Welcome to this week’s Plymstock School blog
Despite today’s rain, we’ve had a brilliant week, lots of fantastic achievements and stories below.
The picture below was taken yesterday in between the showers. It is great for the students to be out participating in PE again.
The European Day of Languages
Hello! Bonjour! Willkommen! ¡Hola! Ciao! Cześć!
The European Day of Languages (EDL) is celebrated across Europe on 26th of September every year. It aims to promote the rich linguistic diversity of Europe and raise awareness of the importance of lifelong language learning for everyone. Being equipped with the ability to speak another language opens doors to lucrative jobs, exquisite culture, and mouth-watering food, and by marking the day at Plymstock School, we hope to broaden the horizons of our students through the broad range of trips and experiences our Languages department offer our students.
European Day of Languages (EDoL) – Friday 25th for Plymstock school
Once again we have celebrated European Day of Languages (EDoL) at Plymstock School. It aims to promote the rich linguistic diversity of Europe and raise awareness of the importance of lifelong language learning for everyone. It was celebrated across Europe on 26th of September and on Friday 25th at Plymstock School.
Students were offered a range of opportunities, including tutor activities, English and Geography activities, a digital bake-off competition and a digital comic strip story competition.
The best moment of the day was the languages tutor quiz.
And the winners were… 7RLR, 8SJF, 9LRD and 12 NJB
The Runner-ups were … 7NJB, 7LHD, 9MFW, 9JWP and 9VAE
DIGITAL BAKE-OFF COMPETITION
A HUGE well done to Year 7 as they were the year group that participated the most. There’s a lot of cake here! Well done Year 7, fantastic effort!
Category : CREATIVITY
• WINNER: Poppy S with her fantastic ICELAND creation!
• RUNNER –UP: Lilly G with her impressive SWISS cheese looking cake!
• 3RD PLACE: Lucy P with her super ITALIAN pizza looking cake.
• Beau De-W with her lovely FRENCH decorated cake.
Category CAKE THE JUDGES WOULD HAVE LOVED TO TAKE HOME AND EAT: WINNER: Evie G, RUNNER –UP: Ethan H and 3RD PLACE: Charles B-R
Category VERY PROUD students: WINNER: Hermione D, RUNNER –UP: Charles B-R and 3RD PLACE: Eleanor O-B and Matthew D
Category FLAGS: WINNER: Max S, RUNNER –UP: Isabel K and 3RD PLACE: Eleanor O-B
Special prize MASTER CHEF STUDENT to: Levvy-Jade E and Harvey W
Special prize TEAM WORK: Martha G and Benjamin P
Special prize for HISTORICAL REFERENCE to: Fletcher McK and his reference to Marie-Antoinette, the Queen of France (1755-1793)
Judge’s prize for BEST USE of LANGUAGE to: Imogen P, Layla D AND Levvy-Jade E
Year 8 and Year 9
Well done to the students who took part
Category : CREATIVITY: WINNER: Timas J
Category : CAKE THE JUDGES WOULD HAVE LOVED TO TAKE HOME AND EAT: WINNER: Hugo_Le-M
Category : FLAGS: WINNERS: Violet R and Phoebe V
Special prize : MASTER CHEF STUDENT to: Heidi K-L
Special prize : YOU ARE AMAZING Award to Erin M in Year 12
Erin explains: “Hello, I have decided to make a Danish layer cake in honour of my Danish heritage. There are six layers of cake with jam and cream in between and the Danish flag on top is made out of raspberry jam and cream (this added touch is not very traditional, but very tasty!). Additionally I have added some white daisy decorations as the national flower of Denmark is the Marguerite Daisy. Thanks, Erin”
Very impressive indeed Erin!
DIGITAL COMIC STRIP STORY COMPETITION
A big well done to the participants: Lucy P, Dylan B, George N, Evie M, Levvy-Jade E, Arthur Atfield-B and Alfie A
Year 11 Additional Supportive Study programme
The first week on the Year 11 Additional Supportive Study programme is drawing to a close and uptake to sessions has been incredibly positive. This programme takes place after school during the week and all curriculum areas offer an opportunity for students to seek help and advice to strengthen their factual knowledge. Mr Taylor (Assistant Head Teacher & Director of Learning) mentioned ‘historically, students attending these sessions regularly will build a firm foundation of knowledge which will help with the overall revision process both for the Mock Examinations in November, but ultimately their final exams commencing in May’. As always, if you require any further information or concerns about Year 11, please do not hesitate to contact your son/daughter’s classroom teacher, Head of Year or Mr Taylor.
Pictured below are some of Thursday night’s sessions and the Year 11 students getting ahead of the game with extra Biology after school with Mr Farrant. In this session they looked at breaking down GCSE questions on Cell Biology, by using techniques which improve memory and retention.
Careers@PlymstockSchool – September 2020 Update
Our careers education programme remains a vital and integral part of our school curriculum and is fundamental to our development of what we describe as the ‘whole person’.
We began last week by exploring and discussing Resilience and Communication; two skills that are highly sought after by employers.
Careers Insight – Personal Organisation
This week we focus on Personal Organisation!
All job roles require a level of organisation in order to be efficient but as a project manager, you’re not just responsible for keeping yourself organised and managing your own work — everyone else is relying on you, too.
So it’s easy to see why organisation is one of the most important strengths of a project manager.
Many thanks
The Careers Team
Students of the week – Lots of nominations this week and more to follow next!
All our winners have demonstrated Endeavour, Resilience and Empathy; Plymstock School students striving to “Be the best you can be”
Our other winners include:
In Year 7
Mrs Baker has nominated Noah K in Year 7 for maths. He has made an amazing start to the year and always looks to better himself by asking for more work when finished as well as helping other students when they need it.
He is a credit to himself and the school. Well done Noah, high praise indeed.
In Year 8
This week Miss Robb has nominated two students that ‘stand-out’ in Mrs Sharma’s Year 8 Science class, Billy & Casey.
Mrs Sharma explains “These two students have impressed me since the start of term with their hardworking attitude and enthusiasm for Science. They regularly contribute to class discussions and are keen to answer and ask relevant questions. Consistently working hard, they collectively improve the knowledge and understanding of the class as a whole! They are a pleasure to work with”
It was an absolute pleasure to present the awards to these two boys this, both modest, polite and courteous. Well done boys.
In Year 10
Year 10 English Success
Mr Wyatt has this week nominated Mel in Mr Waterfield’s Year 10 English group as his student of the week. After a few weeks of study, she has achieved a grade 9 on her first practice exam for English Language Paper 1: Section A.
Mr Waterfield explains:
“Her work has genuinely impressed me and many members of the English team, some of whom (as examiners) I asked to moderate my marks, and some of whom I shared the work with out of sheer pride in Mel’s achievement this early in the course. It is testament to her hard work and some dedicated revision.”
Very impressive work Mel and the English Department and your Head of Year are very impressed as are we. What a great start to your GCSE course.
Quick thinking saves the day!
Mr Dott’s nominee is Finley who has been nominated for an award by the Police after his and a neighbour’s home caught fire in the summer.
Finley awoke in the night and recognised there was a fire in their adjoining garage. He immediately raised the alarm within the household allowing his family to safely evacuate the home and alert their neighbours to the danger. This also allowed them to evacuate the property in time.
His tutor Mrs Wilkins and all of us are incredibly proud of Finley, his calm head and quick thinking, “an absolute star”, to use Mrs Wilkins’ words.
Success in German
Our final Year 10 nominee is Gracie W: a really positive – and smiley- start to GCSE German.
Post 16 nominations
The picture below shows some of the 30 plus students who have been nominated by their teachers in Year 12 and 13 for their hard work and resilience in their courses.
This includes a group of students whose names appeared in last week’s blog. Mrs Littler is determined to track down the camera-shy students and those who weren’t in school today. They really do deserve praise for their superb attitude and work ethic.
Biology: Emma C for continued and dedicated revision of Year 12 material as evidenced by an excellent exam mark.
English Literature & Language: Sophie O’G, David M for their amazing bridging work. Macy A also put a lot of effort in and all three have made a great start to the course.
Psychology: Eva N, Eleanor M, Isaac V, Lauren B, Emma F. All for putting lots of effort into their revision for their September assessment and producing excellent work.
Criminology: Alex D, Mia G, Michelle M, Maya A, Ryan E, Beth G, Josh S, Natalie S. All for putting lots of effort into their revision for their September assessment and producing excellent work.
Computer Science: Leo L for excellent progress in his Programming Project.
History: Lauren B, Ruth F-E, Charlotte P, Jack B, Scott P, Dan R, Josh S. All for making excellent progress on History coursework so far.
Applied Science: Kayleigh G, Olivia H-B, Bethany H, Rosie H and Charlotte W. All of these girls in Applied Science has been AMAZING since the start of term, work has been an exceptional standard which has been matched from effort at home too!
Business: Ralphie H, Katie B, Connor B, Louis P, Evie S, for all making a great start to their business coursework! I hope they continue as they have begun!
Maths: Erin M, she has made a great start and has been proactive in asking for help if she is stuck! She is also just a lovely student.
And finally…
Forthcoming Virtual Events
Plymstock School Open Events for current Year 6 parents (2021 entry)
At Plymstock, we understand that deciding on a secondary school can be a complex process.
Due to the current restrictions imposed due to COVID-19, regretfully we are unable to host our on-site open events for prospective Year 7 students and their families.
However, we are delighted to inform you that we have created a virtual Open Evening page to help students, parents and carers with their decision.
Here you will find a presentation from the Senior Leadership Team and links to videos which give families the opportunity to view the school facilities, see and hear our staff and students and experience activities in our departments.
There are currently 3 videos showing tours of the site:
You might also like to explore our Gallery of events from 2019-20
This page will be updated each week from 22 September with new videos -please keep checking and re-visiting.
If you have a question which is not answered here then please contact us and we will do our best to provide the answer. Support@plymstockschool.org.uk
We hope you enjoy our virtual Open Evening videos.
