e-PhoenixNewsletter Spring Term 2015

Meadowhead SchoolAcademy Trust

Welcometo this term’s e-Phoenix -our short and snappy newsletter. If youare reading online, you can go to thefull article by clicking the greensymbol.

In the first week of March wehosted this annual event aimed atinspiring our students to considertheir future ambitions. Exhibitorshosted stalls in the Rosling and inclassrooms staff taught lessonswhich showed how subjects link tothe world of employment. We alsoinvited guest presenters to lead

World of Work Week2015

Volume 2

sessions linking employability andsubject specific skills. We would liketo thank all the businesses andorganisations for their support.

On the 2nd March, 85 Y8linguists enjoyed an afternooncompleting their own passportwith surprising facts aboutlanguages, taking part inquizzes and listening toforeign rock songs! Thestudents also learnt howimportant it is to learn alanguage to use in futurecareers and howunderstanding other culturesis essential for futureworkplace collaborations.

The BigChallenge 2015citywide enterprise competitionhas been a great success withtwo teams “Funny but True”

(Y9) and “Harvey Morton IT Support” (Y12) reaching the finals at theRoyal Victoria Hotel Sheffield. Both teams were runners up in theirKey Stage groups. This is a fantastic achievement as thecompetition was fierce, with 261 teams across the city who ransmall businesses with just £25 start-up loan for 6 months. Harveyalso took home the award for the most profit made. Congratulationsto both teams!A big well done to every team thatentered The Big Challenge this yearin particular “HAE Inspirations,”“Cloud Crafts” and semi-finalists“Ace” who were each rewarded withMeadowhall Gift Vouchers forsubmitting excellent final reports.

Meadowhead has gained theprestigious status of National CitizenService (NCS) Champion Schooland I was delighted to be invited toattend the House of Commons onTuesday 3rd March for a receptionheld by the NCS.  Y11-13 studentstaking part in the NCS programmeexperience new challenges andlearn new skills through teambuilding, outdoor activities and alocal community project - wecurrently have 80 of our Y11students signed up.  At thereception, held in the very ornateSpeakers House, the presentationswere led by John Bercow (Speakerof the House of Commons) andDavid Blunkett MP who is a non-executive director of NCS andpassionate about supporting youngpeople.  Mr Fowler

Did you attend Meadowhead School,Rowlinson or Jordanthorpe?Then join our network of former students onthe Future First website:

https://networks.futurefirst.org.uk/former-student/meadowhead

Big Challenge 2015

IGD Workshop On the 3rd March the Institute ofGrocery Distribution ran asession for a group of Y9 students,providing an insight into the worldof work and how the subjectsstudied now are going to help themin their future careers. The studentslooked at the transferable skillsthey can develop at KS4 and thediverse roles available in the foodand consumer goods industry.

A Passport toLanguages

Parliament Visit

World of WorkWeek continued

To celebrate British Science andEngineering Week students from allyear groups were treated to talksfrom world leading academics andsubject specialists.

The guest speakers, assembled byMr O’Brien, gave lectures coveringthe brain, flying machines, poisonsand the science of the paranormal.

Science Week 2015

The Science, Technology, Engineering andMathematics (STEM) club enjoyed a trip to theAdvanced Manufacturing Research Centre at theend of February to learn about aerodynamics,design and engineering.

Hosted by Dr Jamie McGourlay of Rolls-Royce,the group enjoyed a tour of the centre whichdevelops jet engines, nuclear energy productionand rocket-powered cars

AdvancedManufacturing Visit

Over February half term year 8were set a scientific challenge.

The year group were tasked withbuilding a model of a streamlinedvehicle using all of theirknowledge of aerodynamics andforces that they had just learntabout in Science and their bestarts and craft abilities.

The year group excelled in theircreations producing hundreds ofvaried models.

This gave the judges a tough timechoosing between them, but in theend they selected Amy Bottomley(Best Car), Natalie Smith (BestBoat) and Charlie Ramsden (BestPlane) as the winners.

StreamliningChallenge

“It was very informative and Ienjoyed the 1:1 time with mychild and helping her todevelop new skills”.“It was a very relaxedenvironment which helps withcreativity”“A very positive andinspirational experience”“I’ve enjoyed the bonding timewith my child and being ableto support and encouragehim”

As part of the ERASMUSJOB SHADOWINGPROJECT, Mr Raju andMrs Evans spent time atthe San Valero School inZaragoza, Spain observinghow specific subjects such asMathematics and Technologywere being taught abroad.

This falls under the bigger remitof increasing student participationwithin the STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering andMathematics) subjects atMeadowhead School AcademyTrust.

Their visit also focused on howvocational learning and trainingwere been delivered at the school.A similar trip also took place inKoblenz, Germany and involved MrLudlum and Ms Alcock. Here, theyobserved an impressive Y7 classwho were taught Maths entirely inEnglish! Some of the English usedin the Biology class was toocomplicated for Mr Ludlam! Theyvisited a local pharmaceutical

Out andAbout!

