WALES HIGH SCHOOL 2015/16 First Day of Term Last Day of Term

MARCH 2016 NEWSLETTER Monday 15th February 2016 Friday 18th March 2016

Monday 4th April 2016 Friday 27th May 2016 Students Progress with US Youth Soccer Programme - Levi Owen continues to make

Summer progress with the United States Olympic Development Football Programme. In January, he was Monday 2nd May 2016 is a Bank Holiday

Term selected for the High School boys squad which travelled to Lignano, Italy for a winter training camp and followed this up by being selected for the Squad which met in Bitburg, Germany in Monday 6th June 2016 Friday 15th July 2016 March. Whilst in Bitburg, Levi was vice-captain of the ODP team, made up of 15-18 year olds, which lost narrowly to the Bitburg men’s squad, with the decisive goal being scored by an WALES HIGH SCHOOL TERM DATES 2016/2017 ex-Bundesliga striker. Levi (seen here in the yellow shirt with his team mates) received further good news in February 2016/17 First Day of Term Last Day of Term when he was awarded an extended schoolboy contract by United. This will allow him to train part time and play with the clubs Youth team, whilst continuing his studies at Wales High school. Monday 5th September 2016 (Staff only) Friday 21st Oct 2016 Tuesday 6th September 2016 (1st day for Students) Autumn

Term Monday 31st October 2016 Friday 16th Dec 2016

18th and 21st November 2016 ‘school closure’ days

Spring Tuesday 3rd January 2017 Friday 17th Feb 2017 Term

Monday 27th February 2017 Friday 7th April 2017

Monday 24th April 2017 Friday 26th May 2017 Summer Monday 1st May 2017 is a Bank Holiday Term

Monday 5th June 2017 Friday 21st July 2017

N.B. This schedule includes the 5 ‘school closure’ days to be added throughout the year. Monday 5th September 2016, Friday 18th November 2016, Monday 21st November 2016 Monday 24th July 2017 and Tuesday 25th July 2017

Golden Hour

Presents

There’s so many It’s fantabulous ! activities to do

Blood, Guts

Headteacher’s Sixth Form Rugby Challenge 2016 - With mud up to their knees and We love & Gore determination oozing from within all the players involved, the Headteacher’s Rugby match proved 1st aid to be one of the fiercest games of rugby seen golden for many years. Crowds of people from all hour years, staff, family and even ex-students gathered, with full spirit, to witness impressive tackles and impeccable teamwork between the rivals of Lower Sixth Form and Upper Sixth Form. The game eventually resulted in a glorious victory for the Upper Sixth, with credits to Kieron Greenwood and Luke Hall, taking the score up to 12-0. Both teams played incredibly well, building immense suspense and sending the spectators wild. Ross Bower, Captain of the Lower Sixth Form, had a strong team with evident training sessions having taken place Would you know what to do in the event of a first aid emergency? These Y7s would..... They've but after a neck and neck first half, it was Ben been enjoying learning how to deal with a range of first aid emergencies in their golden hour Kaye and George Brooksbank’s team who lessons this year. As well as practising how to put someone into the recovery position and how to won the trophy, continuing the Upper Sixth perform CPR on someone who has stopped breathing, they've also had a lot of fun bandaging winning streak. Who will claim victory next each other up whilst practising how to deal with bleeding, burns and broken bones. As a treat, in their final lesson they made fake wounds that looked so real, parents, staff and other students year? genuinely thought that they were real injuries. Don't worry though - no Year 7s were injured for Written by Jessica Canning 13.1 real during Blood, Guts and Gore lessons! Professional Interview Evening - Our annual professional interview evening for Year 12 took U13 Girls Football - Our Y7 and Y8 place on March 9th, with over 40 interviewers from businesses in the local community coming to footballers have played amazingly well school to put students through their paces. Students prepared for the evening by preparing a CV throughout the South cup. They and working with their tutors to look at typical interview questions. Each student had a 20 minute have been undefeated all season and interview followed by 10 minutes of unbiased feedback on their interview technique and CV. The yesterday played in a tough final against atmosphere in school as students were leaving their interviews was very positive, and feedback Horizon CC. Wales High School dominated from the interviewees was excellent - some were even offered apprenticeships and training the 1st half leading 1-0. The opposition positions during the interview! For more information about professional interview evening, please stepped up the challenge and raised their see the website. To get involved as an interviewer please contact [email protected] game to bring into a 2-2 draw at full time.

The girls were fantastic but unfortunately lost out in the penalty shoot out.

They showed outstanding sportsmanship and made Wales High school proud.

World Book Day at Wales High School was the launch day for a variety of reading opportunities. The first celebration started in the morning with a Book Quiz in tutor time, followed by a 'Book Drop Book Swap' event in the library. Students donated books to the Swap Shop by popping along to the library, dropping and then swapping a book.

"Having a love of reading is a school priority and an essential skill for life. When children can freely choose what they want to read, they will truly be reading for pleasure. This choice allows children to be enthusiastic about what they are reading, and in turn they will be engaged. The book swap has encouraged a real love for books and in turn a love of reading," said Mrs Taylor, Assistant Headteacher.

Future events over the coming months will include, 'Reading With and Reading To', 'Ring and Safer Internet Day - Each year Wales High School supports Safer Internet Day in order to Read', and 'Read Aloud', which is an opportunity for staff to read pages from their favourite books promote the safe and responsible use of technology. to students at lunchtimes, something the staff are looking forward to. This year the theme was ‘Play your Part for a Better Internet’, offering the opportunity to focus on both the creative and positive things that children and young people are doing online, as well as the role that we all play in helping to create a better internet. With this mind, a competition was held in which students across all year groups were invited to design a poster on this theme. Isabel Toseland and Emma Dykes in Y7 were joint winners. Jessica Barber in Y7 was one of the runners-up along with Sophie Attewell in Y9.

WALES AND KIVETON COMMUNITY COMBINE TO SECURE SERVICES FOR FAMILIES SUCCESSFUL SEASON FOR WALES CROSS COUNTRY SQUAD

The school cross country team enjoyed 6 Following the announcement last year of the planned closures of several children’s centres races over a variety of courses in the Rother across Rotherham, the Headteacher of Wales High School, Mr. Pepe Di’Iasio, was not prepared Schools 2015/16 Cross Country League, this to see provision for the families of the local community suffer. culminated in the annual championships at

Collaborating with Judith Elstone, the Headteacher of Meadows Junior School, Herringthorpe and once again Wales alongside the Kiveton and Wales Nursery, a partnership has been established to secure the performed exceptionally well with 3 of our future of the Sue Walker Children’s Centre and ensure that the Centre continued to offer Junior girls team taking the bronze, silver and vital services to families and young people across its community. gold medals respectively – Ist Grace Harris (Y9), 2nd Keiva Rennocks (Y9) and 3rd Headteacher Pepe Di’Iasio said “we are delighted to have brought partners from across our Erin Lonsdale (Y9) and the rest of the junior community together to secure the future of the Sue Walker Centre”. girls team ensuring that Wales took home the Pictured at the Sue Walker Centre are Headteachers Pepe Di’Iasio and Judith Elstone, Councillor Rotherham Schools Junior Girls team trophy. Dominic Beck, Community Governor at Wales High School, and representatives from Kiveton and Wales Nursery who will be joining forces to ensure that the Sue Walker Children’s Centre not only provides vital Sure Start provision and health services for young families in the community, but also offers nursery provision for these families over many years to come.

Councillor Beck said “I am very pleased to have assisted in securing the future of the Sue Walker Children's Centre, a much valued Other notable results were: Millen Flanaghan taking the silver medal in the Y7 boys race and community facility, in partnership Jacob Gratton taking the bronze in the Junior Boys race. Following the district championships several of our runners were selected to represent Rotherham to compete against , with Wales High School, Kiveton and at the annual Schools Cross Country Championships Park Meadows Junior School and which was held at Campsall Country Park in Doncaster at the end of January. 14 students were Kiveton and Wales Nursery. It is selected to represent Rotherham from Wales – all the students ran well on a course that was important we protect the local very heavy with mud underfoot! Good runs from Millen Flanaghan, Luke Ingersoll, Travis Massey and Heather Armstrong (Y7), Keira Sampson (Y8), Erin Lonsdale (Y9), Emily Beck (Y10) but services we have in support of our exceptional performances from both Grace Harris and Keiva Rennocks who were both selected young people and future to represent South Yorkshire Junior Girls team to compete in the English Schools Cross Country generations, and I am delighted to Championships at Woollaton Park, Nottingham on Saturday 5 March. Both girls ran superbly in a have been invited to chair the new field of over 300+ runners from all over . Bronte finished in the top 200 runners across the country and Grace finished 26th. A fantastic achievement. Well done to both girls. Partnership Board for the Centre”.

