Our students have seen their ambitions fulfilled as they celebrated success in this year’s GCSE results.

Highlights include 46% more students achieving five or more A*-A grades compared to last year, giving them all a solid base to extend their unlimited education options. The school’s excellent results also bucked the national trend of declining English results, as the school has seen an increase in both English and maths grades.

In particular, religious education (RE) achieved strong results, with 45% of students attaining A*-A grades. Kerry

Poole, leader of RE, has recently won a silver Pearson Teaching Award, a national accolade.

There were also some stunning results from the following exceptional students: Victoria MacAskill and Kathryn Craik who both received eight A*s and five As, Olivia Crannage who received an incredible 11A*s and two As, Jack Pugh who celebrated his six A*s and six As and Jamie Powell who succeeded in receiving two A*s and seven As.

Other outstanding students include Lauren Field, Alice Conway, Joseph Miller, Gabrielle Slater, Eilidh Shakespeare and Antonia Morris.

Headteacher, Bryn Thomas, said, “We are delighted with the results and congratulate all our students on their success. We achieved good results in a wide range of subjects covering both the traditional academic ones and the more vocational subjects, which is testament to the breadth and strength of teaching at this school. Students now have a solid foundation to go and pursue their ambitions and we wish them all well with their chosen path.”

Congratulations from the PSRE department

We are so proud of the year 11 students that have just left.

As a group they managed to smash their targets and gain 93.9% A*-C grades, we’ll just call it 94%! Out of 83 students that took the exam, nearly half of them got an A or A* - it just goes to show that hard work and dedication pays off.

The current year 11 now need to take up the baton - challenge set! We will be running the world famous ‘PSRE Fridays’ from December to offer revision techniques and sessions. Until then, we are here every Thursday after school for PSRE support.

A well done from the Science department

A big well done to all the outgoing Year 11 students who achieved the best ever GCSE results! 69% of students taking additional science gained A*-B grades, and 17% achieved A*-A. In biology, 71% achieved A*-A and a fantastic 93% got A*-B. It was very similar in physics, with 75% of students achieving A*-A grades and

89% receiving A*-B grades. Students achieved high results in chemistry too, with 61% achieving A*-A grades and 86% receiving A*-B.

We would like to give a special mention to Kathryn Craik, Olivia Crannage, Victoria MacAskill, Jack Pugh and Gabrielle Slater who achieved 3 A* grades in triple science. Also Eliza Simpson and Liam Timmins who both achieved a distinction* and Kajol Deo, George Boulton, Abbygail Fletcher and Jackpaul Wilding who achieved distinctions in L2 BTEC – the first students from the school to do so.

WOLVERLEY NEWS

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OUTSTANDING GCSE RESULTS

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October 2014: Issue 1

Over the last few weeks, Year 9 students have been looking at the use of ‘ICT for GOOD’ and exploring ways they can help make the world a better place. They looked at how websites such as JustGiving.com and Facebook can help publicise campaigns and raise money and awareness for charitable causes, as displayed in the recent ALS Ice Bucket Challenge campaign.

As part of this, they have identified some websites that parents and carers may wish to explore further.

Playlistforlife.org.uk – this site uses donated iPods to bring music and memories into the lives of people with dementia.

Sidekickcycle.org is a computer game, which raises money through playing to provide bikes for people in developing countries in Africa.

Cancerresearchuk.org has a downloadable game called Play To Cure. By playing this game, users can help to identify patterns in data, which will be used to identify particular genes and thus lead the way towards a cure for cancers.

It would be great if everyone, parents, carers, students and teachers, could download and play the games…it just shows that games can be good too! This hands on experience was fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

COMPUTER GAMES FOR GOOD!

WHAT’S COMING UP...• Wednesday, 5 November

Year 11 Fixup Day

• Friday, 14 November Children In Need Day

• Thursday, 20 November Year 8 Parents Evening

• Monday, 24 November Year 10 LC with parents (2 weeks)

• Friday, 28 November TED 3

• Tuesday, 9 December Carol Service

• Thursday, 11 December KS5 Parents Evening + Year 11 Invites

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Our new Year 7 students took part in our fun new Primary Transition Programme, which aimed to help them get the best possible start to their secondary education.

On Friday 5th September, the Year 7 students and teachers spent the night camping out in the extensive school grounds. During the evening students visited the school’s new animal care centre, took part in games, sang songs around the campfire and learnt to cook outside. Then, on Thursday 11th September, in conjunction with A Sporting Chance, Year 7 students had a day of activities that were designed to help them work together, learn from each other and

build on their newly formed friendship groups. Activities included archery and team building games, as well as bush crafts and outdoor skills, all taking place in the our beautiful surroundings.

