Friday 12th May 2017 Issue 28 Contact Details Reception: 01625 526191 Attendance: 01625 441089 Sixth Form Attendance: Through to the National Finals – the Magistrates’ Mock Trial team 01625 441070 have won again It’s the 5th year in a row Wilmslow High School have got throught to the Second hand national finals of the Magistrates’ Mock Trial competition and it puts us uniform shop: in the top 16 out of the 263 teams that have entered from all over the 07889 924692 country. Community Liaison: The case was about stolen bikes. The Chapmans live in a flat. Nik 01625 444159 Speller is their landlord. They don’t get on. Nik hates the way they keep their four bikes in the communal area, blocking the exit and posing a fire School lettings: hazard. She’s threatened to move them lots of times. 01625 441053 Kate Rishworth won the award for the best individual performance in High Notes both the local heat and the regional final. As a barrister, she epitomised highnotes@wilmslow ‘polite, measured and deadly’. high.cheshire.sch.uk Our barristers, Clara Edler, Kate Rishworth and George Ainsworth, gave perfectly honed speeches and persuaded witnesses from other schools to admit that black was white. Our witnesses, Lilia Dandache, Jessica Davidson, Sophie Williams and Martha Simpson refused to budge an inch. Our Magistrates were Leila Mulholland and Alice Kraunsoe, our legal advisor was Nyiree Couligan and our usher, Evie Clayton. @wilmslowhigh @whigh_maths As always, the judges commented on how well prepared we were, how cleverly we analysed and argued the case and how professionally we @whigh_eng presented it. Now, we’ve got to get back to intensive rehearsals for the wilmslowhigh.com national finals in Nottingham Magistrates’ Court on 17th June. Wish us luck! - Mrs D Roussak (To read the article in full please click here: https://tinyurl.com/km9885n) 1 The Portico Sadie Massey Awards Congratulations to Megan Moore and Oliver Smith who have been awarded prizes for their entries in The Portico Sadie Massey Awards for Young Readers and Writers. They are invited to this very special library for an award ceremony in June. Here, they will meet the judging panel consisting Walk All Over Cancer of poets and authors from the North In March, 3 staff members from the ASC West region and enjoy a performance by Resource team, Katie Goodwin, Norma Manchester poet, Tony Walsh. Waddell and Val Hulme, took on the challenge of ‘Walking All Over Cancer’. Cancer Research UK asked people to raise money and awareness by doing 10,000 steps a day, every day in March, to help beat cancer sooner. Cancer survival rates have doubled over the past 40 years and consistent progress is being made but improvements to technology and ground-breaking work offer new opportunities to find different ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer and improve survival rates even further. In order to hit the target, each staff member needed to do a total of 310,000 steps during March, making a collaborative sum of 930,000. Half way through the challenge, it was looking good so, a new target was set by the team to try and reach 1,000,000 steps by the end of the month. At 11.59pm on 31st March, the team had managed 1,174,481 steps having walked a total distance of 853.6km! The team raised £566.25, including gift aid, for the charity, which will be used to help Cancer Research UK improve results even faster. 2 Hire For Attitude, Train For Skill Monday 8th May saw Bott & Co Managing No doubt when it comes to employment, Partner Paul Hinchliffe, Operations Manager competition is getting tougher by the day. Ann Walter, Learning and Education Apprenticeships are good for business but Manager Dianne Wheeler, Marketing and more importantly good for the youth because Communications Officer Alakie Asige Ginn they give young people opportunities beyond have the pleasure of visiting Wilmslow High the classroom. People are at the heart of School and meeting what was originally every thriving company and one can argue supposed to be just the school’s 6th formers that businesses are playing a huge role when and Mock trial team but turned out to a room it comes to youth training in the UK. The filled with young, keen and very switched on greatest asset of any business is their people students. I must admit, we felt really old! and investing in them through programs such as apprenticeships demonstrates your It was refreshing to see such interest and commitment to empowering them. enthusiasm shown through the types of questions they were throwing at us: “What do you look for when someone sends you an application?” “Is doing an apprenticeship better than going to university?” “What is the age requirement for your apprentices?” “What is the difference between paralegals, legal executives and lawyers?” “You