Welcome
Welcome to another feature full edition of the Rowntree Reporter. I’m sure you will get a real sense of the activities and opportunities that we offer our students in this edition, and how this is underpinned by our fantastic team of staff. It has been great this year to see so many students continue to be involved in aspects of school life they are really passionate about, but also to see students taking up opportunities to be involved in new challenges as well.
Best wishes for the summer holiday - Mr Hewitt, Head Teacher
Vaudeville's Summer Promenade
Nurture talent
A huge congratulations to the Vaudeville department on an exceptional Promenade evening to mark the end of the school year. Audience members enjoyed the full experience of 'Promenade', arriving to musical performances in the hub, then moving between two performance spaces for performances of 'A Midsummers Night Dream' and 'Musicality', before attending a finale in the hub complete with balloons and confetti!
The level of performances was, as we have come to expect with Vaudeville, exceptional!
Performers and audience mingled together with a festival-style vibe, while enjoying ice creams and various other treats!
Over 70 performers took part in the event, from every year group in school. Well done to everyone who took part, and thank you to everyone who came along to watch! - Mrs Clarke
We were delighted to welcome 220 Year 5 students from our local Primary Schools on Wednesday 28th June for a taste of life at The Joseph Rowntree School. On arrival, students joined in with a 'Big Sing' in Vaudeville Hall, led by Mrs Clarke.
After a short break, they then followed a timetable of varied lessons, including Science, Maths, Design and Technology, Drama, and English. Students were a credit to their Primary Schools, by taking part with great enthusiasm, contributing to the sessions, and embracing the new experience - we look forward to welcoming them again at our Open Evening in the autumn term. - Mrs King
Sports Day 2023
Recognise Excellence
The biggest sporting event of the year took place on a cloudy July day. Athletes participated in the field events across the morning and were then cheered on by their houses in the track events in the afternoon. All participants who took part earned house points no matter what position they finished, with a different house winning each year group.
Overall House Standings
1st Hazel: 784pts
2nd Oak: 757pts
3rd Willow: 707pts
4th Aspen: 685pts
It was brilliant to see so many different students showing great enthusiasm during the day and taking part across 12 different events. It was an extra special day, as it was Mr Haigh's last Sports Day at school after 18 years. - Mr Simpson
On 6th July, eight of our Year 9 students were fortunate enough to spend the day at Wimbledon on Court One. They were lucky enough to see some of the world's best tennis players including an amazing match between Gijs Brouwer and Alexander Zverev, who was ranked number 2 until recently, and who won in straight sets.
The students also spent some time on "The Hill", where they saw Liam Broady win an epic five set match against the number four seed. The atmosphere on the hill was incredible, with so much support for the British player. The students represented the school impeccably, and everyone had an amazing day. - Mr Kite
Year 8 Cricket
Work together collaboratively
The Year 8 boys arrived at Bootham for their first official cricket fixture against a strong Bootham School team. Joseph Rowntree started strong with the bat, with Nathan Falgate being the first student to retire against Bootham this season after his 25 runs.
Finishing on 116 runs, the match went right down to the wire, with Bootham catching our total with 5 balls remaining. Well done to all involved! - Mr Kite
Sports for Champions visit
Teach and learn through inspiration
The Joseph Rowntree School enjoyed a visit from Callum Deboy back at the start of May. Callum is a Paralympian Nordic Skier, and during his visit he worked closely with students in different workshops over the morning.
The students enjoyed participating in physical challenges, running races, and Q&A sessions. Callum enjoyed meeting our students during breaktime, and spoke of how polite they were to talk to and work with during his morning visit. - Mrs Parker
Sport Wellbeing Festival at Dalby Forest
Encourage wellbeing
At the end of June the Year 7 girls attended the North Yorkshire Sport Wellbeing Festival at Dalby Forest. They completed a 2km colour run, and took part in some amazing team building activities such as Archery, Yoga, and Cycling.
The girls gave it their all were a real credit to school, throwing themselves into every activity. Three of the girls were selected for an interview on Radio York, and gave a wonderful account of the day. Well done to all those who took part! - Mrs Tindall
Bushcraft
Encourage Wellbeing
On 13th and 14th July, Year 7 had fun under canvas on their Bushcraft trip to Castle Howard. They learned how to light fires and cook their lunch over them. They built shelters, which some slept out in overnight, created different kind of traps, although no actual animals were caught in the traps and took part in challenges and games. It was great to see students working as a team to achieve these challenges. Luckily the weather was very kind to the group, with the rain only arriving as the buses were loaded at the end of the 2 days. Both students and staff arrived back at school, tired, very dirty, but full of the stories and excitement of their 2 days. A huge thanks to Mrs Vaughan and Mrs Dale for organising this trip, and all the staff who also took part. - Mrs Vaughan
UK Mathematics Trust - Maths Challenge
Nurture talent
In June, we had 118 students take part in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge. This is a nation-wide competition for students in Years 7 and 8, where students are challenged to think about the maths that they know in interesting or unusual ways.
