Our newsletter aims to keep parents and carers up to date with school news, activities and key information throughout the year.
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A Marsh HeadteacherDisclaimer: HighfieldsSchoolisnotresponsibleforthequalityofproductsororganisationspublicisedthrougharticlesor advertisementsintheschoolnewsletter.
Message from the Headteacher
I have not had time for a haircut recently so on Monday morning instead of brushing my hair forwards to cover my receding hairline I brushed it backwards so it didn’t go in my eyes. I didn’t think much about this until my first meeting of the day when my PA kept staring at me. I eventually asked her what she was looking at and she said, ‘your hair…what’s wrong with your hair?’ Other people then started to comment during the day until, in desperation, I went to the bathroom and tried to brush it forwards. I have thick hair and so this just resulted in my hair stopping half way between backwards and forwards which, as it happened, was vertically into the air (see artist’s impression). This resulted in a member of the senior team saying, ‘have you had a fright?’. All in all it was a confidence denting day and I have decided, as a result, to wear a hat or hood until such time as I can get to the barbers.
After school this week we showed a few hundred people around Starkholmes site as a follow on from OpenEveningat Lumsdale last week. My favourite bit was when a year 6 student was able to answer questions that I wasn’t quite sure of because he has, according to his family, read the prospectus so many times. One parent asked me to explain how Highfields differs from Lady Manners School. I was extremely careful in answering this question because Gary Peat (head at Manners) and I, along with other local school leaders have an unwritten tradition of NEVER explicitly competing with each other. We are colleagues and each of us values the other’s input and work (besides, the deputy head is also my sister’s best friend since childhood). I am, however, duty to bound to point out that currently Mr Peat’s hairstyle is significantly more attractive than mine, so if that’s what you are after, choose LMS.
What are our FIVE BRITISH VALUES? What do you mean, you don’t know? We used not to focus too much on these because we thought they were kind of common sensical. However, over the last couple of years the behaviour of leaders in, for example Russia, Iran and North Korea has reminded us that our values in Britain mark us out as very different indeed from these regimes. This morning I saw an assembly brilliantly delivered by our inspirational head of Y9 which focused on what happens if you take just one of those values away (as, it could be argued, is happening in contemporary Russia as regards ‘tolerance’).
Anyone who remembers former newsletters (who wouldn’t?) may remember that at this time last year I got a grilling from EMET because of concern over predications regarding the summer exams. EMET were back this week in the form of the firm but fair Lisa Walton and all was forgiven. Our predictions turned out to be overly cautious and our students did really well. It is crucial that people like me are held to account over the outcomes we strive to get for our students.
Like many others I have been working around a heavy cold this week so I’m even more tired than usual and looking forward to the weekend. Have a pleasant rest if you can. We are (slightly bunged up in the nasal department) Highfields.
A Marsh, headteacher
Sports Leaders News
Thursday 28th Sept.... Primary Key Stage 2 Mini Soccer Tournament was held at Cavendish Fields. The 26 Sports leaders were on duty as officials, referees, linesmen and scorers. Darley Dale PTA served refreshments.
Schools taking part were Castle View, St Josephs, Wessington and South Darley in the small schools and Lea, Darley Dale and All Saints in the large schools Highfields cluster.
Results were as follows :
Year 5/6 Small Schools
1st Castle View
2nd St Josephs
3rd Wessington
4th South Darley
Year 5/6 Large Schools
1st All Saints
2nd Lea
3rd Darley Dale
Key dates & Calendar
2023-24academic year
Term1: 4September2023to27October2023
Term2: 6November2023to22December
Term3: 8January2024to16February2024
Term4: 26February2024to28March2024
Term5: 15April2024to24May2024
Term6: 3June2024to23July2024
2023-24parentconsultationevenings
INSETdays(nostudentsin school)
virtual
2023-24provisionalschoolevents (TBC - further details will be issued prior to each event)