Thank you!

A big thank you to all our parents/carers, teachers, support staff and pupils for the amazing work you have done.

We’re incredibly proud of the huge effort of the whole community; our students have been outstanding in their attitude and behaviour, attendance has been exceptionally high and they are striving to be the best they can be.
Our priorities for our students will continue to be:

• to have the very best educational experience possible, in an environment that will be as familiar as possible and safe.
• their physical and emotional well-being.
• that they continue to have the highest aspirations and expectations of themselves.

As we are now in this next phase of easing lockdown, we must be mindful of our duty to keep everyone safe.

We will continue to work with all our school community and provide opportunities for additional support wherever this is needed, both educationally and emotionally.

Fantastic to be reunited with one another this week in our classrooms – all together.

Cannot wait for next week!

#BackToSchool #awesome #community #resilience #MentalHealthMatters

Best wishes
Rob Pearsall

A tribute to our students – Year7 Castle Project – YouTube

Mrs Withey has made a video presentation celebrating the work that Year 7 completed during the last few lessons of remote learning -about medieval castles. Unfortunately, due to the sheer volume of work completed each week. We haven’t been able to show everything, but this seems a fitting tribute to the hard work and endeavour of all our students as we return to face-to-face learning on site. Mrs Withey explains:

“Year 7 History students in my class were given the opportunity to show their understanding of medieval castles through a creative consolidation task. Having chosen a suitable site and completed a budget task, students were asked to create their own medieval castle design for William the Conqueror. I was delighted with the tremendous effort and enthusiastic responses taken by Year 7 Berra students and produced a short presentation film showcasing their drawings and models. (They only had three lessons to complete this work).”

Well done Year 7!

Please click on the link below to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzVVqHF-nmw

Mrs Withey

John O’Groats Charity Challenge

Mrs Kent has been coordinating a staff charity event, there is an update below but I would like to thank the staff for embracing this challenge with such energy. It’s a cause very close to our hearts and there is link to our school resources for mental health that follows this article.

In less than 4 days, Plymstock School Staff have run/cycled over 500 miles. On Thursday afternoon, they were “virtually” just outside Glasgow. What an achievement!

If you would like to sponsor Plymstock School staff and donate to Devon Mind, please follow the link below:

Thank you
Mrs Kent

https://fundraise.devonmind.com/plymstock-school

Mental health and well-being remain at the heart of our school development plan this year and if you haven’t had time, please do explore the wealth of resources, links and support on offer on our website here.

https://plymstockschool.org.uk/mental-health-and-wellbeing/

and this presentation: https://plymstockschool.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Mental-Health-Return-to-School-Student.pdf

Mr Yendell
Deputy Headteacher

Students of the week

All our nominees have demonstrated Endeavour, Resilience and Empathy; Plymstock School students striving to “Be the best you can be”.

This week’s winners

In Year 7:

• Seth C has been nominated by his Head of Year, Mrs Kirk for being amazing and kind to others in OSP.

In Year 8:

• Darcy A has been nominated by Miss Grainger. “Darcy epitomises resilience. Despite some setbacks at the beginning of lockdown, Darcy has persevered and worked incredibly hard in all her subjects. She is always full of positivity and eager to do her best”.

In Year 9:

• Ellie A has been nominated by Mrs Hawker for her positive attitude to the work we did this week. Well done Ellie. You have been a star!

In Year 10:

• Ellie F has been nominated by Mrs Parish for her great work in English lessons.

In Year 11:
Lucie F has been nominated by Mrs Smith, Assistant Head of Year 11. Mrs Smith explains “I wanted to email to recognise Lucie for her attitude towards her future goals specifically her Post 16 Options. I spoke with Lucie today via Teams for an hour and despite tech issues she resolved the issue and we continued.

She was selected personally by me, due to her ability to talk confidently.

This meeting was recorded for the purpose of my course work observations.

Lucie understood the importance of this and was so respectful in answering all questions fully; she was a credit. I would have her as my apprentice!

A worthy winner this week, well done Lucie!

Headteacher’s Personal Achievement Award

I was delighted to receive the following nomination from Miss Hogben for Annie S in Year 10 and Max P in Year 11:
Nominated for their exceptional contributions to the HOGWARDS page on the library website. Throughout both Lockdowns these two students have constantly updated their notes and produced some fantastic work. Their consistency and dedication have been really appreciated.

You can view our virtual library page here: Your text to link…

Book reviews – there are many book reviews sprinkled across the site, however, this page has most reviews and enables students to still feel connected with the librarians and their book choices!

https://sites.google.com/plymstockschool.co.uk/library/what-shall-i-read-next?authuser=0

Well done to both these students for their outstanding contribution to this fantastic literacy resource.

Year 10 Religious Studies classes

I would like to share some excellent work from the two Year 10 Religious Studies classes which myself and Mrs Slade are really impressed with. For the last lesson in remote learning, we began looking at Christian celebrations and the students engaged in some ‘flipped learning’. Students were provided with resources and asked to use these as well as doing their own research to create a blog on Shrove Tuesday and Lent.

