Fountains Abbey l Year 8 Camp l French Exchange 2009 l Ski Trip 2009 lArmy Insight Course


Outward Bound: December 2009

40 Year 10 students from Calder High School attended an action packed week at the Outward Bound Centre in Ullswater from 7 to 11 December. This is a fantastic trip that has been running in conjunction and funded by the Mytholmroyd company Vale Upholstery for 13 years now. Mr Chadwick from Vale Upholstery has put in lots and lots of money over the last 13 years into the development of individuals at the school and without this funding the course would not run.

This was my sixth year of attending the trip and therefore I knew what to expect, Mr Wallis was a little bit shocked when he was told that the week starts off with a swim in the lake, no matter what the weather! After that moment the challenges kept on coming and throughout the week the students took part in a number of adventurous activities including; team building, rock climbing, canoeing, raft building and a two day expedition with an overnight rough camp.

It was a challenging and difficult week that was brought to a close with presentations that were given by Mr Ball and the head of Outward Bound Ullswater and the Managing Directors of Vale Upholstery, on the students' experiences during the week and what they have learnt. These presentations were fantastic and the guests all heard about the wonders of the week.

I would like to thank everyone that was involved for being so fantastic during the week, Mr Ball for allowing everyone to go and finally Mr Chadwick. Thank you for your commitment to the students of our school over the last 13 years.

Report by Mr H Potter, Assistant Head of PE

Photo gallery

^top

Bangladesh Update
The Bangladesh visitors have emailed to thank us for a wonderful week in Calderdale and for a fantastic day at Calder High School. They were unfortunately delayed by 10 hours during their flight back, but it appears not to have dampened their spirits for the project.

We are looking forward to the next stage of our 3 year development plan, which involves our sixth form leaders developing their skills, in order to teach nominated leaders, in our Bangladesh School.


Pictured: Mrs Ratcliffe, Deputy headteacher, with the Headteacher and Head of PE of the school in Bangladesh.

^top

Return visit from Bangladesh

Next week the head teacher and the PE teacher from our link school in Bangladesh are visiting Calder High. They will be in school on Tuesday 13 October.

There are lots of events and activities planned for them to observe throughout the day and the PE department have organised a Year 8 inter-form Rounders competition after school on the front field. Those of you who volunteered for handball training during National Sports Week will know that the whole school learnt handball as a new activity due to our link school introducing it to us. Our intention is to introduce them to the fine game of Rounders.


PE in Bangladesh
Earlier this term, Mrs Ratcliffe and Miss Davies travelled to Bangladesh and spent a week at a school there as part of a project called 'International Inspirations' which has a long term aim of improving the delivery of PE in schools through qualified PE teachers and young leaders with in the school. Calder High School is partnered with Pirganj Government Boys' High School in Rangpur, North of Bangladesh.

(Read the full report of the trip)

^top

Fountains Abbey

For the recent activity days, Year 7 went on a History trip to Fountains Abbey. Whilst there, they learnt about the simple and honest lifestyle of medieval monks - or how monks were supposed to live, if they had all followed St Benedict's rulebook!

Fun at the Abbey!

^top

Slavery: Unfinished Business On Monday 29 June, twelve year 8 students attended an activity day at the Wilberforce Institute for Slavery and Emancipation (WISE), in Hull. Located next door to William Wilberforce's house, the event focused on the history of the transatlantic slave trade, the movement for the abolition of the slave trade (in which Wilberforce played a leading role), and the different forms of slavery present in today's world.

^top


Year 8 Camp 2009
The curse of the 8Y camp failed this year as both 8X and 8Y camps had dry and sunny weather. This made this year's camp one of the best ever!

As soon as the students arrived on Tuesday morning, they were thrown straight into a series of team building activities around the beautiful surroundings of Coniston Hall campsite. Through doing activities such as the 'night line' and the 'spider's web' the students got to know each other a little better and started to understand the importance of teamwork and effective communication and leadership, that was paramount throughout the week.

On the Wednesday and Thursday of each week, the main activities took place. Every student took part in a 10 mile hike up the Old Man of Coniston mountain and participated in two of six different outdoor educational activities - these being Mountain biking, Canoeing, Raft building, Gorge scrambling, Abseiling and Orienteering.

