Round OakSchool, Support Service & Sports College

Welcome to this Christmas edition of our Sports College Magazine.

In these final few days of term we celebrate the achievements of

our students over the last fifteen weeks.

Through the wonderful Music of Life project over a quarter of the

school have joined together to create a school choir. Our newly

adopted School Song is titled ‘The Power In Me’. Listening to this

song being sung by our students is a truly inspiring experience. Time

and time again we are as a staff inspired by the way our students

rise to the challenges we provide and show the power that they

possess.

Congratulations to you all for all your successes this year. Best

wishes to you and your families for a very Merry Christmas and a

Happy New Year.

Sue

In September we welcomed Jack

Sidgwick to Round Oak School. Jack

has enrolled on the National

Apprenticeship Scheme and is

working with us as a PE Apprentice

for twelve months.

Jack has been very busy this term

helping to set up for lessons,

supporting students learning and

facilitating positive play at break and

lunchtime. In addition Jack attends

all after school clubs assisting the teachers and coaches with the delivery of a

variety of extracurricular activities.

Jack himself is a Level 1 Football Association Coach and a qualified Football

Referee. He attended Southam College where he took his GCSEs and then

spent two years studying Sport at Rugby College.

We are delighted that Jack has been able to join us at Round Oak School. He is

already making a very positive contribution and is valued by staff and students

alike.

Jack Sidgwick

Shelly Bonser – Sports Hub Clerk Shelly Bonser joined our Sports Hub team in Easter

2014 following the departure of Samantha Raybould to

take her maternity leave for the birth of her gorgeous

baby boy.

Shelly has been a wonderful support to the PE staff.

She has calmly and efficiently ensured the smooth

organisation of sports clubs, competitions and PE

options.

Our very sincere thanks to Shelly for all her hard work

and her wonderful company. We wish her well for her

future plans.

Horse riding at Radway Riding

This term ten students from KS4 classes have been horse riding at Radway Riding School.

Even after just a few lessons, they made so much progress. The group have been working on

mounting and dismounting, sitting position, steering with their reins and trotting. Above all

they have loved spending time with their horses and learning about working with them.

Badminton

Trampolining

Golf Professional Paul Atkins, has very kindly accessed funding for a six week course of golf

lessons at the Club for KS4 this term. Over the past few weeks the students have been

learning to play golf in their Indoor Golf Academy. Paul has delivered some really enjoyable

golf activities and has made learning to play golf so much fun for everyone. Well done to the

group for listening so well and for making the most of this fantastic opportunity.

Golf at

Leamington and

County Golf Club

Ice Skating and

Ice Hockey at

Planet Ice

Zumba Fitness with

Emma

Horse Riding at Radway

Riding School

Badminton

Country

Walks

Climbing at Red Point Climbing

Centre in Birmingham As part of 6th Form PE and Sport, a group of

students have been accessing climbing lessons .

They have all become increasingly confident and

have tackled progressively challenging climbs. Not

only have they improved their climbing skills but

they are also learning how to support and

encourage others on the climbs.

Golf at the

Warwickshire Golf

and Country Club

On the 6th October, fifteen of our year our Year 11 students

travelled to Appledore in North Devon to spend a week at

Skern Lodge Outdoor Centre. We set off in our minibuses in

the pouring rain but arrived in Appledore in the glorious

sunshine! We spent the afternoon exploring the centre and

finding out where we were to sleep, eat and do our activities.

That evening we went swimming in their outdoor pool and

really had a great time swimming, splashing around and

playing volleyball.

The rest of the week was really action packed. We went

surfing in the sea, rafted on the river, tackled the assault

course in our teams, whizzed down the zip wire, played team

games, scaled the climbing wall and high ropes course, did a

night walk to the RNLI life boat station and on the last

evening had a lot of fun at our disco.

We ate well, slept well and played well! All the students were

so supportive of each other and by the Friday morning we

were all sad to be ending our adventure. I was incredibly

impressed by all the students who really did make some

remarkable achievements. Well done to all the students and

an enormous thank you to all the staff who worked so hard to

ensure that everyone had a wonderful time. Sue Backhouse

“Thank you very much. We all really

enjoyed Skern. It was amazing! The

activities were good. The activities

were rafting, surfing, swimming and lots

more. The beds were comfy. The food

was so nice. Thank you very much to all

who went to Skern.”

Written by Melanie Mulroney.

“With less than good weather forecast for the

week, two school buses set off for Devon on

Monday 6th October.

We arrived at Skern Lodge near Appledore, Devon

at approx. 3.00pm to have an introductory tour of

the site and for rooms to be allocated to the

group. After a scrummy tea with lots of choices

our evening was spent in their on-site swimming

pool.

There were lots of group jump-ins of the pool but

a great game of volleyball really got the group

going.

Wednesday was a coastal activities day – walking,

abseiling and scrambling on the beach. After

supper we visited the pool again and played funny

activities in the cottages lounge, such as the Lap

Game, Wink Murdered and also Chinese Whispers.

We learnt a lot about personal responsibility for

our luggage, bedrooms and activity gear and new

activities such as Zip Wire, High Ropes, Climbing,

Surfing, Pool Volleyball, Abseiling and Archery.”

Written by Katie Morgan.

