Newsletters

Ribston Roar Winter 2025

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A Great Start To The Year

It's all systems go as soon as we come back in January! As usual there have been lots going on. Along with lots of extra-curricular activities throughout the term there has also been parent's evenings for years 8, 9, 11 and 13 and Year 10 mock exams. 

Well done to all the students who sat exams—it can be an anxious time, but they have handled it exceptionally well and worked hard. I hope they found it a valuable experience and step forward in their GCSE journey.  

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting the first day for the suite of Leadership programmes for the Grammar School Headteachers' Association.  The Preparation for Middle & Senior Leadership and Preparation for Headship programmes saw teachers from Grammar Schools across the country visit Ribston for leadership training and development. Thank you to students who led tours and represented the school so well.

Careers Fair
Our careers support helps students to better understand their strengths, interests, and ambitions, so they can make informed choices for the future. In our first week back, we were delighted to welcome a group of local employers, apprenticeship providers, and universities to the school. The event was open to Year 9, 11, 12, and 13 students, and it offered an excellent opportunity for  students to explore some of the career and higher education pathways on offer locally, to ask questions, and gain valuable insights into future possibilities. A big thank you to everyone who participated!

Personal Development Day
Our students had a fantastic, action-packed Personal Development Day this term. Personal Development Days are scheduled throughout the school year, during which the regular timetable is paused. On these days, students from each Year Group participate in a variety of special curriculum-related activities, including Skills for Success, Careers, and Personal, Social, Health, Citizenship, and Economic Education sessions.

Year 7 were inspired by Paul and Hannah Cresswell from Healthcare Careers and took part in the Step into the NHS Competition. Year 8 participated in Young Citizens Mock Trials, led by Barrister Marc Jones LLP. Year 9 explored career opportunities with the Royal Air Force. Other year-groups activities included university visits, maths challenges, motivational talks, and hands-on workshops!

Lions at Large
As you know, this year we are taking part in the Lions at Large Education Programme. We were really pleased to raise well over £1,000 for our non-uniform day as part of our Lions at Large fundraising—thank you for your support!

Students have also been busy creating designs for our Little Lion, and we’ll be announcing the winners of our design competition next term. We collect our Little Lion in March, and decorating will begin in time for the Lions Trail this summer!

We are really pleased to support Lions at Large, a fantastic local campaign that will directly benefit families in our community. It also feels especially fitting, given that lions are such a prominent symbol of our school and an important part of our heritage.

Congratulations to the U14 Netball Team
We are incredibly proud of our U14 Netball Team for their performance at the Regional Netball Tournament in Bournemouth earlier this month. A special highlight was the team receiving the prestigious ‘Spirit of the Game’ award—a testament to their outstanding attitude both on and off the court.

This recognition not only reflects the team’s positivity and sportsmanship but also highlights the values we strive for as a school. Their conduct sets a fantastic example for others and demonstrates what great role models and leaders our students are.

Coming Up...
Next term, we have some fantastic Ribston Hall Association events to look forward to, so keep an eye on their social media channels for updates. On 6th March, we will be hosting a screening of the London Mountain Film Festival, featuring an exciting selection of films on mountaineering, mountain biking, sea kayaking, big wall climbing, snowboarding, BASE jumping, and wingsuit flying!

You can book your tickets now! , with all proceeds supporting our Parents’ Association, which raises funds for projects and resources to enhance facilities and equipment for our students.

Best Wishes

Mr. Alec Waters
Headteacher

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Psychology

In January, our GCSE and A Level psychology students welcomed guest speakers from Gloucestershire Restorative Justice Team. This was an invaluable opportunity to hear how the criminal/forensic topic of their course is practically working within our country.  

Restorative Justice gives victims the chance to explain to offenders the real impact of their crime and to get answers to their questions. It holds offenders to account for what they have done, helps them understand the real impact of their crime, take responsibility and make amends.

"Restorative justice brings those harmed by crime or conflict and those responsible for the harm into communication, enabling everyone affected by a particular incident to play a part in repairing the harm and finding a positive way forward".

