Welcome to the weekly Newsletter for parents and carers of students attending
John Hanson Community School
Inspire - Care - Succeed
‘HEAD’ Lines
Independent Educational
Thinkers
Dear Parents/Carers
I have been delivering assemblies this week on the theme of attitude, commitment and doing the right thing.
Students have heard a story about a World War Two veteran who on his 18th birthday signed up and very quickly found himself landing on the beaches of Normandy on June the 6th 1944.
The purpose of this story was to illustrate how this young man’s attitude and commitment to his country went far beyond his personal attitude and commitment.
I have spoken to students about the fact that by having a positive attitude to learning and a commitment to doing their very best, they also allow all the other students who share lessons with them to do the same – they are “doing the right thing”.
My assembly finished with me asking the students to reflect. To reflect on what they have control over and how this effects their attitude and commitment. I made the point that they, and indeed all of us, have control over ourselves and thus responsibility for our thoughts, words, choices, actions and reactions, and therefore our attitude, commitment.
Doing the right thing is a choice and very much within our control.
Enjoy the weekend with your children.
Regards
Russell Stevens
Headteacher
Below is the latest haul from the lost property box.
If your child has lost a blazer, jumper, trousers, coat, pe kits, trainers or shoes please encourage them to come and have a look through the lost property box.
Please remember to name all the school clothes so we can return the items back to your child.
Any property not claimed with be recycled either to the 2nd hand shop or into the clothe bin at the end of this term.
LRC Book Amnesty: At John Hanson we like to maintain a plentiful and wide range of books for students to borrow from the LRC. To stay well stocked, we encourage all students to have a hunt at home, in lockers and in bags for any borrowed books that they may have forgotten to return. There will be no consequences for these late returns; it would just be nice to have them back for others to enjoy! Any books should please be placed in the box in Reception or the LRC. If students are still reading them that’s great, but please let Mrs Bailey know so they be accounted for and renewed on the system.
A huge thank you to the incredibly kind people that have donated items to the Andover Foodbank Christmas Hamper Appeal. We have received so many generous contributions, creating 14 complete Christmas hampers and collecting many more delicious festive treats. We were glad to deliver everything this morning to a very grateful Foodbank who continue to accept Christmas Hamper donations until this Sunday 26th November. For more information about donating or getting help from Andover foodbank visit their website at: https://andover.foodbank.org.uk/
On the subject of donations and Christmas we would be delighted to receive any books that are in excellent condition and could be re-gifted as part of our Christmas Book Giveaway. As usual, we will be running this very popular annual event where students can either take books for themselves to enjoy in the holidays or for them to give as gifts to family and friends. Staff will be on hand to wrap the books if desired. The Christmas Book Giveaway is currently scheduled for Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th December outside the LRC at break and lunch and then after school inside the LRC until 3:30pm. Giveaway will continue whilst stocks last!
The Andover Charities is an organisation which has been in existence in Andover in one form or another since the 1400s, and are able to assist families who live in Andover (north of the A303), including Picket Piece, Picket Twenty, and Augusta Park.
They offer up to £100 Asda or Tesco vouchers per household per year for people in need whether they are on benefits or not. Due to the high rise in the cost of living the charity has found that more and more families are on need of their services.
There are no restrictions on the form as anyone can apply who live in Andover.
Forms will be collated by Mrs Bush and then forwarded onto the Charity. The Charity will decide who will receive the voucher and will deliver the vouchers to the school to be distributed to the families via the student.
Please bear in mind that if you have already received one of these vouchers from another source such as TVBC, Family Support Worker, Citizen Advice then you will not be able to apply this year.
On Thursday December 14th we will be holding our Christmas Showcase – Sing Up for Christmas. I would like to invite your son/daughter to take part in this event – Christmas songs will be learnt in music lessons and will then feature in the showcase. These will be well known Christmas songs and we hope to make a really big sound as we celebrate the season.
The showcase takes place in the school hall at 6pm and we hope you will come along and join in with this fun Christmas show. We would love to have many students taking part, and a huge audience so that we can really raise the roof and have a fun evening. Funds raised from collection will go towards our school show. We will arrange some after school rehearsals before the event for those who can come along. These will be after school on a Thursday in November.
The tickets for the event will be free and will be available to be booked via ParentMail. So that we know how many children will be taking part please will you please email to confirm - child's name and tutor group - email to mike.adams@jhanson.hants.sch.uk
The showcase will also feature solos, dances, and extracts from our school show Grease which goes on stage in January ’24.
I look forward to receiving your response. We hope we see as many of you as possible on 14th December.
Mike Adams - Head of Performing Arts
Rehearsal for SINGUP for Christmas -
Thursday 30th November PA1 3-4pm
Performing Arts - Grease
Show Dates in 2024
Tuesday Jan 30th 2024 Wednesday 31st January 2024 Thursday 1st February 2024
Music Groups after School
Due to show rehearsals this term this has changed slightly from our previous plan:
Currently we are meeting as follows:
Monday - Year 10 GCSE Music class Tuesday - Grease rehearsals with cast and chorus Wednesday - Grease rehearsals with cast and Chorus
Thursdays - SCHOOL BAND and SINGUP singers (16th and 30th November)
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
At John Hanson Community School we are committed to providing equality of opportunity for all students and staff, and to providing a working environment free from discrimination, prejudice and harassment.
We encourage respect and consideration for others, and recognise and value the school as a safe place for learning. The staff at John Hanson recognise that inequalities exist in all levels of society and believe, that as educators, we have a crucial role to play in eliminating all forms of discrimination, in particular against anyone with any of the protected characteristic. We promote equality by dealing with bullying and incidents of discrimination immediately and by educating the young people in our care through assemblies, tutor time, PSHE day sessions and group work where appropriate.
This is part of our responsibility in preparing our students for life after school.
Important EDI events over the next week:
25th International Day for the elimination of Violence against women
Words you might not know:
• Hidden disabilities - As the name suggests a hidden disability isn’t obvious or visible. And without a guide dog, a walking stick or a wheelchair people can go about their day without anyone being aware of their impairment.
• Epilepsy - a disorder of the nervous system, characterized either by mild, episodic loss of attention or sleepiness (petit mal ) or by severe convulsions with loss of consciousness (grand mal ).
• Autism - (no longer in clinical use) a pervasive developmental disorder that commonly manifests in early childhood, characterized by impaired communication, excessive rigidity, and emotional detachment: now considered one of the autism spectrum disorders.
• Diabetes - a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism, usually occurring in genetically predisposed individuals, characterized by inadequate production or utilization of insulin and resulting in excessive amounts of glucose in the blood and urine, excessive thirst, weight loss, and in some cases progressive destruction of small blood vessels leading to such complications as infections and gangrene of the limbs or blindness.
• Dyslexia - any of various reading disorders associated with difficulty decoding written language and integrating auditory and visual information, such as the association of phonemes with letter combinations in spelling.
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at John Hanson.
Please find attached the latest DEI newsletter on Men’s Mental Health. The DEI team will be producing one of these every term for you and your parents to read through – if you have any ideas for content please see Mrs Curtis, Mrs Ferris or Mrs Grinstead. Click here to download the newsletter
College Open Events.
Please do check the individual websites for any changes to the schedule before setting off to visit them
Please encourage your son/daughter to use their SCHOOL EMAIL for work rather than their own private email. This is important for safeguarding and also some of our messages for students are being sent to school email addresses.
Think you know – Activity Packs relating to online safety Who’s watching yours? – 17% increase in children livestreaming since lockdown (Advice to help parents/carers minimise risk to children online) Mental health – How to look after your family’s mental health when stuck indoors Houseparty – Everything you need to know.
John Hanson Computing Department
Want to know more about what’s going on in school? Why not follow us on:
