Excel Spring 2013

Who was crowned the winner?

Community . Standards . Inclusion

The News Magazine of Rivington & Blackrod High School

Spring 2013

Art - BTEC MuralStudents and Staff in the Art department are proud to showcase the mural created outside of F13 by year 13 students, as part of their BTEC level 3 qualifications. All students were asked to design and create a mural about the links between art and nature in acrylic paints, all students worked extremely hard to finish and produce a professional final piece.

Gemma WarnerHead of Art

1 / Community . Standards . Inclusion www.rbhs.co.uk

Tiffany Jones and Kiyra Green, Year 9

Welcome from the Head TeacherWelcome to the spring edition of Excel Magazine. I must start by saying thank you to all students, staff and parents for their support during our recent Ofsted inspection. We were delighted that Ofsted identified Rivington and Blackrod High School as a good school with a strong culture of learning and achievement; a place where young people are eager to learn and continue to exceed challenging targets. We are very proud of our young people and their achievements and to get this external affirmation was fantastic. Moving forward, we will continue our relentless focus on improving teaching and learning, which, along with individualised support programmes, has proven to be the key to our success. It is equally important to us that we continue to improve the broad educational experience of our young people, so that they grow as powerful and successful learners and caring citizens. I also want to thank you for your support over the snow days; we try where possible to keep school open but sometimes closure is unavoidable, in order to keep everybody safe.

A variety of exciting events and trips have taken place over the last term. Rivi’s Got Talent yet again amazed me and young people showcased their extraordinary talents. We had a successful ski trip, as fifteen Year 10 students braved temperatures of -16 oc in Sweden to meet their hosts from Enkoping School, who they had not seen since last summer. Thank you to our students who proved to be an absolute credit to themselves and us as a school.

You may have seen the recent publicity in the Bolton News that we are leading the way, as a school, with the Heart Start programme; a programme which teaches people emergency life saving skills. By July 2013, it is anticipated that all students, in years 7 – 11 and some in years 12 and 13 will have completed the Heart Start course and will have the confidence to cope with a life threatening emergency, administer CPR and save lives. In addition, with the help of the Rotary Club of Horwich, we bought three defibrillators and staff and pupils across school have trained to use them in the event of an emergency. We are proud, as this makes Rivington and Blackrod High School a safer place to study, work and visit.

Looking forward, the term ahead is going to be a busy one, as we continue to welcome prospective students from our primary schools and our focus is on exam preparation for our students. Finally, I would like to say thank you to everyone for the hard work and dedication that makes our school such a rich and positive experience for all. Best wishes and good luck to all of those sitting examinations over the forthcoming weeks and months.

T. PurcellTony Purcell, Head Teacher

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Eleanor Kirkpatrick, Jamie Ward-Scott, Abdullah Bhamji, Lewis Lawton and Robert Smith

News

Community . Standards . Inclusion / 3 www.rbhs.co.uk

Shaun Attwood, a former stock-market millionaire who served time in the jail with the highest rate of death in America, visited year 10 PSHCE pupils to share his true story about prison and drugs. Raised in Cheshire, Shaun moved to Arizona in 1991, where he worked his way up to become a top producing stockbroker and a tech-stock millionaire during the dot.com bubble. However, he also led a double life. Having been a raver in Manchester in the early 90’s, Shaun took his love of dance music to the US. He threw raves, and distributed Ecstasy.

In 2002, a SWAT team smashed his door down. On remand for 26 months, Shaun started the first prison blog, Jon’s Jail Journal, which turned the international media spotlight on the conditions within the prison. Shaun was sentenced to 9½ years for money laundering and drug offences and served almost 6.

Shaun’s talk supported the PSHCE drugs awareness programme and gave pupils a real insight into the harsh realities of being a prisoner abroad. Alice Martindale said “Shaun’s talk gave me a real insight into what prison is like. I learnt to be careful and to stay on the right track because what we do wrong not only impacts on ourselves but on our friends and family. No-one is above the law and getting involved in drugs will ruin your life.”

Pam Warren, PSHCE Teacher

A Cautionary Tale of Drugs and Crime

Students Take to the PisteA party of 97, both students and staff from years 8 – 13, met to fly to Grenoble, France, then on to the resort of Le Corbier for the annual ski course. Le Corbier is in the heart of the Arvan – Villars Massive in the Savoie Alps and has exceptional skiing opportunities for all abilities. Students participated in 4-5 hour lessons per day; conditions were so good that by the end of the second day all of the beginners had been up the first chairlift.

