Year 7 have had another fantastic week as we finish our third half term of the year. Miss Marshall and Miss Barker continue to be so impressed by how kind, hardworking and confident our students are becoming throughout the year since starting in September as timid new Year 7s!
We have enjoyed celebrating lots of successes this week in our 3rd Achievement Assembly. On Monday, we have celebrated a student from each tutor set, who have been nominated by their tutor. In the messages from tutors, they talked of their nominations being ‘kind, polite, hardworking, responsible, helpful’ and many other characteristics. On Tuesday we celebrated individual subject successes, with nominations from teachers from all areas of school life. Over 60 students received recognition from their teachers for their hard work and commitment to learning in specific subjects. On Wednesday we celebrated the students who have 100% attendance this year to date. Year 7 currently have the best attendance across the whole school, so a huge well done to our attendance superstars!
On Thursday and Friday, we celebrated the successes of individual and tutor credit earners. This half term, students have achieved hundreds of credits across the past 5 weeks alone. Our top three credit superstars are: Matilda H (7.12), Chantal C (7.3) and Maisie-Jane C (7.12). Our SHINIEST STARS (student who have received the most star of the lessons this half term) are: Ben M (7.3), Tate B (7.11) and Fearne P (7.8). A BIG well done to these individuals who have worked incredibly hard and consistently across all lessons this half term. We have attached some photos of the art work shared by the art department from Year 7 this half term.
Finally, our big prize and cheer goes to 7.12 with HUGE 3331 credits this half term! WOW! Well done to all students for another fantastic half term at Toot Hill. Wishing you all a restful, safe and relaxing half term break.
Head of Year 7: Miss B Marshall
Assistant Head of Year 7: Miss H Barker
This week in tutor time Year 8 have had a split Achievement Assembly Monday through to Wednesday and it has been absolutely brilliant to see the student’s excitement. We have given out prizes for attendance, attending Extended Study, positive teacher comments, star of the lesson and the big Assistant/Head of Year prizes. Well done to all those students who received a certificate and sweets, don't worry if you didn't there is always next half term!
Tuesday was ‘Safer Internet Use Day’, there is a PowerPoint on the Year 8 Teams page, please encourage students to look through this.
On Friday we had an assembly to launch the Year 8 residential trip to Walesby, the trip will be on a first come first served basis and we have sent a paper letter as well as an electronic version with the link on to register interest. It is such an exciting opportunity and we hope as many students as possible can join us.
Over half term it would be great if students could check their equipment and arrive prepared first Monday back. White board pens have been in short supply lately!
Head of Year 8: Mr D Mordue
Assistant Head of Year 8: Miss L Jordan
Well done Year 9, a fantastic last week of the half term. This week Year 9 students have achieved 3868 Positive Points. In lessons this week students have been reviewing progress this half term. In Science, students have been working on their Purposeful Learning Steps. Students have used their learning steps to recall key knowledge from the half term. Students have continued to study poetry in English where they have been unpicking key themes and annotating the poems in their anthology.
This week we have enjoyed celebrating student achievements in our end of term Achievement Assembly. We have focussed on a different awards category each day throughout the week, ending the week with our ‘Achievement Video’. Included in our celebrations were, Tutor and Teacher nominations, Positive Points, Star of the Lesson Award and Attendance awards.
Tutors and Teachers have nominated students for their hard work this half term. Some of the comments which were included in our nominations are below. Well done to Chloe (9.3) for achieving three Teacher nominations!
This half term, as a year group, we have accumulated 23,967 Positive Points. Well done Year 9. This week we have recognised students for their Positive Points and many students have achieved awards for the number of Positive Points they have achieved. Well done to our top three students this half term:
We also recognised students who have achieved 100% attendance this half term and it was great to see so many students included in this category. We are pleased to see so many students achieving the Star of the Lesson Award. Well done to Katie (9.2) who achieved 12 Star of the Lesson Awards, Zach (9.6) achieved 11 Star of the Lessons and Max (9.3) achieved 10 Stars of the Lesson. Well done!
The booking for Parents Evening is now live. We are looking forward to welcoming Parents/Carers to our school so you can receive feedback from class teachers on your child’s progress in specific subjects. A reminder that Parents Evening is on the following dates:
Finally thank you to parents and carers for your continued support this half term. We look forward to seeing you at Parents Evening after half term.
Well done Year 9, have a safe and enjoyable half term break.
