News@Worden

DECEMBER 2018

With the summer break long behind us, it is time to reflect on the new academic year, thus far. Typically, it has been a busy term with the usual Open Evening, Open Week, and Presentation Evening, plus several Parents’ Evenings. We welcomed over a hundred new starters back in September, and they have settled in really well. Building work and developments around the school continue to enhance the improving environment.

On Friday 16th November, I had the honour of accompanying Mrs Gardner to the Educate Awards at Liverpool Cathedral. It was a fabulous evening which was made all the more special when the winner of one of the main awards was announced. After winning the ‘ Inspirational Teacher Award’, at the Guild Hall in June 2018, Mrs Gardner was named ‘Teacher of the Year’ recognising thirty five years of service to teaching, and Worden. I am sure you will join hundreds of other supporters in congratulating Mrs Gardner on her accolade.

Introduction Launch of Synergy 

In our drive to improve communications with home, we have been developing our website and parent portal. Our aim is to go paperless and issue future letters, newsletters, reports and other communication using School Synergy wherever possible. The link is: https://worden.schoolsynergy.co.uk/portal/parents/register.aspx

S P O R T I N G A C H I E V E M E N T SChristopher Catherall: Head teacher

Football

South Ribble Netball League

Gymnastics Vaulting to success...

Tommy Grindrod is continuing his football career at AFC Fylde. He was recruited for the team at the start of his final school year and was offered a place in their post 16 academy.

He currently plays for both the U16s and U18s squads. The PE department was invited to watch Tommy play, last weekend, for AFC Fylde U18s against Tranmere Rovers. He has clearly taken his game to another level and is excelling at the club. More recently, he has been selected as a member of the AFC Fylde Matchday Men’s 1st team to play against Dagenham and Redbridge FC, an outstanding achievement. 

Also excelling in sport is Andrew Carr who also left us last year.

Andrew received a scholarship at Bristol College to play American

Our year 10 netball team has been training and playing weekly against all the schools in the South Ribble Borough and has finished 2nd in the league behind Balshaws. The girls have worked really hard this year, making huge progress and they finished the season with a tough final game against All Hallows; the final score being 24-21;

On Saturday 10th November, Worden pupils travelled to Norden Primary School in Rochdale to take part in the North West Gymnastics Championships 2018. Pupils performed on both vault and floor; some outstanding performances lead to pupils bringing home eight medals in total. Medal winners were: Teighan Innes, Ashleigh Molloy, Katie McDonough, Sienna Conway, Caitlin Smith and Chloe Nicholls.

Well done to the following pupils who proudly won a total of 7 medals for the school at last weekend’s North West Schools Gymnastics Competition in Rochdale: Caitlin Smith, Chloe Nicholls, Katie McDonough, Ashleigh Molloy, Teighan Innes and Sienna Conway.

MathsRock Star The results are in! Well done to everyone who took part in our Times Tables Rock Stars competition over half term. Congratulations to our winners: 1st William Blockley - 2100 correct answers 2nd Harrison Lunan - 1146, 3rd Brandon Lee - 1118 and 4th Chloe Holt – 1104.

Football. Andrew played for Chorley Buccaneers American Football Team from a young age and wanted to continue after school. Pictured here training with the Great Britain squad, the College Scholarship he received was extremely difficult to gain place and Andrew has done exceptionally well in earning his spot on the squad.

It’s always a pleasure to see our ex-pupils continue to develop and excel in sport. We wish Tommy and Andrew all the best in their futures and hope they achieve everything they set out to do.

Shining Stars of Worden

GeographyEnglish Duke of Edinburgh 67 pupils and 7 members of staff eagerly set off to Winmarleigh, near Garstang. The weekend was action packed with outdoor activities and pursuits.

Despite having to delay the final expedition due to the extreme weather conditions in July, the pupils taking part in the Bronze DofE Award this year had a very successful expedition in September 2018.

