A big welcome back to our Year 10 and Year 12 students this week!

The picture above is from our blog on 31 January, showing a group of Year 10 and 12 students who had recently represented Plymstock School at the ‘Plymstock Youth Parliament’. Different times but a reminder that our students are very much at the heart of our community.

We were delighted to welcome back our Year 10 and Year 12 students this week! It was fantastic to see them returning to school, and eager to catch up with their friends and teachers. We are proud of how they adapted to working from home in a difficult situation. One of the many messages from our staff has summarised this:

“Morning all, it was my first day back yesterday, and I would just like to say how well organised everything was, and also the Yr10s that we had in were fab, didn’t really need reminding about the 2m rule, break time was great, a few of the lads were kicking the ball to each other, but again didn’t need reminding, had some lovely conversations with the students, and felt good to see them again. Our YR10 in zone 3 were a credit to us. Hope you are all ok.”

Without the hard work of the staff and the site team this would not have been possible, so I should like to take this opportunity to thank them once again for their efforts over the last few weeks. Much has been accomplished from setting up face to face learning to making the site safe for students to return to.

Miss Evans loved welcoming her Year 10 class back (picture below) and I hope this picture shows even with the Social Distancing, our classes soon brought much needed warmth, laughter and energy to our empty rooms.

Thank you also to parents, carers and students for all your hard work setting up school at home and completing distance learning; communicating with school when help has been needed; and now supporting the Y10s and Y12s with their return to school. The many messages we have received are very welcomed, I’ve included a couple from the many of our work together.

“Thank you to all the staff at Plymstock School for all your hard work setting up home learning, communicating with parents and now supporting the Y10s with their one day a week in school. Good luck organising everything for September and beyond.” Year 10 Parent

“We thank you so much for all the school have done to reach out, provide the impossible and do it with humanity, good humour and a sense of family and community. I have many friends with young people in lots of other schools and I can honestly say Plymstock is shining like a beacon. This attitude and energy will always come primarily from leadership down. You and your team should count this as one of your greatest achievements. Ever. We pray for you regularly and hope that you are able to look after yourselves too”.

Thinking of you all, and grateful from the bottom of our hearts for what you are doing for our precious children.” Year 7 Parent

Community Spirit during lock down

Miss Robb received the following letter this week. It demonstrates the true sense of community that Plymstock School is all about. I’m sure that you will agree with me that all streets and towns throughout the country could do with one of these mobile tuckshops at the moment. What a brilliant idea. Well done Joe!

The email from Joe’s mum explains:

“Hi Miss Robb

Thought you like to see some pictures.”

Joe is Miss Robb’s student of the week for his mobile tuck shop.

Transitions, Year 7 to 8

Miss Robb has been continuing her work getting to know her new year group. As part of that work she has been running a competition for Year 7 for the past week.

“I gave them three photos of a place I visited and they had to guess where I was. I have had literally hundreds of guesses, replying to each one and there were 53 students who got the right answer.

So the answer was Mount Vesuvius and the winner is Rudy-Jack Ryan.
I’ve been overwhelmed and very touched by the enthusiasm Year 7 have shown.

I can’t wait to meet them all. The next competition will be set on ShowMyHomework on Friday afternoon. Rudy-Jack can expect a little prize in the post.

Can I also have a mention for Billy who sent me a wonderful letter and photo telling me all about himself. He obviously put a lot of thought into it and it was so lovely to receive.

Miss Robb (New Head of Year 7, September’s Year 8

Edu-care

Edu-care numbers continue to grow, and all students working within this setting are studying hard and putting in a lot of effort. As you will see from the pictures above.

” Another busy week in Eco Educare, with the students working extremely hard to produce some excellent work. Joel and Freddy in Year 7 have produced some fantastic literacy work, Charlie has worked hard on a music project and Mimi has been brilliant at welcoming a new student, as well as producing some really good Maths work.

The Year 10 students have worked well and even managed an outdoor Maths lesson with Mr MK Taylor- Colby was particularly impressive! Mr Foot has kept us all fit and healthy with socially distanced PE and we have been impressed by Finlay’s travel and Tourism work, Harry’s Maths and Jake’s Science.

