Newsletter 3 by Highfields School

21st March2025

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

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:

Message from the Headteacher

I am very sensitive regarding poor behaviour in students. This is because I started my career many years ago in South London at a time when behaviour in London schools was probably at an all-time low. My early experiences in schools taught me that if you didn’t pick up and deal with the first indications of unkind or inconsiderate behaviour, it could quickly metastasise into something much worse. My first school was the one that Stephen Lawrence had walked out of the year before only to be stabbed to death on his way home. Violence was a constant background threat in these schools. For this reason, I am still, to this day, constantly monitoring student behaviour to pick up anything which could, if left unchecked, lead to harm.

I was very proud, therefore, when the team of inspectors fed back to the lead on the evening of the first day of our recent inspection. The lead had asked the question, ‘what evidence is there that teachers deal well with low level disruption?’ His team shuffled their observation notes around in silence before one of them said, ‘we don’t really have any evidence’. The lead looked up from his laptop and asked, ‘why not?’ ‘Because’, replied a member of his team, ‘we haven’t seen any low-level disruption…so we can’t comment on how it is managed’.

I take Ofsted feedback with a pinch of salt but was mildly ecstatic that the inspectors had spent an entire day in lessons and not seen any evidence of even low-level disruption. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but there are relatively few schools which could pull this off.

I bet you’re now remembering what your child told you about some awful chaotic lesson and asking yourself how this could be the same school being described in this meeting. As I say, we are never complacent and are always aware that there are issues we need to deal with (1,302 teenagers are always likely to provide the odd challenge). I also think that children are so used to decent behaviour at Highfields and tend to react quite strongly when anything significant happens in classrooms or corridors. But I do think that staff, students and parents have created a school where kind and considerate behaviour is the norm.

Also, this week we celebrated Comic Relief with various fundraising activities including this cake sale. We have stepped away this time from non-uniform days because taking £1 donations in cash is now problematic for us and because collecting via ParentPay has significantly reduced the amounts raised for good causes. We are working on solutions.

And tonight, please spare a thought for the sixth formers who have chosen to raise money for the homelessness charity CentrePoint by sleeping rough outdoors over the weekend (all safely organised by our sixth form leadership team). Nationwide are matching any donations so it would be fantastic if you can donate via: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lizcruise?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=EM

Monday 24th March

 GCSE Art and Photography Exams (All week)

 Y10 and Y12 NEA Drama (Mon-Wed)

 DofE SILVER/GOLD (Until 4.30pm)

 Girls U14 County Football Cup

 Parliament visit for Y12 and 13

Tuesday 25th March

Wednesday 26th March

 Y12 Young Driver Session

Thursday 27th March

 Y12 Mam Tor Geology trip

 UKMT Maths Challenge

Friday 28th March

 Y10 Travel and Tourism and Y12

Business Alton Towers

 Matlock Music

SponsoredSleepOut for charity

Please consider a donation to support a group of Sixth Form students who are taking part in a Sponsored Camp at Lumsdale to raise funds for Centrepoint.

Nationwide are matching any donations so it would be fantastic if we could get a good amount through our just giving page.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lizcruise?utm_medium= FR&utm_source=EM

Thursday 20th MarchHighfields supporting Jamie Laing

It was fantas c to see lots of Highﬁelds students and their families suppor ng Radio 1’s Jamie Laing as he arrived at the Arc in Matlock as part of his Ultra Marathon Man challenge to raise money for Comic Relief. We wish him well as he leaves Matlock today and heads for Manchester.

Please ﬁnd our “Final Stretch 2025” document on the school website. This is a week by week revision programme for every subject helping our year 11’s on the countdown to their GCSE’s.

Exams - Highﬁelds School

Please visit the Highﬁeld’s website, Exams and scroll to the Revision Resources where you will ﬁnd “Y11 Final Stretch 2025.

The programme will be made available on SMHW, during form me ac vi es.

There is high demand from parents and carers to find work within a school, that fits in with family life.

We have FULLY FUNDED by the ESFA (Education Skills Funding Agency) for Online School Support courses available in both levels 1, 2 & 3.

We have specificallydesigned our courses to aid parents with their learning, as our live webinars sessions are run within school hoursand within term timesONLY. This allows parents and carers to fit theirlearning in with school drop off and collection.

We now have EXTRA spaces available for our next course, starting on 22nd April (after the Easter school holidays).



No previous experience is required. All that is needed is access to the internet and a laptop or tablet.

Places are limited and willbe accepted on a first come first serve basis.

The Derbyshire Parent Carer workshop is aimed at parents of young people (both with and without an EHC Plan in place) who aspire to move into higher education and/or employment as they get older and will cover the following topics:

 Post-16 Options

 Supported Employment Opportunities,

 Access to Work Funding

 Support to Transition into Higher Education (including funding available and what will happen for those with an EHC Plan in place)