Once at PGL, pupils were split into groups, and were straight out to test their nerve on the Giant Swing, mission ‘stay on-board’ in canoeing and ‘don’t look down!’ on the high ropes. After activities, pupils enjoyed a hot meal followed by some games, music and let’s not forget- the Cha Cha Slide! Pupils were ‘back to bunks’ for 21:30 in preparation for a full day the following morning. Staff gave pupils a wakeup call at 7am; breakfast was a full English and pupils were outdoors by 9am. Saturday mostly saw groups tackle the river, where most ended up in it! As well as Zip Lining and The Challenge Course, the fun continued into the evening and a campfire with toasted marshmallows was had, followed by staff awards. Sunday was all about teamwork, including the High Ropes

National Poetry Day Competition Winners - Alessandra Ebreo (Year 8) - Harvey Gifford (Year 7)

KS3 have been writing letters to the Armed Forces which are being sent out to servicemen and women before Christmas via the charity ‘Support Our Soldiers’. There has been a very enthusiastic response and the students have written some beautiful words of gratitude.

The English Department has produced a ‘Poet-Tree’ display to commemorate the centenary of WWI.

The English Department worked very hard to produce some great new displays in advance of Open Evening- we won first place in the departmental competition!

Each Wednesday, staff have given up their time to run revision sessions for year 11. Although optional, these have been very popular.

Mrs Gardner has organised two very successful cake stalls, raising money for charity (Macmillan and Children in Need). She is also organising the Santa Dodge for our local charity, St Catherine’s Hospice. Santa Dodge is going to be held on Wednesday 12th December. Pupils will enjoy the challenge of raising enough sponsorship to outperform the desired outcome of £5,000. Pupils will be able to enjoy their games of

dodgeball and spend the rest of their day, wearing their Santa outfits and medals.

challenge, orienteering, and problem solving. After lunch, pupils packed up, said their goodbyes and headed back to school. Overall, it was a fun-filled weekend of tackling fears, exploring new heights and making memories!

Year 11- PGL English and Geography revision weekend. The trip leader is Miss Burns. The trip is planned for Easter 2019. Recently, Miss Burns and Miss Cullen presented a parents’ information evening for the trip. Pupils and parents were very interested in the trip being offered, therefore we hope that we have sufficient numbers for the trip.

The expedition took place around the Rivington area and the base camp was Bibby’s Farm where the group of 21 demonstrated their camping and tent building skills.

The pupils were divided into four groups, each given a different set off and finishing point. They were assessed at the nominated checkpoints by the internal assessors. We had beautiful sunny days but the nights were extremely cold! All teams finished well within the allotted time, on the second day. Part of the task was to take photographic evidence along the way – all the photographs were fantastic and we held a competition in school after the event. All the group will receive their certificates and badges in December 2018. Another 100% pass rate for the Academy!

2020 Naples trip

the trip is currently being planned and there are 40 pupils attending.

Mrs Mitchell is the trip leader. The trip to Naples and Sorrento has been proposed to year 8 and 9 students. The itinerary briefly comprises; flights to and from Naples, half-board accommodation, full day visit to Pompeii, including using VR where the streets on Pompeii come to life, pizza making, ice-cream making, amphitheatre visit, full day Mt Vesuvius trek (to the crater), Lake and the Burning Fields tour along with free time exploring Sorrento. We held a parents’ information evening and were overwhelmed with the response- 82 children requested to go, but unfortunately could only take 40. Those who weren’t accepted on to the trip have the opportunity/ first refusal if it runs again the following year.

Silver Award The Silver team did very well to navigate the Leeds Liverpool Canal in July. It camped overnight at Charity Farm, Wrightington and the second night they camped at Bibby’s Farm, Rivington. The team of eight navigated their way through difficult locks and waterways.

Shoebox Appeal Well done to our year 7s who have organised a shoe box appeal for Operation Christmas Child with help from Miss Green.