Millie has produced some excellent Geography work, as well as supporting a new student. Mr Steward ran a careers session which was helpful and inspiring- we’ve had lots of conversations about next steps with our older students. Amy in Year 7 has shared a picture she’s really proud of after weeks of practice. Archie did some interesting Science experiments with Mrs Rice, involving some planes. We’ve also started a group read which is keeping us busy.

We are working on a secret group art project and all will be revealed in next week’s blog!”

Mrs Summers

Freddy, Millie and Mimi have all been nominated as students of the week by the staff who worked with them. They’ve been brilliant and worked really hard.

All work and no play! Our students’ messages from lockdown

Working and Learning at home

Year 10 Head of Year nomination

Ms Harris is very proud of Emily (pictured below) because she is working hard on her studies, displaying a positive ‘can do’ attitude. She always has her head down working as her aim is to get her dream job as a paramedic. Emily has been a member of the St John Ambulance since she was 8 years old and has completed many long hours volunteering. She is the only cadet in her group to have done 50 plus hours of volunteering last year. As a result, she was awarded two cups and a shield. She also achieved her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh last year. Fantastic community spirit Emily!

A worthy student of the week for your resilience, hard work and empathy for others. Well done Emily

Mr Grieveson and Jordan’s #Challenge59

Mr Grieveson (our Premises Manager) and his partner’s son Jordan Anderton took part in #Challenge59 on Sunday 14th June.

Here is what he told us about it: “On Sunday 14th June 2020 I supported my partner’s son Jordan Anderton in his #Challenge59. Many of you will remember Jordan’s mum, Amanda, who used to work at Plymstock School. Jordan basically planned to run 59 miles in a day in shuttles with a drink and food breaks at various points throughout the day. In a moment of madness I volunteered my services to cycle alongside him for 12 miles with refreshments and offer motivation and support!! This was no mean feat as I have not ridden a bike since 2012…..

Below is a little background as to why Jordan took up this challenge. Any donations to his JustGiving page would be gratefully appreciated. Mike Grieveson”

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Jordan-Anderton-VLM

Mr Bellamy’s run

Despite a very dreary and rainy day, socially distanced members of staff and ex students as well as current students and parents were out and about in Plymstock to wish Mr Bellamy good luck with his 42 mile run. He succeeded in his endeavours and we congratulate him on his achievement. Photographs below of the man who nearly broke @PlymstockS Twitter last week. A fantastic achievement.

Mr Bellamy wrote to me to express how he now feels.

Can I just say a huge thank you to yourself for the thumbs up last week. I found the middle section pretty tough going and if it wasn’t for the students, colleagues and friends that ran near me or the beeps, waves and cheers from the community, I would have really struggled to complete it. Just because I was struggling didn’t mean I was failing!

Neil

Distance Learning

Computing/ICT

Lara in Year 7 has been nominated as a “Student of the week”. Pictures below of her work. Miss Reeves said, “Every week she diligently completes her work to a fabulous standard. I have awarded her many “Superstar” badges on SMH and this week, I would like to share some of her work with the rest of the Plymstock community.”

Amy in Year 9 chose to research and produce work on Tommy Flowers. She worked hard to write it up neatly and coloured in a jazzy border to make it stand out. Ms Reeves said, “She is a super star and definitely a ‘Student of the Week’!”

Art

This week’s gallery contributions come from Miss Clarke who wanted to share with you some of the fantastic art work that students have been doing at home.
The images below are a selection of work from students in Key Stage 3.

Many thanks to Ella and Nat in Year 7, Annie, Jessica and Neve in Year 8 (pictured is Neve’s sleep paralysis Demon), in Year 9 we love Annie’s Frida Kahlo Self Portrait and in addition, the work from Lexie and Megan in Year 10, for their contributions.

Miss Clarke has nominated Jessica in Year 8 as “Student of the Week”, pictured below are her drawings of Lydia and her monster Leathor.

We have many very talented students.

I’m still standing, yeah, yeah, yeah

Ms Wakeham sent in the following letter and piece of work that she was sent:
Emilia – lockdown diary

“Hello Miss,
So sorry it is quite late but this is my art homework for this week. I made it earlier in lockdown but I think it show cases lockdown perfectly from its videos of my exercise to the crazy and funny shots of me. I made it originally to cheer people up in lockdown however think it is a perfect representation. Also the silly shots designed to make people laugh show the craziness of the situation. I hope this is ok.”

Emilia is Ms Wakeham’s ‘Student of the Week’ for her fantastic video, to Elton John’s “I’m still standing”! It’s amazing and very energetic! Thank you Emilia for sharing this with Ms Wakeham and myself.

Finally, Mr Hurd-Thomas has nominated Lucy, one of his Year 10 artists as a ‘Student of the Week’.

During lockdown Lucy was asked to draw a friend’s dogs and this has led to other people requesting commissions for portraits of their dogs. They are quite brilliant. She also does some really funky digital dog stuff too, which is shown below.

The original photographs of these lovely dogs are also shown below for you to compare. How amazingly talented is Lucy? I’m sure she will be asked for many more commissions!

If you wish to find out more. Lucy’s mum acts as an admin on her Facebook page, ‘Pawtraits & Illustrations’

“http://www.facebook.com/Pawtraits-Illustrations-103930114673731/

MFL

Last week, Mrs Richards set the dual linguist German group a treasure hunt task around their home and/or garden. “There were lots of really good ones and it was hard to narrow them down, but here are the best four and each student has been made a “Student of Week”: Thomas who made a video! Spike, Ellie and Emilia (all will get prizes on our return to school)

Highly commended for the time and effort put into finding interesting objects for the treasure hunt: Nell, Molly, Zara, Phoebe, Charlie, Poppy, Jessie, Jess, Jakob and Evie.

Miss Ellis has nominated Rocco in 8Yealm for “His continued efforts and success in French. I’m really impressed with how hard he is working.” This is the piece of work which he recently completed. Well done. Great effort Rocco!

Y9 German:

This week we practised speaking skills and students had to submit a recording. I know how weird and embarrassing it is to record yourself, so would like to thank the students who have done it so far and made such a good job of it :). Special mentions to Rosie, Niks and Poppy for developing longer, linked sentences and including examples of connectives and word order learned previously, and to Fern and Polly for lovely natural sounding pieces which really demonstrated the week’s learning.

In Year 8 French, students had some fairly difficult listening to do, which is tough without the normal classroom support. So a big well done to those who have full marks so far (including Brooklyn, Oceana, Charlotte, Jack, …these are just the ones Ms Baker has marked so far) I know there will be others coming in and that Mr Watteau and Mrs Duff are also marking them – the deadline has not yet passed for submitting so keep sending them in!

#DefiCrepes – check out @MsBakerMFL on Twitter for more mouthwatering photos of our entries to the Linguascope pancake challenge. You have until 26th June to send in your entries.

Y12 German

I was delighted to get back to some proper face to face teaching this week in school with Y12 German. It was a relief to be more normal! Mrs Richards and I also had a mini tutorial on Teams with the students to practise speaking – it felt odd, was a bit disjointed, but was lovely to interact a bit more with our students.

Mrs Kent has nominated Lorcan as student of the week for Year 10 French for 8 Quizlet Live wins. Well done Locan

D&T

Winner of the cooking at home competition

Miss Stevenson has sent in the results of the cooking competition, which we mentioned in last week’s blog. Contestant number 4 was our winner of round 1. Round 2 is going to be a demonstration of presentation skills. This amazing creation and worthy winner is pictured below.

Mrs Worley was very impressed with Demi’s efforts this week. “The work pictured below was optional; however Demi put in exceptional effort and impressed me with the level of detail. Every week she puts in a lot of effort.”

Nat in Year 7 impressed Miss Pring this week, with a really detailed and superbly presented piece of research work on the designer Philippe Starck.

Miss Pring also nominated the following students in Year 9:

“Lizzie produced great work on researching 2 different architects, Frank Lloyd Wright and Jeanne Gang – she only needed to do one but completed the optional task as well.”

“Isaac – again, like Lizzie, completed some great work on researching different architects – Renzo Piano and Cesar Pelli. He completed both by hand and presented the information beautifully. Very detailed information and completed the optional task too.”

“Melanie produced a fantastic mindmap on the brief set for this half term’s project. She was very insightful, even considering social distancing measures in her ideas, as well as access for all including wheelchair users.”

“Jack conducted a great piece of research on the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. His research was very detailed and well-presented including some images of his famous designs.”

