Event: Crystal Maze weekend

Letters are going out to students in year 10 and 11 this week about the Crystal Maze weekend, 3rd-5th December.

In the style of the popular Murder Mystery at KS3, this weekend was created in response to pupil requests for a similar weekend at KS4. Over the course of the two days, students will attempt curriculum puzzles to encourage lateral thinking and promote their learning in key subject areas; they will take part in a high ropes course; and contribute to a talent show on Saturday night. On the Sunday, the pupils will enter the Crystal Dome and attempt to win sugary prizes.

Pupils interested in going should return their reply slip to the office by November 19th. Letters are available to download from the Matravers website.

Year 11 Study Skills Day, Nov 5th

On November 5th, 10 students from year 11 went over to the brand new Melksham Oak school to attend a study skills day run by Learning Performance. We have used this company several times before and they provide a session on memory skills and revision tips specifically tailored to our brightest pupils. Since one presenter can run the session with up to 40 students, we shared the provision with pupils from Melksham Oak and Kingdown.

Our presenter, Andy, took us through a number of strategies for revising and helping the facts to stick, which involved actions, drawings, diagrams and - as above - some interaction with the pupils from the other schools. The day was positively received by all and lots of the students agreed that they had some new techniques to try out ahead of their modules the following week, and their mock exams at the end of the month.

A second Learning Performance session will be running in the new year through the Aim Higher program, so look out for information on that if you are interested in knowing more.

Extra-curricular events this year

Above, you should see a new calendar of events, on which I intend to publish everything available to AGT students at Matravers this year. I will back this up with announcements about letters going out here, and on the school website.

Here is a list of what is planned for this year so far, with venues, and charges where applicable.

KS3:
24th November: Launch date for Y8 STEM project at Bath University
13th-15th March: Murder Mystery Weekend at Braeside, approx. £90 (all KS3)
5th July (provisional date): West Wilts Federation Y8 Challenge Day, Climbing Centre, Bristol
7th-8th July (provisional date): West Wilts Federation Y9 Conference, provisionally Queen's College, Oxford

KS4:
5th November: Y11 Study Skills Day, Melksham Oak
3rd-5th December: Crystal Maze weekend at Braeside, approx. £90 (all KS4)
February: Y11: Launch of West Wilts Federation International Leadership Conference to Malaysia. This trip will run November 2011 but we will be taking applications from Y11 in the spring.

Y9 AGT Conference, The Queen's College, Oxford

This year, as part of the West Wilts Federation for AGT, we were delighted to attend a conference at The Queen's College, Oxford. This conference was an opportunity for year 9 students from across the Federation to get to know their peers from other schools and develop skills they might not usually work on in school, including problem solving and team work with people they were unfamiliar with.

Ten students from each school attended the conference, along with two sixth form mentors, who worked extremely hard to ensure the students all stayed on task and did their best. Each Y9 group was made up of a student from each school, and the conference began on Wednesday afternoon with team building games and activities to allow the groups to meet each other. Once at the conference, each team was given a newspaper from which they had to identify problems facing our nation today. From these, each team was given one topic to focus on for the rest of the conference. They then carried out research from the newspapers and online to create an eight minute presentation on the causes, consequences and possible solutions to the problem they had been given.

This proved quite the challenge for the pupils, who had to come up with engaging presentations without the use of IT: I have to say that I have never seen newspapers so well used! The standard of the final presentations was extremely high and, as a judge, I must confess that it was extremely close and took us a long time to decide on a winning team.

As well as all the hard work, pupils were also offered a short tour around the sights of Oxford and we had a formal dinner at Queen's on Thursday night.


We were lucky to have a number of inspiring speakers to entertain us. The Provost opened the conference with a short history of The Queen's College, and our keynote speaker was Dr Sarah McElwee, a researcher in psychology and education with a particular interest in AGT, who talked to us about the issues surrounding the use of scientific research. At dinner, the Proctor of the college talked to us about college life, and some famous alumni, including Tim Berners-Lee and Rowan Atkinson; and the conference was closed by the college Admissions Tutor who gave the students some tips on applying to Oxford.

Overall, the conference was a resounding success and the students really enjoyed it. I think it helped to open their eyes a little to what is out there and hopefully it will inspire them to aim high in the coming years.

Event: Murder Mystery weekend, March

Letters have gone out this week for the annual Key Stage Three Murder Mystery weekend at Braeside, which will be taking place this year from Friday 12th March to Sunday 14th March.

Duing the weekend, students will need to use a variety of skills to solve a dastardley murder, including code breaking, orienteering, forensic science and translation. The weekend is always hugely enjoyed by both students and staff alike and the feedback is overhwelmingly positive.


If you haven't had a letter but would like one, please email me at agt@matravers.wilts.sch.uk


Here's a group picture of last year's Detectives, giving a big YAARRRR (our theme was pirates):

We will be revealing the theme for the weekend (and possibly giving some clues) exclusively here the week before the event, so stay tuned!

Event: Malaysia Conference meeting

There will be a meeting for year 11 students and their parents at Clarendon on February 8th, at 7pm, to launch the 2010 International Leadership Conference to Malaysia, which is due to occur in November.

This conference has proved enormously successful since its inception five years ago, and places are always oversubscribed. However, we are pleased to report that Matravers has always been represented and we're hopeful that this will be the case for 2010 also. The conference takes place at a private sixth form college about 70km north of Kuala Lumpur and involves researching and making presentations on world issues, as well as day trips to allow pupils to experience the rich culture and surroundings in Malaysia.

I will be passing letters out to eligible pupils in year 11 this week; however, if you would like more information please contact me - agt@matravers.wilts.sch.uk

If you would like to read about what we got up to in Malaysia in 2009, we kept a blog during the trip which can be accessed here - http://westwiltsagt.blogspot.com