Fairfield High School Newsletter

WINTER 2015

Christmas seems to have arrived again frighteningly quickly! It is no time at all since we were welcoming our new Year 7 students – all 110 of them, our biggest ever year group – and now they have already completed a term and are becoming “Fairfieldised” as Ofsted described it!

I like to think that “Fairfieldised” is a good thing – we hope that after five years our students leave us not only with great qualifications which will help them progress, but also with important qualities which make them lovely people, such as kindness, tolerance, respect, and enthusiasm. The Colleges tell us that they particularly recognise these qualities in our students and it is one of the things that make them so special.

Mr Kelly and Mrs Hart visited our ex-students at the Sixth Form College recently and it was lovely to hear how they are getting on and adjusting to the demands of the next phase in their education. We like to keep in touch with ex-students and staff, whether they are in Hereford or half way around the world!

We are saying goodbye this term to our Music Teacher Mr Withey. We wish him every success in the future. He will be replaced by Miss Sage, who will join us in January. Also leaving us is Mr Roden from Technology; again we hope the future has many good things in store for him. Mrs Clarke will be joining us for two terms to cover his teaching role.

I hope you will enjoy reading about the very many things that we have managed to pack into the term. My grateful thanks go to all the staff and governors, in whatever capacity, who work so hard to create new opportunities for our children both in and out of the classroom every day. We are also grateful for the support of parents, carers and friends and wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.

Sue Gaston

The eggstraordinary Year 7

English

LIBRARY WEEK Monday 9th November until Friday 13th of November.

In order to encourage use of the school library and participation in reading activities, the English Department

decided to hold an activity week based in the library. A variety of competitions were offered to encourage all

levels of participation and raise as much money as possible to be able to purchase new books and equipment.

The students were encouraged to have a go at all of the competitions on offer and they paid a nominal entry fee

to enter each competition. All of their correct entries were put into a draw for a series of prizes. All of the money

raised from this very successful venture will go towards purchasing new stock for the library.

The prize winners were as follows:

Sweets – Emily Rowland Hill Creepy Crossword – Fred Davies Creepy Quiz – Ruby Padian Number Nightmare – Pippy Jenkins Design a bookcover – Georgie Gaze Design a bookmark – Amber Kaye- Allen Congratulations to all of the winners.

We would like to thank all parents for giving the students the money to be able to participate. Special thanks are

extended to all of the Library Prefects and the Library Monitors for all of the time and effort they put into making

this a success.

In order to keep up the momentum and enthusiasm another Scholastic Book Sale has been organised in school,

for the last week in January / first week in February and we hope that all parents will enable their children to

participate in this venture. The library has benefitted from the purchase of £600 worth of books thanks to last

year’s sale and we hope we will be able to purchase even more books for our students to enjoy with funds raised

in the forthcoming sale.

Poetry by Heart: School Final

As is becoming quite the tradition here at Fairfield, KS4 students all

took part in the poetry recitation competition in their English lessons.

All students had to learn one poem from the Poetry by Heart

Anthology and recite it to their class ‘by heart’.

This year’s standard was extremely high from both Years 10 and 11. On

Friday, 20th November, we had the school final, where the class

winners had to recite not just one, but two poems to the rest of KS4.

The competition was fierce and incredibly close, but Fletch Garrard was crowned winner, with Harry Ball as a very

worthy runner-up. We will be heading to the regional finals at the start of the new year, so watch this space and

wish our winners luck!

Miss Worsfold

English GCSE English Literature has never been more tense or more

fun!

The whole of Year 10 and some of Year 11 went to see

Stephen Daldry’s incandescent staging of An Inspector Calls at

the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. The play is one of KS4’s

set texts and to actually get to see it being performed live was

an exciting opportunity. The imaginative staging of the

events—many taking place in a ‘dolls’ house’ on stage was

inspired and none of us will forget the coup de theatre of the

exploding table. Nor will we forget when it caught on fire and

had to be hosed down and the play held up for several

minutes!

Our students were impeccably behaved as ever—even though

we took over pretty much the entire upper circle—and a

pleasure to take on a trip.

