The Whitby High School Summer Newseltter 2015

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W A LEVEL

LINGUISTS IN BERLIN

INTERNATIONAL LINKS FULL REPORT OF ERASMUS+ TOUR

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PRAISE FOR YEAR 11 FOOTBALLERS

CHESHIRE FINALS REPORT

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LETTER FROM THE HEADTEACHER As the summer term draws to a close it allows me an opportunity to reflect on not only what has taken place since the last newsletter but also what has happened this academic year.

Only when you take a look at everything that has happened can you appreciate the many varied opportunities that our students have taken ‘advantage of’. These opportunities have supported their personal development but also in many cases supported the development of others. Charity work, competitions, visits locally, nationally and internationally, sports events and much more are detailed in this newsletter. This and previous ones demonstrate what hard working, committed students we have and how they grasp everything that comes their way.

On the sports field, both Year 11 and Year 8 football teams were finalists in the Cheshire Cup tournament with Year 8 becoming champions following a thrilling match against the Kings School. In athletics, we smashed our school point’s record at national record and facing serious competition missed out on the championship title by only two points. Another fantastic achievement of which we are all extremely proud of.

It was a real pleasure to see so many parents in school this term for our annual Design Technology and Art Exhibitions. These two major exhibitions are the culmination of two years hard work by the students and showcased their stunning achievements and extraordinary talents. As with previous years the quantity and quality of the work was simply outstanding.

As you will see, our international links continue to develop and flourish with our students involved in work or culture with Germany, Spain, Holland, Czech Republic, Turkey, France, Italy, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Widening the experiences of our students but working together on common projects that span the world regardless of language or culture. Our A level German students even featured on the front page of ‘Berliner Morgen Post’ as they witnessed the solar eclipse.

I cannot let this newsletter go to print without acknowledging the hard work of staff and students every single day as we continue to develop and adapt to change. Such hard work and commitment that ensured we were judged by Ofsted as a GOOD school. The many changes that have occurred in response to the national agenda were given the seal of approval as Ofsted found us at least good in all areas. As a school, we have never been less than good over the past three inspections at a time when the standards expected of us get higher and higher. Thank you to all staff, students and parents for your support.

So the examination period is over with Year, 11, 12 and 13 eagerly awaiting results as we head for the summer break. As usual, we sadly say goodbye to a number of staff as the term ends. This year, Mrs Beasley and Mrs Crossley have decided to retire after 58 joint service at the school, whilst Mrs Macauley and Mr Brownless are taking early retirement. Miss Black, Mrs Topping and Mr Tarmey leave to take up promoted posts. Mrs Cowley, Miss Burton and Mrs Walker are also leaving to pursue other interests outside of education. Thank you to them all for their contributions to making this school the school that it is and I wish them all well for the future.

Please take a moment to read this newsletter and I hope that you all have an enjoyable summer break with family and friends. Schools starts for students on Tuesday 2 September.

Mr B Heeley Headteacher Prepare Achieve Care Enjoy

LONDON WHITEHALL

INTERNSHIP

In December, I applied to be part of programme run by the Social Mobility Foundation. The application process required the completion of numerous small questions, as well as three essays based around different topics. The essays I wrote were based around gender inequality, the nature vs. nurture argument and Daisy Bates (the American civil rights activist).

EMILY FOORT

Once my application was sent off, I had a two month wait, as those working for the SMF decided who the places would be allocated to. Over 1600 students from across the country had applied for an internship, with only 75 places! Fortunately, I was one of the chosen few. The acceptance of my application means I am a part of the Aspiring Professionals Programme and am also lucky enough to embark on an internship in Whitehall (London) this coming summer.

The internship will involve going to London for a two week placement within one of the governmental departments in Whitehall. My travel to London, accommodation, food and evening/weekend activities are all paid for. I will be staying within university accommodation whilst in London and staying with other students. The two weeks will provide a great insight into politics and governmental departments and will also allow me to experience working life in the bustling city of London.

Between 9am and 5pm I will be shadowing MP’s and ministers and completing work commonly done within government.

Group work will also be done and my speaking skills will be challenged, as I present a self-made presentation. Aside from the work, evening activities are also organised. In previous years, students have had the opportunity to tour Downing Street, attend West End shows and of course have a look around the sites of London. Ultimately, the internship will offer a unique and extraordinary experience that very few people have and will also allow me to meet with professionals, helping me in the future.

The SMF’s Aspiring Professionals Programme has already helped me by organising private open days and university workshops. After attending just three events I have learnt skills regarding networking, improving employability and personal statement writing. In the near future, I am to be assigned a mentor who works within business, (my chosen career path) – I hope this will allow me to gain valuable knowledge from a first-hand expert. The programme also organises a personal statement checker, university open days, work experience and talks from professionals – this coming week I am attending an Oxbridge workshop on behalf of the SMF. The SMF will continue to help me until I graduate from university.

As well as the internship, I have managed to secure a place on two university summer schools with the help of the SMF – The University of York and Lancaster University. The Summer schools will hopefully further improve my interpersonal skills, as I will be meeting with university professors and other students. I will also be advised on the university application process, hopefully improving my chance of receiving offers at top universities.

I am finding my work with the SMF really beneficial and I would highly recommend other students consider joining future programmes.

Emily Foort

Art exhibition A very successful exhibition of A Level Art and Photography was held on Thursday 11th June in Overpool Hall, attended by parents, staff and friends. There was an excellent standard of work on display, showing a wide range of subject matter, techniques and materials.

Students are to be commended on the rich variety of work on display.

Many thanks to the Technology Department for the use of their lighting which made it a little more special!

The atmosphere was fantastic with live music played by Year 13 Music students and a hall that was filled with students, parents and teachers. We had a wide variety of work displayed, from beautifully constructed collages to outstanding drawings and paintings.

Photography students had their work projected into the hall, this work was described as powerful, beautiful and creative. The show is testament to our talented and hardworking students who have been a pleasure to teach, we are very proud of you all well done!

...from beautifully constructed collages to outstanding drawings and paintings.

READY FOR NEXT TERM? We will decide later this term what shape the school day will take from September, following consultation with staff and students. There will be no significant change in the times of the school day. A letter will be sent home with students before the end of term to confirm arrangements for next year. Please also keep an eye on the school website.

Please be reminded about the school's push on attendance and punctuality next year. New government guidelines mean that any student with less than 90% attendance will be classed as 'persistently absent'. We will also be keeping students behind at the end of a day if they have arrived late without reason.

Also all students cycling to school must have a school cycle permit.

These can be obtained from Mrs Hill in school – please ensure your child has one if he/she is cycling to school.

We thank you in anticipation of your support on these matters.

Congratulations to Year 7 Peace Poster winners Olivia Artell-Cram, George Jarman and Libby Crebbin, all receiving their prizes on Tuesday 23rd June.

NEW YEAR 7 INTAKE Whitby remains the popular choice in Ellesmere Port and we are oversubscribed again next year. We are expecting 276 students from 22 primary schools in September. We’re delighted that they’ve chosen Whitby and it was wonderful to meet them and their parents and carers on Induction evening.

All Year 6 students really enjoyed their two induction days with us in July and are now feeling more confident about starting in September.

AUTUMN TERM ARRANGEMENTS Tuesday 1st September Inset day for all staff.

Wednesday 2nd September 10:30 – 10:40 10:45 –11:00 P3 and P4 P5 and P6

Year 7 arrive to Overpool Hall Assembly Overpool Hall Form tutorial time Normal lessons

Thursday 3rd September 8:35

Year 7 monsters New exciting Year Seven Textiles Monster cushions are currently in production.

Keep your eyes peeled for the finished products in the next edition.

All years arrive to school

Y7 – 11 and Y13 go straight to form rooms Y12 meet in lunch box - 2 day induction programme P1, P2, P3

Y7 – 11, Y13 form tutorial time.

