March/April 2011 Issue 74

The Christ’s
Chronicles
Welcome to the latest issue of Christ’s School’s newsletter Special points of
interest:

Future events for your diary  Reviews

 Coming
8th April Last day of spring Term
Events
9th– 25th April Easter break
 Sports News
26th April First day of Summer term
 Messages
29th April Bank Holiday– Royal Wedding, school closed
 Requests
3rd May Year 7 Parents consultation , 3.30pm-6.30pm
 Advertising
4th May Spanish trip departs (Years 8-10)
11th May HPV injections (Year 8 girls) 9am-11am
13th May Year 11 study leave begins
19th May Science modules
20th May Humanities Day 2
25th May Science Modules Inside this issue:
26th May Leadership Team drop-in session, 3.30-6pm PTA Quiz Night 2
27th May Science Modules Red Nose Day 3
28th-5th June Half term break
Army Engineering 3

Maths Problem 4

BBC School Report 4/5

Jack Petchey 5

Music Review 6

Christ‘s Drama 7

New Building 8

French Trip/ASDAN 9
Please check the school sports board for up to date weekly fixtures
Sports News 10/11
You can also check the school events calendar,
Ruth‘s Message 12
which is updated regularly for more diary dates on our website at
www.christs.richmond.sch.uk May Fair/Amazon 13

Advertising 14/5
Page 2 The Christ’s Chronicles

Reviews

PTA Quiz Night - Friday, 11th March

The evening was a ‗sell out‘ Raffle Prizes included;

attended by staff, parents and
governors of the school.
The theme for the night was
‗India‘ and it included a delicious
meal, beautiful decorations and
a special round dedicated to all
things Indian. Mr Burke‘s shirt
helped to set the Asian scene!
The winner‘s table was called ‗The
Governors‘ (but not actually our
governors!) The winners were
Hugo and Jude Tugman, Chris
and Fiona Imber-Coxhead, Ben
Fenton, Kate Fletcher, Joanne
and Ron Percival. Well done!
The Quiz Night raised £2,227.66,
which will go towards the ‗extras‘
for new school building.
The PTA would like to thank
members, staff, parents and those
that contributed to the fabulous
raffle prizes for their support.
 Shallop trip—Steven
Brightey
 Bottle of Champagne-Anne
Nicholson
 Free bar service + box of
ales & bottle of fizz-Adnams
 2 Large garden baskets-Lila
Gupta
 Beauty Products-Molton
Brown, Richmond
 £50 meal voucher-Naked
Turtle
 £30 meal voucher– Sophita
Thai Restaurant
 Coffee/tea for 2 with
pastries-Café el Fresco
 Lovely food and excellent
service-The Curry Garden
A huge thank you

‘The Governors’

Quiz winners.

Well done!
Page 3 Issue 74

Red Nose Day - Friday, 18th March

Students supported Comic Relief‘s Red Nose Day on Friday, 18th

March by making and selling cakes, organizing a spot the ball contest,
throwing jelly at staff and other fund raising activities.
Casey Alves and Hannah Stevenson of 8B, fund raised in their local
area by washing cars etc. and raised over £130 on their own.
Students also brought in £1 coin donations for the £1 coin tube collec-
tion in reception. If they raised over £400 then they would be given
permission to have a ‘mufti‘ day, and not wear school uniform. This
incentive raised £509 for Comic Relief and they wore their own clothes
that Friday.
Well done!

Army Engineering Challenge Day

A group of year 9 Scientist went to York House to participate in the

REBP and Army Engineering Challenge day.
All the comprehensive schools in the Borough took part. There were 11
students from Christ's so we divided up into 3 teams. Each team was
given the same equipment (6 wheels of different sizes, two pieces of
copper wire, a motor, rubber bands, a sheet of aluminium etc.) from
which they had to plan, design and then build a working buddy. Each
piece of equipment had a cost, so depending on what you used,
determined the cost of your buggy.
The buggies were raced along a track and the fastest and best built
buggy won! One of buggies went backwards, one went round in The winning buggy
circles but one did make it to the end of the track! This team (James
Upton, Ahmad Salha, Emma Brown and Ronja Boehmer) also won the
price for the best economical buggy. Well done to all.
Georgina Young

Winners of the best and

most economical buggy
Page 4 The Christ’s Chronicles

Maths Problem Solving Challenge

On the 15th of February, fourteen to transport three paperclips from

students represented Christ‘s School one container to another container
in a problem solving challenge held thirty centimetres away.
at York House in Twickenham. We
Although this was a difficult
competed against five other schools
challenge, the Christ‘s teams were
from across Richmond Borough.
not to be intimidated! The lower
After a small mini-bus trauma left us
school team came in a respectable
arriving five minutes late, we were
fourth, whilst the upper school team
divided into two teams, one team
excelled in the task and finished first
comprising Year 7, 8 and 9 students
in their group. We were rewarded
and the other Years 10 and 11
with a ten pound voucher each
students. We were then told that our
and earned fifty pounds for the
task was to create a ‗Harry Potter
school. Job well done!!
wand‘: an electromagnet in the
form of a wand that had to be able By Beth Greenwood

BBC School Report

On Thursday 24th March, the
Learning Resource Centre at
Christ‘s became a newsroom and
10 year 9 students took part in a
‗live‘ news day, as part of a project
run in partnership with the BBC
called ‗School Report‘. The
students took on journalistic,
technical and presenting roles and
they spent the day finding,
scripting, filming and editing reports
for their own news bulletin. They
focused on stories about the cuts in
the education budget and the
Olympics, and worked to a series of
deadlines throughout the day. By
the end of the afternoon, their
finished news bulletin was placed
on the school web pages and
linked to the BBC website.
The School Report project gave
students an insight into how
television news is produced; they
learnt who does what in a news
Page 5 Issue 74

Contd.

developed their ability to work in teams, to meet

deadlines and improve their communication skills.
―Participating in the BBC School Report gave me an
insight into what it‘s like to be a journalist. I enjoyed
looking at the news stories at the start of the day,
choosing a story and later seeing the finished
product.‖ (Sam)
―It was fun and a good experience for the future. I
really enjoyed the script writing and editing.‖ (Yvette)
―It taught me how to think about news stories and to
apply my knowledge when asking interview questions
and editing the story. I also used my persuasive skills
when finding interviewees.‖ (Toby)
Over 30,000 students across the UK took part in school
report, which not only gave them valuable experience
of the media, but also gave viewers a unique insight
into the news from the point of view of a generation of
young people in the UK.
Claire Lorenz

Jack Petchey Speak out Challenge

A group of 25 year 10s took part in the one day Speak Out Challenge
sponsored by the Jack Petchey Foundation.

The day was great fun and very interactive, with plenty of speaking games and
challenges. The pupils learnt how to speak in front of a group with more
confidence and enjoyment. They had to think on their feet when given
improvisational tasks and learnt the basics for any public speaking situation.

The first task was to talk briefly (about a minute in length) on a subject based on
a personal experience such as a holiday, an achievement or a memorable
event. The final challenge was to deliver a slightly longer speech on any
subject. It could be an issue or topic that they feel strongly about, something
they wish to change or about someone who inspires them or who has been
influential in their life. The pupils involved all worked very hard but hopefully
came away from the day with some useful skills.

From the day there were four winners, two of whom, Fahris Mansour and Alex
March, went on to represent the school at the regional final at Riccards Lodge
school.

On that evening about 18 pupils from across the boroughs of Richmond and
Merton gave speeches and although neither Fahris nor Alex won, they had
some high praise from the organiser who thought they had both had good
natural styles of delivery, and great topics.

As always, we are very grateful for the support we get from Jack Petchey.

Sarah Brown
 Page 6 The Christ’s Chronicles

Music Review

It has been a busy term in the music department. It has been good to see the increasing
involvement of visiting staff in the department, and Cath Fish, our singing teacher,
hosted an excellent "at home" in the music department, featuring solos and ensembles
from all her students. The standard was high and the pieces all thoroughly prepared,
and the evening was enjoyed by all who attended: pupils, parents and friends. This was
the second in a series of "at homes" whose aim is to give students the opportunity to
perform in a more informal atmosphere than our major school concerts; the first was a
Year 7 & 8 soloists' evening, equally a success. Again, this was very well attended, and it
is encouraging to hear so many good young musicians.

Just after half-term, the school invited Raul d'Oliveira for a whole day of Samba
workshops, which really got the pupils going! At the end of the day, the members of the
Year 10 workshop performed the result of their work to all Year 7 and 8 pupils.

Right now, the focus of the department has been with the Year 11 students recording
their performances and compositions. These represent a wide variety of styles, and it is
good to see students making increasing use of the great music technology facilites we
have: in particular more students are using Cubase and Sibelius software to produce
high quality recordings and scores.

Now a request: Mr. Wilson would very much like to know if any parents or friends of the
school would be interested in forming a community choir which would rehearse one
evening in the music department: if there were sufficient numbers we could work
towards a performance of something like Orff's Carmina Burana. Please email Mr. Wilson
to express an interest!!
Philip Wilson
pwilson@christs.richmond.sch.uk

Samba Workshop
Page 7 Issue 74

Guardian Young Journalists

Two year 10 students, Wendy Barnes and Sophie Jubeh, are continuing to meet the
deadlines and have their articles published for the Guardian Young Journalist scheme. Their
task is to write one article per month on a local story, over a period of 8 months, and to
make sure that it is checked and uploaded onto the Guardian website by the end of each
month.
As well as gaining fantastic experience of writing for the media, they are building up a
portfolio of work, "I enjoy doing extra research and finding out about stories in my local
community" commented Wendy. "I've improved my English writing skills and met all the
deadlines. This has been a real challenge but I've gained a sense of satisfaction
from uploading each article on time," added Sophie.
They are now over half way through the scheme and have met every deadline so
far. Providing they keep this up, they will receive a professional letter of recognition to add
to their CVs.
Claire Lorenz

Christ's Does Drama

On Tuesday the 29th of March, Christ's students performed their

GCSE drama pieces to an audience of parents, friends and
teachers. There were three fantastic performances which
included singing and dancing as well as inspiring acting. All
three plays touched on different topics that we can relate to in
our own lives and naturalistic theatre was used most of the time.
We witnessed some incredibly emotional performances,
conveying how people deal with real-life problems.
The night was a great success and parents were proud, you
could sense the friendly atmosphere, with polite chatter
between parents, and a little nervousness from the students who were performing. The
evening ended on a high note with presents given out to the drama teacher, Miss
Medway, when she made her own speech about the students, and was almost in tears. The
speech moved the crowd too, so much so that some people cried. It was a very happy
occasion.
Now the reality of GCSE drama has really kicked in for year 10 students like me... the
pressure is mounting, but, by seeing the competition, it is undoubtedly an inspiration to do
better.
Sophie Jubeh
 Page 8 The Christ’s Chronicles

Start of a new building

On Thursday 10th March an exciting milestone, almost literally, was reached in the New Building
project: the laying down of the foundations. In attendance were Headteacher Mr Burke, deputy
head Ms Walsh, Ms Brown who is coordinating the building project on behalf of school and Ruth-
the Chaplin with several very keen Year 7 students, all there to witness the ceremony. An
enormous amount of preparation work has gone in to get to this stage.
First, there was the demolishing of the existing rooms on both the first and second floors of the
building. The rooms near the front of the building were completely destroyed and the lockers in
the corridors had to be removed to make way for temporary screening. Luckily some of the doors
left in place have small windows in so all the pupils can keep an eye on the building site and how
it changes each day. The next stage was to excavate the ground in preparation for the
foundations with the building work force chipping out old foundations - very noisy - and creating
huge holes ready for the concrete and steel frames which are needed to strengthen and support
the columns.
Following the foundation ceremony, the steel frames were put in place on the 15th March. The
machines used to assist this were a 30 tonne city crane and two cherry pickers. This job was
finished on Friday, 18th March and it is wonderful now to see the actual structure of our new
building. The builders started their work in January and since then the students of Christ‘s have
had to cope with many changes to their daily routines. The worst aspect is probably the noise.
However, the builders are on schedule and there have been no accidents or mistakes and it is
now great to see so much progress. Students feel it will be worth it when the building is finally
finished.
Wendy Barnes

Students at Foundation Ceremony

Page 9 Issue 74

Year 7 French Trip

Year 7 students travelled to France on Friday, 1st April to stay at the Kingswood Chateau
near Dieppe. Here are some of their comments:
This year the French students went on a French trip to Dieppe. During this amazing trip we
visited a brilliant aquarium with loads of exotic fish which we got to touch.
When we arrived at the Chateau we all chose rooms and had an exciting night. Most of us
ate too many sweets and couldn‘t get to sleep.
The following day we went to the market.
Most of the boys bought a kilogram of
sweets. When we got back to the chateau
we got to know some French kids that later
stayed in our room that night. Soon after
we went to the beach with our new
French friends.
We went to the Cider Farm the next day.
We touched old fashioned equipment
that they used to make cider with.
The disco was fun, and I broke my fingers
break dancing!
A great time was had by all.
Reviews by: Ben Chin, Ben King, Aidan McMillan and Ellie McLay.

Asdan Aimimg High

ASDAN Year 10 group were delighted

to be given the on-going opportunity
of assessing the development of the
new building extension.
Every Tuesday during lessons we meet
with Mark the site Manger to discuss
and view the development of the
extension.
The group were terribly excited at the
prospect of going on the scaffolding
and looking at each floor now that
the concrete floor has been laid and
the floors are really starting to come
together.
The group had a health and safety
talk and were made to wear all the
building site gear that is necessary for
when walking around the site.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mark for his time and efforts with the group
and look forward to our weekly visits.
Catherine Harris
Page 10 The Christ’s Chronicles

Sports News

Rowing:
Emily Mayer and Deryn Esterhuyse on Friday, 4th March took part in the
North London National Junior Indoor Rowing Champi-
onships. The girls took part in 5 minute rowing pieces to
do the maximum amount of meter coverage. Deryn
came 2nd out of 100 girls in her division and Emily came
3rd.
Congratulations girls!
Netball:
Overall results for year 7 and 8 as follows: Year 7 won 4 out of 6 matches.
Year 8 won 4 matches, drew 1 and lost 1. The efforts
within the girls netball team have been outstanding this
season.
Basketball:
Year 8/9 basketball team on the 21st March played the Borough final
against Waldergrave school and won 24-18 and are
now Borough Champions. Well done!
Year 8 boys are also Borough Basketball Champions with a win on the
15th February against Twickenham Academy . In the
final they won 22-2. Excellent job boys!
Bad luck to the year 9 boys who lost out on the Borough Championship
title against Hampton Boys School on the 31st March.
Rugby League:
Year 9 girls are Borough Champions. On Thursday, 31st March they
played Greycourt, Waldergrave, Twickenham Acade-
my and Hampton Academy and won in the final
against Twickenham Academy, 2 tries to 1 and made it
through to the Regional Tournament on the 5th May.
Good luck girls!
Page 11 Issue 74

Primary School Links

On Wednesday, 6th April Nicky Worsley our School sports coordinator
held the first Primary junior football organisers tournament for our local A Big thank to Nick
cluster primary schools to include St Elizabeth‘s, Holy Trinity and Marsh- Graham who
gate year 3 students. Our JFOs and GCSE PE students trained the Year
helped coach the
3s on the day with a warm-up session, skills session, refereed 4 matches,
a semi and a final. Congratulations to Marshgate who took 1st and 2nd
Christ’s students
palce and played each other in the finals. A big thank you to Mick football teams this
greenwood who helped organize the Christ‘s students for the training year.
on the day. An excellent day had by all!

