It has been an exciting and busy half term for Year 7 students with plenty of events taking place and it has flown by.

The students have been brilliant this half term showing real commitment to their work as well as participating in

many of the extra-curricular activities on offer. As the daylight hours begin to increase there will be more

opportunities to take part in sports clubs and enjoy the (hopefully) warmer weather. Easter brings with it a good

time to relax and spend time with family so please do enjoy it.

Easter Half-term 2019

What’s been happening this term?

Student of the Month

The Student of the Month for March was awarded to Sophie

Cottingham for ‘consistent, cheerful effort and the neatest book

ever in Spanish’. Sophie was nominated by Ms Taylor and she

wins an Amazon gift voucher as well as being part of an end of

year celebration lunch.

There were many nominations for the award this month which is

fantastic to see. The following students were nominated: Freddy

Hargreaves, Willow Clarke, Seb Brandom, Ruby Dunnigan, Sophie

Cottingham, Oliwia Plawecka, Evan Webster-Barker, Seran

Griffiths, Kayden Wilkin, Layla Crane, Niamh Ludlow, Joshua

Pipes, Dylan Bridge, Anastacia Sow and Lucas Whitehead.

Teachers will be looking for outstanding pieces of work or

excellent effort during the next month so we are encouraging all

students to go the extra mile in order for their achievement to

be recognised

Bridge Club

The Bridge club at Fulford is thriving with students meeting twice a

week to refine their skills. In March some of the students competed

in the English Bridge Education and Development National

competition. They were in pairs and the students did phenomenally

well given that they were competing with adult beginners. Four Year

7 students were involved; one pair was Alfie Bourke and Kit Danby

and the other was Lily Cleece and Leah Henderson. Alfie and Kit

placed 43rd nationally whilst Lily and Leah came 22nd which is superb

considering they only started playing in September! Huge

congratulations to both pairs and to Mrs White who is extremely

proud of all those that took part. If anyone else would like to join,

the Bridge club takes place in H5 on a Tuesday and Thursday lunch.

Year 7 Parent’s Evening

Year 7 Parent’s Evening took place in the last two weeks of this half term. It was the first chance for parents to accompany their children and speak with individual teachers about the progress their son/daughter has made this year. On both evenings there was an excellent atmosphere with plenty of positive conversations taking place. It was great to see so many smiles on the faces of the Year 7 students which just illustrates the impressive transition they have made from Primary School. The challenge now is to maintain these high standards into the summer term after the Easter holidays. At the event there was a revision booklet which has been specifically put together to aid students with successful revision strategies. It is hoped this will be used effectively to prepare for any end of year tests. If you did not manage to pick one up or missed the evening there are spare copies available from reception or I can email a hard copy out directly to you; bonselsj@fulford.york.sch.uk.

Racing Rocket Powered Cars

This half term Year 7 students have been trying to

make a rocket powered car as part of a STEM

(Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths)

project. The activity is designed to promote skills

used in a technological workplace including

teamwork, creativity and resilience, as well as

integrating scientific principles of aerodynamics

into their work to produce a competitive vehicle.

Students had to use all their creativity and skill to

produce the most eye catching and quickest car

possible out of a piece of Styrofoam.

On Thursday 21st March, the Army came in to help

the Design and Technology department run the

final project. Part of this involved racing the rocket-

powered cars and seeing how differences in the

designs helped to give a competitive edge. The race

day was a great success, with pupils enjoying seeing

how well their car raced, as well as reflecting on

reasons why the car performed as it did. The

winning teams will have the chance to improve

their cars before going on to the regional finals later

in the year. The winning team from Fulford this year

was: Sophia Rueschemeyer, Charlotte Hirst, Sara

Ungar and Georgina Flack. Awesome job and good

luck in the finals.

Thanks go to The Learning Partnership, Shepherd

Building Group and William Birch and Sons for their

help in providing funding for materials and training.

Sports News

Girls Hockey

March has been an extremely busy time for the Year 7 girls hockey teams. In their first outing in Mid-march

Fulford took two teams to Tadcaster Grammar for a mini tournament between Tadcaster, Manor and Fulford.

