Latest School News
Sackville School Careers Fair
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Year 11 and Sixth Form students with their parents braved extraordinarily inclement weather to attend Sackville’s first ever Careers Fair last Thursday evening. Representatives from nearly 30 different occupational areas were on hand to advise the young people on the opportunities on offer in their industry. Students were able to quiz Investment Bankers, a Web Designer, a Journalist and Paramedics, to name but a few, as well as representatives from The University of Kent, the RAF, RealGap travel and the Connexions service. Students relished the opportunity to find out about careers they were interested in and some they had not previously considered. The evening was deemed a great success by all who attended and gave the pupils plenty to consider when planning their future.
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Sackville organises a visit by author Chris Bradford
to speak about his Young Samurai Books
Hildenborough was treated to a taste of the Orient on Monday when the award winning author, Chris Bradford, addressed 200 local school children in the Village Hall. The event was organised by Sackville School as part of their annual Book Week and their students were joined by Year 6 pupils from Fosse Bank, Hildenborough and Stocks Green primary schools. The author captivated students with a hair raising demonstration of Japanese martial arts and read extracts from his ‘Young Samuarai’ series of books. The Film and TV rights to the books, which are action adventure stories set in 17th Century Japan, were sold earlier this year and a third book will appear in book stores next March. The author has also been chosen to write one of the ‘World Book Day’ free books for children next year.
Sackville’s Book Week celebrations continued with a writing workshop with the Polka Children’s Theatre, which will lead to a cultural exchange project with a school in India. Students in Year 8 will create books based on stories traditional to our country and these will be taken out to the subcontinent where the students will have produced books based on Indian folklore. It is hoped that this will be the beginning of a long term relationship between the schools.
Year 7 students visited Hildenborough library on Thursday to learn about the educational resources offered county-wide and ongoing activities have included ‘Readathon’, a sponsored reading event in aid of charity for children with serious illnesses and, a new feature for Book Week this year, extracts played from audio books in the library each lunchtime. The culmination of the week’s activities was the ever popular Inter-House book quiz.
National Young Chef Challenge 2009
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Sackville School played host on Thursday 24th September to a school heat of the National 'Young Chef Challenge 2009'. Year 10 Food Technology students cooked a main course of their own invention using either minced beef or lamb. They had one hour to prepare the dish and the cost had to come within a set budget. Dishes ranged from 'Pooley Pie' to Chilli. The Head Chef from Hildenborough restaurant Vaudrey's, Gilles Caisey, assisted the schools' Head Teacher, Peter Lane, in judging the event and both enjoyed the dishes prepared by the students. The competition was close, but four students (Jenny Wong, Helena Proctor, Hanna-Rose Hadrill and Maya Dial) had their dishes submitted for the next round of the competition, with Jenny in first place with her mince steaks with new potatoes and salad. Jenny also won a free meal for herself and a friend at 'Vaudrey's' restaurant. Food Technology Teacher, Ruth Kitchener, was impressed by the dishes, 'the students have been focusing very hard on their meals. They should be really proud of their effort today'
Year 7 Adventure Weekend to Hindhead
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On Friday 18th September at 2.30pm Year 7 students, together with their tutors, Mr Francis Griffiths and Mrs Althea Glass, accompanied by Mrs Nelson, PE teacher, set off by coach for a weekend of fun and adventure at Hindhead PGL Centre, near Guildford.
The challenging and exciting activities on offer kept eveyone well focused for the whole weekend. The Leap of Faith, Jacobs Ladder, Giant Swing, Abseiling, Nightline (blindfold trust games) Archery, problem solving and initiative games and football games.
No wonder everyone was exhausted at the end of a long day - very quiet after lights out despite being woken at two in the morning. With four to six students sharing a small room you had to be very quiet and considerate.
Most Year 7 students came home at 7.30pm on Sunday night feeling thoroughly exhausted but satisfied that they had enjoyed a full and exciting weekend getting to know each other.
Year 7 female pupil
French Alps Adventure Trip: Saturday, 27th June - Friday, 3rd July 2009
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Thirty two pupils and five teachers set off by coach for Megève in the French Alps very early on the Saturday morning. We arrived at our hotel (which we had to ourselves) in time for supper. The evening was spent attending a celebration in the town centre for the patron saint of firemen. We were too tired to stay up for the fire to be lit and the flames to be put out but we got a taste of this quite bizarre event.
On the following day, we drove into Chamonix and took the 101 year old train up Montblanc to the glacier, Mer de glace, where we had the opportunity to walk inside a section and get really cold! Some pupils (and teachers) played a game of who could keep their hand pressed against the ice for the longest (couldn't see the point, myself!). The weather was fantastic and we spent some time looking at the mountain peaks and the glacier which had shaped the valley. In the afternoon, we had time to look around Chamonix and buy an ice cream before heading back to our resort.
Megève has some good sports facilities, so most evenings were spent playing rugby, football or rounders. There was also time to wander into town and buy a drink or an ice cream. Back at the hotel, we had a quiz, played board games or pool down in the basement.
The days raced by. The following day, we set off for the beautiful little town of Annecy (the Venice of the Alps), where we tried catamaraning on the lake which was a lot of fun despite the absence of any wind! In the afternoon, we looked around the town, buying souvenirs and yet more ice creams (I wasn't too keen on the smurf flavoured one I tried!).
The next day was a full day of activities. In the morning, half the group went white water rafting on the Isère river while the other half attempted the tree-top assault course which was a lot more difficult and scary than it sounds. For someone who has a dreadful fear of heights, I managed to complete the whole course and even enjoyed it towards the end, especially zip-wiring across the same river we had been white water rafting on earlier in the day. White water rafting was also a great challenge for those who had never tried it before and most of us ended up under the water at least a couple of times. Another adrenalin rush came when we stopped half-way down to jump off a high ledge into the river below. Sarah Druce took to it like duck to water and would have been quite happy to jump off a bridge if we had let her!
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The Thursday was a chance for us to rest our aching limbs with a visit to Geneva in Switzerland. We walked to see the largest water fountain in Europe and got thoroughly we in the process. We wandered around the old town, climbing the spire of St Stephen's and admired the great view of the town and the lake. Geneva has great shops so the pupils had a chance to make some serious purchases and have lunch. The teachers decided to go for something typical, choosing fondues and rosties. The lake provided another opportunity for a swim or a paddle followed up by the ubiquitous ice cream. On the way home, we nipped into a hypermarket to buy food items for presents or our own consumption.
On Friday, we had the opportunity of having a guided walk in the Alps. We were divided into small groups according to our ability and walked through beautiful meadows and footpaths, admiring the wonderful views and were told about the faming communities, the fauna and flora and weather patterns. Mr Moore was able to point out the birds native to the alpine habitat. Some of us were lucky to see a golden eagle but I am sorry that I missed seeing a marmot, those slothful creatures that hibernate for seven months of the year and wake up in May to eat meadow flowers all summer. All the pupils enjoyed the challenging walk, even if they had reservations about it beforehand. Our guides were wonderfully patient with us and were very impressed by the politeness and interest of our pupils. We finished the last night off with a little party and presentation evening where the achievements of all the pupils were celebrated. Completely worn out, none of us needed much persuading to go to bed as we had quite an early start for home the following morning.
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Mr Barham and I felt that the pupils got a lot out of this busy and exhausting trip and would like to thank the other teachers who came with us who had nearly as much energy and stamina as the children: Mrs Ellis, Mr Perry and Mr Moore.
Claire Potzesny
Head of Modern Languages
