Hi All,

Wow! What a busy couple of weeks. Here goes…

Learning Outside the Classroom

 

It is part of our stated aim at Blacon High School to investigate opportunities for our students to engage in learning outside the classroom. Additionally, our commitment is that every student who attends Blacon High School should experience at least one residential visit during their time with us. To this end, all of our new Year 7s were offered the opportunity to take part in an overnight camping trip at Alderford Lake. Year 7s have had this opportunity during the first term after joining the school for some years now although, obviously, we were unable to offer this trip during the lockdowns as a result of Covid 19.

 

As you can see from the photographs, some very wet Year 7s were having a whale of a time in the rain and on the water.  Students enjoyed taking part in some problem solving, a range of water activities, climbing and archery. They arrived back home very tired and, perhaps still a little soggy, but they had a great time.

It is so important not to underestimate the value of experiences like this where students develop independence, resilience, develop team building skills and, perhaps most importantly, have a great time. Well done Year 7! Thanks must also go to all of those members of staff who gave up their comfy beds to support the event.

International links

As you will be aware, we have been playing host to our second group of international students since September; a small group of nine Spanish students who have been with us for three weeks.

Thanks to the wonderful students in Year 10 who volunteered to act as their buddies during their stay. The focus of the visit is really about immersion, students are completely immersed into school life to develop their spoken English. For us, there is an opportunity to develop links and friendships with students from other cultures. In the days of social media, keeping in touch with people is really easy and I know that many of our student buddies made, what I hope will be, lasting friendships.

The Spanish students were also able to support spoken Spanish in our GCSE Spanish class and gave our students the opportunity to practice their language skills in a safe, non-judgemental environment.

On the last day, there was a party atmosphere, thanks to Miss Thelwell, as students shared in a variety of Spanish snacks, listened to Spanish music and there was even a bit of dancing.

 

Our amazing Miss Beyer

 

The fantastic and intrepid Jenny Beyer completed the London Marathon last weekend in almost five hours exactly. Miss Beyer was running to raise money for the Hospice of the Good Shepherd, a charity close to the heart of the Blacon community. What an achievement!

This week, she has been in to lots of lessons to share her experience with students and to show them her medal.

I’m really not surprised that she ran the marathon as she is a complete ‘whirlwind’ at school and has endless time and energy for all of our students.

Please follow the link to her just giving page and let’s get her total through the roof.

 http://www.justgiving.com/Jenny-Beyer3

 

Golden Tickets

It’s always great to celebrate success and reward our students. This week, no less than 62 students were nominated to receive Golden Tickets for all sorts of reasons including showing an excellent attitude to work, being a team player and fantastic outcomes. The lucky ticket holders get a hot chocolate or a cold drink and a tasty snack in recognition of demonstrating the values that we value at Blacon High School.

 

 

Well done everyone, Keep up the great work!

 

National Poetry Day 2022

 

On National Poetry Day, there were lots of fun, poetry-themed activities led by the English Department. All teachers across school stuck their favourite poems onto their classroom doors and students got involved in reading, writing and performing poetry in lessons.

Amarri in Year 7 gave a talk to his classmates about his sporting achievements. This was just the prompt they needed to get their creative minds working and the class then wrote poems about their own personal achievements before they joined Blacon High School. Mrs Gibson-Tipping was delighted with the outcome.

Well done, Year 7.

Media Studies GCSE

 

We were extremely lucky to have a visit from the Video Standards Council in school last week. They delivered an engaging presentation on the processes behind the PEGI game rating in the UK. Our presenter, Ms Adams, was the reviewer for many well-known and much-played platform games including Fortnite.

The talk included a breakdown of the process game developers undertake to achieve an age rating for their games or apps. The talk included details of how the VSC review and archive brand new and upcoming games, and certify each on several categories, such as violence, horror, fear, or crime, with an age rating.

The talk linked directly to the Media Studies GCSE and expectations around understanding the Media Industry, but it was also a great way for students to ask questions to a person who has been successful in the industry. This was yet another excellent, learning outside the classroom experience at Blacon High school that links to our students' further career paths and aspirations.

 

Year 11 Progress Evening

It was absolutely brilliant to welcome parents and carers of Year 11 students into school this week for our very first face-to-face Progress Evening since the Covid lockdowns.

As always, there just isn’t enough time to say everything we want to say, to as many parents as we’d like to but, the feedback was really positive and everyone seemed to appreciate the opportunity to discuss their child’s progress towards their GCSEs in this very important year. Time is really short and Year 11 always seems to fly. Please encourage your child to start their preparation now; it’s never too early and all teachers are happy to share resources to support revision, even at this early stage.

 

And finally…

Thank you, as always to parents and carers for their ongoing support. We really do appreciate it. Please keep an eye on the school website and on social media for key dates and upcoming events.