Download - Ripley St Thomas C of E High School

Believe..... 

the news from Ripley St Thomas April 2011 

Springing 

into a new term 

at Ripley St Thomas 

Believe..... 1

Welcome 

Dear Parents, 

Examinations are looming large in everyone’s mind at the moment, as 

deadlines approach. I am pleased to say that pupils and students (and staff!) 

are working extremely hard and are more than ready for the Easter break. 

CONTENTS 

4 

5 

6 

10 

Successful Science 

Updates from the Science on 

working with Lancaster University 

UK Maths Challenge 

Fantastic achievements by students 

in the Intermediate 

Meet Harvey & Jessie... 

Mr Wilson speaks about the 

expanding Land Based Curriculum 

Year Group News 

Year 7 Charity Work and Year 10 

celebrations from this term 

Academy Status 

We continue to move towards becoming an academy; we completed all the 

processes around consultation and gaining permission from foundation 

bodies to proceed to Academy Status in January. Since then we have been 

working with a number of solicitors to draw up the required documents and 

resolve all the issues around the land ownership and use. Governors have 

agreed that on conversion the name of the school will become Ripley St 

Thomas Church of England Academy. 

Ofsted 

A letter from Christine Gilbert, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools, has 

been sent home to all parents in the last couple of days. We are very pleased 

to receive this letter confirming that Ofsted believes that the school has 

made good progress since the last inspection and that a further inspection 

at this time is not needed. We are all relieved about that! 

Canteen Service 

All of us, I am sure, are aware that food prices have risen significantly in 

recent months as commodity prices rise internationally. Obviously this is 

impacting on our costs in the canteen. We have taken a number of measures 

to reduce our costs and we have also been reviewing our pricing structure. 

Prices in the canteen have not in fact gone up in over the last two years but 

we now have no alternative but to increase prices. From April 4th, therefore, 

the price of sandwiches will change with most going up and some going 

down. Other prices are being reviewed and will change from May. We are 

confident that the canteen will still represent good value for money and offer 

healthy choices. 

12 

14 

18 

Around the World 

We’ve been around the world this 

term, from South Africa to Italy! 

Language Updates 

Primary Languages alongside 

German and French Exchanges 

Dance & Sport 

News on the Ripley Dance groups 

and a fantastic sporting term 

Ripley St Thomas 

Ashton Road 

Lancaster 

LA1 4RS 

01524 64496 

admin@ripley.lancs.sch.uk 

www.ripley.lancs.sch.uk 

End of Term Arrangements 

We celebrate Easter at our local churches this 

year, as is our custom, on Friday 8 April. Year 10 

are actually on work experience in the last week 

of term and most of Year 11 are going to Alton 

Towers on Friday 8th as a reward for their hard 

work and commitment. 

Important 

School will be closed 

on Friday, 29 April 

2011 for the 

Royal Wedding 

As for the remaining year groups, Year 7 will 

be going to Christchurch; pupils should come 

to school as normal and will be accompanied 

to church, Year 8 will be at St Thomas’s; pupils should go straight to St 

Thomas’s and arrive by 8 50 am, Year 9 will remain in school and attend a 

service in the chapel, and Years 12 & 13 will have a service in the priory; 

students should arrive there by 8 50 am. All pupils will return to school 

immediately after the service and the school day will continue as normal, 

finishing at 3 05 pm. 

The beginning of next term is rather disjointed due to the combination of 

bank holidays and the Royal Wedding. We return on Tuesday, 26 April, we 

then close on Friday, 29 April for the wedding and the school re-opens on 

Tuesday, 3 May after the bank holiday – from then on things return to normal! 

2 Ripley St Thomas

Current Issues 

You will all be aware of the introduction of the English Baccalaureate, 

an over-arching qualification given to pupils achieving A*-C grades in 

English, Mathematics, Science, a Modern Foreign Language and either 

History or Geography. It is difficult at this stage to know what currency this 

qualification will have. We have advised any pupils hoping to enter higher 

education to opt for a language and either History or Geography. We have 

introduced an additional option this year to make this possible. 

Sixth Form Extension 

Building work has begun on our sixth form extension, with the good weather 

helping to make a quick start. The extension will provide significant extra 

dining space and two offices, all of which should make a difference to our 

large and growing number of students. The building is scheduled to be 

complete by the end of July, in plenty of time for the next academic year. 

Stay 

Connected 

Facebook 

Like us at 

facebook.com/ripleystthomas 

Twitter 

Follow us at 

twitter.com/ripleystthomas 

Artist’s Illustration courtesy of JMP Architects LTD 

BBC Songs of Praise and Newsround 

We have had very positive feedback from our appearance on both of these 

programmes, including a very generous donation from a lady in the south 

of England who wrote expressing her delight at all we are doing at Ripley. It 

is encouraging to know that so many people watched the programme and 

were appreciative of the education Ripley provides for its young people. 

We are delighted to welcome two horses, Harvey (on cover) and Jessie, 

which have been given to the school, onto the farm, as well as a batch 

of chickens, kindly donated by our partner primary school in Longton in 

Preston. We look forward to the egg sandwiches! I am sure that not many 

head teachers have the joy of watching lambs and horses go past the 

office window on a regular basis! 

Minibus 

Thanks to your generosity through the many fund raising ventures 

organised by the Friends, the school is now the proud owner of a new 

minibus which you may see around Lancaster. This much needed and 

much used vehicle represents a substantial purchase and we are very 

grateful to all who worked so hard to raise the money for it. The number 

of sports fixtures have increased greatly over the last few years and the 

minibus is constantly on the go. 

I wish you all a joyful and relaxing Easter break. I hope that the Easter 

message of God’s great love for us will encourage us all. 

