This magazine has been collated and produced by Year 7 Students
“This is a good school” Ofsted, 2017
“Highfields brings the best out of the students” Year 7 Student, 2020
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 know you will feel fine. We have put this magazine together for you during out PSHE lessons and hope you find it useful.
Classy Classroom Tour Welcome to Highfields School. Today, we a taking a tour around our amazing school. Enjoy!
Downstairs On the ground 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 office is with your Head of Year and Year Manager. The learning support room is in room 1. 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, where assemblies are held and where students eat food at lunch.
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 is also Lab 1, 2 and 3, where science takes place. Along with these rooms there is a Maths Office, and a Meeting room and Room 1A where you may go for small literacy lessons.
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 Room 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.
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 there will be a lollypop man near to school who will help 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 8:40 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. This is for staff only.
Forms and Form Tutors Near the end of Year 6, you will write down three names of your friends on it. You should hopefully get at least one friend off your list in your form. At the start of every school day (apart from assembly days) you will go to your form room. 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 Year Manager or Head of Year. Also, there will be form reps. The form reps will pass on ideas to the Heads 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, every Wednesday, 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. Form time or assembly starts at 8:40am finishing at 9:00am. All lessons last 50 minutes. At 9:00am begins period 1, then period 2 starts at 9:50am. This means break starts at 10:40 and finishes at 11:05 after 25 minutes. Period 3 begins at 11:05, finishing at 11:55 which is when period 4 starts and finishes at lunch time. Lunch starts at 12:45 and finishes at 1:50 then to final periods, 5 and 6, and finally home time at 3:30. 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.
You will get rewards!!! 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 social times and for homework.
Rewards Rewards give you money which you can use currently at the vivo store online to buy things. This may change soon and be our school store. R1: 1 Vivo and your name on board for a good thing. R2: 2 Vivos and a tick next to name for a really good thing. An email is also sent home. R3: 15 Vivos and an email sent home. R4: 25 Vivos 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 messing around in lesson, not doing your homework, 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: after school detention for 1 hour on a Friday. The above are behaviour related and not doing as the teacher expects of you in the lesson. Teacher detention: 30 minutes detention after school the next day. This is for not doing homework or forgetting equipment or not wearing the correct uniform.
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 were allowed to dress up as a book character or wear your own clothes for £1. 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. Drop everything and read - once a week during one of your lessons the whole class will read for 20 to 25 minutes. Mini musical - Mini musical is a performance that is rehearsed and preformed after school. Highfields got talent - this is a talent show where you can show off your talents. You can buy tickets to watch friends preform.
Sports Clubs Monday at lunch year 7 sports leaders. Tuesday at lunch netball/ fitness. Wednesday at lunch football year 7 and year 8 girls and boys. Thursday at lunch year 8 sports leader. Friday at lunch 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.
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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 fun because you can go to sports competitions and help 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. You will have to leave your period 4 class 15 minutes early at 12:30 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 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 at 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 first thing in a morning. 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 1:15 and ends at 1:45. 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 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 12:45 to 1:45. Break is 10:40 to 11:05 so enough time to eat your snacks. Food must only be eaten in the Bowler Hall.
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 comes with a tray, cutlery (fork, knife, spoon) and with a pudding with custard (with or without).