As yet another busy half term has passed, it is such a pleasure to look back and reflect upon some of the wonderful things that continue to happen in school. For our Y11 & Y13 students the past few weeks saw the beginning of their exams; a very busy and stressful time for the students and the adults who support them. Despite being a very challenging time for them, it has been wonderful to see our student rise to the challenge and I have been immensely proud of the way they have conducted themselves. I feel that this is testament to all of the hard work they have put in over the last two years and their determination to do their very best. I look forward to celebrating their success in the summer. Thank you to our staff for all of the extra support you have given our students, it truly makes all the difference to them.
Year 10 students enjoyed their work experience last week and I have been delighted to receive such wonderful feedback from the employers who kindly accepted our students in to their workplace and allowed them to experience working life. Work experience provides our students with invaluable skills and potential further opportunities and I would like to send heartfelt thanks to all of the employers who kindly agreed to take our students. They had a very positive experience! Such a lot of hard work goes on behind the scenes to help guide students to find their work placements and to then ensure all of the relevant checks are carried out to allow them to go. A big thank you to Mr Hill and Mr Gibbon who have ensured that everything was in place to enable this to happen.
We are always so grateful to hear about the successes of our students outside of school and this half term was no different. How proud I was to hear about Jude in Y9, who competed in Hungary recently with an amazing performance that earned him a gold medal position. What an inspiring young man who despite so many hurdles, continued to persevere and do his very best and it resulted in a massive success. I am sure we will hear more from Jude who even at 13 years old is clearly a very talented young sportsman. On an academic level, I was delighted to hear that Annabella, one of our Year 12 has successfully completed her placement as part of the Pelican Programme at Cambridge University, which is highly competitive. Annabella will not get a first-hand experience of life as a Cambridge student when she attends the Celebration Event later in the year.
Elsewhere in school, students continue to enjoy extracurricular activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, athletics events and we are beginning to get very excited about our upcoming end of year show Matilda Jr. Students have been working extremely hard in rehearsals and everything is starting to come together nicely. Tickets can now be reserved by scanning the QR code on the poster.
I hope you enjoy this half term's newsletter, Enjoy the rest of the break with your families and friends. I look forward to welcoming the students back next week for our final half term of this academic year. Thank you for your continued support!
Best wishes
Mr J Smith
This half term saw the start of the final exams for our Year 11 and Year 13 students who have put in months of hard work and revision.
Exams are always a stressful time for both the students and the adults supporting them but we have every faith that all the amazing work they have been doing, not just in recent weeks but since the start of the year, will stand them in good stead and secure them the outcomes they need and deserve. They have been absolutely amazing in the way that they have, so far, faced every challenge,
Our staff are so proud of the students and prepared a wall of well wishes that greeted then after the first week of exams.
With just a few weeks left until exam season is over, there is so much to look forward to;
Year 11 Prom
4th July 2023 at The Riding Hall, Thoresby Park. NG22 9EQ. Arrival from 6.30pm. Ends at 10:30pm Tickets cost £27.50 each and include food. Soft drinks can be purchased from the venue but strictly no alcohol. Water is readily available
If you want to order a ticket you need to log on to your child's SQUID and select the option under trips and offers. If for any reason you cannot log on to SQUID contact office@medenschool.co.uk and they will help.
Y11 Leavers Day
Friday 21st June from 10am to 12pm - opportunity to look back over your time at Meden School, sign shirts, share memories and say your goodbyes.
Year 13 Celebration
Wednesday 3rd July we will say our goodbyes to our Y13 students with more details to follow.
Last day arrangements for Year 11 in case you missed them are contained in the following letter.
A few reminders for our Y11 & Year 13 Leavers.
LIBRARY BOOKS
Please can you ensure that any library books are returned to school to Mrs Kennedy in the library. If you are unsure whether you have any outstanding or you are struggling to locate the books, please pop and see her or email her on rkennedy@medenschool.co.uk
LOCKERS
Year 11 students should ensure that everything is emptied from their lockers and the key returned to Mr Gibbon. If you no longer have your key, please speak to Mr Gibbon who will be able to gain access to your locker for you to retrieve any belongings.
Year 13 students should empty their locker and return the key to Mrs Coulson who will be able to organise for any key deposit to be returned.
Please note that over the summer, all Y11 and Y13 lockers will be emptied and any contents destroyed.
DINNER ACCOUNT
Please ensure that your child uses up any balance remaining on their SQUID account. We cannot issue any cash refunds but you can request a balance refund from SQUID via your SQUID app. If you have a negative balance on your child’s SQUID account this needs to be repaid before you leave to avoid being invoiced for the outstanding amount. Please see Mrs Coulson with any queries.
CHROME BOOKS
Y13 students should return their chrome book including charger to Mrs Smith.
Y11 students should return their chrome book including charger to Mr Gibbon
UNIFORM DONATIONS
We will always greatly receive any donations of Meden uniform in good condition. We often provide students with items of uniform where support is needed.
Thank you for your continued support.
Y9 student Jude Stevenson has always been a natural sportsman, playing football from the aged of 5. For the last few years Jude taken part in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, impressing his coaches at Neil Huntley's Revolution Gym in Sutton-in-Ashfield, with his natural talents.
For the second year running a team from Neil Huntley’s Revolution Gym in Sutton-in-Ashfield attended an international event in Hungary. Two weeks before the event, 13-year-old Jude was invited along to compete in Hungary in his chosen discipline Brazilian Jujitsu but unfortunately, they arrived to be informed that there was not an opponent for him. Instead he was entered for F1 which is kick boxing. Jude only began kick boxing roughly 3 months ago and though a little disappointed, decided to use the experience to improve his competition.
Saturday was a tough day when Jude met an opponent much older, more experienced and 9kg heavier than he was. Despite this Jude gave his best performance, but was on this occasion was outgunned. So many people at this point would feel deflated but not Jude. Undeterred on Sunday, he was more fairly opposed by a young man his own age and size. No one, especially Jude expected that he would perform so well in a discipline he only began months before, but despite everything he won gold with an amazing performance!
Speaking to Jude's mum, Caroline, she and the family could not be prouder of him. Supported by both his family and the coaches at the club, Jude works hard and trains every day except Sundays. Despite the bad rep the sport can sometimes come up against Caroline explains that she admires the way the fighters respect one another. Though focused in the ring, once the competition is over there is so much mutual respect and good sportsmanship between the competitors which is amazing to see. I asked if Jude's recent success at kick boxing would see him compete in more competitions in kick boxing and she told me that Jude had decided to hang up his football boots to concentrate both on his love of MMA but also keen to develop his kick boxing skills further with more competitions planned.
At 13 years old Jude is an inspiration to others of his age, showing that through sheer determination and self-belief you can achieve so much. Congratulations to Jude and the Neil Huntley Revolution Gym for your recent success. We will be following Jude's progress and look forward to bringing you further updates.
A further write up by the Chad newspaper can be found using this link Revolution Gym fighters gain international medal haul in Hungary tournament
Every May we prepare to send our Y10 students out in to the community to experience working life and the challenges it brings. From the very beginning of Year 10 students receive support on how to decide on and secure a week of work experience, and this year over 80% of students were successful in gaining a place. Securing a placement is not always as easy as it sounds. Risk assessments are undertaken and each of our employers need to have the correct insurance in place before our young people are able to attend.
Some of our students visited schools, nurseries, garages, retail outlets, hair dressers etc and gained invaluable experiences whilst there. It’s great to hear feedback about how hard working and successful the majority of placements were but I wanted to share with you a few success stories.
EUAN DOWNES
Euan worked really hard to secure his placement with an architecture firm in Derby. His goal is to study at university and train to be an architect and so the placement was like a dream come true. The company accommodating Euan were amazing and tasked him with designing a room for a hotel being constructed in Trafalgar Square. He worked hard throughout the week and the company were so impressed by his design that they are going to use it as part of their development. WOW!
In addition to this, Euan has also been offered a possible further placement with this architecture firm when he does his Architecture degree. What a successful outcome for these inspiring young students who is clearly very talented and was able to demonstrate this along with his passion for design. Copies of his design will be placed in the careers hub.
Congratulation Euan for an amazing achievement!
