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AN MP CALLS!

On Friday, Sweyne Park School was honoured to welcome Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Shadow Europe Minister. Despite his hectic schedule, Mr Francois took the time to speak with members of the Year 10 Eco Club, who are pioneering the school's work to become a genuinely sustainable organisation.

He also met with members of our Year Councils who were keen to ask Mr Francois about his experience of politics. He then had an

opportunity to look at some of the outstanding work produced by Key Stage 4 pupils and was very impressed with what he saw. Finally he met Jordan and Sophie, in Year 9, who talked about how they represented Sweyne Park at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust National Conference, the biggest education conference in Europe (see inside for their account of their visit).

Mark said, "Sweyne Park is a very good school and I enjoyed a very informative visit. There are clearly a great many exciting things going on at the school and I was pleased to be updated on them, not just by Mr Hodgkinson and his colleagues, but directly by the pupils themselves".

A Musical Week

Last Thursday, parents, governors and staff were treated to a stunning display of musical talent at our Christmas Musical Soirée. Unfortunately I was unable to attend as I was presenting awards at a local school's Awards Evening. However, I have been inundated with positive comments from parents about the quality of the evening and the talent of our youngsters. I would like to thank everyone who made the time to come and support this event and all the pupils involved, with particular thanks to Mrs Chapman, Head of Music, Ms Watts and Mrs Hutton. Year Seven pupils also had the opportunity to visit a local church on Monday for their Carol Service and again this was a delightful event to get everyone in a festive mood.

Holiday Dates

As I mentioned earlier this term, we have now agreed the term dates for 2008/09 and we are getting these out to you as early as possible so that you can plan holidays etc. as clearly it is vitally important for holidays not to be booked during term time. The dates are as follows:

Autumn Term

Half Term

Spring Term

Half Term

Summer Term

Half Term

Tuesday 2nd September - Wednesday 17th December 2008

27th - 31st October 2008

Monday 5th January - Friday 3rd April 2009

16th - 20th February 2009

Monday 20th April - Friday 17th July 2009

25th - 29th May 2009

PE KIT

As I am sure some of you are aware, we have experienced a number of difficulties with our supplier this term and, as a result, a small number of pupils have had to wait an unacceptably long period of time to receive the correct PE kit. I would like to apologise to pupils and parents for this; we are considering an alternative supplier for next year, and we hope to have resolved the whole situation by the first week back in January.

And Finally

I should like to send you all my very best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

We spoke to Mark Francois about our eco-school project and how we started recycling in school. We showed him the main bins outside and the smaller blue bins we use indoors for recycling paper. He was really great to talk to and was really enthusiastic about recycling. We even spoke to him about what they did about recycling where he worked.

IN BRITAIN...

...it is Father Christmas who delivers presents to the children on Christmas Eve. In America Santa Claus visits children, but other countries have very different gift-givers.

IN FRANCE...

...baby Jesus is usually the gift-giver, but in some areas Tante Aria (Mother Air), riding on a donkey and accompanied by Father Star, brings the presents. In other areas it is Père Noel (Father Christmas) who brings gifts.

IN GERMANY...

...they are visited by the Weihnachtsmann or Saint Nicholas, who carries a large sack of presents and a bundle of sticks in one hand and a Christmas tree in the

IN ITALY...
...Befana, known in Russia as Baboushka, is an old woman who has been looking for the Christ Child ever since He was born to give Him her presents. She flies through the air and leaves presents for every child she passes. In some parts of Russia Grandfather Frost brings the gifts.

IN SPAIN...

... presents are delivered by the Wise Men on the 6th January.

IN THE NETHERLANDS...

...Sinterklass, dressed in bishop's robes gives out presents to good children while his helper, Swarte Piet (Black Peter), dressed in black carries sticks for bad boys and girls.

IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA...

... Svaty Mikulas arrives at Christmas time with an angel and an evil spirit.

IN SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES...

...it is Julenisse, a gnome, who leaves gifts under the Christmas tree (and children leave out porridge for him in return).

IN SOME MIDDLE-EASTERN COUNTRIES...

...the Gentle Camel the youngest of the three camels which carried the Wise Men gives out the gifts.

Pupil Voice in Action: Year 9 Council

Under the guidance of Miss Smith and Miss Mackintosh, the Year 9 Council has been busy this term! Many of them were involved with the fundraising for Children in Need: some of them met with Rayleigh MP, Mark Francois, last week and they have all been discussing how they can focus on `Healthy Eating'. Congratulations and well done to the following pupils who are representing their tutor groups;

Josh, Charlotte, Dale, Polly, Alix, Ellen, Lewis, Becky, Tom, Olivia, Billy, Rosie, Gina, Jamie, Verity, Adam and Jess.

