Gabriel Hits the High Note

Year 12 student and top Guitarist Gabriel Saldin recently entered the ‘Big Skills - Search for an Essex Star’ competition. He was chosen to perform at a ‘Big Skills’ event in Chelmsford High Street presented by BBC Radio Essex and hosted by the patron of the Big Skills charity - Ray Stubbs. Gabriel performed two pieces on stage, one of which was ‘Fives’ by Guthrie Govan. As a result of his stunning performance he was crowned the winner and congratulated by Guthrie Govan who happened to be in the audience. Gabriel won a recording session in a professional studio, along with a professional photographic and media design package to accompany his recorded work. Following Gabriel’s achievement, Head of Music at CCHS, Mr D. Austin, told Parent News that “The event was a great opportunity for Gabriel to showcase his talents and become accustomed to the spotlight. The performances were of the highest standard, and reflect how hard he has worked over the last few years. We are really proud of Gabriel’s achievement; he’s destined for great things and we love the way he inspires the other students around him to raise their game. Gabriel has now entered the ‘Guitarist of the Year’ and we are looking forward to him taking on the other guitarists searching for stardom on the national stage."

Academic Year Draws to an End

It’s just three weeks now until the end of this academic year and during the final week of term there are many ‘end-of-term’ activities planned for our Lower School students including the culmination of the Year 9 Enterprise Project, the school sports days and various trips.
The term finishes on Friday 17th July after Lesson 4 at 1.20pm but our Year 10 students have their last day in school on Friday as they now begin two weeks of work experience. The dates for the beginning of the next academic year are:

Winter Term 2009

Thu 3rd September - Year 7 and 13 Start Term
Fri 4th September - Years 8 to 12 Start Term
Fri 23rd October - Non-Pupil Day
Mon 26th to Fri 30th October – Half Term Holiday
Fri 27th November - Non-Pupil Day
Fri 18th December - End of Term

Athletes Compete in Essex Finals

Congratulations to two of our Year 9 students who recently were selected to represent North East Essex at the Essex Schools Athletics meet at Melbourne Park. They performed exceptionally well in very hot conditions and against some very strong competitors. Ben Austin (above left) only just missed out on qualification for the final, but still threw a very respectable 10m in the shot putt whilst Liam Condon (above right) reached a new personal best in the Long Jump with a leap of 4.88m from his final jump.

National Sport Week

Next week the school is participating in the National Schools Sport Week. As part of the numerous sporting activities taking place throughout the week our Year 7 students will be undertaking a special agility challenge during their normal PE lessons which will include a standing long jump, a speed bounce and the balance beam.

The Media Awards

This year our Media Department is organising an Oscars style Awards ceremony which takes place next Thursday in our community area – doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start. The awards are in collaboration with colleagues from Tendring and Colne School Media Departments with a number of students nominated from each school in categories such as Broadcast, Print and E-media along with a teachers' award for one student from each school. Tickets are £1.00 – except for children under 16 and nominees – available from our Media Department.
In addition to the awards there will be a display of some of the work of our students’ including films, broadcast pieces and print material together with demonstrations in stop animation and green screen technology.