Our core values could have been resilience, resilience, resilience on Wednesday evening when our Year 9 football team took on Barlby High School. Mr. Field reports,
‘Wednesday saw the Year 9 boys take on Barlby High School in the 3rd round of the English Schools FA Small Schools Cup. The away fixture was thankfully quite local for this national competition and the boys were eager to test themselves against a fellow North Yorkshire team. The game proved to be an eye opener for the Boroughbridge boys as they found the opposition quite physical in their gameplay, this knocked the boys off their stride and after a defensive mix up we found ourselves a goal behind. As the first half progressed the boys started to find their feet and began to meet the challenge head on, a handful of attempts on goal boosted the confidence as they headed towards the half time break. A refocus of efforts and reassurance of abilities paid off as Boroughbridge took the game to Barlby and played some attractive passing football to clearly demonstrate their superiority within their footballing gameplay. The pressure mounted as the second half progressed with numerous efforts on the Barlby goal without reply. The physical tactic worked against Barlby as good refereeing penalised them as they presented promising opportunities from the resulting freekicks. Farnworth delivered another one of his expertly dispatched freekicks into the roof of the net to set the Boroughbridge boys level in the scoreline, but importantly, ahead in their belief of winning the tie. As the second half and the winter sun ebbed away Barlby dug in deep to stop the torrent of Boroughbridge attacks, the full whistle blew, penalties beckoned. Nerves were jingling like Christmas sleigh bells at the prospect but the boys held their nerve and secured victory with a 7-6 scoreline. This means that they now progress to the 4th round, one round further than last year and with a greater belief that they can overcome tough obstacles to achieve their ambitions.’
Mrs. Wellock reports, ‘There has been a ‘buzz’ in the air today about reading! This week our Year 7 and Year 8 students received their BookBuzz books. These books have been chosen by the students from a choice of 16 great titles. We hope the students enjoy reading them over the next few weeks and can’t wait to hear all about the stories!’
If you are thinking of buying any books for your children for Christmas then you might like to have a look at the Bookfinder tool on the Book Trust website to help pick some great new titles!
In Forest School this week, Mr. Woodward reports, ‘Today in Forest School students learned to use a timber hitch knot to create slacklines. We then discussed the importance of safe siting of a campfire and made sure fires were fully extinguished to leave no trace as to limit our impact on nature when we were done. We also looked at the three elements of the “fire triangle” (oxygen, fuel, heat) and used this knowledge to reignite failing fires. After much resilience in far from favourable conditions, we had a 100% success rate with our aim of each group heating enough water for a hot drink. All this was rounded off by an intense tug-of-war battle.’
On Wednesday morning, our Sports Leaders were in action again as we welcomed local primary schools for their sporting competitions. Today we welcomed Year 5 and 6 students from Dishforth Church of England Primary School to carry out a Maths challenge with Happy Numbers with Mrs. Valentine who was very impressed with their committed and enthusiastic approach towards the activities.
With the full festive season drawing ever near, in assemblies this week, Mrs. Godsell-Wright has been talking about the messages surrounding advent whilst also launching our reverse advent where we think of others and how we can support them. In particular, we’re hoping to help others in the locality who are experiencing hunger, loneliness or homelessness. We’d be delighted if you could help and would appreciate donations of food products including tins, packets or boxed. All food donations will be taken to our local food banks. We’re also holding a cake, sweet and chocolate sale on Friday 12th December. Items will be priced at 50p. Money raised from this will be given to the Harrogate Homeless Project. At this time of year, we also like to send Christmas cards to residents in our local care homes. If you have any unused Christmas cards then please send them our way! Thank you in advance for your support.
We had a great time as the Christmas lights were switched on in Boroughbridge on Wednesday evening. Our Pop Choir got the celebrations off to a great start with an impressive range of superbly sung festive favourites. If you’d like to hear for yourselves then please come along to our Christmas Concert next Wednesday which promises to be an excellent evening.
If you’re passing St. James’ Church this weekend then please pop in and see our Christmas tree at the Christmas tree festival. As you can see, we’ve gone all out with our school values.
Have a lovely weekend!