9:05 - 9:20 9:30 - 9:45 9:55 - 10:10 11:05 - 11:20 11:30 - 11:45

Year 11 assembly - Overpool Hall Year 10 assembly - Overpool Hall Year 9 assembly - Overpool Hall Year 8 assembly - Overpool Hall Year 13 assembly - Overpool Hall

P4, 5 and 6

Normal lessons

International links The Whitby High School has been working successfully with a group of schools in South Africa for the last five years. The aim of partnership is to bring schools together from different cultural backgrounds to learn from each other and to help develop a better understanding of global diversity and the issues that effect different communities.

The Whitby High School has enjoyed a fantastic year working with our partner schools in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. Some of their teachers have visited us to learn about our education system and culture and to discuss ways in which we can support them in their own schools. Woodlands Primary school and Wade Deacon High School have also hosted teachers from South Africa and Zimbabwe and will be working closely with them in the future.

The Global Footsteps Choir has been a huge success in raising the profile of the work we are doing with our partner schools. Sophie Murphy, one of our Year 7 ambassadors for Global Footsteps, organised a fund raising concert to help buy resources to build a new play area at Sokhanyo Primary School and other members of our Global Footstep group have been busy making gifts to raise money at open evenings and other school events.

We have also held a Car Boot Sales at school with all the proceedings going towards our forthcoming visit to South Africa in 2016.

The start of the new school year back in September 2014 saw the launch of the Erasmus+ project surrounding Social Media in Education. Along with The Whitby High School, this project involves schools from the Netherlands, Spain, Czech Republic and Germany. This project has involved twelve year 9 students who applied to be part of the project.

Each student during the course of the two-year cycle will visit two countries each. They will all play a major part when The Whitby High School becomes the host to our European partners in 2016. A unique experience is on offer for the students involved in the project as all the students stay with a host family in each country they visit. This allows the students to fully experience the culture of the country they visit and allows them to build bonds with each other that are fruitful outside of the project visits.

Logo created by the students for the project.

Erasmus + project

SPAIN The first meeting took place in Jaen, Spain. This was the first chance to get to know each other and get the project off the ground. The work we did in Spain focused on the learning and understanding of the history of social media, identifying how each country uses social media and the dangers of uploading personal information onto the Internet.

The visit included a session with local police officers to find out how they deal with social media issues. As well as our work in the school, we visited a number of places to experience the culture of Spain. They included a visit to the Alhambra Palace in Granada and Parque de la Ciencias.

GERMANY For our second project meeting we had a much colder visit to Dreieich, Germany. In Germany, our focus on the project was to look at the misuse and prevention methods of social media, to look at the laws of each country when social media has been misused and to look at how social media has made us more distant (in terms of real interaction) from one another. For this, we studied a piece of art by Banksy and tried to recreate our own in mixed international groups.

Our German partners also introduced to us a group of students they call ‘Media Scouts’. These students have created a group in which other students can go to them with problems created via social media.

The Media Scouts then try to act as mediators and solve the issues before they become too serious.

Whilst in Dreieich we visited the city of Frankfurt.

Here we had a guided tour and visited the Main Tower. We also visited one of the biggest German TV companies called ZDF Television, Mainz. Here we experienced different TV Studios and were able to play around on CGI sets.

CZECH REPUBLIC For the final part of the project this academic year, we visited Prague in the Czech Republic. Our social media focus turned to working with primary aged children and sharing social media experiences with them. Students also had a place in Prague in which they researched before they went to gather a virtual experience of this place.

Once in Prague we visited these places for real and compared these to our virtual experience. It was interesting to see the difference between the virtual and real experience we had gained by completing the exercise.

Visiting these different places in Prague allowed us to explore the entire city right from the centre to the very outskirts. Some of these places include the city island called Kampa and the radio tower, Zizkovska Vez

A LEVEL LANGUAGE STUDENTS IN BERLIN A small group of Year 13 girls accompanied by Mrs Ravetto and Mrs Morgan travelled to Berlin in March. We were all excited by the prospect of exploring Germany’s vibrant capital city and we were certainly not disappointed. The wonderful InterCity Hotel, located very centrally close to the Hauptbahnhof, provided us with luxury accommodation this year and we enjoyed a sumptuous European buffet-style breakfast each morning.

