Volume 11 Issue 17 Friday 24 June 2016

Dates For Your Diary

Saturday 25 June to Sunday 26 June

Tuesday 28 June

Wednesday 29 June

Wednesday 29 June

Friday 1 July

Saturday 2 July to Sunday 3 July

Thursday 14 July

Friday 15 July

Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Expedition Practice Weekend

Year 11 Prom at The Moat House, Acton Trussell

Educational Visit to Matilda

Educational Visit to Higher Education Convention - Year 11

Educational Visit to Wimbledon

Duke of Edinburgh Diamond Canoeing Expedition

Year 8 Induction Day

Year 8 Induction Day

CONTACT DETAILS:

Wolgarston High School, Cannock Road, Penkridge, STAFFORD ST19 5RX 01785 788 400 (Main Reception) 01785 788 414 (Family and Student Services) 01785 788 404 (Attendance Line)

FAX: 01785 788 418 EMAIL: office@wolgarston.staffs.sch.uk

Another Gold Medal for James! Year 13 student James O’Brien won yet an-other gold medal in the 800m at the Midland Counties Championship which were hosted at Nuneaton on 11 June. Despite James being against a field where nearly all the runners had a faster time than him, he still managed to keep his composure right to the end where a photo finish saw him win the race by 0.02 of a second clocking a new PB of 1:54.24. With James’ victory granting him a place in the England/Midland Team, he will now turn his focus on to his third Championship of the year in Gateshead; England Schools, which take place on 8/9 July. James said, “I set myself a goal at the start of the season to win the treble (County AAA’s, Midlands & England Schools), I’ve won 2 out of the 3 and I’m hoping to complete the set when I head up to Gateshead next month.” Once James has competed at England Schools he will then have just over a week to ready himself for the Welsh International where he will put on that England vest for the first time, and hopefully not the last .

Visible Learning

Examples from around the school - English

In the English Department Miss Edwards uses this box to help students take ownership

of their own learning and start to become assessment capable learners:

Pupils fill in the 3 boxes at the start of

the lesson highlighting their own views

of:

Strengths

I still need to work on…

Today I will learn…

This allows pupils (especially in a prac-

tical environment - Miss Edwards also

uses this technique in her dance les-

sons) to take ownership of their learn-

ing and track how successful they are

across the lesson.

At the end of the lesson pupils fill the same boxes in again allowing them to see their

own progression and highlight where any revision needs to be or what they need to

work on next lesson.

Below are some examples from Miss Edwards’ lessons that show how students have

made use of the boxes:

Dance

English Mr Leonard

This week the Eco-committee was fortunate to meet up with Richard Wood, Wolgarston High School’s catering co-ordinator, to discuss the new machine that has arrived in the school canteen. They asked Richard a series of questions about the new machine: What do you call this new machine? The new machine is called the Reverse Vending Recycling Machine. When did you get it? The machine has only been in the canteen for two weeks and is already generating a lot of interest! How does it work? Just like the name suggests, it reverses how a vending machine normally works. Instead of getting products ‘out’ of the machine, you put your used containers ‘in’. The machine is easy to use and clear-ly labelled so that students know exactly where to put their recyclable lids and bottles. The machine also rewards students for being environmentally conscious. For every so many bottles they recycle, the machine issues tokens. These tokens can be redeemed at the canteen for a free bottle of water. What influenced you to buy it? Working in the school canteen, you see a lot of food and drink waste. I wanted to do my bit in helping students consider what they do with their waste and hopefully make them recycle more. How can this benefit the school? This will significantly reduce bin waste and raise awareness around the school of our environmental responsibilities. What types of recycling can go into the machine? The machine accepts paper or plastic cups, plastic bottles and cans. Are there any other things the canteen does which are environmentally friendly? One of the main ways the canteen tries to be more environmentally friendly is through our use of bio-degradable coffee cups, chip trays and forks. We get these from a specialist company and it means we are reducing the amount that ends up in a landfill for years and years. Any future environmental ideas? One idea that I would love to happen is for the canteen to work with groups of students on our own

vegetable and herb patches that we can use in the kitchen. These would really encourage students to

get involved in projects that help the environment and their canteen!

