As we approach the end of the year and begin to enjoy the Christmas break, I want to thank you for your support over the school year so far. This term has been an extremely busy one and the weeks seem to have flown by. As we look back over the last 6 weeks of this term, so much has happened in and out of school that we can be very proud of.
I have been particularly impressed by the hard work and dedication of our students, who continue to strive to be kind, polite and responsible. This is evident in the huge number of ATL points given, over 84,000, in just 6 weeks! Visitors to our school constantly remark on the politeness of our students and there is a real positive atmosphere around school. Year 11 and Year 13 students are working very hard, having just received their results from their mock exams in November, they are preparing for January mocks, all in preparation for their final exams in the summer. Good luck to all of these students! Your hard work is testament to your desire to do well and we will continue to support you in this.
A highlight of the half term was the to be presented with two awards at the Nova Education Trust Transformational Awards recently. The first for 'Giving Back' in respect of all the charity and community work we do collectively as a school, and then secondly for our 'Staff Engagement', in recognition of our staff, who go above and beyond on a daily basis, to ensure that Meden is a great place to learn and to work . We are very proud of these awards but we could not do this without the support of our Meden Families, so thank you!
The school’s contribution to Remembrance Day was once again a great source of pride and a real compliment to the stunning displays installed in and around Warsop each year. Students work hard on our displays and each year it continues to grow. This year we commemorated Remembrance Day in school by getting together for a special assembly followed by 2 minute silence. Mr Streets kindly played the Last Post in what proved to be a very poignant moment. In the Remembrance Day Parade itself, I cannot describe how proud I was to see the Student Leadership Team and many other students, some in uniform, playing an active role along with so many members of the community.
We pride ourselves in our strong relationships within the local community, something which we value immensely. It is always so humbling at this time of year, witnessing just how generous you are in supporting people in our community who may struggle over the Christmas period. The response to the Lashes Foundation Christmas Joy was phenomenal and we were proud to be involved in helping to provide gifts to put a smile on the faces of children less fortunate this Christmas. Some of our Meden students themselves were recipients of your generosity. Our own Christmas Food Bank appeal was a success and you once again donated a huge amount of food, that has gone to the Warsop Food Bank at the Life Spring Church, helping local people in need and ensuring that no one goes without food over this festive period. Our mini bus was full of donations, all greatly received. I cannot thank you enough for all your support with this!
All that remains is for me to say a massive thank you to all parents and carers who continue to work in partnership with the school, to support our young people in achieving their full potential.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Meden School.
We were proud recipients of 2 awards at the Nova Educational Trust Transformational Awards this year.
This is an annual event to celebrate all of the wonderful schools in our Trust and each school is invited to submit entries in to different award categories.
Meden received awards for
- Giving Back - a tribute to all of the fund raising and community based work carried out by the school;
- Staff Engagement - in recognition of all of the work by staff that goes in to improving the school and the working environment.
The entries for each category were filmed and produced by students at Meden, under the guidance of Mr McDermid and the submission videos were played at the awards event. It was a great night of positivity and celebration and humbling to see all the wonderful things happening in our Trust Schools.
We are so proud to be recognised for some of the amazing work we do at Meden and thank you all for your continued support in helping us achieve our goals.
Every year, Warsop do an amazing job of putting on a display to mark Remembrance Day and this year was just as spectacular.
We were very proud to see so many Meden students taking part in the parade and attending the event ans we asked some of of Student Leaders to recite poetry and lay a wreath on behalf of everyone at Meden School. It is such a big thing to stand in front of hundreds of people and we are so proud of them all, they did an amazing performance.
video of Student Leaders taking part
Back in school on Monday 11th November, for the first time, we collectively gathered for a special remembrance service.
Many of our student proudly wore their uniform if they were member of scouts, army cadets, police cadets etc and as they gathered together led by our most senior ranking member Josh.
We all observed a 2 minute silence during which we could hear the bells from Warsop church, Mr Street then ended the assembly with a performance of the Last Post in what was a truly poignant moment.
YEAR 7 FOOTBALL
On Monday 11th Nov, our Year 7 boys attended a football tournament at Sutton Lawn.
