Category : Headteacher’s Blog

At last the Year 11 Leavers’ Hoodies have arrived signifying an important stage for Year 11 as they move towards their exams. In their assembly this week, we talked about their achievements at Boroughbridge High School to date and how this should reassure them that they can approach their exams confidently, along with discussing how to make revision time most effective. We took the opportunity to remind ourselves of notable achievements  including the boys’ football team reaching two semi-finals this season and the remarkable performances of the BTEC Performing Arts group whose final piece was enjoyed by their audience on Wednesday evening.

For other year groups, assemblies have focused on our Climate for Learning strategy underpinned by our commitment as a community to ensure that we all act in a way so that everyone is safe, happy and successful. Students were reminded of how they can gain reward points, with a promise of a possible rewards trip to Flamingo Land coming up towards the end of the Summer Term. We then revisited our Behaviour for Learning strategy which supports students in maximising learning.

Prizes were presented in Year 7 assembly to the Science Rocket car teams including the winners from the team with the fastest car (87.2mph) from Dr Lefley’s groups, Millie, Elliot and Neve with group winners for best designs going to 7SCA1’s Piran, Spencer and James, 7SCA2’s Toby, Oliver and Ralph, 7SCB1’s Alex, Mia, Brandon and Brody and 7SCB2’s Oliver, Nathaniel and Will.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Wellock is in the process of organising The Big Book Swap. We haven’t yet set a date but it’s never too early to start finding any children/young adult fiction books (suitable for 11-16 years olds) that students have at home that they would be happy to donate and bring them into school in the next week or so. They will need to give them to their English teacher who will exchange them for tokens that they can use at the book swap event.

Next week it’s the turn of students in Years 7 and 8 to take their exams in the Sports Hall.

Have a lovely weekend.

What a week! With School Council Fundraising Week at the fore, it’s been a great way to end the Spring Term. There have been many activities to keep us busy including 7SF asking us to guess the number of sweets in a jar, 8LJ car washing (in the rain!), 7BB running a ‘Can you find the Creme Egg?’ cup game, where lucky participants could win the chocolate treat by choosing the correct cup, 8NC having a penalty shoot-out, 9JF running a lolly tombola bringing in 50 prizes to win, 9WS running a tuck shop, Year 10 having a Bake Sale, 11CW selling hot drinks with marshmallows and cream and 11PK running a raffle bringing in prizes ranging from chocolate bars and Easter eggs to bath bombs and hand creams! Meanwhile, 9BG have lived up to their Geography form tutor’s expectations and created a scavenger hunt for all students in the school to engage in. There have been lots of enthusiastic students using their excellent knowledge of the BHS environment to complete the quiz! Perhaps the update you’ve been waiting for is the amount of money raised by 8SW to determine just what lengths Mr Woodward would have to go to. Well, they managed to raise an impressive £125.09, bringing a multitude of smiles to both students and staff, giving Mr Woodward an excellent makeover, as you can see!

The School Council will decide how the money raised (£464.77) will be spent in school to improve the environment.

We’ve finished the week with a Non-Uniform Day, raising £240 to continue to restore our Wildlife area.

Tuesday was one of the most exciting days in the Year 7 curriculum – the Rocket Car Challenge! In Year 7 Science lessons last week, students had been investigating speed. Armed with this knowledge, they designed their cars in teams of three. Their morning was spent cutting, sculpting and gluing until their cars were complete. In the afternoon, they all made their way to the tennis courts to race their cars. The winning team, Millie, Elliot and Neve, from Dr Lefley’s group, created a car that reached close to 100mph. Here’s the winning car at the end of the race. It was an excellent day all round!

With Earth Day on 22^nd April assemblies this week, led by Mrs Bauwens, have focused on the impact of human actions on habitats and species before looking at everyday actions that we can all take to conserve the world’s resources such as reusing clothing and taking a shorter shower.

In sporting news, our congratulations go to Thomas Roderickson (Year10) who has been selected to be the goalkeeper for the North Yorkshire County football team. An impressive achievement!

This morning, we were really privileged to have S Sgt Welch in school to talk to Year 7 about his amazing achievement in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Rowing Challenge, a 3,000 mile rowing race considered to be the ‘world’s toughest row’ from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to English Harbour on Antigua in the Caribbean. His team, Force Atlantic, completed the race in a World Record time of 40 days, 23 hours and 57 minutes. Students heard about the levels of resilience that were needed, hearing a clear message of how thorough preparation, hard work and determination can make the seemingly impossible, possible!

