Newsletter - March 2016

Coundon Court

Newsletter

Spring Term 2016

Student Leadership

Before Christmas, Year 11s were invited to apply for the Head Boy and Head Girl positions. Interviews
were held by the Heads of Houses and decisions were reached on the school’s new Student Leadership
Team.

We are pleased to announce that the Year 11 Leadership Team is as follows:

Head Boy Courage Honour Pride
Head Girl Luke Lawrence Jon Spellman Jacob Lowe
Senior prefect Georgia Roddis Ella Johnson
Senior Prefect Ellie Gadsby Amarjot Jhita Carly Bates
Senior Prefect Angel Orr Paul Adderley
Tom Lundie TBC Zaki Musbah
Josh Abbott Sean Williams

These students, along with the student council members in each year group will represent the school’s
student voice.

Foleshill Baptist Church

Thank you to all students and staff who contributed to the Year
11 Food Bank collection. It was gratefully received by Foleshill
Baptist Church and Coventry Food Bank. They have written to
say a very big “thank you” to Coundon Court for supporting the
Food Bank through its recent collection.
In total, Year 11 students donated 49.70kg of food which
greatly helps them to support those individuals, families and
children who find themselves in difficult circumstances.

The food that was provided is now in their stock cupboard ready for giving out – they open as a
distribution centre on Wednesdays from 12.00 to 2.00pm each
week.

You might also be interested to know that since Foleshill Baptist
Church opened as a Food Bank at the Church in November 2011,
they have provided food for just over 7,000 people.

Coventry Food Bank

Year 7, 8 and 9 were all involved in bringing tins and
non-perishable foods to donate to the Coventry Food Bank in
Allesley Park. We were overwhelmed with the efforts of our
students.

During December representatives from Years 7, 8 and 9 visited the
Evangelical Church in Allesley Park to donate the 25 boxes which
had been donated. There was so much food that we actually filled a
whole room at the church!

The Coventry Food Bank volunteers told us that due to the vast
amount of food donated some of this would be going to the main
city distribution centre so that other communities could benefit from our donations.

Our representatives saw the Coventry Food Bank stores and
found some interesting facts about the Coventry Food Bank
and who benefits from the donations. All students were
impeccably behaved and were fantastic in representing
Coundon Court with their mature attitudes and questions.

We hope to continue our links with the Coventry Food Bank
in the future.

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

Year 11 and 12 students have been very busy carrying out their first
expedition training session during January 2016 for their Bronze Duke of
Edinburgh’s Award. During the Saturday session they carried out basic map
reading, were introduced to route cards, successfully put up tents and also
cooked a hot meal on the Trangia stoves whilst the outside temperature was
as low as -1oC! Hopefully, it
should not be that cold during
the actual expeditions!
Their determination and
enthusiasm meant they
successfully completed every
training task given to them.
We are looking forward to their
next training session in
February 2016 which will involve expedition first aid, kit
packing and route planning. We also look forward to carrying out the practice and qualifying expeditions
later on this academic year.

Teacher Recognition

Lauren Kenny-Lilley, Year 11, would like to give thanks and recognition to Mrs Smith in our SEN/D
Department for all the work that she does in helping students within the school whose English is not their
first language.
Without Mrs Smith’s encouragement, these students would find education more of a challenge due to their
language barriers.
Mrs Smith gives up a great deal of her time teaching students on a one to one basis and is always willing
to support them in their studies.
Thank you!

During February half term, 28 History, Philosophy and Ethics students went
away to Berlin for four days. It was bitterly cold, involved several,
sometimes squashed, means of transport and was physically and emotionally
exhausting. It was a cultural eye-opener, an emotional rollercoaster, providing
points for reflection and memories which will hopefully last a lifetime.

Many of our students have returned to share their experiences with video
clips, assemblies and lessons to bring into three stage 3 classrooms.





Year 7

Another busy term for Year 7, with lots of fantastic work being done within tutor time connected to this half
term’s theme of RESOLUTION. In tutor time Year 7s have been working hard on investigating the work
place and how this connects to team work, collaboration and resolution as part of the careers curriculum.
Year 7 have also been planning and writing their entries for BBC Radio 2’s Chris Evans, 500 Words
competition which we are all hoping for some amazing stories and maybe the overall winner! Good luck.

We are into the final weeks of the Year 7 Reading Challenge, where we are hoping for Year 7 to gain
Bronze, Silver and Gold awards…watch this space for the winners next half term.

