News Archive

Christmas Concerts

Thank you to all of the students, staff and parents who helped to make the Christmas Concerts so memorable this year. The performers looked professional in their new concert uniforms and appeared to be truly excited to play at Holy Rood Church. The overall quality of performances in both concerts was phenomenal and made Mrs Ambler and I proud. Let's get planning for the Summer Concert now!

- Mr Oliver and Mrs Ambler

Read Daniel Terry's (7O) account of his Christmas Concert experience.

Laban Dance Centre Visit by Carly Taylor (Year 10)

On the 6th November our Year 10 GCSE dance class travelled to the Laban Dance Centre in London.

Laban Dance The dance centre worked and studied comtemporary dance. We were then taught a motif and were allowed to develop it in groups. We were also taught useful ways of changing and expressing dance that we could use back at school.

We all loved being in a different place as it was so modern but unusual and it really made us think creatively.

It was a great day, as it was a good chance to bond with everyon

Kathryn Terry of 8BR at United Nations Conference on Human Rights

We were delighted and proud that Kathryn Terry of 8BR was chosen to help represent the United Kingdom at a recent United Nations conference on human rights.

This is an extraordinary achievement and a fascinating experience - Read Kathryn's account of what happened.

Kathryn is pictured on the right of this picture.

Please visit the Get ready for Geneva website for more information.

New Caterers

Our new caterers, HC3S began work in earnest from 1 September 2008. They have made a substantial investment in equipment in the kitchen which will allow us to increase the quantity and improve the quality of the food on offer. We are very happy to welcome them to the school and look forward to working with them.

Ofsted Report published

Ofsted inspectors visited the school on 12 and 13 February 2008. Their report concludes that the school is Satisfactory overall, with lots of Good features. It praises students' personal development and well-being, the standards they reach and the school curriculum and suggests that our capacity to improve is good; it suggests 3 main priorities for improvement.

We feel that the report is fair and that its description of the school is accurate. The school's Governors and leadership team are now using it as the basis for our planning and new Strategic and Improvement Plans are under development.

pdf_pic Ofsted report for Crofton School 2008. (399Kb)

Matthew Leeming
Headteacher

Crofton Crier

Several times a year we produce a school newsletter, editions are downloadable here:

Sailing

capsize Thirteen Year 8 students went to Langstone Harbour from 29th Sepember to 3rd October for a week's sailing.

Read comments from the students and see photos.

This was taken from the October edition of the Crofton Crier, our school newsletter.

Budgens helps the Art Department

The Art Department would like to say a big thank you to Budgens in Stubbington for again providing us with fruit and vegetables for our Year 8 projects on observational drawing. Their continuing support is very much appreciated.

The students produced some fantastic work, as you can see from the pieces shown on the right, which you can click on to see a larger version of the pieces.

Beavers get rocket lessons at Crofton

1st Lee-on-the-Solent Beavers visited Crofton School recently to learn how to make and launch water rockets. See more and photo display >>

Students and parents have a go at 'Go'

On Saturday 16th February, 60 students from both Crofton School and our local feeder schools came along to have a go at a strategic game called 'Go', the history of which stretches back some 3000 years.

A great time was had by all participants and it was wonderful to see people of all ages working together on a stimulating and thought provoking challenge.

More information and photo gallery >>

Crofton School hits the stars

Our two teams of Year 8 & 9 students competed at the National Finals of the UK Aerospace Youth Rocketry Challenge on riday, 28 March 2008 at Charterhouse School in Surrey. Team 1 managed second place, a fantastic achievement, despite the poor weather.

1 July 2008: Our video of the qualifying flights came second in the Films for Learning Competition in the Tech, Engineering and Mathematics category. See our video of the qualifying flights >>

See the BBC's Blue Peter video feature on the Rocketry Challenge Finals >>

To qualify for the Finals, the teams had to launch two eggs in each of their rockets, get them above a height of 750 feet and land the eggs safely with the aid of a parachute.

See more on the competition and the Team Presentations >>

To find out more about UKAYRoc, go to the UK Aerospace Youth Rocketry Challenge 2008 website >>

Year 9 Pupils have been "Making History"

Studying the First World War period, Year 9 pupils made models to enhance their understanding - see the gallery page.

Doodle 4 Google competition - the results

doodle4google_pic Six students from our school entered the Doodle 4 Google Art and Design competition, which this year was on the theme of "My Future". From over 60,000 national entries, four of our entries made it to the Southeast Regional Finals, and two of these, Jake Falconer and Emily Diaper went on to become the Southeast Regional winners in two separate age groups!

doodle4google_pic Jake's picture ( 14-16 age group) is above and Emily's picture ( 11-14 age group) is on the left. Jake and Emily went on to the National Finals and Jake came overall second in his age group. Well done to both Jake and Emily.

Jake and Emily travelled with their parents to London for the finals last Sunday (18 November) and stayed at the Waldorf hotel - all courtesy of Google. Along with the other finalists they were taken to the Tate Modern on Monday before the presentation at Google HQ.

Jake met resident Google Doodler Dennis Hwang at the event and managed to wangle himself work experience at Google - good effort, Jake! Visit the Doodle4Google website for more information.

Bath Bomb Science & Technology Project reaches semi final at worldwide forum in Helsinki

Congratulations to teacher Alison Tiltman for reaching the semi final in the Innovation in Content category at Microsoft's worldwide forum for innovative teaching in Helsinki at the end of October. The project involved Year 9 & 10 Technology students combining technological, design, and business enterprise skills in competition to design, manufacture, package, and promote bath bombs.

Microsoft chose the Bath Bomb project for representation at its worldwide forum because of its application of business enterprise using ICT. Ours was the only school in England to receive an invitation to the forum.

Alison further developed the project with Year 10 students now competing, Apprentice-style, to produce a business plan and design, manufacture and promote bath bombs with the aid of ICT. Microsoft is helping to support and fund the project to extend pupils' understanding of ICT.

bath_bomb_picture Alison says the focus for the Apprentice-style competition will be on "You're hired," rather than "You're fired".

"Students have really got involved, coming in during lunch breaks and after school to work on their projects," Alison adds.

This is one of a number of cross-curricular projects run at Crofton School as part of a Hampshire Local Education Authority pilot scheme. Projects aim to improve student motivation, engagement and standards, and to achieve greater cohesion across Science, Maths, DT and related subjects - please visit www.crosscurricular.co.uk for more information.

The project was also picked up by The News website, see www.portsmouth.co.uk .

More information about the Helsinki forum.

Video that Microsoft made with Alison Tiltman.