The first half term has gone so quickly, and it has been another busy one for all our students and staff. Last years GCSE and A Level results have been published by the DfE and it is great to see that our students' results are well above the national average and puts in the top 20% of schools nationally. We have celebrated as a school community and these results are validation of our approach of having high aspirations for all our students and supporting them to be the best, they can be.
Mock exams are taking place on our return, for both Year 11 and Year 13 students, from 31st October to 11th November. These occur a little earlier than usual so that students have more feedback and information about their achievement levels before we enter the Christmas break. I know our students have been working hard towards these exam and I wish them good luck.
Our Year 5/6 Open Evening was a big success with over 400 people in attendance, it was standing room only! Once again it was a great evening with lots of activities for the children to get involved in. This academic year the school is oversubscribed in multiple year groups for the very first time and this is due to the collaboration of our school community; our staff, students, parent and carers, who all work together to make Meden a school where young people want to come to learn and succeed.
Year 7 students have settled in well and this is great to see. They have adapted brilliantly and shown an excellent attitude to learning in their first term. It was wonderful to see so many parents at the Tutor Information Evening at the start of the month. The partnership between school and home is crucial to the success of our young people. We are happy to announce that all our Parents Evenings will now be “face-to-face”, where parents and students will be able to meet their teachers in person to discuss progress and next steps. We recognise how important this contact is for parents and carers to develop a genuine connection to the school and we look forward to seeing many of you over the forthcoming academic year.
It is always great to celebrate the extracurricular achievements of our students. I am constantly amazed that the hard work and dedication they display in school, extends to the activities they enjoy outside of their school day. Please continue to let us know of your child's extracurricular achievements and we will recognise this as a school community. At the end of each half term we relish the opportunity to reward our students for their hard work and outstanding ATL and this half term was no exception. I am proud to have seen so many students receive awards both during their assemblies and the cinema trips that have taken place every day this week.
As we approach the start of a new term, I would like to remind you of the school’s uniform expectations. Please can you support our school by ensuring your child arrives to school on their first day in full uniform.
Our uniform policy is available on the following link : Uniform
Finally, thank you all for your continued support of your children and our school. Enjoy your half term holiday!
kind regards
Year 5/6 Open Evening is always an evening we look forward to at Meden School. It is the perfect opportunity for us to show prospective pupils and their family's why Meden School is the right choice to learn and succeed.
It was amazing to see so many new faces; over 400 people attended. The evening started with a brief welcome from our Headteacher, Mr Smith before visitors were separated into smaller groups and were taken around different subject areas in school.
Parents had the opportunity to see our staff in action, to ask questions about the school and to speak to students who had kindly given up their time to help. The evening had a real buzz.
All information about applying for a school place is available at the Nottinghamshire County Council website
Please contact Meden School office@medenschool.co.uk if you have any further inquires.
As part of European Day of Languages on the 26th September, Meden students celebrated languages by participating in different quizzes and competitions across the week online and in the library.
Staff were involved by encouraging students to use the Spanish greetings instead of English. As part of the year 7 passport, students earn a bronze award if they can greet 5 members of staff in Spanish. Students enjoyed this challenge.
A quiz was devised for students to guess which members of staff can speak different languages. Often students are unaware about the linguistic abilities of the staff around them and it was a great opportunity for students to understand the importance of learning another language.
Alongside this students were set challenges on Duolingo. For completing a 5-day streak in any language, students had the opportunity to win a prize and over 40 prizes were awarded throughout the week.
Well done to all those prize winners - prizes can be collected from your tutorials.
Meden School have been proud supporters of the Period Poverty Campaign for the last few years so when we were approached by the Local Parish Council to see if we wanted to get involved in a local campaign, Hygiene Poverty Day, we jumped at the chance.
Local Councilor Morris came in to school to collect over 100 boxes of individual products donated by the school. These will be distributed to local food banks by the Parish Council. Mr Morris himself was a pupil of Meden starting in 1965 and has been invited to return for a guided tour of the school.
Head of Art, Mrs Zaccardelli, entered some of our Meden Artists into a local art competition which was sadly then cancelled.
Despite not being able to exhibit the students artwork, the competition organisers honoured our entries and many of the students were awarded prizes for their hard work and artistc talents.
