Rossett News Update - 7 February 2020
Celebrating Chinese New Year
Year 7 and Year 8 Rossett students of Mandarin enjoyed a fantastic evening celebrating the Chinese New Year of the Rat. They enjoyed spectacular entertainment performed by Chinese acrobats, jugglers and musicians. Some of our students were keen to learn some juggling skills for themselves. Speakers from the Confucius Institute in Leeds gave talks about Chinese culture and the importance of learning Mandarin for future job opportunities. Rossett students also enjoyed a delicious Chinese Banquet. We are very proud of two of our students, Julian and Jack Hartness who have shown their dedication to learning Mandarin and have passed Level 2 of the Chinese Youth Tests. They were presented with their certificates on the evening.
UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge
Yesterday over 90 of our students took part in the annual UKMT intermediate challenge. Every year we are very successful in these competitions and we are hoping that this year will be the same. Our entries have been posted and we await the results in a month's time.
We have also had an exciting update for the Senior UKMT Kangaroo round that we reported on from earlier in the year. The results are in and Laurie O'Brien achieved a Qualification Certificate and Katie Merkel a Merit Certificate which is phenomenal considering the small number of students nationally who were invited to sit this additional challenge. Katie's score put her in the top 25% of these students. Our congratulations to all of the students at Rossett for their efforts in responding to 'challenging' Mathematics' problems.
Oxford School's Debating Competition
On Monday evening, eight of our Year 12 students represented Rossett School at the regional round of the Oxford School’s Debating Competition. The event took place at St Peter’s School in York and each team took part in two debates. The first motion was ‘This House Regrets the Commemoration of War’ and the second motion was ‘This House Would Allow Workers to Give up Some of Their Rights for Higher Pay’. These were difficult motions and the students were allowed only ten minutes to prepare their arguments with no access to the internet! Our students received great feedback from their debates and performed well against some tough competition. Well done to all the students involved: Sam Cliff, Ben Hall-Walmsley, Amber Jocelyn, Luke Hogan, Charley Bartle, Rebecca Hall, Evelyn Richards, Katie Merckel.
Parents' Post-Ofsted Parents' Evening
Many thanks to the parents who attended our second Post-Ofsted Parents' Evening on 5th February. The presentations on the evening addressed key points from our action plans and reported progress to date from the last nineteen weeks since our visit.
Further details will follow of our Parents' Forum events for Teaching and Learning and Attitudes to Learning and Behavior. Parents are invited to attend these groups and work with staff to be involved in the improvement work of the school.
Sixth Form Interviews
Our Year 11 'Next Steps' interviews have been taking place this week and students have had the opportunity to discuss their A Level and Level 3 subject choices with senior staff. Formal offer letters to students will be issued after the interview process has been completed. Staff have been really pleased to hear of the positive comments regarding our careers advice, and the high aspirations for the future from our Year 11 students.
England call-up for Rossett Rising Star!
Congratulations to Eilidh Owens who has been selected as part of the JKS England National Squad for 2020. Eilidh trains with Sensei, Matt Price, from Harrogate Shotokan Karate who also coaches the England team. Matt Price is also a former student of Rossett School. Well done to Eilidh. All at Rossett wish her and the team every success in competition this year.
Rotary Technology Tournament
This week Rossett students took part in the annual, regional Rotary Technology competition held in Harrogate. Over 10 schools entered from our region with more that 40 teams competing in three age categories. Our 'beginners' team came third in the design award and received a Bronze certificate.
The event is a fantastic experience for all the students involved as they get to talk to people from industry such as engineers and business owners and are able to mix with students from other schools. Each team were presented with a challenge on arrival and were given a set amount of time and materials to make their prototype.
Well done to all for taking part but especially to Patrick Fleming, Pari Dandy, William Haines and Ella Lewis, who were the Bronze award winners.
British Biology Olympiad
On Wednesday 5th February, a group of Sixth Form students will take part in the British Biology Olympiad (BBO). The BBO challenges and stimulates students with an interest in Biology to expand and extend their talents, enabling students to demonstrate their knowledge and to be suitably rewarded with publicly recognised certificates and medals.
The BBO is open to students in post-16 education studying at school or college. The competition consists of two, 45-minute multiple choice papers to be taken online under staff supervision. Top scoring students will be offered the opportunity to attend an awards ceremony in London. Good luck to all of our Sixth Form Rossett students who are taking part.
Road Safety Advice
This week our Year 12 students received road safety advice from the Police and Fire Brigade and also from Lauren Doherty, who delivered a powerful road safety message following a life-changing accident in 2016. Lauren, recounted an incident on a night out with friends when she became distracted and made a split second decision to cross the road at the wrong time, and was hit by a van.
As a result of her accident, Lauren was left paralysed and now relies on others to help her. Lauren has courageously rebuilt her life around her disability and devotes her time to share her road safety message with others, especially at local schools and clubs. Lauren was nominated in two categories in the Yorkshire Choice Awards 2019.
The Police and Fire Brigade discussed speed, drugs and alcohol and emotive videos were shown to reinforce the important messages that were delivered to ensure that all our students understand the impact of the choices that they make.
Sims Learning Gateway
Sims our information management systems' provider has suddenly stopped offering the Learning Gateway service. We apologise for the 'break in service' that this means for those of you who use this facility to track information relating to your child. We are currently investigating the best way to replace this for our parents and hope to have a replacement system up and running in the near future. We will be in contact with all parents in due course with further details and we apologise for the short-term inconvenience this may cause. If you do have any questions regarding your child's progress in the meantime then do please get in contact with your child's Form Tutor, Student Support Officer or Director of Learning.
Summer 2020 GCSE and A Level Examinations Timetable
The Summer 2020 GCSE and A Level Examinations Timetable are on the Rossett School website here.
PTA News
Rossett PTA has just launched an exciting way for you to help support the school, and, have a chance of winning up to £25,000.
Your School Lottery is an exciting weekly lottery that raises money for schools in the UK. Play the lottery to support our school - it’s that simple!
Tickets for the lottery cost just £1 per week, with a top prize of £25,000!
Each ticket will consist of 6 numbers and each number will be between 0 and 9. There will be a draw every Saturday night when a six digit winning combination will be picked. Match all 6 and you win the JACKPOT! Winners will be sent an email notification of their success.
Every week, there is a guaranteed winner from Rossett School who will win 30% of the ticket sales for the week!
Just visit the online lottery site, buy your tickets and wait for the first draw on 29 February 2020! – For full details and to buy your tickets, see the website - https://www.yourschoollottery.co.uk/lottery/school/rossett-school
Sign up before 22 February 2020 for a chance win a Fitbit Bundle for your family.
Congratulations to...
- Year 7 Girls' 5-a-side Team who represented North Yorkshire at the North of England Tournament this week! The girls are a credit to the school and have been both Responsible and Resilient throughout the competition - well done!
- Year 11 Boys' Football Team who will complete in the North Yorkshire School Football semi-final following a 5-4 win on penalties to Tadcaster Grammar School;
- Year 10 Boys' Football Team (B) who won against King James's School 4-2.
What's happening next week ...
Monday 10 February
- DT Graphics practical examination: Period 1 and 2.
Tuesday 11 February
- Governors' Resources Committee Meeting: 6.30pm.
Wednesday 12 February
- DT Graphics practical examination: Periods 1-4..
Friday 14 February
- Ski Trip Departs;
- Year 13 Mock examination results.
H Woodcock
Headteacher