West Midlands Cross Country Competition
Holly Bates 7.08 successfully made it through to the West Midlands Cross Country Championships which
took place on 23rd January 2016. Holly represented Coventry in the competition and came 2nd out of 41
girls in 7 different areas of the West Midlands. Well done Holly.

UKMT Senior Mathematics Challenge Results

45 of our Gifted and Talented Year 12 and 13 mathematicians from Coundon Court participated in this
national event. Congratulations to the following students who won medals:
SILVER – George Bullock
BRONZE – Sophie Knowles, Sam Davidson, Rebecca Aston, Robbie Harris, Inder Ghattaura,
Josh Wilson, Liam Bratt, Jay Russell, Sophie Anderson, Leon Nakra, Lewis Cafferty, Leah Williams and
Mehna Gajjar.
Well done also to all who participated.

Year 9 Transformations Project

For the third year in a row, our top set Year 9 students at Coundon Court have volunteered their own time
to attend Literature classes run by Warwick University's English Department. The sessions lasted for ten
weeks and during this time the students explored and researched Dystopian fiction in order to produce an
analytical essay at the end of the ten weeks. Our students were praised for their efforts and their
dedication to the sessions, as well as the work that they produced. Kacey Sheldon in particular was
praised for the way that her analytical skills and essay writing developed over the course of the ten weeks.
Our Year 9 students were a credit to the English Department and the school.

Year 10 Pizza Points

After completing the daunting task of studying Jekyll and Hyde for the first time, our Year 10 students
proved that they had a strong work ethic and attitude that should be rewarded. After producing some
amazing Jekyll and Hyde displays to showcase everything that they had learnt about Jekyll and Hyde, the
English Department were sure that Year 10 would rise to the challenge of competing to claim their pizza
lunch every two weeks. Year 10 will be awarded positive behaviour points for fulfilling individual
requirements for each pizza point; ranging from: using subject terminology in a response to showing an
excellent attitude in every aspect of the lesson. Our first winners were 10W3 and 10Z2 who enjoyed
their pizza lunch on Friday 4th March and our next total will be taken on Friday 18th March, with the
winners announced in Year 10's Friday morning assembly. Who will be triumphant in the next round?

Sports Relief

Sports Relief started with a vengeance at Coundon on Monday 14th March. The aim
was for all students in their PE lessons to walk, jog or run a mile or more!

Tallying up miles for their House; Courage, Pride or Honour.

Maise Wilkinson, Ellie Foder, Emma Lowe, Callum Williams and Elizabeth Bruce all
clocked up 3 miles in their first attempt!!

Well done to all Coundon students for supporting such a great cause.

Winter House Sport

Here we go..............Winter House Sport, a sports competition for all.

This year the PE Faculty's sports competitions are taking place as House
Competitions with students representing Courage, Pride and Honour.
Students will participate in either netball, basketball, table tennis, gym/dance,
football and hockey matches.

House Sport got off to an amazing start with Year 9 competing on the
afternoon of 14th March. With the sun shinning and beautiful blue skies we had the whole of Year 9 taking
part, which was fantastic to see.

Year 11 Football Team

The Year 11 Football Team has made it through to the semi finals of the Coventry Schools Cup after an
unbelievable comeback against Cardinal Wiseman. With only 14 minutes remaining in the game the boys
were 4 - 1 down and although most teams would give up at this point there were no signs of this
happening. The team showed huge amounts of heart and determination by refusing to give up, eventually
beating Wiseman 6 - 5 at the final whistle. Captain Ethan Freemantle led the comeback with a vital goal
and Vice-Captain Jac Redhead continued it, the pair shared the scoring with 3 goals each. This was a
massive team effort with some excellent last ditch tackles from defenders Jamie Thornton, Ben Sherwin
and Max Taylor-Byrne as well as solid goalkeeping from Nathan Phillips to keep us in the game.
Midfielders Tommy Probert, Liam Barnett, Morgan Lines, Raul Sahota, Rhys Waterman and Krishan Dass
worked tirelessly both in defence and on the attack to guarantee the win. The boys will now face either
Grace Academy or President Kennedy in the semi final and thoroughly deserve to be there.

Cheerleading

Evie Hurst in 7.04 and Symren Dosangh in 7.07 are competing in an International
Cheerleading Competition in Paris at the end of the month. Both girls will also be
performing at Disneyland Paris in the parade.

We wish them both luck in their competition and look forward to hearing all about their
experiences on their return.

Netball

As the netball season draws to a close it has been a very busy season all round
with teams running from Year's 7 to 13. Coundon Court teams have been involved
in league and friendly games as well as Coventry Schools Tournaments. All girls
involved have been a real credit to the school and a pleasure to be with. Well done
to the Year 7 netball team who have represented Coundon Court in the Coventry
Schools Netball League. The team also had the opportunity to compete in the
Coventry Schools Netball Tournament. All students showed great determination
and sportsmanship. Coundon hosted the Year 8 Coventry Schools Netball Tournament and saw 14 teams
from 9 schools playing across all courts, it was a lovely event and a special mention goes to Jess Owen
(Year 10) who helps coach Year 8 on a regular basis and played an integral part in the organisation of the
tournament. Year 9 and 10 teams continue to build upon the foundations from last year and are looking
forward to next season. Well done to Indya Masser who has once again secured a place in the U14
County squad and plays regularly for Copsewood. Huge congratulations go to the Year 11 A and B net-
ball teams who have gone onto win the Coventry Netball League again this year. A very heart felt thank
you to all the girls for their time, effort, commitment and enthusiasm over the past two years. Many girls
are returning to school and will be part of the Sixth Form Team but for those that choose different paths I
hope you continue to play and enjoy the game.

We congratulate Molly
Callaway who is training
with West Midland's U17
squad and regularly
plays as part of the
Henley U16 team in a
national league.

The Dominique Matthews Tournament

Once again on Wednesday 9th March Coundon Court was due to
host The Dominique Matthews Memorial Tournament.
Dominique was a student at Coundon who loved playing netball
and represented the school throughout her time at Coundon.
Very sadly Dominique passed away; In March 2004 a netball
tournament, which is now an annual event was set up in her
name, to honour Dominique's memory.
The emphasis is on participating and enjoying playing netball, all
teams play in the true spirit of the game, something we felt
Dominique would have loved. Dominique's father Ken and her
sister Danette are still actively involved with the development of
netball in the city.
Unfortunately due to flooding it was with great sadness that we had to cancel the tournament, however we
have already booked a date in for next year!
This year The Dominique Matthews Tournament was the last representative game of netball for some of
our Year 13 students, Laura-Mae Bush, Katy Johnson, Lily Martin, Zoe O'Donnell and Lucy Stage, we
thank them for their time, effort, commitment and smiles over the years and wish the girls well as they
take on new challenges.

Astrophysics

This year, the Year 13 students voted to take the "Astrophysics" option as part of their A level Physics
course. They are particularly proud of the photos of the day time half moon that they captured just before
Christmas.

Cake Sale for Myton Hospice

Hollie Ingram, Year 11, organised a cake sale at break time. She planned it,
arranged for the baking of the cakes and sought permission to hold the event.

Together with Lauren Kenny-Lilley, another Year 11 student, both girls sold
delicious cakes and raised over £50 for Myton Hospice.

Well done to both girls!

Lee Winder – Technical Lead, Sega

Computer Scientists in Years 9 and 10 had the
opportunity to hear a presentation from software engineer
Lee Winder. Lee spent a couple of years teaching ICT
before returning to the world of games programming,
where he worked as technical lead on some
top-downloaded games such as Sonic Run.

Lee talked about the skills needed to get into a career in
programming and stressed the value of a good grounding
in Maths as well as Computer Science. Several of our
students have now downloaded Unity and are working on
creating games of their own. It was truly inspirational to
meet Lee and gain a real insight into how this subject can become a passion and a career. Here’s looking
forward to the next Flappy Bird!

Equestrian

Congratulations to all of the team, who continue to train hard and are doing particularly well in
competitions locally and nationally.

Maisie Halton, Year 9 – is not only concentrating on her eventing and show jumping, but is now doing
very well in the dressage. Congratulations on the Dengie qualification for dressage and for an excellent
5th place at Dallas Burston Polo Club.

Ellie Delaney, Year 9 – continues to achieve excellent Show jumping results, but has also been working
hard on her dressage achieving a 7th in a dressage at Weston Lawns last weekend! Well done!

Megan Abbott, Year 11 – has been training hard, but unfortunately Megan’s horse has undertaken an
injury. She will be competing on another horse later in the season.

Betty Baker, Year 9 - continues to go from strength to strength with lots of ribbons won over the last few
months. She has taken part in the Jumping and Style Eventing Championship and Jump Training
Championships and came 10th and 2nd. Fantastic results!

Paul Adderley

On 16th March I have again been given the opportunity to
referee at the Roslyn Park School 7s tournament. I
refereed there last year and it was an amazing experience
with lots of good Rugby. It was there I put my refereeing
skills to work with assistant referees on hand to help. I
learnt so much when I went and I’m looking forward to
going again this year.

I have also had some more good news, with the chance to
referee at the RFU women’s during May. This will then give
me the option to go on and referee at the Sainsbury’s
school games, where Women’s Rugby is played to a very
high level.

Science Showcase

After the Christmas holidays Year 9 students started the new GCSE Science syllabus. One of the first
topics that the Year 9 students studied was Energy. Students were set a homework task where they had
to design a theme park ride and explain the energy transfers, calculate the energy needed to work the ride
and the efficiency of the ride. The quality of the projects produced were of a very high standard. Everyone
in the Science Department was very proud of the effort, imagination and hard work that the students put
into their projects. Some students even built models of their rides! The range of rides included sky
scraping roller coasters, stomach aching pirate ships, death drop elevators and bungee sling shots.

The Science Department organised an opportunity to showcase this wonderful work during a lunch time
session which was open to the whole school. Many students came along to see the work that the Year 9
students had done and were able to ask their creators about their rides. This event was well attended and
we hope that we will have the opportunity to continue showcasing the wonderful work that the students
are doing in the department.

The Poetry Trials World Book Day

Year 7 students took on the challenge of writing a Thursday 3rd March was World Book Day and to
poem for the ‘Young Writers’ poetry competition celebrate, students took part in challenges and
with a chance to have their work published. quizzes to not only test their knowledge of books
Coundon Court were one of only two schools in but also to see whether they could ‘Guess Who’s
Coventry to have the students’ work published, Reading’! Mentor groups across the school were
which is an amazing achievement. Sophie seen rising to the challenge to see if they could
Denning, Alessia Caruana, Mandeep Bains, work out which members of staff had been caught
Hajarah Maryam Mahmood, Rhea Bhakta, Thivya reading some of their favourite books; some were
Giritharan, Haniah Arif, Erin Elizabeth Jones, Lily a little easier than others but the enthusiasm was
Donnelly and Amy Jayne Revelins were successful clear throughout all year groups. Alongside this,
and produced some imaginative poems of which Year 7 and 8 mentor groups were given the ‘World
they can be very proud. The English Department Book Day Bumper Book Quiz’ which posed a
were overwhelmed by the number of responses series of questions related to a number of different
they had and were especially impressed by the texts. The questions ranged from naming the
amount of time and effort that students had clearly narrator in To Kill a Mockingbird to explaining what
dedicated to the competition; it just highlights the happens to everyone over the age of 14 in The
hard work and enthusiasm that Year 7 have Enemy by Charlie Higson - there certainly was a
already demonstrated across the year so far. variety! The students’ knowledge of the different
texts was really impressive and it has been great to
see their eagerness when it comes to reading.

NCS with the Challenge

NCS brings young people together from all different backgrounds in a common
purpose and by offering new experiences. It gives students the chance to take
on new challenges, learn new skills and meet new people. This helps discover
their own talents and realise their potential whilst having fun.

The NCS programme and in particular the skills and experiences gained by
NCS graduates, is now recognised positively by employers and educational
institutions alike. You'll be encouraged to become active staying at an outdoors centre and taking part
in fantastic activities like abseiling, kayaking, hiking, rock-climbing and more.

Get involved in a University-style experience - learning new skills and meeting new people from the local
community and make your mark! You'll meet a charity or community organisation and in your teams come
up with your own idea or project to make a difference to their organisation. You will also have the chance
to pitch your ideas to some real life "dragons" to secure funding and get their feedback on your idea.

Science Gala

On 3rd February, Mrs Doran, Mrs Barnes, the Science STEM club and the Year 12 Physics A level
students visited Warwick University Physics Department for their "Science Gala". Here are some of their
reports:

Maya Saunders, Year 9 — "We had the amazing opportunity to visit the Physics department at Warwick
University, In particular I enjoyed the inflatable planetarium as it was interesting to look at our galaxy from
a different perspective which was both amusing as well as informative."

Tom McGuffie, Year 9 — "We enjoyed a nice night as we tried lots of experiments and lay down in the
planetarium. The best part of the night was when we looked at all the experiments. The liquid nitrogen ice
cream was special because it cooled quicker so had smaller ice crystals therefore tasted nicer. I also
chose my own ingredients for a smoothie and blended them using a blender connected to a generator
which was attached to the tyre of the bike. Delicious!"

Emma Gowling, Year 12 — "The sixth formers went on a number of masterclasses on a variety of topics
including astrophysics. We visited the inflatable planetarium. After this we had time to look around the
exhibitions where there were displays on how to make ice cream from liquid nitrogen and how to power a
blender to make a smoothie using a bicycle. Next we went to a talk that included a Skype session with the
lady in the control room at CERN. There were opportunities to ask questions at the end."

Sam Baines, Year 12 — "We enjoyed the talk from the head of physics for the undergrad laboratories
about how university students learn. We had a tour of the labs and saw the equipment that they got to
use."

Naumaan Ahmed, Year 9 — "They had lots of stalls with loads of cool experiments. I learned how my
kinetic energy could be transferred to electricity to make a blender spin."

Patrick Dunckley, Year 9 — "We saw lots of interesting things like climbing inside an inflatable
planetarium and lying on the floor to watch the show. We also spoke to a lady at the large hadron
collider. It was good."

Aoife Carey, Year 9 — "We made ice cream cooled by liquid nitrogen, played piano without our hands and
even made a smoothie with a bike. Then after a bite to eat we had a video conference with CERN in
Switzerland! It is a collider where they fire protons in two different directions, when they collide they make
new particles."

Muhammad Qaiser, Year 9 — "At Warwick university we did lots of interesting things like eat liquid
nitrogen ice cream and learn about space. There was a speech where we learnt about the large hadron
collider and got to ask questions."

Prom 2016

The Year 11 prom will be held at The Royal Court Hotel on the 7th July —
7:00pm until 11:00pm
Formal wear only. An American style buffet, photo booth, official photographer
and DJ will ensure the atmosphere is amazing.
All £10 deposits must be handed in to the Finance Office by the 21st March
2016.
Other information:
Leavers Hoodies will be available to try on in the Year 11 office next term.
Please post all photos of your memories at school for the year book to the Coundon Court Year Book
Picture 2016 Facebook group.

The Coundon Spoon

In October 2015 Liam Hart, a Year 8 student, found a silver spoon in disturbed ground on the playing
field. Trees had been removed and turf and soil dug. The spoon is a small ladle or sugar spoon. It was
probably part of a tea service used by the Singer family as they enjoyed the Coundon Court grounds on a
fine Sunday afternoon. We can only guess that it was dropped to the floor and lost for around 158 years.

The history of the spoon

John Stone (1800-1868) was a Silversmith from Exeter. His assay marks were registered from 1825 until
1867. He produced mainly flatware items, such as spoons, butter knives, sugar tongs, often in the Fiddle
pattern and Old English pattern.
John Stone is listed in White’s Devonshire Directory of 1851 at 30 New Bridge Street. The census returns
show him resident at this address in 1841 and 1851. By 1861, John Stone appears in the census returns
at 36 The High Street, Exeter. The size of his workshop remains constant over this period, as he is shown
as employing 6 men in all 3 entries.
John Stone had 3 sons and a daughter. He was followed into the business by his eldest son, Thomas
Hart Stone, born in 1838. Thomas appears at boarding school in West Teignmouth in the 1851 census.
By 1861 he had joined his father in business, being listed on the census at 36 High Street. Thomas’ own
assay mark was registered in 1863 and, after the death of his father, John Stone in 1868, he took over the
business and like his father, made silver flatware. Thomas married Frances Emily Rookes early in 1869,
and the birth of their daughter Anna Matilda Stone was registered in latter part of that year. The 1871
census shows him still at 36 High Street with his family and apprentice John Tyle.

The Hallmarks

Silversmiths all have their own unique hallmarks and the four tiny symbols gave Liam a clue as
to when and where the spoon was originally made.

The triple towered castle represents Exeter as the place of origin.

TS is the initial of the silversmith.

M represents 1868 as the year of manufacture.

The portrait is of the reigning monarch and acts as a tax or duty stamp.

Coundon Court School
Northbrook Road
Coundon
Coventry
CV6 2AJ

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