Year 6 Magazine

Weekly magazine Produced by the Students

“This is a good school” Ofsted, 2017

“Highfields brings the best out of the students” Anonymous, 2021

Welcome At Highfields, everyone wants you to feel safe and we all want you to be proud to belong to Highfields School.

It is normal to feel anxious and worried before going to any new school but once you get to know everyone and the new routine, we assure you that you will feel fine.

Classy Classroom Tour Welcome to Highfields School. Today, we a taking a tour around our amazing school. Enjoy!

Downstairs On the first floor, where you arrive, there is a room/corridor called the Hive. This is where the main lockers are, where students hang around before school, break and lunch. It is also where the Y7 offices are with your head of year and year manager. The learning support room is in room 1. Seclusion is in room 3. The Design and Technology rooms are T1, T2 and T3 (The Food Tech room). Room 2 is the Geography room.

The Bowler Hall is the place where Drama and Dance sometimes take place, and where students eat food at lunch.

There is also the main reception and the medical room.

Middle Floor On the middle floor there are rooms 4-6: room 4 being an ICT room and room 5 and 6 Maths rooms. There are also Labs 1, 2 and 3, where Science takes place. Along with all of the other rooms there is a Maths department office, and currently the year 8 office where you will find the head of year and year manager.

Top Floor On the top floor there are rooms 7-12: room 7 being an ICT room, rooms 8, 9, 10, 11 are Language and English rooms and 12 is an Art room. Also, there is a Music room and the Library.

Two sites better than one?

Highfields School is a split site school with, Years 7 and 8 based at Starkholmes, while Years 9-13 are based at Upper Lumsdale.

A student commented, ‘It’s easier to settle in at a smaller school. It isn’t as chaotic as a bigger school’. Some primary schools are very small, so it could be very daunting coming to a huge secondary school.’

An advantage of a split site school is that you get to know the students in the year above and below you. There is also a big age range between 11 years and 18 years, so it is better to have two sites.

A student from a rural primary school told us that he was the only student to come here from his school, so felt happier about coming to a smaller school.

School Uniform New School uniform: • • • • •

Grey Blazer Plain white shirt with tie Knee-length pleated or straight fitted black skirt with tights Trousers to the ankle Plain black jumper

We have our uniform to make ourselves feel happy and take pride in what you are wearing, also to show that everyone is equal.

PE Uniform: • • • • • • •

Highfields PE T-shirt Highfields Hoody Highfields leggings for girls Shorts Blue football socks Hair bobble Jogging bottoms

Dance Uniform: • • • • •

Highfields PE T-shirt Highfields leggings for girls Jogging bottoms Hair bobble Dance book

You can get all the school uniform that you need from kick off sports. However, you don’t have to get everything from there, you can get some things from other places.

Transport at Highfields School There are 3 ways of getting to school: you can walk, get dropped off, or take a bus.

Buses For the buses you can pay on the bus or get a bus pass, which means you can go on the bus for free but only the bus you use to get home. Your bus will arrive at school before 8:35. The buses are the main transport at Highfields and it’s great social time.

Walking If you walk to school be careful when you cross the road, you need to follow the pavement and stay safe.

Drop Off If you get dropped off, make sure it’s before 8:35 because 8:45 is when form time starts.

You also need to make sure you are dropped off on the road outside of school, not the car park.

Forms and Form Tutors School will ask your Primary school for advice on who to put you with so that you are with at least one person you know from your old school. Secondary school is about making new friends and having new opportunities.

Form time starts at 12:30 or 1:20 (depending on what year you are in) and lasts for 20 minutes at the moment due to COVID adjustments. It should be back to 8.45 for Year 7 in September.

Your form tutor will greet you with a smile. Every day you will do a different activity, for example silent reading, and uniform/equipment checks.

You will spend most of your time with your form, but you are normally split up for Maths and Design and Technology.

Don’t be afraid to tell your form tutor about your problems in and out of school because they will help you deal with it. You can also talk to your head of year and year manager.

Also, there will be form reps. The form reps will pass on ideas to the Head of Year and they will choose if to go ahead with the idea or not. You will have to write an excellent speech to be a form rep. Form reps will go to a meeting, with the ideas of their form.

On your first day you will spend the whole day with your form and form tutor to get to know each other.

Times of the Day and Lessons At Highfields School the times of the day are very important.

At 8:45am school starts and it is important not to be late.

Period 1/2 begins then you have a break then period 3/4 begins finishing when lunchtime starts, and this is usually for 50 minutes.

The final period 5/6 starts at 1:40 and finally home time at 3:20, when the school day ends.

There are loads of different subjects that you learn about in secondary school. Each subject you will have a different teacher.

Subjects include:

Maths English Science History Geography PRS Dance Drama PE PSE Design & Technology Art Music French German Spanish Computing

Highfields Hero Cards The Highfields hero cards are given to year 7 and there are 5 of them; Responsible, Reasoning, Resilient, Reflective and Resourceful.

20 points are awarded for a card being fully signed so get your teacher to sign your card if you think you have achieved one of the following:

Reflective– Stay calm, Ask why, Learn from mistakes, Listen to different opinions.

Resilient– Stick at it, Remain positive, be brave, set goals and targets, Find interest in whatever you’re doing.

Reasoning- Take your time to gather evidence, Choose the best method, Justify my choices.

Responsible- Get on with it, Plan ahead, Help others, Meet deadlines, Work well with others to learn.

Resourceful- Use your imagination, Ask good questions, Take risks, Learn and solve problems in different ways, Think for yourself.

Consequences and Rewards Rewards and consequences are usually written on the board during lesson times, but they can also be given at break times and lunchtimes for poor behaviour and for homework.

Rewards Rewards give you points which will enter you into prize draws.

• R1: 1 point and your name on board for a good thing.

• R2: 2 points and a tick next to name for a really good thing. An email is also sent home.

• R3: 10 points and an email sent home.

• R4: 25 points and an email sent home.

Consequences If you get into trouble, then you will be given a consequence. These can be given for different things including poor behaviour in lesson or social times, not doing your homework, being late to lesson, using your phone in school, and not following the uniform policy.

• C1: a warning, name on the board.

• C2: email sent home, tick next to name on the board.

• C3: removal from lesson and an after school detention for 1 hour on a Friday.

• Teacher detention: 30 minutes detention after school the next day.

CLUBS!!!

At Highfields we have many opportunities for students, we have many clubs to choose from, such as book club to chill-out-club.

All the clubs in school time: Cookery club

mini musical

Book club

the big musical

Homework club

dance club

Sports leaders

maths club

Science club

film club

Geography club

chill-out-club

Story telling club

choir club

Drama club

netball year 7/8

Football year 7/8

fitness club

Here are a few events and details of what goes on in a few of our clubs: •

World book day - this activity was on the 5th March and you are allowed to wear your own clothes for £1 which goes to charity.

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The library - the library is usually open every day at lunch and break this is a place where you can read and do quiet activities. You can also borrow books.

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Drop everything and read - once a week during one of your lessons the whole class will read for 20 to 25 minutes.

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Mini musical - Mini musical is a performance that is rehearsed and preformed after school.

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Highfields got talent - this is a talent show where you can show off your talents. You can buy tickets to watch friends and family perform after school.

Sports Clubs Monday after school, girl’s football and at lunch year 7 sports leaders.

Tuesday lunchtime netball/ fitness.

Wednesday football for year 7 and year 8 girls and boys.

Thursday lunchtime year 8 sports leaders, and netball at upper site after school.

Friday lunchtime fitness.

This is only a small selection of the activities on at Highfields School. If none of the activities above suit you there will be more available

Sports Here at Highfields you have so many opportunities to get involved with sports such as netball football and a lot more.

Name the sport and famous people

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When you come to Highfields there are loads of sports clubs such as netball club, football club and fitness club.

When you come to Highfields you can also join sports leaders which is very fun because you can go to sports competitions and help the younger people.

What is Voice of Sport Voice of Sport is only available for two people in each year group (one boy and one girl.) You have to write a letter explaining why you would be good for the job. If you get in, you will have meetings on the last day of term unless there is an emergency meeting, that won’t happen often. You will have to leave your period 4 class 15 minutes early at 12:15 and go to reception with your grab bag or packed lunch ready to be picked up by Mrs Allen to take you to Upper Site’s meeting room and you will eat lunch there.

After the meeting you will be taken back to lower site in time for your period 5 lesson.

What is a Sports Leader?

A sports leader is a leader of sport activities and events who will help the teachers who run the events inside of school within both sites. You may be asked by the teachers to help run sports day with help from the other sports ambassadors. Most sports events will take place an upper site.

There is one day of the week that sports leaders are on for your year group.

Drama and Dance at Highfields At Highfields we have one dance lesson and one drama lesson per week.

Our Dance and Drama teachers are: Miss Hendry Miss Bonsall Mrs Rifkin Mrs Hollinrake

Every year we do a Mini Musical and a whole school Musical. We have done: Beauty and the Beast Footloose Legally Blonde The Lion King Oliver!

On Tuesday lunchtimes there is a Dance Club run by Mrs Hollinrake.

The School Library The school library is open at break and lunch.

Our lovely librarian Mrs Robinson is always there to help. She can help with finding books, fixing computing issues, and just for a nice chat every now and then.

