Redwood School

Happy New Year!

Firstly I would like to wish all our parents and carers a belated happy new year and best wishes for 2014. Our first few days back after the holiday break have been very positive and all our youngsters have settled back into their routine very quickly. I would like to welcome Mr Rory O`Neill, Assistant Headteacher in Key Stage 3, who took up his new post in school this week to lead the department and provision within Years 7 – 9 and be part of our Senior Leadership Team.

Wheatsheaf Centre in Rochdale

A big thank you to all the staff of the `Wheatsheaf Centre `in the town centre who have been fund raising on behalf of Redwood School during the Christmas holiday period. Customers who use the centre have helped to raise over £1300 for our funds and we will be holding a special presentation in the near future in school! The funds will go towards the purchase of special wheelchair roundabouts for our sensory garden.

Sky Sports Young Leaders Training

Our Young Leaders training programme commenced with the fantastic assistance of Sky Sports Ambassador Claire Cashmore (London 2012 double silver medal winner). Those who will have such an important role in organizing many sporting events this year are Shane, Luke and Lewis in KS3, Ellis, Kallum, James, Sheraz and Gary in KS4 and Kyle, Tom N and Tom S in the 6th form. I know all our leaders were great ambassadors for the school.

Redwood School and Spiral Dance

We have got a fantastic new club starting next week which will give youngsters the opportunity to take part in a Spiral Dance project with pupils from Oulder Hill resulting in a performance in Gracie Fields Theatre in March. Those who are taking part are Faye, Lillie Rose, Heather in KS3, Jolene, Rachael and Regan in KS4 and Tanzila and Sandra in the 6th form.

Whole School Inclusive Rowing Event

On the 15th January a whole school inclusive rowing event is being held in school throughout the day. Pupils of all abilities will be taking part in specially modified rowing machines where needed, and targets and challenges will be set for pupils to achieve their personal best.

Key Stage 3

Key Stage 3 would like to welcome Mr O’Neil; he is our new Head of Department, we all hope you enjoy working with us.

Mr O’Neil thanked everyone for their very warm welcome to Key Stage 3. He is already enjoying working with and leading such a vibrant, exciting and positive department, where lots of learning takes place. He said both the students and staff are fantastic and together we make a great team.

Rochdale football in the community raised £220 some pupils raised enough to receive a prize.

Key Stage 4

For their Christmas trip 4L and 4B went to the cinema to watch Thor and then enjoyed a two course meal at Frankie and Benny’s. They raised money for the trip beforehand by selling brownies and jacket potatoes. They all really enjoyed themselves.

For their Christmas trips Bridging Year went to the Christmas Markets in Manchester and then to Pizza Hut for their lunch, although I’m hoping they did it on different days otherwise Dawn and Kirstie would have been extremely full (or greedy). They managed to buy some Christmas presents and have a thoroughly jolly time.

Miss Higginbottom has been working with the students in SEB, she says: "We’ve been food printing on the aprons we’ve made for the pupils to wear during our food tech lessons". The students really enjoyed themselves.

On the last day of term we held our Winter Creative day. Everyone joined in and it was great fun.

Here are the different themes we used: Inuits, the Russian Olympics, Hansel and Gretel, Winter Poetry, Snow globes and Penguins, Stags, Winter Stories and Charity.

Key Stage 5

Welcome back everyone, we hope you all enjoyed the Christmas break. Students have returned and settled straight back into their routines.

On Monday, the cookery and pottery group stayed back at school and took part in various activities. Ian, Fahad and Mark helped Carol sort out the Tesco delivery and unpack and put away the groceries. They also helped Carol prepare the lunch for the day. Carol said: “All three of them worked extremely hard and really worked well as a team, I appreciated their help especially with the groceries.”

This term every Wednesday as part of Vocational Education students from 5A and 5C will take part in Personal Life skills sessions with Debbie Johns from MENCAP.

The students will work on a variety of topics including personal money management, action planning and employability skills.

This week the group worked on money management skills and looked at the different types of account available to students.

On Wednesday Tom N, Thomas S and Kyle took part in the sports leadership workshop. The trio worked with Claire Cashmore (London double silver medallist swimmer) on Mental toughness, Hunger to achieve, People skills, Breaking barriers, Sports/life knowledge and Planning for success.

The group are preparing to assist with the delivery of the indoor rowing festival on Wednesday 15th January and helping to design an activity to deliver and manage at the Redwood Winter Olympics.

This afternoon a group of 4 students learnt about health and safety involving horse-riding. Ismah, Sandra, Ian and Rizwan will start the activity next week as part of their Sports options. This week they looked at appropriate clothing, health and safety and risk. The group are really looking forward to starting this exciting new sports option.

6th Form’s Pre-Internship group based at Rochdale Town Hall are working really hard on their programme. Follow the students and share in their experiences.

Name of Intern: Sandra Berry
1st Rotation Placement:-Catering Department, Rochdale Town Hall
Job role – My duties consist of helping to prepare food for functions that are held in the Town Hall, serving hot and cold food to customers who use the restaurant and cleaning and clearing tables.

Intern’s comments – “I have been taught how to work the dishwasher as well as washing up by hand. I’ve really enjoyed my job”.

Colleague comments – “Sandra has become more confident in the kitchen, and co-operates well with her work colleagues.”