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Tuesday 19th December Children in Need ON FRIDAY 12th November, the whole school took part in a wide range of fund raising activities in aid of Children in Need. Pupils were invited to come to school dressed in their own clothes or in fancy dress. Many pupils took up the fancy dress challenge, and costumes included fairies, pirates, leopards, superheroes and some year 10 and 11 boys came dressed as women! Activities during the day including throwing wet sponges at teachers, penalty shootout, cake sale and sponsored silence (an event the teachers particularly enjoyed!). All together the school raised in excess of £700. Well done to all the pupils that took part and all parents/guardians who took the time to help their children prepare for the day.
Editor’s
Letter Dear Readers, Welcome back after half term and we hope you all enjoyed your week off. We have lots of information about all the important things that have been happening in our school this half term and also dates to come. We are sure you will enjoy looking at the pictures. Rachel Stafford, Finola Sutton , Rebecca Chadwick and Lorna Hemingway
*************************** THINKING OF OTHERS! Please send in your: Used postage stamps for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Aluminium foil (eg mince pie dishes!) to help to plant native trees in African villages.
THINKING OF THE ENVIRONMENT Please send in your: Used printer cartridges to buy and protect acres of the rainforest. Recycle your Christmas cards for the Woodland Trust at Tesco or bring them into school. ***************************
A
Note from the
Headteacher, I would like to start by wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New year at the end of what is always the longest term in the academic year. Once again this edition reflects the incredible diversity of opportunities and events in the school. My thanks to all staff, pupils and parents for making Madeley the school it is, setting such high standards on both the academic and community front. The term ends on a real high for the school and its community. Recent editions of ‘The Madeley Mouth’ have kept you up to date with the specialist school bidding process as we look to re-designate as a Technology School, as well as introducing second specialisms of Arts and Cognition & Learning (as a part of the Specialist School SEN strand). On December 14th we discovered that all three bids have been agreed by DFES, allowing us to move forward on several fronts over the next 4 years. This will include modest building work to develop a Learning Support Unit in the school, an increased range of learning opportunities for youngsters across the school and community and developments on the staffing front to support the increase in learning opportunities. Whilst the major part of the new funding does not become available until April 2007, as the impact of these developments is felt we can all look forward to the current high standards being set by the school becoming even more impressive. I would like to thank all of those parents who took the time to respond to our recent standards survey. Replies are currently being collated to give us a clearer view of parental opinions. Any areas for concern that come out of the survey will form part of the school’s self evaluation and planning processes as a part of our continuous improvement. We are always keen to encourage parental involvement in all aspects of the school. With this in mind we will be introducing a re-vamped PTA in the New Year with a view to looking at solutions to the issues raised by parents as well as looking at fund raising opportunities to replenish rapidly depleting school funds. Can I ask that any parent interested in being involved on this front contact Ms. Mallett who is overseeing pupil and parent voice development at Madeley. On the staffing front I need to let you know of some changes that will be in place from the start of the new term. Mr. Harrison leaves Madeley after many years of service. We wish him well with all he does in the future. His place as Head of Science is being taken by Mr. Trafford. This will, of course, leave a gap as Head of Year 10, which will be filled in the first week of next term. In terms of science teaching, Mr. Royall is picking up a great deal of the timetable Mr. Harrison previously taught. The gaps left in ICT as a result are being filled by Mr. Levey, who has already started work with many of our pupils following his recent appointment. As ever, the central aim of all of these changes is to provide the highest quality of education to all of our youngsters. I hope you all have an enjoyable and restful break. The new term starts on Thursday 4th January 2007.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES Tuesday 19th December Year 7 Christmas Party
Wednesday 20th December School Finishes at 1:30pm
Thursday 4th January Start of the Spring Term
Monday 8th January Year 11 Work Experience Week
Thursday 11th January Year 10 Parents Evening
Wednesday 17th January Year 11 Parents Evening
Tuesday 30th January Year 8 Parents Evening
Monday 12th February Half -Term Week