Liz Nicholls 

We strongly believe in finding new ways to 

communicate with students, parents and 

our wider community. In an effort to keep 

up to date with technology, we have set up 

Official Ripley St Thomas Facebook and 

Twitter Feeds as a way for you to receive 

news and updates from the website, in a 

convenient way using services that you 

access regularly at Home and On The Go. 

If you’re not a user of the sites, you can also 

receive updates via text to your phone. The 

service is provided for free on the majority 

of networks, however charges be applied 

and vary depending on your operator. 

esafety 

Text Updates 

Text ‘follow @ripleystthomas’ to 

86444 to subscribe for free!* 

Whilst we expand 

our communication 

methods, we remind 

users of social 

media services to do 

so in a responsible 

way. It is important 

to be safe online, 

and guidance on this 

can be found in our 

new eSafety section 

on the website. 

Believe..... 3

Successful Science 

Biologists in action 

Ella Taylor & Sarah Myerscough, Year 10 

On Thursday, 17 March, ten of us from Year 10 went on a 

science trip to Lancaster University where we looked at 

sheep’s blood. 

We investigated the different types of cells in blood by making 

up blood samples on glass slides and looking at them with a 

microscope. We also looked at pig hearts and sheep hearts 

and learnt about the different veins and arteries. The bit we 

enjoyed the most was looking at the hearts and touching and 

holding them for real. It was very interesting to see it first 

hand rather than from a text book. 

Year 10s during Bottle Challenge 

Physicists Flourish 

S Mumford, Head of Science 

The Year 13 Physics group spent a day at the Lancaster 

University Physics Department at the undergraduate 

laboratory. 

Expert help was provided from Phd students and range a 

practicals were covered ranging from investigating electron 

diffraction to absorption of gamma rays. Each student was 

given a brief tour of the electron microscopes, and this 

gave the students an invaluable insight to undergraduate 

laboratory work. 

A big thank you to Philip Furneaux from the Institute of Physics 

for arranging the event. 

Out of this world... 

S Mumford, Head of Science 

As part of Science Week, Year 8 welcomed back Being 747 

and enjoyed their musical take on the story of evolution! 

‘Amoeba to Zebra’ is a rock version of the story of life on 

Earth condensed into an hour – although with questions and 

encores, it lasted a bit longer. 

The students were enthusiastic about audience participation 

in ‘Drink your Milk’ – the rise of mammals – and were also 

rather pleased to get a glimpse inside the Sixth Form Centre 

and the Phythian Hall! We are hoping they will make use of the 

forum on Moodle to tell us what they think about evolution! 

University Challenge 

R Shaw, Department of Science 

As part of the National Science and Engineering Week 2011, 

eleven Year 10 students were invited to participate in The 

Bottle Rocket Challenge, Monday, 14 March in the Faculty of 

Science and Technology at Lancaster University. 

The day began with a session in Physics, illustrated by 

practical demonstrations, on the basic mechanics of rocket 

motion, including Newton’s Laws and the effect of thrust, 

centre of mass, air resistance and launch angle on projectile 

motion. The theoretical maximum range was estimated 

for given launch conditions and some simple tests carried 

out with paper projectiles under laboratory conditions. The 

students then moved to the Engineering Building and worked 

in small teams to design and construct rockets using the 

basic principles that they had learnt. 

Testing was carried out on a field near to the Engineering 

department. In the practical tests, the launch angle was fixed 

at the optimum maximum theoretical range. Since the launch 

angle was fixed, the main variables were mass of propellant, 

pressure, and effects of centre of mass and shape on air 

resistance and stability. 

Finally, the competition got underway with the Ripley students 

were up against students from the other local schools, aiming 

to build a rocket which would travel the furthest. 

All the Ripley teams boasted a top-ten finish, with some 

rockets travelling over 100m. Sadly, the prize was won by 

another school, but one Ripley team had the consolation of 

walking away knowing that their presentation was rated No.1 

out of all the other groups. 


UK intermediate 

MATHS CHALLENGE 

S Cantley, Department of Mathematics 

Earlier in the term, some Year 9, 10 and 11 pupils 

took part in the Intermediate Maths Challenge. This 

is a national competition in which approximately 

200,000 pupils take part. 

The competition involves solving a series of 

challenging mathematical problems under exam 

conditions. The following pupils have been awarded 

certificates for their achievements in this challenge. 

Pupils who were placed in the top 6% achieved Gold, 

next 13% achieved Silver and the next 21% achieved 

Bronze so to achieve any certificate they must have 

outperformed at least 120,000 pupils! This is a 

fantastic achievement – well done! 

Alongside the students who achieved awards below, 

Hannah Charman in Year 9 (right) achieved the ‘Best 

in School’ award and has qualified for the next round. 

For this, she was given some very tricky problems 

and proofs to work on under exam conditions and 

is competing against the top 500 Year 9 pupils 

nationally. We await the results of this additional 

round! 

GOLD 

Giles Simon 

Nicholas Dodd 

Hannah Charman (right)SILVER 

Chloe Webster 

Robert Findlay 

Emily Rawlinson 

William Craven 

George Atkinson 

Skye Partington 

Robert Krug 

Francis Stewart 

Simeon Shentall 

Luca Cusimano 

Louis Le-Masurier 

Matthew Alpin 

Naomi Ford 

James Thomas-Woodhouse 

John Buyers 

Rauf Chick 

Charlotte Beck 

Jack Farrar 

Alex Dodd 

Chris Kitchen 

Gaby Scanlon 

Holly Shaw 

Harry Cross 

Michael Andrews 

Charlotte Park 

BRONZE 

Hannah Whyatt 

Eleanor Bayton 

Chantelle Ecob 

Johannes Read 

Zachary Thomas 

Zak Bragg 

Clare Morris 

Sam Blundell-Roberts 

Samuel Clarke 

Chad Porter 

Alison Clarkson 

Elizabeth Hadley 

Katie Read-Challen 

Francesco D’Antonio 

Kirsty Blair 

James Rawlinson 

William Atkinson 

Evan Anderson 

George Gaughan 

Matthew Phillips 

Tom McGrath 

Believe..... 5

Down on the farm with 

Harvey & Jessie... 

R Wilson, Subject Leader, Rural Science 

Keep up to date with 

activities on The Farm by watching 

the barn live webcams! 

One of the latest developments at school is the addition to 

our animals of two ponies, Harvey and Jessie! 

Having the horses broadens the land based curriculum and 

will involve those children who love being outdoors in the 

countryside but might not necessarily be interested in farm 

animals. It will, I hope, attract the “have not’s”. Those children 

who can only dream of looking after or even possibly riding a 

horse or pony, now have the opportunity to do so at school. 

It is not restricted to Year 7 or just girls. I hope boys will get 

involved too. 

For those children who wish to work with horses, they may 

then be able to work towards BHS (British Horse Society) 

exams and qualifications with lessons after school. This may 

then enhance career opportunities for them after leaving 

Ripley. 

Keep a close eye on the school website for further details 

regarding after school activities during the summer term. 

“ 

Visit the 

Rural Science department 

on the website 

BROADENING 

the land based 

curriculum 


“ 

Jessie 

Harvey 


Uniting the 

world in numbers 

C Buyers, Department of Mathematics 

Tuesday, 1 March 2011 saw the annual celebration of World 

Maths Day. Nearly two million students from 191 Nations took 

part in the celebration in a quest to set a new world record for 

answering mental arithmetic questions. 

Students from Ripley ranging from Years 7 to 11 participated, 

playing against students of the same age from China, Kuwait, 

Greece, Egypt, USA and many more locations. 

Students partipating online 

At Ripley, 337 students took part in World Maths Day 2011 

answering an impressive 16 946 questions correctly. All the 

students who took part earned an exclusive promotional 

pencil as a memento of the day. Ripley students, as part of 

this great education event, helped the United Kingdom to be 

crowned overall winners of the Education World Cup! 

The Friends 

L Kelly, Chairman of The Friends 

The annual Friends of Ripley St Thomas Fun Run will be taking 

place on Thursday, 5 May 2011. 

The event is for couch potatoes and keep-fit fanatics alike! 

The course, based around the surrounding areas of Ripley, is 

4 miles long and open to young, old and all those in between. 

All who finish will receive a medal and a supper. 

The Friends 

FUN_RUN 

THURSDAY, 5 MAY 2011 

For students, there is the usual highly competitive Inter-Form 

Trophy, which will be awarded to the form with the lowest total 

running time. 

If you are interested in running the course, or helping out to 

marshall the event, pick up an entry form from the small table 

in the seating area in reception and return before Tuesday, 3 

May to ensure you get a supper! 

Alongside the Fun Run, we’re also holding a Cross Bay Walk 

taking place on Saturday, 28 May, led by Queens Guide Cedric 

Robinson. Our route will be from Arnside to Kents Bank. We 

have booked 100 places and interest has already been shown 

for this event so booking early is essential! 

CROSSBAY 

WALK 

ARNSIDE TO KENTS BANK 

SATURDAY, 28 MAY 2011 

More information is available on the website! Don’t miss out! 

Believe..... 7

Chaplaincy News 

Students at Sneaton Castle with John Sentamu, Archbishop of York 

Suzanne, Chaplain 

Another exciting term for the chaplaincy! We ran an A.R.K. 

week in February – encouraging the whole school in Acts of 

Random Kindness (ARKs), which was great fun. 

Every person in the school was given a paper starfish in 

worship the week before and heard the story of the young 

boy saving starfish on the sand by throwing them back into 

the sea. A man came along and told him there were too many 

starfish washed up on the beach that he couldn’t possibly 

make a difference. He responded by continuing to throw the 

starfish back into the sea and saying “It made a difference 

to that one.” We encouraged everyone to write a positive 

message on their starfish and give it to someone else, so they 

too, could make a difference to someone. 

• Nominated people received cookies and cupcakes in 

their form every day, produced by the ARK baking team. 

• Stalls were set up in the sixth form and in main school 

every lunch time, where people could make friendship 

bracelets and write messages to put in the ARK post 

boxes. 

• We ran a delivery service to forms every morning, bringing 

ARKs in note form, lolly stick messages, paper starfish 

messages and friendship bracelets. 

• There was even a facebook event set up for ARK week 

encouragement. 

Many people commented on how much they enjoyed the 

week and were cheered up by the secret ARKs they were able 

to do for others and received themselves. 

We also spent a weekend in March on a Christian residential 

weekend at Sneaton Castle in Whitby. 

The young people had a great time learning about God in 

fun and crazy ways, paddling in the freezing cold sea and 

playing extreme frisbee on the beach. We even joined a short 

prayer service with the nuns who live there and were joined 

by surprise visitor the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, who 

came over for a chat and a few pictures. A wonderful time 

was had by all! 

Please Thank God for his 

many blessings to us as a 

school community, some of 

which we notice, many of 

which we take for granted. 

Please pray for me as I 

spend my last term at 

Ripley before moving 

to Peru to work in an 

orphanage for street 

children. 

Prayer Points... 

Please pray for the 

Year 11s & Year 13s who 

will be doing their exams 

this term before beginning 

new chapters in their lives. 

Suzanne 


Celebrating R.E 

H Ballard, Department of R.E 

March has been a national ‘Celebrating RE’ month. 

