Fairfield High School Newsletter
WINTER 2015
Christmas seems to have arrived again frighteningly quickly! It is no time at all since we were welcoming our new Year 7 students – all 110 of them, our biggest ever year group – and now they have already completed a term and are becoming “Fairfieldised” as Ofsted described it!
I like to think that “Fairfieldised” is a good thing – we hope that after five years our students leave us not only with great qualifications which will help them progress, but also with important qualities which make them lovely people, such as kindness, tolerance, respect, and enthusiasm. The Colleges tell us that they particularly recognise these qualities in our students and it is one of the things that make them so special.
Mr Kelly and Mrs Hart visited our ex-students at the Sixth Form College recently and it was lovely to hear how they are getting on and adjusting to the demands of the next phase in their education. We like to keep in touch with ex-students and staff, whether they are in Hereford or half way around the world!
We are saying goodbye this term to our Music Teacher Mr Withey. We wish him every success in the future. He will be replaced by Miss Sage, who will join us in January. Also leaving us is Mr Roden from Technology; again we hope the future has many good things in store for him. Mrs Clarke will be joining us for two terms to cover his teaching role.
I hope you will enjoy reading about the very many things that we have managed to pack into the term. My grateful thanks go to all the staff and governors, in whatever capacity, who work so hard to create new opportunities for our children both in and out of the classroom every day. We are also grateful for the support of parents, carers and friends and wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.
Sue Gaston
The eggstraordinary Year 7
English
LIBRARY WEEK Monday 9th November until Friday 13th of November.
In order to encourage use of the school library and participation in reading activities, the English Department
decided to hold an activity week based in the library. A variety of competitions were offered to encourage all
levels of participation and raise as much money as possible to be able to purchase new books and equipment.
The students were encouraged to have a go at all of the competitions on offer and they paid a nominal entry fee
to enter each competition. All of their correct entries were put into a draw for a series of prizes. All of the money
raised from this very successful venture will go towards purchasing new stock for the library.
The prize winners were as follows:
Sweets – Emily Rowland Hill Creepy Crossword – Fred Davies Creepy Quiz – Ruby Padian Number Nightmare – Pippy Jenkins Design a bookcover – Georgie Gaze Design a bookmark – Amber Kaye- Allen Congratulations to all of the winners.
We would like to thank all parents for giving the students the money to be able to participate. Special thanks are
extended to all of the Library Prefects and the Library Monitors for all of the time and effort they put into making
this a success.
In order to keep up the momentum and enthusiasm another Scholastic Book Sale has been organised in school,
for the last week in January / first week in February and we hope that all parents will enable their children to
participate in this venture. The library has benefitted from the purchase of £600 worth of books thanks to last
year’s sale and we hope we will be able to purchase even more books for our students to enjoy with funds raised
in the forthcoming sale.
Poetry by Heart: School Final
As is becoming quite the tradition here at Fairfield, KS4 students all
took part in the poetry recitation competition in their English lessons.
All students had to learn one poem from the Poetry by Heart
Anthology and recite it to their class ‘by heart’.
This year’s standard was extremely high from both Years 10 and 11. On
Friday, 20th November, we had the school final, where the class
winners had to recite not just one, but two poems to the rest of KS4.
The competition was fierce and incredibly close, but Fletch Garrard was crowned winner, with Harry Ball as a very
worthy runner-up. We will be heading to the regional finals at the start of the new year, so watch this space and
wish our winners luck!
Miss Worsfold
English GCSE English Literature has never been more tense or more
fun!
The whole of Year 10 and some of Year 11 went to see
Stephen Daldry’s incandescent staging of An Inspector Calls at
the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. The play is one of KS4’s
set texts and to actually get to see it being performed live was
an exciting opportunity. The imaginative staging of the
events—many taking place in a ‘dolls’ house’ on stage was
inspired and none of us will forget the coup de theatre of the
exploding table. Nor will we forget when it caught on fire and
had to be hosed down and the play held up for several
minutes!
Our students were impeccably behaved as ever—even though
we took over pretty much the entire upper circle—and a
pleasure to take on a trip.
Ms Conway
Fairfield students were chosen from thousands to work
with members of the RSC education department and 5
other schools to conduct research into how the hugely
popular live broadcasts of Shakespeare's plays could be
made even more accessible to school students. Three days
of hard work in Stratford –plus a visit the RSC theatre itself
to see Henry V from the best seats in the house—and
hours of more hard work in school (questionnaires,
Interviews, ballot boxes) in their spare time saw all of KS3
being asked their opinions and the ideas fed back in a
presentation to the RSC by our talented researchers,
Lorraine Waite, Viviana Hirkovska and Jodie Williams.
Following the actual broadcast itself which was seen by all
of year 7 and 8 last month, the girls undertook further
research using a graffiti wall to collect ideas and passed
these on to the team at Stratford. Perhaps not
surprisingly, the suggestion repeated the most often was
that the broadcasts were great but the students would
have like to seen the play in the real theatre! Over to you,
then RSC—send us the buses!
English and History
Ypres Trip: Part Two
In October, shortly after a number of Year 9 students had returned
from Ypres, Hannah Burgess, Fran Heeley and I had the opportunity to
join eleven other schools from Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to
go to Ypres one weekend.
This visit was funded by a government initiative and run by the
Institute of Education, University College London. Its aim is to enable
as many students and staff from schools across England to visit the
battlefields, as those who died in the First World War - over 800,000.
Over the course of the weekend, we visited a number of cemeteries,
museums and memorials. We were able to trace the story of a local
soldier from Herefordshire and see his name at Tyne Cot Cemetery,
which was quite a moving experience, having seen where he had
fought and died a hundred years before.
We were also very privileged to take part in Belgium’s art memorial to
the fallen, which will go on display in 2018. Similar to the poppies
installation at the Tower of London, Belgium is commissioning over
600,000 clay figures to represent the lives lost on Belgian soil during
World War 1. Hannah, Fran and myself each made a figure that will
have our names on, along with the name of a fallen soldier.
This was a fantastic experience for all three of us and is certainly not
one we shall forget. Miss Worsfold
History
Tyne Cot Cemetery Passchendaele
There are 11,962 Commonwealth servicemen of the
First World War buried or commemorated in Tyne
Cot Cemetery, sadly, 8,374 of the burials are
unidentified. The back wall of commemoration
contains another 35,000 names of soldier missing
the battlefield.
The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to the
missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area
known as the Ypres Salient. 54,395 names of missing
men from this area of fighting are recorded on its
panels. In the evening we took part in the Last Post
Ceremony at the Menin Gate where students laid a
wreath to the fallen and marked the event with a
minutes silence
Lochnagar Crater:
Blown at 7.28 1st July 1916 as a
prelude to the Battle of the Somme
Belgium 2015
During the autumn term 61 intrepid historians set out on a journey to learn about and experience the
battlefields of WW1. Here are a few of the places we visited.
Other places we visited and will leave us with
lasting memories were the Wellington tunnel
system under the city of Arras where soldiers had
been billeted in the weeks before the Battle of
Arras, visiting the Trench of Death and Sanctuary
Wood on the Ypres Salient and later visiting
Langemark, the German War Cemetery.
The visit to the Somme was particularly poignant
especially Beaumont Hamel and Ulster Tower and of
course the Thiepval Memorial which honours the
missing from the Battle of the Somme.
Finally the trip to Vimy Ridge, where the Canadian
regiments pushed back the Germans, using tunnels
and trenches through which the students had the
opportunity to walk.
Ethics—KS3
Islam and Martin Luther King
Through our theme of ‘Challenging Beliefs’
students in Year 8 and 9, explored the radical new
ideas of Muhammad and Martin Luther King. Year 8
focused on the events of Muhammad’s life and the
message he left his followers. We challenge the core
message of peace and compare that to the awful
misrepresentation of that in our current world.
Equally, in Year 9 the non-racist message of Martin
Luther King is sadly still relevant today as it was in
the USA in 1950s and 60s. Students explored how his
Christian beliefs inspired his message of equality for
all. To the left are a selection of Year 9 assessments
on MLK and his importance.
