Any students, parents or friends of the College are invited to leave messages of condolence for Her Majesty. The online Book of Condolence will remain open to all members and friends of the College until Friday 16 September. All messages will then be printed, bound and sent to the Palace.

This week, we have spent considerable time looking back at Her Majesty the Queen's incredible life and reign. Please find below a link to the whole school Queen's memorial assembly which took place on Monday. 

The Queen's Memorial Assembly

Headteacher's Address

A beautiful poem written by Old Victorian, former teacher, long time friend and supporter of the College - Pip Le Brocq:

The death and life of our Queen

She lies at rest surrounded by her Realm

Who silently move past her Catafalque;

She’s been a steady pilot at the helm

To guide the State and always be the caulk

To fill the fractured timbers of her life,

But sail out safely, and once landed, fast,

To be a beacon bright in times of strife 

To guide her subjects to the very last.

 She’ll be revered, remembered with respect

For all her gracious actions and her smile

Which lit up every movement  and aspect

Of her life - a beamingly shining dial!

May she rest in Peace and Gloriously rise -

 A shining Star to lighten all our eyes.

Philip Le Brocq 

September 15th. 2022

Please sign the Home College Agreement as outlined in Dr Hughes' start of term letter by clicking here.

The last week in September is always marked by the celebration of Founders’ Week when we remember the founding of the College and also raise money for the Victoria College Foundation. There are a number of events taking place throughout the week, culminating in our Founders’ Day Assembly and Founders’ Walk.

• Monday: Knight’s Shield House Relay Race
• Tuesday: Inter-House Tug of War
• Wednesday: Dress down day in House Colours (£2 contribution minimum)
• Thursday: Founders’ Day Assembly, see next week’s Newsletter for live broadcast link, where we will be joined by Guy Dunlop, great-grandson of one of the Dunlop brothers who give their name to one of our Houses
• Friday: Founders’ Day Walk. Please see the attached letter for details, including timings and dismissal

Founders' Walk 2022 Parent Letter

The College is looking forward to welcoming over 300 visitors for Open Evening, and as ever, are hoping to make the evening as enjoyable and as informative as possible, providing the opportunity to meet lots of our finest ambassadors - our students. Boys in Y7 & Y12 will be asked to take tours around the College site, with boys in Y8-11 asked to volunteer in different subject areas by individual Heads of Department. Please see next week’s newsletter for further details.

As part of our ongoing programme of working in partnership with parents, you are all invited to our Safeguarding and Wellbeing Seminar. The evening will be a chance to discuss the major risks to safeguarding and wellbeing in our students, some of the ways we are seeking to address them within College, and how as the adults in the conversation we can work together. There will also be the chance to ask questions anonymously and break out into smaller year group clusters. Please register your interest here.

Please refer to our new Calendar and Sports Website, detailing all events, fixtures and team selection that are taking place at the College. This calendar can be synced to your own and filtered for ease.

The Sports website details training and fixtures, lists teams and tracks participants. The password for teamsheets on the website is "Langford".

Please find linked here a letter about the Victoria College Co-curricular Award and Citizenship Awards 2022. 

The Co-Curricular Award was set up so that we can celebrate our students’ outstanding efforts in a wide range of areas, both in school and outside of school, under four headings: Sport, physical, arts and academic. Students can also score points in three additional categories: Leadership and service, social responsibility and charity work, and a personal challenge.

Students are invited to fill in an application form accessible via the link above.

Forms should be returned by email to Mr Akers (k.akers@vcj.sch.je) by Friday 23 September.

In the meantime, please follow this link to hear more about the awards from Head of Co-curricular Activities - Kieran Akers – https://youtu.be/l6c7MwSeARo

Next week we have ensemble rehearsals working again, with the main school choir on Tuesday lunchtimes, Big Band after school on a Tuesday, Strings on Wednesdays and the Rock School and Voces Victoria on Thursdays.

We’re excited to announce that next week Elevate Education will be hosting its first free webinar of the year for parents. 

