hawking House Charity Day

Tuesday, 17th December 2019 Christmas Concert and Staff Panto (18:00)

Friday, 20th December 2019 Last day of term (students finish at 12:35)

Monday, 6th January 2020 Start of term (normal timetabled day)