Dear Parents, Carers and friends of The Woodroffe School, thank you for taking the time to read through our last edition of ‘Rough Notes’ for this academic year.
Even though Covid-19 has had an impact on the normal running of the school for a second year, our students and staff have continued to do amazing things. We have done our very best to celebrate these achievements and share the good news stories with you, we hope they have helped.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you again for the support you have given the school during this year and especially throughout the lockdown, and more recent cases that have led to students self-isolating. As a school, we have worked incredibly hard to ensure that we have supported the ongoing education of all our students whilst the school was closed and students were self-isolating, thank you for your continued support at home.
This latest edition of ‘Rough Notes’ contains some of the best articles from across the school year and, with so many great articles to choose from, it was tough to whittle it down to those included. We hope you enjoy our selection. In addition, you will find some new pieces from the final few weeks of the year.
What have the students been doing this month?
- Year 9 students had the opportunity to participate in Enterprise day, a great day with time for team working and new skill development. The feedback from students was very positive and we are very grateful to the team of visitors who helped make the day such a success.
- There has been lots of DofE! Bronze, Silver and Gold expeditions have been completed and the students have done incredibly well. My thanks to all the staff who made this possible by giving up time at the weekend to support the students.
- Year 12 geographers managed to find a spot in between the rain to complete their fieldwork on Chesil Beach.
- A talented group of year 12 artists were asked to participate in a community art project in Lyme Regis where they were supported by a graffiti artist in brightening up the temporary wall in Langmoor Gardens.
- Year 7 scientists had the opportunity to design and build rocket cars as part of a STEM project in science lessons. It was great to see their cars racing across the world-famous Woodroffe proving ground, or tennis courts to you and me!
- Year 10 experienced an Employability day led by the British Army where they worked in teams across a range of problem-solving activities. Students also got the opportunity to practice their CPR skills in a first aid session.
What about the staff?
July gave us a great opportunity to be able to get back to focussing on learning and teaching across the school. Staff, in department teams, had the opportunity to attend an afternoon training event where we focussed on the recovery curriculum, unconscious bias, active learning and challenge through effective targeted questioning.
I would like to thank Lyme Regis Football Club for hosting our event and Monica’s Country Kitchen for keeping us all fuelled throughout the afternoon.
Please ensure that you continue to read the information provided on the reopening of the school in September and share the contents with your child so that they know what to expect when returning.
I hope you enjoy our latest edition of ‘Rough Notes’. Should you wish to find out more about our school, news or events, please visit the school website which I am sure you will find useful. In addition, for regular updates, why not look at our social media outlets:
The Woodroffe School Headteacher can be found on Twitter - @HeadteacherTws
The Woodroffe School can be found on Twitter - @WoodroffeSchool
The Woodroffe School on Instagram – woodroffeschooldorset
Finally, I would like to thank you all for your continued support, your messages and kind words mean a lot to the staff at Woodroffe and help during these challenging times.
Take care and stay safe,
Dan Watts
Headteacher