Elevate Education works with our students, delivering high impact workshops on study skills, motivation, wellbeing, and exam preparation. By tuning into their webinar series you will learn how you can help better support your children at home through reinforcing the skills they learn at school: Tuesday 20th September - How to Help Get (& Keep) Your Child Motivated 

Click here to register for free

• Here’s what Elevate will be covering on the night: 
• What impact does praise and reassurance have on your child’s motivation? 
• What are the best type of goals to be setting with your child?  
• How can you help your child create meaningful and lasting motivation? 

This week all the boys were introduced to our Orchestral Challenge. Please see attached a letter providing further details.

Y7 Orchestral Challenge letter

The Health and Community Services (HCS) Department are offering your child protection against flu.

Nurses will be visiting school to administer the nasal flu vaccine on Tuesday 11 October. You will shortly receive an envelope containing, a parental letter, a consent form and an information sheet. Please complete the consent form and return it to school before the date nurses will be in to vaccinate. This will save us having to contact you.

There is a video on the Government of Jersey website: gov.je/flu showing how the nasal flu vaccine is given.

The HCS department have asked us to share the following information with parents:

This protection is being offered because flu can be a very unpleasant illness for children, with potentially serious complications such as bronchitis and pneumonia, and may require hospitalisation. In children, the symptoms of flu are more severe and prolonged than in adults. We know that children are the super-spreaders of flu during the winter, so by vaccinating your child, and thereby helping prevent them from catching flu, you will also help prevent them from passing flu onto vulnerable friends and family, such as grandparents.

• Children are 2 to 3 times more likely to catch flu than adults
• Children under 5 are more likely to be admitted to hospital with flu than any other age group
• When children get flu, their symptoms are more severe, last longer and can lead to complications
• The nasal vaccine is painless and easy to have

• The flu vaccine given up a child's nose is 0.1ml (around 1/50th of a teaspoon of fluid) given into each nostril. The fluid is quickly absorbed into a child's nose
• The nasal flu vaccine cannot give your child flu
• The nasal flu vaccine can only work in the temperature of the nose and cannot work in the air. The vaccine does not create an external mist. Others in the room who are unvaccinated are not at risk when the nasal vaccine is given

It is recommended the nasal flu vaccine is given September / October time to protect children ahead of the winter. The vaccine must be given every year to ensure children have up-to-date protection.

If you have questions, you can contact Immunisation Specialist Lead, on 01534 445790 or email: Nneka Nlewedim-Okafor N.NlewedimOkafor@health.gov.je

Further information is also available at www.gov.je/flu

The weekly ‘Learn to Golf’ sessions with the team at Longueville Driving Range are returning. This activity allows boys to spend a lunch break at the driving range, under the supervision of our own VCJ staff golfers, as well as receiving expert tuition and tips from the Range Pro Aaron. The activity will run every Tuesday lunchtime from 20^th September until the end of this term. Please note your son does not need his own clubs for this activity, but if he has a set he wishes to bring he is welcome to. 

The cost of this activity is £165 for the 12 sessions. If you would like to register your son for this activity, please can we ask you to complete the form linked here: https://forms.office.com/r/xHZ4GZTHqA 

Please could we ask for all responses to be completed by the 15^th September to allow for processing. If the activity is oversubscribed, we will use a “name from the hat” system to select the students. 

Please refer any queries to Mr Akers on: k.akers@vcj.sch.je

At short notice we have been able to book the camping area by the Scout hut in St Ouen for the October expedition. Therefore, the dates have changed to Thursday, 13^th and Friday, 14^th October.

Drop off and pick up will still be at Victoria College. Full and updated details will be sent out shortly.

We are aware that this will impact their new GCSE courses; boys will be expected to catch up on any missed work.

If you have any queries, please email Mrs Blackmore on: m.blackmore@vcj.sch.je.