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Performance 

At the beginning of January, Year 9 Drama students participated in an exciting physical theatre workshop led by practitioner Stefania Catarinella from Highly Sprung Theatre Company.

Highly Sprung create outdoor and indoor performances that tell stories through movement, gesture and dance, inspired by humanity, science, and the complex world around us. Their production “CastAway” was a stunning outdoor performance that explored the impact of today’s throwaway society on Britain’s waterways. The all-female cast immersed audiences in an underwater world where performers, using a unique gyroscopic flying machine, would dive, twist and float over 26 feet in the air to delight, inspire and captivate the audience.

Year 9 students were delighted with an amusing and rigorous workshop, teaching them new techniques on how to perform using controlled movement and improvisation. Students pushed themselves out of their comfort zones, learning lifts and various push and pull techniques. The ethos of the workshop was that students needed to learn to fail in order to achieve, to let down their guards and believe in how the impossible is indeed possible.

One student from the group said:

In January, some year 9s students participated in a drama workshop led by Highly Sprung. It was a great way to give students a taster of what an aspect of GCSE Drama may be like and help us to engage with one another through movement in physical theatre, as many people had not had an experience like this before.

I enjoyed learning about various ways that movement can be incorporated into drama and how an ensemble are all important to a production. Overall, I found it to be a fun and useful experience that made me appreciate other parts of drama I was not aware of before.  Thank you very much Mrs Hill, I really enjoyed it!

A huge well done to all the students who participated. They were wonderful ambassadors for the Drama department and performed with confidence.    

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Music

Ribston Hall GCSE Music Students’ Work in Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra GCSE Concert

Gloucestershire Music annually hosts Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s GCSE Concert in Gloucester Guildhall. The concert consists of two parts –
a performance of four selected GCSE set works by some of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's musicians and the composition workshop which demonstrates the composition process of a newly written piece of music by Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's resident composer and conductor, Patrick Bailey.

For the new composition piece, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra asks all the participating schools to submit compositional ideas, including the main melody, and selects the best materials. Ribston Hall's submission was selected for the first time two years ago, and again this year for the second time. The work was submitted by our current Year 10 GCSE music students and presented at the concert. A big congratulations!

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Business Studies

As part of her ‘Going Further’ activity, Florence (Y12) has explored the entrepreneurial journey of Lucie Macleod, who turned a personal frustration into a thriving beauty brand. In her article, Florence examines how Macleod leveraged social media—particularly TikTok—to disrupt the beauty industry, successfully marketing her ‘Hair Syrup’ products despite initial setbacks, including rejection from Dragons’ Den. This ties in with our recent focus on The Marketing Mix, demonstrating the power of promotion in driving business success. Her research also links to market mapping, branding, and consumer engagement, all key aspects of the A-level Business specification.

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Computing

UWE Unlock Cyber Careers Trip
In January, Mr Craswell took 15 students across years 10 – 12 to University of West England for an event showcasing careers in Cybersecurity.  Companies such as Microsoft, Nationwide, CACI and Thales talked about roles in cybersecurity within their companies, often involving current apprentices in the presentations. The students found the day informative and engaging.  One student said “It was interesting to find out about the different routes into Cybersecurity” and another commented that “It was a great way to connect with companies, some I didn’t even know of’.

 Dataface Club
Dataface is a competition about finding a story in data and from that, creating a visual representation.  The teams are meeting on Monday lunchtime to work on their projects, learn Excel skills and more.  There are already some exciting visualisations planned.  One team will represent Ribston at the Cheltenham Science Festival in June.

Ethical Hacking Club
Mr Armstrong (from Acenture), along with Mrs Coverdale have run the first two sessions of the senior ethical hacking club.  At the first hands-on session, the students were fascinated by what they could find out about a ‘target’ computer with a simple tool.  Thanks to Mr Howell for all his hard work getting the equipment up and running.

Perse Team Coding Challenge
The Perse Team Coding Challenge is a competition where students test their programming prowess, battling it out against teams from across the UK for the PCTC Cup. This year, we participated for the first time, with one Year 11 team and one Year 10 team taking part.

 

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Congratulations, Lottie!

A huge well done to Lottie in Year 10, who recently competed in the South West Artistic Swimming Regional Age Groups Competition at Hengrove Leisure Centre in Bristol. After a fantastic swim, Lottie and her duet partner earned a well-deserved bronze medal!

In addition, Lottie has been selected to represent the South West in the regional age group squad and will compete against teams from across the UK in May. Congratulations, Lottie—we wish you the best of luck!

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Kenbu Dojo Student Ezri Shines at IKKA Europe Championships

Kenbu Dojo had an incredible showing at the IKKA Europe Kenpo Karate Championships, held at GL1 Leisure Centre from 3rd-6th October 2024. With over 400 competitors, our team of 54 students brought home 51 medals – 15 gold, 13 silver, and 23 bronze – placing 3rd in the school rankings and 2nd in the country rankings behind Ireland. Countries competing included the UK, Ireland, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Jersey.

I was thrilled to place in six out of my seven events, winning 4 gold and 2 bronze medals, which also put me in the top 10 individual competitors overall.

Leading up to the event, our club trained hard, with elite team members dedicating 30 weeks of additional training. The championships opened with seminars from high-level black and brown belts, including an inspiring session from our own Sensei, Shidoshi Sinead, who led “Fight Like a Girl” despite being on crutches with a broken ankle!

Day 2 featured adult and team events, where I won a bronze and a gold in team sparring, competing alongside experienced black belts. Day 3 was for the juniors, where I earned gold in individual sparring, kata, and creative kata, plus a bronze in weapons kata. Seeing my teammates succeed was even more rewarding than winning myself.

A huge thanks to my mother, my sensei, my teammates, and the entire club for making this experience unforgettable. The spirit of support and camaraderie made this an event I will cherish forever! By Ezri, Year 8

Dance Success

A huge well done to Harriet in Year 11, who took her Grade 4 Tap exam in Bristol at the end of last year and achieved a Merit pass. What an amazing accomplishment, especially while balancing mock exams, guitar, and all her other commitments!

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Read the latest student-authored articles on our website:

06 Feb 2025
Child Mental Health Week: Prioritising Well-being ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Child Mental Health Week is an important time to reflect on emotional well-being and self-care, especially for young people navigating the pressures of daily life. Rather than focusing on the expectations that come with the start of a new year, this week encourages a more compassionate and mindful a...
Read more
14 Jan 2025
Let’s Get This Show on the Road!
Ribston’s Music, and Drama students took an exciting trip to London at the end of  last term which was ran and organised by Dr. Yang and the Drama Team – it was a huge success, with students inspired by the London musical theatre scene.By Poppy McGuire, Year 12.
Read more
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Congratulations to the Romans who are at the top of the
House Points Leader Board at the beginning of 2025!

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Donations & Equipment Returns

To support sustainability in our Design & Technology department, we kindly ask for donations of embroidery rings that are no longer needed. If your child has completed textiles in Year 9 or 10 and no longer requires their embroidery ring, we would be grateful if you could donate it back to us. These will be reused by future students, helping us reduce waste and make better use of resources.

Additionally, we encourage students to take weighing scales home to measure ingredients the night before a practical lesson. However, we have noticed that some scales have not been returned. If your child has borrowed a set, please ensure they bring it back as soon as possible so that all students can benefit from this resource. Thank you for your support!

Calling All Parents & Carers – MedSoc Needs You!

Do you work in healthcare? If so, we would love for you to share your experiences with our MedSoc students! We are interested in all aspects of healthcare and would greatly appreciate any insights you can offer.


Opportunities to support include:
🔹 Speaking to students in person or via an online Q&A session
🔹 Facilitating visits or work experience opportunities

Your support would be invaluable in inspiring the next generation of healthcare professionals!  If you can help in any way, please get in touch with Ms Knott jkn@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk 

Pre-Loved Uniform Donations Welcome!

We are still very happy to accept donations of pre-loved uniforms. If you have any items you would like to contribute, please drop them off at reception or the main office. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

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Stay up to date with school life at Ribston. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for regular updates, and don’t forget to share our stories with friends and family!
    
         

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