S tage - Rodillian School

Performing Arts * Broomfield * Disneyland
Centre
tage
the news magazine of Rodillian School
Summer
2011
6
Play
words
on
Year 12 act
the part

RINGING THE CHANGES AT RODILLIAN
Achieve your dreams
OUR priorities remain the same this year:
to provide an outstanding education for all.
However, we will also be focusing on raising the
aspirations of our student body.
Whatever your dreams are, we are committed
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Theatre brings
to helping you achieve them. The best way to
secure this is by working in partnership with
parents to help all students reach their full
potential. Effectively improving this partnership,
therefore, is our other key focus.
ACCENT ON COMMUNICATION
STUDENTS Joe Peaker and Lucy Dalton
have recently been appointed Head
Boy and Head Girl. Their agenda is to
improve communications between
students, staff, parents and carers, to
ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.
Joe’s ambition is to become a pilot
and Lucy hopes to go into the music
industry as a drummer.
books books life
STUDENTS in Year 7 were
recently given the opportunity
to see Michael Morpugo’s
book Private Peaceful
at the Carriageworks
Theatre, Leeds.
In Year 11, students
also went to see Journey’s
End by RC Sheriff at the
Grand Theatre in Leeds, in
preparation for their A-Level
English Literature course.
to
What’s on
August
18th AS/A2 results
25th GCSE results
September
5th Training Day
6th Year 7 start
7th Whole school back
16th Alton Towers reward trip
17th Car boot sale
22nd Year 6 Open Evening
October
4th Year 7 Parents’ Evening
7th Race night
12th Year 9 Parents’ Evening
19th Key Stage 4 Awards Evening
20th Fright Night for yrs 7,8 & 9
21st School closes
31st School reopens
November
3rd Sixth Form Open Evening
19th Christmas Craft Fayre
22nd Year 8 Parents’ Evening
December
7th Sixth Form Parents’ Evening
15th Community carol concert
16th School closes 12pm
Down on the faRm
IN May, Broomfield embarked
on a four-day residential trip to
Lineham Farm in Eccup.
As well as taking part in a wide
range of farming activities, the
students also tried their hand at Art
lessons, bike rides, climbing, team
games and woodland walks.
In addition to boosting their
self-confidence, increasing their
independence and developing
their interpersonal skills, everyone
had a great time.
Beyond the
classroom
AT Rodillian, we firmly believe that learning is not limited to the classroom. Throughout this edition
of Centre Stage, you will see numerous articles about how staff are enriching subjects with trips, visits
and visiting artists to provide a fresh challenge and perspective on all aspects of our curriculum.
Disneyland conference
IN March, more than 60 students from
Year 10 travelled to Disneyland Paris
to take part in an ICT and Business
Conference, hosted by Dermot Murnaghan
from the BBC quiz show Eggheads.
At the conference, leading professionals
from both ICT and business demonstrated
how they became successful in their
field, which prompted some Rodillian
students to stand up and share their
thoughts and ideas.
Away from the conference, the students
stayed in the Wild West Hotel and had
fun exploring the two theme parks.
One for
the album!
YEAR 8 students have been looking at how
photography skills can help to support them on
Geography field trips.
Taking part in a project entitled ‘capturing a sense
of place’ at Trinity Walk in Wakefield, the students
looked at contrasting buildings and tried to capture
patterns or reflections in their work.
Afterwards, students picked their best photos
to enter into a competition and the chance
to meet the TV presenter Steve Backshall
during a day trip to London.
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RodsFest
Rocks!
the final of Rodsfest took place
in may. created and managed by
Year 11 Btec music students, the
event was open to students across
the school.
faced with stiff competition, Lucy
Pearson in Year 7 went on
to win the trophy after
singing Reflection from the
Disney film mulan. Runners-up
included Georgia hudson
and Ray Young, who
played his own
composition
on guitar.
THE PERFORMING ARTS GIvE STUDENTS AT
RODILLIAN THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN NEW
SkILLS AND SHOWCASE THEIR TALENTS
Students share
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top
BehinD the SceneS
IN March, students studying for the BTEC Level
2 Crewing course were given the opportunity to
tour backstage at the West Yorkshire Playhouse,
including the painting wall, set design
workshops, the fly tower, costume/wardrobe
and both auditoriums.
The students learned how a production goes
from page to stage in four weeks.
DanceRS RiSe to
the occaSion
aS a specialist Performing arts
college, we aim to provide
opportunities for students to work with
a broad range of professionals. the
partnership between Rodillian and
Phoenix Dance is just one example.
currently, our Sixth form dancers
are involved in a piece that, hopefully,
will enable them to take part in the
opening ceremony of the 2012
olympics. meanwhile, groups of
students are performing alongside
Phoenix’s own youth group at their
new state-of-the-art facilities in Leeds.
billing!
cReativitY at woRk
YEAR 10 students taking the new Creative &
Media Diploma have received positive feedback
for their work so far, particularly for their
innovative advertising campaign.
