Good attendance at The Thomas Hepburn Community School continues to be very rewarding!

Congratulations to Year 7 student Georgia Wilson and Year 10 student Lee Stewart who won the bike prize for 100% attendance during Spring Half Term (Monday 5th January – Friday 29th January 2010).  Well done! 

We are also delighted to announce the winners of the 2 pairs of Newcastle United tickets for 100% attendance between Monday 5th January and Friday 12th February 2010: Year 7 student Callum Swanston and Year 10 student Eleanor Hopgood.

For those of you who missed out on last term’s prizes NEVER FEAR we have further prize draws coming up!   

Metrocentre vouchers:

There are more Metrocentre vouchers for both students and their parents/carers who are in the 95% club this term.

Disneyland Paris:

Gateshead Education Welfare Service has a 3-night break for a family of four to Disneyland Paris as a prize draw for students across the borough achieving 100% attendance and punctuality from Monday 19th April until

Friday 9th July 2010. 

Britain’s Got Talent!

Students with 100% attendance next term (Summer Term) demonstrating acceptable behaviour and punctuality will be entered into a prize draw for tickets to see Britain’s Got Talent Live at the Metro Radio Arena.

Please see posters around the school for further details.  Remember – You’ve got to be in it to win it!

And Finally…….

Hooray! The Attendance Derby is here! All tutor groups now have their chance to take part in the most talked about race of the year.

Up until Easter we are running a race for the best attending tutor group to win a Pizza Party lunch for their whole tutor group.

Further races will take place during the year, and more prizes will be won!

As you are aware we are currently in the middle of a very exciting BSF project. We will soon have in place a dedicated student newsteam who will be updating our new BSF page regularly - documenting the whole process. In the meantime we have put some images here for you to see the progress so far. To find out more about those involved in the BSF project click here to visit the Inspired Spaces website.

School will re-open for Years 10, 11 & 12 on Monday and OPEN AS NORMAL from Tuesday 12th January 2010.

Arrangements for Monday are as follows:

Staff - arrive for 10.30am

Key Stage 4 & 5 (yrs 10, 11 & 12) - 11am start - all students assemble in the canteen

Key Stage 3 (yrs 7, 8 & 9) - School Closed

All students refer to previous post for activities that can be completed at home.

School will remain closed on Friday 8th January and re-open for Years 10, 11 & 12 on Monday

Arrangements for Monday are as follows:

Staff - arrive for 10.30am

Key Stage 4 & 5 (yrs 10, 11 & 12) - 11am start - all students assemble in the canteen

Key Stage 3 (yrs 7, 8 & 9) - School Closed

All students refer to previous post for activities that can be completed at home.

All Subjects - BBC Bitesize, S-Cool

Maths - MyMaths

Science - BBC Bitesize, Y12 Chemistry and Biology - go to VLE for access to boardworks and click here for some A-Level Biology exam papers LMA's Yr 10 - Update workbooks & Y9 follow this link.

Business Studies - Business Studies Online, Kerboodle (Y12) (Y12 - Go to the VLE for some exam practice papers - e-mail VMA if you have any problems)

Spanish - Linguascope , Kmedices

ICT - Teach ICT

Yet again our students have made us extremely proud! This year our GCSE results met, and in many cases exceeded the challenging targets set for us.

25 year 10 pupils were invited to Sunderland University to meet the Formula Student Team.

Whilst there the pupils were given a talk about Formula Student and the opportunities the competition can offer. The team is made up of many students with different backgrounds, all bringing their skills to the team these ranged from marketing and accounting to the engineering required to build the car.

We saw first hand how the sports science department is supporting the formula student team through reaction speed analysis, impact experiments and thermal imaging. All of our pupils were able to use the equipment and carried out experiments. Assessing their own reaction speeds and finding the best materials to absorb impact forces.

The visit was a fantastic insight into courses and activities available to students and had a real impact on our pupils who are considering university as a future option. The trip highlighted the importance of gaining skills at school that could then be built upon in further education.

Our very popular, fun cookery club runs on Thursday evenings from 3.15 to approximately 5.30.

So far students have produced, carrot and coriander soup, scones, spaghetti bolognaise, jam tarts, quiche and some very impressive Easter cakes complete with multi-coloured fluffy chicks!

Pupils from all age groups may attend and the current club is made up of roughly equal numbers of boys and girls from Years 7 to 10.

Each course runs for 6 weeks but you’ll have to hurry up if you’d like to join because many places have already been taken for the next session!

For more information see Mrs Clark

Good attendance at The Thomas Hepburn Community School is a very rewarding experience! Aside from giving you the best opportunities to enjoy and achieve and get the most from your school experience, there are many chances to win prizes. 

Recently students have won DVD players, MP3 players, cameras and of course, Easter eggs.  7JDU, the highest attending tutor group in year 7, were lucky enough to win a visit to see and explore a helicopter! As you can see they all thoroughly enjoyed this trip out!

After the success of the newly introduced after school activities, we have decided to run more new and interesting sessions. These activities are FREE! If you enroll on an activity and attended each session you maybe eligible to attend FREE activities in the Summer Holidays such as go-karting, paintballing, visits to the cinema, theatre etc.

The new activities starting from the 20th April are:

If you are interested in participating please contact Mrs Sims-Brydon at reception.

If there is any other activity you would like to do please let us know.

26th March 2009 was BBC School Report day, where the BBC open up their news feeds to school pupils all across the country. We took 30 Year 7 students to Gateshead CLC where they worked with professional standard TV and Radio recording equipment to produce some fantastic news reports.

They produced reports on the importance of good attendance and healthy school meals. Some of our students also interviewed Flight Lieutenant Will Close-Ash about receiving a very important award.

To view some of the work from the day click here and to find out more about the project click here.

Children In Need Day was, as ever, a real highlight of the Thomas Hepburn year.  We raised a school record amount of £5, 023.19 which was assisted by the work of Mrs Carter’s sister, a representative of Barclay’s Bank who agreed to match the amount we raised in school. 

As usual, staff and students arrived for the day in an impressive array of fancy dress costumes.  Every student participated in workshops exploring a variety of topics related to this year’s theme of Economic Awareness as well as spending an hour participating in or watching our annual ‘X-Factor’ competition. 

The day ended with another Thomas Hepburn tradition – the whole school community joining together in the yard to sing and dance along to the song ‘We are family’! Many thanks to all who supported this very successful day.

Spanish - www.kmedices.org

Science - www.luvscience4eva.org

Coming soon

Maths - www.luvsums4eva.org

Class of 2007

On the 20th June 2007 yet another Thomas Hepburn tradition was born! Year 11 students returned to school that morning to have "brunch" and receive their eagerly awaited Yearbooks.

The presentation was held in the main hall where Mrs Thoburn and Mr Gardiner hosted the event along with the Key Stage 4 Achievement Team.

Mr Dawson, Mr Gardiner and Mrs Thoburn passed on their best wishes for the future to the students along with words of wisdom to help them on their way!

Students were keen to see the contents of the Yearbook and spent the morning having them signed, scrutinising the photographs and enjoying brunch from tables laden with pastries, fruit and juices.

Staff called in during the course of the morning to chat, sign Yearbooks and make the event even more special for the students.

The morning was enjoyed by all and declared to be an event worth repeating.