students at ryburn valley high school getting busy with their life routes fund raiser.more info elsewhere on this site!

Rybrun Vocational Skills 6^th Form

We are 6^th students at Ryburn Valley 6^th form.

We are going to work on our teamwork skills.

We are going to raise money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. By doing a raffle and designing a quiz about Halifax to see to pupils at our school. We are hoping to raise a lot of money. We want to make good job of our fundraising project.

To do a good job on this there are lots of things to do.

·       Research the internet for information about charities.

·       Design a poster.

·       Write letters to ask for raffle prizes.

·       Decide on a charity. How much to sell tickets/quiz sheets for etc. chose a date to do the quiz

·       Tell all the staff in school about our plans.

·       Ask the head teacher permission.

·       Do a press release to get other outside school involved.

·       Make sure everyone has a job.

o     David-E-mail/internet research

o     Louis-poster design

o     Ken-Write letters for prizes

o     Joley-Raffle organiser

o     Leigh-in charge of money

o     Callum-raffle organiser

o     Michael-poster design

o     Get other people to help is with the project.

Mrs Barker- To help us tell the staff about the project.

Mrs Williams-To help us get raffle prizes.

Ms Elder- To help us record our project in our scrapbook.

Rob- To help us get the press involved and get photocopying don’t.

We are doing our fundraiser in November… we will let you know how we get on! 

students at st clares house in halifax are busy transforming a tired and broken old railway bench into a brand new seating area for their games room.

the project in well underway and there has been plenty of d.i.y skills on display in dismantling the old seats,giving the frame a clean and a respray ,sawing new planks for the seats ,drilling holes for the new bolts and covering the planks with a fantastic range of footballers cut out from old magazines to give their seats a radical makeover .

the next steps will involve completing the collage work ,bolting the planks in place and covering them with recycled plastic bottles to make them more hardwearing.

the whole project is designed to promote teamwork,problem solving and creative thinking.

it is also designed to be cost neutral ,relying on recycled and scrap materials.so far the costs are under £10.00 which is amazing given the progress made.

watch this space for a final report and pictures of the finished article.

st clares house are busy making a new bench out of sum old railway seats.we are going to graffiti one bench and make a footballer collage on the other....watch this space!!!

its amazing how cool horses are and we should know it!

in calderdale we have just started a life routes project based on young people volunteering to help their peers get the most out of their free time with the emhphasis on adventure sports

....here are some pictures of our peer mentors helping out at norland equestrian centre......next week we are canoeing...watch out for more info.

On the 29th, 30th and 31st July, seven 'explorers' (five males (I was one of those) and two females) had to orienteer around the Lake District on a mission to get to some checkpoints (five altogether) whilst observing the activities around them. They had to get 25 at least and try to capture these activities on camera. Why all this trouble, you must be thinking! Well are you? I'll tell you why - to complete their "Duke of Edinburgh" Bronze award.

On day one they had:

3 stoves,

3 gas canisters,

tea bags,

coffee,

powdered milk,

packed lunches,

3 lots of snacks,

Tea - Ready meals, tortillas, kendal mint cake,

Supper - Hot chocolate, Rice crispy squares.

And on Day two:

Porridge oats, raisins, banana cips,

3 lots of snacks,

pasta 'n' sauce, chocolate bars.

All this they had to share between them and more. In the end they walked about 21/22 miles (35k) in 15 hours. pretty good for some 14-16 year old amateurs.At the end of the second day they had a nice cosy hostel to retire to and a lovely hot shower and proper toilets. Ooh heaven. And they are when you don't have them for a day and half. Maybe  YOU should try it some time.

Jerusalem Farm training for 'The Duke of Edinburgh.

Before we set off on our walk/hike to Jerusalem Farm we had to:

Get our equipment;

Pack our rucksacks;

Plot the coordinates on our maps;

and line up for a picture.

