Senior School Newsletter Friday 13 December 2019
TOBY SPENCE AND ALL THE STAFF AT SIBFORD SCHOOL WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A PEACEFUL NEW YEAR
SFL CHRISTMAS PARTY! On Wednesday the SfL department celebrated their first ever Christmas party! There was a great turn out from both staff and students and fun was had by all.
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SIBFORD SCHOOL MOCK ELECTION RESULTS Yesterday, students participated in the mock election run by Frances King and the student debate and MUN leaders Charlotte (Y12), Ethan (Y12) and Seamus (Y12). This was a chance for students to exercise their democratic right and get used to the democratic process in the UK. As in previous years the parties were anonymised in order to make the students think about the policies of a party rather than voting based on the name or colour of a party. This allowed the students to think more deeply about how they would vote. This followed the question time debate which had been run the previous week. Frances King acted as the polling station manager for the day and worked with our student debate and MUN leaders to allow all the students in the school an opportunity to vote. Ethan and Seamus took on the role of guiding younger students to where they can find the information about each party. Ethan also took on the role as chief counter at the end of the day. Charlotte adopted the role of returning officer delivering the results and reminding everyone that it is a privilege to exert their democratic rights. The votes once counted where incredibly close in comparison to previous years. Party S (The Green Party) won overall with 36.3% . This was followed by Party Y (Liberal Democrats) with 29.2%, Party B (Conservative) with 19.9% then party F (Labour) with 12.3% . In addition to this 2.3% of ballots cast where spoilt.
MATHS SENIOR TEAM CHALLENGE Charlotte and Jiateng (Y12) with Ricardo and Harvey (Y13), all Further Mathematics students, travelled to Wycliffe College, Stonehouse to participate in the regional heat of the UK Mathematics Trust Senior Team Advanced Mathematics Challenge. They faced stiff competition from the 22 schools present and had to show good planning and cooperation as well as mathematics knowledge and lateral thinking skills to complete the three rounds of questions. It was a fun evening with Sibford eventually being placed 16th.
Senior School Newsletter SFL LEARNERS OF THE WEEK Rory in Year 7 has shown us a consistently incredible attitude towards his work. This week he read a whole chapter to Sue Sabin beautifully. The official newsletter of
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We are very proud of you Rory, great work.
Erin, Year 10 is always brilliant! She diligently completes her work to the highest standard every week. She was actually nominated by another pupil who made a long list (two sides of A4!) of reasons why Erin is amazing, commenting on her friendly and warm character and wanting her to receive recognition for being a lovely human being! Fantastic work Erin!
PRIZE FOR PLANNER COMPETITION Nicholas, Year 7, entered a competition found in the Sibford School student planner, and last week found out he was the winner and was sent a £20 'love to shop' gift voucher! Congratulations Nicholas!
Senior School Newsletter OXBRIDGE TALK FOR STUDENTS On Thursday 5 December, over 45 students from Sibford and other local schools came together to listen to an enlightening talk on the Oxbridge admissions process by Dr. Cressida Ryan. The students and their parents were given some highly useful information about how to select Oxford or Cambridge, how to choose the right College and some pertinent tips about their applications and personal statements. We are very grateful to Dr. Ryan from Oxford University for coming along to speak with us and hope to run a further session with her later in the year on writing personal statements for University.
A FESTIVE GILLETT HOUSE MEETING! Gillett house had a very festive meeting last week organised by the Junior and Senior House Captains, Ethan (Year 13) and Tilly (Year 9). Pupils were divided into year groups and each group had the task to decorate two members of their team as either a Christmas tree or Christmas present. Year 7 were victorious! Well done to all involved, a great meeting to get us all in the mood for Christmas.