The main winners were awarded with a big box of art goodies as well as a certificate. We are very proud of our talented Meden artists, their artwork is shown below. Well done!
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Specialist vocabulary sits at the heart of our academic curriculum and combines with our focus on oracy throughout the school to provide our students with the language and confidence to have their voice heard.
Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language, and spoken language skills are one of the strongest predictors of a child’s future life chances but too many children are not given the opportunity to develop these crucial skills.
Becoming a Voice 21 school in 2021 cemented our commitment to transforming teaching and learning across the school, enabling all students to access and benefit from a high-quality oracy education where they are encouraged and supported to learn through talk and to talk. As part of our achievement assemblies this half-term, Top Talkers from all year groups have been recognised for their superb attempts to develop their oracy, and with nearly 1400 golden tickets for oracy given for this half-term only, we cannot wait to praise our students further for speaking up and speaking out.
Well done to all students who received prizes and special mentions for oracy.
Year 9/10 Netball Team
Well done to our Y9/10 Netball Team who competed in the Mansfield Schools Netball tournament, finishing 2nd overall. They faced a number of schools in the area and were so close to winning, losing out by only 2 points.
If you are interested in getting involved in netball, Miss Clarke runs a Netball club afterschool on a Wednesday that is open to all years.
Other After School clubs
There are always a great choice of afterschool clubs available at Meden School. These do change according to the time of year. For full information of the clubs available visit our website /page.php?p=after.
Inclusive Dodgeball Event
Our KS4 SEND students took part in an Inclusive Dodgeball Tournament recently. They all had an amazing day and did a wonderful job of representing our school. Well done everyone!
Oracy October was once again upon us; our month-long celebration of oracy, set to raise the status of speaking at Meden school.
This year’s theme was ‘Speaking like a Specialist’ where students were supported and encouraged to talk like subject experts, raising their understanding of oracy by challenging them to speak like specialists in different areas of the curriculum.
Their challenge was to take part in and complete 7 talk challenges across 7 subjects to explore what high-quality talk looks like in different subject disciplines.
What does it mean to speak like a scientist? How does this differ from speaking like a historian, or to the expectations of high-quality talk in English or maths?
While most of our communication skills can be universally applied, talk in different subject areas and disciplines has varying purposes. Raising students’ awareness of these differences supports them to become flexible and resilient communicators. We set the challenge to our KS3 students, and have been overwhelmed by the responses and completed challenge packs.
We very much look forward to announcing the winners after half-term.
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This first half term has seen a strong and positive start for our Meden College students and the College team.
On 25th September we were pleased to welcome so many students to our Meden College Open Evening, providing year 11 students and their parents with the opportunity to look around the college area, talk to teachers and make decisions about their future.
We are very proud of our College community, and we couldn't miss the opportunity to tell everyone about why we are such a special place to study. Students who choose to study at Meden College can expect to be well supported and can experience a range of opportunities including our Careers Advice provision, 1:1 mentoring, Work Experience placements and UCAS support are just a few
examples.
Families were initially given a brief introduction from Headteacher, Mr Smith and Head of College Miss Smith, before hearing from some of the College Committee the reasons they chose to study with us at Meden College. During the evening students were able to explore our facility, speak specifically to both the staff and students who currently study the course and to ask questions about life at Meden College. Meden College Open Evening is an important step for students exploring their options Post 16 and we look forward to offering A Level taster lessons later in the year.
Meden College is continuing to grow as Post 16 centre, with the year 12 intake being over double the size of the previous year. This has given us the opportunity to offer new subjects to Year 12 students, such as Criminology, which has proven a great success with students who are enjoying the course.
Applications can now be submitted for September 2023 entry to Meden College. All the information, including an application form can be found on the Meden College website www.medencollege.co.uk
Fund Raising
The Meden College Fundraising Committee held a charity bake sale on the last day of term to raise money for 'Save the Children'.
Thank you for all your hard work and donations. I am delighted to announce they raised over £90 for the charity, which will be added to later in the year through other fund raising events....more to come!
And finally, congratulations to Mr Bentleys tutorial 12 B for securing the tutorial trophy this half term. They have been rewarded the most green slips this half term for their hard work and outstanding ATL. Well done!
Meden School
Train to teach with the Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT