STUDENT ILLUSTRATION IN CENTRAL LIBRARY
One of the competitions that fall within the Swindon Youth Festival of Literature is “Illustration”. Students are invited to illustrate a passage from one of our LitFest author’s books.
This year our in-school winner was Year 8 student Elliot. Her entry was put forward for the overall Swindon school’s competition which was judged by Steve Antony. Elliot’s entry was high commended. I am delighted to let you know that all the illustrations entered in the main Swindon school’s competition, including Elliot’s, are currently being displayed in Central Library and will be there until 20 November. Elliot’s prize for winning the in-school competition will be attending a workshop in term 2 with Steve https://www.steveantony.com/.
Mrs S Day
TERM 1 IN THE LRC
The theme of “A New Start” has been embraced on many levels for both students and staff. Mrs Dry has returned from maternity leave moving from the SEN Dept to commence her new role as LRC Manager and year 7 started their library lessons with an induction to library services and introduction to their Reading Booklets. Students have been challenged to read a broad range of genres and types of reading materials with staged rewards for their efforts including bonus merits, Front of the Line Passes, Breakfast in the LRC and the end of term Ice Cream Sundae Party. Year 8 have been tasked with the same challenge! Our Community Champions are already proving themselves invaluable at break time helping students with printing and finding books and more importantly reshelving the never-ending book returns; a total of 972 this term.
Year 9 students started their information literacy journey with a cross curricular lesson with Art researching and drawing Manga in advance of the term 2 Swindon Youth Festival of Literature trip to The Wyvern Theatre to see Manga author Julian Sedgwick and illustrator Chie Kutsuwada.
Year 11 and 13 have both been updated on the guidelines issued by the JCQ (Joint Council for Qualifications) related to AI Tool (ChatGPT, Snapchat My AI etc.) use in coursework as they enter their public exam year.
Black History Month and World Mental Health Day have been a resource focus both in library lessons as have peer book recommendations. Science teacher Mr Atkins is a massive One Piece fan and following his endorsement, the books have been flying off the shelves!
Mrs Day & Mrs Dry
BOYS RUGBY UPDATE…
Y7
The Year 7 boys have had a fantastic season with great numbers attending every week for matches and training. They play Nova after the half term in the quarter finals and have been really enjoying their work with Rhys Floyd the Royal Wootton Bassett Rugby community coach with many of them having never played before Ridgeway.
Y8
The Year 8 boys finally picked up their first ever win this season and nearly completed one of the biggest shocks in Swindon schools sport narrowly losing to defending champions Bassett school in the quarter finals having led the game for a large portion. Unlucky boys and look forward to picking up where we left off in Y9.
Y9
Year 9 have been the standout team this year. Undefeated in their games and a victory over last year's champions. They are through to the semi finals and are keen to be one of Ridgeway's few Swindon Schools Rugby championship winning teams.
Y10
We have managed to get the Y10 boys a team for the first time in a few years and they have picked up some impressive victories with some of the boys showing tremendous commitment to training and the games.
A huge thank you to Rhys Floyd for his hard work across all the teams and supporting us develop rugby at the Ridgeway. We have had yet again record numbers both training and playing and we look forward to building upon the momentum next rugby season!
Mr J O’Neill
