GRANGE SCHOOL
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Remembrance Service Like so many schools across the country we commemorated the brave sacrifices of our armed forces over the years through assemblies and at the Remembrance Service in Runcorn on Remembrance Sunday. Poppies had also been on sale and as usual, our student, staff and many visitors contributed to the appeal by donating a sum in exchange for a poppy.
Head Boy, Tony Alford and Head Girl Georgia Worswick accompanied by Mr Downey, Mrs Rutter and Mrs Hall laid the poppy wreath at the cenotaph along with other schools and organisations from Runcorn.
Reach for the Stars Exciting
times
for
the
GCSE
Astronomy
group!
On the 4th October, the group visited Jodrell Bank to see the world famous Lovell telescope at close quarters. The day was very much hands on, with the students completing a workshop on the electromagnetic spectrum and attending a presentation inside the inflatable planetarium. Top fact: The 4th Doctor Who (Tom Baker) died after falling off the Lovell telescope! Eight of our astronomy students also acted as guides at the North West Astronomy Festival. Aside from their duties, this gave them opportunity to attend lectures by eminent astronomers on the more unusual features of the Solar System’s moons and the size and scale of the known universe. They also got to handle meteorites from the distant regions of space and sample astronaut food.
The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney. The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.
July 2013 Issue
GRANGE SCHOOL
Headlines
Year 11 Maths Camp At the beginning of November, 30 Year 11 students packed their bags and went on a weekend to Colomendy Activity Centre, in North Wales, to help them prepare for their GCSE Maths. The party was led by Mr Liptrot, the Curriculum Leader for Maths, with support from Mr Burton, Mrs Stagg, Miss Antwis and Mr Craven. During the weekend, students participated in a number of Maths workshops which were designed to help them further understand topics needed for their exam. During their recreational time, students were treated to some of the activities that Colomendy had to offer, which included building a shelter in the woods and being guided through an obstacle course blind folded! We even made friends with a Russian School and received an invitation to their disco. At the end of the weekend, students were asked to complete an exam paper to show exactly what they had learned during the weekend. A significant number of students had improved their grade and all students said they found the trip to be beneficial to their understanding of Maths, raising the aspirations of the students who attended.
“It helped me to learn new things about maths and gave me a chance to do things that were fun.” “The weekend was beneficial for my maths; I learned how to do a few A* questions and use formulae.” “I learned how to use a calculator in much more detail.” “I found this weekend very helpful in getting help with specific subjects.” “The trip has helped me understand parts of maths that I could not understand before.”
“I am proud of all of the students who gave up their entire weekend to participate in some extra Maths study” said Mr Liptrot, Maths Curriculum Leader. “We received some fantastic feedback from the students, who were all eager to repeat the weekend again in the future”.
The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.
It was helpful, the way that the teachers helped me.” I was able to answer exam questions I didn’t think I could!”
GRANGE SCHOOL
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Maths Puzzle of the Month The answer to last months puzzle. We can solve this problem using algebra (in particular, simultaneous equations – Grade B) Firstly, let’s assume the boy is B and the girl is G. We can set up the following equations: G + 2 = 2(B – 2) G + 3 = 3(B – 3) We can rearrange these equations to make the girl’s age (G) the subject of our equations. G = 2(B – 2) - 2 G = 3(B – 3) - 3
Now that we know the boy’s age, we can substitute the value of B into any of the equations from the start. Let’s use the first equation: G + 2 = 2(B – 2) Substitute B = 6 so that we now have: G + 2 = 2(6 – 2) G+2=8 G = 6 The girl is 6 years old!
Because both of these equations represent the girl’s age, we can make them equal to each other. 2(B – 2) - 2 = 3(B – 3) - 3 From here, we can multiply out the brackets, then rearrange the equation to find out the boy’s age (B). 2(B - 2) - 2 = 3(B - 3) – 3 2B – 4 – 2 = 3B – 9 – 3 2B – 6 = 3B – 12 B = 6 The boy is 6 years old!
The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.
GRANGE SCHOOL
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This Month’s Maths Puzzle
Sports Stars The Sainsbury's School Games Kitemark is a Government led awards scheme launched in 2012 to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community. We achieved the Bronze Award and four sports students went to the awards ceremony at Halton Stadium. The Worshipful Mayor of Halton, Cllr Margaret Ratcliffe presented the certificate to our four sports ambassadors, Taylor Goodall, Danny Griffiths, Owen Wright and Mark Dicken.
Answer in next month’s edition.
The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.
GRANGE SCHOOL
Headlines
Inspired Responses This term in Art, we have been fortunate enough to be involved in a KS3 Art project named ‘Inspired Responses,’ working with Visual Artist, Claire Weetman and in conjunction with The Brindley. The project aims to inspire young people through extra-curricular workshops run by established local artists, introducing them to new techniques and materials, beyond the curriculum. Year 7 and 8 students have so far attended two 90 minute workshops with Visual Artist, Claire Weetman, who grew up in Runcorn and studied Art at Liverpool John Moores University. Claire will return at the start of December to see how the students have progressed in creating their own works of art using the techniques learnt and inspired by Claire’s visual creations. During the first session, Claire set up an exhibition of her own Art work in the Art department and invited students to analyse the work and discuss their responses. Students were delighted to explore examples of Claire’s Art and came up with thought provoking and insightful comments.
