e-PhoenixNewsletter Spring Term  2017

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 on the greensymbol next to it.

Volume 8

Sixth Form BuildingGets the Green Light!

We are verypleased toannounce

that we have the full go ahead forbuilding work to commence in April2017 on our long awaited Sixth Formbuilding, with all the legal andcontractual documents agreed andsigned by all the PFI partners.

The centre will include recreationaland private study areas, dedicatedSixth Form teaching rooms and themost up-to-date technology. Keep aneye out for progress updates on ourwebsite and social media.

JournalisticChallenge

We were super excited to welcome footballer JakeWright from Sheffield United to one of theJournalistic Challenge workshops where he

enjoyed being quizzed by students in our own 'press conference'.

This project is now in its 6th year, bringing together Y6 pupils fromour Trust primary schools with our Y7/8 students to generateenthusiasm and inspiration to write for a purpose. At the end ofthe project students watched Sheffield United win at BramallLane, making notes for their match reports to be submitted nextmonth. SUFC will award prizes to the best 4 final reports.

A big thank you to Jake and to Sheffield United CommunityFoundation for supporting this exciting workshop.

Artist’s Impression

A Monster Calls. We took a groupof Y9 students to see this filmbecause we teach it as the modernnovel. Students displayed excellentbehaviour and really engaged withsome very difficult, emotionalthemes.

Blood Brothers. Due to highdemand (100 on the first night, 150on the second), we spent two nightsat the theatre watching BloodBrothers with Y10 and Y11 students,as part of their GCSE Literaturestudies. Behaviour was fantastic asusual and all students and staffreally enjoyed the performance.

Dr Frankenstein. A wonderfulgroup of conscientious Y10 and Y11students went to see an interestinginterpretation of Mary Shelley’s‘Frankenstein’ at the CrucibleTheatre. This was especially usefulto those who are interested instudying A Level Literature and thestudents who study Frankenstein atGCSE. An excellent evening washad by all.

Out and About

At the very endof last term, 30pupils from Y7

and Y8 were taken to the‘Chatsworth at Christmas’ event toreward them for their fantasticreviews.  Whilst there they got theopportunity to visit the farmyard,adventure playground, gardens andChatsworth House itself where theysaw the magnificent Christmasdisplay and a performance from aballerina performing ‘TheNutcracker’. 30 students from Y7 and Y8 were taken to the Lyceum Theatre to see

‘Running Wild’, a fantastic show with puppets as the lead characters. Thestudents were chosen from those with the best reviews for the term andall had a fantastic time, especially Ms Evans who cried all the waythrough!

English Cinema &Theatre Trips

PsychologyConference

Y12/13

ChatsworthReward Trip

Lyceum Theatre Trip

On Tuesday 21st March, 42 Sixth Form studentsattended this highly informative conference at HulmeHall, Manchester, accompanied by Ms Faulkner andMrs Stubbs.  The 2 main speakers, Jean-Marc

Lawton and Dave Cox (both of whom are involved with the AQA examboard) spoke on topics including ‘Memory, Research Methods andAbnormality’ and ‘How to answer a range of exam questions’ - a jam-packed programme for success in Psychology!

Hollie Robson won a £15 voucher at the end of the conference for askingthe best question “Are some evaluation points more impressive toexaminers than others and if so what are they?”

Conference organisers commented on how polite Meadowhead studentswere. One student, MBon Ngwenya, summed it up as a ‘captivatingknowledge fest’.

David CrystalLecture

A Level Linguistic students plus a host of teachersattended the popular David Crystal lecture at StGeorge’s Church. This event runs annually and

raises money for the charity supported by the University of Sheffield’sEnglish Society, ICAN. We have taken a group of Sixth Form Linguists forseveral years and the lecture was fantastic as usual.

World BookDay

Celebrationsand Events

Diamond Awardsand Celebration

Assemblies

History ComesAlive!

We started the day with DEAR (Drop Everything andRead) and it was great to see so many different booksbeing read, though popular author David Walliams

featured in many classrooms! In Y7/8 English lessons during the weekthey used JK Rowling's book ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to FindThem' as inspiration for some creative writing.