JACK BAILEY & JAYDEN SUEN
Jack and Jayden have a keen interest in cyber technology and managed to secure a place at Grillatech at their main office in Edwinstowe. They both had a great week and here is the feedback posted on LinkedIn by the company last week.
As we all look forward to the BH weekend, we want to reflect on a brilliant contribution to their work experience by Jayden & Jack from Meden School. They spent the week in the office exploring different career paths within #cyber. We believe #workexperience is a great way of getting more people involved and making an impact to close the #skillsgap. Both provided their own feedback on the week, with Jayden commenting: "I was introduced to Fortinet and Forcepoint products as well as an overview of cyber security, which really helped and taught me a lot around what to expect from a career in IT" Jack had his own views and expressed: "I thank Martin greatly for taking the time out of his day to teach us about the industry and what he does in the on a day-to-day basis" You can read their full feedback in the comments below. Special thanks to the staff at Meden School for arranging, Jim Smith, Tracy Coulson, and Clive Hill and the team GrillaTech Limited who spent time with them both, we look forward to seeing you in Cyber in a couple of years!
ALFIE STEED
Alfie was excited to be spending his work experience at DJM Motorsport based on Boughton Industrial Estate, Ollerton. The company, is an automotive design and manufacturing company with a wealth of experience. Using state of the art CAD-CAM technology and a team of designers and engineers whose creativity and innovation allow them to both fulfill and surpass their customers’ expectations, they cater for every level of customer from club man to professional.
During his week at DJM, Alfie was fortunate to spend his time designing the cab interior for one of the company's new Radio Controlled models as shown below.
STUDENTS REMAINING IN SCHOOL
For those students unable to secure a suitable placement in time their week in school was focused around improving their employability skills and they enjoyed a jam packed timetable that included:
On Friday students were welcomed by Johnsons Travel who showed the students around the company to give them an in depth understanding of the multiple jobs that make up their company and how they interlink to make the company run efficiently. Students were even provided with lunch. Thank you to Johnsons for offering our students such an invaluable experience.
Year 12 Meden College student Annabella Ballinger has successful gained an invite to attend a celebration event at the Corpus Christi College of Cambridge University after completing their Pelican outreach programme.
Annabella who wants to study her degree at Cambridge University was one of the few successful students to gain a place on the programme, which is specially developed to support potential future students from disadvantaged areas who are on target to gain the highest grades in their A Level studies.
The programme, which is highly competitive has involved small online groups meeting fortnightly for sessions led by subject experts who have focused on discussion and oracy alongside the development of analytical and comprehension skills. It offers successful students’ invaluable advice about the university and what it has to offer and the chance to gain experience with handling challenging academic materials.
The celebration event will see Annabella experience an overnight stay at the University where they will hold a celebratory ‘formal hall’ dinner. During her time there she will have the opportunity to experience academic sessions in the style similar to her normal Pelican Programme sessions, receive admissions advice and support sessions and have a chance to meet Corpus undergraduate students.
Annabella has so proven herself to be an outstanding student who works hard and is diligent in her studies. We are immensely proud of her achievements.
Wishing Annabella and all of our A Level students every success as the final exams continue!
Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift." – Kate DiCamillo
WRITING COMPETITION
Students in Year 8 and 10 have taken part in a writing competition for the chance to have their work published in a book. We have partnered up with Mansfield Building Society, Mansfield Radio, and local newspapers to showcase the students amazing work!
Entries have been sent off to judges to select our top 3. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates!
BIG READ
This term students in all year groups have taken part in their termly BIG READ.
During the big read sessions students have had the opportunity to read and listen to staff read while they follow the text. They were then be given the opportunity, via the big read sessions to explore the big ideas in the text and learn more about what it can teach us about the world.
KS3 read an extract from the novel The Hate U Give and discussed racial prejudice not only in America but in the UK also.
KS4 & KS5 read and discussed recent news articles focused on illegal immigration with families risking their lives on 'small boats' to escape war.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Proven Power of Reading
Here is also a link to the Reading Agency website to helpful tips and information www.readingagency.org.uk
RECOMMENDED READ FROM MRS GIBNEY
Each term, staff from each subject will recommend books that will support students with their studies and that we believe students will enjoy. This term English Teacher and Head of KS5 English Mrs Gibney has given her recommendation:
"To Kill a Mockingbird is my all-time favourite book. I love how Harper Lee creates vivid characters through Scout and Jem with Atticus Finch being my favourite literary character. I feel it is important for everyone to read as it beautifully highlights the effects of racial discrimination. It's lessons are just as important today as they were during the 1960s."
LIBRARY
The Meden School performance of Matilda is happening very soon! To celebrate, the library is running a Matilda reading competition. Students are to submit reviews of the books that are a part of the competition with the chance to win book tokens and amazon vouchers! Deadline for entries will be Wednesday 10th July. Thank you to our wonderful librarian Mrs Kennedy for organising!
MATILDA Jr
After months of hard work and preparation it is nearly time for us to showcase Matilda Jr and we are so excited!
Click here for the poster for the Show
We would like to invite you to come along.
We have 2 evening showings on Tuesday 16th & Wednesday 17th July with 200 tickets available each evening,
Tickets are free but we will be collecting any donations on the evening that will help towards the cost of the costumes etc
We can't wait to see you there!
To book your ticket use the following QR Code
Our Duke of Edinburgh programme grows in numbers every single year and it is always rewarding to see so many of our students getting involved in such a great opportunity.
* students enjoying their practice expedition
This half term saw the Bronze Award students firstly completing their practice walk and then achieving their final expedition.
The final expedition is much harder then the practice walk because although staff are there to keep their eye on the groups taking part, it is entirely up to the group to work together, using the navigation skills they have learned to check in at the official check in points, by the allotted time.
The weather was amazing and the students enjoyed a successful expedition with everyone checking in on time and no one getting lost.
As the number of students participating on the Bronze Award this year is high, the group needed to be divided in half and the second half of the group will face the same challenge after half term.
Well done to all those taking part, we appreciate how daunting an expedition can be but you demonstrated that you are highly skilled individuals who worked incredibly well as a team!
ATHLETICS AT BERRY HILL
On Wednesday 8th May a group pf our talented athletes travelled to Berry Hill to compete against other Mansfield schools in a variety of events. With all the Mansfield schools in attendance, Meden students represented both themselves and the school with great decorum and sportsmanship.
In order to ensure that all the races had a full complement of athletes, many of the students competed in events in which they had very little practice. There were also students competing against much older competitors, but that did not deter them.
The results were as follows with some of our amazing students getting through to the finals in June.
Year 8 Girls:
Year 8 Boys
Year 9 Girls
Year 9 Boys
Year 10 Girls
Year 10 Boys
Massive congratulations to all athletes for your amazing performances.
COUNTY ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIP
Massive congratulation to our Year 7 Athletic star, Will Blagburn, 7G who competed at a recent Athletics County Championship Event bringing home Silver medal in the shot putt and Bronze medal in the javelin.
It is always a pleasure to reward our students who demonstrate amazing ATL. As the number of students gaining perfect 1s increases each half term, it has been necessary to create an additional movie afternoon to ensure all students are rewarded for their hard work and dedication to their studies. Don't forget though it is not only those students who gained perfect 1s who are rewarded, we also ensure that those students who improve their ATL score the most , are recognised for their achievements.
This half term the ATL reward trip was a visit to Arcade Warehouse where students got to enjoy a whole host of amusement type activities with their peers. Followed by a trip to McDonald's, it was the perfect treat.
The final ATL reward of the year will be the biggest and best with a celebration afternoon with games, pizza & ice cream with some friendly competition.
Well done to all our students receiving awards. We are so proud of our students every day!
DELICIOUS FOOD ON A BUDGET
Some of our students took part in a special session looking at eating healthily on a budget. Value Added Day was a feature event, run by Aspens. It's aim was to give students tips on how to cook a balanced meal for a family of 4 for £5. They discussed what foods to use and how they could incorporate healthy ingredients, whilst still preparing a tasty meal.
Students involved learned a lot from their experience.
Thank you to Aspens for giving up your time to share your expertise with our students.
AMBITIONS PROGRAMME
Students in Y9 were invited to spend the day at Cambridge University as part of the Nottingham Ambitions Programme. They've had a great day which included a tour, lunch and a visit to the Fitzwilliam museum
Meden School
Train to teach with the Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT