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8 December 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 11 December 2023 is Week B

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Standing Items are located at the bottom of the mailing

Headteacher's Welcome

Dear Parents and Carers,

Please find our weekly mailing which I hope you will find both useful and interesting!  

With very best wishes for a relaxing weekend.

Kindest regards,  

Ms Jo Butler, Headteacher

Headteachers Welcome 08/12/2023.mp4

Positive feedback of the week 👍

'Congratulations to all at Cotham. I am so glad the inspection was a positive experience for the school and left you feeling validated in the work you do.'

Year 7 Parent / Carer



'The well-being lead, Ms Beaver, has been there to take care of my teen's needs and concerns when they were crucially needed this year. I am eternally grateful.'

Cotham Parent / Carer

Thank you

Student Achievements

Christmas Card Competition 2023

The Christmas Card Competition is an annual competition for the best Christmas card design. Thank you so much for taking part in the competition. There were so many entries this year and the competition was high!  It was so difficult to choose a winner.

The winner is Neva from 7RBI

2 Runners up are Vismaya from 10CG and Naz from 10 DSE.

Congratulations!!! 

Announcements

End of Term 2 Arrangements for Friday 15 December 2023

Please see the below points regarding the End of Term Arrangements for Friday 15 December 2023:


Term 3 begins on Tuesday 2 January 2024

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.

Nasal Flu Immunisation

Reminder: Nasal Flu sessions on Monday 11 December 2023 (Year 7-11, only for those who completed the consent from).

December Free School Meal Vouchers
Please note that Free School Meal vouchers to cover December break were sent out to parents and carers on Thursday. If you have any questions about redeeming the voucher, please contact the Hawk Select (‘Select Essentials’) telephone helpline, on: 03446 939901 (Monday to Sunday, 8am to 8pm). 

Lost Property at Student Reception

If your child has lost an item they should go to Student Reception and look in the lost property cupboard by Friday 15 December 12.30.  Any items not collected by then will be donated to charity.  Please ensure that your child's items are clearly labelled to assist with returning any lost property.

Year 11 Prom
The Year 11 Prom is a lovely event held every year.  It is always organised by our parents/ carers (with the school's support).  As is usual, this year's Prom will be held after exams in Summer 2024.  We would like to start organising it but we need a group of parents/carers to help!!!

If you think you can help please contact Jane Manley-Jackson, one of our lovely parents, on janemanleyjackson@hotmail.com if you would like to get involved. 

Shaping Bristol's Harbour - M-Shed Interactive Exhibition

A team of experts have been appointed by Bristol City Council to assist in the research and delivery of the Bristol Harbour Place Shaping Strategy. The strategy will work to describe the harbour envisioned for Bristol and will be shaped and guided by people across the city and beyond.
All the community including teachers and parents are invited to the exhibition which will run from Tuesday 5 December to Sunday 17 December.
Everyone is welcome to bring any groups  whether that be specific classes or more informal after school clubs, and there would be some workshops too. Please call on 07522955635 or 02077294140 should you be interested in arranging a visit.

Please find more information at the link below:

https://www.ask.bristol.gov.uk/hub-page/harbour-place-shaping-strategy 

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 19 December. 

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?

KS3 Word of the Week

KS4 Word of the Week

Cotham School Christmas break reading and Vocabulary Challenge

Please encourage your child to take part in the ‘Cotham School Christmas Break Reading and Vocabulary Challenge’. There are a variety of activities for your child to complete for each day of the break (16 December - 1 January). 

Cotham School Christmas break reading and Vocabulary Challenge

It is everyone's last chance to grab a Readathon Sponsor Form and Bookmark from the library before we break up.

Come to the library and take some books out for the holidays. Have fun whilst raising money for a brilliant cause. 

Fancy some snowy and cosy Christmas holiday reading? Check out our Christmas book display this week.

Happy Reading!

2023 READATHON INFO.docx

Year 7  Disco
Wednesday 13 December 2023 from 5pm - 7pm - If you have a ticket please enter from the Main Visitor Reception on the evening.

Tickets are £2 and are selling fast, last chance to get them on wise pay before they sell out.

There will be a tuck shop available at the event, and this will be cash only, £3 should be enough to cover this. 

The Year 10 SELT (Student Executive Leadership Team) and Year 7 SELT leaders have organised the Disco.

All money raised will go to the Year 10 SELT charity, The St Peters Hospice.