Competing schools: Meden, QE, Dukeries, Jo Whit, All Saints, Manor, Sutton.
We won 2 games and drew 3; finishing 3rd overall.
Well done to all the students involved:
Shay was the star player with some excellent finishes in several games!
GIRLS FOOTBALL
Last week the Y7 Girls visited Joseph Whitaker to take part in a 7-a-side tournament. Meden were joined by 10 other schools and began the tournament in a group with Sutton and All Saints. We played each team twice and won each team once and drew the other. We then progressed to the semi-final, playing and beating the hosts 1-0. With not long left until we had to be off the astro we played a very short Final against Brunts which ended goalless, so we were crowned joint winners. 
Congratulations to the following players
CROSS COUNTRY
On Tuesday 26th Nov, 10 students attended Sherwood Pines to compete for Meden in a cross country event.
Hundreds of students attended from Mansfield, Bassetlaw, Bolsover and Newark and Sherwood districts .
Our students competed in Y8&9 combined races and Y10&11 combined races.
A top 12 finish meant that students could then go on to represent 'Mansfield schools' at a wider Nottinghamshire event in Feb 2025.
Results were as follows:
Y8
Y9
Y10
Huge congratulations to our runners who all qualified!
INCLUSIVE DODGEBALL
Mr Crossland took a group of our SEND students to play Dodgeball at Harvey Haddon Hall in Nottingham earlier this term and had a great day out.
The boys played very well, winning 3/5 games with one of the games winning all 6 rounds. They only drew 1 and lost the last game by a point. Special mentions to Bradie R and Shay W on getting some very important points on winning some of the rounds. All the students were a joy to take, and I am looking forward to future, and hopefully successful, events.
REWARDED FOR HIS HARD WORK & DEDICATION
It was a pleasure to be able to witness Y10 student Yevhen receive a special reward for working super hard with Billy & the EFD team in both weekly sessions & 1-1 football intervention. For his hard work & dedication, footballer Ben Osborn has kindly gifted him a Premier League worn shirt & football. Yevhen, who is a huge football fan was overwhelmed with emotion and couldn't believe it when presented with his reward. Very heartfelt! Well done Yevhen, keep up the good work!
Welcome to our 3rd Library Newsletter!
Here is a link to the PDF version
This half term was very festive. We decorated the library for Halloween and Christmas and had the Big Christmas Book Swap! Buddy the elf has visited the library and caused a little bit of mischief.
We celebrated UK Parliament week, and our student librarians did a presentation about it and hosted some fun activities. Our Armistice display was a great success after our student librarians helped decorate it.
We had a lot of new stock and everyone enjoyed our new books.
NEW STUDENT LIBRARIANS
We have successfully appointed 9 new student librarians taking the team to 15!
Training will start in January and we are looking forward to making lots of improvements to our library and stock.
After the holidays, the library will be closed for 2 weeks to train our new student librarians and relaunch lunchtime clubs.
BIG CHRISTMAS BOOK SWAP
Recently, we had the Big Christmas Book swap where lots of students were able to swap and wrap their books to gift to a family member or friend this Christmas.
SURPRISE BOOK
Our surprise books continue to be a big hit. We now have more wrapping paper to keep the shelves stocked! If you can’t decide what book to read, come and choose and surprise book.
UK PARLIAMENT WEEK
Merry Christmas from all the library staff, we hope you enjoy the Christmas break and enjoy some great books!
We look forward to you seeing you in 2025
The Student Librarians!
GIVING TO THOSE IN NEED
Miss Mascareño will be visiting an orphanage in Chile over the Christmas holidays. She will be taking some clothes over to donate to the children who live there. Our wonderful year 9 and 10 students have been preparing some letters in Spanish to give to the children and years 7 and 8 have been preparing labels in Spanish to go with the donations.
We hope all of the children love the letters and labels we have sent them.
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS COMPETITION (Day of the Dead)
Well done to our winners of the Día de los Muertos competition, Lottie, Anna and Lila.
