Principal News Dear Parents, We are delighted to announce that the Board of Gover-nors have appointed two new Senior Teachers who took up post at the beginning of November. Mrs Wilson is now Head of Junior School with responsibility for the Pastoral Care of all pupils in Key Stage 3. Mr Barron is Head of Senior School and will be responsible for the Pastoral welfare of all Year 11 and 12 pupils. Parents are reminded that they should contact the desig-nated Year Tutor in the first instance regarding any con-cerns they may have about their son or daughter.

Year 8 Girls Mrs Wilson Year 8 Boys Mr Robinson Year 9 Miss Wilson Year 10 Mrs Martin Year 11 Mr Barron Year 12 Mrs Doran

These appointments further enhance our Pastoral provi-sion in school and provide additional support for pupils. Mr Barron and Mrs Wilson will also serve on the Senior Management Team providing strategic direction for the school. Mrs A McCullough Principal

November 2013

Welcome to our latest Newsletter! It‟s been a busy term so far! We hope you enjoy reading all about our latest news as we prepare for our December exams and Xmas break. Rathfriland High School Newsletter team.

3G Pitch News The 3G Pitch is now nearing completion. We hope to be able to play on our new surface before Christmas. The PE Department will be providing an information sheet on the types of footwear which can be worn on the pitch. This is a great resource and really adds to our PE facilities.

Prize Night

The annual distribution of Certifi-cates and awards took place on Thursday 24th of October 2013. Mrs McCullough delivered her annual report and Mr V Henning was the visiting guest speaker. Mr Henning, a past pupil of Rathfriland High School, related details about his ca-reer as a pilot for Flybe. We were all entertained by the School Choir, who sang two lovely pieces. It was great to see Year 12 Leavers back in school again, and to have their fan-tastic achievements marked on this occasion. Well done to all prize win-ners past and present!

New Texting Service

As you may already be aware, the school now has a Text Service to Parents. This will be used to inform Parents of any school clo-sure in exceptional circumstances.

Year 11 H.E pupils visit The Food and Drink Show

On Friday 25th October, Year 11 pupils travelled to the Kings‟ Hall Pavilion in Belfast for „The Food

and Drink Show Northern Ireland.‟ The main attraction was the celebrity chef theatre with a state of the art kitchen where pupils watched as Paul Hollywood and Jenny Bristow gave live demonstrations. Throughout the day, pupils were able to watch many other demonstrations, for example from the Love Food Hate Waste organisation and The Livestock Meat Commission. Numerous exhibitors demonstrated different pieces of equipment and there were many products available for pupils to sample and purchase. Pupils were able to collect a range of recipes and other advice from different organisations.

Year 10 Trip to Opportunity Europe &

Beyond

On Tuesday, 22nd October, 31 pupils and two members of staff attended the Opportunity Europe and Beyond Ex-hibition at St George‟s Market, Belfast. The fair and exhi-bition highlights our European and international links and helps young people to find out about “the bigger world”. Pupils were able visit various information stands and some took part in quizzes and workshops, whilst others learnt some words in different languages. They were also able to watch salsa dancing and sample cuisines from Europe and beyond. There were lots of freebies to pick up and pupils took advantage of this! To end the day, we stopped off at McDonalds for lunch.

This September 46 Year 8 pupils joined our school! Hope you are all well settled now and have a wonderful five years at Rathfriland High School. Don‟t forget to get involved in the life of the school– there are many activities to join in with: Monday: After School Cookery class

Tuesday: Library at lunchtime Wednesday: Homework Club/ Boys’ Hockey/ S.U. at lunchtime

Thursday: Library at lunchtime/ netball after school Friday: Choir at lunch

Sports’ Results Football: Under 13s: Lost to Dromore 0-4 Won against St Malachys 5-1 Under 14s: Drew 1-1 with Lisnagarvey High Under 15s: Lost to Banbridge Academy 1-3 Won against Kilkeel High 2-0 Drew with Newbridge 1-1 RUGBY: Under 14s won 5-2 against Banbridge High School

Year 10 Outward Bound Trip

Eleven lucky Year 10 pupils

will be out of school all week

from Monday 18th – Fri 22nd

Novem-

ber on

this year’s residential trip to

Ullswater in the Lake District in

Northern England. They will be

tackling many challenges– have a

great trip!

Library Library opens every Tuesday and Thursday at lunch-

time for reading and research.. Everyone welcome!

Pupil Success!

Well done to the following pupils who have been very successful in activities outside

school: Well done to Mallory Lutton 8A2 for gaining the part of ‘Happy’ the dwarf in Banbridge Musical Society’s production of ‘Snow White

and the Seven Dwarfs!’ Special congratulations to Emily Cantley 8A1 for her achievements in the N.I. Junior Cross

Country Squad recently. Well done to Christopher Hill 11A2 who has

recently starred in Armagh Schools’ Festival production of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest.’

Religious Studies Year 11

Church Visit In the Religious Stud-

ies GCSE Year 11

class we have been

studying sacraments

within the Protestant

church. On 10th Octo-

ber, 2013 the class

went on a church visit

to Banbridge Baptist

to see how these sacra-

ments are celebrated.

Pastor Kenny Wilson

gave the pupils a

guided tour around the church. He explained how adult baptism

was practised and communion was served to the congregation.

