Many congratulations to Robert Thompson – Darch on being selected for interview at the Army Officer Sixth Form Training Centre at Welbeck, the very best of luck to Robert at the selection board meeting.

We await the news of the names of the students who will be joining us in September, as I am sure parents do. The numbers so far look very positive, there are 196 in year 7, 210 in year 8 and 192 in year 9.

We have had some exciting news of the success of one of our former students and interns Craig Frost. At University Craig made a film called ‘Have  a Nice Day’ and has just been informed that the film has made the official selection for the Soho International Film Festival 2012 in New York in April. Great news indeed.

Congratulations to the following students on recent sporting successes:

• Sophie Morgan and Ruth Denham for their recent gold medal winning performances during the Eastern area Judo Championships
• Lauren Howe and Hannah Barnes for their success in the recent English Schools National Cross Country Finals.
• Congratulations to the Sixth Form Football team on their recent 5-4 win over Lowestoft Sixth Form Centre in an exciting game held at Barnard’s Meadow in Lowestoft. Well done to Man of the match, Daniel Block.
• Congratulations to the U-16 Badminton team on reaching the regional finals at the Ipswich Academy on March 16th. Bungay played exceptionally well throughout the County Championships only dropping 2 games out of 20, a fantastic achievement. Well done to George Caplin, Ollie Hills, Chris Green and Keelan Shand, best of luck in the regionals.

It is with great sadness that I report the sudden death of former colleague Dr Ronald McLeod. He died of a stroke at the young age of 47 and has left behind his wife Cathy and two young sons, Sam and Daniel. Our thoughts are with them at this terrible time.

Recent sporting successes have included:

Suffolk U-14 Badminton Championships, On Friday 13th January a team consisting of Aaron Goffin, Adam Roberts, Harry Delaney and Jake Turner represented us at the Ipswich Academy. The team played some outstanding badminton, special mention to Adam Roberts who won all his singles games. In the pool stages Bungay beat King Edwards 5-0, followed by  a5-0 win over Beccles Middle and lost 3-2 to the eventual winners Copleston High. As Mr Middleton says, the boys were a credit to the school.

On Thursday 19th January 2012, Ben Clements and Aaron Rogerson won the Junior Pairs Competition at the World Bowls Indoor Championships. This is Ben’s second year of winning the competition and did exceptionally well playing with a broken left arm! He had to adjust his whole bowling technique to compensate and in the tie-break, bowled the ball to seal victory. Congratulations to them both.

Also on the same day, four Bungay High School students took part in the Suffolk Cross Country Finals held at the Royal Hospital School in Ipswich. The weather was cold and very windy but dry to start. In the junior girls event, Lauren Howe and Hannah Barnes improved on their qualifying positions to come in 7th and 9th respectively. They have both qualified for the Anglian Region round of the competition.

In the junior boys event, Sam Hills ran a very good race coming in 31st. The heavens opened just before Bethany Casbolt set out for the Intermediate Girls race and she came in a very well placed 21st position in awful running conditions.

A very big well done to all four for taking part in a very arduous race, and thanks to Mrs Capps-Jenner and Mrs Linehan for taking and supporting you.

On Tuesday 24th January the U14 football team played a in a 7 a side tournament hosted by Lynn Grove High School in Gorleston. The team consisted of Aaron Goffin,Jake Prettyman, George Edwards, Tommie Williams, Kieran Cadle, Sam Hills, Matt Vettesse and Tyler Gallant. After a slow start the team picked up momentum and reached the semi finals. In the semi finals a close match saw us beat Benjamin Britten High School 1-0 with an Aaron Goffin goal. In the final they met the hosts Lynn Grove and put in an excellent performance winning 2-0 with two well taken Matt Vettesse goals. The team showed a great attitude and work ethic throughout the tournament and fully deserved the title of Champions.

Success on the music front with the following students passing a music exam in the Autumn term:

• Denys Woolley – Grade 1 Piano with Merit
• Wilf Berry – Grade 1 Bass Guitar with Merit
• Xavier Heath – Grade 2 Euphonium
• Kyle Clouting – Grade 3 Electric Guitar with Distinction
• Ashley Hawkins – Grade 3 Trumpet with Merit
• Jeff Leong – Grade 3 Electric Guitar with Distinction
• Jonathan Ball – Grade 3 Drum Kit with Merit
• April Bowen – Grade 3 Drum Kit
• Nicholas Ball – Grade 4 Cornet with Merit.

Congratulations to them all and to Mrs Drew-Batty and her team of perepatetic music teachers who provide such wonderful musical experiences for our students.

The Autumn term finished with a flourish, many thanks and congratulations to the prefect team for organising one the the best Pop Mimes on record, thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Also congratulations to the contestants who entered the book mastermind competition. Mrs Marriott tells me that we had 25 contestants enter into the fun and competitive spirit of Book Mastermind this year. Three heats were held over the past month which gave rise to the 6 finalists. Each of the students had to answer 20 questions on a fiction book of their choice in a time frame of 2 minutes putting themselves under the spotlight on the Deputy Head’s black chair! A place in the final means a different choice of book and the pressure all over again! A remarkable achievement then for Liam Saunders to score 18 correct answers with no passes in a time of 1 minute 53 seconds, Liam’s winning choice of book was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. In second place for the second year running was Mattea Ball who also gave an outstanding performance answering 17 correctly again with no passes in a time of 1 minute and 28 seconds.

Well done to all involved.

My thanks to Mrs Charlish for organising our Presentation evening just before Christmas and to Lorna  Charlish for being our guest speaker, it is always great to see our alumni doing so well in the competitive business world. It was tremendous to see our students returning from University with tales of how things are progressing. They really are an inspiration to our younger students.

We at Bungay High would like to pass on our condolences to Mr David Brook husband of Angela Brook, the Mayor of Bungay who lost her very brave fight against cancer just before Christmas, Angela was a great supporter of the school as well as one of our exam invigilators, she will be sorely missed.

We now move into a very busy spring term , with  a raft of exams for all year groups upon us, I believe our students have the commitment and motivation to succeed again this year. We also wish our year 12 Drama students all the best for their performances on Thursday evening of this week.

Our partnership planning for the new school in September is going well, we have appointed 12 middle school staff so far to our team with more to follow once we have our confirmed pupil numbers in February. Mrs MacKenzie is doing a fantastic job training staff, students and governors in the new ways of the house and vertical tutoring system, parents are being kept informed of the process and possible outcomes.

Last week we held our Winter Concert which was teamed with the Craft Fair to raise funds for our partner school in Rwanda, I would like to congratulate Mrs Drew Batty and her musicians for a wonderful evening of Music, you can forget X – Factor we certainly have the B- factor here at Bungay High. I look forward to hearing some of the pieces played again at the Presentation Evening on Monday 12th December, which celebrates all the student success of the past year and also celebrates the 5oth anniversary of the school on its current site. There has been a school in Bungay for 446 years, we are maintaining the fine traditions first established in the St Marys’s church porch all those years ago. We welcome Lorna Charlish as our Guest of Honour, Lorna has had a successful career since leaving school and university, she is now the Head of Marketing at Emap Connect, one of the leading Media Houses in Europe.

Tremendous news for one of our year 9 students. Sam Hills, has been selected to be an Olympic Torch Bearer when the torch reaches Lowestoft on 4th July 2012. Extremely well done Sam, we are very proud that you have achieved this accolade.

Congratulations go to Ashley Block in Year 10 on achieving his Gold Chief Scout Award, the highest honour in the Scouting movement. He completed it with flying colours, demonstrating a high level of commitment, and producing an outstanding computer based presentation of his achievements in Scouts.

Congratulations to Mrs Ballard our Art Teacher who gave birth to a son on 25th November, we welcome Huckleberry Chance Ballard into the Bungay Family.

Many thanks to Mrs Crowley for organising the Cambridge University lectures on Monday for 30 of our students, I know they will enjoy the experince and be ispired to go for Gold.

It was a privilege to attend the Bungay Town Dinner last Friday evening. I was asked to propose the toast to the Town, which I did by giving a talk about the past 446 years of the school and the exciting plans for the future. I would like to thank the Town Reeve, Roger Allen and his Wife Sue for making my wife and I so welcome. We have this week been very busy interviewing new staff for the school in September 2012. We have made 9 appointments of Halesworth and Bungay Middle School staff. I also congratulate Mr C Gillett on becoming the new Assistant Headteacher (Teaching and Learning), Mr M Considine the new Head of House and Mrs S. Armour – Chelou on becoming the new Assistant SENCO.

Sporting events have continued , many thanks to Miss Mullenger for the following match report from the U16 Girls football match against the Denes this week.

Having previously lost in a closely contested cup match vs Denes High school, the team were out for revenge. Bungay got off to  flying start with Rosie Cook chasing a 50/50 ball, she managed to squeeze the ball into the bottom corner whilst being tackled to the floor by the Denes goalkeeper. Rosie went onto score 3 more goals it her best performance to date and finished top scorer.

Denes were never out of contention with their star player continuously keeping them within one goal of Bungay. It was evident that Bungay were the more cohesive and united side linking up with one another and moving to support each other, showing true desire  and teamwork to ensure they came out on top of what was becoming a nail biting match.

Bungay kept on piling on the pressure with Sarah Kett chasing up the pitch to force a well timed header into the back of the net before then pouncing on a loose ball to bring her  goal tally in the match to two.

Never to be left off the score sheet captain Ellie Fewkes-Woodrow, she curled a sweetly struck shot into the top corner. Brooke Osborne, having hit practically every part of the goal finally hit the back of the net when she rifled the winning goal. The final score was 8-6 to Bungay High.

Great support was also provided by; Emily Walsh, Megan Vincent, Ella Taylor, Lucy Watson, Lauren Broadley and Jess Harvey who all played their part in what was a fantastic display of grit, determination and teamwork. Well done girls.

of December for making a wreath. 7pm in the Bill Jenner Room

As usual The Rev. Ian Byrne, The Royal British Legion and I will conduct a Remembrance Assembly to the whole school on Friday 11th of November.

Over the past two weeks we have had a surge of activity that involves sport, Food Technology and community support.

It was great to see our sixth form design students working hard on the designs for the logo for the Bungay Festival next summer, I have been really impressed by the ideas and qulaity of the outcome. Also thanks to Emily Kiddy and Phoebe Thomas-Weeks for representing the school at an event held at St Mary’s Church in Halesworth, they both read sections from the King James Bible at event that celebrated the 400th anniversary of the bible.

Equally fantastic was the school final of the Future Chef competition last Thursday. The finalists were:

• Charlotte Read who came first
• Bertie Blandy who came second
• Ellis Mathers and James Gander who came joint third.

Charlotte will go on to represent Bungay High School in the County Finals later in November, Bertie will represent the school in the Rotary Club Masterchef competition.

The judges Mark and Tom from the Castle Inn were overwhelmed by the standard, ‘it is beyond my wildest expectations’ said Mark. He proceeded to give the winners a special treat, a meal for all 4 of them at his restaurant.

Many thanks to Mrs Coles, Mrs Goring, Mrs Nainby and Mrs Richards for all their organisation and inspiration.

This terms inter form was a resounding success with both year groups. It has caused a real buzz in the year groups something we want to maintain throughout the year. Results are as follows:

• Year 11
• Girls Netball winners were – 11H
• Runners up were 11U
• Boys football winners were 11U
• Runners up were 11S
• Year 10
• Girls Netball winners were 10N
• Runners up were 10I
• Boys Football winners were 10I
• Runners up were 10B

At a recent Table Tennis Tournament Russell Mackay, Adam Roberts, Felix Prutton and Tommy Meadows made up the U-16 Table Tennis team. They journeyed to Esat Point academy to compete in the Northern Area qulaifying round. The team got off to a flying start achieving 4 out of 4 victories against Sir John Leman. Esat Point matched our skills and composure and the honours were shared 2 each. Our last game was against Benjamin Britten who were unbeaten, a place in the final was at stake for Bungay.

Felix and Russell faced tough opposition and narrowly lost out meaning the pressure was on Adam and Tommy, they had to win. However, very strong opposition meant Tommy lost out but Adam won his singles, which ensured Bungay second place overall.

The Sixth form took on Thorpe St Andrew Sports College in the National Cup. A hard fought match found the boys down 2-0 with 7 minutes to go, quick goals from Calvin Vincent and Cormac Warne took the game to extra  time and Penalties. Charlie Holmes, Rob Read, Toby Kerslake and Dan Block all scored to take it to sudden death, where Calvin Vincent scored and James Shaw saved, meaning Bungay won 5-4 and go through to the next round for the first time in 6 years.The next game is against Thurston Comminity College at home.

The 6th form netball team continued there winning streak at a tournament hosted by Stradbroke School. There were 4 teams entered. The Bungay team were determined to win this tournamnet from the outset and no other school really stepped up to the challenge. Mrs Nabarro says that we played confident, fast paced netball which resulted in our girls winning everty match by large margins. Well done ladies.

The year 10 netball team also took part in an U-15 tournamnet. This was our first fixture of the season and we had a new team line up, the result of more players coming to training this year. The team were nervous at the start resulting in some tentative game play. But once we got a few goals, thanks to newly appointed Goal Attack Amy Lockwood, our confidence grew and we started taking control of games. This resulted in the team winning 4 out of 5 games.

Special mention should go to Brodie Lock, player of the match, for her outstanding effort in attack. Brodie made some excellent penetrating runs to create openings for Bungay, as well as passing some amazing balls in to the circle which allowed our shooters to be in the best position to score the goals.

Congratulations to everyone who played, I hope this will be the start to a very positive season.

The U-16 Ladies football team played Long Stratton, this was their second game of the season and after a narrow defeat in the first they were keen to get back on winning ways.

The first half saw pretty much an even contest. Rosie Cook put Bungay ahead after 15 minutes, Long Stratton would have been back on even terms if not for the flexibility of Bungay goalkeeper Ella Taylor.

In the second half Captain Ellen Fewkes Woodrow took commnad of the midfield, switching play with both wings. This allowed time and space for Joscelyn Foster and Sarh Kett to drive towards the box sending balls fizzing across the Long Stratton goal. The pressure soon became too much for Long Stratton as they conceded an own goal thanks to pressure applied by Chelsea Caplin. Soon after Rosie Cook doubled her goal tally as she linked up with Sarah Kett on the right wing.

Not to be outdone Sarha Kett put herself on the score sheet moments later with a superb self made goal running half the pitch fending off players challenges to blast the ball into the back of the net.

Bungay were now in full flow with nothing getting past the water tight defence governed by Lucy watson and Emily Walsh. Long Stratton struggled to deal with the quality crosses and concede another own goal to make the score 5-0.

With 5 minutes to go Ellen Fewkes-Woodrow added to the score, making it 6-0. Congratulations ladies.

• Charlie Blandy
• Jake Stacey
• Callum Rolfe
• Bertie Gerrish
• Chip Skingley
• Jasmine Hood
• Felix Prutton
• Rosie Garland

They will have a demanding time this year as they will be working very closely with us on the transitional changes in readiness for September 2012.

We have a number of very exciting events coming up, this week sees the Year 10 Enterprise Day, where groups led by business people will be planning a School Prom. Many thanks to Mr Leech for all the planning that has gone into organising the event.

Thanks also to Mrs Crowley for the planning for Careers Week coming up on 10th October, and to the 25 organisations that will be giving up their time to inspire our students.

Can we remind all families that with Autumn and dark nights upon us, students need to be aware of staying safe on the roads in the early morning and late evening. It is vitally important that all students who cycle to school or to a bus stop have good cycle lights and wear reflective clothing. Similarly, students who walk along roads without pavements to their bus stop need reflective clothing to ensure that they can be seen clearly by passing traffic.

We have established a number of links with overseas schools. Mrs Roffey has created a link with a school in Rwanda, a number of her students are in email communication with their Rwandan counterparts.

We also have a link with a school in the Czech Republic, the quality of the letters to our students is amazing, we are hoping for our first exchange visit to our Czech friends this year.

I am really proud to report the success of our Countryside Studies group from year 11 who assisted the Broads authority at Carlton Marshes on Friday to launch the new Suffolk and Norfolk Broads plan 2011. Our boys were chosen as perfect examples of interested and enthusiastic students of Countryside Conservation Skills. The Chairman said ‘They are a credit to Bungay High School – without a doubt’.

Many thanks to:

• Jonathan Ball
• Lewis Rudd
• Tommy Meadows
• Daniel Thompson
• Alex Wakely

We have already seen a host of sporting matches taking place and are delighted with the participation of large numbers of students.

A mixed bag of results so far, with wins in the Under 15 Rugby and U-18 football in the National cup against Notre Dame, and losses for the U-14 Rugby and U-15 football. The U-16 girls football match against SJLHS was a cracking game with our girls narrowly losing 2-1, the team were very well led by Ellie Fewkes-Woodrow and Brooke Osborne scored with a stunning 30 yard chip over the goalkeeper.

