Category : Front Page News

The Woodland Trust Group have been active with Mr. Woodward reporting, ‘Having achieved Gold level in the Woodland Trust Green Tree Schools Award last year, students have been working on the next challenge this half-term as we try to work our way to achieving the platinum award. Our focus has been the new “Green in 15” Challenge which asks schools to do at least 5 out of 15 activities designed to connect young people with nature and make the school a more eco-friendly place. Students have been involved in delivering presentations about natural objects they find inspiring, identifying different species of trees on the school site (we have 20+ different species, it turns out…not bad for a small school!) and creating natural artwork, inspired by artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Shilling. Next half-term we’ll see the arrival of almost 200saplings which we’ll be planting around the school site to help increase biodiversity, improve habitats and help improve the air quality for our students.’

There were celebrations at Boroughbridge High School this morning as students collected their GCSE and BTEC results. There were many individual success stories with students going on to destinations of their choice including to study A Levels at King James’s School, York College, Harrogate Grammar School and St. Aidan’s, vocational courses at Askham Bryan, Bishop Burton, York College and Leeds City College and apprenticeships in childcare, dental nursing and building/construction.

Headteacher Kathryn Stephenson said, ‘It has been a pleasure to congratulate students today on their excellent achievements. We are very proud of the way in which they approached their exams and are delighted that they will now be able to move confidently into further study, apprenticeships and employment. This follows the success of our Year 13 students last week who are going on to study Veterinary Science at Nottingham, Forensic Science at Derby and MFL at Aberystwyth. The results also reflect the commitment of the staff team and the continued support of our parents, carers and governors. We wish the class of 2023 well for the future.’

With a somewhat mixed weather forecast, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award Qualifying Expedition could have been thwarted but the resilience of our young people made sure that the expedition was a great success!

Mrs. Murphy reported that ‘All the students did brilliantly with a rather testing weekend.  On Saturday they were given false hope, with a lovely sunny start, but within 2 hours it had started raining, with thunder at times and it didn’t let up for another 5 hours!  Luckily it did stop in time for everyone to get to the campsite, so tents were pitched in the dry.  They cooked their food and had a relaxing evening by the tents chatting, no energy for sports this time.  Overnight there was rain, thunder and lightning but everyone stayed dry and it was brighter with clear skies in the morning.  The walking conditions were much nicer on Sunday, but we had lots of sore shoulders, backs and feet to contend with! The groups worked really well together, keeping up their morale and finished in good time.  A fantastic achievement, completed by all the 21 students who started!’

A few weeks ago the English Team challenged students with ‘The Joy of Reading’ Photography competition bringing a great opportunity to celebrate two passions. The quality was so high that there were two winners in 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place! So in 1^st place were George and Abdullah, in 2^nd place, Amelia and Millie and in 3^rd place, Edith and Laila, and Ben. Very impressive indeed.

Year 11 students continued on their post -16 careers journey at the Careers Networking event this week. Students certainly looked the part as they arrived wearing business clothing. Following an assembly and lesson exploring different careers and skill requirements they took part in a ‘Meet the Employer’ event where they interviewed local, national and international employers to find out about a range of different careers and employment sectors. Along with learning a great deal, students had the opportunity to think seriously about their next steps and also thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Oh what a night! As you can see, the Year 11 Prom was a great success. With sparkles and smart suits, the evening gave staff and students alike the opportunity to celebrate. Students arrived in tractors, a pick up, tractor units, a caravan, a Mustang and a Lamborghini. After a lovely three course meal, everyone danced the night away. Our students, as ever, were polite, considerate, thankful and happy which was great to see. Our thanks go to Mrs. Godsell-Wright for organising the event and to The Bridge Inn for making it a special evening.

With the summery weather upon us, it was the perfect time for Year 9 to embark upon their trip to Bewerley Park. Mr. Grierson reports, ‘39 intrepid young adventurers and 4 enthusiastic staff members enjoyed 3 action packed days at Bewerley Park Outdoor Education Centre.  Resilience and team work were the order of the day as the students were given the opportunity to squeeze through the tightest spaces as they scaled Brimham Rocks.  MrsMurphy successfully navigated the ‘cheese press’ and Mrs. Cummins the ‘leap of faith’!  As the scorching weather continued throughout the week, the students took every opportunity to cool down in the local rivers and ponds whilst kayaking, canoeing or paddle boarding. The ghyll scrambling was a particularly popular activity as students climbed up a stream, dived into plunge pools and slid down natural inclines. For those with a head for heights there was the High Ropes activities including a leap of faith to catch a trapeze high up in the summer sky. In the evenings there was a walk through the stunning countryside, orienteering and Mr Field’s nightly rounders games.  Students acquitted themselves well, doing themselves and school proud.’

There’s been excitement in the school this week with Mr. Woodward reporting that ‘The Woodland Trust Green Tree Award Group spent some time in the woodland area on the school site putting their photography and observation skills to the test. Their challenge was to take photos of nature from different perspectives. We discussed how looking at the same place from a myriad of different viewpoints can reveal entirely different experiences and how often we can find a much more interesting and inspiring view of things not by going somewhere new but by looking at the familiar in a different way (a good metaphor for life in general). Students were then free to explore the woodland with them lying on the ground, climbing trees and getting up close with plants, trees and fungi to see things differently.’

We currently have vacancies for two parent governors and are seeking nominations for an enthusiastic and committed parent or carer to join our governing board.

Across the Boroughbridge High School and King James’s School Federation we value positive and purposeful partnerships with parents, understanding the benefit that this brings to our students. One of the most significant ways in which parents and carers can contribute to the strategic direction of the school is to volunteer to be a parent governor.

Parent governors are valued members of the team and play a vital role in contributing towards the strategic direction of the Federation

For World Book Day at Boroughbridge High School we’ve taken a DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) approach with teachers, for a couple of lessons in the day, choosing an extract from a favourite book or article relevant to their lesson, topic or subject and reading it aloud to the class before discussing it. So looking at a sample across school, in the Maths Department, Mrs Bloomfield read a passage to Year 7 from “The Number Devil – a Mathematical Adventure” by Hans Magnus Enzensberger which is a fun journey through the world of Mathematics through the eyes of a 12 year old boy who hates Maths but ends up dreaming about it!

In Mrs. Murphy’s Year 7 Maths lesson, student either read or wrote a short story involving a fraction. They then listened to the short stories, lots of food was mentioned in some really imaginative stories. Year 8 had a starter matching up descriptions with graphs. They were then shown a different graph and asked to write a short story that could be represented by the graph. Mrs. Murphy commented that ‘They all had a go and produced some stories that defied gravity.’

In Year 9 History, Mrs. Town read Chapter 1 of ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ as they are starting to study the Holocaust.

In GCSE, Mr. Field shared an article tilted ‘Lizzy Yarnold: GB’s two-time Winter Olympic champion calls for stop on high-carbon sponsorship deals’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/64785138 which linked two topics that he has significant interest in; snowsports and the environment. The article also linked perfectly to the specification as it covered topics that students are about to learn about in GCSE PE, Commercialisation of sport.

Mr. Errington and his class read pages 52 to 55 of “Surely You’re joking, Mr Feynman” by R.P.Feynman. Mr. Errington says that ‘Richard Feynman was arguably the world’s greatest theoretical physicist and when I first read his books when I went to school in the 80’s, he inspired me to keep learning and my love of physics.’

In MFL, Y9 students looked at the bilingual (French & English) edition of ‘Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’ and heard excerpts in both languages. Madame Bailie reports that ‘They were very pleased with themselves to recognise some of the French vocabulary!’

Mr Woodward reports that in RE, ‘I read (in a slightly dramatic fashion) extracts from the Book of Job in the Bible to Y9 students as we analysed the Biblical response to the existence of unfair suffering in the world and then, during Lesson 5, extracts from Damian Hall’s “We Can’t Run Away From This” were shared in our exploration of the issue of climate change.’

So, not only did students get the opportunity to read and get an insight into their teachers’ reading but they may also have some ideas for future reading.