Ms Conway

Fairfield students were chosen from thousands to work

with members of the RSC education department and 5

other schools to conduct research into how the hugely

popular live broadcasts of Shakespeare's plays could be

made even more accessible to school students. Three days

of hard work in Stratford –plus a visit the RSC theatre itself

to see Henry V from the best seats in the house—and

hours of more hard work in school (questionnaires,

Interviews, ballot boxes) in their spare time saw all of KS3

being asked their opinions and the ideas fed back in a

presentation to the RSC by our talented researchers,

Lorraine Waite, Viviana Hirkovska and Jodie Williams.

Following the actual broadcast itself which was seen by all

of year 7 and 8 last month, the girls undertook further

research using a graffiti wall to collect ideas and passed

these on to the team at Stratford. Perhaps not

surprisingly, the suggestion repeated the most often was

that the broadcasts were great but the students would

have like to seen the play in the real theatre! Over to you,

then RSC—send us the buses!

English and History

Ypres Trip: Part Two

In October, shortly after a number of Year 9 students had returned

from Ypres, Hannah Burgess, Fran Heeley and I had the opportunity to

join eleven other schools from Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to

go to Ypres one weekend.

This visit was funded by a government initiative and run by the

Institute of Education, University College London. Its aim is to enable

as many students and staff from schools across England to visit the

battlefields, as those who died in the First World War - over 800,000.

Over the course of the weekend, we visited a number of cemeteries,

museums and memorials. We were able to trace the story of a local

soldier from Herefordshire and see his name at Tyne Cot Cemetery,

which was quite a moving experience, having seen where he had

fought and died a hundred years before.

We were also very privileged to take part in Belgium’s art memorial to

the fallen, which will go on display in 2018. Similar to the poppies

installation at the Tower of London, Belgium is commissioning over

600,000 clay figures to represent the lives lost on Belgian soil during

World War 1. Hannah, Fran and myself each made a figure that will

have our names on, along with the name of a fallen soldier.

This was a fantastic experience for all three of us and is certainly not

one we shall forget. Miss Worsfold

History

Tyne Cot Cemetery Passchendaele

There are 11,962 Commonwealth servicemen of the

First World War buried or commemorated in Tyne

Cot Cemetery, sadly, 8,374 of the burials are

unidentified. The back wall of commemoration

contains another 35,000 names of soldier missing

the battlefield.

The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to the

missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area

known as the Ypres Salient. 54,395 names of missing

men from this area of fighting are recorded on its

panels. In the evening we took part in the Last Post

Ceremony at the Menin Gate where students laid a

wreath to the fallen and marked the event with a

minutes silence

Lochnagar Crater:

Blown at 7.28 1st July 1916 as a

prelude to the Battle of the Somme

Belgium 2015

During the autumn term 61 intrepid historians set out on a journey to learn about and experience the

battlefields of WW1. Here are a few of the places we visited.

Other places we visited and will leave us with

lasting memories were the Wellington tunnel

system under the city of Arras where soldiers had

been billeted in the weeks before the Battle of

Arras, visiting the Trench of Death and Sanctuary

Wood on the Ypres Salient and later visiting

Langemark, the German War Cemetery.

The visit to the Somme was particularly poignant

especially Beaumont Hamel and Ulster Tower and of

course the Thiepval Memorial which honours the

missing from the Battle of the Somme.

Finally the trip to Vimy Ridge, where the Canadian

regiments pushed back the Germans, using tunnels

and trenches through which the students had the

opportunity to walk.

Ethics—KS3

Islam and Martin Luther King

Through our theme of ‘Challenging Beliefs’

students in Year 8 and 9, explored the radical new

ideas of Muhammad and Martin Luther King. Year 8

focused on the events of Muhammad’s life and the

message he left his followers. We challenge the core

message of peace and compare that to the awful

misrepresentation of that in our current world.

Equally, in Year 9 the non-racist message of Martin

Luther King is sadly still relevant today as it was in

the USA in 1950s and 60s. Students explored how his

Christian beliefs inspired his message of equality for

all. To the left are a selection of Year 9 assessments

on MLK and his importance.

