Rossett News Update - 3 July 2020
Dear Parents/Carers
Despite the inclement weather, we have had another successful week in school with our Year 10 and 12 students who have impressed their teachers with their attendance to sessions and their learning. We look forward to the next two weeks of remote learning with featured ‘live’ lessons and events for all years; further attendance at school for our Year 10s and Year 12s; and our final stage of planning for September.
Working with the Senior Leadership Team today, we have been looking at finalising our plans for a September opening. There will be a series of detailed communications coming out to all parents and carers in the next two weeks with details of our full reopening.
I know that many of you will have read the headlines in the press this week, but for those who have asked specific questions, here is a brief summary of the guidelines:
When schools reopen fully in England in September, the government wants schools to keep students apart in separate "bubbles".
Who will be expected to go back to school?
Nearly all children of legal school age will be expected to return to class full-time in September.
This includes those with special educational needs and disabilities, or who have been shielding during the pandemic.
Do I have to send my child back?
Attendance will be mandatory again from the beginning of the autumn term.
How will the school day work?
Classes or whole year groups will be taught in "bubbles" rather than practising individual social distancing.
We will continue with our:
- hand-washing policies;
- promoting the "catch it, bin it, kill it" approach for coughing and sneezing;
- enhanced cleaning arrangements;
- readiness to contact, if necessary.
Our school kitchens will be open from September.
What about getting to and from school?
Walking or cycling to school will be encouraged. Some parents will want to continue to drop off their children at school. Parents should not, however, gather in groups at school gates or come on site without an appointment.
School transport (buses) will follow the government guidelines for public bus services or school runs.
What about breakfast or after-school clubs?
These will resume in September, but with different rules for their operation.
What else does the government say?
- Pupils should wear uniform as normal.
- Pupils should bring only essentials to school - including (filled) water bottles. lunch boxes, books, stationery and mobile phones.
- Non-contact physical education can take place - outside where possible.
- There will be an Autumn examination season for some GCSE and A Level students.
- GCSEs and A Levels will take place in summer 2021, but with adaptations to ensure fairness.
- Year 6 (2020/21) primary school assessments will happen as normal next summer.
- Ofsted inspections will remain suspended for the autumn term - but schools may be visited to assess how the new arrangements are working.
Summer Holidays and the End of Term
We have now had confirmation that schools are not required to stay open for key worker or vulnerable children over the summer holidays and so Rossett School will close to students for the summer on Friday 17 July, so that all of our staff and students can have a very well-earned break.
If you as a family are planning a holiday abroad over the summer, can I please ask you to bear in mind the constantly changing self-isolation/quarantine regulations that are currently in place, and ensure that this does not affect your child’s ability to attend school at the start of September.
Results’ Days
We have planned a remote results’ day for both GCSE and A Level. We will be emailing results out to all students first thing in the morning, with key staff then being available for support either through Teams or in school, by appointment. Again, we will be in touch with more details as soon as we have finalised plans.
Reporting Years 7-9 and Years 10 and 12.
As explained in my previous letters, all parents will receive summary reports by the end of term. Please read the accompanying letters to see what data has been used to generate the summary of learning topics studied so far, and the report on your child’s engagement with learning this term.
Pastoral Leadership for September
Please find below the names of the staff who will be leading our Years 7 – 11 from September 2020.
Director of Learning (Year 7) Mrs H Grabham
Director of Learning (Year 8) Ms N Mooney
Director of Learning (Year 9) Mr M Sweetman
Director of Learning (Year 10) Mrs E Grimshaw
Director of Learning (Year 11) Mr M Bulmer
I look forward to writing to you all in the next two weeks to confirm the details of our return to school in September.
With best wishes for a restful weekend.
H Woodcock
Headteacher
New Student Leadership Team Appointed
Our Sixth Form students have demonstrated how adaptable they are this week by taking on the challenge of a campaign to appoint a new Student Leadership Team 'virtually'. Instead of our usual 'hustings' and campaigning in school the candidates were asked to produce a two minute video/presentation setting out their proposed project idea for 2020/21. Together with a campaign poster and a virtual interview with the Senior Leadership Team, these formed the basis of their campaigns. The Sixth Form Team were really impressed with the confidence, maturity and positive attitude demonstrated by all of the candidates. Voting opened to Year 12 students and staff last week and, after a very close race and a tie for the Deputy Head Boy position, we are pleased to announce the results as follows:
Head Girl: Sophie Jones Head Boy: Oliver Houseman
Deputy Head Girl: Meghana Biswakarma (not pictured) Deputy Head Boys: Karthik Krishnan and Sam Cliff
I have met with the team today and look forward to working with them in September.