In the evenings there was time to chill out after dinner before having the opportunity to play some sport, walk into the centre of Coniston or even go swimming in the lake.  And Thursday evenings saw the camp come to a close with a sing-song around the camp fire with pie and peas and certificates awarded to star campers, for all of their hard work.

On Fridays it was time to pack up our things, tidy the camp site and head off back home.

Year 8 were absolutely fantastic throughout the two weeks of camp and I can't sing their praises enough.  They were the best year group I have ever taken on camp (in 5 years) and they need congratulating for being so good. Also I would like to thank all the staff that came and helped out on camp and that helped in school covering lessons etc. The PE department couldn't run a trip of this size without your help, so thank you.

I am now looking forward to next year's camp.

Mr H Potter (Curriculum Leader - Outdoor Pursuits)

^top

French Exchange 2009 (Report by Mrs E Taylor, Head of Modern Foreign Languages)

This year's French Exchange took place over a two and a half week period in March. Following a busy but enjoyable visit by Le Collège Roger Salengro to the Calder Valley between 11 and 18 March, the return leg began just two days later. Forty students from across Year 9, 10 and 11 set off for the town of St.Pol-sur-Ternoise in the Nord Pas-de-Calais region of France. During our time in France we spent time in lessons with our hosts, visited the beautiful Belgian town of Bruges, and visited some of the historic WW1 and WW2 sites which are plentiful in this area of Northern France. We also had a lot of fun during our market challenge in the local town of Arras where students excelled themselves when set the 'tricolore challenge' (i.e. to purchase something red, white and blue).

We were very warmly welcomed by our hosts. Special mention should go to David Hyatt in Year 11 who experienced a huge range of French gastronomical delights including steak tartare, frogs legs, snails and rabbit! Good effort David!

Students who took part in this year's visit deserve big congratulations for the way they conducted themselves throughout the two weeks and we are looking forward to taking many of them back again next year, along with a few new faces from our current Year 8.



Staff and students pictured here at the reception held in the Town Hall with St Pol's Mayor.

Photos from visits to Bruges and World War sites

^top

2009 Ski Trip to Austria Report by Mr H Potter

Another year and another ski trip! 42 students and 7 staff have recently returned from the wonderful resort of Salzburger Sportwelt in Austria.

After a long 30 hour coach journey and virtually no sleep, the group arrived at the hotel Simonyhof in the lovely little village of Radstadt. The week was fantastic and the snow conditions were some of the best experienced in Austria in recent years. The group had six action-packed days whilst on the trip on different mountains within the Amade area. The days consisted of five hours of skiing and snowboard tuition in excellent conditions, an hour for lunch and an evening activity, which included bowling, ice skating and a disco.

(Photos of resort and skiers in action)

	The group was absolutely fantastic and everyone had an amazing time.There were plenty of falls on the piste, but luckily no-one injured themselves this year. During the week competitions were held in everything we did and points were awarded for victories and deducted for embarrassing moments and falls. At the end of the week Mr Gregg's team came top of the table and Miss Haggart's sixth form group came dead bottom.  By the end of the action-packed week, everyone was knackered and the 26 hour coach journey on the way back flew by. I would like to thank all of the students who came for being so fantastic and I would also like to thank all the staff involved. Keep watching this space for details of next year's trip.

^top


Army Insight course
For the first time, Calder High students had the opportunity to take part in a three day residential Army course at Beckingham Cadet Training camp in Lincolnshire. The activities over the three days included: Drill practice, team building exercises such as commando crawling, camouflage practice, two attempts at the assault course, target rifle shooting practice, paintball shooting at targets in the woods, learning how to perform tactical manoeuvres, recording information and recovering equipment.

The purpose of the course was to experience some of the daily routines of a soldier's life. This included inspection of the billets every morning and being dressed appropriately at all times whilst performing the activities. As well as regular exercise, we enjoyed three square meals a day!

18 Year 11 students and two staff enjoyed the whole experience. A word of advice: if you are considering joining the army, make sure you are in top physical condition!

(Report by two very tired staff: Mrs A Clay and Mr M Reed)

^top