Page 25 - link magazine

Languages boosted by Euro contacts

Year 9 students have now made two year 8 and 9 was particularly success-
visits to the British Airways Learning ful with white water rafting, moun-
Centre where they act as stewards and tain biking and plenty of water sports.
passengers speaking Spanish so that With projects during the day in a
BA can test their own personnel while French-speaking environment, it was
dealing with foreign language speak- a welcome boost to learning a foreign
ers. This invaluable practice in a real language.
world context is further enhanced by A joint Humanities and English
our regular visits abroad. department trip to Italy this year was
This year a Spanish exchange also very successful. Forty year 8, 9
scheme took place, with students from and 10 students visited Verona to see
Spain visiting and experiencing learn- Juliet's balcony, Rome, to be blessed
ing at Greendown. by the Pope, Florence to see the sites
One of the hits with visiting stu- and Pompeii where they visited the
dents were the lessons on `active' city destroyed by volcanic eruption.
Shakespeare which they took back The enriching experience gained
with them to Spain and set their own on these trips will continue to be a
`
school buzzing with the bard'. major part of Greendown's extra-cur-
A French activity trip to the Alps by ricular work. School trips to France can be quite an experience
When in Rome, find a gladiator to tell you about the Colosseum
Meningitis charity weekend

Greendown prides itself on its service to others. Charities are regula ry
supported through our end of term non-uniform days. But sometimes a
special event is mounted. On the weekend of the 30th September, 48 students,
two teachers and two volunteers, took part in a 24hour sporting challenge
which raised £2,000 for the National Meningitis Trust.
All the students competed against each other in teams and tournaments,
`
including badminton and volley ball, penalty shoot outs and the bleep' test.
Prizes were donated by parents and local shops and our catering company,
Fairfield, supplied food for the event.
Thanks to teachers Mrs Helen Barnes and Mr Chris Dobbs for organising
the marathon and to all supporters and sponsors. The school intends to make
this an annual event.
Only one hour to go. Exhausted participants on their way
to raising £2,000

F F r°'
Fundraising for
flood victims
In the Spring year r;_
Humanities students re-
sponded to the media cov- - ' .r A [ h,l
erage of the terrible floods t t I
r p
in Mozambique by organ i 1 p
ising a non-uniform day i" `'°^ •- ' + -
r
and producing a newslet-
ter to raise over £535 for
the relief work.
From left, Vanessa Hutchinson, Laura Brown, Stacey
Pitcher, Michael Giles, Lisa Dudek, Marco Recchioni

Summer school boosts reading
and writing
Twenty five youngsters who joined Greendown in Sep-
tember this year spent the last two weeks of their summer
holiday getting extra help and support with their literacy as
preparation for secondary school. With visits from outside
speakers who talked about the importance of communica-
tion in their working lives, as well as trips to the Cotswold
Wild Life Park and Swindon Art Gallery, it was a challenging
and stimulating start to the school year for them.
Swindon Borough Council solicitor Francis Maples
talks to summer school students about his job