Diamond Awards

At the end of the Spring Term we celebratedstudents’ achievements, efforts and positive attitudewith the Diamond Award Ceremony for studentswho have gained 100 Gold awards from staff.

Special mention goes to the 3 Y10 students pictured above who receiveda Double Diamond Award! In theCelebration Assemblies nominatedstudents also received an award orcertificate, with prizes for 100%attendence, never being late and no C3detentions. Well done to all thesestudents!

It waslovely to see our Y7sreceiving their awards for

excellent behaviour, attendanceand punctuality both as individualsand for their forms. Also joining theassembly were subject teacherswho marked the achievements intheir areas too. Mr Pitman and thestudent Sports Leaders shared theexcellent sporting success of Y7srepresenting Meadowhead acrossthe city.

Y7

Y8/Y9/Y10/Y11

Well done to allstudents who wereentered into the prize

draws and to the winners whoreceived a £10 voucher. You canfind names of the students on ourwebsite.

Highest Attendance:8G, 9B, 10D & 11G

Highest Competencies:9F, 10L & 11I

Fewest Cs: 8I, 9I, 10D & 11B

Staff shared posters of their Fantastic Books and the special £1 BookTokens were handed out whichstudents could use in this month'sScholasticbook leafletor inbookshops.

Y8senjoyedtheir historycomingalive inFebruarywhen theywere given the opportunity tobecome soldiers of the EnglishCivil War in interactive lessons,trying on re-enactment clothes andequipment, courtesy of Mrs Webb.

In the hall we now have a ‘wall of fame’for students who have achieved aDiamond Award - we look forward tofilling the walls with many more in futureyears! Keep up the good work everyone.

Did you attend Meadowhead School, Rowlinson or Jordanthorpe?Why not join our network of former students to receive invites tospecial events and opportunities to support current learnersthroughout the year on:

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

86 studentsreceived aDiamondAward - 15from Y8, 26from Y9, 32from Y10 and13 from Y11.

Ella, Lucia and Reuben with Mr Fowler and theirDouble Diamond Awards

VIP Visitors

Welcomed

A LevelPresentation

Evening

We welcomed back last year’s Y13 students and theirfamilies to a celebration evening and presentation of ALevel Certificates on 3rd January 2017. It was lovely tocatch up with everyone!

LouiseHaigh MPvisited ourSixth Form

Briefing on Wednesday 15thFebruary to be quizzed on a rangeof topics. She spoke about theparliamentary vote on Brexit andArticle 50 and the dramatic changein the political landscape during hertwo years as an MP.Sixth Formers asked questions on arange of topics including DonaldTrump’s proposed state visit, thefelling of Sheffield’s trees,employment prospects following theEU referendum and the funding ofthe NHS.This was Louise’s third visit tospeak to Sixth Formers and wewould like to thank her for her timeand interest in the views andquestions of Meadowhead SixthFormers.

Sixth Formers QuizLocal MP

Hola!

InternationalLinksWe welcomed a

record number of 21Spanish students

and 2 teachers from our partnerschool in Zaragoza for the first legof our annual Spanish exchangebetween 28th March - 4th April.

Y9/Y10 families hosted the studentsand all enjoyed a week of excitingtrips and activities such as a trip toYork and its tasty Chocolate Storyattraction, Sheffield city centre towntrail and VIP reception in the LordMayor’s parlour, and ChatsworthHouse tour and gardens on aglorious sunny Sunday – theycertainly brought the Spanishsunshine with them for the week!They alsoexperiencedlessons with theirpartners and visited

Lower Meadow and Bradwayschools to talk to their classesabout life in Spain and teach thema few words in Spanish too!

All students had such a fantastictime that there were tears when wewaved them off and they now can’twait to return to Spain in May.

IcelandFebruary 2017 saw the inaugural geography departmentvisit to Iceland. 20 sixth formers and 2 staff set off, withgreat expectations, to explore the ‘land of fire & ice’.

Thankfully, this amazing country did not disappoint and everyone wasquickly under its spell!

Students experienced snow, ice, waterfalls, crashing waves, mud poolsand steam vents, dramatic landscapes and the Northern Lights!  Theiradventure didn’t end on leaving Iceland as they were in for a turbulentlanding in Manchester during storm Doris!  Certainly a trip never to forget.

Please visit our website for a fulldescription of this fantastic tripand lots more photos!

gfdg

German Language Experience On Wednesday 15th March, Mr Merrittand Miss Klaes took a group of 12Y10 and Y11 GCSE German students

on an intensive German speaking course at a specialist school inBirmingham.The group became detectives for the morning and investigated the murderof bank manager Richard Reich - all interrogation of suspects was inGerman! In the afternoon students had fun with vocabulary games basedon realistic role play scenarios and, after changing sterling into euros at abureau de change, went shopping for real snacks and souvenirs in themock shopping village. Once again all of this involved speaking Germanthroughout. This really boosted their confidence and language skills andwill be incredibly valuable for their studies and impending exams.

InternationalTrips

Gulfoss

Reynishverfi

Kerið

World of Work Week

In the first week ofMarch, we hosted our annualWorld of Work Week to highlight tostudents the importance of havingaspiration and the significance ofachieving academic success.During the week we;

▪ Invited employers to exhibit in theRosling where students wereinspired and challenged by ourvisitors▪ held assemblies to focus on amotivational ‘can-do’ attitudetowards life▪ invited in class speakers wholinked their jobs with the subjectarea they presented in▪ facilitated after school careerstalks to probe a little deeper intocareers▪ taught lessons as part of theirweek to introduce the World ofWork theme to subject areas▪ displayed motivational posterslooking at staff ambitions, key skillsand aspirational messages

Overall, we hosted 77 exhibitorsand 17 classroom speakersrepresenting 39 different areas ofworking life to help engage ouryoungsters with the world of work.

We welcomed Emma Hibbert from Gripple to a packedassembly hall to talk to Y8 and Y9 students about howimportant languages are in the world of work.

Emma gave a presentation in which she spoke of herexperiences and explained to students how languagesopen opportunities for them (often unexpectedly) when itcomes to their working lives.  She mentioned thatgraduates with languages can command higher salariesand have wider opportunities, both in this country andabroad.

It was a very interesting talk and feedback from thestudents showed they enjoyed themselves and found itvery useful.

Jason Oldham (Hart ShawAccountants) in a Maths  lesson

'Market' place informationstalls in the Rosling

Of the employers who visitedwho completed ouranonymous survey 100% saidthe event was worthwhile, asdid the school staff. It isalways pleasing to hear that100% of the employers saidthe students’ attitude waspositive.

Read the full story on ourwebsite…

We would like to offer ourappreciation and thanks to all ourvisitors who generously gave theirtime to come into school during theweek.

Y13 MockInterviews

Our Y13s gained some valuable experience at their mockinterviews in March, from submitting a CV to beinginterviewed by a real employer related to the area of work

the students are interested in pursuing as a career.  The employers whoparticipated were extremely impressed with how well thestudents performed.

Y10 Business VisitsProgramme

Y10 MockInterviews

Mock BusinessInterviews

DuringMarchand

April  we have managed to provideover 70 students in Y10 with theopportunity to visit one of thebusinesses in our CommunityLearning Trust.Individual students were matchedwith an employer based on theircurrent career aspirations.Students have had the chance tomeet with employers, tour theirfacilities and discuss the types ofskills and attributes that would berequired to work for each company.The project has been a greatsuccess leading to offers of workexperience and potential future

employment for some of thestudents.I would like to take this opportunityto thank all of the businessesinvolved who gave up their valuabletime. Each visit was extremely wellplanned with staff taking a genuineinterest in providing the studentswith a professional and informativeexperience.We really do appreciate the supportof our Trust partner businesses andconsider ourselves fortunate tohave such obliging participants.Mr Heggs

Businesses involved; BradwayPrimary, Gripple Ltd, Double TreeHotel, WCEC Architects, AMRC,Graves Leisure, Yorkshire Bank,Black Eye Project, and Henry Boot.

There was a certain amount of anxiety for our Y10s as theyprepared for these, but they were put at ease by theemployers and confidence grew as the

students received constructive feedback which will really helpthem in their future jobapplications.  A hugethank you to all theinterviewers from localbusinesses andemployers who supportedus with both the Y13 andY10 interviews. Betweenthem they met 330 Y10sand 118 Y13s!

The final talk was from DennisAshton, Fellow of the RoyalAstronomical Society, on the themeof ‘Living in Space’ and it was greatto hear so many well thought outquestions from our students inresponse.

STEM

(Science, Technology.

Engineering and

Maths)

PHD students and theirProfessor from the University of Sheffield gave an insight into howchemical engineering can solve problems and make positive changes forour environment - at each stage students got the chance to do their ownexperiments.

STEMRoadshow

Our Y7 and Y8 students were treated to an inspiringassembly in February as the STEM roadshow teamdemonstrated (with help from the students) theirimpressive drone and robot technology.

Students also learnt about the BAE Systems programming behind it andthe valuable use of unmanned technology by the Royal Navy and RoyalAir Force.

ScienceWeek

On 4th March, 12 dedicatedstudents from Meadowhead tookpart in this annual quiz - we havebeen taking part in this event forover ten years! This year we hadtwo teams from Y8 and one teamof Y13 students. All really enjoyedthe challenge and although wedidn’t win, all can be congratulatedfor their dedication andperseverance as well as theirfantastic problem solving skills,coping with 20 questions thatvaried in difficulty - from pretty hardto almost impossible! You canread more about this on ourwebsite and try some of thequestions!

Pop Maths Quiz atSHU Maths Education

Department

Students and theirparents enjoyedfascinating talks,

demonstrations and hands-onactivities during this year’s ScienceWeek ( 13th -17th March).

Professor Gehring from the University ofSheffield spoke about degrees of cold and showed usthe effects of liquid nitrogen on blu-tak, rubber tubing, balloonsand daffodils.

Schools WillRock You

Trust Choir

AspiringPhotography

Student

Our ‘MeadowheadCommunityLearning Trust ’

choir led by our professionalconductor, Steve Roberts andschool music staff, entertainedpacked audiences on 2 nights inApril for our 7th annual MCLTconcert.150 students from 6 primary schoolsand Meadowhead sang their heartsout, performing individual and jointsongs from famous Musicals suchas Grease, Wizard of Oz, Aladdin,Mary Poppins, and Oliver.

In February our students performed lots of Queen'sfavourite songs such as 'Another One Bites the Dust','Radio Ga Ga' and 'Killer Queen' as well as a rousing

'We Will Rock You' and finale of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the whole schoolproduction of ‘Schools Will Rock You’.This special version for schools of the hit musical enabled a wide range ofstudents to take part, with acting, singing and dancing opportunities, aswell as playing in the live band.

The story is set in a world where live music is banned and everyone mustwatch the same movies and listen to computer generated music. A smallgroup of Bohemians try to restore free thought and live music.Rock music is saved when they are joined by Galileo and Scaramoucheand a guitar is found amongst the ruins of an old stadium.  Thank you toeverybody’s hard work in bringing this production to life and for familiesand friends who came along and enjoyed the show!

CreativeTalents

Trust Choir

We are verypleased to beable to sharesome photos

from Josh in Y9 and tell you a bitabout his love of photography.  Oneof Josh's weasel pictures wasselected by the BBC Springwatchteam to be shown on theirUnsprung programme last year(2016)  and won a HighlyCommended Award! Josh says hewould love to make a career out ofhis photography.

You can read moreabout Josh and viewother stunning photos on our website.

This event is a fantastic celebration of our Trust community of schoolsand businesses coming together to have fun and raise funds for otherMCLT projects to improve literacy, numeracy and provide family learningopportunities for our most vulnerable students (aged 3-19) in theMeadowhead Community of schools.

A fantasticfundraisingeffort for

Red Nose Day! Weraised £643.76 - thanksto the students in the Y9fundraising team for alltheir enthusiasm sellingred noses and collectingmoney from staff andstudents whoaccessorized their uniforms withred on the day.

