Category : Headteacher’s Blog

At such an important time of year for our school community with Remembrance Day on Sunday, Mrs. Murphy has led assemblies this week looking at the people who keep us safe, along with discovering how service still protects us today. In each assembly we’ve observed a thoughtful silence.

Today, we’ve been honoured to take part in the ‘The Festival of Remembrance’ for Service children at Ripon Cathedral. This annual event involves up to 500 local Service children coming together from many different primary and secondary schools and, this year, along with our Military Service Students, our Pop Choir sang ‘The Path to Peace’ during the service. They also joined all of the other choirs to sing the other service songs including ‘I vow to thee my country’. Our thanks go to our students for representing our school and community so impressively. Our thanks also go to Mrs. Murphy and Mr. Jackson who, I am sure, will be giving us further feedback for the Blog next week.

On Sunday, I’ll be accompanied by Alyssa and Dan at the Remembrance service at St. James’ in Boroughbridge before they lay the wreath on behalf of Boroughbridge High School at the war memorial. It’s a privilege to participate in such an important event in our community.

Mr. Field reports, ‘A busy week for fixtures in the PE department, lots of opportunities for the pupils to represent the school in competitive sport.  The Year 9 boys were first in action on Tuesday in the County Cup competition at Malton.  What followed was a very competitive football match with both sides showing great phases of possession and defensive prowess.  A closely contested first half saw Malton take a narrow 1-0 lead into the half time break, Boroughbridge rallied early in the second half and took control of the match equalising and posing lots of problems for the opposition defence.  The game hung in the balance until the dying moments when travelling players hearts were broken with goal against the run of play, shortly followed by another to finish the tie 3-1 to the home team.  The level of performance was improved from the previous outing and sets up the Boroughbridge boys for their English Schools FA Small School Trophy match on Monday.

The Year 8 boys had their first outing of the season at the 7 a side football tournament organised by St John Fisher school in Harrogate.  The boys were eager and proud to pull on the black and amber jersey again to represent the school and put in some spirited performances against the Harrogate schools.  The matches provided a valuable lesson which will help them in upcoming cup matches.  Good performances from Taylor in defence and Kemp in goal helped the team keep in contention throughout the games and an audacious strike by Rawstrone rattled the frame of the goal and nearly provided the goal of the tournament.  A resilient display from the boys in all three matches has created more hunger for their upcoming fixtures.’

On Thursday evening before half term, we welcomed Ripon Grammar School to our netball training session to play our Year 10/9 and Year 8 teams. Miss Robson reports, ‘Pupils exemplified our school values of respect, resilience and ambition. For many Year 8s this was their first netball fixture at the school and nerves were high. Although we did not secure the win this was a really good opportunity for the team to play together under pressure. Congratulations to Rova for being named player of the match and Daisy D in our Year 10/9 match. The Year 10/9 team were up against a formidable C and GS on the opposing team. We managed to get regular turn-overs and now we need to work on our decision making under pressure to take the ball safely to goal. Thank you to the Year 10/9s that stayed after their game to watch the Year 8s. I look forward to you leading the first training session back after half term based on your observations!’

 

 

 

In their next match this week on Tuesday, Tadcaster Grammar School brought two teams to play our Year 8/9/10 combined team. Miss Robson reports, ’Both games were drawn at half time and lost by a single goal overall. The team played exceptionally well and have made improvements from their latest game. Well done to Rova, player of the match for both games (and she’s only Year 8!) What Rova does really well is she watches the ball and times her interceptions perfectly. A good game all round and I look forward to us playing Outwood Academy Ripon on Wednesday.’

 

 

 

Also this week, Miss Robson reported, ‘Everyone’s favourite girls’ benchball tournament returned to Thirsk High School this Thursday. I took a group of Year 8s who I thought would really benefit from a positive sporting experience and a chance to play against other local schools. Ambition was our top trait with high expectations from our students to win. We won three and lost the final game, meaning we finished a strong 2nd. Well done to Emilie for gaining an additional medal for being the Schools Games leader’s ‘bestie’. Evie your passion and resilience did not go unnoticed with your valuable communication on the court. I encourage all who had fun to come along to Thursday after school netball club and play with other students across the school!

