HATS FOR HAITI

Students and Staff at The Cooper School in Bicester are holding a 'Hats for Haiti' day on Thursday 28th January in order to raise funds for the disaster appeal following the earthquake in Haiti.

The day was suggested by an 11 year old  student at the school and everyone will be encouraged to wear whacky headgear and pay for doing so.

The campaign raised £700.

Senior Citizens Christmas Lunch

55 senior citizens enjoyed the hospitality of The Cooper School on Tuesday 15 December when they were treated to a three course traditional Christmas Lunch in the school's dining room.

The event, which was sponsored by many local businesses including Wyevale Garden Centre, Fresh Direct, Brakes, Proctors, Barstows, Field Farm Fresh, Yearsley, Bicester Town Council and the Co-op, was being held for the first time and could become an annual event.

The guests were served by students at the school and many were transported to and from the lunch by Grayline Coaches of Bicester. As well as enjoying lunch they were entertained by the school choir who performed traditional songs and carols.

In addition to the lunch the school also distributed Christmas Hampers around the town to other Senior Citizens. These hampers were sourced by donations from students and staff which are to be handed out on 17th December, in time for Christmas.

 Headteacher at The Cooper School, Ben Baxter, said, "The school sees itself as an integral part of the community and we are proud to be able to do this.  I cannot thank the students and their families enough for the support we have received on this new initiative. Without the support of businesses within the town the event wouldn’t have been possible and, as well as expressing my sincere thanks, I look forward to building strong links with them in the future.

LEGO builds success!!

A team of 11 Yr 9 students from The Cooper School were in action at the Regional Final of the First Lego League Competition at Cranfield University recently. The school were the only one who entered the competition from Oxfordshire and, despite finishing as runners up, were all awarded gold medals for their high quality of their entries!

The team has been hard a work during lunchtimes and after school since September to prepare for the competition with support and guidance of Science staff - who accompanied them to the competition.

The team undertook two different challenges, the first was to design, build and program a robot to cope with a set obstacle course on the day. The second challenge was to identify a problem in transport in our local community and suggest a solution to it - the students conducted a survey and found students in school thought the way cars, buses, bikes and pedestrians all arrive together at school in the morning was a problem - an accident waiting to happen. In response to the second challenge the team designed cycle and pedestrian routes which could be used on the school site to help separate this traffic. They presented the issue, their solution and ideas to a panel of Lego League judges. The whole group were congratulated at the end of the day by one of the judges who commented on the fact that the school had such a fantastic team of students in the competition.
 

Cooper School commended for its outstanding use of technology

The Cooper School, Bicester has been celebrating after being highly commended in the category of Best Whole School at the prestigious ICT Excellence Awards at an awards ceremony in Bristol. Fending off competition from over a hundred schools nationally, the judges praised the school’s vision and commitment to its use of ICT to raise standards across the curriculum saying, in summary:

“Its outstanding leadership is outward-facing and charismatic and ensures that the strategic vision for ICT is developed and agreed by the whole school community. This engagement offers a springboard for clear, distributed leadership and management of ICT throughout the school, with staff empowered to explore the new possibilities for learning offered by technology.

There is a strong developmental plan for ICT at the school, which ensures that all staff and students are encouraged to reach their potential, helping the whole school to move forward.

The introduction of the Learning to Learn Centre and the New Technologies Group will help maintain this progression and will ensure that sustainability, consistency and planning remain at the heart of school life.”

Headteacher, Ben Baxter and Head of English, Ben McCarey, attended the event and were delighted to receive the award from comedian, actress and star of ‘Goodness Gracious Me’, The Kumars at Number 42 and, more recently, Casualty, Meera Syal on behalf of all the staff and students whose work over the last few years has helped to move the school to a position at the forefront of ICT in education.

The use of new technologies to enhance learning is a national priority for all schools and this award recognises The Cooper School’s commitment to innovation and to raising standards and ensuring that every student is able to fulfill their potential.

Headteacher, Ben Baxter said, “I am delighted for the school to have been recognized for the remarkable journey it has made in its use of new technologies over the last few years.  For us to deliver a quality educational experience for 21^st century learners it is absolutely clear that we need to provide the materials that our young learners of today use on a daily basis to become truly independent in their approaches to new learning experiences. The New Technologies group led by Mr McCarey has been instrumental in assessing the technologies that will enhance our students’ learning, trialing them with classes and reviewing the benefits that students have gained by using them.  Over thirty staff including teachers, teaching assistants, cover supervisors and technicians have attended these sessions which is testament to how the whole school views the importance of new technologies in driving forward whole school improvement.”

