Moorside High School’s Class Band project has now fully started to gain momentum. All pupils have been allocated instruments and are able to take them home for practising on.

On Monday October 17th pupils learnt their 2nd and 3rd notes and all played a short piece which used these notes. Here are some photos of the Class Band playing together.

R Foxall
Head of Music

17 October 2011

Moorside High School is currently one of only 3 High Schools in Staffordshire to be piloting the ClassBand project. This is a project which has been run successfully in Germany for many years and also some schools in Coventry since January.

The project involves every pupil in a class being given an instrument for use in their music lessons where they form a Class Band. The pupils will, over the course of the year develop individual and ensemble playing skills alongside learning the skills and knowledge as prescribed in the National Curriculum for Music.

The project is supported by Staffordshire Performing Arts (who have supplied instrumental teachers) and Yamaha UK who have provided the instruments.

For the first couple of lessons pupils have been exploring the various instruments to allow them to make an informed choice as to which one they would prefer.

The class piloting this project is 7X and here are photos of pupils trying out some of the instruments and mouthpieces.

Watch this space for more updates as the project develops.

R Foxall
Head of Music

29 September 2011

Btec students in year ten studying Art and Design had the opportunity to work with a glass artist on the 6th July 2011.Susan Purser Hope joined the department to run cold glass workshops with the students, looking at colouring and slumping glass. All the work has been taken away to be fired and will be returned to the school before the summer holidays.

14 July 2011

Btec students in Art and Design have had the opportunity to complete an arts workshop with local artist Chris Thompson. The workshop introduced pupils to skills in three dimensions and each student produced their very own fantastical bird.

Chris’s own work can be seen at www.warmigloo.net.

12 May 2011

Last Tuesday eight Year 8 pupils from the Science and Engineering Club were invited to attend the Bloodhound SSC event at the Burslem campus of Stoke-on-Trent College.

Bloodhound is the new world record super car that is being designed to break the current world land speed record by aiming to go over 1000mph - this is equivalent to four and a half football pitches in 1 second!

The pupils saw the model of the vehicle, had a go at driving the car in a simulator, as well as building their own balloon racing car. They also had a tour of the college facilities. The pupils thought the morning was brilliant and very inspiring.

More info can be found at the website: http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/

10 May 2011

Moorside High School which was recently named by the government as one of the top 100 most improved schools in the country, has now had a very good report from government inspectors.

The inspection team descended on the school in March and inspected standards of attainment; teaching, student behaviour; care, guidance and support and the quality of the school’s leadership and management.

Inspectors said that Moorside High School, which takes students from both Staffordshire and Stoke City, was a good school that is continuing to improve. They found teaching to be good especially in the school’s subject specialism of science and noted the encouraging fact that the numbers of students going on to study science at A level was rising.

Inspectors found that students ‘enjoy their learning and make good progress in lessons’ showing an interest particularly in moral issues. Inspectors singled out a lesson where students examined issues from the perspective of ‘what would Jesus do?’

Results were significantly better than the national average and inspectors noted that students with special needs also make good progress. The care, guidance and support that students receive were identified as a ‘particular strength’ of the school and inspectors found this aspect of the school’s provision to be outstanding.

Inspectors commended the leaders and managers of the school for their outstanding performance. The school’s governors, led by Mr. David Goldstraw, of Werrington had been effective in challenging and supporting the school.

Headteacher Mazda Jenkin said that the school’s success was the result of fantastic commitment and team effort by all involved. She commented that ‘the current inspection regime is a tough one, with just 36% of secondary schools nationally making the grade as good schools. We are delighted with the progress of our students and the good support from parents who also gave a good report on the school to inspectors. We have always aimed to provide good quality secondary education in our area and inspectors have found that this is just what we are doing.

For more information or photos contact Dr. M.M. Jenkin (Headtecher) tel: 08444 778985.

On Thursday March 31st, a party of yr 9 and 10 students went to The Regent Theatre in Hanley to watch a production of “Journey's End”. The GCSE Drama students were able to watch features of stagecraft at first hand and were particularly impressed by how the director had used silences as a dramatic technique. Everyone enjoyed this powerful production; in fact, the trip was summed up accurately by one of the year 9s who said: “I forgot I was in the theatre because it was so real!

08 April 2011

On Wednesday 30th March all year 7 pupils went into the Stardome to learn about the night sky told by Dr Rob Jeffries, a professor of Astrophysics from Keele University. Also in attendance were the gifted and able pupils from year 6 from the local primary schools - St Johns, Werrington, Parkhall and Weston Coyney. Some of the comments from the pupils were "really exciting" and "interesting" and that "it was fantastic seeing all of the stars and learning some facts especially as we are learning about space in lessons".

31 March 2011

Moorside have recently had an exciting addition in the PE department. A state of the art fitness room has been built which includes resistance machines and Cardio Vascular equipment. This new addition has sparked a lot of interest from pupils and staff alike. Originally, the PE department was running a training club on weekly basis but due to the overwhelming numbers there is now two training club sessions on a Tuesday and Thursday for Year 10 & 11's. The PE department is really impressed with students' general attitude and awareness of the importance of staying healthy.

3 February 2011

Students in Year Ten visited the Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford on the 26th January 2011 where they took part in artist led practical workshops. These workshops focused on improving schools abilities in using a wide range of media to respond to an observed starting point. The work was placed in context by the current exhibition at the Gallery. Entitled 'Kaleidoscope' the display consisted of work produced by GCSE pupils from across Staffordshire schools that had achieved and A or A* grade in last summer's Examination. Moorside High School featured in the exhibition having had four key pieces selected for inclusion.

2 February 2011

Moorside High School 'amongst the 100 top performing schools' nationally

Moorside High School in Werrington was recently identified by Nick Gibb MP, the Secretary of State for Education as 'amongst the 100 top performing schools in the country, based on sustained improvement in each year from 2007-10'. The school was also in the Staffordshire 'top ten' performing schools in the recently published 2010 Key Stage 4 Performance Tables.

Please click here to view a letter from the Headteacher regarding the success.

17 January 2011

Results

Year 11: Electronic copies of results will be issued to candidates on Tuesday 24th August in ICT4 (the old library) between 9.00am and 10.30am.

Official GCSE results are due to arrive in school on Thursday 26th August 2010 and will be issued to candidates between 9.30am and 10.30am in ICT4 (the old library).

Results will not be given over the telephone

If you wish to have results posted to you please leave a stamped addressed envelope with Mrs Evans.

Post GCSE Advice

Connexions staff and Mrs Finney will be in school when GCSE results are published.

Connexions will be fully operational during the period of the publication of examination results.

Appointments in Leek may be made by ringing 01538 483169 or 01538 483330.

Students attending the Sixth Form Centre will already have received arrangements for the first day from Mr Richman. The telephone number is 01538 483922 if you have any urgent queries.

Remarks

The examination board provide facilities for embarking of scripts should a candidate have gained an unexpectedly low grade. Such remarks are very costly and normally at parents' expense. It is very rare that they result in a change of grade (it is even possible to go down). Parents contemplating asking for a remark should contact the school to see how far the final grade is below the estimated performance. Should you wish to proceed then contact Mrs Bloore.

Written consent must be given by the candidate using the correct stationary agreeing to accept the remarker's judgement even if it means having the grade lowered. Consent must be given before an application for remarking can take place. Last date for application is 15 September 2010.

22 July 2010

Please read the following letter from the Headteacher addressed to parents. It concerns issues of school uniform and dress code, along with dates for the 2010-11 school year.

Click here to download/view the letter in PDF format.

29 June 2010

9 June 2010

Your school meals service provides a quality two course meal and drink - in today's economic climate, priced at £2.20; this continues to be exceptional value for money. We continue to develop new recipes and source quality products from reputable and, where possible, local suppliers.

Eggs

We have recently been presented with a Good Egg Award by Compassion in World Farming for the provision of cage free eggs. All eggs used in our flans, quiches and homemade cakes are free range eggs and are sourced locally.

Chicken

We are proud to supply Red Tractor farm assured roast chicken in all our schools.

Milk

All our fresh milk comes from Staffordshire farms and is distributed by Staffordshire dairies.

Pork

We serve British Pork Meatballs and award winning Welsh Pork Sausages which have been endorsed with the Quality Standard Mark.

Additions

We continue to add quality products to our menu provision - Birds Eye Fish Fingers are high in Omega 3 and are sourced from a well managed and sustainable fishery.

Fruit & Vegetables

Our menus include fresh, seasonal and, where possible, locally sourced fruit and vegetables.

9 June 2010

Please note that the price of school meals will be increasing. The price of a two course hot meal will now be £2.20 and all other prices are increasing too.

This is the first increase in prices since April 09, and the new prices still represent excellent value for money for nutritious and healthy food.

31 March 2010

Moorside Leaders at St John's Primary School

Moorside High School pupils returned to their Primary School before Christmas and showed off their leadership skills.

An intra form day was organised and this required the leaders to go back to their old school and assist in the running of the day. Each pupil was assigned different roles, including being a coach, scorer and timer.

Every single pupil at St John's Primary took part in the event. Each class had a time slot and tried to accumulate as many points as possible for their house.

The leaders were fantastic throughout the day; they assisted pupils when taking part in the events and also made sure the points were tallied up fairly.

A brilliant day was had by all!

Leaders Organise Intra Form Competition

During our first half term Moorside High School leaders successfully led intra form competitions for all year groups, with the boys taking part in 5 a-side football competitions and the girls taking part in Netball competitions.

These activities required the leaders to work as a team and put a lot of time and effort into organising the events.

They made sure all form groups were aware of the events and entered a team and also needed to referee, score and organise the fixtures for the day.

The leaders are currently organising the intra form competitions for this term which will include basketball for the boys and benchball for the girls.

New Leaders Pass First Test

A group of year 10 Moorside High School pupils passed their first test in becoming young leaders with flying colours.

Fourteen year 10's took time out of lessons to attend a training day at Biddulph High School to complete their Step Into Sport Passport, and all are now trained as Step Into Sport Passport pupils.

They will be able to log any leadership hours they complete within school or the community onto the Step into Sport website. The amount of hours they complete will determine what rewards they receive. Hopefully all fourteen pupils will complete 50 hours of leadership.

The group have already started contributing to their hours assisting with the agility challenge taking place for year 7 and also assisting with the intra form taking place this term.

Partnership Games

Congratulations to all 32 of the year 8 pupils who managed to work together as a team and finish second in this year's year 8 Partnership Games.

Pupils from all over the district took part in 4 different sports including Football, Dodgeball, Sportshall Athletics and Cricket.

Boys and girls from year 7 and 8 also competed in the district Sportshall Athletics. The pupils took part in several indoor activities including standing long jump and the two length obstacle course.

All pupils performed superbly especially the year 8 boy's team who finished in 2nd place.

08 February 2010

The Orchestra and Choir are again busy rehearsing various pieces of music at lunchtimes throughout the week in preparation for the Summer Term. Many pupils are also busy working with their instrumental teachers and practising hard for the Spring Soloist Music Concert taking place in the Music Room on March 10th.

Year 10 Health & Social care students from Moorside will be hosting a visit for 10 students from Aynsley Special School on 24th February. The work completed by the students will contribute to Unit 2 Communication skills for their Health and Social care coursework. Moorside students will organise and run activities for the younger students to participate in.

01 February 2010

The Winter term was a busy term for pupils in the music department with the orchestra, choir and soloists busy rehearsing at lunchtimes for the Christmas Concert. It was also a busy time for Year 7 pupils who, in their forms practised a chosen Christmas song to perform in the concert.

The Christmas concert itself took place on the evening of the 17th December. This was a most enjoyable night and pupils performed to a packed hall, with some audience members having to view from the balcony! The orchestra, along with the choir performed a variety of pieces. There were also readings, solo contributions and a performance from the Moorside String Group. Also as part of the concert was the 'Year 7 Inter Form Christmas Song Competition' where forms performed a chosen Christmas song and the favourite was voted for by the audience. After closely contested performances the winners voted for were 7KL.

The following day much of the concert was performed again for the two enjoyable end of term Christmas assemblies for KS3 and KS4 pupils, creating a very good end to a very busy term.

01 February 2010

Congratulations to all pupils who have recently passed instrumental exams. These include two pupils in Year 9 who have passed Grade 3 flute, two Year 8 pupils who have passed Grade 6 flute and Grade 5 theory, and a Year 8 pupil who has passed Grade 3 flute.