Important message for BTEC students
Pearson, the examination board have provided guidance for all BTEC students about how their results are due to be calculated this summer to help explain how the process will work. Please click the link below:
Year 6 Transition Challenge
Mrs Grabham, Director of Learning for Year 7, received some fantastic entries to her second challenge to write a book review last week. The range and variety of books that were reviewed was fantastic; from crime and intrigue to historical texts, the range and scope was extremely diverse. It was clear that there are some favoured authors in our new Year 7 cohort, with David Walliams, Jacqueline Wilson and J K Rowling featuring strongly. It was very difficult for the team to choose a winner this week and we have therefore decided to share the prize between Lucy Bucknell for her review of The Spy Who Loved School Dinners by Pamela Butchart, and Bethany Wingate, who recommended Katy by Jacqueline Wilson. Click here to read these reviews.
For the next challenge, Mrs Grabham would like the students to think about their role model; someone who inspires them, someone they might aspire to emulate or whose beliefs and behaviours are admired. The role model could be someone they know and interact with on a regular basis, perhaps a family member, a coach or a friend. They may be someone they have never met, such as a sports person, actor or celebrity. Mrs Grabham would like students to explain who their role model is and why they have chosen this person. Students can be as creative as they wish with this challenge and submit it as either a written piece of work (no more than 250 words) or as a picture or collage. However, they must include a clear reason why they have chosen this person. All entries must be submitted to transition@rossettschool.co.uk by 4pm on Wednesday 8 July.
News from the PE Department
Over recent weeks the students in Key Stage 3 have been looking at the importance of physical activity and sport in order to lead a healthy, active lifestyle and why this is so beneficial to individuals. Students were set the task of creating and composing a letter to their PE teacher to express what PE means to them, to discuss the health benefits of taking part in physical activity and also to provide any recommendations for their experiences in PE. We received many impressive pieces of work that were not only insightful and detailed but also incredibly well-researched. We have highlighted below some quotations from the fantastic letters we received:
'Ever since primary school PE has been my favourite, regardless of what sport we were playing (even football!). It’s a great feeling to be able to take my stress and channel it into something that I enjoy, like hitting a hockey ball into a goal or even just having a laugh with my friends on the pitch.'
'Another reason I believe that doing PE is really good is because it improves the cardiovascular and respiratory system. Over time, doing exercise helps strengthen the cardiac muscle that surrounds the heart. You are also able to pump a greater volume of blood with each stroke, which causes a decrease in resting heart rate.'
'Globally, 81% of adolescents aged 11-17 are insufficiently physically active. So if they do more physical activity they might be healthier and happier. Also, inactivity is one of the largest underlying causes of non-communicable disease. If you don’t do exercise then you could be unhealthy and unhappy.'
Stars of the week in PE:
Year 7: Scarlett Ritchie and Flo Bennett.
Year 8: Lewis Anderson, Sam Barker, Oliver Julier, Beth Lyons, and Robin Heywood.
Year 9: Sally Malia, Charlotte Wheat and Lauren Edwards.
Our GCSE PE students were asked to design and create a visual representation of the Cardiovascular and Respiratory System to aid with revision. We had many fantastic and anatomically correct diagrams submitted by the students, however one clear winner emerged. Hannah Thompson (10RMS) created an incredibly impressive model of both systems using a variety of different materials, including straws to represent the trachea and bronchi; Plasticine to represent the numerous blood vessels; and also the skins of an orange and a lime to recreate the left and right hand sides of the heart. Well done to all the students who took part.
Rossett School Virtual Sports Day- 6th July - 12th July
ATTENTION all students in Years 7-10!
As Sports' Day 2020 is not taking place this year, the Rossett School PE Department have decided to run a 'Virtual Sports Week' from home from Monday 6th July to Sunday 12th July. You will be given the opportunity to compete in ten events and submit your results via an on-line form which could go towards your Form Group being crowned the ‘Champions’ of your Year group!
The ten events are as follows:
1) 1-minute sit up
2) 1-minute press up
3) Standing Long Jump
4) 1km run
5) Alternative wall throw
6) Held plank
7) 30 second speed bounce
8) Wall sit
9) 1-minute chest to floor burpee
10) 1-minute step up
You can choose to do as many events as you would like, obviously more events mean more points for your Form! All of the information will be posted and go live on your PE class Team on Office 365 from Monday 6th July, which will include instructions, scoring systems and forms to submit your results as well as a video created by the PE Department of how to complete each activity safely.
All entries will need to be submitted by Sunday the 12th July in order for you to gain points for your Form. Any results submitted after this date will not be counted towards your Forms final placement. Team PE would love to see you completing any Sports' Day events so please post your attempts to our @RossettPE twitter page.
This week's PE virtual challenge results
Last week we 'raced' to the Principality stadium in Cardiff and back again. The Year 7 Football and Nettball teams took on the Year 9 Football and Netball teams. We chose Cardiff to honour former Rossett student, and now professional footballer for Leeds United, Robbie Gotts. Robbie made his league debut in Cardiff so we decided that fixture challenge will be a race from Rossett School to the Principality stadium in Cardiff and back again. That's a total of 502 miles!!!
