Neston High School In Touch With You

Neston High School | SPRING 2017

...with you

• SMART • CASTLES PROJECT • TRIP TO ANFIELD • VOLCANO CHALLENGE • BOYS HOCKEY • SKI TRIP • STEM CLUB • ROBOTICS CLUB

………Headlines Following validation of the summer 2016 results we are delighted to confirm that Neston remains in the top 5 schools in the county and in the top 25% of schools nationally. The highlights of this term also include a successful Ofsted inspection, gold award for learning outside the classroom, gold award for careers education, information and guidance and oversubscription again for places in our new year 7 for September 2017. We have also witnessed amazing progress on our new building project which is ahead of schedule for its opening in September. In this sense the school goes from strength to strength in achieving its strategic aim of being the first choice school for all families in the local and wider community.

Mr S Dool Headteacher

My congratulations to all our fantastic students and staff this term for the many successes that represents outstanding achievement and value for money in the present climate.

………Departments

ENGLISH

Big School Read ‘Smart’ by Kim Slater.

On Tuesday 6th December, children’s author Kim Slater visited Neston High School in Cheshire as the author of ‘Smart’, the book selected for their Big School Read 2016.

All departments are involved in the Big School Read but the work the English department undertook, in order to come up with a whole term’s worth of studying the novel, was truly impressive. Not only this, all the staff, including the Headteacher Mr Dool and three governors, worked together to produce the school’s own audiobook of ‘Smart’, all reading a chapter or two each.

The day began as 300 Year 7 students filtered into the Stewart Hall.

Hands shot up and eager students made their suggestions in full participation of the discussion. Such wonderful enthusiasm! Kim was able to visit the school’s vibrant and welcoming library, a space very well-used and extremely popular with the students. Miss Pearson had covered the walls with eye-catching and inspiring displays that encouraged the students to read, including a fabulous display for ’Smart’.

In the afternoon, we ran two Creative Writing Workshops for approximately twenty students in each. We focused on a theme of ‘Writing Great Characters’, using examples from both ‘Smart’ and Kim’s second book, ‘A Seven-Letter Word.’

The students were engaged, enthusiastic and keen to share their ideas. There were so many students eager to read out their work, which Kim allowed extra time for and enjoyed every piece.

At the end of the school day, it was back to the Stewart Hall for a signing (and selfie!) session. Although school had purchased copies of ‘Smart’ for use in English lessons, lots of students bought their own copies of ‘Smart’ and also ‘A Seven-Letter Word’ to be signed by the author.

All in all, we had a fabulous day together and Kim was so honoured that ‘Smart’ was the book selected for the school’s Big School Read – she even got to meet Cody, the lovely Year 9 student who initially brought the book to the attention of Miss Pearson – and Kim said “I felt so happy and proud that staff and students alike loved ‘Smart’ so much. Thank you, Neston High School, for making me so welcome.”

Neston receives celebrity recognition!

Back in November, the English Department recognised Madison Yates for her outstanding efforts in English. Madison was awarded the ‘Year 7 Sheil a McCann Challenge Trophy’ for her fantastic work in the Summer Challenge booklet, whic h all Year 7s were encouraged to complete before they started at Neston High School.

We had the pleasure of sending Madison’s fantastic work to the one and only, David Walliams…

Months later, he has kindly replied with a letter and enclo sed signed photographs for Madison and all at Neston High Scho ol.

I am so pleased we were able to celebrate and share Madi son’s work with David Walliams, who she believed should be chos en as Patron Writer for English at Neston High School.

Mr Walliams has politely declined to be our Patron Write r due to other writing and filming commitments! However, his letter does encourage us to keep reading as it’s good for you; so why not try our Reading Resolution Challenge for 2017?

………Departments

SCIENCE

Liverpool University Project The Science Department were approached by Leahurst School of Veterinary Science to take part in a pilot scheme to introduce a new type of computer programming to year 12 and 13 students. The program is called 'R' and is now being widely used by Universities across the UK particularly in the Biological Sciences, Maths and the Physical Sciences.

The course has now been running for 4 weeks and involves a team of scientists from Leahurst coming to the school on Wednesday afternoons to run the sessions for 24 of our students. The feedback from the students has been excellent and many of them are now hoping to include some of the statistical analysis techniques they have learned in their EPQ and relevant coursework. Leahurst are now hoping to extend this course to other schools in the area.

Art and Ap pli ed Des ign Weekend Art Workshop

for GCSE students in Conway

Fifteen Year 10 Fine Art GCSE students created some beautiful pieces of Artwork during a weekend residential at the Conway Centre. Miss Brace arranged the visit as it was a great opportunity for students to work with professional artists. Students created small and large scale work using a variety of media and techniques.

The pace was relentless but the students worked tirelessly, with enthusiasm, talent and good humour from 6.30pm on Friday until the final presentation at 12.30pm on Sunday.

The working day finished at 9:45 on both Friday night and Saturday night, students powered through right to the end.

The artists’ helped our students to produce work which centred around the theme of Greek Mythology and the story of the Minotaur. Everything from 3D sculptures, carefully crafted abstract work, beautiful paintings and mixed media textile work was created over the two day residential. Our students made us very proud, and produced fantastic work which will support their GCSE portfolio.

Students exhibit w at Blue Moon Gal ork lery i n Heswall GCSE and A-Level Art

students work wen t on show at the Blue M oon Gallery for a two week long exhibition. St udents, parents an d staff attended a private view on the evenin g of February 8th. The gallery owner said this year’s work was some of the best and most varied that we had ever produced and exhi bited with her.

Work across the sp ecialisms includin g photography, Fash ion and Textiles, G raphics and Fine Art went on di splay.

Yr 10 Blue Planet Aquarium mural Yr 10 Graphics students are currently producing a large mural for the Blue Planet Aquarium to go on display in their Cold Water fish attraction.

Each student will produce a section of the 2X3 metre mural.

Once complete, students have been given free admission to go and see their work on display as a permanent fixture.

CASTLES PROJECT After having had the first part of the academic year to settle into Neston High School, Year 7 History students were seeking a challenge to put their creative skills to the test. The Year 9 trench project gained lots of attention and many Year 7’s wanted to put the effort into making something equally as impressive. It seemed only logical that given the History department’s current Scheme of Work ‘How Medieval monarchs kept control in England’ that a “make your own castle” project should be the form that this activity took.

1920’s AMERICA

Year 9 history students have been studying twentieth century America. In particular, the students have enjoyed learning about the different experiences of those who migrated to the United States in search of the American Dream’. Many students were able to empathise with the hardships faced by many migrants who didn’t experience the social benefits of the ‘Roaring Twenties’.

As part of their study, students then contrasted these experiences with that of those experienced by many black American citizens. Their end of unit assessment required students to assess how far the poor treatment of black people was the most significant issue faced by 1920’s USA and was modelled on one of the new 9-1 GCSE style assessments. This enabled students to make informed decisions about their GCSE options for next year. Particular credit goes to Freddie Langshaw who demonstrated his appreciation of his acquired subject knowledge by hosting an ‘American Dream’ style tea party. Students had to qualify and pass an ‘entrance exam style test’ to qualify to enjoy the benefits of his baking talents!

HISTORY

Students brought in a huge range of castles, which varied from Motte and Bailey’s, to stone keeps with working drawbridges, with some even in the concentric design as well! Needless to say the effort that went into this Homework project was superb and has really shown that Year 7 students are dedicated to their education at Neston High School.

Notable mentions include Katie Fullerton and Charlotte Millington for their castle cake and Lucas Fitzpatrick for his kiln fired keep that went on top of his Motte and Bailey layout.

