A Specialist Maths & Computing Academy

What an amazing end to the week! It was a real pleasure to spend Thursday evening watching our talented dance students take part in the 2018 House dance! I continue to be impressed with the extra curricular opportunities available to our Stanborough Students. The curriculum celebrates the diversity and utilises the skills, knowledge and cultural wealth of the community while supporting the students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Well done again to our talented dancers!

Headteacher’s commendations for this week are:

Matthew Dunstan (Yr. 7) for excellent attitude towards his education;
Ian Britten (Yr. 8) for being a consistently positive role model and showing kindness to other students at all times;
Hubert Lee-Larke (Yr. 9) for an improved attitude to learning this academic year;
Freddie Walker (Yr.10) for a high number of bronze awards and a notable improvement in conduct;
Holly Craven (Yr.11) for being a supportive peer demonstrating care for the learning of others;
Charlotte Ball (Yr.12) for making a superb start to her Post 16 programme and always being willing to help out with events;
Tawsif Chowdhury (Yr.13) for continuing to achieve academic excellence and a positive attitude.

Quote of the week:

“A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles.” William Hazlitt

Enjoy the weekend ahead.
Mrs John

Stanborough welcomed a group of ex-students after a very long break! The group of students, who all left in 1955, came to look around their old school. It was wonderful to receive the letter of thanks from the ex-students.

“Just to say a big thank you to you and your team for yesterday’s visit. We had a brilliant time and we’re most impressed with what we saw, how times have changed. We went into a number of classrooms of different age groups and all the students answered with a smile, not your normal teenage grunt. Everywhere we went had a very calm atmosphere and the diversity in the learning that you offer compared to our day is amazing.”

Headteacher’s commendations for this week are:

Year 7: Tahlia Wornham for outstanding approach to transition and outstanding effort in all lessons;
Year 8: Arran McConnell for using commendable initiative by administering first aid to a distressed student during Run for Stanborough;
Year 9: Kaitlyn Batchelor for outstanding attitude to learning in all subject areas.;
Year 10: Alfie Butler for significant improvement in work ethic from last year;
Year 11: Joshua Long and Jack Hamer for outstanding contribution in raising money for charity;
Year 12: Jasmine Tarry for representing Britain in an international Horseball competition and excellence in assisting on Open Morning;
Year 13: Alex Baxter for outstanding leadership demonstrated on Open Evening and Run for Stanborough.

Quote of the week:

Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

Best wishes
Mrs John

Mrs V. Hargreaves, Year 8 Leader / Mental Health Lead, writes:

This week we launched a new Twitter page, StanboroughWellbeing, which aims to share information on wellbeing and mental health, because the happiness and wellbeing of our students, parents and staff is of the utmost importance to us.

This week, there have been two significant events on the national Mental Health calendar which we have marked in school:

Wednesday, 10th October 2018 was World Mental Health Day, an annual event raising awareness of mental health around the world to mobilise support and efforts and to discuss what needs to be done to take care of people’s mental health.

The facts from the WHO (World Health Organisation) website:

Half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14;

There is growing recognition of the importance of building mental health resilience;

Prevention begins with better understanding.

At Stanborough, we organised Tea&Talk for staff, bringing World Mental Health Day to their attention to open conversations amongst staff.

7th – 13th October has also been OCD Awareness Week. There are many misconceptions about OCD. This is a diagnosed mental health condition, which can be serious but is treatable. People with OCD have repeated thoughts or images, which can be distressing. They often carry out rituals or habits (compulsions) which temporarily make them feel better. OCD can have a significant impact on someone’s life. Information about this condition was shared with students during tutor sessions this week. Please discuss this with your child at home and reassure them, if necessary, about any concerns. Just because people experience one or more symptoms of OCD, it doesn’t mean that they are definitely affected by OCD. A GP should always be consulted for a full diagnosis.

If you have any concerns about the mental health of your child, please speak to your child’s tutor or Year Leader and for any more general concerns, don’t hesitate to contact me. I can signpost you to the best person for advice or support.

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @StanboroughWellbeing.

Tuesday 2nd October saw a group of ex-students return to Stanborough after a very long break!

The group of students, who all left in 1955, came to look around their old school. Unsurprisingly, much had changed since they left (including the fact that the school size at the time was approximately 300 students). However, they still managed to find some of their old classrooms down the ‘F’ and ‘G’ corridor (which is part of the original building built in 1939).

After an expert tour conducted by Mr Green and ably assisted by Kelly Dolan and Lucy Thompson in Year 12, the group were treated to a lavish afternoon tea produced by Miss Burnham and her Year 12 food group.

During the tea, the ex-students reminisced about how the school had changed since they left. They were amazed at the standard of equipment in the school and the technology block in particular. They were also very impressed with the standard of uniform and behaviour of all the students they came across.

Times had definitely changed; one of the group spoke about how she was summoned to see the Headmaster of the time who told her that she was wasting her own time and the time of his staff as she was struggling in maths, she would therefore not sit the final exam in a few months time!

All the group thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the superb afternoon tea and many expressed a desire to return again at some stage in the future. It was a pleasure to host them and we look forward to seeing them again at some stage in the future. It was very pleasing to hear from many members in the group that they felt that it would be fantastic to be a student at Stanborough in 2018 and that they would have no hesitation sending their children to the school if they were in that position today!
High Expectations Quality Learning Mutual Respect Success For All