Prudhoe Community High School

Newsletter

Spring 2018 Second Edition

Amy interviews Hayley Squire from ‘I, Daniel Blake’ at the BAFTAs this year.

Contents

TeenTech Innovation Workshop

Curtain Up

International Women’s Day

Teesside University Visit

‘Eternal Flame’

Amy gets ‘Into Film’

Year 9 Art Competition

PCHS Eco Committee

LGBT

Cyber Security visit from Sunderland University

Dr Lucy Busfield, Oxford University Outreach worker

Bright Ideas

Trip to Budapest

Year 9 Activities Week July 2018

Sport Relief

Year 12 Masterclass

Girls’ Cricket

Netball

TeenTech Innovation Workshop

A team of our Year 10 Engineers braved the 'Beast from the East' to attend the TeenTech Innovation Workshop, looking at the Future of Rail Transport. The event was hosted at Newcastle Rail Academy and presented by Maggie Philbin OBE, who many parents and grandparents will remember as one of the first female TV presenters of Tomorrow's World. Maggie now runs these awards to encourage creative solutions from young people to real problems across a range of industries. We plan to submit our ideas on how rail travel can be made safer, more accessible and more enjoyable, at the end of this term, and if any are shortlisted, we will then get to present them to a range of judges at the Royal Society in London. Winners in each of the categories receive £1000 in prize money at a ceremony in Buckingham Palace.

Our students also had to pitch their first ideas to a panel of industry experts and were given some feedback to help them further develop these ideas for the competition. Maggie Philbin described their ideas as "Well thought out, practical, original and amazing!" Some of the comments from the students on the way

back included "I never realised there were so many different careers linked to the railways", "I'd love to work on these kinds of projects" and "Can we get straight on with our competition entries?" If any parents would like to get involved too, maybe who work in rail transport or have strong opinions on what needs improving, we would love to hear from you as part of our research.

Images courtesy of David Charlton Photography

Please contact Mr T Smith in the Engineering department, and soon, we only have a month!"

Curtain Up "Teechers" Drama trip Year 10 Drama students enjoyed a visit to the Queens Hall theatre in Hexham. We saw a performance of John Godber's play "Teechers" which is a wry comedy looking at the experience of teenagers in an underfunded comprehensive school, and the teachers who teach them.

The group were impressed with the multi-role acting and clever use of a simple set. Luckily, we managed to avoid the snow!

International Women’s Day

For International Women’s Day on Thursday 8 March, Northumberland County Council invited students from around the area to deliver a presentation at the FUSE media centre about inspirational women which could be linked to one of the subjects that they are studying. Three students from the music department at PCHS answered the call: Caitlin Maple, Charlie Needham and Ailsa Oxnard. In front of an audience of over sixty people including councillors, directors of industry and best-selling authors, Caitlin, Charlie and Ailsa delivered a 20-minute talk on Clara Schumann – one of the most influential female composers of all time. Delving into the history and background of her childhood, they documented

Schumann’s life from childhood, her marriage to her husband Robert and then after Robert’s untimely death, how she became the sole breadwinner for her family. Their talk also focused on Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G minor – one of their set works – and Schumann’s wider legacy upon the history of Western Classical music.

Year 12 Teesside University Visit

After a successful workshop with Teesside University at the start of the year, a small group of Year 12 Students were invited by Teesside University business mentor Steve Dougan to visit the Launchpad Business Startup centre, and tour various departments at Teesside University. Steve runs an enterprise centre on the University campus which is home to a wide range of companies run by recent graduates. These range from property finder apps, furniture design and manufacture to AAA gaming studios. Our students got to meet many of the entrepreneurs who gave them some very practical advice about how to make it in the different sectors. Hobgoblin 3D who make virtual models

for desktop gamers to 3D print themselves, had advice on building your customer base all around the world using the web and social media. Silhouette Wolf, Web and Games Developers, told them just how much work goes in to making your first indie game, and gave the group a chance to play through Mimic, their new platform puzzle game.

Motion Capture Demonstration

We were then taken to the School of Computing to take part in a live Motion Capture demonstration. This involves one of their current Games Design Students dressed in a special suit covered in small luminous balls which can be tracked by a series of infrared cameras. After recording a range of movements directed by our group, the data gathered was quickly cleaned up to remove any ‘glitches’ and then imported into 3D character animation software. We saw the same movements replicated by 2 different computer generated characters. This is the process used in most 3D computer games, and very many big budget films now. Tom, one of our Engineering Students said “I’d seen videos online about this process but it was really interesting to actually see it happen in front of you, it really made me understand just what the technology was capable of.”

After a quick lunch, we were taken to see some of the models being built on their product design course, which included prototype car designs, electric guitars, coffee machines and even a luxury yacht. Rosie, who hopes to become a set designer in the future said “I loved seeing students actually at work in the workshop, and all the different machinery they could use. The interior design course looked really interesting, I might consider that because you can do set design as part of it.”

Motion Capture Demonstration

Fractional Distillation Towers

The final visit was to their Engineering department, where students look at industrial processes such as fractional distillation, and compare the mathematical models to real results. The highlight of this visit was watching Tyron try to land their flight simulator. “I’m not sure I want to be a pilot now” he said after quite a bumpy landing. Jack however produced one of the best landings their tutor had ever seen from a sixth former.

Before we set back off to school Steve gave the students some words of encouragement to look carefully when making their UCAs choices. Teesside is one of the leading universities with an applied approach to subjects, and this appealed to all of the students. If you would like to be part of future visits to Teeside, or any other local campuses speak to Ms McStravick or any of the sixth form team.

‘Eternal Flame’

Rehearsals are now well underway for ‘Eternal Flame’, our homegrown 80’s jukebox musical extravaganza… Are you brave enough to join Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, Arthur Holmewood & Dr Seaward as they travel to Transylvania to rescue Mina, Jonathan’s beloved? Are you brave enough to witness young Lucy Westernra undergo a horrific transformation into the undead at the hands of the evil Countess Dracula and her brood? Are you brave enough to revisit

the 80s? If so, then this is the show for you. Chock full of classic 80s tunes, rip-roaring adventure, lashings of derring-do, fast paced, irreverent comedy and a healthy dose of Hammer Horror to boot.

Tickets are on sale now and are strictly limited - book to avoid disappointment.

Entry is free for anyone foolhardy enough to come in 80s fancy dress and don’t miss the final singalong!

Tyron proudly awaiting take off in the flight simulator

Flight Simulator Control Screens

Amy gets ‘Into Film’

Year 13 Creative Digital Media Student Amy Jobe has become a red carpet regular in the last few months. She had the night of her life when she attended this year’s British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Albert Hall last month. The biggest event in the UK film industry calendar, Amy was invited as part of the Into Film Reporters scheme. She managed to interview stars of British Films “I Daniel Blake”, “Lady Macbeth” and “God’s Own Country”.

Amy described the night as one of the most bizarre experiences ever “People whose films I love, and have grown up watching were all right next to me, some were really lovely, some were quite mad. Jennifer Lawrence who wasn’t doing any interviews walked along signing autographs in the air, without even looking at what she was doing. The first person I spoke to, who offered to let me practise my questions on, turned out to be the man who founded IMDB using an Excel spreadsheet on his computer at home. He was very funny!”

Amy interviews Hayley Squire from I, Daniel Blake at the BAFTAs this year

After reporting from the red carpet, Amy was one of less than a dozen journalists in the winner’s press conference, and so got to meet all of the Bafta winners as soon as they walked off stage. “That was even more surreal, but the most awkward moment was when the Director of “Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri” had to answer a question from The Sun newspaper about Kate Middleton’s dress.”

After reporting on some other award winners, Amy then discovered that she would be attending her own red carpet awards evening just a few weeks later at the British Film Institute IMAX screen on the South Bank in London. The film she directed with a team from the Tyneside Cinema, about local photographer Tish Murtha, was shortlisted in the best documentary category in the UK wide Into Film Awards. We are delighted to report that Amy walked away with the award, and an invitation to return to London to screen the film at the headquarters of Paramount Pictures. Amazingly, despite her outstanding success as a director, Amy’s long term plans are to become a production designer. Based on her achievements so far, we’d recommend you keep your eyes peeled for her name appearing on the credits of some big films in the not too distant future.

If you or anyone you know would like to be an Into Film reporter, or enter one of the many Film Competitions coming up, get in touch with Mr T. Smith. You can see some of Amy’s Interviews here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Qp-As1iG4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBKRiEPlTUc ...and her documentary here https://www.intofilm.org/news-and-views/articles/into-film-awards-nominees#block-still-life

Amy (and Sound Editor Rebecca Burgess) with and the Into Film award for their documentary ‘Still Life’

Year 9 Art Competition

The Year 9 Art competition “Spring and New Beginnings” brought in some colourful and imaginative entries all in the hope of winning Easter eggs. Congratulations to our 3 winners Ellie, Imogen and Amy, two of whom are shown below with their entries and prizes.

Students are being invited to become part of a new PCHS Eco Committee.

Once established, the first job of the committee will be to conduct an Environmental Review of the school and grounds which will look at the following: energy, litter, waste, water, global citizenship, transport, healthy living and biodiversity. Once completed the review will be sent to Eco-Schools for assessment, and goals set which could lead to our school achieving the Eco Schools Green Flag Award.

Work has already begun in some areas, with Northumberland County Council very kindly donating £500, which we have used to purchase more recycling bins and signage. We are also reviewing how we process the waste from our site, which will benefit our school both environmentally and financially. As winter is coming to an end we are hopeful that more pupils will walk or cycle to school, with cyclists being able to utilise our ample covered bike storage. Interested students should volunteer through their Head of Achievement & Learning.

www.eco-schools.org.uk

LGBT

For LGBT history month, we aimed to increase awareness of the struggles lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have faced with a showing of the film ‘Pride’ to Year 10 students. This feel-good movie explores the union of the miners and the LGBT community during the 1980’s, fighting oppression together. We hope Year 10 enjoyed this inspirational film. If any students are interested in becoming an Equality Ambassador, please see Mr M Smith.

Cyber Security visit from Sunderland University

Professor Alastair Irons from Sunderland University visited PCHS to deliver a session on Cyber Security and Computer Ethics to our year 11 Computer Science students.

In the interesting and engaging session, students learned about cyber threats and practised some of the techniques used to encrypt and decrypt information. Our students were also given information about studying Cyber Security at Higher Education and the types of careers available in this high-demand field.

Could you go to Oxford University or to College at Cambridge?

Sixth form students were invited to meet with Dr Lucy Busfield, who is an outreach worker from St Anne’s College in Oxford.

St Anne's contributes to the University's Pathways Programme, a scheme which targets non-selective state schools to encourage students to apply for Oxford, and the University's flagship UNIQ programme, which aims to provide experiences through its spring, summer and digital programmes.

UNIQ programme

Year 9 DT Students full of Bright Ideas

55 enthusiastic young engineers of the future took part in a workshop with one of the Tomorrow's Engineers team.

They were taught about the many challenges to energy supply across the world and then asked to identify the most appropriate form of renewable energy for different countries. Cristina Plant, who led the workshop, was

impressed by the enthusiastic and creative way the group got to grips with one of the biggest issues we are facing today. “This is definitely one of the brightest groups I’ve worked with, they are really switched on!”, she told staff. Students were then faced with a hands-on challenge, building mini electric cars. They had to test these cars, which stored an electric charge in an on-board capacitor. After a few test runs they then had to calculate the charge required to travel a specific distance, and prove it on the test track laid out in the hall. There was a huge amount of excitement at the final runs, with three of the teams getting to within 2.5% of the target distance, and the overall winning team hitting the target exactly.

Cristina congratulated everyone for all their hard work, and talked them through the very many different routes into engineering and range of projects that engineers get involved in.

The next step for teams is to come up with ideas for the future of energy in 2050, then enter the Shell Bright Ideas Challenge. We already have some great ideas, watch out for upcoming newsletters to hear how we got on.

For more details or if you’d like your child to get involved contact Mr T Smith

Trip to Budapest

Health and Social Care students from across the year groups took part in a visit to Budapest during the half term break. The purpose of the visit was to investigate the healthcare sector across Europe. Thank you to our local community for supporting us with this visit, the donations were gratefully received at the Gyongyvirag orphanage.

“We got to do so many different things such as visiting the Szechenyi thermal spa and monuments. We were also able to visit healthcare settings available for young people with physical disabilities, such as the Peto Institute.

