Newsletter February 2016

February 2016

Drop Day 2016 All students enjoyed a day off from their usual timetable this week and got involved in a range of activities. These included studying Brazil and the upcoming Olympics, programming Raspberry Pi’s, experiments in the Science labs involving elephant toothpaste and dry ice machines and a range of sports, arts, PSHE, maths and English activities. A great day was had by all!

Year 10 Rio 2016 Mascot Designs

KS3 Gymsmart Programme A group of KS3 students have been attending a 12 weeks Gymsmart programme, run in conjunction with Harbour Healthclub. The students have been working on developing their self confidence, self discipline, social skills, and teamwork, the students have learnt about components of fitness, healthy lifestyles and training programmes. The course came to an end with a presentation afternoon, that was well attended by Rye College Staff and parents.

The students demonstrated circuit training, and boxing fitness, as well as presenting their own group project work.

All students received participation certificates, and there were also some special awards. Well done to all students!

Southern Schools Book Awards 2016 In January, seven Rye College students along with Ms Wark attended the Southern Schools Book Awards in Roedean. There were more students than ever before at this years award ceremony. The shortlisted authors were introduced by last years winner Sophie McKenzie. They each read an excerpt from their books and talked about how delighted they were at the amazing turn out of schools and how important it is to read and to encourage others to read too. During the presentation Chris Riddell (author and illustrator) was doing illustrations which everyone could see on t h e b i g scr e e n . Aft er t he presentation the students were given book tokens and met the authors who signed copies of their books for them. At the book siging Chris Riddell was also doing free caricatures of the students. It was a fantastic day and it was a great experience for the students who went: Archie Thompson, Sophie Couves, Suzie Wimble, Noah Nelson-Smith, Jessica Sasse, Freya Vicarey and Poppy Williams. A huge thank you also goes to Billie who kindly drove the minibus for us.

- Ms K. Wark - LRC Manager

Like us on Facebook There are loads of photos, events & messages on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/ryecollegeuk

Volunteer of the Year We are very proud of our wonderful Receptionist, Jo Davis, who won a prestigious award last month - ‘Volunteer of the Year 2015’ - from Port Lympne Zoo for all of the voluntary support she so generously gives to the team and primates at the zoo.

Well done Jo!

Big Vote 2015 Rye College are delighted to have been awarded a Bronze Democracy Award for our participation in the Big Vote 2015. we are very proud of Damian Cosgrove (Year 10) who was elected to East Sussex Youth Cabinet. Damien looks forward to attending a celebration event at the Houses of Parliament in March.

Boys Dance Company Rye College Boys Dance Company performed at The White Rock Theatre as part of the Hastings Schools Partnership’s Time To Dance event on Wednesday 10th February. They performed their version of “Car Man” based on the work by Matthew Bourne. Their performance was outstanding. The boys continue to be great ambassadors for Rye College and an inspiration for other boys to get involved in dance.

Rye College to Grow Seeds from Space!

Students at Rye College are preparing to become space biologists and embark on a voyage of discovery by growing seeds that have been into space. In September, 2kg of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz 44S where they will spend several months in microgravity before returning to Earth in March 2016. The seeds have been sent as part of Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency. Rye College will be one of up to 10,000 schools to receive a packet of 100 seeds from space, which they will grow alongside seeds that haven’t been to space and measure the differences over seven weeks. The students won’t know which seed packet contains which seeds until all results have been collected by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and analysed by professional biostatisticians. The out -of-this-world, nationwide science experiment will enable the students to think more about how we could preserve human life on another planet in the future, what astronauts need to survive long-term missions in space and the difficulties surrounding growing fresh food in challenging climates. Mr Franks, Head of Faculty at Rye College says: “We are very excited to be taking part in Rocket Science. This experiment is a fantastic way of teaching our students to think more scientifically and share their findings with the whole school”. Rocket Science is just one educational project from a programme developed by the UK Space Agency to celebrate British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the ISS and inspire young people to look into careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, including horticulture. Follow the project on Twitter: @RHSSchools #RocketScience

Follow us on Twitter Stay up to date with all things Rye College by Following us on Twitter @ryecollegeuk

New Reward System Years 7, 8 & 9 - Merits Merits can be awarded by any member of staff for positive events, attitude or work. There are 5 different levels of achievement for students to attain: Level 1: Tutor - 30 merits - rewarded with a certificate and gift.

Level 2: Head of Year - 60 merits rewarded with certificate and bigger gift.

Level 3: Assistant Principal - 90 merits rewarded with certificate and biggest gift.

Level 4: Deputy Principal - 120 merits rewarded with certificate and voucher.

Level 5: Principal - 150 merits rewarded with certificate and bigger voucher.

Additionally at Christmas, Easter and Summer the student in each Tutor Group with the most merits will be taken on a Rewards Trip (e.g. bowling) free of charge.

Years 10 & 11 - Accolades Students receive an Accolade Card for good behaviour, effort and conduct around the college. These accolades are tallied over the term and are entered in an end of term prize draw.

U13 Girls Football Success Following a very successful Girl’s Football Club and lunchtimes, Rye College were able to send a Year 7/8 team to the U13 cup tournament at Brighton and Hove Albion’s training centre for sporting excellence in Worthing.

Despite never playing together before and a limited amount of training sessions, the girls found their feet quickly and played unbelievably well together. Out of the six matched they had, they drew four, lost one and won one. This meant they came 4th overall and had they won one more game they would have gone through to the final where the winners went on to play at Wembley! Throughout the whole tournament the girls conducted themselves excellently, shaking hands with the opponents after matches, thanking the referee and congratulating the other team on good play. They were an absolute credit to the school and really did us proud.

- Miss R. Newman - PE Department

Visit our Website Visit our website for everything you need to know about Rye College www.ryecollege.co.uk

Hastings & Rother League Netball Over the winter term we had a fantastic turnout at Netball Club with more than 30 pupils training on a regular basis. This was fantastic to see and we were able to enter a team into the league from Years 7,8,9 and 11. The teams had varying levels of success but a special mention must go to the Year 9 team as every single player attended all training sessions and as a result the girls finished the term playing together amazingly well.

Another mention must go to the Year 7 team who won their league and were unbeaten, scoring 9 goals in total and only conceding 1! The league is over for this year but after February half term Netball Club will resume in order to get training for the Sainsbury’s School Games tournaments where we hope to have even more success! Well done to all those involved!

- Miss R. Newman - PE Department