Christian Charalambous Year 7 said, 'I really enjoyed supporting team GB at the wheelchair rugby. Mrs Hartwell brought along the GB flag for us to hold up – it was very exciting! I also enjoyed the trip on the golf buggy which took us back to the entrance. Along the route we saw the velodrome, the aquatic centre and the Olympic stadium.'

Abby Clark, also Year 7, really enjoyed the day. She said, 'I loved it all. The two best bits of the day was when we went in the golf buggy and when England won. That was my best, best bit in the day. I REALLY loved the day.'

Click here for more pictures

The picture shows Eoin receiving his cup

Mr Richard Pilgrim, Co-Headteacher, commented, 'We are very pleased to support all our colleagues who may wish to develop their skills and passion for their subject.  David is an outstanding teacher who fully deserves this opportunity.'

Becca is one of 8,000 inspirational people who will carry the Olympic Flame as it journeys across the UK. Nominated by someone they know, it will be their moment to shine, inspiring millions of people watching in their community, in the UK and worldwide.

GB Hockey, European and International hockey players, Kate Walsh (GB Captain) and Helen Richardson visited Charters coaching the Year 7 girls on their hockey skills and tactics as well as attending a school hockey tournament.

Kate and Helen were excellent with the pupils; they answered question after question and signed everything going. The pupils obviously felt comfortable in their presence as they did not have a moment’s peace! Hopefully their visit will encourage the girls to keep playing and to be the best they can.

Kate Walsh, GB and England Captain said, “I hope the girls keep playing. I started when I was 11 years old and 9 years later I attended my first Olympic Games. It can happen! They just need to keep playing, believing in themselves and always be the best they can be. Maybe I will be watching one of them on the TV in a few years’ time!”

Year 11 students Molly Robson and Megan Charles both participated in the ICC British Open National Cheerleading Competition held in Nottingham at the Capital FM Arena last weekend.

Their team, Legacy Allstars, were highly successful and achieved 4th and 2nd places in the Junior and Youth categories respectively. Congratulations to both girls.

Local charity, The Ascot Fire Brigade Trust, have generously donated sports bursary awards of £1,000 each to five of Charters top sporting students in order to allow them to develop their sports to the next level. The students receiving awards were:

Sam Marchant, Year 11, Hockey - UK Ranked Top 180

Georgia Edwards, Year 12, Rowing - National and International

Paige Brazier, Year 12, Judo – Black Belt – No 1 at weight – National and International

Holly Baldwin, Year 12, Rowing – National and International

Alessandra French, Year 12, Rowing – National and International

Grateful thanks to Councillor David Hilton, Chairman of the charity, who attended a short presentation ceremony at the school on Wednesday. We wish all five students every success in the future in their chosen sports.

 During Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd March nearly 500 Charters Students took part in the Sport Relief mile dressed in red and sport relief clothing. Some raced around the course with the fastest recorded time being 5 mins and 57 seconds by Tom Barker while others skipped and walked, enjoying the sunny weather. Year 7 were also involved in skipping challenges while year 8 took part in a football and netball tournament. The students have spent time in tutor looking at video clips about where the sport relief money goes, so were fully aware of how important their fund raising efforts were.

Mrs Thomson, PE teacher said, 'there was a great buzz on the field - it was amazing to see nearly 500 students all taking part in various sport relief challenges all at the same time.'

 A huge 'thank you' goes to The Children with Special Needs Foundation who with the Rotary Club of Ascot have have kindly donated £4,285 from the proceeds of their Golf Day to purchase a Laptop and specialist equipment inlcuding a zoom reader to modify books quickly for visually impaired pupils.

Other areas of the school that will benefit include Science with a digital temperature probe, specialist timers, measuring cylinders and balances. In Food Technology a talking measuring jug, electronic timer and specialist chopping boards will be acquired and in Textiles Technology, specialist tape measures and rulers. All of these items will greatly aid the pupils who have additional needs. Furthermore, a punch bag has been purchased to use in stress management.

The Children with Special Needs Foundation and Rotary Club of Ascot have been a part of the wider Charters Community for many years and we value their continued support for our pupils.

Congratulations to design competition winner Sebastian Syrjanen (Year 8) who created the winning entry for the Berkshire School Games logo.  Sebastian used the Berkshire stag as his inspiration and drew it in colour by hand, this was then interpreted digitally to create the final version.  The competition attracted over 2,000 entries from pupils throughout the county.  Sebastian's prizes included a framed digitised version of his design, three tickets to the Paralympic Games and an Olympic goodie bag.