This week we host the area qualifier for the national school netball competition. We have the Year 9 on Tuesday and Year 11 on Thursday. Best of luck to them all.

Congratulations to them all.

• Katrina Nash- Truman, who has excelled in her Drama work at the Cut in Halesworth, she completed her Silver Arts Award on 6th July with Trinity Guildhall, London. Well done Katrina.
• Congratulations to Holly Abell of 10H, she has qualified her pony for the prestigious show jumping championships at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire at the end of July. We wish Holly the best of luck. The action photos we have of Holly in the qualifiers are fantastic.
• Congratulations to George Catchpole of year 9 who is in the national squad, took part in the R.S. Tera championships at Hayling last week. George was one of 64 entries in the sports class and the top places were hotly contested. George tells me the local boy won the event and that the weekend had been a great success, he is now looking forward to the world championships in three weeks time, which are going to be held in Denmark, training hard and very excited. Best of luck at the world championships George.
• Many thanks to the Sixth Form Scientists who helped out at a family Science day held at Great Yarmouth last weekend, organised by Shell Education Services. Those involved were: Lily Capps-Jenner, Ella Charter, Sam Hubbard, Lily Crowley, Jonny Coles, Lily Booth, Beth Gooda, Hugo Harvey, Joss Ward, Shannon Hallinan, Aimee Allerton, Zoe Cole, Florrie Thomas, Louise Ellis, Pip Wagg, Robert Kirby, Teresa Rush.
• Congratulations to the Sixth form Society, Health and Development Group who have been raising money for the East Coast Child Charity. Leanne Mills who is their spokesperson has kept me fully briefed on the cake sale and car washing duties, well done to all the group.
• Congratulations to former students Tom Phillipson and Matt Woolner, who for the second year running have come top in their respective Catering groups at Norwich City College Catering school.
• Congratulations to Chris Bennett who has achieved a First Class Honours Degree in Economics from the University of Sheffield and got a much sought after job with Price, Waterhouse & Coopers. Well done Chris.

I would like to welcome all of our students back to school and extend an especial welcome to those who are joining us for the first time.  I hope that after the summer break all students are looking forward to an exciting and enjoyable year.  We are committed to helping each student achieve their full potential and we look forward to your support in this aim.

We have a very busy year ahead in preparation for the school changes in September 2012 and we will keep you informed of progress.  We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at school evenings and events throughout the year.

Congratulations go to students and staff on the exam results this summer:  Year 11 did exceptionally well, achieving 82% overall and 65% 5+GCSE A*-C grades including English and Maths, they scored the best ever average point score per student, which is a great result.  Special note must be made of the  diploma students in SHaD and Engineering who achieved excellent results, thanks to the vocational teams who taught them both at school and at the North Suffolk Skills Centre.

‘A’ level results were very pleasing with 105 students achieving the results that were right on target with an average 210 points per entry. The pass rate of 97% is up on last year and is testament to the commitment shown by both students and staff.

The extra-curricular trips to the Edinburgh Festival and to Egypt, which took place over the summer holidays, were a great success and enjoyed by all participants.

Holidays in Term Time

There is no automatic right for students to be absent for family holidays.  The school is being pressurised by the Local Authority and the Department for Education not to authorise holidays unless in exceptional circumstances.  Each yellow form requesting leave of absence must be accompanied by a letter explaining the exceptional circumstances, otherwise the holiday will not be authorised.

Staffing

We are pleased to welcome the following new staff:

Teaching Staff:
Ms Dunford – English
Miss Lopez – Spanish
Miss Myers – Geography
Ms Oliver – Modern Languages

Three teachers from Bungay Middle School are teaching at this school, part-time.  They are:

Ms Nicholls, Mr Stubbs and Mr Wheelhouse.

Support Staff:

Mrs Kingston as a Teaching Assistant
Miss Osborn as an Administrative Assistant.

Mrs Mackenzie has been appointed as an Assistant Headteacher to replace Mr Allen.  Her main focus this year is to plan and implement the vertical tutoring programme which we are planning for September 2012.

 Contact Telephone Numbers 

Year 9 office:  01986 891648 -

Mr Middleton and Ms Athanassouli 

Year 10 office:  01986 891643 -

Mr Horne and Mrs Capps-Jenner

Year 11 office:  01986 891647 -

Mrs Coles and Mrs Hubbard