Gifted and Talented at Chalfonts Community College

Congratulations from Mr Way

2011-09-28T09:18:00.001+01:00

Congratulations to last year’s YR13 who achieved oursecond best ever set of examination results

in the summer. Particularly deserving of praise were the following:

Benton	Joseph	_	*A, A, A*
Briggs	Dominic	_	A, A, B
Clarke	James	_	A, B, B
Eggleton	Leah	_	A, A, B
Hutchinson	James	_	A, B, B
Keys	Arthur	_	*A, A, B, Distinction in Music**
Little	Stephen	_	A, A, A, A
Matthews	Jordan	_	A, B, B
McGloin	Tom	_	3 Distinctions
O'Brien	Catherine	_	*A, B, B**
Rock	Michael	_	A, A, A
Rodriguez-Calvo	Maria-Cristina	_	A, B, B
Tanner	Paul	_	A, A, B
Taylor	Matthew	_	A, B, B
Urquhart	Thomas	_	A, B, B

YR12 also achieved some very good results; particular highlightswere:

Jamie	Anstiss	_	A, A, B
Eleanor	Biddle	_	A B C
Heather	Casey	_	A B C
Lauren	Catterall	_	A B B B
Jamie	Constable	_	A A C
Harry	Fischer	_	A B C
Thomas	Gilbey	_	A B C
Nicholas	Gumm	_	A A C
Pejmun	Kanani	_	A B B B
Georgina	Kiddy	_	B B B C
Emily	Lawless	_	A A B C
Shivakar	Mehrotra	_	A B B C
Serena	Moriarty	_	A A A B
Chloe	Patel	_	A A A B
Thomas	Reilly	_	A B C
Scarlett	Rushton	_	A A B C

2011-09-26T09:33:00.001+01:00

Curriculum Leader PGL Trip- Osmington Bay

On Friday the 16th September Year 10 and 11 Curriculum Leaders went on a PGL trip to Osmington Bay, Weymouth for the weekend. This trip was to develop leadership and team working skills, to show inspiration and motivation in the chosen subject and to give Curriculum Leaders the opportunity to plan and work in cross curricula teams.
On the trip we were given the opportunity to challenge ourselves in many activities we would had not tried before. We did activities such as aero ball, trapeze, quad biking, rock climbing, fencing and high and low level ropes. Being a year 11 Curriculum Leader I was able to support and motivate some year 10’s, and pass on my experience of already being a Curriculum leader the previous year.

I think the trip gave us the chance to bond with people within our groups who shared the same passion and enthusiasm for that particular subject, as well as mixing and socialising with a variety of people who I wouldn’t normally get the chance to at Chalfonts.

This is my second time of going on the PGL trip and both times I have not only found it challenging but also great fun! I would definitely recommend this to younger students, who would like to become a Curriculum leader to improve their leadership skills, creativity and personal development.

By Amy Benton Year 11 Curriculum Leader

Fencing Post

2011-05-12T11:14:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Georgina Wedlake, Simon Slattery and Michael Lown.

Fencing teacher Jaqueline Faulkner wrote,

"Yesterday's fencing competition went well! Micheal, Georgina and Simon all did very well. I know that all three of them worked hard throughout the event and put in a lot of effort, and I was hoping that you would pass on my congratulations to them all.They were involved in judging as well as fencing. "

Spelling Bee Win

2011-05-09T10:28:00.001+01:00

On the 4^th May 2011, four year seven students represented the Chalfonts Community College in the local heats of The Times National Spelling Bee Competition at Cineworld, Staples Corner, London. They competed against eight other schools and their outstanding performance won them first place. This was testament to their rigorous training sessions over the past four months. As a result of this, they are in the semi – final. Parents were in full support and shared in this proud moment. According to one of the team members, ‘this is the best day of my life and I would do it all over again.’

Alessandro, Jiri, Phoebe, Joshua...

Amazing Mr Michie leads GT English into blogosphere...

2011-05-06T07:56:00.000+01:00

For several weeks the top end of year 11 English have been meeting to fine tune their writing skills by creating their own blogs.

Please see this beautiful example http://theproject-toriab.blogspot.com/

‘Seb Wins Gold for Chalfonts Community College

2011-03-17T07:55:00.001Z

Seb Devereux has just won Gold in the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championship (NJIRC), the biggest of its kind in the world. Duncan Fawcett, Seb’s PE teacher set his sights high after he previously entered Seb in the South of England Indoor Rowing Championship, in which Seb won Gold in both the 4000m and 2000m events, breaking the Championship records in both cases.

At last Friday’s NJIRC, Seb managed to up his game again by rowing a distance of 1871 meters in 6 minutes, beating the next fastest boy by well over 100m. This achievement was made even more impressive because he also entered a 2000m race in the morning. Seb wanted to establish an official time for this distance, as it is used in the selection process for the GB Team, something he has set his heart on and is now in sight. Sixteen year old Seb’s time of 6:22.4 was enough to take the Silver medal; impressive as this event was intended for boys a year older.

In addition to the NJIRC Gold and Silver medals, Seb was presented with the coveted DeQuidt Award for the fasted split time of the entire competition, an event with nearly 2000 budding rowers competing. Accepting this was a true honour as it was introduced in memorial to Andy DeQuidt, a former GB rower and an inspiration to all he coached through London Youth Rowing. Tragically, Andy was only 26 when passed away due to a brain tumor. Seb displays his award with pride.

Trampolining Competition

2011-03-11T10:58:00.002Z

A mixture of Year 7’s, 8’s, 9’s and 10’s went to a Trampolining Competition at Chesham Grammar School along with a number of different schools. Overall, as a team the under 14’s girls came in 1^st place with Melissa Lawry coming 2^nd in the individual scores. The under 19’s girl’s team came 2^nd in their category. Jonathan Marshall and Jack Denton competed in the under 14’s individual boys category and came 4^th and 7^th.

A massive well done to you all!

Maths Event for year 10

2011-03-01T17:15:00.003Z

Maths students attended a half day Maths event

On Tuesday 1^st March approx 200 Year 10’s took part in a Hand’s-On Risk and Probability Show presented by Nadia Baker from the University of Cambridge.

Risk, probability and statistics are some of the most important and relevant areas of mathematics. The aim was to help students in understanding the link between classroom mathematics and the real world. For example : What are the chances of winning £10 on the lottery, what are chances of winning the jackpot? After an introduction session, students participated in the interactive gameshow ‘ Who wants to be a Mathionaire’ , using handheld voting technology.

Chalfonts Basketball star hits national heights

2010-11-12T09:53:00.000Z

Tristan Devereux, a year 10 student at the Chalfont Community College , has just been selected for the U15’s England Basketball squad. He is one of only 30 boys in the country to be chosen; the only one from Bucks County .

Career path so far...

Year 8

Tristan started playing basketball at the Chalfont Community College .

Joined local U13’s team, South Bucks Comets, training once a week, coached by Ray Creed.

Jan 09 - Nominated for County trials by John Fitzell PE by Tristans Sports Teacher at Chalfont Community Colllege.

March 09 – Selected at County trial to represent Southern Region. Also, Scouted at same tournament and to join National League team, Bucks Hornets.Training twice a week in Aylesbury; games at weekends, coached by Joe Manley.

July 09 – Regional Tournament in Leister, Selected for National Tournament in Lilleshall.

August 09 – Tour to Bulgaria with U13’s Bucks Hornets.

Year 9

October 09 – National Tournament Lilleshall, selected by England coached to attend Area Performance Centre (South) for monthly, 6 hour intensive training in Southampton , coached by Ben

July 10 – Tour to America with U16’s Bucks Hornets.

Year 10

September 10 – Playing U15 and U16's National League with Bucks Hornets and U18’s Local League with South Bucks Commets

November 10 - Selected for England Basketball Squad – Monthly, 2 day camps at Bristol University in preparation for Copenhagen International Tournament in June 2011.

Chalfonts goes to Grendon

2010-11-12T08:32:00.001Z

Three of our year 9 students spent a weekend at Grendon Hall with a group of equally talented students from around the country. They were guests of GIFT who run the weekend and have provided Chalfonts students with some extremely valuable education over the last few years.

"When we got there on the Friday night, we got introduced to Julian and the other students. We unpacked, ate dinner and did a few activities to get to know each other. For example, get into a line, alphabetically, with the name of a place you would love to be. I chose "Whitby" and others chose their home towns etc...

Saturday I did "Theatre of the Absurd" with a guy called Jimmy. Jimmy really inspired me to think differently about the way objects are and we did weird drama using objects around us. It was fantastic and I would love to do it again.

Saturday evening we played football and did a cool personality profile test. I came out as an Ambassador and a Conqueror which I was quite pleased with.

Sunday I chose "writing without words". It was really interesting. We used objects to tell a story. It was about creative thinking.

Grendon Hall was completely different to school and I loved the way that they taught us. All the students there were really intelligent and we all got on really well. No one made fun of you for being smart and that was really good. I felt very comfortable and would love to go there again.

Thank you for giving me the chance to go. It was amazing!"

Charlie

Jack wrote, "

"I had a great time at Grendon. I made new friends and learned lots of new things. The way of learning was completely different to school. You didn't have to put your hand up to speak and we were totally responsible for ourselves. No one was disruptive and we all felt the same way.

Friday night we arrived and made our beds - bit of a fight with the duvet cover, but managed eventually - then got to know each other and played some games.

Saturday I did "Internet in a day" and learned about the internet. We built our own internet, server, mail service, auction site, social networking, instant messaging. We also learned about coding and how to view what people are doing without them knowing. It was a brilliant course, extremely interesting and fun. Although we had different roles to play, we all worked as a team and learned the same thing in a different way.

Saturday night more games and I was an Artisan and The Conqueror in a personality test, which was cool.

Sunday I did "Writing without words". We had to draw abstract pictures and make a story out of what we had drawn. We heard stories and it was really inspiring and different. I enjoyed it a lot more than how we work at school and learned a lot more than you would think in such a small amount of time during the weekend.

I'd love to do it again. It was unique and amazing.

Thank you very much for inviting me along.

Jack"

Roxana added,

What we did: The evening we arrived at Grendon was when we all got to know each other really and get to know our way round the grounds etc.. That evening we played some big team games and we were put into mixed groups which we remained in for the team games the next night too! The activities carried on until 11pm when we all went to our dorms.

The next day we had breakfast and a little break in the morning until we went to the activities we had previously chosen to take part in. In my case, I had chosen and activity called 'Theatre of the Absurd'. It was a very interesting activity as it involved getting in touch with a really surreal part of yourself you don't normally think about. The day included us getting into twos or threes with whoever was in our group and making our own trail for the rest of the group. They could be as wacky and crazy as we wanted! Seeing as this was the first thing in the morning, it took us quite a while to get into the right frame of mind however, at the end of the day we couldn't stop talking and acting crazy! It was only the people who took part in the same activity who knew what we were on about! That evening we, again, did some team activities and we could choose to do some various activities to do before we went to bed.

On the final day we had also chosen some activities beforehand and we went off and did those. I had chose 'The Shakespeare Conspiracy'. I found this a really interesting as we really went into lots of detail about Shakespeare's real life and uncovering some information teachers at school wouldn't normally tell you! We basically read a lot into the life and lies of Shakespeare, discovering he led two radically different lives' he led in Stratford and London. After we'd finished (slightly early) we went back into the main room and said our farewells and got some group pictures.

What I liked/enjoyed: On this trip, I never imagined how good it would've turned out to be! Everyone there was so nice and it was so easy to make friends! Quite a few of us are still in touch too! I think the activities were very well thought out and planned as I thoroughly enjoyed it and if I had the chance, I would totally do it again!"

Chalfonts wins Guardian writing competition.

2010-11-03T19:20:00.000Z

Sinead (leader for English sent this out recently..."Just thought I would share with you Fin’s success – he entered and was a winning entry in a writing competition run by The Guardian – if you see him / teach him, it might be nice to congratulate him."

Buckcherry: All Night Long (Deluxe Edition) by Fin Murphy, 17

click here to go to the site

Student voice on the new college prospectus

2010-04-28T17:24:00.000+01:00

Several students have started to feedback and develop the new Chalfonts College prospectus. Working in conjunction with professional designer Ben Bowen several GT students selected for their analytical and creative skills have produced feedback on behalf of Sue Tanner.

Working with his initial designs the students have critiqued the 4 composites and explained what is good and what is not. Ben will now develop a further two designs for students to discuss and evaluate.

The have also generated quotations and sound bites to be used within the design of the prospectus.

Spain Sports Tour 2010

2010-04-28T14:24:00.002+01:00

On Monday 5th April, the Year 9/10 football and netball teams arrived at school in the morning and took the coach to Spain. The coach journey was long, 26 hours! But we kept ourselves entertained with films, chats, jokes and regular breaks. We finally arrived at Spain on Tuesday lunchtime, our hotel was lovely and the weather was clear blue skies and sunny! Once we got our room keys, we quickly unpacked and rushed downstairs to sunbath and for a dip in the outdoor pool. Wednesday, we were all up early ready for a day out! We visited Barcelona football stadium the day after their match against Arsenal! Afterwards, the girls got a treat as we went shopping and then we went sightseeing and saw the Olympic ring and an overview of Barcelona city. Thursday- was training day. The girls learnt many new netball skills and drills throughout the 3 hours of training whilst, the boys were outdoors in the heat playing football. On Friday, it was the day of the tournament, the netball teams had training in the morning first and after that we went to McDonalds and had fun trying to order our meals in Spanish! After time of relaxing we went to our tournament, everyone played extremely well and the Yr 9 and 10 netball team came 3rd and the football teams came 2nd! This was also the night of the disco, where Chris danced on stage, it was a certainly a tiring day. On Saturday we went to Port Aventura and spent most of the day there, the rides were amazing and it was our hottest day all holiday! The next morning we all got onto the coach for our long journey home which most of us slept through.

By Sarover Aujla

GCSE Catering

2010-03-18T14:27:00.004Z

GCSE students created a fabulous array of food for their GCSE Exam

Arts Award 2010

2010-03-09T09:50:00.002Z

Adam Millard has been leading on the new Chalfonts Arts Award (Silver) and all is going to plan. Year 9 GT students have been developing their own Arts based projects and challenges including, oragnising music gigs, music composition, stop frame animation, choreography, cake decoration, stand up comedy and sound engineering.

Examples and links to follow.....

Rock Challenge Dance

2010-02-24T09:02:00.001Z

Yesterday we took a group of pupils to Stevenage’s Gordon Craig Theatre to compete in the National Dance and Drama competition, Rock Challenge. Janine Yalden had worked with the pupils for 5 months helping them choreograph a piece about Celebrity Culture, which the judges thought was “an excellent performance”.

All the pupils had a wonderful experience and we were welcomed warmly by the other competitors as first time entrants to the competition. At the end of the (very long) day, we won the award for Best Staging – an excellent achievement as we were competing against 10 other schools, many of whom have been doing Rock Challenge for years!

A video of the award winning performance (directed by our very own Michelle Snuggs) will follow shortly.

Annabel came 3rd in the US Kids Golf

2009-12-18T09:36:00.000Z

Annabel came 3rd in the US Kids Golf U12 European Championship in Gullane, Scotland in May 2009. She qualified to represent a European team vs Rest of the World halving her match helping the European Team win the Van Horn Cup.

Annabel finished 12th in the US Kids Golf U12 World Championships played at Pinehurst, North Carolina, USA. She was the top placed European golfer, she qualified to play for a Rest of the World Team Vs USA. Annabel and her Chinese playing partner won their match but unfortunately the USA won the World Cup. Annabel is currently in the England Super Birdie Squad, Bucks Junior County Elite Squad and has represented Bucks Ladies 2nd team. Annabel also plays football for Middlesex FA Centre of Excellence U14, Bucks Schools FA U14 and was recently selected to attend England U15 football trials.

In the football season I train twice a week and play on a Saturday. If we have a home game in the morning I practise golf in the afternoon but away games can take up the whole day with travelling. This season we play Reading, Oxford, Brighton, Chelsea, Fulham, Charlton, Millwall, Hampshire FA, Gillingham, Colchester, Watford and Orient.

Six Saturdays a season are set aside for Schools FA County matches in our region are Kent, Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk and Surrey and Herts.

Two Sundays a month I have England Golf Coaching and County Elite Squad Coaching. The other two Sundays I either play or practise my golf. I practise for an hour after school on Tues and Thursdays at Beaconsfield G.C.

Every night I have exercises to do given to me by the England Golf Physio.