Head of Year 9: Miss I Sheldon
Assistant Head of Year 9: Miss A Lloyd
This half term has simply flown by, and it is hard to believe that Year 10 are already a quarter of the way through their GCSE courses. So much has been happening in lessons this week, with 10S1 focusing on their poetry annotations with Mr Shenton in English Literature, 10T3 Games consolidated their badminton skills with a team competition with Mrs Gray and 10Q showcased their developing evaluation skills with myself in Sociology. On Thursday afternoon, Mr Elliott and the Year 10 Astronomers took the afternoon off timetable due to having meteorites and lunar samples coming into school for them to study. This was a great opportunity for them to do some hands-on work in a subject it is very hard to do a field trip for! Please see the school twitter account for more information and photos.
During their assembly this week, we invited students to reflect on their use of the internet on Safer Internet Day. We considered the uses and advantages of such a resource, whilst recognising the dangers and the need to keep ourselves safe. The theme for this year is 'Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online' so we reminded students of the benefit of staying connected and talking to each other about their time online; whilst reminding them of the people they can talk to if anything makes them feel unsafe. We signposted them to parents, family friends, their tutor, head of year and the anonymous reporting form available on our school website.
Finally, a huge well done to Ella L (10.2) for her continued achievements in the Future Chef competition. She won the regional finals on Monday 30th January and will now compete in the Futurechef Final (Date tbc in London). Please see attached photos for Ella's amazing entry and we wish her luck for the next stage. Phenomenal work Ella, we are incredibly proud of you!
Head of Year 10: Mrs L Munro
Assistant Head of Year 10: Miss C Thomas
We have reached the end of a short, but very busy half term for Year 11. A half term with two Parents Evenings, 11.2 report, Careers Fair, deadline for College applications and subsequent Toot Hill College interviews, achievement interviews for every Year 11 student, the start of the February mocks, Progress Plus+ Intervention Evening, and assessments in Catering and Engineering. A big thank you for your engagement and support with all of these events.
In preparation for mocks assessments w/b 20th February, this week Year 11 have continued to focus on revision strategies and guidance to support their revision planning. Timetables for the mock assessments have been distributed this week to support students planning for revision.
At this point, Year 11 students are expected to have a clearly planned revision timetable that plans in 2 hours of revision/Home Learning a day. Students have been provided with a revision plan template this week to complete over half term and return to their tutor on the first day back. We would appreciate your support in creating a plan.
We wish to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a wonderful half term.
Head of Year 11: Miss L Hughes
Year 11 Achievement Leader: Mr R Wickens
This week, one of our DofE Ambassadors and Silver DofE participants, Oliver C, has interviewed Year 10 Silver DofE participant Zak R:
How did you like your DofE expedition? I really liked it! I had a fun time with my friends, and we were able to work together to get to our destination.
What was your favourite part? The walk, the company and the environment.
What was your least favourite part of it? Cooking! I was very bad at it, but it still a good experience.
Photos of the Week - Skill Focus - Cooking
I'm sure it greatly pleases parents that many DofE participants from Toot Hill are cooking for their skill activity. The savoury and sweet dishes are looking more tantalising each week and the photography, creativity and professionalism shown are improving too. This week it's a pleasure to share some savoury creations for you to view a votre guise!
Joey F and Bethan A (pie & veg), Emily A (toad in the hole), Nathan S (chicken curry), Emilia E (chilli), Olivia B (Yorkshire puds), Oliver S (spag bol), Lewis S and Alfie E (tower sandwich) and Nina E (stir fry).
Assessor's Reports
The quickest and easiest way to get an assessors report is to send this link to your child's assessor https://www.dofe.org/assessor/. As soon as I receive the report from the assessor, I can sign it off for your child.
Useful DofE Links
Click on the relevant link for Skill, Physical & Volunteering ideas, a DofE Activity Log or a DofE Assessor Report.
Dates for Your Diary
FAQ's – see www.toothillschool.co.uk/dofe
Mr Tinsley mtinsley@toothillschool.co.uk
To round off Reading Week, the Learning Lounge hosted an author visit from Jamie Russell, author of the Skywake series of sci-fi adventure novels.
Our Year 7 students took part in alien writing workshops, both Year 7 and Year 8 enjoyed a “meet the author” session at lunchtime when Jamie signed books and postcards and chatted about the books that our students like to read. He loved our students’ creative ideas for their alien stories, and thought they really showed themselves to be talented writers.
Upcoming events in the Learning Lounge next term.
World Book Day is on Thursday 2nd March when we will have a host of celebration events in school.
Toot Hill School
Train to teach with the Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT