Newsletter - October 2015

Coundon Court

Newsletter

Autumn Term One 2015

Coundon Court Hosts Rugby World Cup Tag
Rugby “Team New York”

Coundon Court was visited by tag rugby team New York for several days as they trained for and
participated in the inaugural International Tag Rugby Youth Festival. Coundon Court students were
extremely proud of participating in festivals, based at various venues throughout Coventry. Four schools
from Coventry where paired up with four international teams from Brazil, France, Uganda and the USA.
This tournament was organised by Engage!, a rugby programme developed by Coventry Sports
Foundation supported by the Millerchip Family Fund.
The tournament goals and objectives were to bring together students from around the world to celebrate
rugby’s core values of Teamwork, Respect, Integrity, Enjoyment and Discipline. It was also an opportunity
for students to gain a positive social and cultural understanding of the different participating nations and
see how sport can be used to bring people together from around the world.
Ten students were selected to make up the squad from Year 9. All students had shown commitment to
extra-curricular activities as well as displaying the core values that are integral to the ethos of the festival.
The students involved were:- Ryan Revelins, Kai Meehan, Harry Ward, James Tolley, Aaliyah
Crawford, Kiera O’Brien, Elliot Gowling, Rebecca Weir, Michael McDonnell, Jack Yarnell and Milly
Webb.
All students were an absolute credit to the school and it was a pleasure to see the positive social impact it
had on them throughout the week.

Tag Rugby

Coundon Court hosted Team New York throughout the week and it was fantastic to see their friendships
develop as the week progressed. Both teams met on the first Saturday to enjoy watching the World Cup
warm up match between Wasps and Samoa at the Ricoh Arena followed by a training session on Sunday
at Old Coventrians Rugby Club. Both events were superb for all the students involved and thanks to both
clubs for their hospitality. All students then attended a Sporting Values Conference at the Ricoh Arena on
the Monday. They participated in a range of team building activities centred on Rugby’s Core Values as
well as listening to guest speakers from Premiership Rugby and the British Council.

Tuesday and Wednesday gave us the opportunity for Team New York to visit Coundon Court and
experience a typical day in the life of our students. Our students paired up with students from New York
and looked after them during their time with us. Thanks also to Ms Townsend one of our ex teachers for
coming in and giving a very informative talk on the Old House and the various ‘ghost stories’ surrounding
it’s history. It was then off to Rugby the birth place of the great game and a visit to Rugby School, The
William Webb Ellis Museum and the world famous statue.

The finale to this amazing week was to take part in the first Youth Tag Rugby Festival at the Ricoh Arena
home of Wasps Rugby Club. All eight teams played each other in a round robin format with Team Paris
and Team Brazil competing for the trophy in the final. Team Paris emerged as winners in a fantastic final
which was played in a real festival atmosphere! It was a truly amazing week finished off with a great
competition played in the spirit of the game. Our students were impeccable throughout the week looking
after our host team and were real ambassadors for the school and their families. “We had an amazing
week meeting new people from New York and showing them around Coundon Court. It was also exciting
to play on the pitch at the Ricoh Arena” (Ryan Revelins Year 9).

Engage! Have already pledged to organise the festival every four years in line with the Rugby World Cup
and we are already looking forward to being part of it again. We are also hoping to sustain our partnership
with Rugby USA and have plans to visit New York in the future. Finally, thanks to all the staff and
students at Coundon Court who made this week long event possible.

Welcome to our New Year 7s

It’s been a busy start for Year 7, who have only just joined us here at Coundon Court. We have been
learning all about change in our curriculum areas and within tutor time. It has been fantastic to see so
many students embracing life as a Coundon Court student. This hasn’t been easy, moving to a new
school and meeting and getting to know new people.

We had the pleasure of meeting all of the Year 7 students at their primary school and can already see the
changes that they have made to flourish here at Coundon Court.

Each tutor group this half term has been assigned a Rugby World Cup Team and they
have been following their progress during the initial stages of the tournament. They have
been finding out facts about the country, how it has changed as a country and how rugby
has impacted on their country. Each Tutor Group is competing for the very best tutor
board linked to their country. The Leadership Team will be judging these before half
term. Good luck Year 7!

So far this half term the following students have been nominated by their tutors and teaching staff to be
our Stars of the Week.

Congratulations to… Brookyn Palmer, Megan Innott, James Callaway, Conrad Simpson, Storm Williams,
Molly Deakin, Isabella McDonnell, Elle Mae Gane, Elle Mae Smith, Sam Tolley, Shane Brown, Gurdev
Jhita, Harvey Green, Isabelle Evans, Reece Buxton, Hamzah Ahmed, Joseph Kavanagh, Dhiya Mattu,
Kirrithica Sathiyaseelan, Daniel Murphy, Callum Sangha, Keelan Benton, Mia Bennington, Cory Warner,
Lewis Mitchell, Rhea Bhakta, Loui Whitmore, Georgia Vollbracht, Abigail Healy and Shannon Flaherty.

These students have shown great determination and effort in all their work in tutor and lesson time as well
as participating in extra curricular activities.

My first day at Coundon Court
‘My tummy was turning with a mix of fear and excitement…we reached the biggest school I had ever
seen. I had no clue what was in store for me that day and after making lots of new friends and going to all
my lessons I knew that I had nothing to worry about. It wasn’t as bad as I thought’ - Alessia Caruana

‘I went to assembly with all my year group. When we went to our tutor room, standing there was a nice
friendly smile, her name was Mrs White and she was my tutor.’ - Conrad Simpson

‘I realised Coundon Court wasn’t so scary. It was full of friendly people who I thought were nice. On my
last lesson of the day all I wanted to do was go home so I could show off to my sisters about all the great
lessons I had.’ - Tawanda Taderera

‘My first day at Coundon Court was amazing! When I got into the car to come to school I felt really
nervous and worried. By the time the first day was over, I realised Coundon Court is the best school to go
to. All of the teachers are lovely and so are most of the children.’ - Poppy Petch

Year 7 Transition

Transition Projects

Over the summer holidays our new Year 7 students were given English, Maths and Science projects to
complete before they started their Coundon Court journey. The faculties have been blown away with the
amount of time and effort which has clearly been invested in these projects.

Summer School 2015

Summer School 2015 took place at Coundon Court for the first two weeks of the summer holidays. 57
students attended and some of our Year 7, 8 and 9 students volunteered as leaders to support in
activities and trips. The Summer School visited Warwickshire Golf Course where students learnt how play
golf (and were lucky enough to play on the golf course!). Students went Ten Pin Bowling in Walsgrave
and also visited Kingsbury Waterpark where they went on canoes, kayaking boats, sailing and raft boats.

Students experienced a variety of taster lessons while at the Summer School. These included, Maths,
Science, English, Drama, PE, Technology, RE, History and Geography.

At the end of the two weeks the Summer School ended with an Activity Day where students tried archery
and rock climbing on a climbing wall! We had a celebration assembly on the final afternoon where all our
students were rewarded for their fantastic behaviour and achievement during the two weeks.

Year 9

It seems that this first half term has gone by so quickly for the Year 9 students here at Coundon Court.
Students have risen to the challenges of their option subjects and tackled the challenging GCSE content
with hard work. This will undoubtedly lead to a very successful year for all. It has been supported in tutor
time with students setting personal challenging targets for them to review and achieve over the course of
the autumn term.

Mirroring this, each week a number of Year 9 students have been picked for stars of the week. These
students have either shown an excellent contribution to their studies or stepped up to a challenge that
they may not have done in the past. The following students have been Year 9 stars of the week over this
half term and deserve a special mention for working so hard. Charlie Acton, Sakina Jussab, Sam
Harrison, Stephanie Lee, Tarun Lalli, Aoife Carey, Tejas Chhaya, Harry Knight, Mya Surana, Amir
Abas, Kacie Fawcett and Jessica Fawcett.

Outside the classroom students, have been very active and have taken part in sports, performing arts and
further extra-curricular activities to support their personal development this half term. The Year 9 boys’
cross-country team has had some demanding competitions recently, but the boys have shown real talent
and have had some great successes. The boys rugby team and football teams, although newly formed ,
have shown commitment to each other and the school and should be recognised for this. The girl’s
netball team has also had some great successes over the first half term. A very successful tag rugby
event showed great sportsmanship by all Year 9 students involved.

Finally congratulations must go to Rebecca Weir who secured herself a part in the pantomime at
Christmas after a grueling audition process - Well Done Rebecca!

As you can see this half term that has been challenging but with a large number of successes to report
and with such a committed year group that has so much potential, I predict we will be reporting many
more achievements over the course of the year.

Well Done Year 9 for such a strong start to the year!

Royal Geographical Society Workshop

Two students who are members of the Royal Geographical Society came into
Coundon Court to tell us why Geography is so important in our world.

Emily and Conor (who are previous Coundon Court students and are currently
studying Geography at University) gave us lots of information about what
studying Geography at GCSE and beyond involves. This was very helpful as it
showed us how interesting the subject is! Students were split into groups
during the session and were given different Geographical topics to write a rap
about to persuade everyone that our type of Geography was the most important. The topic we were given
was Fuel and Energy and we learnt lots of new things about Geography that we never knew before.

We would like to say thank you to Emily and Conor and we would definitely want the Royal Geographical
Society to return.

By Miranda Gormley and Ines Krabbe

First World War Battlefields

During October some of our History students were given the opportunity to visit the First World War
battlefields in France and Belgium.

On the first day, all students met outside the school and set off for Folkestone on the coach, making good
time.

After a brief stop in Calais, we made our way to the Passchendaele Memorial
Museum. Here students saw all kinds of artefacts from the First World War,
from guns and armaments to personal affects such as pictures, letters and
lockets. Students also got to experience what a dugout was like and walked
through some reconstructed trenches on the grounds where the battle was
fought in 1916.

We then followed this up by visiting Tyne Cot Cemetery, a memorial
that commemorates 33,783 British, 1,176 New Zealand and 3 German
dead. The sheer scale of this memorial really helped to show the
devastation that the war had wrought and the students were
thoroughly engrossed in walking around, taking pictures and
discussing what they found.

After this, we went to the Munchenhof Hotel for some dinner, before heading to Menin Gate to witness the
Last Post Ceremony. All students were the epitome of respect and reverence throughout the ceremony,
traits that they continued to display for the duration of the trip. The ceremony was incredibly moving and
we were delighted to have had the opportunity to witness it before returning to the hotel to rest after a
long and very busy day.

Vimy Ridge and Paschendaele were extremely exciting places to visit, with interesting facts about how
the soldiers of the First World War coped. The trenches put me into the shoes of the soldiers and really
highlighted to me how much respect they deserve. Joseph Hunt – 9.05
Day two

Despite a busy day on Thursday, we had an early start and ate
some breakfast before heading to Ypres. While there, we spent
a great deal of time exploring the Flander’s Field Museum,
which told the stories of soldiers and nurses through
interactive displays and exhibits of a wide assortment of items
from the trenches.

We then spent some time exploring the town of Ypres, visiting
Menin Gate during the day and the Leonidas Chocolate Shop.

Following this, we picked up a local guide to take us around several sites of significance
during the First World War. This included the Lochnagar Crater, Thiepval Memorial and
Newfoundland Park. The guide’s extensive knowledge was well-appreciated by the
students, who listened intently to her stories and explanations.

The guide’s knowledge was so extensive that she was able to
assist one of our students, Joshua Brown, in finding the grave of
his great uncle and agreed to take us there. This provided one of
the most emotional moments of the trip, as Joshua was able to
pay respects to his great uncle Joe and lay a small poppy at his
grave, surrounded and supported by his friends.

We then went to the Poppies hotel in Albert before walking through the town to a
local pub for dinner. After this, we then returned to the hotel to turn in, as everyone
(including staff!) were understandably tired and had another long day to come.

I found the trip extremely interesting and surprising, because when we went to the memorials and
monuments the vast amount of names was unbelievable and it showed to me how little we think about
how many people sacrificed their lives for this country. Frank Edwards – 10.06

On the final day we, thankfully, had a bit of a lie-in, but all were up by 8.00 for breakfast and set off for our
final visit of the trip, to Vimy Ridge. Here the students again got to see the system of trenches made
infamous by the First World War, including seeing a section where the frontline of the British and German
trenches were a mere 25 metres apart! The landscape had also not been modified in the century since
the conflict and the scars of the land from the artillery bombardment provided a poignant reminder of the
viciousness of the conflict and the number of lives that were claimed by it.

We then walked to the memorial statue erected at the site of the battle, a vast and awe-inspiring
monument that was made all the more spectacular by the serenity of the expanse of the land surrounding
it.

We began our long journey back to Coventry. We stopped off at the Cite Europe shopping centre for food
and some shopping before continuing onto Calais. Despite unexpected delays on the Eurotunnel and the
M20, students remained positive and exceptionally well-behaved for the entirety of the journey.

I would like to state how impressed and humbled I was by the respect and reverence shown by all
students throughout the trip and I was delighted with how often they were complimented by shop and
museum staff. They were excellent ambassadors for Coundon Court and themselves.

I would also like to thank Miss Ward, Mrs Hoult, Mrs Kershaw, Mr Belstone and Mr Martin for their
support, as the trip really would not have been possible without them. I know that the students and I really
appreciated their consistent enthusiasm, professionalism and compassion.

Thomas Malby, History teacher and trip coordinator.

Sam O'Brien's trip to the Caribbean

Insane heat, friendships made with people from around the world, pranks, partying at a local
carnival - just some of my memories from my two week scouting expedition to the Caribbean.

My name is Sam O’Brien and over the summer I was set the challenge of going on an expedition
to the Caribbean. My team and I had to collectively raised £2100 so we could go on the trip. After
a year of fundraising we boarded our plane to start our eight hour flight to Antigua!

When we arrived we split into to two groups; my group went to the island of Anguilla. Totally
exhausted, we arrived about 2am local time having been up for 24 hours. The Anguillan Scouts
gave us air beds and a school in which to sleep. We were going to camp out but arrived there too
late! The highlight of the first island was that it had the best beaches in the world. They were
quiet and calm. The sand was pure white and the clear blue water refreshing. The sea was
littered with starfish and rays! While we were there we enjoyed a messy day painting the Scouts’
headquarters and were privileged to meet the governor of the island and the local Scouts.

After the first week we came back together as a large group in Antigua and ended up with 48
hours without water ARGH! This meant cup showers! We experienced carnivals, more beautiful
beaches, local food (which included lobster and jerk chicken) and we even had a tour on
Segways!

I talked to the scouts that live in Antigua. Their lives weren’t so different from ours except that
there were no trains or buses. They also never left their own island even though other islands
were only 20 minutes away by plane. Probably the biggest difference I noticed was that there
was more of a community there. People would even give strangers lifts!

That was my experience in the Caribbean and I had a great time; I will always snap up a chance
to do it again, would you?

Mariah Jackson

We are proud to announce that Mariah Jackson took part in an audition for ‘Open Mic’ in Bir-
mingham during September. Mariah had to sing in a room with judges, they were very pleased
with her performance and have put her through to the next round! The judges were really im-
pressed and they were very happy with her audition and wanted to see more!

Mariah attended a second round of auditions at the NEC arena. Mariah had to perform on stage
and this time in front of a live audience. The judges gave her full marks out of 10 and again put
her through to the next round!

Mariah is thrilled, ‘The competition is all about a chance of recognition with record labels and big
music places. Good news for me! After I did my performance one of the judges who is a well-
known music manager came and spoke to me personally saying he would like to work with me
and take me to a two day boot camp in Rugby. It will be professional training and lessons for me.
The producer said he wants to help me with my career and he feels he has good hopes for me.
My next audition is one step away from being in the grand national final. This will all take place
again in November and this is where the show much bigger and much more serious.’

Charlotte Moore off to Rio 2016

During September, Charlotte Moore (Year 12) competed for the Great Britain’s Women’s Wheelchair
Basketball team at the European Championship in Worcester.

Charlotte played in the semi-finals against Germany in a truly thrilling match which unfortunately they lost
narrowly 55-54. Great Britain went onto secure bronze against France on Sunday morning and guarantee
their place in Rio 2016!! For everyone who has known Charlotte throughout her time at Coundon Court
you will know how she has maintained the balance unbelievably well between the commitments of playing
for Great Britain and her studies (A’s and B’s in this summer’s GCSEs). Charlotte will be back studying in
our Sixth Form and we wish her all the best.

We will update you on Charlotte’s progress in future editions.

Year 12 BTEC Music

Congratulations to our Year 12 BTEC Music
students Balazs Naughton, Rob Latimer, Sam
Greenwell and Sophie Knowles for organising
two major music events last academic year as
part of their BTEC course. They presented a
cheque for £228.37 to Myton Hospice, and staff
were delighted with their efforts and thanked
everyone at Coundon Court who supported
these events. Well done everyone!

Paul Adderley

During September, Paul Adderley got the opportunity to referee at the
Sainsbury’s Football Championships held at Manchester University. The
teams he refereed were all international women’s under 18’s.

Over the weekend he refereed 3 games and ran touch and in goal for 6
games. The games that were refereed were South West Wales vs
Ireland, Scotland vs Midlands and Scotland vs North England.

It was a scary experience as he had only refereed junior games (up to
the ages of 16), so to go from refereeing 16 year olds to 18-19 year olds
was a real challenge. Paul was blown away by the respect he received
from all the players and he hopes to be able to do it all again next year.

Paul also got to referee at the Ricoh Arena in an International Schools Tournament during October. The
idea of the scheme is to get young people from all the different countries where rugby is not a well-played
sport and give them the opportunity to play. Paul also refereed teams from Uganda, America, Paris, Brazil
and England. It was a amazing for Paul to be able to pass his knowledge of the game to kids and help
them develop and become better players.

Colour Run

The Science staff took part in the Colour Run over the holidays
to raise money for the NSPCC! It was a bit messy, but it really
was great fun and such a great cause. We are now in training for
our next mission, if you have a charity you would like us to
support next, come and talk to Mr Aldridge, Mr Littler or Mrs
Milbourne.

Equestrian

Congratulations to Megan Abbott, Betty Baker, Sarah Cadden, Arden Forster, Ellie Delaney and Maisie
Halton who took part in a time trial at Offchurch on 10th October.
Congratulations on a knock out day!
Betty 1st in the 100cm
Ellie 4th in the 70cm
Maisie 5th in the 80cm
Ellie, Sarah, Arden and Megan were just out of the placing’s, but all did extremely well against the tough
competition.

Aimee BuTrugeshdaamy 157tphmDecember
Main School HallCongratulations to Aimee Burgham for competing in Telford during July in the
National Trampolining Competition, she came a fantastic 3rd which takes her

Tickets: £4 (£3) concessionsto 3rd place in the United Kingdom at NDP Level 5.
Children under 4 free
Aimee now moves up 2 grades to NDP 7.

Christmas Concert

Tuesday 15th December
7pm Main School Hall
Tickets: £4
(£3)
concessions
Children under 4 free

Coundon Court School
Northbrook Road
Coundon
Coventry
CV6 2AJ

T: 024 7633 5121
W: www.coundoncourt.org
E: [email protected]