For many of our pupils it has been an important month of 

preparing for external exams but there have been some 

exciting initiatives in KS3 and the Sixth Form. 

Year 7 

All the pupils in Year 7 have worked with Tony Bower and the 

NISCU Team this half term to look at the stories of the passion 

from a new angle. They have put themselves in the shoes of 

those taking part and written reflectively from that point of 

view. 

On Thursday, 31 March they showcased their work in an 

evening of reflective drama and poetry, with examples to the 

right. A book of the 50 best poems can be ordered through 

school at a cost of £5. 

The termly homework this term has also been based around 

the events of Easter Week and there are many wonderful 

models of 1st Century Jerusalem. I’m sure these are often a 

joint effort particularly in transporting them into school! 

Sixth Form 

During March we have launched a series of lunchtime 

lectures around a religious theme. We have explored the 

meaning of Genesis with the Archdeacon of Lancaster Canon 

Michael Everett; travelled into cyberspace to learn about new 

challenges to mainstream religion with Dr Sean O’Callaghan 

and looked at the changing role of women in the Church with 

Canon Brenda Harding. 

The culmination of the series was a debate of the motion ‘This 

house believes that science has made religion redundant’ 

proposed by Martin Barone and seconded by Luke Gallagher. 

Opposition to the motion was led by Louis Harding and put to 

bed by a scathing Luke Satterthwaite! 

It was great to see pupils prepared to give up that valuable 

time to explore issues of spirituality and faith. Look out for 

more! 

Arms Open 

By Ellie Foulkes, Year 7 

He was my life, 

Seeing his face as he walked up the hill 

With the crowd pointing and laughing 

What was I going to do? 

He’s walking to his death 

I watch as my son dies 

I will miss him 

His pleasure to cure and help His hope and smile 

The tomb, it was empty 

I turned 

A brightness shining 

It was him 

My son Jesus was alive 

Arms open and a huge smile 

He has risen from the dead 

Our Saviour, Jesus Christ 

Remember Me 

By Grace Derbyshire, Year 7 

I never thought I’d be hanging here 

Next to the Saviour, he doesn’t show fear 

How can they mock and treat him like this 

A forgiving man, who only dreams of bliss? 

I have done wrong, I have sinned but has he? 

I watch him hang, he’s no different from me 

I say ’Jesus, why do they treat you like this?’ 

When all you have dreamed of is peace and bliss?’ 

‘Jesus, will you remember me still 

When we’re not tied to a cross on this blood-thirsty hill?’ 

‘I will remember’, he said so softly, 

‘I will carry you always, closely with me’. 

Well done to all those who 

participated in the fantastic 

Easter Voices chapel service. 

The rain poured down onto my face, 

I was battered and bruised but not in disgrace 

My hands felt like ice, but I knew 

That I was one step closer to Paradise 

Believe..... 9

YEAR GRO 

YEAR 7 

S Tagg & R Burr, Year 7 Progress Leaders 

During this term the pupils in Year 7 have been busy in many 

different ways. 

Our Executive Committees have each been working on 

different projects, these are their reports. 

Success Committee 

The Success Committee is run by a number of Year 7 pupils 

who look for ways to celebrate the successes of their fellow 

pupils within Year 7. Our most recent event was the ‘Success 

Assembly’; in this assembly we celebrated a number of 

different areas in which pupils had been successful, the 

presentation slides are on the school website. The assembly 

was attended by Mrs Nicholls, Professor and Mrs Crewdson, 

Mr Bateman and Mr Whiteside. It went well, but technology 

decided to play up a little which added to the enjoyment of it 

all. 

environment. We are currently liaising with Ashley Peters the 

founder of the Funzi Bodo Charity, as it is our intention to 

send the money raised from the Year 7 Football Competition 

to Funzi, so that they can purchase seeds or plants which will 

make a difference to their environment and help them’ 

Our next project is a sunflower competition for all the Year 7 

tutor groups, to see who can grow the tallest sunflower. We 

shall keep you informed. 

Help for Heroes 

Help for Heroes is the Year 7 nominated charity for this year; 

we have recently had a visit from Mr Wilkinson our local area 

representative for Help for Heroes. Adam Clifton and Jacob 

Croasdale presented him with a cheque for £400. 

Activities Committee 

This term we have organised a five a side football competition 

which has taken place on Tuesday lunchtimes. Sixteen teams 

entered the competition and the final will take place on 

Tuesday, 5 April. We raised £63.60 for the school charity - 

Funzi Bodo. Our special thanks go to the Year 11 Mentors – 

James Alker, Oliver Ras, James Fielding and Ryan Croasdale 

who have given up their lunchtimes to referee for us and to 

Mr Thornton from Mike’s Sportsworld for kindly donating a £5 

gift voucher to each member of the winning team. 

Health and Environment Committee 

The Health and Environment Committee are working 

on activities which will make a difference to our school 

Jacob Croasdale & Adam Clifton with Mr Wilkinson 

MUSIC TO OUR EARS 

L Robertson, Department of Music 

Congratulations to the following pupils in their success at the 

recent ABRSM music exams. 

Lucy Aplin (Year 8) passed ABRSM grade 2 flute exam with distinction 

Matty Phillips (Year 8) passed ABRSM grade 2 clarinet exam with distinction 

William Atkinson (Year 9) passed ABRSM grade 5 clarinet exam with merit 

Eleanor Wood (Year 11) passed ABRSM grade 6 flute exam with merit 


UP NEWS 

YEAR 10 

J Cowper & D Luszczak, Year 10 Progress Leaders 

It has been another busy yet successful term for our Year 10 

pupils. In our termly Celebration Assembly we rewarded the 

following pupils for their achievements. 

Sporting Achievements 

Cathy Park, Beth Hay and Emma Peill represented Lancashire 

in the National Indoor Hockey final. 

Emma Peill, Rachel Ritchie and Becky Townend will be 

attending the Youth Games in Denmark. Rachel Ritchie 

picked up 3 Swimming Trophies in North Lancs Swimming in 

Breaststroke, 50m Freestyle and 100m Freestyle and Becky 

Townend achieved a regional time for 50m freestyle. Lauren 

Brown and Lucy Briggs are in the Blackpool Football Squad 

and Paige Clinton finished 15th in the National Biathlon 

Championships. 

Performing Arts 

The following pupils deserve recognition for performing arts 

and music achievements; Rachel Platt, Chanel Brown, Zach 

Thomas, Dom Robinson, Ruth Alston, Natalia Roszkowska, 

Chad Porter and David Lowe. 

James Nelson has achieved an Air Training Camps awards 

and his Corporal Stripes whilst Lucas Shaw achieved Corporal 

status and gained a training star at Army Cadets. 

We have 53 students currently working towards their Bronze 

Duke of Edinburgh Award and we wish them every success 

over the coming year. 

Subject Targets 

Well done to all of you who are continuing to improve your 

grades and achievements within your subjects! Special 

recognition must go to those who achieved above target in 4 

or more of their subjects. 

Above target in 4 Subjects 

Josh Cairns, Adam Davies, Sam Davies, Naomi Ford, Chelsie- 

Rose Hartley, Matthew Hill and Georgia Mayers 


Rachel Ritchie and Natalia Roszkowska 


Tobi Fox 

Well Done to all the Year 10 pupils for their continued 

achievements. We look forward to celebrating even greater 

achievements during the summer term. 

Work Experience 

Year 10 embarked on their work experience placements this 

week. Many of the students organised their own placements 

ensuring this opportunity was fully utilised. The week enables 

them to take their learning outside of the classroom and the 

chance to experience the world at work. I’m sure essential 

transferable ‘life’ skills will be developed throughout the 

week, which hopefully will provide the students with greater 

resilience, independence and the ability to work with initiative 

as they continue to make progress through Key Stage 4. 

Progress Tutors Awards 

The following pupils have been chosen by their Progress 

Tutors to receive the Progress Tutors Award. 

10 Kay Alice Gough & Stephen Mawson 

10 Ibbotson Chelsie- Rose Hartley & &rew Kellet 

10 Clegg Ruth Dunstan & Ben Macaskill 

10 Jacques Lucas Shaw & Molly Lennon 

10 Woodruff May Jarvis & Jack Carter 

10 Richardson Nathan Heywood & Jessica Clarke 

10 Menadue Tobi Fox & Stephan Blackshaw 

10 Johnson James Lambert & Ella Clarke 

10 Exton John Fishwick & Lydia Farrer 

10 Robertson Gareth Pearson & Katie Umpleby 

The Progress Leaders award this term 

went to Michael Lynn for demonstrating 

an enthusiasm to all aspects of Ripley; 

happiness, politeness, helpfulness 

to all those around him and also to 

Maddie Camp for taking responsibility 

for her own and her peer’s learning and 

showing great care and consideration to 

those around her. 

Believe..... 11

AROUND THE W 

JAZZ BAND 

SKI TRIP 2011 

M Plowright, Subject Leader, Performing Arts 

On 16, February the eight amazingly talented members of 

Ripley’s Jazz Band – ‘The Rip Roarers’ departed for Cape 

Town with Mr Richmond, Miss Robertson and Mrs Plowright. 

This was an extraordinarily life-affirming and life-changing trip 

for all of us, not least because of what South Africa taught us 

about music that is vibrant and lived and very much a part of 

everyday life. 

The band experienced a fantastic range of events: they 

performed live concerts in five very different schools 

culminating in a special performance for our host school, 

Holy Cross, and they delivered music workshops to groups 

of school children. On every occasion they played and 

presented themselves with extraordinary professionalism 

and in turn they were treated like celebrities! Band member, 

Daniel Mawson, has said that one of his best moments was a 

spontaneous ‘jamming’ session with the pupils of one of the 

schools that we visited. 

On the first weekend we looked longingly at the fabulous openair 

arena on the wharf in central Cape Town – by Wednesday 

we had secured our own gig there, playing solidly for an hour 

to a large enthusiastic crowd of local people and tourists. 

We have created a short film from the three hours of footage 

that I shot and I hope that we will be able to produce a 

souvenir DVD of the trip to go with the Rip Roarers’ CD. The 

short blog that Miss Robertson and I wrote is still available 

on the website and will give you a flavour of the wonderful 

experiences we enjoyed and the friendship extended to us by 

our South African hosts. 

Ripley Skiiers 

J Sugden,Pastoral Manager 

It was so refreshing to experience the clear mountain air of 

the Dolomites with fantastic views. 

The 2011 ski trip to Folgaria, Italy proved extremely successful, 

those who had not skied before made magnificent progress 

with all completing the down hill slalom race! 

The balance of senior pupils to junior worked successfully 

with the Ripley spirit of helpfulness coming to the fore. The 

hotel enthused about the politeness and respect the pupils 

showed and as a result they provided not only fantastic meals 

but also special hot chocolate and patisseries. 

The ‘Rip-Roarers’ 

The next trip will be to Austria at Easter 2012 and 2013 is 

being discussed as a number of pupils have already made 

enquiries. 


RLD IN 80 DAYS... 

A Lowe, International Schools Co-ordinator 

COMENIUS 2011 

There have been two Comenius visits in the last half term, 

we would like to thank the British Council for the wonderful 

opportunity these projects offer our students. 

From 16 to 21 March, a group of six Year 12 students attended 

a meeting in Steinhagen, Germany to attend a meeting for our 

project on the impact of leisure activities on the quality of 

learning. The meeting was also attended by students from 

Germany, Spain and Cyprus. The students had a great time 

together, we went to the world’s largest computer museum 

in Paderborn, Munster, Bielefeld and also to the Town Hall 

in Steinhagen where we were given an official welcome by 

the mayor. During the visit the students spend two half days 

in school making presentations of the work they had done 

in the previous term and participating in workshops with 

the other members to compare results and draft our final 

conclusions for the project. This was a great linguistic and 

cultural experience for all. 

The photos below show the whole group whilst on a visit and 

the idea the students come up with the idea to illustrate how 

working together in Europe we can create unity and increased 

understanding. 

From 24 to 29 March, a group of six Year 10 students attended 

a meeting in Loreto, Italy. This is a magical place and the 

home to the second most visited place of worship in the 

catholic faith. The basilica is home to the house of the Virgin 

Mary and is an amazing place to visit. The surrounding area 

is typical Marche – lots of small hilltop towns all with fantastic 

views and close to the sea! This meeting was also attended 

by teachers and students from Slovakia, Slovenia, Germany, 

Italy and Spain. The students stayed with host families 

during their stay and found this a fantastic experience, the 

Italian families generally had very little English skills and our 

students did not speak Italian however this did not prevent 

communication! On the Friday we spent a full day in school 

working on project activities with a break for a tour of the 

town, on Saturday the students visited the Fracassi Caves 

an 18km network of underground wonderland, on Sunday 

they all undertook visits with their hosts and then finally on 

Monday the morning was spent finalising the Year’s work 

in multicultural groups. During this time they produced 

presentations of their conclusions which will go into our final 

booklet. Then on Tuesday it was a very sad farewell to all our 

new friends and back home to Lancaster! 

Students showing how to represent unity through group work 

Sixth Form Students 

International Comenius Students including Ripley 

Meeting with others 

Believe..... 13

PRIMARY 

LANGUAGES 

C Mudd, Primary Languages Co-ordinator 

As part of their enrichment studies, a group of Year 12 students 

has been learning about teaching languages to children in 

primary school. Over the last few months they have observed 

French lessons in a number of different primaries; discussed 

methodology and resources for language learning; taught a 

number of language activities to their peers and groups of 

children in the primary classroom. Their mini-lessons were a 

great success and the students were very popular. 

Jade, Carol and Louie went to Wilson’s Endowed CE primary 

at Over Kellet. In class 5/6 they ran activities based around 

The Hungry Caterpillar in French and in class 3/4 they 

helped to serve up the French breakfast whilst holding short 

conversations in French. 

Jade, Carol and Louie 

CLIL - IT’S BRILL! 

R Chapman, Department of Languages 

The MFL department is always looking for new ways to 

enhance pupils’ enjoyment and experience of languages, so 

when the chance came to team up with our History colleagues 

to teach History through French and German we couldn’t 

resist the challenge! 

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) aims to 

introduce students to new ideas and concepts in traditional 

curriculum subjects (often the humanities), using the foreign 

language as the medium of communication – in other words, 

to enhance the pupils’ learning experience by exploiting the 

synergies between the two subjects. The benefits include 

greater pupil confidence, improved communication skills and 

increased student awareness of the value of transferable skills 

and knowledge. Research indicates that CLIL demonstrably 

increases motivation and focus, which in turn mean that 

pupils’ progress is as good as and indeed often far better in 

both the content subject and the foreign language. 

Last June, in collaboration with the University of Cumbria, 

Year 8 pupils learned about the Black Death through French 

and Year 9 pupils studied the bombing of Pearl Harbour 

and Hiroshima through German. The pupil feedback was 

really enthusiastic; it was clear they’d loved the challenge of 

“ 

enhance 

the pupils’ 

LEARNING EXPERIENCE 

by exploiting the synergies 

BETWEEN THE SUBJECTS 

“ 

combining two subjects at once and seeing historical events 

from a different perspective had fired their curiosity. Since 

September, Mrs Chapman, Mrs Townson and Mr Farquarson 

have visited Saddleworth School near Oldham to learn more 

about CLIL and are now itching to get started. There will be 

another series of lessons in June in collaboration with the 

University of Cumbria for some lucky Year 8s and 9s and we 

hope to be teaching History via French and German regularly 

from next September. Watch this space! 


German Exchange 

Emma Bateman, Year 10 

The day of departure started at a not too painful time of 9am 

in the school canteen, where it’s pretty safe to say our entire 

group were bursting with excitement! A rather uneventful 

coach ride was followed by an equally uneventful plane 

journey. Meeting our partners at the school- Gymnasium 

Kronwerk, was incredibly nerve-wracking, but most partners 

quickly found one another thanks to the wonders of Facebook. 

We reunited at the school the next morning, and apart from 

one suitcase mishap, we all seemed to find our host-families 

and general life in Rendsburg to be lovely! We then split off 

into three groups and went into local primary schools. We 

quickly discovered that the small children’s English put our 

German to shame; some had been learning it since age eight 

or even lower! Our group introduced ourselves to the class 

and then enjoyed trying to recall all the lyrics to the wheels on 

the bus and head, shoulders knees and toes. That afternoon, 

we had free time with our partners. A large group of us went 

to the local swimming pool, where we enjoyed the lack of 

health and safety regulations more than anything else! 

On Saturday, all sixty of us went to Lübeck for the day. 

This was a beautiful historic city where we looked round a 

few churches and nodded politely when given information 

about them. After the vast amounts of walking that Saturday 

brought, and the 6am starts for the previous two days, a free 

day to spend in families on Sunday was much appreciated. 

My host family and I, along with a couple of friends, headed 

to Eckernförde for the day, after enjoying a spot of volleyball 

on the beach, our little group headed up to a sweet shop/ 

mini sweet factory, and discovered that half the people on 

the trip had the same idea! That evening, we all met up again 

at the local bowling alley and had a bit of a party. This was 

followed by a fire juggling show given by one of the German 

pupils and a couple of others, rather impressive although a 

little bit terrifying at times! 

For the next two days, we attended English lessons of several 

different abilities in our groups. On the whole, we found most 

of the German pupil’s English to be very good (especially 

compared to our German!), the older students were easy to 

get on with and we had a good laugh, and the younger pupil’s 

enthusiasm to practice their English on us as adorable and 

refreshing. 

A huge thank you to Miss Exton, Mr Farquharson and Mrs 

Johnson for coming with us and making the trip possible, we 

all really enjoyed it and have made some great new friends 

both at Ripley and at Kronwerk. 

Believe..... 15

French Exchange 2011 

K Potter, Subject Leader, French 

In January this year, twenty-seven students from 

Year 11 accompanied Madame Potter, Madame Mudd 

and Mrs Smith on the annual French Exchange. This is the 

thirteenth year that such an exchange has taken place and 

there were the usual nerves, excitement and trepidation as 

we left Ripley! 

Ripley students were paired with French students from 

Lycée Leonard da Vinci which is a 15 to 19 mixed school 

situated in Melun, approximately 50 kilometres away from 

and within easy reach of Paris. While staying in France, 

as well as spending time living with their “French family” 

experiencing all things French, students also took part in 

many cultural visits which included: Trips to the Château 

de Versailles, Notre-Dame, Musée du Louvre, Cité de 

Sciences, a river cruise on La Seine and the obligatory 

visit up the Eiffel Tower! Some lucky students also went to 

DisneyLand Paris at the weekend. 

After the weekend spent en famille, students all had 

stories of interesting meals, guided tours of Paris and 

other activities which they had done with one student even 

attending a family 60th birthday celebration. All couldn’t 

believe how much French they had spoken with saying they 

had forgotten how to speak English! 

Eiffel Tower 

Our penultimate morning was spent working on a project 

on the differences between the English and the French 

school systems where our pupils interviewed French 

students at the school and presented their findings to the 

rest of the group – this was a real eye opener for some of 

our students: “school on a Saturday!”,”You have to repeat 

the year if you don’t pass!” “Lessons from 8 until 5”. On the 

last day some pupils were also lucky enough to sit in some 

French lessons and really experience French school life in 

the classroom – it was interesting to hear their reflections 

on this – not a PowerPoint or Smartboard in sight! 

In March we welcomed our new French friends back to 

Lancaster for a week where they got to experience a little 

bit of Ripley life. Aside from cultural visits to Liverpool and 

Manchester, Lancaster Town Hall and the castle, they were 

most enthralled by visiting our very own farm and admiring 

a “Harry Potter” school. 

Touring the city 

“ 

i really enjoyed the 

challenge 

of speaking french 

for a week & now feel i can 

understand a lot more 

“ 

A big merci to all the students who took part and parents 

and staff that made this exchange a success and we look 

forward to more exchanges in the future. All students 

Eleanor Wood 

agreed that for learning a language, nothing beats living 

in the country and fully immersing yourself in the culture, 

even for just a week! 

Vive l’échange! 


“ 

the exchange has 

really helped 

with my skills of 

understanding 

the language 

Caitlin Dilkes 

“ 

Bonjour 

la classe 

C Blach-Davies, Primary Languages Outreach 

After the great success of the ten week course which 

mainly focused on Methodology and Classroom 

Language, we have decided to start a new course in 

May this time based on general French language and 

Classroom Activities. 

If you are a primary teacher and interested in joining the 

new course, due to start on Thursday, 5 May, contact 

Mrs C Blach-Davies for more information via the details 

on Page 2. 

Ripley 

association 

SPORTS EVENING 

Notre-Dame 

D Bateman, Chairman of Ripley Association 

The Ripley Association will be holding its third annual 

sports evening on Friday, 24 June 2011. Last year was 

bigger and better than the first and we hope to continue 

the trend this year. We hope to welcome anyone past 

and present connected with Ripley including students, 

parents, employees... 

You can take part in the organised games of cricket, 

football or hockey or join in the ad hoc games such as 

rounders which spring up on the night. On the other hand 

you can just come down for the social event and meet up 

with old friends and colleagues. 

I 

PARIS 

If you would like any more information please contact the 

Ripley Association 

Website: theripleyassociation.wordpress.com 

Telephone: Brian Wood 01524 848438 

David Bateman 01524 822065 

Please tell your friends: we had over 100 people there 

last year and would love to see more this time. 

Believe..... 17

dance 

J Hate, Subject Leader, Dance 

Hello again and welcome to another update on the Dance 

department! We are currently very busy preparing for the 

National Youth Dance Showcase, with two groups being 

selected to perform at the event. 

Ripley Youth Dance 

Open to Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 – Youth Dance is a high level 

contemporary dance club, and aimed at giving young people 

the chance to train and perform more artistic pieces of dance. 

The group performed on Thursday, 31 March, and have been 

worked incredibly hard on their piece of lyrical dance. They 

have done an amazing job, and I’m sure the parents who 

came along to watch will agree that their performance was 

stunning! 

Ripley Boys Urban (aka Insomnia) Open to all year groups 

This is a group of lads who love street and urban dance. 

They have been working really hard to produce a strong and 

physical dance with loads of incredible lifts, flips and tricks! 

After performing on Friday, 1 April at the showcase – I think 

the parents and the audience alike were wowed by their 

amazing skills! 

