Message from the headteacher

I got to judge a bake off! It has taken me some 26 years of hinting, angling and generally trying to muscle my way into this position and finally this week I DID IT. The finalists were Ethan, Lucy and Matteo. Matteo has form as he once brought me a chocolate orange cupcake to school during lockdown. In the event these three amazing bakers were so good that, as I left to go and teach, a decision about the winner had not been reached. Get a load of THIS:

I passed much of my next lesson in some kind of sugar induced haze and can only remember dreamlike fragments of what went on in there.

Elsewhere in the school we had a ‘do now’ bonanza. A ‘do now’ is a settling activity which we use particularly in lessons where teachers feel that students are slow to get into their learning. Our SARU directors asked us to use the technique widely as we approach the end of term so students in all classrooms were getting the same deal as they showed up at the start of the lesson.

Many of you know that I am insanely competitive and so I make no apology for being thrilled that our under 15 girls beat Arnold Hill Academy 3-0 and under 16 girls beat Lady Manners by a score whose margin was so big I am reluctant to include it here (7-2).

And outside of school our students continue to smash it. For example, Evie H swam in the Derbyshire County Long Course (50m pool) Championships on Sunday 12 December at Ponds Forge in Sheffield and won a Bronze medal in the 50m Breaststroke, competing for Buxton against 38 other 12 year old girls (here is her medal).

HUGE THANKS to any parent/carer who has avoided using the bus stop at Starkholmes (please ignore this if you are a parent/carer who drives a bus). We are very keen to keep our students safe and so your efforts to support us are hugely appreciative.

Finally, on Thursday our Y11 students went through their ‘mock GCSE results day’ ritual. We hope that this inspires our Y11s to put on an extra spurt of effort over the next few months.

So… take care of yourselves and your families. No matter what happens we will be back here for our students in January, ready to shepherd them forward in their learning. In the meantime, we hope you have a safe and peaceful Christmas.

We are Highfields.

A Marsh Headteacher