Year 7 Netball - The Year 7 Netball team had a fantastic performance at their recent The Great Wales Bake Off - Year 7 students were invited to take part in an exciting tournament. Winning 3 out of 4 matches, overall they finished 2nd which means they have competition this term - The Great Wales Bake off!! Based on the popular BBC TV show, pupils qualified for the Rotherham Schools Final Day to be held at Wickersley which will be on Saturday were first asked to complete a signature bake after school in the food rooms, their only 12th March. Good Luck Girls!!! instruction was to make a sponge cake of at least 2 layers, and have it cooked, filled and decorated in one and a quarter hours. Over 50 students applied, and Mrs Hemming and Mrs Brown were incredibly impressed with all the first round bakers, but particularly Reiss Askey in 7.5 who was awarded the star baker apron! Reiss baked a delicious lemon drizzle cake, with lemon curd and a refreshing lemon icing.

15 bakers were then asked to progress to the technical challenge. None were told what the challenge would be in advance so they were all surprised to find they had just one hour to make 6 perfectly equal chocolate éclairs! The students did not disappoint, and again the judges were very impressed with the technical ability shown. Rebecca Oates of 7.2 did exceptionally well, and was a clear winner of the second Star Baker apron. Next term, the remaining bakers chosen will compete for the title of Great Wales Bake Off Champion! Who will it be?

Gymnastics - Wales High School Gym squad competed in the Rotherham schools Gymnastic floor competition at Wickersley in December. They performed outstandingly well to gain the highest marks of the day and qualify for a place at the South Yorkshire games.

Alicia Jackson Y9, Sydney Stratford Y8, Sky Green Y8, Amelia Pullinger Y7, Tamia Siddall Y7 and Hatti Jackson Y7 represented Rotherham in the games last week at the EIS. They just missed out on the medals coming 4th overall. Well done ladies.

The Linacre Institute is a charity which helps state school sixth formers in Yorkshire reach our most competitive universities. With a programme of academic interviews, tutorials and residential experiences at Westminster School, London and Trinity Hall, Cambridge the aim is to give our students the same chance of reaching the most competitive universities as their counterparts at the best performing independent schools.

So far, nineteen of the 22 Linacre students in 2015-16 have won offers from our dozen most competitive universities, including Cambridge, Oxford, UCL, Edinburgh and Durham.

The rate of Oxbridge and Imperial offers (29%) was well above the national average of one success in five. Our students’ success rate so far with Oxbridge offers is 46% - similar to that of the hosts of our London residential, Westminster School, one of the world’s most academically successful independent schools, and of Eton.

Case study: Wales High School, Kiveton Park Wales is a comprehensive in Kiveton Park, a small mining town between Rotherham and Worksop. Its colliery employed 1,000 people and closed in 1994. In their first year with Linacre the number of students going to Russell Group universities almost doubled, to 43%

“Our first involvement was the interview given in 2014 to 19 of our students. Ultimately six were successful, but we had an extremely marked and positive reaction from all 19. They felt it was an opportunity for them to challenge themselves as academics. All 19 are now at Russell Group Movement Evening - On Wednesday evening over 100 students from Y7-13 participated in institutions. The fact we had almost double the number achieving places at elite universities from our Annual Movement evening. The event showcased the wonderful work our students previous years shows that the top students being more aspirational had a knock-on effect to other students. The success of the cohort who went to university in September 2015 is have been doing both in their PE lessons and dance and gym clubs. The evening was a unprecedented at the school. great success and enjoyed by a record number of visitors. “Our involvement with Linacre has encouraged us to examine our own practices. The consciousness of our students has been raised. All target grades are now set at one grade above the national average. Our data shows that nearly all students are in line with their targets, which would suggest a more academic and aspirational ethos is becoming accepted as ‘the norm’.

