Newsletters

Dear Parents and Carers,

This week is National Careers Week and one of the ways we’ve marked it is through our annual Careers Fair.  It has been great to welcome a variety of employers into our school to showcase what is on offer for students when they leave.  It was also really great to see three of our ex-students representing the company he is now working for. 

I read that the average person now changes their career several times throughout their working life, sometimes down to redundancies, changes in IT etc or through wanting something different.  I love listening to the different routes people have had in their working life.  Although I’ve been teaching for many years now, I’ve done lots of different roles along the way: worked in factories making baby alarms and air fresheners, a garage forecourt attendant, a chalet maid at Butlins, social services and then teaching. 

Today we’re celebrating World Book Day.  As a teacher of literature, I love discussing books and encourage you all to use your £1 book token for a special World Book Day text or towards a text of your choice.  I’m currently reading Harry Potter with my child…again!

We’re now halfway through this relatively short term and as I write this the sun is shining – I hope it remains for the weekend.

Kind regards

Williams Racing F1 STEM Day.

A huge well done to the Year 8 students who attended an interactive and challenging STEM day, programming autonomous vehicles at Williams F1 in Grove. The students were excellent ambassadors for the school, receiving high praise from the organisers for their positivity, kindness and exemplary behaviour. During the day, the students were taken on an exceptional journey looking into the history of the Williams Racing team, learning about the different aspects of a Formula 1 car, how mistakes are great learning opportunities to progress and gain success. Students also demonstrated their racing skills in the esports simulators before working in groups tackling the challenges of programming their autonomous vehicles.

A big thank you to the staff and students who made the day a special experience that will be treasured memories.

Dartmoor 2 ½ Expedition

27 hardy students set off for South Dartmoor a couple of weeks ago, keen to test their navigation, campcraft and river-crossing skills on Dartmoor.

The weeks of heavy rain had led to swollen rivers, increased marsh and bog and the forecast suggested it was also going to be very cold.

We pitched up at the campsite to find our usual camping spot was a total quagmire. The ground was slightly firmer in ana alternative field, but it was still exceptionally muddy, and the students were forced to endure the torrential rain and sleet on top of the darkness as they set up camp for the weekend. 

In the morning, the rain continued and breakfasts were cooked on stoves in which shelter could be found. However, as we followed our routes, the weather improved, and we had patches of fog, rain, hail alongside lovely sunny spells. The routes took in some of South Dartmoor's most iconic landmarks - Childe's Tomb (where a hunter had perished after sheltering inside his dead horse), the "bottomless" Crazy Well Pool and the Neolithic stone rows and man-made rabbit warrens of Ditsworthy.

A good day of hiking was had by all - the 35s managing to keep walking for 11 hours and finishing their hike near Princetown prison under the moonlight. Dinners were cooked, and a tired bunch fell asleep under a cold starry night.

The forecast for Sunday had always been terrible and although the gentle drizzle of the morning seemed highly inoffensive, the yellow rain warning issued overnight (95% chance torrential, all-day), temperatures staying around zero and ongoing poor visibility helped justify our decision to bring the students straight home after breakfast on Sunday. This was vindicated by the weather as we left - thick fog, strong winds and sideways rain lashing the minibus. A good learning weekend was had by all (including staff).

Many thanks to volunteers Iain Richards, Smoky Bill Smith, Jazzy Smith, Imogen Wood, Reuben Wood and Mrs Brooks. We are also very grateful to the wardens of the Chapel of St. Raphael in Huccaby for their hospitality and warmth.

For more photos of this expedition, please click here.

We had the pleasure of having Amy Foskett come and deliver a contemporary workshop to our students this evening. Amy has her own dance company which runs in Melksham and is open to all abilities. 

We are looking forward to working with Amy in the future to provide opportunities for students to dance! 

Super proud of how all the students got involved & their positive attitudes. 

Miss Lewis 

Every Name Matters

In September, we launched the ‘Every Name Matters’ initiative. The aim was to ensure every student had an opportunity to have their name pronounced correctly. We had over 50 students respond, and their pronunciations have been uploaded to our registers. We have also recorded their name pronunciations and stored these for staff use only.

This term, we are re-launching the initiative to give all students an opportunity to be included in this way.

If your child has a name that you would like the staff to pronounce correctly, please complete the Microsoft Form: https://forms.office.com/e/kUv5ryVf0w

Step 1: Phonetic Spelling

Once you have completed the form, we will upload the phonetic spelling on SIMS and all their teachers will be able to see this when they open their registers.

Step 2: Audio recordings

Then we will record students pronouncing their names and save the audio recordings that only staff can access.

What’s in a name?

In summary, once you know someone’s name, you are no longer strangers. People warm to surroundings where they feel known and understood, and the name is the first opportunity to imbue a sense of belonging. To quote Dan Carnegie, who wrote in How to Win Friends and Influence People: “Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

Please contact Mark Lee mlee@jogschool.org or Helen Kerr hkerr@jogschool.org if you have further questions.

Year 11 Exam Booster Sessions

In order to fully support Year 11 students in this summer's exams, next term will see the second and final block of compulsory Exam Booster Sessions.  

These sessions will run from 3pm until 4pm, and focus on Exam Technique within each of the subject areas.

 There will be 2 sessions for each of the Year 11's subjects. 

The schedule for these is given below.  

Year 11 students have all been sent this timetable, and they will be sent the locations for each subject weekly.

The John of Gaunt is now registered so that any students who wish to, can enter artwork into the Royal Academy of Arts Young Artists summer show. Now in its sixth year, the Young Artists’ Summer Show is a free, open submission exhibition for students aged 4–19 studying in the UK.

Artworks are judged by a panel of artists and arts professionals, with selected artworks displayed online and on-site at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Students who are 13 or over can submit their own work. 12 or under need an adult to submit it for them. Submission is open until 27 March 2024.

There is so much artistic talent in our school, and it would be wonderful to have students from The John of Gaunt School included in the show as we have in previous years! It is an exciting opportunity to have their work displayed publicly.

The artwork can be made using any material; it can be a painting, sculpture, photograph, installation, video, drawing, or a combination. There is no theme, so artwork can be of any subject, and we don’t mind when you made the artwork as long as you are between 4–19 years old when you submit it. We also welcome collaborative pieces made by more than one student. If you’re submitting as or for a student at GCSE, A Level or BTEC level, we suggest submitting artwork that is not being assessed for exams.' 

More information (and previous exhibitions) can be viewed on the Royal Academy website- https://youngartists.royalacademy.org.uk

Guidance for submission can be found here-

https://yass.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/2024/YASS-Submission-Guidance.pdf