 

 

Over in Birmingham last week, Jack in Year 11 completed his first HYROX which combines both running and functional workout stations, where participants run 1km, followed by 1 functional workout station, repeated eight times. It was completed within an impressive 1hr and 15 mins with Jack showing great ambition, determination and resilience, pushing through and giving it 100%. Our congratulations go to him.

It was great to welcome so many parents, carers and students to our Year 10 Parent/Carer evening on Wednesday. As we march towards our November Progress exams, this will have formed an important part in students’ journey of progress.

It’s Children in Need next Friday (14^th November) when we’ll be having a non-uniform day to raise money. Further information will follow next week.

Also a reminder that we have a Professional Development Day on Wednesday 26^th November when students do not attend school.

Have a lovely weekend!

 

Wednesday marked one of our favourite events in our school calendar – Open Evening! Our Year 5 and 6 visitors, along with their parents and carers started in the Hall hearing about our school, our vision and values, our learning and extra-curricular activities and what makes Boroughbridge High School a great place to learn and work. Year 7 students Anya, Ellie, Polly and Ruby talked enthusiastically and confidently about their move to High School, outlining their anticipated worries against the positive reality! Not surprisingly their speeches ended with a round of spontaneous applause. Families were then able to tour the school, visiting every department and speaking with our students, some of whom were our newly appointed Prefects, School Council Members and Sports leaders. Along with demonstrating and sharing many exciting activities, they were very happy to talk about daily life at Boroughbridge High School and our lived values which create our positive school culture.

In English, Autumn leaves were used to stimulate poetic thought whilst in Drama students were deep into rehearsal. In Chemistry and Physics bubbles were being ignited whilst in Biology, hearts were being dissected. The Sports Hall was packed with physical challenges with students on hand to help whilst, nearby, students demonstrated how the Intervention Room and its resources are supporting them with their learning and in enjoying being in school. Following a food theme, Halloween breads were being made and sampled in Food Technology whilst the modern languages French café was very popular, as long as the request was made en francais! In RE philosophical questions were being asked, homes were located in Geography whilst bugs were sampled in the Bug Cafe and, in History, there were costumes galore and the opportunity to sample historical recipes. Artists demonstrated their skill whilst spinning tops were made in DT. We’re all aware that students enjoy our school dinners so everyone was pleased to have the opportunity to sample them! There were visits to the Library and close by the Pastoral Team and Wellbeing in Mind Team were sharing how they look after our students to make sure that they are safe, happy and successful. Visitors also enjoyed hearing our musicians in session and were able to find out more about the Duke of Edinburgh Award. And throughout, students were engaged in a challenging Maths trail. All in all, it was a fantastic evening and we all thoroughly enjoyed sharing our school with our visitors.  We’ll look forward to welcoming Year 6 back into school for our three Induction Days in July.

In assemblies this week, we’ve been reinforcing our values and in Forest School, Mr. Woodward reports, ‘This week in Forest School the group took part in the process of writing a risk assessment for tool use in the woodland environment, successfully identifying risks and suitable mitigations to keep us all safe. They then put their risk assessment into practice, using sheath knives to create feather sticks to help get a communal campfire going (a useful technique for lighting a fire with sticks after rain). Students also removed bark from sticks to be used as a spit for cooking freshly prepared cheesy bread over the embers.’

We’ll look forward to welcoming Year 7 parents and carers next Wednesday for the Form Tutor evening where we can discuss how they’ve settled in and the progress that they’re making. We’ve carried out our usual Settling in Survey and had lots of responses to the question, ‘What’s the best thing about BHS?’ including ‘The staff I have met and the older pupils/students.’, ‘The lessons are fun and the teachers respect me and look after me’, ‘School lunch is perfect including the lunch time games in the Sports Hall.’ and ‘You have your own responsibilities to get to different lessons with different teachers every time. It’s just the feeling of having more responsibilities which is really fun.’

Have a lovely weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

As promised, we’ve more to share regarding the successful GCSE Geography trips which took place last week. Mrs. Gomersal reports, ‘Our GCSE Geography students had a fantastic day out in Hornsea investigating the effectiveness of hard engineering along the coastline at

Hornsea. Armed with clipboards and enthusiasm, they measured groyne heights, drew detailed field sketches, and collected data to test their hypotheses.

The students worked incredibly hard throughout the day – a real credit to themselves and the school. We were lucky with the weather too, which made exploring the coast even more enjoyable. And of course, no trip to the seaside would be complete without a well-earned portion of sausage and chips from the local chippy!

A huge well done to everyone involved – a great day of learning outside the classroom! ”

Forest School this week also sounded like an amazing learning experience. Mr. Woodward reports, ‘Imagine a school day where you had to place complete trust in others to safely guide you around a woodland wearing a blindfold, where you sharpened your senses by identifying where you’d been without using your eyes, where you learnt to identify native species of tree both by sight and by touch, where you worked together as a team to out-strategise others, where you sprinted at full speed to avoid capture and to help your teammates, where you learnt safe use of tools to create useful items from natural materials, where you practised the most fundamental skill that our ancestors relied on for survival and where, after your efforts, you enjoyed a warm drink around the fire you built and sustained. That’s what school was like for the Forest School group on Monday as they engaged in team building and communication activities before making a pot stand to heat water for their end-of-session hot chocolate over a fire they lit without matches and sustained using only what the natural environment had to offer.’

European Day of Languages has been celebrated in assemblies with discussions around the rich cultural history of languages in Europe and around the World. Consideration was given to how developing your language skills can improve your career prospects and enhance your experience of travelling abroad.

You’ll be aware that we currently have a vacancy for two parent governors and are seeking nominations for two enthusiastic and committed parents or carers 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. You can find out more at

Parent Governor Elections | Boroughbridge High School

 

I was delighted to appoint 16 Year 10 and 11 students to the role of Prefect on Thursday. Their applications were incredibly impressive, showing that they live by our school values of being ambitious, respectful and resilient. They also had clear ideas about the positive contribution that they want to make to our school community in their new role. Well done to all!

 

 

There were celebrations in the PE Department when Mr. Field won a £750 voucher in the Sports Directory Back to School competition. We’ll look forward to seeing our students benefit from the win!

We were delighted to welcome children from our Partner Primary Schools this week. We hosted a Sports Event on Wednesday with our students acting as Student Leaders and then on Wednesday afternoon we welcomed Year 6 from Boroughbridge Primary School to take part in a Geography Workshop carrying out primary fieldwork to decide on the best location for a playground on the school site.

It’s our Open Evening next Wednesday (8^th) when school will close at 1.30p.m. so that we can prepare before welcoming back many of our students to talk to Year 5 and 6 students and their parents and carers, whilst also demonstrating activities in lessons across the school. We’re looking forward to a great evening.

Have a lovely weekend!

It’s been another busy and focused week for the Boroughbridge High School community. As you’re aware this week, having volunteered to do so, we’ve taken part in an Ofsted pilot inspection and were delighted to welcome five Senior HMIs and the National Director to look at all aspects of our school. Throughout the two days, Inspectors enjoyed visiting lessons, observing social time and speaking with our young people. As it was a pilot, we did not receive a judgement, formal feedback or a report, however the progress that we have made around behaviour, attendance and teaching and learning were certainly recognised. In conversations with Inspectors our young people said that they are known, felt valued and enjoyed coming to school, with genuine kind and caring interactions between staff and students being observed.

Mrs. Murphy held her Duke of Edinburgh Award parent/carer evening on Monday. The success of the award at BHS continues to increase and we’re delighted to have an even higher take up of students this year.

In Forest School this week, Mr. Woodward reports,

‘Autumn is now well and truly with us, so what better way to celebrate that with conkers and toffee apples (harvested from our own apple trees at BHS)?! Students worked together to use a traditional “bit and brace” drill to drill out the conker before the championship commenced, with James in Y9 being the overall champion of champions. We then moved onto siting and lighting campfires without matches (no mean feat after a weekend of heavy rain) before toasting our sugar-coated apples over the flames for a sweet autumnal snack!’

