What another busy term it has been, and a flavour of what has been happening in school and the students' achievements are celebrated in this newsletter.
Y11 GCSE and Y13 A level exams have started extremely well, and it is great to see that all their hard work and effort over the last two turbulent years has helped them be well prepared. After the half term break, the exams will start again in earnest. Good luck to all our Y11 and Y13 students doing their exams.
This half term has seen a real focus on rewarding and celebrating students who are amazing all the time. This is a key part of our school culture. Our Zero Hero and Golden Ticket rewards have been extended to include students who achieve 100% Attendance. As we all know attendance has a massive impact on a student's learning. Every day counts!
Qualifying students are picked at random. We congratulate them in school and tweet the weekly winners; check out our Twitter feed @MedenSchool for more info.
It is always a pleasure to hear about the achievements of our students out of school, and this month there have been some excellent sporting awards. McKenzie in Y11 was recognised for his boxing skills and 2 of our Y7 students, Scarlett and Olivia were both presented with various medals for their skills in gymnastics. Scarlett also won a trophy in football for her dedication to the sport! We are really proud of these personal achievements so please keep us updated!
On the subject of sport, we were thrilled to see our Y10 football team qualify for the Mansfield Cup Semi-Final against The Garibaldi School. The team, who looked amazing in their new kit, represented the school brilliantly, but sadly it wasn't meant to be and despite playing a great game, we lost on penalties. Next year the team will get to the final and will win it! Well done to everyone involved in the team.
This half term has also been full of Art achievements and the Art exhibition earlier this month gave our students the opportunity to share their outstanding Art work with the local community. Personally, I was very impressed by the diverse range of media that our students have used to produce their pieces of Art. I felt that the exhibition really showcased the amazing talents of our students.
I hope you enjoy this term's newsletter. Have a great half term and enjoy some time with your families and friends. Thank you for your continued support. I look forward to working with you in the future.
Best wishes
This term there has been a real focus on rewarding students who are amazing all of the time with the introduction of Zero Heroes to compliment our Golden Tickets.
What are Zero Heroes?
These are weekly rewards given to students in 2 different groups
What are the rewards?
For each of the two groups above, a student in each year group will receive a small prize, a golden ticket and a text home. One other student will be chosen to receive a Zero Hero goodie box which includes a variety of treats, a postcard with handwritten message, a golden ticket and a text home. All students are chosen at random each week and the prize winners are tweeted.
Golden Tickets
Don't forget students who show excellent ATL in lessons can be presented with a golden ticket. Each week 1 ticket is drawn from each year group's tickets for that week, to receive a prize. Every half term a ticket from each year group is drawn from the tickets for the whole of that half term, to receive a bigger prize. The more golden tickets a child receives the greater the chance of being drawn.
Other Half term rewards
At the end of each half term, each year group holds an achievement assembly where certificates and prizes are presented for subjects, ATL, and attendance. We also try to do a reward trip for students with top ATL or most improved ATL. So far we have been bowling, to the cinema, McDonalds and an Escape room. Something that is always popular is a Dominoes pizza lunch with the Headteacher and Head of Year to celebrate students' half termly achievements.
Well done to all of our achievers!
Pride Club is a very popular afterschool group, led by Miss Singleton, that meets weekly to openly share thoughts/ experiences on diversity, acceptance and being kind to others and how they can improve awareness across the school community and beyond.
The group, a mixture of students in all year groups, have already been involved in a number of initiatives across school and their latest project has been in the planning stage for some time. They really wanted to produce something representative of tolerance, inclusivity and diversity and came up with the idea of painting a mural in school. With the help of a local artist they have investigated different designs and practised artistic methods to achieve their piece of art.
Location was equally important and they chose the walkway that students use to access the quad, both due to its central location and also because it is both dark and drab, and their mural would brighten up this area, creating a constant reminder to everyone about the need to be kind and accepting of others.
Work has begun this half term, and the use of bold colours has really impacted this area. I look forward to seeing the finish result.
Well done to all involved in this project. Keep up the good work!
Last week marked the start of the GCSE and A Level exams.
Having not had any formal exams for the last 2 years, students have adapted well to the situation. Students are understandably nervous and this is a natural part of the process and one which we expect.
As parents/carers it can often be hard to see your child go through the stress of these formal assessments, but with your support we have all been able to prepare our students as much as possible, and will continue to do so.
It is vital they understand that although their results are important to them, they are never the only thing that determines the career path they choose to take.
Your results do not define you!
You are more than just your grades!
Doing the best you can is all you can do and all that is expected! Be positive!
Good Luck to you all and remember we are all here to support you if you need it. If you have any queries about your exams contact Mrs Bradley.
For information on all exams, such as dates and times, click here for the timetable displayed on the website.
After a few years of not being able to allow students to participate in work experience, it was great to see the majority of our students secure a week's placement. Many students found that securing a place was quite difficult this year due to insurance issues or Covid policies.
Work experience is very rewarding for students who, given the opportunity, learn vital skills they will need when they enter the work sector. It can be an immense confidence boost to students, who often find the thought of going into a business for a week terrifying.
The positive feedback from students and businesses is great to hear.
Thank you to all of the businesses/schools/organisations who offered our students the opportunity to experience this.
Well done to all those students taking part. I know your effort and hard work was valued by your sponsors. A great example of this appreciation was sent to us from Liam G who worked at Morrisons for the week. They were so grateful for all his hard work they sent him a gift.
Amazing!
On Tuesday 10th May, we celebrated the amazing work of our Y11 Btec Art students by holding an Art Exhibition in the school library area. The atmosphere was relaxed and welcoming with refreshments available for our visitors.
Each year we are truly blown away by the artistic talents of many of our students. Anyone who has ever attempted to create art of any kind, can appreciate the hours and hours of painstaking hard work that goes into one of their pieces. Somehow, what begins as a few pencil lines or paint strokes comes to life and you could almost lift them off the paper.
Students used a variety of materials to make their art presentations - a sample of which is shown here.
Well done to all our Art students, we know how incredibly hard you have worked and it was a pleasure to see this first hand!
It is always a pleasure to celebrate students, not only for their academic achievements but also for their hard work and dedication outside of school. This half term we have some sporting achievements we would like to celebrate.
Bread Art?
What is Bread Art?
Well until recently I had never heard of it before, however our Y7 and Y8 students have been having an amazing time with Miss Low creating these wonderful artistic bread loaves. No two loaves are the same!
Who would have thought that all of the ingredients could be featured in such an arty way, and I bet they taste delicious, although it would be a shame to cut in to one!
If you are a parent of a Year 7 or 8 student who brought home one of these delightful creations, I would be very interested in knowing how it tasted!
As part of their art lessons, students in Y8 have been learning about Angélica Dass, a Brazilian-born photographer famous for her project Humanæ. The purpose of her project was to catalogue human skin colours, which she managed by matching a strip of pixels from a person's nose to the colour cards from Pantone. When complete there were over 4000 pictures of people from 17 countries and 27 cities around the world.
In 2016 Angélica did a conference that she called "The beauty of human skin in every color" about how skin colours "make us see each other as different, even though we are equal"
Her are some examples of the students' art work dedicated to the work of this famous lady:
Meden Pond
Anyone who has spent time at Meden School, whether as a pupil or employee, will know about the pond. Situated at the side of the main hall, it is now an area that is out of bounds for students. It is very natural, very green and nothing much to look at unless you are a tadpole, an insect or a duck, so it seems.
Every year for as many as I can remember, Meden has been privileged to be the nesting ground for the local ducks. They visit the pond to carry out their mating rituals and then Mother Duck makes a lovely nest in the bushes.
Every year when the ducklings are ready, Mother Duck teaches them the importance of swimming and climbing, and they waddle around the pond until they are proficient and confident swimmers.
When Mother Duck decides it is time to leave, it can often leave us with a bit of a challenging situation. Can you imagine hundreds of students, who you would think have never seen a duck before, and a site with many corners and open areas?
Mother Duck clearly wants to make her way across to the river, however there is one massive problem which is the road and unfortunately ducks do not appear to have any road sense. So, over the years, we have done what we can to help her and her young ones on their journey to the river. Sometimes this has meant stopping all of the traffic for them to cross and other times physically catching the ducklings and walking them across the road where mum is reunited with them.
This year was a little different in that we were able to contain mum and ducklings in the pond area until all of the children had gone home. Then some of the staff escorted Mother Duck and all 13 ducklings around the site and down passed the yard and across the field to a safe place where the river meets the land.
No road to cross, no ducklings to catch and all of them safely to the river. A good job done by all!
Meden School
Train to teach with the Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT