Our mission is ‘to be a school which celebrates the achievements of each and every individual’ 27 March 2015 Head’s Lines A short term ends and now the Year 11 students have only 4 weeks until their study leave begins! I hope that the revision skills workshops that ran on Tuesday will kick start their revision over the Easter break. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a good Easter holiday. First Buses If there are any problems with the service, whether it is buses driving past students, doors being shut in students faces, time keeping or just general overcrowding; First Buses would like to know as they are trying to address the problem and sort out drivers. Parents can call 0117 244 40 40, Monday to Saturday 7am to 7pm and Sunday 7am to 6pm. They will need to know what time the problem occurred and on what route. Mr M Woodville Headteacher Year 9 English The English groups for Year 9 will be reorganised for the start of Term 5 – and some further reorganisation may be required before the end of Term 6. All students will be following the same curriculum in Terms 5 and 6 and will be the start of GCSE IMPORTANT DATES
WEEK ONE
14th April
Y9 Disability Morning
Y7 & Y10 STEM
Activity
Y11 ICT Exam
Y12 UCAS Conf.
15th April
Y9 Disability Morning
16th April
Y11 ICT Exam
23th April
IGCSE English
Revision Morning
English Language and GCSE English Literature. Ms J Malt Assistant Headteacher, Head of Communications The Ancient Greeks – Oldfield Students run History and Drama Workshops for Newbridge Students On Friday 13th March, 10 Year 12 History and Drama Students went to Newbridge School to work with Year 4 students. Our Year 12 students devised, created and ran workshops exploring aspects of Ancient Greece. Drama students created and performed their own original play which explained key events in the development of Greek Theatre including chorus and masks. They then played Drama games and worked with the Year 4s in small groups to use choral techniques to bring the story of ‘The Trojan Horse’ to life. Meanwhile, History scholars from Oldfield focused their work on exploring Greek stories and created their own myths in storyboards and made laurel crowns! We had a fantastic day and it was wonderful to see our students enjoying engaging with and sharing knowledge with their Year 4 friends, as well as being a great opportunity for the Oldfield’s History and Drama departments to collaborate. A really big thank you to all involved! Ms Bloomfield, Subject Leader Drama Mid‐Somerset Festival: Public Speaking and Debating As usual, Oldfield entered teams for the Public Speaking and Debating classes in this year’s Mid‐Somerset Festival. We are thrilled that Oldfield teams won both classes. Our Year 10 team of Eden Eddolls, Stephanie Walker and Mary Stewart gained first place in Public Speaking Class with a polished, convincing performance and were awarded the Silver Salver. In the Youth Debating class, the Year 12 team of Rawia El‐Turki, Victoria Tranter and Aneesa Bukhari, showing poise and passion in the Town v Country Debate, brought home the coveted wooden Calf Trophy. Also competing were the Year 8 team of Fen Hawkins, Jay Ditum and Phoebe Dean who, although in their first stages of public speaking, show great promise. Well done to all the teams for all their hard work. Mid‐Somerset Festival: Creative Writing Over 70 Oldfield students entered Creative Writing classes in the 2015 Mid‐Somerset Festival and we had great success again with a good crop of 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Many students attended the Creative Writing Day in the Guildhall and read out their work. They were a credit to the school. Congratulations to everyone who entered; all will receive a certificate while Max and Mahal each receive a cup and a £10 book token. Listed below are the Oldfield successes. 