High Sc n o
de Deac Wa
Easter 2014
azine of ag
ol. The M o h
In the Driving Seat Page 6 Sir Henry’s Revenge Page 13 Political Animals Page 10
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Foreword
Tue 22nd April - School opens. Mon 5th May - Bank Holiday. Thu 8th May - Year 7 Parents’ Evening. Mon 12th May - GCSE Examinations begin. Fri 23rd May - School closes. Mon 2nd June - School opens.
It gives me great pleasure to inform you of two senior leadership appointments: The Academy Directors have appointed Mrs Lynne Fox as Executive Principal to start in September 2014. Mrs Fox has a wealth of experience as an existing Headteacher and is a leader who has the vision to move our school to the next exciting stage of its development. The Governing Body has also confirmed Mrs Bacon’s permanent appointment as the Head of School and I know that her experience here over many years will benefit the whole school community. In addition, I will continue to work in the school as part of the Multi - Academy Trust. We are now well established in our new building which is a magnificent space for us all to work and to enjoy our learning and teaching. As always, the school is a hive of activity and the quality of the experiences that are now on offer for our students are greatly enhanced by the environment in which they take place. All Faculties are exploring the potential of our environment and appreciating how flexible the space can be in enhancing learning.
Our after school activity programme is expanding all the time, thanks to the tremendous physical and technological resources at our disposal. We have hosted national conferences, as well as our GCSE Awards’ Evening and our Opening Ceremony where visitors were astounded by the space and light in the new building, enthusing about how the school is a magnificent place in which to learn. These are very exciting times for our school. We have everything in place now to ensure that we continue to improve and in doing so, offer our students the very best learning opportunities and most importantly enhance their enjoyment and achievement of an excellent education. We, of course, wish all of our Year 11 students the very best of luck with their forthcoming GCSE examinations and have no doubt they will do themselves, their parents and carers and the school proud.
Thur 19th June - Year 9 Careers’ Day. Tue 24th June - GCSE Examinations end. Thu 26th June - New Intake Evening. Mon 30th June - Fri 11th July - Year 10 Work Experience. Mon 30th June - Tue 1st July - New Intake Day. Wed 2nd July - Friday 4th July Citizenship & Enterprise Day. Thur 10th July - Year 11 Prom. Mon 14th July - Foundation Awards. Tue 15th July - Sports Day. Sat 19th July - Gifted and Talented Masterclass. Wed 23rd July - School closes. Thur 21st August - GCSE Results.
Wade Deacon High School Innovation Enterprise Academy Birchfield Road Widnes WA8 7TD Tel: 0151 423 2721 Website: www.wadedeacon.co.uk
Wishing you all a very relaxing Easter holiday. Mrs P A Wright OBE, FRSA. Executive Principal
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Insight. Easter 2014 © Wade Deacon High School. All Rights Reserved
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Celebration at our Formal Opening Following a £25m new building, we formally opened the school this term with a ceremony in front of invited guests, dignitaries and members of our community. Principal Architect, Alex Solk from Sheppard Robson Architects presented Chair of Governors Mr John Woodroofe with a ceremonial key in proceedings that echoed many features of the original Opening Ceremony held way back in September 1931. Guest of Honour and Vice Chair of Governors, Mr Ian Hann addressed the audience, speaking of his pride in a project that had involved the hard work and dedication of so many people resulting in a school that was well equipped for the 21st century with teaching and learning zones unmatched anywhere in the country.
> Our greatest supporters: John Woodroofe & Ian Hann
Guests included representatives from all sectors of education as well as officers from Halton Council, former teachers, members of the community and representatives from the school’s builders, Vinci. During the ceremony, guests were entertained by our accomplished pianists and string ensemble. A buffet reception was courtesy of our wonderful Year 10 Food Technology students. Unveiling a commemorative plaque, Chair of Governors Mr Woodroofe said that the building and its facilities will provide the young people who come through the doors an education of the highest standard. ‘Our young people only get one chance of a good education’, he said, ‘and we are committed to ensuring that at Wade Deacon, our students receive the very best and achieve more than they ever dreamed possible.’
