Once again, Year 10 History students are off to Calverley Church this autumn for two visits that underpin their studies. Our thanks to the vicar and staff for their continued support.
Year 11 will be visiting the Thackray Medical Museum later this year to help them with their understanding of the unit on Medicine through Time.
We are running our fourth Year 9 trip to the Trenches next July. If you are interested, see Mrs Hart.
Certain students in Year 9 will have the opportunity once again to visit the Holocaust Museum, which has proved to be a most powerful and affecting perspective on events from World War 2.
We offer our thanks to Robert Watts in Year 9 who organised the data and developed the Key Stage 3 History material on the school website.
We have recommended Daniel Graham for the Year 11 GCSE Achievement Prize and Leanne Howarth for the Year 13 A2 Achievement Prize.
Are there any artefacts you don't want - old garments, gasmasks, ration books - that you could let us have/borrow for our work on World War 2? Search your attics! Is anyone reading this a member of the Sealed Knot Society? Could you come and talk to us?
This year for Open Evening we will be running a Roman Banquet with Year 7 guesting as Romans. Tudor hygiene arrangements will be investigated - and you can feel the evidence in the Mystery Boxes! Our World War 2 displays will feature real students and the History Quiz will check if you are up-to-date. A lot to organise but an excellent way to get students to have their history come alive.
Mrs Hart
Head of Department
LEISURE AND TOURISM
Year 11 will be visiting Alton Towers as part of their Applied GCSE
Leisure and Tourism course. Mrs Graydon has promised to go on the rides
but will not make any comment as to whether she will cry like she did
on the Flamingoland trip! Year 11 are the first group to work on the
new AQA GCSE course and the results of mock exams and coursework have
indicated great success is in store.
Well done to Lucie Makler, Vanessa Andrews and Claire Gill who all achieved A grades in recent mock exams. Well done to the whole group who have consistently put 100% into this new course.
Does anybody have videos of 'Airport', 'Hotel' or other 'fly on the
wall' stuff that can be used to assist in showing customer service at
its worst or best? Please get in touch.
Mrs Graydon
Leisure and Tourism
BUSINESS STUDIES
In November all the Year 11 Business Studies students have been offered
the opportunity to visit Cadbury World as part of their coursework studies
on production. They will be able to use the knowledge they gain to help
solve problems in a case study company they are using (Green and Blacks).
In February next year our Advanced Business Vocational students from Year 12, along with GNVQ Business and Leisure and Tourism students, are planning to visit Disneyland Paris to look at how they market the resort, as well as get to enjoy a day in the park and at Disney studios.
Following the success of last year's Young Enterprise students, the programme has been built into the Advanced Business course. This year's group, called Fuzion, hope to make and sell a range of funky accessories, including 'smellies' for Xmas and mobile 'phone covers. A further four companies are also setting up with a mix of students from all subject areas. This should provide some healthy competition!
Year 11 working on the production unit will find useful links to Cadbury World, Green and Blacks and GCSE Bitesize in the "Business Studies" section; to go to the 'production' page, click here.
"Everyday Economics" was a half-day of role-play simulation
where all Year 10 Business Studies students worked in a company for
the morning of September 18th, working alongside a business adviser
and trying to make their company the most successful. Few ran into financial
difficulties, but as usual the car dealers did very well, narrowly beating
the estate agents into first place on profit made, customer service
and training of staff. The students had a challenging but fun-packed
morning and it is to their credit that they all achieved the Unit Award
to accompany this event. Our grateful thanks to the following companies
who supported this venture by loaning their staff to us:
· HSBC
· Yorkshire Bank
· Direct Line
· Halifax
· Green Flag
Mrs Marsden
Head of Department
DESIGN TECHNOLOGY
We were really pleased with our results from the first cohort to complete
GCSE Manufacturing. Five students obtained two grade Cs from the double
subject - well done boys! The group also designed, prepared and served
lunch for the German Exchange students who visited us here in July.
They produced a magnificent spread, and left the German students with
a really positive taste of English food. Students from our PASS Centre
also made traditional English desserts for them, so successfully that
the recipes were requested and posted on the website for them to access.
Year 7 have just spent a week raising money for the Martin House Children's Hospice Week (20th to 27th September) by holding a Butterfly bun bake. They raised £117 for the charity.
Mr Westmancoat & Mrs Jennings
Heads of Department
TEXTILES
In June this year Mrs Mumby took a group of Textiles students to the
Leeds College of Art and Design end-of-year fashion show at the Royal
Armouries. The show, as always, displayed a range of dynamic and imaginative
garments that provide inspiration for out students about to begin their
final assignments.
The curriculum for Textiles has been changed and now includes the following
projects:
| Year 7: |
| Tropical World Clocks |
| Tropical Tour |
| Safety Bibs |
| T.R.A.I.D. |
| Council for Textile Recycling |
| Fashion Garment |
| Sally Queen |
| Donaldson's of Crieff |
| Waistcoats Direct |
| The Silk Studio |
| Year 8: |
| Endangered Animal Ties |
| World Wildlife Fund |
| International Fund for Animal Welfare |
| Matisse-style Containers |
| ArtCyclopedia |
| Crazy Comic Critters |
| The BBC |
| Year 9: |
| Outdoor Hats - Helly Hansen |
| Patagonia |
| Biothinking |
| SympaTex |
| HellyHansen |
| Magazine 'Freebie' Bags |
| KellySearch |
| BBC Revision |
| David Hockney style Banners for Internet Café |
| Cybercafes |
| Saltsmill |
This year's percentage pass rate for Textiles was 86%. Twelve of the 14 students gained a C grade or higher - well done to Rebecca Stephenson, Gita Chauhan, Alima Rahman, Carolyn Smith, Lorna Steeden, Nazish Taj, Eleanor Wigglesworth, Sandeep Garcha, Randeep Kaur, Harjinder Rai, Satvir Toor and Rachael Wilkinson. Particular congratulations to Rebecca for her A* and Eleanor for producing a brilliant tailored jacket with lining, as a lot of work, time and energy was put in to it. Eleanor has now gone to college to pursue a career in fashion.
The annual trip to the Clothes Show in Birmingham is in December. This trip is aimed at those students who have an interest in Textiles and are considering it for a GCSE option.
We are constantly on the lookout for materials, particularly old or
new denim, and in order to display student work around the school mannequins
are needed. Any offers gratefully received.
Mrs Mumby
Textiles Department
GEOGRAPHY
We have been very busy recently out in the field. On Tuesday 23rd and
Friday 26th September we took groups of Year 11 GCSE students out to
the North York moors for work to support their coursework assignments.
The new Year 12 AS students will be visiting the North Yorkshire coast, Leeds City Centre and taking part in a residential for fieldwork next term.
Year 9 will be undertaking a new unit of work this year on Kenya. Any information that you might have that would help us build up our resources would be gratefully received.
For online help with your Geography researches, please check-out our recently updated links page.
Mr Hutson
Head of Department
During May, thirty Year 7 students went on a trip to The Deep in Hull , organised by the Geography Department. Priesthorpe students were complimented on their high standards of behaviour. No wonder, when you visit such an exciting place, as Jade's description shows:
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"The Deep was a really weird-shaped building with loads of stairs and loads of fish. My favourite part of the visit was the bubbles. These were like domes that you put your head through by going up a ladder and you saw loads of fish swimming around your head. "Another highlight were the sharks Tilly and Tara. We sat
in front of a massive tank and they were just lying down in front
of it. You could see them breathing and moving and then when they
swam off they were so graceful it was amazing. "The people who showed us around were great too and we learned loads of interesting facts, such as that there are 78 tonnes of salt used in the tanks and over 500 gallons of water. We also saw octopus, jellyfish, hammerhead sharks, humbug fish and a seahorse. Wow!" |
| Jade Beniston, now 8E |
Mrs Carr
Geography Department