WOODFARM HIGH SCHOOL

PARENTS NEWSLETTER

Inside this issue

Welcome 1

Young Leaders 1

Library News 2-5

Social Subjects &

RME 6

Parent Council 7-8

Woodfarm meets Virgin Galactic 9

4x4 Land Rover

Team Challenge 10

Important Dates

29/4/16 School

Leavers Day

4/5/16 SQA Exams Begin

5/5/16 Parent Council

12/5/16 Sports Day

19/5/16 Learning Festival

31/5/16 In-Service Day

Head Teacher News

Woodfarm High School, Robslee Road, East Renfrewshire, G46 7HG

Tel: 0141 577 2600

Website: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/Woodfarm/

Email: schoolmail@woodfarm.e-renfrew.sch.uk

Spring 2016

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.

Dear Parent

With the SQA exams imminent after the Easter holidays it is vitally

important that all young people in S4-S6 use the next two weeks to

revise. As I issue this newsletter there are only 10 school teaching

days left until SQA study leave begins.

To help the young people with their last minute exam preparation

we are running an extensive Easter School revision programme, details of which are on the school

website. I would like to thank the staff who have volunteered to teach at Easter School for giving

up their time over the next two weeks.

Woodfarm High School and our Cluster Primary schools are moving to a system called Parentpay

for our online payments. This system replaces Payments4schools and will be a trial for our cluster

for the next few months. All information can be found on our website.

Young Leaders UK program

This year we have had the opportunity to par-

ticipate in video conference calls as part of the

Young Leaders UK program. We were chosen

from hundreds of applicants from all over the

UK to take part in monthly conference calls via

Skype. We have interviewed David Plouffe,

President Obama's 2008 Campaign Manager,

US Ambassador Barzun and from Facebook

Nicola Mendelsohn.

We have prepared challenging questions and so far we have managed to get a question each in eve-

ry call. This has been a fantastic opportunity and we are delighted to represent young people and

ensure our voice is heard.

Library News Spring 2016

World Book Day 5th March 2016

This is the 19th year there’s been a World Book Day, and on 3rd March 2016 children of all ages came together to appreci-ate reading, very loudly and very happily. The main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. That’s why the library was giving every S1 pupil a free book of their own to take home and keep on this day. There were activities, quizzes and prizes in the library throughout the week. Picture opposite – The Yell Group with their free WBD Books

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Library News Spring 2016

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What are the Scottish Children’s Book Awards? The Scottish Children's Book Awards are Scotland's largest children's book awards, judged entirely by young peo-ple between September 2015 and February 2016 in three age categories:

Bookbug Readers - 0-7 years

Younger Readers - 8-11 years

Older Readers - 12-16 years

The Book Group celebrated this event as well by attending the Scottish Childrens’ Book Awards in Central Hotel Glasgow.

As a participant in the Scottish Children’s Book Awards the book group will have read each of the three shortlisted

books in their age category (12-16 years) and voted for their favourite. The award ceremony gives the children

who participated the chance to see the winners of each category announced and know that they played a part in the

final result.

Danny Weston won for the Piper ! – This was a Woodfarm favourite too. They also had a chance to meet the

authors and get their books signed.

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Library News Spring 2016

BBC News Day 10th March 2015.

The library became a Media Centre for the day as our roving reporters hit the streets to ask our local commu-

nity about the big issues – The European Referendum and the Local elections.

The sun shone and the people

of Giffnock and Thornliebank

were willing to be grilled by

our reporters.

After a busy morning the re-

porters headed to Eastwood

Cemetery to gain inspiration

for a piece of creative writing

based on the lives of those bur-

ied there.

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Library News Spring 2016 BBC News Day 10th March 2015.

Then it was back to the library where it was heads down as the editorial team got cracking to meet the 2.30pm dead-

line. All our stories can be found on the school website .

Interviewing our own MSYP Euan W. on his upcoming election debate.

Classes in The Library

For the month of March all S1 RME have been practising their research skills in the library and learning the Ex-

PLORE method of research. We have covered brainstorming, KWL charts, Mindmaps, Skimming, Scanning, Note-

making and Referencing! We will showcase the best work in the next edition of the newsletter.

Carnegie Awards

The shortlist has been announced and Mrs Strathern’s S2 class

will be shadowing these book awards for April and May. This

year’s CILIP Carnegie medal shortlist is teen fiction heavy and

preoccupied with uncovering secrets and lies. Previous winner,

Patrick Ness, aspires to be the first ever author to win the Car-

negie medal three times with his bold novel The Rest of Us Just

Live Here. Also, in the running is Costa Book of the Year 2016

winner Frances Hardinge with The Lie Tree (also shortlisted for

the Guardian children’s fiction prize 2015) which tells the story of a young Victorian girl who uses lies to unearth the

truth of her father’s murder. Lying is also at the heart of Robin Talley’s debut, Lies We Tell Ourselves, where two

girls fall in love across the race divide in 1950s America.

Please follow the library @WFHLibrary for up to date news as it happens.

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Social Studies and RME

S3 History get creative S3 historians took part in a challenge to design and construct a replica scale model of a Norman motte and bailey

castle using craft materials and household products. Pupils were able to explain the reasons why castles played an

important role in England in medieval times.

S4 Chinese pro-democracy protest

On 25 February, National 5 Modern Studies pupils held Chinese pro-

democracy protests. Based on the 2014 Umbrella Movement, they de-

manded “food, work and fairness” and for the right of citizens in Hong

Kong to elect their own provincial government.

As part of the National Modern Studies course, pupils learn about the

opportunities and limits to political participation and human rights in

China.

S1 develop their skills

S1 pupils have been building models of the Tay Bridge in Social Subjects. Through this task, pupils have developed

their team work and problem solving skills.

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Parent Council

2015/2016 update

Welcome to our second Parent Council (PC) update of the 2015/16 session. Over the past couple of months, we have been

quietly getting on with supporting the school and representing our Parent Forum (PF), so thought we would share the high-

lights with you, as follows

Events/Fundraising

Rag Bag:

We are delighted to tell you that we have received a further Rag Bag cheque for £52.40 since our last update. As always we are

really grateful to everyone who has donated their ‘rags’ — this really is such an easy way to keep raising funds for the school.

For those of you who haven’t yet used the ‘bin’, it is located at the back of the school in the car park.

School Uniform:

We are very pleased to say that we have recently received a cheque from Schoolwear Made Easy for £40.73 for online orders

made by parents/carers. Thanks to everyone who has placed orders. If you haven’t done so already, remember, if you need to

purchase PE kit or ties you can support the school by using Schoolwear Made Easy online. Items are delivered FREE OF

CHARGE directly to you and the school will earn 5% on all items purchased. To place your order, visit our page on the

Schoolwear Made Easy website: http://www.schoolwearmadeeasy.com/Schools-and-Nurseries/W/Woodfarm-High-School

Communication/PR

Curricular Choice evening:

The PC were present at the Curricular Choice evening in January, where we had the opportunity to chat to many of the par-

ents/carers who attended. Please look out for us the next time you are at a school event and come over for a chat when we can

let you know more about what we do.

Constitution:

We are currently reviewing our constitution, with a view to having an amended version ready for approval at the next AGM in

September. The amended constitution will be made available to the PF in advance of the meeting.

Wider representation

ERC Equalities Forum:

Two of our members attended the January Equalities Forum meeting, where they were updated on initiatives such as ‘Show

Racism the Red Card’ and ‘Hate Crime’. This was then shared with the rest of our PC members at our next meeting. Please

remember that we are here to represent you at these meetings, so let us know if there are any Equalities topics you wish us

to raise on your behalf.

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Parent Council

2015/2016 update

Wider representation ERC PC Chairs Forum:

This Forum has been set up for all secondary and cluster primary schools in East Renfrewshire. Both our Chair and Vice Chair

attend these meetings and, last month, a representative from Scottish Government explained the new National Improvement

Framework and how it aims to improve standards for our children and in our schools. The minutes of these meetings are posted

within the PC area of the school website.

Parent Council meetings

The meeting dates for the rest of 2015/16 are as follows:

17 March 2016

5 May 2016

Meetings are held in the Conference Room, Woodfarm HS from 7–9pm and all parents are welcome.

Should you wish to find out more, please visit the PC pages on the school’s website, here you can find copies of the minutes

from our monthly meetings, together with lots of other useful information.

If you have any suggestions or comments, please email us on parentcouncil@woodfarm.e‐renfrew.sch.uk or contact the school

office who will pass a message to our Chair.

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Woodfarm pupils’ hangout with Virgin Galactic

11 Pupils from Woodfarm High School took part in a live Google Hangout with Virgin Galactic and Jaguar Land Rover on Wednesday 23rd March 2016 hosted by Brightwork recruitment in Glasgow. The live hangout connected pupils and engineers from New Mexico, California, Barbados and Glasgow. Pupils from the 4x4 In Schools Engi-neering team (The Doc’s) along with S5 pupils studying the STEM subjects at Higher (Science, Technology, Engi-neering & Maths) quizzed staff from both companies. Questions ranged from the physical effects of space flight, the process and inspiration of design and prototyping, the models of project planning to even the long term financial viability of space flight. Pupils were lucky enough to hangout with Dave Mackay, the chief pilot from Virgin Galactic and a Scot himself, who studied at Glasgow University who gave a great insight in to the flight of space ship 2 and white knight. Jona-than Firth, Executive Vice President of Spaceport and Program Development gave a revealing insight into the work-ings and inspiration of Virgin Galactic. Ben Charles, AVA Lead Engineer - Cockpit & Climate at Jaguar Land Rover, a key supporter of the 4x4 In schools competi-tion gave an insight into the work he carries out and linked this to the STEM projects run at Woodfarm High School. The event was as a result of team Doc’s success at the world final of the 4x4 competition and was pulled together by Ron Rosano, a future astronaut, from Galactic Unite. Link to hangout page https://plus.google.com/events/con2dj05k1tmaerrcjs2p2dmo58?authkey=CKXCsYrb-4mR8QE

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4x4 in School Technology Challenge 2016

Woodfarm Win Again!

Congratulations to Team Doc’s who won First Place in the Professional Class and become Regional Winners for the

second year running.

The Land Rover 4x4 in Schools Technology Challenge is to build a radio controlled four-wheel drive (4x4) vehicle to the speci-

fications provided that will successfully navigate and complete obstacles on an off road test track that is just as demanding as the

real thing, and emulates the capabilities of a full size 4x4 vehicle. Each team enters the vehicle into a Regional Final to compete

for a place at their countries representative National Final. The National Champions from each country are then invited to the

Land Rover 4x4 in Schools World Finals!

Saboor R, Craig G, Rose F and Ross O.

Article 29 Education should develop your personality and talents to the full.