4 December 2023

Standing Items are located at the bottom of the mailing

Student Achievement: Outside School

Najib, Yr13 achieved his brown belt in karate last weekend. 

(Najib's mum)

This is to let you know that Luana, not only a great student, activist and leader, she got her grade 5 piano with a distinction! (92/100). We are so proud of Luana, we thought we should celebrate it!

     (Luana's mum)

Monkhouse - BATCH Delivery Christmas Period

Due to the upcoming Christmas holidays the last delivery into school for 2023 will be week commencing Monday 11 December.

All school deliveries will be held and delivered into school when the weekly delivery resumes week commencing Monday 8 January 2024.

All home deliveries will continue throughout the Christmas holidays.

Wonderful Initiative

Please spread the word and offer help if you can.

Free Seasonal VegBox to those who need it, via The Plough.

Application deadline 4pm on 18 Dec via form here - https://www.plougheaston.co.uk/vegbox

To be delivered on the 19th December. 

Inez is in an Integrate film about honour culture. She became involved with Integrate initially through Cotham but now goes of her own accord. The film is 10 minutes long and Inez has a significant role. A few other Cotham students were extras too: Sylvie, Hanna, Leila, Isobel and Ruby.

Blame Her is an educational resource used to promote discussion with students on the warning signs of honour abuse. The film is very worthy of a watch! It is about honour culture and LGBTQ plus issues.

Please click the link below: 

https://youtu.be/lcnOApPItUs?si=NZODEz6xeK_rOygR 

Parent Governor Vacancies 

Have you ever thought of becoming a School Governor?

We have several vacancies for parent governors.

Interested? Why don’t you click here find out more?

Year 7 Shout Outs

Shout out to 7AVA for working really hard and demonstrating brilliant teamwork during Ms Payne's brilliant library treasure hunt!

Miss Power

Massive shout out to 7EW for impeccable behaviour during their German assessment. Followed instructions so well and allowed everyone in the class to focus.

Pretty impressive results as well - well done for your amazing efforts in revising!

Ms Bingham

Please could I shoutout both my 7b3 and 7a4 Maths groups who have been excellent so far. Behaviour has been impeccable and they are working really hard.

Mr Denby

ENGLISH: 7DS treasure hunt in the library: They were brilliant! Their behaviour was impeccable and worked with real purpose. Well done to every single one of you! 

ENGLISH: 7GD Xav: Student of the Week; for being focused, ready for learning and writing a very impressive Princess Mononoke analysis. Ravand for being so articulate and persuasive! 

Ms Papworth

Another shout out for 7CBR - lesson 5 yesterday, after a slow start(!) they absolutely turned it around to produce amazing work - great positive energy! :)

Ms Phillips

There's a shout-out from me for 7LH as a whole class for being such a co-operative and respectful group that seem to really enjoy their learning.

Mr Dignan

7BOP: Always being kind and supportive to everyone. 

Miss Hepworth

I would like to give  7B and 7A a shout-out. 7B, has continued to have a positive attitude in their PE lessons and their willingness to learn is outstanding. 7A has made tremendous progress in their PE lessons and I would encourage them to keep this up.

Mr Sebana

Awesome work and superb behaviour in Drama by 7EW!

Ms Ashcroft

Year 8

The KS3 cinema experience was a brilliant success. Students with 0 behaviour points got popcorn, crisps and chocolate and watched Home Alone, a classic film, in the main hall. They all thoroughly enjoyed it! We are hoping to organise more activities like this, to praise our students who are playing a great role within our school community.

The winners of the Y8 tutor football competition were announced in Friday's assembly. 8FW played really well and won the tournament based on their final scores. They got to celebrate this by having a KFC for lunch on Friday! It was really lovely to celebrate with them.

After the class shuffles, many teachers have been letting me know how well the revised classes are working. This is really great news and I know the year 8 students will continue to thrive !

There were some administration jobs that needed doing so I gave the names of 8 students, 4 of whom helped on Tuesday 28th and 4 on Wednesday 29th  November. All of them received high praise from the administration team for their helpfulness and organisation.

Finally, well done to 8SI who have the lowest amount of ASDs this week! All of the students in that tutor group have contributed to this.

Ms Buckley - Learning Coordinator 

Year 9

Year 9 SELT delivered an assembly on the Malala fund to Key Stage 3. 

Mr Farmer Learning Coordinator

Year 9

An update from the Year 9 production of Twelfth Night. 

"The Year 9 production of Twelfth Night has progressed brilliantly this week. The students taking part have been cast in their roles and are already working hard to develop their characters. Throughout the recent rehearsals, students have been breaking down the play text and producing some amazing work! Keep up the great progress Year 9!" 

 Mr Arnold - Year Team Assistant 

Year 10 - Festive Bake Off

We have our Year 10 Festive Bake Off and Festive Quiz next week.