From the four matches they played they won two (3-0 and 2-0) and lost two (2-0 and 1-0).

The girls played brilliantly as a team with Charlotte Mason making some impressive saves in goal. Player of the

match went to Emily Powell. Well done to all those that took part: Emily Askham, Emily Powell, Jess Thompson,

Beth Hunter, Olivia Aspen, Kiri Shaw, Holly Stockley, Claire Marsden, Katie Turner, Charlotte Mason, Georgie

Flack, Molly Wright, Sophia Rueschemeyer and Charlotte Hirst.

Later in March the same two teams participated in an Under 12 tournament at Queen Margaret’s School. Showing some excellent skill and determination, the A team finished 3rd and the B team came 7th. The girls should be proud of their efforts and achievements. A huge thank you to Miss Chapman for taking the girls and giving them the opportunity to compete against schools in the York area.

Boys Football

The Year 7 boys have been competing against other schools in the York area. They travelled to Barlby School on

Thursday 14th March and in extremely windy conditions on an exposed pitch the boys managed to come up with

a last minute goal to win the game 2-1. A week later the boys played against Archbishops Holgate in the quarter

finals of the cup. Unfortunately the boys lost the game 3-1. The boys were: Jacob Bryant, Alfie Cresswell, Lleyton

Brown, Rory Thornton, Reuben Skelton, Lenny McGrath, Olly Horner, Riley Palmer, Alex Widdup, Sam Taylor and

Noah Mortimer.

Girls Netball

The girl’s netball teams have also

been in action. They went to Manor

for a fixture with both the A team

and B team involved. In some high

scoring games unfortunately the A

team lost 12-5 but the B team were

victorious with a 11-1 win.

Congratulations to all the girls

involved and keep up the excellent

work and commitment.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Girls hockey Boys football Choir Textiles club Girls football

STEM club Yo-Yo Christian

Union Concert Band Girls netball

Mixed badminton

Girls basketball Digital Natives Drama club

Bridge club Bridge club

Jazz/Blues band

Year 7 Extra-curricular Timetable

Other subject news

There are so many opportunities for Year 7 students to be involved in an extra-curricular activity. Whether it is

sport, music, drama or Bridge club, we are encouraging all Year 7 students to get involved and try something they

have never experienced before. It is a fantastic way to meet new people and develop new skills. The current

timetable is shown below with all activities taking place at lunchtime. It is also worthwhile checking the Fulford

School website to access the whole school extra-curricular timetable as there may be other clubs listed on there.

It would be a shame to miss out on any one of these brilliant clubs. With the summer fast approaching the

timetable will be changing with new sports such as athletics and cricket becoming available. Check with the

relevant sport teachers to see when these clubs are starting and what day they will be on.

Maths

Earlier this half term Year 7 students took part in a ‘Sponsored

Sums’ charity event to raise money for Comic Relief. During their

Maths lesson students were sponsored to complete

differentiated Maths questions against the clock. There were

tasty prizes for students who collected the most sponsors or the

most points. The students worked diligently to compete with

their peers and raised a fantastic £4434 for a fantastic cause.

Well done to everyone involved.

Science

Year 7 students have been busy learning about Forces and Reproduction. Dr Williams’ class had to produce an information poster on Sir Isaac Newton and his work and write a story about a day as an unborn foetus and what it might be like. Students have also been using structure strips to help them with extended writing on Friction. This has really helped them to develop their scientific writing.

Geography

Miss Frame’s Year 7 Geography class have been producing some stunning pieces of homework where they were asked to design a guide which would prepare someone to be able to survive in the wild. Some of the ideas and presentation was remarkable. Unfortunately I could only display a selection of these here but I could have picked any number from the class which shows what a high standard of work had been produced. The following pieces were produced by Lily Rostron, Ridima Gurung and Maisey Hornby.

@fulfordschool

@fulfordbiology @fulfordphysics

@fulfordchem @Fulford_Music

Art and Design

There has been some exceptional Art work being done by Year 7 students. They have spent a number of weeks

studying colour theory and then applying their knowledge to work inspired by the artists Hundertwasser and

Gaudi. Students have used a range of techniques to produce some eye catching designs. Below are two stunning

montages that Mrs Howson has put together which include preparation work and final pieces from different

students.

Music and Drama

The music and drama departments continue to rehearse and practise at lunchtimes. The various ensembles meet

weekly to perfect their pieces and experiment with new ones. Drama club meets on a Thursday lunchtime and

will be looking towards developing ideas for next year’s big production.

What is coming up next half term?

Next half term is an extremely short one consisting of only four weeks with the May Bank Holiday in the second

week. Therefore, the number of events for Year 7 students is quite limited. Nonetheless, there is still many extra-

curricular activities to be involved with.

Tuesday 30th April Junior Maths Challenge – this is a chance for selected students to test themselves with some

challenging maths problems in a Nationwide event.

Monday 6th May Bank Holiday

Friday 24th May break up for half term

The solution to last month’s Brain Teaser was:

First the number of cakes must be 9.

576 ÷ 16𝜋 = 11.46

11 cakes wouldn’t fit and there must be an odd number (equal lemon and coffee and one

carrot)

Given that there are 9 cakes, these must be arranged in a 1x9, and 3x3 or a 9x1 array.

Well done if you managed to work this out

The last half term challenge was the best so far! I had so many paragraphs written in both Spanish and French

from a good number of Year 7 students. All these students have been nominated for Student of the Month and

are in with a chance of winning an Amazon gift voucher or a month of early lunch passes.

This month’s half term challenge is Literacy related! In last month’s edition of the Year 7 Newsletter I

introduced a section on the importance of reading regularly outside of school and we are asking you to do at

least 30 minutes reading outside of school every week. An email went out to all Year 7 parents asking for

support with this task and we are really appreciative of all the parental support with this so far. We would ask

for this to continue by getting parents to sign planners each week to acknowledge that the reading has been

achieved. To support them, the list of recommended reading books is at the end of this Newsletter.

For this month’s challenge I would like you to take a picture or make a video of you doing some reading over

the half term break. Whether you are on holiday somewhere exotic or visiting the coast for a day trip; if you

take a book keep a record of it! I would like to make a display of these pictures on the Student of the Month

notice board so I am hoping for lots of different pictures!

Year 7 Suggested Reading Books

Blackman Malorie Cloudbusting

Boyce Frank Cottrell Millions

Colfer Eoin The legend of Spud Murphy

Cowell Cressida How to train your dragon

Di Terlizza T The Ironwood Tree

Dowd Siobhan London Eye Mystery

Gaiman Neil The Graveyard book

Higson Charlie The Enemy

Horowitz Anthony Stormbreaker

Ibbotson Eva Journey to the river sea

King-Smith Dick Harry's mad

Laird Elizabeth Elephant thunder

Landman Tanya Two Words

Landy Derek Skullduggery Pleasant

Morpurgo Michael Alone on a wide wide sea

Muchamore Robert The Recruit

O'Brien Robert Mrs Frisby and the rats of Nimh

Paver Michele Wolf brother

Pullman Phillip Northern Lights

Sparkes Ali The Shapeshifter series

Stewart Paul Beyond the deep woods

Thompson Kate The New Policeman

Thompson Katie The Switcher's trilogy

Walden Mark HIVE series

Westall Robert Blitzcat

Wilson Jacqueline Illustrated Mum

Thought for the half-term

Everybody makes mistakes and nobody can be perfect all of the time. What makes people different is how

they respond to the mistake. Some will ignore it and let it pass by, however others will see it as a learning

opportunity. Continual improvement is driven by learning from mistakes. This can be seen in everyday life

whereby companies and organisations learn from mistakes to improve their productivity.

The thought for the half term gets you to see mistakes

as positives rather than negatives. Try to volunteer

more times in class and learn from it if you get the

answer wrong. See how many other places you can

learn from your mistakes as use it to your advantage.

TO READ!!