The second session focussed on using new materials and techniques Students used the architectural photographs they had taken to create stencils to which they applied a graphite powder background. They then used the graphite powder, cloths and erasers to experiment with this medium under the guidance of Claire and Mrs Cavanagh! They then created stills for a stop motion animation by adding lines and marks to indicate flow and movement. They achieved this by setting up a camera and tripod looking down onto a table. The students then took photographs of their drawings at regular stages throughout its production. This has resulted in a series of photographs that have been made into an animation to be exhibited on TV screens at The Brindley as part of the exhibition. Students will now develop their own project based on the architecture of the school building and the flow of movement around the school, inspired by Claire Weetman.
This will culminate in an exhibition in the gallery at The Brindley during January, which will be available for the general public to view. For more information on Claire’s work visit: http://www.claireweetman.co.uk/
It was also an opportunity for students to explore the school building and photograph interesting architectural features, capturing light and movement at the same time.
The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.
GRANGE SCHOOL
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Parent View
Blood Brothers On the evening of the 31st October, 96 year 10 and 11 Grange students travelled to Liverpool’s Empire Theatre to watch Willy Russell’s award-winning
Parents and carers can give their views of our school at any time of the school year and at the time of a school inspection using an online questionnaire called Parent View.
musical ‘Blood Brothers’. Mrs Johnstone, played by Maureen Nolan, was downtrodden yet feisty; the twins were hilarious and tragic in equal parts and the narrator was ominous and sinister. When watching ‘Blood Brothers’,
When our school is notified of its next Ofsted inspection, parents will be invited to give their views about the school to inspectors using the Parent View online facility as this has replaced Ofsted’s paper questionnaire. Please make sure we have your most up-to-date contact details.
it’s best to have your handkerchiefs ready whether for tears of laughter or sadness and this year’s performance didn’t disappoint! The students who attended were brilliant and a credit to the school. I am grateful to the staff who accompanied the students and in particular to Ms Shargool who
Please register with an email address and a password at http:// parentview.ofsted.gov.uk. Once your login has been activated, it only takes a few minutes to complete answers to 12 short questions about aspects such as bullying, the quality of teaching, level of homework, etc.
organised the very successful event.
Your views are important in helping inspectors make a decision about our school, and to help us know what is going well and what could be improved. If you do not have a computer or an email address or if you would like help to use Parent View, please come into school and ask at reception.
The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.
GRANGE SCHOOL
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Literacy Toolkit We are delighted to announce that this term sees the official launch of The Grange School Online Literacy Toolkit. This is an online resource which parents, carers and pupils are able to access via The Grange School homepage. Expect to hear more about the Literacy Toolkit in the near future.
How will you take the lead in literacy? The Grange strongly believes that all students in the school should be leaders in some aspect of school learning. We want our children to take responsibility for their learning and thereby contribute to the school community. We are therefore proud to announce our Literacy Leadership Team initiative. Literacy Leadership roles are available for students at three different levels, bronze, silver and gold. The Literacy Leadership Programme is certificated and recognises pupil achievement and contribution to the wider school community. For the bronze award, pupils pass a skills test which allows them to assist teachers in lessons across the curriculum. For the silver award, pupils will create a resource for the school’s online Literacy Toolkit for use in classrooms or by individual pupils or staff. For the gold award, pupils will teach aspects of literacy to their own or other classes, across subjects, using resources they have created. It is also possible for pupils to ‘Take the Lead in Literacy’ by becoming a Reading Mentor. Potential Reading Mentors will undergo thorough training in how to lead effective guided and paired reading sessions. This will allow them to assist our year 7 and 8 students during their reading lessons. Mr Simpson will announce the scheme to students in assemblies during the week beginning Monday 18th November.
The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.
GRANGE SCHOOL
Headlines
House Activities Year 8 House Pool Competition What a night! “Breath taking” commented Cameron White, one of the many spectators who turned up in their droves to watch the Year 8 Pool Competition which was held in the ‘Crucible’ (English wing).
Round Two saw an excellent performance from Priory’s Dec Preston and Cobi Campbell securing an early lead from Castle’s Tyler Freeney and Owen Dark. Some spot on shots from Tyler gave ‘Preston the Potter’ a run for his money but consistent play from the Priory players finally secured the game and allowed Owen to return to reading his Harry Potter book (to pick up potting tips?). Round Three was the play off for third place. The decision was taken to limit the play offs to 10 minute games to draw the competition to a close and the winning team would be the one with most balls potted. The Brindley team was an all-girl team of Georgina Page and Kira McGoverin who played fantastically well but couldn’t quite match the expertise and skill of Tyler Freeney and Brandon Dobson (Owen had got to a particularly exciting part of his book) . The final, between Bridgewater and Priory was a tense affair. Some amazing pool shots from Calum Quick and Jack Simpson from Priory meant they took an early lead; James Jones and Alex Brizell played brilliantly and the game was ball for ball with 3 minutes to go! Then, the calm nerves of Calum Quick meant he potted 3 balls in a row and with time against him, Alex couldn’t quite manage a comeback in time! Priory won by 2 balls!!
Round One was between Bridgewater and Brindley Danny Newby playing for Bridgewater won the toss and elected to play first; Rob Lingham his co- player potted the first colour and the competition began! It was a tense competition with Bridgewater taking an early lead and the game started to look like a run away for the 2 Bridgewater players, but the Brindley team of Georgina Page and Ben Green slowly but surely started to pot their colours until finally Danny Newby potted the winning black ball and Bridgewater’s success was secured!
Well done to all the teams who managed to play well and in a sportsmanlike way despite a rather wonky pool table and the supporters who added to the atmosphere. Thank you to Mr Willmot for refereeing and Mr Burton for his amusing commentary. Well done to Priory – 1st, Bridgewater – 2nd, Castle- 3rd and Brindley – 4th and Owen Dark who read 100 pages of Harry Potter!
The Monthly Newsletter for Parents and Carers from the Head of School, Mr B. Carney.