The latest news from Thomas Tallis School

The latest festive news from Thomas Tallis School.

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Number: 15 | 23 January 2017

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40 Year 7 students recently visited the Wimbledon Synagogue and Buddhist Temple. Students learned about Jewish and Buddhist beliefs and practices.

All Year 8 students will visit St James' Church as part of their study of Christianity. The students who recently visited played Bible races and learned about the New Testament.

Rahima Choudhury, RE Teacher

In this newsletter
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Head's message
Tallis Habits
Calendar
The week's café menu
S chool Nurse
S afeguarding
Year 8 GCSE Options
English News
Rewards
A-Level Philosophy
World Scholars' Cup

Hello

It was a real pleasure to see so many of you at Year 11 Parents evening this week. Thank you for your support.

I’ve had the pleasure of some break time assignations this week with some young people proposed by their form tutors for special praise, the solid citizens that make our school such a lovely place to be. We reward them with hot chocolate, a school cake and a chat with me and their Head of Year. On the grounds that virtue is its own reward, that’s not bad for a cold winter morning! Their names are listed further on.

Carolyn Roberts, Head

Don't forget that you can engage with us via email, on Facebook and Twitter and using the Contact page of the website.

Our Tallis Habits focus this half term developing greater Persistence. Learning how to cope when things don't go your way or you find yourself a bit stuck is a key attribute. It takes practice. We want our young people to gain the confidence to think their own thoughts, have ideas and dare to be different. Persistence is the habit of tolerating uncertainty.

CALENDAR
Week A
23 January -27 January

Monday
15:10 - 16:10 Creative Writing Club
15:15 - 16:15 Debating Club

Tuesday
Year 10 Working In The City Trip
Year 10-13 Mock Trial Team

Wednesday
15:15 - 16:25 Ninja School Tallis Students

Thursday
18:00-22:00 Year 12 and Year 13 Theatre Trip
18:30 - 20:00 Camps International Parent Presentation

Friday
Year 9 Parent Coffee Meeting
11:30-15:30 All Years Dance Competition
15:30-18:00 Greenwich Sports Academy

This week's café menu

School Nurse

I am the allocated school nurse for Thomas Tallis and have been at the school since October. I run a drop-in service for students from the office in the medical room (room 0603 next to reception) on Monday afternoons.

Students are welcome to come and see me Mondays between 12.15 – 14.00. Alternatively, they can arrange a meeting with me by sending an email: gagbandje@thomastallis.org.uk

Genevieve Agbandje, School Nurse

Safeguarding

Keeping students safe and promoting their well-being is our absolute priority at Tallis. I have attached a copy of our “Good Practice Guidlines" so you can see how we work to achieve this.
This guidance for staff is supported by our Safeguarding Policy which is available on the website.

This approach to safeguarding is underpinned by our partnership with parents. We have produced a number of specific Support Your Teen guides to help you identify and understand the possible risks faced by your children. These are guides are available from Reception and on the school website
http://www.thomastallisschool.com/support-your-teen.html

Teenagers may become unsafe due to deliberate self-harm, or from harmful activities they engage in e.g substance misuse. If you have concerns regarding your son or daughter or suspect they are at risk of harm please contact their HoY, myself or our Safeguarding Leads as soon as possible.
Deputy Headteacher, Inclusion - Mr Brown s.brown@thomastallis.org.uk
Safeguarding Lead - Ms Kamei fkamei@thomastallis.org.uk
Deputy Safeguarding Lead - Ms Brown jbrown@thomastallis.org.uk
We are an experienced team and are able to offer valuable advice and, where appropriate, help to access wider support services

Key indicators of concern
- going missing from home (even for short periods)
- high levels of anxiety or distress
- evidence of self-harm
- withdrawal from family and friends
- aggression and confrontation in the home

At Tallis we are committed to offering practical support to both parents and students who are facing challenging times. The earlier we are able to offer help, the sooner we can address concerns and things back on track.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with your concerns

Shaun Brown, Deputy Head Inclusion

Safeguarding guide to best practice poster

Year 8 GCSE Options

We have now started to talk about GCSE options with the Year 8 students. The preparation began with a fun and interactive community day towards the end of last term. The Year 8s had a whole day to consider what future career might suit them and to then to look at the GCSE subjects that link in. We have subject teachers speaking in assemblies this month.

Coming up we have:

1st February - Options Evening (4pm to 6pm) - You and your child are invited into the school to find out more about the subjects on offer. There will be a presentation in the main hall followed by time to visit each of the subject areas and meet the teachers. They will also receive the options booklet.

1st March - Year 8 Parents Evening - This is a chance to speak to the subject teachers before the final decision.

The deadline for option forms will be Friday the 3rd of March. In the meantime, please email me if you have any questions about the options process.

Andy Pape, Head of Year 8

English News

Key Stage 3 Creative Writing Club

Our fantastic team of creative writers are going to be meeting every Monday in the library to put together their own e-book, which will be published by Amazon later on this year. Although we have started preparing for the e-book, students from Years 7 and 8 are still very welcome to join. Also, we have 20 spaces for a creative writing trip after February half term. If you are interested in coming along, come and speak to Miss Church in the English office.

