The Blue Coat School

Spring Newsletter – March, 2014

BTEC Construction students visiting the new build, and having the opportunity to “butter” a brick, and lay it!

Faith ~ Vision ~ Nurture

Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers,

Welcome to the Spring Newsletter!

Its aim is to keep you up-to-date with how Blue Coat is developing, and to give you a flavour of our young people’s experience here, over and above their lessons. Our ethos is that school should enable students to become all they can be, and are meant to be, and that means providing all kinds of different experiences that help and motivate young people to discover and develop their talents and aptitude. That builds confidence, and resilience, which are essential qualities for success in learning. The final section of the newsletter includes our end-and-start-of-term arrangements, a few reminders and an update on staffing.

School News Our new building is taking shape. Designed by Halliday-Meecham and Co Architects, built by Bardsley Construction Ltd., and funded by Oldham Council and The Blue Coat School, the 14 new classrooms are on time and in budget for completion for September, 2014, when our new increased intake of 240 Year 7s arrive.

Maths and Social Sciences will move to the new building in July, and the second floor will become a Sixth Form Study base at lunchtimes, to help accommodate our increasing 16-18 provision. (See their success below).

Once maths has moved, we will be starting on the redesign and refurbishment of their existing classrooms to create a new base for Modern Languages at Blue Coat, in the heart of the main school. This will also include some major repairs to the windows of the main building, which is Grade 2 listed. The school has to pay for the creation of these new classrooms, but we are dependent on the Educational Funding Agency supporting us in the window repairs, as the cost will be so high. If all goes to plan, Modern Languages will probably move to their new base in the autumn half-term.

We have also bid for additional funding to make major repairs to the Arts and Technology building, where we have had to mothball classrooms because of the damp. The plan is to create two extra Science laboratories here, plus a technology/engineering area and a new textiles technology room, once the structural repairs have been completed. This all helps us ensure that we have the right resources to prepare our young people for the world they will live and work in.

So we have built a new school hall, created a new inclusion base in the Green Room, invested in a brand new Food Technology room and created facilities for construction and IT in technology, as well as all the repairs, new boilers, and the substation, which give the school the capacity to grow.

For the next 2 – 3 years, we will be gradually and systematically reconstructing the school the make it fit-for-purpose in the 21st Century, as well as an estate that connects so much with Oldham’s history and development, and which people in the area are proud of. As part of this, all our buildings are going to be renamed in honour of Oldham people who have made a major contribution to learning and understanding, and to the lives of others. We’ve agreed a shortlist, and a council of pupils, mainly Years 7 and 8, helped by Senior Students, will produce their recommendations for senior staff and governors by the end of term.

Construction students in particular are having a field-day, visiting the site, observing the different aspects of design and construction, engineering and craftsmanship in practice, and being able (under careful supervision!) to put their own newly-acquired skills into practice.

League Tables Of course we are not driven by competition (though a bit does no harm, and sharpens you up!), so it is great to see from national league tables that we are the only comprehensive school in the top 20 secondary schools at A-level performance. And in fact, there are a lot of selective schools below us. The Manchester Evening News seems to have assumed we are selective. Nothing could be further from the case.

Rank School name Local authority Average point score

1 Colchester Royal Grammar School * Essex 1412

2 King's College School Merton 1344.7

3 Sevenoaks School Kent 1333

4 Altrincham Grammar School for Girls * Trafford 1269.4

5 King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford *

Essex 1265.8

6 King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys * Birmingham 1264.9

7 King Edward's School Birmingham 1250.2

8 St Clare's, Oxford Oxfordshire 1241.3

9 Pate's Grammar School * Gloucestershire 1234.7

10 Colyton Grammar School * Devon 1215.8

11 King Edward VI Handsworth School * Birmingham 1209.4

12 The Lady Eleanor Holles School Richmond upon Thames

1206

13 King Edward VI High School for Girls Birmingham 1201.9

14 North London Collegiate School Harrow 1197.1

15 Dartford Grammar School * Kent 1193.4

16 Invicta Grammar School * Kent 1188.3

17 The Tiffin Girls' School * Kingston upon Thames

1176.3

18 Hockerill Anglo-European College Hertfordshire 1174.4

19 Withington Girls' School Manchester 1165.8

20 The Blue Coat CofE School Oldham 1162.3

21 Queen Elizabeth's School, Barnet * Barnet 1157.4

22 Loughborough High School Leicestershire 1152.8

23 Hampton School Richmond-U-Thames 1147.4

24 St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School *

Bromley 1145.7

25 Wycombe Abbey School Buckinghamshire 1145.3

26 Colchester County High School for Girls * Essex 1142.9

27 Tiffin School * Kingston-U-Thames 1142.2

28 Lancaster Girls' Grammar School * Lancashire 1141.6

29 Altrincham Grammar School for Boys * Trafford 1140

30 Chelmsford County High School for Girls * Essex 1134.4

There is still room for improvement – there always is – but it is good to see how well our students are doing, against the national picture.

An Oxbridge Record! And Medicine! Oxford and Cambridge are very competitive. Medical and Veterinary Science anywhere is very competitive. These students have to apply earlier, and so hear earlier whether they have been successful.

This year we are delighted to report that 5 students – a school record – have won places at Oxford or Cambridge, and a further three have secured places for medical school. Congratulations to:

Student University Course Offer

Harvey Jones Oxford (St Catherine’s)

Physics A*AA

Madeleine Jones-Casey

Cambridge (Churchill)

Human, Social and Political Sciences

A*A*A

Zac Keane Oxford (Mansfield) Physics A*AA

Eleanor Prince Cambridge (Jesus) Psychological and Behavioural Sciences

A*AAA

Hollie Richardson Oxford (Keble) Law AAA

Abbas Shahid Manchester Medicine ABB

James Fowles Sheffield Medicine AAA

Louisa Davis Hull & York Medicine AAA

1 - Courtesy of The Oldham Evening Chronicle

The support of their teachers, the encouragement from successful ‘Old Blues’ who return to talk about their experiences, and the extra help for staff who get them into summer schools, help them to enter for the essay prizes, take them to the universities, and prepare them for the very demanding interviews, has paid off.

75% of our 147 Year 13s who have applied to UCAS this year now have offers, and we have our largest number of Art Foundation applications this year, for which students are currently organising portfolios and completing interview pieces.

Local Governor Appointment The Governing Body appoints a Local Governor to be part of the strategic governance of the school. This is in addition to our elected parent and teacher governors, and those nominated by The Henshaw Trust, Manchester Diocese and the Oldham West Deanery. We are looking for someone

who can bring their professional experience and skills to the Governing Body, at a time when the responsibilities of governance are increasing. Our governors have responsibility as a team, not as individuals, and are insured by the school. We need the best people, ideally someone who has worked at a strategic level in a big organisation with a multi-million pound budget, a big staff and thousands of stakeholders, who have the skills and experience to hold senior leadership to account for the provision for pupils and for the efficiency and effectiveness of the school as a complex business. This will become even more necessary when we establish a Multi-Academy Trust and start to sponsor other schools (of which more details will follow in the next newsletter).

There are details on our website (http://www.blue-coat.oldham.sch.uk/component/content/article/57-message-board/835-local-governor-appointment) and we are hoping to attract parents (or relatives) of pupils, past and present, who can become the leaders of changing governance in the new and very different educational landscape that is emerging.

Initial Teacher Training and School Direct This year six students are training full-time at Blue Coat. They have completed their second placement at schools in our Alliance – King James (Huddersfield), St. James (Stockport), Marple Hall (Stockport) and North Chadderton, and five now have jobs in Northern Alliance schools.

Two points to note here:

1. There is a national shortage of secondary teachers, particularly in Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Languages, Computing and English. By training our own we are ensuring that we have some of the very best ready to step into our schools.

2. There is a high level of unemployment, which affects young people, including graduates.

If you know a young person who

• loves their subject and wants to share it with others,

• enjoys working with young people,

• is hardworking, a good learner, dedicated and resilient

Please point out School Direct (link on our website) as a brilliant route into an enthralling and rewarding profession. The website can be found at www.northern-alliance.net or follow us on Twitter @BCOldham.

The future of all your young people, and their children, depends on us being able to get the best and brightest into teaching!

What have students been doing?

Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths STEM Club has continued this term. Students produced a stomp rocket using plastic bottles, and fired these to test their success. Congratulations to Tegan Ashton-Maw and Emily Mallinson whose rocket flew the furthest. Students also learnt how to use the 2D CAD software, and designed a key-ring, which was then manufactured using the Laser-cutter.

We also welcomed “Engineering without Borders” from Manchester University. Two engineering students worked with Year 9s to design suitable housing for different areas of the world, focusing on sustainability and cost. Our students then presented their work to their peers.

Science Week Science Week 2014 has been one of our biggest ever.

We started with our Year 11 and 12 students at the Manchester Lit and Phil with Mr McGuinness, exploring how colour can be applied to X-ray images. This is a really important emerging technology in Medicine, giving us significant improvements in using imaging techniques for diagnosing medical conditions. A number of our students aspire to careers in the Life Sciences, so this was very well attended.

Did you know that the British Space industry contributes £9 billion pounds to the economy? As part of Blue Coat’s contribution to this, our Year 7 students spent two whole days building model rockets and then launching them on the Edge. Fortunately, this is the seventh year that we have run Rocket day, so local residents are used to living near Oldham’s version of Cape Canaveral. As always, the weather took a turn for the worse but our hardy Year 7s were undiminished in their enthusiasm, despite the risk of frostbite. Thanks to Mr Stevenson and Miss Wood for co-ordinating this.

2 - Courtesy of The OIdham Evening Chronicle

Speaking of the economy, six million jobs in the UK are in industries reliant on Chemistry. It is therefore vital that we encourage our young people into this field. As part of this, we invited some young scientists from Manchester University to work with our Year 12 students on analytical techniques used in the chemical industries. Students made samples of pharmaceuticals and then analysed them for purity and yield. We also invited six of our Year 11 students to take part to give them a taste of A-level Chemistry.

A selection of sixteen Year 12 and Year 13 chemists competed in Round One of The International Chemistry Olympiad, organised by The Royal Society of Chemistry. Before competing, these students trained for four months in how to answer difficult Chemistry questions, most of which are degree-level. In Round One, the students sat a two-hour exam paper in which their knowledge and skills were fully tested and extended.

This was the first time that Blue Coat students have competed, and they performed admirably. Notable mentions go to Eleanor Prince and David Jenkins in year 13, who achieved a Silver award, Sarah Simpson and Sam Depetrillo in Year 13 and Nathan Lowe and Anna Gilbert in Year 12, who all achieved a Bronze award. Year 12s now hope to take the experience of their first Olympiad into next year's competition, where they will go for gold again.

Material Science bridges the gap between Chemistry and Physics, developing new materials for emergent technologies such touch-sensitive mobile phone screens and medical implants. For the last four years, we have worked with Oxford University Department of Materials Science to give our Year 12 and 13 students an idea of what studying this subject entails. This taster-day is extremely popular, which is reflected in the number of students who have left Blue Coat to study this or related subjects at University.

Clearly, Science provides us with core technologies for current and future industries but we believe that Science should also be fun and exciting (and even delightful). So to bring this to Blue Coat, we invited in two different guests, exploring the theme of animal diversity (thanks to Mr Ford and Mrs Ormisher for organising these). On one end of the cute-scale, students got to see (and hold) a range of exotic animals from skunks to meerkats via boa constrictors. At the less cute end of the scale, students held giant snails and frogs as well as a very popular tarantula. The value of these events lies not in pounds or jobs, but in the excitement etched on the faces of young people and in the memories that they will keep with them for the rest of their lives. To us, that is what Blue Coat Science Week is all about. Roll on 2015.

Maths: The Grey Kangaroo Challenge - European Competition in Maths Congratulations to Rebecca Thorpe and James Barker who have made it through to the 'Grey Kangaroo Challenge'. They were placed top two in Year 9 following the UKMT challenge sat by the top mathematicians in the year group, and will now enter the Kangaroo Challenge, which pits some of the best young mathematical brains against each other from all across Europe! We wish them both the best of luck.

Food Technology It’s that time of year again… Year 10 Food Technologists experienced a day at Manchester Metropolitan University to engage in some commercial food preparation to understand the importance of sourcing ingredient/costing and issues related to that (e.g. moral, social, ethical, sustainability).

Career routes in Food Technology were proudly advertised at our Year 9 Options Evening when Taylor Keogh Wroe and Sarah Wilkinson, both now at college studying a professional Bakery & Patisserie course, came in to help our brilliant Year 11 and Year 10 volunteers. It really showcased how drive, determination and the love of a subject can forge a career path and a bright future. Thanks to all the helpers on the night. And finally… because of the fantastic practical outcome the students produce we thought the world should know! A website dedicated to the great works done has been set up by Mrs Penn for Food Technology to show off these skills. It’s a work in progress but check it out on a weekly basis http://bcfood.weebly.com/ to see what been made (recipes to follow) and send in your comments.

Sport Year 9 boys – Chris Summers, Ryan Slater, Louie Haynes, Will Anderson and Will Marsh - came 1st in the Oldham Schools Cross Country Championship at Chadderton Hall Park. It was a fantastic team effort to finish first.

The Year 8 boys narrowly missed out on 1st place, coming 2nd at the Oldham Indoor Sports Hall Competition against all the schools in Oldham.

Following on from the great cross-country season, a number of our runners were chosen to represent Oldham at the Greater Manchester Cross-Country Championships held on a cold and bitter day in Bolton. They all performed very well but notable performances were achieved by two of our Year 9 students, Rebecca Jones (2nd) and Louie Haynes (4th), which means that both have been selected to be on the Greater Manchester Squad for the English Schools’ Cross-Country Finals in March at Donnington Park, Leicestershire.

Greater Manchester School Games is an annual event which focuses primarily on boosting participation in less popular sports as well as providing an opportunity for competition. Competing at local level firstly in order to qualify and represent Oldham, we have entered competitions such as Girls Tag Rugby, Indoor Rowing, Badminton and Sports Hall Athletics. Both our KS3 and KS4 Girls Badminton teams have qualified as well as the KS3 Tag Rugby squad. The Indoor Rowing event was strongly contested with both the Year 8 and 9 teams finishing in 2nd place with the Year 7 team in 3rd. The Sports Hall Athletics Year 7 and 8 teams finished 3rd in their respective competitions.

Girls’ Football - The U13 Girls have a keen A and B team this year. Fixtures are played over four tournaments at a central venue, and the girls have represented us to a high standard. The A team have scored 7 and only conceded 4 this season which is very creditable after playing 8, 8 minute games.

The U14 girls are currently undefeated after 8 games. Taking 5 wins already this season and only conceding 3, the girls are close to being top of the table. Both teams are now training at Mahdlo which is enabling them to have a structured practice and come together to produce some quality performances.

Archery: Rebecca Kellett Cheshire have their own county records for Archery in all disciplines. Rebecca claimed 14 records and also has successfully claimed 5 national records in target and clout competitions. She is a great ambassador for her sport and with the coming archery season starting very soon, she is hoping to topple many more records.

Vocational Learning We had a lovely article in the Oldham Chronicle about our horticulture trainees in Year 11 who work with Myerscough College in Preston and OMBC’s Parks Department on everything from turf maintenance to planning and propagation.

3 - Courtesy of The Oldham Evening Chronicle

4 - Courtesy of The Oldham Evening Chronicle

Music In January, Year 11 musicians performed to parents and friends as part of their GCSE music exam. Particular congratulations to Ellis Howarth, Abigail Stanley, Tom Rosedale and Luke Midgeley who performed an arrangement of the music from Lord of the Rings, arranged by Ellis himself, and to Peter Anchor who played a wonderful piano duet with Mrs Fitzpatrick.

Thursday, 27th March is our Easter Concert, which will involve over 150 students, mainly in Year 11 and 13, who have planned the concert themselves to feature their achievements as soloists and small ensembles. We will be making the Performers and Musicians of the Year Awards.

Sunday, 23rd March – the brass band, brass quartet and jazz orchestra will be taking part in the regional auditions for the National Festival of Music for Youth at Rochdale Town Hall.

Drama A Night of New Writers - This evening of celebration was staged to an audience of invited guests, friends and family, in February to enable GCSE Drama and Performing Arts students to perform their assessment pieces in front of an audience. It included adaptations of ‘Hard Yards’ (Year 11) and ‘A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’ based on the best-selling novel by Mark Haddon by Simon Stephens; and ‘The Mobile Phone Show’ by Jim Cartwright (Year 10). In March, Year 13s performed a moving piece of devised theatre, based on ‘A Child Called It.’ The National Theatre’s Connections 2014 Premiere of “A Letter to Lacey” – Our extremely talented Senior Drama Group performed the premiere of “A Letter to Lacey”, written by award winning playwright and creator of Mama Mia - Catherine Johnson. It is a tough, hard hitting, mature piece of theatre on teenage partner abuse. Many students experienced their acting debut in lead roles; Reece and the three Karas gave particularly strong performances, supported by an extremely strong and focused ensemble. Kara sits down to write an email to someone she’s never met: her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend. Reece was the love of her life and as Kara spills her heart out, we learn just what it took to be with him – from their first meeting in the local park to their final showdown in a hospital. This play explores partner abuse and how it affects not just the couple involved, but their friends and family as well. Some of the content is shocking and sad; the musical numbers provide some stylised distance to what would otherwise be almost unperformable by young actors.

Faith and Ethos This term we have continued to focus on the school verse for the year:

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Form worship has been active and reflective, with many students taking responsibility for leading form reflection on themes such as greed, gossip and injustice, looking at their own lifestyles and the impact they have on others. Christian union continues to grow, mainly with Year 7-9 who get involved in craft, drama, hot topic discussion or games, which are always linked to biblical teaching, allowing the students who attend to support on another in their walk of faith.

Meanwhile, the Sixth Form Bible Study Group have been following a series of studies based on the Book of Philippians called ‘Discipleship Explored’. The sessions involve reading a passage of scripture together, watching a short video and then discussing some questions that allow us to apply the Bible to how we live out our faith in everyday life.

Our Lenten house communions will focus on the cross. Many students are involved in the services, leading the music, reading passages of scripture, bring forward the bread and wine, and providing a little light-hearted drama. Students will be challenged to think about the power behind the cross, and the reason that Jesus had to die.

Also, as part of our preparation for Easter, Year 8s are working hard producing some fantastic art work on the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus, including canvas paintings, sculptures and even cakes. The work will be on display around school ready for the Lent communions and the Easter service.

Religious Studies Year 7s have met The Gideons, who visit the school every year to talk to pupils about the importance of the Bible, and especially the New Testament as an important resource for helping us through difficult times.

In Year 9, pupils tackle the challenging topic of The Holocaust. Following this a group of our students represented the school at the Oldham Holocaust Memorial Event at the Oldham Library during Holocaust Memorial Week, which involved several guest speakers talking about their or their family’s experience of persecution. There was one particularly moving account where Leah Burman spoke of her father’s experience in concentration camps.

Throughout, pupils were engaged. They worked with members of the public, contributed to discussion, and displayed the high-quality work produced by Year 9s. They were a credit to themselves, and to Blue Coat.

Fundraising by pupils Date Charity Cash Raised By Amount Total

October Marie Curie Fundraising Box (Reception) 19.56

November Philippines Appeal Cash raised from Assemblies

Cash raised by Toni Groves

Cash raised by Katie Seddon

Cash raised by Mrs Simmons

326.92

121.08

19.40

60.00

527.40

December Reuben’s Retreat

Salvation Army

Christmas Fundraising

Christmas Fundraising

863.59

863.50

Philippines Appeal Christmas Fundraising 863.50 2590.51

December WaterAid

Crisis UK

Christies

Dr. Kershaw’s Hospice

Nosh for Dosh

Crisis at Christmas

Staff Donations

Staff Donations

180.16

21.84

30.00

30.50

262.50

February Four Paws Cash raised by Year 7 38.87 38.87

GRAND TOTAL £3,438.84

Oldham Youth Council Elections Blue Coat produced a turnout of 78%, the highest in the borough. The current Youth Mayor is our former Head Girl, Emma O’Donnell.

Wellbeing Year 7 students have been really lucky to have Year 13 students leading some of their Wellbeing lessons this half term. The Year 13 students have been trained in P4C (Philosophy for Children), and have led Year 7 forms in tackling the important issue of relationships with friends. After being inspired by a variety of film clips about friendship, the Year 7 forms came up with philosophical questions to discuss together, exploring issues such as ‘What makes a good friendship?’, ‘Is trust the key to friendship?’ and ‘Can you forgive your friends?’ At the end, each form created a friendship paper chain to reflect on what they had learnt. These are displayed on the Year 7 landing to remind students of the brilliant work they did.

Year 11s – Mental Toughness For Year 11s, this is a hard term. The pressure is on to get the Controlled Assessments and practical coursework completed at the best level possible, and to make real inroads into revision. Mr Keane and Mr Higgins are coordinating an intricate web of ‘interventions’ to ensure that all students are supported to the full. English has brought in an external examiner to give top tips to students, as well as to train staff. To ensure he is fully on top of what students have to do, Mr Keane (a scientist himself) has been to all the revision sessions in English, and has been able to help the English teachers by approaching the work from a different standpoint.

But in the end, it is down to the students themselves, and we all know that these are not easy times. The key is to recognise that even though things look tough, there are still opportunities and ways

through to achievement, and not to be overwhelmed. This is mental toughness. It’s more than ‘resilience’, which implies simply bouncing back. This is the equivalent of the sports’ psychology approach of adjusting your game to deal with the conditions you face – learning the skills to do that, and becoming confident in putting them into place.

So throughout this term Year 11 Wellbeing has focused on Mental Toughness, led by a team of specially tailored tutored. Students have learned about “The 4 Cs” model of Mental Toughness. These are; confidence, control, commitment and challenge.

In the lesson on confidence students explored how having high self-confidence helps performance and how low self-confidence might impact negatively on exam performance. Students then learned strategies such as visualising to boost confidence and breathing techniques to reduce the effects of anxiety. Students could immediately see how these techniques could be applied when preparing for interviews.

For control students learned about the circles of control outlined in Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People” and used these to classify their “worries” into; things that can be controlled, things that can be influenced and things which they have no control over. It turns out that highly effective people don’t waste time worrying about things they cannot control or influence.

They also did some work on “self-talk” and how to turn negative and limiting self-talk into a more positive mantra which fosters success.

When learning about challenge students learned about practical techniques to break challenges down, in order to make them more manageable. They should all now know how to eat an elephant – one slice at a time. They also learned a little bit about their own natural response to challenges whether they naturally take on challenges or are more likely to avoid them.

Commitment is the final cornerstone of “The 4 C’s”. In order to take part in this lesson, students completed a very challenging values questionnaire. This was designed to get them to not only choose their top ten values but also rank them. This was important because it is very hard to stick at any difficult task unless the outcome can be linked to something that is of personal value. You have to have a very good reason to stay in and revise. Making the reason as clear as possible in your mind means you are more likely to stick at the task.

The seeds have been planted that will help make the exam season and beyond manageable and far less stressful.

Think

Feel (emotions) Act

At the end of term we will be doing a full evaluation with students to establish where we go next, because there are insights and techniques in this programme which are relevant for young people across the school – and for adults.

Year 11 also enjoyed a motivational talk, which reinforces key messages about mental toughness from Sarah Outen, who is halfway through a gruelling expedition to circumnavigate the globe by human power.

Literacy and Accelerated Reader This programme is a competition, to encourage students to read and develop their comprehension. We have several millionaire students already! Congratulations to:

• Kian O'Connor - 2,633,624 words

• Ana Ferreira - 2,142,144

• Nathan Sherriff - 1,458,978

• Anna Barnes - 1,332,476

• Alice Dawson - 1,325,789

• James Goddard - 1,322,911

• Emily Mallinson - 1,229,631

• Jemma Fricker - 1,195,743

• Alice Doggett - 1,072,588

• Matilda Margol-Gromada - 1,063,077

• Jessica Kelly - 1,001,745

The Summer Term for Year 11 The examination seasons are shifting nationally. This year GCSE students will take many, if not most of their exams before the Whitsuntide holiday. As a result, all of Year 11 will attend school full-time up to 26th May, but with a collapsed and personalised timetable. Ie., instead of attending normal lessons, they will attend subject specific revision sessions prior to their exams so that they get the opportunity for some last minute help and guidance from their teachers before sitting the examination.

This way we are sure that all of Year 11 students will enter their examinations confident, focused and prepared and will subsequently go on to achieve the fantastic outcomes we expect from all of them.

After the half term break, Year 11 students will continue to attend school but only when they have subject specific revision sessions or examinations, which will give our students access to their teachers for a couple of hours prior to their exams. It will also prevent our teachers having sleepless nights worrying that they haven’t seen their students for over a week before they sit the exam in their subject! After the half term break, the restaurant will be available for Year 11 students to attend supervised revision sessions between subject specific revision sessions or simply if they need a quiet space to revise. REMINDER – Morning examinations commence at 9.00am and afternoon examinations commence at 1.30pm. Pupils need to be at the exam hall 15 minutes prior to the exam commencing. There is a real buzz in Year 11 and we wish all our students (and their parents!) the best of luck over the next few months.