> What better reception could there be for our guests?
Insight. Easter 2014
> Our String Ensemble played beautifully
> Ms Ward with Harry & Jessica
> Our year 10 Food Technology Students did themselves proud
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Arts Worthy of Any Award
> Costumes and stage design are Students’ own work
By Victoria Holland, Chloe Hodges & Hannah Ellery
Readers will know that our school currently holds ArtsMark Gold Status which recognises our commitment to all aspects and facets of the Arts. This status will be reviewed in 2015 but we are already well on our way to future success with our work for Arts Award. This is an award that tracks the learning and progress of pupils more than the final product. The pupils have to learn skills such as painting, acting, dancing and music. They also have to find out about local Arts opportunities and research various artists. For Wade Deacon’s version of the Arts Award, Year 6 pupils from our local Primary Schools have been working extremely hard, whilst being mentored by own students and staff to create a production of Alice in Wonderland for public performance at the end of May. A total of 50 primary pupils work with us each Wednesday between 3:45 and 5pm coached by 30 mentors from Years 8 & 10. The key skills that are being learned are Dance, Drama, Art and Music.
Didn’t Mel do Well!??
By Kaite Rollinson – James, Lucy Heyes, Rhiannon Ratcliffe & Molly Wright
Our year 9 English students are currently reading the novel ‘Junk’, a story that gives our pupils an insight into the real world and how to react safely in certain situations. The author, Melvin Burgess, came into school and delivered a series of workshops to the students about the origins of the novel and shared tips to our keen writers within the year group. Throughout the day, Melvin worked closely with groups of pupils leading activities such as writing in the real world, how to structure a story and the importance of a plot. Each session focused on a different topic and every student left the sessions with extended knowledge about writing. 04
Sets and costumes are being designed completely from scratch by Art & Design with Mrs Manriquez overseeing the project and Mr Lewis coordinating the music composition. Dance and Drama is being led by our own students. Mr Mulcahy, our Music Coordinator, who is managing the project told Insight: ‘Seeing this project develop each week is tremendous and shows the creativity and imagination of everyone involved. The fact that students have ownership over their work means so much to them and I am sure that all of the hard work will be worth it when everything comes together on our opening night.’
Year 9 student, Beth Lindop certainly enjoyed the event telling Insight: ‘I thought Melvin’s talk was very encouraging and it has motivated me to begin writing my own stories and to never give up on my dreams.’ Miss Hanlon, who organised the event said: ‘It was great to see Melvin’s passion for writing and I have no doubt that this will inspire our students.’
> Our Insight Team got to meet and interview Melvin Burgess
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Maths Guilty of Murder Most Foul Students flocked to our Maths Faculty’s latest Skills’ event with Murder Mystery as the central theme. 64 students from Years 7, 8 & 9 worked in groups of 4 to grapple through a series of mathematical clues in order to find out who the murderer was from a motley crew of teachers. Each clue helped students either to eliminate suspects from their enquiries or allow them to continue their mathematical investigation. Bets were already being taken before the session started about who the murderer may be with Mr Turner topping the chart! But it was Mr Critchley all along….so obvious really!! Special congratulations to Rachel Hardman, Hannah Moss, Beth Lindop and Ben Harding for The Best Teamwork Award and Alex Curlett, Callum Hewitt, Juilet Quinn and Emily Sharples for Exceptional Attitude to Learning.
> Maths with a Murder Twist: our students loved it
Mrs Wright speaking about the benefits of Wade Deacon’s partnership with Everton Football Club to the Premier League earlier this month.
Mr Higham, Foundation Leader of Maths offered no apologies for the gruesome theme telling Insight: ‘We are always looking for imaginative ways to make maths fun and engaging for our students. By doing so, key skills are reinforced with our students also having a great time in the process.’
> Mr Boswell after a hard day’s teaching at Wade Deacon
Insight. Easter 2014
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Students are no Back – Seat Drivers Students at Wade Deacon know that ‘Every Lesson Counts’ and this was certainly reinforced during our third Foundation Stage Driver of the year.