Children in Need 2009

Batman's arch rival, The Joker, was seen talking to Superman at The Cooper School in Bicester on Children in Need Day 2009.

The characters were taking part in the annual fund raising event along with other students who took the benefit of a non-uniform day.

Students also raised money by holding a cake sale whilst staff at the school wore the special Children in Need T-Shirts.

Zoe Schmidt & Irene Waller, staff at the school, said 'We are hoping to better last year's total of £1042. It's been tremendous fun today and everyone has played their part in raising funds.'

IInternational Project raises money for local charity

An international partnership project for schools has resulted in a donation to a local charity. The Cooper School produced, in partnership with schools in Finland and Spain, a recipe book of dishes from those countries. The recipe booklet ‘Delicious Comenius Dishes’ contains traditional recipes from the  three countries involved in this project, together with a short background/history of the dishes and the country from which they originated.

The Comenius project, funded by the British Council to promote international and cultural awareness across Europe and the world,  has provided The Cooper School with the opportunity to work in partnership with Matti Lohen School in Rautalampi, Finland and the  Castillo de Luna School in Andalucia, Spain. This included visits by staff from the school to both Finland and Spain with reciprocal visits from overseas staff to Bicester.

The project culminated in the production of the recipe booklet ‘Delicious Comenius Dishes’ which has been sold to students and staff in school.

Dauna Harrold, the project Co-ordinator, presented a cheque for £500 to the Bicester branch of the Katharine House Hospice Charity shop’s manager, Linda Alder.

Mrs Alder said, “We are extremely grateful to everyone at The Cooper School who have contributed towards this wonderful donation. The hospice relies on such funding to maintain the care and comfort it provides. Thank you so much. We hope that the people of Bicester will continue this support by donating £2 for a copy of the recipe book, which is available now at Katharine House Charity shop in Wesley Lane, Bicester.” 

Restoring the Peace garden 

In a quiet corner of The Cooper School in Bicester there is a special garden dedicated to former staff and students at the school. The Peace Garden was established in 1997 in memory of Jan Charman who died in 1993 and also to four students who died whilst at the school.

Over the years the garden has become somewhat overgrown and since February the year a group of COPE students have been working towards restoring it to its former glory.

The school was visited at the start of the work by two members of staff from Wyevale Garden Centre, Jeanette Cocklin, Events Manager and Phil Munn, resident Horticultural expert who offered guidance and advice on what were weeds and what weren’t , what needed cutting back and how best to proceed.

This was then followed by the students visiting Wyevale Garden Centre and lessons in gardening and plant care at Garth Park.

The students have put in a great deal of hard work since February weeding, cutting back trees and shrubs and cleaning the fish pond before replanting with compost and plants kindly provided by Wyevale.

Recently Jeanette and Phil returned to see the end result and were amazed by the transformation. Jeanette commented, “It’s like a TV makeover programme, I can’t really believe it. We both thought that there was too much work for the students but they have obviously worked really hard and have done a wonderful job.”

The students are undertaking the work as part of their COPE studies (Certificate of Personal Effectiveness) and the COPE Manager at the school, Eleanor Williams, added, “They have all done really well on this project which counts towards their final qualification. We are very grateful for all the help and support that we received from the Wyevale Garden Centre, the students couldn’t have done it without their help.”

The Science department say they are thrilled with the improvements and wish to thank Mr Hiscock and his team.

BEFORE	AFTER

COOPER Staff support Race for Life.

Ten intrepid members of staff took place in the Cancer Research Race for Life recently at the University Parks in Oxford.

The staff, Mrs McKnight, Mrs Clarke, Mrs Spencer, Mrs Murray, Mrs Roche-Ali, Mrs Ramsay, Mrs Butler, Mrs Burnand, Mrs Martindale and Mrs Atoyebi raised sponsorship from friends and work colleagues for Cancer Research and in total raised over £1000. Also taking part but not pictured was Mrs Waller.

The group, some of whom ran whilst the less energetic walked, were helped by the rainy weather but remained in good spirits throughout and all of them turned up at the school the next day!

On the same day Geography Teacher Mrs Post took part in a 9km walk at Wolvercote Common to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Lights go out at school.

As part of the project to gain Eco School Status, students from The Cooper School in Bicester were invited to design a poster reminding everyone to switch off lights wherever possible. Almost 50 entries were received and the Eco School working party finally decided of four runners up and two overall winners. 

The winning entries were professionally produced by Paul Bradbury of BDA, graphic design professionals of Bicester who came into the school and worked with the winning students showing them how posters can be produced. 

