putting achievement irst - causeway school · widening participation event in the physics...

PUTTING ACHIEVEMENT FIRST

Your Monthly Newsletter from Causeway School Edition 336 Dec 2019

Character: Our Year 11 students have been very busy completing college applications and as we start back in January many will be attending interviews for college places. We would like to wish them well with these and know that the interview day we held back in November will have prepared them successfully for any interview experience. Courtesy: Our Year 7 students have been working closely with Hazel Court across this term and students have been taking part in tutor group visits followed up with pairs of students spending the day with the Hazel Court students and staff. We are extremely lucky as a school that our students can work with our neighbouring school and develop links and social awareness of other learning environments. Lastly, I am delighted to let you know that we have a new Assistant Headteacher starting in January. James Pratt will be joining Causeway and leading on Behaviour, Attendance and Safeguarding. James is coming with a wealth of experience and knowledge and I look forward to introducing him to our school and community in the New Year. I would like to take this opportunity to wish our students, parents, carers and staff a restful holiday and a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Please note school returns on Monday 6th January 2020. Thank you.

Causeway School Larkspur Drive Eastbourne East Sussex BN23 8EJ 01323 465700 www.causewayschool.org [email protected]

Sarah Speedie Head of School

CAUSEWAY CONNECTION

Dear All A very warm welcome to you all in the December edition of Causeway Connection. As you will see from the many activities that have taken place over the last month the school community has been very busy indeed. We have been focusing on our five core values through a range of activities and events. Community: Over the last month we have held several events to raise money for our chosen charities (Children in Need, Cancer Research and Save the Children) and bring the school together in whole community events. I am delighted to report that we have raised over £600. This is a fantastic amount of money and highlights the generosity of our students and families. A key event in our school calendar is our Christmas Dinner, that was held last Friday, and brought the whole school together sharing in this magical experience. The students had a wonderful time and were joined by their tutors and staff in this community event. Challenge: The senior students in Years 10 and 11 have performed brilliantly in their mocks and have been focusing on identifying areas that they need to improve on to ensure they reach their target grades in the summer. In Term 3, Year 11 will have a further opportunity to practice their skills and receive feedback and support from their teachers. This will be a key time for the students and the feedback that students received in our well attended Year 11 Parents Evening will be crucial. Craftsmanship: I have been exceptionally impressed with the talent that we have within the school and this culminated in a performance by the drama group of The Grinch to the whole of Year 7 on Monday. The students performed brilliantly and Year 7 were wowed by the performances and work that had gone into creating this performance. I have also had the pleasure of judging the school Christmas card competition and the winning design and runners up can be found on page 2. Congratulations to the winner and a huge thank to all students who took part in the competition.

We look forward to welcoming back all students on

Monday 6th January 2020 at 8.40am


Christmas Card Competition Winners

Causeway Connection / Issue 336

Christmas Door Decorating Competition

Congratulations to these three beautiful entries that have won this years Art Christmas card competition. We had a great selection of entries this year and again it was a very hard decision to decide the overall winner.

Millie McKay 9C

Tia Ewen 9C Amy Batchelor 7U

During December all tutor groups were set a challenge to see who could decorate their door for Christmas. We had some amazing entries as you can see! Congratulations to 11U and 7A for winning this year.



Eastbourne Youth Radio

Blood Brother Theatre Trip

At the end of November our students took to the air again to present another great radio show for Eastbourne Youth Radio at East Sussex College. Many Year 7 students were involved in creating the content for their one hour slot and they certainly did us proud! They put a lot of their own time into gathering work for the radio show, recording and interviewing as well as writing a script. When live on the radio they were extremely professional and presented the items beautifully. There was a wide variety of content and work created which included interviews with members of staff and a lively debate. The show is available online if you would like to listen again, just go to : https://www.mixcloud.com/eyrlistenagain/eyr2019-thursday-14th-november-2019-1pm-2pm-the-causeway

On Thursday 14th November we took some students to see Blood Brothers the musical at the White Rock Theatre. We took 54 students from Year 7 to Year 11. The students were exceptionally well behaved for the duration of the day and so engaged in the performance; the very emotional ending triggered many tears! The students thoroughly enjoyed the performance with one student saying, ‘I was gripped from the beginning’. Our GCSE students will be studying the play further over the course of the rest of this year and seeing the musical has given them a good insight to the show. They can now begin to think about their exam questions linked to Blood Brothers which we will be looking at in their lessons. Causeway will have more theatre trips planned for 2020 so if your son or daughter would like to attend look out for more information coming soon or they can approach Miss Netschepir in Drama for more information.

As part of Eastbourne Schools Partnership, four of our students took part in a 2 1/2 day workshop at Eastbourne College, led by leading British Dance Company 'Rambert'. Students from across five local secondary schools came together to create two dance compositions inspired by the work of ' A linha Curva' by 'Itzik Galili' and ' In your rooms' by Hofesh Shechter. Students put on a phenomenal performance at The Birley Center. A huge well done to all students involved!


Dance Workshop

Student’s Dark Matter Challenge University Trip What is a Supermassive black hole? It may sound rather like the abyss in the tarmac which you have to avoid driving over en route to work every morning, but it is in fact what sits at the very centre of our galaxy. All the stars and planets and moons in our galaxy are moving incredibly fast around this Supermassive black hole - our own solar system included. But, big as it is, it is not supermassive enough to explain the gravitational force required to keep the whole galaxy together. All the equations suggest that by rights all the very fast-moving stars and planets should just spin straight out into the universe beyond. Why don’t they? Dr Darren Baskill - an astronomer at the University of Sussex - knows that there must be something holding the galaxy together because we are evidently not spinning wildly out into the dark unknown. Scientists have developed a model which in part explains their equations: there must be a lot of hidden mass in the galaxy. Since this stuff is purely theoretical - it cannot be seen or described - it is known simply by the name Dark Matter. So, it turns out Dark Matter is not a thrash pub band from Bexhill: it is the cosmic glue. But that’s about all we’ve got.

At first, Causeway students seemed to be confident that the most important thing in science was something called Risk Assessment. Dr Baskill smilingly acknowledged that this was indeed important but was not the real reason for university research. Dr Baskill explained the scientific method and how scientists trying to answer very difficult questions and build models to test their theories. Kyle Hendy, a Year 8 student at Causeway School who attended this Widening Participation event in the Physics Department at the University of Sussex, was set the challenge with his fellow students to understand exactly what Dark Matter is and asked many in depth questions. The event provides an opportunity for Causeway students to experience life on a university campus. They get to work and lunch with undergraduates and get a feel for university life. The staff and students at Causeway school would like to express their thanks to all at the Widening Participation scheme, and to Dr Baskill especially.


Causeway School Larkspur Drive Eastbourne East Sussex BN23 8EJ 01323 465700 www.causewayschool.org [email protected] Causeway School Larkspur Drive Eastbourne East Sussex BN23 8EJ 01323 465700 www.causewayschool.org [email protected]


Year 7 Orienteering Festival Causeway School was invited by the University of Brighton to take part in an Orienteering Festival on Monday 11th November 2019. The festival took place at Gildredge Park and involved a selection of other schools from across the Eastbourne district.

Twelve Causeway students took part in four activities lead by trainee PE teachers from the University of Brighton. These included odds and evens, star orienteering and an Orienteering competition. Engagement was amazing throughout the sessions and the students had a great time progressing in their Orienteering

skills and teamwork.

Results from the final competition put Causeway first in the team event. Well done to all involved! #PrideofCauseway

High School Musical Auditions

At the beginning of the week we held auditions for our next school musical, ‘High School Musical’. Lots of students from Year 7-10 came and auditioned for the lead roles. Congratulations to everyone who auditioned. It was amazing to see so many students demonstrating their exceptional talents. After a lot of deliberating amongst the department it was finally decided that Owen Willis from Year 9 will be playing the male lead Troy Bolton and Mia Skipper in Year 8 will play Gabriella Montez. Other lead roles went to Charlie Fuller who will be playing Ryan, Paige Buckingham who will be playing Sharpay and Daisy Strath has been cast as Miss Darbus. Altogether there are 50 students already involved and we are so excited to work with them all. We look forward to welcoming you all to watch the show in April. Watch this space for more information. If your child hasn’t signed up yet it’s not too late, they can come to the Drama department and see Miss Netschepir. Hope to see you all there!

On Wednesday 27th November some of our students including scholars travelled to Sussex University to take part in an exciting Physics Experience. Hosted by staff and students from the university, Causeway took part in experiments, theory and science themed games to give them a better understanding of what they could go on to achieve with this subject at university level. Causeway will also be taking part in future subject themed days at the university over the next year, with the aim of showing our scholars students what life is like at university.

Making Choices University Trip


Parent Contact Update

Christmas Jumper and Dinner Day 2019

During the start of 2020 will will be introducing a new school

to parent communication system but to enable this to work

we need a parental email address contact for all students.

As part of our drive to become less paper reliant, we will be

contacting all parents in January who do not currently have

an email address listed with us.

Please can all parents make sure we have you’re most up to

date email address and mobile number so you don’t miss any

important communications from the school.

Once again students and staff got into the festive spirit and took part in National Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 13th December. We had a great selection of jumpers being worn on the day as you can see from the pictures. Students and staff were asked to donate £1 which will go to charity.

After the success of last years grand Hogwarts style Christmas Dinner, this years was set in our main School Hall. Over the course of two sittings students were served a lovely Christmas dinner by our staff.

@CausewaySchool @causewayPEsport


putting achievement irst - causeway school · widening participation event in the physics...

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