01 February 2010

On September 29th and October 1st, as part of the Religious Education course, most Year 8 pupils visited three sacred buildings: - a Gurdwara (a Sikh place of worship), a Mosque (a Muslim place of worship) and a Church.

Gurdwara

First we went to a Gurdwara (a Sikh place of worship). As we entered we had to take our shoes off and put head-wear on as a sign of respect. Then we met the man who was showing us around and he took us upstairs to the room where the Guru Granth Sahib (the Sikh holy book) was. We had to kneel on the floor and walk into the room. Afterwards, we knelt down in front of the Guru Granth Sahib and walked around it. Then the man told us all about the Sikh Guru's and Sikhism. He also told us about the greetings that Sikhs greet each other with. Next, we were given some of the food which was given to Sikhs during communion. Then we went and saw the Guru Granth Sahib rest room for putting the book in at night. Finally we went into the langar (kitchens) and ate with the other Sikhs there.

Mosque

Next we went to a Muslim mosque. We had to take our shoes off again for respect and then a man led us to the main praying room. He told us all about Muslims and their religion including the five times a day they pray. He showed us the Qur'an (holy book) and told us about their God, Allah. Finally, he showed us the steps that the person who is reading the prayer stands or sits on.

Church

The vicar showed us the main parts of the church. This included the stained glass windows which he explained what the pictures were of. He also showed us the seats where the choir practise and sing. He took us to see a book full of all the soldiers that fought in WWI and WWII that went to the church. He told us about the history and that the church was built 1000 years ago! Finally, he showed us the huge font that they use to baptise children and adults.

Written by Emily and Rebecca - 8HX

15 December 2009

It doesn't seem two minutes since I was fishing Laura Chadwick out of the lake at Embrum after we had had multiple capsize on a PGL activities holiday. Laura went on to study the sciences and PE at our 6th Form Centre at Cheadle.

After obtaining her A-levels, she then went on to Staffordshire University to do a degree in Law. She was part of a national pilot scheme and completed this degree in two years rather than three by studying during the summer vacation.

After achieving her degree, she then went on to Nottingham University to do her bar vocational course to qualify as a Barrister. She was commended here and gained a 'very competent' which demonstrated how well she did on her course. In June this year, she became the youngest barrister ever to qualify and attended the Inns of Court in London to be admitted to the bar.

She is now having a well deserved break, has been to Tokyo and will be in Australia until January and then plans to travel on to New Zealand and finish the year touring Asia. I am really proud of Laura's achievements and think that she is an inspiration to all Moorside students.

I would like to make this past student section a feature of our website so if you have any news of previous students, please pass it on to jbird@moorside.staffs.sch.uk.

14 December 2009

On the 14th of October the Year 11 prefects and senior team took part in a team work and management workshop. The work shop was lead by Barry Seaton who had, prior to being self employed, worked to introduce similar concepts to people within businesses.

The first session, for all prefects, was kicked off with a questionnaire called the 'Team-Roles Inventory'; this aimed to show us which roles would suit our personalities within a team; these were: co-ordinator, shaper, plant, monitor-evaluator, implementer, resource investigator, team worker and completer/finisher. For almost everyone the characteristics that their results revealed were extremely accurate to their own personalities and highlighted their strengths and weaknesses within a team. We also learnt that the co-ordinator and the shaper are generally the leading roles. The co-ordinator is someone who recognises people's merits and is complimentary of them, such as Richard Branson and the shaper is someone who is aggressive in their drive and motivates people in this way, such as Alan Sugar. However, Barry said that although both sorts of leaders can be effective he personally found that people responded better to a compli-mentary approach to business.

The second part of session one consisted of team building exercises, the group was split into five teams and asked to construct a bridge. To be able to buy the equipment a series of questions had to be answered, each worth a number of points. The finished bridges were given points based on four areas: elegance, length, height and whether it supported a toy car all the way along without stopping (home run). The second exercise was a survival task, we were first asked to answer a series of questions about being stranded after a plane accident individually. We then had to discuss our answers as a team and come up with a group decision, we learnt that as a team, generally the survival chance was higher, demonstrating just how important teamwork is.

Session two involved just the senior team, this was a focussed group on managing a business. We created a production line and had to discuss how to make it both more effective and less expensive. The first change we made to the original production line was to put it in the correct order and in a line so that the indirect labourers had to focus only on delivering the stock. After this we got rid of the indirect labourers and placed the correct stock on the correct stations. With only the direct labourers left we were given another problem to solve, we had to introduce a change in the product and work out how long it would take for this to become effective.

To finish off the session we discussed a range of qualities that were needed to be a successful leader and manager. The day was a very good experience and provided us all with a new insight into business and team management, this will help us not only in our prefect roles but also in our everyday lives.

Written by Lauren, Year 11

14 December 2009

The school has recently been inspected by Ofsted under a Reduced Tariff Inspection process [a one day inspection]. The inspectors spoke to students, read the questionnaire responses sent in by parents, visited some lessons and reviewed the school’s own self evaluation process. Inspectors judged the school’s provision to be satisfactory with some good and outstanding features.

Click here to view the full Ofsted Report

12 June 2008

Pupils and teachers at schools across Staffordshire are celebrating this week after being awarded specialist status. Over 90% of Staffordshire's mainstream secondary schools now have specialist status following their announcement today. The Government introduced specialist school status in a bid to raise education standards, the programme involves schools working in partnership with private sector sponsors to establish distinctive identities through their chosen specialisms.

Three high schools and one community school are the latest to get the go ahead in the Government's latest round of announcements. County Councillor Tony Wilkins, cabinet support member for schools, said: "It is terrific news that a further four Staffordshire schools have been given specialist status. Having a specialism provides a school with a strong focus that enables them to raise standards across the whole curriculum and offer students a greater opportunity to realise their potential."

Moorside High School in Werrington will specialise in science, Jan Bird, Deputy Headteacher at the school said: "Being awarded Specialist Science College Status is fantastic news. We have already been recognised as one of the top schools in Staffordshire for science and specialist status will allow us to build on our excellent reputation in that area."

Mel Harrison, Art Inspector for Staffordshire, opened our Arts evening this year which comprised of GCSE work from year eleven and work produced in an Artist in Education initiative. Music was provided by the school orchestra, vocal group and included some stunning individual performances.  A break dance routine was put together by the PE department working in conjunction with the help of professional dancer Ron Case.

The following photographs give a brief taste of what was a very enjoyable evening that was well supported by parents and the PTFA provided refreshments. Click here to view a photo gallery of the evening.

Moorside High School educates its students to be part of a global community. To this end, each curriculum subject contributes towards the International Schools Award which is a DFES accredited scheme for curriculum based international work in schools. The ISA gives us a framework within which to form and develop international partnerships and develop our curriculum goals. Mrs Bird is the school’s International Coordinator.

Each subject has audited its global dimension delivery and this has been assessed to enable the school to attain the Silver Award. Examples of cross curricular activities are the European Day of languages and multi-cultural days supported by the British Council Scholars 2 Schools programme.

Each year, students visit other countries on a regular basis. Year 7 and 8 visited France in May this year. There has been a visit to Paris for KS4 students and a cross curricular Mathematics and History visit to the Normandy beaches to view the sites of the First World War battlefields. There is a regular programme of adventure holidays which includes skiing trips to Austria and the ever popular two centre activity holidays to the South of France where students have the opportunity to learn new skills e.g. windsurfing, canoeing, sailing, archery, abseiling, mountain-biking etc as well as practice their French speaking skills.

In October last year, Ms Lindsay and Miss Kirkham visited Hungary as part of a Teachers International Professional Development exchange and specifically looked at ways of altering for the needs of Gifted and Talented students.

During half term, Mrs Bird visited our newly established partner school which is Nifa Senior Secondary School at Adokrum in Ghana. We hope to establish strong curriculum links in a number of subject areas and are looking forward to the reciprocal visit of the Headteacher, Ms Charlotte Addo in the autumn term.

Whilst there, Mrs Bird had the opportunity to visit many lessons and to see similarities with our schemes of work. During the time of her visit, Citizenship was introduced to the newly proposed Ghanaian schemes of work! In addition, she was taken to see Cape Coast Slave Castle, Katun National Forest Park and stroked a crocodile!

Life as a student in Ghana is very different to that of a student in Werrington and over the coming years we hope to work and learn together and celebrate our cultural diversities. The school hopes to attain a full ISA status next year after recording a programme of our joint curricular activities.