WEEKLY

NEWSLETTER
w/e 21 November
From the Principal

OFSTED Report • Staff are highly committed to the care

Please note that students will be bringing and welfare of students
home copies of our recent OFSTED inspection
report on Tuesday 25th November. The report • Strengths in pastoral care and support
will also be published on our college website contribute to students’ good personal
www.hcc.richmond.sch.uk. The inspection development and well-being
process was extremely rigorous with the
inspection team visiting over 30 classes and • The school under the head and her
interviewing large numbers of staff at all levels leadership team and staff have genuine
of the college. They also interviewed over 40 interest in all pupils
students from all year groups with no HCC
staff present, and talked to many more • Senior leaders have succeeded in
informally around the college. laying the ground for lasting
improvement
We are very pleased with the findings of the
report, in particular those sections which • Parents of students in year 7 are
praise the attitude of our students towards particularly pleased with the way their
their college. There is considerable emphasis children settle
on the many improvements made at HCC over
the past four years. Below are some of the • The performing arts status of the
highlights: college is central to its ethos and is a
strength
• Good and outstanding teaching represents
an increasing proportion of students’ • The performing arts status community
experience aspects are outstanding, benefiting
Would you like to visit Berlin next year ?
students in the college and in other
• In 2008, the proportion of students schools and community groups
attaining five or more higher GCSE grades
with English and maths has increased As always with OFSTED, there are some
considerably…the college met its areas for further development and we have
challenging target already begun working to address these.
We will be raising the standard of learning
• A striking feature is the positive morale across all subjects to the same standard as
amongst staff, and students teaching (already judged to be good);
raising achievement further at Key Stage
• Students are proud of their college, 4; and sharpening up our self-evaluation
describing
Please see the it
HCCas a for
website ‘happy diverseor come and see me.
more details
community’
Mrs Hoseason, Head of MFL
• Students feel safe in school and say
bullying has greatly reduced A provisional booking has been made to take a group of
Year 8, 9 and 10 students to Berlin from 2nd July to 7th July
2009.

The cost of the trip will be £ 365 per student and this
covers:
Return journey by coach and ferry
Half board accommodation at a hotel
Use of coach throughout the stay
Entrance fees to places of interest and boat trip
Full comprehensive insurance
Enterprising fun !

A very busy and resourceful Enterprise

Week, led by Mrs Drennan, 14 – 19 Co-
ordinator, started on Monday 17th November
with lunchtime auditions for our very own ‘HCC
Has Talent’ competition. Each day the hall
filled with supportive spectators and eager
contestants. The auditions were judged by
members of staff.

The Grand Final will be an evening event in

January which friends and families will be
invited to attend – so look out for the date Year 7s worked
which will be published in next week’s hard to keep up
newsletter. with their car
wash orders.
Thursday 20th November was this year’s
Mr Smith poses
cross-curricular theme day which was tied in with his shining
with Enterprise Week. YLCs planned a range of car and some of
different activities, such as a ‘recycled fashion’ the car wash
show, an ‘egg drop’, car washing, creating team
musical instruments and handbags out of
recycled goods, producing magazines, building
bridges and the painting of a huge mural.

The Year 8’s egg drop was a great success

when they were challenged to build a ‘vehicle’
for an egg to travel in. As the vehicles were Year 10s showed
dropped egg survival was the desired some wonderful
outcome! All sorts of materials were used and creations at their
the competition ended in a tie between 8BA’s recycled products
“Eggsters” and 8BM’s “Monkeyfish”. fashion show.

Other Year 8 students took part in a 5 mile

sponsored walk around Bushy Park. The
weather was good, everyone had fun and there
were very few blisters The funds raised from
the walk will be shared between Children in
Need and our enterprise-based project for new
benches.

Year 7 students did a wonderful job washing

the cars of members of staff who had paid in
advance. Vice Principal, Mr Smith was heard to
say that he felt quite emotional as he had
never seen his car so clean!
Mr Beal inspects a
The students have decided that they would like
surviving egg !
the money raised to be donated to Leukaemia
research as a student in 7BM’s brother is
currently having treatment for leukaemia at
the moment.

After sitting their Adult Literacy Year

examination, worth half a GCSE, Year 11s The Year 9s
spent the day working on presentations of fantastic mural
their memories of HCC. They produced a short will be a long
video and recorded interviews with reminder of a
classmates. very rewarding
Enterprise Day
We also had our own ‘roving reporters’ who
toured the college during the day to see what
was going on and their article will appear in
The GCSE Class of 2008 return

The students from the Class of 2008 returned to HCC with their parents and friends on Monday
17th November to receive their GCSE certificates and some special prizes.

With a slideshow of photographs taken during their five years at the college, the students were
welcomed by their past teachers and tutors and congratulated on stage by Dr Demont.

In addition to subject and Governors prizes, four trophies were presented; the Richard Ennals
Award to Cherie Aris, the Principal’s Award to Theo Simms and two new shields this year, the
Specialist Status Award, which went to Rebecca Tarry and the Alessandra Wilson Award which
Mr Simon Wilson kindly donated to the college in her memory and was pleased to present to
Elizabeth Blackwell.

Another new award for this year was the Vadeem Kapalb Award in memory of the former HCC
student who tragically lost his life earlier this year. This was presented in the presence of
members of his family to Kay-Louise King.

We would like to thank the HCCA for supplying refreshments after the ceremony, providing an
assembly point where the young people met up with their HCC friends again.

Mrs Drennan
14 – 19 Co-ordinator
Year 8 visit the National History ‘The Rite of Spring’ at the Royal
Museum Festival Hall

The following comments from Year 8 students Phyllida Miles,, 8GP, writes about a seeing
prove that their visit to the National History the London Philharmonic Orchestra play at
Museum was a good day out last week: the Royal Festival Hall this month:

“It was very interesting; we looked at things
like the effects of earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions and there was an earthquake
simulator.”
Niamh Searle 8GP
“Our day out started on a private double
decker bus! We went around the museum in
class groups and had a brilliant day – and we
learnt things as well!”
Lucy Bulford 9GP
“My favourite area was ‘The Power Within’.
We had an activity booklet to fill in as we went
around.”
Samuel Kintoff
“On Tuesday 11th November, we went to the
Royal Festival Hall to see ‘The Rite of Spring’
by Igor Stravinsky performed by the London
Philharmonic Orchestra. We had a good view
of the orchestra from our seats and they
played three works in the performance. The
first was ‘Mother Goose’, the second a Piano
Concerto and the third was ‘The Rite of
Spring’. I really liked the Timpanist, Andrew
Smith, who played the drums. I liked the way
he played very softly and then suddenly hit a
HUGE note! I really enjoyed the experience
and I would definitely go again.”
*******A date for your diaries******

“I really enjoyed the earthquake simulator. Just a reminder that our annual Christmas
We looked at all sorts of things about the Celebration will take place on Wednesday
earth and filled in a worksheet; we also saw 17th December this year with students
the dinosaurs.” from all year groups participating, as well as
a staff choir !
Year 8 students
standing outside Please put the date in your diaries as this is
the beautiful always a wonderful festive event for students
National History and their families to attend.
Museum building
Try Learning
Last week Year 9 students began a six week
course called ‘Try Learning’ at the
Twickenham Stoop, Harlequins Rugby Ground.
The course involves themed activities
connected to rugby which include literacy and
numeracy.
“Try Learning is great. So far we have done a
video of the stadium and made our own
music to go with the video. We had to set up
our own businesses but sadly not all of us had
the magic touch and pretty soon some of us
found ourselves bankrupt! “
Iona Skinner 9GO
“We are really enjoying Try Learning. We
have played games and produced our own
video. The business game was fun; we had to
run a sports shop. It fun doing the activities
and you learn new things.”
Tom Cheshire 9GO
Three Wings Trust
This independent local charity which supports
children and young people ( up to 19 years)
with disabilities and their siblings, carers and
family members will be holding two
consultation events this month.
The first will be at The Prince of Wales Public
House, Fourth Cross Road, Twickenham, TW2
5QR on Monday 24th November 7.30pm –
9.00pm and the second will be held a St.
Stephen’s Cross Way Centre, 306 Richmond
Road, Twickenham TW1 2PD on Friday 28th
November 12.30pm – 2.00pm.
Circus Skills Workshop
Every Wednesday 3.00pm – 4.00pm
Bring a friend and have fun juggling and doing Poi ! Why not come along next week to
find out more ?
Ms Arthur
Head of Drama
News from the Library
Our Year 7 students should by now have
received their free books from the ‘Booked
Up’ scheme. Parents are encouraged to take
an interest in their child’s choice of book
when they bring it home. The complete set
of this year’s Booked Up books is also
available in the HCC library.
Scholastic Book Fair
We will be holding a Scholastic Book Fair in
the library from 26th November to 2nd
December and a separate invitation has also
been sent home. The fair will run after school
every day from 3 – 4pm. All parents are
invited - it’s a great opportunity for you to
spend a bit of time browsing through books
with your children and perhaps do some
Christmas shopping! You’ll find a wide range
of books suitable for your child’s age-range
including exclusive books that you won’t see
anywhere else. If you cannot attend, visit
http://bookfairs.scholastic.co.uk/parents?
nt=t
to find out about purchasing a gift voucher
for your child to spend at the book fair. Cash
and cheques will also be accepted at the fair.
Mrs Duane, Librarian
Drama Studio 2