Rossett News Update - 5 July 2019

Oxford University Visit

On Tuesday 2 July, fourteen Sixth Form students set off to Oxford to attend a University Open Day accompanied by Miss Veitch and Mrs Grabham. The group stayed overnight at Brasenose College, where they enjoyed an evening meal and breakfast in the college dining hall. On Wednesday the students spent the day attending subject lectures, visiting colleges and understanding the application process, before catching the train back to Harrogate. The students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and are excited about the next stage in their academic journey.

Mandarin Students

Talented Year 7 and Year 8 linguists have been enjoying the challenge of learning Mandarin this year.

Year 7 students have learnt a wide variety of topics including talking about their family and pets and buying and ordering food.   Students were presented with special certificates for their outstanding performance studying the Chinese Youth Test Course 1.   Year 8 linguists also celebrated their success studying Course 2 with a special Chinese tea party.

Sports' Day

We had yet another successful Sports' Day on Tuesday which included a 'Retro' Sports Day (featuring old favourites such as an egg and spoon race and a sack race) -  other highlights were the tug of war, rounders and soft ball  which allowed participation that encompassed the whole year group.  The usual track and field events  ran alongside these activities culminating in a 'finals' event during Period 5.

Congratulations to:

• Issy Smith who broke the Year 10 100m record which now stands at 13.26 seconds.This record has stood for 28 years when an ex-student ran the distance in 13.47 seconds in 1991.
   
• Freddie Robinson who broke the Year 8 Long Jump record which now stands at 5.09m - this was 2cm beyond the previous record set 19 years ago of 5.07m.

Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Final Expedition

Congratulations to all 103 students who completed their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Expedition last weekend, and did  well despite the intense heat.  The students  walked from Wath near Pateley Bridge to their camp at Breaks Fold Farm near West End.  The finish line was in  Hampsthwaite on Sunday afternoon.  All of the students demonstrated  true resilience and determination and completed the routes despite the very high temperatures - special recognition goes to Izzy Storey and Lucy Hudson who were both poorly but who carried on to complete the expedition. Ben Barker was very brave and managed to complete the expedition in spite of an  injury to his lip the night before!

Thank you to all of the staff involved who gave up so much time to help the students achieve their goal, it would not be possible without their commitment.

Year 6 Induction Days

Next week we are looking forward to welcoming our new Year 7 students who will be joining us in September.  They will spend Wednesday and Thursday in school experiencing lessons and routines, meeting staff and other students, as well as taking part in a variety of other activities.

There will be a Parents' Information Evening for our new Year 7 parents between 7pm and 9pm on Wednesday 10 July providing the opportunity to meet our Senior Leadership Team, discuss uniform requirements with Rawcliffes and review bus requirements with our staff.

PSHE Days

Next Wednesday students will take part in a variety of timetabled PSHE events instead of their usual lessons:

Year 7: Risk Prevention Day - students look at home, school, personal safety and health including a practical session on First Aid.

Year 8: Enterprise and Financial Awareness Day - students are offered the opportunity to participate in a stock market trading game and complete the Enterprise Challenge.

Year 9: Sexual Awareness - students consider the laws of consent, methods of contraception, learn how to protect against sexually transmitted diseases and discuss sex and the law.

Year 10: Personal Safety Day - including a demonstration of how road traffic accidents are dealt with from the fire service.  This event makes it clear how to stay safe on a bike or in a car.

On Thursday Year 8 students will take part in a First Aid training event sponsored by the Harrogate Lions.  The Harrogate Community First Responders' team will be teaching about 999 calls, CPR and the use of a community defibrillator.

 

On Friday the following events take place:

Year 7 'Who Do We Think We Are' - students will celebrate diversity and culture within British Society and beyond.  Students will take part in a range of activities and therefore will not be required to wear school uniform but should wear loose-fitting clothing suitable for physical activity/practical workshops (ie no shorts/skirts or revealing tops please).

Year 10 Employers' Conference - over thirty local and national employers will be in school giving talks to the Year 10s and offering all of our students the opportunity to take part in mock interviews.

