Newsletters

Thank you to all of our community for your contributions and support of our Children In Need events.  We had a lot of fun and raised £899.90.  

Thank you very much for supporting this excellent cause. 

Free School Meals holiday payment

We have received notification that Wiltshire Council has taken the decision to make a Winter Free School Meals payment to cover the two-week holiday period at Christmas.

If we have previously paid you by bank transfer, or you are happy to receive an Asda voucher you do not need to take any further action.

If your child is Year 7, or you would now like to receive payment by bank transfer please send the following details BY TUESDAY 30 NOVEMBER to: finance@jogschool.org

(Please note that we require this information even if your child has an older sibling who is already paid by bank transfer)

Student’s name and tutor group:

Parent’s bank account name: (ie: Mr A Smith)

Sort Code:

Account number:

Many thanks

Finance Team

How to Grow a Grown-up - Parenting in a Pandemic

On Thursday 3 February from 6.30 pm we yet again have Dr Dominique Thompson giving a talk on how best to support your child particularly since lock down.

Dominique is an award-winning GP, young people's mental health and parenting support expert, TEDx speaker, author and educator, with two decades of clinical experience.

She is co-author of How to Grow a Grown Up (PenguinRandomHouse), a book written to support parents to raise independent and resilient young people in the 21^st century.

To support parents further

Dominique hosts a private Facebook community for parents to create safe spaces to share their concerns or ask for help, and she writes regular blogs on a vast array of parenting topics. She also hosts webinars for parents on supporting their child’s mental health, and writes a regular free newsletter for parents.

Check out the www.growingagrownup.com website to find out more.

(Dominique is a mum of 1 and step mum to 4 young adults!)

For young people she has written The Student Wellbeing Series (Trigger Press) – a series of guides to life at university, and mental health.

Dominique has done two TEDx talks; ‘What I learnt from 78000 GP consultations with university students’  and ‘Understanding Why’.

Dominique is a Clinical Advisor for NICE, RCGP and Student Minds.

Dominique is lead clinical advisor for Aardman Animation’s What’s Up with Everyone? campaign, and for Being Well, Living Well Epigeum

Further information about Dominique www.buzzconsulting.co.uk

We hope that many parents will attend. On previous occasions parents have given positive feedback regarding Dominique's talk and Q&A sessions afterwards.

Our Year 7 students were busy fundraising last week for Children in Need organised by our student council. During the week we hosted ‘Guess the Sweets’ in the turtle and managed to raised over £86 with our winner being Mason in 7C with a guess of 299. 

Then on Friday we organised a Cat Walk where our tutors dressed up with items brought in from their tutor group's houses. It was such a great atmosphere with students' laughing and supporting their peers! Students then had to vote for their favourite outfit and the winner was 7A - Mr Wigmore. We managed to raise £163.91 from this event which is AMAZING! 

Year 7 have managed to raise a grand total of £250.88 which is a staggering amount of money and the most we have ever raised. So, thank you so much to everyone who donated and helped spread the word for such a great charity! 

We look forward to our Christmas competition which will be announced next week. 

Thanks so much, 

Year 7 Team 

Year 7 Reward Points

As a Year group, students have been awarded 20000 reward points so far this year. A-ma-zing! Whether for progress and effort in class, for being helpful and a good citizen or representing the school in some way the vast majority of students demonstrate JOG values every day.

Topping the leader board are Sym Edwards (157), Izzy O’Grady (151) and Ava Pike (149).

80 students have achieved Bronze Level (100 points) this term. These are listed below.

We are a super proud Year Team. Keep up the good work!

This week during STEM club, the students made their own salt dough models. Some tried to make something that was related to Christmas... and Science!

Last term some of our wonderful year 9’s took part in a Lantern making workshop. Fun was had by all.

Please come along to the parade on the 27^th November and show support for our talented students.

Dear Parents and Carers. 

We would be really grateful if you could support the school in this charity event being run by the Lions association to collect items for Christmas hampers for families in need. 

The list of Items required, is as follows: 

• Festive Flavoured Crisps
• Pringles
• Tins Of biscuits 
• Selection boxes 
• Boxes of chocolates 
• Chocolate coins 
• cake 
• Chocolate/sponge puddings
• Tinned Potatoes 

• Tinned Veg 
• Tinned Soups 
• Tinned Fruit
• Jam 
• Stuffing 
• Tinned Pies
• Lucky charm cereal 
• Bottles of fizzy drinks
• Mince pies 
• Tea bags
• coffee 
• Cheese and crackers
• gravy
• Yule log

Please donate your items to tutors, and we will gather them at a central location point. 

Any donation big or small, will make a real difference to Trowbridge families this Christmas. 

Thank you in advance. 

Mrs S Scott - Social Sciences teacher 

Our year eleven GCSE Citizenship have been busy taking part in an active campaign since the start of September. As a part of their course, the group had to identify something in our community that they wanted to raise awareness of.

As a group they chose to raise awareness of mental health, with the aim of raising money for Mind (a mental health charity). The group planned an active campaign by ensuring they involved key stakeholders in our community, including our MP Andrew Murrison.

The group raised over £100 for Mind, by selling cakes, raffles and running various sporting activities. The group were very lucky to take part in a webinar with Paul Farmer, the Chief Executive of Mind, who told them about Mind in more detail - as well as the importance of campaigning for change in society. Mr Farmer was very pleased with the campaign that our GCSE Citizenship group have taken part in, so much so that he regularly wants to Tweet about out school and our GCSE Citizenship course! 

Mrs Scott and Mr Perraton 

Our second Ten Tors training hike took place last week, a 15-mile circuit taking in Widbrook, Tellisford, Rode, Southwick and Wingfield. The 36 students present were rewarded with a glorious autumn day, with a lovely fresh chill to nullify the sweat and heat of hiking.

The group were practising their navigation and whilst George and Abi "led" the group, 10 or so other students were being continually asked to show our exact location on their maps.

Our pace was slower than the previous week, but this was mainly due to the excess of stiles and gates which had to be negotiated. Lunch was taken in the beautifully tranquil surroundings of Tellisford Weir (as opposed to our usual spot in Rode churchyard) and the students dealt with close encounters with mud, cows and frisky horses with a minimum of fuss.

Overall, a lovely day was had by all. Thanks again to my volunteers and helpers Mr Lord, Ms Cornick, Mrs Brooks and Iain Richards, without whom this wouldn't have been possible. A final thank-you also to the departing Fran Booth for all her wonderful support and assistance with Ten Tors finances over the years - you'll be missed Fran!!

Netball News

The John of Gaunt School were entered into the Year 9 Netball Tournament at Melksham Oak School on Wednesday 24th November. This was a tournament to give the Year 9s an opportunity to practice their game play skills before their season begins next term. Selection of the teams were a challenge as all the netballers play to a similar standard! Both The John of Gaunt teams played exceptionally well and were a credit to the school.

All those who took part gained a certificate of participation along with achievement points. Players' players went to Konnie and Sophia. 

Well done all! 

Mrs Acheson and Miss Lewis