Newsflash 9 February 2024

9 February 2024

NEWSFLASH Fortnightly Newsletter of Woodhouse Grove School Follow us on Instagram @woodhouse_grove

Taster Days

Physics Olympiad

Our sixth formers enjoyed lessons in the new sixth form building this week.

Congratulations to all Year 12 students who recently took part in the Physics Olympiad.

Thirteen students received certificates.

Those who achieved a silver were above the 50th percentile, and gold, above the 75th percentile of all students who entered the competition. Congratulations to Charlie W, who achieved gold.

Students joining us for our Sixth Form taster day were also invited to look around and the new seminar rooms were used for workshops and interviews.

Across the Sixth Form and Year 7 taster day this week, we welcomed approximately 90 potential new pupils into school, with a further 60 potential Year 7s joining us for a taster day after half term.

Students took part in a number of taster lessons as well as enjoying the co-curricular activities throughout the day.

Bake Sale Our Costa Rican explorers held a cake sale this morning to raise funds for their trip in July. Delicious treats for everyone to celebrate the last day of this half term.

Safer Internet Day & Online Safety Stricter Message Settings for Instagram Meta is introducing more safety features on its' Instagram (and also on Facebook) platform over the coming months. Many cynics, believe this is because Mark Zuckerberg along with other tech companies, are being pulled into a US senate hearing about their failures to protect children online.

There is increased, worldwide criticism over these companies about what they say they are doing and the reality, there are also many lawsuits being taken out against companies for their failures, including one where Meta documents have been released showing that 100,000 children are sexually harassed daily on its platforms.

These new Instagram features include: • •

Limiting teens' ability to see sensitive content.

Nudges to encourage teens to close Instagram at night.

• Stricter private messaging (adults should not be able to privately message children who don't follow those adults).

Children can only be messaged by people they already follow or are connected to.

You can read more about the features HERE. Reference; Thank you to Alan McKenzie ESafety adviser for this information.

Year 9 have completed worksheets as part of the Safer Internet theme. They considered how important it is to be more positive with online comments and to take a balanced approach to information provided online by influencers — questioning the content and making up their own minds.

Winter Immersion Students During this half term we welcomed a number of Chinese immersion students, mostly from Suzhou, Beijing and Shanghai.

The students joined our boarding community for one or two weeks and fully experienced life as a boarder at Woodhouse Grove, participating in lessons and co-curricular activities and Burns Night as well as visiting the Yorkshire Dales, followed by fish and chips.

Lunar New Year Shern, Seth, Sam and George, Year 8, performed a lion dance during Mr Dobson’s assembly on the Lunar New Year. Great initiative shown by them having created the dance from scratch after seeing the assembly last year.

Battle of the Bands

Chamber Concert Tickets

Last week, the McCarthy Theatre witnessed some extraordinary guitar riffs at our annual ‘Battle of the Bands’.

Hosted by the enigmatic Mr Sugden, eight student bands, representing Years 7 to 13, took to the stage and performed a range of both well-known and self-written songs.

We invite you to join us at our Chamber Concert on Tuesday 20 February for a night of live music performed by our talented students. Refreshments will be available. Tickets available from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/woodhousegroveschool

In the end, ‘Untied’ from Year 12 wowed the judges with their technical prowess and secured their vote, however, ‘Bleeding Green’, Year 13, ultimately took the trophy home by audience vote with their excellent playing and hilariously executed falsetto during "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus.

Thanks to our Year 13 Music Technology students who operated all the technology for the evening, as part of their coursework, and to everyone who helped us to raise money for local children’s charity, Zarach.

Leeds Senior Boys’ Choir Congratulations to Rhys T-C, Year 7 who has recently participated in both the Leeds International Season Christmas Concert and BBC Radio 3's Choral Vespers broadcast as a member of the Leeds Senior Boys Choir at Leeds St Annes’ Cathedral.

Netball Nationals Again!

Cross Country News

We are delighted that once again we have two teams through to the National Schools Netball Finals which will take place in March. We will be cheering on both our U14 squad, who were crowned Yorkshire champions at the weekend, and our U19 squad who finished 2nd to claim their place at the Finals.

