Meadowhead School Academy Trust
e-Pho Volum e 21
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Welcome to our Summer Term’s newsletter. If you are reading online, you can go to the full article by clicking the green symbol.
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Farewell Y11s! After the challenges our Y11 students have faced over the last 15 months, we were delighted to be able to deliver an extra special event to enable them to celebrate their successes and to show how proud we are of their achievements! Mrs Grewal-Joy said "We have been immensely impressed with you as a year group; you have shown great resilience and perseverance and our best hopes are that you take these strengths with you into the future".
I would like to start off with thanking parents for their ongoing support for the school during a time of unprecedented challenge. In particular, I thank those parents who have contacted the school to commend us or provided constructive feedback on our work this year. We have very much appreciated parents taking the time to acknowledge our efforts and hard work. Please be assured that health and safety has been our number one priority for our school community throughout this period and will continue to be so in the future. Message from Mrs Grewal-Joy
We have prepared students for changes in the new academic year and how we are setting out to achieve “normal” ways of working again. Please refer to the end of term and August letters for full details on the return to school arrangements and expectations. We look forward to a new term with less disruption and with your support we will continue to promote a culture in school where we have high expectations of ourselves and of others at all times. Farewell Y11s We said goodbye to our Y11 students at their Record of Achievement Celebration event at the end of June. Students arrived back in school at 3.00pm and they headed straight to their form rooms, where they and their form teachers watched a live stream from the hall. Our Head Girl and Deputy Head Boy gave messages of thanks to their teachers and Mr Hill gave a speech that was both reflective and inspiring as our young people prepare for the next stage in their lives. Following a photo montage looking back over moments from the last 5 years, students made their way outside with buffet food and an opportunity for photos. There was a fantastic atmosphere as students signed each others’ specially created 'Class of 2021' T-shirts, posed for group photos under the giant Class of 2021 banner, entered the photo booth and listened to a soundtrack of music they had chosen.
Be Inspired by our former students!
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Aiming High with Meadowhead Sixth Form
Aiming
We held two virtual ‘Aiming High’ events to provide support and advice to guide our Y10 and Y11 students towards attaining the highest grades at GCSE and A Level and the transition into sixth form.
Higher
There was a live presentation and a collection of videos from former students. These, and further comprehensive resources are on our website under the Curriculum tab.
Goodbye and Good Luck Y13!
On 27th April we said a proper goodbye to our Year 13s. After a difficult year we were delighted to have the chance to celebrate together with pizza and cake. Yearbooks and hoodies were presented to
students along with kind words from the tutors and speeches from Ms Robinson and Miss Cookson. We wish you the best of luck Y13!
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Diamond Awards
Very well done to all our students who received a Diamond or Double Diamond Award at the end of May in a series of special ceremonies broadcast live to family and friends. Thanks to all our families who supported them by watching the live stream – we even had relatives viewing in Australia! Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, each year group had their own ceremony with an introduction from their Head of Year and a closing from Mrs Grewal-Joy. Students who have collected 500 reward points were presented with the Diamond Award certificate and badge. Those with 1000 points received their Double Diamond certificate and special engraved paperweight. We feel it is very important to recognise the achievements of these students, who are great ambassadors for this school. These are not one offs, but are continuous efforts and positive contributions that they each make to this school community over time. "You are our most outstanding, exceptional young people in our school.......Aim high and you will achieve great things. We are incredibly proud of what you have achieved thus far, but it is nothing compared to what we think you're going to achieve in the future" Mrs Grewal-Joy
D – Diamond Award (500 points) DD – Double Diamond (1000 points)
Y10 4
Y9 We presented a Diamond or Double Diamond to over 280 students from Y8 - Y10
We Say Goodbye!
Thank a Teacher Day
We said farewell to the following staff who left Meadowhead at the end of this term - Mr Sockett and Mr Timms are both retiring and we wish everyone the very best of luck in their future careers and retirement.
Beth Montgomery - English Teacher Ross Metcalfe - Supporting Leader Art Lucy Price Behaviour Manager Matty Owens PE Apprentice Mark Garrett - Engagement Centre Suppor Beth Jones - Pastoral Support Dave Timms Ethics Teacher Barry Sockett ICT Technician Anne Bladen Maths Teacher
“To all the team for all their enthusiasm and professionalism in encouraging our children’s love of learning, especially despite everything the pandemic has thrown at them.”
Mrs Grewal-Joy said “I wish you all the best of luck in the future and hope you leave Meadowhead with fond memories of your time here; you are not just leaving colleagues, but friends too. We look forward to hearing what you do with your careers and free-time”
Anna, Y9 Parent It was Thank a Teacher Day in June and we would like to thank everyone who sent in a message of thanks - they have all been shared with individual staff. We also say thank you to our families for the support they have given the school over the last year. 5
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Y7 Students donate to the Sheffield Children's Hospital Thank you to these three students in Year 7 for donating all of their BiG Challenge earnings to the Sheffield Children's Hospital. Their team 'Masks & More' made it through to the final judging panel shortlist in March this year, and we are so very proud of you!!
A brave haircut!
Mental Health Awareness Week
Well done to Alice in Y9 who raised over £800 for Cash for Kids by cutting their hair short and donating it to the Little Princess Trust to make a wig for a child suffering hair loss.
Thank you to our students and staff for raising £942.23 for roundabout on our non-school uniform day in May.
The campaign for Mental Health Awareness Week in May was focusing on ‘nature’. In form time students discussed where in Sheffield they think a good place to spend time outside is, as well as how they can use nature and outdoors to help with mental health.
Anti-Bullying This term we took the opportunity to hold our own Anti-Bullying Week. All tutor groups were asked to sign a class charter to pledge to stop bullying. Our policy is to create a supportive and caring atmosphere in school where bullying behaviour is very much the exception. We aim to prevent bullying through: Celebrating Difference Awareness Weeks - Anti-Bullying week; Black History Month; LGBT month; Diversity week Form Time Assemblies Ethics Lessons We involve students in writing policies, becoming an AntiBullying Ambassador and joining the Student Parliament.
You can find a handy guide for parents under the Policies section of the school website.
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Wellbeing Since the launch of our School Pastor service in October 2019, the school pastors have provided an invaluable support to our students. School Pastors are part of the Ascension Trust Charity, and we have a team of 10 volunteers who come into school to listen and to help. They are School Pastors all members of the local community who have different backgrounds of working with young people – five come into school on Mondays and five on Thursdays, talking with our students and listening to how they are getting on at school. Pastors are available during social times such as break and lunch, which can be difficult for some children. School Pastors have been part of Y6 to Y7 Transition events and they also support new arrivals to school mid-term, helping them settle in and being available to talk to. Pastors talk with staff, especially our Pastoral Managers, who will ask the school pastors to meet up with a young person who maybe has some troubles at school or difficulties in their life. Our school pastors have had a real positive impact working on a one-to-one basis to help eradicate bullying and provide support to the students. We were very grateful for their support during the re-opening of school after the March lockdown as we undertook the whole-school Covid-19 testing - they were there for anxious students as well as taking part in administering Lateral Flow Tests. One of our students who benefited from the time and care from our School Pastors said that they are “normal people of all ages who are really good listeners”.
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Extralar and Curricu ent Enrichm
Perfect Pizzas in the Y7 Bakeoff club
It was all go in Y8 Tech Club Two teams of Y8s each built an infento modular kit scooter before testing it outside
Great Reactions in the Y7 Science Club
Volcanoes and Elephant’s toothpaste
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Y12 BTEC Applied Science students were lucky enough to be part of a soil research c e project organised by Sheffield Hallam ) T aths nce, (Scie ering & M University. Our Y12 students who took part e Engin really enjoyed the chance to be part of some ‘real-life’ scientific research and they were excited to collaborate with the University.
STEMhnology,
The sessions were ran by a student researcher who carried out some analysis on samples collected by the Y12s. The students really appreciated the final live Q and A session too where they got the chance to ask the researcher some questions. We are planning a future collaboration project involving some more complex analytical techniques in person at Sheffield Hallam (restrictions permitting).
Forensic and Criminal Investigation As part of their course, Y12 students were taught remotely by the Head of Policing at Sheffield Hallam University. As an ex- detective with decades of experience who has worked in numerous roles, including undercover operations and murder squad, he had the expert knowledge to teach them all about police interview techniques and the advances that have been made in this area. Students were fascinated and found the experience very informative. ‘It was interesting hearing first-hand about interviews and how they are conducted and how the police force has changed over the years from someone who has experienced it.’ ‘I really enjoyed it. I thought it was very interesting and informative. Thank you’ ‘It was very interesting and I learned a lot.’ ‘The talk was really interesting and informative. It helped me decide which route to take at university’
Y7s created their volcanoes before adding their acid/alkali mix to represent the lava.
