October 2015 – Ralph Sadleir School

Friday 16th October

October 16, 2015/in Mr Spong's Blog/by sadleir2021

This week saw the first cross-curricular day of the year, the focus was the world around us. The children took part in a wide range of activities; from looking round the Ralphies’ National Park; saving endangered animals; reconstructing mammals from owl pellets; making bird feeders; to redesigning Puckeridge. The children get to learn new and use a whole range of skills in non-traditional learning activities; they also have lots of fun. A huge amount of credit goes to the staff who plan, source and deliver these sessions; a good indicator of how hard they work is that there needs to be an afternoon break – for a caffeine and sugar kick – which the children believe is for them!

On Thursday a group of Year 5 and 6 children took part in a tag rugby festival in Bishops Stortford, inspired by the World Cup (Perhaps not necessarily England) they all really enjoyed their games and put in some strong performances. Also this week our 5 and 6 girls played netball matches against St Edmunds.

Next week is the final week of the half term, unbelievable how time flies – I must have been having fun – with two important dates in the school diary – Year 8 Parents’ Evening and an INSET training day for staff on Friday, which means school is closed to children.

Friday 9th October

October 9, 2015/in Mr Spong's Blog/by sadleir2021

Back in the 90’s the film Four Weddings and a Funeral launched the careers of a generation of British actors/actresses; fast forward to 2015 and in school this week we had Four Engineers and a couple of Authors to potentially inspire the future careers of our Ralphies.

As part of this year’s Hertford Children’s Book Festival we had two visits from authors. On Monday Matt Whyman came in to speak to the Year 7s and Year 8s about his latest series The Savages, a family with some interesting tastes!! Then on Wednesday, Jonny Zucker completely engrossed the whole of Key Stage 2 talking about his life, his books and how became a writer. The children really enjoyed both chats and Isaac and Dexter even got to interview Matt Whyman for a podcast on the HCBF website. A huge thanks to Mrs Woollard our librarian for co-ordinating and organising the events, which really help to enrich our English curriculum and inspire our children to pick up a book or pen.

Today was all about Science, Technology and Maths as we invited four engineers in as part of Stem Day. As part of the day’s activities the Year 7s got to hot seat and ‘speed date’ the engineers to find out what they did and the equipment they use – oh yes engineers have lots of cool gadgets (toys)!! Mrs Bingham and Mrs Brown, who coordinate the activities were really pleased with the day, especially as the children asked lots of questions about being an engineer and not just how much they earn!!

It was a big and busy week for the Year 8s: Monday saw the beginning of Enterprise trading and the Dining Room resembled a busy market with plenty of money exchanging hands; not content with filling the Dining Room with delicious smells they also set about Food Tech as well, making mini-fruit cakes – some of which might have even made it home; Thursday saw the boys win their next match of the English Schools’ Cup, beating Chigwell 4-0; just for good measure they also went on a trip today to a green energy site, including a trip up to the top of a wind turbine; they will definitely sleep well this weekend. However this was not all they had to do because on Monday and Wednesday they got to be tour guides for our prospective parents as we tried to show the school off to the next generation of Ralphies. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and all of the children involved really were our greatest selling point. Then on Wednesday the roles were reversed as many of our families went up to Freman to tour round on their Open Evening. I have to admit that walking round it felt like home from home as so many of our former Ralphies were being used as guides or taking part in activities.

In my speech on Monday night I spoke of how privelidged I felt to be the Headteacher of Ralph Sadleir School and seeing the community come alive that evening really strengthened that feeling but also filled me with great pride.

Friday 2nd October

October 5, 2015/in Mr Spong's Blog/by sadleir2021

Wow – well September flew by in the blink of an eye, my oh my!! I am rhyming for a reason by the way – Mrs McIver announced the theme for this Year’s House Poetry Competition in assembly today. Children can gain points for every entry as well as individual prizes and the first overall House prize of the academic year.

This week saw Year 7s doing their CATs tests, not to see who will be Mr Mistoffelees in a drama performance but to check cognitive progress and allow us to make targets to check their progress. The 7 boys also played their first football match of the season, narrowly losing their English Schools’ Cup match. The Year 8s and 6s returned to a normal curriculum after the excitement of the previous week, although some of the 8s enjoyed their first outing as Sports Leaders. As we are in October thoughts generally turn to Hallowe’en at the end of the month and I thought Year 5 had been getting in some early practice this week, however it turns out they had been making their own blood and looking at all the different bits within.

Some of the children got to be filmed during lessons this week, not as part of the new series of either Waterloo Road or Bad Education, but as part of the OTI programme for the staff. After the initial nerves of being on camera were overcome, things carried on as normal and the feedback from the mentor was all positive. If you have any questions about the OTI programme then please contact me.

Next week is a busy week with author visits, sports fixtures, Year 8 Enterprise groups begin trading and the small matter of Open Evening where we open our doors to prospective parents and use our current crop of Ralphies to show off how brilliant they are.

Friday 25th September

October 4, 2015/in Mr Spong's Blog/by sadleir2021

Well what an enterprising week it turned out to be. It was planned as a week where our Year 8s and Year 6s were off developing independent thinking, teamwork and personal resilience skills in either setting up businesses or at the outdoor activity centre. However as it turned out it wasn’t only the children who had to do some quick thinking at the end of the week.

First to Enterprise Week for the Year 8s, there will be more detailed write ups on the website from Miss Devine who led the week and by some of the Year 8s; however in a nutshell the week started with some team building exercises led by the army, then there were a series of activities focusing on how to set up and run a business culminating in their Dragons’ Den pitches for investment.
Finally they all had some physical and mental problem solving challenges to puzzle through on Friday, it was an incredibly successful week with all the children buzzing with enthusiasm and full of great ideas and the Dragons all said how impressed they were with the slickness of the presentations and their knowledge of their businesses. Now is the hard part – using the investment to turn the ideas into profit!!

The Year 6s arrived on Monday armed with suitcases and teddies ready for a big adventure – off to PGL (Ask your children what it ‘allegedly’ stands for) in Liddington. Again there will be a report and some photos posted on the website but when I spoke to Miss Dobson on her return she told me that the children were all brilliant but what goes on tour stays on tour!!

That should be the end of the story but oh no, sadly there was late drama when one of the coaches had a catastrophic engine failure on the M25. Some of the children had to wait for another coach to come and collect them – easily done in Friday night traffic!! Again the children were fantastic, taking it all in their stride as an extended part of the adventure. I cannot praise the staff enough for their quick thinking and calmness in dealing with a potentially dangerous situation and the children too deserve huge credit. It was a day to truly be proud of my Ralphies – big and small!!

The 6s who remained in school also had a fun packed week being learning mentors for our Year 5s as well as making some wonderful concoctions in the Food Tech room.

Fingers crossed for a ‘normal’ drama free week next week!!

Brass Tuition at Ralph Sadleir

October 2, 2015/in General news/by sadleir2021

The free after school beginners brass sessions led by Mr Peach, the music and brass teacher at Freman College will begin after school on Monday 5th October between 3.30pm – 4.30pm in the music room at Ralph Sadleir School.

Thank you to all who had replied regarding this and we hope you enjoy the sessions.