………Departments GEOGRAPHY

Trip to Anfield The focus of this half term’s work in geography is the influence of Sport in rebranding an area and focussing on fieldwork skills, a fundamental requirement for our geographers.

Between Wednesday 1st and Friday 3rd March 2017 all our year 8 cohort, 278 students to Liverpool Football Club and the surrounding area.

The first part of the day saw the students build up fieldwork skills and carry out a teacher led tour of the area surrounding LFC looking at the redevelopment of the stadium, carrying out skills such as: litter surveys, traffic surveys and an environmental impact analysis. The students were able to build up a profile of the positive and negative aspects of the stadium redevelopment.

The second part of the fieldwork consisted of a tour of Liverpool Football Club’s museum.

The students reflected upon the history of the club and were able to appreciate how football has changed over the last hundred years.

The third part of the trip and certainly the most positive feedback from the students was the tour around the expanded stadium with a tour around the main stand. The students were treated like VIP’s in the players’ lounge. They got to visit: the team dressing room, the press room, sit in the dugout and visit the legendary Kop. The tour guides commented on the exemplary behaviour of our students and what a credit to the school they were.

Back in school, the hard work will commence during the forthcoming lessons with the students devising their own enquiry questions to investigate the impact of the stadium regeneration on the club and surrounding area.

Humanities visit to USA

The History department in conjunction with the Geography department, have recently launched a very exciting opportunity for 50 students from KS4 and KS5 to visit USA during the Easter break of 2018.

The visit was well received and is oversubscribed with a waiting list. The dual centre visit will allow students to visit and experience historical sites in New York and Washington DC. The History focus will allow students to gain a further understanding of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA and America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The Geography focus will be upon mega cities and population studies. The visit will massively enhance the learning of all students due to content studied at both GCSE and A Level.

Volcano Challenge Year 9 students are currently following the new GCSE specification. They are in the process of studying Natural Hazards. Students were given the challenge during half term to produce their own version of a volcano. The response to this challenge was outstanding. Some students produced independent models whereas others joined together as a team. The variety of materials used was diverse. Students had created volcanoes out of: Plaster of Paris, cardboard, concrete, ceramics, paper mashie. Some students even created cake volcanoes and others created volcanoes from recycled wood found in their garden.

All students had the opportunity to admire their peer’s hard work.

The conclusion to the project permitted everyone to observe an eruption of a student’s volcano during the lesson. The Volcano successfully exploded with little damage to the local environment.

One student said ‘loved this homework it got me and my friends together during the holidays and I learnt so much more about volcanoes, I’m now considering continuing with Geography at GCSE’.

BUSINESS STUDIES E SAFETY This term Mrs Pritchard took a small group of year 10 students to the Coca Cola Real Business Challenge, third regional final in Manchester. This is the nd time we have made it through to this rou team of this national competition. Although the were not successful in winning the £1000 prize, many valuable skills were developed during the day such as problem-solving, public speaking and teamwork. a Cola The students were able to work with Coc d from staff as mentors and the feedback receive ellent. the mentors about our students, was exc

Mrs Pritchard and Mrs Costello along with 5 students attended an e-safety training day at the Cheshire police headquarters in Winsford on Thursday 16th March. This event is designed so that students can be trained and then feedback to their schools, the latest information regarding on-line safety.

We look forward to seeing how the students will disseminate what they know.

………Departments PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Boys Hockey North West Schools Hockey Finals Both the U14 and U18 teams qualified for the North West Schools Hockey Finals this year at Timperley Hockey Club. The U14s were also runners up in the Wirral Final against Calday Grammar. During this tournament, the students represented the school excellently. Despite not reaching the final of the tournament, this achievement of reaching the championships cements Neston High School again as one of the Top 10 schools in the North West at U14 and U18 levels.