ANNABEL DIMMOCK

What I’ve done at Gymnastics 2009

2009-12-17T16:30:00.001Z

What I’ve done at Gymnastics 2009

I do rhythmic gymnastics which consists of 5 different apparatus all performed on the floor. In February, I and my gym friends went to Birmingham for our flexibility test. We needed to pass the test in order to qualify for the British championships. We all needed to pass and were very happy. Now all we needed to do was pass our grades, and then we’d be through to the British championships. In April, it was time for our grades. I had to perform 4 routines, a rope routine, ball routine, hoop routine, and a club routine. I managed to come 2^nd for my rope routine, 3^rd for my ball routine, 2^nd for my hoop routine, 5^th for my clubs routine and overall I came 3^rd and also managed to pass my grades. In May, we had a competition in Canterbury which was against quite a few different clubs. In this competition I came 7^th overall. The next competition we had was in June, and it was the big one, the British championships 09. I came 20^th overall out of the whole of Britain. I wasn’t too happy about how I did, because I know I could’ve done a lot better as I made a few mistakes. In September, we went to the N.E.C in Birmingham to do a display to get sponsors for British gymnastic. It was really good and we had loads of run looking around, it was massive! At the beginning of October we went to the British individual apparatus championships, which is also a very big competition with even more girls competing than there were in the British championships. I performed a hoop routine and a ball routine. For my hoop routine I came 21^st, and for my ball routine I came 11^th. I was very happy with my ball routine, but not too happy with my hoop routine. In November we had our flexibility test to qualify for next years British championships. We all passed. Then the last thing we’ve done this year has been the national British squad testing which was at lilleshall. We had to perform some elements in front of the national gymnastics coach, Nadia. We also had to do lots of conditioning exercises such as double skips, so that they could test our physical ability, stamina, body, strength and d also leg and back flexibility. I’m not expecting to get into the squad this year but hopefully I will next year. We find out our results in January. So that’s all the stuff I’ve got up to this year at gym, but we have to work hard to get this standard an f it all comes from practice and lots and of training. We usually train 6 times a week fir around 5 hours a session, but at the moment we can only train 5 days a week because there’s no where to accommodate us for 6 days. I really enjoy this sports and I’m hopefully going to keep it up for a long time.

By Sally Garner

Trapped

2009-12-16T17:20:00.002Z

On Friday 13th November, Nikki, Mairead, Grace, Kate and I put an event that we had organised at the school at 7.00pm. It was a scary event inspired by the Fright Night mazes at Thorpe Park. After three months of preparation and organisation, we had a great event that was enjoyed by all. We had done it by ourselves with help from Miss Wilson, Mr Millard, Mr Smith and Joe Harvey. The name of our event was called Trapped and the plot was based in the school. We pretended that it was 2050 and 41 years ago, disease broke out, so the school had to close leaving the infected inside to die.

The target audience for our event was year 6 and year 7 students. For the year 6 students, we went to the following schools:
Chalfont St Peter Middle School
St Josephs
Robertswood School
St Giles Middle School

Within our team, we all had our own responsibilities and duties. I was in charge of admin, Nikki was in charge of finance, Mairead was in charge of health and safety and Kate and Grace, were in charge of advertisement and marketing. This worked well as we all had something to do and we worked well as a team.

Throughout the experience we all gained new leadership skills and confidence skills. We all gained experience all organising and running an event. We learnt how to work in a team together and we gained leadership skills as we were the ones leading it and had to do most things by ourselves. We raised just under £300 which we were really pleased with. Half of that money is going to the drama department and half is going to a charity called Chatterbox. It was an enjoyable experience and we are hoping to do another one next year.

Hayley (Year 12)

Illusion of Laughter

2009-12-15T10:43:00.001Z

Daniel Riley in year 12 performed a one man magical spectacular on the 9th and 10th of December at CCC. Daniel said the most challenging part of performing a one man show " was the sheer logisics involved in getting everyone and everything in place......I loved it."

I have recently performed my one man show, “The Illusion of Laughter”, this took forever to prepare. However, with a lot of help from every one who watched me rehearse, built the stage up and did almost everything for me while I would demand water and complain that the lights were too bright, thank you!

The show went amazingly well. I felt every trick went to plan from guessing people’s words to making their chosen word on paper disappear from their pocket and appear in a sealed and locked safe and I manage to make the audience laugh at a few things that caused Mr. Smith to say ‘Mr. Riley’ in rather a shocked manner every now and then! (sorry to the year 13 girl who I was mind reading blind folded as I out stretched my hand to grab her wrist but may have accidentally grabbed…..well never mind that for now)

People really seemed to enjoy the show and I had all sorts of comments back…from ‘How did you know I picked the Queen of Hearts your immense’ to…’amazing show better than Derren Brown him self’ So I was very happy at what peoples feed back, what I did find was that after the first show people who missed it due to lessons wanted me to do the same show the next day…so I did and what I found was that not only were people coming that hadn’t seen the show but people that had seen it came back to see me just because they loved it so much…that or they just planned to catch me out the second time around.

Mr. Smith gave me his time so that I could arrange dates times and money etc. Mr. Way allowed me to do the show after long talks about the content of the show and what it is that I can and can’t say. Mr.Way and Mr. Smith both really helped

The Drama department was amazing to help me go over my show before or after school.

The biggest thank you I feel has to go out to Jack Pierce and Kate Jarman who took care of the technical side of things from recording the show to taking over 90 photos! (Theses can be seen on Dee Riley fan group on facebook) ‘Little bit of subliminal advertising there’ (slick)

It was an amazing time and for those of you who missed it I’m working on a brand new show for next year, until then don’t ask how I do it but rather …..ask Why

Dee Riley

Saatchi Gallery selects CCC Animation from 22,000 entries.

2009-12-08T15:03:00.004Z

On the 2nd December James Coffey (year 13 art student, Principal Sue Tanner and the Art team were invited to the opening of the Saatchi/Sunday Telegraph Student Art Prize 2009. James’ short animation was selected with 20 other works from across the world from an astonishing 22,000 entries and short listed for the Saatchi Prize (£10000).

World famous sculptor Antony Gormley hosted the evening and spent several minutes with each student discussing their work. The work is titled “Miracles” and was his first attempt at animation. It has been described as “A beautifully crafted animation that blends high and low level technologies responding to the theme of Miracles. (2 mins running time)” James is a student at the Chalfonts Community College and is part of the new A level art course in Photography and Animation. One member of the Art team said “We are delighted with his success and pleased it was unique in terms of it being the only animation. The new course has allowed students to flourish. Students are producing amazing digital work that is not only intelligent and thought provoking but also cutting edge and looking to the future.”

The Saatchi site says....

“Welcome to The Saatchi Gallery / Sunday Telegraph Art Prize for Schools 2009. The 20 shortlisted works from this year's prize are currently on display at the Saatchi Gallery. The winners of the 2009 prize were chosen by the panel of judges and announced by Antony Gormley at a special prizegiving evening at the Saatchi Gallery on 2 December 2009. The other judges were Peter Blake, The Sunday Telegraph's art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon, Ekow Eshun, the artistic director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and Camila Batmanghelidjh, CEO of Kids Company.”

http://dansartstuff.blogspot.com/

Miracles can be viwed at The Saatchi Gallery site

The Eco Club’s trip to Ullswater

2009-12-01T10:18:00.004Z

If you had been watching any news reports during November you will have been well aware of the terrible floods experienced by the poor people of Cumbria, so when Mr Clark and myself accompanied ten year 8 students to the Lake District on November 23rd we knew what we were letting ourselves in for. And it wasn’t 5 5 days of sunshine.

As the train neared Penrith station we became aware of the rising flood waters, rivers were swollen, fields were flooded, and roads closed but I’m glad to say the Outward-Bound Centre on the banks of Ullswater, which was to be our home for the next 5 days, was not affected.
The ten students invited to Ullswater are all involved in an Eco Project to improve the schools carbon footprint. The project is sponsored by npower and Chalfonts are through to the final round, where a prize of £25,000 for the school is on offer and MAC laptops for each of the ten participating students.
The schools Eco Club plan to get more pupils to cycle or walk to school and the students involved have been busy writing to local MPs and Councillors to try and get approval for a cycle path to be built linking the villages of Chalfont St Giles and Chalfont St Peter, which would make Narcot Lane a much safer route on which to travel to school.
The trip to Ullswater was in preparation for the next round of the competition. We arrived at the centre around 2pm, met our Instructor Gavin Dorsett, who specifically asked to accompany the Chalfont’s Team as he used to attend the school back in the 80s. Gavin told us to change into old clothes for “J & D”. The J stood for jog and as we neared the lake I had a feeling that the D might stand for dip. Chalfont’s rose to the challenge and all students plunged into the water whilst I offered encouraging noises from the shore!

The main objective of the outward-bound course was to get pupils working together as a team and encourage all to participate and experience situations they would normally avoid such as public speaking, puzzle solving, tunnelling, the trapeze, fell walking (in appalling weather conditions) canoeing, night orienteering and many other activities which would stretch each individuals and take many way out of their comfort zone.
I was so proud of every pupil involved in the trip and would like to say thank you to Chloe, David, Olivia, Niamh, Serika, Rebecca, Aymon, Tom, Scott and Shauna for working so hard during our time away and wish them the best of luck in the next phase of their project

Gifted and Talented Year 9 Science trip

2009-11-27T14:59:00.000Z

Year 9 Gifted and Talented scientists visited the Science Live Conference on the 9th Novemeber 2009

Our trip to Birmingham really was eventful. We got to see lectures from several famous scientists. We received lectures from Lord Robert Winston, Kate Lancaster, Maggie Aderin, Steve Jones, and the American chemistry scientist, Andrea Sella, our favourite scientist.

Lord Robert Winston is a famous gene scientist who once had his own TV show. Kate Lancaster is a scientist who practices nuclear fusion. Maggie Aderin has worked on various satellite and space projects. Steve Jones was also a gene specialist who works at the London Imperial College. Andrea Sella talked about chemical reactions.... and bunnies.

Jonathan & Josh

Winner of the Chalfont St Peter Christmas card competition

2009-11-20T10:45:00.001Z

Congratulations to Hannah Mitchell in 7G4 has won the Christmas Card competition sponsored by VOPAG. She wins a prize of £20.

Her work will be printed professionally and available to the public around the local area and through Budgens in Chalfont St Peter.

Image of the winning entry coming soon.

Amazing images from another place

2009-11-19T14:31:00.006Z

Science students used the internet to control a telescope in Hawaii to photograph other parts of the universe.....

Today we took some amazing images by using the Faulkes telescope in Hawaii. We did book some time for the Australian Faulkes telescope in Coonabarabran but sadly it was broken, but we did manage to get 3 pictures from the Hawaii telescope. Our first image was a picture of the Crab nebula (M1). The other images we managed to get was M78 and the Bode's Galaxy (M81).

We did this for our astronomy GCSE, to help us learn about galaxies, nebulas and celestial bodies. Also because it was a fun and interesting way to learn and some of us where a bit excited.

Rebecca
Science Cl and Astronomy student

Crab nebula - also know as M1 is found in the concellation Taurus. It was first observed by John Bevis in 1731. The crab nebula is about 6500 light years from Earth. It temperature is between 11000 and 18000 K. It is believe to contain ionised helium, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, iron, neon and sulphur. The nebula is expanding outwards about 1500k/s. In the centre of the nebula there are two faint stars. This nebula went into supernova in 1054 AD. It shines at the magnitude of 8.4.

M78 - is found in the concellation of Orion. It was discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1780. M78 is the brightest diffuse reflection nebula out of the group of nebulas in Orion. It is about 1600 light years from Earth. There are about 45 variable stars.

Bode Galaxy - also know as M81. This galaxy is a spiral galaxy and is about 12 million light years away. It is found in the constellation Ursa Major. In the middle of this galaxy there is a super massive black hole. It was discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774. A supernova was detected on 28 March 1993 by F. Garcia in Spain. You can see this galaxy with binoculars or a small telescope.

Rebecca

Science CL and astronomy student

2009-09-17T09:10:00.005+01:00

World Challenge: Borneo 2009

This summer, a group of six students, Miss Upton and Miss Boyle ventured to Borneo for a month, along with four girls from Croyden High School, their teacher and our world challenge representative, Ed. After an eighteen-month, jam-packed build up of fundraising £3675 each and other preparations, the team’s expedition began on Sunday 12th July, with ‘Build-Up Day’. We spent a day in school preparing for the trip, and slept overnight in the gym.

Whilst in Borneo, we went on a five day jungle trek where we carried everything ourselves, slept in hammocks and cooked on wood fires. It was a tough five days, but it was great fun! We also did a five-day project in Bario Secondary School, where we built two tables to go under already existing shelters, and a fence around the dormitories, which we painted and decorated. More of our adventures included a number of day treks, white water rafting, snorkelling and a trip to Sepilok Orangutan sanctuary, where we were amazed to see the endangered species only a few feet away from us!

The highlight of the trip for most of us was climbing Mt Kinabalu, at 4095.2m. It was an epic two-day climb, and we reached the top in the dark to catch the sunrise. We were on top of the world… between the Himalayas and Papa New Guinea!

We all had an absolutely incredible time. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience, and I would recommend it to anyone! On behalf of the team, I would like to thank Miss Upton and Miss Boyle who volunteered to take us, because without them it would not have been possible!

By Jess Brown

Success evening 2009

2009-07-07T10:17:00.002+01:00

Success evening June 2009

The annual Chalfonts success evening had a different format to it this year. Instead of the teachers leading the show, students took charge. Leadership was celebrated throughout all the school, including the Curriculum Leaders, MFL leaders, the Chalfonts Chickens, leadership through the Integrated Learning Projects and sports leadership.

The evening opened with a musical rendition of Oliver performed by the cast of Oliver, bunch of talented students who are taking the stage on 10th July for their show.

The evening was led by 6 Senior Curriculum Leaders: Andy Johnson, Johnny Furze, Stuart Orr, Alex Daywan, Sam Thorn and Jess Brown and myself Matt Gaute. We invited students on the stage to share their successes with parents, staff and members of the community.

Students invited to the stage talked about their different experiences saying what they had achieved and what the experience had meant to them and how it had benefited them personally. In many cases students commented on how the opportunities to develop leadership in the school had left a lasting impression that would serve them, not only in their school life, but with skills that they could develop in the outside world.

The audience could see first hand how talented students at Chalfonts were with media, videos and presentations showcasing the students work. Indeed Steven Spielberg, Jay Z, Steven Gerrard, Ian Rose, Prime Minister, Laurence Olivier, Madonna, all started somewhere and I think that the talents showcased are definitely the start of something special. The future leaders of arts, music, drama, our local, national and global community were there for all to see. Students from Olympic Torch presented their ‘Chalfonts Lights’ to members of the community who they had nominated in their Integrated Learning Project and students from Stoke Mandeville Integrated Learning Project performed a rap. Live musical entertainment from Hayley White, and Victoria Burns enriched the presentations further.

After the event the audience were invited to browse the talents of the A level Art students with a refreshing drink. Many of them left commenting on what a unique experience the Success Evening was and how great it was to see students talking positively about their learning experiences. I have to say the title of the evening was ‘Come to the Edge’ and Miss Cairns said that she would challenge us and the students involved in the Success Evening to take a lead and show people our abilities and celebrate our achievements. Although at first the Senior Curriculum Leaders found this a bit of a scary prospect we were proud of what we achieved and what our fellow students achieved. I hope that future success evenings continue to showcase students talents in a similar way.

App design day with 02

2009-07-01T16:35:00.003+01:00

On Tuesday 30th June 10 Able Gifted and Talented students were lucky enough to spend the day working with app designers and creative professionals from 02.

The day successfully crossed Business, Art and Design and ICT with highly level cretaive problem solving, culminating in students pitching theirs ideas for a iphone App.

Andy Johnson wrote,

"Working with the 02 people was a real opener to a different side of design and marketing. The litmus idea explained by the O2 workers was intriguing and interesting approach to testing which I hope to get involved with. I feel I have contributed to their idea from the questions and ideas discussed during the day. The final challenge was a good chance to work with professionals and gain valuable experience into how the industry works."

more to follow...........

Fantastic Valencia Exchange

2009-04-20T12:49:00.001+01:00

Spanish Exchange Easter 2009

The group were a credit to the school and I was proud to be able to involve them in this experience.

The Spanish Exchange this Easter to Valencia was an enormous success, beginning earlier in the year with letters, e-mails, texts and MSN messages between the English and Spanish partners.

We had the most tremendous welcome at Valencia airport from the 31 families waiting to greet us in the foyer. We were amazed and overwhelmed by the cheers and waves. Each student then went home with their Spanish host family to settle in to their new environment for the forthcoming 10 days.

The next evening the group of 65 Spanish and English students and staff enjoyed a restaurant meal together. It was lovely to see how well the group had already bonded so quickly.

During our stay we explored Valencia – from visiting the ultra-modern Science Museum and Oceanographique to seeing the old quarters including the Cathedral, Plaza de Toros and museum and the famous Mercado Central. Our sight-seeing would not have been complete without stopping to buy souvenirs in the Valencia football shop and the Corte Inglés.

Terra Mítica theme park was a day to remember when our Spanish partners joined us on the rides for a day – truly international fun!!

Apart from all the organised outings, our students were entertained by their partner/family at an evening disco and bowling. Many experienced eating at a paella restaurant in the Albufera, an area renowned for its beauty, as well as being invited by extended family and friends and staying at their country homes.

The Easter weekend enabled us to take part in traditional festivities. Some watched the religious Easter Sunday procession and the beautiful costumes and most tasted the Mona de Pascuas, a special Easter cake with a brightly coloured egg.