Results are as follows:
Year 9 = 482.18m (20 miles short)
Year 7= 284.14m
Well done to Ben Crowther in Year 9 who completed 252.76 miles and Eilidh Owens in Year 7 who completed 87 miles.
This week we attempted to celebrate the beginning of Wimbledon and 'national treasure' Sir Andy Murray by pitting the Year 8 boys against the Year 8 girls but due to the rain and poor conditions it was even more challenging. We decided to move the goalposts and make the challenge more feasible by attempting the distance from Rossett School to Wimbledon tennis championships, a total of 218 miles.
After a slow start and the scores relatively close 'girl power' prevailed - the girls completed the challenge on Friday winning by a significant 40 mile margin.
Star Students
Year 7 have used their amazing origami skills to create 'fortune tellers' as a tool to revise their knowledge of the equivalence of fractions, decimals and percentages. They have linked their understanding of the magnitude of unit fractions to create the equivalent decimals. For example 1/4 is equivalent to 0.25 and 1/8 is half of the size of 1/4 and so equivalent to 0.125 (as a decimal). Special 'shout outs' to Issy Mackintosh and Mackinley Elliott.
Miss Goacher in our PE Department would like to say 'well done' to Alice Loring for achieving full marks in a 9 mark case study question after our first live lesson. Excellent detail and a very high level of knowledge and understanding of diet and nutrition are what was needed to get these full marks..
Also well done to Stanley Welford and Abbey Harland who have been major contributors in the live lessons showing the power of our remote learning in PE, with great question and answer sessions this week.
Fantastic Fundraising
You may have seen across social media earlier this week that our Year 13 student Morgan Glazier completed his fantastic challenge on Tuesday by running 30 miles on 30 June. Morgan's last run was officially started by StrayFM presenter Will Smith who also joined Morgan, along with friends and representatives from Rossett, for the first miles of his last run. Morgan initially hoped to raise £100 for mental health charity MIND but has now smashed his increased target of £5,000, and his current online support stands at over £8,000. We are sure you would agree that Morgan embodies all of the qualities fostered here at Rossett School and we congratulate him and his very supportive family and friends for this wonderful achievement.
Padlet
This week on Padlet, we feature Cressida Cowell, the Children’s Laureate who has organised an online Creativity Summer Camp from 4-10 July. The event will celebrate reading, writing, poetry and drawing with workshops and masterclasses. Lots of famous authors are joining in - Liz Pichon, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Onjali Raúf and Eoin Colfer to name a few.
We have lots of Cressida Cowell fans at school and this is sure to be a very enjoyable online experience and a great chance to unleash our students creativity.
As you will now know Padlet is a great on-line resource curated by our Learning Resource Centre Manager, Mrs Huett. Follow the link to 'Padlet' here for lots of links, reviews and book recommendations. Remember to keep checking in on 'Padlet', as news and links will be updated regularly.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
We would like to remind you of the support groups, websites and text-based helplines that exist to help students combat feelings of anxiety that may result from worrying about school or the current national coverage of the pandemic.
- Kooth – a free, online counselling service available at kooth.com
- Buzz Us – run by Compass Buzz and specific to young people from North Yorkshire; this is a text messaging service that connects students to a ‘well-being’ advisor on 07520631168 https://www.compass-uk.org/buzz-us/
- Young Minds - https://youngminds.org.uk/
- NHS Every Mind Matters - https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/
- Give us a Shout - https://www.giveusashout.org/
- The Mix - https://www.themix.org.uk/
- Nightline - https://www.nightline.ac.uk/
Tips for home learning
- Where possible have a quiet space away from distractions;
- Be organised - have a routine based around the school day including break and lunchtime;
- Leave your mobile phone in another room and turn off notifications while you are home learning;
- Stay safe on-line - only use trusted websites.
- Remember you can contact your teachers with any queries via Teams and the Network Team with any IT queries. at: studentIThelp@rossettschool.co.uk
Home Learning Activities
Mrs Cunningham has shared a wonderful design from our Year 7 student, Jess Hepworth, whose first live Design Technology lesson this week tasked students to design an inventive marble run. Along with the design Jess has completed an informative PowerPoint presentation of how she has tested her design before the construction stage. Also impressing Mrs Cunningham is Georgina Wood, also Year 7, who prepared a meal as part of her healthy take away project - we think it looks delicious!
Mrs Phelps was delighted to receive a picture from Hetty Sadler in Year 8 who has taught herself how to crochet during lockdown and has made this wonderful avocado!
Miss Askew's Year 9 Drama group have responded to an Alan Bennett-style task by writing in character a monologue for a character in response to the current pandemic. There were some touching and powerful pieces and some light-hearted ones too. Well done to Ava Nurthen, Charlie Sharman, Leila Buono, Zak Parker, Emma Coates, Martha Ridley, Martha Capitano, Halle Clarke and Yael Braunstein for their contributions. Next week the students will perform their monologues in role, focusing on the delivery of the piece and using their vocal expression to communicate meaning and emotion. Read some examples of the students' work here.
H Woodcock
Headteacher
