Blacon High Times
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BLACON HIGH TIMES Your news, your views, your school Edition #4 July 2015 Inside this issue: Fond Farewells and New Beginnings... Fond Farewells/ 1 New Beginnings As the end of the school year approaches School from September 2015 and we wish Headteacher’s it is me for us all to think about enjoy‐ him every success in his new role. 1 ing the summer holidays, but it is also Message Mrs Musgrave (Family Support Worker), Ms me to say some goodbyes. Thornthwaite (Librarian) and Mrs Duffy Sports 2 We said a fond farewell to our Year 11 (currently Cover Supervisor) are all leaving Spectacular students at their celebraon evening and us at the end of the year to begin their well‐ Call the 2 prom earlier in the month, and they will earned rerements; between them, they Midwife! say their final farewell to Blacon High have clocked up over 80 years of service. School on results day in August. Over the years, all three ladies have occu‐ Out of This 3 However, Year 11 are not the only ones pied various roles in Blacon High School and World! to be waving goodbye to our school. We have touched the lives of many of our stu‐ Duke of 3 will also be sad to see some long serving dents; their contribuon is greatly acknowl‐ Edinburgh staff leaving us at the end of term. edged and they will be sadly missed. They leave us with our very best wishes and we Ex Head of Maths Mr Hughes has been Youth hope that they all enjoy a long and happy 4 with us for the last 15 years. He trans‐ Games rerement. formed the Maths department making it Music 4 one of the strongest performing depart‐ A number of support staff are also leaving Soirée ments in the school. Mr Hughes will be us this year to take up new posions in Sep‐ fondly remembered for his massively tember. A huge ‘thank you’ goes out to all Congratulations 5 posive atude, the great relaonships the staff who have contribut‐ he developed with both staff and stu‐ ed so much to our school dents and his fantasc sense of humour. over the years. WOW! Days 6 Mr Hughes will be joining Hawarden High You will be missed! Festival of 6 Music A message from Mrs Yates Blacon 7 Memories Like me, I am sure that you are all looking forward to a well deserved break. It has been another busy but hugely successful year and, once again, I am proud of all of your achieve‐ Year 11 Prom 7 ments. As we move towards the end of term, I would like to wish you all a very happy and safe End of Term 8 holiday: enjoy every moment! New School 8 When we return feeling refreshed in September, please remember the importance of full Year school uniform and make sure that you are equipped appropriately for the demands of the school day. Expectations 8 With all my best wishes, Mrs Yates Sports Spectacular On the 26thJune, our school set off on a journey to Wrexham for our annual Sports Day. We spent the day at the Queensway Stadium watching and taking part in a variety of field and track events. We had been training for months in PE and couldn’t wait to put our skills into pracce! When we arrived, the heavens opened and it started to rain. Aer a few damp running events, the sun was on our side and came out to watch us compete. I knew it would be a good day, but I couldn’t believe the atmosphere; it was wild! There was so much compeon, it was almost like a Liverpool vs Man‐ One of the funniest moments was the staff relay at chester United match. Everyone was shoung for the end of the day. This was a great way to finish their friends to win and we loved being in a real sta‐ because the PE department won the race, but it was dium. Many of my friends said they felt like sports fantasc to see the other departments race as well! stars for the day! Sports Day is the best day of the school year because Charlie Evans said, ‘My favourite moment was my we get to visit a real stadium and compete against race when I achieved the Year 7 record of 24 seconds our friends. Chloe Dee said ‘I haven’t had this much in the 200m race; I can’t believe I won it!’ fun in a long me; what a brilliant day!’ Some of the main events included: running, shot put, Although we went home feeling very red, we all discus, long jump and the relay. For me, the best agreed on one thing: we had an amazing me and moments were the 800m and the relay race because we can’t wait unl next year! I won both of them. When I crossed the finish line, I felt like Mo Farah! I could hear my friends cheering By Leon Duckers, Year 7 me on as I was running, and this made me even more determined to succeed. Call the Midwife! At the beginning of June, a group of Year 10 students visited Chester University to find out more about what it takes to become a midwife. We’d already met with the lead lecturer of the Midwifery course on our Careers Day, but we were desperate to discover more... When we arrived at the Riverside Campus, in the cen‐ tre of Chester, we weren’t sure what to expect. Would we be looking at textbooks? Would there be any real babies? In fact, nothing could have prepared Aer we had invesgated the robots and found out us for what we were about to experience. about how they worked, we had a presentaon about university life in different locaons. We were told all We entered what looked like a hospital ward, com‐ about finance, courses and university social life. It was plete with beds, medical equipment and two mid‐ a really useful end to the day, and we journeyed back wives. Lying in the beds were robots. They looked just to school on a high. like humans; they even breathed and blinked! We were told that students use these ‘robots’ to pracse When we got back to school, we had a brilliant me their delivery skills. They can be programmed to do discussing the experience with our friends. Many of us many things such as give birth, encounter medical had taken photographs of the robots which made for problems like haemorrhages or breech births, and some interesng conversaons! We really valued the even to ‘speak’ to the students about how they feel. opportunity to see such a unique place with amazing At first they were a bit creepy to look at, but once we facilies, and several of us are now looking forward to learned how they worked they were really fascinang. applying to Chester University. We were able to examine the robots’ stomachs and see the baby breathing and moving, just like they would in real life. Out of This World! Miss Ghorbani recently held The winners were Lacey a compeon for her Year 8 Purchase, Chloe McCulloch, Science class, who were Mason Cree and Ella Fauld‐ studying the structure of the er, who were chosen be‐ Earth. cause of their presentaons and level of detail in their Students were asked to de‐ models. sign and produce their own models of the Earth, demon‐ Other students in Science strang their knowledge of have been enjoying a host its shape and various layers. of acvies, from an Aim They were given two weeks to purchase materials and begin Higher workshop to presentaons from the Science Club. craing their Earths before presenng them to their class‐ Some memorable moments were exploring ideas about mates. Not only did the students clarify their knowledge of atoms, radiaon and magnesm in the workshop, Ella Fauld‐ the Earth during their individual presentaons, they also er’s ‘hair‐raising’ experience with a Van de Graaf generator, explained their choice of materials and how they construct‐ presenng career ps on becoming Volcanologists and food ed their own models. sciensts, and meeng an inquisive new cohort for Sep‐ tember during Mr Evans’ Year 6 taster sessions. The effort put in by the students was so impressive that Miss Ghorbani asked Mr Sabri and Mr Scoltock to judge who they thought should win prizes for their creaons. Duke of Edinburgh The start of July – one of the hoest days of the year and as DofE students, we had the luxury of being outside in the sunshine while our peers struggled in the unrelenng heat of the classrooms back at school. Our first task was to navigate from point A to point B on our pracce expedion. Because of our new found skills from our many orienteering trips with Mrs Roberts. This proved an easy challenge and we impressed our instruc‐ tors by using ‘handrails’ and ‘cking points’. However, when our instructors asked us how we would safely walk on a road, they were less than impressed when Georgia Paddock‐Davies informed us all that it would be the same way as you would ride a bike ‘against the traffic’. Needless lunch. We had to cook this ourselves. Aer being taught to say, Georgia’s mum doesn’t allow her to own a bike. all of the safety procedures, it was me to put our culinary Another key learning moment for one of us was when Ben skills to the test.