Term 3 Newsletter 2012-13 - February 2013 - Queen Elizabeth's ...
Term 3 Newsletter 2012-13 - February 2013 - Queen Elizabeth's ...
Term 3 Newsletter 2012-13 - February 2013 - Queen Elizabeth's ...
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<strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s Grammar School<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 3 <strong>Newsletter</strong><br />
January - <strong>February</strong> 20<strong>13</strong><br />
Dear Parents and Students,<br />
Welcome to our term 3 newsletter, we hope you enjoy reading the<br />
various accounts of the activities that have taken place over the past 6<br />
weeks.<br />
Work is progressing, albeit very slowly, on the sixth form centre as the<br />
attached photo shows. We are hoping that things will be much more<br />
productive after the break. The main delay appears to have been because<br />
of concerns about the archaeology. My theory is that now that Richard III<br />
has been found they are starting to look for other ‘missing’ monarchs.<br />
King Stephen was buried in the Abbey, in our grounds in 1154 and is<br />
actually somewhere in the vicinity, probably the church.... watch this space!<br />
The campaign is progressing well, my thanks to everyone who has<br />
supported us to date, we are close to the ‘tipping point’ now, which will<br />
confirm that the Auditorium is a viable project. Work on the boiler<br />
replacements is going really well, currently ahead of schedule. There isn’t a<br />
great deal of logic replacing boilers in the coldest months but we had to<br />
progress now due to spending deadlines! Fortunately it has not been too disruptive and we are looking forward to this project completing in March.<br />
On Wednesday 19th December <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s<br />
Grammar School went to Sittingbourne College with<br />
two teams ready for their first rugby tournament as a<br />
team. After only 11 weeks working together as a group<br />
they managed to bring a gold and silver trophy. The<br />
captains of the two squads were Alfie Monro and Archie<br />
Oliver, both 7Q.<br />
The weather was cold and bitter and rained for half of<br />
the tournament, but <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s fought through! In<br />
the tournament Archie’s team played the Howard, and<br />
Sittingbourne’s second team, and Alfie’s squad played<br />
against Sittingbourne’s first team and their second.<br />
One of the players was fortunately injured in warming<br />
up, and had to watch from the sideline. Unlike any other<br />
team, we had two girls, one in each team, Samantha<br />
Hutchins, 7Q and Ellie Clarke, 7S. Unfortunately we all<br />
had to play on Atroturf, and I think a lot of the players<br />
had more injuries and aches from the cuts and grazes on<br />
their legs than the contact. Overall it was a striking<br />
success for year 7 <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s Rugby, and hopefully<br />
the first of many.<br />
Archie Oliver 7Q<br />
We heard the welcome news that Ofsted would not be visiting this year as we were<br />
expecting. However, we continue apace with our work to improve every aspect of<br />
the school. We have recently conducted a two-week review of teaching which has<br />
provided us with the welcome news that the proportion of ‘Outstanding’ and ‘Good’<br />
graded lessons continued to rise. We are, of course, always keen to know how our<br />
students and parents are feeling about the school and welcome your thoughts on<br />
this matter. Parents can also let us know their views on the Ofsted website<br />
‘Parentview’ - http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/<br />
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the fantastic and really<br />
hardworking PTFA; who successfully raised £18,000 over the past couple of years to<br />
replace our old minibus which had come to the end of its life. The students, and<br />
particularly the PE Department, will benefit from this new addition to the school.<br />
On Thursday afternoon this week we had an official handover ceremony, when<br />
members of the PTFA presented the keys of the new minibus to members of staff.<br />
Urgent message from the Art Department<br />
David Anderson, Headteacher<br />
QEGSF Year 7 Rugby Club Clinch Winners and Runners-up<br />
at Sittingbourne RUFC Rugby Tournament<br />
Could students from years 10, 11 and 12 please collect any pieces of artwork you would like to keep by Friday 1st March as we are desperately short<br />
of storage space. Any pieces of work which have not been collected by the deadline date will be disposed of. Thank you. Mrs Higson
<strong>2012</strong>-20<strong>13</strong> House Competition<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 3 is often a quiet term for the house competition with many<br />
students across the school focusing on their examinations. However,<br />
there have been plenty of House events happening this term. There were<br />
form quizzes from the Media and RS departments, a creative writing<br />
competition, Mathematics House challenges, points awarded when<br />
students ‘Signed to Sing’ along with all the regular ways students can earn<br />
points for their houses.<br />
In the last week of term, Katie Ingram in year 9 organised a charity food<br />
collection as part of her citizenship GCSE. She contacted the House<br />
team who helped her to run this as a House competition, F House were<br />
very generous with their donations! The contributions were presented in<br />
a whole school House assembly on Wednesday, where there was also a<br />
Valentine’s Day quiz where Q and G Houses were victorious, picking up<br />
bonus points. E and S Houses are joint first in the Interhouse sports, with<br />
E House leading the junior sports competition.<br />
All results of House events are posted on Moodle on a regular basis;<br />
please check this for updates on the totals and where points are being<br />
allocated.<br />
Year 12 students are very keen to start helping year <strong>13</strong> with the House<br />
system and will start supporting the senior student form representatives<br />
in their duties. The current form representatives have been very<br />
impressive this year and it will be a very hard act to follow for the new<br />
team.<br />
The totals are:<br />
Q E G S F<br />
299 299 184 277 269<br />
Q E G S<br />
590 512 450 545<br />
<strong>February</strong> House<br />
Year 7 & 8 Totals<br />
Mr Harvey<br />
<strong>February</strong> House<br />
Whole School Totals<br />
GCSE Computing<br />
students create<br />
android smartphone<br />
apps for Controlled<br />
Assessment<br />
GCSE Computing students have been using their smartphones in class. For<br />
once, this is not a citation on the behaviour log, but actually a crucial stage in<br />
the Controlled Assessment! As part of developing an App for an Android<br />
phone, the students have been testing their apps on the smartphones, to<br />
ensure the systems work.<br />
They have also used students to test these apps, to make sure it’s user friendly<br />
and bug-free. We all know how frustrating poorly made software can be to<br />
use…<br />
Once tested, the students have to finish their write-up and move onto learning<br />
the computational theory work for the summer exam. The course has both challenged and stimulated the students, many of whom have opted to take<br />
the new Computing A-Level, being offered for the first time at <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s, in September.<br />
Mr Stanton<br />
Need to research a topic Complete Issues can be found on our Moodle Page in the Library Section<br />
Complete Issues provides you with relevant articles, statistics and organizations for your research in a quick and easy way. It is made up of:<br />
Essential Articles - Stimulating<br />
arguments, thought-provoking discussions,<br />
opposing viewpoints and personal accounts<br />
Fact File - Up-to-date statistics & graphs<br />
You will find Complete Issues both user-friendly and clearly organized - give it a try!<br />
Key Organizations - Current contact<br />
details & websites for thousands of<br />
organizations
sign2sing 20<strong>13</strong><br />
On Wednesday 6 th 2.45pm 638 students at <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s took part in Sign2Sing. A charity world record breaking attempt<br />
for the most people signing and singing at the same time to promote Signhealth.<br />
The type of work Signhealth do includes research, for example, why more deaf people commit suicide. Better healthcare –<br />
more deaf people suffer serious side effects from diabetes, heart disease and obesity, thought to be due to lack of<br />
communication by GPs. This was alongside outreach programmes, supporting people into work and counselling for young<br />
people.<br />
The Year 8’s said it was great and that it was good taking part in a whole school charity event for those who are less<br />
fortunate than us.<br />
Yr8 Feedback - Written by Iona Thompson and Natalie Grace, our sixth formers who helped promote the event throughout the school.<br />
Everyone would like to do it again next year as it was a really fun and rewarding thing to do. It made them more aware of the sign health charity and<br />
introduced them to sign language, which made them interested in learning more. They were all enthusiastic, and there was an exciting atmosphere,<br />
everyone got involved and had a good time.<br />
7F quotes:<br />
“Liked how everyone knew it and it was fun.”<br />
“It made everyone happy and cheerful.”<br />
“Think it was good because the songs were easy to learn signing for.”<br />
“It was well synchronised across the country, loads of people tried to do it<br />
well to get house points.”<br />
“Good atmosphere because it was loud and fun and we were signing and<br />
singing together.”<br />
“Trying to break the world record from last year.”<br />
My time as a Comenius Assistant<br />
After fourteen weeks at <strong>Queen</strong> <strong>Elizabeth's</strong> Grammar School it is now time for me to go back home to Sweden. Working as a Comenius Assistant in<br />
Faversham has been a great experience. It has been very interesting to gain more knowledge of the British school system and at the same time I have<br />
also learnt a lot about both strengths and development areas in the Swedish school system, where I will work in the future. One of my tasks as a<br />
Comenius Assistant has been to teach the students about my culture and Swedish, my mother tongue, and to encourage the students to be curious<br />
about other countries and to motivate them to learn foreign languages. During two weeks in December I held presentations about Swedish Christmas<br />
celebrations. I found it very nice to see how keen the students were to ask loads of different questions and to learn some words in Swedish. Since then<br />
I’m often greeted in Swedish by them in the corridors.<br />
Since the beginning of January I have offered a Rope Skipping Lunch Club once a week where<br />
students from years 7, 10 and 12 have participated. Rope skipping is one of my biggest<br />
interests and I have been practising the sport for more than <strong>13</strong> years. Another big interest of<br />
mine is contemporary circus, and during my time as a Comenius Assistant at <strong>Queen</strong><br />
Elizabeth’s Grammar School I have had the opportunity to combine teaching my mother<br />
tongue with teaching contemporary circus. During Wednesday afternoons I have been<br />
teaching a group of form six students juggling, hula hooping, rope skipping and different ways<br />
of balancing, integrated with the<br />
Swedish language. How languages can<br />
be taught and learned through<br />
involving the whole body, using<br />
creativity and developing the physical<br />
ability at the same time is something that I would love to learn more about in the future.<br />
Another highlight during my British adventure has been to teach rope skipping to many groups<br />
of students within Physical Education. Most students have been skipping before but maybe not in<br />
a way of creating tricks while you skip, trying double dutch, long rope and other, new ways of<br />
challenging the motor skills with a skipping rope. A difference from the Swedish school is that<br />
the P.E. subject here is organized girls and boys separate. While teaching rope skipping and<br />
Circus Swedish in mixed groups, I found it both nice and interesting to see that girls and boys<br />
seemed to enjoy the lessons together and that the activity of course could be conducted<br />
regardless of gender.<br />
I would like to say a big thank you to all the students and the members of staff who made me<br />
feel very welcome at <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s Grammar School. Thanks to you all I have many new<br />
experiences that I am sure I will find very useful in the future. I would like to say an extra big<br />
thank you – or “tack” as we say in Swedish - to the students in the Rope Skipping Lunch Club, in<br />
the Swedish Lunch Club and the Circus Swedish Group. Thanks to you and your keenness to<br />
learn, your creativity and your enthusiasm I have developed my way of teaching. I have new ideas<br />
about how to create learning situations that include everyone and to find ways of teaching<br />
where the strengths in each and every student are identified. You have inspired me to try<br />
creating lessons where the participants can develop their knowledge based on their own abilities<br />
through a positive, encouraging and exploring atmosphere where all the students are<br />
contributing to the learning process within the group. It has been great to teach you!<br />
7Q quotes:<br />
“It was energetic.”<br />
“It was bonding for the whole school.”<br />
“It was competitive fun.”<br />
“Good fun and promotes a good message.”<br />
“Nice to know and felt good that we were trying to break a world record.”<br />
Matilda Lindberg<br />
Comenius Assistant
We have 2 new children that we sponsor through Action Aid as Abacha<br />
Mathew and Leonela have left the programme. Our new children are<br />
Grace Daniel and Juan Carlos Xoj Caal, both aged 6. Grace lives in<br />
Nasarawa in Nigeria and speaks Eggon. Juan Carlos lives in Guatemala and<br />
speaks Q’eqchi, the most popular Mayan language in the area.<br />
The money to sponsor Grace and Juan Carlos is raised through the<br />
Fairtrade team (the Fairtrade tuck shop and events) and the team write to<br />
both children regularly.<br />
Mrs Oliver and<br />
the Fairtrade Team<br />
We have welcomed a new<br />
Fairtrade team this term so<br />
that our Year <strong>13</strong> ‘Fairtraders’<br />
can concentrate on their<br />
examinations. We would like<br />
to say “thank-you” to the<br />
outgoing team; James Freed,<br />
Alex Ross and Will Whysall<br />
and welcome our new Year<br />
12 team; Matt Rose, Lydia<br />
Baxter, Matt Organ, Alistair<br />
Hills, Shannon Wells,<br />
Madeleine St Clair Baker,<br />
Emily McKane, Rosa<br />
Bisbrown and Harry Johnson.<br />
The first order of business for our new team was to organise a very<br />
quick cake sale. In two days alone they raised £200 which they sent to<br />
the Teenage Cancer Trust. Despite raising money for Teenage Cancer<br />
Trust throughout the past two years, the team have been further<br />
motivated following the death of one of their year group, Max Smith in<br />
December. Max passed away after a long and brave struggle from<br />
Osteosarcoma and the Fairtrade team plan to continue raising money<br />
for Teenage Cancer Trust, to thank them for all the support that they<br />
gave to Max throughout his treatments and to help towards others in<br />
his situation.<br />
The Fairtrade team also raise money to pay for the two children that<br />
<strong>Queen</strong> <strong>Elizabeth's</strong> Grammar School sponsors through Action Aid. We<br />
have two new children this year, they are Grace Daniel in Nigeria and<br />
Juan Carlos Xoj Caal in Guatemala. Grace speaks ‘Eggon’ and Juan<br />
Carlos speaks ‘Q’eqchi’.<br />
The team are currently making plans for ‘Fairtrade Fortnight’ which<br />
plans to run from 25 th <strong>February</strong> to the 10 th March this year. We hope<br />
that students will join in the activities planned during the fortnight and<br />
will enjoy the cake sales, events and competitions. The team also plan to<br />
make ‘Fair Cake Friday’ a monthly event and will be selling cakes made<br />
from Fairtrade ingredients. If you would like to make cakes for the<br />
team, all donations are most welcome; the only request from the team is<br />
that you use as many Fairtrade ingredients as you can, we do sell<br />
Fairtrade sugar and cocoa powder on the stall.<br />
See the list to see where you can join in and contribute to the many<br />
planned activities. We want to raise as much money as we can for our<br />
two sponsored children and our chosen charity; Teenage Cancer Trust.<br />
Fairtrade team on the first ‘Faircake Friday’<br />
Best Fairtrade Cake<br />
Competition – on Monday 4 th<br />
March, bring your cake made with<br />
Fairtrade ingredients. Mrs Waterhouse<br />
will be choosing the best cake and<br />
awarding the winner with a Fairtrade<br />
treat and house points. Bring your<br />
cakes to the Fairtrade stall at break<br />
time on the 4 th . We will then sell the<br />
cakes at lunchtime, so if you don’t bake<br />
one, come and buy one!<br />
Fairtrade Quiz – buy a quiz sheet<br />
from the Fairtrade stall. Complete it<br />
and return it to win a Fairtrade<br />
Hamper.<br />
Year 7 – the Fairtrade team will be<br />
talking to you about Fairtrade Fortnight<br />
in your assembly on Thursday 28 th .<br />
Cake Sales – there will be cakes on<br />
sale at the Fairtrade stall throughout<br />
Fairtrade fortnight.<br />
Sixth Form memorial lunch in memory of Max Smith – this<br />
will take place on Wednesday 27 th at lunch time in the Food Tech Room<br />
for Sixth Form only. We will be serving a curry made with Fairtrade<br />
ingredients and served with Fairtrade rice. Please bring your own bowl/<br />
plate and cutlery and a donation. The money made will go to Teenage<br />
Cancer Trust.<br />
If you want to find out more about why we support Fairtrade then<br />
please visit: http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/default.aspx<br />
Mrs Oliver and the Fairtrade Team<br />
Fairtrade team with a cheque for Teenage Cancer Trust
F1 In Schools is a multi-disciplinary challenge in which teams of students aged 9 to 19 deploy CAD/<br />
CAM software to collaborate, design, analyse, manufacture, test, and then race miniature gas<br />
powered balsa wood F1 cars. The challenge inspires students to use IT to learn about physics,<br />
aerodynamics, design, manufacture, branding, graphics, sponsorship, marketing, leadership/teamwork,<br />
media skills and financial strategy,. They then apply their knowledge and skills in a practical,<br />
imaginative, competitive and exciting way.<br />
On <strong>February</strong> 5 th two formula one teams from <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s Grammar School, ‘Team Icarus’ and<br />
‘Team Spitfire’ competed in the regional finals in London. The teams were made up of students from<br />
year 11, 12 and <strong>13</strong>. They had to design and make the cars, the merchandising (adding logos and<br />
sponsorship to cups, hats, pens and more to promote their team) and the uniforms for the teams<br />
to wear. An important part of the challenge is to find sponsors and one of the main sponsors, for<br />
the second year running, was Martec an engineering company based in Whitstable. Martec<br />
generously sponsored the teams, gave invaluable advice and support and helped with the<br />
engineering of some crucial parts of the racing cars.<br />
At the finals the teams gave presentations to the judges and raced their cars against other schools from the South East. The Spitfire team recorded the<br />
second fastest time (17 metres in 1.066seconds). Racing at this level is very like the real thing with crashes and cars bursting into pieces halfway down<br />
the track! It was a great day enjoyed by all, even if we didn’t come back with the trophy.<br />
F1 In Schools is a very rewarding club and introduces new interests and<br />
experiences to students. Some team members had not been involved with<br />
engineering or design before but are very enthusiastic now and want to<br />
continue to develop their skills. The team<br />
members all agree that they enjoyed the<br />
experience and would recommend it to anyone.<br />
This is a great challenge for anyone interested in<br />
business, marketing, design or engineering. F1 In<br />
schools has proven so popular that the Design<br />
Technology department are offering it to year<br />
11 next year as an enrichment activity. This<br />
will give invaluable experiences to any student<br />
that takes part and also will look good on any<br />
UCAS application or CV.<br />
If you know of a business that might like to<br />
sponsor or support a team next year, please contact Mr Phillips in the<br />
D&T department.<br />
Eager Duke of Edinburgh’s Award students complete gruelling trial day walk<br />
30 athletic applicants for the Duke of Edinburgh's Bronze award set off on<br />
a cold, damp January Saturday morning to complete a 10 kilometre hill<br />
trek. Completion of the course was a requirement for being accepted on<br />
this year's Award. The students had to navigate themselves along a route<br />
around Wye Downs, including a couple of tough climbs and some<br />
challenging map reading. There was also an infinite supply of mud!<br />
day, over a weekend, carrying all<br />
of their food, water and<br />
camping kit.<br />
Once accepted on the Award,<br />
students will train and plan for<br />
the expedition, whilst also<br />
completing the Physical, Skills<br />
and Volunteering sections of the<br />
Award. The Duke of Edinburgh's<br />
Award has been judged the<br />
single most sought after nonacademic<br />
qualification with UK<br />
employers.<br />
Mr Stanton<br />
Despite high winds, a lot of unfamiliar wildlife and the odd wrong turn, the<br />
students demonstrated a high level of fitness, completing the course in<br />
under four hours. Considering the students had not chosen their teams,<br />
they showed very good teamwork , discussing navigational conundrums<br />
considerately and encouraging each other during the more challenging<br />
sections. All of this bodes well for the Award itself,where they will<br />
navigate themselves along a route of their design, for at least 6 hours a
Berlin has been the fulcrum of so much history especially in the last 100 years, in fact so much<br />
so that every street has its own story.<br />
This January, twenty-one Year 12 and <strong>13</strong> students went to this intriguing city to find this out for<br />
themselves. It was cold (we now know what it is like to be an Emperor Penguin at the pole) and<br />
the hostel we slept and played in (A LOT!) was clean and pleasant (despite having once been an<br />
SS barracks). So what stories did we unearth<br />
There were sad tales. At Wansee we sat in a charming room by a lake and considered how<br />