Exploring what Ethics means

Year 7 have begun their Ethics exploration by

researching what beliefs they and other people

hold. They considered first what they believed in

before finding out about the six main world

religions. We then explored what values we hold

and what goals we wish to follow. It has been a

truly fascinating journey so far. To end our unit

on ‘Challenging Beliefs’, all students had to

produce a piece of work titled ‘What ethics

means to me’. There were some truly amazing

pieces, some of which can be seen to the right —

well done everyone. We have now moved onto

our second theme of ‘Relationships, family and

friends’.

Geography

This term Year 7 have made a fantastic start by

studying the weather. Many have made their own

anemometers and have used these to investigate the best site to locate a bench around the school.

They have also treated us to fantastic cakes, raps and

animated stories, to name a few creative projects, on the water cycle.

‘Geographical’ cakes made by 2 very talented

young ladies!

Year 8 have been looking at tectonics and

have looked at the impact of recent tectonic

activity in Afghanistan.

Year 9 have studied population and have looked at

the recent migration across Europe. The causes and

impacts of what can arguably be called one of the

largest mass migrations in their life time.

KS3

Four students from Year 10 represented Fairfield gallantly

at the annual Geographical Association Quiz of secondary

schools in Herefordshire and Monmouthshire. They took

third place behind Hereford Cathedral and Monmouth

Boys schools.

KS4

Year 11 have been busy completing their controlled

assessment investigating the impact of tourism on the

Brecon Beacons National Park.

They visited both Brecon town and the Brecon Beacons

Visitor Centre where they were given a tour and a lecture

about management strategies by the National Park

Authority.

Science

What is light?

This term we took up the opportunity to take our new GCSE students and a few of our super Year 11

Triple scientists to visit Birmingham University where they were holding an event called ‘Lightfest’.

Our students were guided through workshops looking at a range of different properties and uses of

light. My favourites were what different wavelengths of sound look like when transformed into light

(picture left) and then finally a talk from Cambridge lecturer Professor Bill O’Neill discussing the

future of laser technology. He began his talk with the following idea:

Science is a creative subject and without creativity, Science might never progress...

Many of the questions this year continued to

stretch pupils. One round was based on Japan, here

are a few sample questions from that round.

(Answers can be found at the bottom of the page)

1) What is the tallest mountain in Japan?

2) What is the most watched sport in Japan?

3) What is the biggest company in Japan?

4) What does Nipon mean?

5) Japan is the 15th most forested in the world.

What percentage of Japan is covered of Japan is

covered in forest?

Geographical Association Quiz

Quiz Answers

1) Mt Fuji

2) Baseball

3) Toyota

4) Land of the rising sun

5) 65%

Mathematics

Year 7 Mathematicians

We would like to congratulate all of Year 7 for

their excellent start in Mathematics at Fairfield

High School.

We are looking forward to them achieving success

in the Junior Maths Challenge (JMC) in 2016.

Please try the question below from a previous

Junior Maths Challenge:

Which of the following is divisible by all of the

integers from 1 to 10 inclusive?

A) 23 x 34

B) 34 x 45

C) 45 x 56

D) 56 x 67

E) 67 x 78

DEPARTMENT NEWS

The new Maths Board

We will keep students informed about important events

in Maths and provide regular puzzles and important

formula on our new Maths Board. We are happy for

students to contribute their own problem solving

questions and they will be changed every half term.

My Maths

The department have subscribed to MyMaths which is an

online maths help resource for all students at Fairfield. It

provides extra help in the form of a lesson and plenty of

practise on all topics in KS3 and KS4. To log in, students

will need to use the Username: Fairfield 85 and

Password: nine. Please go to www.mymaths.co.uk to

access this resource.

A lot more emphasis is on problem solving within the

new curriculum. Can you solve this problem?

Mrs Jones and Mr Evans had a race over 100m. Mrs

Jones won by 10 metres. Mr Evans demanded a

rematch but this time Mrs Jones gave Mr Evans a

head start. She began 10 metres behind the starting

line. Both ran at the same pace as they did before,

who will win and by how far?

Mathematics is not just about numbers and equations: it is about understanding.

MFL

SPANISH

Our students have had a busy term taking

part in our European Day of Languages Quiz

against students from Kingstone. They have

also been exchanging letters and cultural

posters with Pedro de Luna High School in

Zaragoza, Spain, having been visited by their

Spanish teacher Elvira García.

The Year 8s did an excellent job making

masks for “el Día de los Muertos” Latin

American celebration.

FRENCH—Y10 GCSE French students recently

enjoyed a French breakfast to conclude their

Module on ‘French food’. Miam! Miam!

Food Technology

Cadbury World

Year 10 visited Cadbury World on the 27 November as

part of the GCSE Food Technology course. They were

given the opportunity to look at examples of different

methods of production and different types of Industrial

equipment. They were also given a demonstration on

tempering

chocolate.

Decorated Cupcake Competition

Students entered a competition to decorate four

cupcakes to their chosen theme. First prize was

awarded to Fiona Reynolds in Year 11 who won a

voucher from Lakeland.

Special congratulations go to the following stu-

dents for winning Cook of the Month during the

Autumn term. They are pictured with their prize.

September Emily Freeman & Conrad Gardner

October Poppy Sullivan & Lucy Faulkner-Elliot

November Lewis Lloyd & Molly Watts

Sweet & Biscuit Tins

The Food Technology Department would be

grateful to receive any donations from the

Christmas period of sweet or biscuits tins. These

are incredibly useful within

the department.

Design & Technology

Year 7 have had a very busy start to Design and Technology. This term the

students have each completed a metalwork project by making a coat hook

from scratch. New skills include cutting, drilling, filing, brazing and finally

spray painting the mild steel used for this project. As can be seen from

the photographs the standard of craft skills is very high amongst our Year

7 students. The next project will build on the practical skills gained, with

the introduction of design work where students are asked to research and

develop their own ideas through sketching before they move into the

workshop. I am sure they will be as successful with their own design

ideas.

Engineering

The year 11’s are currently completing

the first of two Controlled Assessment

Tasks (CAT’s) —’Engineer a product’.

This has involved planning, designing

and finally building a product to a given

client brief. The clients in this case are

all members of staff!

It has been a very busy term for the

engineers and they have risen to the

challenge. It is a very practical CAT and

many of them have had to learn new

skills along the way, such as using the

Boxford High Speed Router which is a

computer controlled machine (CNC) or

more traditional equipment such as the

milling machine.

Art

Music

The Music department has been very busy this term

with the Year 11 students beginning to record their

coursework compositions and Key Stage 3 working

very hard on the Christmas concert.

If you are interested in learning an instrument then

make sure you speak to the Music department, we

have a huge range of lessons on offer from Drumming

and Guitar to Singing and even Synthesizing.

Orchestra and Choir rehearse most lunch times so

Physical Education The PE department have been incredibly busy so far this term, with many students attending

extracurricular clubs, representing the school teams and playing in interhouse matches.

If you haven't attended a club then make sure you check the noticeboards for the latest

information and come along and have a go. For more information on clubs speak to one of the

PE department.

Rugby

Rugby participation has rocketed this year and the results have been much more pleasing than were achieved

by the home nations in the RWC. A large number of boys have either attended Rugby club or participated in a

school fixture and this hard work and commitment has been reflected in their results.

Year 7s: The Year 7s are rugby mad and we have been lucky enough to enter two teams in the recent 12 aside

tournaments hosted by Luctonians, Bromyard and Hereford Rugby Clubs. The results have been spectacular

with Fairfield coming third in the first tournament and runners up in the following two, beating schools such as

Bishops, Whitecross and Cathedral along the way. Future stars in the making!!

Year 8s: After their success at 12 aside level the Year 8s were entered into the

league and they certainly didn't disappoint. After coming off 17-0 at half time

against Hereford Academy, a game they went on to win 29-17, the Year 8s

went from strength to strength and have only lost 2 matches all season with

one being a thrilling encounter against Weobley in their semi-final match , a

first ever semi final for Fairfield at this age group but one of many for this team

in years to come.

Year 10s: The Year 10s competed well in the league but were unlucky to miss

out on a semi-final spot on points scored. The squads most memorable

performance, and victory 27-16, was against local rivals Kingstone which was a

thrilling game to watch with some fast paced rugby and great attacking flair.

Year 11s: Due to the restructuring of the leagues and rules this year many

schools decided not to enter teams in the league and this meant only friendlies

were available. The squad was raw, with many never having played a competitive match before but after a few

training sessions the boys soon found their flow with a draw against Kingstone and two very convincing wins

against Academy and Earl Mortimer.

Physical Education

Interhouse

Interhouse has been hotly contested this term with large numbers of students competing in

Rugby, Dodgeball, and Netball.

Football Mashup

Strong numbers continue at Football mashup with coach, Tom

Mason, very impressed with the girl’s developments. The club is

every Wednesday 3:30-4:30pm and new members are always

welcome.

Futsal

The football season will commence after Christmas but students have

already began to work on their skills through Futsal. All teams have

done very well and are on track to qualify for the county semi-finals

Fencing

An exciting new fencing club started this

term and the uptake in Year 9 has been

fantastic. We are looking to expand the

club to all students in 2016, if you are

interested in joining this club please

speak to Mr Lloyd.

Physical Education Trips

The PE

Department

have run

two

fantastic

trips this term that allowed over 60 students to experience some

international standard Rugby and Football; Gloucester vs Barbarians

and England vs Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Students at the Gloucester match were extremely lucky, not only

were they able to witness many world cup stars, they were also

invited to act as flag bearers which meant they got to walk on the

Kingsholm pitch. One extremely lucky student, Will Phillips, was

chosen to be match mascot and walked out with the

Gloucester captain at the start of the match.

Cross-Country

Some fantastic performances in the Herefordshire cross-

country race, Blake Corry (Yr9) came 3rd in the Inter boys

event, and Patrick Morgan (Yr7) came 3rd in the Year 7 event.

Netball

This term we have been very busy with Netball! The girls

have travelled far and wide, playing enthusiastically in the

county leagues and tournaments.. Practices have regularly

had 40-50 girls and their commitment was shown with the

inter-house competitions towards the end of term where

over 80 girls participated. The final result of the inter-

house competition is as follows;

KS 3 1ST Dore 2nd Escley 3rd Monnow 4th Olchon

KS 4 1ST Monnow 2nd Escley 3rd Dore

Well done to ALL girls who have enjoyed their Netball this

term, there is more to come next year, starting with the first

Netball practice on Thursday 28th January.

For all the latest fixtures, sporting action and other news make sure you follow the

school twitter account @FairfieldHS

Animal Care

Animal Care

It has been a busy few months for the Fairfield

animals. The bearded dragon has moved into a new

room on the top floor of the old house. At the end of

last term the alpacas were sheared . Animal Care

students Alex and Adam Evans assisted with the

shearing. In September we had a visit to our

afterschool animal care class by several snakes,

spiders and lizards all of whom were handled by the

students for their practical assessment. We are

currently just completing the Animal Handling Unit

on the BTEC course and students have been

handling various animals including a dog for

grooming, the goats who have been handled and

restrained for a walk, guinea pigs and chickens. The

sheep have just returned from the

ram so hopefully we will have

lots of spring lambs in a couple of

months time.

BTEC Child Care

On 15th October 2015 the Golden Valley Preschool visited

Fairfield High School.

As part of their BTEC Child Care course the students needed to

Plan , Prepare and Evaluate a Healthy Cooking Session with Children

aged 3 -5 years.

The students were very good with the children, explaining what to

do, were very patient, and let the children pour, stir, grate etc.

They made sure they were safe and the children knew what to do

and helped them if they were unsure.

Once the muffins were ready to cook we moved to a different room

for food tasting. There was a large array of fruit for the children to

try and some of the students really got involved asking the children

to shut their eyes, if they liked it, what it tasted like etc.

Once the tasting had finished, the muffins were cooked

and we were given them to take back to preschool. The

children ate some for snacks and each took one home.

It was a lovely morning for the preschool children and

staff. It was well thought out and we would love to visit

again.