March 2008


New growing green project

Posted 20-03-08

New Growing Green Project
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The Science and Technology Departments were lucky enough to secure a grant to help fund new school projects, after talking to the Eco group it was decided to use some of the money to set up an organic gardening club. To give us space and a little help with the English weather we bought a 14ftx50ft polytunnel which could be sited next to the tennis courts. A general request went out to the whole school (students, teachers and parents) for help. What a fantastic response we got. On a cold, blustery Saturday morning I arrived at school about 9.30am to find three teachers already there. Over the whole day we were joined by some 16 members of staff, 30+ students and 15 or so parents. We packed up at about 4.30pm after a lot of hard work and puzzling over very strange instructions!

We hadn’t finished but the high winds made that impossible to get the plastic on. With a bit more help and a quiet Saturday we hope to finish the polytunnel by the end of March.

Some twenty raised beds have already been adopted by students and teachers across the year groups and they will be deciding what to grow over the next few months. To help us all with ideas and information we’ve joined the Duchy Originals “Garden Organic for Schools” and the RHS, so watch this space - you may be sampling organic fruit with a low carbon foot print in a few months.

Youth Speaks

Posted 20-03-08

The Rotary Club of Aylesbury has, for many years, supported a public speaking competition for young people called ‘Youth Speaks’. The competition is aimed at secondary school students and gives them the opportunity to utilise, in a more professional and formal situation, the public speaking skills they have learnt at school. More importantly, however, it gives them the chance to publicly air their views about the world today in a considered, thoughtful fashion. The Rotary Club cite amongst their objectives the encouragement of ‘high ethical standards in business and professions’ and ‘the advancement of international understanding, goodwill and peace’. As such, this seems to us to be an ideal forum within which to extend our students’ experiences of public speaking and, for the past few years, Waddesdon CE School has successfully entered teams.

The standards of the competition are high and involve a very formal arrangement of teams which must each include a chairperson, main speaker and a proposer of the vote of thanks. This year we were delighted to have three teams who were keen to enter, one from year 12 and two from year 11. Part of the skill of the competition is to find teams who work together well. They need to be able to share ideas for each of the three speeches, support each other in writing them, listen to practice, give and receive constructive criticism and generally remain positive during all the hard work and inevitable last minute panic – no small challenge! All of our teams this year have worked incredibly hard, using up umpteen lunch breaks and after school sessions, to put together extremely heartfelt messages. One speech concerned the rise in child on child violence in our world today; one discussed the devastating effects on ordinary teenagers of the size zero fashion amongst celebrities and models; the last challenged the disparity in our responses to child deaths, comparing the huge media response to individual tragedies in the west with the lack of coverage given to deaths caused by extreme poverty in the third world. Each speech was well researched, carefully written and most powerfully delivered and the students proved themselves capable of a truly astounding standard of public speaking. We are incredibly proud of these young people who not only see so clearly what is wrong in our world today, but have the skills, confidence and charisma to deliver their messages with such force.

Each of the teams received high commendation from the judges. Our B Team achieved a place in the semi-final but unfortunately, due to illness, was forced to decline this opportunity. Our A Team won the District Final and was finally beaten (narrowly!) in Cambridge on Saturday 8th March. Their astounding achievement does credit to the school as they have effectively highlighted its values of integrity, honesty and passion for what is right. They have given a wonderful example of how to work as a team, supporting each other through thick and thin, dealing with problems positively and with gentle humour and behaving at all times with a maturity which puts most adults to shame. I feel very privileged to have worked with them and am looking forward, enormously, to seeing them take their presentation forward to the next round.

Sixth Form Open Evening

Posted 03-03-08

Waddesdon CE School will be hosting an open evening for prospective sixth form students seeking entry in September 2008 on Wednesday 19th March from 7.30 – 9.00 p.m. This is an opportunity to find out more about the Waddesdon Sixth Form, where we offer a wide range of AS, A-Levels and Applied A-Levels.

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Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Posted 10-01-08

Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
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The school performances of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat were a sell-out success and a fitting tribute to everyone’s hardwork over the five months of preparation. Live music and song, lighting, sets, dance and stagecraft were combined in to an enthralling spectacle which transported the audience into the world of the Biblical story, with sustained top quality entertainment from the huge cast throughout. Congratulations and very well done to everyone who took part.

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