Newsletters

31st January 2018 

School News

Christmas feels like a dim and distant memory to us all now as we are already a month into the New Year!

Year 13 have been working hard and came back from their break to their mock examinations. Their university and apprenticeship offers are now coming in thick and fast and have given them the 'oomph' they need to keep working hard and focussing on their end goals. Well done to them for getting through it all with tenacity and resilience.

Year 11 have also been away on a residential to spend some quality time together before the pressures of revision and examinations start. They had a lovely time down in Devon -please read the report written by them below. 

Sarah Colombini, Headteacher

January's Ribston Roar Lion

This month's 'HAPPY NEW YEAR!' lion has been very confidently drawn by Year 7 artist Matilda Honeywill.

Well done Matilda!

Pastoral Support and Wellbeing Update -Introducing our Pastoral Assistants 

During this term we have made a number of changes to our Wellbeing provision in the school to improve the care students receive so that they can continue to flourish. We now have three dedicated pastoral support staff who will be working together to support students with day to day issues.

Miss Dobson (on the left of the picture) will be supporting students in Years 7, 8 and 9, and will also be assisting Mrs Ford working with students with specific needs, including SEND.

Miss Gallagher (in the middle of the picture) will be working with Year 10 & 11 students and is our Attendance Lead.

Miss Danks (on the right of the picture) will be continuing to working within the Sixth Form to support students pastorally and is also in charge of Sixth Form administration.

The team will be working closely to support the excellent work undertaken by our Heads of Year, and enhance the provision already in place. They are contactable through the main school switchboard and can pass concerns on to the Heads of Year or deal with students directly. 

Year 11 Residential to Okehampton, Devon

After all the hard work for the Mock Examinations last term, Year 11 went away  on a well-earned residential trip to Devon.  There were so many different activities to do at Ashbury Manor including t-shirt making, bowling, hydro-spa, roller-disco, model painting and candle making – it was all so much fun! After a busy afternoon we settled into our rooms and had dinner, which exceeded all our expectations, and got ready for a quiz in the evening, which was very competitive.   My favourite activity was the ice-skating;  it was a real challenge to stay upright but I had loads of fun trying!  We also liked the hydro spa as it was really nice to try all the different types of pools.  On the last night we had a disco, complete with video wall.  We don’t know what the DJ must have thought when he played Bohemian Rhapsody as 11D performed their dance routine from the Christmas show!  The residential was lots of fun and enabled us to relax and recharge, and also reminded us about teamwork and helping each other – perfect preparation for the months of hard work ahead for our GCSE Examinations in May.

Written by Lucy Richmond and Alicia Beale, Year 11

NCSC Cyber First Competition

This term, 4 teams of 4 students from Year 8 entered the NCSC Cyber First competition. This is a high profile national competition organised by GCHQ through the National Cyber Security Centre where the teams have one week to answer as many questions on aspects of Cyber Security as possible.

To help our teams we ran a week of training prior to the event, and arranged an immersive day for them where the students were taken off timetable and four cyber specialists from BAE systems and Lockheed Martin came in to help mentor them. The students were also supported by some of our Sixth Form and Year 9 students.

Last year our top team came in 15^th place, narrowly missing a place in the final and a trip to Buckingham Palace. This year our top team – 'Disobedient Racoons' answered an impressive 56% of the questions on Cryptography,  60% on Cyber Security, 60% on Logic and coding and 83% on Networking. The other teams also put in a lot of hard work and achieved at a very high level, swiftly getting through to the expert level questions in all areas.

We are hoping that one of our teams will represent the school in an all expenses paid trip to Scotland later on in the year. We will let you know the results when they come in. 

Mr Storey, Curriculum Lead for MFL & Computing

Artists' Corner

This months' artwork is by our Year 9 students as part of their 'Elements of Art' - Colour Lesson which studied artist and photographer David Hockney. The students produced these very intense studies of the British landscape using canvas and easel out in the elements. Students replicated these using bold use of coloured oil pastels to create the same vivid effect.

Sporting News

Swimming

Well done to Evie Warwick in 7R  (pictured on the right) who is currently top in the county for 50m Freestyle swim and 50m Backstroke ranking her third in the South West for Backstroke and Second for freestyle. 

Elosie Bulpin in 7R won the 200m Breaststroke at the Gloucestershire Country Championships for her age group (aged 12) with a time of 3m 15secs. This was regional consideration time.

Rhiannon Bulpin in 8R won 50m Fly with a  time of 30sec 56sec at the Gloucestershire Country Championships for her age group (aged 14). This was regional qualification time. 

We clearly have some very strong swimmers in our midst and we look forward to hearing about their further accomplishments in the future. 

Table Tennis

Sophie Webster (pictured on the left) in 8B came 1st in the U13 girls category at the county table tennis championships winning all her games 3-0. She beat the girls from Dean Magna who narrowly knocked Ribston out of the team competition recently which is great news to hear.

Another Table Tennis champion is Anna Besarabova in 10B who also won the U16 age category, making her county champion.

They have both now qualified to enter the Schools Individual National Championship in Wolverhampton on the 27 April.

Well done to both of you!

Sixth Form Football 

A great performance was had from the 6th Form Football team this month, beating Gloucester Academy 6-2, with a hat trick scored by Anthony Burton in 12-SF1. 

Food Technology

As part of Year 11 Food coursework, the students this year have had to research and produce Asian dishes. We were very fortunate to have Mrs Miya Cratchley come to show them how to prepare delicious sushi. They had great fun both making and tasting the products.

Year 10 students were also visited by Maryanne and Jane, two Food and Cookery Managers….from Viva! in Bristol. They explained the advantages of a Vegan diet and brought lots of tasty foods for them to try. We also had students preparing delicious vegan dishes.

We would like to thank the speakers for giving up their valuable time for our students.

Mrs Hay is running the London Marathon!

With just 13 weeks to go, Mrs Hay is running the London Marathon to raise money for the ‘Make a Wish’ charity which helps to grant magical wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening illnesses. 

This is a monumental challenge for her, especially as she describes herself as not being a ‘runner’ and with little over 13 weeks to train it’s going to be tough. If you would like to sponsor our lovely Head of Year 7, please click on the link below:

Donate here