RWBA Good News Board!

Thank you so much from all at RWBA for the kind messages that we have received from parents. If you would like to view some of these messages please click here.

SCHOOL UPDATE

We have decided to launch a House challenge to help recognise some of the fantastic things are students are doing in their local community during these extraordinary times and to also hopefully encourage more of our youngsters to make a positive difference at this time. 

To do this we have created the Captain Tom Moore Community badge - in honour of his amazing achievement in raising funds for the NHS and to celebrate his 100th birthday this week. 

Essentially students need to do something positive in the community (ensuring they stick to government guidance on maintaining social distance etc.) to qualify for the badge. Examples include:

• doing shopping for a vulnerable or elderly neighbour 
• helping make PPE for key workers
• completing some form of fundraising activity - as long as they aren't donating the money themselves (It needs to be fair for all students)

Once students have done something positive they need to provide their tutor with photographic evidence of them doing their positive deed.

The badge is worth 50 achievement points.

The challenge runs until May Half term.

Community Badge Holders

Eve Swatton - 8BE2

Olivia Crowley - 11CO1

Charlotte Crowley - 8WI2

Katie Channing - 11BE1

Adele Channing - 7WO2

Chloe Lewis - 8WO2

Jasmine Hughes - 8WO2

Tamsin Northfield - 8WO2

Eleri Northfield - 8WI2

Amy Moody - 8BE2

Alfie Jones - 11BE2

Emily Davies - 11BE3

Lauren Curtis - 11BE3

Flynn Davies-Phillips - 7BA3

Erin Langham - 8CO2

Morgan Leigh - 8CO2

Aaron Seal - 7BA3

Bo Beard - 7WO1

Corey Bull - 10WO2

Katie Hodges - 7WO1

Harriet Outram - 7BA3

Jack Gurr - 8BE1

Robert Gregory - 7BA1

Kai Lawrence - 8BE1

Erin Lightowler - 9BA2

Neasa Lightowler - 9BA2

Aiden Grainger - 7WO2

Alfie Gleed - 10BE2

Natasha Harris - 9BA1

Sonny Morris - 7BA1

Annabel Ollerhead - 10WI2

Charlie Cameron - 7WO1

Madeleine Kemp - 8CO2

Olivia Rogers - 7BA3

Tiana Kariuki - 8BE2

Talia Haines - 9BE2

Tom Woods - 8BA1

Filipa Patrao - 7WI1

Natasha Winterburn - 10WI1

Grace Masters - 8WI2

Lily Kennedy - 7BE2

Chloe Randell - 7CO2

Jalika Sillah - 7WO2

Natasha Jones - 10CO2

Amy Kinnett - 8WO3

Caitlin Biffin - 8BE1

Joshua Ablett-Jackson - 8WO3

Kieran Paget - 8BE1

Isaak Creasey - 7BE2

Leo Bell - 8WO3

Matthew Jacobs - 8BA2

Oliver Burt - 8BA1

Isabelle Malem - 7WO1

Lexie Knight - 8BE2

Lucia Green - 8WO2

Charlotte Witcher - 8CO2

James Thorne - 7WO1

 

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Poem for the NHS

by Charlotte Evans (7WO2)

Life - changing

Life - threatening

Life is cruel.

National

Health

Service

Our heroes

Our soldiers in blue

Defeating this injurious infection

Life – changing

Life – threatening

Life is cruel.

Stay home

And prevent contaminating the space around you

Times are changing. So should you.

Thank you. NHS. Our heroes in blue.

 

Here is Bo Beard (7WO2) taking part in the Benedetti Foundation virtual sessions on her violin! With around 7000 children and adults in 66 different countries also taking part online, it really has been a fantastic musical experience. Well done Bo! 

 

 

Oliver Larcombe in Year 9 has been helping out at home and cooking :)

 

 

Hania Tucker in 7Wi2 has been fundraising through 2.6 challenge by producing and posting 26 pieces of art in 26 days.

She started on her birthday and is now really close to her target. 

She's decided to fundraise for Strabane Food Bank, and would really appreciate support. 

You can donate to her JustGiving page by clicking here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/hania-t?utm_source=Sharethis&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=hania-t&utm_campaign=pfp-email&utm_term=a3a4e7928b23400581477367058c2301. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to Strabane Food Bank, so it's the most efficient way to give - saving time and cutting costs for the charity. 

 

 

Lexie Knight (Year 8) is celebrating today, having been told that her design for the iamme App T-shirt has been short-listed to the last 15 designs, from hundreds submitted from around the World. She was told this week, being Mental Health Awareness Week, and will hear shortly whether she is in the running for a prize - Huge Congratulations, Lexie!!