The pupils found this trip insightful and interesting. We even had

a splendid piano performance by James Boyd and Abigail Moor-

head.

Homework Club Why not come along to the Homework Club. It is held in

ICT 1 after school on Wednesdays. All welcome!

Year 12 pupils were involved in workshops organised by Banbridge PCSP, with the main aim of raising awareness in Young Passengers And Drivers of the dangers of driv-ing while texting or under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Chief Inspector Joe McMinn, the PSNI Area Commander for Banbridge and Armagh, has stated in the press that, “The YPAD programme is invaluable in educating our young people about road safety. It gives them the opportunity to see just what can happen when you take risks on the roads and it also encourages them to be responsible for their own actions, whether they are drivers or passengers”. The workshops allowed students time to think and talk about safe driving, and enhanced their awareness about the skills and care needed to drive, with interactive work-shops.

Study Skills Sessions for all Rathfriland

High School Pupils School Exams are fast approaching

and revision has begun for many pu-

pils. It is important to prepare prop-

erly for exams whether you are Year

8 or Year 12.

So how can school help? All pupils have taken part in a Revi-

sion Session with their form teacher

where Revision techniques and

strategies have been explained and

suggested. Every pupil has received a

copy of our Study Skills’ Booklet

where hints and ideas are given about

how to revise effectively. A copy of

this Study Skills Booklet can also be

found on our School Website. No ex-

cuses now!

Study Skills

Business Studies All year 10 pupils and year 11 Business Studies pupils got

a taste of starting their own business as part of an Enter-

prise Day with Ulster Bank’s Money Sense for Schools.

In teams of four they were challenged to set up their own

café – with each pupil taking on a key business role includ-

ing a Manager, Consultant, Marketer and Financier. Using

their skills and working together they had to decide their

business name and theme, what to sell, where best to lo-

cate and how best to market their new café.

Jill Smyth, Head of MoneySense at Ulster Bank and Mark

Tumilty, Ulster Bank Banbridge Branch Manager advised

and assessed the very many ideas that the teams pro-

duced about how to run a café enterprise.

During the final part of the day each team presented their

plans which enabled them to enhance their presentation

skills.

The overall winning team was Food-ology with their mod-

ern technology themed café. The team was lead by Man-

ager Taylor Annett, with Consultant Kristian Annett decid-

ing on the menu and décor. Marketer Honor Bingham fo-

cused on the promotion and the launch of the business

and Financier Rebecca Megaw was in charge of costing.

Mrs Budde was very pleased with the enthusiasm of the

pupils and thought the event was a great opportunity for

them to learn more about enterprise, work together as a

team and build confidence.

Year 12 Prefects

Year 12 Mentors Mentors are selected

from year 12 and are

available to support year

8 students in school. The

mentors this year for the

Year 8 girls are Megan

Orr and Alex McCarrison

and for the Year 8 boys

William Trimble and

Chris Moore.

Italy Trip in June It will be a case of ‘La Dolce Vita’ for a

lucky group of students from years 10, 11

and 12 when they set off to Italy next year

with the Geography Department. During

their stay the students will visit Mount Ve-

suvius and Pompeii. They will also take in

the Amalfi coast and visit a buffalo farm to

learn about mozzarella production. Finally,

they will enjoy a day trip to the Isle of Capri

on hydrofoil! Bellissimo!

We would like to congratulate the following

Students who have been awarded Prefect this

year: Jack Cochrane, Celine McKnight, Jona-

than Fitzpatrick, Megan Orr, Laura Parks,

Kerrie Annett, Kathryn Annett, Aimee Allen,

Chloe Murray, Rachel Moffett, Sarah

Snowden, Shannon Williams, Bethany McCauley

and Laura Irvine.

Well done to Naomi Wharton and William

Trimble for achieving Deputy Head Girl and

Boy.

Congratulations to our new Head Boy and Head

Girl, Gareth Murphy and Kirsty Stewart.

Dates for diary Exams: Year 8-12: Tuesday 2nd De-cember– Friday 6th December Christmas Holidays– Finish: Friday 2oth December - Start back: Monday 6th January

Welcome New Staff We would like to give a warm wel-come to our new member of staff here at Rathfriland High School. Mrs Stevenson is now teaching English and General subjects throughout the school.

Shoe boxes It‟s yet again that time of year when pupils fill shoeboxes and bring them to Miss Wilson in aid of the „Shoe Box Appeal‟. All shoe boxes provided by the pu-pils are distributed to children in developing countries to make Christmas Day special for these children. Thank you to all pupils who showed their support for such a worthy cause! A special thanks to Alex Stew-art from 12A1 who brought in

GOOD LUCK MRS BUDDE!

Everyone at RHS would like to extend their best wishes to Mrs Budde as she prepares to go on Maternity Leave. We look forward

to seeing you and your little bundle of joy very soon!

Wear It Pink

Day! On Friday 25th of October

pupils wore pink loud and

proud to raise awareness and

much needed funds for breast

cancer. Quite the style icons as

you can see!

Year 12 Work Experience

Well done to all Year 12 pupils who successfully completed Work

Experience in October. Placements ranged from Ballykinler Army

Camp to Local Primary Schools. Thank you to Mrs Doran for help-ing with organising these place-

ments.