It’s been another intense week with coursework deadlines, MFL speaking exams, PE moderation and exam practice. With preparation going well, students are increasingly ready for the exams which start on Thursday 9th May.
In assemblies this week, I’ve focused on Expectations, recognising the progress that we’ve made as a whole school community, along with reinforcing the routines and behaviours which ensure that we maximise learning quality and quantity. A particular area of focus for us has been the quality of questioning in the classroom. One of the measurable impacts of our introduction of the learning phases has been the increased quality of students’ responses during whole class questioning with students being selected to share their thoughts and ideas. Through this we’ve increased students’ confidence and developed their thinking. This was recognised again in a visit that we had from our Local Authority adviser this week who was supporting our Curriculum Quality Assurance with a focus on Science. A reminder that you can see more detail about our curriculum along with the Progression Maps for each subject so that you can see what your child will be studying throughout their time at BHS at https://www.boroughbridgehigh.com/curriculum/ As an example, you can see the RE progression map here.
Our Year 9 Sports Leaders have been in action again this week, working with Year 6 from our local primary schools. This is an excellent way for our new cohort of Year 7 students to meet students from our school and start to make links. Our transition process has already begun with Mrs. Donnelly (Pastoral Manager for Year 7), Mrs. Leeming (Senior Advanced Teaching Assistant) and Mrs. Town (SENCO) going out to visit Year 6 students and their teachers.
Looking ahead to the second half of the Summer Term, we have a Professional Development Day on Friday 21st June when students do not attend school. We’ve chosen this day as it marks the end of our current timetable with students moving up to their new year group and timetable on Monday 24th June. We’ve done this for a number of years as it really helps us to maximise the time in the Summer Term, creating sufficient time to teach our option subjects at GCSE through our Stage not Age approach and also gives all students a renewed sense of focus as we move towards the end of term. An added benefit is that it reduces anxiety over the Summer holiday as students have already experienced four weeks of their new timetable, new classes and new teachers and teachers can plan effectively for the year ahead, having already met and got to know their classes.
With the Bank Holiday ahead, 10 of our Year 10 and 11 students will be undertaking their Silver Duke of Edinburgh Qualifying expedition. We wish them well!
Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend!