School News

Senior lecturer at the Ashmolean, Cassie O’Brien, spoke to sixth form book club members about the stories behind Pre-Raphaelite paintings and the symbolism in some of the great History paintings.

Members discussed literature at the Eagle and Child, the tavern famous for its great literary heroes Tolkien and C S Lewis.

A book quiz was completed at the Pitt Rivers Museum and the group ended the day with a visit to Shelley’s monument at University College.

Here students scrambled through the smallest door in Oxford – the one that inspired Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

German Culture Day took place in the library on the official ‘German Unity Day’. This is when German people celebrate the reunification of East and West Germany.

As well as tasting some traditional food and a non-alcoholic drink of Gluhwein, students completed a pub-style quiz where they named German composers, the capital city, the German Chancellor and learned the derivation of their favourite fairytales written by the Brothers Grimm.

Despite the sounds of Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Strauss and Bach playing on YouTube throughout the day, the most popular music proved to be The Haribo Gummy Bear song. A German rendition of this was sung by a group of students who had learned the German lyrics – “Ich bin dein kleiner, susser, bunter, dicker Gummibar...”

The event was a big success.

In the week leading up to the half term break our intrepid AS Geography students donned wet weather gear and ventured forth to the Norfolk Coast.

The Norfolk Coast is eroding, in some places by as much as 2 metres a year and several properties have recently disappeared into the North Sea.

Students spent part of their time investigating the factors that make the Norfolk Coast vulnerable to erosion and examined and evaluated various coastal protection measures. Further investigative work was undertaken in the sand dunes at the end of Blakeney Point, a 3 kilometre long shingle spit that is a site of special scientific interest.

A good deal of practical fieldwork was undertaken in the dunes to see if changes in vegetation cover could be related to various environmental factors such as soil temperate and infiltration rate. In addition, students explored some of the conflicts that can arise between different interest groups who visit this unique environment and considered how such conflicts can be managed.

Cromer – the gem of the Norfolk Coast according to the Town Council publicity – in many ways resembles a traditional UK seaside resort; it looks a little tired and dated. As we discovered though, efforts are being made to rebrand the town and the busy and diverse range of shops and million pound pier investment bear testimony to the town’s changed economic fortunes. It would appear that Cromer is shaking off its sleepy retirement home image.

During their time in Norfolk students acquired skills in data collection and analysis, skills which should stand them in good stead for the Geographical Investigations examination in the summer.   All in all it was a really productive 3 days – and the fish and chips in Cromer were pretty good too!

Thanks to all those who contributed to the success of the trip – the students, who were a credit to Cooksey, the staff in Finance and Cooksey Hall Office for the paper work and Science for letting us borrow a load of fieldwork equipment. A special thank you to Wendy Fletcher for giving up her time to help supervise the trip.

Stantonbury hosted The Millennium Goals Conference on November 8th 2012. Organised jointly by the University of Northampton and GEMK, the event was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of the national annual Festival of Social Science.

Guests, staff and students attended from local schools including Ousedale and Lord Grey as well as The University of Northampton, who are strong in the field of Development and International studies, Stantonbury Campus Sociology, Geography and Economics students from year 13 and the Gifted and Talented group from year 11.

The Festival of Social Science is run by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and takes place from 3-10 November 2012. With events from some of the country's leading social scientists, the festival celebrates the very best of British social science research and how it influences our social, economic and political lives - both now and in the future.

This year’s Festival had over 180 creative and exciting events across the UK to encourage businesses, charities, government agencies, schools and college students to discuss, discover and debate topical social science issues.

During the event there was a lunchtime display from a variety of educational and development organisations such as Toybox and the OU. In attendance was keynote speaker Myles Wickstead, Visiting Professor in International Relations at the OU and expert in Global Development

This was a community event to promote and increase awareness of social sciences, ERSC’s research and contributions that social sciences make to the wellbeing of the economy of the UK society.

A full programme is available at the http://www.esrc.ac.uk. You can now follow updates from the Festival on twitter using #esrcfestival.

On Tuesday 16^th October 9 students were invited to take part in the Mercedes Driving experience at the Silverstone Circuit. Students were selected by each hall as an acknowledgement of their work, progress and commitment.

Students had a unique opportunity to be able to drive a Mercedes-Benz B Class car on a specially designed road circuit that modelled a typical day to day driving experience. Under the supervision of a qualified driving instructor students encountered give way signs, cross roads, roundabouts and other road users. Each student drove for 30 minutes that focused on control, hazard awareness and decision making.

Student, Charlotte Robson said, “I really enjoyed the Mercedes Benz driving course, I gained so much from it. The instructor was clear and a great teacher. It has made me much more aware of the hazards driving can bring but also what the benefits are”.

In addition students attended a 45 minute session on road safety awareness.

OfSTED has recently set up a website to give parents the opportunity to give feedback about their school.   By registering on the site you can give your opinion on 12 aspects of your child’s school, from the quality of teaching, to how we deal with bullying and poor behaviour.

If you visited last year, please revisit as we understand OfSTED clear responses each September so they can track how views of the school are changing.

There are many good things that Stantonbury does for students and we would like to share and celebrate these.  To support us and help us to prepare for our forthcoming inspection visit, please register your views at http://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/