Multisports Club

Girls Football

In the first half of this term, on

Tuesdays after school we hosted a

Girls Football Club which was run by

FA Football coaches from Sky Blues

in the Community. The girls had

fantastic time practising their

football skills and learning new

techniques.

Wednesday Football Club

Our Wednesday football club is open to

all students. It is a satellite club run by

Sky Blues in the Community. Two

qualified FA coaches, Tobias and Craig,

run this club with the help of Jack, our

PE apprentice. This very popular club

runs throughout the year and will restart

in the new term on January 14th 2015.

The girls football club has now evolved to

become a Multisports Club for both girls and

boys. Over the weeks a variety of different

inclusive games have been provided by our two

coaches Tobias and Jack. This club will start

back on Tuesday 13th January.

Our angling club has been running once again this term

at the Kingfisher Pool at St Nicholas Park. Led by Bob

Woodley of the Professional Angling Association, the

sessions have allowed students to develop their interest

in the sport and learn new skills. At the end of the

term the young anglers were treated to an exciting visit

to the Sea-Life Centre in Birmingham which was enjoyed

by students and staff alike.

Special Olympics Club runs after school on

Thursday afternoons. This term we have had a

large number of students attending from across

the Key Stages. We have offered a variety of

activities each week including football, fitness

and indoor inclusive games. Well done to all the

students who have participated this term. A big

thank you to Kath, Robyn, Emma, Phil and Nick for

leading the activities, to Jeanette Mann and

Marie Hopkins for volunteering each week and to

Henry and Brendon, our two marvellous student

helpers from Warwick School.

Dasher

Dancer

Prancer

Vixen

Comet

Cupid

Donner

Blitzen

Rudolf

Red nosed

Magical

Bells

Find these words in the

grid and then colour the

picture!

What a fabulous start to our Tuesday mornings here at Round Oak when our

wonderful singers and pianist arrive ready to take pupils and staff who participate on

a wondrous journey into the world of singing!

This opportunity has arisen because of a charity called Music of Life who has raised

£7,350 to enable this. Our workshops are led by Suzzie Vango a very talented and

highly acclaimed singer\musician. Suzzie in turn has put together a fantastic group of

musicians to help her make Round Oak come alive every week. One of the songs in

particular ‘The Power In Me’ by Rebecca Lawrence is going to be our new school song.

Thank you so much Rebecca for allowing us to use your powerful and emotional song.

Our first performance will be on Monday 15th December as part of Round Oak’s

Christmas production at NLS

.

The best news is yet to come! Originally this was only to be for a term but Music Of

Life have extended their time with us and have raised yet again a huge sum of money

to enable this to continue at least for the spring term and maybe the summer too!

Added to this Music of Life have identified some gifted and talented pupils within

our workshops who they will fund to continue with individual tuition, 2 singers and 1

percussionist.

Again huge thanks to Music of Life for this fantastic opportunity. The pupils taking

part are so proud of themselves; their self esteem has been boosted as well as their

confidence

Music Of Life Brings Harmony To Round Oak!

The Round Oak Choir would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas.

In October Round Oak School proudly achieved the Silver Sainsbury’s

School Games Mark for 2013/14..

The mark rewards schools for their commitment to and the

development of PE, school sport clubs and competitions. This Mark also

recognises the hard work that staff have undertaken to ensure all

young people have access to a wide breadth of sports opportunities in

the school.

On 25th September Lindens

went to Edgbaston to play

cricket. Students said, “we

worked in teams against Devon

School and Welcombe Hills and

we had a tour of the cricket

ground and we saw the

Warwickshire Bears playing. It

was a good day and we all did

some batting and bowling”.

A big ‘well done’ to all the staff that competed

in the Rotary Club Dragon Boat Race on Sunday

21st September.. Our sixteen members of

staff completed two races and only just missed

out on qualifying by four seconds! Everyone had

a great time and we are already getting excited

about doing it all again next year! Next time we

will know a bit more about what we have to do

and hope to beat our time.

Thank you very much to all the staff, parents, carers and students who came to

support us and a huge thank you also to those who sponsored us. All money

received will go to the Myton Hospice.

On Thursday 4th September the 6th

Form Horse Riding group visited the

Redwings Horse Sanctuary at Oxhill. On

arrival, we were given a brilliant tour of

the sanctuary. We were told about all

the horses, ponies and donkeys that live

there. Most of them have a sad story

of neglect but a happy ending due to the

care they receive at the Red Wings Cen-

tre. We had a really interesting visit

On 10th October ten of our girls

attended a Netball event at Myton

School that was run by Sarah Taylor

(Netball Development Officer) and

Myton School Sports Leaders. They

learned all about the sport of Netball,

the skills linked with the sport and even

played a game to showcase the skills

they had learnt. It was an excellent

morning of sport and everyone had a

fantastic time, really showing us what

talented sportswoman we have at Round

Oak School. Thank you to Emma Baldwin,

Nikki Welby and Rose Donohue for

taking the students to the event.

Our students have again enjoyed a huge range of lunch time clubs, run by

Round Oak Staff. There is something to interest everybody with clubs

including Reading Club, ICT, Animal Care, Makaton, Science and Craft to

name but a few. Sessions run in the gym and a very popular WII dance

club runs twice a week. Have a look on the display in the hall and see

what we have to offer!

Wishing you all

a very Merry Christmas

and a Happy New

Year

Bertie and Bev

Can you help Santa

find his way through

the maze to get to

his reindeer?