March 2015
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Yet another term has flown by! It has been another packed period, with a large number of trips, visits and other valuable
enrichment activities for our students, a selection of which are reported in this newsletter.
On the curriculum front, year 9 students have now made their option choices for key stage 4 and we are busily looking at
the timetable to try and give as many as possible their preferred subjects. Year 11 students are fast approaching the main
exam season and should be busy revising so as to give themselves the best chance to be successful. The Easter Revision
Programme is a great way to kick-start their work plan for over the holiday period, and we would ask parents to support all
students to attend.
At the end of this term, we wish a fond farewell to Ms Ramrekha, our Head of Personal Development, who leaves us for a
promoted post in the county. Miss Ramrekha has been with us for seven years and in that time has made a significant
contribution, both in the curriculum and also in the wider life of the school. Personal Development, which includes
invaluable topics such as careers, financial education, health, sex and relationships education, has been completely
overhauled and is now a strength of our curriculum here at Soar Valley. Ofsted noted that “The personal, social, health
education and citizenship programmes are central to the development of promoting students’ very strong spiritual, moral,
social and cultural development.” We look forward to welcoming Mrs Raja as our new Head of Personal Development after
the Easter break.
We also will say goodbye to Mrs Bugby, our highly regarded Reprographics Officer, shortly after Easter. Mrs Bugby is one of
those who works behind the scenes, but does an invaluable job and provides an outstanding level of service which
contributes to the teaching process in the school. Wishing all our readers a very happy Easter and a good break.
Mrs J Robinson
ENGLISH REVISION WORKSHOPS WITH KEN ELLIOTT
“CAREER TALKS”
HAVE STARTED
The English Faculty were delighted to host the former chief examiner for WJEC
England, Ken Elliott, on the 4th and 5th March. Mr Elliott returned to SVC for the
third year running to work with the entire Year 11 cohort. Every Year 11 GCSE student attended a workshop with Mr Eliott. They were given top quality revision
tips and strategies to tackle the reading and writing exams in June. As a former
chief examiner, Mr Elliott has set many of the past papers that students will be
familiar with.
These “Career Talks” sessions offer
Year 9-Year 11 students a chance to
listen to professionals from the
outside world and ask questions
about their careers. Sessions in
banking, finance, accountancy and
NHS employment are coming up
soon. Please encourage your child
to attend. Ms C Houlton
Students were overwhelmingly positive about the experience and Mr Elliott, once
again, spoke incredibly highly of them in return.
Well done and thank you Year 11 for your outstanding behaviour and
maturity. We’d also like to remind you that all the resources are saved in the Year
11 Revision Folder in Student Resources and to wish you all the best for your
impending exams. Miss E Charlton
FOOTBALL FUN FOR THE DMU SQUARE MILE PROJECT
On Wednesday 11th March a Year 11 football tournament was held after
school at SVC, to raise money for the DMU Square Mile Project. The
tournament was organised by Year 11 students, Darshan Sachdev, Arzina
Mamadbai, Demi Mistry, Arti Mistry, Safiyyah Bhikha and Amritpal Jhoja, to
raise money to help DMU students travel to India to build much needed
toilets so that girls can attend school. The tournament included four male
and two female football teams. A huge £200.80 was raised by all of the
students playing and watching the tournament. Well done to all of the Year
11 students who helped organised and were involved in the tournament!
Miss J Sanderson
BATTLE OF THE BANDS REVIEW
On the 12th of March 2015, 13 talented bands (60 musicians) performed in front of 120 students and staff. Once again we
witnessed amazing performers who had spent hours rehearsing at lunch time, to battle for the prize of ‘Battle of the
bands winners 2015’.
Mr. MacDougall, Ms Ferriman and Ms. Oughton expertly judged and came to the following decision:
3rd: Gemma’s band – Gemma Shortland, Shannon
Spradbury and Tibor Mikula,
2nd: Nium’s band – Nium Johal, Reece Stevenson,
Poojan Odedra, Malakya Galloway-Baxter, Jiten
Kumar and Dhir Manilal.
1st place was given to Amar Chudasama, Rikesh
Mistry, Gurkerit Rakhra and Dhruv Vagani.
Well done to everyone who took part, especially
Kushal Mehta who performed a Saxophone solo.
Ms Ferriman (Head of Creative Arts) said, ‘It was
the best ever Soar Valley Battle of the Bands. The
talent was very professional, and everyone was
amazing!’ By Reece Stephenson
YEAR 11 EASTER REVISION
As has been the custom for the past few years we have organised two full days of revision here at the college on the first
two days of the Easter break which are MONDAY MARCH 30TH 2015 and TUESDAY MARCH 31ST 2015.
There are three sessions on each day – session (1) 9am to 10.30am, session (2) 10.45am to 12.15pm and session (3) 1pm
to 2.30pm. Students have the opportunity to work with subject staff from various subjects to discuss any issues they may
have, clear up anything about a topic or the exam itself and have access to ICT facilities to support their personal revision.
They will need a packed lunch, writing equipment and do not need to wear uniform – however, they are here to work!
We look forward to supporting your child at this crucial stage in their educational career. Mr W Wowczuk
UKMT JUNIOR MATHS CHALLENGE
On Wednesday 11th March a team of four students represented Soar Valley College in the regional finals
of the UKMT Junior Maths Team Challenge at Ratcliffe College. The students were Banujan Yoganathan
(9-6), Dylan Kacha (9-9), Shan Parsomoto (8-7) and Leya Luhar (8-10). There were 30 schools taking part
in the competition. The team challenge was made up of four rounds, each with a different way of answering challenging
maths questions. Soar Valley did exceptionally well in the first three rounds taking the lead by two points ahead of
Loughborough Grammar. Unfortunately, Loughborough Grammar did very well in the final round pushing Soar valley into
second place. This was a massive achievement as we were competing against many private and independent grammar
schools. This is the highest ranking that the school has achieved. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day. Banujan Yaganathan
LET’S GET CAUGHT READING!