Year 10 Enterprise Day ON Friday 24th November Year 10 pupils were involved in the school’s annual enterprise challenge day, sponsored by the Staffordshire Partnership. This took place in the school hall through out the day. Forty men and women from different jobs ranging from lecturer to RAF pilot came to participate. This involved small groups of pupils working on a series of team building and problem solving activites, together with their representative from local business or industry. In the morning they had to do a task called “lost at sea.” This was an activity where they had 15 items and had to put them in order of what you thought would be the most useful if you were stranded. Believe it or not the answer was a compact mirror! The next activity was tower building. This was basically what it suggests as Year 10 had to build the tallest free standing tower in around 20 minutes. This activity was fun and interesting. “Operation catch” was a challenge that involved teamwork again. For this activity you had to build a safe enclosure for Mr Surtees to drop a raw egg from a height of about fifteen feet without it breaking. Points were also awarded for the appearance of the egg, including appropriate clothing! Most groups successfully passed the challenge, but Mr Surtees missed a few boxes so unfortunately they lost out. The next challenge was jigsaw puzzles and a general knowledge quiz. The jigsaw puzzle was just an ordinary puzzle: but they had to complete it in the fastest time. The record was 2 minutes 30 which is how long pupils at Sir John Offley Primary took to complete the puzzle. None of the year 10 teams got anywhere near this time! In the Afternoon we had to do an activity called “Pac-a-Juice”. This involved each group setting up a small company to produce a sport’s drink. They had to produce a business card for their company, design and make the packaging for the drink and write and perform a commercial for their product— all in one hour! There were various names from Fruitylicious to Jaarka Juice. Mrs Kretschmer and Mrs Price judged the television advertisement for the various juice drinks which involved various songs and actions. Prizes were given out from places one to five and these were goody bags donated by the various business participants. The day was a great success and many thanks to the Staffordshire Partnership for sponsoring the event and all the visitors who came to work with the different groups. As well as giving pupils an insight into enterprise and the world of work the day also allowed them to develop their skills of problem solving, working together and communication. Mr Surtees was very pleased that the 14th day of this kind at Madeley High School had gone without a hitch. Thank you to all the Year 10 pupils and the visitors and also to Mr Surtees who arranged the day. The day was lead by Barry Seaton of the Staffordshire Partnership and involved almost 150 pupils from both Madeley and Blackfriars School. The provisional date for next year’s event is Friday November 30th. If you would like more information or would like to join us please contact Mr Surtees. By Rebecca Chadwick, Finola Sutton and Rachel Stafford (Madeley Mouth Editors)
Standon Bowers ON the week beginning the 20th of November, a large group of Year 8 pupils went to Standon Bowers for a week of challenging physical and mental outdoor and indoor adventures. Their tasks included caving, boat building, tango towers and climbing. The pupils also enjoyed taking responsibility for their own dorms, not to mention pushing one of the instructors in the lake! Many thanks go to Mr Royall, Mrs Lee, Mrs Jenkins and Mr Ostrowski and all the other staff involved.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream On the 17th of October the Yr 11 expressive arts group performed their version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was set in the 1960’s with hippy clothes and 60’s music. The Yr 11’s played all the main parts with Yr 8’s and 9’s as understudies and lots of Yr 7 fairies. It was a good performance from all the participants including Luke Phillipson wearing a dress. It was a very enjoyable good performance. The Year 10s are doing a performance of Romeo and Juliet in February at the new Vic theatre, everyone is welcome
By Rachel Stafford, Finola Sutton and Rebecca Chadwick (Madeley Mouth Editors)
Stem Award LAST year the current year 10s all took part in the maths stem award. The title for this was Holiday Bargains the task was to design and budget a trip for a family of four to Disneyland Paris. Awards were given out this year and the majority of people who participated passed. On 28th November John Hindhaugh, the director of SET POINT came to award the prizes. Congratulations to everyone who received a pass or a merit. Out of all the 1,400 year nine students in the country that entered the competition only 10 got a distinction and 3 of these where from our school they were Finola Sutton, Lorna and Jessica Redfern all the three girls got a certificate and a limited addition book donated by JCB. Well done girls!!!!
MANY of you will know of Mr Hulme, the Site Supervisor, however you might not realise that he is a Pro Fencer! He has decided to share some of his time on a Wednesday night to coach Year Eight pupils to Grade One Foil Fencing. All of the equipment is provided and it takes place from 19:00 to 21:00. He also runs the Duke of Edinburgh award for over-thirteen-year-olds and participating in this club counts towards one of the sporting activities to choose from to achieve the award. I have thoroughly enjoyed my place as a member of the club and so have the other members! If you would like to become a member, please contact Mr Hulme in his office. Thank you very much to Mr Hulme for taking his time to coach us! By Laura Brassington.
