My faith, my identity

Year 10 have been learning about how religious faith is an important part of some people’s identity. They have learned that Christians sometimes think, ‘What would Jesus do?’ when they are making hard decisions, and this week the Year 10s started to find out how the teachings of the Islamic faith guide Muslims. We made and rolled dice with some core values of Islam written on them and thought about how these values could influence our lives. For example, how could we show respect to those around us? Or support a charity? Could we commit to being honest all day, every day..?! There were lots of interesting ideas!

Tracking Animals

Y8 Yellow Class have been learning the features of native British birds, animals and minibeasts to look for outside. They have been thinking about how we could track them without disturbing them and how can we track animals which are nocturnal. Yellow Class ventured into Fairlands Park woodland to develop their observation skills, looking upwards for nests or any resting birds, and down for footprints (and animal poo!)  We know Red Kites circle the woods during our lunch break, so the class are developing ways to find out which little creatures live in the woodland and could be Red Kite prey. We will update you with our findings!

Maroon class visit Pets At Home

We looked around the store at the different job opportunities available. Dom, one of the shop assistants, showed us lots of small animals and let us hold and stroke them. We saw hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, gerbils and fish. In the dog grooming area, we saw a dog having a bath and another having a haircut and blow dry.

Mr Hugo asked us to complete a special mission and buy some milk powder for his new puppies. We asked Dom to help us find it in the store. We took it to the till and gave the cashier the money. We waited for our change and the receipt.

Rights Respecting Schools Award Update

This term, we have started working towards the RRSA Silver Award: Rights Aware. This means ensuring that everyone in the school community is aware of Children’s Rights and embedding Rights into everything we do at school.

 

The Steering Group met before Christmas, and decided that the three Rights they want to focus on this half term are

• Article 28: Access to Education
• Article 23: Children with Disabilities
• Article 24: Health, water, food, environment

The Steering Group are currently preparing for our RRSA Assembly at the end of this month, when they will be teaching students the difference between Rights Holders (the students) and Duty Bearers (the adults around them, including parents, carers and teachers). They will also be ensuring that everyone understands the ABCDE of Rights. These are the fundamental principles that underpin Children’s Rights.

In addition to our assembly, we are starting to increase awareness of rights in our school community by putting up posters of different rights around the school, in appropriate places. For example, when students are around the playground equipment, they will see that they are enjoying Article 31: The Right to Rest, Play, Relax and when they go to ICT, they will see that they are enjoying Article 17: The Right to Access Information and Media.

We all have lots to learn, but we are excited to ensure that our students do know about, and can enjoy, all their Rights. If you would like to know more about the RRSA Award and the UN Convention of Children’s Rights, you can find out more here https://www.unicef.org.uk/rights-respecting-schools or contact our RRSA co-ordinator liz.holop@thevalley.herts.sch.uk.

Year 11 Catering

On Wednesday 8^th January the Year 11 Catering students supported at the MHST coffee morning serving teas, coffees and biscuits. The students were absolutely fantastic and made us all so proud! Even when a queue built up, the students remained calm and focused and served all customers with a smile. Thank you to all parents, staff and students who supported the team; it’s greatly appreciated and helped to give the Year 11s the chance to shine and show off everything they’ve learnt!