The Spanish Exchange has given our students the opportunity to make wonderful friendships with their host families and with the other English students. They have been immersed in the Spanish language and culture- an experience which is unrivalled. They have been overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of their host families.

The tears and hugs at the airport as we departed, were an indicator of how much we had all appreciated our visit.

We look forward to our Spanish partners’ return visit in June and hope that we can offer them an equally memorable experience.

Margot

My Spanish Exchange

When I first met my family my fears and worries slowly disappeared as they welcomed me with wide smiles. I was really excited to try a new way of life with new people. When we got to the house they made sure I felt at home and asked if I needed help with anything. At this point I felt very privileged to be around such kind, friendly people in a beautiful country. As soon as I got to Spain I could feel the buzz of excitement and was eager to join in. I am really happy that I have had the opportunity to do this and would love for it to carry on, and I wish that England was as warm as Spain, from the weather to the hearts of the people. I also felt very special when Tamara’s 5 year old sister cried when I left even though we hadn’t spoken often.

Chelsea Year 9

2009-03-30T21:22:00.001+01:00

Moon Rocks at Chalfonts!

2009-03-30T16:20:00.007+01:00

From 24 - 27 March, the students at the College plus visiting students from local primary and grammar schools had the opportunity to see at close quarters Moon rocks brought back to Earth by the Apollo astronauts during the space missions of the early 70's.

Students observed the rock samples through two microscopes one of which also provided polarized light to enhance the underlying crystal structures.

The samples included anorthosite rocks that are 4.44 Billion years old. This is only 60 million years younger than the Earth. The Moon has no atmsophere or tectonic plates which means it is a time capsule and has changed little since its formation. They also observed the famous orange soil, which was the last sample collected by Apollo 17 astronauts and has altered our understanding of volcanism in the early solar system formation. This was backed up by a DVD sample showing the astronauts actually collecting these samples.

The week's programme was particularly poignant in the International Year of Astronomy 2009, which celebrates 400 years exactly since Gallileo gazed through a telescope at the surface features of the Moon.

The students were fascinated and in awe of observing rocks and crystals from a distant and alien world, and considered the remarkable bravery of the men who risked and lost their lives to bring back samples that have propelled science and technology forwards by changing our understanding of our own planet and solar system.

The Moon is a natural satellite which lies an average distance of 380,000km from our Earth, but the constituents of it's rocks are completely different to those found on Earth..

The whole experience was enjoyed by more than 400 students this week, and will surely change their outlook when men once again stand on the Moon in the next 15 years...

BBC News Day

2009-03-27T10:48:00.003Z

15 students worked with the media and English department to create The Chalfonts News report in conjunction with the BBC.

To find out more go to the Chalfonts Media Blog

Student View: Photographic experience at Bucks New Uni

2009-03-13T11:05:00.006Z

Chalfonts' student Rachel writes:

"A visit to Bucks New University Art department provided a fun, informative and stimulating day. We spent a day focusing on photography and photographic skills. Initially we were shown a variety of cameras, including 35mm and medium format, and allowed to take photographs with the 35mm digital camera. We also tried ink printing. The experience became more exciting when we were allowed to go into the dark room, and were taught pre-digital, image production skills. We produced a photographic image of an object that had been stood on some photographic paper. We were also allowed to develop the paper in developing chemicals and fix the image on the paper using photographic fixative."

Games Designers get special visit from Chicago

2009-03-13T08:37:00.010Z

The Gifted and Talented group of games designers had a special visit last week form their gaming guru Roxana Hadad. Roxana is an educational technologist from North Western University, Chicago and has been working on a cutting edge virtual course developing students knowledge and understanding of gaming.

The students meet weekly online in a video conference and use a special course on the VLE to support them. They are eight weeks through a ten week program that has introduced the key concepts of gaming, developed their thinking on gaming strategy and design and allowed them a weekly question and answer session with some of the world's top game designers.

The group are working collaboratively to create their own Flash game which will hopefully be ready to play soon.

Photoshoot at Chalfonts

2009-03-05T10:52:00.003Z

Visiting professional photographer, Peter Jones, held an all day workshop for some of our students who are studying PVA or Digital Art. Students learnt about how to use and position studio lights as well as how to pose their subjects.

A student's viewpoint:

"Peter, a professional wedding photographer kindly gave up some of his time to demonstrate the uses of lighting in photography to some of the digital art group. This experience was illuminating demonstrating how important it is to light a subject correctly. We were shown about the use of studio lights, with the umbrella that help diffuse the light, Peter discussed the importance of correct exposure and the pitfalls of under and over exposure. He also talked about using diffused, bounced, or balanced flash so that the photograph produced is as aesthetically interesting as possible. I was given the opportunity to act as a model during the photographic session. It is very interesting learning that each individual can strike their own pose naturally. He allowed me to maintain my natural pose as it is the most comfortable position for a model to hold, but showed us how to angle the person to one side to give a flattering image. A really fun session in which I believe we learnt a lot."

Is there life in our universe?

2009-02-24T15:12:00.004Z

Professor Barrie Jones of the Open University gave a presentation to students today at the Chalfonts Community College on the scientific evidence of identifying possible environments where life could exist in the universe and particularly the solar system.

Feedback from Miss Stower - ILP trip to Bucks New Uni

2009-02-11T10:03:00.004Z

I would just like to congratulate the pupils who were involved in the two ILP trips for Year 11 Digital Art and year 12 PVA pupils. As groups we visited Bucks New University for a Photographic project which was very successful and the pupils were brilliant! They worked well in an adult environment producing some high quality work, plus they were polite and focused at all times. To quote a university lecturer who mainly works with Adults ‘They have been polite, hard working and produced some outstanding results you should be very proud of them’. I am indeed proud of all of these pupils and I am happy with the art work produced.

Sam Thorn - Basketball

2009-01-09T08:49:00.005Z

Here is a recent interview with student, Sam Thorn, a talented basketball player at Chalfonts.

