Newsletters

Ribston Roar Summer 2023

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Summer 2023

The Summer term is always incredibly busy but by far my favourite as so much goes on! The school is a whirlwind of events and celebrations, with all the staff and students working hard and demonstrating just how much talent, creativity, and community there is here at our school.

It is with great pleasure this term, I am able to introduce our new Head Student Team for 2023 -24. Fay Ntim-Adjei is our new Head Girl, Elleice Hennessy is representing the School Council, Holly Vaux is taking charge of House and Societies, and Lucy Powell leading Charities and Well-Being. They have all already been demonstrating they are a fantastic team and great ambassadors of the school with fresh perspectives to contribute to our success. 

Earlier in June we held a really successful Sixth Form Taster event with a Murder Mystery theme - The Enigma at Ribston Manor. We launched our new Sixth Form offer - the Ribston Baccalaureate and students had the opportunity to explore the exciting A level subjects we have on offer, hear more about the extracurricular activities and clubs and had some fun trying to work out who killed Lady Rosalind Ribston!

June was a particularly special month for us as we joined the global celebration of Pride Month. At our school, we firmly believe in fostering compassion, tolerance, and understanding within our community. We recognise that diversity and inclusivity are not just ideals, but essential values that are embedded as part of our school culture. In honour of Pride, we organised our very own Parade, a joyful and fun celebration of the diverse identities within our school.

As the term draws to a close, we have held two proms and the Sports Awards evening, where our exceptional athletes and sports leaders were acknowledged and celebrated for their achievements. This was swiftly followed by Sports Day, and we wrapped up the week with the Summer Concert, showcasing the remarkable talent that abounds in our school. The hard work and dedication of all involved were evident, and the performances left us in awe! 

We are immensely proud of the accomplishments and spirit demonstrated by our students, staff, and the entire Ribston community this academic year, and we will be looking forward to new adventures, exciting challenges, and more opportunities to come together and celebrate our successes in the new academic year. We wish you all a restful and enjoyable summer break.


Mrs Sarah Colombini

Headteacher

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Battlefields Trip - By Anchal and Braganyaa - 8.4

At the beginning of June we travelled to France for the Battlefields Trip. There were 75 students and 7 teachers including Madame Holman, Mrs Derbyshire, Mr James, Mr Storey, Miss Llewelyn, Mrs Pitman and Mrs Beamish. We spent the whole day travelling and were really exhausted. After a long journey, they helped us get settled into our rooms at Chateau de Warsy and made sure everything was okay! 

The trip was based on the study of World War 1 and was also a French adventure, with the opportunity to use our language skills.

We would like to thank all the teachers on the trip for working so hard to plan this trip in another country with 75 children and without getting anyone lost or injured in the process! There were a lot of places that we covered in 4 days, so we would also like to thank our bus driver, Greg, as he took us to multiple destinations and was probably exhausted every night so huge thanks to him for being one of the best and entertaining bus drivers we have ever seen. Also, on our last day which was a full day of travelling he let us watch Despicable Me and A Night at the Museum, which was fun for all.

Our “animateurs” (monitors) at Chateau de Warsy also organised various activities each evening for us to do, and they were a blast!!!!!! 

We stayed in two different accommodation blocks -the Château and the Grange and our dorms were really comfy. Each room had varied decor.

For breakfast, every day, we got to choose from French cereals, croissants and pain au chocolat! For dinner, we got to experience digesting frog legs and snails. They tasted surprisingly good; the frog legs tasted like chicken and the snails tasted like garlic bread – Miam miam! There were also other varied options for dinner, and everything tasted delicious, especially the desserts!

During the trip we went to multiple museums. One of our favourites was the underground museum. We got to experience life in the trenches and it was very cold. We also saw a massive crater which was caused by the bombings. 

One of our favourite activities was when we went to Ameins. We got to do some shopping in a typical French market and experience the delights of the patisseries and boulangeries.  We also went to Ypres in Belgium, where we visited a chocolat shop and enjoyed a delicious meal in the evening with our friends. 

Overall, the France trip was excellent and a very memorable experience!