“There has been something of a sea-change in attitude from staff, which filters through to students, about elite universities. We have a much more positive attitude towards these establishments and our students’ entitlement to attend the very best for their subject. This has very much come from the supportive attitude of Linacre mentors.

“One of the things that has impressed us most is that students have not felt pressurised to apply to Oxbridge. They have been empowered not to choose it if it is not right for them. They have seen other aspirational alternatives as a realistic goal, such as Imperial, King’s and Durham.

“When we first contemplated working with Linacre, I think it is safe to say that we had a narrow view of the impact it would have on a small group of elite students; we have, however, found that the benefits of the partnership extend far beyond our initial expectations and have had a genuine impact on the success of many of our students. We can’t recommend it highly enough.” Jude Cole (Linacre Co-ordinator) and Hayley Ludlam (Assistant Headteacher) Learning Support Cricket The experience of a former Wales High School student: The Learning Support cricket team has had yet another successful season and the outdoor Ashleigh Weir – Year 1 student takes tournaments have not even begun! We are pleased to announce that the learning support side Footlights by storm made up of Key Stage 3 and 4 students finished joint first in the South Yorkshire Indoor Finals. Ashleigh, now reading English at Cambridge, has won The team managed to win 3 games and narrowly lost out in another but still did enough to qualify glowing reviews after becoming one of the few first-years ever to win a leading role in the Footlights – the starting for the Yorkshire Indoor Cricket Final at Headingley Stadium. Well done to all those students place of Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and dozens of other stars of show involved. We cannot wait for the summer tournaments. business. Reviewers called hers the “standout performance” as Maid Marian in the Footlights pantomime. Another wrote that: “The star of the show was without doubt Ashleigh Weir’s Maid Marian, a role made even more impressive considering this is her Cambridge debut. Her performance was hilarious, loveable and utterly believable… she stole the audiences’ hearts”.

B&E Valentines Market - The Rag Challenge is an event run in Year 12 at Wales High school. Each tutor group has an opportunity to set themselves up as a mini company - with a Managing Director at the helm, and other pupils within the company taking on roles such as Marketing Director, Production Director..... They create products and services which they sell throughout the academic year at scheduled markets. The Valentines Market was run Wednesday and Thursday lunchtime - and was a success. Stalls were selling sweets, chocolates, cupcakes, milkshakes and other Valentine themed products. All money raised goes to Bluebell Wood, and so far they have raised over £2000.

Pictured are Olivia Lee, Shannon Carter, Stephen Clark, Luke Bellamy, Daniel Fisher and Jack Dawtry

Sports Award Evening - Friday 30 September 2016!

Put this date in your diary. The PE Departments annual Sports Award Evening is going to be bigger and better than before. With new awards for all Year groups; fantastic raffle prizes; disco and food. Come along and celebrate. Tickets will be available from Friday 8th April. National Senior Team Maths Challenge Finals - Royal Horticultural Halls, London Rugby - This term has seen another successful period for all of our Rugby teams registering impressive performances. A special mention to our Y9 boys who have not lost all season and were only knocked out of the Yorkshire Cup by the reigning champions due to being the home team in a drawn match.

The PE department is also proud to announce more representative honours and Every year, Wales High School Maths teacher Dr Webdale brilliantly prepares our students of selections across the school various ages for the individual and team maths challenges organised by the years. Ellis Harrison recently Mathematics Trust. Towards the end of 2015, four Sixth Form students, Faith Nagra, James had the honour of captaining Lonsdale, Ryan Fox and Sam Lorenz, performed so well at the regional finals in Sheffield that the Yorkshire Under 15’s vs they earned a place in the prestigious National Finals in London. This is the first time that a group Cheshire and narrowly missed has reached this stage - an amazing achievement in itself. out in a 17-10 defeat. Both Ellis and Jack Baldry will play for Yorkshire Under 15’s vs For unforeseeable reasons we did not receive notification of the group's place in the finals until Cheshire once again in the late in the day, leaving less than two weeks for the group to practise. The finals at the beginning next fixture. of February were soon upon us. Despite a very early minibus departure from school, bad traffic led to a later than expected arrival at our 'out of the way' tube station, and we made it to register Well done to both boys! for the event with only ten minutes to spare! Unfazed, the students were soon busying themselves assembling their resources for the compulsory poster round. Before we knew it, the competition had started. Three rounds of varying formats saw the students puzzling away at Last but not least! We have more boys and now girls representing the school in the Yorkshire numerous devilish questions as a full group or in pairs. Carnegie England Rugby Development Player Programme. Oliver Davies, Finley Williams and Covey Williams (Year 8) will join the ERDPP squad next month. Wales High school also has girls representation in the Yorkshire Girls ERDPP, the first of its kind in the country, both Lucy Our superb team toiled away and more than held their own against teams from the most Cocking (Year 8) and Charlotte Gladwin (Year 9) recently got through after a successful trial. prestigious and sought after schools in the country, including Eton and Westminster. I could not They will train with the squad made up of girls from across the whole county and meet once a have been more thrilled with all four students' attitudes. The Y12 students have already set their month. sights on improving their standing at next year's finals! Abby Pearson (Year 9) is also set to trial at the next session.

All in all we had an excellent day and roll on next year! A massive well done to all those students who are making the PE Department very proud! Wales High School Sports - Winter Round-up HISTORY VISITS The PE department have had a fabulous start to the academic year. The extra curricular programme has seen over 300 boys and girls represent the school in 150 plus matches from ~ LEICESTER CATHEDRAL ~ Rugby to Cross country, from indoor athletics to Netball. The students have been fantastic ambassadors for the school. Y8 History Visit to Leicester Cathedral Year 7 Football – The enthusiasm shown by all the boys who have taken part in Y7 football this year has been outstanding. Since September practice has been well attended which has meant A group of Year 8 students spent an enjoyable over 25 boys turning up each week. Over the course of the season all the students who have day in Leicester. They had a guided tour of the been attending practice have had an opportunity to represent the school. The quality of play has Cathedral which focussed mainly on Richard III. been high but luck hasn't been on the teams side. In friendly games the team have scored lots of They were able to see and touch his tomb and goals and won most of their matches. They have narrowly missed out in the cups losing 4-3 to a saw his pall and a replica of his crown. last minute winner against Hungerhill in the South Yorkshire Schools’ Cup and 1-0 to St Bernard's in Round 1 of the Rotherham Schools. This meant the team went into the plate The students also visited the famous Guildhall, competition where they reached the semi final. After an epic 5-5 draw the game went to one of the finest examples of medieval penalties. Again luck deserted the boys who lost this encounter 4-3. All the boys have shown architecture in this country. They learnt about commitment to practice and playing and hopefully this level will continue in Y8, just with a bit the various uses of the Guildhall. more success in the cup competitions.

After the historical morning activities, the Year 9 Football - The Year 9 boys led by Captain Regan Millard, continued their winning ways students visited The Curve Theatre to see an with success in the Rotherham Cup. Scoring 24 goals and only conceding 5 in their 5 games. excellent production of the musical 'Oliver'. The boys managed to retain the Cup for another year, meaning they have won the competition 3 years in a row. The only school team to do so in the schools history.

Unfortunately the boys lost in the South Yorkshire Cup final to a strong Westfield team. The boys played well and represented the school in an excellent manner; they are true role models for other students.

In all competitions this year the team have scored 62 goals and only conceded 13 goals. The leading goal scorer with 25 goals is Sam Eccles, with Jacob Gratton scoring 13 from midfield. A wonderful season.

Students were lucky to meet Mickey on the visit to Leicester!