In the evening students participated in karaoke, quizzes and fancy dress (to name a few) and Mr Mason’s amusing and informative daily blog on the school website updated people at home of events.

The week culminated in an awards evening where students received badges and certificates recognising their progress – our students were a credit to us, so thank you to all.

Ann Devine, Director of PE & Teaching and Learning

Shaun Attwood

Only Girls AllowedGirls in year 7 are involved in an exciting drop in after school club focused on health and wellbeing. Activities have been diverse, from hairdressing, to making collages of their favourite pop stars, and nail art. It has been fun for all! We have been running this for 4 weeks now, on a Wednesday, with plenty of girls turning up and having a fantastic time.

Amanda Bainbridge, Assistant Youth WorkerChloe Ashmore, Shannon Giles, Kate Stevenson and Bethany Beattie

Girls Voting for PE Kit

14 semi-finalists from all key stages battled it out for 8 places in the Grand Final of Rivi’s got Talent, which took place on Thursday 21st March. Over 300 pupils auditioned and the judges had an overwhelming task, deciding who would win a place in the final. The acts ranged from musical theatre acts to bands, dance acts and solo instrumental performance. Massive congratulations to our winners. Year 13 student, Joe Barton was crowned Rivi’s Got Talent Champion 2013; he played guitar and sung his own version of Billie Jean. In second place were Amelia Atherton and Rebecca Crookson (both year 10 students) who sang a duet from Rent and in third place Julia Higson (year 8) who performed a song called ‘Naughty’ from Matilda. The night was an amazing final in celebration of our students’ talents. Horwich Rotary Club donated the prizes and several local companies helped with decorating the school hall. The signed band ‘The Cape Race’ performed at both semi-finals and a special staff act entertained the audience in the Grand Final. Many thanks to the guest judges: Judith Masden, Chair of Governors; Simon Foster and Barbara Ronson, from the board of Governors; Jamie Taylor and Beth Corrigan from the Rhapsody Academy of Performing Arts in Blackrod; Brian Gittins, President of the Horwich Rotary Club and Keith Maher and Jonny Davies, from the band The Cape Race, who performed during the semi-finals.. Lauren Mulholland, Head of Music and Acting Head of Drama

Students Question Their Local MP

Julie Hilling MP met members of our student senate, to talk about her role, democracy and to find out how our student senate works. She also met year 12 Economics Students, who asked her a number of challenging questions including what motivated her to be an MP, what she would do if she was Prime Minister, what she thought about the government debt crisis and what were her thoughts on university fees and student finance. Some excellent discussions took place, covering a wide range of subjects.

Michelle Howard, Director of Business Development

The Student Senate has been working with Miss Tait from the PE Department to evaluate the proposed changes to the girls PE kit. Three different options have been short-listed. Students have consulted with girls at both the upper and lower school sites on the different PE kit options and girls were asked to vote on their preferred choice. We are analysing the votes from the consultation and the results will be released shortly.

Sarah Acton 9K, Student Senate Secretary


Louis Hall-Dunleavy (Year 11) and Julie Hilling MP

Faculty

30 pupils from key stage 3, 4 and 5 embarked on a day trip to London. The trip was to go to watch a matinee performance of ‘Matilda the Musical’ at the Cambridge Theatre. We left school at 8am and arrived at the theatre just before 1:30pm, returning to Horwich at 10.30pm. The show was fantastic and full of fabulous dance routines and singing. Becky Travers, a year 13 music student, said, ‘It was a long day but completely worth it. The show was awesome.’ All the pupils were well behaved and it was a pleasure to share the experience with them.

Lauren Mulholland, Head of Music and Acting Head of Drama

Music – Matilda

In true Olympic spirit, 45 year 7 students are aiming to challenge the boundaries of their linguistic prowess. Every other Thursday our aspiring young linguists report to L1 and L2 and are given just 2 minutes to produce an extended list of words and phrases in French. To achieve success, and the coveted Olympic medals, 100% accuracy is required! They are then expected to incorporate the higher level language into their work to push themselves to the limit of their capability!

We are thrilled with the level of enthusiasm and the impressive standard of work being produced by our higher achieving students. Well done year 7 and keep up the fantastic effort and progress!

Sally Hardaker and Michelle Harrison, Teachers of French and German

Year 12 and 13 Geography students have had the opportunity to broaden their geographical understanding and improve their literacy by reading biographies and fiction from a variety of writers. Students write a book review and discuss the books, providing recommendations to each other. Popular books have included ‘Walking the Amazon’, ‘Planet Google’ and ‘A History of the World in Six Glasses’. We are extending the club to include the BTEC Travel and Tourism course. Hays Travel in Horwich have kindly offered to sponsor the purchase of the new books and a competition for a book review is on its way…watch this space!