FamilyEngagement

This term we started our popular 4 week ‘Y7 FAMILY ENGAGEMENT’courses in English and Maths to assist targeted students with theirlearning, and to inform parents of how to support their child in lessons byexperiencing some of the kind of activities they might be asked to do,either at school or as homework. Next term will continue with 4 weeks ofScience, followed by family cooking to round off the year. Feedback fromparents has been very positive with families seeing improved confidencelevels, learning new skills and parents experiencing different ways oflearning with their child.

BLOOD BROTHERS AT THELYCEUM. Over 220 Y11students went to see BloodBrothers at the LyceumTheatre in Sheffield inJanuary.

Students trudged through thesnow to reach the city centre,determined to enjoy theperformance. What aperformance it was! Welaughed, we gasped, andsome Y11s even shed a tearat the emotional ending.

SPANISH AND FRENCHREVISION AT CASTLETON.23 Year 11 students enjoyedthis intensive revisionweekend at the beginning ofMarch, focusing on improvingtheir listening and readingskills plus lots of exampractice! There was a littlefree time, but the studentsworked hard throughout andwere a credit to the school.Well done and thank you to allthe staff who worked withthem.

company with a group of Y12Biology students and had a go atmaking their own moisturisingcreams. The school, and inparticular their host Patrizia, wasincredibly helpful.

Erasmus JobShadowing Project

On Friday 6th February our Year 7pupils left school for the annual resi-dential trip to the Kingswood Centrein Staffordshire

There were 6 coaches, 24 Meadow-head staff, 234 pupils, 15 Kings-wood instructors and one year ofprior planning in order to make thistrip run successfully. “There were five coaches in total and everyone couldn’t wait to get

there. Although the week before it had been snowing, we werelucky to have nice weather.

My group went into caves, and although it was a challenge goingthrough the tunnels and sometimes quite scary, I was glad that Ihad the opportunity to try something that I had not done before.

My favourite activity had to be the zip-wire because by doing this Iovercame my fear of heights. I also enjoyed archery andeven scored a bull’s-eye!

Overall we had a great time, but it wasgood to be back in my own bedon Sunday night.”

Rebecca Goulding 7J

Kingswood 2015

May I pass on our thanks to all ofthose involved in running this trip,especially Mrs Christie, Mrs ESmith and Ms Barton.

Mrs S Smith

The whole trip was, again, a greatsuccess, with the majority of pupilstrying something new and/or doingsomething they didn’t think they’d beable to do. They all had a go atclimbing, abseiling, zip wire, caving,obstacle courses, team building andarchery.

We all arrived home safe and well,but exhausted, on Sunday afternoon.There was only one casualty: OliverAnderson broke his arm whilst play-ing football on the yard. He was tak-en to hospital but was desperate tocome back to Kingswood to be withhis mates!

support in organising theactivities this term. We haveraised a fantastic  £1181.75for Comic Relief from a widevariety of events: ‘wear red’donations from staff andstudents, a sixth form bakesale, sales of Red Noses, a

staff Comic Reliefsweepstake and cookiebake off and a ‘splat the

teacher’ fun balloon gamein the Rosling.

Mr Fowler, Mr Raju, MrsChristie and Mr Eastwood

made their faces funny formoney and then allowed theirprinted images to be used forthis inventive take on acoconut shy.

On Thursday 5th March students could see some well-known bookcharacters come to life. These included The Woman in Black,Katniss Everdeen and Count Dracula as members of staff dressedup. A competition was held for students to spot as many as possible

INTERMEDIATE UKMATHEMATICS CHALLENGESome top set pupils from Y9 andY10 took part in the IntermediateUK Maths challenge in February.Pupils from all over the countryenter and some of our pupilsachieved a Silver award or aBronze award.

Jake Furniss from Y9 did wellenough to get through to thenext round of the competitionwhich took place on Thursday19th March. We are still waitingto hear the results, but wish himgood luck!

Charity

Fundraising

SheffieldHeeley Candidates Quizzed!

On Wednesday 25th February, our SixthFormers had a chance to question fivecandidates who are standing to be thenext MP for Sheffield Heeley. Many of ourstudents will be able to vote for the firsttime in May. They asked questions on abroad range of issues including tuitionfees, the environment, benefits, the NHSand internet privacy.

throughout the day and inEnglish lessons Y7 and Y8students designed their ownbookmarks. The LearningCentre ran a competition‘#Shelfies’, with studentshighlighting their favourite bookon their shelf.

World BookDay 2015

Thank you toeveryone who hascontributed to ourfundraising andgiven their

Thanks to our Comic

Relief Team for allthe hard work!

The Y7 RUGBYteam finishedjoint first in acompetitionbetweenSilverdale,King Egberts, KingEdwards and WickersleyComp, having won against 3of the teams. There weresome outstandingperformances from the team,however Jake Dunn wassingled out by staff from otherschools as being a class act,with his tackling and his abilityto find gaps and scoreimportant tries.

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Rugby

Y10 BOYS FOOTBALL. The Players of the Year Award goes to MaxFisher and Ehsan Mohammed. Max’s tackling and Ehsan’s passing haveboth been top class. The award could have gone to any player, as allplayers have been magnificent ! Frazer Russell was voted the Players’Player for the Y10 football team.Y10 Boys Football reached the South Yorkshire Schools Cup Final, andthe Sheffield Schools Cup Final. *STOP PRESS* Meadowhead beatEcclesfield 3-2 to win their first Sheffield Cup! Very well done!

Girls’

FootballU13s GIRLS’

FOOTBALL - The girlsgot through to the 3rd round in the

South Yorkshire Cup and the 2nd

round in the National Cup.Unfortunately the girls came upagainst some really strong teams;they all played extremely well anddeserved to go even further.

U15 GIRLS FOOTBALL (Y9/10)An excellent season this year,seeing the U15 girl’s football teamget to the semi-finals of the SouthYorkshire Cup. They also got to thelast 64 in the English Schools Cup.

U16 GIRLS FOOTBALL (Y10/11)A very well fought season, withsome excellent performances. Weare in the Sheffield league semi-finals, hoping to gain a place in thefinal which will be played afterEaster. Very well done everyone!

Y11 BOYS FOOTBALL. Congratulations to some brilliantfootballers this year! Tom Cropper has performed well in anumber of positions, and Jono Cooper led by example putting in 2fantastic performances in 2 key cup games against both NotreDame and Newfield. Joe Rowley has been offered aFootball Scholarship at Chesterfield Football Club -we hope to see you on the big stage very soon!James Hastings was voted Players’ Player for theY11 football team– one of the most satisfying awardsyou can receive in football . The Y11 boys footballteam have reached the prestigious Clegg Shield CupFinal - hopefully the boys will come away with somewell-deserved silverware.

Recognising SportingAchievements

Y10

Y11

Our Y11 team received the Special AchievementAward for an outstanding record over 5 years. JamesHastings received the Pauline Fiddler Award for hisimpeccable attitude and commitments to SheffieldSchools’ football.

120th AnniversarySheffield Federation

for School SportsAwards Evening

Dyche Lane, Sheffield S8 8BR

Tel: 0114 2372723 www.meadowhead.sheffield.sch.uk

CROSS - COUNTRYLuke, Joseph and Jonathan haveall been selected to representSouth Yorkshire at the CrossCountry Championships at theEnglish Schools AA CrossCountry Championships inBlackburn on Saturday 14thMarch. They first had to qualifyto represent Sheffield at theSouth Yorkshire Championshipsat Graves Park, having excelledat six Saturday morning eventslocated around Sheffield.Well done to these boys - this isa tremendous achievement andwe wish all three students thebest of luck!

GOLF COMPETITION - 19th March 2015. We have had anotherfantastic year of golf. Three golfers - Holly Morgan, Alexandra Williamsand Jonathan Cooper represented Meadowhead School at the SouthYorkshire Golf competition at Hickleton Golf Club in Doncaster. Hollywon the girls competition for the second year in a row withMeadowhead finishing 4th overall. Well done to Holly, Alex andJonathan for their superb performance.

Meadowhead School Academy Trust

On Mondays after school we have been running a girls boxing club through Sheffield City BoxingClub. Students have been carrying out various boxing activities and working on their overall generalfitness. Mr Warburton has been running the club here and has been really pleased with theattendance and the commitment of the students. Students have enjoyed it so much that they havecontacted the Sheffield Boxing Club to look at joining and becoming more involved with the activity.

TENNIS - Over the last few yearstennis has been on the rise in termsof its popularity with the talents ofRoger Federer, Rafael Nadal, NovakDjokovic and Andy Murray.Meadowhead School has its ownrising tennis talent in Joseph.Outside of school Joe plays a lot oftennis and has been doing reallywell in tournaments around thecountry. His most recent one was inDerby which he won, qualifying forfurther tournaments and events.We wish Joseph all the best with histennis in future competitions.

We are looking forward to our 2015 summer athletics and aim to repeat some of last summer’s success – wehave some outstanding talent in Year 8, including Ellie Bradshaw (1st High Jump and 3rd 200m), Molly Butcher(3rd 100m), Alex Gregory (4th 200m) and Millie Edey (5th 100m) and with these achievements last year, we willbe showcasing this talent again! Well done girls.

SportingAchievements

Congratulations to our Y10 footballteam who have just won their firstSheffield Cup! Very well done!