> In the Driving seat: students have found the Foundation Drivers to be relevant and Fun
The Year 7 & 8 Drivers are themes that run for two week periods throughout the year across all subjects and are primarily designed to bring subjects closer together and embed deeper learning. During each Driver, different examination skills are applied to each subject, based on a theme, in order for students to make connections and links across the curriculum. For ‘Every Second Counts’, the focus was on numeracy and how Maths could be integrated across all subjects. As a result, Art students painted using The Golden Ratio, derived from the Fibonacci Sequence, whilst in Geography, class based tasks focused on the facts and figures of the recent floods in the UK. In English, students focussed on the crucial element of timing of examination papers, calculating how many marks should be devoted to each question and apportioning time accordingly. And so on! The Foundation Driver Initiative began in September with Modern Foreign Languages asking faculties to focus on basic French greetings of ‘Oui, Monsieur’ and ‘Oui, Madame’ as well as certain command terminology. The ‘Describe and Explain’ Driver in November enabled students to explore these vital GCSE examination paper terms which are used across all subjects, meaning that they will be able to manage these tricky terms with confidence in the future. The remaining Drivers are equally as exciting with Science, Technology and ICT combining to ‘analyse and evaluate’, as well as Geography and PE who will be delving into ‘comparing and contrasting’ through analysis of Global Sports as the FIFA World Cup kicks off in June. The final Driver of the year is the History Driver that will commemorate the centenary of the beginning of World War 1 and will drive the skills of ‘reflection and inference.’ Mr Woan who leads this initiative told Insight: ‘Our students’ response to the Drivers has been excellent as it has demonstrated how knowledge, understanding and skills can be transferred between subjects. The whole purpose of the Foundation Stage is to develop pupils in preparation for Key Stage 4 and GCSE examinations and the Drivers play a big part in making this a successful part of every pupil’s development.’
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Our Students prove Year 10 Business Studies students qualified this term for the regional finals of the ‘Real Business Challenge’ launched by Coca Cola - an event that was held at The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. The remit of the competition was for teams of students to create a new juice drink brand for Coca Cola, creating a name, brand, logo, advertising slogan and a business plan. Our students took this a step further by conducting market research to gather opinions on the taste of their new healthy ‘Forever Fizzy’ brand. This allowed them to perfect their product and to get some real life experience of how to bring a successful product to the market. The finals’ stage gave our team the opportunity to work alongside Business Mentors from Coca Cola Enterprises to develop a new campaign for ‘Street Games’ a ManchesWade Deacon High School
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Alan Sugar Calling
By Neve Carter, Emily Brookes & Chloe Hodges
The Young Apprentice beckons for students across all years, as we begin our campaign to make the London Finals of the UK’s Youth Enterprise Challenge. With the criteria at school being at least ‘Good Attitude to Learning’ demonstrated over a specified period, 100 students from each Year Group will get the opportunity to take part in an Enterprise Challenge event at Wade Deacon from which a team of 12 will be selected to represent our school at The National Enterprise Finals’ Day to be held in London in July. Here, students will be mentored by no other than Theo Paphitis from Dragons’ Den. The winning team in London will have their product design marketed nationally with all the commercial success that comes with it!
Miss Harper who is leading the project sees this as a way to drive the school’s core values telling Insight: ‘We wanted a way to recognise those students who, day in; day out, do exactly what is expected of them. Having a cohort of students in the challenge who have such positive attitudes to their learning should give us a great head start in the finals in July. We wish all of our students well.’
Our students will be judged initially on their ability to work in teams at school to design a pencil case (Years 7, 8 ) with Years 9, 10 & 11 designing a flip flop for The Ghandi’s Flip Flop Brand. From here, our Business Team with representatives from across all years will be selected for London. The initiative is being driven by The Business Enterprise Challenge and was launched at school by the winner of Young Apprentice 2012 Ashleigh Porter – Exley.
> Young Apprentice winner Ashlergh Porter - Exley is fronting The Youth Enterprise Challenge
they’re The Real Thing
By Emily Brookes, Chloe Hodges & Neve Carter
ter based charity that provides sporting opportunities for disadvantaged children. Although we didn’t win the Enterprise title, our team were still ‘highly commended’ for their innovative ideas and ability to work together as a team.
