We will be holding a series of Parent Partnership meetings during the weeks beginning 5th and 12th December. We are keen to gather the feedback of as many parents as possible and, therefore, are running a separate meeting for each year group. The dates and times are as follows:
Tuesday 6th December: Year 7
Wednesday 7th December: Year 8
Thursday 8th December: Year 9
Tuesday 13th December: Year 10
Wednesday 14th December: Year 11
All sessions will start at 5.30pm and will end at 6.30pm at the latest and will be discussing the topics below:
We can accommodate up to 20 families at each evening and parents are encouraged to bring their child along too.
If you are interested in discussing the topics above to help us drive improvement of the school then please sign up via the link or QR code below. Please note that we will invite parents on a first come first served basis and will look to ensure that parents who have not been involved in Parent Partnership meetings in the past are given priority to attend to give their views. The link will be open to sign up from 9am on Sunday 27th November and will close at 9am on Wednesday 30th November. Invites will then be sent on Thursday 1st December.
Please do get in touch if you have any questions about these events.
Mr Garner
Another busy week for Year 7 with us welcoming our second half of parents into school for Parents Evening. It has been wonderful to host face to face Parents’ Evenings for the first time in a couple of years and it has been a fantastic opportunity for teachers, parents and students to have some really positive and constructive dialogues about the students’ progress so far. Thank you very much to all those who have attended.
This week in Geography students are studying 'Life on Earth' - learning all about the natural world and the components of the Earth's major 'spheres'. In English students continue to study Oliver Twist and have just recently been introduced to the villainous Bill Sikes! Year 7 are also learning about how people in the Victorian era believed you could assess someone's character entirely based on how they looked. They have been delving into the stereotypes that this may have created and how we, as modern readers, would have a different perspective. In their Reading for Pleasure lessons, Year 7 are deep in the mystery of Raven's Gate and are continuing to figure out the supernatural twists and turns. In Computing Year 7 have been working on their computer programming skills in Scratch. They have been working hard to program a chatbot which will ask the user questions and give different answers depending on what the user has said. This is allowing our students to advance their programming skills and understand the technical terms associated with programming. As you can see- another very busy and interesting week!
Each Friday we celebrate the fantastic efforts of our year group with FAB Friday, with students clapping and cheering for the top 3 scoring Credit Earners, Tutor Champions and Super Star students… over the past few weeks 7.3 have stolen the top spot with the highest credits so we are excited to see if anyone can knock them off the top spot!
Reminders:
The week beginning the 5th December, Year 7s will be doing their Maths assessment which will be held in test conditions but in the classroom supervised by their teacher. They will be assessed on the first 3 topics taught since they have been at Toot Hill - working with place value, introducing algebra and lines and angles - plus some year 6 topics such as shapes and arithmetic. In depth information about these topics can be found on Complete Maths. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your child's Maths teacher.
Photos show students working hard in Geography and doing some programming in their computing lesson.
Keep up the fantastic work Year 7!
Head of Year 7: Miss B Marshall
Assistant Head of Year 7: Miss H Barker
This week during tutor time we have had Motivational Monday to discuss the information available on Class Charts such as credits and homework. On Tuesday we had an assembly from Mrs Docherty celebrating diversity. Well-Being Wednesday was on the theme of giving, Thursday was the class reading book and we ended the week with our Fab Friday celebration.
Year 8 have been really busy in a sporting sense this week with the swim team competing at the national finals in London last Saturday in the Olympic Pool. The junior boys team swam to an amazing standard and we are so proud of their achievements as the only state school to make the finals. We also had a multi-sport festival in the Rushcliffe partnership this week and again students represented us in a fantastic fashion.
It has been lovely to hear so many positives this week, in Biology some of Year 8 have dissected an eye ball, in Maths students were covering angles and parallel lines and in Geography the students have been looking at the causes and impacts of flooding.
Please remember we are collecting for the reverse advent calendar, thanks to those students that have already brought something in.
Head of Year 8: Mr D Mordue
Assistant Head of Year 8: Miss L Jordan
It has been great to see our Year 9 students continuing to work hard this week. Our Thursday morning Sports Leaders group delivered their sports sessions to a Year 7 group this week. We continue to be impressed with student’s leadership skills and their confidence is continuing to develop each week. On Tuesday, we had a guest speaker in school, to speak to students as part of our Personal Development curriculum. The guest speaker from ‘Oddballs’ shared information and answered questions on testicular cancer. The session was informative and an important topic for our students to learn about. We were really impressed with the maturity of all students in the session. Next week, we will be in the hall again and we look forward to welcoming a guest speaker from ‘CoppaFeel’ who will speak to students about breast cancer awareness.
During tutor time this week we have focussed on attendance and wellbeing. Our Wellbeing focus this week included a discussion around what students have learnt about support themselves and others with their mental health. Our assembly this week focussed on cultural festivals.
We have also given out the Year 9 school reports this week. Again, we are pleased with the Home Learning and Attitude to Learning scores on the school reports, with many students in the year group achieving an average score of 4 or above on their school report for their attitude to learning. Well done Year 9! It was also pleasing to see many students achieving all 5s and 6s for their attitude to learning, a fantastic achievement!
On Friday morning, we celebrated the year groups achievements through our Fab Friday celebrations. Well done to the following students who were recognised this week:
Positive Behaviour Points:
3rd Place – Josh R (9.4)– 53 Positive Points
2nd Place – Gabija (9.4) – 61 Positive Points
1st Place – Oscar (9.4) – 71 Positive Points
Home learning:
Attendance prize draw:
Well done to the following students who have achieved ‘Bronze Award’ for achieving 400 positive points this half term.
Well done to the Year 9 boys who represented school in the Handball tournament on Thursday evening. The boys showed great teamwork and determination when playing against experienced teams. Well done to all students involved.
Well done Year 9.
Head of Year 9: Miss I Sheldon
Assistant Head of Year 9: Miss A Lloyd
This has been a fantastic week for trips and opportunities in Year 10, as we start to look towards the Careers and Pathways options our students will take post-GCSE. Mrs Farmer organised a fantastic trip to the Expo Careers Fair at Newark Showground. Over 50 businesses and education providers were there, giving students the opportunity to interact with their future places of work or study. This is an invaluable exercise in raising the aspirations of our young people and they all came away from it buzzing with ideas. This will be so useful as, in the coming weeks, we will be introducing the Careers focus in the Personal Development Period, and getting to grips with organising Work Experience.
Another fantastic trip that took place this week was to Rushcliffe Arena, led by Mrs Millar, for a Knife Crime Awareness event. Students had the opportunity to listen to the real stories of those affected by knife crime, and many were struck by how open, frank and moving these testimonials were. Thanks to Mrs Farmer and Mrs Millar for these fantastic opportunities!
Students in 10Q Astronomy (not astrology) have just completed their first practice observation, analysing photos of star trails to calculate the length of the sidereal day. They have looked at challenges’ astronomers face when trying to do observations and evaluating findings. This is in preparation of our independent observation task of looking at changes to lunar features during the lunar cycle using a robotic telescope, that we will do in the new year.
The week beginning the 5th December, Year 10s will be doing their Maths assessment which will be held in test conditions but in the classroom supervised by their teacher. They will be assessed on the first 3 topics taught since they have been in Year 10- Proportion, Sequences and Probability calculations for more than one event. In depth information about these topics can be found on Complete Maths. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your child's Maths teacher.
Head of Year 10: Mrs L Munro
Assistant Head of Year 10: Miss C Thomas
This week Year 11 have been studying quadratics or percentages in Maths. To support this further they can use Hegarty Maths to practice and extend their learning, or attend the Extended Study sessions.
In the PDC the students have had the opportunity to meet the subject representatives from college, who have shared their experience of different courses and answered questions related to this, which was a fantastic experience.
Alongside this, the careers interviews with our year group have continued, giving students a one to one session to have careers advice and guidance with their choices post 16. We hope that this has been helpful and will continue to see students for these appointments.
The Year 11s have been provided with their feedback from the interview day and this has been an overwhelmingly positive experience. Please ask your son or daughter to share these with you so you are able to see how well they have done.
A reminder that Extended Study is back in full flow and that Toot Hill College is now open for applications. THC application page: https://www.toothillcollege.co.uk/apply.php
Head of Year 11: Miss L Hughes
Year 11 Achievement Leader: Mr R Wickens
DofE Stars of the Week
Congratulations to the following Year 10 students who have graduated with their Bronze DofE Award: Evie B, Fletcher B, Isabelle D, Alexander F, Erin G, Freya I, Grace M, Ollie M, Felicity M, Angus M, Zak R, Annabel S and Poppy W. Well done also to Jacob J in Year 11 (Bronze) and Phoebe L in Year 12 (Silver) who have also graduated this week.
Photos of the Week
There are plenty of volunteering, physical and skill activities going on this week! Congratulations to Alfie A, Giles B, Kayla B, Oliver H and Morgan M from Year 9 (Bronze) and Sally A, Evie B, Ben F, Amber G, Merlin H, Maisy H, Nok L, Lucas T and Flora W (Silver) who have uploaded all of their activities to eDofE. Will all Year 10's please note that the recommended deadline for uploading activities to eDofE is this Monday (28th Nov 2022). Here is Reuben M weight training in the gym (physical), Amber G out riding her horse (skill) and Amber C's banana choc chip muffins (skill).
Useful DofE Links
Click for Ideas for Skill, Physical & Volunteering Activities, DofE Activity Log and DofE Assessor Report
Dates for Your Diary
FAQ's – see www.toothillschool.co.uk/dofe
Mr Tinsley
mtinsley@toothillschool.co.uk
We are looking forward to author Phil Earle’s visit to school in the last week of term. Year 7 are currently reading his book “While the Storm Rages” during tutor time and his visit will be a great opportunity for students to ask questions about the story and hear from the author himself.
Phil is also offering a writing workshop in the Learning Lounge which is open to Years 7 and 8. Students should come to the LL to sign up for this event.
Come one, come all! We are incredibly excited for our upcoming Christmas Celebration that will take place on Wednesday 7th December at 18:30 in the Concert Hall. We have a variety of soloists and our school ensembles performing, spreading Christmas cheer for all. Tickets for the event are free, please claim them by clicking on the below link if you would like to attend:
https://forms.office.com/r/a0XcFG5hxG
If you have any further questions, please get in touch with the Music Department.
Toot Hill School
Train to teach with the Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT