Newsletter

Easter 2019

Cooperation – Responsibility – Integrity – Resilience – Respect - Kindness

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Contents

Page Numbers and contents:

Page

1

2

4

6

8

10

11

12

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Contents

Headteacher’s Message

Computing & IT

Cooking & Nutrition

Duke of Edinburgh Award

English

French & Spanish

Horticulture

Land Based Studies

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14

16

17

19

21

24

26

Learning Outside the

Classroom

Life Skills

Maths

PE & Dance

Plus Programme

Science

World Book Day

Happy Easter!

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Message from the

Headteacher

Dear Parents/Carers,

We have had a very busy time since January and this newsletter

includes updates on many of our activities and student

achievements, which I hope you enjoy reading.

I continue to be impressed by the

enthusiasm of our students to participate

in the wide range of opportunities on

offer to them. During terms 3 and 4,

students have enjoyed many sporting

and cultural opportunities and exciting

Humanities and Enterprise days.

I am delighted by our students’ willingness to get

involved in fundraising and in decision-making

through the School Council, which has spent a

lot of time discussing the latest stage of the

consultation and providing some amazing

feedback to the Local Authority. Students have

also been involved in our very active Buddies

scheme and supporting visitors with many school

tours; they relish the opportunities that these

bring.

We have a special fundraising event

next term, the Annual Garden Fair on

Sunday 19th May and we need your

support. The proceeds of this event

will be going towards further

development of Learning Outside the

Classroom at Rowdeford.

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There is exclusive entry for ticket holders from 10:00-11:00. The Fair

commences from 11.00 am until 3.00 pm.

There will be gorgeous plants from specialist plant growers plus

practical and attractive

garden accessories. Other

attractions include farm

animals, WI teas, a Pimm’s tent,

Bistro lunches and live music.

Advance tickets are £4 per

adult (£5 on the day) with

children under 16 free. Parking

is free – sorry, no dogs. For

further information or advance tickets, please contact

ma99iemoore@gmail.com telephone 01249 814979 or go to

www.rowdefordcharity.org.uk.

This term has been very eventful, not least because of the ongoing

consultation about the future of Rowdeford School; I would like to

thank you all for the amazing support throughout this period.

Hopefully this period of uncertainty will end soon!

I wish you all a very happy, safe and enjoyable Easter.

With best wishes,

Mr M Loveridge

Headteacher

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Computing & ICT

Year 7s have been exploring ICT

software and looking at some features

like tables and text formatting.

Next term we

will be looking

at online

magazines and

then creating

our own Rowdeford School magazine.

Year 8 students have been practicing their

programming, testing and trouble-shooting

skills. They used the schools’ BluBot robots to

practice.

Next term they are learning to take and edit photos.

Year 9 students have been

creating spreadsheets to

record data and survey

results. They then used the

data obtained to plot charts.

In Year 10, students

have been creating

stories using Kar2ouche.

Below is the start of a

modern-day Minotaur

story!

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Year 11 students are completing

their Entry Level ICT assessments

– many of them are already on

Entry Level 3!

Computer Science Year 10

students have been editing

music with Audacity.

Year 11 students have been completing their BTEC coursework

creating PowerPoint presentations with animations in the slides

and music as well!

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Cooking & Nutrition

This term pupils in Key stage 3 have been exploring the different

food groups of the Eatwell Guide. They have been making recipes

from the different food groups of protein, carbohydrates, dairy, fruit

and vegetables and oils and fats.

They have been exploring ‘brilliant breakfasts’, including making

exciting porridge and pancakes. Pupils have also been making

healthier homemade versions of ready meal favourites, including

Eton Mess, D.I.Y. Pot noodle and fish and chips, to name a few.

Year 8 have been exploring the ‘Edible garden’ picking from the

gardens and foraging from the woods to make leek and potato

soup, rhubarb crumble, wild garlic pesto pasta and herby pizzas.

Key stage 4 are continuing to work on their coursework and they

have been cooking creative dishes for specific diets, including

cooking for the elderly, vegetarians, vegans, gluten free and

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healthy food swaps. They have been making vegetable stir fry,

mushroom risotto, fish pie, crustless quiche, wholemeal pizza,

chocolate brownies, Easter cupcakes and many more exciting

foods.

We are thrilled to see that pupils have been cooking at home using

the new Rowdeford school cookbook! We have received many

emails and photos (including Facebook posts on the Rowdeford

Facebook page) of pupils doing just this and these photos are on

the display board in the classroom for all to see and be inspired!

Please keep them coming!

The Rowdeford school cookbook is available to purchase for a

mere £8.50.

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Duke of Edinburgh Award

Year 10

The Year 10 pupils have been completing their volunteering section

of the award in the school woodland. This has involved collecting,

splitting and stacking logs from trees that were felled in the winter.

The logs will be for sale in the autumn and all proceeds will go back

into school projects such as the DofE and woodland management.

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Next term they will continue to complete projects in the school

woodlands and grounds and then start preparing for a one night

camp and walk in July.

Year 11

The Year 11 students have been preparing for their expedition.

Pupils have completed first aid training this term and have

demonstrated some excellent new skills.

They have been preparing for their practice expedition in the last

week of term in the North Wilts Downs.

Their assessed expedition will be at the end of next term in the

Quantock Hills from the 20th – 22nd of May.

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English

The Spring Term has seen lots of amazing work in English and

Literacy from all tutor groups.

Year 11 students had to deal with some

challenging and thought–provoking

themes during their study of Of Mice

and Men, while Year 10 learned of

some strange beliefs about witches

held by people living in the early 17th

century as part of their study of

Macbeth.

Year 9 studied two contrasting

texts, The Cat Who Walked

Across France, which they

used as a starting point to write

their own story of a journey,

and then The Tempest.

Meanwhile, Year 8 started the year

with a study of Poetry, and then

completed a unit of work on Diaries

by finding out about the diary of

Anne Frank.

Year 7 learned to write character

descriptions through their work on Mr

Stink, and then moved on to The Lorax

where they worked on alliteration,

rhythm, rhyme and patterns, and had

fun creating their own descriptive

nonsense words in the style of Dr Seuss.

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French & Spanish

French

Year 9 pupils have been learning about

food.

They especially enjoyed tasting crêpes

on Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day, and

have designed their own café menus.

The Year 10 option group has

been learning how to talk about

different types of travel and

transport and have been

finding out all about the

Eurostar - did you know it can

travel at speeds of up to

186mph and can take you from

London to Paris in 2 hours 16 minutes?

Spanish

Year 7 pupils have been learning the

colours in Spanish. They have been

on a colours scavenger hunt around

school and have learnt about Antoni

Gaudí, the Spanish architect who

loved bright colours and took his

inspiration from nature.

Our year 8 students have been learning

about the weather and the seasons. They

can recognise lots of weather phrases and

have enjoyed using the Makaton signs to

help them remember the words.

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Horticulture

Pupils in years 10 and 11 have been preparing the beds in the

Walled Garden for summer crop planting.

They have also been tidying up borders by dead heading, pruning

and edging.

Next term the garden will be in full bloom, pupils in both years will

be helping Di the gardener get ready for the Garden Fair and

tending the fruit and vegetable plants to help produce a bumper

harvest in late summer.

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Land Based Studies

Care of Farm Animals

Year 10 and 11 pupils have been looking after our Hebridean Black

Sheep.

This term they have learnt how to assist moving them from one pen

to another.

Pupils have also been looking after our poultry; we have added

three new black bantams to our flock this year. They have just

started laying.

Next term pupils will be learning how to treat livestock if they are ill

or injured.

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Learning Outside the Classroom

Year 7 pupils have started their Lime Tree Award this term. This has

involved planting potatoes and learning how to look after the

garden tools.

Next term pupils will continue to look after their garden crops and

learn about feeding the school farm animals.

Year 8 students have been completing the Oak Tree Award. This

has involved learning how to handle a chicken with care, cooking

on a campfire and making something new out of recycled

materials.

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Next term pupils will move onto the Yew Tree Award where they will

learn the difference between an evergreen and a deciduous tree

and complete some problem solving activities using teamwork.

Year 9 pupils have completed the Beech Tree Award this term. This

has involved monitoring the growth or our chickens and pigs,

learning how to identify our woodland trees from their autumn

leaves and completing a bird nest challenge.

Next term they will be moving onto the Apple Tree Award, which

will involve learning how to recognise the animals that visit our

woodland from the tracks they leave, learning how to make a

survival shelter and light a campfire safely.

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Life Skills

KS4 have been engaging with their local communities, whilst

practising their money handling and independence skills this term

during life skills days. All students really did show the value of

resilience, as there was torrential rain for most of the day whilst they

were on the trips.

Y10 went to Devizes by bus, whilst there, they enjoyed choosing

their snack and drink in different shops and having a look around

the town.

Y11 DofE group walked a circular route from school to our local

village of Bromham where they had refreshments at a café. This was

used as an extra opportunity for them to increase their map and

navigation skills ready for their expedition later in the year alongside

practising money handling.

Y11 PD group took the public bus to Chippenham where they

bought stamps and sent their letters to a school in a foreign country

to find out more about life in other countries. They enjoyed some

drinks and cakes whilst there.

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Maths

Year 7 / 8 / 9

In Key Stage 3 students follow a cyclic programme, spending a

week or two on each topic, then reinforcing and extending those

skills again each term.

During the spring term, students focused on

key numeracy skills involving place value and

calculations, including an introduction to

fractions. Towards the latter half of the term

they also looked at time and shape.

After Easter students will continue to work on key numeracy skills.

This will involve an understanding of place value and calculations,

as well as money and data handling.

Year 10

Students in Year 10 completed work based on data

handling. They looked at methods to collect and

display data, such as tally charts, bar graphs, line

graphs and pictograms. In the latter half of the term

students conducted their own survey based on their

choice, such as food, film or car preferences, then

displayed and analysed their results.

After Easter students will learn about measures. This will involve lots

of practical work to enhance understanding and develop skills

related to length, weight, capacity, temperature and time.

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Year 11

Students have been working very hard to revise for the Functional

Skills exam. They have been looking at exam skills and techniques

to demonstrate their knowledge effectively to the examiner.

After Easter students will continue to revise key topics and sit

practice papers before taking the final exam at the start of May.

Life Skills

Alongside revising for their exam,

students in Year 11 have been applying

their Maths skills to complete everyday

tasks.

During a very wet Life Skills day in March

students used their money handling and

budgeting skills to buy a drink and snack.

Students from the PD group also travelled

on the public bus, while those taking part

in the Duke of Edinburgh Award improved

their understanding of directions and map

reading skills.

Most recently, students counted over five

thousand tiny Lego bricks to help prepare

an activity for Enterprise Day!

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PE and Dance

The Year 7 pupils have been very busy, having specialist coaching

in Table Cricket as well as developing their swimming strokes and

confidence. They have

had sporting trips to

participate in Table Cricket

and New Age Kurling.

In Dance we have

celebrated the year of the

‘Pig’ with a Chinese New

year inspired dance, as

well as a dance using

snowboarding and skiing

as a stimulus.

Throughout term 3&4 the year 8’s have advanced their swimming

with diving, and butterfly progressions. In PE they have developed

their fitness through cross-country, and coordination through

Extreme golf.

We have travelled

through time, with

our clock-inspired

dance to the Dr

Who theme tune.

The Year 9’s have

explored the

school grounds

with Cross country and Orienteering units, as well as being involved

in some handball and basketball.

During dance lessons, they have developed their own Aerobic

routines, which have been inspired by boxing, disco, and martial

arts.

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Both year groups have been involved in a trampolining unit,

developing their gymnastics skills. With preparation for their exam

entries/performances, sports such as Basketball, New Age Kurling,

circuits and cross-country have been undertaken.

Sports Leaders

Our dedicated team of Sports leaders in Year 9 &10 have been

busy both in and out of school. They helped officiate the regional

and then county NAK games, as well as running competitions at

break for the rest of the school.

Upcoming Activities for Terms 5 and 6

Term 5 Term 6 DANCE

Term 5 Term 6

Y7 Tennis/Volleyball

Swimming

Athletics

Swimming

Patterns

travel

Actions -

sports

Y8 Athletics

Golf

Swimming

Cricket/Rounders

Swimming

Zumba/

aerobics

Cultural

- Haka

Y9 Athletics Kwik cricket,

Rounders

Movies Choreo-

graphy

Y10 Athletics Kwik Cricket

Rounders

Y11 Rounders

Cricket

Football

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Plus Programme

The Plus Programme is now a well-established and recognised asset

at Rowdeford, which provides innumerable benefits to many

secondary and primary school children. The ability to encompass

all of the wonderful LOtC facilities at Rowdeford with this outreach

programme has allowed a wide and varied term of activities.

