A MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER - Abbot Beyne School

EVERYONE A LEARNER EVERYONE LEARNING

A MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER
Welcome to the first newsletter of the year and my first one from
Abbot Beyne School. I want to begin by thanking staff, students,
parents, governors and the local community for the very warm welcome you have
given me since I started at the school.

Like all schools, we had some concerns about how students would return after being
out of education and school routines for so long. However, all of the staff are
impressed with the way the vast majority of our students have coped. We have seen
a reduction in LOLOs of over 40% compared with the same time last year with students
behaving appropriately in lessons and engaging in their work. I am enjoying seeing
students working interactively with iPads in their lessons and recognise the impact
iPads are having on students’ learning. If you have not yet purchased yours, please
contact the school for how to arrange this.

Our Year 7 students have settled in very well into the school. Our exams groups, Year
11 and Year 13, are focussed on closing the gaps on the work they have missed and
are preparing for their mocks after half term. We continue to keep safeguarding
students as our number one priority and will contact you with any concerns we have
and ask you to contact us if you have something we should we made aware of about
your son or daughter.

As you are aware we have our first positive case of Covid-19. We are doing everything
we can as a school to keep all of our students’ safe and follow the advice of Public
Health England. We have had a two day visit from the Health & Safety Team and they
were so impressed with the extra sinks we have installed, they are using us as an
exemplar for other schools. Our year bubbles and staggered start times, breaks and
lunches are working incredibly effectively in keeping students safe and are contributing
towards the improvements in behaviour. As a school we are trying to have a larger
presence in the community before and after school to ensure that our students follow
these guidelines in and out of school.

We are having to do a number of things differently this year. Consultation Evenings
will have to be a phone call home from a member of staff who will summarise
performance for students across all subjects. Our Open Evenings for Year 6 and Sixth
Form are a series of videos on our school website, demonstrating the excellent work
at the school. We are, wherever possible, still meeting with parents but we ask that
you ring and make an appointment first. If you have any feedback about the school,
positive or negative, I would love to hear from you. I want Abbot Beyne to be an
outstanding school whilst maintaining the students’ best interests at our core. By
working together, we can ensure when students leave the school they become valued
and valuable members of a global community.

I recognise the return has been difficult for staff, students and parents. Our attendance
is above the national average but we can still improve further. We want your son or
daughter in school so that they can learn with their peers. Please contact us if you
have any concerns regarding your child’s attendance.

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I hope to use our social media platforms https://twitter.com/Abbotbeyne and
https://www.facebook.com/Abbot-Beyne-School-150629302203382/ to keep in touch
with what is going on at the school. That just leaves me to wish you a wonderful half
term break and we look forward to seeing all of our students return on Monday 2 nd
November.

JAMIE TICKLE

IMPORTANT CHANGES
As a school it is important that our parent/carer contacts are kept as up-to-date as
possible, therefore if you change your telephone number or move house it is vital that
you share this information with us. It is also important that we have a second contact
person in the case of an emergency and we cannot get hold of the primary contact.

We also wish to notify you that in future we will be reducing the amount of written
correspondence that we post home to parents/carers and are moving towards a
paperless system by emailing information home. Therefore, please can you ensure
that we have an up-to-date email address for the primary contact on your child’s
account.

If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to contact the school offices.

LIFE AT LINNELL & KS4 NEWS
KS4 have settled into life at Linnell following the summer break. Year 10 have been
finding their way around their new surroundings and concentrating on their GCSE
work. Well done to KS4 for their calm and grown-up behaviour concerning the current
Covid restrictions.

Year 11 have also settled back into the routine at Linnell and are focused on their
studies. Year 11 will have Mock exams during November. IAG (Information, Advice
& Guidance) interviews are currently taking place to enable students to have a one-
to-one discussion with a member of senior staff about their future after Year 11,
relating to higher education or the world of work.

Well done to Kian Maher in Year 10 on coming third in the British Skeet Shooting Open
Championships and he is also now the West Midlands Junior Champion. Kian also
came first in the under 16s (Colts) Welsh Open and he has now been chosen for the
England Selection Shoots in 2021! We wish Kian every success with his sporting
pursuits.

SKILLS of SUCCESS NEWS
We are really proud of what Year 7 have achieved in Skills of Success this half term.
Most impressive is the excellent starts they have made in their learning of our TRICs
skills – Teamwork, Reflection, Independence and Creativity.