Primary Quick-sticks Leaders 10 students from Y9, 10 & 11 have been involved in leading and officiating the annual Primary Quicksticks competitions at Neston South Wirral Hockey Club. The first event was to determine the winner of our Primary Schools cluster (St. Winefrides Primary). The second event was the Regional competition which would determine the representative for the Cheshire Youth Games (St. Winefrides Primary). (students are: Jamie Tomlinson, Joel Hall, Harry Donelan, Harrison Phoenix, Freddie Bush, Jamie Gooden, Paris Phoenix, Megan Goldstraw, Harry Beddard, Callum Lang).

Our students have represented the school and themselves excellently. They have received praise and gratitude for their hard work and attitude during these competitions from a number of schools and also England Hockey governing body. Special acknowledgement and credit goes to Harrison Phoenix 11GSH who was awarded with Cheshire Young Umpire of the Year 2016. He has also umpired all of the school U12, U13 & U14 games. His contribution to the school hockey programme has been massive.

Boys Football The year 7 football squad entered two teams in the Ellesmere Port and Neston 8 a-side football competition. Both squads did extremely well with one team winning the competition and were crowned champions for our local district. The winning team progressed into the North West finals which will take place at Finch Farm which is Everton F.C training ground. A huge well done to all players and to Mr Rodgers who managed both squads.

All our boys’ football teams are entered into the Wirral cup this term and we already have a year7 team into the quarter finals of the cup with the remaining teams still to play.

We wish all players and managers the best of luck this year and hope to celebrate your success at the annual sports presentation evening.

Cheshire Winter Games

d This term Neston High School has been aske ton Nes and Port e to represent the Ellesmer district in the Cheshire Winter Games which is being held across a variety of venues across d Cheshire. All the local High Schools compete ton Nes with term this across a range of sports High School progressing into the finals in the es following competitions. We have representativ in the U15 Boys and U15 girl’s handball competitions and also the U13 girl’s rugby.

This is a fantastic competition and we wish all our students the best in the finals.

Badminton Cheshire Finals Our badminton eXL club on average has over 60 students playing badminton every Friday after school. As a result of the increased participation and students developing their skills on a weekly basis, we were able to send two teams to the Cheshire County Finals which were held at The University of Chester Academy in Northwich. We were able to send a year 9 and year 8 boys’ team to the Cheshire finals as they progressed through to the final by beating local teams in our local level 2 competition. During the finals, both squads competed against some National and County player’s and represented Neston High school extremely well.

Indoor Athletics One of the highlights on the primary sports competitions is the indoor athletics competition where year 5-6 students compete in a range of field and track events. Such is the scale of the event the department relies on the help from a large number of sports leaders from key stage 3 along with the guidance of our School Sport Ambassadors who are Olivia Blair and Saffron Hughes. The event once again was a great success with feedback being positive from students, parents and staff in terms of how well our sports leaders coordinated the event. Overall Childer Thornton won the event which allowed them to progress to the Winter Game finals which was help this term.

Primary School Competitions

Year 5-6 football & netball competitions The PE department has once again wo rked closely with our local primary school cluster and agreed to host various competitio ns during this academic year for our loca l schools.

This year we have hosted the year 5/6 football and netball competitions along with the year 3-4 competitions.

The competitions were once again pla yed a fun and competitive manner with Wil in laston winning the netball competition and football competitions for this year. Willaston will then progress through to the Cheshire fina ls to represent our district in the Winter Gam es.

………Abroad

Ski trip

North America & New York 2017 With 2 years planning in place the school ski trip departed on Friday 17th February with 60 students and 7 members of staff. Upon arrival at Heathrow 15 students had the pleasure of being upgraded on the BA flight to Boston along with Miss Harkness! Snow conditions in both resorts were excellent throughout the week with temperatures in the range of 1c- 8c each day. Very different conditions from our last visit in 2015 were we experienced temperatures around -20c! All students took part in ski school in the morning and afternoon, the level of tuition was excellent and everyone made really good progress throughout the 5 days of skiing. Each evening students enjoyed the opportunity to use the outdoor (heated!) swimming pool along with the shopping mall that was attached to the hotel.

