Colton Hills School Bulletin

Welcome to the latest Colton Hills School bulletin, it has already been a busy couple of weeks.

Over the month of September, it has been wonderful to watch the Year 7 students grow in confidence, develop new friendships, settle successfully into the routines of secondary school and make the most of opportunities to join extracurricular activities. Many Year 7 students have volunteered to support our upcoming open events in October and are looking forward to showing Year 6 families around and sharing their experiences of joining Colton Hills School.

Last week Year 10 students welcomed their German exchange students, giving them an experience of Colton Hills school and accompanying them on a variety of trips, which will have created memories that will last a lifetime.

For those in Year 11, we have an important progress evening on the 26th September and we look forward to seeing students and welcoming parents at this event.

On Tuesday 24 September, our Year 11 Geography students went to Birmingham to complete their GCSE human fieldwork. The aim was to investigate whether regeneration in Birmingham has been successful. Students completed footfall surveys, land use surveys in Bullring and along New Street, as well as environmental quality surveys and questionnaires in Brindley Place and The Mailbox. The outing was a great success with all students politely and confidently engaging with members of the public and local businesses to gather their views on the city.

This achievement will help to ensure they are able to successfully write about their fieldwork enquiry, methodologies, data presentation methods, analysis and evaluation in their exam. The experience also allows them to develop their personal leadership skills, including both independence and team work, respect, communication and confidence, as well as resilience. They are now looking forward to completing their physical fieldwork on rivers at Carding Mill Valley next week.

Our school has invested in an award-winning digital content and revision provider, GCSEPod. Used in over 1,700 schools worldwide, GCSEPod has a host of functions to help students prepare and revise intelligently for their GCSEs. It is easy to access from any mobile device, provides quizzes, learning videos and supports homework. Parent and students can click here for more information: www.gcsepod.com/.

In the last week, we hosted German friends from IGS Helpsen here in the West Midlands. We showed them the sights of Black Country Living Museum and also travelled north to Liverpool for a day trip, taking in the Anfield football stadium & high street. Midweek, we ventured into the capital and soaked in the sights of London including famous landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square. It was a pleasure to play host to our German students and teachers and we are thrilled to be able to maintain and strengthen our bond with IGS Helpsen in Germany.

Congratulations to three of our Year 12 pupils who have been selected to attend an amazing 2 days residential experience at University of Oxford. The students will gain a fresh perspective of university life, attend lectures and witness culturally enriching historical facilities during their stay.

As part of our school's effort to help reduce waste and support families with cost-saving measures, we are recommending families to sign up with Uniformerley. Its free! Make money selling outgrown school uniforms to other families & cut costs by buying items for your children too. Visit www.uniformerley.co.uk to register.

Year 11 students will be given their prom passports on Friday during form time. Prom stickers will be issued from w/c 23 September. Students must get 40 stickers by Friday 4 April to secure their spot at prom and 50 stickers to be placed into a raffle to get a discounted ticket price. Prom is a privilege and all students should earn their right to attend. Students must meet the following criteria to earn a sticker:

• Form Tutor: 100% attendance for a week
• Form Tutor: No lates for a week
• Subject teacher: Student of the Lesson
• Subject teacher: Outstanding piece of work
• Subject teacher: Attending an hour intervention session after school with effort and participation
• Subject teacher: Reaching your target grade or above in February mocks
• Year Leader: Student of the Week

If you suspect or believe a child is suffering or is likely to suffer Significant Harm, including any form of mistreatment or abuse, you should report your concerns on the following numbers:

Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5pm,

Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm on 01902 555392

Outside of the above hours for emergencies on 01902 552999

If the child or young person is at immediate risk of serious harm dial 999

Website: https://www.coltonhills.co.uk/highperformancelearning