In the last two weeks of half term they have been using their teamwork and creativity
to try and escape from their SoS classrooms! Each classroom was transformed into
an ‘Escape Room’ and students had to complete a series of challenges and puzzles

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to find codes, hidden messages, padlocks and keys. Year 7 were then given the
opportunity to let their creativity and imagination run wild to design their own escape
rooms with unique themes, room designs, puzzles and challenges.

Well done Year 7 on a successful start to your Skills of Success learning journey!

SUMMER READING CHALLENGE 2020
Over the summer, students were challenged to read a variety of different texts, from
was poems to sports articles to books with a blue cover. There were 20 challenges to
choose from in total with the chance of winning some vouchers. The runners-up were
Year 10 student Scarlett Kirby and Year 9 student Rosie Hassent with the overall
winner being Georgia Sutton from Year 11, who completed all of the challenges! Very
well done Georgia!

Georgia has kindly shared the below piece about the reading challenge for us:-

The summer reading challenge this year gave me the opportunity to read a variety of
literature which I otherwise would not have read. I loved finding books to fit the
prompts and using them to encourage me to tackle the 500 page tombs that I had
been putting off forever!

The Sci-Fi prompt helped me to finish ‘Dune’ by Frank Herbert which some say is the
best Science Fiction novel ever and it helped me to discover a whole new genre. Also,
I educated myself on the exploitation of animals in the tourism industry in response to
an article prompt and I am so glad that I did.

I cannot deny that the prize of money (which I am obviously going to use to buy more
books) was not encouraging but reading is such a rewarding experience and a great
way to escape, especially this year. Reading is so important to me and I am glad that
I participated in this challenge.

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BOOK BUZZ
Each year Abbot Beyne purchases a book for each Year 7
student. Students can choose one book from a list of
seventeen titles and the book is then theirs to take home and
keep.

There are a range of choices from non-fiction to adventure, football, mystery and
animal stories.

As a school we encourage all of our students to read for pleasure, either in
Mentoring, ERIC or during English lessons.

ABOUT THE BOOK!

                       THIS TERM OUR CHOSEN BOOK IS

 16 year old Brie wants to                                 We would love you to
  be one of the greatest                                   borrow a copy of ‘On
rappers of all time but it’s                                the Come Up’ from
                                                            one of our Learning
  hard to get your come
                                                           Centres, read it and
 up when you’re labelled
                                                            then leave a review
‘trouble’? Brie’s success is
                                                               on our Twitter
  all that stands between                                  page….or if you have
       her family and                                       already read it then
  homelessness – she has                                      please tweet us
         to make it!                                              about it.

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Although things are very different in the Evershed and Linnell libraries at the moment
remember that you can still access books via your iPad. Here is the Abbot Beyne
online library via E-Platform where you can browse for eBooks and loan them for 2
weeks to read on your iPad (the app should already be installed on your iPad).
Username will be your First Name.Surname (i.e. Bob.Smith):

                          Year 7 Password: Password01
                             Year 8 Password: Library
                          Year 9-13 Password: Library01
There is also the Borrowbox Service at your local library online. If you are not already
a member and would like to join then install the Borrowbox app on a home device,
choose your desired library service and activate the account by using your library
membership number and then you are set to borrow eBooks and audiobooks for free.

Please can you return any outstanding school library loans to either Evershed
or Linnell Learning Centres. Many thanks!

NATIONAL POETRY DAY
During National Poetry Day 9N5 choose and read a poem to the rest of the class. We
had nursery rhymes, poems read in different languages and even some singing!
Everyone then wrote their own poem. In all it was a very creative lesson!

This is a poem by Mr Griffiths, which he wrote in just half an hour!

There’s a building on the top of a hill
It holds young minds with knowledge in which to fill
The sounds of the bell
Like students that yell
In mouldy PE kits with sweaty smells.

A place of study and learning
With hope and ambition burning
Turning children into young adults
Empowering strengths and accepting faults
Education can unlock                                          A poem by Oliver Youngblood
All the dreams we have and want
A bright future, keys to success,
Or even just a way                                                          Oliwia Mejer’s poem
Where Everyone’s a Learner;                                                 about Cats written in
Our school,                                                                 Polish & English
Abbot Beyne.