Women in Maths Congratulations to Sophie on securing a place on the Women in Maths Programme at Christ’s College, Cambridge. This opportunity was open to Y12 students targeting potential female applicants to mathematics courses at top universities, and a great achievement. 9
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The complete anthology is on our website under the Trust Partnership information.
We held this annual celebration event via a live stream at the end of term. This year’s theme was ‘The Year the World Stopped’, with submissions from our students as well as those from our local feeder primary schools. We shared video recordings of readings of the entries and announced the winners in each year group. Congratulations to Jem M. Y7 for his artwork, Alicia P. Y10, Amos T. Y9, Marin T. Y8, Alreda N Y7 and to the winners from the primary schools.
The Meadowhead Community Learning Trust is on Facebook Join the Facebook page to keep up to date with what is going on within The Meadowhead Community Learning Trust, which was established in 2009. Over the past 11 years, the Trust has gone from strength to strength, growing its membership from just 5 to over 30 business and education partners, who work collaboratively each year on innovative projects to enrich and improve the education experiences of all its 4000 learners aged 3-19.
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‘Things Are Gonna Get Easier’
A rt a n d D ra m a
A group of Y7 students have been working hard over this last term, sharing stories from the last year or so, improvising scenes and finally creating a piece of theatre which they live streamed to an audience. This was a reflective and hopeful performance from a talented group of young people! “It’s been great to learn new Drama skills.” Georgie Walker “It been so fun working as a team with other people I didn’t know before.” Grace Ridley “It’s been fun getting to know other Y7 students.” Chloe Hurt “It’s nice having a community of people who see eye to eye with the hobby I enjoy.” Valentine Flude “It’s great to see how different people work in Drama and learn from them.” Sam Bradshaw
Watch the performance here
Mrs Masson-Wilson is incredibly proud of the Y7s involved and the moving performance they created! Our very own Kuma, designed by Eve Sambrook and painted by our Year 12 Art students, joined the Bears of Sheffield trail and stood proudly on display in the entrance of Weston Park Museum (12th July - 29th September). We look forward to having Kuma back in school later this year. All money raised goes to the Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Watch out - there are Bears about!
Landscape, Environment & Chatsworth Project
Art on Display
We weren't able to hold our usual summer art exhibition, but staff and students enjoyed a display of students’ work around school, and there is a virtual exhibition of work on our website. 11
C a re e rs
Y10 Work Experience
Y10s enjoyed an exciting work experience week at the beginning of July. Hundreds of employers kindly hosted our students in job sectors as varied as law, construction, media, animal care and healthcare, Students who didn’t secure a placement didn’t miss out. They heard from around 20 employers over the week finding out about post-16 options; gaining insight into various industries; learning how to be enterprising; and discovering the careers and skills linked to their school subjects. They also developed their teamwork, communication and leadership skills with an activity session with the Royal Navy.
A group of Y10 students took part in a Sheffield Theatres Work Experience project, which included online sessions from people working in the industry and a trip to the theatre for a tour and further talks. The students also created a piece of Drama around the idea of transition which they live streamed to Y6 students to finish the week! “This has been really enjoyable. Sheffield Theatres have worked well around the pandemic to ensure we still had a great week.” Lilly Oshikanlu-Tear “It was really interesting to hear about jobs within the industry from the people who are actually doing them.” Lucy
Downham “Such an amazing experience, I learnt so much thank you!” Charlie Mallinson “It was very interesting to find out about the jobs in theatre that no one normally gets to hear about.”Heather Allen “There was a good ratio between online sessions and practical activities.” Faye Allen
We are incredibly proud of all the students. They represented themselves and the school in such a positive way and created a fantastic piece to share with the Y6s. Thank you to Sheffield Theatres, who are one of our Meadowhead Community Trust Partners. A great week had by all! Our Y10 students experienced a day in the life of a Meadowhead sixth former with taster lessons in A Level/BTEC subjects, and no school uniform! Y10 Taster Day
Students thinking about going to college were were introduced to college life by colleagues at Chesterfield College online and they took part in virtual lessons in a range of vocational subjects. Thank you for making sure Meadowhead students now have an understanding of what to expect from college before they make their post-16 decisions in Y11. 12
We celebrated the conclusion of projects for 20 of our Y12 students. Through the Next Gen Leaders C a re e rs Project, teams set up a social enterprise tied in with the UN’s sustainable development goals. The Clean Queens team addressed hygiene poverty and partnered with local hostels and refuges to provide hygiene products; Team Phoenix raised funds for the Trussell Trust in an effort to address hunger and poverty. While lockdown may have curtailed the teams’ ambitious plans, they showed true leadership and adapted their plans to fit with the restrictions. Y12 Projects
As part of the Industrial Cadets Gold Project, a team of students studying STEM-related A levels put their heads together to solve a challenge set by Liberty Steel Group. With the support of a mentor from the business, they were asked to design a solution that will contribute to one of the company’s UK sites becoming carbon neutral by 2030. They presented their findings to a panel of judges and were commended by the judges for the quality of their report and presentation.
Next Generation Leaders with their certificates - the project is run by enactus UK
Gary Spencer, their mentor from Liberty Speciality Steels (GFG Alliance), was also very impressed with them: ‘Could you please pass on my thanks and congratulations to the students for a fantastic presentation and report. The students showed they had gained a fantastic understanding of the steelmaking process and environmental considerations, given the difficulties brought about by Covid and the lack of opportunity to visit the site. I hope the students have enjoyed the project and I am sure that the students have gained a number of very valuable skills that will help them in their further studies and chosen careers.’
At the beginning of May, all Y10 students had the opportunity to take part in a virtual mock interview with a local employer or employee, and we are very grateful for the support of our network of employers and Trust Partners who made this possible. Y10 Mock Interviews
Despite some nerves beforehand, students came out of their interviews feeling more confident with some invaluable feedback on their CV and their interview technique. Our students told us after their interviews: "I loved everything about the interview. The interviewer was incredibly helpful and positive and made me feel even better about how I did in the interview today." "Next time, I would be more relaxed before the interview as I found the interview was not as scary as I was worried it would be." “It was great – my interviewer was really friendly. I felt quite confident going in and her friendliness really boosted that”
We had great feedback from the employers too “We really enjoyed being involved, it was great to see so many students prepared and ready to answer all of the questions thrown at them!” “It was an absolute pleasure to interview your students, they all did a great job. You are obviously teaching them well. I felt privileged to be a part of it.” Helen Clayton, Turner Townsend 13
th, He a l & ss Fitne ing e Wellb
The Y7 boys cricket team made a superb start to cricket in secondary school and managed the transition to hardball brilliantly. This season the team managed to reach the quarter finals of the Yorkshire Cup and the semi finals of the Sheffield league, narrowly loosing to King Ecgbert School. There have been some brilliant performances but most of all the team have really bonded. We look forward to seeing how Cricket the team develops in the future.
The Y8 girls took part in a Sheffield Cricket tournament. They won all 4 group games to finish top of the group but unfortunately lost out in the semi-final by 14 runs. A fantastic day was had by all and well done to all the girls involved.
Our Y9 cricket team gave a valiant effort in the Sheffield final against a strong Birkdale team.
Y10 Health and Social Care students put their course theory into practice with this end of term project. Flour Babies
Students made their babies from bags of flour and then took responsibility for looking after them during home and school time. From their experiences they created a portfolio of the challenges of parenting and day to day care. Well done to our new Y12 Senior Sports Leaders, who will be involved in promoting sport in school and helping out within the HFWB department, as well as completing a Level 2 sports leadership qualification next year.
Congratulations to former Meadowhead student and Sports Leader Reuben Newman-Billington, for winning the LTA National Young Person of the Year Award 2021. Reuben received this for his services to coaching and volunteering by running tennis activities during lockdown.
Senior Sports Leaders 14
Sports Da y s There was a fantastic atmosphere on our sports fields as we held our annual Sports event. A little different this year - we held sports days over two weeks during PE lessons, with the usual inter-form competition. Each form represented a country and created mascots during form time. On announcing the winning forms in each year group, Mr Perry said ”The efforts, hardwork, sportsmanship and level of competition shown has been outstanding”
Our Senior Sports Leaders awarded points for the mascots - a tough choice as there were many creative entries!
Congratulations to 7E, 8E and 9L who were the winners of the Mascot Competition, and to the form sports winners: 7C, 8I, 9J 8E
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Sports Day
pions! Cham Our U15 girls cricket team are Champions! Many congratulations to this fantastic group of girls who won the Sheffield Super 8’s Cricket Competition. A massive achievement and to do it unbeaten is even better.
The Scholarship football group won the St George’s Park football tournament on Wednesday 23rd June. They went unbeaten all tournament and were victorious in the final! There were 12 teams in total in the event from all over Yorkshire and ours came out on top! Here they are pictured, just about to lift the trophy…
Meadowhead School Academy Trust
Dyche Lane, Sheffield S8 8BR Tel: 0114 2372723 www.meadowhead.sheffield.sch.uk