 

'In 1909, on this day, Sir Nicholas Winton was born. On the eve of the Second World War, Nicholas supervised the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia. Today, if you have been eagle-eyed with your online learning and research searches, you may have spotted that to mark the anniversary, the Google Doodle on our computers is about Sir Nicholas. So, we set a 'Winton challenge' (via student emails) to create their own Winton inspired google doodle, word art or cloud. 

So well done to Rhiannon Caple  in Year 9 for her Winton inspired wordle. She wrote: 'I learnt that we should also remember Trevor Chadwick & Doreen Warriner because they helped, & that Sir Nicholas was very humble about what he did. I think that he is being remembered today because he saved lots of lives & was very heroic.'

 

Please click here to view our Literacy Celebration, so many students sent in entries which was fantasic!

 

Rebecca Comley (10BE2) has just completed a week of Virtual Work Experience with Air Photos Services, specialists in Aerial Imagery based in Swindon. Here is a letter from her Mentor, followed by some anaglyph images that Rebecca developed into 3D images throughout the week. Well done to Rebecca for embracing this new way of working!

Rebecca Comley and I have completed our week of 'work experience' that comprised three PowerPoint lectures/demonstrations that had places and spaces for questions and feedback, plus a Google Earth project for Rebecca to complete by herself.  We talked through her answers this morning to finish our week. 

Rebecca has been an ideal student during the week and has absorbed information at a similar level to that which I deliver to undergraduates and beyond.  She was responsive, asked good questions and remembered new information, and is able to get a long way towards understanding what she doesn't know on the basis of her present knowledge.  She also had the initiative to try things out of class (making anaglyphs) which she showed me this morning. 

While our week was not work experience as such I hope that the new knowledge and ways of working with aerial information has provided something that will be useful in Rebecca's future studies.  Thank you for the opportunity as I also learned new things and was able to look at old material from a new perspective.

 

 

Impressive work from Kai Lawrence in 8BE1 who made a game!

Give it a try -  https://makecode.com/_hv6JfLV9rL7M 

& https://arcade.makecode.com/20877-30114-04385-67797 

 

Fab artwork from Courtney Dowling in 11CO1!

 

Check out this awesome thank you to the NHS embroidery project completed by Amber Walker in 10CO1!!

 

Natasha Jones in 10CO2

Via Cadets she is taking part in the 80km Hurricane RAF Challenge cycling and running 80km to raise money for the RAF Museum. She also asked if her squadron could send Col Tom Moore a 100th Birthday card to thank him for all the money he had raised. She also designed the card too! She have been heavily involved in Sqn activities which you can see if you visit thier Sqn Twitter page 

2491 (Lyneham) Squadron ATC

 

Next week (18-24 May) is Mental Health Awareness Week, and this year, the theme is KINDNESS! 

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week where there are resources and activity suggestions. 

Please see below a message from I am Me (https://www.iammeapp.com) 

We’d love you to get involved and help spread the message via i am me. There are two ways you can get involved…

1. Tell us what ‘Kindness’ means to you…

The word ‘Kindness’ can mean different things to different people, so tell us what it means to you. 

Email a short sentence over to hello@iammeapp.com with the subject line “This is what kindness means to me”.

Please let us know your age and if you’re happy for us to tag you on Instagram, your handle.

Please email this over by Monday 18^th May.

1. 7 days, 7 acts of kindness…

We’re looking for volunteers to carry out 7 acts of kindness, one act a day for a week. It could be anything, from sending a postcard to a friend, helping with the chores around the house, helping a sibling with homework to donating something to charity. 

Starting on Monday 18^th, we’d like you to carry out an act of kindness each day until the 24^th May, photographing what you’ve done (or a representation) and send it to us.

Ideally you will do your act of kindness in the morning, sending it to us by 12pm so we can upload it to Instagram. 

If interested, please let us know by emailing hello@iammeapp.com with your first act of kindness on Monday 18^th May (before 12pm). When sending Friday’s act, please let us know how it’s made you feel carrying out 7 acts of kindness. 

Please help us spread Kindness by liking, commenting and sharing our Instagram stories too if you have an account! For those of you that don’t we will be adding them to our Latest News section of our website.

Best wishes

Claire Libby

Founder 

 

Rianna Wardle in 10CO1 has up cycled an old dress and turned it into a cushion cover!

 

 

Jalika Sillah in 7WO2 is raising money for Build Africa and has already raised £95.00!

 

Alex Cameron 11Ba1 has turned into quite the horticulturalist during lockdown! He has grown and cultivated countless vegetable plants from seeds and some have been donated to neighbours who are shielding.  He has also turned his hand to a topiary challenge. Well done Alex.

 

During lockdown, Junior Voices have been working hard at home to learn a new song. Each student has performed and recorded their individual part at home and all the voices have been put together to create a Junior 'Virtual' Voices choir. Well done to all the year 7 and 8 students involved! Please follow this link to listen to the recording: https://youtu.be/_PJMSb0nQdM we hope you enjoy! 

