News Archive : Oct05 - Aug06
Trinity Stone @ The Swinton High School
By Fatima B.
Since seeing female singer Sara Jorge perform in school last year I have been constantly asking Mr Biddlestone about having a band in school again. I was very pleased when I heard that girl group Trinity Stone were coming in to school and that year 8 would get to see them. They were excellent!
Thanks to all in Performing Arts for making this possible. When's the next one!?!
A Celebration of Summer
On Monday 17th July 2006, The Swinton High School hosted an evening of Dance, Drama and Music, to celebrate the summer and the end of the school year.
Playing to a packed house, the night was a tremendous success for all involved. It was great to see the students enjoying themselves, the performances by all of them were first class.
Also look out for our next newsletter, due mid-September. This will showcase all of our news and events, going right back to Easter of this year.
Primary Sports Action Challenge
On Friday 17th June we hosted our annual Primary Sports Action Challenge day. Nearly 200 pupils from our feeder primary schools who will be joining us in September came to take part in a variety of physical activities.
It was, in the opinion of Miss Battersby, the best sports action challenge that we have ever hosted! The children were an absolute credit and we are thoroughly looking forward to working with them in physical education.
The children were split into 13 groups and we ensured that they worked with pupils from primary schools other than their own. It was fantastic to see everyone co-operating so well and encouraging each other to succeed.
There certainly looks like there is a lot of talent amongst those year 6 athletes, roll on London 2012!
Thank you to all the staff who helped to organize the day and to our year 8 and 9 students who acted as team leaders and event organizers. Without the superb effort and dedication of our students, the day would not have run as smoothly as it did.
A great day and lots of great kids!
Music Showcase Final
Our first ever Music Showcase competition took place last term. It was open to years 7-10, pupils could sing, play an instrument or enter as a band.
Nearly 30 pupils entered the semi-final rounds held at lunchtimes. From these, 14 pupils in 9 acts were selected to go through to the final held in The Swinton Globe on Tuesday 4th April. We were lucky enough to have Trevor Hodgson (who had appeared on X-Factor) to act as judge, along with our governor Mr. Hubbard and Miss Timms. Trevor also entertained with a superb rendition of ‘Something Inside So Strong’.
All the finalists performed fantastically on the night and gave the judges a really difficult job!
Eventually the made their decision and announced our winners! They were:
3rd prize : Abbey Dunbill
2nd prize : Adam Birchall, Edem Mbrou and Luke Hinton
1st prize : Jack Martin
All the winners and finalists received prizes funded by EMI Music Sound Foundation and each was awarded a school trophy and replica for themselves. The other finalists on the night were:
Jade Lawton & Stacey Wynne :: Anthony Evans :: Robyn Fox & Charlotte Kirton :: Toni Johnson :: Siobhan Smith :: Lucy Hardman & Rebecca Bootman
Congratulations to all who took part!!
"I really enjoyed performing in the music showcase, everyone was a laugh and there was a real buzz with all of the other performers. I was so shocked to win as I really thought all the performers were great and it was all tough competition. It really helped that the audience were so supportive and the positive comments made by the judges gave as all extra confidence."
Jack Martin, Winner
Opening of The Bike shelters
On the 10th. February we held the official opening of the school’s bicycle shelters.
Councillor Antrobus attended and cut the ribbon! Also in attendance was Steve Glazebrook, the authority’s travel adviser and the person who encouraged the school to write a school travel plan. Also, there was P.C. Pinder and the disabled bike club who brought along some specially adapted cycles. Pupils who regularly come to the school on cycles were also there to witness the opening.
Bike company, Lock-it Safe, donated a voucher towards a new bike and names of pupils were put into a hat and the very excited winner was - James Bolton in year 7 who is now riding his splendid new bike to school.
Any pupil can come to school on their bikes and know that they are stored in a secure and safe place. If any pupils want to travel to school by bike all they need is a cycle pass – available from school – see Miss Timms (deputy head).
As a result of the interest in bikes, we have now started our own cycle club and the pupils involved have been on a cycle maintenance course taught by our own staff.
In the future we hope to increase safe travel to school and engineers have already visited the school to investigate how we can do that. So watch this space. In the mean time please avoid driving up to the school’s main entrance on Sefton Road to drop children off in the morning, it would be better to use Warwick Street.
Gardening @ The Swinton High School
Having had our bicycle shelter built, we thought it would be a good idea to make the front of school more attractive. A group of pupils decided they could make a garden. So a gardening club was
created.
These young people have already helped a member of our community to restore damage to his front garden. They went to his house along with PC Pinder and members of The Big Deal and did a great job in tidying, cutting and planting. Mary, our assistant site manager then made a contact with a local garden centre – Bridge Street Garden Centre – who very kindly donated a huge number of plants to start us of on our project to make the front of school garden.
The children will now be busy planting, mowing and arranging. Good Luck to all involved and a special thank you to ‘Bridge Street Garden Centre ’ for their fantastic donation of so many plants!
Enjoying a Spanish Tapas Meal
On Wednesday 5th April, the members of the Spanish club were invited to take part in a ‘Tapas’ (snacks) tasting session after school. For the first half hour, the pupils did some investigation work, using the dictionary to translate a list of snack names and ingredients into English.
Then came the reward for all the hard work!
The club members had the chance to taste and identify a range of 12 Tapas on offer. Appetites satisfied, they then wrote their opinion of each snack on a survey grid. Overall, the event was a huge success. The pupils seemed to enjoy themselves and a number of staff popped in “just to see what was happening”.
Many thanks to the LSU for the use of their room and to Miss Allen and a number of year 11 and year 8 pupils for their help with preparing, cooking, clearing & washing the dishes afterwards.
Here’s to the next one . . . . . . . . .
Pupil Opinions of the event
My favourite snack was ‘Patatas Bravas’ (Spicy Potatoes) ¡Muy Satroso! (Very Tasty)
Nikola 7G
My favourite food was ‘Tortilla Española’ (Spanish Omelette) ¡Rico! (Delicious)
Colette 7T
I liked the ‘Queso Manchego’ (Manchego Cheese), but the ‘Chirizo’ (Spicy Spanish Sausage) was horrible!
Andrew 7G
I had a nice time tasting the food. I liked ‘Pan con tomate y ajo’ (Garlic and Tomato Bread) and ‘Ensaladilla Rusa’ (Russian Salad). The worst snack was the ‘Jamón Serrano’ (Cured Ham). Eeurgh!
Louis 7T
The most popular snack was ‘Champiñones al ajillo’ (Garlic Mushrooms) which I helped to cook! Overall, it was great fun!
Jack 8W
I enjoyed the Tapas tasting session a lot. The olives (Aceitunas) were horrible but most of the food was nice.
Lauren 8S
Raising Money on Valentines Day
On Valentines Day the LSU and Nurture group children helped raise £206:00 by selling red heart-shaped balloons and delivering chocolate hearts to pupils and staff bought by admirers for their loved ones. The photo shows some of the pupils and staff, who were involved in raising the money, handing over the cheque for £206 to Julie Tulsie from the Childrens Heart Association.
Girl band 'Nylon' Entertain TSHS
All-girl band 'Nylon', who hail from Iceland, were in school on Friday 3rd March to entertain our year 7 pupils while promoting their new album.
Alma, Camilla, Emilia and Klara, who have been together as a group for two years, sang live tracks from their album, all of which they had written themselves, as well as conducting a very successful and amusing question and answer session.
Nylon are extremely in their homeland, having had two No1 albums and seven No1 singles, and are currently hoping to repeat their success in this country with the release of their first English language album.
It wasn't just the pupils who were impressed, one or two of the staff could be seen tapping their feet along with the music and even singing along with some of the easier tunes.
Ready Steady Cook 2006
On Tuesday 7th February, nineteen Food Technology pupils from year ten took part in our fourth "Ready, Steady, Cook!" Competition. It was jointly organised by Jenny Whitworth from Salford Business and Education Partnership and Mrs Carter, Head of Design and Technology at The Swinton High School.
Working in groups of four or five with the assistance of a chef from a local restaurant, the pupils had one hour to prepare a special Valentines Day themed two or three-course meal. As on the T.V show, the pupils were given a bag of ingredients. This contained a turkey fillet, 50g plain chocolate, a lemon, some potatoes, lasagne sheets, cream cheese and 3 pieces of fresh fruit of their choice. They also had access to a well-stocked store cupboard.
One of the chefs was unable to attend and so two teams shared the expertise of Robert Broomfield from Pendleton College. Mr Goldie stepped in and took on the role of guide and helper for the one team of four in the competition. He must have picked up a lot of tips and tricks whilst working in the Food Technology department this year as his team won!
All of the pupils worked very hard throughout the morning. We were very proud to work with such an enthusiastic group and their results were out of this world! The judges had an extremely difficult decision to make as all of the dishes were very creative and could grace the tables of any high-class restaurant.
A panel consisting of Harold Flowerdew ( Enterprise Representative from Salford B.E.P) Mr Sleigh (Head of Year), Mr Shuttleworth (Year 10 Tutor) and Food Technology teacher Miss Jewkes, judged the food. The pupils also gave a presentation to the panel. Here they explained what they had made, what new skills they had learned and the cost of their dishes.
Congratulations to the winning team, "The Fab Four" - Hayley Wild, Stephanie Jones, Claire Hyland and Vicky Booth, their special helper Mr Goldie and their professional chef, Robert Broomfield from Pendleton College. Their menu included fresh salmon ravioli served on a bed of couscous with a delicious watermelon sauce, pan-fried turkey fillet accompanied by a vegetable curry and pilau rice, lemon cheesecake hand decorated with chocolate to say "I love you", and chocolate dipped strawberries and raspberries.
The runners up were "The Bobby Dazzlers" - Jack Neave, Josh Hughes, Jack Spencer, Darren Birkett and Robert Messer and their professional chef, Richard Moore from the Bistro in Monton.
Both teams will be treated to an all expenses paid lunch at the Training Restaurant at Pendleton College. Many thanks are due to the college for providing this most generous prize. And to all of the professional and business people for giving up their valuable time to spend the morning with our pupils.