Our Monday Land Based Studies group has got to grips and

admirably completed all of the required units for this term. They

have seen their bulb planting burst into colourful blooms, started

work on their seed planting and tackled the challenges of the

‘Head Gardener’ unit in the wall garden. They have also shown how

great teamwork makes any task easier and enjoyable, ensuring

that this part of the course provided a valuable insight to life

beyond school life.

The John Muir Groups on Tuesday and Wednesday have also

become brilliant teams, working together and completing all of the

challenges we set with enthusiasm and success. They have been

engaged in various woodland management activities, from

discussing why trees were felled, splitting the logs for sale, right

through to replanting new trees.

To extend their learning, the students were given the chance to

look at how sycamore and pea seeds germinate and the structure

of a daffodil. Science is definitely easier to relate to when

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undertaken in a greenhouse or inside a yurt, within an environment

where practical experiments are fully immersive.

Cooking is a life skill that all of our students really enjoy, especially

when using produce from Rowdeford such as eggs for their

pancakes. To add a John Muir theme, we used our wild foraging

skills to create wild garlic pesto pizzas, with a few crispy fried nettles

sprinkled on to spice things up! We also had a pesto taste tasting,

where we pitched sticky grass pesto against wild garlic and nettle

pesto – the latter came out as a favourite.

Our Thursday’s DoE group are preparing for their expedition,

learning how to set up tents, plan routes and navigate, even

mastering the Trangia to cook on. Our intrepid explorers will be

doing their practice expedition when they come back after Easter.

Alongside this, they have continued to undertake valuable

volunteering around Rowdeford and keep active with lots of sport

– hockey has become a new favourite.

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The Primary School Day on Friday has created a wonderful balance

between providing amazing opportunities for outdoor learning and

building friendships/self-esteem.

The animals are always popular with this group, from walking the

sheep through to collecting and cooking with eggs from the hens.

Fun, laughter and learning outside the classroom is definitely a

recipe for success.

Please contact Martin Marshall

(MartinMarshall@rowdeford.wilts.sch.uk) or Nick Fletcher

(NickFletcher@rowdeford.wilts.sch.uk) for more information.

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Science

Since January in Science we have been very busy.

Willow Class has been studying changing materials and Year 7

have been learning about everyday materials. We have looked

around Rowdeford School for different materials, and made art

from natural materials. You can see from the pictures below just

how well they managed the task…

Year 8 have loved learning all about sound, and really enjoyed

making their own elastic band instrument. We had some great

creations. They are now learning about Rocks. They were surprised

how many things around Rowdeford are made of rocks, and how

they look under the handheld microscopes.

Year 9 did lots of experiments with electricity and were amazed to

learn what different household items conducted electricity by

fitting them into a circuit. More recently they have been learning all

about themselves in the Humans units. One of the highlights of this

unit was examining the internal organs of a pig, and dissecting the

heart. You can see how brave they were from the pictures below.

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Year 10 have learnt all about health

disease and medicine, and have

completed the whole Biology section of

the syllabus. They have worked hard doing

some extremely hard science, and sitting

two formal assessments.

Year 11 have nearly completed all the

units for their Entry Level, finishing with

Physics. They will soon be ready for the

next stage of their education.

Coming up

Willow Class will look at living things in

their environment (Term 5) and ‘Earth

and beyond’ (Term 6).

Year 7 pupils will study dinosaurs and

evolution (Term 5) and plants (Term 6).

Year 8 students will learn about Forces

(Term 5) and body systems (Term 6).

Year 9 classes will continue the Humans theme and then move on

to project work and Entry level preparation and investigation skills.

Year 10 will focus on Chemistry;

atoms, compounds, and states of

matter, followed by separating

mixtures, breaking down substances

and acids and metals.

Year 11 will look at Waves and

Radiation, complete all outstanding

EL assignments, submit their work

and then focus on neuroscience

and an individual project.

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World Book Day

Many of our students joined in the World Book

Day fun by coming to school dressed up as a

character from a favourite book, as did many

members of staff.

Other events included a popular Book Swap,

and a quiz to try to work out which was the

favourite book of

members of staff.

This was won by Elder Class, who used excellent

social skills to trick many members of staff into

revealing their chosen book!

Many teachers and TAs also marked the day

by reading aloud extracts from books chosen by the students at

intervals during their lessons.

Great fun was had by all.

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A VERY HAPPY EASTER FROM ALL AT

ROWDEFORD SCHOOL

Cooperation – Responsibility – Integrity – Resilience – Respect – Kindness