Sound Studio

2008-06-18T16:17:00.009+01:00

On June 6th 2008, Sound Studio came to The Chalfonts Community College and allowed some children to explore their creativeness and create a piece of musical art for an upcoming art installation at Waddesdon Manor in which some other students work will be displayed.

Here is a video of the workshop and a clip of the completed piece of music.

MADDCLIP.mp3

Students designed the new CCC website

2008-06-15T22:50:00.002+01:00

A group of students from all years worked together to develop the functionality and design of the new CCC website.

More to come.......

Joe's Flash future

2008-06-15T22:46:00.007+01:00

Joe is in year 10 and has not only started to create online teaching material for his peers but has just recorded his 40,000,000th - (forty millionth) hit on his flash based games website.

http://homeofflash.freehostia.com (old site)
http://www.homeofflash.com (new site)

Joe explains.......

"How Did I Learn To Make Games?

I started off playing games and then become interested in how people made such great creations. When I realised that they were done on Flash, and that I had that software, I was all of a sudden searching websites and really wanted to learn how to make my own fantastic game...

I started off by Googling various websites trying to figure out how they managed to make things move and do something when something else happens. I found some great tutorials and guides on the internet and simply started to read and read. Slowly understanding how Actionscript (flash coding) works and I played around with Flash, seing what happened if I changed example codes.

I managed to make my very first flash game. You had to find items hidden in a house and escape. This game was the start of my 'EscapeDaHouse' Series. Each time I made a 'part' I wanted to learn more and more to make it better and better. I studied even more tutorials on how to draw in flash, how to use flash to the maximm and I just simply learnt the tips and hints that other authors had posted on their individual websites. I posted my very first game on the Internet, and over a week I had already hundreds of views and lots of comments on how I could improve it. Lots of people were saying that they were looking forward to my next part and then this convinced me to take this further and make part two....

I have now completed up to five parts and created a website that I have built from scratch publishing my games and recently added a feature where users can upload their own creations. For the whole world to play, review, comment, suggest and basically give these people the inspiration that I had when I first started Flash.

Why Do I Make Games?

I enjoy making games because it is something that I really enjoy doing and like to show off my skills to the whole world. Literally the whole world. I have viewers from UK, Spain, Japan, America, India, France. I am so glad that I have taken this hobby on and I find it interesting as it is different each time. The world of Flash has grown and now lots of people are understanding the importance, and fun, of what Flash brings!"

Web 2.0 at CCC

2008-06-15T22:31:00.008+01:00

A GT group of students kicked off a new project on 5th June with a live webinar from Scotland by educational technology guru and Guardian columnist Ewan Macintosh.

Students met Ewan in a live virtual discussion after school for 30 minutes before developing plans on bringing web 2.0 technologies to the heart of The Chalfonts Community College. Students will collaborate on a series sharing/social projects.

Watch the meeting

Music Students

2008-06-13T14:46:00.005+01:00

GT music students, Jamie and Iyad (year 13) were commissioned to create a soundscape/composition for the Bucks Art Team to enhance the experimental video sculpture being created for the MADD festival (28th - 29th June) at Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury. The digital installation will be a series of experimental videos, flash animations and a sound scapes created by students from The Chalfonts Community College and Waddesdon School.

Given not much time they created this:

Catering students take on Heston Blumenthal

2008-06-13T12:38:00.005+01:00

On the evening of Tuesday 25th March 2008, Sue Tanner (Principal), Mrs Lloyd-Williams and six year 10 GT students traveled to Bray to dine at Heston Blumenthal’s Hind’s Head Hotel. The trip was a reward for all the hard work these six students had put into the Catering Department over the past two years.

cateringpod2.mp3

PE - Body Works

2008-06-12T12:26:00.004+01:00

Body World trip on 04/04/08

A group of 38 pupils from the G & T Physical Education register were taken to the Science and Industry Museum at Manchester, to have a look at Dr. Gunther Van Hagens Body World exhibition. This provided students with a once in a lifetime opportunity to observe parts of the body like never before. The exhibition demonstrated the muscles, tendons and ligaments of the human body, all of which the students have to study as part of their Sixth form studies. In addition they observed the effects of a poor lifestyle on the body and were introduced to areas that they have not yet studied, for example the nervous system, internal organs and blood supplies.
Towards the end of the exhibition we were able to observe the stages of fetal development at various stages of pregnancy and explained the controversy behind the recent government debate regarding the Abortion limit.

The chance to see the circulatory system and internal structures of animals such as a gorilla, bird and chicken enabled us to see the anatomical similarities and differences. The final section of the museum showed how the blood vessels spread around the body, this highlighted to the pupils how we carry oxygen and take away carbon dioxide from every part of the body. This was particularly visible in the structure of the hand.
The trip was a huge success and the pupils were given a much clearer view of the parts of the body they have been studying from books and pictures. In the shop there was a chance for the pupils to purchase DVDs and books into further information, diagrams and pictures that they would not normally be able to see or get their hands on. Until you see the body without any skin on it, it is very hard to imagine what we look like underneath and we all left with a greater appreciation for the human body.

As you can see from the picture opposite the muscles are clear to see. All the models were real people and nothing has been modified apart from they have been through a preparing technique called plastination, which means a substance has been put into they muscles so they do not decay or smell. This is a technique that has been developed by Dr Gunther Van Hagen himself.

Geography Field Trip - Rivers Study

2008-06-12T12:04:00.006+01:00

A group of yr 12 GT Geography students went on a field trip to study the river Chess in Hertfordshire. Two of the students made a short film to show students in other years.

Here is a video of how they got on.

Gifted and Talented at The Chalfonts Community College

2008-03-27T20:07:00.000Z

We hope to share some of the success and stories comng from our gifted and talented students here at the Chalfonts Community College.