Year 10 Geography Visit

Carding Mill Valley

On Tuesday 21 June and Thursday 23 June the Geography Department took Year 10 Geography students to Carding Mill Valley, Shropshire. Both days were a huge success, with students learning how to use equipment in the field to collect their own fieldwork data for their river study. Students saw the theory of the ‘Bradshaw Model’ come to life as they noticed how the river changed down-stream, investigating and collecting evidence of the geomorphic processes responsible for the changes. One of the highlights of the trip was see-ing the breath-taking Light Spout Waterfall! Some students braved the gushing waters and got into the plunge pool, measuring and collecting yet more evidence for their GCSE controlled assess-ment. Thanks to Mr Fuller, Mr Worth and Mrs Dodd who helped make the trip so fantastic and enjoyable for all, both students and staff. Next Geography visit… ICELAND!!! (We can’t wait!) Mrs Bott

Educational Visits

BTEC Sport Olympic Park Visit 2016

On Monday 20 June, our BTEC Sport group departed

from Wolgarston en route to The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for 3 days of activity in the venues used for the 2012 Olympic Games. Our first stop was the Lee Valley Velodrome, home to some of the finest cycling

facilities in Europe. There, we were given a BMX masterclass with Team GB

BMX rider Lana Redgewell (pictured right) who has competed Regionally, Na-

tionally and Internationally in the 2012, 2014 and 2015 World Championships.

Lana gave us some expert tuition and we were able to complete a time trial around the course with

Owen Addison setting the fastest time (54 seconds), Reece Perry and Dominik Kovacs coming in joint

second place (58 seconds) and Jacob Cartwright and Ritchie McNally coming in third place (59 sec-

onds).

Also at the Velodrome

are the Mountain Bike

Trails which we ex-

plored. The trails vary

in difficulty from red

runs to blue runs and

even black runs and

offer a challenging cir-

cuit of terrains and ob-

stacles – and we had

no fallers this year!!

Educational Visits

After the hectic start we headed back to our Hotel in Hackney to check in and get showered ready for a trip into Westfield Stratford City Mall for some dinner and to

get our seats to watch the England v Wales game! The next day started early with a visit to the Copper Box Are-

na, home to many indoor sporting events. Here, we competed

in a very closely fought Volleyball game which ended with Mr

Skinner & Miss Edwards team beating Mr Greenwoods team!

Walking to this venue gave us a great

chance to see the full Olympic Park and

pull a few famous poses!

Next was Olympic Diving in the London

Aquatics Centre. Here we were taught the

basics in the indoor training centre used

daily by Tom Daley where we dived into

foam pits, practiced our positions on tram-

polines and had lots of fun. Then we were

taken into the diving pool and demonstrat-

ed our skills from various heights – some

were even brave enough to tuck jump from

the 10 metre board (Jack Lester – Team

GB hopeful!!) Once again we were lucky

enough to see Tom Daley and watch him train – a real eye opener into the level of excellence.

On our final day we visited Lee Valley White Water

Centre – this was a first for the visit but we will defi-

nitely be going again. After a bit of a scary safety talk

we were let loose on the White Water! In our teams

we were given instructions

that helped us surf the

waves and race down an

exhilarating course! Great

fun!!

The bus home had some

very tired people on board

after three intense days of

activity. Overall, a super

visit which we will all re-

member for a long time to

come!

Mrs Stanton

County Athletics A number of Wolgarston stu-dents represented Stafford & District at the County Athlet-ics Championships, the event was held at Northwood Stadium in Stoke. The most notable performances were from Becky Lawley who won the Long Jump and Joel Price and Reuben Powney who secured 1st and 2nd place in the Triple Jump! Well done to all the students who represented the school to such a high standard.

Visit from Staffordshire University In preparation for the Higher Education Convention on 29 June, Juliette Platts of Staffordshire Univer-sity spoke to all Year 12 students. The talk covered what to research (and when to do it) in terms of University application and then she explained how the Higher Education Convention works. Students will pre-register for the event online and be able to plan which Universities they want to see and which seminars they want to attend in advance to maximise their day. Top tips were given on what questions to ask, what types of degree programmes to consider and when to eat! This was a really useful and well-received presentation. Year 12 students are currently taking practice ex-ams and then as these finish, the Higher Education Convention becomes the next focus!

UK Biology Challenge

Year 10 separate science students recently took part in the UK Biology Challenge, organised by the Royal Society of Biology. Thousands of students from across the country took part and Wolgarston students all did well, with many students achieving some of the higher awards. Here they are after re-ceiving their certificates.

Trading Standards - Underage Sales Volunteers

Aged 14 ½ – 16 ½ years? Looking for Volunteering Opportunities? Trading Standards have a responsibility to ensure that traders who sell age restricted goods, such as alcohol, do so within the confines of the law. In order to do this we con-duct test purchasing/ compliance operations to check that traders are not selling age restricted products to young people below the legal age restriction. This helps bring down levels of disorder, anti-social behaviour, and public nuisance associated

with minors who have been consuming alcohol and solvents, as well as improving the health of young people.

The operations consist of young people entering a business and attempting to purchase an age-restricted product, whilst supervised by an officer from Trading Standards.

In order to carry out these operations we need young people aged between 14 ½ and 16 ½ years to volunteer their time to participate. We value the input and participation of all young peo-ple throughout Staffordshire.

The operations take place throughout the year but are not a regular occurrence (such as week-ly). When we require volunteers we will contact them in advance to assess their availability.

Volunteers will usually be paired up for operations; however, there may be occasions when vol-unteers are asked to take part in an operation on their own. Volunteers will always be super-vised by appropriate Officers. Operational hours are usually between 5 to 7 hours depending on whether the operation is undertaken during an evening or daytime (weekends or school holi-days).

The volunteering scheme is unpaid but participation will lead to a certificate that can be used in a Record of Achievement. The nature of the activity will also help with improving volunteer’s con-fidence and give them valuable experience in an operational environment.

The volunteer will always be collected, by appropriate Officers, from home or an agreed location. The Officer will then return the volunteer to home or the agreed location. Appropriate refresh-ments will also be provided.

Important: The referee details for this opportunity must be that of a parent/guardian and only one referee is needed.

Further opportunities information For further information on this opportunity contact: Fiona Chapman on Telephone: 01782 297012 Email: fiona.chapman@staffordshire.gov.uk Role applications can now be completed online.

Volunteers will not be asked to participate in activities in any areas

where they are likely to be recognised. So it is important to specify any areas

where this may be the case, in the application process.

Careers Advice Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust are currently advertising for a business admin apprentice. Please click on the link below for full details. The place of work for this post is: Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent Partnership Longton Cottage Hospital Upper Belgrave Road Stoke on Trent

https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/xi/vacancy/5e9b8927e64b5bca33ad5c5a907cf3e0/?vac_ref=914193796

The next issue of the SNU due………………………………....………………………………….....………..8 July 2016

Famous Dyslexic

Scott Quinnell Born 20 August 1972 in

Glamorgan Former Welsh International

Rugby League & Rugby Union Player

He scored 11 tries for Wales and captained his country

on 7 occasions in Rugby Union

Dyslexic

ALSO AVAILABLE IN LARGE PRINT - PLEASE CONTACT: office@wolgarston.staffs.sch.uk

Or take a look at our website at www.wolgarston.staffs.sch.uk

Wolgarston High School now has Twitter and Facebook!

Our Twitter account is @WolgarstonHigh

Follow us for updates and general school information.

Inspirational Quotes

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will

not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by

being shared.”

Buddha

Wolgarston PE Department are on….

Please follow the PE Department on Twitter for up to date news about the PE clubs, fixtures, results, visits,

BTEC & GCSE PE and lots more! @wolgarstonPE

Careers Advice For all your questions about careers and

work experience please visit www.wolgarston.staffs.sch.uk

student information, careers, links to local and national websites or student information -

work experience.

For access to the work experience database students will need to collect a work experience pack from

Student Reception and use the enclosed user name and password.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION - SEE STUDENT INFORMATION,

CAREERS, UPCOMING EVENTS ON THE SCHOOL WEBSITE.

Click on the blue CareerMap link (below) or visit their website (www.careermap.co.uk) for advice, industry

news and the latest apprenticeship jobs…..

Click to see the Alcohol Edu-cation Trust website; there is some interesting information and advice for parents.

You can also click to see their March newsletter.

Click on the box link below to see a brand new magazine packed with advice on

Apprenticeships and careers.