Additionally, as part of the programme, staff from the english department worked with students before they had even left their primary school. The students read and performed a vampire play and explored how the writer created humour.

Over the summer break, the students were asked to create a vampire fact file – they cleverly pointed out that vampires were in fact a myth, so there were no facts, meaning they could make up whatever they wanted

to about them. The new Year 7 students certainly got their creative juices flowing and it seems that vampires only eat Heinz baked beans; a vampires’ favourite colour is mint green and vampires adore sunbathing.

Students created a number of different leaflets about vampires, which are now displayed in the english department.

The english department would like to say well done to the following Year 7 students who received awards for doing excellent vampire work over the summer - Myles Watkins, Caitlin Bradbury and Billy Hoole. Runners up were Ben Tudor, William Cubbin, Maddie Roberts, Lewis Wilkes and Chantel Taylor.

On September 10th, Year 11 Geography students visited Carding Mill Valley to collect data for their controlled assessment. During the trip they measured the width, depth and velocity of the river using specialised equipment, which meant getting into the river to gather the most accurate measurements they could. Luckily nobody fell in! Comments from a couple of the students were “I learnt how to use some of the equipment needed to get the data I needed. The best bit was having lunch in the sun in a beautiful valley” and “The best bit about the trip was paddling in the streams and exploring. Also, I learnt how to use new equipment, such as clinometers and ranging poles.”

In recognition of National Teaching Assistant’s Day on Tuesday 16th September, we showed our appreciation for the fantastic work done by our Teaching Assistants.

As a thank you, the Teaching Assistants were treated to a special lunch, with other staff covering their lunchtime duties and were also given permission to leave a little earlier than scheduled at the end of the day.

GREAT START FOR YEAR 7 STUDENTS

TEACHING ASSISTANTS CELEBRATED

GCSE GEOGRAPHY FIELDTRIP

SCIENCE CLUBScience club began on Friday 19th September with Mr Toyne showing students how to process fingerprints during a session all about forensics. The first club was thoroughly enjoyed by Year 8 student, George Parish, who said, “Thanks for the awesome forensic stuff at science club today, really enjoyed it!”

Mr Thomas and Miss Hawthorne have a lot to live up to when they do sessions in the next couple of weeks.

Science club takes place every Friday lunchtime at 12.45pm and is open to Year 7 and 8 students.

October 2014: Issue 1

Our animal care centre is one of the latest additions to the school and our collection of small, indoor species is ever growing. Our latest addition is a baby Royal Python called Wilson.

Level 2 animal care students, who will be the next generation of zoo keepers, pet shop owners, vets and even animal trainers have been helping to develop the animals’ enclosures making sure they are settling in to their new environment.

Our plans for the future involve expanding our collection further to include animal gardens for small outdoor animals and eventually animal paddocks to house large livestock. This will mean we can expand students’ knowledge and experiences with a wide range of different species.

We have, so far, planned out the garden enclosures, ready to make a start on

them and we happily welcome anyone who would like to lend a hand and be part of the building or designing of the enclosures and enrichment for the species we have chosen.

Naturally, students have shown a lot of interest in the animal care centre and it has received a great response. We are very keen for everyone who would like to see the animals to have an opportunity to do so, but we can’t allow everyone in at the same time or unsupervised. However, we are currently arranging for tutor groups to be invited into the centre to be shown around and meet the animals.

Our animal care centre is open to local schools and groups too; recently students from St Oswalds Primary school joined in with our ‘Animal Encounter’ sessions. This hands on experience was fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Enrichment is an important part of school life and we run a comprehensive programme allowing every student the opportunity to develop gifts and skills that are not always possible in the classroom. From dance, drama, art, music or sport, to maths, science, history or geography, due to the sheer variety of different activities on offer a number of students are keen to be involved in more than one.

Enrichment newsICT - After half term students will be taking part in ‘Pi Club’ where they will learn how to use the Raspberry Pi computer www.raspberrypi.org – and eventually

learn some programming in the language, Python. This will support students with the new computing curriculum, encourage them to try something new and experiment with different technologies.

DofE – Year 10 and 11 students are able to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and receive a nationally recognised qualification. There are a number of activities that make up the award including volunteering physical activities, such as dance and extreme sports, animal care, camp and music.

KS3 Spanish club – To enhance Spanish skills, the prefects will be organising games and Spanish films.

Yr7 Design & Technology Club – This will run every Thursday lunchtime between September and Christmas and will give students the chance to design and make their own large tote bag, design and make their own badge and make their own Christmas decorations.

6th form – There will be programmes for 6th form students that will help with study skills, UCAS applications and employment skills.

Additionally, lunchtime and after school intervention sessions continue for KS4 and 5 – see each department and the notice boards for further information.

The English department has recently worked with Year 5 students from local primary schools.

Our staff held a gifted and talented workshop with Year 5 students exploring fairytales and rewriting them for the 21st century audience. The students came up with some interesting ideas, which included, Cinderella rejecting her prince to set up a shoe-design company, creating footwear that doesn’t fall off when running. Other ideas included, a Snow White who decided to teach the seven dwarves how to keep house themselves instead of doing all the work herself and a Rapunzel who used her long hair to climb down from her tower by herself and make her escape from the wicked witch without the help from a passing prince!

FAIRY TALE FOR A MODERN GENERATION

ANIMAL CARE CENTRE

The maths curriculum has just gone through a radical overhaul so it is quite a challenge to meet the higher expectations that we now have of our students. Key Stage 3 is now being delivered in two years instead of three.

The duplication of topics in the scheme of work has been removed. GCSE work will now begin in year 9, allowing us time to deliver topics at KS4 more thoroughly and giving us crucial time at the end of the course to pay particular attention to exam preparation. The change also gives us the extra time to implement the changes that are taking place in the curriculum.

We are all aware of the underlying importance of the use of number skills and the need to be secure in using times tables, so we initially focussed on these for homework in the first half term. We would like to thank parents for encouraging students to master their times tables and achieve their Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum certificates. These awards are displayed in the Sebright corridor.

To support our students, the staff offer their time freely after school and during lunchtimes. Please encourage your sons and daughters to make use of this support. We also have a wide range of support materials that students can access at home, like MyMaths and Just Maths.

Students also found the Maths Watch Discs, which they could purchase from the school, very useful last year. We have therefore decided to subscribe to this again this year, but put this on the VLE instead, which means that pupils can easily access this online at home. This is a completely free service and I would recommend parents to take full advantage of this to support their child’s mathematical education, particularly in years 9 to 11.

MATHS DEPARTMENT NEWS

ENRICHMENT

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WOLVERLEY NEWS UNLIMITED October 2014: Issue 1

Contact usThere are a number of ways you can contact our school:

By telephone or email

• Reception (enquiries, student absence, etc) 01562 859800

• You can report a student absence by emailing attendance@wolverley.worcs.sch.uk

• Office email office@wolverley.worcs.sch.uk

• Site Manager direct line 01562 859816

A fantastic local exhibition about the experiences that the people of Kidderminster had during WW1 was held at the Town Hall on the weekend of the 13th September.

A number of students had their work displayed at the event; Brooklyn Longbottom, Angel Cerys Nash, Lilly

Northall, Courtney Stringer, George Parrish, Will Adams, Callum Hughes, Demi Leigh Doyle, Rose Carver, Holly Burgess and Liesl McNally.

Well done to all of these students for their hard work on this project. The winner of the £20 for the best entry will be announced soon.

STUDENT WORK ON DISPLAY AT WW1 EXHIBITION

YEAR 6 SPORTS ACTIVITY

SPORTS ROUND-UPARTS ROUND-UP

Year 6 students from our feeder primary schools were invited to our school to participate in a range of fun, healthy sporting activities. Students from Wolverley Sebright Primary, St Oswald’s CE Primary, Cookley Sebright Primary, St Mary’s CE Primary and St Catherine’s CE Primary took part in a choice of sports, which included skiing, trampolining and circuit training.

They were all fully focused and energised with their pulses racing. Students were rewarded for their hard work and enthusiasm with a “Wolverley Fun Pack”.

Well done Year 6!

DANCING SUCCESSYear 11 Dancers were left with big smiles on their faces on results day this year. 100% of students gained the equivalent of an A*-C grade with a whopping 45% of dancers achieving a Distinction* (highest grade).

The Current Year 10 and 11 dancers have also set their aspirations high and are looking forward to raise their game during this year’s ‘Rock Challenge Dance Competition’ taking place in March next year. They have recently had help from professional artist, Flexus Dance Company giving them performance tips and experience. Good luck!

MUSICAL HIGHYear 11 BTEC Music results this year smashed students’ targets with a number of students deciding to stay on to do music in the 6th form here. Due to the popularity of music at the school, the number of students involved in enrichment this term has increased by over three times. Students are currently working hard preparing for the Carol Service and a number of concerts before and after Christmas.

We also give a warm welcome to our new music teacher Miss Harrison. Anyone who is interested in having instrumental lessons should ask Miss Harrison for further details.

COLLEGE 5-A-SIDE TOURNAMENTThere was an excellent turn out for the five-a-side football tournament with 84 students taking part in total. Lion were the winners, with Eagle in second place, Dolphin in third and Phoenix in fourth.

The girl’s tournament will be taking place soon. Students who are interested in playing can give their name to Miss Hodgetts.