Uniform expectations

For the remaining two weeks of the school year as the weather is warmer, the following uniform guidelines will be in place:

• Students should arrive to school wearing their blazer.
• If the weather is warm and they would feel more comfortable without a blazer on, students may remove it and put it in their bag.
• Students cannot replace their blazer with a school sweatshirt / hoodie / coat – if they are wearing something over their shirt it must be their blazer.
• Students must make sure that their shirt is tucked in and their top button and tie are fastened.
• There are no other changes to uniform policy for the last two weeks and students should continue to wear school shoes and appropriate skirts / trousers as outlined on our website.

Thank you for your support in ensuring your child arrives at school with the correct uniform.

Mr Royles/Mr Saunders

Paris Trip

Rossett students are currently enjoying the sights of Paris on a cultural tour of the city.  Highlights of the trip so far have been an evening boat trip along the river Seine, a stroll down the Champs Elysee and enjoying views from the top of Arc de Triomphe.  The students will take in more sights of the city today and will return home on Sunday after enjoying a day at Disneyland Paris.

Eco Club

One of Rossett's newest co-curricular clubs, Eco-Club, has been working tirelessly over this term to start the journey to become an international Green Flag Award Eco-School. The programme is designed to raise environmental awareness among young people and is run by the environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy. Internationally, the programme is the largest educational programme in the world present in 67 countries and 52,000 schools. Our school is now part of this global community working to create environmental change for the benefit of future generations.

So far, students have undertaken surveys to assess how eco-friendly our school is, including monitoring levels of biodiversity, litter, water usage, energy and transport to and from school.

The findings of these surveys have enabled the students to identify strengths and areas for development within how we operate. Results show that some things that we are doing well as a school are our transportation plan; monitored and low water usage, reduced energy usage (a large proportion of the school’s lights have recently been replaced with more sustainable ones); and lastly, our healthy and varied school lunches.

However, thanks to this evaluation, they have also decided that there are few things that we also need to improve as a school.  The students have therefore reflected on this to develop an action plan to improve our environmental impact. Highlights of this plan include strategies to monitor and improve biodiversity on the school site; reduce littering and waste and help the marine life in our oceans by cutting down on our plastic usage.

Eco-club have been presenting their findings to the school community in assemblies this week and aim to continue to do so in weeks to come; as well as creating a new eco-board, where students and staff can easily see the aims outcomes of various projects that will be run within the school to work towards these goals.

These successes have led to Rossett being awarded a Bronze eco-award last week, becoming one of only a few schools in the country to be recognised in this way for our environmental awareness.

If, as a parent, you would like to get involved in the Eco-School programme by sharing your time, ideas or skills please do not hesitate to contact us. If you would like to get involved but are struggling for spare time, don’t worry we will keep you updated on our progress regularly.

And, if any students are interested in joining the Eco club, it is held on Monday after school in Lab 6.  We hope you are as excited about our Eco-Journey as we are!

Family Learning Day - Help the PTA

Our Family Learning Day for new Year 7 students takes place on the morning of Saturday 13 July 2019.  The PTA are seeking volunteers to help serve refreshments on the day.  If you can spare some time to help at this event, please contact info@rossettpta.co.uk.  

Congratulations to...

• The Year 8 Boys' Cricket Team won in a close game against  Harrogate Grammar School.

What's happening next week...

Monday 8 July 2019

• Year 10 visit to the University of York;
• Year 6 Small Cohort visit.

Tuesday 9 July

• 'Sparkle and Shine' Day.

Wednesday 10 July

• Whole school: late lunch;
• PSHE Day, whole school;
• Year 6 Induction Day 1;
• Year 6 Parents' Information Evening:  Main Hall, 7.00pm-9.00pm.

Thursday 11 July

• Whole school: late lunch;
• Year 6 Induction Day 2;
• Year 8 First Aid;
• Sixth Form Induction Day;
• New Year 12 Parents' Information Evening: Sixth Form Centre, 7pm.

Friday 12 July

• Year 7 'Who Do We Think We Are' Day;
• Year 10 Employers' Fair;
• Final Duke of Edinburgh Gold Expedition departs for the Lake District.

Saturday 13 July

• Family Learning Day for Year 6 students.
• Spanish Trip Departs.

H Woodcock

Headteacher