EPiC – Spirited Arts Project

Mrs Slade has sent me a piece of work by Demi in Year 8, her nomination for “Student of the Week”. She was chosen for her work on the spirited arts project – a creative design and superb work and skill. Well done Demi.

Demi described her work below:
“This is my project the base represents the Earth and the trees represent the wild life and animals on Earth. The bottle filled with plastic shows pollution on Earth and the recycle sign made out of paper represents that we should recycle our rubbish. The drawing of the brain is above the recycling sign because we cause pollution and the brain represents humans. Lastly the Eden tree on the top represents god and it’s at the top because god made the Earth as some say .”

History

The attached work is from Alfie in Year 8. He has been nominated by Mrs Wilkins as her Student of the Week. She said, “We are currently looking at the key battles of WW1 as part of our WW1 module. Alfie’s work has been exceptional throughout this module. I am very pleased to nominate him for student of the week for Y8 this week.”

Science

Students of the week nomination from Ms Birchnall:

My students of the week should actually be the students of the year! Rhiannon, Charlie and Arianna in year 10 have been working tirelessly in Chemistry and have both embraced the new style of learning that began in homelearning for Science this week.

They have produced work of outstanding quality week after week but have surpassed themselves this week. I am immensely proud of their work ethic and determination to ensure that despite lockdown, and the limitations it inevitably places on their education, they will achieve their absolute best in their Science GCSE next year.

Fantastic feedback to read and well done to all three.

Students of the week

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

Our winners include:

The following students mentioned in the blog have received nominations as Year 7 students of the week:

Nat, Freddy, Lara, Demi and Joe

The following students mentioned in the blog have received nominations as Year 8 students of the week:

Thomas, Mimi, Ellie, Jessica, Spike, Rocco, Alfie and Emilia

The following students mentioned in the blog have received nominations as Year 9 students of the week:

Lizzie, Melanie, Jack, Isaac and Amy

The following students mentioned in the blog have received nominations as Year 10 students of the week:

Lucy, Rhiannon, Charlie, Lorcan, Arianna and Millie

The following students mentioned in the blog have received nominations as Year 12 students of the week:

Ms Williams has nominated Aliya and Summer who have been superb at getting their sociology work in and communicating with her.

Pictured below is an award Erin’s dad made her in recognition of her being a student of the week back in May. All our students will now receive certificates by email as we will be unable for a while to get together.

Careers@PlymstockSchool

Careers Insight – This week we focus on the World of Law.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjE8QhrhfFw

From consumer rights to human rights, jobs in law help protect people and shape the ways we work and live.

Lawyers perform a valuable role, especially as law is intertwined with every aspect of our society – from the age at which you can take your driving test to the speed at which you can drive when you pass it.

In the past there were two main careers in law – solicitors and barristers. Now there are many different careers and also more opportunities to progress.

For example now you could be working as an apprentice in a law firm and work your way up to paralegal or chartered legal executives and then to being a solicitor.

Many thanks
The Careers Team

Forthcoming Events and important announcement

NEW Face-to-Face webpage now ‘live’

Since sharing information with you last week about the partial phased return to school for Year 10 and Year 12 students, I am delighted to announce that the webpage for Face-to-Face Learning is now ‘live’. The link to the page is below:

https://plymstockschool.org.uk/face-to-face-learning/

Here, you will find pertinent information, letters and FAQ all in one place which will make accessing information much easier.

In addition to this, there are photos of the classrooms and areas of the school showing some of the COVID-19 Social Distancing and safety measures in place as we move forward. I hope you will find this both useful and informative.

Staying in touch and up to date with Plymstock School

We continue to update parents with direct messages through our MyEd messaging service. To support the volume of updates as requested by parents only a limited number of key important messages will be sent home each week.
Please do check our Plymstock School Newsfeed for all our latest updates and messages.

https://plymstockschool.org.uk/news/

Information about Distance Learning can be found here:

https://plymstockschool.org.uk/distance-learning/

Information on Mental Health and Wellbeing can be found here:

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

and specific information related to COVID-19 is on our distance learning page below the Newsfeed banner.

Thank you to Mrs Kirk (Ocean and Beach scenes) and Mrs Harris (Whitsands Bay Ladies Surf Club) for their photographs used in this week’s blog.