Achievement | Diversity | Respect
7 July 2023
Parent and Carer Weekly Mailing
Keep us posted - It would be great if parents/carers could let the school know of any student achievements outside of school. We would like to find out what students are doing in their own time and celebrate their achievements. Email us: weeklymailing@cotham.bristol.sch.uk
Week commencing Monday 10 July 2023 is Week B
Standing Items are now located at the bottom of the mailing.
Headteacher's Welcome
Dear Parents and Carers
Please find this week’s mailing with important information for parents/carers and students as well as updates on school events, activities and opportunities for your reference below.
I wish you all a restful weekend.
Kindest regards,
Ms Jo Butler, Headteacher
Positive feedback of the week 👍
A thank you message from Mr Johnson, Assistant Faculty Leader, Performing Arts
The Performing Arts team held their Summer sharing event and this was a great success. A range of talented dancers, actors and musicians all came together to share what they had been working on, many performing for the first time. They all did an excellent job and should be very proud of themselves.
Thank you to all who helped make this event the success it was.
Thank you
Word of the Week
KS3
Vary: ‘vair-ee’
KS4
Evoke:
‘i-vohk’
New Announcements
Start of Term Arrangements Letter to all Parents and Carers 2023/24
Please follow the link to refer to a letter forwarded to Parents and Carers on Thursday 6 July regarding Start of Term Arrangements for 2023/2024.
Catering Changes: September 2023
From September 2023 our outsourced catering provision will be changing from Caterlink to ABM Catering. The school made the decision to switch to ABM Catering following a competitive tender process in which several companies expressed their interest to provide our catering provision. A panel of students and staff were involved in the process who all unanimously agreed to appoint ABM Catering.
MINT_Welcome_leaflet_Cotham.pdfSt. Paul's Carnival
A number of our Year 7 and Year 8 students took part in the St. Paul's Carnival parade last Saturday after months of hard work and commitment to prepare for this momentous occasion as the Carnival relaunched for the first time since the pandemic. Our students were absolutely fantastic and did us so proud, as you can see from the photos here and the short video clip on our social media platforms.
Special thanks must go to Ms Kelly and Ms Forbes, who have been helping the students to prepare for months, and to Ms Sow and Ms Zizzy Lugg-Williams who were an invaluable source of help on the day. You can also listen to Deputy Headteacher, Ms Leong, and Assistant Headteacher, Mr Dunkley, give an interview to BBC Radio Bristol from the Carnival here The interview starts at 2:09:10 into the programme.
20230701_125120.jpg20230701_125124.jpgScreenshot_20230701_222753_Facebook.jpgWhole School House Assembly - Thursday 13 July
The final Whole School House Assembly on Thursday 13 July will see our biggest reward opportunity of the year to date with prizes awarded for the top house point earners. Students have been accruing house points throughout the whole year for a variety of reasons including:
-Achievement
-Effort
-Following instructions
-Being respectful
-Working hard
-Taking part in extracurricular activities
And many more
The top house point earner in each tutor group will win £15 and the four House Champions (who have the highest house points in their whole house) will receive a whopping £60!
We really encourage students to gain as many house points as possible as it is very close at the top of the leaderboard!
image.pngYear 8
Congratulations to Year 8 5 A-side champions who enjoyed a KFC lunch for their efforts. The tournament was a huge success with over 70 students taking part. The final culminated in a 2-1 victory to the NAAFC (Not actually a football club) whose striker scored a last minute winner! Many of the students, teachers and senior leaders came to watch the final as well as the majority of the Year 8 student body. It was a great match and the students are looking forward to next year's tournament!
IMG_8693.jpgYear 8 Rounders
On Thursday 29 June the Year 8 Rounders team played Fairfield in the Bristol Rounders Quarter Finals competition.
The team included:
Olivia
Sylvie
Evie
Nayla
Luanna
Niyati
Pheobe
Clem
Maya
The girls won the quarter final 19 - 12. Niyati got player from Fairfield for her great batting and Sylvie player for her amazing fielding. A massive well done! The team are now through to the Semi Finals.
Mrs Ferris
Year 9 - Your Voice is Power Curriculum Competition
Adrian 9TS
Daray 9JW
Evie 9SME and
Hibaq 9MAH
Who all have reached the top 45 entries of the Your Voice is Power Curriculum Competition, 'MAKE BEATS. LEARN CODE. PROMOTE EQUITY'. An Amazon Future Engineer Competition. Your Voice is Power offers a curriculum learning experience that includes modules that supports teaching in how music, computer science, and entrepreneurship can be tools to fight for racial equity. View here
The students have worked incredibly hard to develop their code both in lessons and in their own time. The winning songs can be listened to here.