 

 

Lily Oakley in 9WO1 has been helping her little brother do school work :)

 

Robin Cooper in 10WO1 wrote out some lovely words and presented them on his window for the people in his village hoping it will have a positive effect on them in this time of unrest. His adorable rabbit Truffle has been keeping him company while he works to help him when he felt overwhelmed :)

 

 

Chloe Randell in 7CO2 has over the past weeks helped sort her food cupboards to find suitable donations, has purchased food items from the local supermarket and sorted it all to make a donation to the local food bank which she dropped off at the church this morning.

 

 

Lily Kennedy did some shopping for a vulnerable person who could not go themselves. Well done Lily!

 

Edward Griffiths (7BA1) and big sister Bethan (12Wi1) entertained Church Street on VE Day with their cornet and saxophone playing!

 

Hanna Tucker in 7WI2 has been getting more ambitious with her bakes thanks to the inspiring English homework. She has made two cakes (based on the Hunger Games) in time for the VE day celebrations.

 

Rianna Wardle in 10Co1 made some bunting out of old material with her mum to celebrate VE day :)

 

Here is Lucia Green in 8WO2 taking shopping to her Father who is in 12 week isolation, she can only see him from the driveway! 

 

Natasha Winterburn in 10WI1 baked for her neighbour who is shielding and for her elderly grandparents who are self isolating. Banana bread last week and pecan and date this week :)

 

 

Please see below a message from Filipa Patrao's (7WI1) Mother, thank you Filipa.

I wanted to share with you Filipa's efforts this week towards the Captain Moore Community badge. I work at the Great Western Hospital in the Emergency Department as a Consultant. You may have seen in the news that unfortunately we have lost a colleague in the Covid Pandemic. He left behind 3 children and 3 grandchildren. In his memory and in order to raise fund for his family, at this difficult time, Filipa baked an amazing cake, completely independently, which she decorated as well. I then took it into work as below. It was very appreciated by all as a kind and thoughtful gesture. Filipa raised £112. This will be added to the overall pot the department has been fundraising for. 

​

Arlen Frapwell in 7WO1 got creative, check out the flute they made out of a wafer to show anything can be music :)

 

Thank you Daniela Roberts in 8BA2 for sending in these adorable pictures of her birds including a baby bird that hatched 2 weeks ago! Sunny is the Mum (yellow) and Sky is the Dad (blue) :)

 

Lillie Holmes in 8CO1 as been inventive in her spare time and made a pillow out of dressing gowns! Fab work Lillie :)

 

Here's some pictures of Kieran Paget (8Be1) helping his Dad to build a shed from scratch :)

 

Natasha Harris 9Ba1 who has just been awarded the Tom Moore badge for sewing face masks for vulnerable people. What a fantastic thing to do Natasha!

 

Samuel Warner in 10CO1 received the Youth Section Player of the Month award for April from Royal Wootton Bassett Football Club! See the link below for the details :)

https://www.facebook.com/167385656648250/posts/2790847964301993/?d=n

 

The Year 8 Pupils had fun playing 'Lock-down Cluedo' for their PD day. Photo credits to Edward Jack, Leo Bell, Will Wootten & Laura Tanker :)

 

Well done to Alfie Gleed in 10BE2.  During the lockdown various volunteers, working under strict social distancing guidelines, have continued to maintain the Royal Wootton Bassett town FC site. Alfie Gleed continues to provide ground maintenance and grass cutting duties for the whole 23 acre site. All of these actions taken together have enabled the business management team to trim our average monthly expenditure of £18,000 to approximately £6,000.

 

 

 

Katie Hodges in 7WO1 has received her community badge for staying in close contact with her Granny who lives in Bath. She cannot visit her & she is having to stay in as she’s over 70. She is finding this very hard as normally loves being out and seeing people.
Katie has been texting her regularly which she loves and she sent her photos of what I’ve been doing. She has made and sent her an Easter card and each week she FaceTimes her to play a game. Katie has played Easter bingo, categories, play your cards right and a word game. 

 

 

Neasa & Erin Lightowler in 9BA2 have been baking for neighbours, getting farm eggs for people who are vulnerable, talking from a distance to people who are alone and making their day.

They have also been calling family and friends who are abroad and making sure they are ok as they have family in different countries who are living alone. Well done both and keep up the good work! 

 

 

Krystal Stephenson in 7BE1 completed her enrichment task. Soggy middle pudding and custard, tasted super yummy!

 

Edward Jack in 8CO1 has a new Teacher.....

"I wanted to give you a quick report on how Edward is doing during lockdown.

Attendance :100%

Achievement points: Lots!

Behaviour points:0 (we discussed introducing conduct cards but this hasn't been necessary!)

