St Michaels Catholic & Church of England High School
Holy Cross Deanery Church of England Primary School
St Dominics Catholic Primary School
Holy Rood Catholic Primary School
St John the Baptist Church of England Primary School
RA3
Raising Aspirations, Attitudes & Achievement
St Michaels
Welcome to St Michael’s Group!
About our group and school
Our group is based at St Michael’s High School in Barnsley. It is a joint faith school and a specialist science college. Students from across Barnsley and the surrounding area attend our school. The school currently has 668 pupils and will be moving to a new Advanced Learning Centre in 2011, with the space and facilities to welcome 900 pupils on roll.
Who looks after our group?
Anna Rooney, Director of Science College, is the RA3 Group Coordinator for St Michael’s. Michelle Griffin, Science College Administrator, provides support in the planning and delivery of the RA3 programme of events.
Group Announcements
Future projects at St Michael’s
posted 23rd April 2008
Anne Walker, Head of Technology, will deliver a summer project learning about chemicals used in cooking. Brad Mellor, Teacher of Design Technology and Graphics, will deliver an engineering project, producing pens using 3D machining and prototyping equipment. Brad and Anne will soon be visiting our partner schools to speak to pupils and parents about their forthcoming projects and to raise the profile of the RA3 Project in our local community.
Our Journal
Grand Day Out to the RA3 Launch Event at Sheffield's Winter Gardens
10th March 2007
St Michael’s RA3 group took part in this event at the Sheffield Hallam University and the Winter Gardens. More information and photographs can be found on the main RA3 news page.
Robot Building
June 2007
A group of Yr 6 pupils from feeder schools and Yr 7 from St Michael’s were invited to four evening sessions throughout June to construct robot animals with the aid of a parent or close relative. Each session began with a short starter to get pupils and adults thinking ‘outside the box’ and on level terms to complete a task before beginning to assemble the robots.
Pupils were especially good with the fiddly bits their parents struggled with, and parents were better at seeing the ‘big picture’ regarding the construction, so the focus on pupil/adult learning was a success. Both pupils and adults were surprised at how much the other could do.
Though people worked at different paces, a real community spirit was present and help never far away. This allowed everyone to successfully build their robots which then competed against each other in a series of trials in the final session. Enjoyment was had by all involved.
Grand Day Out to Magna
24th November 2007
Pupils, parents and teachers of the St Michael's group took part in this event at the Magna science and technology park. More information and photographs can be found on the main RA3 news page.
Christmas Lecture with Johnny Ball
12th December 2007
Some of St Michael’s group attended an entertaining and stimulating talk by veteran broadcaster Johnny Ball at Sheffield Hallam University. This energetic lecture highlighted the wonders of science, maths, technology and engineering, and led on to a questions and answers session with Johnny about many issues, including the environment.
Build It!
April 2008
This family learning project began with a Grand Day Out to Magna.
Pupils from St Michael’s, St Dominic’s, and Royston St John the Baptist then brought their parents to school to help them build a model town.The family learning sessions were led by Mr Brackley, Head of Geography, who challenged participants to design an eco-community with a small carbon footprint. Mr Brackley said he was really impressed with both the quality of model buildings produced and the enthusiasm with which participants completed the activity.