Our Sixth Form DofE groups are well underway with their Bronze and Silver Awards this year, with around 20 students taking part. They’ve recently completed their Volunteering and Skills sections, where they had full ownership over their choices—an important part of the DofE experience. From baking and drawing to learning forest skills, our students have developed a fantastic range of new talents. Their volunteering efforts have been just as varied, including litter picking, helping to maintain the beautiful gardens at Sacred Heart Church, and even dog walking with the ever-enthusiastic pug, Stella! Many are still working towards their Physical section, taking part in activities such as walking, multi-sports, or hitting the gym at Pure Gym Debdale.
With expedition season fast approaching, students have now begun their training to prepare for their end-of-June adventures. This week, they kicked things off with a first aid session, successfully completing the British Heart Foundation’s RevivR online course. It was great to see them develop their confidence in life-saving skills! Over the next 10-12 weeks, they’ll be learning everything from map reading and campcraft to cooking outdoors—ensuring they’re ready to take on the challenge as independently as possible. We can’t wait to see their hard work pay off on expedition day!

Follow this link for more information on RevivR https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/how-to-save-a-life/how-to-do-cpr/learn-cpr-in-15-minutes

This year Key Stage 3 and 4 have been engaging and celebrating some infamous texts written by some of the greatest and most regarded writers of all time. Students have produced some impressive work whilst enjoying their lessons. This year, they have really enjoyed taking part in a variety of drama activities and performing parts of the story to enhance their understanding.

Within the Autumn Term, Key Stage 3 explored the legend of Robin Hood. Throughout this module, we discussed the plot of the story, the setting of Sherwood Forest and the main characters including Robin Hood’s Merry Men. We also debated whether we thought Robin Hood was a hero or a villain. We then moved onto understanding the difference between a biography and an autobiography. The students then wrote a biography about Robin Hood and an autobiography about themselves. The work they created was amazing! We finished the topic by some of our students performing in a stage show of ‘Robin Hood’ which was brilliant!

Throughout the Autumn Term, Key Stage 4 have studied the great story ‘War Horse’ by Michael Morpurgo. This story linked to World War One which inspired a lot of discussion about what life was like as a soldier. Students then pretended to be a soldier in World War One and created their own diary entry pretending to be a soldier in a trench. The writing was brilliant and students included a lot of emotion within their writing. This book encourage a lot of discussion around some interesting themes including friendship, grief and bravery.

This term we have begun reading Aladdin in Key stage 3 where we have designed and made our own magical lamps. In Key Stage 4 we have started to read the Shakespeare Classic Romeo and Juliet and students are already gripped. We are planning to create our own recounts of the story and then a non-chronological report linked to the book.