At a recent assembly Steve Creed, Director of Business Growth for WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) presented prizes to the winning students. The WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) organisation is a government funded group which helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change. In keeping with the Eco School theme the prizes consisted of pencil cases, pens and pencils made from recycled materials together with information cards on recycling, in addition the two main winners received ‘Love food, Hate waste’ aprons.

The School’s Business Manager, Steve Cook, said, “The quality and quantity of the entries surprised us all, there were some quite brilliant ideas and shows that our students are well aware of the environmental issues we face. The posters will be produced and prominently placed around the school site in order to remind everyone to switch off those unwanted lights.”

Across the airwaves at The Cooper School.

As part of Jack FMs Radio Advertising Competition on change4life students at The Cooper School took part in an awareness day recently. 

The day included a  session on healthy eating, one about radio advertising and a third on making a radio advert.

Four students from the school won the prize and recorded their own radio advert recently.

The four girls, Kayleigh Jackson, Megan Brain, Ellie Speed and Sophie Berry (all 11) spent a morning with Jack FM’s Andrew Wright recording the advert which will be played across the airwaves from June.

The advert will get its first airing at around 8.50 on the morning of 1^st June to co-incide with the girls' assembly when it will be played to the whole of year 7.

CLICK HERE to listen to the final mix of the advert.

‘Going 4 It’ – Fresh Direct Limited Competition Winners

Year 9 students Robert Lacey and James White spent an enjoyable afternoon at Fresh Direct in Bicester last week taking part in a cooking and tasting session with Duncan Parsonage, the Fresh Direct Product Development Chef.

At the recent ‘Going 4 It’ Fresh Direct Limited displayed a large range of unusual fresh fruit and vegetables. Students were able to taste some very unusual specimens, learn more about their origins and see how these vitamin-packed fruit and vegetables can be incorporated in to a healthy diet. For the event, Fresh Direct also had a competition: ‘How many peas can you pod in 30 seconds!’
Robert won the prize for The Cooper School and was allowed to invite a friend, James, to share the prize of a visit to Fresh Direct. They were greeted by Duncan when they arrived at the Fresh Direct offices and were also introduced to the winners from Bicester Community College.

The students were provided with warm fleece jackets to wear as they were given a tour of the chilled warehouse where all the different produce is stored. They were asked to choose fruit and vegetables to sample and they opted for unusual looking examples, intrigued as to whether they would be sweet or savoury.

Back in the kitchen, Duncan cleaned, chopped and sliced the produce and the students tasted amongst other things fresh horseradish and Scottish bonnet chilli! Duncan explained how to prepare or cook a range of fresh produce and the students were provided with interesting recipes incorporating these fruit and vegetables.  The students then made strawberry tartlets under the supervision of Duncan.

Robert and James thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon and were very thankful to Fresh Direct for providing them with this opportunity and to Duncan for the time spent with them.  Robert said “I liked trying fruit and vegetables I had never tried before”.

OXFAM VISIT

Ten members of the School's Student Council were invited to the official opening of the new Visitor Centre at Oxfam's Logistical Centre based in Bicester recently.

Oxfam is one of the major 'First Response' charities in the world and it is a little known fact that all aid relief in the event of national and international emergencies begins its journey in Bicester.

The distribution centre holds a huge amount of
Mosquito nets, tents, water containers, etc which can be moved overseas within 24 hours once notification of a major event is recieved.

In order to raise its profile, the team at the Logistics Centre have developed a Visitor Centre which was officially opened by local MP Tony Baldry. The Visitor Centre has working exhibits of some of the services it can provide and the students were
given a guided tour and detailed explainations of how supplies can be constructed and the beneficial effects they can have.

The school is looking to form close links with the Oxfam Logistics Centre and this visit is likely to be the first of many.

Cooper School’s Charity Support.

In February, The Cooper School launched its annual Year 7 Readathon in support of CLIC Sargant and the Roald Dahl Foundation.  

English Teacher Ben McCarey said, “All Year 7 students were tasked with choosing five books which they wanted to read and gathering as much sponsorship as possible to do so.

Readathon is always a pleasure as everybody gains: the students are given a valuable opportunity to enjoy reading in their own time and, at the same time they are able to raise money for terminally ill children.  This year the event was all the more pleasurable for all concerned as the funds raised far exceeded the totals of previous years: a cheque for £934.22 was recently sent to the charities.

We would like to thank all of our Year 7 students (and their friends and families) for their fantastic support and look forward to smashing this total next year.”