Senior School Newsletter SAFE DRIVE, STAY ALIVE FOR SIXTH FORMERS The Safe Drive Stay Alive event was extremely eye opening in terms of understanding that cars can become extremely dangerous if driven irresponsibly or if there are distractions around you. At the start of the talk there was a warning about what the talk entailed and people were free to leave at any time if the stories or images became upsetting for them. The talk contained a number of people from the emergency services who gave personal anecdotes about crashes they had attended and other aspects of the roles they play in the unfortunate event of a crash. The number of people who are all focused on saving a person’s life is staggering, first the on-scene services such as police, firefighters and ambulance crew then the trauma team at the hospital. All of these people have the single goal of keeping a victim alive. In some cases, judges become involved as the person in control of the vehicle can be held responsible for dangerous driving and this can result in a maximum of 14 years imprisonment. The people who gave the talk had first-hand experience of road traffic collisions and they all encouraged us to drive following laws, reducing distractions around us and utilising all of the safety features of a car, such as seatbelts. When I learn to drive, I will think back to this talk and follow the advice given to avoid crashing myself. James, Year 12NM
Senior School Newsletter SANTA RUN FOR CHARITY On Saturday Aoife, Maia and Penny from 7ZS took part in the Santa Run in Oxford for their tutor group charity, Helen and Douglas House. They had a great time and also raised an impressive £290 for the charity. Well done girls!
REVERSE ADVENT CALENDAR FOR FOOD BANK After a seasonal appeal for the 'Reverse Advent Calendar' the Sibford Community came together to provide all sorts of non-perishable food for the Banbury Food Bank. The box was packed full and Sally Ward delivered the food straight to the warehouse in Banbury alongside Sixth Form helpers. Thank you to everyone who contributed.
Senior School Newsletter A CELEBRITY RETWEET FOR ENGLISH! English Literature A Level students attended a brilliant production of 'Death of a Salesman' in London. This text forms part of the 'Tragedy' unit for their course. It was an engaging and creative production of the play with Wendell Pierce taking the lead role, Willy Loman. News of the trip was posted to the English Twitter page and Wendell Pierce himself commented back and even retweeted the post to his 177,000 followers!
SCHOOL UNIFORM SALE The January School Blazer sale begins on December 29 and runs until January 12. You can get 1/3 off selected lines whilst stocks last (online only).
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Senior School Newsletter WOMAN IN BLACK TRIP FOR DRAMA STUDENTS Year 11, 12 and 13 visited London’s Fortune Theatre to watch Woman In Black on Tuesday. Going in we didn’t think they could make theatre so shocking or surprising. It became clear a short way into the piece that I wasn’t quite as fearless as I thought, there were many jumps and scares and hiding behind the friends sitting next to me! The play was very well performed and we are all looking forward to writing more about it for A Level and GCSE. I just feel sorry for the people behind me, having to put up with my flinching at every noise (during the play and even at the interval). The trip was so enjoyable and shocking I’d recommend it to anyone, not just drama students and horror lovers. Phoebe, Year 13
THE LATEST UPDATE ON LES MIS Daisy, Year 8, is going to be writing a weekly account for the newsletter, giving behind the scenes updates from the rehearsals of Sibford School's production of Les Misérables! As the hard work continues, I met with Freya from Year 12 to see the progress of my costume. It looks amazing and she has obviously put so much time and effort into it. On Tuesday I tried it all on for the first time, which was really exciting. The costume is made up of a beautiful corset of red scraps with clasps at the front. This is all covered in beads, and worn with a ‘tattered’ mid-length skirt. Freya wanted to make sure that it all fitted properly (which it did) and she took some photos for her sketchbook. There is a big, whole cast rehearsal coming up on Friday, which will be our last practice of 2019! So much progress has been made since the Summer and it is amazing to start seeing what the show will look like in the end. After the holidays there will be more updates on this fantastic production and tickets will be on sale in January! Daisy, 8RFe
Senior School Newsletter A TALK FROM FORMER SIBFORD HEAD Michael Goodwin, former Sibford Head, will be speaking about his recent visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory at Sibford School at 6.30pm on Thursday 16 January 2020. Michael served for three months from April to June with EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel) and will provide some background to the programme and the current conflict, share some of his experiences and answer questions. All are welcome – no booking required.
TEXTILES TRIP TO THE RSC Our Year 12 and 13 Textiles students took a visit to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s costume and prop department last week. This was to look in detail at how the costumes are made and how much detail is used for each individual costume. The trip was also research for the 2020 Sibford School production of Les Misérables as Neil Madden has asked all of the Textiles students to make a costume for the show. Neil said, ‘I have been so impressed with the progress all of the students have made with their creations. Each one is worthy of a professional production and I am looking forward to them featuring in our whole School Production’. All of the students really enjoyed their visit and some of them are thinking about exploring work experience opportunities at the RSC.