Seven nervous but clearly competent students participated in the Royal Borough Trampolining Competition this month. For many of them it was their first competition but they competed with great determination in a nerve wracking situation.  Each student had to complete a compulsory ten bounce routine followed by a free form ten bounce routine.  The Year 7 and Year 8 teams won their competitions and will now represent the Royal Borough in the Berkshire Games to be held in June.  Particular congratulations go to individual winners Oliver Purvis (Year 7), Claire Fitzpatrick (Year 8) and Jenny Stocker (Year 10). 

PE Teacher Mrs Thomson said, 'the students were clearly very anxious particularly as it was their first competition but they performed with amazing composure to achieve such great results'.

When award winning author Barry Hutchison visited Charters School, Year 7 pupils were entranced as he read an excerpt from his latest book 'The 13th Horseman'.  Described as 'a brilliant fantasy story that just happens to be very, very funny', this first book in the AFTERWORLDS sequence introduces us to Drake who has just met the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Written in the style of  Pratchett meets Python this dark comic fantasy has plenty of action and was greeted enthusiastically by Year 7 pupils who queued for signed copies of the book.

This book reading was part of a series organised by the school to support and encourage pupils' reading. 

Charters staff dressed up as characters from their favourite books to celebrate World Book Day, a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and, most importantly, a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries worldwide.

This is the 15th year of World Book Day, and each year on 1 March Charters will join children and schools all over the world to celebrate reading. The main aim of World Book Day is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading. Every year 7 pupil was given a £1 book token and all pupils will enjoy seeing their teachers dressed up as a favourite character from a book in school on World Book Day.

Characters or books staff chose to represent included Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Serafina from The Golden Compass, Scout from To Kill a Mocking Bird, Attention All Shipping, Miss Moneypenny from James Bond, Swallows and Amazons, William Shakespeare, Tom Sawyer and Mrs Darling from Peter Pan.

Follow-up events to encourage reading will include the KS3 charity Readathon and a visit by the author, Barry Hutchison, to Year 7 on Wednesday 7 March. Year 8 greatly enjoyed a visit from bestselling children’s author Sophie McKenzie in February.

All children in KS3 at Charters have a dedicated reading lesson once a fortnight timetabled in the library. The Reading lesson is an integral part of the English programme and aims to build the foundations for a life-long love of reading, by supporting and developing the pupil’s independent interest and literacy skills, making reading accessible and engaging for all. There is also a weekly KS3 reading club which runs at second break on Fridays.

English teacher Mrs Bone said, “If I could name one activity that would improve a child’s overall attainment in English, it would be reading regularly. And what could encourage a child to read more than seeing a parent reading or reading together?”

Year 10 student Martha Collison successfully cooked her way through to the Berkshire finals of the International Rotary Club Young Chef of the Year competition with her tasty three course menu for two!  Our congratulations go to Martha who had to prepare a menu which demonstrated health eating on a budget of £15 and managed to create a delightful meal of

Goat's cheese and red onion tart with rocket salad and balsamic dressing

Chicken roulard with butternut squash risotto served with green beans and parmesan crisp

Wholemeal dark chocolate fondants with raspberry coulis

Apprentice mechanical engineer James Buick (Charters Sixth Form 2007-2009) decided he wanted to follow the ‘earn while you learn’ route to achieve his goal of becoming a mechanical engineer. He applied for several opportunities via www.apprenticeship.org.uk and sufficiently impressed the people at The Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright, Surrey to be offered one of their highly sought after apprenticeships.

James spent four days a week as an apprentice engineer working on planned and reactive plant maintenance for the institute’s high containment systems making sure that viruses such as foot and mouth remain safely under control. He then studied for one day a week at college working towards his apprenticeship qualification. Since completing his apprenticeship he has enrolled on a foundation degree at Farnborough Tech, which is accredited by the University of Surrey. Once this has been achieved he has the option to study for an honours degree. And all funded by his employers! His course fees are paid for him, his expenses are paid and he started on a salary of £13k. How good is that! And much cheaper than funding higher education yourself!

So what are the downsides? James says that socially it was a dramatic change as everyone had left for university, but he soon adapted and now often visits friends up and down the country as well as having new friends from college. Also starting work and being thrown into an adult working environment was a bit daunting, but you soon realise most of them are young at heart.

