Welcome to the summer edition of the school Webberzine. It’s been a typically busy term for all in our school community; for our Year 11s coming to the end of their time with us, with all their academic efforts and endeavours culminating in them sitting their GCSEs and marking the end to their time as Mary Webb students in style at their Prom. And at the other end of the age spectrum the anticipation of a new beginning for the Year 6 students, as we welcomed them to our school community for their taster days – the final part of their primary to secondary transition process.

For those continuing their time with us, in Years 7 to 10, there have been an abundance of enrichment opportunities to enhance their education experiences. As you read through the Webberzine, you will read about the residential trips ran by the Science Department to London back in May and the inter-departmental Humanities and Languages visit to Normandy in July. There have been numerous STEAM trips and competitions which you will read about, including a very recent win for our students at the Shrewsbury Colleges Group Science and Technology Challenge Day.

On the sporting front, we have progressed far in a number of competitions in team sports such as Cricket, Football and Basketball. There have also been some notable individual athletics achievements, which you will read about in the Webberzine. It will come as no surprise to you, after reading the article to hear that this student won the Trust Award for sporting achievement, the second time our school nominations have been selected to receive this award.

Regular readers of the emails we send out to parents and carers will have read out about our updated values and virtues, which articulate the character traits all in our school community will show and develop. Our students and staff embrace them as the characteristics which are needed and will be encouraged as we continue our mission of Opening Minds and Widening Horizons, by Working Together to Ensure Success for All.

On the 8^th July Ms Oakley took 13 students to Shrewsbury College’s English Bridge campus to take part in the MCS STEM Challenges. The students took part in four challenges which included using Police E-fit software, medical diagnosis and robotics. All students were incredibly well behaved and showed passion and enthusiasm for the challenges. Natasha Leoci, Will Mew, Zach Owen and Jack Cawthorne were part of groups who won their challenges. We were really excited to also bring home the trophy for the day as David Jones and Justin Labaro were part of the group who were the best overall out of all schools, the boys will be heading to the University of Manchester to take part in the National Final. We are incredibly proud of all the students, they provided some insight into what their day was like.

‘We built a car out of simple everyday parts. The goal was to have the fastest time of going from one side to the other. We came first with the time of 1.84 seconds.’

‘We went into a classroom where we diagnosed a fake patient with tuberculosis and went over how it would be treated. We also learnt how to read vitals like heart rate. After that we were taught how to perform CPR.’

‘We programmed a robot then we added commands, so when it went over red it would say ‘red’ and when it got to a black line it would reverse and turn 90 degrees. We also used E-fit software to make an image of a suspect, we could change their facial features and appearance to match one of our teachers.’

Twelve Year 8 girls were invited by the National Centre for Computing Education to RAF Cosford for an engaging morning aimed at inspiring more female students to consider careers in Computer Science.

The event kicked off with a whistle-stop tour of the museum, showcasing the crucial role computers have played in aviation, both on the ground and in the air. Following this, the students returned to the classroom to tackle their main challenge. Each team was given a ‘Mars Rover’ equipped with a BBC Microbit, which controlled the rover’s motors and wheels. The teams began by coding the rover to move forward. Once they mastered this, they programmed it to travel specific distances and execute turns. The ultimate challenge was to navigate the rover from ‘Base Camp’ to the ‘Supply Store’ and back.

The girls thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Divided into four teams of three, they demonstrated excellent teamwork and problem-solving skills. At least two teams came very close to successfully reaching the Supply Store before time ran out. This event was a fantastic opportunity, and the girls represented Mary Webb School with exemplary behaviour. Well done, girls!

#TechSheCan

Here at Mary Webb School & Science College, we were pleased to host the West Midlands area finals of the 2023/24 “Race to The Line” STEAM Challenge. The event saw participation from numerous schools from across the West Midlands, as students came together to showcase their skills in designing and racing the model rocket cars.

This prestigious event, part of a nationwide educational initiative aimed at enhancing students’ engagement with science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM), provided an excellent opportunity for young innovators to demonstrate their creativity and engineering prowess. Mary Webb School were represented by two teams made up of Harrison Walker-Roberts, Tyler Lewellyn-Hines, Isabel Keever, Tom Land, Carter Anglin, Larissa Pallatina, Avaleen Blugher and Gracie May Harris who did us proud on the day achieving a 1^st place prize for innovation and second place for speed.

Well done to all the participants, we look forward to being able to compete again next year!

In the penultimate week of the school year, four year 7 pupils spent a day at Madeley Academy in Telford at a VEX Robotics Launch event. VEX is an annual challenge that schools from around the country take part in, it’s hosted in Telford, but Shropshire is yet to be successful in the final event. Therefore, the purpose of this event was to deliver the skills needed to access the challenge, practice in the arena and hopefully secure a place for at least one local school at the national finals.

The pupils were very impressed with the vastness of Madeley Academy, they spent the day in the Auditorium, where they started by following instructions and working as a team to build their initial robot. They overcame and adapted to the problems of missing components, and coding challenges, they collaborated and communicated well, quickly finding their own roles in the team (designer, coder, driver, builder, tester). Their initial designs worked really well, with Aaron driving them to victory in their first race.

After lunch, Iva was given a masterclass on programming, which she applied successfully to the team build. The afternoon challenge began with Shuttle Runs, coding the robot to move forward to each marker in turn, then reversing to the start point. Trial, error, problem solving and team work assured successful completion of this second task. The day ended with a 2v2 ‘football’ match, which ended up being the most fun of the day – imagine robot wars on a smaller scale.

Five of our Year 10 students were lucky enough to secure places on the Shrewsbury school STEM Potential Program in conjunction with Imperial College London. As part of the program they had an all expenses trip to London, where they took part in a master class in Biochemistry, trying their hand at thin layer chromatography in one of the many specialist laboratories the University has. They also had a tour of the campus, seeing the carbon capture research facility, halls of residence and the Royal Albert Hall, which is currently the venue for the graduation ceremony for students from the University.

After lunch the students had the opportunity to meet current students and ask them about their experiences at University and advice for the future. They found out that Imperial College has a great International reputation for STEM subjects and that typical offers of places are in the range AAA – A*A*A*! The trip was finished off by an opportunity to explore the Science museum, including the obligatory visit to the gift shop.

On 1 May, 40 year 10 students and 5 staff set out for the annual residential London trip.

A 6am start led us to a very packed schedule, including a flight on the London Eye, The Natural History, Design, Science and V & A museums. A sight-seeing cruise down the Thames to The Royal Observatory, a trip to see The Lion King at the Lyceum theatre, and finally a trip to London Zoo before returning home. Not forgetting some delicious doughnuts to keep our strength up!

The weather was kind, and the students were, as always impeccably behaved.  It was a very busy, fun filled, but exhausting weekend!

The first real day (Tuesday) in Normandy we got on the coach and drove to a French outdoor market where there were really good deals, I bought a wallet, a nice watch, a chain, a really fun bouncy ball and finally an amazing jewelry set for my mum and she was so proud and delighted. Once we had finished that we went to Mont Saint Michell where I was flabbergasted by the scenery. It was beautiful as we strolled the monastery, the mood increased like a thermometer in boiling water. Touring round this type of structure was a once in a life time opportunity that I wouldn’t miss for the world. This place was surrounded in quick sand! Our great teachers told us that the incoming water covered 18 feet per second. I had a great time and would recommend anyone to go on this trip next year!

This trip was a very good trip and every pupil that went thoroughly enjoyed it! However, it took our coach driver, Jamie, 13 hours to take us to our final destination. We travelled from Mary Webb School, Pontesbury at 2 o’clock in the morning. We stopped at Chieveley service station to change drivers from Keith to our driver for the rest of the trip- Jamie. When we arrived at our hotel, we were assigned our rooms and we swiftly unpacked and had our evening meal at a local Pizzeria. The next day after an early start, we stopped at a traditional Norman market where we experienced local French culture.

Secondly after we had some lunch, we caught the monorail over to Mont Saint-Michell Monastery where we were all taken aback by the size and beauty of the scenery. After a peaceful yet difficult walk to the main entrance of the cathedral we all broke off from our groups to explore the shops and took photos of the lush views. Followed by our visit to the Monastery, we took a scenic walk back to our coach where we drove to a local creperie in the lovely countryside hills overlooking the middle course of a river. When we arrived back to the hotel our teachers and guides set up a quiz for us to complete containing 5 rounds.

On the third day, we went to a caramel manufacturer and experienced the making of caramel. After that we went to the Bayeux tapestry where we listened to an in-depth description of the tapestry. We then proceeded to the gift shop and museum upstairs. To conclude the day, we visited the American Cemetery to pay our respects to the soldiers that fought on D-Day. We then had a trip to the 360 cinema at Arromanches to watch people talk about the war and their suffering. We proceeded to the British memorial site. We also visited 4 of the 5 Normandy beaches; Omaha, Juno, Gold and Sword. To finish off the day we went for our evening meal at a local buffet “Flunch” ready for a 6:15 start the following day however we didn’t arrive in Pontesbury until 11:15 pm. A great trip!

On Monday 8 July we held an ‘Inspirational Sparks Human Careers Library’ event.

Eight ex-students of Mary Webb School came to join us as we invited Year 8 to take part in a speed networking session.  Our visitors included a Construction Apprentice, Teachers, an Electrical engineer, the Police Department, Insurance Business, a Hair Stylist, a Driving Instructor, a Healthcare Assistant and a Sound Engineer. So, a wide variety of careers!

The Year 8’s rotated around each visitor, they got to hear how their individual career journeys had developed and got them to where they are now.  They asked lots of questions, putting our visitors on the spot.

Our lovely visitors had also brought in their own school photos, reports and treasured memories of Mary Webb.  I think they enjoyed being in school and catching up with staff members as much as we did!

Thank you to our visitors for taking the time out of their day to join us.

If you are an ex-student from Mary Webb and would like to share your career story with us, please get in touch.  You may just be the Inspirational Spark that it takes for a student to take that step forward.

Email: [email protected]