Year 7 Inter Tutor Football Tournament

The Year 10 SELT leaders and Year 10 sports Leaders organised and ran very successful Year 7 inter football tournament on Monday lunch times.

The final took place on Monday 4 December and what a final it was. 7CBR and 7EW fought hard to win the title of Year 7 Tutor Champions.

It went to a draw and then to penalties. 7CBR were crowned the champions

Well Done Year 7 on a fantastic tournament.

Huge thanks to Year 10 students Luca, Jake and Ben who refereed the matches and to Gen, Rosie, Lila, Vismaya, Zoya and Karina who organised and ran the tournament.

Year 8 -  News
We had the LC awards this week where students received gift vouchers or chocolates if they had really impressed Mrs Buckley, Ms Bunka or their tutors. The Learning Coordinator awards went to Charlie, Erwa and Cerys , well done to you three! The top tutor groups were 8FW, 8MI and 8MH for great teamwork and overall being great! The tutors also gave out 2 awards each and students were entered into a house point raffle where 10 students won a £5 voucher! It was a great ceremony and the students enjoyed receiving prizes. Well done to everyone.


We are also trying to get the best attendance possible throughout the school and I was able to give out 58 100% attendance certificates to Y8 students. This is an amazing achievement and they should be really pleased with themselves. Year 8 has quite a good attendance so far, but remember that every session when someone is absent pulls our overall attendance down, so please think of it as a team effort, as it is!


We had another open morning tour on Wednesday and it was lovely to see the students showing prospective students around our school and speaking about it with such pride. Well done to them.


Briony Buckley

Year 8 Learning Coordinator

 Year 9 - Production of Twelfth Night

This week in rehearsals for Twelfth Night, students were able to complete a run from Scene 1 to 8. This allowed students to display their hard work from the last few weeks and continue to develop the play. Each student is producing fantastic work and learning the language of Shakespeare brilliantly!  

Mr Arnold (Year Team Assistant) 

 Year 9 - Bake off Challenge

A huge shout out to all the students who took part in the Year 9 Bake Off Challenge! The challenge was a big success with all 10 students producing shortbread cookies dipped in white and milk chocolate. The task allowed students to further develop their skills as well as mastering new challenges. After a thorough judging process the winning tutor group was 9GC! Congratulations. 


Keep up the great work Year 9! 

Mr Arnold (Year Team Assistant) 

Sparx Maths Awards for Year 10
Every term, maths will be awarding prizes to the tutor group in each year which has the highest XP. Final winners will be announced at the end of term. Keep a look out for the winners of this term

Mathematician of the fortnight:

Congratulations to our recent 2 winners:

Soonyia and Muhammad


Well done to everyone in year 10, you are an amazing year group. 

Mrs Arnold

Year 10 - Shout Outs
Mr Walker shout out to - 10b2 have improved hugely this term, and have been working really well recently on some tricky topics involving recurring decimals and algebraic manipulation!

Ms Dawson and Mr Mills shout out to Phoenix and Victor who demonstrate excellent work ethic and consistent focus during music lessons.


Huge congratulations to Vismaya and Naz who were runners up in the Christmas card competition. Beautiful entries, well done.

Congratulations to Reye who won the Santa Dash. 


Ms Phillips gives a Shout out to:

Sasha,  Martha, Hana and Darcie : Leading Year 7 Dance Co

Who have worked so phenomenally hard every week with the Year 7 dance Company.

Their leadership, teaching skills and choreography has been inspiring the year 7's and they are now ready to perform in the Winter Sharing on Thursday 7 December.

A few weeks ago, The Year 10 leaders and Year 7's were off timetable for P3 and 4 to prepare for the performance, and again the Year 10's were so professional, leading warm up activities and coaching the students through the different aspects of the dance. They even bought some reward goodies for the Year 7's to keep the motivation going!

The dance and enthusiasm of the Year 7's is a credit to the year 10 leaders' hard work. They should be very proud of what they have achieved and the excellent role models they are providing. Please pass on a huge congratulations to them.


Shout out for Gwen and Lucia : Leading Year 8 Dance Co

Who have worked so phenomenally hard every week with the Year 8 Dance Company, after school every Monday.

Their dance and teaching skills and choreography has been such a great inspiration to the year 8's, you really can see their technical skills developing  and they are now ready to perform in the Winter Sharing on Thursday 7 December.

A few weeks ago, Gwen and Lucia led an extra session with the year 8' to prepare them for the performance. Gwen and Lucia had planned their session so well, even bringing treat rewards for the year 8s when they mastered certain moves in the choreography! 

