A Message From Our Headteacher
At beginning of this academic year and term, we embarked on our ‘Routine Reset’, where we, as a school community moved forward together by re-establishing and reinforcing the procedures and protocols which support our continual drive to open minds and widen horizons.
Reading reclaimed its prominence in tutor time. Later in September our Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme started again and our first Curriculum Day in over 18 months carried on where we left off. We were able to welcome many Year 6 students and their parents/carers to our Open Evening, followed by many morning tours for small groups of students and their parents. Students and staff were clearly pleased with the opportunity to welcome these potential new members to our school community, showcasing what makes us all proud to be part of it. Parents Evenings, Tutor Evenings and Information Evenings were all well-attended, with all those coming along supporting our endeavours to keep our school community safe by following our Covid-19 prevention procedures.
Our Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) programme started again, with our Junior STEAM club welcoming students from our local primary school, engaging them with spectacular science, showcased by our science specialists and ably assisted by student science ambassadors. We took advantaged of opportunities to visit places like RAF Cosford and ended the first half term with a celebration of all things STEAM at our STEAM Celebration Evening, with students receiving awards from one of our many Inspirational Sparks, ex-student Becky Warren.
We were able to hold Careers Fair this year, following on from the first one we ever held back in November 2019. Employers, education institutions and training providers from local and national companies were in attendance and keen to meet our students. The feedback we received from all the organisations about our students was very complimentary.
As we look forward to our Christmas break and spending time with our family and friends, I hope everyone enjoys equal amounts fun-filled festivities to compliment the rest and relaxation our students and staff deserve.
On behalf of students, staff and governors, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Best wishes,
Mr P J Lowe-Werrell
Headteacher
Student Achievements
The after-school Archery club at Mary Webb School is thriving. About 20 Mary Webb students meet after school every week and are becoming steadily more proficient with our bows. Some of us shoot with sights, some without – it is up to us.
Sadly, because of lockdowns we have had long periods of not being able to shoot since the start of the pandemic. But everything started up again in September.
Until half term we met outdoors, shooting at straw targets sometimes as much as 50 metres away. Occasionally we even get to try clout archery which is where we shoot arrows in the air and try to get them to land as close as possible to a flag from 70 – 125 metres away. This is not easy!
After half term we shot indoors – at targets set up in the Sports Hall. A much better place to shoot as the weather got colder. But the targets we shoot at are much smaller although they are only 18 metres away.
In the middle of November we had a surprise visit from the No 1 male archer in the UK, a veteran of 2 Olympic games. His name is Patrick Huston and he shoots at Bowbrook Archers which is based in Shropshire, on the other side of Shrewsbury. He shot just 6 arrows – and they were all in the centre of the gold! He also stayed on for the whole session and talked to us and even did some coaching.
At the end of October, 6 members of the club took part in the Shropshire County Clout competition. The weather was awful – really windy which makes it very difficult to get arrows to go where you want them to. A total of 60 archers from all over Shropshire took part in the competition, adults as well as juniors. Our club ended up with 3 golds, a silver and a bronze medal and the 3 gold medallists also broke the existing Shropshire County records for their age groups. Despite the weather it was a great day.
Thank you from all the Mary Webb school archers to Sarah, Rob, Phil and Jonathan who organise the club and teach us to shoot better. Apparently, we are the only secondary school in Shropshire with its own Archery Club!
Picture below is Patrick Huston along with students from Mary Webb Archery.
Well done to Jay Brookes in Year 11, who has been awarded U16’s Player of the Month for Shrewsbury Town in the Community.
Well done to Rhys Wood in Year 8, who has been awarded ShrewsAbility Player of the Month for Shrewsbury Town in the Community.
This week Ruby has completed the final part of her Level 2 ice skating award, she had completed the first part of this back in Feb 2020 but due to COVID and lockdown the last bit was put on hold. As you can imagine lockdown was hard, not only because of what was happening in the world, but because Ruby’s daily routine had completely altered. Her daily norm for past 10 years had changed completely. She was lost. Now as I’m sure you can guess, with no ice rink, there is no other way she could practice – I mean she did try roller blades however that was a totally different experience. Roller blades are totally different to ice skates.
Ruby started skating at the age of 3, she watched Dancing on Ice and said that she wanted to skate like them. So, her daily trips to Telford commenced.
Since then Ruby has had lessons with her coach and has worked her way through 25 different grades!!! She has competed in numerous competitions; her best was when she won and the trophy was bigger than her! She has also taken part in numerous shows as part of Telford ice skating club. And has skated with members of the cast from Dancing on ice also!
This award this week has been hard work but long overdue, when Ruby was eventually allowed back to the rink – due to it being one of the very last places to reopen after lockdown – she found it so hard, her stamina had gone, her muscle strength had weakened but most of all, she had grown! This made getting back into her skating, ten times harder. Trying to jump and spin when you have grown an extra half a foot in height?! At one point she was ready to throw the towel in, but mum was stubborn and told her to persevere, it would come back but it will just take time!
Ruby has worked incredibly hard to get back on her skates, spending endless hours at the rink, dragging mum and sisters with her, throwing herself into the jumps, spins, fall and tears, and finally the rewards of this are coming. This award is nearly 2 years later than it should have been but even with all the upheaval and the tears, it has definitely been worth the wait.
Congratulations and Well done Ruby, on completing your Level 2 Ice Skating Award!
I started Karting 2 years ago, and for the first year, we did a bit of local racing at Rednal where I ended up finishing 2nd in the club championship. This year we upgraded my kart and entered into several national championships where I race around the country. The UKC (Ultimate Karting Championship), the BKC (Bambino Kart Club), UK Micromax Championship and Hooton Park IKR. It has been a steep learning curve racing nationally against some of the best young karters in the country, but I have been doing very well for my first year. With coming 4th in UKC and 2nd in BKC, currently running 4th in the championship in UK Micromax (main championship) and winning Hooton Park IKR. As this year is ending, we have started planning for 2022, and have managed to secure several sponsors that will enable me to take the step up into the British Championships and European races that will see me racing some of the best young karters in the world.
I absolutely love karting and motor-sport and compete most weekends. Through this, I hope to pursue a career as I get older. Whether that be in the driving seat or through engineering.
Will has been interested in motorcross for quite some time, making this his passion. He is now a member of the motorcross association and has since been fortunate enough to get his own dirt bike (KTM 85, with lucky number 27 on it, which is the day of his birthday)
Well done to Will – Keep up the good work!
Ever since I was 6, I have been playing rugby outside of school and recently have been taking it further by training with different clubs and associations inside and outside of school times. Last week I competed in a Shropshire schools’ competition which included five schools from around Shropshire. It was only a round-robin styled competition so there was no final or winner but it was a good opportunity to progress and show your talent to the people spectating. By the end of the tournament, we had won three lost two which was a surprisingly good result considering the quality of the other teams and the fact that we were down on numbers on the day.
Congratulations to Lulu and Olivia in year 8 who recently starred in the film advertising the magic of Shrewsbury at Christmas time. Both students performed magnificently and the film produced by ‘My Painted Life Productions’ is a triumph at showcasing what Shrewsbury has to offer this Christmas!
“The first filming day was the most exciting, we were filming in the ‘Write Here’ shop just down the street from the square. That was my first scene in the film. I made some really good friends behind the scenes in particular Patrick the drummer boy who was a lot of fun! I also met some one who is now incredibly special to me, Billy the Bear, as I named him. When the advert premiered, I was really impressed, I never thought it would be that amazing! This experience has taught me lots, confidence being the main one! I never would have thought I could do something like this, but with kind words from special friends I did it, and we shared the most beautiful moment and memories together that we will never forget. As a gift at the end of filming I was given Billy the Bear to keep, I never thought I would see him again, but I suppose you can find magic in the most unusual ways.”
Lulu
“In the Christmas film, I played the girl who moves to Shrewsbury and ends up missing her old life and friends. When exploring the house, she goes into the attic and finds a drummer boy who comes to life and takes her on a magical adventure around Shrewsbury. Altogether, I ended up doing five days of filming in various places and had loads of fun in-between the scenes as well as when filming them. To be able to do this, I had to audition first and I went with Lulu (the friend of the main character). I was very surprised to hear that I had gotten the main part and I was even more excited when I heard that I would be doing this with Lulu. Before doing this, I had never done anything to do with acting and I was afraid to try, but now I feel like a completely different person. It was amazing working with Lulu, Patrick (the drummer boy) and Aaron Child (the creator and photographer) and it was an experience that I thought I would never have!”
Olivia
We have been really excited to welcome back “Junior STEAM Club” during this half term. This club is aimed at year 6 students who are enthusiastic about all of the STEAM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) and who would also like to get to know a little bit more about life at Mary Webb School in preparation for their transition. On Thursdays after school we have welcomed students to watch some exciting demonstrations and carry out some even more exciting experiments for themselves. So far, we have enjoyed rocket launching, lighting sparklers, making paper bangers, watching flying teabags and seeing who could build a paper raft that held the most marbles. All of the students who have attended have demonstrated exemplary behaviour and we cannot wait to, hopefully, welcome some more students to “Junior STEAM Club” in the New Year.
On the 19th November we held a non-uniform day in aid of Children in Need, which was organised by the Charity Committee. An incredible £839.15 was raised so a huge congratulations to everyone who contributed! Special thanks to Head Boy Callum Slater who dressed as Pudsey for the day raising a fantastic £159.81 towards the total!
On Friday 17th September, the entirety of Year 10 spent Period 5 in the School Hall, where we were greeted by two local visitors who had come to make us aware of their own personal experiences and the severe dangers of alcoholism. Nobody really knew what to expect: there had been rumours about watching a film or of participating in a talk, yet after we had been confronted with the genuine, harsh realities of what these people had endured, we realised that this was perhaps the most powerful assembly we would ever experience and, in hindsight, the message that they ultimately wished to convey could not have sunk in quite so deep any other way.
Having registered and made our way down to the Hall, following a couple of technical difficulties, we settled down and began to watch a documentary that followed the lives of the Maybury family and their struggle with alcohol. Aspects of the film were really surreal and provocative because it essentially documented the life of Tom Maybury, whose brother (Henry) and mother (Sally) were presenting the film to us, and depicted his childhood as something that was happy, comparatively untroubled and free but then, after a series of unfortunate events, Tom’s life began to take a turn, to be plagued by the alcohol that he consumed on a more and more regular basis. This was particularly poignant because it effectively illustrated just how easy it is to slip into a negative mindset and feel that the only option is to drown your sorrows in drink; obviously, that is not really the only option but, to people in Tom’s situation, it clearly feels that way so the film helped us to understand the relationship between mental health and alcoholism as well.
Tragically, Tom Maybury died aged 29 after losing his fight with the addiction but the film documented each crucial and relevant moment of his internal and external conflict with drink so vividly that it meant that we all felt as though we wanted to support anyone or anything that would attempt to combat the issue of alcohol, which is arguably being ignored by the majority and is consequently growing worse, and mental health. The fact that Henry and Sally had the courage to come and talk to us that day was incredibly inspiring since we really could not have gained some of the awareness that we did during that single hour even if we had spent an entire school day studying the effects of alcohol. From the film, we learned that alcohol does not effect only one individual: it effects an entire network of people, which, in their case, included Henry and Sally. So, it was unbelievable to see them stood up there on the stage and talking about what their family had been through because the pain they felt must surely have been overwhelming at times but they were strong enough to share their story with us and pass on what they had learned.
Henry Maybury is a singer-songwriter and the title of one of his songs, ‘Lost Days’, has gone on to form the name of a charity that he and Sally established to aid others like Tom. Ultimately, many people are effected by alcohol and most of those people do not always want to talk about it, which makes alcoholism seem a lot less influential and powerful as it actually is, so Year 10 genuinely gained so much from hearing Henry and Sally speak and from watching their documentary: it put the issue into perspective and emphasised how real it is.
Congratulations to Eloise Pritchard & Millie Jones who recently represented the school in a cross country competition placing second and third place respectively, which is an amazing achievement. Well Done!
“I enjoyed the cross country run because I liked how many other schools were there and we all competed against each other. It was nice being part of Mary Webb school in a competition especially when I came 2nd place! I also liked how other years were supporting and cheering you on. I am grateful to have been part of this competition and I look forward to having the opportunity to take part in any competitions in the future.” – Eloise
STEAM Awards 2021
On Thursday 21st October 90 students were invited to attend the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics awards, or as we refer to them ‘The STEAM awards’. The awards celebrate both the highest achieving students and those with the best attitude to learning in all of the STEAM subjects, alongside students who have embraced a range of STEAM activities throughout the year.
The successes of students past, many of whom were themselves participants of previous celebration events, were also shared with an update of their next step on their STEAM journey. Mary Webb students have gone on to start a wide range of courses, including; Mechanical Engineering, Medicine, Crime scene science and policing, Economics, Mental health nursing and Philosophy and Theology.
The guest speaker for the evening was ex-student Rebecca Warren, who attended the school from 1994-99. Becky took time out from her hectic schedule at the forefront of the COVID-19 vaccination programme to congratulate our students and hand them their certificate and limited-edition STEAM badge. At the midpoint of the ceremony she also gave a brief overview of her career so far, from qualifying as a nurse in 2004 to joining the army and serving in Afghanistan, before returning to take on the role of Ward Manager. She spoke with passion about all of her roles and highlighted the importance of team work and embracing opportunities, with her final words of advice being. ‘Don’t be scared of failure. That’s how you learn and better yourself and, choose a job that you enjoy and you never do a days work’. We hope her words will inspire others to follow in her footsteps and wait with anticipation to see which of the current students will return the favour by coming back as guest speaker in future years!
Current students who also bravely took to the stage were:
Abbie O’Shea and Livi Kili, described their experiences of the Y8 Cosford trip as well as giving an overview of the activities carried out at glider club, and how they were preparing to take part in a glider competition (read about this in a separate article).
Izzy Cross, Jake Williams and Cerys Owen spoke of their experiences at a Medicine experience day, where they learnt about the 4 pillars of medical ethics before carrying out some diagnostic activities and learning about triage.
Cerys Owen also bravely took to the stage for a second time to describe her experience taking part in the United Kingdom mathematics trust challenge.
As always, the final award of the evening was to announce the STEAM Student of the Year and, as always, there were many contenders. The 2021 award was bestowed upon Emily Cawthorne, not just in recognition of the high standards she achieved in maths, triple science and design technology, but also for her contributions helping to engage and inspire Year 5 and 6 students by helping out with the STEAM roadshow and volunteering at junior STEAM club. Our congratulations go to her and all of the other students who received awards on this special occasion.
By Mrs Jones
Cosford KS3 Glider Competition
By the Knight gliderz (Abbie O’Shea, Livi Kiki, Holly Maddox, George Rowe, Haydn Gawthorne)
Enrichment & Enhancement Programme
Congratulations to our 100% Attendance Students!
Year 7
| Paige Ainsworth | 7C |
| Harry Barnes | 7B |
| Eliza Birch | 7S |
| Haydn Cartwright | 7C |
| Joshua Cartwright | 7C |
| Darcey Davies | 7K |
| Yvie Douglas | 7B |
| Alice Feltham | 7S |
| Jacob Goncerzewicz | 7C |
| Jayden Harris | 7K |
| Amy Jarrett | 7C |
| Lloyd Jones | 7S |
| Bailey Lowe | 7K |
| Maisie McAleavy | 7S |
| Ruby Metliss | 7S |
| Reece Morgan | 7B |
| Matthew Morris | 7K |
| Jamie Roberts | 7C |
| Zane Saveker | 7S |
Year 8
| Bella Bacon | 8S |
| Connor Beamond | 8K2 |
| Isabelle Clark | 8K2 |
| Bethan Evans | 8B |
| Dylan Freestone | 8S2 |
| Hayden Gawthorne | 8C |
| Gethin Korsak | 8B2 |
| Harry Lee | 8C2 |
| Catherine May | 8S2 |
| Sam McFall | 8K |
| Harry Nightingale | 8K2 |
| Abbie O’Shea | 8B2 |
| Reuben Owen | 8B |
| Harley Rawlings-Jones | 8K2 |
| Samuel Sullivan | 8S2 |
| Beatrix Towers | 8K2 |
Year 9
| Matthew Beecroft | 9C |
| Louise Bell | 9S |
| Jessica Bevan | 9K |
| Jessica Cole | 9S |
| Emily Culbert | 9K |
| Sam Evans | 9K |
| Luke France | 9B |
| Charlie Lewis-Lakelin | 9C |
| Frank Marston | 9C |
| Alexander Matthews | 9C |
| Lucas McAleavy | 9B |
| Kamisha-Lea McKenzie | 9K |
| Zachary Norlander | 9K |
| Emily Owen | 9S |
| Conrad Paine | 9S |
| Noah Payne | 9B |
Year 10
| Liam Bennett | 10B |
| Joshua Cawthorne | 10K |
| Owen Dawson | 10S |
| Jac Dormer | 10C |
| Hugo Elves | 10B |
| Luke Griffith | 10C |
| Dylan Jones | 10B |
| Frank Jones | 10B |
| Jasmine Lewis | 10K |
| Samuel Lewis | 10B |
| Oliver Medcalf | 10K |
| Thomas Monaghan | 10K |
| Tilly Owen | 10C |
| Elly Straub | 10S |
| Ella Thomas | (10B) |
Year 11
| Matthew Churms | 11C |
| Isobel Cross | 11S |
| Jess Evans | 11S |
| Millie Jones | 11B |
| Nuala McGoldrick | 11K |
| Daniel Morrell | 11C |
| Sarah Nightingale | 11C |
| James Payne | 11K |
| Max Rowe | 11C |
| Brandon Sherwood | 11C |
| Harvey Simpson | 11C |
| Callum Slater | 11B |
| Gilbert Southworth White | 11S |