Welcome Year 9 to your area of the school website           18th October 2020

Mrs Riggs                                                                                                                    

Head of Student Progress Year 9

Not surprisingly I like to cook/bake!!  Which means I also like to have get-togethers with friends and family on a regular basis to enjoy some nice food! I can sail and ski (despite not being overly keen of water or heights!) The one claim to fame that I will share is that my grandmother was a stunt double for Elizabeth Taylor (an old actress!) in a movie a long time ago.

Mr Nunn    

Assistant Head of Student Progress Year 9                                                                    9NUN

I am a modest(!) rugby playing PE teacher. I like travelling,History and coaching. I also enjoy cooking and I am good at making a Jalfrezi. I am not keen on buttons... Have I ever mentioned I once scored for AC Milan?

Miss McMurray                                                                              

9MMY

9CST

Things I enjoy doing are; running, cooking, baking, gardening, travelling, spending money!!! My favourite quote is "Life is a stage and you only get one performance. Make it a good one."

Mrs Veasey

9VSY (previously 9MCN)

Mr Bainbridge                                                                      

9BNB

Settling in.

It's time for a catch up Year 9!

We have now been back in school for quite a few weeks and most of you have adapted well to the changes and obstacles faced in this new way of school life. It has been great to catch up with you all and see how much you have grown over the past few months.

By now you are all aware of how our day is arranged and the new timings in school for your lessons and breaks. We do feel the need to include a few reminders in this message as we do not want Year 9 standards to start slipping in what is an important year, in which you will pick your options.        Our expectations of you have not changed.

School starts and lessons start at 8.30am for Year 9. This means you should be in your classroom ready for the register at that time.

Mobile phones are still not permitted in school time. If you do bring a phone into school it MUST stay in your blazer pocket and not be out and being used at break/lunch time.

You must come into school each day prepared for learning. You need to bring in your own equipment every day (pens, rulers etc) as equipment cannot be shared in school between pupils. 

To clarify what is expected/allowed for PE, please find a list below.

Girls Kit

·         Blue Aylesford PE top

·         Blue Aylesford jumper

·         Blue Aylesford skort or shorts

·         Blue Aylesford jogging bottoms or plain black jogging bottoms

•          Optional base layers under normal PE kit - leggings and long sleeved top (they must be navy or black)
•          Optional Waterproof or showerproof jacket in wet weather (Ideally navy or black)

Students are not allowed to wear leggings without a skort over the top.

Boys kit

·         Blue Aylesford PE top or Blue Aylesford rugby long sleeved top

·         Blue Aylesford shorts

·         Blue Aylesford jogging bottoms or plain black jogging bottoms

•          Optional base-layers in navy or black under normal PE kit
•          Optional Waterproof or showerproof jacket in wet weather (Ideally navy or black)

Students are not allowed to wear hoodies or jumpers that are not Aylesford's.

If there is anything you are still not sure about, or have any questions. Please do ask your tutor, myself or Mrs Riggs and we will do our best to answer them for you.

Keep up the good work Year 9 and make us proud!

Miss McLean 

Huge congratulations to Ragley House, who are this years house champions. Unfortunately, due to lock down, the exciting announcement and cup lift was done without the usual sports hall full of students.  A massive well done to all Ragley tutor groups and also well done to Charlecote, who came in 2nd place and Stoneleigh who were 3rd place. The results were very close and there has been a lot of Kudos points awarded to well deserving students this year.

A delighted Miss McLean and Mr Nunn, Heads of House for Ragley, collecting the trophy on behalf of the students.

The Art Department are running a face mask competition for staff and students. As it’s now mandatory to wear face coverings around school – we want to get more teachers and students covered up with reusable masks. We are launching a competition for the BEST home-made face covering. We are challenging you to get creative with your designs! Aside from the pattern the look of your face covering is completely up to you.

The competition is being judged by Mark from the Great British Sewing Bee 2020. The winner will receive a Billionaire Boys Club t-shirt and there will also be prizes for runners up.

What do you call a pig that knows karate?

A pork chop!

Warwickshire Youth Council Environment Competition

We are the Warwickshire Youth Council, a group of young people standing up for age 11-18 year olds and those up to 24 years old for special educational needs. You may have heard of us in the Make Your Mark campaigns and the elections held each year.

We are campaigning on the environment this year, which has proven to be a groundbreaking  for young people across Warwickshire. We are keen to promote eco friendly lifestyles alongside systemic change and to do this we have decided to hold a competition which rewards green habits.

Schools are a vital communication link between the young people and their youth council and we would appreciate it if you could share the competition email to your students and encourage them to participate. We will be using a variety of challenges such as baking a vegan cake and planting a tree. We will be handing out rewards in January.

If there are any questions feel free to email us on environmentcompetitionwyc@gmail.com .We will send out an example which can be used for the students when the competition begins on the 2nd November.

Yours faithfully,

Zoë Stevens

Warwickshire Youth Council

                                                             Charity bike ride

Congratulations to Mr Nunn and his team mates who reached John O'Groats on day 6 of their charity cycle ride. They have been raising money for the Mat Davis Foundation. The foundation helps young people in many ways, with the primary aim of providing relief to young people who have been diagnosed with cancer. Well done to Mr Nunn and everyone else involved. 

There is still time to donate to this very worth while cause. Please click on the link below.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ride4jessandmat20

Please let your tutors know about anything you would like to share that you are proud of. I update the page each week.

Bitesize is the BBC's free online study support resource for school-age pupils in the United Kingdom. It is designed to aid pupils in both schoolwork and, for older pupils, exams.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/learn

Family Information Service (FIS) We provide information, advice and one-to-one support for families with children and young people aged 0 to 25 across Warwickshire.

https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/fis

Useful Apps: 

Forest - I love this idea! (I pinched it from Mrs Reeves sshh!) ! This is a simple game that rewards you for not using your phones! One of the worst habits for destroying concentration and ruining quality time is constantly checking your smartphone – whether to play games, look at social media or stay up to date with endless group WhatsApp threads. With this App, you plant a seed in the ground and within 30 minutes the seed can grow into a tree, you simply need to ignore your phone to allow the seed to grow.  While the tree grows the App displays messages like 'Put me down!' or 'Leave me alone!' it keeps track of how long you have waited for each tree to grow.  I really need to get my 20 year old son to download this!

Warwickshire Music Hub are holding free taster sessions for instruments. Please see leaflet below and click on attached website to book.

https://www.warwickshiremusichub.org/

Take a look at the next wellbeing action calendar 'Optimistic October'. 

Life is far from perfect, but there are lots of reasons for optimism. Setting positive goals for the future gives our lives a sense of direction and purpose. And although we face many challenges there are also lots of reasons to stay hopeful. By consciously choosing our priorities we can overcome issues, make progress and focus on what really matters.