Newsletters

NEWSLETTER 27 - 13 May 2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you have all enjoyed your week.

What a pleasure it was to congratulate our Ten Tors team on Monday morning after their adventures on the weekend. During Morning Welcome we shared information about their trip and then gave them a rousing whole school round of applause. This afternoon we wished our Duke Of Edinburgh students well as they set of from school. Let's hope their map reading skills are as good as they have been on training!

Also, this week we had an external visitor to the school to look at our overall performance and conduct some subject reviews. Since then, we have received some wonderful feedback about the quality of our provision and the high standards that both students and staff demonstrating across the school.  It was great to have such positive feedback, especially in the light of all the recent Covid challenges.

As always, I hope you are able to enjoy a relaxing weekend,

Best wishes,

Paul Skipp

Headteacher


Dates for the Diary

Week 2
All Day
16
May
Week 1
All Day
23
May
TERM 5 HOLIDAY
All Day
From 30 May until 03 Jun
30
May
Week 2
All Day
06
June

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13 May 2022
South West Junior Chef of the Year in 2022
Dear young chef, We are delighted to inform you of the return of South West Junior Chef of the Year in 2022.  After being forced to cancel the competition for the last two years due to the pandemic, we are very excited to be able to offer this opportunity to the young cooks of the South West...
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12 May 2022
Book of the Week
Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick
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Ten Tors 2022 Success!

Well done everyone! After months of hard work and training, 17 out of 18 students successfully completed the Ten Tors Challenge 2022 last weekend, made increasingly hard by the extremely hot and dry conditions down on Dartmoor. They battled through carrying 10-20kg rucksacks with tents, stoves, waterproofs, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, food, first aid kits etc and were totally self-sufficient during the event.

Friday - Navigators planned and discussed routes at JOG, completed a final equipment check, loaded up minibuses and headed down to Okehampton Army Camp, joining up with around 3,000 participants from other schools, around 1,500 other staff and a large military and medical teams. 

Friday night - Great chilli enjoyed by all from Smoky Bill, and students enjoyed the atmosphere, played football and played games with students from other schools.

Saturday - Students woke up at 0400, Smoky Bill served a full English breakfast at 0430 and at then started making their way up to the start line at 0545. Unfortunately the early-morning mist caused the parachute jump and helicopter fly-by to be cancelled, but after some inspiration words from South Pole Explorer Harpreet Kaur Chandi (Polar Preet), the cannon fired and the students set off to complete their challenge unaided. 

Later in the day JOG Volunteer Iain Richards was presented with his silver medal for helping out with Ten Tors for over 15 years. Massively deserved and there will be hundreds of young people that have benefitted from Iain's expertise and guidance. Well done!

Sunday - All groups were on track when they camped - despite some delays (medical delay for 45-mile team, and KH had issues with their Emergency Tracker Beacon leading to incorrect data being temporarily transmitted to staff and parents!) We all nervously followed their progress online and at the camp Hangar and then went down to the line to cheer them over the finish line along with thousands of other parents. A wonderful achievement from a remarkable group of students - we're all so proud of them!

KH Route (38.8 miles) - BRONZE MEDALS

  • Reuben Wood (C) - Year 10, Joseph Clark (Nav) - Year 9, Lucas Hessey-Knocks (Nav) - Year 9, Grace Scotney - Year 9, Gabriella Fyall - Year 9, Ayden Strawson - Year 9

LH Route (38.8 miles) - BRONZE MEDALS

  • Leo Fitchen (C), Elliot Ward (Nav), Will Jackson (Nav), Rob Thomson, Connor McClean, Lewis Usher - All Year 10

UB Route (49.7 miles) - SILVER MEDALS

  • Imogen Wood (C) - Year 12, Abi Davies (Nav) - Year 11, Luke Waldron - Year 11, Ryan Beale - Year 11, Amelia Patterson - Year 12 - Unfortunately George Berrelly (Nav) - Year 12 was removed from the event by medics on Saturday afternoon - suffering a migraine and nausea (probably heat related).

SUPERSTAR HELPERS / SUBS

  • Mason Dagleish (Y9) Tom Fearon (Y9) Jasmin Green (Y10) Tom Jones (Y10)

Finally, massive thanks to the people who gave up countless days of their time to make this possible for our students - Volunteers Iain Richards, Bill & Jazzy Smith, Shaun White and to our dedicated staff Mrs Brooks and Mr Lord, and additionally thanks to Mr Skipp and Mr Reeves for their continued support in enabling our participation.

For some fabulous photos of our students please click the link below.

https://www.johnofgauntschool.org/gallery/?pid=7&gcatid=2&albumid=16


Cloth Road Art Trail 

Well done Abbie - Year 13 Student. We are so proud of you.

https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/20108849.cloth-roads-art-trail-opens---free/


Year 9 Developing their Practical skills

Today we made Enchiladas to further develop our technique and precision when chopping vegetables and raw meat.

The Bridge Hold

 

Having fun whilst at work

     

    

Brunoise

                                        


This week during STEM club... the students made giant bubbles out in the sunshine! They loved it.


Could you be the Young Geographer of the Year 2022?

This year’s competition, run by the Royal Geographical Society focusses on the theme Where, How, Why with Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 students needing to submit an A3 entry looking at where they would like to travel – locally or internationally.

We will be putting forward the top 10 entries from John of Gaunt students to the National RGS competition and would love to see as many willing Geographers joining us on Tuesday 7th June at 3:15pm in G13 as possible!

For further information please click on the link below

Young Geographer of the Year Competition 2022



Hi  

My name is Izzy Nevill, and I’m a young presenter at Warminster Community Radio (WCR). We are introducing a new show for young people called “Teen Scene” starting on the 14th May 2022. 

You can listen at 105.5 FM or online at wcrfm.org.uk or through the MyTuner Radio app and searching Warminster Community Radio.

WCR are also offering this amazing opportunity -

Are you a student aged 13 or over who is interested in radio presenting and production?  If so, Warminster Community Radio are running a production and presenting course at their studios at the Civic Centre in Warminster from Wednesday 18th May from 7pm to 9pm.  No fee is charged, but they do require you to become a member at a cost of £15 per annum.  If you are interested, please email management@wcrfm.org.uk

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Izzy Nevill (Yr 10 student at JOG)

Young presenter at Warminster Community Radio




Years 10-13, free virtual event. Could a career at Jaguar Land Rover be for you? 

 Monday 16th May 5:00pm - 6:00pm 

Jaguar Land Rover is the UK’s largest investor in automotive research, development and engineering.  You will be hearing all about how the company has become what it is today and their visions for the future with revolutionary new sustainable technologies particularly in the electric car space.  With a wide variety of school-leaver opportunities in a number of engineering fields, data analytics, supply chain & logistics and finance, could a career at Jaguar Land Rover be for you? 

To register for the online event: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/JLR-Event

There are many apprenticeship vacancies available within a 10-mile radius of our school.

https://www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk/apprenticeshipsearch?searchMode=Keyword


Final College Open Days –Y11s it’s still not too late to apply and Year10s, It's not too early to visit!

Wiltshire College

To register for any of these events follow https://www.wiltshire.ac.uk/events

 

 

Bath college

Wednesday 4th May 4-7pm

https://www.bathcollege.ac.uk/openevents#:~:text=Wednesday%204th%20May%202022%2C%204%2D7pm%20(Both%20Campuses)