Then at around 1 pm on Thursday 26th July we set off from Mixenden Outdoor Centre following our map route we planned out we walked for around 5 hours until we got to Jerusalem Farm where we pitched our tents and ate some tea. A BBQ, yummy in the morning we made our breakfast and came across a problem (OOPS), we had no spoons to eat it with so we used our imagination and came up with a cup or our hands, we made our lunches and by 9:17 am we were off walking again on our way back home we were making good progress it had only been 1 hour since we set off and already we were nearly half way home we were on the marshes advancing towards Ogden reservoir. We went down the reservoir and rested on the bridge where we had our lunch. Then, from 1 to 0.5 hours we carried on until we got home (YES) our feet were killing and two of our team members had blisters on their feet. (but we PERSEVERED). But at least we were home. It was a great but exhausting walk, but 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger' and 'You learn from your mistakes', which we hopefully will do before we do our Duke of Edinburgh expedition at the end of August. 

its amazing what you can do with a pile of old junk....we liberated some old road signs from the council who were throwing them out ,lots of coke cans from the local recycling project and old chairs from a skip in a school.......out of them we made some "pimped up" desks and chairs in order to show that sometimes someones throw aways can be put to good use....the group involved had to work hard to come up with creative sollutions to getting the job and worked hard to keep the budget to a minimum (we only paid for spraypaint and nails!! )....the furniture will be used as prototypes for more life routes projects based on recycling coming up in calderdale in september....thanks to ben and alex for giving their time and ideas to help out.

rob.....yorks and humbs

On 22nd and 23rd July, me and two of my other colegues decided we'd use two recycled tables, two recycled chairs and lots and lots of Coke cans to create an amazing table and chair at the end of the second day. Firstly we washed the coke cans and cut the neck off and discarded the top and bottom of the can. then we unscrewed the table top and got to work with nailing the coke can necks to the table top. All risk assessed. 'Ha Ha' we spray painted the legs gold. we reassembled the table and began on the next table and the chair the day after. the chair we made into and road safety chair. we took the back off and replaced it with a road safety sign and put it together. we did the same with the second table except, we put a red border around the table and filled the middle with some gold 'diet coke caffeine free' cans. we got the materials from a local skip and did this project to make people try and think differently about recycling.

High flyers:

This was a good experience, which took place in 2006. We learnt lots of skills and did lots of activities, which includes:

Night orienteering- we went round woods, which we had to look for posts with white marks on the top. We even linked up with someone so nobody was on his or her own in the darkness.

We looked at fascinating sculptures as we went round the woods and they were about 50 years old.

Raft building- we went into two groups and started to build a raft. The raft was made out of barrels, long logs and rope. There were seven in each team, which was difficult because the raft could only hold about six. My team won as we built the raft before the other team and it was successful as we rafted for our lives under Devils Bridge. We waited for the other team to get on their raft so we started to rock the raft from side to side. On the raft there was 3 on one side and 3 on the other and I was sat in the middle, which was great as I felt like a queen. Our team stood up on our raft and then jumped into the lake, then both teams had a little swim and the water was FREEZING! As we got out I wanted to jump back in as it was warmer in the lake. This was the coldest I have ever been!

Kite making- we made kites from scratch, which then we took outside and flew them without getting them stuck in a tree and then someone has to climb up the tree to get it out!

We also made flags for our bunting, which then we took on our walk and let the wind blow our wishes around the world.

Walking- this was a long tiring day, as we had to walk for miles on end. If we saw some litter we had to pick it up and then we earn points for going into big brother. Some blisters appeared on people’s feet-, which wasn’t the prettiest sight! When we reached our destination we then put our bunting up over a tomb with our wishes on and let the wind take our wishes across the world.

Extreme washing up- I hate washing up but extreme washing up is fun! One person washes up, another person dries and another puts the stuff away back into the cupboard. The drier chucks the bowls, cups, and plates to the person who is putting the stuff away. The catch is not to drop it, not mentioning any names Yvonne and Jamie.

Big Brother night- we had to complete lots of challenges to try to win big brother. If you were last or the bottom three of the challenges then you had to be evicted from the Big Brother house and for some it was too much, and not mentioning the tears. We had to do the limbo; which was back breaking, we did a dance competition, a memory test and many more. When the lights switched off, Big Brother asked anyone who was scared and if you were then you had to leave, then wham a big ugly face appeared in the window, which then shook everybody up, and we all started to laugh. I was in the top 4 of becoming the winner, the last task was a quiz and whoever got the most points was the winner of big brother. I came joint 3^rd with my brother, which was like the worst thing ever!

We had to “pump it” in the morning as Rob puts The Black Eyed Peas on full blast every morning to get us up.

This was an amazing experience as I have learnt a whole range of skills. And remember “up there for thinking, down there for dancing.”

Flags

Smartie World Record

This spectacular event took place on the 4^th/5^th February 2006 in the Town Hall in Halifax. Over £6,00 was raised for the NSPCC, which was The Mayors charity.  The design was chosen from a competition by our group, which featured the house of Hansel and Gretel. The design was made from 400 squares (16” by 16” per square) which 250 smarties covered the tiles. Each square was sponsored for £30. The event was really successful and enjoyable for everybody. The best part was seeing the picture at the end when it was all finished and to be in the newspaper of course!

After we had finished the presentation at the end, the “green” people had tea with The Mayor; we had dominos pizza, which was YUMMY! At the end I felt really proud and glad we have achieved such a goal.

Body language

This was a fun experience! We learnt such things like when you know someone is scared, angry, uncomfortable and many more. We went on this buzzing computer, as it was apple. We took pictures of our selves and we made a DVD produced by us, which is called Body Language, and it will be shown around the country. The whole experience was fun and exciting. There is more to body language than you think. I hope this experience will help me in future life and staying well away from those who look angry.

Visits to London

Dancing- this was fun as we learnt how to break dance. We learnt how to do a headstand type thing and how to do a 6 step. We also danced to Black Eyed Peas and had a little routine going. We danced in the National Gallery in a room filled with other groups. The instructor was fantastic as he told us the secret to body popping. After, we went site seeing and was fascinated by the views. Then we went on the market and did some shopping but it was more like window-shopping because we didn’t have enough time.

Nokia HQ -We went to Nokia HQ in Godmanchester on the 31^st of May. We learnt how to use the phone Nokia N93i as they gave us one to take pictures and videos of what we do.  We mastered how to take pictures and video recording and how to link stuff from the phone to the Internet. We also learnt how to create a Webblog on VOG and now we have our own website. We had to get up REALLY early so on the way back from Nokia HQ we were all tired. We did amuse our selves by taking LOTS of pictures with the camera and the phone and playing games and reading magazines such as “take a break” whilst on the train. It was a good day out as I have learnt lots about phones and our website. Overall I was glad to go inside Nokia HQ and see what they do. The best part of the day was when we were messing around with the phones, eating Nokia mints and doing drama pieces and editing them on the phone.

Duke Of Edinburgh

For this we have to do series of things to get our Bronze D+E. we have to do:

Skills: we have done some orienteering, as this will develop our map reading skills.

Physical activity: we will be doing hill walking, which will prepare us for our expedition.

Service: we have done the flag project, which raised money for The Special Baby Care Unit.

Expedition: we will be doing 2 days fell walking up in the lake district in august 2007.

So far the Duke Of Edinburgh is going really good. It is amazing to go out on visits and doing physical activities, which the whole group enjoys. I hope this experience will get me through to do my silver and gold award.

What I have learnt throughout these activities:

v     Use and develop communication and negotiation skills

v     Work as part of a team

v     Take leadership role and responsibility

v     Acquire new technical skills and make use of literacy, numeracy and computing skills

v     Making decisions

v     Respecting others and differences between people

v     Solving real life dilemmas

v     Being an active citizen

v     Public speaking

I have enjoyed all the activities I have done with the club. They have developed me into a more confident person. I hope I will develop these skills and use them in the future.