After depositing our bags at the hotel, we set off for the wonderfully authentic and welcoming Brauhaus Georgbräu for dinner. Tasty items from the menu include Schweinshaxe (knuckle of pork) and Schnitzel. It was a lovely evening and the perfect place to unwind and settle into our new surroundings and practise some German with our friendly waiter!

The following morning, we made our way to the Brandenburg Gate which was the meeting point for our guided Walking Tour. We quickly realised that this was the morning of the Solar Eclipse (Sonnenfinsternis) and luckily the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky!

We bought ourselves some special glasses and enjoyed a clear view of the eclipse minute by minute. We were slightly distracted by a gentleman with a camera who was taking lots of photos of the crowd, particularly our group. Little did we know that he was actually a freelance photographer and that the photo of the girls would appear on the front cover of the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper the next morning! What a triumph!

The highlights of the tour included Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, Hitler's Bunker, The Berlin Wall, the Reichstag, Museum Island and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

If anyone ever fancies a city break to Berlin, we would really recommend a Walking Tour or a Cycle Tour as the guides are really informative but also very entertaining.

Our guide was Mark, an Irish inhabitant of Berlin and he shared many fascinating insights with us.

Later on, we travelled across the city to Potsdamerplatz. This famous square is the symbol of regeneration in Berlin and has been under construction for over 10 years! Today it boasts the most amazing buildings. Cutting edge architecture at its best - the design has to be seen to be believed! We headed for the Sony Centre, a collection of restaurants, bars and exhibitions all housed under a tented dome. This is home to the Sony IMAX cinema and it was fun to soak up the atmosphere of this bustling square at night. We enjoyed dinner and settled down to watch Cinderella!

Saturday’s activities included a visit to the fascinating DDR Museum on the embankment of the River Spree - a hands-on experience of what life was like in the former East Germany.

As well as offering an insight into daily life, the museum also demonstrates how the secret police kept a watchful eye on the city's people. Exhibits include a typical living room and a shiny Trabant car.

This was highly relevant to our students who have studied the film Goodbye Lenin this year.

We were all excited by the prospect of exploring Germany’s vibrant capital city and we were certainly not disappointed”.

This was followed by a quirky treat as we paid a visit to the Tadschikische Teestube or Russia Tea Rooms in the old Jewish quarter, where we enjoyed a traditional tea ceremony, sitting on cushions on the floor. We also had a look around the Hackesische Höfe and were moved by the museum dedicated to the visually impaired broom and brush maker Otto Weidt, who, during World War Two, employed many vulnerable blind and deaf Jews in his workshop at Rosenthaler 39.

No visit to Berlin would be complete without a trip to the historic Reichstag building with its impressive glass dome. We saved this for the final day and enjoyed the spectacular views of the city.

…the photo of the girls would appear on the front cover of the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper the next morning!

What a triumph!”

We all thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of our time in Berlin and came home feeling really enriched by the experience. Plans are already underway for another city break next year.

PE DEParTment YEAR 11s PRAISED DESPITE DEFEAT Congratulations to the Year 11 boys who recently competed in the final of the Cheshire cup in Middlewich. They reached the final having swept aside all teams before them in convincing fashion.

They started the day as hot favourites having beaten their opponents Great Sankey only recently.

Unfortunately, an injury to the influential Ben ‘Gig’ Owen just before kick-off meant a change in formation, which the team struggled to adapt to.

YEAR 8 BOYS CHESHIRE CHAMPS The Year 8 boys’ football team continued Whitby’s strong heritage in the Cheshire football competitions. The year 8 side showed their ability by reaching the last 16 of the English Schools’ National Competition. Having defeated Hartford Grange, Bridgewater, Helsby and Alsager in the earlier rounds Whitby faced King’s School in the final.

The final was a close affair with King’s School scoring from a set piece mid-way through the first half. However, thanks to a strong second half display and goals from Jack Gillard and Kieran Fair, Whitby won the Cheshire title with a 2-1 score line.