If you have any ideas for what you think your Year Council should be doing or want to get involved then look out for your representatives or see Mrs Spinks in ML5.

IN BRITAIN...

Sweyne Park pupils have been involved in the planning and delivering of Pupil Voice workshops for the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust for two years now. It was therefore a great privilege to be invited to present at the National Conference at the ICC in Birmingham last month.

Sophie and Jordan from Year 9 joined Alex and Alex of Year 11 in preparing a workshop with Mr Samways and Mr Hodgkinson. It focussed on how pupils are involved in the planning of, and how we make use of, Pupil Voice. Alex and Alex were also presenting an International Award which they had helped judge. The above photo captures them doing this in front of the 3,000 delegates!

During this amazing day Sophie, Jordan, Alex and Alex also undertook a variety of roles including meeting and greeting all the delegates and adding to the conference blog. Two of their entries are shown below.

29 November 2007 at 12:01 pm

We are both in year nine and are also on the school council. We have both presented at different venues for a while now and have been doing this for a year. We are both really excited to be here today with Alex and Alex. It's a fantastic experience that I am sure we will never forget!

29 November 2007 at 12:08 pm

We are here at the Birmingham ICC. It is a fantastic venue. We have been presenting for approximately a

year now but it is the first time we have been here. It is a fantastic event that we will never forget and we hope that we will be able to come back next year! Thank you very much for being so enthusiastic and letting us take part.

Sophie reporting

I really loved our trip to Birmingham. I was so excited and enthusiastic about presenting at the National Conference, especially to get our point across to other schools. It was an amazing feeling to know that many of the people who came to our workshop were there because they wanted to hear from us, young pupils! It was a real pleasure to represent Sweyne Park School.

Jordan reporting

The conference was a huge event and judging by the feedback we received we were very successful. It was a busy day and we had to do a lot of hard work for it but it was definitely worth it. I had a fantastic time at the event and was glad to see that Mr Hodgkinson's taste in food wasn't too dodgy! I would like to say a huge thank you to Mr Hodgkinson, Mr Samways and Mr Fennell. Well, what can I say? Roll on London, our next venue!

We have had a fantastic response to our hamper appeal this year. 36 hampers have been delivered to the local community. A group of children took boxes of goodies to Dobson House in Rayleigh and met the residents and had tea and biscuits with them.

Pupils from 7JDa with their hampers

Dan & Daniel reporting

It was nice to see their faces when the hampers arrived, and it was good to see them so happy. It was a great experience talking to them and listening to their stories of what they have done in their lives. When we left we thought it was good we were able to do something nice for them.

Dan & Daniel with Jim, who at 95 is Dobson House's oldest resident

Kym with Rose & Harrold

Kym reporting

It was a great experience to meet the residents of Dobson House and see what their reaction was to the hamper. It was a fantastic chance to listen to their tales of what life was like in the early 1900's.

Tim Wade reporting

On Tuesday 27th November Sweyne Park hosted a Philosophy event for some Year 9 pupils and we invited 5 local schools to join us. The day was based around 4 big questions: What is real? What is true? What is good? What is fair? This helped prompt some lively discussions and made all the pupils think hard about the way they look at life. It was an eye opener for us all!

`I learnt a lot from the philosophy morning. To ask more and question things to help understand them better' Chloe 9MAt

`It made my brain go funny, thinking about things I had never thought of before' Bethany 9MAt

In November I was selected as part of a group of Year 9 pupils who attended a Philosophy event in ITH. Once there we were given four seemingly simple questions: they were; `What's life?' `What's right?', `What's true?' and `What's real?' Throughout the morning we struggled to answer these now complex questions, discovering a new way to perceive things.

So, what is Life, Right, Real and True? Well, there really is no definite answer; philosophy is designed to accept nothing unless it is 100% true or fact.

THE GREEK WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS

By Anthony Horowitz

The very latest Diamond Brothers Investigation involves death threats to the world famous singer and actress, Minerva. However, the Greek celebrity seems to have plenty of enemies - so the question is which one actually wants her dead? Another highly entertaining, hapless, detective, mystery from the author of the Alex Rider books.

THE LIBRARY'S TUTOR GROUP OF THE TERM

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Congratulations for the most Library loans a massive 253 loans.