3rd in Maryam Trofdar Short Story for 10‐13 years in Georgia Boulton 2nd Poem for 12‐15 years Mahal Humberstone 1st in Short Story for 13‐15 years Lucy Wyon 2nd in Short Story for 13‐15 years Max Barker 1st in Haiku in Elise Lacey 2nd Haiku in Angela Ong 3rd Haiku Mrs H Bufton English Teacher World War I Workshop and Battlefields 2015 Students in Year 9 have had the chance to take their understanding of World War I to new depths this term. On Friday 6 March they took part in an object handling workshop with Jason King, who filled the Hall with a whole museum’s worth of original artefacts including a horse’s foot, a stuffed carrier pigeon and a variety of uniforms. The students had the opportunity to experience joining the army as a young recruit in 1914, and then were able to pick up and interact with as many objects as they wished – it was an amazing way to bring the past back to life. The following Monday, 55 Year 9s (and seven Year 10s) made the journey to West Flanders to visit the battlefields and cemeteries of World War I on a three day visit. Seeing the scale of the devastation during the war provided an unrivalled insight into the futility and waste of conflict. It was a privilege to share this experience with such an interested and courteous group of young people. Mr T Allen Head of History “Mission to Mars” Competition Jasmine Barwick, Louise Gainey, Laila Mann, Aidan Venn, Sam Reeves, Tom Davis, Jude Bunting, Natasha Byers‐Smith and Erin Hingston represented Oldfield School in the "Mission to Mars" competition run by Bath University. They presented their work and won the prize for most creative presentation. They also had a tour of the university and took part in some practical activities. It was an enjoyable day and the students were a credit to the school. Individual prizes were awarded to Laila Mann for her teamwork and Tom Davis for his scientific knowledge. Mr O Davies Science Teacher Midwives visit GCSE Child Development students We were lucky enough to have two midwives from the RUH come and visit GCSE Child Development students. They told students all about pregnancy and labour and brought in some interesting props including forceps, pregnancy information leaflets and even a model placenta. They role played a booking‐in appointment for pregnant women as well as a midwife examination of a student who had to pretend to be heavily pregnant! Their real life experiences really enhanced the learning and we are very grateful for their time and effort in planning the lessons. Mrs A Clark Teacher of Child Development Year 10 Netball Team Well done to the Year 10 netball team on a convincing win against Broadlands 41‐6. The whole squad played brilliantly with some fantastic performances from our shooters and hard work by the centre court players and some fine defending in the circle from our GK and GD. Congratulations to Milly Moon and Jasmine Clark who were nominated players of the match. We now look forward to the B&NES tournament in April. Mrs K Little Second in PE Isabel Davis 7N “English Schools Floor Champion” On the 13th March Isabel competed at the ‘Womens’ Artistic Gymnastics English Championships’ at Loughborough University. She represented her club, Bristol Hawks. Isabel was competing for the first time in the Espoir Womens’ Category (12 & 13 year olds) with many girls a year older than herself. In total 56 gymnasts performed the four disciplines of Beam, Asymmetric Bars, Vault and Floor. Isabel came first on Floor, becoming the English Floor Champion. She was also placed third on Bars, and third All Around (the combined score of all four disciplines). She achieved 9th place on Beam and 20th on Vault. Her winning Floor performance can be viewed with the following link https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=GTYqZ8_z1eg&feature=yout
u.be Well done Isabel. Oldfield School would like to congratulate you on this incredible achievement. Mrs R Bell PE Teacher Year 8s come unstuck against Chew The Boys’ Year 8 football team fell to their first defeat of the season against Chew Valley on Tuesday 17th March. It became clear that Oldfield’s midfield was once again being overrun, and so Captain Ben Payne was forced to play in more of a holding position, but by this time, the home side was 2‐0 down following the defence’s perennial inability to deal with straightforward long balls. But a feature of this Oldfield team is an ability to fight back, and soon enough, clever finishes from Alex Arkell and Jay Ditum left the score at 2‐2 at half time. However, The Chew Valley side were very organised, and began pressing Oldfield into mistakes. Their gargantuan forward and were efficient centre‐half reducing Oldfield’s chances, while they were taking their own to leave the home side 4‐2 down Freddie Southwell scored a great free‐kick to set up a tense finale, but the away side secured the win with another goal from their forward. Mr J Kenrick, English Teacher and Football Coach