Attitude to learning: Edward has shown great resilience in adapting to home learning.

As his acting Tutor I am pleased to report that he remains an outstanding student and as his Mum I am enjoying spending extra time with him!"

This good news message goes out to all the Parents or family members who are trying to educate their children at home, and thank you to Mrs Jack for putting a smile on our faces. She can expect her Performance Management Appraisal Meeting soon. 

 

From out of the chaos that is Tom Gahan's (9BE2) work desk, come two more creative pieces. The first is a card for Mum, the second is Thors hammer (from the Marvel films and crafted from exercise matts). As you can imagine the mandatory weekly room tidy is a bit of a challenge for Tom! 🤣

 

Madeleine Kemp 8CO2 has had a go at making a face mask for her Nan who volunteers for the local Bassett Foodbank to help keep her safe. Here is Madeleine modelling it.

 

Here is a cake that Sam Pinches in 11co1 has made on PD day ☺️

 

Louis Austin 10BE1 and Imogen Austin 7BA1 making a lemon cake for their Grandad and Uncle who are having to self isolate.

 

Lexie Knight in 8BE2 has been baking :) 

 

Lovely work from Kai Lawrence in 8BE1 :)

 

Brendan Bennett 7WO1 has been shopping for vulnerable elderly people in the community who are in isolation he has also been shopping on his own to buy supplies for his own family 🙏🏼❤️

 

Here’s Corey Bull checking on elderly friends and taking some flowers and cake to cheer them up. He has also made some soup for his Grandparents. 

 

In between homeschooling, Leanne Brown in 10WO1 tested out her pancake flipping skills! 

 

Lillie Kyprianides (Year 8) has shown incredible patience, care and leadership whilst ‘teaching’ the child of a key worker.  On more than one occasion, Lillie has been up for the challenge of working with a 6 year old without hesitation, something that a lot of us are finding challenging in these times. An obvious career beckons for Lillie as a Primary School Teacher!

 

Jake Sumner in 12WI2 and was due to have gone on Gold DofE Expedition at the end of March.
He normally volunteers on Friday evenings at the ice rink at the Link Centre teaching young children on an introduction to playing ice hockey. As he is unable to do this at the moment, he has been volunteering at Prospect Hospice by tending the gardens, watering all the plant pots and managing the vegetable plots and greenhouse. They stay outside at all times and don’t mix with anyone else as there’s no-one else outside there.
His Mum is a nurse working at Prospect Hospice and they are all so grateful for what Jake and his dad are doing for them to maintain their beautiful gardens at this difficult time.

 

Please see below for details on the VE Day Challenge. The challenge is a simple one: to tell the story of VE Day, today - to be informative, creative and relevant to engage people today.

If you have a go at the challenge, please do also tweet a photo of what you produce/create to @RWBAHolocaust so we can share your ideas widely and help inform and inspire others - or you can email nwetherall@rwba.org.uk any entries and she will post examples on the Good News Board.

Details on this link - https://ve-vjday75.gov.uk/dan-snows-ve-day-challenge 

 

Thank you so much to the IT Support Team at RWBA! They have been working hard to help parents who find themselves (some for the first time) needing to provide addition learning support throughout the closure. With the IT Support Team's help parents who have rarely been involved in accessing distance learning materials have been able to help their children connect with the tools they need at home, be that installing software, registering for online homework access or monitoring their children's progress.

 

 

Big 👏to Harriett 7Co1 who has started to 3D print tension release bands for the NHS! ❤️

‪A new recruit to our 3D printing student superstars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

‪Harriet has no experience with 3D printing but has already managed to make her first item!

‪Hoping we can send to the NHS ASAP!

MASSIVE WELL DONE HARRIET! 

 

Amy Moody in 8BE2 has been doing a fantastic job helping her community. Doing activities for people such as walking people's dogs, regularly popping round and having 'an end of driveway' chat with some older people who are shielding, helping to run Beavers and host meetings on Zoom. She has taken part in a Scouting challenge to Camp at Home and camped in sub zero temperatures, howling wind and torrential rain. She has also has taken part in the 'Hike to the Moon' The Scouts part of Children in Need and Comic Relief fundraiser. On top of all that she is also helping to organise a VE day celebration in her street by doing the invites and delivering them. She will also be making cake. We are all very proud of you Amy! 

 

Lots of good news from Erin Langham this week. Her cadet picture was selected to form part of the BBC’s Tom Moore 100th birthday mosaic. Erin also cooked a healthy meal from scratch independently for all her family last night (all 6 of them!) it was delicious and cooked perfectly! (Chicken sausages, carrot and swede mash, broccoli, Yorkshire pudding and onion gravy).  She and her Mum also successfully constructed a garden arch for our front garden.  All this, and she’s remained motivated to do her school work and has just got her head down and cracked on. We are really proud of Erin!

 

Mrs Hopkins along with her Daughter Millie have been utilising their charity funds in supplying sweet packs to GWH they gave 400 packs at the beginning of April and have donated 200 packs today.  They are going out to all departments to keep the staff going.

 

Olivia Crawley, Charlotte Crawley, Katie Channing, Adele Channing, Chloe Lewis, Jasmine Hughes,Tamsin Northfield & Eleri Northfield have already completed one or more volunteer tasks in support of Royal Wootton Bassett Helpers over the last 6 weeks:

These tasks have included  one or more of the following:

• Building and labelling boxes for emergency food supplies
• Sorting parents cupboards to find food supplies to donate
• Writing letters / drawing pictures to send to care homes
• Providing a heart to an NHS staff member via the online scheme
• Putting teddy bears in their window to support the local teddy bear hunt
• Packing food boxes
• Cleaning up toys or sorting out craft supplies to donate to other local children whose families are receiving food boxes
• Finding out when the first claps for carers were and messaging friends and family to let them know
• Calling a relative who may be on their own

 

Mrs Sturla has been cheering up her local neighbourhood with these crafty creations :) 

 

The PE department have launched a link with an activity app called MiMove so pupils can log all they have been up to. Whilst the PE department can check they are remaining ok and keeping active. The PE team have been getting in the swing of it by sharing their activities.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PPOC9LwMm4A&feature=youtu.be

Some great work has been sent to them for tasks we have been setting for mental well-being.

For example an amazing marble run by Tommy in yr8.

 

GOOD NEWS, GOOD NEWS ALERT! ART HAVE MOVED INTO THE 21ST CENTURY DURING THE LOCKDOWN! The art department has been so blown away by all your work during Lockdown, it has created its first ever twitter page to display your amazing work! If you are super proud of your work please upload a picture and tweet us with it! Parents, students, teachers etc.... 

Also a special thank you to the Godwin brothers for always being super kind and helpful to Miss Falvey, you are superstars!

@ArtRwba  https://twitter.com/artRwba

#KEEP CALM AND LOVE ART 

 

Check out Mae Stoneham's (13CO1) pieces of art work below. How creative and inventive, very impressive Mae! 

 

Daniel Leslie in 8CO2 has been busy practising his piano pieces at home and Miss Swinger can confirm, it sounds amazing! Keep up the great work Daniel!

 

Check out Krystal Stephenson's in 7BE1 Science work!

 

 

Chandni Patel in 10Ba2 has been busy taking photos in their garden and out on dog walks. She also has a photography account on instagram where more photos can be seen, she always get robins in her garden!

Here are some photos of Ellis Evans 7WO1 renewing his scout promise via zoom on St George’s day,
continuing with his drumming lessons weekly via Skype & baking brownies!

 

Ellie Jackson in 10CO1 found a cute cat in her garden that she had seen was missing so she called the owner of the cat from the collar and took it inside and now they have been reunited! They did get a reward and they are putting it towards the Peru trip in 2021.

 

Sam Masters (10Wo2) is keeping busy in his spare time using his Star Wars Easter Egg mould to make some stunning chocolate eggs! 

 

Look at these amazing drawings from Kathryn Harman in 11WO2. She has been using her artistic skills to bring joy to pet owners by drawing their pets, so far she has had twelve commissions!

 

Some ambitious baking from Hanna Tucker in 7WI2. Her family can confirm, the results were delicious.

 

While Mum has been busy at work (as frontline staff in the NHS) Filipa in Year 7 has been keeping herself busy. Not only does she get on with her school independently she also helps around the house and keeps herself busy with various activities. She cooks, bakes, cleans and organises around the house, vacuums, cleans windows etc... she also helps her younger sister with her work when Mum is not at home. She has also been working on various art projects. Well done Filipa! 

 

Please click here to see a letter of thanks in relation to some of the PPE sent to Uplands School 🙂

 

Please click here for an amazing story. Well done to Miss Payne, Mrs Day, Mrs Vaughan, Miss Ravell, Alfie Jones and to Callum Bradley.

On top of all the orders Alfie Jones has already dispatched of tension release bands (helping to relieve the pressure from elastic face masks on the ears), he is now being sponsored to make more by a company up in Leeds. The materials are being sent to him by courier so he is able to manufacture more units for the NHS!!

 

Inspiring work from Meg Davies in 13BA2. She has recently starting working at the RUH in Swindon, on her first day she translated Spanish for a patient who had not been able to communicate with the hospital staff for 3 weeks! Keep it up Meg, we are all cheering for you at RWBA :)

 

Chloe Pattinson in 7WO1 has been busy during lockdown practicing her gymnastics in the garden, in all the lovely weather that we have had. 