 

In sporting news, Mr. Field reports,

‘The York City Knights RLFC 9’s tournament took place at Fulford High School this week for the Yr11 boys.  The squad was bolstered by some willing Yr10’s to help ensure that the team had the necessary strength in depth needed for this physically challenging event.  The boys were in buoyant spirits after previous achievements in last year’s tournaments and were looking forward to getting involved in the games.  Their first game saw them pitted against our Federated partners, King James’s School.  A cagey start soon blossomed into a fantastic display of rugby as the Boroughbridge boys completed a 20-4 rout of the local rivals.  Tries from King, Domleo, Bowes and Ramsden rounded off the superb display.  The second group game followed straight after so the full squad was utilised to ensure fresh legs and sharp minds were present against Joseph Rowntree.  The game shared moments of brilliance from both teams with scores being exchanged throughout the game and no team carving out a convincing advantage.  The game finished as a 12-12 draw but the result meant that the Boroughbridge boys had won their group and were to face Archbishop Holgate’s School in the first place playoff game.  The games had taken their physical toll on the squad and the remaining players put in a resounding display in their third consecutive game.  The game was contested in good sporting spirit but unfortunately Archbishop’s edged the final in a 12-4 victory.  The Boroughbridge team were the epitome of our school values throughout the tournament receiving positive comments from York City Knights’ staff and staff from opposing schools.  Both myself and Mr Richardson, were exceptionally proud of their physical performance and their tactical awareness in the games. We look forward to the spring edition of this tournament and their last chance of playing at the tournaments organised by York City Knights.’

As part of our staff team, it’s not good enough just to support our school values but we also try to live by them. Mr. Field has demonstrated his resilience in, along with his friend, becoming the number one ranked male Swimrun team in Britain. The event was a 47km Swimrun from Coniston to Grasmere in the lake district.  This incorporates alternating 9 runs (totalling 36km) & 9 swims (totalling 9km). The event is an adventure endurance race and you swim in your running kit and run in your swim kit, no changing – how you start is how you finish! Mr. Field says that this is without doubt his greatest sporting achievement and his advice is, ‘We always talk about the challenges faced during the event but none are as big as actually getting to the start line.  Health, injuries and life logistics can often get in the way so if we make it to the start line we are assured our hard work in preparation will pay off and we’ll have a great day challenging ourselves.’  We can maybe see some parallels to a school day.

 

GCSE Geographers have been on location in Hornsea yesterday and today. The weather has been perfect for data collection! We’ll find out more about their fieldwork next week.

A reminder that it’s our Open Evening on Wednesday 8^th October. As usual, we’ll be closing at 1.30p.m. to prepare and will look forward to welcoming back many students to talk to Year 5 and 6 students and their parents and carers about their experience of Boroughbridge High School.

Have a lovely weekend!

Leadership opportunities have been at the fore in assemblies this week as students across the year groups have been invited to put themselves forward as Form Representatives to make up our Student Council. It’s a democratic process with students voting for the people who will best share their views. Alongside that students in Years 10 and 11 have been invited to apply to be a Prefect. Our Prefects get involved in many aspects of school life and will play an important role in our Open Evening on 8^th October.

Forest School has got off to a great start this term. In the first week, it was sunshine all round with Mr. Woodward reporting ‘Glorious weather graced us in the BHS woodland as students got to grips with some Forest School Fundamentals: Species identification, knot tying and shelter construction, alongside developing communication and problem solving skills..’ Last week, they weren’t so fortunate,  ‘With the rain beating down on Monday afternoon we needed shelter in Forest School. 1 tarp, 4 pegs and a length of cord was all each group needed to keep dry once they’d learnt a few important knots…’ It’s certainly an opportunity for our students to demonstrate their resilience.

Yesterday the GCSE Business Students were out on location at Alton Towers carrying out primary research by looking at many aspects of the theme park as a tourist attraction whilst also, of course, trying out the rides and facilities themselves. They had a great day and learnt a great deal.  Mr. Grierson reports, ‘The GCSE Business Studies students had a wonderful time taking the classroom to  Alton Towers to experience first-hand how a successful business operates.  They had prepared for the trip by researching business ownership, objectives and how Alton Towers is impacted by external factors such as legislation, technology, the economy and environment. 

Whilst at the park they evaluated customer experience, value for money and how the trip could be improved.   The students were respectful and polite on the trip and managed to get on lots of the attractions with Smiler, Nemesis and Wicker Man proving really popular.’

Thank you for your contributions to the Bake Sale today which raised more than £100 to support the Duke of Edinburgh Award which gains in popularity year on year. Speaking of which it’s the Duke of Edinburgh information evening for Parents and Carers of students in Years 9, 10 and 11 on Monday 22^nd September at 5.30p.m.

Have a lovely weekend.

Now, at the end of the first cycle of the timetable, we’re all fully back into routine and making good progress. It’s hard to believe that Year 7 have only been with us for a couple of weeks as they confidently approach their new learning. In English, with Miss Bargewell, they’ve been exploring what the sea symbolises in literature – and Moana! Over in MFL with Madame Reed and Madame Cave, the focus was on greetings, introductions, asking questions and cultural context (France/French culture) e.g. How many baguettes are produced a day/per year? Would you believe it? 10 billion per annum!

On the Humanities corridor, in RE with Mr. Woodward, students were exploring Nietzsche’s claim that “God is dead” and debating whether an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent God would allow natural disasters to occur. In History with Mrs. Ennis, students were exploring historical skills including chronology and looking at their first topic, a local history study of the Vikings. In my Geography class, students were classifying human and physical features and using their confident atlas skills to locate them on a map.

Number operations, multiplying and dividing integers and decimals and order of operations were the focus in Maths with Mrs. Murphy whilst in Music with Mr. Jackson, students were exploring ‘what is music?’ using echo games, how sounds are represented on paper and learning a song in order to compose new words to fit.

In Science with Mrs. Salter, one class learnt about the different forces and balanced and unbalanced forces whist the second class carried out their first practical on microscopes, making their own onion skin slide.

Finally, 7B familiarised themselves with our library as they took part in a ‘scavenger hunt’. They had to find characters with unusual names and books with interesting titles.

In assemblies this week, Mrs. Murphy has been speaking to students in Years 9, 10 and 11 about how they can get involved in the Duke of Edinburgh award. Students in Year 9 will be able to complete the Bronze award and Years 10 and 11, Silver.  We’ve been delighted at the number of student who’ve participated in previous years and I’m confident that we’ll have a great take up this year. If your child in interested then you are warmly invited to find out more at an information evening at 5.30p.m. on Monday 22^nd September. We try to keep the cost as low as possible and, with that in mind, we’ve got a Duke of Edinburgh fundraiser cake sale on 19th September.

Thank you to those who’ve been able to attend Expectations Evenings this week. It’s been great to share what we’ve got in place in school to ensure student success and to hear feedback from parents and carers. We’ll send out summaries of the evenings to all at the beginning of next week.

Next week, GCSE Business students will be going on their study trip on Thursday. Looking forward, preparations for Open Evening are underway. This year it’s on Wednesday 8^th October. As usual, we’ll be closing at 1.30p.m. to prepare and we will look forward to welcoming back many students to talk to Year 5 and 6 students and their parents and carers about their experience of Boroughbridge High School.

Have a lovely weekend!

Following a successful summer at Boroughbridge High School, we were delighted to welcome students back into school on Tuesday. It’s always lovely to see students again and hear about their Summer adventures and this year was no exception. Uniform standards were high, as ever, with students arriving well prepared for learning. So all round, we’ve had an excellent start to the term supported by our early start of our timetable in June. Thank you for the contribution that you have made to this.

The Expectations assemblies on Tuesday enabled me to share our GCSE and BTEC success with students. We then talked about the part that our school values, that we are ambitious, resilient and respectful, have in securing success. For example, it will come as no surprise to you that students with the highest attendance had the most positive outcomes. We’ve also enjoyed welcoming our new Year 7 students who, after only four days with us, look like they’ve settled in extremely well, quickly becoming familiar with our routines and expectations and already making a positive contribution to our school community.

In Year group assemblies this week Mrs. Godsell-Wright has been talking with students about safeguarding including how to keep themselves and others safe both in and beyond school, along with the actions that we take in school to support all to be safe, happy and successful. Students have been brilliant in answering questions and in demonstrating their understanding.

We had great fun on Thursday morning when school photos took place for all year groups. They’ll certainly make an excellent Christmas present!