BRONZE DoE EXHIBITION 94 year 10 students completed their bronze DofE expedition in June in what turned out to be favourable weather. Students enjoyed the sunny, warm weather having spent the practice expeditions in wet, cold and windy conditions. Students worked well within their groups and used their newly developed navigational skills to complete their 22km route. The route took the students from Dolwyddelan to Beddgelert via the campsite at Llyn Gwynant.

All students who started the expedition completed this section of their Bronze Award and were a real credit to themselves and the school. Students are now encouraged to complete their other sections on DofE to gain the overall Bronze Award. Thanks must go out to the staff who have generously given up their time to support the students and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Race for life

On the 24th June the students of The Whitby High participated in our very own Race for Life. Many students signed up to help raise money for Cancer Research. The theme of the race was ‘Warriors’ and the spirit on the day was that teachers and students were all racing together to help raise as much money as possible. The atmosphere on the day was electric and every student who participated gave 100%.

The PE department would like to say a massive well done to everyone who participated and thank you to everyone who donated.

Whitby athletes achieve national success Congratulations to the 15 Year 8 boys who recently competed in the National Athletics B Final in Warrington. Only the best schools from all over the North West had qualified for the final, and the standard of competition was unbelievably high.

This is a team event which is similar to the decathlon, in that student’s times and distances are converted into points and added together to produce an overall score. At the halfway point, with all track events having been completed, the boys found themselves in 3rd place out of 12 schools. Jack Gillard won the 100m in a time of 12.6 seconds. There were also notable contributions from Chris Downes and Ethan Fiddler in the 200m, Malakai Sitiene in the 300m and Mathew Vickers in the hurdles.

Attention now turned to the field events which are traditionally a strength of the school. Nial Wallace destroyed the field in the discus with a throw of 27m whilst Ethan Fiddler jumped 10.13 in the triple jump and Ben Carr Lowe jumped 4.70m in the long jump.

The team ended on 389 points which is a school record, but fell agonisingly short of overall victory by 2 points to Cannon Slade from Manchester. The performance of all the boys involved was a credit to the school and one of the highest scores from around the whole of the U.K.

LOCAL BOXING HERO PROVES A KNOCKOUT WITH STUDENTS On Wednesday 3rd June, 156 year 7 students and 15 staff set off for a 3 day residential trip to the Conway Centre on Anglesey. This is the second year the trip has taken place in the summer term and once again, we got lucky with the weather. The centre is set on the banks of the Menai Straits, was an ideal place to spend 3 sunny days. We even had the Antiques Roadshow taking place in Lord Anglesey’s manor next door to the outdoor centre.

The students took part in a range of traditional outdoor activities including mountain biking, canoeing, raft building and a high ropes course. Students were also lucky enough to try a new activity, stand up paddle boarding, which was a huge hit.

Students learning outside the classroom continued with an outdoor art and textiles session where students created a natural piece of art, which will all be put together to create a large display that will be put up in school. Both students and staff thoroughly enjoyed the experience and learnt new skills and built up new friendships.

In June, local boxing champion, Paul Butler came into school to deliver an assembly to Stuart House.

Carrying his IBF Championship belt, students from 10SR asked him a variety of questions about his rise to boxing stardom. One such question posed by Chelsea Foster asked him ‘What advice would you give to students, if they want to realise their dreams? Paul’s reply was ‘hard work, and a desire to succeed, no matter what people might say to put you off’. Wise words indeed! Paul’s next bout is due to take place in July at the Echo Arena, Liverpool. We wish him luck with that and hope to see him add another title to his name in the near future.

Residential at The Conway centre

The future Scholar Awards scheme

The Future Scholar Awards scheme runs each year to give an opportunity for up to 5 high-achieving year 9 students from every state funded secondary school in England to visit a Russell Group university for a day in the summer term. Through activities like information sessions, taster academic sessions, meeting current students and staff, and campus tours, students will gain a real-life experience of what studying at a top university is like. It is hoped that this will encourage them to aim high to achieve the best grades possible and to apply to university.