Parents of boys in Y11 are invited to our online Parent Information Evening next Thursday. Parents will have the chance to hear from several key staff about some important aspects of life in Y11, as well as hear from Dr Hughes talk about his priorities for the years ahead. The link to this online presentation is here.

Please find attached the slides from this week's Year 12 Parent Information Evening, along with an accompanying letter and copies of the subject change request form and the absence request form.

Should you have any queries relating to the presentation or Sixth Form matters in general, please do not hesitate to contact Alan Falle (a.falle@vcj.sch.je).

Year 12 Parent Information Evening Presentation

Year 12 Parent Information Evening letter

Sixth Form Leave of Absence Request Form

A Level Subject Change Request Form

Whilst the College is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the Sixth Form building and certain facilities, the students have been keen to have a direct input into the incidental enhancement of their own area. To this end we are implementing a one-off £10 subscription which will give them a fund for the two years that they are in Sixth Form. Please find out more in the linked letter.

Sixth Form Common Room Subscription

Please find attached the amazing opportunities that are available to our Year 12 & 13 students. Students in Y12 are expected to choose 2 enrichment options by 23 September, unless they are taking Further Maths where they can opt out of this or just take one. For students in Year 13 this is entirely optional but offers some excellent courses to boost their UCAS points.

Enrichment Opportunities 2022-2023

As you may be aware, students are granted the privilege of parking their mopeds/motorbikes on school property alongside Le Brocq and the Drama Studio. Whilst using the school premises for parking their mopeds/motorbikes, we ask that boys adhere to basic expectations including, but not limited to, the below.

• Students are not permitted to use their vehicle to leave school premises during the school day, except for Sixth Form students who are able to leave the school site at lunchtime between 13.05 and 14.00

• Students are not permitted to ride their vehicle inside of the school gates, so to protect other pupils and staff members. This can be ensured by;

  • Dismounting at the gate upon arrival

  • Walking their vehicles to the gate upon departure

  • Only mounting their vehicle once they are at the gate

• Ride safely to and from school, adhering to road traffic laws

Where students fail to meet these basic expectations, we will remove the privilege of being able to park their mopeds/bikes on school property. Continued failure to meet expectations will result in further sanctions.

For safeguarding purposes, we are asking students to provide us with the registration plate of their moped/bike should they wish to park on site. This will enable us to ensure that only Victoria College students are using these parking spaces and will also help to identify students quickly should we need to. Should your son wish to use our on-site parking, please could you email (a.falle@vcj.sch.je) with his name and registration plate number for our records. Should you have any queries relating to this then please do not hesitate to contact Mr Falle.

This is an information evening for Y13 parents about the year ahead. Where possible, students should attend with parents, so to ensure everybody is equally aware of important information, including expectations, UCAS updates and procedural information.

Following two weeks of teaching and data collection at the end of the summer term, the Year 13 Geography pupils should have started to write up their Geography non-examined assessment. This "coursework" is worth 20% of their overall A-Level, and as such it is essential that a significant level of time and energy is dedicated to it. As a department, we are able to offer feedback to the pupils on the sections on their coursework over a series of deadlines. Failure to meet a section deadline will mean that the pupil fails to receive feedback and the chance to improve and re-draft that section of the coursework.

Deadlines

19th September - Geography NEA Independent Fieldwork Day 2

The pupils have already had one day out of school independently collecting data last term and will have another on the 19th of September. Many have already collected data, and those who need more could benefit from collecting data in the coming weekends and using the 19th as a dedicated "write-up day" in school. My colleagues and I will be on hand all day to support pupils in writing up their NEA on the 19th, and by ensuring the pupils have all their data in place by the 18th of September will give them a significant advantage. If I can ask for your support in nudging your sons to ensure they are up to date on their NEA and ideally in a place to allow them to use the 19th as a full "write-up day", I would be hugely grateful.

NEA Stragglers

I will be in contact with you directly if deadlines are missed and if pupils are required, the department will ask that pupils formally attend after-school workshops to ensure completion.