Blog: 18th October 2019

It’s been a week of celebration at Boroughbridge High School. Our week began with the count following the voting for our student leaders. I’m delighted to report that appointed to the position of Head students were Todd, Ruby and Bertie with Deputy Head Students, Emma, Harvey and Kirsten. We’re looking forward to seeing just what they can achieve in the coming months. The first opportunity for them to put their leadership skills into action came almost immediately at our Open Evening on Wednesday.

As the doors opened for the event, there were more than 100 student volunteers in position across the departments to show and share the learning that takes place at Boroughbridge High School. Newly appointed prefects were ready to take Year 5 and 6 students and their parents on their tours whilst, in the Hall, Year 7 and Year 12 students were ready to share their experiences as part of the Headteacher Introductory talks. Ruby and Harvey, both in Year 12, confidently talked about the wide ranging experiences that they’ve had during their five years at Boroughbridge High School, along with high quality teaching and incredible support. They were then followed by Year 7 students, Callie, Flo and Nathan who talked with clarity and enthusiasm about the smooth transition that they’ve made from primary school, clearly demonstrating how well they’ve settled into life at Boroughbridge High School. Following this our visitors had the opportunity to meet staff and students and get involved in a wide range of activities from making and tasting pancakes in Food Tech to creative writing in English, from setting fire to bubbles in Science to experiencing a rehearsal in Drama. School dinners were sampled and students searched for clues for the Maths trail. A good time was had by all and it was fantastic to see current and future students working together.

Still full of enthusiasm from the Open Evening, Thursday morning marked the point when the DfE released the provisional Progress 8 scores for schools. Progress 8 aims to capture the progress a student makes from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school. It is a type of value-added measure, which means that pupils’ results are compared to the actual achievements of other pupils with similar prior attainment. Our congratulations go to our Year 11 students of 2019, staff and governors who secured an ‘above average’ P8 score of 0.27 (against a national average of -0.03 and a North Yorkshire average of 0.1) thereby proving statistically that students at Boroughbridge High School make excellent progress and secure excellent results. Go to https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/ if you’d like to explore the data further.

Events next week include the Year 7 ‘Meet the Tutor’ evening on Wednesday from 4pm when Year 7 parents will have the opportunity to discuss how well their child has settled in. Then there’s a Parent Information Evening about the Duke of Edinburgh Award for parents of students in Years 9 and 10 on Thursday (24th October) at 6pm.

Finally, if you’re a Year 6 parent, reading the Blog for the first time, then welcome! We’re looking forward to working with you and your child in the future.

Have a lovely weekend.