Headlines

27 January 2003

Staff changes

Mrs Lesley Grills has been appointed as Support Centre Administrator to replace Michelle Molloy and is now in post. Mrs Caroline Bee will take up her appointment to replace Mike Johnson as Support Centre Adviser after Easter. Congratulations to Mrs Judy Groves, who is expecting a baby; there is currently an advertisement in the local press for a replacement during her maternity leave.

French Exchange

We are delighted to inform you that 26 of our students will embark on the second French exchange with Collège Marlioz in the French Alps. They will be leaving on 14 March 2003 and return to Camelford a week later. We also look forward to welcoming the French group on Saturday 10 May when they visit Camelford. North Cornwall proved very popular with last year's French group and as a result they are oversubscribed this year! We are presently looking for some host families who would accommodate a French student who would stay for a week as a paying guest. Hosting families will receive £45.00. For more information please contact Mr Fanet in the modern languages department.

Links with Rwandan school

We are hoping to link our school with a new Secondary school, which has just been completed in Kabarore, a rural area in the East of Rwanda. We first supported a Rwandan school in 1997 when pupils from SJS collected a large amount of pens, paper, pencils and other stationery which David Palmer took over to a primary school in Kigali, the capital. The gift was very gratefully received and boosted the education of at least 100 children.
Last summer Bishop Sadiki Zacharie, who helps set up schools in Rwanda came to visit SJS and to talk to staff and pupils. As a result it was agreed with the headteacher that we would aim to establish a link with the proposed new secondary school in which he is involved. There has been a primary school in Kabarore for some time, but it is rare to find secondary schools in the rural areas. A British agency has funded the building of the school, in bricks, which was recently completed, but not yet opened. Compared to an English school it is very basic consisting of a few classrooms, toilets etc with the possibility of extending it. We were asked if we could provide some chairs to help equip the classrooms, and we collected 235 chairs in September, which have now arrived by container at their destination this month (January). The school should open during 2003.
For our part, we are aiming to put up a photo display in the school and then to appeal for children to donate stationery etc to help equip the school for learning and possibly eventually help supply some desks. The Africans are very keen on the proposed link and would even like to take our school name and uniform! David Palmer hopes to travel to Rwanda some time during the year and to see the progress himself. Any willing helpers to help train up the teachers?

The Camelford Distributor Road

An officer from Cornwall County Council visited us to discuss the junction options for the part of the route nearest the school. Three governors and I explained the needs for vehicular and pedestrian access and our preference that the route should not bisect our new coach park! We were told that we would be kept informed of progress on planning the route over the next year or two.

Valentine Day

Following the very successful pilot last year, red roses will be available to order and send within school. The day will be a non-uniform day in aid of the Childrens' Hospice South West and there will also be a disco for all students on the evening of 14 February.

Working in partnership

We are currently developing good working relationships with our four neighbouring secondary schools - Bodmin, Budehaven, Launceston, and Wadebridge. We hope to work on curriculum developments, training for staff and bids for external funding.

Study Planners

Parents - please sign these each weekend and query homework apparently not set or recorded.

Abusive telephone calls
Apologies; this next item is relevant to a very small number of our readers but needs to be stated!

In the last few years, there have been isolated instances of parent/guardians telephoning the school and using abusive and/or threatening language to our clerical staff. The circumstances are usually that we are unable to give you direct access to a specific member of the teaching staff. So that all parents and guardians understand how we operate, I am informing you that teachers do not have telephones in classrooms; all their attention is focused on the teaching group. Thus, we cannot "put you through" to a teacher, except on the few occasions when they are not teaching or in a meeting with students, other staff or parents.

Student Access to the Internet

You may have notice the recent Government advertising campaign concerning the misuse of "Chat Rooms" by paedophiles and we strongly recommended that you restrict your children's access to these sites.
At Sir Jim's we have in place a number of firewalls (screening and filtering systems) to prevent student access to the unsuitable material. The school Internet access is provided by a system controlled by Cornwall LEA and they have in place a filtering system, which prevents the vast majority of unsuitable material reaching school. The filter is updated regularly with new sites constantly being filtered. In addition as a school we can filter out any additional sites passed by County which we feel inappropriate, for example, we filtered out all "Chat Rooms" and "Hot Mail" sites and the students only access to e-mails is through the school secure system.
If your children have access to the Internet at home you can also put in place firewalls and filters of your own. All the major Internet Providers supply this facility free of charge. Further information and advice can be obtained from the government website www.thinkuknow.co.uk or from the NSPCC Child Protection Help line telephone number 0808 800 5000. You can also telephone either Keith Lovegrove or Terry Burden at the school; they would be more than happy to give you further advice and guidance.

Forthcoming dates

Year 11 reports issued - Friday 24 January
Year 11 Parents' evening - Tuesday 28 January 5.30pm - 7.30pm
Year 9 options choice meeting - Tuesday 11 February 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Governors Annual meeting for Parents - Tuesday 11 February 7.00pm
Half Term - Friday 21 to Friday 28 February inclusive.

Angela Perlmutter