We are delighted to continue our work, launched in 2016, with partner schools and the SHINE educational charity whose focus is social mobility through education. 

At this time of year, our staff and student leaders welcome around 20 pupils in Year 5 from local primary schools for eight partnership events over eight weekends from November until February. 

Our first session on Saturday kicked off with a Languages workshop, led by French teacher Madame Walker. Inspired by the story “The 3 Little Pigs” and a particularly fun ‘Petits Cochons’ parody to the tune of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, our Year 5 francophiles learnt some key vocabulary involved in re-telling the story in French, practising colours, key characters and verbs, as well as picking out rhyming words. There was a focus on being 10% braver whilst following a story in French even when we don’t understand every word!

This was followed by a popular RPE (Religion, Philosophy and Ethics) workshop, led by Humanities teacher Mrs Heptinstall. The focus of the session was Angels. In pairs, pupils were able to enter an Art gallery full of paintings of angels. They were asked to analyse these to ask further questions to explore the role of angels in Christianity. Pupils also delved into written descriptions of angels in Islam, along with imagery found in selected poetry. Using all this information pupils then were able to create a set of angel wings filled with celestial facts about angels in art, poetry, and religion.

A big thank you to the pupils from Flanshaw Junior & Infant School, Outwood Primary Academy Parkhill and Outwood Primary Academy Greenhill. Thank you to our ten Sixth Form Leaders who supported the day, interacting with pupils and getting involved with activities. 

Future SHINE events will have workshops on Chemistry, Music, Geography, English, Maths, Physics, Classical Civilisation, Cooking, Textiles, Design & Technology and Art. Concluding with a Celebratory Event at the end of February, where we will welcome parents of the Year 5 students for a prize-giving ceremony, acknowledging all of the children’s achievements over the past couple of months. 

For more information about future partnership events, please contact our school office: wsoffice@wgsf.net. 

Mrs E Maher

SHINE Coordinator