The development of dance technique and the mature commitment of the year 8s is a credit to Gwen and Lucia's hard work. They should be very proud of what they have achieved and the excellent role models they are providing. Please pass on a huge congratulations to them.


From Ms Ashcroft - KS4 Drama Stars:

Felix, Iris, Karina

FOR FEARLESS PERFORMANCES!

Year10 - Festive Bake off
 Wow what a team of bakers. Their brief was to make  and present a chocolate Yule Log in 1hr and 30 minutes. They all delivered this on time to such a high standard. The judges had a very difficult time deciding on a winner. After lots of cake was eaten the winner was announced: 

Congratulations to Liam who was the overall winner and to Hassan who was the star baker.

A big thank you to our judges and to Sadie who joined the judging panel for this Bake Off and to Gen who supported Mrs Arnold and the students in the room.

Year10 - Festive  Quiz

Year 10 had a fun filled afternoon in the festive quiz. Well done to everyone who took part and congratulations to 10FRA who were the overall winners.

IMG_7226.JPG

Year 11 News
KS3 Information Event Site NOW LIVE!   

This online event is now live on the school website. It will provide valuable information on how you can support your child at home with exams and assessments. The site also contains a welcome and overview video recorded by one of the senior leadership team. It will provide subject- specific videos for every KS3 course. 

The subject videos will give an introduction and explanation of:


In addition to this , the site will also contain links to the Years 7,8 and 9 Curriculum booklets and assessment calendars. We hope you find it useful. There is an opportunity for parent voice via this site and we would welcome your feedback.

Year 11  Shout Outs 

Ms Papworth from English gives a shout out to: 

Amior

Akanksha

Isobel 

Inez 

Xanthe 


Ms Phillips from Dance - Excellent commitment to Performing Arts BTEC Dance Comp 3 and prep for the Winter Sharing Performance:

Safa

Giovanna

Anas

Orla

Sakariya

Tazaim

Musse

Ayuub

Lois

George

Amior 

Bushra

Helena

Yasmin

Mae

Year 11 - Key Documents
Year 11 assessment calendars  

This provides an overview of all the assessments that will be taking place over the course of the academic year with resources linked in to support your child's revision at home. 


Preparing for assessments 


This is a link to the school website which has some revision techniques and a section on student wellbeing. Keeping your mind, body healthy and your environment positive while you prepare for your assessments is a vital component in achieving the best possible outcomes in your assessments. We hope you find these useful. 


Digital Learning Platforms 


This is a link on our school website where students can access GCSE Pod and Seneca learning as well as subject specific support. 


Jake Thomas

Learning Co-ordinator

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

Art of the Week
This week the year 12 students have been looking at the work of American fiber sculptor Judith Scott. They have used different fabrics and threads wrapped tightly to show distortion and shapes of figures. 


WOTW Y12 Judith Scott (1).pdf

Oracy Activities

1. Oracy Pioneers

This term four of our Year 9 students embarked on Bristol Educational Partnership’s Oracy Pioneers programme. They have attended three workshops at St Brendan’s College where they have learned about what oracy is and why it’s important, as well as developing their own oracy skills. All four students have done a great job of representing Cotham, showing confidence and creativity in all the workshops. Next term they will be collaborating with Clifton College to design their own oracy workshops that they will deliver to our Year 7 students.

2. Gabblers

This term one of our Post 16 students has taken part in the first two Gabblers events of 2023-24. Gabblers is a unique Bristol-based public speaking competition, where students are invited to give after-dinner talks on a range of subjects. Over the course of the year students will speak several times in different roles, receiving feedback from a panel of experts and honing their presentational skills. Our candidate has got off to a fantastic start, having already delivered the ‘Thought for the Evening’ and a highly engaging talk on ‘Mediums’. We will keep you updated on her progress as she heads towards the Summer Final.  


Owen Morgan

Assistant Headteacher

Ankit, Isabelle and Vismaya will be doing a team building exercise with the Humanities Faculty next week as part of their leadership training. they are also working on their own individual presentation for the next session after the holidays. Well done for the continued hard work! 

Post 16 

Leadership Team

A huge congratulations to the Charity and Events team for their very successful cake sale which saw them raise £160 for Islamic Relief.

P 16 Food Bank

We have a food bank operating in G204 and the  library. Just pop and see a member of the P16 team and we can give you access to this. There is a wide number of food items available, there are also hygiene products. Breakfast is also available in the Library with Mr Davies.  This is available to students in receipt of the P16 Bursary, free school meals and Young Carers. If you do not fall into one of these categories but would like access to the food bank, please speak to a member of the P16 team who will be able to support you. 

End of Term Arrangements

P16 lessons will finish at breaktime on Friday 15 December 

Colourism Interviews

Lots of our students have signed up to take part in the Colourism research with King’s College next week. There are still group and single interview places available. Please contact Ms Skinner if you are interested in taking part. 

Community Languages

Among our Cotham students there are 54 different languages spoken! And for some of them that means an extra qualification. Ms Swayne delivered an assembly this week about the community language qualifications offered at P16. Students have been invited to complete this form to show their interest. Language qualifications offered are deatied in these slides  

Y12 Work Experience Programme  for 2023-24

Work Experience programme for 2023-24 is now progressing nicely! We would like to make you aware that CSW Group are running the South West STEM Nuffield Research Placement contract for the second year in a row. Please bear this offer in mind,  as it may be that your Year 12’s can convert their work experience placement to a Nuffield one and receive funding for this. Alternatively, please share this with your post-16 staff.

 

So, what is it?

Nuffield Research Placements provide approximately 1,000 students each year with the opportunity to work alongside professional scientists, technologists, engineers, quantitative social scientists, and mathematicians and placements are available across the South West, in universities, commercial companies, voluntary organisations and research institutions. Students in the first year (Year 12) of a post-16 STEM course (including social sciences, geography, economics, and psychology) are eligible to apply, with a key focus on young people who:

• Live, or have lived in, local authority care.

• Live in a family that has a combined household income of below £30,000 a year, or are entitled to free schools’ meals, either now or at any time in the last six years or are entitled to discretionary payments at school/college.

• Will be the first in their immediate family to participate in higher education (not including any older siblings).

*other eligibility conditions apply*

What do you need to know?

Student registrations are open so please share the attached information, plus this useful video Nuffield Research Placements: Info for students - YouTube with your Year 12 students or alternatively, you can follow the link: Apply as a student for placement | Nuffield Research Placements.

Please also do not hesitate to contact the team via Nuffield@cswgroup.co.uk .  

The CSW Nuffield Team 

Nuffield Research Placements Student.pdf

Year 13

UCAS

A huge congratulations to the 139 year 13 students who submitted their applications for the deadline last week. A reminder that we can reimburse the application fee to our students in receipt of the P16 bursary. Students should keep an eye on their emails in case their applications are returned by Ms Beaver with any suggested amendments.

Coming Up Soon...

Cue Winter Performance


Cue winter performance.pptx

And Don't Forget From Last Time

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, either:

Free NHS app helps parents care for their poorly child


As winter sets in and common childhood illnesses become more frequent, parents are being encouraged to use a free NHS app to help them decide how best to care for their child. 


 The HANDi app, which has been developed by a team of specialist children’s doctors, is quick and easy to use and gives parents and carers expert advice on a range of 4 childhood illnesses. These include diarrhoea and vomiting, high temperature, tummy pain, chestiness, head injuries and common problems experienced by newborn babies. 


 The app takes parents through a series of questions about their child’s symptoms and then advises on the best course of action, whether that’s to treat at home, to make a GP appointment, call NHS 111 or call 999. 

The HANDi App is available to download for Apple phones from the app store or iTunes and for Android phones at Google Play. Alternatively, please use the following QR code: 

Staff Vacancies

Cotham School are currently recruiting for the following positions:

For more information and to apply please click here.

Online Safety Newsletter - December 2023

Online Safety Newsletter Secondary December 2023_SECONDARY_PDF_Cotham.pdf

Digital Literacy Corner

As parents we need to be mindful of

Horror Games 

What are the risks:

Advice for Parents and Carers:

Our latest: Seneca Learning and GCSE Pod 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.

Learn more about Seneca Learning Here

Total Seneca Learning Assignments Set for Term 2

260

Total Seneca Learning 

Study Time for Term 2

1754 Hours

Total Seneca  Learning Study Time for this Academic Year

4134 Hours

Welcome! GCSEPod is the perfect resource to help your child learn, retain and recall all the information they need to achieve their GCSE goals. 

Learn more about GCSEPod Here

Pods Watched this Academic Year

881

Number of Pods Watched so far in Term 2

497

Most Watched Subject This Week

Science

Standing Items