Issuu

15th November 2024

Our newsletter aims to keep parents and carers up to date with school news, activities and key information throughout the year.

If you have any feedback on or suggestions for the newsletter, please send your comments via email to newsletter@highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk

Don’t forget to visit our website (www.highfields.derbyshire.sch.uk) for more news and information.

Thank you for taking the time to read our news and for your support.

A Marsh Headteacher

Disclaimer: HighfieldsSchoolisnotresponsibleforthequalityofproductsororganisationspublicisedthrougharticlesor advertisementsintheschoolnewsletter.

Message from the Headteacher

Highfields girls’ football beat Kirkhallam 3-2 although the way they did this caused their coach quite a bit of stress (they were 3-0 up at HT). I am just so thrilled at the impact that the Lionesses appeared to have had on female football. Teachers/ parents like me have, for a long time, watched on in dismay as many teenage girls seem to give up sport when they reach Y10. This now seems to be reversing, slowly but surely.

Does your child ever phone you from school? This happened to me a year or so ago when my one of my kids (who shall remain nameless) texted me from the toilet at school to say I was going to receive a consequence notification. My child has never done this again.

It is pretty rare that Highfields students’ phone use causes problems these days but this is how things can go awry…

• Child has a bad lesson or is upset about something that has happened

• Child goes to toilet and texts parent

• Parent calls school but the teacher involved is in lessons and unavailable

• Parent gets frustrated and comes to school without appointment and is even more frustrated to find everyone is teaching or in meetings

• An uninvolved staff member comes away from whatever they were doing and says they have no idea what’s happened (because the child hasn’t told a staff member)

• Staff member tries to investigate whilst the parent waits but cannot talk to the specific person they need because they have a class of 30 students (often on another site)

• Eventually, sometimes after several hours, we establish that things are not quite as simple as they seem and the child has already calmed down Here’s our preferred way of doing things:

• Child has a problem and reports it to the nearest member of staff who resolves the issue or refers it to staff who tries their best to resolve it

• Child tells their parent that evening and parent contacts school (if we haven’t made contact) if they feel things need further discussion. Anyway, like I say, mostly our students and parents/ carers are off-the-scale wonderful and I notice that over 800 of you responded to our latest survey last week. The senior team will be considering your feedback on Monday evening. We know we do not always get things right so your feedback is really useful in helping us change things where necessary.

Finally, a parent pulled over in their car on Friday morning to rave about our sixth form students who had been involved in the previous evening’s Sixth Form Open Event. I am beyond proud of the sixth form ‘family’ and their contribution to presentations and guided tours was just absolutely brilliant.

Have a restful weekend if you can!

Mr A Marsh, Headteacher

Reminders for the week ahead.. Week A

Tuesday 19th November

• Y13 Parents Evening

Thursday 21st November

• Secondary schools Cross Country

• Blood Brothers Trip

Friday 22nd November

• Y11 Sports Leaders qualification

Workshop with the English Touring Opera

On Friday 25th October, 10 of our students were selected to take part in a workshop with the English Touring Opera alongside 20 other young people from across the county. The students got the chance to work with ETO's assistant director, a composer, stage manager and opera singer, to devise their own opera scenes and develop their vocal and composition techniques. The day ended with a sharing of what the students had produced, followed by a trip to Buxton Opera House to watch the English Touring Opera's production of Blonde Eckbert. This was a completely new experience for most of our students and Mr Rowley and I were exceptionally proud of all the students who took part. E Morris

Mrs Cooper ran a national poetry competition in October called "The Beautiful Truth". We had so many brilliant entries across both sites. Daniel J (year 7), Immy R, Lexi R and Leila B (year 9), Nayan B, Abi T and Sophie M (year 11) and Moon C (year 13) have all been chosen to be published. Mrs Cooper is so proud of them and can't wait to see the finished anthology, please see the amazing examples below. This is just the first round of entries so there may very well be more of our students published in the coming weeks.

There is currently a poetry competition run by Christ Church at the University of Oxford that our sixth formers may be interested in. Go to https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/towerpoetry/enter-tower-poetry-competition to find out more and enter. Closing date is Feb 2025.

The Beautiful Truth

Year 9 Girls County Cup

On Tuesday 12 November our year 9 Girls faced off against Kirk Hallam in the first round of the County Cup. Highfield’s had a great start to the game going a goal up within 10 mins (Myla), this was quickly followed by a smooth piece of play finished off by Millie, the half was finished with a smooth goal from Lily

The second half started quietly, we conceded 2 goals in quick succession before taking back control of the game.

We finished 3 - 2 Victors and through to the 2nd round.

Well done to all the girls involved.