Sixth Form News “What Next Week” retuned to the Blue Coat Sixth Form in February, a weeklong careers extravaganza, opened by Newcastle University who busted a few myths on university life and sparked our Year 12’s university preparations. Tuesday saw work life and apprenticeships come in to focus, with a presentation from Chris Dean the Chief Executive of Web Application UK, an Oldham based company who take on around 30 apprentices each year. On the Wednesday, fifteen university academics from ten different universities led a range of workshops and seminars on individual subjects ranging from Fine Art to Radiography. The week was brought to a close by Project Trust a specialist a GAP Year charity.

UCAS Convention - Manchester Central In March, Year 12 students took a break from their mock exam preparations to attend the annual UCAS convention at Manchester Central. The event sees the exhibition hall filled with a staggering 173 different Universities Colleges & HE providers. Year 12 students also benefited from the careers zone with over 24 large employers on hand to speak with students.

McKinsey Leadership Academy Early March saw Sixth Form students receive a presentation from NHS leader Kathy Roe on what it means to be leader. The presentation really did have leadership at its core as this wasn’t an event organised by staff. The event was organised by Year 13 student James Fairbrother. James spent his final week of Year 12 last year developing his leadership skills with the McKinsey Leadership Academy. As part of James’s leadership programme he is looking to develop leadership skills of other sixth form students by arranging a number of guest speakers to share their thoughts on leadership. The event also served as a launch to these Year 12 students who want to apply for a place on the McKinsey Leadership Academy this year.

Gold Duke of Edinburgh Spring term for Gold Duke of Edinburgh has seen students meticulously planning their final exhibition routes, receiving first aid training, and taking a navigational test. But once again nights under canvas and blistered feet are only weeks away with practice one commencing in the peak district on the 25th of April. Practice 1 last year saw a heavy frost on the Saturday morning so wrap up warm Year 12’s.

The School Ski Trip This year the school ski trip of 39 lucky students from Years 9 – 12 and 5 staff ventured to a new resort, St. Michael in the Oberlungau region of Austria.

The ski trip started brilliantly with the outbound flight on Singapore Airlines. Landing at Munich Airport they then had a five hour coach journey to the resort. The hotel, Hotel Zum Weissen Stein, was right in the centre of St Michael and a short walk from the gondola in the morning for the day’s skiing.

For the first three days they skied in Grosseck-Speierreck, and on the other days at Katschberg and Fanninberg. The weather was mixed with one day at Fanningberg having 81cm of snow in one day.

The only skiers on the slopes on that day were Blue Coat, who ski in all weathers! The last day was glorious weather and we split into four ski groups. All abilities, during the course of the trip, made excellent progress with their skiing.

The highlight of the trip was the night skiing at Fanningberg on the gorgeous blue slope – none of the students and most of the staff had never experienced night skiing before and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Free Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus License Students attending Blue Coat school are now eligible for a free Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus Subscription License. This includes such applications as Word 2013, Excel 2013 and PowerPoint 2013. The license covers PC, Mac iPhone and Android applications.

Each subscription license allows you to run Office on up to five machines being Mac or PC. You can also run Office Mobile for Android or Office Mobile for iPhone on up to 5 mobile devices. This is full Office on the PC, Mac, iPhone, and Android platform and all are available for offline use.

You can use this license for as long as you are attending school. The software will check that you are a member of the school and will cease to work once you have left. Year 11 and Year 13 students in particular should take note.

To find out more, follow the instructions on Bloodle:

https://vle.blue-Coat.org/mod/page/view.php?id=38107

Please note, Blue Coat School accepts no responsibility for any software installed on pupils' home machines, nor does it offer support for that software.

Staff News Good luck to Miss Hall, Miss Jameson and Mrs Smart, who are all leaving at Easter to take up new posts in Birmingham, Southampton and Germany respectively

Our new Head of RS, Ms Martin, will be joining us immediately after the Easter break from Trinity High School in Manchester, and we will welcome two teachers to fill the remaining posts on a temporary basis until the summer.

End of Term Arrangements During the morning of Friday, 4th April, we will celebrate our Easter services in school and at the Parish Church.

The spring term will end on Friday, 4th April at 1.20pm. Most buses have been arranged; however the following buses - the 126 service and the 829 service - are not able to accommodate the early finish. Please check the website for further updates.

School reopens to all students on Tuesday, 22nd April, 2014.

School will be closed on Monday, 5th May (May Day).

We wish all our families a peaceful Easter, with time for relaxation and enjoyment. Yours sincerely,

Julie Hollis

Headteacher

Faith ~ Vision ~ Nurture