Denise Ryley, Geography Teacher

Travelling Through Literature

On 25th April, a group of year 12 and 13 English Literature students will be travelling to Stratford to see a performance of Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. This is an exciting opportunity for the students to see a live performance of their examination set text and to take in the sights and sounds of the Bard’s home town.

Kath McGuire, Director of English & Expressive Arts

As You Like It!

French Olympics


Laura Hunt and Rosie McVean, Year 13

Rheanna Parkinson, Hamza Ansar, Elijah Horridge and Ellie Mills

Maths – Chester University FieldtripTwenty nine, year 7 students went on a mathematics trip to Chester University. Here they had the chance to get an early glimpse of University life and the benefits of doing well in education. During the day they got to look at various practical uses of mathematics, including working with probability to improve their chances of winning on a game show. The behaviour and attitude of the students was exemplary. The students found the trip worthwhile and very enjoyable.

Kris Arkwright, Year 7 and Transition Coordinator in Maths

Winnersat the

Physics Olympics!

Mrs Scholes took eight Year 9 pupils to represent Rivington and Blackrod High School at the Key Stage 3 Physics Olympics at Bolton School. Our students competed in five different practical science events, ranging from designing and launching a rocket to building a jelly baby tower. One of our two teams came first in the jelly baby tower challenge and all eight pupils performed really well across the events. Well done to all of the students involved.

Kathryn Scholes, Science TeacherTop: Harry Parkers, Sarah Acton and Sushanth RajendranBottom: James Abercrombie, Shannon Richardson, Connor Upton and Tom Ball

Year 12 students on the BTEC Travel and Tourism course analysed the impacts of rural tourism, when they visited the Lake District. A boat journey across Windermere, from Bowness to the National Park Visitor Centre at Brockholes, enabled them to explore the physical attractions of the area first-hand. Rosie McVean, commented “It was interesting to talk to the education officers from the National Park and learn about new types of tourism such as the Tree Top Experience”. On return to school students have been developing plans to extend tourism in their local area.

Angela Hardman, Head of Geography/Travel and Tourism

Visiting the Lakes

Theatre – Mum Flying High!

After completing a sky dive to raise money for alcohol awareness, Andrea Spencer approached the Drama department to request that the money she had raised be donated to the department to create a piece of theatre to educate young people about the dangers of alcohol.

The department rose to the challenge and Performing Arts students, alongside their teachers: Lauren Mulholland, David Moloney and James Eccleshare have been working hard to devise an educating piece to advise young people on the dangers of alcohol.

The Performance, written by David Moloney, will showcase in April this year, and tickets will be available from the Drama Department. For further information please contact the department directly or email [email protected]. May we take this opportunity to publically thank Mrs Spencer for her bravery and generous donation and for recognising the power of theatre to educate the next generation about the dangers of alcohol.

Lauren Mulholland, Head of Music and Acting Head of Drama

We recognise the importance of developing creativity amongst students. Therefore, year 8 students have been studying ‘Fragile Eco-systems’ in Geography, with their Independent Learning Activity being to ‘design their own animal!’ Students have used their imaginations to create a creature and explain how it has adapted to survive in either the Arctic Tundra or a Hot Desert environment. We have had some weird and wonderful submissions demonstrating pupils’ imagination, creativity and flair.

Jane Chesney, Geography Teacher

Geography – Fragile Eco-Systems


Mike Roberts and Stef Wallace, Year 13

Visiting the Lakes

Community

To support Fairtrade Week, the Creative Design department have taught year five pupils about the values of fair trading as part of Fairtrade fortnight. Pupils from Horwich and Blackrod primary schools were invited to work closely with the Creative Design department to use a range of different materials and processes, including CAD and CAM.

Over three lessons pupils had the chance to cook with fairtrade food ingredients and make peppermint creams, as well as design a logo using 2D-design and heat transfer it onto a fairtrade cotton t-shirt. They also mapped-out the journey of coffee beans in a fairtrade art session.

“I want to say a big thank you to all the staff and children at RBHS for organising and hosting the Fairtrade event. Our children really enjoyed it and were very proud of the t-shirts and peppermints they had made.” Mrs Hart, St Catherine’s Primary School.

Shaun Holden, Food Technology/Art Teacher

Fairtrade Activities

Students from year 10 took part in the Swedish Exchange, leaving for Enkoping to meet

their hosts. A warm welcome from the Swedish families and crystal clear blue skies at Stockholm airport made

for a fantastic first impression of Sweden. However, this picture perfect moment was soon a shock to the

system, with the outside temperature, in the region of -16 taking everyone’s breath away!

Students spent their days in Enkoping School, seeing how learning happens in Sweden. They took part in activities, including skiing, ice skating, snowboarding, sledging and visits to Stockholm, as well as being involved with the range of sporting activities which many Swedish children enjoy, such as handball and

hockey. The Swedish students will be visiting us in the summer and our year 9 students will have the

opportunity to host and then return to Sweden in 2014. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and

shouldn’t be missed!

Dave Parsonage, Head of IT

Swedish Trip

Perfect Penguins! Children at local primary schools were given an insight into the fascinating life of an emperor penguin in the Antarctic. Just how do they survive the harshest and coldest climate on Earth?

During the session students learnt facts about how the penguins have adapted to suit their habitat and discovered just how penguins keep warm. They were able to use their team skills to describe a penguin’s excellent design, that has evolved over millions of years, and carried out investigations related to temperature and heat using data loggers.

Penguins simply have the perfect design!

Louise Heyes, Science Teacher

Rotary Club Support – Planters in the CommunityWith the help of Horwich Rotary Club, a group of year 8 students were able to experience, first hand, the life cycle of plants. Each student planted up primulas, daffodils and crocuses to make an attractive spring pot which they then gave to someone in the community that they felt would enjoy the gift.

Sandra Lucas, Cover Supervisor


Sport

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INDOOR ATHLETICS

Congratulations to the Year 8 girls who won the North West Regional Final competing against 7 other schools from Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Lancashire. They won by a massive 39 points, which is awesome! All the girls deserve praise for their efforts as they gave 100% in both the track and field events. Well Done! Team members are Georgia Lever, Caitlin Whitehead, Jessica Taylor, Shannon McClarence, Ellie Charnock, Maddie Littlewood, Mia Wild and Lauren Dixon.

Sue Archibald, School Sports Coordinator

Badminton U14 Boys Town ChampionsOur Key Stage 3 badminton players took part in the Bolton Schools badminton championships at Bolton School. After safely reaching the semi-final, we played Canon Slade School and beat them 5 – 0. In the final we played Bolton School and came out winners by the same margin. We subsequently represented Bolton in the Greater Manchester Schools Championships, losing out to a very strong team from Failsworth. Congratulations to Keiran Waters, Tom Billington, Tom Ball and Lewis Haydock.

Phil Walmsley, PE Teacher

We appreciate hearing your views on this Excel magazine. Please email [email protected] to give your feedback.

Lower School and thePathway CentreAlbert StreetHorwichBolton BL6 7AW

t. 01204 333366f. 01204 333367

Upper SchoolRivington LaneRivingtonBolton BL6 7RU

t. 01204 333266f. 01204 333264e. [email protected]. www.rbhs.co.uk

Bolton Schools A number of year 8 and 9 students took part in the Bolton School’s Gymnastics Competition at Thornleigh Salesian College. We entered both a novice and an intermediate team in the competition. Each student performed an individual floor routine and two selected vaults. Although the experience was very daunting, all performed to the best of their ability and really enjoyed the experience. The students involved were Amy Duddridge, Saffron Johnson, Chloe Ashton, Georgia Stoddard, Ellie Bennett, Grace Hardstaff, Jemima Chester Morris, Katy Marsh, Megan Seddon and Nicole Tudor. Well done to all!

Ruth Parkinson, PE Teacher

Gymnastics CompetitionSix of our year 8 footballers were invited to be guests of Fieldings Porter Solicitors in their hospitality box at Bolton Wanderers Football Club. The boys were treated to soup and sandwiches and a visit from ‘Lofty’. The match against Leicester ended in a goal-less draw and all agreed it was a fair result. The footballers, chosen in recognition of their effort, commitment and application to the school football team included Saul Guffog, Joseph Tweats, James Roberts, Charlie Mills, Charles Fletcher and Joby Patel.

Following this, Year 8 footballers have won the Bolton Schools Cup - winning against Canon Slade - 2-0. Well done to all.Ann Devine, Director of PE & Teaching and Learning

Rewards’ TripGymnastics Team

Tom Ball, Lewis Haydock, Tom Billington and Kieran Waters

Documents

Excel Spring 2013