With the final GCSE exam on Wednesday, it’s been another eventful week for our Year 11s. On Monday, the end of year traditional football match between Year 10 and Year 11 boys, affectionately known as ‘El Classico’ took place, ending in a thumping 5-1 win for the departing Year 11s. Then last night we had the Prom in what has become our favourite venue over the years, the Bridge Inn. Students arrived in many modes of transport, all looking incredibly smart and ready for the red carpet. Following a lovely meal, there was much dancing, laughing and hugging. As a year group they have always been kind and supportive of each other and this was very much in evidence last night, And so we say our farewell to the Class of 2025, the year group who began their life at Boroughbridge High School in a pandemic ‘bubble’ and leave ready to make their mark on the world. We wish them well.
Year 10 had been showing their commitment earlier in the day by arriving in smart business dress ready for their annual careers networking event. It was a very productive and successful day with Mrs. Town reporting, ‘Yesterday, all year 10 students were involved in our annual careers day where we welcomed 9 local and national employers into school. As they begin to consider their post-16 pathways, students were able to find out about a range of different careers and interview the employers before learning more about the world of work, interview skills, post-16 pathways and career planning. The students were a credit to the school and many of the employers commented on how mature their questioning had been. We would like to thank the employers who came in and, in particular, our Enterprise Adviser, Mrs Lorraine Kirbitson who organised the event. Lorraine has worked with the school for many years and is stepping down from the role this year so she will be sadly missed.
With the new timetable almost upon us, in assemblies I’ve been reinforcing our values with students and revisiting the routines that we have in place to ensure that all are safe, happy and successful.
In Forest School this week, Mr. Woodward and his class learned valuable lessons in outdoor survival, building camp fires to cook nettle fritters and pan-fried cookies.
In sporting news, Miss Robson reports, ‘Last week a Year 8 girls team played a hybrid rounders friendly with Ripon Grammar School. They joined forces to create two ‘Ripon-Borough’ teams to compete against RGS. In one match the Hybrid team won 11.5 rounders to 11 and in the other match RGS won 15.5 to 5.5 rounders. Highlights included Daisy’s bowling and catches out, Anabelle’s speed when running from base to base and Ava’s quick and effective fielding skills around 3rd base. A fun-filled afternoon out, demonstrating our values of ambition, respect and resilience, as well as a creative team photo.’
On Wednesday, it was the Year 8 boys turn to face Nidderdale High School. The boys were incredibly ambitious with high expectations of a win, to which they succeeded, 15.5 to 4.5 rounders! MVP was Max C, fearlessly cruising around the bases to score multiple rounders. Several outstanding catches were made throughout the game from multiple players. The boys were treated to a very high standard of umpiring from Nidderdale’s PE teacher who is a qualified regional umpire and England Rounders player.’
Year 8 have been out today on location in Whitby for their Geography fieldtrip. I’ll tell you more in the Blog next week.
A date for your diary, it’s our Summer Concert on Tues 8th July at 6p.m.
We wish our Year 9 students well as they set off for their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition tomorrow.
Have a lovely weekend!
We’ve enjoyed hearing about the Year 9 Bewerley Park trip this week. Mr. Field reports, ‘The trip proved to be a great success. The pupils fully immersed themselves in the experience from the moment they arrived at the centre and quickly began to impress the Bewerley staff with their enthusiasm and their budding resilience. Comfort zones were challenged from the offset but the pupils rose to the occasion and showed great ambition in their endeavours. The range of activities satisfied the pupils’ appetite for adventure with mountain biking, ghyll scrambling, climbing, leap of faith, Jacob’s ladder and canoeing amongst the day activities undertaken. The pupils were also kept busy in the evenings with orienteering, team building initiatives, walking to explore the local countryside and a games night including the traditional country sport of Welly Wanging.



In assemblies this week, Mrs. Godsell-Wright focused on our school values and why these values are important for all aspects of student life, helping students to be successful. Everyone was also excited to hear of the reward point winners of the rewards points issued by teachers. These are
It was commitment all the way last weekend when the Duke of Edinburgh bronze practice expedition took place. Mrs. Murphy reports,
As it’s Safeguarding Awareness Week, Mrs. Godsell-Wright has been leading assemblies on this theme. Students have had the opportunity to reflect on how they use the internet i.e. through social media, online gaming, messaging apps, YouTube and TikTok. With 2 in 3 children nationally reporting experiencing online harms, they explored how to stay safe. You can see top tips for staying safe online here.
As you’re aware, we have been working on reinforcing our school values and we thought you’d enjoy seeing the photo from our ‘Respectful’ assembly last week.
Meanwhile, Mr. Field reports, ‘Monday evening saw the Yr9 boys proudly take on King James’s School in the semi-final of the Harrogate & Craven District Cup. The excitement before the game was palpable as the boys could taste the prospect of representing the school in a cup final. The game was an edgy affair at the start with both sides showing nerves from the occasion. L Pitts produced some fine goalkeeping to keep the visitors’ advancing attack at bay but even his efforts couldn’t stop KJS taking a 0-3 lead into the half time break. The second half saw some tactical and personnel changes in which saw the Boroughbridge boys take the game by the scruff of the neck and forced the KJS goalkeeper to make some brave saves as the confidence grew within our team. The efforts were rewarded with a close range finish by T King, as the game drew to a close the KJS lead proved a bridge too far for the Boroughbridge boys to overcome and with more committed to the attack some gaps in defence were exposed with further goals added to their tally. The game finished 1-5 but despite the loss the Boroughbridge team held their heads high knowing that they had shown great resilience throughout the game and gave their all to achieve their ambition of reach the final. The boys will be ready to prove their worth next year and hope to take that next step in reaching a final.’

Exams are now well underway with the GCSE Art exam, MFL speaking exams, PE moderation and BTEC Travel and Tourism exam taking place this week. Taking that into context, Sandra from the Wellbeing in Mind Team took the opportunity to have a stall in the Dining Hall at lunchtime so that she could discuss with students the strategies that they can use if they are feeling exam stress. As you’ll be aware, the Wellbeing in Mind Team are based in the Bungalow at BHS and work with young people in schools across our area.
I hope that you had a lovely Easter break and were able to make the most of the warmer weather. We returned to our own ‘Sakura’ with the site laden with cherry blossom. This natural phenomenon always marks the start of our build up to the GCSE and BTEC exams. Students in Years 10 and 11 are already fully into their revision schedule both in and outside of school. They’ve also had their Exam Expectations assembly where they’ve been re-familiarised with all of the rules and regulations that they need to be aware of as they take their exams.
Our week started with Expectations Assemblies. We revisited our expectations through our core values that we are ambitious, respectful and resilient in order to secure a smooth start to the Summer Term. We also recapped the areas of Teaching and Learning that we have been driving forward this year with our focus on Raising Achievement; questioning, feedback, retrieval and metacognition. These sit within our overall curriculum. A reminder that you can see more detail about our curriculum along with the Progression Maps for each subject so that you can track what your child will be studying throughout their time at BHS at 
Wednesday saw our annual Year 7 Rocket car challenge. Science lessons have been building up to this highly successful event where, in teams, students design and develop a rocket car before competing to see whose is the fastest. The winners this year were Ava, Libbie and Nina in Dr. Lefley’s group whose car reached 81 mph – an amazing achievement.
In sporting news, Mrs. Cheeseman reports, ‘And that’s a wrap! The Netball season is finished for the academic year. Our final fixture was on Thursday against Ripon Grammar School. Two very strong teams to play but Boroughbridge were resilient and kept their heads held high with final scores of 31-3 (Year 9) and 23-2 (Year 8). Well done to our goal scorers, Bodie C, Ruby C and Ben A. What was lovely was the amount of pupils supporting the game and several played up a year group which was very ambitious. It has been a pleasure to coach the team and I hope to see them all coming along to Summer sports in the extra-curricular programme.’

Last Wednesday we took a trip to Snozone. Mr. Field reports, ‘We saw another highly successful trip to Snozone at Xscape, Castleford, for Boroughbridge pupils to take part in skiing activities. The vast majority of the 47 attendees were involved in ski lessons on the nursery slope whilst the experienced skiers in the group honed their skills on the main slope. All of the pupils made fantastic progress and the Snozone instructors were very complimentary about the positive attitude and effort shown by those involved. The additional highlight of the trip for a lot of the pupils was the social time with friends around the Xscape complex. The food retailers were surprised but grateful for the amount of business that the pupils provided, a truly amazing feat seeing them consume so much food! We hope to organise another trip soon so that more pupils can experience skiing on real snow at this amazing facility.’

It’s been red noses all round today as the Student Council have organised our Fundraising day in aid of Comic Relief. With an impressive Bake Sale at break and lunchtime, selling of noses and non-uniform day, we’ve raised an amazing £593 in total. Thank you for your support and generous donations. 