Our 118 competitors comprised of students from both year groups, who all did themselves proud. Students can achieve a bronze aware for being in the top 50% of entrants, a silver award for being in the top 25% or a gold for being in the top 8% of entrants nationally.
Our students achieved 35 bronze, 16 silver, and 3 gold awards.
- 'Best in School' award went to Jarvis Chan Y8
- ‘Best in Year' award went to Antonia Pirek-Coles Y7 and Jarvis Chan Y8
Jarvis Chan and Matthew Rose both qualified for progression onto the follow-on round, and achieved the qualification award. Well done everyone who took part! - Miss Wilson
Camps International - Cambodia Expedition 2024
Work together collaboratively
The students that have joined the Camps International team for Cambodia in July 2024 have been fundraising to ensure they meet their target. The students have been completing a myriad of events, such as sponsored bike rides, the Yorkshire 3 peak challenge, Christmas tree collection, car boot sales, pop-up shops, dinner nights, selling crafts, Wiggifest, and Strensall carnival stalls, alongside their own GoFundme pages.
They have all made a terrific start, with just under 12 months to go. Keep up the great work! - Miss McLaughlin
Year 9 - Room 101 Speech
Respect all members of our community
As part of their GCSE Speaking & Listening Assessment, all Year 9 students researched, prepared, and delivered a speech to their peers on a topic of their choice. The speech centred on what they would choose to get rid of from the world and why.
Students picked a range of gripping topics including sexism, knife crime, and climate change. Presenting in front of the class was a daunting task for many students, but the assessment was approached with consideration and maturity, and many students demonstrated a real passion for their chosen topic. Students were keen to do additional research in order to ensure their knowledge of the topic was extensive. The commitment to the assessment was commendable.
Lola Handley chose a topic very close to her heart and spoke with such devotion and fortitude in order to raise awareness of the condition sepsis in memory of her little brother, Benjamin. - Miss Holdstock
"Sepsis is extremely unrecognised throughout the world and is not a well-known disease unlike other ones. However, it will affect 245,000 people every year and five people every hour die from it. 40% of sepsis survivors suffer life changing effects such as paralysis and disability. So why should people suffer from sepsis? Families shouldn't have to suffer. Families shouldn't have to lose their loved ones. Families shouldn't have to deal with the uncaused pain from things that could've been and should have been prevented." - Lola Handley
Click here if you would like to donate to The UK Sepsis Trust
Click here if you would like to donate to Martin House Children's Hospice
Chess Club - Grand Tournament
Recognise talent
This week will see the epic conclusion of the Joseph Rowntree Chess Grand Tournament. Over the course of a term's worth of competitive league matches, 28 hopefuls have been whittled down to just eight finalists. These were the top scoring contestants from five rounds of matches.
The quarter-final was a tense affair with a lot of drama and technical flair. This peaked at table one where a last minute blunder by Harvey led to a stalemate, forcing a rematch that allowed Jack to turn the tables and claim a semi-final spot.
I look forward to the final games taking place this week, and to update you all on the identity of our grand champion and runners up! - Mr turner
This year, over 60 of our students have been taking part in the award. They have all been very busy volunteering in the community, perfecting skills in everything from cooking to learning Portuguese, and participating in sports. Expedition season this year saw extremes of temperature, torrential rain, and brilliant sunshine. 2023 also saw our first use of GPS trackers to help us trace groups who wander off course; however, this year the groups demonstrated absolutely fantastic navigation skills and were spot on with their map reading.
All students now need to ensure that they ask their assessors to write their reports in order to complete their award. Completion of Gold comes with an invite to a garden party at Buckingham Palace - well done Amy!
I look forward to celebrating award achievement with students in the Autumn term, and to enrolling new students from Year 9 upwards in September.
Student Leadership
Work together collaboratively
We are delighted to introduce the Student Leadership team for the academic year 2023-24. Eurwen, Alex, Yasmin, Scarlet, Will, and Marcus will support the whole school council and year councils. Scarlett and Will are our Student Leaders, heading up the Leadership team, with Yasmin and Abi as Deputy Student Leaders. Marcus and Eurwen will lead the student body on Student Mental Health and Wellbeing, our environment, and the community.
The team have already led whole school assemblies and met our incoming families on transition day, and we are very excited by their plans for the student body next year.
Transition Day
Respect all members of our community
Our new Year 7 students joined us for a full day in school on 5th July. All students were kept very busy throughout the day, with lessons in Maths, dissecting objects in Science, creating rockets and water temperature gauges in Design, and receiving their summer reading book in English. Our food selection that day at lunch went down exceptionally well, with the paninis and pizza Meal Deals selling out quickly! Everybody had a fantastic if tiring day, which was followed up by a Parent / Carer information event later that evening.
It was wonderful to see all the students in our school together for the first time, after visiting them all in their respective primary schools. A large number of Year 6 will also take part in our Summer School in the holidays, and we look forward to welcoming them on the first day in September! (Remember, its red ties!) - Mrs Clarke
House Trophy
Recognise excellence
A huge congratulations to Willow House on their victory in the house competitions this year! It was a close call in the end, with Hazel following just a tiny 212 points behind after smashing it at sports day, followed by Oak in third, and Aspen in fourth. We have had some amazing entries from every house this year for pumpkin carving, baking, photography, and the end of year house quiz to name just a few. Many more exciting competitions await for you to get stuck into in September!
Have a fantastic summer! - Miss Vizard
RSC Festival
Teach and learn through inspiration
Will and Tommy in Year 9 have taken part in a very exciting project this term, run by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Both of them secured roles in 'Julius Caesar', performed by students from three York schools. After a series of intense rehearsals, the group travelled down to Stratford-upon-Avon to perform at the RSC in the Playmaking Festival 2023. Both boys thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, and said the best part was performing in Stratford and also working with a group of actors they have not worked with before.
Careers Events
Overcome obstacles to success
Award Nomination
We are delighted to have been nominated as National Careers Champion for the whole of York and North Yorkshire. This is in recognition of the work we have put into transforming the school's careers programme over the last year. We are now achieving 100% across all 8 Gatsby Benchmarks, and offer a wide range of careers activities to all year groups.
Year 10 Mock Interviews
In preparation for their work experience week, our Year 10's took part in mock interviews with local employers. This was the first interview experience for most of the students, and they were understandably a little nervous. However, the feedback from the employers was really positive and the students also enjoyed it.
Year 10 Work Experience
Our Year 10 students went out on work experience w/c 5th June. The placements were varied, and the students enjoyed the valuable experience of being in a workplace. The feedback from both students and employers was wonderful. Our students were fabulous ambassadors for the school, and quite a few of them returned to school with part time jobs as a result of their placement.
Year 7 Enterprise Day
Year 7 enjoyed their first careers challenge, which took place in the form of an enterprise challenge. The students were tasked with coming up with a new chocolate product. This could be a bar of chocolate or a box of chocolates, and the students had to plan how they would design, price, advertise, and market the product. At the end of the session, the groups were invited to present their product to the group. With so many great designs, it was tough to choose just one winner from each session. However, the winning design from session 1 was 'Happily Married Chocolates', and the winner from session 2 was 'Under Coral'.
Well done Year 7!
Career Ready
Our Year 12 Career Ready group are still enjoying the benefits of being part of the Career Ready programme, enjoying recent visits to Caddick Construction and Fera with masterclasses covering ‘Preparation for your Internship and Work Experience', and 'Success at Interviews'.
Alumni
If you are a former Joseph Rowntree student and would like to join our Alumni, please register your interest here: https://forms.gle/VPYgd3PXt7TjNRbXA
Post 16 Plans
Year 11 parents will have recently received the following link to inform us of their child's post 16 plans. Please complete the form as soon as possible https://forms.gle/kWCz1rn9mYXYxXmo9
Farewell to a football legend
Respect all members of our community
This year sees the departure of Richard Ayres, our Head of Business Studies, after a massive 22 years at Joseph Rowntree School. Perhaps more importantly, he is also leaving his position as Manager of the staff football team, a role he has held for the last 13 years since the departure of the original 'Boss', Mike Wilson. Mr Ayres has ensured the ever increasing and inclusive staff squad, featuring both male and female colleagues representing a wide variety of both skill and ability, play either five-a-side or competitive eleven-a-side games every week of term time.
A gifted midfielder himself, he has nurtured talent over the years and has had to make difficult decisions at times regarding team selection, but always with a smile on his face.
To mark his leaving, the Jo-Rovers™ staff team organised a weekend away in Northumberland, where Mr Ayres was mascot for the Berwick Rangers vs Sunderland pre-season friendly.
Best wishes and love to Mr Ayres for his next chapter from all at the school.