INNOVATING EXPERIENCES WITH EMPLOYERS
We have been working with DEA and Fly2Help to develop an outreach programme that will open up careers in aviation. Some of our Year 8 and Year 9 students have had the opportunity to take part in the pilot scheme (pun very much intended!) here in the East Midlands, with the DEA team at Gamston Airport. They were treated to an experience which introduced them to the vast and exciting world of aviation; from pilots to engineering, they explored the diverse career opportunities this dynamic industry has to offer.
CAREERS ASSEMBLIES
Though our talking assemblies, KS3 students learned about Ikigai, the Japanese philosophy for "reason for being" that helped them explore their interests, talents and passions, and how these can influence their career paths - find out more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxj3P0enJNQ&ab_channel=ImprovementPill
Years 10 and 11 met with local colleges to learn about T-levels and using these as a pathway to post-18 apprenticeships, or undergraduate degree studies.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Year 10 have been exploring work experience options, with many having already submitted their forms for the next stage of securing a placement. With our first deadline checkpoint falling in the first week back after Christmas, there is still time for students to contact employers, and return paperwork to Mr Hill by email (chill@medenschool.co.uk). All students and parents have been sent electronic copies of the work experience guide and forms. Login details for the database are in the guide, and have also been emailed directly to students' Meden email addresses.
Documents are below in case you need them:
HOUSE POINTS
Students have been working really hard to earn as many points as possible for their respective houses.
Here is how the competition currently stands...
Clipstone remain in the lead but with a massive 84,000+ ATL points awarded this half term, it is still all to play for!
CULTURE CARDS
Our Culture Cards continue to prove very successful with a much larger proportion 83% of positive cards compared to negatives 17%.
Our Culture Card Champs for this half term, who have all completed 10 or more cards are as follows - Well done to all these students!
CULTURE CODE REWARDS
A student's Culture Code is made up of a combination of their positive achievements minus any negatives and takes in to account their attendance per reporting period. An illustration of a typical report is below:
As a reward for an excellent Culture Code Score and to reward contributions to the wider school community, this half term the reward was to take part in Laser Tag with their peers.
The day was split in to sessions and students from all year groups were able to participate in this amazing adventure experience in an inflatable maze set up in the Sports hall. It was great fun and all the students involved has a great time.
It is always a pleasure to reward students who work hard and are consistently polite, kind and responsible. Well done!
CHRISTMAS FOOD BANK
Every year we reach out to our community to ask for support collecting donations for the local food bank.
A few weeks before the end of term, our College students launched the campaign, firstly with students by visiting tutorials and then by sending a plea out to parents/carers. The response was amazing.
Thank you so much for your support. Your kindness is very much appreciated and will help a lot of local families this Christmas time!
CHRISTMAS JOY
Local charity the Lashes Foundation launch their special Christmas Joy campaign and it was the perfect opportunity to get involved. Members of staff as well as parents showed their support by buying specific gifts for children who had been nominated to receive a special gift. The response to the campaign was overwhelming with opportunities to commit to buying gifts being snapped up in minutes. Annie Wilson, one of the Lashes Trustees and English Teacher at Meden School visited to deliver gifts to some of the Meden students who had been nominated to receive a gift.
Pictured on the right with Headteacher Mr Smith, Annie delivered to gifts to school and had the opportunity to present the students personally.
Everyone has been so generous and it was wonderful to be able to give to children who may not otherwise receive very much at Christmas time.
Christmas Joy is just one of the many charitable events organised by the Lashes Foundation who do so much to benefit the local community and for those who need help. They touch the lives of so many people.
For more information about the amazing work they do and to find out how you can get involved, visit their website
Thank you for your kindness and support!
CHRISTMAS WISHES
Following a family visit to Chatsworth House for the festivities, staff at Meden School were inspired by their special wish tree in the South Sketch Gallery, and decided to offer our students and staff the same opportunity.
https://www.instagram.com/chatsworthofficial/reel/C0rC64BL5Vy/
Staff and students were invited to make a wish and hang it on our Christmas wish boards. Some of the wishes were very heartfelt.
Christmas is the perfect time for self reflection and to think of others.
Meden School
Train to teach with the Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT