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8 Sheldon Standard

SHELDON SCHOOL’S NEWSLETTER

Happy holidays and we look forward to seeing everyone back in school on

Monday 5th November 2018.

Sheldon School Dog DayOn Thursday 25th October Sophie Truman and Jess Butler organised a day where a handful of Sixth Form students were able to bring their dogs into school to raise awareness of the positive effects of animals on mental health. With the help of Mrs Butterworth the day was a great success. The students decided bringing in dogs was a good idea as stroking and petting dogs reduces anxiety and stress – this was proven by all the smiley lower school students who went along to the hall to greet the furry friends. “This is the best day of my life” was one of the many comments from the younger students during the meet and greet of the dogs. It was a really interesting experience and it was

amazing to see how much of an effect the dogs had on all the pupils attitudes. Hopefully this will not be the only occasion as according to Mrs Butterworth ‘the day was a tremendous success and we must do it again’. All the dogs remained well behaved and it was a very calming day for everyone in Sheldon School. It was also a good way to spread awareness of mental health issues.

Sheldon School’s Commemoration of the Centenary of the end of World War OneA group of students from Sheldon School have been working, since January, with teachers Judith Owen and Richard Page on events to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War One. Whole school competitions were launched in April requesting commemoration poems, short stories, art work, photography and performance pieces. Some entries were read out in the school’s commemoration service on the afternoon of the 9th November. Winning art work will be displayed for parents to see. Every student in the school has made individual poppies to say ‘thank you’ to a relative who fought during the war, and in turn, these poppies were made into wreaths for each year group to lay during the service. Throughout the week beginning Monday the 5th November all students had assemblies providing information about Chippenham’s involvement during the war, and ‘ghost soldiers’ appeared throughout the week, with their characters - the soldiers who were last to die in the war - revealed during the service. A Japanese Red Maple Tree was planted in a new memorial garden and the service was attended by the Royal British Legion and local army regiments. Thanks must go to the Chippenham Borough Lands for funding many of our World War One events.

Miss Owen, Assistant Head

Well done Tommy!Tommy Grayling (pictured on the right) from 7EGR has raised so far over £1430 for Ovarian Cancer in memory of his grandmother. He completed a 5K run at the Queen Elizabeth Park in London and came 2nd place overall finishing in 26 minutes. A fantastic achievement and the money is still being raised, well done.

English MasterclassOn Tuesday 16th October, 45 Year 6 children from ten local primary schools came to the library for an English Masterclass led by Miss Amer, Mr Clark and five Year 8 students. They created their own theme park and produced advertising leaflets, storyboards of a television advert and pitched their idea to a Dragons' Den style panel. All students involved worked creatively and conscientiously and gave a very enthusiastic presentation that thoroughly impressed the panel. They left with a buzz of excitement about continuing their creative thinking next year in Year 7. Many thanks to Matty Thornton, Olivia Roberts and Will Lawson all from 8RMJ, Daisy Randell from 8HJG and Indie Luke from 8JHF.

Miss Amer and Mrs Leach

‘Ghost Soldiers’

Get your Standard by email. Contact Terry Fediw at tfediw@sheldonschool.co.uk and a copy will be sent to you each time the Standard is issued. Items for possible inclusion should also be sent to the same email address

HEAD-ITORIAL

We provide water and sewerage services to 2.8 million customers across the south west of England including Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, most of Wiltshire and parts of Gloucestershire and Hampshire. Our aim is to give all customers excellent standards of service by providing high quality water and environmental services that protect health, improve the environment and give customers good value for money. We are recognised as one of the most efficient water and sewerage companies in England and Wales. As part of our commitment to the community, we support schools in highlighting potential career paths for students and the skills required to work in the industry. We welcome the opportunity to talk to students about all our career opportunities, many of which require STEM skills, while others require support, administration and personnel skills. We are delighted to join Sheldon Associates and look forward to meeting students over the forthcoming year. Find out more about our opportunities at www.wessexwater.co.uk/careers

Sheldon AssociatesOur featured Associate this week is Wessex Water, whose profile is below. If you would like to know more about Sheldon Associates, please visit the webpage which can be found under information on the school website or e-mail associates@sheldonschool.co.uk

Result of Parent Governor ElectionIn the recent election Mr Craig Holden was elected as a Parent Governor. We thank him for his willingness to play an active part in the life of the school, and hope he enjoys his time on the governing body.

German club was back in action just before half term with a board games theme. Students enjoyed old classics with a German twist, as well as other games from Germany. Fun was had by all with students trying and competing in a range of games. Next term, students will be baking traditional German recipes, with the club being open to all years. See Mrs Shapcott or Mrs Williams for dates and times.

Unusually, but very excitingly, my half term break saw me accompany 32 students from Years 10 to 12 (and Miss Wainwright and Mr Chettleburgh) on their visit to China. The trip offered huge insights into the Chinese way of life as well as allowing us all the opportunity to see many of the wonderful sights in that particular part of the far east: the Great Wall outside Beijing, terracotta warriors in Xi’an, and Pearl Tower in Shanghai by nightfall to name but a few. If we put aside the interminable and overly bureaucratic security system that we seemed to encounter on an almost daily basis as we travelled the country or checked into a hotel, the whole experience was absolutely fascinating. An undoubted highlight would have to be the international conference at Yiwu Foreign Language School in which 13 of our youngsters took part, as well as the teaching of some of the younger children at the school by our students who had put together some exciting lessons on British traditions, landmarks and culture, all of which was greatly appreciated by our Chinese colleagues. The school day culminated in a homestay visit – quite an undertaking some 5000 miles from the UK in a very different environment, but nevertheless an amazing opportunity. As always, it was great for me to spend significant time with our students and to witness their reactions to all that they saw – and for them I hope, the nine days away will be something that they will all remember for a lifetime.

Neil Spurdell, Headteacher

On Tuesday, 23rd October, Professor Peter Barham came from the University of Bristol and Cape Town to share his passion and enthusiasm for all things penguin with a group of KS4 students. His talk was both entertaining and informative; a physicist by training Prof. Barham was inspired by his wife’s love of penguins and got involved in the design of wing clips that would be less damaging to the birds. Their re-enactment of a penguin attack was enough to put us all off getting too close to his beloved African penguins! At the same time his amusing anecdotes and depth of knowledge about the 18 different species of penguins kept his audience rapt. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and provided a valuable insight to students as to the possibilities of the life scientific.

F. Aicken

On Tuesday, 23rd October, Year 8 students celebrated science through their exploration of Space. They had to fashion a rocket to escape from Mars after a catastrophic failure of their exploratory craft. While they were stranded the students had to develop their survival skills and work together in teams to design storm-proof accommodation, clean water supply and a reliable electricity generator. The students demonstrated the ability to be creative thinkers and communicate their ideas clearly while having a lot of fun in the process.

F. Aicken

Science News ... more...Science News

On Thursday evening A Level criminology and psychology students took part in an informative and fascinating talk with the Wiltshire Police Crime Commissioner. Angus McPherson talked to the students about his priorities for the police force over the next 4 years and took lots of questions at the end of the talk. Students quizzed him about a range of issues from The Grenfell social media incident, the Salisbury attacks to mental heath issues and crime. He also spent time talking to the group about how Wiltshire police are engaging more with young people and he talked about the new initiative of the Police cadets. Criminology is a new course at Sheldon and we will be continuing to have speakers throughout the year. Year 10 and 11 students are welcome to attend any of the sessions. Mrs Butterworth