I can't quite believe it is the end of the year, it has flown by! To see our Yr11 and Yr13 students all dressed up for their Proms was a wonderful sight. Our young adults are a credit to The John of Gaunt School and I wish them well in their future. It is amazing how quickly time goes by from when they join us in Yr7 to these milestone points in their lives. It really does reinforce the notion of grabbing every opportunity you can, when you can.
And what opportunities our students have at this school. Activities week this week epitomises the broad range of experiences our students are able to access. Not every school offers a week of trips and visits at the end of an academically challenging year and this is due to the dedication of our staff. I would like to thank them on behalf of all of us for their willingness to go above and beyond for our children. Our students in Yr11 and 13 know and appreciate that they could have or have involved themselves in so much over their time at JoG above the lessons, revision sessions, breakfast clubs and homework clubs that we provide. You only need to look at the photos in this newsletter and look back over previous newsletters to appreciate the cultural capitol we provide our students.
This involvement in whole school life is so important for each child to feel part of our community at JoG. I do not want our children to just come to school, be taught and go home. I want them to leave us as a well-rounded member of society and not just well-educated.
Whilst our strap line of, 'Excellence Every Day' is not changing as I want our children to reach their academic potential, however, I am changing our school values for next year, they are now 'Kindness, Positivity and Belonging'.
I want us to remind each other regularly to look out for each other and be understanding of each other. I want us to be proactive and not concern ourselves if things don't always go the way we plan, it's rising to the challenge that matters. I want us to take the opportunities available and feel part of many different groups, be it classes, friendships, clubs, societies and experiences. I want every person to believe they are a significant member of our JoG community through participation.
This desire for academic excellence, whilst nurturing every child as an individual, is why we are a popular school and our numbers are rising yet again next year. For this reason we are increasing the time students have for morning break by 5 minutes and will be moving to split lunches. Years 7, 8, 9, 12 & 13 will have first lunch whilst Yr10 & 11 have tutor time and then the year groups will swap over. This will help with the catering for all the students, and it will create more space for our students with their peers. The start and finish times of the day will not alter. By the time of this publication I will have informed the students of this, and they will be reminded of this on return in September.
Finally, I would like to wish all our students, their families and the staff a wonderful summer. I hope everyone, at some point, is able to have a well-earned rest and enjoy some good weather and a change in pace from our busy lives. I look forward to seeing all our Yr11 and 13 students on results day and wish them well. I can't wait to see our other students again in September, including our new cohort of Yr7's!
Timings of the school day from September
8.30 gates close
8.35 morning registration with tutor
8.45 Period 1
9.45 Period 2
Break
11.10 Period 3
12.10 Period 4
1.10 KS3 & 5 Lunch then tutor time
KS4 Tutor time then lunch
2.00 Period 5
3.00 Period 6 End of normal school day
Extracurricular activities or KS4 & 5 revision sessions
On Thursday 20th July the Data Intelligence Team from Wiltshire County Council came in to support our students on a Data informed sustainability challenge day.
The year team want to congratulate all the year 9 students on having an amazing year in school. This year has seen year 9 challenge themselves academically, musically, in the community and in being proactive with in JOG sports teams. Here are a few of their achievements from the year:
For any students due to collect their exam results this Summer, they will be available from Wingfield Hall at the following times: -
Year 13 - Thursday 17th August, from 8:15 – 12 noon
Year 12 - Thursday 17th August, from 9 to 12 noon
Year 11 - Thursday 24th August, from 9am...
Wow, what a year for STEM (STEAM) at John of Gaunt. Our STEM club has been working hard on a range of challenges around movies and their creations. Following the Term 6 theme of Movie Magic, the Stuntman Challenge involved teams making parachutes and safety padding for their Egg stuntman to survive the magnificent stunt of falling from our Spanish block stairs! To capture the great images that we see in action movies the cameras need to stay level.
Students created a stand that levelled cameras for them to take their own videos. You can’t go to the cinema without a snack, so our students got creative making pancakes and learning about what happens to the ingredients to go from the batter to a cooked pancake, lots of taste testing too!
Our first Women in STEM club has been thriving with many students tacking tough challenges including building bridges that withstand windstorms, earthquakes and heavy rain. We learnt why metals make coloured flames when exposed to the flame of a Bunsen Burner, talking about the electrons in the atom and how they change. Robotics has been a great theme for Women in STEM Club with students learning programming and creating a range of models with moving parts. We can’t wait to get back to it next year!
