Bulletin 20th September

Hi all,
Thanks to all for the hard work that's gone into a smooth and enjoyable first two weeks! Jolie was very complimentary about the level of focus and positive atmosphere in the lessons she visited last week, so hopefully we can keep this going!

Tues: College Meetings 3.15 - 4.15


GCSE Year 10 Update and Issues
I've emailed around a course plan (as agreed last year) for Lang / Lit classes, and have put one together also for English (thoughts please from Pat, Jamie, Nicky about the English one...looks a bit tight but would be good to get everything done in Year 10 perhaps? We'll discuss). Anyway, I'll get a stack photocopied for distribution to the students. It's very clear in putting these together that the timing is very tight and we need to be very careful not to allow units to drag on beyond their allotted time - remember that anything done in year 10 has to be submitted at the end of year 10, so please do start CA's at the agreed times, and chase absence wherever possible.

Controlled Assessment

According to our course plan, Controlled Assessments in English and English Language need to take place soon - probably next week for most classes. Please see the link sent around to access the planning notes pages for this, and bear in mind that the notes pages are to be attached to the work when we send it for moderation, so it's obviously important that we are following guidlines correctly here. The exam board guidance states:

'Candidates may take brief notes into the formal assessment period. These must be checked to ensure they do not include plagiarised text, detailed planning grids or a pre-prepared draft.
Any preliminary drafts produced by the candidate during the assessment period must be submitted with the final draft for assessment and moderation.'

Clearly, it's debatable as to what constitutes a 'detailed planning grid'! I'll send around the rest of the FAQs via email, although they are also available on the shared area. Also, if anyone would like to meet to discuss this, can I suggest that we do this on Wednesday after school in C5? I would appreciate the chance to talk this through - if anyone else does, then I'll see you there.

I'm also aware that the Spoken Language study unit for Lang / Lit classes is due to begin as soon as the Creative Writing is finished, and will endeavour to shape all the guidance we've had about this unit into something approaching a SOW this week.

GCSE Textbooks

We've had a delivery of textbooks aimed at the new GCSE courses. Toni will be processing these this week, but I will leave a selection on the table in C28 for you to have a look at.

Other Stuff!

Video / Macs

We also finally got the new Macs up and running, alongside 6 video cameras. This is good quality kit that actually works, so the prospect of making films with students has become areal possibility, without the technical hassle this has involved in the past. Please let me know if you'd like to have a go - the iMovie software on the Macs is brilliant and dead easy once you get the hang of it!

Registers
Just a plea to make sure registers are completed and submitted for all lessons - as a department we are pretty good on this, but it's a real cause for concern for Val and the attendance team when we forget.

Department Support / Detentions
Please use the dept support timetable produced by Toni - am in the process of filling the gaps, but in the meantime, use myself or Jamie as support for KS3 / 4.

If a student is sent to dept support, they should be detained by the class teacher in the first instance. If there are repeated difficulties, or they don't turn up, please let Toni know and she will arrange a department lunchtime detention.


One-to-One Tuition
If you are interested in taking on students for paid one-to-one tuition this year (£25 per hour, usually one student = one hour per week), please let me know.

Thanks everyone and have a great week,

Tom