1. Parents’ meeting:
Thanks to those who attended last Friday’s meeting.
Of the 77 students who have expressed a firm interest in travelling. 42 have returned deposits. 16 have told me they are to hand it in this week. Of the remaining 19; 2 have told me they can’t come and the other 17 are still undecided. Please inform me if you wish to withdraw.
2. Ontourz itinerary:
I have received a revised itinerary with Los Angeles instead of Malaysia. I have attached a copy. We could swap Los Angeles to the outward journey if we prefer.
They have confirmed that they will guarantee the price at the point that we pay a deposit. The only reason for an increase would be if governments increased airport taxes.
I have spoken to two staff who have been on tour with the company;
Roy Archer at St.Olave’s Grammar school who toured Australia. They have undertaken 3 tours with the company and would recommend them. They only had minor issues. They had stayed in a Youth hostel in Sydney, which although well positioned and close to the harbour was disappointing.
Paul Mullan at Bromsgrove School. He took a multi sports (rugby, hockey and netball) party of 94 students to Hong Kong and Australia last year. He was very complimentary of the service he received. They too had stayed in a youth hostel in Sydney. It was basic, but not a concern. He had previously used Edwin Doran and said they were comparable on quality but significantly cheaper on price.
I asked the company to confirm the quality of accommodation and in view of the concern expressed about the Sydney youth hostel asked them if they could arrange for us to stay in the Menzies hotel which we had stayed in last year and which was excellent. They confirmed.
1. We would always stay in hotels and not hostels.
2. In Sydney we would stay in the Menzies hotel.
3. They couldn’t confirm actual hotels because that depended upon the location of schools that we were playing against. However, these are typical ones that they use;
Melbourne:
Ibis Stiles Victoria.
Kingsgate Hotel
Sydney:
Great Southern Hotel
Yhotel, Hyde Park
Surfers Paradise:
Endersley Garden Resort
Comfort Inn Resort
Brisbane:
Brisbane Holiday Village
Ibis CBD
Mackay:
Clarion Hotel
Los Angeles:
Holiday Inn express-Newport Beach
Hotel Huntington Beach
You can look at the web sites of all of these.
3. World Cup competition
I will accept entries until 11.00am on Thursday 12th June.
4. Fundraising forms
Forms can be collected from staff for fundraising activities as follows:
Sponsored walk: Miss Smitham/Mr Thomas
200 Club: Miss Rushworth
Brochure advert letters: Mr Long
Odd jobs letters: Miss Williams
In store shopping cards (ASDA, Sainsburys, M&S): Mr Mason.
5. Gower Society research articles
I received the following guidance from the Society for those considering writing articles:
Our advice would be research on any aspect of Gower (including the rest of Gower outside the peninsula); while the journal tends towards history, topics on the environment, flora, fauna, education, social studies, geography, geology etc. etc would be welcome.
There must be no plagiarism, and references at the end should indicate where sources have been used or quoted. Appropiate illustrations in the way of photographs, tables, graphs etc would be helpful (again, make sure copyright is secured – we can probably help with this).
The maximum length would be about 3,500 words, but shorter pieces (1000 to 2000 words) might be a better target – and even 500 good words would be acceptable!
From the initial paper to the final version is often (even with regular contributors) a matter of two or three drafts/edits – we’re happy to give any advice/help as the article progresses.
The end of June is our deadline – and usually we have more than we can fit in, so the sooner the better. With the schools, we will often be working one year ahead (i.e an article done over the summer would appear in the November of the following year). If it is any help for CVs, we could confirm that an article had been accepted, even if it hadn’t yet been published.
