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The latest news from Thomas Tallis School.
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Number: 23  | 29 March 2021
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Anti-Racism Week 19 - 23 April
Anti-Racism Week is coming up and we will be learning a lot about justice. We will be looking at the story of Stephen Lawrence and acknowledging Stephen Lawrence Day on 22 April.
 
Students will be learning what it means to be ‘anti-racist’ and commemorating Stephen’s legacy and the incredible work the Lawrence family have done to promote equality for all.
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Dear Tallis family

Thank you for helping us make the return to school and the testing so smooth. Despite our roof troubles we have had a good few weeks! While one or two of our young people are finding it irksome to be back at school the huge majority are pleased to be together again and working hard.
 
Next half term will be pressured for year 11 and 13 as we work through the ways that we will have to prepare for the awarding of grades. I hope that you feel you have had plenty of information on this.  Believe me, there will be more!
 
It is inevitable that the systems of controls that we use to try to mitigate infection will continue for some time, probably for the rest of the school year. One small thing: until we are able to reopen the changing rooms we need young people to come to school on PE and Dance days in their Tallis kit. Please can you make sure that this is Tallis kit, and not just something that they fancy wearing for school instead of uniform! Despite all difficulties, our community is very important to us, and our simple uniform demonstrates our common purpose. 
 
I do hope that you have a lovely Easter and that the weather is good to us when we are allowed out!
 
Yours 
Carolyn Roberts, Head
Don't forget to read the latest blog post in Mrs Roberts writes, a regular column about school life.
This half term's Tallis Habits focus has been disciplined. Next half term we focus on strengthening our capacity to be imaginative.
Imagine for One Minute
We love this film asking us to imagine a better future. After a difficult year and an overwhelming sense of collective loss it's important that we re-kindle the capacity to change things for the better. Why not make your own one minute response? Check out the website to download the film and more details about how to share on social media.

WARNING: CONTAINS FLASHING IMAGES!

Jon Nicholls, Director of Arts & Creativity
Uniform and equipment for the Summer term
Over lock down, many students may have grown out of their uniform or even misplaced it, and we have been flexible and supportive by allowing some students non uniform items over the last three weeks. However, as of next term, we are asking for your help in ensuring student are in full Tallis Uniform for the 19th April. If a student has PE, Sport, Dance or a practical subject which needs them in Tallis PE kit, we will continue to ask students to come in to school wearing their PE kit as students are still not able to use our changing facilities due to our Covid adjustments. Students will not be allowed to wear outdoor coats, hoodies or hats in the school building as the weather becomes warmer, and so much have a Tallis jumper to wear in the classroom if they feel cold.

A reminder of our School Uniform policy can be found here. Please note students must not:
  • Wear leggings, jeans, trousers with studs or skin-tight skirts or trousers with patch pockets.
  • Wear hats or durags in school.
  • Wear a long sleeved shirt under their school polo shirt.
If a student is in non-uniform, they may be withdrawn from the community and offered a pair of school trousers, or we will contact you to bring the correct uniform to the school for them to change, or they will be removed from social time if this cannot be facilitated during the school day. Uniform is important as it is part of our Tallis Community identity: it represents who we are and shows we are all part of the same family, with shared values and character traits. We have given students freedom to also personalise your uniform to show their own unique identify, but the non-negotiable elements we need to get right
 
The Easter holidays is also a great time for students to ensure they are ‘ready to learn’ come April 19th, and they have the correct equipment ready for the new term.

All students should have a decent size school bag, and inside:
  • 2 black pens
  • Pencil
  • Ruler
  • Rubber
  • Sharpener
  • Reading book
  • Other coloured pens
  • Pencil case
  • Scientific calculator, recommended models are a Casio fx-83GTX or a Casio fx-85GTX (as above but with solar panel)
Optional: glue, scissors, colours, highlighters.

Thank you
Tom Williams, Assistant Head
Year 7 Science Posters
What an amazing science lesson we had with year 70A.  Pupils have been working collaboratively and inquisitively to produce science posters as an introduction to the Space topic. Young astronomers took this opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of the Solar System as well as the universe much further away. I am very impressed with the amazing work and positive attitude towards learning.  