Heydrich, Eichmann and their fellow demons also sat down in the same room only 60 years<br />
previously. For 90 minutes these most unhuman of men methodically and without any moral<br />
compunction whatsoever planned the systemised genocide of potentially 11 million Jews. They<br />
then retired for cognac and cigars to celebrate a job well done. It seemed too chilling and too<br />
cruel to be possible. We listened but how could we understand Trying to understand History<br />
at Wansee is to stare straight into the mouth of hell. At what is left of the Berlin Wall we heard<br />
the fate of those killed trying to defect from the East to the West. We heard of old ladies who<br />
died jumping to what they hoped was freedom in the West. Young men, babies, children ..<br />
everyone was caught up in the politics of this divided Cold War city. Again it was very sad and<br />
simply felt so very wrong.<br />
In short, German history between 1933-1989 is obviously not a fairy tale. Berlin attests to that<br />
and we sensed this more than ever from its street stories and our many tours. However, it has<br />
thankfully now a happier present which we embraced wherever possible – hot chocolate,<br />
friendly kindly local Berliners and a love of tomato sauce with a few chips thrown into the<br />
sauce for good measure. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s<br />
students for making this one of the most pleasurable trips I have had the good fortune to lead.<br />
Further thanks to Mr Salvage and Mrs Percy for helping to keep our morale up when it was<br />
flagging. Long Live Amplemann!!<br />
History<br />
James Sladden<br />
Berlin Trip
Design &<br />
Technology Trip to<br />
The first Design and Technology trip to Eurodisney left Faversham early on the morning of the 30 th January. 43 students (from years 10, 11, 12 and <strong>13</strong>)<br />
and 4 staff (Mr Harvey, Mrs Waterhouse, Miss Kirkaldie and Mr Munro) travelled by coach to Paris via the tunnel and arrived at the Hotel Cheyenne at<br />
about 3.30pm. Once we had checked in to our very comfortable rooms, we walked the 10 minute route to Disney Village where our first seminar took<br />
place at the Gaumont Cinema, in a theatre at the top of the building. We were entertained by some short films on various aspects of the park and the<br />
speaker explained the Disney ethos and gave us some interesting facts and figures about the Disney operation. After the seminar we returned to the<br />
hotel to unpack and settle in and then headed off for our “all you can eat” buffet supper at the hotel’s restaurant. Some people took this literally and no<br />
one went hungry! After supper we returned to our rooms for an early night as most people were very tired after our journey.<br />
We were up early next morning for a buffet breakfast and then into the Village for our workshop, again at the Gaumont. This was excellent with teams<br />
creating designs for themed restaurants with entertainments and menus, all using the Disney ethos (Emotion – Service – Creativity) and based on a<br />
Disney film. Our school came up with some excellent designs (including one based on “Up” which apparently was unusual) and each group presented<br />
their ideas to the panel of judges (the teachers and the Disney facilitator). The facilitator was very impressed by the standard of <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s<br />
students’ design and presentation.<br />
We then made our way to the park and although cold, it wasn’t raining, the queues were wonderfully short and the park relatively empty. We regrouped<br />
at 5 for our final seminar which was very intensive, revealing how every aspect of design at the park was considered in minute detail and how important<br />
safety is within each design. Afterwards we ate at King Ludwig’s Castle and celebrated Josh Pollard and Max Ruffel’s birthdays. Then back to the park for<br />
the most fantastic light show to celebrate the park’s 20 th Anniversary. Everyone was really enthusiastic about the show which replaced the illuminated<br />
parade. Then after some serious shopping, back to the hotel for bed.<br />
On Friday we presented Lewis Rigden with his birthday cake, and we had another half day at the park, but this time we weren’t so lucky with the<br />
weather and all got thoroughly soaked. But we still managed to have a good time and everyone was on board our coach by 1.30 ready to go home.<br />
Overall we thought this trip was a great success. We will be asking students who participated (and their parents) to give us some feedback so that we<br />
can make it even better next year when it will be open to Year 9 and 10 D&T students.<br />
Mrs Waterhouse
PTFA General Knowledge Quiz<br />
