OUSENEWS OUSEDALESCHOOLMAGAZINE MARCH2021 - A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL THE COVID TESTING STAFF! - OUSEDALE SCHOOL
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OuseNews
Ousedale School Magazine March 2021
A Huge Thank You to all the Covid Testing Staff!
Message from Stuart Glover—Acting Headteacher
Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome to this special edition of Ousenews. I am sure you will enjoy
reading about the different aspects of school life this term. The main
theme is the celebration of the work our students have completed
during lockdown, with many examples of outstanding work and
engagement.
I would like to start by saying a special thank you to all students, staff and parents for your
willingness to engage with the mass testing programme we set up at school. This was a significant
challenge to the school in terms of setting up the test sites, training staff as test site operatives
and then scheduling the testing programme for more than 6.5K tests. I am immensely proud of
how smoothly the testing was conducted and am humbled by the willingness of all to be involved.
As a small token of our thanks, we did provide a coffee van for staff last week and we will look to
find ways we can celebrate with our students in the summer term.
The return to school since 8th March has been very smooth and it is really pleasing to see our
students fully engaged in class and thriving on the social interactions with their peers. Despite all
the restrictions that are still in place, I truly believe that Ousedale is a happy school, where the
vast majority of our students and staff enjoy coming to study and work. We await further
guidance from the Department for Education on how we can ease the current restrictions and
broaden and improve the experiences of our students during the summer term.
I think a special mention should go to our Y11 and Y13 students, who are embarking on the final
part of their journey towards being awarded grades for 2020/2021. I am confident in the work the
school has done in ensuring that staff and students are fully prepared to administer and assign
grades for each student in a robust and fair way. This will mean that our students will be awarded
the grades that they deserve.
Finally, I would like to thank you as parents and carers for your continued support of the work that
we are doing as a school. I have always believed this is a two-way partnership and working
together during the pandemic has strengthened this further. It is something we look to enhance in
the weeks and months to come.
I wish you all a restful and peaceful Easter break.
Stuart Glover
Acting Headteacher
@ousedale
2
Testing Staff
The lateral flow testing programme has been successfully completed, with the vast majority of
our students having received 3 tests. This means that the school has completed over 6,500 tests
in the last 2 weeks. We would like to thank the students and testing staff for their excellent
cooperation and patience with the process, which was a key ingredient to the success of the
testing programme. We should all be proud of our efforts in supporting the nation through the
pandemic.
Here are some photos of the testing centre at Newport Pagnell:
www.ousedale.org.uk
3
Testing Staff
Here are some photos of the testing centre at Olney:
Covid Testing at Olney
So, before our return to school, a group of Associate staff at both campuses volunteered to be
test site operatives. We had to pass some online training first and then had to have a physical
run-through before we were able to start testing the staff and students.
On day 1 all the staff were tested so that they could return to the classrooms to welcome their
students back into school. There was a phased return that first week, with all students being
tested and all back in class by the end of the week.
All students have now had their third test and I can honestly say that they all behaved brilliantly,
and were not phased at all by the testing process, so a big “thank you” to them for making life
easy for the operatives.
Thanks to Lindsey Humphries and Shona Bateson, Team Leaders, for keeping the system running
so smoothly and to my fellow operatives for their cheeriness each day.
Janis Holmes
Test Site Operative, Olney Campus
@ousedale
4
Year 7 Activities During Lockdown
Here is a selection of achievements that some of our Year 7 students
completed throughout lockdown:
Elizabeth Henderson-Gamble—Over the last year, and
especially during the lockdown months - Elizabeth’s baking
skills have improved significantly. Not only has she become
more confident and independent in the kitchen, she has
also used this skill to bring joy to lots of people: family,
friends, and elderly people in the neighbourhood. She even
challenged herself with making a chocolate waterfall cake
for her grandfather’s 80th birthday.
Sam Wood—Sam has attended a Boys’ Brigade zoom call
every week over the past year. This has helped the boys
maintain contact with friends outside school and engaged
them in different weekly challenges to relieve some of the
boredom. These challenges have included planning a quiz,
creating a den from items you can carry in one go and
baking cakes and biscuits. As the boys have completed
challenges they have built up points which has seen small
trophies awarded and recently a jacket which will
hopefully come into use once they can get back to
camping.
Tarren Mayer—Achieved ELITE STATUS in ice skating,
meaning she is one of a few people that get to still skate
during lockdown
www.ousedale.org.uk
5
KS3 Maths Non Screen Day
During lockdown, as part of no screens day, students in Maths looked at a number of different
activities including pattern drawing, making posters with number puzzles about themselves and
curves of pursuit.
Students produced some lovely work and we enjoyed seeing their efforts.
@ousedale
6
KS3 Geography Non Screen Day
The Geography department thought non-screen day would be a great opportunity to allow the
students to step away from their screens and use their creative skills. Year 7 were given the
opportunity to create a volcano model or volcano explosion, Year 8 were given the opportunity
to create a weather instrument and Year 9 were given the opportunity to create a biome in a box
or to design their own animal with adaptations to help it survive in a specific ecosystem.
Here are a few of the amazing and creative pieces of work handed in across both campuses.
www.ousedale.org.uk
7
Art
Here is some of the fantastic artwork created by our Year 10 and Year 12 students. These
students did a great job at keeping creative over lockdown and their hard work is paying off for
this final stretch of their current projects. Well done!
Year 10
@ousedale
8
Art
Year 12
www.ousedale.org.uk
9
Art
COMPETITION TIME:
If you would like to get creative outside of lesson time, have a look at these art competitions.
You have great opportunities to have your work displayed in London, or even help us create a
mural for a local hospital!
@ousedale
10PSHE Photography
PSHE Photography Competition 2021
Well done to the following students who entered the PSHE photography
competition on their caption of “what love is…”
Bodhi
Trafford
The name is '#Love
is natural'
Leah
Farr
#getsnappin
#loveispeeciouskeepitwhileitsthere
Millie Underwood
#somethingilove
www.ousedale.org.uk
11Design & Technology
To celebrate World Book Day, Year 7 and Year 8 Design & Technology
students were tasked with creating a dish linked to a favourite book
they were currently reading or had read in the past.
Through online learning, students produced some excellent examples of food
at home with explanations of the book chosen and how their dish was linked.
Check out the amazing examples! Well done Year 7 and 8.
Food Challenge
@ousedale
12Design & Technology
Food Challenge
www.ousedale.org.uk
13Design & Technology
Well done to Year 7 and 8 students working at home and joining
online lessons to create and experiment with sample pop-up
mechanisms.
Students had a go at creating typography and cut out features to
jump off pages in different ways. Check out some of their great
work.
@ousedale
14Design & Technology
www.ousedale.org.uk
15Science Quiz
1.Which element is second on the periodic table? Is it
a) hydrogen, b) helium, c) carbon or d) oxygen?
2. Which of these is not a threatened species? Is it
a) the northern corroboree frog, b) Leadbeater’s possum, c) the Lord Howe Island
stick insect or d) the eastern grey kangaroo?
3. What does the letter K stand for as a unit of measure? Is it
a) kilogram, b) kinematics, c) flux or d) kelvin?
4. The oldest spider in the world, named Number 16, died recently. How old was she? Was
she
a) 2, b) 17, c) 28 or d) 43?
5.Which of these is NOT a type of cloud? Is it
a) cumulus, b) nimbus, c) canopus or d) cirrus?
6. There’s a planet in the solar system where it is 176 Earth days between sunrises. Which
planet is it?
7. What does a centrifuge do?
8. What is the name of the longest and tallest mountain range in South America?
9. How many legs does a scorpion have?
10. What is convection? Is it: a) how heat moves through fluids, b) a type of electric
resistor, or c) another way of saying ‘certain’?
Answers:
useful force) 8. (The Andes) 9. (8) 10. (a)
1. (b) 2. (d) 3. (d) 4. (d) 5. (c) 6. (Mercury) 7. (a machine that spins around to make a large and
@ousedale
16Eco Garden
Here are some photos of the Eco Garden. I am sure the Eco Club
members would love to see what I am getting up to. I have moved the
green house frame and will be building a wildlife hide out of it with
bamboo; harvested from outside the front of the Eco Centre. The pond is
bubbling with happy frogs and lots of frogspawn. The newts are doing
great. The Eco garden misses its mini army of helpers and hopes to see
them back again soon.
Jess Flowers Eco Centre
www.ousedale.org.uk
17Careers
The Careers Team continue to support students across the school with one to one advice and
guidance sessions. At the current time there is a focus on Year 9 options, Year 11 Post 16 and
Year13 Post 18 appointments. If you would like to request an appointment please email us at
careers@ousedale.org.uk
ASPIRE – Each term we will be providing a career focus on the ASPIRE platform that all students
can access. This will provide information on how to get into the specified career area, helpful
resources, linked virtual work experience and any further opportunities we are able to offer.
The first career focus has been Law. Please note that once the information is removed from the
platform it will be placed on the new careers website, a link to this can be found below.
Supreme Court Event – In February we held an event with the Supreme Court where students
were given a virtual tour of the court. This was for students in Year 12 and Year 13 interested in
a career in Law. This included some interesting debating activities and allowed students to ask
questions directly to court staff.
National Apprenticeship week – During National Apprenticeship Week daily uploads to social
media and google classroom saw information and resources being shared to raise the profile of
apprenticeships. Students attended the virtual National Apprenticeship Show, we hope to
return to this event in person next year.
Year 11 and Year 13 Apprenticeship google classrooms are updated regularly highlighting
vacancies with a September 2021 start. If you would like to be added to this classroom please
let us know by emailing careers@ousedale.org.uk and if you are currently looking for an
apprenticeship please check this classroom on a regular basis.
National Careers week – As part of National Careers week the careers team produced a new
student facing careers website. This holds lots of useful information to help students explore
career opportunities, hear from past students and look at opportunities and events that could
support student aspirations. Students can also request one to one appointments via this site.
https://sites.google.com/ousedale.org.uk/careers/home
@ousedale
18Careers
Student Breakthrough workshops hosted by
international coach Sam Moinet for Year 12 and
13 commenced this term. These are a series of 6
interactive virtual sessions that focus on
boosting motivation, different personal
development skills and wellbeing to help young
people to achieve their dreams.
Upcoming Events;
FCDO – Foreign Commonwealth Development Office at Hanslope Park Apprenticeship campaign
goes live at the end of March.
PwC flying start degree programme Year 12 only – This event will be virtual and held after the
Easter break. Students will be able to find out about the degree programme and hear directly
from students about the opportunities within this organisation.
Royal Navy – The Royal Navy will be providing a virtual talk for Ousedale students after the
Easter break. We are aiming to run this session after school so please let us know if you are
interested by emailing careers@ousedale.org.uk and further details will follow. This session will
highlight opportunities within the Royal Navy.
Virtual Work Experience - Speakers for schools and SpringPod continue to offer virtual work
experience placements, please explore the sites below to find out more about upcoming
opportunities. If you have any questions please let us know.
https://www.springpod.co.uk/virtual-work-experience-programmes/
https://www.speakersforschools.org/experience-2/vwex/
The Careers Team wish you restful and Happy Easter break!
www.ousedale.org.uk
19Nathan Smith—Apprenticeship
“Having considered both university and an apprenticeship
as routes into business and finance, I decided an
apprenticeship would allow me to pursue my career
aspirations, by achieving work experience within a large
organisation as well as gaining further qualifications.
It was important for me to find an organisation which had a structured programme that
would allow me to develop my knowledge, as well as providing a clear pathway for the
progression of my career. After researching the industry, it was clear that Grant Thornton
provided this support to its apprentices. Also, with its range of services I would get the op-
portunity to experience different areas of the organisation.
I felt the application process was thorough and fair. It began with an application form in
which I filled out basic details about myself. The next stage of the interview process was a
strength assessment. During this stage I was required to respond to a number of questions
indicating how I would respond in particular situations. I was then provided with a
feedback report, highlighting my strengths and weaknesses from the assessment, being
told the outcome a week later. The penultimate stage to the application process was a
digital interview, consisting of responding to pre-recorded questions, as well as a written
task alongside a case study. The final stage was a virtual experience day. There were two
parts to this: a group exercise and a one-to-one interview. This was a very enjoyable
experience. I received a telephone call the following day and was offered a place on the
Audit apprenticeship programme.
During the interview process I displayed a thorough understanding of the organisation and
the job role and I showed I had the key competencies to perform in the role. I look
forward to starting in September and taking the next step in my career.”
@ousedale
20Catering
Lemony Easter Chicks Recipe of the Term—Lemony Easter Chicks
Ingredients:
2 medium egg whites
100g golden caster sugar
½ tsp Cornflour
Grated zest 1/2 lemon , plus
1 tsp juice
Yellow food colouring paste
Orange, black and yellow
icing pen, to decorate
Method
Heat the oven to 140C/120C fan/gas 1. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment and put a
medium-sized plain nozzle on a piping bag. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until they are
very stiff. Add half the sugar and continue to whisk until the mixture is becoming firm and shiny.
Stir the cornflour into the remaining sugar and add to the meringue, along with the lemon zest
and juice, and a smidge of yellow food colouring paste. Whisk again until you have a very thick,
firm and glossy pale yellow meringue. Carefully spoon the meringue into the piping bag. Push
any air out of the top and tightly twist the opening to seal. Pipe about 25 thumb-sized dollops
onto your baking sheet – if possible, try to make them wider at the base than the top,
resembling a chick’s body and head. Leave a gap between each chick to allow for expanding
when cooking. Cook in the oven for 30 mins until they are crisp, firm and come off the baking
parchment easily. Leave to cool on a wire rack. To decorate, use the orange icing pen to make a
V-shaped beak, and a black icing pen for eyes and feet. The yellow icing pen can be used to
decorate fluffy hair on the chick’s head and/or wings. Will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight
container.
Welcome back to all students into school and the
canteens…It is so lovely to hear and see all the children
and to be back doing what we all do best – cooking and
serving delicious lunches!
Anisha Avery—Catering Manager
www.ousedale.org.uk
21Willen Hospice
@ousedale
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