Reading Mentors ~ BERLIN ~ Since November 2015 to February 2016 Lower 6th Reading Mentors have been supporting their In February, a group of Y12 History students visited Berlin as part of their AS studies. Students Y7 reading partners three times a week in order to help them with their reading and to build visited the Reichstag, the Television Tower, Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and the confidence. The following L6th and Y7 pupils have now graduated the scheme. Brandenburg Gate. This visit enabled students to find out more about Weimar and Nazi History. Students found the Jewish memorial particularly moving as it provided personal accounts of the L6th Mentors Y7 Mentees Holocaust. Students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to experience History first-hand and Connor James Daniel Godfrey Jamie Cox many are already planning their own return visits! Georgia Crowther Blake Norman Ethan Barthorpe Alicia Clewes Marcus Hayward Jack Beaman Jessica Bailey Ellie May Eyre Brian Foster Josh Gregory Mathew Howell Mitchell Barton Gabrielle Herrington William Pearson Leah Webb Courtney Simmons Davina Oxtoby Toby Hudson Courtney Allen Ben Gibson Olivia Durrans Emma Henderson Hannah Howarth

Medicine Taster Day ~ BERLIN ~ The taster day was extremely informative and had several sections to it.

Introduction: Students met up in a lecture theatre and it was explained that they would be sepa- rated into groups and theses groups would be involved in 3 sessions.

All these sessions were led by trainee doctors:  CPR  Diagnosis and Prescribing (scenario session) - looking at blood counts and testing water samples

 Main organ functions (what are the main organs that keeps us alive and how they can be affected with things e.g. smoking) and what other illnesses can be brought on when one of these organs are affected.

At the end all the students were asked to write on post-it notes any questions they might have.

Closure Session: Held in lecture theatre  Trainee medical students answered questions from cost of living and how long it took to train to become a doctor and where the courses were held.

 Finally a First Year Doctor answered questions.

Students were given information packs and certificates.

Young Person’s Mental Health Conference Throughout this term Rebecca Parkin (Y13) and Danny Gillings (Y10) have been heavily involved with organising the Young Person's Mental Health Conference 2016. As members of the Rotherham Youth Parliament they have organised the conference which will take place during the Easter holidays on Monday 21st March at the New York Stadium, Rotherham. The event involves a series of workshops led by specialists in their field. With mental health being on the forefront of many discussions and debates at present it is pleasing to see two of our students taking a lead on this. ~ STAFFORDSHIRE REGIMENTAL MUSEUM ~ STEM Event - On the 2nd March, students from Y7 and Y9 were treated to a visit from the BAE Systems & RAF Education Programme Roadshow Team and their plethora of high tech demonstrations and interactive activities. Students were wowed by demonstrations on waves; ranging from using smoke and lasers to high tech cameras and fibre optics. What makes these visits special is that they always teach the science in a fun way and then bring in into context from an engineer- ing point of view in the real world faced by real RAF personnel. My personal highlight was when students got up and A group of Year 9 students visited Staffordshire Regimental Museum on 10th March to find out more about the First World War. Students were given the opportunity to explore a contributed to a “wave of words” using trench, handle weaponry and try on authentic uniforms. Students found out about the a digital looper pedal; the results had dangers of trench foot, gas attacks and the perils of 'going over the top'. Students also took part in a session which assessed the reliability of different forms of evidence and how some the students and staff alike in stitches! sources may be biased. Students can’t wait for the next visit!" ~ ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE, LONDON ~ ~ NATIONAL COAL MINING MUSEUM ~ In January a group of Year 11 History students visited the Royal Courts of Justice in London to learn about the Suffragettes. The interactive session took place in a real court room and students re-enacted a real court case involving a suffragette called Mary Richardson. This engaging session developed critical thinking skills as students played the roles of judge, jury, barristers, witnesses and the defendant. Following the mock trial at the Royal Courts of Justice students spent time at the Houses of Parliament to learn about the voting process. This behind the scenes session involved a full tour of the Houses of Parliament and access to the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Following our visit to Westminster we headed to Whitechapel to hear about Jack the Ripper and visit the sites where the ripper murders took place over 100 years ago. The following day the group visited the Tower of London and spent time looking at the numerous exhibits - including the crown jewels! Before departing students had the opportunity to visit Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street, Westminster Abbey and the Banqueting House where King Charles I was executed. The visit proved to be both enjoyable and rewarding for all involved!

Year 8 students visited the National Coal Mining Museum at Wakefield to learn about the early history of mining as part of their study on the Industrial Revolution. Students spoke to former miners and were able to ask questions about the dangers of working down the pit. Students toured the site and visited the pit baths and the stables housing the pit ponies.