It has been an exciting and thrilling term, filled with reading, reading and yet more reading!
Leicester’s ‘Whatever it Takes’ have launched a citywide reading rampage, requiring schools to
strive to read the most and win the title of ‘Leicester City’s Reading Champions.’ Currently Soar
Valley is only 7 books away from hitting our first reading target, which may lead us to victory.
World Book Day was also celebrated in style! Here at Soar Valley, students were gifted £1 book vouchers to be spent in any
book shop. Also, students were creating and designing book covers, reading and writing workshops were available, and
multiple competitions were launched to inspire, celebrate and promote reading to all year groups.
Lastly, 56 year 7 and year 8 students were chosen to join professional authors, taking part in reading and writing workshops.
Here, alongside many other schools, students listened to authors read, and in small groups read and began planning and
writing their own short stories. Our very own Tia McDonald (7.9) was amongst the few students whose writing was read,
celebrated and congratulated on the day. So, to round off, this term has been a reading success! Miss V Foley.
Netball
Year 9
A competitive squad of girls has taken part in three tournaments over this term. The games have been of a very high standard and the team performed brilliantly to come 2nd in the City. The manager’s players of the two tournaments were Ambar
Sangha for her commitment to training and games, and Farah Khan for her performance in defence.
Year 8
A new year 8 team has been formed this year to enter the East Leicester tournaments. They have made real progress
throughout the tournaments and ended up finishing third, winning the last three games that they played. Manager’s player
was Anna Mkanza for her consistent performance in defence.
Year 10
The year 10 team had a fixture against Rushey Mead in February. Always a close game between local rivals, the girls made
a slow start with Rushey winning the first quarter 4-2. However, once the girls got settled, their performance and teamwork improved massively and they turned it round to win 11-7.
Basketball
Year 9
Before Christmas the year 9 girls basketball team convincingly won the East Leicester competition and qualified for the
Leicestershire and Rutland finals held at Catmose College. The girls had never played at this level before and found the
opposition very tough. With the help of their captain, Ambar, the team grew in confidence as the tournament progressed
and they ended up coming 7th in the whole of Leicestershire and Rutland.
WISPA
The annual WISPA (Women and girls In Sport & Physical Activity) event saw 12 of our girls attending along with 150 girls from
the city secondary schools. The event provided the opportunity for the girls to take part in 12 exciting activities with the aim
to encourage and inspire more girls into regular physical activity. WISPA aims to overcome the various barriers girls face in
participating in physical activity and sport and encourages continued participation. The event also provides the opportunity
to signpost girls to where they can continue taking part. Mrs Whibley said “the 12 girls were a pleasure to be with” and were
inspired to try new sports and activities.
Indoor cricket
The girls’ U13 team showed great commitment in training and developed both in field and bat. They managed a magnificent
135 runs against Moat and fielded well to reduce their batting to 37. The competition came down to the last game against
Crown Hills, who won with 5 balls spare. Manager’s players of the tournament goes to Tia Bhatt and Tulsi Joshi for their
wickets bowling and talent in bat.
It was a similar story for the girls’ U15 team. They had a close game against Rushey Mead, strong fielding from our girls
created a win; 93 runs to their 81. They also faced Crown Hills in the deciding game, their tactical batting and running left
them with an all to play for score of 99, however, the advantage of batting last helped Crown Hills hit the winning run, with
three balls spare. Manager’s player was awarded to Dhruvisha Joshi for outstanding batting. Both teams finished runners up
in the city well done girls; outdoors here we come!
The U15 boys team played exceptionally well in the group stages and made it through to the semi-finals, where they met
Crown Hills. Once again it wasn’t Soar Valley’s day, this time losing out by 1 run.
Hockey
Every Thursday after school our committed hockey players train without fail. Soar Valley College still remains the only city
school to enter the County competitions and put up a good fight against the likes of Loughborough Grammar, Oakham and
Uppingham School. A special mention to Amar Chudasama and Gurkerit Singh who have helped coach and then umpire at
games. It has been great to pass on lots of praise to the boys given by most schools and hockey officials in the county. Their
leadership and quality of officiating has been exemplary.
Badminton
It has been a busy term for the boys and girls U14 and U16 badminton teams. The U16 boys’ regular commitment to training
saw them finish second in the city. A big well done to Shyam Mistry and Akash Vyas who have been unbeaten all season.
Rugby
The boys U16 squad has fought hard this season against some tough competition. They lost 36-21 to Lancaster boys and dug
in deep against Oadby Beauchamp but couldn’t quite hold them off. Manager’s player is awarded to Waleed Adbulla and
Azhar Rashid.
27th March
School Closes for Easter
16th June
Y7/8 Celebration Evening
13th April
School Re-Opens
17th June
Y9/10 Celebration Evening
4th May
May Day Holiday
1st July
Y6 Parents Evening
22nd May
School Closes for Mid Term
Break
2nd July
Music Concert
1st June
School Re-Opens
8th July
Trips Day
4th June
Y7 Parents Evening
Reports Home
10th July
School Closes for Summer
Break
15th June
French Trip
1st September
School Re-Opens