CLIC Sargent is the UK's leading children's cancer charity, providing the widest range of services and the highest number of care professionals to look after children and young people with cancer and their families. The Roald Dahl Foundation is a UK-based registered charity offering a programme of grant-giving to charities, hospitals, and individuals in the UK only.

Rocket lands in Bicester School.

It’s not just rocket science at The Cooper School in Bicester but real rockets as well! The Specialist Science School was visited recently by the Starchaser Nova 2 rocket as part of its country wide tour of schools to promote its trials and launch.

The 45 foot rocket is designed to take a manned trip into space on completion of the trials as part of the firm’s drive to provide space travel by 2013. With the nose cone attached the rocket has a total height of 54 feet and will be launched off Morecombe Sands in November 2009.

Outreach Manager Steve Hill from Starchaser gave a presentation to students at the school before giving them a tour of the rocket and answering questions from the awestruck youngsters.

Science Teacher Ros Atoyebi said, ‘This is the second time Starchaser has visited the school, four years ago they brought the Nova 1 rocket and the new model is so much larger and more impressive than the original. It helps our students grasp the concept of space travel and ties in with our curriculum and Specialist Science status. Many of these students may well get the opportunity for space travel when they are older as technology advances at such a pace.’

As well as students from The Cooper School the rocket also attracted visits from neighbouring schools as Glory Farm and Bardwell schools took advantage of the opportunity to see at first hand such a huge space rocket at close quarters.

STARS shine at The Cooper School

The best of Cooper School’s talent performed to a packed Performance Hall recently as the very first ‘STARS’ contest took place.

Over 35 acts took part in auditions and eventually 18 of them were chosen to appear in the final. They performed song and dance routines covering modern day hits such as ‘Patience’ to classics like ‘Nothing Compares (to you)’ and songs from musicals including ‘Wishing you were somehow here again’.

After giving a special matinee performance in the afternoon to local primary school children all the acts gave polished performances resulting the huge rounds of applause from the audience on the night.

The evening was the first of its kind to be held at the school and was organised by Sharon Beckett, Music Teacher. A judging panel which included special guest Keith Thompson from Jack FM awarded prizes to the winning entries from the Lower and Upper school before deliberating over the overall winner. The panel which also included Deputy Headteacher Tony Rushworth, Head of Creative Arts Jean Ramsey, students Matthew Sherwood and Jess Tuffrey finally agreed on Poppy Cooper, Laura Nellis and Laura Hobden who sang ‘The man who can’t be moved’.

The winners of the Lower School award were Chloe Coleman and Jenni Sowerby whilst the Upper School award went to Suzannah Shalom. A further award, voted for by the primary school children during the afternoon matinee, was presented to Mollie Fowler.

Presenting the prizes, Keith told the audience that the school can be justifiably proud of the talent on show. He praised the acts for the enthusiasm and professionalism commenting on how difficult it was to perform in front of audiences, especially for this age group.

After a final performance by the winning act the audience went home still singing songs which they had heard during the evening.

75 Years of School Meals.

Three members of the Cooper School Catering Team have clocked up an incredible 75 years service between then and have been awarded long service certificates by Oxfordshire County Council.

Chief Cook Barbara Jeacock, Assistant Chief Cook Jenny Tingey and Lunchtime Supervisor Marcia Addock have each completed 25 Years service with Oxfordshire County Council mainly at Bicester’s Cooper School.

The three were also presented with bottles of wine by the school’s Headteacher Ben Baxter and the school’s Catering Manager Colin Epathite recently.

In the attached photo left to right front row are Barbara Jeacock, Marcia Addock and Jenny Tingey with Colin Epathite & Ben Baxter

Over 200 parents, relatives and staff were treated to a Christmas Concert by The Cooper School Singers in the school’s Performance Hall recently (4^th December).

The programme, featuring traditional carols, modern Christmas songs, instrument solos and specially written Christmas stories enthralled the audience who were encouraged to participate with several of the carols.

Jack Walter on trombone, Tom Mann on trumpet, Shaun Bailey, Grace Julier & Ruth Thomas on flute and Ellie Speed on piano performed the instrumentals whilst vocal soloists included Andrew Pryde, Kayleigh Harding, Stacey O’Sullivan, Charlotte Fagg, Poppy Cooper, Laura Nellis & Annie White.

The Cooper Singing Group was formed in September and this is the second concert this 30 strong group, under the directorship of music teacher Sharon Beckett, have given. Last month they performed at the Wyevale Garden Centre Christmas Extravaganza.

After the performance the audience had seasonal refreshments before making their way home, still singing songs from the concert!