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University of Oxford, Year 7 STEM and Careers Day - By Ana Bullock Yr 7

On Monday 10th July we visited the University of Oxford. Throughout the day, we took part in many different activities, including some on algae growth and careers in science. However, my favourite was the trip to the botanic gardens. When we were there, we learnt about a multitude of medicinal plants. Though I was interested about the positive effects, I also enjoyed learning about the negative affects if you have too much. As well as this we also had a talk about biodegradable plastic. During this, we were told that food, such as corn, can be broken down and woven together with carbon dioxide in order to create plastic which relies less on carbon dioxide and is less harmful for the planet. Overall, it was a very good experience and inspired me to learn more about science.

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Computing

Recently in computing Students have been learning about the ethical impacts, specifically to do with AI and its impact on society, jobs, education, health, and other aspects of our lives. Students came up with multiple arguments and fought for either for the development of AI or against. Everyone really engaged with the task and had fun debating their differing opinions.

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Science

Yr 10 students took part in the Junior Physics Challenge in May. This competition is part of the prestigious British Physics Olympiad (BPhO). The BPhO encourages young people to study physics and organises competitions to showcase excellence amongst young scientists around the country.  

The Junior Physics Challenge consisted of two twenty five-minute long multiple-choice papers testing general knowledge of physics. The competition seeks to engage pupils and give them an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge. 

This year over 12700 pupils took part in the challenge across the country. We are thrilled to announce that Vienna Thomas achieved a Gold award and 21 students Dulcie Walker, Sophie Pulford, Emma Dawson, Holly Crofts, Izzy Evans, Vanessa Augustyniak,Ria Sanderson, Heather Aylward, Seren Williams, Harriet Siddons,Amy Bishop, Gracie Janes , Sara Meta, Evie Sheppard, Patricia Padilla, Rose Kodankandath, Thea Veale, Sanjeevani Sreeram, Izzi Kearney, Georgie Abbey, Evie Priddle achieved silver award and 115 students achieved the bronze award. This is a fantastic achievement, congratulations to the Year 10. 

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Food and Nutrition

Our Yr 10 Food and Nutrition students have been using fabulous Alaska pink salmon to cook up amazing Salmon Tartlets, brushing-up their skills to produce Masterchef quality dishes this month!

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Primary Partnership

Five of our feeder Primary Schools joined us for a STEM day on 20th June. Pupils spent the day in the Science block, taking part in practical Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Computing sessions.

Lecturers from the University of Oxford attended and continue to train our Primary colleagues. They trialled the use of Practical Earth Boxes and Physics Boxes which are ready to be loaned out to our Primary Schools. This will enable teachers to deliver practical science within the classroom to their pupils. 

A special thanks to our sixth form leaders who assisted in the smooth running of every lesson.

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Sport Leaders Multi Skills Festival - By Sophie Edgar and Ella Bloxham 
On Thursday 29th of June, 40 girls were fortunate enough to assist in the running of a Multi Skills Festival, at the tennis centre at Plock Court. It was a sporting event run by the GSSN for key stage 1 pupils. We encourage and helped them to experience different techniques with sport while ensuring they were all having fun and smiling.  Some of the activities were: basketball, football, bean bags, skittles, relay races and many more exciting things for them to experience. We also introduced our amazing mascot the Bear who was given many many cuddles from the students.  

We saw lots of different schools with hundreds of pupils attending. We did a morning and afternoon session with a different group of schools and students. We had no tears from the children (or the helpers and teachers) and everyone had huge, beaming smiles on their faces. Hopefully, it has encouraged them to move more and maybe even found them a new sport they would like to pursue. Whilst the children enjoyed themselves, so did we, it gave us the opportunity to practice our leadership skills and patience. Being a teacher is clearly quite a hard job, to keep a class of 5- and 6-year-olds engaged!

Thank you to Mrs Barnett and Ms Oliver for chaperoning us and giving us the opportunity to attend the event. 

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PE

In June our Yr 7 and 8 cricket team played two matches at Crypt. The team won both of their matches and played extremely well. We look forward to playing more matches.

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Our Yr 7 rounders A team played Crypt School in June and won 16 and a half to 7 and a half. The team played brilliantly together and continue to work extremely hard.

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Massive congratulations to the Yr 10 Rounders team, who beat Denmark Road 10-4 in the District final. 
An amazing performance! 

Sports Day
We managed to avoid the rain and Sports Day went ahead as planned in July. There was a great show of teamwork and encouragements from all the Houses. Thank you to everyone for getting involved and supporting everyone who took part. 

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Performance

At the end of June our dance students had an exciting opportunity to take part in a bespoke dance workshop led by Swindon Dance Centre. The workshop focused on studying contemporary dance. At the end there was a question-and-answer session and discussion about programmes and different pathways within dance.

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Enrichment Week

This week is Enrichment Week, and an opportunity for our students to get involved in activities and trips that are different from their normal everyday lessons. It is an opportunity to develop different skills such as teamwork, boost self-confidence, develop leadership skills, instil self-motivation, and overcome fears. There are a number of trips and visits run throughout the week and a range of activities happening at school, including Indian food preparation as a part of Food Cultural Enrichment, maths activities and nature walks as well as visits to Bristol, West Midlands Safari Park, Drayton Manor, Cheltenham Lido and Croft Farm. 

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Pride Reading Challenge and Book Reviews

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Heart Stopper - This story is about two boys -Charlie and Nick. They fall in love and the book follow their struggles being gay. I read the book in less than an hour. The graphic novel layout made it really addictive to keep reading. 

I would recommend the books as it is a great read! Although I did think the swearing made it awkward. This book is important as it is modern, and it includes modern struggles for modern readers. Sophie Scutt 7.2

She Drives Me Crazy - In my opinion this book was amazing. It made me feel noticed and appreciated within literature. This book destroys many stereotypes that people have towards the LGBTQ+ community. This book centres around two girls – Scottie and Irene – who start off the book hating each other. But after Scottie ends up having to drive Irene to school, rumours spread, and Scottie convinces Irene that they should fake date. However, they end up developing feelings for each other. Together, they face challenges and problems; in the end they can overcome them and be truly happy together. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested.

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Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance

This month our Yr 10 students had the opportunity to take part in employer practice interviews. We welcomed employers from: Hewett Recruitment; WSP Solicitors Limited; Gloucestershire Hospitals Foundation Trust; Hazlewoods LLP; Assured Futures; Gloucester City Council; Spirax Sarco Engineering PLC; Keys Group; Gloucestershire Employment & Skills Hub and TSB.

Students were give the opportunity to dress for the occasion, feel the fear and impress industry professionals. They practised structuring answers using the STAR technique (situation, task, action, result) and received feedback on both their application form filling and interview answers.

The employers were all very impressed with our Yr 10s. 

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Roar like Ribston: An Anthology

We are very pleased to introduce Ribston's first published anthology of writing. 'Roar like Ribston' features a collection of literary works created by our talented students, staff, and alumni.

The power of this anthology lies in its ability to encapsulate the true Ribston spirit. With an array of essays, stories and poetry.  

The profits made will be split between Creative Writing opportunities at the school, and the British Red Cross.

You can grab a copy for your summer reading on Amazon: 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roar-Like-Ribston-Hall-School/dp/B0CB2FTNWZ/

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Cancer Research UK Race For Life

Well done to all our amazing staff and students who took part in the Cheltenham Race for Life 5K run on 25th June and with giftaid raised over £3000 for Cancer Research UK! https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/team/the-double-ds-3

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Congratulations to all our Yr 9 Celebration of Success Award Winners:

  • Head Teachers Award - Taya Townsley
  • Head of Year Compassion and Tolerance Award - Josie Hillman
  • Designer of the year - Alessia Hirst
  • Elizabeth Bennett English Award - Chloe Mayo
  • Aethelflaed Humanities Award - Anna Conlon
  • Ceri Amies Achievement in Modern Languages - Hattie Thomas
  • The Boole Mathematics Award - Hannah Brooks
  • Mortimer Award for Performance - Olivia Parker
  • Henderson Award for Science - Anicha Khanom
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Congratulations to all of our 2023 Sports Award Cup Winners:

  • Athlete of the Year - Ruth Brook
  • Ski Award - Abi Dermody
  • Hockey Player most Improved - Sophie Edgar
  • Hockey Player of the Year - Isabella Dodane
  • Junior Rounders most Improved - Charlotte Treadwell
  • Junior Rounders Player - Abigail Claridge
  • Senior Rounders most Improved - Bella Durrant
  • Senior Rounders Player - Poppy Done
  • Junior Football most Improved - Isabella O'Connor
  • Junior Football Top Goal Scorer - Cameron Smith
  • Junior Football Player of the Year - Izzy Cheslin
  • Senior Football Player of the Year - Charlotte Bullingham
  • Junior Netball Progress Cup - Bethany Nelmes
  • Junior Netball Award - Ella Mangan
  • Senior Netball Progress Cup - Gracie Janes
  • Stewart Cup for Netball - Alice Holder
  • Coaching and Leadership - Charlotte Bullingham & Megan Hood
  • Year 7 Award - Nell Flynn
  • Team of the Year - Year 7 Netball
  • Best Newcomer - Cameron Smith
  • Junior Commitment to Sport - Naomi Baldwin
  • Senior Commitment to Sport - Evie Warwick
  • Junior Victor Ludorum - Abigail Claridge
  • Senior Victor Ludorum - Charlotte Bullingham
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Congratulations to Abigail Claridge in Yr 9, who has achieved multiple Silvers and Bronzes in Gloucestershire County Swimming finals. The County races span over a number of weekends in Jan and Feb. Abigail then went on to qualify for the SW England Regionals, which took place in April and May.
Abigail has also recently been selected for Great Britain Rowing Start Programme as part of an Olympic pathway. 

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Well done to Isobel Heavisides who along with her partner, represented the south-west in Grade 4 women's pairs in Acro Gymnastics at the British Gymnastics Finals. They ranked 7th in the country, facing fierce competition from all regions including Wales Ireland and Scotland.  Isobel has put in a huge amount of hard work and managed to maintain her school work and Duke of Edinburgh along with all her training.

In July Gracie Janes travelled up to Strathclyde, Scotland, to compete at the British Rowing National Junior Championships with the best from around the country. On Sunday she competed in the WJ15 Quad time trial with 26 other crews

Weather conditions on the Loch were very wild but with strength and perseverance the girls came through and took 3rd place, earning them the Bronze Medal!

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Emily Ferrett in Year 8 entered the Barbury Game Fair Dog Scurry with her other dog Finn in June. Finn achieved a time of 6.13 seconds jumping over bales and retrieving dummies.  This score earnt them 3rd place in the competition (Finn's first competition) Well done Emily & Finn!

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Congratulations to Bathsheba Tucker who was the winner of our Ribston British Science Week Poster Competition back in May and won a £10 Amazon Voucher

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At the beginning of July, Izzy Evans, Evie Parker (both Yr 10) and Lottie Evans (Yr 8) took part in the Combo Cup in Sheffield. This was a national artistic swimming competition and marked the end of a very successful season. The girls and their teammates swam their routines brilliantly and ended up in 4th place in their respective teams. Earlier in the season they all came away with golds for their routines competing within the south-west area and also for duets when they travelled to Plymouth.  They have put in many hours training in their incredibly demanding sport - congratulations and well done! 

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Congratulations to the Romans who are the winners of the house competition as we finish the academic year

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Pre-Loved Uniform 

If you have any school uniform that is still in good condition that you no longer need, it can be dropped off at reception or students can drop it off in the main office, and it will be used in our Secondhand Shop. 

Free School Meals

Students currently entitled to free school meals can purchase food at breakfast, breaktime or lunchtime depending on their preference.  The allowance for food for the full day is £3. Parents will need to top up via Parentpay if students go over the £3.00 allowance.  Funds do not roll over if the allowance is not used on the day.

Please visit the Gloucestershire County Council Website to apply for school meals

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