Message from the headteacher

I had two major impassioned rants this week. It’s important to be controlled when you lead others but sometimes I find you just have to get it all out in public. Impassioned rant #1 (it was more of an emotional outburst, really) I was at year 11 in their assembly on Wednesday. My rant was about how amazing they are. They are a truly astonishing bunch of individuals. To their obvious discomfort I spent twenty minutes banging on about ways in which they have impressed me and their staff team. They are without doubt the most interesting, characterful, resilient and caring bunch of year 11s I have ever come across. It’s not about exam results - I know they and their staff are working hard to make good things happen for them on results day in August - it’s about WHO THEY ARE. And they are brilliant.

Impassioned rant #2 occurred at a meeting of our Eco-school committee and was totally pointless as I was preaching to the converted. Nevertheless, it felt good and seemed to reflect the feelings of the committee members there. The thing is this: I understand that students want to strike and that this explains the manifold posters and flyers that appear anonymously before student climate strikes in Matlock. I understand that this small but influential group of students wish to show their solidarity for Thunberg and others in highlighting the climate emergency.

What I don’t understand is why, out of 1,202 students at Highfields, the number of students who have so far attended Eco-school committee which aims to sort out the school’s chronic overuse of single use plastics is ….THREE. These three students have been trying to recruit for six months now. I have offered all available support regarding use of assembly time, social media, posters. And still the number attending this week’s meeting was THREE. I went on to rant about students’ occasional lack of connection between their choices as consumers and their impact on environment. As a simple example, students bemoan the number of single use plastic bottles sold each day by outlets near school but can often present as powerless to a) bring a refillable bottle and so b) stop buying these single use bottles. I KNOW it’s more complex than this so please don’t feel the need to leap to your keyboards to put me right! I know that I have far more to do around sustainability at Highfields and I’m working on it. I know about the use of single use items within the school (also more complex than it sounds, by the way) and about the carbon footprint of our split site and I know about my car’s emissions. And, of course, I know that your children are not to blame for this problem. I am just keen to ensure that students begin to take more of a lead in, for example, reducing the number of bottles which blow out of upper site bins into Bentley Brook before joining the Derwent, the Trent and heading seawards towards one of the huge islands of plastic floating around the planet.

So … please do consider asking your child ‘how many bottles a week are you buying?’ and ‘have you asked about Eco-schools committee?’ Especially if they are considering missing lessons to strike. Impassioned rant over and calmness has returned… In lessons this week I came across a really strong geography lesson where the teacher was using one of our many strategies designed to embed long term learning. In this case (which she has called ‘geog your brain’- catchy huh?) she was asking students to retrieve information about an earlier project on the impact on the physical environment of weather and climate. I was so excited on leaving this lesson that I tripped over my own feet, staggered about 15 feet and face planted into the cheese and coleslaw baguette I had just grabbed from the canteen. A lovely student who saw this rushed off, not to get medical help, but to try and find me a replacement sandwich. I love this school. And so another fun-filled, exciting term comes to an end. I really hope that you and your children manage some time together next week. If you have a Y11 please talk about the Highfields Hustle and ensure that revision is undertaken for the next mocks (week when we return) and take good care of yourselves.

Student Bulletin Issue 21: 14 February 2020

Week commencing Monday 24 February 2020 Year 10 Engineering Controlled Assessment in lessons until Easter Year 11 art/photography exam preparation in lessons until 20 March 2020 Year 11 mock exams A level art/textiles exam preparation in lessons from 4 February – 1 May 2020

Monday 8.40am – Year 7 assembly Year 11 GCSE Food Practical NEA Year 9 geography woodland fieldwork (Lumsdale Woods) during lessons

Tuesday 8.40am – Year 8 assembly 8.40am – Sixth form assembly Year 9 teenage booster and meningococcal ACWY (MEN ACWY) immunisations Year 11 GCSE Food Practical NEA (AM)

Wednesday 8.40am – Year 11 assembly

Thursday 8.40am – Year 10 assembly 2pm Upper site Musical Theatre review - Everybody's Talking About Jamie (Sheffield Lyceum)

Friday 8.40am – Year 9 assembly

See extra-curricular clubs section for lunch and after school activities