Weekly Message 209 – 15 December 2023
15th December 2023
House Points Averages per Pupil for This Week
Year 7 3.18 points
Year 8 1.54 points
Year 9 1.64 points
Year 10 1.22 points
Year 11 1.61 points
Attendance
| Dates | Total attendance |
| This week | 91.0% |
| Same week last year | 89.2% |
Today we have concluded the Autumn Term and what a fabulous 14 weeks it has been!
Lots of things have taken place this past week to share with you in this weekly message so please enjoy this week’s edition! We aim to share as much as we can in the weekly message to give a sense of what it is like to be a member of this wonderful school community. Don’t forget you can also follow us on our Facebook, Instagram, and X socials.
Parents and carers have also been sent a letter today from the Headteacher, reflecting on the Autumn Term and sharing key information as we move into the Spring Term in January 2024.
In the meantime, we wish all our pupils and staff a restful 2-week holiday and to all our readers, a very Merry Christmas from us all at Cams Hill School.
School closed to pupils Monday 18 December 2023 – Monday 1 January 2024
First day of Spring Term – Tuesday 2 January 2024 with pupils arriving at their usual staggered times.
Year 10 Work Experience – Monday 25 March 2024 – Thursday 28 March 2024
We remind pupils, parents, and carers that pupils need to have secured a placement for their work experience by the end of January 2024. We would encourage pupils to approach companies over the Christmas break to ensure they meet this deadline. Parents/carers have been sent information and the form to complete; however, if you are yet to receive this, require another copy or have any questions about work experience, please email careers@camshill.com.
Christmas Lunch and Christmas Jumper Day
We held our Christmas lunch and Christmas jumper day on Wednesday this week. Thank you to Luke and the catering team for a splendid meal.
Celebration Assemblies
This week we have enjoyed our end of term celebration assemblies in all year groups to celebrate the achievements and successes of our wonderful pupils. We recognise pupils for their House Points, receiving no Behaviour Points or sanctions and for their success with their assessment tracker data drops. Prizes include tubs of treats for tutor groups and individuals, along with vouchers as well.
Much fun and laughter is had during these assemblies, including the infamous seasonal quiz led by Mrs Whitelam for Year 9 it is an occasion enjoyed by staff and pupils alike. We wish all pupils a restful Christmas break and look forward to seeing you in January 2024!
Years 7 & 8 School Disco
We held our Year 7 and 8 Christmas Disco on Wednesday 13 December with over 200 pupils in attendance, dressed to impress with some wonderful disco outfits. Our selfie wall was particularly popular with pupils and staff alike and we had some awesome dancing, with teachers up and dancing to some Christmas classics!
It was lovely to see members of the school community having such a good time, enjoying each other’s company and being so respectful of their school. Thank you to all that made the evening happen.
Key Stage 3 Design and Technology Seasonal Cook Club
Christmas most definitely arrived in the Food Room last week as Year 7 pupils attended our annual after school ‘cool yule’ chocolate yule log decorating session. The final pupil outcomes were super impressive with a rich chocolatey buttercream ‘bark’ and dainty fondant icing adding the finishing touches. Well done, we hope it tasted as good it looked! We know that this session was oversubscribed so if you would like to have a go at home, please send us a picture of your efforts and we will reward you with a credit and post your outcome on our D&T Instagram. Merry Christmas everyone!
Young Carers’ Cook Club
The Young Carers Christmas Cook Club took place this week. These sessions help the pupils develop cooking skills, whilst socialising with other Young Carers of a similar age. The pupils baked Christmas cookies and boxed them up to share with their families. As well as taste testing the outcomes (the best bit!) they were able to practise their shaping and kneading skills. Merry Christmas!
A Christmas Carol
As part of our focus to provide stretch and challenge to high ability pupils, on Monday, in English, pupils engaged in a lecture delivered by Dr Christopher Pittard from the University of Portsmouth. Dr Pittard helped pupils to secure and revise the contextual knowledge they had already for A Christmas Carol and then he pushed them even further with some nice interpretations of Dickens’ language. Pupils really appreciated the lecture, and we thank Dr Pittard for giving us his time.
Art Club Help Decorate Cams Food Court
Well Done to Art Club on their final craft of 2023. They have been working on creating and decorating Christmas tree table decorations, ready for the whole school Christmas lunch.
They used various catering recyclables to decorate their cardboard trees (as well as a few pompoms and a dab of glitter). They looked amazing on the tables and were quite the talking point amongst pupils and staff as they ate their dinner.
Next year Art Club will be creating some props for the upcoming school production: ‘The Little Shop of Horrors’. Our first project is creating human limbs! If you are interested in learning more, please join the ‘Art Club 23-24’ club on Synergy.”
Geneva International Tchoukball Tournament
Four of our pupils represented the UK last weekend at the Geneva International Tchoukball tournament where over 1000 children from 10 different nations took part aged from u8 to u18.
L Heaysman, J Jones and J Jones played for TeamUK team in the u16 competition. All three played really well and their team came 8th out of 20 teams. This was a brilliant achievement as they were playing some very good European teams and Hong-Kong.
C Heaysman captained the TeamUK mixed team in the u14 competition with 30 teams competing. The team surpassed all expectations by getting to the final and eventually losing by two points. C Heaysman played phenomenally well throughout the tournament; her shooting and defending were invaluable to the team.
English House Challenge Results
Above is a link to the Christmas Anthology with all the winning stories, as well as additional stories that require a special commendation.
Warrior: 35 entries for 350 points
Illustrious: 23 entries for 230 points
Victory: 12 entries for 12 points
Invincible : 9 entries for 90 points
Endeavour: 8 entries for 80 points
And the winners are:
Joint 1st Place – 100 points for Warrior – E Downs Year 7
Joint 1st Place – 100 points for Victory – S Godman and C Bussey Year 10
2nd Place – 75 points for Warrior – W Oughton Year 7
3rd Place – 50 points for Warrior – J Moorhouse Year 10
4th Place – 25 points for Illustrious – L Harvey Year 7
National Online Safety Flyer – Tech-Free Christmas