Exploring what Ethics means
Year 7 have begun their Ethics exploration by
researching what beliefs they and other people
hold. They considered first what they believed in
before finding out about the six main world
religions. We then explored what values we hold
and what goals we wish to follow. It has been a
truly fascinating journey so far. To end our unit
on ‘Challenging Beliefs’, all students had to
produce a piece of work titled ‘What ethics
means to me’. There were some truly amazing
pieces, some of which can be seen to the right —
well done everyone. We have now moved onto
our second theme of ‘Relationships, family and
friends’.
Geography
This term Year 7 have made a fantastic start by
studying the weather. Many have made their own
anemometers and have used these to investigate the best site to locate a bench around the school.
They have also treated us to fantastic cakes, raps and
animated stories, to name a few creative projects, on the water cycle.
‘Geographical’ cakes made by 2 very talented
young ladies!
Year 8 have been looking at tectonics and
have looked at the impact of recent tectonic
activity in Afghanistan.
Year 9 have studied population and have looked at
the recent migration across Europe. The causes and
impacts of what can arguably be called one of the
largest mass migrations in their life time.
KS3
Four students from Year 10 represented Fairfield gallantly
at the annual Geographical Association Quiz of secondary
schools in Herefordshire and Monmouthshire. They took
third place behind Hereford Cathedral and Monmouth
Boys schools.
KS4
Year 11 have been busy completing their controlled
assessment investigating the impact of tourism on the
Brecon Beacons National Park.
They visited both Brecon town and the Brecon Beacons
Visitor Centre where they were given a tour and a lecture
about management strategies by the National Park
Authority.
Science
What is light?
This term we took up the opportunity to take our new GCSE students and a few of our super Year 11
Triple scientists to visit Birmingham University where they were holding an event called ‘Lightfest’.
Our students were guided through workshops looking at a range of different properties and uses of
light. My favourites were what different wavelengths of sound look like when transformed into light
(picture left) and then finally a talk from Cambridge lecturer Professor Bill O’Neill discussing the
future of laser technology. He began his talk with the following idea:
Science is a creative subject and without creativity, Science might never progress...
Many of the questions this year continued to
stretch pupils. One round was based on Japan, here
are a few sample questions from that round.
(Answers can be found at the bottom of the page)
1) What is the tallest mountain in Japan?
2) What is the most watched sport in Japan?
3) What is the biggest company in Japan?
4) What does Nipon mean?
5) Japan is the 15th most forested in the world.
What percentage of Japan is covered of Japan is
covered in forest?
Geographical Association Quiz
Quiz Answers
1) Mt Fuji
2) Baseball
3) Toyota
4) Land of the rising sun
5) 65%
Mathematics
Year 7 Mathematicians
We would like to congratulate all of Year 7 for
their excellent start in Mathematics at Fairfield
High School.
We are looking forward to them achieving success
in the Junior Maths Challenge (JMC) in 2016.
Please try the question below from a previous
Junior Maths Challenge:
Which of the following is divisible by all of the
integers from 1 to 10 inclusive?
A) 23 x 34
B) 34 x 45
C) 45 x 56
D) 56 x 67
E) 67 x 78
DEPARTMENT NEWS
The new Maths Board
We will keep students informed about important events
in Maths and provide regular puzzles and important
formula on our new Maths Board. We are happy for
students to contribute their own problem solving
questions and they will be changed every half term.
My Maths
The department have subscribed to MyMaths which is an
online maths help resource for all students at Fairfield. It
provides extra help in the form of a lesson and plenty of
practise on all topics in KS3 and KS4. To log in, students
will need to use the Username: Fairfield 85 and
Password: nine. Please go to www.mymaths.co.uk to
access this resource.
A lot more emphasis is on problem solving within the
new curriculum. Can you solve this problem?
Mrs Jones and Mr Evans had a race over 100m. Mrs
Jones won by 10 metres. Mr Evans demanded a
rematch but this time Mrs Jones gave Mr Evans a
head start. She began 10 metres behind the starting
line. Both ran at the same pace as they did before,
who will win and by how far?
Mathematics is not just about numbers and equations: it is about understanding.
MFL
SPANISH
Our students have had a busy term taking
part in our European Day of Languages Quiz
against students from Kingstone. They have
also been exchanging letters and cultural
posters with Pedro de Luna High School in
Zaragoza, Spain, having been visited by their
Spanish teacher Elvira García.
The Year 8s did an excellent job making
masks for “el Día de los Muertos” Latin
American celebration.
FRENCH—Y10 GCSE French students recently
enjoyed a French breakfast to conclude their
Module on ‘French food’. Miam! Miam!
Food Technology
Cadbury World
Year 10 visited Cadbury World on the 27 November as
part of the GCSE Food Technology course. They were
given the opportunity to look at examples of different
methods of production and different types of Industrial
equipment. They were also given a demonstration on
tempering
chocolate.
Decorated Cupcake Competition
Students entered a competition to decorate four
cupcakes to their chosen theme. First prize was
awarded to Fiona Reynolds in Year 11 who won a
voucher from Lakeland.
Special congratulations go to the following stu-
dents for winning Cook of the Month during the
Autumn term. They are pictured with their prize.
September Emily Freeman & Conrad Gardner
October Poppy Sullivan & Lucy Faulkner-Elliot
November Lewis Lloyd & Molly Watts
Sweet & Biscuit Tins
The Food Technology Department would be
grateful to receive any donations from the
Christmas period of sweet or biscuits tins. These
are incredibly useful within
the department.
Design & Technology
Year 7 have had a very busy start to Design and Technology. This term the
students have each completed a metalwork project by making a coat hook
from scratch. New skills include cutting, drilling, filing, brazing and finally
spray painting the mild steel used for this project. As can be seen from
the photographs the standard of craft skills is very high amongst our Year
7 students. The next project will build on the practical skills gained, with
the introduction of design work where students are asked to research and
develop their own ideas through sketching before they move into the
workshop. I am sure they will be as successful with their own design
ideas.
Engineering
The year 11’s are currently completing
the first of two Controlled Assessment
Tasks (CAT’s) —’Engineer a product’.
This has involved planning, designing
and finally building a product to a given
client brief. The clients in this case are
all members of staff!
It has been a very busy term for the
engineers and they have risen to the
challenge. It is a very practical CAT and
many of them have had to learn new
skills along the way, such as using the
Boxford High Speed Router which is a
computer controlled machine (CNC) or
more traditional equipment such as the
milling machine.
Music
The Music department has been very busy this term
with the Year 11 students beginning to record their
coursework compositions and Key Stage 3 working
very hard on the Christmas concert.
If you are interested in learning an instrument then
make sure you speak to the Music department, we
have a huge range of lessons on offer from Drumming
and Guitar to Singing and even Synthesizing.
Orchestra and Choir rehearse most lunch times so
Physical Education The PE department have been incredibly busy so far this term, with many students attending
extracurricular clubs, representing the school teams and playing in interhouse matches.
If you haven't attended a club then make sure you check the noticeboards for the latest
information and come along and have a go. For more information on clubs speak to one of the
PE department.
Rugby
Rugby participation has rocketed this year and the results have been much more pleasing than were achieved
by the home nations in the RWC. A large number of boys have either attended Rugby club or participated in a
school fixture and this hard work and commitment has been reflected in their results.
Year 7s: The Year 7s are rugby mad and we have been lucky enough to enter two teams in the recent 12 aside
tournaments hosted by Luctonians, Bromyard and Hereford Rugby Clubs. The results have been spectacular
with Fairfield coming third in the first tournament and runners up in the following two, beating schools such as
Bishops, Whitecross and Cathedral along the way. Future stars in the making!!
Year 8s: After their success at 12 aside level the Year 8s were entered into the
league and they certainly didn't disappoint. After coming off 17-0 at half time
against Hereford Academy, a game they went on to win 29-17, the Year 8s
went from strength to strength and have only lost 2 matches all season with
one being a thrilling encounter against Weobley in their semi-final match , a
first ever semi final for Fairfield at this age group but one of many for this team
in years to come.
