Friday 24 February 2023
I hope that everyone had a restful half term break and you are now ready for what is looking to be a very busy term!
Next week and on Monday 06 March, Year 13 will be sitting their mock exams. I have attached the timetable and wish all our students the best of luck. Students are expected to attend lessons when they aren’t in an exam so that their teachers can help with revision and exam preparation.
Our focus this term continues to be attendance and punctuality plus we have recently established a teaching and learning group to consider teaching and learning initiatives and to identify ways in which good practice can be shared. Another area where we have listened to feedback and taken action is in the development of a work experience group, who are meeting to ensure we are enabling all students to have a meaningful work placement.
Below you will see an advert for parent governors. This is a brilliant opportunity for our parents to become involved in S6C, our vision and educational performance. It is really important for parents to be involved plus you don’t need any prior experience of sitting on a board so if you are interested and want to know more, please feel free to contact me and I will be delighted to discuss things further.
Looking ahead we have our parents coffee morning on Friday 10 March. I would be delighted if you could join me for an informal chat from 08.30am to 10.30am and if anyone would like to have a look round, we would be happy to provide a short tour of the college.
Regards
Ben
| WANTED – PARENT GOVERNORS TO JOIN OUR GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE Salisbury Sixth Form is looking for a parent governor to join its Academy Governance Committee. The Committee’s role is to provide focused governance for the college at a local level. It does this by supporting, challenging and encouraging in two principal areas: vision, ethos and strategic direction and educational performance. Your role will be to work with the other governors, using your own professional or community expertise, to benefit the school and enhance the experience and opportunities for our pupils. If you are interested, please contact rjackson@magnalearningpartnership.org.uk for further information and an application form. |
Change Your Mind
Catherine Pennington – Mental Health Lead and Programme Coordinator
Just before half term, the Change Your Mind Team delivered their second assembly in a series of three, all based around Healthy Relationships. This assembly on Managing Conflict was delivered to Year 7 at Wyvern St Edmund’s. Working towards either Bronze, Silver or Gold awards in Mental Health and Wellbeing, the Change Your Mind Team are doing exceptionally well working together and supporting each other. I am immensely proud of these young people who are our future and shaping healthy minds of today. Well done Team CYM!
Lessons from Auschwitz
Sally Tye – Teacher of History
Before half term four History students took part in the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ project which aims to ensure that the chilling memory of the Holocaust is not lost as we begin to outlive its final survivors. Students not only heard testimony from a survivor but went on a transformative trip to Auschwitz in Poland to bear witness to the tragedy on these sites, concluding with a memorial held by a Rabbi from London, who shared his story. Miranda Perry commented ‘that it is now our time to stop the spread of hate and to remember the victims of the Holocaust…Whilst this trip was melancholy, Poland was cold and I had to wake up at 2am to get to the airport in time, I truly believe that it was an important and educational experience so that the Holocaust and Auschwitz can never be forgotten’.
Ozzie Goodman noted: ‘My trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on 9 February 2023 was an utterly unique experience, not one I would say I enjoyed, but one I was glad to experience nonetheless. Travelling to and through Poland and the town of Oświęcim was physically difficult (particularly because of the 4am flight), but the camp itself was a much more mentally demanding activity. The visit was a very emotional one, but I wouldn’t feel confident accurately describing how I felt, unsurprisingly so in a place where over a million people were murdered. It was akin to some combination of horror, disgust and a staggering sense of the scale. At Auschwitz Birkenau my first thoughts were about the size of the death-camp, especially the buildings that housed the prisoners, rows and rows of which stretched on as far as you could see in one direction, the reality of which stretched even further than the visible tree-line. Not just the scale, but the conditions of each and every building was terrifying. Our guide for the experience put it into better words than I could, that “we were bearing witness” to what happened in these places, so that it would not be forgotten. As such, I urge you to visit such a place for yourself and “bear witness”, it’s the only real way to understand what I mean.’
Art Exhibition
Sophie Bellars – Teacher of Fine Art and Photography
You can still see our Year 12 student’s work at the Young Gallery (above Salisbury Library), where they are exhibiting as part of the Salisbury Schools Exhibition, but hurry, the exhibition closes on 25 February.
LGBTQ Month
Rebecca Anderson – Pastoral Lead
February is LGBTQ History Month and we will be marking this in life skills, tutor sessions, on the plasma screen and in all subjects. http://voicesandvisibility.org.uk/
Fine Art and Photography
Sophie Bellars – Teacher of Fine Art and Photography
Year 13 Fine Art and Photography students have started their externally set assignment. They now have 13 weeks (including holidays) to complete a wide range of experiments and development of ideas that will lead towards their 15 hour exam. The dates are:
PHOTOGRAPHY
19 April, 20 April, 24 April
FINE ART
25 April, 26 April, 27 April
Badminton Club
Andrew Lomas – Teacher of Sociology
A great turnout for badminton club this week!