Key Stage 3 Book Club

We will be having our first book club meeting of 2017 after school on Tuesday 24th January in the library. We will be discussing our first book, The Lie Tree, but also talking about a very exciting project: creating a book trailer for a national competition! Come along if you're interested and feeling creative.

500 Words Short Story Competition

This national story writing competition has just been launched by BBC Radio 2. Students up to the age of 13 are invited to write an exciting story of no more than 500 words. You can find out more information and submit your story by going to the website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00rfvk1. It would be brilliant to see a winner from Thomas Tallis!

Elizabeth Church, English Teacher

Rewards

Selected Year 8, 9 and 10 students were rewarded this week for being selected by their tutors for outstanding effort and/or achievement. They enjoyed hot chocolate and cakes with the Head, Mrs Roberts and their Heads of Year.

Swroop	Aryal	8AB
Lewis	Atkins	8AB
Bethany	Attridge	8AC
Thuruban	Sathi	8AC
Katelyn	Bailey	8AM
Rebecca	Verona	8AM
Isabela	Blanchfield	8BD
Mason	Spearpoint	8BD
Lucy	Dyer	8CE
Ellie-Mai	Welsh	8CE
David	Adeoyo	8DB
Anab	Ali	8DB
Rebecca	Carpenter	8KI
Eben	McKiernan-Turner	8KI
Niha	Ahmed	8SA
Ambra	Lisi	8SA
Freddie	Fullerton	8TO
Abbie	Wilmot	8TO
Alfie	Browne	8ZS
Scarlett	Sheppard	8ZS

Kishi	Fowle	9AP
Lucy	Hudson	9AP
Ridwan	Ahmad	9BL
Emma	Hunter	9BL
Jacob	O'Flynn	9BN
Eva	Pacuraru	9BN
Sabina	Stanca	9CG
Jamie	Watkins	9CG
Dahiana	Acevedo Betancurt	9CT
Milita	Ainaite	9CT
Sina	Sedighi	9CT
Ruby	Asplin	9FS
John	Oladosu	9FS
Morgan	Pritchard	9GR
Christine	Umipig	9GR
Anders	Bach	9KA
Perline	Walsh	9KA
Emilia	Karpaviciute	9RB
Charles	Newman	9RB

Sam	Steele	10AI
Jade	Taylor	10AI
Nana	Agyemang	10CS
Kaden	Turay	10CS
Dylan	Bushiri	10DE
Gian	Robertson	10DE
Chiara	Lisi	10EH
Joseph	Taylor	10EH
Dafydd	Rees-Jones	10LS
Mia	Simons	10LS
Lin	Let	10PM
Chelsea	Morse	10PM
Suracha	Sapkota	10TW
Finn	Strevens	10TW
Gerda	Grumciute	10WE
Sean	Stewart	10WE
Natsaree	Bilmad	10XT

Year 7 students are up next. Year 11 received theirs last week, their names are:

Horia	Pacuraru	11AR
Francesca	Pannell-Rae	11AR
Jamie	Hunt	11CC
Abisola	Sogaolu	11CC
Jacob	Fitzgibbon	11CL
Faye	Suarez	11CL
Martha	McHardy	11GO
Taqi	Mohammadi	11GO
Juessla	Berisha	11KR
Bihi	Mohamed	11KR
Korede	Oladini	11LD
Ayanna	Williams	11LD
Angel	Musoke	11PR
Ayodeji	Sawyerr	11PR
Diane	Roberts	11SQ
Kacper	Sledak	11SQ
Paris	Beszant	11TM
Talulah	Westwood	11TM

Ashley Tomlin, Principal Deputy Head

Professor Daniel C Dennett

A-level Philosophy students were extremely fortunate to have attended a talk by Professor Daniel C Dennett at New College of the Humanities on Tuesday 17 January 2017. This was a rare opportunity to hear one of the greatest living philosophers – and someone who is set for study as part of our A-Level Philosophy course – talk about his ideas in person.

In the talk, Dennett explored ideas from his forthcoming book about cultural evolution and the development of the mind. This was via the concept of the meme: a unit of cultural transmission. It was a fascinating talk and offered our students a deeper understanding of the everyday phenomena we find around us - a perfect example of the value of philosophy in the modern world.

Jon Curtis-Brignell, Assistant Headteacher: Teaching, Learning and Development

World Scholars' Cup

Thomas Tallis School will be hosting the London Regional Round of the World Scholar’s Cup on the weekend of 21-22 January 2017. Students form teams of 3 and we can submit as many teams as we have interested students. There is no preparation necessary. Students can come to room 1334 during pm registration any time this week to help get registered or to get more information.

What is the World Scholar’s Cup?
Now in its eleventh year, the World Scholar’s Cup is a global non-profit educational initiative with a mission of inclusive enrichment, for students aged 11-18 of every background, from both state and private schools in over fifty countries. From Australia to Zimbabwe, the idea is the same: to inspire in every participant a love of learning and a sense of global citizenship. Each year diverse young scholars explore a new interdisciplinary theme, spanning topics from science and technology to history and art. They then apply their learning in a series of collaborative and competitive challenges, from team debate (which includes a peer feedback element) to a fast-paced problem-solving bowl, all in a safe and supportive setting.

More information can be found at http://www.scholarscup.org/

World Scholars' Cup letter

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