Miss O’Neill, who has coordinated our entry into the competition, was delighted with our school’s performance saying that this ‘was a fantastic achievement for everyone involved. Our students have worked together to develop a unique product and have used their business knowledge to calculate the cost of bringing this product to market.’ Danielle Mercer from our Year 10 told Insight: ‘Working alongside executives from Coca Cola was great fun. I realise now that business is not all about men in grey suits, but that it is more often to do with fresh ideas and, above all, creativity - which often makes the difference between a product succeeding or failing.’ Insight. Easter 2014
> Our year 10 Business students excelled themselves at The Real Business Challenge
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Saturday Superstars!! O
ur Gifted & Talented Masterclasses go from strength to strength with a captivating and engaging programme organised for our students in February. Maths and Science workshops were held at The Catalyst Museum and allowed students to apply their skills to practical projects such as designing and creating wind turbines which fused both subjects together perfectly. Science continued back at Birchfield Road with a Harry Potter theme. Pupils from Farnworth primary school enjoyed a fun filled morning conducting different types of wacky experiments involving fire writing, water bending and turning base metals into Gold!! The focus for our friends from Cronton primary school was computer science and enterprise, whilst for Lunts Heath, African drumming had the school bouncing with different rhythms and beats! The morning also allowed our most talented debaters to prepare for forthcoming competitions in Debate Mate’s Urban Debate League as well as for our budding thespians to make preparations for our production of ‘Stone Cold’ in the summer term. In the History Zone, students created podcasts learning how these can be an effective revision tool. Elsewhere, the school was abuzz with Wire Wax Worx workshops in The Art Zone and looking at different techniques and types of pastry making in Food Technology (next stop The Great British Bake Off!) In Geography, students enjoyed the opportunity to tour The Albert Dock, the city’s museums and The Radio City Tower learning how Liverpool has changed over the past 100 years as part of GCSE coursework. In PE the theme was ‘officiating’ with Year 11 students applying these crucial and often overlooked skills to table tennis – as part of their GCSE coursework portfolio. For our Year 8s it was all about the Gridiron with specialist American Football coaching. Our Gifted & Talented Coordinator, Miss Lewis, was again thrilled with the energy and excitement shown by so many students: ‘It’s great to see that our students are so motivated and keen to sample activities that may lie outside of their normal curriculum experience. Trying new things and exciting our students’ imaginations is the essence of our G & T Programme,’ she said.
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> Our Primary School Pupils loved their morning with us, both in Food Technology and in Science
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Students Make an Inspired Exhibition of Themselves! T
his year is the first time that we have run Inspired Responses with our GCSE students. > Our students’ Outstanding work was exhibited at The Brindley
The project involves our students working alongside a professional artist (this year it was Sarah Nicolson) whose work literally inspires them to produce work that emulates the artist’s own and which ultimately leads to a public exhibition at the Brindley Arts’ Centre. The overarching theme this year was ‘memories and collections’ and was something with which our students could readily identify. The theme allowed them to explore their own ideas, initially researching the variety and scope of Sarah’s work, as well as other artists with similar approaches to her own. These ideas were developed and refined through their sketchbook work, enabling the students to produce extremely personal responses and ultimately, work of the highest quality, both in the conceptual ‘ideas’ phase and in terms of final outcomes which were sophisticated and thought – provoking. Our school is a great advocate of this project having initiated it under the leadership of Mr Moran many years ago. Sarah’s input this year has shown that Inspired Responses goes from strength to strength because of the willingness and talent of our students and the generosity and outstanding mentoring of some of the finest artists in the area who inspire our students each and every year.
Insight. Easter 2014
Mrs Marriquez, KS4 Leader of Art & Design told Insight: ‘Sarah’s work is inspirational, with precisely the artistic style that engages our students; promoting enquiry and discussion as well as allowing them the opportunity to try out her techniques and concepts for themselves.’