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CONGRATULATIONS!
Congratulations to Katie Owen (Year 10), Evie Walls and Katie Stringer (Year 8
students), who have all been selected to have poems published after they entered a
poetry competition earlier in the year. They now stand a chance of winning the
competition which will be judged later in the year.

Well done to Georgia Sutton (Year 11), Scarlett Leigh and Rosie-Mae Hassent (Year
9 students), who have all received prizes for their efforts in the Summer Reading
Challenge. Georgia completed a whopping 19 of the 20 challenges set!

MFL NEWS
To celebrate the European Day of Languages and diversity within our school we ran
a Key Stage 3 competition asking for students to create a handwritten, well-presented
poem or nursery rhyme in either their own language or a foreign language. This year,
despite the many restrictions, the students rose to the challenge and wrote and
researched some lovely poems.

The lucky winners were Year 9 student Marwi Mohammed Iqbal and Year 7 student’s
Rosa Bracewell, Rumaisa Ahmed and Oliver Clarke.

CARNEGIE AWARDS 2020
We are pleased to announce that The CILIP Carnegie Awards which commenced back
in March as schools were closed due to the pandemic, will be continuing into this
academic year. This is a national (and international) reading for pleasure initiative to

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engage children and young people in reading the books on the shortlist via reading
groups in schools and public libraries. Our students will review a shortlist of 8 books
and vote for their favourite. The awards mission is to inspire and empower the next
generation to create a better world through books and reading.

For further information please go to: https://carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/cilip-carnegie-
medal-shortlist-2020/

BURTON ALBION READING CHALLENGE
Back in February several of our now Year 8 students attended a Burton Albion v
Peterborough football match at Burton Albion resulting in a 1 all draw. This was a
reward for taking part in a Reading Challenge during the Spring Term. Certificates
were awarded to all students during assemblies. We look forward to running such a
challenge again in the future.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR
We would like to give our thanks to students who purchased half price books and
stationery during our Scholastic Book Fair this year, accruing enough commission from
their sales to enable our Learning Centres to purchase new books for our libraries.

SCIENCE NEWS
All work can be accessed on SHOWBIE for all students. Please remember that this
is not just found on iPads. Under the current restrictions we are not able to carry out
whole class practical’s using heating equipment or chemicals. Instead we are carrying
out demonstrations and streaming these on the whiteboard and/or videoing for
students to watch on the SHOWBIE lessons. We have also adopted a few interactive
websites and apps to enable some online practical experience to take place. I will
keep you informed as when we can change and go back to our preferred way of
working.

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Homework for all year groups will consist of an online learning tool called Tassomai.
Please ask your child to show you their Tassomai account and how it works. Until half
term the Tassomai algorithm uses all questions from all topics, (some of which your
child will not yet been taught), however, after half term only the topics they have either
been or are being taught will form part of the questions. The importance is to get
students into good learning habits and attempting to complete the Daily Goals (we
recommend at 5 out of 7). This will enable your child to recall science facts and
improve their overall attainment in this subject.

As well as Tassomai we are also using SENECA Learning to help consolidate learning.
Again, please ask your child to show you their SENECA account and how the
assignments work and what they do to complete the learning.

Both of these can be found on the web, at present only Tassomai is an app that is on
your child’s iPad out of the two.

Your interest in this part of your child’s learning will enable them to improve in our
subject.

For more information regarding SENECA Learning please use the following link
http://abbotbeyne.staffs.sch.uk/learning-teaching/seneca

SIGNING UP TO SENECA
Following on from the above article below is how you can sign up for a free SENECA
account:-

Type into your search engine app.senecalearning.com/parent.

There is a handy 2 minute video to help get you started or you can read how to get
your free account if you prefer.

If you have any questions about how SENECA works, you can get support from the
SENECA Team using the live chat on their website or you can email them at
learnmore@seneca.io.

We really hope that your find SENECA’s free parent account useful! If you have any
queries then please do not hesitate to contact me at school, Mrs Lowe at
c.lowe@abbotbeyne.staffs.sch.uk.

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Dates for Your Dairy
     Friday 13th November      Remembrance Service
     Tuesday 17th November     Deep Learning Day
     Thursday 19th November    Post 16 Open Evening
     Friday 20th November      Year 9 National Museum of Computing Visit
     Tuesday 8th December      Celebration Evening
     Wednesday 16th December   Christmas Concert

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