Next week, we have Parent/Carer Expectations Evenings where we outline key information including curriculum, phases of learning, behaviour for learning, attendance and using My Child at School. You will also have the opportunity at these evenings to ask questions about any aspect of school life. These will be held at 6p.m. on Monday 8^th September for Year 7, Wednesday 10^th for Years 8 and 9 and Thursday 11^th for Years 10 and 11. It’s not too late to book a place. If you wish to attend, please e-mail schooladmin@boroughbridgehigh.com.

Have a lovely weekend!

And so the Summer Term comes to an end. We’ve had another busy week as we’ve completed the second cycle of our new timetable with students and teachers settling into it well. This will help to secure a smooth start in September.

Our service students have had a fantastic opportunity this week to visit Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge organised by Inspiring Choices. Mrs. Murphy reported on the first day, ‘Everyone is doing well and enjoying the residential.  We had a really interesting tour around Anglia Ruskin Campus after some thought-provoking sessions on transferable skills yesterday.  The students then had a bit of time to explore their accommodation and chill out before heading out for pizza. We got there in the nick of time as it started pouring down.  Luckily it mostly stopped by the time we finished, so we got to go on a really interesting tour around Cambridge, some highlights were the richest college, Trinity College and also Kings College. There were a lot of very impressive buildings and architecture.’ During the second day, students were involved in  a stop motion workshop to create an animation showing the advantages of University. They’d clearly had a fantastic time and a great opportunity to consider their possible futures. Inspiring Choices commented that the success of the trip was ‘due mainly to the enthusiasm, interest and participation from the young people.’ Our thanks go to Mrs Murphy and Mr. Lough for accompanying the students and to Inspiring Choices for giving our students this opportunity.

 

Our Duke of Edinburgh students were delighted to receive the gift of some new tents from a grant from the Fortus Foundation secured by The Friends of Boroughbridge High School. This will give our expeditions a real boost next year.

 

 

 

Today we’ve had our end of year whole school assembly, celebrating achievements across our whole school community. After our usual look through the year in images, we announced the winner of our Reward Trip photography competition, Amelia in Year 7. The 35 students who broke school records at Sports Day were also recognised before the winning form classes were announced. They were 11SF (for the fourth year running!), 10DG, 9AB and 8SA. There was all round applause.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your ongoing support and wish you and your family a great Summer break. Students return to school on Tuesday 2^nd September.

We were treated to a musical extravaganza on Tuesday evening at our Summer concert. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening with excellent solo vocal performances from Olivia in Year 9, Larissa in Year 11, Darcy in Year 9 and Ruby in Year 11. Charlotte and Rosie (formerly Year 11!) also returned to give us one last superb performance. Denis played a moving version of Prelude Op. 28 No.4 by Chopin and The Keyboard Club impressed with Everybody wants to Rule the World. Having opened the concert with two rousing numbers, the Pop Choir finished with a version of I’m Still Standing, complete with actions, and Hit the Road Jack. Supporting throughout were the talented technical team James, Stan, Conner, Antonio, Bodie and Luke. Our thanks go to Mr. Jackson and to the parents, carers, students and staff who supported the event. It is genuinely heart warming to see how much our students enjoy performing and how much progress they’ve made.

This week, we’ve been delighted to welcome Year 6 from Boroughbridge Primary School to BHS for a DT and Maths workshop. In DT, precise use of tools and creativity was at the fore as students created their own spinners. Once constructed they then had competitions to see who could keep spinning for longest. This morning, in Maths, they explored Happy Numbers. Next week, we’ve got a Geography session to look forward to.

 

 

With the Summer holidays on the horizon, this week Mrs. Godsell-Wright has been exploring with students how to take care of themselves and keep safe. These assemblies will continue through next week.

There was much excitement from both students and staff on Thursday morning as everyone congregated for our annual rewards trip, this year to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Students enjoyed seeing 42 species of animal from polar bears to giraffes and lions to wallabies. It was lovely to welcome students off the coaches laden with fluffy toy versions of the animals they’d seen and full of stories of their great day out. To capture it, we’re having a photo competition with the winner being announced at our whole school assembly next week.

Today has been our annual Sports Day with some field events taking place earlier in the week. As usual, we’ve had a joyous day with students showing great amounts of ambition and resilience as they completed events keen to gain points for their form class. Spectators showed great respect for those competing, cheering and supporting whilst motivational music was played throughout. With Mr. Field’s usual perfect timing, just as the relay finished, the final bell rang and students made their way to the buses or to walk home. It was the perfect end to an excellent week.

Thank you to those who have completed our Parent View survey. This is a really important part of our self-evaluation and helps us to chart our progress from your perspective to inform our planning for next year. It helps us to have as many responses as possible. The link has been sent to you on Parent Mail. The survey will take around 5 minutes to complete and will close on Friday 18^th July.

A reminder that school will close at 1.30p.m. on Friday 18^th July for the Summer break.

Have a lovely weekend!

Whitby was the destination for our Year 8 Geographers last Friday. Mrs. Gomersal reports ‘, ‘Year 8 students recently took part in an exciting Geography fieldwork trip to Whitby, where they investigated the key question: Should Whitby be protected from coastal erosion?

Blessed with glorious sunshine, the students carried out a range of fieldwork tasks including a land use survey, environmental quality assessments, and a field sketch—completed while sitting on the pier overlooking the River Esk and Whitby’s picturesque East Cliff.

Everyone showed excellent focus and teamwork throughout the day, with students behaving impeccably and showing great determination as they climbed the iconic 199 steps to Whitby Abbey.

 

To round off the day, everyone enjoyed a well-deserved ice cream in the sunshine—a perfect end to a successful and enjoyable field trip. Well done, Year 8!’

 

 

 

 

 

The weekend then saw our Bronze Duke of Edinburgh students on their qualifying expedition. Mrs Murphy reports ‘On Saturday 23 year 9 students commenced the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Qualifying Expedition. The weather conditions made the expedition particularly challenging, although not as hot as was predicted, it was very muggy and it made the walking hard work. The students worked well as teams and with all but one group having some navigational challenges it really tested their resilience and ambition to succeed. There was a little shower in the afternoon which helped cool the students down and everyone utilised the lovely showers at the campsite after a long day walking. The students were up pretty early on Sunday; the windy start to the day meant the tents were all dry, but it was a bit more interesting packing them away. All groups managed better on the Sunday and were very relieved at seeing the coach at the car park at the end of the day. A great success for all. A special thanks to Stan, who is a Duke of Edinburgh Young Leader and supported the participants throughout the weekend. He was absolutely brilliant helping advise and support the students and really helpful for all the volunteer staff on the trip. We also had a number of adults who commented on what lovely, polite and respectful students we had. Thank you to Mr Lough, Mrs Bauwens, Mr Groves and Mrs Webb for their support on the weekend.’ Our thanks go to Mrs. Murphy too, not only for the expedition but for her work on the Duke of Edinburgh award throughout the year.

 

 

 

We must also congratulate all our Duke of Edinburgh Award students for the amazing community contribution that they’ve made throughout this year with the recognition that they have, in total, spent 1144 hours volunteering between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025 with a social value of £7320. We are, indeed, very proud of them.

 

 

 

 

And so to this week where we’ve started our new school year with our new timetable. As usual, it’s created a high level of focus with classes meeting new groups and new teachers. GCSEs and BTECs have been started and new options begun. We have the opportunity to experience two cycles of the timetable before the end of term, therefore securing a smooth start in September.

In assemblies this week, Mr. Field has been looking forward with students to the excitement of Sports Day which, weather permitting, will be on Friday 11th July. Each form class will be choosing their team with the clear understanding that points are not just awarded for being placed in a track or field event but also for participating. The overall winners are usually those who work best as a team so we’ll see how our teams perform this year.

We’re also now taking payments for the Rewards Trip to the Great Yorkshire Show on Thursday 10th July where the vast majority of our students, due to their commitment to our values, being ambitious, respectful and resilient, have been invited. We’re looking forward to a great day out.

 

 

A date for your diary, it’s our Summer concert next week on Tuesday 8th July. All are welcome.Next week we look forward to welcoming our new Year 7 students and their parents and carers.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we thought you’d like to see a Prom photo of the Class of 2025. A lovely photo capturing a great evening. We wish them well for the future.

Have a lovely weekend!