Wadham Words

Just before half term Year 11 Geography students visited Bristol as part of the GCSE course to collect primary data for their field work.  We spent lessons preparing for the trip and investigating aspects of Bristol.  The students were trying to discover ‘to what extent has regeneration been successful in the Temple Quarter’.  To do this, students were involved in an immersive experience to see regeneration throughout Bristol by river.  Students took part in a river cruise to reinforce their understanding of Bristol as a case study in real time.  The second part of the trip involved data collection.  Students dodged the rain to collect evidence of whether the regeneration around the Temple Quarter had been successful.  This included questionnaires, pedestrian counts, land use surveys and environmental quality surveys.  The students were a credit to themselves and the school and gathered some fantastic data to be analysed at school. 

54 students and 6 staff spent 4 enjoyable days dodging rain showers as they visited a number of important WWI sites around the Ypres Salient, Belgium, and the Somme area of France. Alongside taking in the local delicacies – chocolate – students visited many important WWI memorials (including battlefields, cemeteries and a network of underground tunnels), giving them the opportunity to reflect and remember something that, even over 100 years after it finished, remains so important. There were many tired bodies when we returned to school late on Wednesday 1^st November, but the trip was incredibly enjoyable and a reminder of how excellent the students from Wadham School are.

This is the Year 10 Engineers’ first project, drill bit holders. The Year 7 key rings are progressing well too!

On Friday 3^rd November, Wadham hosted the 2^nd Crewkerne and Ilminster Schools Partnership  annual Tag rugby Festival. 5 local primary schools attended, and 76 children took part in a very exciting festival where everyone had a great time. Special thanks must go to 9 of Wadham’s rugby sports leaders who officiated all 21 of the matches played. Each leader was also assigned to a team and led various fun rugby activities in between matches to keep everyone warm and happy. Wadham Leaders, you were truly exceptional and have set a high bar for all the other leaders to follow next year - Well Done! 

Our Year 9 boys' rugby team after their (very) muddy fixture against Buckler's Mead Schoo l- a fantastic team effort and some vital lessons learnt.

A dominant performance from the Year 10 hockey girls who lost in the last minute to a strong Ansford side. Great work by all.

Our Year 10 girls played an amazing game, beating Courtfields 5-2 and are now through to the quarter-finals.

A fantastic win for our year 10 football team in the first round of the U15 county cup last night.

The team beat Bucklers Mead 5-3 in a thrilling match.

Thank you, Oliver, for representing Wadham School at the service of Remembrance at St Bartholomew's Church in Crewkerne on Remembrance Sunday.

Across two days in November we welcomed 26 interviewers into school to give our Year 11 students a 'Mock interview'.  Our interviewers came from all backgrounds - local Rotarians from Crewkerne, Ilminster and Langport Rotary groups, and local employers, all willing to give up their time to offer this important opportunity for our students. 

Year 11's arrived at school, making an instant statement. Many were dressed in shirts, ties, jackets and smart office attire. They looked incredibly smart.  After a 1:1 interview, feedback was provided to each student so that they all know what they can improve on for their sixth form/college/apprenticeship interview.

Some of our Year 11's said,

"It was a pleasure meeting my interviewer, and it gave me more confidence for the future".

"Very helpful - I've learnt I need to work on my CV".

"It gave me inspiration".

What a day! Bright colours, Pudsey badges, more cake than you could ever need, and a ‘VIP’ ticketed entry Karaoke event at lunch, with not one but TWO guest appearances from Mr Huggett 😊 Students and staff gave generously to raise £729 for this year’s Children in Need Appeal.

Thank you so much for your support.

We ran our successful Careers Fair on 16^th November - an event which all our students were able to benefit from.  Lunch time saw a flurry of students from all year groups visiting the fair and asking some relevant and valuable questions.  Students visiting the Numatic stand were able to practice re-building a vacuum, G&H ran a periscope making activity, ABP offered demonstrations as to where our meat comes from and our Colleges and Universities offered advice about where our students can progress to next.  We are very grateful to all of our exhibitors who volunteered their time to display for our students during the day and then also during the evening after parent/tutor appointments.

During the last academic Year a group of Year 10 students entered the civil service STEM challenge and became a winning team! The brief was to design a solution for future living looking at either travel, food or space exploration. Our team had a three-part solution to collect, reuse and recycle space debris to stop humans from polluting the rest of our solar system. The students have been awarded a £15 amazon voucher, a biotechnology careers talk for their class and a balloon launch which will take place in the spring. Well done to them and the staff that supported the challenge.

On Friday 8th December, a coach full of Wadham runners headed to the Areas Cross Country Championships at Kings School in Bruton. This is a large event with 10 schools in attendance. There were a total of 6 races on the day, and we are proud to share that Wadham students won two of them. Congratulations to Year 7 Fletcher A and Year 11 Alec T for this amazing achievement! Furthermore, Neven G was the first Year 10 runner to finish in the combined year 10/11 event.

In total, 15 Wadham runners qualified to represent the Yeovil Area in the County Champions at RNAS Merryfield on Saturday 20th January. These runners are reminded to register for the event via www.somersetschoolsathletics.org.uk at least a week in advance of the race to confirm their attendance.

Good luck!

Wadham's food photography competition has launched. We look forward to seeing all the entries.

Ilminster Tesco shoppers - The PE and Science departments would really appreciate your help! We are hoping to win up to £1500 of funding from Tesco's in Ilminster. This will be used to further improve learning experiences for all Wadham students through the creation of a school pond and the purchase of team building equipment. Please collect the blue coins at the check-out and drop them into the Wadham collection point.