Have a good weekend and best wishes for a lovely Easter break!

We’ve had quite a week for weather, going from almost Summer last week back to a wintry blast this week. It’s not often that we have simultaneous blossom and snow.

Braving the weather on Thursday afternoon were the Year 11 Boys’ Football Team who put up a good performance against Queen Ethelburga’s in the semi-finals of the County district cup. Whilst they weren’t victorious on this occasion, staff watching agreed that it was an excellent match. The team now have another semi-final against King James’s School to look forward to.

Creating sports people of the future, Olive (Year 11) has shown great leadership working with some of our Year 8 and 9 students to develop their rugby skills.

In Year 7 lessons this week, Mrs Flowers reports that, in DT, students are beginning to use Techsoft design V3 to turn their drawn ideas into CAD drawings to use to cut out on the laser cutter.  This actually has a free version online that they can practise on which can be found at

https://www.techsoft.co.uk/products/software/techsoft-design-v3-download

Meanwhile, in Maths, Mrs Price reports that her Year 7 class have been putting their percentage increase/decrease skills to the test in a Stock Exchange game. They had £100 000 to invest in either McDonald’s, Mrs Moosajee’s stationery shop, We Buy Any Car, MC Wise and DJ Luck’s album or Mathswatch. They also had the option to bank it with 5% rate. All teams secured a profit with the smallest return of £147. The winner, having made some very wise investments had an amazing return, ending the day with £321,036.

Next Tuesday, Year 7 students have the Rocket Car Challenge to look forward to. They’ll be working with the Science team throughout the day to see who can create the fastest rocket car.

Mr Cockerill reports that Year 9 students have been working on creative writing from the perspective of an alter-ego, inspired by S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. Mr Cockerill thinks that some of them are as good as – if not better – than the novel itself!

 In assemblies this week, Mr Grierson has been talking with students about the value of education and how, in some countries, access to education is limited with some children not being able to attend school. He then went on to explore the impact that high attendance has on exam results, future destinations and, often, salaries.

Next week is School Council Fundraising Week, where we’ll be seeing a diverse range of money raising strategies with the aim of raising money to fund ideas to improve the school environment, voted for by the students, for the students. Mr Woodward’s form, 8SW, have come up with a fairly unique fundraiser, ‘Give Mr. Woodward a makeover’ the outcome of which depends entirely on how much money they raise. Mr Woodward says,

‘For £25 raised, the Form group can decorate my nails however they see fit. For £50 raised, the Form group can decorate my nails and “style” my hair however they see fit. For £75 raised, the Form group can decorate my nails, “style” my hair and put make-up on my face in whatever way they see fit and For £100 raised, the Form group can decorate my nails, “style” my hair, put make-up on my face and dress me up in whatever way they see fit. I’ll teach the whole day in my new guise.’

You may wish to make a contribution yourself as we promise that a photo will be taken and put in the Blog next week.

We’ll end the Fundraising week with a Non-Uniform Day on Friday (8^th) where money raised will be used to maintain and improve our Wildlife Area which is a community resource. Thank you in advance for your support.

Looking ahead, here’s a date for your diary. A number of our students are in the cast of The Hightimers’ production of Grease in June. Here’s how you can purchase tickets.

Have a lovely weekend!

Many productive conversations took place on Monday evening for Year 10/11 students, parents, carers and teachers during our extra Parents’ Evening. With thoughts of an important few months ahead, our new Careers Adviser Karen Morgan who started in January has been hard at work helping Year 11 students begin to finalise their Post-16 choices, carrying out Careers Interviews and using the e-Clips website to explore different careers with them. If your child has any careers related questions please feel free to contact her via the school office at schooladmin@boroughbridgehigh.com. Look out for the Careers newsletter which will be coming out to you after Easter.

Tuesday evening was Open Mic night where a team of enthusiastic performers entertained an audience of parents and friends. Mrs Skilbeck says, ‘We were so happy to reinstate this tradition of hosting informal music making in our lovely music room.  Making their debut performances were: The ‘Oxygonk Breathers’ djembe group; ‘Octagon Cafe’ rock band and Issy with a beautiful guitar & vocal performance; The GCSE music class turned out in force and performed a mix of ensemble, solo and composition work with bags of confidence.  Tea and biscuits and a chance to chat with parents and friends made this a really warm, friendly event.  Here’s to the next one!’

In assemblies this week, we’ve been celebrating the things that we’ve achieved as a school community over the last few months including sporting success, taking on new challenges, the impact of student leadership and fundraising for others. All in all, we’ve had a very successful school year to date. Coming up in the next couple of weeks (w\c 4^th April) is School Council Fundraising Week where students will be raising money to invest in things to improve the school environment. You’ll be hearing more about this very soon.

Have a lovely weekend!

Following our excellent International Day and fundraising last Friday, after school the Year 8 football team made their way out to the pitch to take on Settle College. Through the persistent wind and rain, the opposition secured the first goal. But it wasn’t just the weather that was persistent, as by full time we’d equalised. Extra time brought three further BHS goals leading to the final score of 4-1. A great game and a great way to end the week.

We were delighted to welcome Year 9 parents and students into school for Options Evening on Monday. It was also lovely to see older ex-students along with younger siblings who’ll be joining us in the future. After an introduction to our aspirational and broad curriculum, and our Stage not Age approach, students and parents had the opportunity to visit subject teachers to get a real understanding of what GCSE and BTEC courses are all about. The deadline for choices to be made is Monday 22^nd March.

Assemblies this week have focused on Red Nose Day and Comic Relief leading to our fundraising today. We’ve also had School Council Reps selling red noses and have a had a non-uniform day raising a grand total of £450.21. Thank you for your support.

This week, four of our students became published authors when their pieces of creative writing were included in a Young Writers’ anthology, ‘Empowered’. Our congratulations go to Kyla B, Lola B and Matthew D in Year 7 and Michaela P in Year 9.

The National Citizen Service team will be speaking to Year 11 in assembly on Thursday to outline how they can get involved in the NCS programme which is an excellent opportunity to do something meaningful during the summer break as well as a chance to develop skills and take on new challenges that will set them up for adult life. We had an excellent take up last year and we’re looking forward to something similar this year.

Next Monday will be our additional online Parents’ Evening for Year 11 students in all subjects and Year 10 Option subjects. Please book your appointments online if you haven’t already done so.

Have a lovely weekend!

It’s been a week of activities for International Week, led by our Head and Deputy Head students, inspired by Izzy. They took assemblies talking to students about how they could get involved in activities and help to raise money for the Disasters Emergency Committee to support the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

In Year 9 Geography lessons, students have researched geographical information about an unfamiliar country of their choice. This information will be used to decorate a plate that will form part of a larger display of shared knowledge on different places in the world. In Food Technology Year 8 have been cooking chow mein whilst Year 7 have been perfecting bechamel sauce.

In Computing, Year 7 have been learning about cell references in spreadsheets to create flags from different countries.

Historians have been looking at celebrations across the world, finding out what and how other cultures celebrate. Students have been using their findings to create a display of world culture and celebration. Here it is, under construction.

Desks were moved out of the Music Room, so that Year 8 musicians had the room for energetic samba band performances, as they learnt about Brazilian music. This lunchtime the Music block was filled with African drumming when the new space was filled with a djembe circle, filling the octagon with lots of noise and energy!

At lunchtime today Year 7 and 8 students experienced the East Asian art of origami. A number of different shapes were attempted and they even had small frogs jumping around the room!

We’ve also had form time quizzes, a scavenger hunt where students discovered how to say hello in many different languages and an International door form competition.

In the Dining Hall at lunchtime, Year 11 students including prefects and Head and Deputy Head students held an amazing Bake Sale, raising just under £400. Thank you for your support with this and for your generous donations through ParentMail. In total, we’ve raised a massive £829.64 for the Disasters Emergency Committee to support the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

In other news, the Year 10/11 Football Team are through to the semi-final of the County Cup following an impressive 4-3 (Leverett 3, Evans 1) victory over Selby High School.

Following Year 9 Futures Week, the Year 9 Options Evening is at 6pm on Monday 14^th March. We’re really looking forward to welcoming Year 9 parents and carers into school.

A reminder that next Wednesday (16^th) is a Professional Development Day when students do not attend school. We’ll be fundraising again next Friday (18^th) by having a non-uniform day for Red Nose Day and if students wear red that will be even better. We’ll also be selling red noses on Thursday and Friday.

And on the commemoration of the 700^th Anniversary of the Battle of Boroughbridge, have a lovely weekend!

It may only be five days since the half term break but we’ve certainly packed a great deal into them! Year 11 (and Year 10 for Option subjects) have been fully immersed in their second series of Progress Exams. They’re now totally familiar with the rules and regulations of the exam season and have demonstrated a great deal of maturity throughout the week. In order to keep parents and carers fully up to date about their progress, we are going to have an extra Parents’ Evening on Monday 21^st March from 4-6.30pm. A letter giving further details was sent to parents/carers today.

Having completed their exams before half term, Year 9 are looking forward to the Options process over the next couple of weeks. Futures week will be launched by Mrs Bloomfield in assembly on Monday. Students will then experience different subjects during taster days on Wednesday and Friday in advance of the Options Evening for parents, carers and students on Monday 14^th March at 6pm.

Our congratulations go to students in Years 7, 8 and 9 whose recent Progress data shows impressive improvement in all three areas; Attitude to Learning, Behaviour for Learning and Homework. Look out for the postcard which is being sent to parents and carers of students who have demonstrated consistently high levels of commitment.

Speaking of homework, Mrs Gomersal reports, ‘In Geography, Year 8 students have been learning about plastic pollution and the impact upon the world’s oceans. Students were inspired to create their own ‘Yorkshire souvenirs’ from waste items after learning about the innovative and creative ways that the Kenyan company ‘Ocean Sole’ are recycling one million flip flops per year. This drive to become more sustainable and increase our awareness of the fragile planet that we live on, prompted students to design and construct their own souvenirs for homework.’

We marked World Book Day (Thursday 3^rd March) with a series of assemblies led by Mr Cockerill, Mrs Wellock and MrGrierson. They included a range of themes from childhood books, celebrities’ favourite books and books which have previously been banned, all culminating in helping students to understand the power of the written word. Also, Mrs Wellock reports ‘Year 7 book club students really enjoyed watching the author Emma Carroll’s live webinar this morning. She discussed her latest book, The Week at World’s End, as well as offering some great tips about the drafting and writing process.’

In Sporting news, Mrs Godsell-Wright took the Year 7 and 8 girls for their first football tournament. She reports, ‘The Year 7 and 8 girls were absolutely superb tonight- and a credit to the school. Their behaviour was impeccable and they thanked the organisers of the competition and our driver without being prompted. This is the first time they have competed for school (or played a fixture). We finished 5^th out of 7^th which is encouraging as we were the smallest school in the tournament!’

In other community news, the Chair of Governors, Malcolm Dawson and I were delighted to attend the Town Council Meeting on Tuesday to talk about our school and answer questions.  We’re looking forward to working more closely with the Town Council for the benefit of all in our community.

We’re also looking forward to International Day next Friday (11^th March) organised by our Head and Deputy Head students and the Prefect Team. Izzy has sent the following message,

Next Friday we are holding International Day! There will be loads of fun activities throughout the day including quizzes, crafting, themed lessons and a decorate the door competition, aimed at opening our eyes to the world we live in. On the day for a small donation your child can wear colourful socks to celebrate world diversity and there will be a bake sale so they can bring cash on the day to buy international treats. If any of you would like to bake a donation to the sale these can be brought in on Friday morning and handed in at reception. All proceeds from the day will go to the DEC Ukraine appeal through the British Red Cross. So, get ready for a day of international fun!

You can make a donation through Parent Mail.

A reminder that we have a Professional Development Day on Wednesday 16^th March when students do not attend school.

Have a lovely weekend!

The week started with a 4-3 victory against Ermysted’s Grammar School, Skipton for the Year 10/11 Football Team who are now through to the quarter final of the District Cup when they’ll play Selby High School.

In other sporting news, the Year 10 Handball Team had their first game of handball before going to the North of England championships next month.

Mr Field reports, ‘They played really well and learnt quickly from playing against a more experienced team. We only lost the lead in the game in the last ten minutes!’

Year 9 have been developing their revision skills and demonstrating great resilience during their exams this week. They’ve got some exciting decisions to make in the next few weeks with Options Evening on Monday 14^th March.

In assemblies this week, Mr Grierson has been exploring the theme of reaping the rewards of hard work and commitment through the examples of sporting stars who have achieved things others thought impossible. These included Roger Bannister, who was the first to achieve a four minute mile and Graeme Obree, a relatively unknown cyclist from Scotland who, in 1993, smashed the World Hour Record on his homemade bicycle, Old Faithful. Mrs Lake, on Monday, explored the process and practicalities of revision with Year 11.

Bringing real world business to the classroom, Mrs Knock welcomed Mr Green from Metro Bank to speak to her GCSE group this afternoon.

This week we say farewell to Mr Mitchell who has been an important part of our SEN Team and Mr Ambler, our Assistant Business Manager who has helped to keep the site running smoothly over the last couple of challenging years. We thank them both for the excellent contribution that they’ve made to our school community and wish them well in their future posts.

Have a good half term!

‘Children’s Mental Health Week’ has been the focus of Mrs Godsell-Wright’s assemblies this week. The theme for this year ‘Growing Together’ is to encourage children and young people to consider how they have grown (both physically and emotionally) and how they can help others to grow. In particular, Mrs Godsell-Wright talked about how the brain grows and develops during adolescence with the thought that we have the opportunity to grow and develop in whatever direction we choose.

In Year 7 English this week Mrs Macadam reports,

‘As part of our travel writing scheme I set the students a voluntary task of researching recipes from the country they are blogging about.  Some students brought their recreations in today. We taste tested Sushi using authentic chopsticks (Rowan) and Bethanie and her Dad made 30 lemon posset with a side of Italian butter shortbread.’

Students demonstrated great creativity and I can confirm that they were delicious!

Meanwhile, in Science, Year 7 were dissecting daffodils and, in the words of Mr Errington, ‘were doing a great job’.

On Wednesday, some of our Year 11 students went across to King James’s School for their Sixth Form Taster Day where they met staff, fellow students, had taster lessons and experienced Sixth Form life.

Year 7 Parents’ Evening took place on Wednesday afternoon. We’ve been incredibly impressed with the progress that Year 7 have made and it was great for parents and teachers to have high quality conversations. We’d be grateful if you could complete the questionnaire that’s been e-mailed out so that we can gather your views on all aspects of school life.

Year 9 have an important week ahead as they carry out their Year 9 exams. They’ll be doing these under exam conditions as, just over a year from now, they’ll be sitting exams for two of their option subjects as part of our Key Stage 4 Stage not Age curriculum.

Malcolm Dawson (Chair of Governors), Brian Horner (governor) and I were delighted to meet with Town Council representatives, Mayor Pat Taylor and Councillors John Goss and Sean Hynes on Thursday. Amongst a range of topics, we discussed the temporary suspension of Sixth Form provision and our recent Ofsted inspection. We’re really looking forward to working together more closely for the benefit of our community.

And, of course, our Ofsted report was published this week confirming that students at Boroughbridge High School are safe, happy and successful.

With one week to go to the half term break, have a lovely weekend!

The week began well with the excellent performance of the BTEC Performing Arts students who, on Monday evening, performed extracts from the play DNA by Dennis Kelly to showcase their work in the theatrical style of Naturalism. The play explored the lives of a group of young teenagers, and how they worked together to cover their tracks following a terrible accident; and the emotional rollercoaster as they dealt with the consequences of their actions.

The students worked tirelessly to pull together a truly dramatic and emotional performance! The performance of the play was attended by staff members and parents of the students, and was very well received by the audience. There were gasps at the twists and turns, and you could have heard a pin drop at the most tense and dramatic moments!  The students enjoyed tremendous feedback from the audience, with comments like “It was so professional”, “What a talented group of students” and “This was the best thing I’ve seen in a long time”. When the play was performed to a group of Key Stage 3 students, they were thrilled by the performance and many left saying they felt inspired to choose Drama at KS4 and follow in their footsteps.

Mr West, their Drama teacher said “I am immensely proud of what the students have achieved, they richly deserve all the positive reactions that came as result of the performance. It was so wonderful for them to finally be able to perform a play, something we have not been able to do since the start of the pandemic. It really brings home the importance of the arts and the magic of the theatre”.

Assemblies this week have covered a variety of topics. Mr Grierson explored the importance of revision with Year 10 whilst in Year 11 assembly, Mrs Godsell-Wright impressed upon students the importance of keeping fully focused in the weeks ahead as they move towards their next exam season before sharing the exciting news we’re already planning their post-exam Prom, the first in three years! Looking further ahead, Mrs Godsell-Wright talked about Apprenticeship opportunities and some Year 11 students have had careers interviews with our new Careers adviser, Mrs Morgan. Years 7, 8 and 9 were all challenged by Mrs. Godsell-Wright to think about the responsibility of being a Young Carer and how and where Young Carers can get support.

Impressing in lessons have been Miss Whiles’ Year 8s who have been using contemporary sources of A-Level and University standard to draw conclusions about British empirical rule in India, producing some really sophisticated and considered conclusions. Meanwhile, Mr Cockerill reports that Year 9 students have been writing poetry about 9/11 this week in English with many being very thought provoking and well crafted.

It’s Year 7 Parents’ Evening next Wednesday which will be online. The appointment system is live and, as usual, we’ll be sending out a follow up questionnaire. We’d really appreciate your responses as these form an important part of our self-evaluation.

Have a lovely weekend!