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Pupils Get Political This term has allowed our students to show that they really are political animals. Rhiannon Ratcliffe, Molly Wright and Luke Buckley from our Year 9 form part of Halton’s Youth Cabinet who are currently campaigning on many issues that affect young people in Halton such as improving work experience opportunities as well as the ever present issue of transport. All three students presented a brilliant assembly to Year 7 pupils in order to raise the profile of youth politics, as well as speaking together at a Youth Cabinet Celebration Event. Rhiannon told Insight ‘I care very much about the decisions that affect us in our school and in our community of Halton. The more young people who get involved with politics, whether that be through our Student Council or in Youth Cabinet, will only help us to have an important and respected voice in the future.’
Students from years 9, 10 and 11 had the opportunity this term to meet our MP, Derek Twigg in a Question Time session and Youth Forum held at Cronton College. During the session our students challenged Mr Twigg on issues such as gay marriage and The Bedroom Tax. He was clearly impressed with both the passion and knowledge of our students, emphasising that politics is not just about men in grey suits at Westminster but about important issues that affect us all. Finally our Debating teams are, yet again, excelling themselves in The Urban Debate League after winning all 6 of their debates in Round 1 held at Wright Robinson College in Manchester. Their performance in Round 2 will determine whether they progress to The National Finals held at The House of Lords in the summer term. Fingers crossed! > Raphael Ardani spoke about his love of music to take the Foundation Stage Champion’s Trophy in this year’s Halton Schools’ Public Speaking Competion
> Our students impressed Derek Twigg with their Political Knowledge
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Paris Paris...So Good We Went There Twice!! By Hannah Ellery, Emily Brookes, Neve Carter & Kaitlyn Hennie
Over the February half term, our students had the opportunity to visit Paris on not one, but two occasions!
Our Modern Foreign Languages Faculty took a party of 68 Year 11 students to see what the City of Lights and Romance had to offer, whilst our Year 9 & 10 students’ focus was much more technical, in investigating the design and operation of rollercoasters at The Disneyland Theme Park as part of a Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths project. Year 11’s adventure started with a stroll around the iconic Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysées with students visiting many famous designer stores as well as sampling what the French patisseries and bakeries had to offer. A trip to Paris would not have been complete without a visit to the world famous Eiffel Tower where students enjoyed the spectacular views of the city. To round the day off, the students climbed all 300 steps to the top of the Sacré Coeur to watch the sunset over Paris. A surprise awaited them though at the traditional French bistro “Chez Gigi” where students were challenged to try a French delicacy of snails! It was an experience not for the faint hearted!!
What better way to learn about rollercoaster technology and engineering than seeing them in operation in one of the most famous theme parks in the world that accommodates up to 12 million visitors each year. Our Science, Maths, Engineering & Technology trip included two curriculum-led seminars featuring subject-specific case studies, interviews with Disneyland Paris managers and exclusive behind-the-scenes video footage, as well as curriculum workshops.
Miss Lewis, the trip leader is a great advocate of our students learning in situ telling Insight ‘We believe very strongly that learning is enhanced by our students seeing how it works in practice. With technical based subjects such as engineering, this adds a new dimension to the way our students see their learning. And of course, we had a great time too!’
Walt Disney Studios and Euro Disney were the order of the second day with staff and students alike enjoying thrilling rides such as the Tower of Terror and Space Mountain. The Disney parade in the evening capped off what was a magical and unforgettable trip. Party Leader, Miss Whitfield was delighted saying that ‘students had taken every opportunity to learn about Parisian culture and practise their French, which was great to see’
Insight.Easter 2014
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2014 Reading Festival: Access all Areas! N
o we’re not talking about the iconic music event. Instead we mean our own celebration of the written word and everything literary! Starting with our Horror Tour celebrating National Storytelling Week right up to us hosting Melvin Burgess, the author of our Year 9 novel ‘Junk’, this has been a term full of activities and events that will not be bettered at any other school in the country. Inspiring our students to read more and to love reading is a massive priority for us each and every day and we know our programme will help us to achieve this. In Personal Tutor Time, our teachers have read extracts from famous books and for World Book Day, English staff dressed up and acted out scenes from novels that were played to students at the start of each of their five lessons throughout the day. Every member of staff posted details of the book that they have been reading on their classroom doors or work areas prompting much discussion between teachers and students and hopefully leading to our students embracing the recommendations of their teachers and reading them for themselves. The assemblies delivered by Miss Griffiths and Miss Ward were devoted to World Book Day where staff members gave emotional accounts of their favourite books and why they have been so inspired by them throughout their lives. We also hosted our annual ‘Big Fat Book Quiz’ which yet again packed out the hall with our lower school students who also raised money in the process by baking, selling and, of course, eating chocolate cakes as the quiz progressed (without the menace of Miss Trunchbull!!) Miss K Griffiths, who coordinates all of our reading events in school has been delighted with this year’s programme telling Insight: ‘If our events over the past few weeks have inspired just one of our students to pick up a book or their tablet to start reading, then it has all been worthwhile. We have all had a great time learning that reading is fun but also that it is a vital life skill.’
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Something to look out for
Miss Rose in our English Faculty will soon be unveiling a new online book recommendation feature page for our website. We understand how difficult it is these days to get young people to read so our online list will allow parents and carers to access the very latest and most popular titles targeted to each age group which will inform future purchases and hopefully get our student’s into the reading habit!! Please keep an eye out for our launch very soon.
> Quizmaster Mr Mealey with the winners of The Big Fat Book Quiz
> English Faculty staff dressed up as different fictional characters for World Book Day
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Sir Henry Gets his Revenge!!
By Megan Grundy and Victoria Holland
Story Telling Week 2014 started with a SCREAM in February when pupils were shocked, thrilled and entranced by spooky tales of Wade Deacon’s gruesome past. As part of a national initiative designed to inspire young people to get involved in reading, a number of our creepiest staff created a horror tour around our new building for 60 of our bravest students. Mr Mealey led the way with a gruesome tale of blood, gore and murder which saw our teachers carrying out terrible crimes whilst under the influence of the ghost of Sir Henry Wade Deacon. Of course none of these horrendous crimes were ever truly committed but this dramatic event gave our pupils the opportunity to take part in a real life narrative and remind them of the thrill of a gripping story.
We are now looking to invite our primary school partners into school to hear the story for themselves which promises great excitement and lots of screams! Year 7 student Jack Sumner was a willing participant in the horror telling Insight: ‘The scariness started as soon as we saw Mr Mealey’s outfit. Mr Annable’s dramatic death was definitely the funniest and our favourite murder was with Mr Deeney and Mr Campbell.’ The rest of the week saw senior members of staff reading stories during form time - stories designed to spark the imagination; fire up the senses and seduce the non-believers, showing that there is no limit to enjoying a well told tale.
> Sir Henry’s evil eyes had our younger students spooked!
> Mr Flannagan and Mr Tither with their beheaded victim
> Mr Boyle with Taylor and Rhiannon > Mr Annable as dramatic as ever
> Take Heart, boys - but not literally!
Insight.Easter 2014
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Making a Stand for Safer Schools By Hannah Ellery, Emily Brookes, Neve Carter & Kaitlyn Hennie
PC White has been working extremely hard this term in promoting The Safer Schools’ Partnership. This is a Home Office initiative that puts police officers in schools, thus allowing an immediate point of contact for our students and indeed, parents and carers should they need it. He has contributed significantly to our PSHE Programme in bringing in a superb theatre company to raise awareness of child exploitation. Safer schools also means the environment outside of the school gate and much of PC White’s work seeks to educate parents, carers and students about their collective Duty of Care to ensure that everyone stays safe at Wade Deacon High School. His Road Safety Awareness Campaign and prominent position with our Senior Leadership Team at the front gate at key points in the day have meant an incident free start to our move to a single site school – no easy task given that we now have in excess of 1500 students and 200+ staff on site.
Safer Schools Partnership
PC White is also working on plans to build relationships between the police and our students. During future editions of Insight our Media Team will be reporting on their visits to a variety of police departments, allowing our students to see the diverse range of activities within the police meaning that they are more informed, much earlier, about future careers in the police force.
> PC White with Katerina and Sophia Diakou at our Year 9 Parents’ Evening
Teachers Share their Love of learnin
By Emily Brookes & Kaitlyn Hennie
Our 2nd Achievement Showcase took place this term focussing on different learning styles and how they can best be supported in the classroom.
All sessions are designed to equip our staff with the skills to manage a fluid classroom effectively and to ensure that all learners are fully supported.
The Showcase is an on – going programme of after school training where members of staff team up to deliver sessions based on their areas of expertise and experience. This involves all staff who drop in to 10 individual sessions during our designated after school Professional Development Evenings.
Mr Fitzpatrick who instigated the programme at school is delighted with the way the training is progressing. He told Kaitlyn Hennie: ‘The classroom is full of students with a variety of learning styles which makes it exciting and dynamic. But as teachers, we must ensure that we are at the forefront of differentiated subject delivery. And what better training than that provided by our own teachers who are the true experts and who are an inspiration to our students and to colleagues.’
This term, training has focussed on such elements as Competitive Learning, Visual Impairment, Avoiding Secondary Behaviours and Managing Complex and Diverse Special Education Needs in the Classroom.
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Mr Fitzpatrick Bugs Us!! By Megan Grundy and Victoria Holland
C
ontinuing the Department’s drive to ‘Make It Real’, Mr Fitzpatrick, Foundation Leader of Geography, held an ‘Ugly Bugs Session’ for 600+ students in Years 7 and 8 in February. This was an introduction to the Rainforests and Extreme Environments Unit.
Mr Fitzpatrick told our Insight reporter, Vicky Holland: ‘I love the idea of making Geography real for our students and ‘Ugly Bugs’ is a great way to introduce key topics such as Extreme Environments. It’s great to be able to bug our students in this way!!’
It is hoped now that this will lead onto a residential ‘Eco’ trip to the iconic Eden Project in Cornwall which houses the largest indoor rainforest in the world.
> It’s ‘Hands on’ with Ugly Bugs!
ng
> Mr Mitchell shows Miss Harper exactly how it should be done!
Insight.Easter 2014
> Problem solved: Never in doubt for Ms Manriquez and Ms Philbin
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GB Calling!! The prospect of selection for the next Olympic Games is becoming a real possibility for two of our talented athletes. Year 11 student, Ben Atkins is already the British champion at U19 with two titles in Synchronised Trampolining and Mini Trampoline events and Elle McLaughlin, also in Year 11, is certainly making waves amongst the GB selectors with her excellent form in rowing.
trials events at Eton Dorney (the rowing venue for London’s Olympic Games) as well as competing in The Women’s Head of the Thames event on the course of The University Boat Race. We wish them both well and have no doubt that we will be seeing them on the Olympic podium very soon!
Both have busy schedules ahead of them: Ben will be competing for Great Britain in The European Championships in Portugal whilst Elle will be competing in
A World Cup We Might Win!
Sports Round up By Neve Carter and Chloe Hodges
With the support of Sky Sports, our students this term have been focussing on how sport can help overcome mental and physical challenges. As a result students have really challenged themselves to go well out of their comfort zones including Boot Camp, Rock Climbing, Inline Skating and Outdoor Education Fitness Sessions at Delamere Forest. Professional footballer, Sue Smith is now a regular visitor in school who this term has worked with a key group of our Sky Sports students, as well as with our ever expanding girls’ football teams, looking to refine skills as well as developing mental strength for the big games. In Netball, our Year 9 girls were crowned Champions in The Halton Tournament and our Year 10 team is currently ranked 8th in Cheshire following a Cheshire wide tournament in February. This is our best position ever and is something on which we will continue to work. As ever, we are proud of all of our teams.
Jazmin Shaw from Year 10 has been selected, as part of her award winning Dance Team ‘Dance Dynamics’, to represent England in the forthcoming Dance World Cup to be held in Portugal in July. This is a fantastic achievement for the whole team – but especially for Jazmin and reflects months of hard work and preparation that saw the team selected against stiff opposition. Jazmin is now looking to raise money for the club to make the trip and we are sure that her Year Group, in particular, will do everything they can to support her. So come on, Jazmin and bring The World Cup home at last!! 16
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