Senior School Newsletter SPORTING SUCCESS! The PE Department love to hear about the success of pupils in their sporting activities outside of school. This week we would like to say a big well done to Sophie who at age 12 achieved a bronze for her floor routine and a gold on the bars in the U14 competition at her gymnastics club. Also, well done to our swimmers who train and compete with 4SSC and have achieved medals for their age group for scoring the most accumulated points over the two annual Club Championships. The following received awards; Gold Medals - Emma A and Oscar Silver Medals - Leo, Kezia and Rita
A CROSS COUNTRY WIN! On Wednesday, nine pupils went to the Oxfordshire School Games Cross Country Finals. All pupils who attended did the school proud and and should be pleased with their efforts. Congratulations to Isla who won the Year 7 girls race.
MODEL UNITED NATIONS EVENT Last week, Sibford School hosted its very first interschool Model United Nations event. Three schools attended as well as almost 30 Sibford students. The event allowed the students to debate global issues with a health theme culminating with a world epidemic crisis. The two debates looked at vaccinations and prescription drugs with both resolutions voted for by the delegates. Creative solutions to solve the global health problem included, the banning of rhino horn in drugs, compulsory vaccinations globally and education programmes aimed to increase vaccination rates. Sibford School saw some outstanding performances which merited awards. Highly commended delegates went to Coco (Y7), Annabelle (Y7), Albie (Y7), Rafe (Y10) and Harry (Y10). Catherine (Y10) was awarded the best delegate award for her committee and Tom (Y11) won the overall best delegate for the highest score. Sibford also saw some delegation awards for students working in teams. China, represented by Annabelle (Y7), Coco (Y7) and Ben (Y8) won the highly commended delegation award for their magnificent teamwork. Iceland, represented by Tom (Y11), Oscar (Y7), Ethan (Y12) and Maddie (Y13) won the best delegation award for the crisis for some magnificent speeches and arguments. All Sibford students did a brilliant job representing their Countries policies and all gained valuable public speaking skills. Special thanks goes to all the Sibford Senior debaters that gave up their time to make the event possible. Charlotte (Y12), Ethan (Y13) and Emily (Y12) did an incredible job leading the debates and allowing each student time to practice their debating skills. Seamus (Y12), Emily (Y11) and Jamie (Y12) did an excellent job scoring the debates. Thanks also goes to all the Year 12 rapporteurs for the afternoon; Michael, Harry, Tom, Ben, Grace, Harriet, Ella, Anna, Matt and Charles (Y13). Written by Charlotte, Ethan and Frances King
Senior School Newsletter THE SIBFORD BOARDING BULLETIN! The festivities have continued in boarding this week and the students have been making the most of the opportunities available to them at this time of year. The weekend opened with the Christmas Ball and, as well as having a good presence amongst the organising committee, our boarders had an excellent evening - dressing up, dancing and spending time with friends. After the excitement of Saturday's ball, the boarders were treated to a festive concert on Sunday by the Sibford Community Orchestra - the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. It has also been the culmination of our three week Christmas activity programme - with Monday's Christmas shopping trip, proving a popular option; Tuesday's Christmas craft club turning out some fabulous creations for the boarders to take home; and a number of Sixth Formers making the most of the opportunity to visit the gym. We also all attended the school's carol concert on Thursday, which was a fabulous occasion and really caught the season's spirit. There were some excellent performances from boarders too and it was great to see our multi-talented students in action. It has been a busy and enjoyable term in the boarding community. We wish everyone a fantastic and relaxing Christmas holiday and look forward to welcoming everyone back in the new year. Give boarding a go! If your child would like to try boarding, email vbaker@sibfordschool.co.uk to book an occasional boarding place or a regular slot. The first 3 occasional boarding bookings will receive a 50% discount on their first night! If your child is staying for a sports fixture or school trip they receive 50% discount on the occasional boarding fee.