Around

School and Our

Community

Fundraising for Savethe Children

During theirY7 Ethicslesson Miss

McCaffrey set a fundraisingchallenge and Esther and Eve werestraight into it with Eve & Lucy alsojumping in to help. They organiseddonations and we were inundatedwith supplies. Altogether the girls andI sold cake/buns/cereal bars andraised a total of £117.40 which will allbe donated to the Save the ChildrenFund.We thoroughly enjoyed it and glad wecould make a difference.Thanks to family, friends and staff fortheir donations. Mrs Dixon

Red NoseDay

E-Books

Y8Superstars

Y8 are proud to be piloting a ‘prefect’ system to helpmake the Y8 base run smoothly.  The ‘Superstars’ havebeen chosen as those with the best reviews for attitudeand will help support form tutors and the Year 8 team

every morning.  This is a fantastic leadership opportunity and we lookforward to seeing the group develop.

Y8 Secret AgentsThere are spies among us! Miss Miller hasrecruited a group of SecretAgents to report back on

students doing good deeds for other people andgenerally being friendly and helpful.  Those reportedwill receive silver awards and postcards home.So keep smiling, you never know who’s watching!

A reminder thatstudents can nowlisten to e-books for

free through our e-book libraryplatform! There is a link on thestudent portal or click the greenphoenix symbol here.

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Comeand tryour fun

Holiday language tasters for 6 weeksto help you get by in French, Spanishor Italian this summer!

We are offering either 25% off for anyparent of a current Meadowheadstudent, or a free child’s place (age10 upwards) with every full payingadult learner.

For further details and to enrol onlinefollow the link below and quoteHOL25E to redeem the offer.

Holiday Language TasterSpecial Offer!

Following on from the final Journalistic Challengeworkshop (please see the front page article), here are ourbudding young reporters ready to put their journalistic

skills into practice whilst watching Sheffield United beat Charlton Athletic2 -1 at Bramall Lane on Saturday 18th March.

Match Day!

SportsUpdate

Girls Football

Boys Football

Despite losing their firstever game 50-0 toSilverdale, the same

group of Y7 boys have just playedthem again in a thrilling SheffieldSchool’s final at Abbeydale SportsClub pitch, this time beating themto become Champions!  The Y8team have produced a number ofquality performances and did reallywell to be runners up in theSheffield City finals. The Y9s havealso participated in a number oftournaments, playing with greatteam spirit.

We are certainly a very active school! A tremendous effort by all and someexcellent competition results. The PE department would like to thank andpraise all students who have made the effort and had a go! Don’t forget tocheck the new club list for the Summer Term.

Badminton

Hockey

The girls U12s have competed in two mini tournamentsand played their hearts out, displaying in Miss Bowlersown words ‘Excellent effort and determination’! The

U13s, which is a mix of both Y7 and Y8 girls have reached the final of theSouth Yorkshire Cup Vs Horizon, to be played on Thursday 6th April whichis a tremendous achievement; we wish them luck in their bid forsilverware. The squad has finished in 3rd place overall in the Sheffieldleague. They are a lovely bunch of students who work extremely hardduring every match and training sessions. The U15 girls team got to thelast 64 in the National cup and lost to Westfield. The team were unlucky tobe beaten by Wales School in the quarter final of the South YorkshireSchools Cup.

Y10 Football squad

The season is drawing to a close and the Y9 boys areagain Premier League champions of the city, but wereunlucky  to lose in the semi-finals of both the Sheffield

and South Yorkshire Cup. The Y7 boys were narrowly beaten in theSheffield Cup quarter final but are still doing well in the league.  The Y8lads have been playing in the top league for Y8 school football andreached the last 16 in the S.Yorkshire Cup. The Y10 football team havebeen very successful; winning 7 league games from 7. This makes themchampions of their league. Next season they will be in the premiershipwith some of the top school teams in the City. Y11 boys football team haspulled together this year with Mr Float's guidance and have producedsome good performances in the league. The team has produced theirhighest scoring season: 17 goals scored in five matches. Every gamewas hard-fought and well-competed, and played with the right spirit. TheMeadowhead/Sheffield FC Football Scholarship teams havesurpassed all expectations; the U17 team has won all but one leaguegame and still a have a good chance of winning their league. A specialmention must go to the U18 squad, the team is currently unbeaten in theNational College League Cat. 2 division; they require one more victory towin the league and 3 more victories to produce the perfect unbeatenseason.

Y9 Football squad

Rugby

The hockey club has again increased in numbers and abilitythis year, so much so that Mr Sheppard and Mr Beigel felt thatthe team was ready to play their first fixture. The boys were

unfortunately beaten quite convincingly by Dronfield school. They did,however, enjoy the experience and will certainly learn from it going in to thenext game.

The KS3badminton squadrecently took part

in the Sheffield Schoolscompetition, entering 2 teams, 1in each pool. Both teamsperformed well and were a creditto the school.

Y7 Rugby Champions

Athletics Y7 and Y8 boysand girls recentlyrepresented us at

the Sheffield Indoor Athleticscompetition. Mr Perry and MissFantom accompanied thestudents. They had a great day,all students from Y7 and Y8behaved impeccably andrepresented Meadowhead verypositively. All the teams gave100% and did very well especiallythe Y7 boys who finished 3rd inthe competition.

Dyche Lane, Sheffield S8 8BR

Tel: 0114 2372723   www.meadowhead.sheffield.sch.ukMeadowhead School          Academy Trust

It has been afantastic season forall Meadowhead

Netball teams this year. Training hasbeen extremely busy with all yeargroups working together to improveeach week. The U12 team finished2nd in their league and they havequalified for the city play offs to beheld after the Easter break, meaningthat they will play in the top fourteams in Sheffield and stand achance at becoming overall citychampions. The U13 netball teamhave absolutely dominated theirleague this season, winning allgames and claiming overall 1stplace. The U14 team has taken on abig leadership role within trainingsessions this year, learning manynew drills and skills from outsideclubs attended. Improved teamworkled to gaining 1st place within theleague this year. The U15s havealso had leadership roles, provingvital in the assistance of the U12Tournament held at Meadowhead.The girls have undertaken valuablenetball officiating training too. Thesquad finished in 3rd place this year,in addition to finishing in 5th placeduring their U15 Tournament held atGoals - a tremendous season for allour netballers!

The season hasfinished andMeadowhead was

well represented across the 6meetings, with outstanding attitude,effort and results.4 students ran forSheffield at the South YorkshireSchools Cross CountryChampionships with 3 studentsqualifying to represent SouthYorkshire at the English SchoolCross Country Championships inNorwich.

Mrs Stubbs team ofdancers showed100% commitment

as they dedicated countless hoursto rehearsals and performance for‘Schools Will Rock You’. MrsStubbs stated that ‘It has been agreat experience once again to bea part of a whole school productionrun so professionally by MrsMasson-Wilson’.All dancers were very professional,both backstage and performing tosell out audiences.

U12s Netball Team

Netball

CrossCountryRead our

regular SportsNews on the

website!

Dance

Dance Performance

Trampolining We were very happy to again host the SheffieldSchools Trampolining Championships  In totalthere were 225 competitors from 12 Sheffield schools

of all ages. Meadowhead entered 38 competitors in 8 competitions, allthe boys and girls performed brilliantly with some stand out individualperformances. The U16 Girls Novice team finished 3rd, the U15 GirlsClosed team finished 3rd and the U15 Girls Elite team finished 2nd. Inthe younger age groups the U12 ‘A’ team were 2nd and the U12 ‘B’team were 3rd. The time effort and dedication from all competitors inthe run up to the event should be highly commended. Mrs Bowker hasnothing but praise for all the students involved.

I would personally like to thank my team of dedicated staff that give uptheir own time to enable the clubs, fixtures and competitions to happenand to Mr Pitman for tirelessly overseeing the programme. Mr Allen, Headof Health Fitness and Wellbeing Faculty