On the 6th day we departed for New York City travelling through 6 different American states. Again, the weather in New York was fantastic! We experienced temperatures as high as 21c! We had a busy day around the city trying to cover the majority of the main attractions. Our visit finished with a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to bring an end to an amazing experience for everyone.

………Exl

STEM Club

Over the past couple of months Monday’s STEM Club has had a very good attendance from year 7 to 9 students, with a regular attendance of 15 students. We decided to take STEM in a different direction where we learn about the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics before we do anything. We completed three activities so far: learning about chemical reactions, electricity and now learning about energy transfers.

Eco action team

The team has grown from strength to strength steadily in the last and current school year. We now have 18-20 members attending each week.

The students work towards the Eco Schools green flag across nine target areas including waste reduction and recycling, biodiversity and energy.

They deliver assemblies to raise environmental awareness. We have also welcomed guest speakers such as a local bee keeper, Bagnall and Morris (waste) and Mr Stockton CWAAC Play Project officer. We hope to be involved with the design of a notice board for Sytchcroft play area Neston.

ROBOTICS CLUB

We were delighted to learn recently that Neston High School had been shortlisted for two categories in the 2016 Educate Awards. On Friday 18 November, over 500 guests gathered for the ceremony, held at the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. During the evening, 21 awards were handed out to schools in Merseyside, Lancashire and Cheshire. A great variety of projects and skills were represented, from entrepreneurial awareness, dazzling stage performances, creative literacy initiatives to inspiring community partnerships. The Eco Action team were runners up in the category Eco project of the year.

Animation club

Our exciting and popular Robotics club was launched

by Mr Wentworth in February 2017. With a group of students from across all key stages he intends to build the robot pictured here. Mr Wentworth is using his own personal 3D printer and has already completed the first hand. The hand is now able to move and gesture, following programming code. The robot will have its own Twitter account with which students can send it instructions.

Work has now commenced on creating the Robot head.

The animation club continues to run every Monday as students finalise their entrees into the 10th annual UK Schools Competition.

With the 31st March deadline rapidly approaching our students are using a variety of animation software to refine their animations using feedback from Miss Birkett.

We hope to attend the finals again at Manchester University in May.

…new build…end of

an Era

New BUILD Neston High School Library Council made a visit to their new library on Friday 31st March after their incredible fundraising efforts. Members meet throughout the year to discuss the library and the profile of reading in school but this meeting was quite special. Since January, members have been discussing their new library in our new school build. Discussions led members to agree to raise funds to begin improving the new library before it had even been built!

The Library Council sprang into action with cake sales, raffles, sponsored swims, sponsored chores at home, bingo nights and competitions. Swiftly, the team raised over £700. Miss Pearson, school librarian, was so impressed with the efforts of the council that a visit to see the new build was arranged with Mr Randerson.

End of an Era Events

8th July 2017 nors - past and present.

10am-2pm - End of an Era event for students, staff, parents and Gover es, capture memories, A chance for final tours of this school, opportunity to look at the archiv buy a brick! and a BBQ. 16th September 2017 the community.

10am-1pm - Open Morning for the new build for parents, students and A chance for everyone to see the new build as it opens.

………Info

Online Payments for Dinner & Trips The number of online payments for school trips and the payment of dinner money has increased dramatically over the past four years and both the school and parents have recognised the benefits of this change. The increase in online payments has greatly reduced the administrative burden on finance staff and busy parents can now pay online for trips or top up dinner money accounts whenever or wherever they are and easily keep a track of all payments due.

Our aim for 2017 is to become a cashless school and collect 100% of all payments through our secure payments portal

www.scopay.com/neston

New Health app

Young people from Cheshire West and Chester have worked together with Cheshire &Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Young Addiction in Halton to produce a new health APP to support those who experience mental health issues.