The trip really added to my knowledge and made me able to write my coursework from a different perspective due to being able to see how different places provide healthcare and social support. Overall, the trip was really enjoyable and was a new experience for all of us.”

Emily Curry year 12

Szechenyi Thermal Spa

Peto Institute

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Year 9 Activities Week July 2018

The summer may seem a long way off, but it is approaching quickly. Just under half of the year group are booked to go on trips to Spain or France, but that leaves almost a hundred students who need to select activities for the final week of term. We will all do something together on the Friday - more details of that to follow - but there are a range of activities to choose from for Monday to Thursday. Some of these are for four days, or if they wish, students may "mix and match" two options to give more variety. Next Steps: Students should speak to staff for further information. Many activities will require letters and reply slips - students need to return these promptly. It can be difficult to make changes at a later stage, so we are asking that students make a decision and stick to this. Roll on the summer. The students have already been shown a presentation about the activities available and some activities are already filling fast, indeed paddleboarding is already full, so they need to move fast to secure their choice.

Sport Relief The generous students of PCHS managed to raise over £520 for Sport Relief 2018. This involved a non-uniform day and a range of sporting events held at lunchtime by the Year 13 Sport Leaders. Each lunchtime students participated in a different sport which included Basketball, Table Tennis, Dodgeball, Football and Tug of War. We have been supporting Sport Relief for a number of years and have been recognised with an award that thanks us for our outstanding contributions.

Fully Booked

Masterclass for Year 12 Media Students Year 12 Media Students were treated to a masterclass in online video, and UCAS application this week.

Hilbert Vinkenoog in Year 13 who has over 65,000 followers on his ‘History with Hilbert’ channel explained how he makes his videos, and how he has managed to build up such a loyal following. He described the research that goes into ensuring the historical accuracy of his animations, and also the humour he uses to grab attention and appeal to his followers. Hilbert is an expert on the Dutch and Frisian meme, as well as a passionate student of History. He was asked some very probing questions by the group too, and gave advice on how best to make money on Youtube, and also how he copes with the negative comments, which seem to be just part of how people interact on Youtube. It was very interesting to hear how Youtube should be thought of as a social network, as this is how videos become so popular, and you can generate followers and revenue. One of the reasons Hilbert first starting making his videos, half way through year 11, was to support his intended application to Cambridge University. Hilbert did receive an offer from Cambridge this year, and if everything goes to plan he will be there studying Anglo Saxon, Norse and Celtic History there this September.

After hearing such inspiring advice from a current student, the group then heard from Josh Boyles, who is now studying Journalism at Salford University where he was awarded the ‘Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence’ for achieving the best Year 13 results of all the first years at his University. Josh gave details about his interview process, the kinds of tasks involved, and then also how to make the best of all of the opportunities in the first year. He was also very honest about some of the things he would do differently, and how best to manage money, and make the student

finance payments last longer than a few weeks. “Don’t buy a Nintendo Switch just because you’ve more money in your account than ever before!” was one such tip! Many of the group are considering Salford, especially because of the media facilities there, and the contact we have already had from them. Josh talked about bumping into BBC Breakfast presenters on his way to lectures, getting around Manchester, where not to go, and also many of the extra-curricular opportunities the city offers. This was a very practical and polished presentation, and although Josh doesn’t normally choose to be the one in front of the camera, it was clear he has a real knack for talking to an audience. If you or anyone you know works in the media, please do get in touch with Mr T Smith. It really helps bring sixth form studies to life to relate it to what is going on in the real world.

Girls’ Cricket

Netball

It was our last league game in a 'weather interrupted season' against Cramlington Learning Village. All of the students who have represented the school this year have shown great commitment to netball attending training week in and week out. The Year 10 and 11 teams narrowly missed out on a place at Finals night. The Year 9 team have secured a place at their Finals night which will take place after Easter. We also have our end of season celebration evening coming up which we use as an opportunity to thank the girls for their commitment and hard work.

Well done to the Year 10 Cricket team who played their first indoor tournament! (March 2018)

Prudhoe Community High School

Moor Road

Prudhoe

Northumberland

NE42 5LJ

Tel: 01661 832486

Email: enquiries@pchs.org.uk

Website: www.pchs.org.uk

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Twitter: @pchsnews