Mrs Flis, Science
Composition workshop with Trinity Laban Conservatoire
Our year 10 GCSE Music students have been lucky enough to work with the composer, multi-instrumentalist, writer and researcher Sorana Santos on their composition skills. Spread over four sessions (with two sessions done during lockdown), our students have learnt how to compose a main theme and how to develop it using advanced composition techniques such as contrary motion, retrograde, or harmonic augmentation. Sorana was really impress with their excellent focus and collaborative skills. Well done everyone!

Franck Aime, Head of Music
Year 11 photographers engaged in serious play
We are delighted by the playful work of Year 11 photography students. They have had such a difficult, disrupted and constrained experience because of COVID-19 and Lockdown. We are devoting the remaining time with them to open-ended, creative experiments using whatever materials we have to hand. As you can see, they have enjoyed this low-stakes approach and responded beautifully to our invitation to play. 

Jon Nicholls, Director of Arts & Creativity
Word of the Week – Effervescent
Our next whole school Word of the Week is effervescent, an adjective meaning ‘fizzy’ or ‘lively’ which has Latin roots. Please encourage your child to use the Word of the Week in school and beyond - and to be effervescent members of our school community!
Tallis Reads
Thank you to Mr. Fyfe for the latest Tallis Reads. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the reading, the link is still active: https://tinyurl.com/TallisReads23321 
 
The next Tallis Reads will be recorded live at 8.40 next Tuesday 30th by Ms. Akehurst. Students will be watching the stories together during tutor time, but you can also watch them at home, as long as they log in with their Tallis email. The link is here: https://tinyurl.com/TallisReads300321
 
Tallis Reads will continue after Easter, on Tuesday 28th April.
Foyle Poetry Competition 2021
The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2021 is open for entries until 31st July 2021. It is free to enter and is open to poets aged 11-17 years old. Visit foyleyoungpoets.org to submit your poems. Please read the rules very carefully. You can watch a video with tips for entry here: https://youtu.be/lfjEB4ppdN4. If you have any questions, you can talk to your English teacher, Ms. Church or email the organisers at fyp@poetrysociety.org.uk.
Spring Reading Challenge
Well done to those of you who have been completing the reading challenge. You can send your completed grids to Ms. Church on echurch@thomastallis.org.uk to receive a prize – you have until the end of the Easter holidays to finish them!

Elizabeth Church, English
News from the Library
The CILIP Carnegie Medal is awarded by children’s librarians for an outstanding book written in English for children and young people. The shortlist for the awards have just been announced and we would like to invite keen readers from Year 7 and Year 8 to join our Carnegie Shadowing Club.  This is a good chance for students to engage with good quality texts and exchange ideas on books and reading. The club will meet once every 2 weeks after school from 3.05pm to 3.45pm, Year 7s  on Wednesday Week A and Year 8s on Tuesday Week A. If your child would like to take part please email: 
library@thomastallis.org.uk
Year 9 Manga Club
 We are also starting a Manga Club for Y9 students, the club will be held once every 2 weeks on Monday Week A. Students interested in joining can email: library@thomastallis.org.uk to sign up.

Charles Harvey and Gayle Viegas, Library
Easter Holiday Courses at The Conservatoire
We’ve got some great stuff for secondary school aged children, including;
  • An Introduction to Illustration (9-14 yrs) for any budding artists, a course on how to Make Your Own Boardgame (8-14 yrs) and Improve Your Smartphone Photography- Instantly! (14-18 yrs) because, well, if we can't tear them away from their phones we might as well teach them how to use them properly.
  • A few very exciting drama workshops, looking at Puppetry, Smart Phone Filmmaking, and welcoming back Les Miserables stars Adam and Connor for Making A Musical (all 8-14 yrs)
  • There's even a couple of courses for the grown-ups too!
You can see full details on our website.

Easter Holiday course brochure
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