There have been many things to celebrate over this past term. I have been delighted to see so many students awarded the coveted Garibaldi pin badge at Bronze, Silver and Gold levels for amazing attitudes to learning and progress made in classes.
As I stated in my earlier letter, I will be looking for opportunities in the next half term to meet with parents and students more frequently, to further enhance and develop our school and the position in the local community. We have very much been “locked down” over the past 18 months but want to explore how we can “open up” more and be an integral part of our community.
We say good bye to three members of staff who are leaving us at Easter. I would like to wish Mr Ball, Mr Barden and Miss Lilliman the very best wishes from the entire Garibaldi community for their contributions during their time here and best of luck in their new ventures.
Thank you to staff and students for the community work this week in raising money for The Lashes Foundation and Sports Relief. A week long series of events, involving lots of students has been really successful. Final totals will be revealed after Easter. A special thanks goes to our Sixth Form Cambridge National PE group and to Miss Gibbs, in particular for the organisation of these events.
I wish you all a peaceful and restful Easter break and see you when we return on Tuesday 19th April at the usual time.
Best wishes
Mr Aldred
Head Teacher
A 'massive' well done to all of our deserving students who managed to earn themselves a much coveted 'Garibaldi School PIN badge'. These badges are awarded based on positive attendance, progress and ATL. Approx 30-40 students from each year group were rightly recognised for their amazing efforts in school. Our PIN badge winners from Year 7 and 8 were also invited to a fantastic concert put on by some of our other amazing students at The Garibaldi School and a fantastic Friday afternoon was had by all. A big thanks to the Creative Arts Department to the students who performed and the staff who organised the event.
We will always recognise those students who continuously strive to be better. Keep up the great work!
On Tuesday 8th March staff accompanied 10 students on a visit and walk around Vicars Water in order to enhance their sensory language (what we see, hear, taste, smell and feel). We were graced with a delightful spring day and managed to make many observations of the setting and wildlife. Mrs Brown, Teacher of English commented "I was incredibly impressed by the behaviour of our students as well as their ability to notice the intricate detail when describing Vicars Water. For instance 'The water glittered as the sun reflected from it'. "The students are due to write up our observations in a descriptive poem later in the term and we are very excited to hopefully share some of these with you soon.
For the whole week, week commencing 7th March, Years 7 to 10 took part in the school’s annual Raising Aspirations Week. Students in Years 7 and 8 enjoyed sessions on post-16 options by Nottingham Trent University and Loughborough University and students in Years 9 and 10 had access to a range of opt-in sessions with our partnership companies and institutions and their ambassadors. These included Bishop Grosseteste University, Hydro Aluminium, and ex-Sixth Formers working in Quantity Surveying and Mental Health.
Students also has access to sessions delivered by teaching staff on specific career paths, such as introductions to engineering, the NHS, psychology, education/teaching, law and studying at The Garibaldi School Sixth Form. Mr West, Associate School Leader, commented that “It was great to hear such a buzz around school about all of the different sessions on offer. I am proud of how engaged and informed our students were when taking part in sessions with our partners”.
RAF
Students also had the opportunity to take part in talks with the RAF around careers and pathways. They learned about the requirements to join the RAF, the different points of entry, and what the salary and prospects are for the careers. Students were engaged and asked lots of searching questions about what life is like working for the RAF.
NTU
Ms Moorley, Learning Resource Centre Co-ordinator organised a range of fun activities for this year's World Book Day, for our students, to promote and encourage a love of reading for pleasure. These included: a treasure hunt, the Masked Reader, and we also had 3 Wonka Golden Tickets to be found!
All students in Years 7 to 11 received a World Book Day £1 book token which could be exchanged for one of the World Book Day £1 books available from Tesco, Sainsburys and WH Smith.
Members of staff also dressed up as a character from a book. Mr Chatten, Lead Teacher of Computing, making a very convincing Mr Darcy!
A massive thank you to all members of staff who dressed up, on the day, for students to identify their characters. We had characters from: Holes, The Hunger Games, Mary Poppins, Matilda, Miss Trunchbull (Matilda) plus J B Priestley's An Inspector Calls to name but a few.
Year 7 Enrichment - DT Food delivered by Mrs Lever - Lead Teacher of DT
Continued success with the Year 7 enrichment with a good variety of clubs being offered. The students are fully taking on board the benefits of the extra clubs and really enjoying learning new skills.
On Wednesday 9th March 12 Year 7 students took part in a Sportshall Athletics event at The Manor Academy. Students competed in a variety of events, both track and field. The Year 7 girls performed fantastically well and came second, narrowly missing out on a qualification spot to compete against other schools in Nottinghamshire. The Year 7 boys after some brilliant performances came third. All 12 students conducted themselves in a positive manner and modelled Garibaldi’s school ethos of Pride, Respect and Achieve. Well done Year 7 we are extremely proud of your efforts!
Year 11 Scientists have been busy completing required practicals this half term and have amazed us with their skills in focusing slides and making high resolution images, which some were able to use as primary research for their Art coursework. Below is a selection of images kindly sent in by Jessica Poole, Hannah Smith, Zi Xu Wang, Cieran Briggs and Holly McGuinness-Lee. They are a mixture of plant and animal cells and tissues.
At The Garibaldi School we have all been really excited to be taking part in a week of fundraising activities supporting Sport Relief 2022 and a local charity!
As part of their course, the school’s Cambridge Technical sport students planned and delivered an event which in previous years has been Sport Relief as this links nicely to their course. Due to Sport Relief taking place in the summer, as it is an official partner of the Commonwealth games, it had been decided that the school replace activities for Comic Relief with Sport Relief.
This year, Sport Relief at The Garibaldi School took place between Monday 28th March and Friday 1st April.
Sixth Form students organised the following events to raise money for Sport Relief and a local charity:
· Crossbar challenge
· Target shot challenge
· Guess the teddy bear name
· Staff stocks
· Staff football match
· Guess how many sweets are in the jar … and many more.
Friday 1st April - a non-uniform day with a £1 contribution to take part. We used this year’s Sport Relief as a teaching opportunity; raising awareness of issues in other countries, supporting a local charity and the positive effect the money raised can have on others.
On Friday 1st April - Staff v Staff football match which kicked off at 2pm with great support from students and staff. All contributing to the privilege of watching Garibaldi staff showing their 'skills' on the pitch.
The staff represented either Year 12 or Year 13 and as the final whistle blew the Year 13s were victorious with a 3 - 1 win with some great goals from Mr Gray, Mr Brimelow and Mr Hunt for Year 13 and Mr Wright made the only goal for Year 12.
A fantastic atmosphere, with cheers which could be heard throughout the community; this was a fitting finish to a eventful, successful week.
Garibaldi School would like to congratulate Year 9 student Sam Lewing on being accepted to attend the 25th World Scout Jamboree in Korea where he will be representing our local community and Mansfield Scouts. He is one of only four to be chosen from the Mansfield and Ashfield District, earning him a genuine once in a lifetime opportunity to learn about and interpret other people’s cultures, way of life, languages and religions – and of course food.
Sam had to write a letter explaining why he felt he should be invited to attend, and now he has the daunting task of raising £3500 to get there. His professionalism, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit have impressed the entire staff at Garibaldi, including Mr Aldred, with whom he arranged a one-to-one meeting to discuss his proposals for in school fundraising. It is difficult to overstate how popular his staff room Tuck-Shop has been!
Throughout the next 18 months he is planning several more activities such as family-fun days, fetes, stalls and fun activity days and bag packs at supermarkets in and around the community in order to reach his goal. If you would to donate please visit his ‘GoFundMe’ page https://gofund.me/4fdb6f7c, or if there is a way your business might be able to support him contact Mr Fayers , Sam's Year 9 Mentor so he can pass on your details.
For guaranteed Back to School delivery all orders must be placed before Friday 5th August 2022
Train to teach with the Nottinghamshire Torch SCITT