Adrian's Music
Daray's Music
Evie's Music
Hibaq's Music
Year 9 - Bake Off
On Friday 30 June, Year 9 took part in their second bake off. The students were given the challenge to bake and present a victoria sandwich in 1 hr 30 mins.
Once again the Year 9 bakers produced outstanding cakes, making it very difficult for our judges to choose. The judges looked at presentation, texture, taste.
Congratulations to:
Winner - Imogen 9KD
Runner up - Hibaq 9LBE
Star baker - Yahya 9KBO
Congratulations to all the students who took part.
IMG_4376.JPGDSCF4221.JPGDSCF4215.JPGIMG_4336.JPGIMG_4363.JPGYear 9 - Activities for next week
Due to the success of the Year 9 Quiz, Year 9 will once again take part in the Inter Tutor Quiz on Wednesday 12 July. 9 teams will enter and see who can be crowned Champions, will 9LBE be able to hold on to their title?
On Friday 14 July we will see another 9 bakers battle it out for the last time this year in another Year 9 Bake Off.
Year 10
Well done to all of our Year 10s during our designated week of work experience and learning employability skills. Whilst half of the year group is out on a placement the remainder are taking part in "Barclays Life Skills" workshops delivered by the Talent Foundry. Students are learning about interviews, CV writing and other useful skills to prepare them for success.
Please contact the school if you feel that you could offer one of our students a work experience placement next year. They are really hard to come by and we would be extremely grateful for any help you might be able to provide.
World Vision Cake Sale
In just a 15-minute cake sale, the school managed to raise £82.27 which has now been sent to World Vision, a charity that supports refugees and asylum seeker children.
This is the first of many and there will be more events to come next academic year.
Thank you!
Steel Pans Concert
On Wednesday, we had our wonderful annual Steel Pans concert. The amphitheatre was packed with excited friends and family and all our steel pans did an amazing job! The performances were all so polished and the repertoire had something for everyone! A big thank you to Melvin for all his work this year to get all the Steel Pan Bands to such a high standard and special thanks to Ed, Simon, Ross and Gabrielle for helping to organise the whole event.
Pride Month Workshop
June was pride month and to celebrate at Cotham we ran a workshop to explore and celebrate LGBTQIA+ history. Students from Years 8, 9 and 10 all came together to learn about different historical figures from cultures around the world. They researched why these people are famous and their contributions towards society. Lara, from the Creative Tuition Collective, ran the workshop and brought lots of knowledge and local insight on the topic. The students were all brilliant and learnt a lot about LGBTQIA+ history!y
KS3 Art
Using the Klari Reis inspired petri dishes made by Year 9 last week, we created this installation by hanging them beneath a window in our DT block. When light shines through them and they move gently, it's a mesmerising experience. The colours and patterns inside the petri dishes come alive as sunlight passes through.
WOTW Y9 Petri dish instillation.pdf
Online Safety Newsletter
Online Safety Newsletter Secondary July 2023_SECONDARY_PDF_Cotham.pdfCreative Youth Network - Free Creative Holiday Workshops for 11-19 Year Olds
FREE Creative Holiday Workshops for 11-19 year olds are now open. No experience is necessary and it’s a chance for young people to have fun, grow in confidence and learn something new to make them feel inspired. Follow the link to sign up and find out more information.
Animation - 10am-3pm, Tuesday 25 July, Wednesday 26 July, Tuesday 1 August and Wednesday 2 August at Hanham Youth Centre, BS15 3EJ (12-18 year olds)
This 4 day course with Aardman and English Heritage is an introduction to story telling, building characters and stop motion animation
Music - 10.30am-2.30pm, Wednesday 23 August and Thursday 24 August (11-16 year olds)
This 2 day course is all about experimenting with your voice, making beats and song writing in a creative way
Photography - 10am–1pm, Saturday 22 and 10am–3pm, Saturday 29 July, at Spike Island, BS1 6UX (12-18 year olds)
This 2 day course is all about experimenting with different photography techniques such as cyanotypes
Science - 7-8.30pm, Thursday 27 July, Made Forever Youth Centre, BS15 4LE (11-19 year olds)
This evening workshop is all about having fun with robotics, We The Curious will be introducing their Robot Explorer activity
Music Holiday Workshop Flyer.jpgAnimation Holiday Workshop Flyer.jpgCreative Holiday Workshop General Flyer.jpgPhotography Holiday Workshop Flyer.pdfPQA Bristol Summer Mix
Pauline Quirke Academy Bristol Summer Mix
Monday 31 July – Friday 4 August
£175
10am – 4pm
Students will get to enjoy lots of Performing Arts & Filmmaking activities such as:
Learn the choreography for your very own music video
Star as performers or become the film crew when we shoot our music video
Learn to sing the songs from a variety of musicals
Take part in script work and learn 'a play in a day'
Play themed games
Make your own costume
Music Video Screening afternoon (with popcorn of course!)
And lots more!
Students will require their own packed lunch, water and snacks.
Our summer school is open to both PQA and Non PQA members!
Sibling discount is available.
To book, please email carly.bond@pqacademy.com
PQA Bristol Summer Mix .pngPost 16
Congratulations to our brilliant Year 12s who have engaged with the Futures Conference purposefully and positively this week. A huge range of resources and support is available on the Futures section of the student hub (student login required).
Resources from the Futures parent engagement session will be available on the website here shortly.
We encourage all of our students to watch this brilliant short film which gives the student perspective on transition from Year 12 to Year 13.
Good luck to all Year 12 biologists going on the Slapton trip next week!
Coming Up Soon...
Matilda
Wednesday 12 July - Friday 14 July 2023
Tickets for Cotham’s Production of Matilda are now on sale via wisepay. We’d like everyone who wants to see Matilda to be able to. To help with this, we are pricing the school show slightly differently this year by introducing a flexible Pay What You Choose pricing for the event.
How does it work?
On Pay What You Choose events, when you checkout, you’ll be given a choice of 3 different prices:
£5 - Open Concession – If this is what you can afford; book this rate and let us welcome you with open arms.
£8 - Standard – If you can afford to, please book this rate; the extra money you give will support the continued existence of the variety of extra-curricular performances put on at Cotham School.
£15 - Pay It Forward – If you’re feeling generous and you have the means, please consider choosing this rate. Each Pay It Forward ticket subsidises two concession tickets, and helps more people experience the delight of watching live theatre.
All you have to do is select the price bracket that best suits your budget and continue to checkout.
And don't forget from last time....
Catering Refunds
My child has left Cotham School. Please can you refund their account balance or transfer their balance to a sibling?
The catering provision at Cotham School is outsourced to a company called Caterlink. You will need to contact Caterlink in order to obtain the refund or a transfer of funds between accounts. They have provided the below information regarding how to do this.
The parent needs to complete the google form which can be accessed here: CaterLink Ltd parent refund form, this version will allow the parents to upload screenshots of their balance. Where the balance is small or difficult to verify another way i.e. we cannot access the system, it can help us process the refund much faster but the parent will need a google account. If they do not have a google account then they can use this one: CaterLink Ltd parent refund form - No Upload
Year 11 and Year 13 Locker Key Returns
Please can all Year 11 and Year 13 students return their locker keys no later than Friday 14 July. We have a limited number of lockers and want to make these available to our new students in September.
Year 11 students can return their keys to the Finance Office. Year 13 students can return them to either Post 16 Reception or the Finance Office. Once keys are returned we will be able to return deposits paid.
Open Evening at Cotham School Wednesday 27 September 2023
Please see the attached banner print for Cotham School. We would very much appreciate it if you could share it around with your friends and family especially to those who have children in the current Year 4 and 5!
Don't forget that as well as our Open Evening we also have a significant amount of Open Mornings throughout the year too.
Landscape Banner Print.pdfEnd of Term 6 Arrangements for Students
All students, including Post 16 students will finish school for the summer on Thursday 20 July at 12pm. This will also be a non-uniform day.
Digital Literacy Corner
Latest Parent Online Safety Cheat Sheet
What Parents and Carers Need to Know About:
Addictive Nature
Live Streaming
Requests from Strangers
Oversharing Personal Information
Cyberbullying
Secret Conversations
Parents - Facebook Messenger.pdfOur latest GCSE Pod Usage
Welcome! GCSEPod is the perfect resource to help your child learn, retain and recall all the information they need to achieve their GCSE goals.
Pods watched this academic year
6,676
Number of Pods watched so far in Term 5
227
Most watched subject this week
Geography
Our latest Seneca Learning Usage
Seneca offers high-quality free online learning courses for students to study from a computer, tablet or phone. The courses are suitable for students aged 13 and above and cover KS3, KS4 GCSE and KS5 A Level subjects.
We are Premium subscribers to this service which unlocks further features of the platform.
Seneca Learning sessions completed this academic year
275,954
Total Seneca Learning study time for Term 5
1683 hours
Total Seneca Learning study time for this academic year
30,827 hours
Staff Vacancies
Cotham School are currently recruiting for the following positions:
Learning Support Assistants
For more information and to apply please click here