Through a selection process in school, our students were chosen and were able to visit The University of Glasgow in May. Travelling by train, staying overnight and spending a day visiting the University the four boys demonstrated outstanding behaviour, keen interest and enjoyment in the activities presented by staff and students.

We hope that this has ignited a real interest in thinking and planning for their future. Mr McGrath and Mrs Lee would like to thank the boys again for making the trip a fantastic one.

Effort makes all The difference

During the last year, staff have nominated one individual each week for the accolade of ‘Student of the Week.’ The winner meets with Mr Heeley and receives a prize in acknowledgement of their achievement. In the next year, The Whitby High School is embarking on a range of initiatives to reward effort. All current research suggests that it is effort and learning how to cope with and overcome challenges that is the most significant indicator of future success.

After each assessment point, students are ranked whole school for effort. They are then placed in either green, amber or red band for effort. Five students across the school have secured the highest possible effort grade in all of their subjects this year. Keenan Adolph, Sophie Ashley, Robyn Farrington, Gemma Warden and Aaron Waring are exemplary role models for all of our students, demonstrating that effort really does makes the difference in securing exceptional progress.

music dept Music Tour to

LAKE GARDA We are coming to the end of a busy year and are just about to embark on our Concert Tour to Lake Garda in Italy. We are taking 40 students ranging from Year 8 through to Year 13 along with some past students who are supporting the venture. We have a varied concert programme that includes the whole party singing and playing ‘Pompeii’ and ‘Up Town Funk’.

Our guitarists are performing ‘Apache’ by the Shadows. The swing band will perform two pieces and accompany one of our singers. We will perform the concert at school on Thursday 9th July at 7.00pm in the Overpool Hall and you are very welcome to come and see how we represented the Whitby High School in Italy.

Whitby on the road We have taken some of our students to Cambridge Road Primary School to support their Arts week and have performed alongside their choir.

This has been a great experience for our performers and a good opportunity for the children at Cambridge Road to see what is available at The Whitby High School and the high quality of music performance that we have here.

Other Opportunities A number of our students are in involved in local theatre groups and are getting ready to perform in ‘Sister Act’.

We have a visit from Alex Larke from Eurovision’s Electro Velvet to talk to our A Level students about recording and producing music and also to talk to our Year 10 BTEC music students about the music business and the ups and downs of being a professional musician.

Our next production is Grease and rehearsals are underway. We have a fantastic cast, a great band and a super production team ready to bring the show to life.

Keep an eye out for details so you are sure not to miss getting your tickets for this great show.

We are looking forward to all the activities and the chance for our new year 7 to join in and make music at The Whitby High School.

As part of the Afritwin Project our singing teacher put a choir together to perform and record ‘Super Heroes’ by The Script.

The students had a great time and here is a picture of a few of the students in the studio during one of the recording sessions.

THE WHITBY ALUMNI Are you an ex-student of The Whitby High School? If so – we want you!

The Whitby High School has recently launched its alumni network to a fantastic response from past students. We are trying to develop it further and are looking for ex-students of the school and/or Sixth Form who are willing to play a part in the development of current students. Our students leave The Whitby High School and follow a huge variety of pathways. The careers advice and guidance delivered in school was highly praised by Ofsted in our latest report and we would like to develop this even further by giving our students access to the best quality networks and support.

We know from experience that the best sort of advice and guidance comes from people already ‘in the business’. Past students may be able to help link students up with an unusual work experience placement, support them with sector specific interviews or visit us to work with groups of students aiming to follow a similar career path. We have had an overwhelmingly positive response to our efforts so far but we’d like it to grow even further. We really appreciate any support that can be offered.

To register to join The Whitby High School Alumni, go to the school website www.whitbyhs.cheshire.sch.uk and select Sixth Form – Whitby Alumni

Jayne McCubbin

Dave Challinor

Award Winning TV Political Reporter

Tranmere Rovers FC 1994-2002

Rick Parry Former Chief Executive to Liverpool FC Current board member to New York Cosmos

Baroness Hughes of Stretford Former Member of Parliament