9 students will take on the baking challenge and 36 students will represent their tutor groups in the Inter Tutor Quiz.

Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) 

An amazing 63 Year 10 students have signed up to the DofE Bronze. 5 have started all their activities.  They had their First session last week which went really well. Next will be in January.

Youth Parliament 

Well done Louisha for taking part in this amazing opportunity.  Louisha 10DSE is a Member of Youth Parliament (MYP). On Friday 17 November she attended Parliament. Louisha's role is to positively represent the views of children and young people in their Local Authority. Part of their role will be to attend the House of Commons Sitting in London. MYPs are the only group, other than MPs, to sit on the green benches, and this is a unique opportunity.  At this event, 300 elected Members of the UK Youth Parliament aged 11-18 will take part in a debate in the House of Commons chamber. 434,000 young people voted in the 2022 Make Your Mark ballot, with Health and Wellbeing coming out as the top issue. This grew over the last following focus groups and debates into a Food for Learning campaign, advocating for free school meals in schools. At the House of Commons 2023, they will debate the 5 topics shortlisted for the Food For Learning Bill: Holiday Hunger, Quality of Food, Standardisation, Financing and Funding, and Additional Pricing.

Mrs Arnold - Learning Coordinator

Year 10 - Shout Outs

Well done to Genevieve, Julia and Tristan who represented the Senior team in the School Athletics this week.

Mr Worster - Huge shout out to 10x/Gg2 - They are one of the hardest working groups I've ever had the pleasure of teaching, they've made an awesome start to their GCSE Geography. Special mentions for Ash, Luca, Zak, Ridwan, Lena, Eliska, Sooniya, Darcie, Lyra and Connor . Massive shout out to Rose P for all her fantastic work on the SELT - the feedback I've had about you has been amazing!

Mr Dutton - Dear 10Z,You are a pleasure to teach, and you are all working hard and rising to the challenge of GCSE French! It would be impossible to name everyone, but well done to:

Logan - Seneca champion 

Zoya - Vocab challenge champion 

Sooniya - Amazing with creative writing

Rosie - Organisation, effort, and resilience

Suhayb - Contributions in class 

Karina - Unique and creative writing 

Sasha - Revision guides not needed - just use a book!

Alyssa - Effort, focus, progress 

Marli - Excellent organisation and progress since Year 9 

Eliska - Effort, focus, contributions, and progress since Year 9

Ollie - Incredible speaking in lessons with tenses 

Martha - Revision guides not needed - just use book!

Miss Meek - Geography shout out to:

Lucia  - hard working and helpful

Ben  - showing exceptional focus

Grey  - for really valued contributions to class discussions

Flo - for contributions to class discussions

Latanielle - working hard and staying focussed each lesson

Amin - for checking on and improving his work

Rosie  - for contributing valued answers

Ms Grice - shout out to Bella in 10SME and Sophie in 10JWO  for diligence and focus in English. 

Mx Heaton and the Art team  - shout out to Vismaya for being so creative and being a great tutee.

Shout out to the Cotham Senior Basketball Team Y10 and Y11

They played Fairfield last week. It ended in heartbreak as Farifiled took the final points 39-37 . It was a close game and they played well.

Well done team!

Well done Year 10 on such amazing achievements this week. 

Mrs Arnold

Y10 Learning Coordinator

Y11 - Formal Mock Examinations Monday 29 January - 9 February

These examinations will take place in the exam hall under examination conditions so students are familiar with expectations around sitting formal examinations.

We hope that you will support your child with preparing a revision timetable in preparation for these upcoming mock examinations. Below are links to a blank timetable and access to our preparing for assessments portal which has links to evidence-based revision strategies. There is also a link to walking talking mocks where teachers have provided videos to show students how to answer examination questions. I am also including a link to the Year 11 Parent Information Site which will give you advice on how to support your child through their upcoming examinations. Please take the time to look at these with your child.

Blank revision timetable

Preparing for assessments portal

Walking talking mocks

Year 11 parent information site

Y11 -  Shout Outs
The following students received a shout out from members of staff this week:

English (Ms Hepworth)

Ally - Amazing progress in English 

Maryam - Always working exceptionally hard

Orson - Always working exceptionally hard 

Daniel - Always working exceptionally hard

Eisha - Always helpful, hardworking and making good progress

Yuvi - Trying hard in english

Yahye - Big improvment in focus in english.Yay Yahye!!!!!

Maths - Mr Vohra

Zaynab - Outstanding effort in Maths

Binta - Outstanding effort in Maths

Ffion - Outstanding effort in Maths

Kacie - Outstanding effort in Maths

Malaysiah - Outstanding effort in Maths

Kieran - Outstanding effort in Maths

Omega House - Mr Burfield

Abdiwahaab - Great leadership in the Omega house

Geography

 - Amazing work in Geography Mocks - Mr Burfield

Angus

Sofia

Isabelle

Maryam 

Ollie

Geography

 - Great Work in Geography - Mr Burfield

Sefton

Jasper

Ayesha

Rayshawn - Top effort and answers in geography

German - Mrs Bingham

Sheng - Improvement in German - keep going Sheng!

Martha - Effort and always trying your best in German - keep it up!

Maryam - Incredible writing skills in your mock

EAL - Miss Andouard

Osman - Great efforts in EAL lessons to catch up with academic language

Philosophy & Religion

Aliya - Positive attitude in Philosophy & Religion

Philosophy & Religion - Mr Buchanan

Lois - Continual focus on improvement and excellent engagement in Buddhism lessons

Salma  - Continual focus on improvement and excellent engagement in Buddhism lessons

Muzon - Continual focus on improvement and excellent engagement in Buddhism lessons

Daniel - Susatined excellent focus in Buddhism lessons

Science (Mrs Ahmad)

Zabiullah - Always working incredibly hard in every lesson

Sigma Houe - Mrs Ahmad

Inez - Helping out with so many charity events for Sigma House

Sofia - Helping out with so many charity events for Sigma House

Kaylee - Helping out with so many charity events for Sigma House

Zack - Helping out with so many charity events for Sigma House

Maths (Mr Woodward)

Ally - great effort and focus in maths

Abdelrahman - great effort and focus in maths

Bethanie - great effort and focus in maths

Aidan - great effort and focus in maths

English (Ms Papworth)

Sakariya - Just lately you have shown more than focus and engagement but really invested in upping your game in terms of exam technique; keep up the practice.

George - Brilliant consistent sustained Seneca work

Lois - Brilliant consistent Seneca work

Helena - Brilliant consistent sustained Seneca work

Macy - Brilliant recent Seneca work

Tazaim - Brilliant recent Seneca work

PE (Mr Book)

Abas - representing the school basketball team

Walid Khadar - representing the school basketball team

Mario - representing the school basketball team

Sakariya - representing the school basketball team

Mustafe - representing the school basketball team

Waleed - representing the school basketball team

Year 11 - Period 6

Period 6 runs every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2.45pm-3.45pm. If your child has been selected for Period 6 then their attendance is compulsory. Your child will have a sticker on the back of their lanyard detailing which days they have period 6. Please can you support us by ensuring your child attends. You receive a message the next day if your child has failed to attend Period 6. Non-attendance to Period 6 will be classed as truancy and maybe sanctioned accordingly. 

If your child needs another timetable this can be collected from Mr Thomas (Year 11 Learning Coordinator). If you have any queries about period 6, please email Mrs Khan on yr11period6@cotham.bristol.sch.uk

Year 11 - Activities Term 2

We have some really fun activities planned for Year 11 this term based on feedback from a questionnaire that they completed at the end of last term. Next we will be launching an inter-tutor Kahoot where different tutor groups will compete against different members of staff each week. We also have a football tournament and a bake-off planned to mention just a few.

Year 11 - Reward Trip

At the end of this term, we are planning to take a small group of selected Year 11 students to Bath Ice and Christmas Market. You will receive a letter regarding this if your child has been selected to attend. 

Bristol Grammar School Stem Cafe – The Right Light at Night – Thursday 7 December 4pm

Steve Tonkin, Dark Skies Advisor to the International Dark Sky Reserve will be speaking about light pollution and the importance of dark skies.

Light Pollution was first identified as a problem by astronomers, but its consequences reach far wider. It is now widely recognised that artificial light at night, especially bright white light, can have profoundly negative effects on human health, and this is just the tip of an iceberg of harm. The effects on wildlife have been devastating, leading directly to the death of billions of birds each year and being the major driver of the insect apocalypse (studies suggest that 40% of insects will be extinct within the next few decades).

The solutions are at hand, are simple to implement, will have a net saving (of money, energy use and carbon emissions) and will not compromise security or our ability to safely work, travel and play at night. We need to act now.

There will also be a chance to look through a telescope after the talk to see the night sky for yourself (weather dependent).

This event is open to everyone including friends and family members of any BGS pupils and pupils of other local schools. Visitors please wait in reception and someone will come and escort you to the event. There is no need to book.  If you wish to attend or have any questions please email stem@bgs.bristol.sch.uk.  Refreshments will be provided.

Student Absence - Reminder

Notifying the school of student absence - all info can be found on the  School website 

Parents and carers can report student absence in 3 ways.

Parents and carers can either:

- complete the absence form on school website

- email the attendance absence email at absence@cotham.bristol.sch.uk (Year 7-11) or  p16absence@cotham.bristol.sch.uk (Year 12 and 13)

- telephone the attendance absence line on 0117 919 8000

What Parents and Carers Need to Know About

Cross-Platform Sharing of Inappropriate Content:

• Insuitable Videos and Images

• Inappropriate language

• Copies of live streams

• Contact from strangers

• Accidental exposure