 

Aimee Pattinson in 10WI2 has been keeping herself busy during lockdown. She has been creating many different hairstyles on her styling heads and also on her sister Chloe in 7WO1. She then posts them to her Instagram account where she connects with other braiders around the world. What a talent from Aimee!!

 

Check out Jayden Siqueira's in 7BA2 Tribute to Captain Tom Moore, talented work Jayden! 

 

 

Zak Goldsworthy 9WO2 and Corey Goldsworthy 8WI2 helping the family by giving the garden decking this years coat of paint 🙂

 

This is a picture of Bo Beard in 7Wo2 taking part in the national 2.6 mile challenge on Sunday to walk/skip/hop/move somewhere for 2.6 miles to raise money for charity - we sponsored the Youth Adventure Trust. Bo got the short end of the straw as she had to pull her little brother when his legs gave out!! Well, isn’t that what big sisters are for?!

 

Well Done to the following Year 9 students who have all started all three of their DofE Bronze Award volunteering, skills and physical sections at home:

• Tailia Haines
• Amber Harris
• Neave Morrison
• Bronwyn Wiley
• Sophie Miller 
• Ethan Franklin

Well Done to the following Year 9 students who have also started some of their sections at home.

• Amy-Jayne Dyer (physical and skills sections)
• George Cotterill (physical section)
• Willem Horter (skills section)
• Amber Jefferies (physical and skills sections)
• Callum Terret (physical and skills sections)
• Lewis Taylor (physical section)

Well Done to the following Year 10 students who have started some of their Silver DofE award sections while in lock down: 

• Edward Aitkrn 
• Annabelle Burge 
• Michael Leslie 
• Annabel Ollerhead 
• Chandni Patel 
• Ariana Shafie 

It is great to see students volunteering to help in the local community with food deliveries and supporting neighbours. Many students going out for walks to stay active or completing some of Joe Wick's home workouts which can all count towards the award.  

Well Done. 

Up to date advice and changes to DofE for students can be found here: https://www.dofe.org/coronavirus/faqs-participants/

Mr D Williams 

 

Corey Bull in 10WO2 made a lemon drizzle cake by reading and following a recipe on his own. 

 

Inspiring work from Mia Goralczyk in 7 Compton 1. Her and her Brother are raising money for the action for children charity. They are really enjoying planning the next day's activities. Thank you Mia!

 

Aidan Grainger in 7WO2 made a swiss roll. It was all good until he started rolling it up! But it till tastes great.

 

Tom Gahan in 9BE2 has been making the most of having more time at home to develop and enjoy his art work after school work. This has ranged from drawing a beautiful birthday card for his uncle, making an Ironman helment for himself (using an exercise mat, acrylic paint and a glue gun), to making a model of Gru (a marvel character) out of Plasticine, dabbling in acrylics and now practising some water colours. What a talent Tom has!

 

James Claydon-Smith in 11BA2 is using the extra time at home to create, mix and produce music from home!

 

During the Easter holidays, Joshua Van Acker in 9BA2 helped his dad to build a shed for a lady on the allotment that needed help.
Joshua was happy to volunteer and help put it together.
This included carrying some of the pieces of timber from the high street and walking down to the allotment.
The allotment is regarded as part of our daily exercise and Joshua in a practical way, helped where help was needed. His family are so proud of this achievement as are all at RWBA!

 

Its exercise time for Megan (12WO2) & Lucy (10CO2) Adamson!!

 

See the photo below by Jake Davey in 7WI1. This was taken on one of his walks at the canal. He takes pictures and sends them to his Nan, she does the same when she goes out walking. 

 

Bria Knight in 9BE2 has been continuing to develop her creative braiding techniques and linking with other stylists worldwide on Instagram to ‘twin’ hairstyles. Bria researches new styles and plans before putting it into practice. Bria hopes lockdown will be relaxed over the Summer so she can build on her existing braiding business.

 

Shout out to Mr Miller who is RWBA's Network Manager for being exceptionally conscientious and caring. He spent 3 days of his free time on and off rescuing the data from a Teacher's hard drive which had several years work on it. Thank you! 

 

Emma (9WI2) & Jack (11BE3) Comer are making the most of the sunshine whilst keeping active! 

 

Anna in 9Wi3 made her contribution to the Clap for Carers and played 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' on her violin during Thursday's clap. Her cat Ruby also enjoyed listening!  

 

Natasha Harris in 9BA1 has been keeping busy using her sewing machine and drawing! She made a shoulder bag out of an old pair of flamingo embroidered jeans and lots of other makes too! She has also constructed and drawn her first still life!

 

Very creative work from Imogen Austin 7BA1 which she has been doing in her spare time.

 

 

Corey Bull in 10WO2 is cycling to keep active

 

Check out this Picasso portrait and chocolate loaf baking from Pierre in 9CO1!