GCSE Dance 

This year is the first time GCSE Dance has been offered at 

Ripley, and we are very lucky to have some amazingly talented 

dancers in the group. On Tuesday, 5 April they have their 

practical exams with me and the AQA dance moderator. It is 

a scary time for the dancers as some of them have to perform 

in 5 different pieces of dance – the whole moderation will last 

from 10am until 4pm! So I would like to wish the entire Year 

11 GCSE Dance group the very best of luck, but I know they 

will do a great job! 

“ 

“ 

Oh, brave new 

18 Ripley St Thomas 

world... 

Ripley Evening of Dance 

For the first time at Ripley we will be hosting a Dance Concert 

on Wednesday, 18 May in the Phythian Hall. There will be 

the chance to see firsthand some of the amazing GCSE exam 

pieces along with the Ripley Youth Group, Boys Urban, two 

pieces from the KS3 Dance Club and a host of pieces from 

Year 7-9. There will also be an incredibly ‘grrrooovey’ piece 

of dance being performed by some very special guests (aka 

the support staff and teachers!) I hope that this will be the 

first of many Dance concerts to come, and that parents will 

be amazed by the outstanding level of talent we have at 

Ripley. Tickets will be going on sale after Easter, costing £4/3 

respectively. I hope that many of you will be able to come 

along and support the dancers. 

We are pleased to announce that we 

are taking part in the Shakespeare 

Schools Festival this year. The Drama 

Department will join forces with 

the English Department to produce 

Shakespeare’s The Tempest. This 

will be performed at The Dukes in 

November and will involve a large cast. 

Interested students should contact 

Mrs Plowright or Mr Burgess.

sport 


J Quarry, Subject Leader, Physical Education 

Wow! What an exciting term for Sport! It’s difficult to know 

where to begin in what has been an action packed half term 

with so many opportunities for students and successes to 

match. Sport@Ripley has earned it’s Easter break! A big thank 

you and congratulations to all involved. 

Going for Gold! 

The climax to a great term saw the visit of Katie Ingram 

whose impressive list of achievements includes a World 

Duathlon Gold medal, an European Triathlon Bronze Medal, 

an European Duathlon Silver Medal and Commonwealth 

Mountain Running Gold Medal and well as National titles! 

Katie’s inspiring visit as a Sports Ambassador with the Wells 

Sport Foundation had 120 GCSE, A Level and Gifted and 

Talented students listening intently to her talk about the life of 

a full time athlete and they also had the chance to ask some 

interesting and insightful questions which she was more than 

happy to answer. 

Congratulations to the following 11 

students who have been selected to 

represent Lancaster at the International 

Youth Games in Aalborg, Denmark 

in August 2011. 

Katie Ingram discussing aspirations 

In the afternoon, a selection of Year 9 Ripley Sports Leaders 

had the opportunity to put what they had been working on into 

practice with a primary schools multi skills festival that they 

had organised. The 25 students did an absolutely fantastic 

job in what was their first opportunity to organise an event for 

60 primary school children. Well done! 

(Swimming) Rachel Ritchie, Becky 

Townend (Badminton) Robert Dunston, 

Muhammed Nizam, William Atkinson, 

Ruth Dunston, Afif Nizam (Tennis) Aaron 

Grime, Emma Piell, Louis Le Masurier, 

Matthew Cape 

You can now keep up to 

date with all the latest 

sports news and results 

as they happen through 

the Ripley Facebook page 

and Twitter feed. 

See Page 2 

After half term you will notice 

a more interesting appearance 

to the inside of the Sportshall 

building as we have been working 

hard to produce a number of 

framed photos of Ripley students 

in action that represent what PE 

and Sport at Ripley is about. 

Students got a practical approach to Katie’s Sport 

Believe..... 19

EPQ 

SENIOR TEAM 

Saturday 5th March was the date 

for our first EPQ Conference. 

Organised by Mr. Cree, the day 

provided a range of preparatory 

talks and activities to enable 

the 24 students to plan and 

structure their extended project 

qualification. 

This term we say farewell to Luke Satterthwaite [Head 

Boy], Rosanna Wood [Head Girl], Chris Pilkington, Matt 

Rogerson, Lewis Ryder and Vicky Whitehouse who have led 

all the student leadership teams with such energy, reliability 

and innovation this year. Year 12 students now start the 

application process for the leadership teams for 2011-2012. 

FUND RAISING 

It’s been another successful term for the students’ fundraising. 

Vicky Whitehouse led an assembly for the Friends of 

the Children of Chernobyl, which raised £275 for the charity. 

We hope the money will be sufficient to provide new pyjamas 

for all the children who come to Lancaster this year as part 

of the charity’s long-term aim to offer an annual holiday 

to children who live in Belarus, within the area affected by 

Chernobyl. Following the presentation made to Mr. Cowan 

from FOCC, we hope to be able to organise a picnic for the 

children during their visit to Lancaster in June. 

Kirsty House led a willing team of cooks to provide the sixth 

form with pancakes at lunchtime on Shrove Tuesday. This 

raised £62 which was added to our mufti money for Red Nose 

Day – a further £370 took our total to £432. 

Tom Huck and April Singh’s assembly on Meningitis and 

Septicaemia Research was also followed with a collection, 

raising £122 for the cause. 

We are proud of the young people’s interest in a variety of 

causes and their willingness to take the lead to give what we 

can to others. 

Head Girl Rosanna Wood & Head Boy Luke Satterthwaite 

DIARY DATES 

AS written exams 16, May to 7, June 2011 

Year 13 Leave School 19, May 2011 

A2 written exams 20, May to 27, June 2011 

Year 12 Study Leave 23, May to 27, May 

Year 12 A2 Study Begins 6, June 2011 

Exam Results 18, August 2011

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