Saturday 2 nd March 20<strong>13</strong><br />
7.30pm at <strong>Queen</strong> Elizabeth’s School Hall<br />
Tickets £5 for adults, £3 for students (over 16 only), tables of 8.<br />
Bread and cheese provided but adults can bring their own alcohol.<br />
Money via school office with name, telephone number,<br />
email address and number of places required please.<br />
Poor Weather Arrangements.<br />
The school will remain open unless otherwise stated on the<br />
home page of the school website and will only close to<br />
pupils if the site is unsafe.<br />
If the decision is made to close the school we will post the notice<br />
on the school's website by 7:15am. We will also pass this<br />
information to Kent County Council who will also publish it on their<br />
website, www.kent.gov.uk/winter along with the KMFM website,<br />
www.kentschoolclosures.co.uk<br />
Heart FM, BBC Radio Kent and KMFM will use the information<br />
published on the Kent County Council website to broadcast closures,<br />
however we have no control over the speed at which the closures are<br />
broadcast so the best place to check if the school is closed is via our<br />
website, please remember to refresh the page regularly. We will also<br />
send a text message and email via Parentmail, to all those parents<br />
who have signed up to this service.<br />
The decision to open or close the school will not take into account<br />
whether the pupils can travel to and from school safely as each pupil<br />
has a different journey to make. It is important that parents satisfy<br />
themselves that their child can safely make the journey before they<br />
allow them to depart.<br />
In the event of conditions deteriorating through the day of if<br />
insufficient staff are available to safely supervise the children, it may<br />
become necessary to close the school before 3:30pm. In this<br />
eventuality we will monitor the transport situation before making a<br />
decision, based on the best information we have, as to whether<br />
children should leave school early. Should this occur we will ask pupils<br />
to contact parents using their mobile phones. We will use the school<br />
line to contact the parents of those pupils who do not have a mobile<br />
phone in school.<br />
If the school is open and your child is not coming into<br />
school, please remember to either call or email the<br />
school by 9:30am.<br />
The PTFA have signed up to the Easy Fundraising Organisation which has links with thousands of websites that parents might use to buy<br />
things. Each time you purchase from one of these websites the school will receive a percentage of the money you pay.<br />
Please pass this information on to anyone who would be willing to sign up and help us raise money – all friends and family welcome!<br />
www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/queenelizabethsgrammarschoolfaversham/<br />
<strong>Term</strong> Dates <strong>2012</strong>-<strong>13</strong><br />
<strong>Term</strong> 1<br />
Monday 3 rd September (Years 7, 12 & <strong>13</strong>)<br />
Tuesday 4 th September (all other Years)<br />
to Friday 26 th October<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 2<br />
Tuesday 6 th November to Friday 21st December<br />
Staff Development Day – Monday 5 th November<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 3<br />
Monday 7 th January to Friday 15 th <strong>February</strong><br />
<strong>Term</strong> 4<br />
Monday 25 th <strong>February</strong> to Thursday 28 th March<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 5<br />
Monday 15 th April to Friday 24 th May<br />
May Bank Holiday - Monday 6 th May<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 6<br />
Monday 3 rd June to Friday 19 th July<br />
* Next Year <strong>Term</strong> Dates 20<strong>13</strong>-14 *<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 1<br />
Staff Development Day - Monday 2 nd September<br />
Tuesday 3 rd September (Years 7, 12 & <strong>13</strong>)<br />
Wednesday 4 th September (all other Years)<br />
to Friday 25 th October<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 2<br />
Tuesday 5 th November to Friday 20 th December<br />
Staff Development Day – Monday 4 th November<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 3<br />
Monday 6 th January to Friday 14 th <strong>February</strong><br />
<strong>Term</strong> 4<br />
Monday 24 th <strong>February</strong> to Friday 4 th April<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 5<br />
Tuesday 22 nd April to Friday 23 rd May<br />
May Bank Holiday - Monday 5 th May<br />
<strong>Term</strong> 6<br />
Monday 2 nd June to Friday 18 th July