The London Rugby League

talented athlete trials

These will be held on the 18th April.

Good luck to 14 of our 14 year 11
boys that have been selected to
take part.

Connor Patterson

BIG CONGRATULATIONS to OVERALL COUNTY

Connor Patterson who ranked
32 /64 in U15 category of the
Middlesex County Cross
Country finals at Harrow
School on a freezing, wet and
windy day of Tuesday 15th
February.
Connor put a great run in up
and down the hilly grounds of
Harrow Independent school a
hard course known to many!
Connor and his team mates
gained the most points overall
for TEAM RICHMOND and
became the reigning Borough
CHAMPIONS!!
Well done Connor for his
fantastic efforts.
Richmond Girls total from 4
races = 310 pts, Harrow =
605pts
Richmond Boys total from 4
races = 511pts, Barnet =
378pts, Harrow = 561pts
Overall: Richmond = 821pts,
Harrow = 1166pts - only two
Boroughs closed full teams of 6
athletes.
Nicola Worsley
Page 12 The Christ’s Chronicles

Messages

A message from our Chaplain, Ruth Scott

In my last letter I mentioned the link we were beginning to build with

Strathmore School for children with severe learning difficulties. This term we welcomed
a number of Strathmore students and their Learning Support Assistants to two of our
Year 7 Art classes. The students were working with clay and the joint experience was
very positive. We hope to welcome more students to some of our summer Textiles
classes for felt-making. Ivan Pryce, the Head Teacher from Strathmore spoke at one of
our Whole School Assemblies to explain the similarities and differences between the
students of both schools. During that assembly he taught our pupils the alphabet in
sign language. They were really enthusiastic and we hope that when Strathmore
students meet with ours in future lessons, relevant sign language words will be sent up
in advance so that those who are interested can learn more.

During this term I‘ve been meeting local youth workers and, with their help, we will be
opening an After School Café Club one afternoon a week from 3pm – 5pm. This will
simply be a place for the students to come at the end of the school day to socialise
with their friends. Adults will be present. I will let you know more once we‘re up and
running.

The plans for Emlyn‘s Garden are now completed and Year 10 volunteers will have a
couple of Saturdays at the beginning of next term planting up the garden, before
organising and running a special event to officially open it.

At the time of writing a 1-2 metre diameter wire and paper

maché crown of thorns has almost been completed by DT
students for the Easter service. A number of students have
written about subjects that are ‗thorns in the flesh‘ of
humanity today. Their pieces will form an important part of
the service, and they‘ll add a thorn to the crown after they‘ve read their contribution.
Textiles students will then transform the crown of thorns with garlands of material
flowers that have been made in the department. One of the school bands will be
accompanying some of the singing and we‘ll also be using well-known hits that
capture the themes we‘re exploring.

The students raised over £500 for Red Nose Day which was fabulous. Student Council
picked two charities for our Lent fund-raising – Five Talents and Make a Wish. Coming
at the same time as Red Nose Day the enthusiasm to raise money has waned and
we‘ve not done very well for these charities. I‘m keen that our students enjoy raising
money for charity, and don‘t experience it as a pressure, so if you have any ideas
about how we can encourage them in this area, please let me know.

I hope everyone has a great holiday and that those celebrating Passover, Easter, or
the many special Hindu days will find blessing in these festivals.

