Open Mobile Menu

G2’s Explore Sensory Activities

This term the G2 group have been transitioning in and around school, every Thursday we have a sensory session in the hall.

We have a range of activities out for the pupils to choose from, these can range from bubble machines, basketball hoops and ball pits.

Some of our pupils have been practicing throwing and catching in different aspects tailored to everyone. 

Our pupils look forward to this session where they can use the space to express themselves and learn a new skill. 

we have also welcomed the G1 group to our sensory session in the hall, we look forward to carrying on the session in the summer term, Well Done G2!

Crowcroft Park Community Project

This term at Melland High School, students from LG1 have taken part in a project in conjunction with Greater Manchester Police and Longsight Neighbourhood Policing Team at Crowcroft Park. 

Students have taken responsibility for cleaning and maintaining the site and demonstrated excellent teamwork and self-management by organising themselves into groups and working together to look after the area. 

The project also involves, repairing, maintaining, and repurposing stolen and lost bikes handed into the police station with the aim of redistributing them to the community.

Pupils will also be learning how to repair and maintain the bicycles. Over the course of the project the pupils will be developing their communication and problem-solving skills as they learn how the different parts of the bike work and what they could do if they get a puncture, or the chain broke whilst out on a bike ride. They will also develop their confidence and self-belief as the they gain more independence to repair the bikes by themselves.

LG1 have been a credit to the school and excellent role models for the local area, well done!

Students Row to Success

A group of year 9, 10 and 11 students recently took part in the Greater Manchester County Games Indoor Rowing Competition Finals at Oldham Sport for All Centre.

Having already taken part in the competition in its earlier stages and having proven their mettle we were invited to the finals.

The teams were; Braxton, Fahad,  Kais and Morgan who represented the year 9 boys. Aasia, Angelina, Anita and Princess represented the year 10 girls. Aaron, Irfan, Mardin and Marvellous represented the year 11 boys.

The star of the show was Princess, who had a tough start to her race with her foot coming loose and she ended up 10 seconds behind everyone else. Despite this, and despite falling off the rowing machine three times she showed unbelievable resilience and rowed to a photo finish winning 1st place.

The year 9 boys swept aside all competition taking all podium places, Morgan in particular finished nearly 50 metres in front.

The relay races showed the collaborative spirit of our students with all groups finishing in podium places, either 1st or 2nd.  It was great seeing our students cheering each other on with such passion and showing support to their peers.

The results were as follows:

Year 9 boys: Singles:

1st Morgan 2nd Fahad 3rd Kais

Relay: 1st place

Year 10 Girls:

Singles: 1st Princess

Relay: 2nd place

Year 11 boys:

Singles 3rd Marvellous

Relay 1st place

National Careers Week 2020

National Careers Week took place last week with lots of new opportunities and activities to inspire students and open up their outlook for the future. Throughout the week students and staff have taken part in employer led talks, careers based class activities, off site visits, practical demonstrations and networking events.

Monday was the introductory day and kicked off with Andrew Harris from Northern Rail offering advice on the dangers of the railways and an insight into the roles and responsibilities and employment opportunities for young people in this growing work sector. Our KS4 students visited Aerozone at Manchester Airport to look at all the new building developments with Mr Barlow while a GMP Community Police Officer came in for a Q&A and to answer any questions on careers in the services for our KS3 pupils. Additionally Rosie Gill one of our careers advisors led a day of workshops with KS3 and KS4 pupils to look at their aspirations.

Tuesday welcomed visitors from Autotrader and a scientist from Astrazenica while KS5 pupils gave inspirational presentations to KS3 and KS4 about the work experiences they have accessed and the skills they have developed. Cory was particularly inspiring telling everyone about his work experience as a caretaker at Rushbrook Primary Academy. KS5 students travelled to HOME Theatre to experience a unique Hunt and Darton café event.  Performance artists Hunt and Darton have been hired this year to curate the award winning Barbican Box Project. This is the third year that Melland High School has been invited to join 7 other Manchester schools to make and perform an original piece of drama to be showcased in June at HOME. At the HOME café students were enticed to purchase and taste a range of fondant delicacies, try twisted drinks and sample art type happenings including: ‘poetry on the side’, ‘Not The Great British Bake Off’ and ‘you are the buffet’. Reactions changed from reality check and mute astonishment to full participation and shared laughter once the students were in on the joke. As part of the Barbican Box process Melland will be visited by an Artist Mentor to provide support and encouragement to create our own artistic dishes for you to sample.

On Wednesday KS3 and KS4 pupils accessed a collapsed timetable where all lessons were based around a variety of sectors including; construction, manufacturing, horticulture, creative media, graphics and hair/beauty. Students took part in a wide range of activities linked to these sectors learning new skills and gaining insights. KS5 students from LG2 visited community radio All FM where they accessed a presentation to tell us about the 100 active volunteers, the legacy of previous training projects, producing and presenting a range of shows. The students were then given a tour of the 2 studios and interviewed three members of the crew. They were lucky enough also to sit in on a live session up close and personal to see exactly how the shows are presented. All FM offered some great opportunities and will hopefully be working with Melland to set up a project with our young people and offering the skills to present and produce their very own radio show.

SLT shortlisted and held interviews for students to take part in a unique opportunity to work in school in a variety of roles. LG1 took part in discussions with James Gill from TFGM and found that they employ a number of our students, who had followed a pathway supported by James who manages 25 staff in a team of 500 revealed that employees with certain skills such as keen focus, an eye for detail and a passion for numbers are a valuable asset in logistical work and he would like to employ more of our students as they have proven to be hard working, reliable and popular with their colleagues.

Thursday was probably our busiest day for employer encounters as our Speed Networking event organised by our careers advisor Steve Leach took place with eight outside agencies available for quick fire questions. These included representatives from; Bruntwood, Digital Advantage, O2, Princes Foods, One Manchester, Manchester Community Central, Stroke Association, Lendlease and All FM. Students from all key stages took part and were joined by students from the Grange School.  The aim of the event was to broaden student horizons and to gain an insight into what employers are looking for. KS5 students were visited by staff from the Contact Theatre to discuss volunteering opportunities and to signpost students to their excellent weekly spoken word and drama workshops which are open for our students to access. In the afternoon LG1 and 2 enjoyed a demonstration of wood- turning with Andy Trevor and were given an opportunity to discuss career pathways into the construction industry for self-employed workers studying carpentry an dry wall construction techniques.

The Melland Pupil Media Crew had a short break from filming on Friday when they had a Q&A with both Skillset and Phil Wood, producer from Mersey TV.

Also Friday saw celebrations for all the hard work of the students from the whole week. Students received awards for developing and demonstrating employability skills, for communication, problem solving, team-work, confidence and employees of the week. Careers week was a huge success and a huge thank you again to the whole careers team and all staff and contributors for creating an amazing and inspiring experience for all our young people.

Epidemic of Art

Helix = Syphilis / White hairy squid = Typhoid / White blob with purple bits = Bubonic plague / Red ball with little tentacles = Measles

The Spring term’s Arts and Humanities topic is Medicine and Disease.

Students have learned about how diseases changed the world. How the Black Death, killed tens of millions, brought the Feudal System crashing down and ended the Middle Ages.

How measles and typhoid wiped out 90% of the population of the Americas by the time any Europeans actually thought of living there.

About how an English doctor worked out how to stop the cholera that was killing thousands in 19th Century London, and so ushered in the age of clean water and modern sewage systems we now take for granted.

The Art component of the topic involved students looking at photographs of four of the more picturesque pathogens and attempting to copy the picture in the medium of felt.

This involves layering dyed sheep’s wool that has been spread out into a gauze to form a backing mat. This is soaked in soapy water and placed between sheets of bubble wrap. There follows twenty minutes of massaging with finger tips.

This allows the natural matting properties of the wool to start forming the felt. Next more wool is carefully spread out to create the image of the germ itself. Another half hour or so of rubbing and soapy water follows, hot and cold rinses, then a spot of rolling in a bamboo place mat. A final rinse and the felt is complete. Soft, deadly and beautiful!

LG4 Environment Project

Over the past half term LG4 have been learning about the environment and how to keep it clean. Incorporating work related learning into this LG4 have become ‘outdoor environmental quality caretakers’.

As part of this they have had to survey the quality of the outdoor space and then plan a course of action to improve it. The most immediate action was to remove any litter from the environment, this has been something that have done consistently for the last 6 weeks come rain, shine, or frost!

The next step of this job will be to create an awareness campaign for our school in order to reduce the amount of litter being dropped outside. Hopefully, with all their efforts the outdoor spaces will be looking good for all our students to enjoy once the weather finally improves.

A1 Group Perform live for BFET Principals

This week Melland students from the A1 group showcased their developing communication and signing skills for the BFET Executive Team and our BFET Principals in the high tech Melland Multimedia Studio. 

Teaching staff supported the students in creating a spectacular visual treat as the backdrop during their live performance in which they were seen juggling, walking the tight rope, lifting impossible weights at the same time as signing to the song ‘This is Me’ from the Greatest Showman. All the pupils took on characters from the film and gave them their own individual interpretation.

The students and staff have worked incredibly hard and barring a few nerves we think it was a fantastic performance.

Melland are part of the 2 year national pilot developing the ‘Semi-Formal Curriculum with ‘Equals’ which aims to improve pupils communication, health and wellbeing, confidence and independence as well as working on the core domains of functional numeracy, literacy, PSHCE, physical well-being, drama and humanities.  

the full video of this project to be uploaded to the Melland High school YouTube channel

Student Attendance Update

The 1st 2020 Attendance update.

KS3 & 4 attendance has increased to 91.1% and Sixth form has also increased to 88.2%.

These are over a 1% increase, which is huge when it comes to attendance figures.

We are now well above the national average (90.6%) for special schools

V Group’s Journey Around the World

This term, the V group are beginning their cultural encounters topic: The World Around Me.

As part of the newly developed Semi-Formal Curriculum; V group will be exploring various modes of transport and encountering different cultural celebrations and festivals.

We will navigate our cultural journey alongside the classic story: Around the World in 80 Days.

V group started our worldly adventure just in time for the Chinese New Year. We celebrated with a tea party and traditional Chinese treats. We also explored various Chinese artefacts and enjoyed traditional Chinese music.

We look forward to a new term of joy and prosperity as we navigate the world around me. 

Global Scholars – 3E

As part of the Global Scholars Program we are studying the topic of ‘Nature in our Cities’. We are looking at the different Flora and Fauna that can be found in our city. Some major world cities such as New York and London have huge public parks in the centre of them.

We in Manchester have a few small parks. Therefore, the students decided they would like to visit St John’s Gardens in central Manchester. They took photos and discussed the different types of flora found in the park.

They were intrigued to find out that it was previously occupied by St John’s Church and its graveyard whose tombstones have been covered over by 18 inches of soil except for that of John Owens, founder of Owen’s College, which later became Manchester University.

The garden was awarded a Green Flag in 2012 and is part of the St John Street conservation area.

Proud to part of the Bright Futures Education Trust
Melland High School
Gorton Education Village
50 Wembley Road, Gorton, Manchester, M18 7DT
Ofsted CEOP