 

Big shout out to Tobias in 7BA1. He has been staying apart from his Mum due to her working at GWH and only seeing her via facetime. Through this tough time he has continued to complete his school work and the staff at RWBA has been so impressed by his maturity and attitude. Well done Toby!!

 

Sarah-Louise (9WO1) and Thomas (7WI1) have been kept busy with a new puppy 🐶 Roxy and by taking it in turns walking/riding to visit their grandparents (from a safe distance) to make sure they’re ok and keeping their spirits up!

 

Carenza in 7WI1 has been practising her photography skills including her Cavachon Storm, who she washed and blow dried! 

 

Amazing initiative shown from Kira O'Connor-Fitzgerald in Year 13. She held a virtual charity pub quiz to raise funds for CLIC Sargent after hearing they had lost a lot of income, and raised £302 whilst having a lot of fun! https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kiraspubquiz 

 

Mille Snider 7BA1 has been doing Islamic art geometric patterns for their Art homework. 

 

George Mann in 7WO2 has been doing some extra curricular activities 

Erin in 8CO2 has been working hard during her home schooling time. We especially love her artwork - well done Erin! 

 

Sophie in 9Co1 has been busy making hearts to hang up at home and has sent one to her grandparents as a surprise gift

 

Harriet Outram in 7CO1 has been learning handy new skills and has put up some shelves

 

 

This is Eloise in 10WO2. She’s currently working towards her 3rd degree black belt in tae kwon do and was due to be tested in May. Unfortunately due to the corona virus her 3rd degree testing has been put back until November. In the mean time she’s helping her younger brother perfect his black belt patterns. 🙂

Thank you Ceren Dayan in 7BA3 for sending in your Art work :)

 

 

Baking with Louis Austin 10BE1 and Imogen Austin 7BA1

 

 

Please see below a picture of the Nash Family, Cofi 10Ba1, Jenson 8Wo3 and Dexter 7Wi2 (and Mum teaches piano and singing at RWBA). They have been doing PE with Joe Wicks every morning in the garden since day one including through the holidays :-) 

Fab artwork from Jenson Nash in 8WO3

 

 

Making a hanging mobile for the nurses on Liddington Ward. Rosie Jones in 8WO2 has been busy painting stars for some of the staff at GWH!

 

 

My family celebrated our mum's birthday on the weekend so I thought I would send some photos of what we made. I (Isabel Ralph, 12Be2) made the cards and my sister (Madeleine Ralph, 10Co1) made and decorated the cake. 

 

Lovely pictures from Emily Billet in 8WO2 of her horses Captain and Star and her dogs Bea and Wilf  She have been running and biking with my dogs and cuddling her ponies  

 

Well done to Emilia Dede Ahiakwa Asiedu in 7BA2 for completing a tricky artwork piece 

 

Chloe Barrett 9WO1

Chloe helped clear out for a new poly tunnel where her family are growing brussels and peppers cucumbers tomatoes and chillis also dug out a good size vegetable patch with beetroot parsnips carrots swede and white onions. She also drew a motorbike for her Dad's Birthday.

 

Despite the school holidays and closure, the RWBA community were determined to mark last weeks 75th anniversary of Bergen-Belsen's liberation as part of our Holocaust, genocide and human rights programme's (HGP) commitment to commemoration and education. The students of keyworkers attending, plus the RWBA volunteer staff, stood together (albeit keeping to social distancing rules) for a minutes silence on April 15th. And to ensure we could remember and raise awareness as a community, a sixth former, Ben, produced a poster that could be displayed in windows of homes or attached to peoples social media to mark the day. You can see that this poster/awareness campaign made clear the historical significance of the anniversary, but also the contemporary relevance and parallels. We also shared poem by Ella, written having watched 'Return to Belsen' with Jonathan Dimbleby, and this short film (5mins) 'The voices that witnessed liberation' as widely as we could - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_LRRQAPb2I&feature=youtu.be These small gestures ensured we could learn together and remember the victims, survivors and liberators of Belsen, 75 years on. 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to Jack Jones in Year 13 :)

Jack has been helping deliver hot food meals to the vulnerable members of our community on a Tuesday and Friday Evening. Food is being prepared in the local pub and then delivered by car following the strict guidelines set. He is helping deliver over 60 lots of fish n chips and other hot meals on each of the days. It has proved a very valuable service and is very warmly welcomed.

We are lucky to have an amazing community where we live and supporting that has proven to be a very good for the mind during this tough time.

 

Daniel Peters 8WO1 is keeping fit before homeschooling

 

 

Lots of the T.A’s at school have been completing courses that are currently free to sign up to online.