How could we forget the incredible students that created duelling robots for our robot war STEAM challenge during activities week. Students were challenged to create robots using electric motors that would put their opponents out of the ring. Mr Carter and Miss Farthing were incredibly pleased to see the students of John of Gaunt working together and showing some great sportsmanship across the teams. Our year 7 and 8 winning teams were announced, with an impressive clean sheet scored for the winning year 7 team. Congratulations to Ed, Charlie, Oliver, Michael, and George, our year 7 winners and Riley and Aj, our year 8 winners!
Next year both STEM club and Women in STEM club will be returning to H5 (Hertford Science rooms).
We can't wait to see you there!
French Culture Sheet for July
Year 7 & 8 Activity
On Tuesday and Thursday a number of our year 7 & 8 students got to mingle with alpacas, goats, donkeys and sheep. They had a fantastic day and were "buzzing" when they returned to school.
For a comprehensive range of photos please see the website's image gallery.
Year 7 had great fun crayfishing for Activities Week
We went to the river Mells, near Frome, to fish. After catching more than 100 crayfish, we celebrated with marshmallows on the barbecue and paddling in the river.
Interested in having instrumental or vocal lessons next academic year? Music lessons are an excellent way for students to develop their skills and understanding of music, as well as giving them the potential for a lifelong passion and opportunity for social development. Lessons are open to all students at all levels including complete beginners. We currently have lessons for the following instruments: singing, drum kit, percussion, trumpet, cornet, euphonium, piano, flute, clarinet, saxophone, violin, viola, bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and ukulele.
Lessons are generally taught in blocks of 10 lessons and are available for 15, 20 or 30 minute slots. The costs vary according to the teacher involved but are in the region of £30-£36 per hour. The cost for a block of 15-minute lessons works out at between £75 and £90. We are also able to fund some lessons through Wiltshire Music Connect. For students who are Pupil Premium or have a Special Educational Need then we can fund 70% of a 15-minute lesson through Wiltshire Music Connect leaving the remaining 30% to be paid by the parent/carer. For children that are Looked After we can fund 100% of a 15-minute lesson through Wiltshire Music Connect.
Lessons take place in a music practise room within school and may be before, after or during school depending on the teacher involved. Lessons are on a rotating timetable so that students don’t continually keep missing the same lesson.
If your child is interested in learning an instrument or having singing lessons please drop me an email and I will get back to you with further information: nmaguire@jogschool.org
Tennis at Westbourne Club
Students have taken the short wander down Wingfield Road to enjoy a lovely day of tennis in the sun. We’ve been as lucky with the weather as we have with the lovely, polite, energetic students that are taking part in this activity today.
Harry Potter Activity Day
Duke of Edinburgh Expedition Update
Last Thursday the Silver DofE group headed out from their start point near Avebury on their 3-day expedition.
The weather was just right for most of the day with only a few short downpours, and they were able to set up camp in the dry.
All prepared hearty meals, visited the Alpacas and then settled down for the night.
Like clockwork the rain started at 3:30am and NEVER stopped.
However, in the morning they were still fully engaged with their day ahead, packed up and headed off for day 2.
The Bronze groups then started their 2-day expedition from Avebury.
From the start of this day, for both the Bronze and Silver groups, the conditions were challenging.
After the first group made it to the campsite, where we had arranged to use their Marquee to get out of the wind and rain, we were able to properly assess the campsite and the state of the pitches.
Unfortunately we had to make the decision to cancel the expeditions.
Going forward we will arrange a way to complete the expeditions in the new academic year.
A few pictures from the year 7 bug hunting day
The winner of the student photo competition is Weronika's red soldier beetle.
The Expressive Arts Faculty OSCARS
On Tuesday 11th July The Expressive Arts Faculty hosted its annual OSCARS evening. The presentation evening recognised the outstanding achievement, commitment and effort of students from all years in Art, Drama, Music, Photography and Art Textiles. Fifty students were nominated for various awards. Everyone attending the evening was dressed in their finery.
As well as the awards there were a range of wonderful performances, from seven different groups, to entertain the audience. Some of the groups that performed included the orchestra, KS4 steel drum band and flute group.
The evening culminated in the presentation of the highest achieving award, ‘The Faculty Fellowship Award’, which went to George Berrelly who gave many hours outside of lessons to concerts and events since he was in year 7. We are now on the look-out for students to nominate for next year…could it be you!?
Well done again to all our winners! We wish all of our Year 11 and Year 13 leavers all the best.
The Expressive Arts Faculty
Year 8 Race for Life event on Wednesday 19th July 2023
Wow! Simply wow! Our students have done themselves proud! We had the most amazing day with them. It all started off in the hall with some videos about how to lead a healthy lifestyle. We then had a guest speaker, Maisie from Snap Fitness, who spoke to the students about her career path & more about healthy lifestyles & mental wellbeing.
Next, the students learnt more about the Cancer Research UK charity & they had the chance to design a poster to show who they were doing the race for. This was very emotional for some of our students & staff. It was lovely to read some of the messages on the posters.
We then headed back to the hall for a warm-up, led by Maisie from the gym. The students really enjoyed the disco tunes & they all joined in with the stretching & dancing. We finished off with a couple of classic tunes - YMCA and Sweet Caroline!
After break, we all met on the field for the race. Everyone took part & seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves, despite the distance & the heat! A big thank you to Mr Walker who set up the 1km route for the students to complete 5 times. We even had some students who chose to do more than 5 laps! Congratulations to Hugo in 8C for finishing first. Also, a big well done to Mrs Gear from the Maths department, who took part to support our students & completed the full 5km.
Before lunch, we had some time to relax in the sun or shade. Some students chose to play football while others just sat & chatted with us & their friends.
After a well deserved lunch break, the students took part in a session all about mindfulness - a big thank you to Mr Perraton for planning this for us. The students really enjoyed colouring in the mandalas after being so active earlier on.
We would like to thank everyone who has already donated to our fundraising page. It is overwhelming to see that we have raised over £700. The link is below for anyone else who would still like to donate - we are so grateful!
Many thanks for all your support. We wish you all a relaxing holiday.
The Year 8 Team.
This week we say congratulations to some of last year’s cohort of students who recently completed their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Henry Berrelly, Lillianna York and Molly Read
These candidates successfully completed many hours of volunteering, learning a new skill and taking part in a physical activity as well as the preparation, planning and completing their expeditions. They will be receiving certificates and badges for recognition of the award and be able to include their achievements on future CV’s.
There are many others who successfully completed the expedition last academic year who are on their way to completing the other sections and should be submitting their assessor reports. If you are one of their assessors please encourage them to complete the section.
STAVERTON ROAD CLOSURE - Changes to School Buses from September 2023
During the closure of the main road through Staverton village starting 26th July for up to 5 months, there will need to be some changes to school bus services from September.
Pupils living in:
HORSE ROAD and PAXCROFT MEAD
MORNING Bus X77 will continue to operate as usual Paxcroft Mead at 0752 and Horse Road at 0803. Fare paying pupils can also use bus X34 from Paxcroft Mead/Horse Road at 0754 or 0809.
AFTERNOON will need to use bus Faresaver bus X34 from The John of Gaunt Bus Park at 1515.
STEEPLE ASHTON, KEEVIL AND BULKINGTON
MORNING Bus X77 will continue to operate as usual from Bulkington at 0730, Keevil at 0734, Steeple Ashton at 0741 and Paxcroft Mead at 0752 and Horse Road at 0803
AFTERNOON will need to use bus Faresaver Bus 77 from The John of Gaunt Bus Park at 1520.
STAVERTON - This new route is currently out for tender, so the name of the bus company is not yet known.
MORNING – bus 68 commencing at
Marsh Road at 0800
Cottles Barton 0801
Canal Road 0805
Arriving Trinity Church 0818
AFTERNOON Pupils will now need to walk to bus stop opposite Trinity Church near Skateboard park. There is a new temporary bus service bus 68 which will depart from TRINITY CHURCH (SKATE PARK SIDE) at 1525.
HOLT
MORNING will continue to use Bus 68 but will divert via Bradford on Avon times are not changing.
AFTERNOON will continue to use Faresaver bus 68 from The John of Gaunt Bus Park at 1515.
If you have any further queries, please email Buses@wiltshire.gov.uk who will be able to respond during the summer break.
videos. You can’t go to the cinema without a snack, so our students got creative making pancakes and learning about what happens to the ingredients to go from the batter to a cooked pancake, lots of taste testing too! 
How could we forget the incredible students that created duelling robots for our robot war STEAM challenge during activities week. Students were challenged to create robots using electric motors that would put their opponents out of the ring. Mr Carter and Miss Farthing were incredibly pleased to see the students of John of Gaunt working together and showing some great sportsmanship across the teams. Our year 7 and 8 winning teams were announced, with an impressive clean sheet scored for the winning year 7 team. Congratulations to Ed, Charlie, Oliver, Michael, and George, our year 7 winners and Riley and Aj, our year 8 winners! 
Duke of Edinburgh Expedition Update
A few pictures from the year 7 bug hunting day
Next, the students learnt more about the Cancer Research UK charity & they had the chance to design a poster to show who they were doing the race for. This was very emotional for some of our students & staff. It was lovely to read some of the messages on the posters.
Before lunch, we had some time to relax in the sun or shade. Some students chose to play football while others just sat & chatted with us & their friends.
page. It is overwhelming to see that we have raised over £700. The link is below for anyone else who would still like to donate - we are so grateful!