Kind regards,

Ruth
Page 13 Issue 74
Christ’s School stall at the Richmond May Fair
Saturday 14th May 10am – 5pm
Thank you for the wonderful offers of help that are rolling in –
keep them coming please!
We‘re getting some fantastic prizes: a week‘s family member-
ship to the Riverside Health & Racquets Club; 4 tickets to Ken-
wood Summer Picnic; Royal Court Theatre tickets; Nintendo Wii
fitness board and dumbbells; a beautiful planted display; a free
haircut; etc… please keep asking at work and in your local
shops and businesses. We have a letter of introduction you can
use so please get in touch.
More news after Easter … have a great holiday!

Pauline Ronksley 07769 700028 paulineronksley@gmail.com

Marie Hawthorne 07905 824452 ma-
rie.hawthorne@imgworld.com
Claire-Louise French 020 8878 6582 clfrench@blueyonder.co.uk

Amazon Wish list

I would like to thank all the parents who have purchased books for us
from our Amazon Wish List.

This is an on going project and we are regularly adding to the wish list
and any parent who would like to buy a book for the school needs
only follow the instructions below.

To access the wish lists, go to the Amazon website, click on ‗Wish

List‘ (tab in top right hand corner), then put ‗Christ‘s School‘ into the
search box that automatically comes up.

When you have selected the book you wish to purchase add it to your
basket and proceed to check out. You will be asked to log in with
your own Amazon account and then you can choose to have the
book delivered to school.

If you are having any problems please e-mail me:

bbell@christs.richmond.sch.uk

B.Bell

Librarian
 Page 14 The Christ’s Chronicles

Contd.

Sixth form provision – survey of students and parents

In December 2010, the Council‘s Cabinet affirmed its commitment to undertaking a
feasibility study regarding the establishment of sixth forms in the borough‘s eight sec-
ondary schools and academies. As part of that feasibility, the Council is running a
survey from Monday 28 March until Friday 29 April to obtain the views of secondary
school and college students and of parents of students at all phases.

The survey can be accessed at www.richmond.gov.uk/sixth_forms_consultation.

Advertising
Page 15 Issue 74

If you would like to advertise your

business or services in our newsletter
please contact: Mrs J Ralph at
jralph@christs.richmond.sch.uk

ZUMBATOMI
Monday & Wednesday C
8-9pm Thursdays from
(Zumba for children 4-12yrs)
Fulbrook Sports Centre, New Haw,
KT15 3HW 3.45pm
Tuesday 7.30-8.30pm
Gumley School for girls,
Isleworth Recreation Centre,
Isleworth, TW7 6XF Twickenham Road, TW7 7EU

Isleworth Recreation centre, Twickenham Road, TW7 7EU

12, 13, 14 April 12.00-16.15
Ages 5-13 yrs
£25.00 per child

Please contact Kate to book a place or for further information

07957639460 info@katesschoolofdance.co.uk www.katesschoolofdance.co.uk
Page 16 The Christ’s Chronicles

Additional information:

To contact Staff by e-mail please use their first initial

and then surname written as one word followed by
generic ending: @christs.richmond.sch.uk

There is also a quick link via school website.

Christ's School
Queen's Road
Holidays: Richmond
Surrey
Summer Term TW10 6HW

26th April – 20 July at 1pm Phone: 020 8940 6982

Public Holiday, Friday, 29th April 2011 - school closed Fax: 020 8332 6085

Bank Holiday Monday, 2nd May 2011 - school closed E-mail: info@christs.richmond.sch.uk

Half Term
30 May – 3 June
Timetable for school day

All students to arrive at

school and be ready for
registration at 08.30

Morning break 10.40-10.55

Lunch break 12.55-13.40

End of school 15.00

Have a restful Easter break

Summer uniform required:

blazer, white shirt and school
tie or summer polo shirt
To order uniform go to our
website: http://
christs.richmond.sch.uk/
home

www.christs.richmond.sch.uk