May 2015 – Ralph Sadleir School

It’s done, my first half term as a Headteacher!! Not sure a week off is enough time to catch up on all the sleep I’ve missed out on but hey, I’ll be giving it a go!! For those of you who read the local paper, skip past p20-21 this week, however keep an eye out in the rest of the paper as I’m not the only Ralphie in there this week.

This week it has been the Year 5’s turn to do assessments, whilst the Year 6’s had a fun architecture and construction workshop. The Key Stage 3 children took part in the House Quiz on Wednesday, questions were compiled by Harvey, Josh W and Mia G and Mr Palmen was compere for the event. Salisbury were the overall winners – clearly the most intelligent children in the school!! If you think you are as smart as a 12/13 year old here are a selection of the questions (Answers to the House Quiz questions):

Q1:To within 50, how many dimples are there on a standard golf ball
Q2: What is the length of the current world record for the guinea pig long jump (+/- 5cm)
Q3: What are Red, Bubbles Chuck, Matilda, The Blues and Terence collectively known as?
Q4: What is missing from the following – Hepworth, Moore and Butler?
Q5: Which song begins with the following lyrics ‘This hit, That ice cold, Michelle Pfeiffer, That white gold’
Q6: Who sang the opening line on the 2014 do they know it’s Christmas single?
Q7: What are Paul Sinah, Mark Labbett, Anne Hegerty and Shaun Wallace collectively known as?
Q8:Who are Aleksandr Orlov, Sergei and baby Oleg?
Q9: What was the name of the 2010 World Cup octopus that it was said could predict outcomes of games.
Q10: If I scored a try and a conversion in rugby union, how many points would I have won in total?
Q11: What song did the staff perform to at this years Stars in their eyes?
Q12: How many of Harvey’s pigeon steps does it take to get from the exit of the lunch hall to the geography room? (+/-30)

Harvey has been a busy boy, organising the House Quiz, getting a Gold Certificate in the National Maths Challenge, carrying out experiments at GlaxoSmithKline (Click on the link for his write up) and winning the longest drive challenge in Year 8 boys golf.

My assembly this week looked at respect, what it is and why it is important. The thought of the week was: ‘Respect – give it out to earn it back’ Miss Chandler rounded the week off with a though provoking assembly on plastics and their environmental impact and the need to recycle.

This week several 100% attendance certificates were given out to Tutor Groups which is good to see, please remember to complete a request form if you are wanting to take children out of school but bear in mind that these will only be authorised in exceptional circumstances.

More Merit Certificates were awarded this week and just to give you a quick update: 226 children have claimed a Bronze Certificate, 177 have their Silver; 91 a Gold; 29 have a Platinum; 8 have Diamond and 2 have made it to 100 merits and have received their Headteacher’s certificate. After half term merits will be counted and Houses reaching certain milestones will receive rewards, however certificates must have been claimed in order to be eligible for the reward.

My closing gambit to the children today was to stay safe, have fun and to not deliberately annoy anyone, parents i’ve tried my best!! Enjoy the break.

Week two – a proper five day week – is over!!

The biggest thing this week was Cross-Curricular Day on Thursday, always eagerly anticipated and thoroughly enjoyable. Lots of different activities going on through the day: the Year 8’s were re-enacting the famous football match of the first world war and making propaganda posters; the Year 7’s got to burn food to check for calories; the Year 6’s made cous cous; and the Year 5’s did an orienteering course cunningly devised by Mrs Brown.

Our Year 8’s have certainly had a busy week what with taking part in the National School’s Maths Challenge and making muffins of their own recipe as part of their Food Technology assessment. Some of the recipes/flavours were interesting, both sweet and savory choices and I know Miss Lumsden was impressed with both the ideas and their culinary skills. The most intriguing came from Calwyn Bluemental with his recipe. Sadly, even after being promised many tasters by many pupils, I didn’t get to try any – so they must have been good!!

Assemblies this week focused on May Day and the British traditions surrounding it on Wednesday; whilst today I introduced the children to some independent learning ideas based around what to do if they are stuck or ‘don’t get it’! Mrs O-D sparked the idea by showing a video [youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrSUe_m19FY[/youtube] which all the children found hilarious, until we compared it to them in class. So today I introduced the 5Bs to help you when you are stuck; the fifth is asking the ‘Boss’ who could be the teacher in school or a parent with homework, try asking your children what the other 4 B’s are.

Next week has lots of important events, beginning with Standon’s May Day celebrations on Monday; the General Election, which we will be discussing with the children this week; Bikeability for some Year 5’s; and of course the most importantly of all – Star Wars Day!! If you are still a floating voter or just generally interested in which political party is ‘right’ for you, the the website – who should you vote for – might be of interest.

Finally, please remember that there is no school on Monday, so please enjoy the long weekend and if you are off to Standon May Day then don’t forget to visit the RSA stall.

Have a great weekend…and May the Fourth be with you!!

Friday 22nd May

Friday 1st May