mentioned a Communications department, but why is that important in a LAW firm?” “My sister is currently at university, but I know that’s not the route I want to take, what options can you offer someone like me?” “Could you talk more about the Level 3 and 7 CILEx courses?” So the next time you find yourself in a situation where a teenager asks you about All these questions not only helped the careers, take time to listen, support, answer, students in terms of thinking about their clarify and even bust certain myths about future careers, but for us at Bott & Co, it was learning and the workplace that are still beneficial to hear the concerns and some floating around. Because let’s face it, look issues most students of this age are facing. around you and you will see that it’s not true For us, our take home message was how that ‘Apprenticeships are for people who else we can better the work we do at the don’t do well at school’, it’s also not true firm, to make sure that those that join us that ‘Apprenticeships don’t lead to good get a wholesome worthwhile experience, so qualifications’, it’s not true that ‘Graduates that when they leave they are equipped with have better career prospects’, and it’s lifelong transferable skills that will help them certainly not true that ‘Businesses prefer to not only in their careers, but also in terms of hire university students’. personal development. Are we doing enough? Could we do more? - Bott & Co, Solicitors 3 Important Notices for parents of Year 11 students Below are some important messages for our Year 11 students as they prepare for their examinations. These will also be included in a letter home to Year 11 parents next week. Study Leave A reminder to all our parents that timetabled lessons covering exam content and exam preparation sessions will be continuing until Thursday 26th May. This is because the longer that students are in school the more likely they are to perform well in their exams. After the Whit holiday, there will be a blend of exam preparation activities, support sessions and independent home study. It is important that each student plans carefully with their teachers the right programme for them. This will vary from student to student. We will give your son or daughter clear guidance on the programme of lessons, exam preparation and independent home study that they should be following in order to achieve most highly. Is your child struggling to revise effectively? There will be a ‘how to revise’ session on Monday 15th May at 3.20 in Room 116. We would advise this for ANY student who feels that they could revise more effectively From the English team: English GCSE Preparation As Year 11 students begin their final preparations, we would like to draw your attention to some important dates and information leading up to students’ English GCSE examinations. There will be final exam walk-through sessions, with class teachers, on the dates and times listed below. Unless students are advised otherwise, these sessions will take place in students’ usual English rooms. These are vital sessions in order for students to remind themselves of the specific requirements for each question in both the Language and Literature examinations: Thursday 18th May: Periods 5 & 6 Thursday 25th May: Periods 3 & 4 Monday 5th June: 11.15am - 12.45pm Thursday 8th June: Periods 5 & 6 4 A reminder that revision resources can be found on Firefly at the following links: English Language http://wilmslowhigh.fireflycloud.net/english-1 English Literature http://wilmslowhigh.fireflycloud.net/english-literature English clinic will be running in the LRC on Tuesdays from 3:20 – 4:00pm and the ‘Quotes by Rote’ session will also be held at this time in room 35. These sessions are open to all students, and we advise our students to take every opportunity to work with us in the final run up to the examinations From the Maths team: In Maths, practice, practice, practice makes all the difference. The Maths team are asking both Foundation and Higher students to undertake 15 practice tests which have been given out by class teachers and are available on Firefly for students to download and print should they want to have another go. These tests are a vital tool for students’ preparation for their exams as they will allow students to address any gaps in their knowledge before their exams. These papers have been shared with every student. If they go onto the “tasks” section on firefly it will be there Exam technique is also crucial. Students getting their timing of questions right is an important part of effective exam technique so we are recommending that all of our students ensure that they have a watch (NOT a smart watch) that they are getting into the habit of using in exam practice now so that they are well prepared.