The course gives them the opportunity to use
state-of-the-art facilities used by professionals in
the creative industries, and is designed to equip
them with the skills necessary for a career in
the creative and applied arts, including graphic
design, photography and advertising.
Role
models
AS part of their AS Drama exam in May, students
in Year 12 performed the play, Five Kinds of
Silence by Shelagh Stephenson, about a family
who are torn apart by their controlling father.
In addition, they had to perform a monologue
or duologue from a contrasting period and
chose, therefore, to perform an extract from
Easy Virtue by Noel Coward.
As well as rehearsing and performing their
roles, the students enjoyed sourcing their
costumes.
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Seasonal cuisine
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ON THE MENU
thank you for
your support
RODILLIAN is all about learning, and that includes
learning to think of others less fortunate
than ourselves.
Recent fundraising activities have supported a
conservation project in South Africa, provided
equipment and facilities for seriously sick children,
come to the aid of Comic Relief and provided
books for our accelerated reading scheme.
We would like to thank Friends of Rodillian,
students and Radio City for their support.
STUDENTS Kim Bradshaw, David Lockey including crab cakes with rhubarb chilli jam,
and Tom Cullinane showed off their
herb-encrusted lamb with minted mash and
culinary skills recently at the Leeds 17 asparagus in red wine sauce, and chocolate
Young Chefs Challenge.
and blue cheese tart with homemade custard.
Competing
Word
in the final against schools from The meal was cooked to perfection and
around Leeds, they used local ingredients they received some wonderful compliments
to create a seasonal three-course meal, from the judges.
wise
StuDentS have
theiR SaY
SIX students from Rodillian have been invited to sit on the interview
panel for two major posts at Leeds City Council. After undergoing
training, they will take part in one of four interviews later in the year.
A total of 30 other students will receive training in July for the
CyberMentors Programme, which can lead to a Peer Mentoring Award.
an imaginative journey
TEXTILE artist Emma Burtt has been exploring the theme of
‘journeys’ with students from Rodillian and Broomfield in a
series of six, half-day workshops.
The wide range of activities also helped to develop strong
working bonds between the two groups of students.
YEAR 7 students have
been buzzing with their
spelling success.
The competition was intense as
students from each form competed in
knockout rounds to gain the all-important
winning places for next year’s Times
School Spelling Bee. After a nail-biting
final round, Owen Kelly and James
McClusky won by two full points.
The event is set to become a
regular fixture in the Key Stage
3 calendar.
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNER PRIMARIES
Inspired
CHILDREN from Key Stages 1 and 2 at Rothwell Primary School
enjoyed a recent visit to ‘The Forbidden Corner’ in the Yorkshire Dales.
The trip provided a stimulus for the Art and writing workshops that
were held the following day in school. The resulting pieces of work are
now on display in the school library.
VeggieS fOR VictORiA
STUDENTS at Rothwell
victoria Junior School
are growing their own
vegetables, thanks to a
£7,000 grant from Local
Food, a £50-million funding
programme supported by
the Big Lottery Fund which
supports food-related
community projects across
the country. The ‘veggies for
victoria’ project highlights the
benefits of healthy eating and
allows children to take part
in horticultural lessons on a
newly installed allotment plot,
with the produce being sold
at a school tuck shop.
ideas
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Girls score
at soccer
the u13 girls’ football team have had an
amazing season representing Leeds united
in the npower national cup in Barnsley and
reaching the final of the Leeds u13 Girls’ cup
at South Leeds Stadium.
Rugby
players
taste
victory
THE Year 8 rugby league team had an excellent season.
It started with a tough game against Bruntcliffe,
during which Billy Hayes scored all the points in a
nail-biting 12-10 win.
The team also qualified for the Leeds/Hunslet School
Plate Competition, where they had an outstanding
48-10 victory against Cockburn in the semi-final. After
taking a 16-6 lead in the final against Corpus Christi,
they lost out in the final minutes with
two late conversions.
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Rodillian School
Longthorpe Lane
Lofthouse
Wakefield WF3 3PS
Tel: 0113 336 8730
Fax: 01924 825 667
Email: info@rodillian.leeds.sch.uk
Website: www.rodillian.leeds.sch.uk
PITCHED TO
SUCCEED
YEAR 11 students Liam Sutcliffe and Jake
Dehal-Clark are realising their dreams after
being picked for the England rugby league
squad two years ago, following trials with
their local clubs.
The two students follow a vigorous
training programme, which includes two
camps that last up to ten days each. Their
most recent victories were against France
and Wales in the test series in April.
Both hope to make it to the senior squad
and then progress to international level.
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Tel: 01943 854800