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Information about our Christmas Activities this week at Marden.
Our Christmas Jumper Day on Thursday 15th December will take the form of our usual non-uniform days. £1 for a wristband which will be on sale this week, with proceeds going to the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
To coincide with the 340th anniversary of the determination of the speed of light, Year 8 students took part in our second Super Learning Day of the year on the theme of light.
Activities included a visit to St. George’s Church to look at stained glass windows and then students made their own windows with a Christmas theme and decorated the school entrance and LRC for the annual Christmas concert.
Some students produced scenes using light boxes which were also displayed in the LRC. The school is now looking very festive as a result of all their hard work.
As you may have seen from our @mardenPE Twitter page and recent Sports posts, some Year 9 students have recently taken part in a Kick-Off HE Raising Aspirations course with Northumbria University.
This has involved a series of afternoons of boxing training and workshops. Participants Cameron Balloch, Jonny Jordan and Jared Robson have written about their experience:
“We have been learning how to box from the Great Britain Boxing coach and have worked on projects such as Journalism and creating a new idea in sport like a sports bottle or training shoe.
The course is designed to help us learn about higher education and to get us interested in sport for the future. So far we have been to Northumbria University and Sport Central and done a whole day there; also we have had a few afternoons in school doing boxing and projects. When we went to the university we had a talk with ex-GB and Olympic swimmer Chris Cook and he talked to us about sport and how you have to be determined to be successful.
This made us think about our future in sport and why we need to be determined and how much effort and sacrifices we will need to make in sport.”
On Wednesday 30 November the whole of year 7 took part in our first Super Learning Day of the year. The title for the day was “What Makes The Coast Special?
The year group were divided into three different groups each following a different cross curricular theme.
The science theme focused on adaptation of living things to survive in a coastal environment. The students visited the Blue Reef Aquarium where they answered questions about the exhibits and got to meet a few of them up close and personal! They particularly enjoyed the Touchpool Experience and meeting the seals. Back at school the students researched the adaptations of various sea creatures and used their ICT skills to create a set of Top Trumps cards based on the survival characteristics of these animals, justifying the score given in each category based on their research. To quote two of the students, (Owen Morrow and Harrison Reay), “This was the best day at school ever!!”
The Media group worked on producing a marketing campaign for the North East coast; designing websites, storyboards, posters and leaflets and pitching their ideas to each other at the end of the day.
Media students design their marketing campaigns.
Art students responded to this question through illustrations of objects, items and places that made them think of the coast. After a morning of planning work and analysing artwork from a local artist, we trekked down to the beach. Equipped with cameras and a clear idea of what objects each group wanted to photograph, students set about their challenge. After lunch, our groups of art students had 2 hours to create their own collage landscapes, now inspired by their own photographs. With an aim to use bold colour and striking illustration, designs soon came together, ending with a presentation of very successful work at the end of the day.
Congratulations to Josh Blevins in Year 7 and Lucas Sutherland in Year 11, who are both North Tyneside Cross Country Champions after winning their respective age events last Friday at Churchill Playing Fields. Both have now qualified for the County finals next year.
Both boys were presented with a pair of Newcastle United tickets, along with Peter Whitehouse (Year 8) who has demonstrated sporting excellence throughout the year. The tickets were generously supplied by Show Racism The Red Card after our recent charity day.
In other sporting news, a select group of Year 9 boys have been taking part in a boxing programme with Northumbria University, our Year 8 rugby team recently took part in a festival in Ashington, our badminton teams are going from strength to strength and our Year 11 A team came 4th in the North Tyneside table tennis championships, with the Year 9 B team finishing a creditable 6th.
For more information, keep checking our Sports page or follow @mardenPE on Twitter. Well done to all who took part in all events.
In August, 10 students in year 11 are heading to Ensenada, Mexico, to help out the less privileged for 10 days. This includes building a house, helping out at orphanages, running workshops and more. Throughout the next few months, they will be raising the funds needed to travel and pay for building materials. Events in school will be helping them contribute to the £19,000 they need to raise collectively, so look out for non uniform days and bake sales in the upcoming year, but these will be advertised closer to the time.
The first meeting of our Parent-Teacher Association will take place at 6pm on Wednesday 11 January 2017 in the LRC. All parents/carers are welcome to attend. If you would like any other information on the PTA please contact Louise Newton either by phone or email [email protected]