Congratulations to everyone who ran at the West Yorkshire trials, especially the 5 pupils who have been selected to run for West Yorkshire at the English Schools Finals (Archie, Charley, Maisey, Simeon and Harry).

We also had excellent performances from our runners in the U18 King Henry VIII Road Relays, with Maisey B, 6th fastest lady on the day. A great experience for everyone—with some of our A team runners only in Year 9.

Congratulations to the squads and to the coaching staff who have helped our squads reach the national stage of the competition in 8 of the last 10 finals.

Our 1st VII are also into the last 4 in the National Netball Cup after a nailbiting thriller against Queen Ethelberga’s.

If you would like to support them in their quest for national glory, we have kit sponsorship opportunities available.

In other netball news, there have been good recent wins for U13a against Ashville College, U12a and U14a against Harrogate Grammar and U12a, U14c, U15a and U16a against Stonyhurst.

U13 Football Cup Run

Unfortunately, our U13 boys lost their ISFA National Bowl semi-final against Langley. In very windy conditions, the boys played superbly, having most of the possession.

Unfortunately the finishing wasn’t clinical enough and the game finished 0-0. In extra-time, our boys created great chances, including three goalmouth scrambles.

However, against the run of play, in the final minute Langley scored. Our boys showed true Grovian resilience, and pushed up the field to equalise, with Noah bending a free-kick into the top corner. Final score 1-1.

This meant penalties, which unfortunately we lost 6-5. It was a superb effort from Junior Football the boys, and this Congratulations to our U12a, U12b and U13a cup run sets them up and U13b teams who all won their football well for the rest of the season. matches against Aysgarth School.

The Addams Family

Rugby Update

We are delighted to announce that the Intermediate school production this Spring is ‘The Addams Family’. This should be a great show and fun for the pupils to get involved with—either on stage or behind the scenes.

Tickets are now on sale via ticketsource priced at £5 adult and £3 for children.

The U12a and U12b won their recent games against Harrogate Grammar.

Woodhouse Grove School event tickets from TicketSource.

Our U14 squad travelled to St Peter’s for a 7s tournament on Wednesday with tough opposition including Rodillian Academy, Hornsea, Birkdale, Bradford Grammar School and Dame Allen’s. There were touches of class, resilience and teamwork displayed by the U14’s plus a few try saving tackles and break away trys!

They enjoyed this first tournament, which was certainly a learning experience for the team, highlighting our strengths and weaknesses as a collective. They are looking forward to future 7’s fixtures this term.

Our U16 squad travelled to Durham for their 7s tournament on Wednesday. Again, a great learning experience for the team, who played six group games against some strong opposition, improving as the tournament progressed.

They started the day well with a win over RGS Newcastle finishing 17-10, but a couple of defensive lapses in the following games resulted in two wins, three losses and a draw. Overall, the team left with a positive experience to reflect on, scoring some brilliantly worked team tries and a solid foundation to work from.

Bookends Year 8 have been busy making initial bookends in DT this week!

Science Focus

Changing Stars Malawi

Year 10 students have been studying useful microorganisms in biology. They have used yeast to investigate respiration, make bread and ginger beer. They have also pasteurised milk and used bacteria to make yoghurt. They may be able to take these skills back to their kitchens!

A huge collection of outgoing uniforms and sports kit has been collected this week

by Charlie from Changing Stars Malawi. He was absolutely delighted so thank you for all your contributions. We are very proud to work with this incredible charity.

In STEM club, Year 7 students tested out a range of plants for antibacterial properties.

Turmeric proved to be very effective at preventing bacterial growth.

The ABA & FOWG Pre Loved Fundraising team are already collecting for the May shipment. All pre-loved donations can be sent to school reception.

FOWG Bingo Night

A great opportunity to get together with other Grove parents and celebrate the arrival of Spring! You still have a week to take advantage of early bird This week a group of Year 9 scientists visited tickets. Click here for tickets Bradford University. They were taught about how to reduce, reuse or recycle the waste produced in everyday life. They also talked about the advantages and disadvantages of using different renewable energy sources.

The Year 9s then had the opportunity to design and make wind turbines and a stable tower out of Lego blocks to support the turbine.