Woodrush Star June 2013 | Page 2

Contents Student News 3 Duke of Edinburgh 8 Sixth Form 10 Youth & Community Dear Parents and Carers... 12 Staff News 14 We hope you enjoy reading our final ‘Woodrush Star’ for this academic year. With so many highlights of the last year and so many fantastic achievements from our students it’s impossible to single any out. Modern Foreign Languages 15 English & Library 17 This year we averaged over one extracurricular trip a day and have sent over a thousand students on visits and enrichment activities. Students have been to New York, Spain, Italy and Poland and literally hundreds of locations within our country and locality. Students have experienced a huge variety of in school activities ranging from visiting authors to setting up our very own chicken coop to taking part and succeeding in many sports and teams. We launched our new virtual learning environment ‘Frog’ and now have hundreds of students regularly accessing materials and resources in the evenings and weekends to extend their learning and parents have recently been given access to this to help support their child and monitor the progress they make. But above all we continue to be very proud of our students for their effort and work this year and for the progress they have made. This year we again expect an excellent set of examination results from our students with 100% of students in Year 11 predicted to leave with top grades A*-C in at least 5 GCSE’s and over 80% of students also gaining top grades A*-C in GCSE English and Mathematics. Students in our sixth form are also looking forward to starting degree courses at universities across the country in a range of subjects. We have successfully secured funding direct from the Department of Education to help us improve our site and facilities further and we are set to spend over half a million pounds this summer on refurbishments to windows, our internal and external decoration and our ICT facilities including making our entire site Wi-Fi. On that note we look forward to welcoming our students back to enjoy our improvements in September. Our first day back for all students is Wednesday 4th September with our new Year 7 on site ready for the first bell at 8.35 and Years 8 to 12 in for the start of the second period at 9.55 and finally Year 13 ready to start back on 9th September. I must finish by thanking all of you for you support and hard work towards making our school the great place it is. From us all at Woodrush we wish you a safe and enjoyable summer holiday. Wythall Police Station 26 -My Home Mr C King 2 Humanities 21 Mr King: Marathon Man! STEM 25 27 Sports 32 Activity Days 2013 35 Creative Learning & Teaching Week 36 Creative Arts 38 Primary News 39 Woodrush High School An Academy for Students Aged 11-18 Free School Meals - are you eligible? You are able to claim Free School Meals for your child if you, or your partner, receive one or more of the following:? Income Support ? Job Seekers Allowance - Income Based ? Employment & Support Allowance – Income Related ? Support under Part VI of the Immigration & Asylum Act 199I ? Child Tax Credit – providing you are not entitled to Working Tax Credit, and have an annual income as assessed by HM Revenue & Customs that does not exceed £16,190 ? Guarantee element of State Pension Credit Did you know that: ? By claiming your eligibility, you and your child can benefit even if they don’t always take up the meal. ? You may also qualify for school transport, help with school uniforms and the cost of school trips. ? By claiming your eligibility, you can help your child’s school as they can get extra funding based on the number of pupils eligible for a free school meal. Applying for Free School Meals is easy. You can: ? Collect an application from Reception or telephone the school on 01564 823777 and we will post one out to you. ? Download the application form which is available on our website. www.woodrushhigh.worcs.sch.uk or www.worcestershire.gov.uk * In receipt of the Guarantee element of State