Last weekend, we were very proud to join our community for Remembrance Day. Following the service at St. James’, we moved to Hall Square where Year 10 students Alyssa and Dan superbly represented BHS, laying a wreath at the War Memorial. It was also lovely to see how many of our young people are involved in making a positive difference in our community groups. It is always a great privilege to participate in such an important event.

Meanwhile, over in Knaresborough, Matty, in Year 9, who is a Royal Air Force Air Cadet, made his own important contribution to Remembrance Day, taking part in the parade and reading the epitaph clearly and confidently at the War Memorial. A very proud moment – well done Matty.

This followed the special events on Friday. Mrs. Murphy reports, ‘ I was fortunate enough to be able to take 41 students to the Festival of Remembrance at Ripon Cathedral on Friday 7th November.  This year we had the school pop choir perform ‘pray for peace on stage’ as well as performing a joint piece; ‘Put a little love in your heart’ with Mowbray School, Richmond School Orchestra and the Service Children’s Community Choir.  They did a fantastic job and loved the opportunity of singing in the amazing space that the Cathedral is.  Lots of our students also drew or decorated paper poppies to go on a lovely display in the cathedral during the festival.  This year the service focussed on celebrating how great our service children are in terms of their resilience, confidence and flexibility but also highlighting the challenges that they also have to deal with by having a parent or carer often away, having to move schools and communities regularly and having to make new friends.  All the students acted with respect and represented the school in a very positive way.  Thank you to Mr Jackson for his support and work with the pop choir.’ 

As this week is Anti-Bullying Week, the theme of Power for Good has been explored in Mrs. Godsell-Wright’s assemblies with an understanding of how our young people can use their Power for Good to safely speak up and raise awareness if they see any form of bullying. It was also a good opportunity to reinforce our commitment at Boroughbridge High School to ensure that our actions ensure that all can be safe, happy and successful.

If you thought that the torrential rain on Monday would have dampened the spirits of the Year 9 football team, then you’d be very much mistaken. Mr Field reports ‘Monday afternoon saw the highly anticipated 2nd round match of the English Schools’ FA Small Schools Cup for the Yr9 boys against St Patrick’s from Middlesbrough.  The local cup competitions proved to be the testing ground for the team as they fine tuned their performance for this national competition.  The game started positively for Boroughbridge with a finely taken goal by Godley which was swiftly followed by Kaczmarczyk pouncing on a defensive error by the visiting team.  Boroughbridge enjoyed swathes of possession throughout the first half and took their 2-0 lead into the half time break.  St Patrick’s came into the second half desperate to make amends for the score line and applied lots of pressure to our midfield and defensive players.  Through a resilient work rate and good communication, the Boroughbridge team contested well and  Kaczmarczyk was released to slot home his second of the game against the run of play.  Boroughbridge, now with tails up, took advantage of their dominance and added two more goals in quick succession through Ward and Layton.  St Patrick’s rallied and scored to raise some hope of clawing the tie back in contention but the tie was put beyond doubt with Kaczmarczyk securing his first school hat-trick with a sublime finish.  In the dying moments St Patrick’s scored their second but to make the final score 6-2 to the Boroughbridge boys.  Notable performances from Wajs, Burrell, Ward, Kaczmarczyk, Layton, Chapman and Farnworth drove the team forward in achieving this great result. Their next fixture will be against Barlby High School in the upcoming weeks, the standard of performance and confidence gained puts the team in a strong position moving into the fixture.’

On Thursday, the Year 11 boys were in action, Mr. Field reports, ‘The Yr11 boys took on Richmond High School in their County Cup fixture on Thursday.  The boys’ performance was an improvement on the last fixture and saw the team perform well against the tricky opposition.  The communication and teamwork between the boys was much improved and saw them match the opposition for much of the first half, a defensive error and a fine finish provided Richmond with a 0-2 lead by the half time whistle.  A focused team talk ensured that the positional sense of the team was much better and the Boroughbridge boys fought their way back into the game in the early stages of the second half.  Two goals in a matter of minutes quelled much of the hope of securing the home tie but the boys showed great resilience and competed to the best of their ability against the opposition.  A late goal from Thompson, driven into the near side top corner, provided a worthy consolation for the effort applied by the home team.  This was to be the last cup fixture for the year group although the enthusiasm for game time may result in friendlies / 7 a side tournaments being attended.  Performances from Nunns, Fagg, Robinson, Wilson and Domleo were notable in their technical and tactical abilities.’

Well done to Olivia in Year 9 who, following a successful audition, has secured the role of Eurydice, wife of Orpheus in the play of the same name. She’ll be working hard in the coming months building up for a week’s run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August! A fantastic achievement.

Our congratulations go to Hannah Barrett and Will Hairsine who have been appointed as Parent Governors to the Boroughbridge High School and King James’s School Federation. We are looking forward to working with them and benefiting from their expertise.

We’ve had a week of fundraising for Children in Need with activities including a Bake Sale led by the Student Council and Prefects. As you can see, Darcey in Year 8 won the ‘Name the Bear’ competition – he’s called Peter! Students have been purchasing pens and wrist bands and then today we’ve had a non-uniform day. Thank you for your generous contributions. Our total so far is over £450. We’ll give you the final total next week.

Next week we have our Parent Information on Thursday 20^th November at 6p.m. with a focus on Careers and a reminder that we have a Professional Development Day on Wednesday 26^th November when students do not attend school.

Have a lovely weekend!