Medina Matters. Senior Leadership Team s update. Diary Dates: 30th September Karen Begley, Head of School

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1 Medina Matters 30th September 2016 Senior Leadership Team s update Karen Begley, Head of School Another week gone! We are now more than half way through the half term. I have enjoyed meeting the students who have achieved the most house points during week three. Well done to Kayden Floydd for MacArthur House, Connor Jackson for Mountbatten House, Kodi Phillips for Minghella House and Saul Dove, Daisy Morris, Caitlin Richardson, Willow Scarr, Lucas Stevens, and Lauren Walls who are sharing top position in Tennyson House. It was lovely to see so many Year 11 students and their families from both Medina and Carisbrooke engage in the Federated Information evening on Tuesday night. If you do have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Smy our Careers Advisor. I would like to congratulate Issac Leal, who was in Year 11 last year and now at the VI Form, for winning the National PiXL award for his excellent achievement in his GCSE exams having overcome significant difficulties on the way. After-school clubs and activities are now in full swing. Congratulations to our Year 11 football team who won their match against Christ the King last night. Well done to the other year groups who represented Medina - hopefully next time they will win too. This week, I met with representatives from the local authority who are shortly going to come in with a team of experts to look at where they judge Medina College to be and what support they can give us on our journey to good. A recent report to Government, by the women s committee, has suggested that almost a third (29%) of year old girls say they have experienced unwanted sexual touching at school, nearly threequarters (71%) of all year old boys and girls say they hear inappropriate terms used towards girls at schools on a regular basis and 59% of girls and young women aged said in 2014 that they had faced some form of sexual harassment at school or college in the past year. At Medina College, we want all of our students to feel safe. In order to tackle these concerns, we are introducing Sex and Relationships into our social studies package and ensuring this is regularly discussed and addressed with our students. I am very proud of how smart our students are looking and at their attitude to learning. Thank you Parents and Carers for your continued support. Diary Dates: Tuesday 4th October 2016 Year 7 Tutor Evening for Parents 5pm - 8pm in the Sports Hall. Wednesday 5th October 2016 Medina College Parent Voice Meeting in the Library at 6.10pm. Thursday 6th October 2016 Shakespeare Schools Festival. Thursday 6th October 2016 Year 8 HPV Vaccination Catch Ups. Tuesday 11th October 2016 Year 6 Open Morning. Tuesday 11th October 2016 Year 6 Open Evening. Wednesday 12th October 2016 Year 6 Open Morning. Thursday 13th October 2016 Chelsea s Choice presentation Year 8. Thursday 20th October 2016 Federated Careers Road Show. Monday 24th October - Friday 28th October 2016 Half Term Break. 31st October 2016 First day of half term 2. Wednesday 2nd November 2016 Shakespere School Festival Show Day. Monday 7th November 2016 Gifted and Talented Year 9 Trip to Southampton University.

2 First Four Weeks at Medina - By Nathan Batten Four years ago, I started Medina College for the first time; four weeks ago I began my last year at Medina, and yet so much still felt exciting and new. Everything seemed to have changed; for the first time in three years I was in a tutor group with my own year, the format for the school day had been adjusted and new teachers had joined the Medina Community. Not only had the school changed in format, but it had also changed physically, with newly painted walls and doors, trimmed-back greenery and brighter classrooms. The change to the timetable has felt better than the previous format, not only does it increase learning time, but it also allows the teacher more time to give feedback in the lessons. The new tutor groups mean that we can have support from our peers and can really have the full support we need, and the school s new look makes Medina feel not just professional, but welcome and friendly. Even though so much has changed at the school, a warm sense of familiarity returned to my peers and I as we settled back into our classes; the teachers were still passionate about their subjects, the students were still as lively and excitable as ever, and each day Medina College felt more and more like a welcome community that it had ever been. News from PE What a week it has been in PE! On Monday five of our wonderful tennis players took part in a high school competition at Ventnor Tennis Club. A great afternoon attended by The Free School, Christ the King and Medina. On Wednesday afternoon, sports leaders from Mr Rock's Btec group helped out in the Isle of Wight Primary Handball Competition. Our leaders really were a credit to our college- taking on refereeing duties, score keeping and coaching the teams. Also on Wednesday 30 of our netballers headed to Cowes Enterprise College for an exciting set of matches against Sandown, Christ the King and Cowes. Our Year 7's and 8's had some great results against Sandown and were only narrowly beaten by Cowes. Our Year 11 team faced extremely tough opposition but were still smiling at the end of the afternoon! As always, I couldn't be prouder of our students!

3 Medina College Parent Voice Meeting Wednesday 5th October, pm in the Medina College library (enter through the main school reception). Parents/carers are welcome to this first Parent Voice meeting of the year. A good chance to find out more about what's happening at Medina College and VI Form, hear from staff, meet other parents and feed back suggestions. Tea and coffee is provided. Guest speakers this time are: Dan Wells, to talk about the School Pastors (volunteers who help at school); Richard Wiseman, Head of the school's very successful music department, to talk about the many routes into music at Medina College. Plus opportunity for general Q&A. If you've a particular item you'd like on the agenda, please let me know. Future Parent Voice meeting dates for the rest of the school year are: Tuesday 29th November Wednesday 1st February 2017 Tuesday 28th March Wednesday 17th May Tuesday 4th July All at in Medina College Library We are alternating Wednesdays and Tuesdays this year as we know some parents can't make particular evenings and hope this will allow more parents to attend at least some meetings. If you can me to say that you ll be attending so we have an idea of numbers it will be helpful, but it s not essential. If you can't make the meeting but have a question or comment to feed back, please do pass it on. Best wishes Wendy Wendy Varley, Chair, Medina College Parent Voice (Yr 10 parent) medinaparentvoice@gmail.com facebook page: facebook.com/medinacollegeparentvoice Warhammer club is up and running on Tuesday's after school in L5. All students with an interest in Warhammer are welcome to come along.

4 The Duke of Edinburgh s Award Medina College cccccccccc First meeting of Medina16 DofE group on Thursday. We had intended to practice putting up tents but due to the weather and the outlook for the day of rain, we fell back on our back up plan of introducing students to the art of camp cooking. Mr Bridle brought some Trangia stoves with him and students made hot chocolate, tea or coffee there was even some very expensive biscuits that seemed to go down well with all concerned. On to next session that will include tents (hopefully), this is all practice that will lead up to the expedition next year and students achieving their Bronze Award.

5 Three vacancies for Trust appointed/foundation Governors The Island Innovation Trust would like to hear from anyone interested in being one of their representatives on the Governing Body that has responsibility for Carisbrooke College and Medina College; governors appointed by the Trust are called Foundation Governors. A Foundation Governor must be wholly supportive of the vision and values of the Trust and details of the Trust can be found on its website at In summary, the Trust is committed to: Raising standards in education and improving the health of the community; Unlocking talent and enterprise; as well as Raising the aspirations of the community and embedding an ethos of lifelong learning. If you are interested in becoming a foundation governor, we would be pleased to hear from you. Most meetings are held in the early evening on Mondays, but the ability to visit the colleges during the day and participate in interviews for staff, meetings with parents and so on would be particularly helpful. The Trust is interested in speaking with individuals with a range and level of different skills and experience. At the moment there is a particular need for 1 person who could bring financial skills and experience to the Governing Body. All governors are expected to: Attend two meetings of the governing body per term; Be a member of one of the three governors committees which are: Resources, Aspire & Achieve and Welfare & Community Support one-off committee meetings during the school day such as discipline or appointment panels; Support functions of the colleges, mainly outside school hours; and Undertake the necessary governor training on a regular basis (at least annually). The selection criteria used to recruit the foundation governors will be: Sign up to the Trust s vision and values; Have appropriate financial skills and/or experience; Have relevant experience, such as being a governor (desirable but not essential) Link to one of the Trust organisations (desirable but not essential); and Have the time and availability to commit to the role. If you are interested in becoming a foundation governor, you should submit your expression of interest on a form that can be obtained from Peter Prismall, Company Secretary for the Trust, via (peter.prismall@iif.org.uk) and forms should be returned by Friday 14 October 2016.