The Earn while you Learn route is becoming increasingly popular but be aware places can be extremely competitive. More so in some instances than winning a university place. And it’s not hard to see why when you read of James’ experience. If you would like to find out more about apprenticeships please click here

Mr Wragg, Head of Science and Ski Leader said, “the whole experience was fantastic and I was impressed by the students' positive attitude to all they did. The days were spent skiing and snowboarding on three mountains and the evenings sampling the American culture. We had the privilege of being invited to a local High School basketball match, at which our students met and talked to students from an American High School. Other activities included bowling, watching an ice hockey match and visiting the cinema. The highlight for some students was shopping at one of the big outlet malls!! At all times, Charters pupils represented themselves well and were an asset to the school and community. I was very proud to travel with them and thank all who were involved in the organising and the running of the trip. Bring on 2013!!

Vet Student Kat Buick (Charters School 2006-2008) said that being on ITV’s Safari Vet School was ‘the best thing I’ve done in my life’.  However, she didn’t know she was going to be on TV when she applied for a Summer holiday course advertised at Uni called  ‘Vets go Wild’.  The course was presented as two week’s hands on experience working in South Africa and along with many of her friends Kat applied for a place.  It was only later into the assessment process that she received a phone call from ITV and was asked if she would be interviewed on camera.  One thing led to another and in June 2011, Kat was one of 32 students from Vet schools in the UK to be selected to participate in this exciting opportunity.

Safari Vet School, based at the Amakhala Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, sees the students train at one of the toughest vet schools in the world. Guided by TV vet Steve Leonard and Amakhala chief vet Dr Will Fowlds they learn valuable wildlife skills and tackle everything from lions and rhinos, to giraffes and elephants.  The programme shows the students face fear, danger and drama, and being challenged beyond anything they have experienced before.

The 12 episode programme is broadcast on ITV1 on Fridays 8.00 – 8.30pm and can also be seen on ITV player or by clicking the link below.

Kat is now in the fourth year of her five year course and is living in a farm cottage with her Vet friends near Bristol University.  The course has been demanding but manageable and her time in South Africa has inspired her even more in her chosen career.  Kat says, ‘I definitely want to go back, it’s something for me to aim towards’.

Click here to view Safari Vet School

Famous, the first official single from Jack's debut album is set for release on 13 February 2012. An acoustic blend of distinctive vocals and folk guitar melodies, the track showcases Jack's creativity. 

A brand new music video has been created by fellow ex-Charters student Charlie Reader (2001-2008) to accompany the single. 

The album is due for release in Spring 2012 but you can listen to Famous and watch the video now by clicking on the image.

The evening starts at 7.30pm prompt, although you are welcome to turn up from 7pm onwards.

Either come as a team (maximum of 10), or individuals, then you will be put in a team on the night.

Click here for more information and an application form for tickets (£4 each )

The students all had a brilliant time watching the world's leading gymnasts  and we would like to thank the parent whose kind donation of corporate tickets enabled the children to attend this exciting event.

Jasmin Pearson Year 9 said 'It was a privilege to be there and great to see how amazing you have to be to get into the Olympics'.

'Our favourite male gymnast was Dong Dong, because of his amazing name! All the competitors had to do the same routine but could add a couple of tricks at the end in the first round.

The ladies competition was much slower and more graceful than the men's but they were still doing double and triple somersaults as part of their ten bounce routine.  In the final, for the first time, we saw what can go wrong when two of the competitors made mistakes.  Even the Olympic and World Champion fell off!  Luckily the spotters caught her and she was OK. 

We really enjoyed having the chance to wave the Union Jack and cheer on the British gymnast: Katherine Driscoll, who made it into the final four. Hip, Hip, Hooray!'

These ten Year 12 pupils will be volunteers for the athletics events and will be based in the Olympic stadium and at the Mall (for marathons and race walks). The students may be located on the field of play or behind the scenes within the athlete areas, getting up close and personal with some of the world's top athletes.

The pupils were some of the many who formally applied to the PE department and won through against strong competition to be part of the select team of 10 we were allowed to put forward to the Games organisers. At an interview at London 2012's head office in Canary Wharf pupils underwent two activities testing discipline, maturity, enthusiasm and their ability to work as a team, in addition the team leaders (Mrs Hartwell and Miss Hilderley) were interviewed before the team was accepted for training as Young Games Makers. Soon the pupils will receive their official uniforms and take part in a test event on the 8th May.

Joe Matchan who is one of the Young Games Makers representing Charters school commented "this is a brilliant opportunity and I'm really enjoying being part of it. I can't wait for the Paralympics now!"

We think there are many more children who could be eligible for Free School Meals.

We would like to help families whose children may be entitled to get free school meals to apply for them.

At Charters with our SmartCard system of paying for meals, every SmartCard looks the same, so students entitled to free school meals are not identifiable in any way to other students. 

Click here to find out whether you are entitled to free school meals which are worth £2 a day, and may also allow you to claim financial assistance for trips or activities.