There are many different genres of books to choose from including: sci-fi, fantasy, fiction, non-fiction, historical, comedy and horror etc.

There are lots of opportunities in the library such as: hot chocolate reading club, book club, accelerated reader and homework.

Book Club Hot chocolate reading club is a club that happens at form time. One day a week, selected students will pair up and read a book together. You will get to know this person over the next year and hopefully gain a new friend.

Book club as a whole offers lots of opportunities such as going to see a play and reviewing books that are not yet available to the rest of the school.

Book club begins at 1:10 and ends at 1:40. It is run by the librarian, Mrs Robinson.

Accelerated Reader Accelerated reader is an online website that gives you a reading age, tells you how many words you’ve read and gives you a target. Every book you read has an amount of points on the inside of the front cover and every time you take a quiz on that book the points will be added up until you reach your target at which point you will be set a new target. As well as that, when you finish a book, to make sure you have fully understood the book you will take a quiz on that book.

Computers There are many computers to log onto at break and lunch in the library. They can be used for emailing teachers, homework and taking quizzes. If you have trouble with the computers, for example: running out of printing money or trouble connecting to the printer, Mrs Robinson can almost always lend you a hand.

Food Information At Highfields

Highfields have a variety of foods to choose from, even at break you can have a snack whether it’s hot or cold. Main meals are available at lunch from 12:30 to 1:40. Break is 10:25 to 10:50 so enough time to eat your snacks.

To pay for your meals you have an account which your parents can put money on so you can pay for lunches and see your balance with just your thumb print. If you need to get to a club quickly then you can get a grab bag or go through quick run.

A grab bag is basically a packed lunch but just from school and a quick run is just anything you can grab and go like a sandwich, small drink, cookie. A quick run also does not come with a tray or plate whereas the full dinner come with a tray, cutlery (fork, knife, spoon) and with a pudding with custard (with or without).

Student Comments The Highfields staff and teachers are the best if you need anything!

You can go to the office, pastoral staff or the wonderful heads of year. If your feeling happy and want to share a reward or achievement with them they are always are looking for AMAZING work and fab things that you have done, to pass onto fellow teachers and parents. Although, on the other hand if you’re worried about something, want to talk to someone, need to own up to doing an unkind thing, have hurt yourself or are just having a rubbish day they have always got a spare ear and a helping hand.

Being there for others is one of Highfields main rules and you can see this in every member of staff and the whole of the school community. Whoever you are, whatever you want, the people of Highfields will try their very best to make it happen. Being in Year 7 you might need to ask for help more than others in school as you’re new to the surroundings and ways of life. You can get help from the main reception if you’re stuck where to go or you have had a tumble. If you want to talk about subjects, where you need to be and who you need to be with the heads of year are your people. If you have got an issue at school/home or a question to ask, the pastoral manager is perfect for those things. At the end of the day we all look out for each other at Highfields School and are trying to make a happier difference to our community and others!

The transition from Year 6 to Year 7 is quite big because not only are you moving up a year, which means more effort and harder work, but also a whole new school. That means you have to find all the rooms again and know what to do and everything like that. It seems pretty scary and quite confusing at first when in reality it’s not, and when you get there you can walk with your friends, or take the bus with your friends, or even go in the car with your family. The first week is just about the new Year 7’s settling in and getting comfortable with the school. Getting used to the school will usually take maybe 2 weeks to a month. Using the signs to help you find your way is a great idea.

There will always be time to have fun and meet new people ☺ We like how Highfields always keeps in touch in different ways but also how supportive the school is. They always give you help but also they really listen.

Highfields is really east to get used to and to get around.

Highfields is very welcoming and easy to make friends.

The teachers, office staff, and headteacher are always looking out for us, and if we are lost, injured, and lonely or upset, you can go and talk to them about anything.

In my opinion Highfields is a really good school. The lessons are great and are made really interesting by the teachers. There are more subjects to do and some where you actually get to do practical work such as experiments in science, cooking in food tech, and woodwork as well.

Another great thing are the school meals where you get a lot of choice and they’re very tasty!!

Finally, you get to make loads more new friends too. So far I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in year 7.

There are many subjects that I like, but the ones I love are DT and PE. The reason I like PE is because in Year 7 you can start to become a Sports Leader, and you get to go to fun events and visit primary schools. It could even be your old Primary School. There are also out of school clubs and dinner clubs. There is something for everyone.

In P.E there are many different sports and activities you’ll do Such as Basketball, Gymnastics, Football, athletics etc. There will always be that one sport that you want to play the most and maybe you haven’t found it yet but you will in secondary school. You will have P.E every week and you’ll probably end up doing the same sport for maybe 1-4 weeks and different activities each week. :) Enjoy your P.E lessons they are worth it!