A Wild Encounter - Year 8 had the amazing opportunity to have the Zoo Lab experience and meet some exotic insects and reptiles! They got to look at a variety of different and interesting creatures: snakes, lizards, cockroaches and giant African land snails, to name a few. An expert in wildlife gave information and facts about the animals, such as where they come from, what they eat and unusual facts about them – for example, did you know that when lizards feel threatened by predators, their tails fall off as a distraction to allow the lizard to escape? Everyone enjoyed meeting the various different critters and some students were even brave enough to conquer their fears and hold the animals themselves! Out of all the creatures shown, everyone’s favourite was the snake because of her beautiful, colourful scales!

On Tuesday the 12th February pupils in year 8 attended an Options evening to choose their path for GCSEs and beyond. They talked to their subject teachers as well as seeking advice from the Colleges who attended. In addition, Year 8 had a whole Challenge Day focused on their options and the different sorts of courses available. As the Year 8s go in to Year 9 we see the pupils separate and start their individual journey through GCSEs. Some will find it harder than others, but the teachers will support them in whatever they have chosen. Mr Gordon has provided excellent advice throughout the process as Year 8 will now have chosen their option and are now awaiting the final decision from the Curriculum Manager, Mr Finch.

Over the past 7 months, a selection of students from all years have been working excruciatingly hard preparing Grease, performing classic hits such as

‘Greased Lightning’ and ‘Summer Nights. It was Mr Milward and Mr Meakin’s decision to do this, after our tremendous performance of ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’ last year. Playing Danny and Sandy were Brandon Grindeyand Sophie Longton, who are both very talented at both acting and singing. For a time in the last two nights, Brandon began to lose his voice, but despite that he still raged on and was highly congratulated by the encouraging audience members. All the other T-Birds (Oliver Johnson, Luca Micallef, Kian Hollins, and Samuel Clarke) and the other Pink Ladies (Lydia Ryan-Adams, Megan Wold, Jasmin Jones, and Aimee Swann) along with Gracie Jefferies, Kiera Wold, William Walker and Libby Chadwick (not forgetting all the dancers and musicians) worked tirelessly to

impress just under 1000 people from all over Stoke-On-Trent; they should all be very proud.

The band have also done an amazing job on playing the background music for the production. One member of the audience said ‘It was a great show and she can’t wait to see the next one’. There are high expectations for the performance next year, due to the extremely high bar that Grease has set. Watch this space!

I trust you all had a good Half Term and I am pleased that everybody returned from the Ski trip safely. In addition to

the Ski trip there were some revision classes held at school for Year 11 as well as a Conference with an external

examiner in History. Thank you for all staff and students who were involved.

After a very long (24 hour) bus journey, a selection of pupils in years 8, 9 and 10 arrived in the snowy mountains of Andorra, during February half term.

Upon our arrival, everyone was really excited to get ready and go up the mountain to start skiing. My instructor, who we nicknamed ‘Boss man’, was exceptionally funny ( having snowball fights and telling us jokes ) made our skiing lessons interesting and fun. Each day we had four hours skiing, using different parts of the mountain and following different ski routes. It didn’t take us long to get used to the ski equipment, although a few of us may disagree! The ski lifts were easy to use and the views were spectacular. A

few hilarious moments happened throughout the week; such as Joe Lancaster’s poles getting chopped in half on a chair lift and Mr Gethinggetting sucked under a chair lift! But it’s safe to say no one was hurt!After our ski lessons, entertainment was provided such as: tubing, bowling and swimming. We all had such a great time, learning new skills which is something most of us wouldn’t have had the chance to do, without this opportunity, so thank you to Mr Tatton for organising the tripand also Miss Goodfellow, Mr Courts, Miss Calcutt,Mr Gething and Mr Preston for giving up their half term holiday to allow us to have a great and funexperience! Ps Mr Tatton’s snowboarding skills are awesome! – Lauren Kinder, Year 8.

Ms Hodgkinson’s form time readers have excelled themselves this term, and all of them have gone up at least one reading age, a massive achievement. A huge well done and congratulations to them! They should be very proud of their dedication

and commitment. A massive thank you to the year 9 helpers too, without who’s time it wouldn’t have been possible.

Congratulations!

In the upcoming days, year 7 will be doing a number of activities to raise money for charities such as sepsis,

minds and Donna Louise. They will raise money by doing a cake sale, guess the name of the unicorn, a film club and a

penalty shoot-out. This has all been organised by Miss Lewis as she teaches citizenship. Prices range from 30p to £2

to take part in an activity and all the money goes to charity. All the year

sevens have been involved and helped to raise money.

On the 25th January 2019, teachers organised a session for Year 10 students to assist them with revision tips for their upcoming mocks in March.Students learnt about how to

effectively space revision, how to make information from lessons stick and afterwards, created a revision map of all of their key topics, most confident to least. The main teacher behind the event, Mrs Bell, said it was really helpful to students as “there’s so much content we have to cover-to cover everything, you need a plan” and that revising effectively helped students in their exams as “the idea of revising is about memorising and knowing your content and practising the questions”. She also said that mapping out revision is helpful as “it matches how your brain works” as “every 20 minutes it goes on autopilot-by switching your revision up, it keeps it interesting and improves memory”. This session has certainly proved helpful to the students of Moorsideand is sure to help them get the best results possible with the tips provided. All that is left to say is good luck to Year 10 in their mocks, and may their new revision skills help them achieve the best results they can!