Year 10s: The Year 10s competed well in the league but were unlucky to miss
out on a semi-final spot on points scored. The squads most memorable
performance, and victory 27-16, was against local rivals Kingstone which was a
thrilling game to watch with some fast paced rugby and great attacking flair.
Year 11s: Due to the restructuring of the leagues and rules this year many
schools decided not to enter teams in the league and this meant only friendlies
were available. The squad was raw, with many never having played a competitive match before but after a few
training sessions the boys soon found their flow with a draw against Kingstone and two very convincing wins
against Academy and Earl Mortimer.
Physical Education
Interhouse
Interhouse has been hotly contested this term with large numbers of students competing in
Rugby, Dodgeball, and Netball.
Football Mashup
Strong numbers continue at Football mashup with coach, Tom
Mason, very impressed with the girl’s developments. The club is
every Wednesday 3:30-4:30pm and new members are always
welcome.
Futsal
The football season will commence after Christmas but students have
already began to work on their skills through Futsal. All teams have
done very well and are on track to qualify for the county semi-finals
Fencing
An exciting new fencing club started this
term and the uptake in Year 9 has been
fantastic. We are looking to expand the
club to all students in 2016, if you are
interested in joining this club please
speak to Mr Lloyd.
Physical Education Trips
The PE
Department
have run
two
fantastic
trips this term that allowed over 60 students to experience some
international standard Rugby and Football; Gloucester vs Barbarians
and England vs Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Students at the Gloucester match were extremely lucky, not only
were they able to witness many world cup stars, they were also
invited to act as flag bearers which meant they got to walk on the
Kingsholm pitch. One extremely lucky student, Will Phillips, was
chosen to be match mascot and walked out with the
Gloucester captain at the start of the match.
Cross-Country
Some fantastic performances in the Herefordshire cross-
country race, Blake Corry (Yr9) came 3rd in the Inter boys
event, and Patrick Morgan (Yr7) came 3rd in the Year 7 event.
Netball
This term we have been very busy with Netball! The girls
have travelled far and wide, playing enthusiastically in the
county leagues and tournaments.. Practices have regularly
had 40-50 girls and their commitment was shown with the
inter-house competitions towards the end of term where
over 80 girls participated. The final result of the inter-
house competition is as follows;
KS 3 1ST Dore 2nd Escley 3rd Monnow 4th Olchon
KS 4 1ST Monnow 2nd Escley 3rd Dore
Well done to ALL girls who have enjoyed their Netball this
term, there is more to come next year, starting with the first
Netball practice on Thursday 28th January.
For all the latest fixtures, sporting action and other news make sure you follow the
school twitter account @FairfieldHS
Animal Care
Animal Care
It has been a busy few months for the Fairfield
animals. The bearded dragon has moved into a new
room on the top floor of the old house. At the end of
last term the alpacas were sheared . Animal Care
students Alex and Adam Evans assisted with the
shearing. In September we had a visit to our
afterschool animal care class by several snakes,
spiders and lizards all of whom were handled by the
students for their practical assessment. We are
currently just completing the Animal Handling Unit
on the BTEC course and students have been
handling various animals including a dog for
grooming, the goats who have been handled and
restrained for a walk, guinea pigs and chickens. The
sheep have just returned from the
ram so hopefully we will have
lots of spring lambs in a couple of
months time.
BTEC Child Care
On 15th October 2015 the Golden Valley Preschool visited
Fairfield High School.
As part of their BTEC Child Care course the students needed to
Plan , Prepare and Evaluate a Healthy Cooking Session with Children
aged 3 -5 years.
The students were very good with the children, explaining what to
do, were very patient, and let the children pour, stir, grate etc.
They made sure they were safe and the children knew what to do
and helped them if they were unsure.
Once the muffins were ready to cook we moved to a different room
for food tasting. There was a large array of fruit for the children to
try and some of the students really got involved asking the children
to shut their eyes, if they liked it, what it tasted like etc.
Once the tasting had finished, the muffins were cooked
and we were given them to take back to preschool. The
children ate some for snacks and each took one home.
It was a lovely morning for the preschool children and
staff. It was well thought out and we would love to visit
again.