Includes a dyslexia course, a four week autism course and a mental health course.

https://elearning.creativeeducation.co.uk/

 

 

Thank you to Lara Clerk in 9CO2 for her drawing for our NHS Superheroes

 

'I have explored different things and helped my family' - Mercedez Lewis 7WO1

 

Lily Oakley in Year 9 has started to paint canvas for her friends and family. And she finally managed to ride her share horse Friday after being away from him for three weeks

 

Izzy Graney in 8WO3 has been keeping busy. 

She has been helping at the family stables to look after our horses and ponies - lots of physical activity. She has been moving hay bales, feeding the horses and even helping to care for one that is lame!

She has also been camping out in the garden and enjoying chocolate bananas on the fire pit!

 

In this quarantine I’ve started a new project along with a website. The link is https://r123ddk.wixsite.com/website

It’s graphics/ art based. I have also taken up stitching and this is the piece I’m working on so far. 

Kayley Makin - Year 13

 

Brendan Bennett 7WO1 - keep up the good work :)

Please click here to view a video message from Miss Jones

 

Below is a photo of George Kirton, Year 9, having a PE lesson with his younger brother who will be starting RWBA in September.

 

Thank you to Miss Revell who over 1/2 term has made 50 scrub bags (I've made 50 plus) and recently started sewing scrubs for NHS staff!

 

Finlay Cooke in Year 12 has been raising money for the NHS Charities 

Meg Lawrence in Year 13 and looking to do medicine next year. She is currently working at the hospital in Swindon to help the NHS, well done Meg! 

 

Grace Rudler in Year 10 has helped others in her community whilst volunteering for DofE 👏

“For my volunteering section of the DofE, I've been cleaning at my local village hall and recently the parish clerk mentioned that their Dyson Vacuum doesn't work well. Using my knowledge from Engineering lessons, I decided I would clean the vacuum for him. I took all of the components apart and cleaned icluding the filter which was a bit different to what we did in class as the vacuum is a DC08 model. It was fun to have a a practical lesson in engineering today at the local village hall. I have attached an image so you can see the work I've done!

Thanks for teaching us about the Dyson Ma'am ”

 

When Oliver Larcombe 9WO1 has finished his school work he has been keeping fit on his exercise bike and playing football

 

Caitlin Saxon from 7CO1 managed to submit an entry to a national art competition and come as runner up... hers is the one in the bottom left corner on the black background! Wow!!!

Message for Year 9 

Hi Year 9, 

I hope you are all well and had a restful Easter break.  

Well done for your efforts in completing your work last term, Mrs Oades and I have heard a lot of positive things from teachers, which is great, but we would like to hear a lot more this term. So can you please send us examples of your work that you are proud of, videos/pictures of your working space, examples of how you are keeping busy and fit, any skills you have developed or learnt etc, to goodnews@rwba.org.uk.  We would like to share these online 🙂.

It is really important at the moment that you are looking after yourself both physically and mentally, this includes getting outside for your daily exercise.  Mrs Oades is enjoying having more time to walk her dog and has given Jo Wick's workouts a go.  I am missing rowing outside on the river, so to keep busy and active I am doing group online workouts with my team mates and I am enjoying finding new walks where I live.

Mrs Oades and I are missing you all.  If you have any worries or concerns or would just like someone to communicate with remember we are on our emails during the normal school day.

Miss Penman and Mrs Oades

 

School closed until further notice

The UK Government closed all schools in the UK to halt the spread of the coronavirus. Schools will be shut until further notice for all pupils except children of key workers and the most vulnerable. However, every child who can be safely cared for at home should be. At the moment, there is no indication from the Government when the school term might resume.

During this period, teachers will direct students to work to complete during the school day via Show My Homework (for Years 7-11) and email to class groups (Sixth Form). You can find out more about our Distance Learning plan here. Other online resources that your child may use are:

• https://intranet.rwba.org.uk
• https://www.gcsepod.com/
• https://hegartymaths.com/
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize
• https://www.senecalearning.com/
• https://www.memrise.com/
• https://app.century.tech

Remember, your child has access to all the Microsoft Office 365 apps, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint etc. for free via https://portal.office.com

Due to the different and for some, difficult circumstances we are currently facing some families may need the assistance of a food bank. To request help and support with accessing this facility, please email Mary Jones mdjones@rwba.org.uk for more information.

Please click here to view the safeguarding support for pupils 

Please click here to view Bereavement Support for children and young people

Well-being resource 1

Well-being resource 2

Well-being resource 3

Well-being resource 4

Well-being resource 5

Free School Meal Scam

Some schools have already reported that Parents and Carers of children in receipt of Free School Meals are being targeted by fraudsters.

Fraudsters are targeting families, emailing parents and carers with messages such as 'If your child is entitled to free school meals, send your bank details to the school and they will help with funding while the school is closed'.

The email contains links for the parents to follow if they want to receive this funding - these links are fake. Do not click the link. This is a scam.

Please be vigilant.