We had some great submissions – perhaps incentivised by the promise of Easter egg prizes for the best blogs. Many students embraced the creative aspect of the task and produced some excellent work. We want to say well done and thank you to all the students who created blogs and we have attached some pictures of the winning blogs by Maddy, Leo and Annie. We have also attached some other good blogs by Tia, Dulcie and Beth!

Miss Burston

Initial Teacher Training (ITT) – Trainee Profile

For the next few weeks, we would like to share the experiences of our associate teachers, who have been training with us through our partnership with The Learning Institute South West.

Mr Chick, Assistant Head teacher

This week, the spotlight is on Miss Burston, who is training within the Religious Studies Department.

This academic year has been unpredictable for all; however, I am pleased I decided to embark on my teacher training all the same! Plymstock School and The Learning Institute (TLI) have strived to support me and ensure I get the most out of training, providing lots of opportunities to develop my teaching practice during these unprecedented times. I am particularly grateful for the support from my School Based Mentor, Visiting Tutor, my placement school ITT Co-ordinator and the TLI ITT Programme Director.

I am fortunate to have been in school since the end of September, supporting students in the class and delivering short teaching episodes within the first few weeks. As we moved towards Christmas this increased at a suitable pace to team-teaching, delivering longer teaching episodes and teaching full lessons. During remote learning I was able to transition the skills I have developed so far to teaching online, presenting me with new opportunities to learn and further develop my teaching practice.

I thoroughly enjoy delivering the schemes of work taught in Religious Studies & EPiC which cover a breadth of engaging topics which reflect relevant and contemporary issues within society. Lessons are taught with passion and shaped around the needs of students; it is clear to see how much students enjoy these lessons from their positive engagement.

Plymstock School is a wonderful school and community to be part of and I am grateful to be training in such a supportive and welcoming environment. I am thankful to have had the help and support from the wider Humanities department, especially throughout remote learning, who have offered guidance and reassurance throughout this challenging time.

I would thoroughly recommend training with The Learning Institute (TLI) to those looking at pursuing Initial Teacher Training.

Well done to all who were nominated this week:

All our nominees have demonstrated Endeavour, Resilience and Empathy; Plymstock School students striving to “Be the best you can be”.

In Year 8:

• Isabel D has been nominated by Miss Grainger. Izzy created some fantastic English work during the remote learning period. She worked incredibly hard and always has a positive attitude to learning.
• The following have been nominated by Mrs White for the amazing carbon cycle diagrams that they drew during our blended science lesson on Wednesday.
• Owen B, Cerys C, Abigail E, Ella K, Mia L, Amy P, Violet R, Jacob W.
• Indie E and Grace P have been nominated for producing great classwork by Mrs Parish

In Year 10:

• Ana D has been nominated by Mrs Parish for her positive attitude in English lessons.
• Mrs Wilkins nominated Amy Gould for amazing work in GCSE History and returning to school with a positive attitude
• Iuan P, nominated by his Head of Year Mr Wyatt for the resilience he has shown in coming to OSP and returning to school.
• Joel G, nominated by Miss Grainger as he has demonstrated an excellent attitude to learning during remote education and had a great week back this week. I am really impressed with his dedication to his English work.
• Ryan C nominated by Mrs White for his brilliant work during his chemistry lesson on Thursday.

In Year 11:

• Louis W has received two nominations this week:
• Miss Reeve explains: “Louis has produced such wonderful course work during the lock down. He has been totally on the case and has made me extremely proud of the work he has produced. In today’s lesson, I asked if I could use his course work as an exemplar example to my other year 11s. They were also very impressed to hear that Louis has moved up a whole two levels above his original target grade! It is students like this that makes my job so wonderful”.
• And… A nomination from Mrs Wilkins for amazing work in GCSE History and returning to school with a positive attitude. Well done Louis.
• Mia McG-P has been nominated by Mrs Tendell for showing resilience and patience on her return to school.
• HarleyH has been nominated by Mrs Parish for a positive attitude in English lessons.

Careers@PlymstockSchool

Careers Insight – This week we focus on Customer Service!

Any company that deals with the public needs a customer service department to answer customers’ questions and address any problems they are having. It can be available via email, web, text message, and social media.

Did you know…. 59% of 25–34-year olds share poor customer experiences online, meaning that more and more companies are investing in their customer service departments, frequently using online platforms and social media to respond to customer complaints.

• Are you an outgoing person who likes talking to people?
• Do you like the idea of helping people resolve their problems?
• Can you stay polite and pleasant even when dealing with difficult situations?

A career in Customer Service could be for you.

Find out more in this week’s Careers Insight below

Many thanks
Careers Team

Updates and Guidance during the Covid Pandemic

We have updated our website one stop support page, the link: https://plymstockschool.org.uk/advice-and-guidance-during-the-covid-pandemic/

Here you will find copies of all relevant information that we send home via MyEd. This includes important links to the comprehensive support young people can access for mental health and well-being.