Duke of Edinburgh ON Saturday 28th October seven year 10 pupils travelled to the peak district to complete their bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition. They had to have a purpose for their expedition so they decided to do wildlife and livestock which they would then have to present. On the Saturday they walked to the campsite. After getting lost a couple of times they finally made it to the campsite ready to put up their tents and cook their dinner. After a long night with winds which collapsed the tents they finally made breakfast and packed up ready for the following day of walking. They walked more and more through fields and fields, over styles and styles they final made it back and celebrated by spending money on sweets and chocolate at the nearby local shop. By Finola Sutton
Year 10 Technology Challenges On Tuesday 14th November Mrs Padmore took 8 Year 10 pupils to Burton Albion Football Club to take part in CPP’s “innovation ideas in action” competition day with Staffordshire partnership. They had to create a service on a theme (travel, communication, health + fitness, entertainment etc.) to help people in everyday life. As a group they completed many activities such as customer profiles and idea showers to help them create a service to sell for a large profit. In the afternoon the teams spilt up to work on a ‘Dragons Den’ pitch to cpp directors and judges . The marketing managers supported advertising and PR talks, the sales managers concentrated on the target age group and selling our service . The finance managers created and kept track of all our money and accountants. The business project managers put together a final pitch. Madeley were Team Aqua and their service was uni –tec, a package of computer software, learning resources, wireless broadband and chat rooms for universities and students. At the end of the day they produced a good board and pitch that impressed the judges. Everyone really enjoyed the day out, especially seeing Mrs Padmore in the teachers’ group do their pitch even though they had to arrive at school for 7:15 am. Thank you to Mr Surtees, Mr Hulme and Mrs Padmore for taking them and organising the day! By Lorna Hemingway (Madeley Mouth Editor)
Masterclass IN EARLY November, four year 11 girls, who are ‘Gifted and Talented’ at languages, attended a masterclass at the Festival Drayton accompanied by Mrs T (Mrs Threadgold-Brind). It was an opportunity to widen their vocabulary and improve their speaking skills in both French and German. The activities included: a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of windmills (in French or German of course), producing sentences from a list of items and a speech explaining why languages are important and not just a method of boring hundreds of teenagers. They were also introduced to two new languages Italian and Chinese. These taster sessions were intriguing and enabled them to expand their knowledge of other languages. Overall, the day was hard work due to the high levels of concentration needed to understand what was going on but enjoyable despite this. By Siân Bedford
Link Romania-from Madeley with Love!
THANK YOU to all pupils, staff and families who joined in with this year’s Christmas Shoebox appeal. This year we changed charities to support Link Romania who deliver family shoeboxes to people in need. To fill a family shoebox was a bit more challenging but we were able to put together and send 116 boxes in total. If you have any surplus gifts at Christmas, such as socks, hankies, jewellery, playing cards, gloves, hats, neck scarves, small toys etc, please send them back into school so that we can include them in next year’s Christmas shoeboxes.
Leaping for LEPRA THIS half-term all of Year 7 participated in fitness sessions led by a local firefighter to raise money for LEPRA. They raised a fantastic total of £506 which will cure 24 people of the terrible disease of leprosy and give them back hope for the future.
ON Tuesday 7th November, year 8 and some special people in Year 10 (including us!) got the chance to meet the author Bali Rai. Bali Rai has written many books including ‘Unarranged Marriage’ and ‘Rani and Sukh’. Bali Rai writes for teenagers about real life issues such as culture, families, traditions, single parenting, racism, drugs, money, teenage mums and age views. Year 8 met him during period 2 and had a talk about his books, about himself and how he got into writing books. Then everyone got the chance to ask questions. Year 8 were very impressed with Bali and many had copies of his books signed at the end of the talk. After break it was the Year 10’s turn to meet Bali. Instead of doing a question and answer discussion Bali had prepared a creative writing activity which was very interesting! The idea was to get the creative juices flowing. He had the people in pairs or threes and gave them a specific situation to act out. It was a conversation with a difference. In “Rani and Sukh” Bali Rai had to write from a woman’s perspective and his idea was to get the Year 10’s doing the same. They had to act as their own age but from the point of view of the opposite sex. This idea was very effective and it was quite funny watching other people trying to be the opposite sex. The situations were relevant to our teenage lives, mainly about relationships and friendships. Everyone really enjoyed the day’s activities. Thank you to Bali Rai for entertaining us and to Mrs Robinson for organising the day. By Rebecca Chadwick, Finola Sutton and Rachel Stafford (Madeley Mouth Editors)
Book Week
ALSO contributing to our extremely busy term, Book Week has taken place. As I am not a member of Book Club, although you did not have to be one to participate in purchasing books etc, I briefly interviewed Jennifer Bladen-Hovell: What were the events that took place during Book Week? For year ten there was a writing class and for year eight there was a ‘Sponsored Readathon’ and they had the chance to meet the author Bali Rai. What did you do to contribute to it? I participated in the ‘Sponsored Readathon’ and I met Bali Rai. As well as this, I bought one of his books. What books did you buy? I bought ‘Rani and Sukh’ for Bali Rai to sign. Thank you for your time Jennifer. By Laura Brassington.
Readathon
DURING half-term and a short time after, year eight pupils took part n a Read for Life ‘Readathon’. This meant that these pupils were to read as many books as they could over the short period just over two weeks and they would get sponsors to raise as much money as possible for a charity called the ‘Roald Dahl Foundation’. This charity supports children of a similar sage who are sufferers of such diseases as Cancer and Leukaemia. Over the two weeks, I managed to read four books, raising twenty five pounds for the charity. Well done to all of those who took part!
SPORT Staffordshire County Cup Rugby Results
Year 8 1st Round vs St.Edwards, Leek. Won 15-5
2nd Round vs Walton High, Stafford. Won 15-12
Quarter Final vs Shelfield Sports College TBC
Year 9 1st Round vs Weston Road, Stafford. Lost 60-0
Year 10 1st Round vs Abbots Holme, Uttoxeter. Won 50-0
2nd Round vs Newcastle-under-Lyme High. Lost 36-10
Year 10 and 11
Basketball Team
MADELEY Basketball Team have started the basketball season in fine form and with commitment having won one match and putting in a great display against Saint John Fisher. Captain Luke Phillipson is leading the way as top scorer, but it is the team spirit and togetherness that is really impressing manager Mr Ostrowski. Mr Ostrowski said “All of the players have been brilliant. Jon Rowley is playing extremely well, but so are all of the players including Liam (who played through injury for the team) Sam Evans (whose pace is electric) Adam Jones (whose leadership qualities are appreciated) Ryan O’Callaghan (who does not get outjumped) Chris Heath (whose passing is superb) and John Crampton whose teamwork and passing has also been exceptional. Pete Hemmings also played very well against Saint John Fisher.” The team is now hoping for an impressive run of results, which will build on the latest victory against Clough Hall. A big thank you also goes to Melissa, who is doing a great job helping the team out.
Year 7 Girls’ Football Under 13’s Newcastle Schools Tournament. A fantastic display by the under-13 team. The girls played as a team with numerous outstanding performances throughout the tournament. Madeley cruised past St John Fisher and Sir Thomas Boughey beating them 3-2 and 4-1 respectively. After a 1-1 draw with Chesterton, Madeley moved on to the final where they beat Wolstanton High School 3-0. Sherry McCue and Gemma Haystead won Madeley players of the tournament. Under 13’s Stoke City tournament. Another stirling performance by the Madeley ladies. 50 teams entered the tournament from across Staffordshire. After coming up against some stiff opposition, Madeley topped the group stage and moved on to the quarter final. The game was against Holden Lane A team (the B Team had been dispatched by Madeley earlier in the tournament) and a strong defence was fielded by both teams, with Hannah Revitt putting in a fighting performance at the heart of defence. The game ended 0-0 and penalties were the only way to decide the result. Naomi Heler stood firm in the Madeley goal and parried the Holden penalty to her left. There was lots of pressure for Madeley to press their advantage but Sherry McCue did not let this phase her and dispatched the penalty with a trademark cheer. Unfortunately Madeley’s luck was not to hold out and after another battling performance in the semi-final the agony of penalties was Madeley’s as the Chase Terrace keeper (who had been in fine form all day) parried Georgia Sorentino’s well placed penalty away. After the tournament the Madeley team were congratulated on their excellent performance and sportsmanship throughout the tournament by the organisers and several of the Stoke City youth players
THE END
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Fencing
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