Honley High Notes Station Road, Honley, HOLMFIRTH, HD9 6QJ Telephone No. 01484 222347/Fax No. 01484 222314
Issue 14 Autumn term 2009 Newsletter INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Honley High School News GCSE results:
Royal Shakespeare Company:
This time of year is always dominated by the results of our Year 11 students in their GCSE examinations. Once again our students performed exceptionally well, with 70% of them achieving 5 A*-C grades, 60% of them including English and Mathematics. Although we recognise that the range of qualifications available to students is growing, and that in the near future our curriculum offer will have to respond to this, at this stage, these results only reflect GCSE results. Rightly or wrongly, they do not include any other qualification. Next year’s results will include a wider range of qualifications and our current Year 11 are on course to improve on this year’s outcomes.
We are looking forward to working with our Primary Colleagues on the first of our training days with the RSC. The first workshop will concentrate on transitional activities, and all our Pyramid is represented. This will be the first of three sessions this academic year and we look forward to a long and productive partnership. INSIGHT: I am sure that you are aware that we are currently piloting our Parent Portal, which will give parents and carers immediate internet access to attendance, behaviour and progress records of our students. Currently a trial group comprises staff, whose student attend our school, and our parent governors. As soon as we are confident with the software and content, we will roll this out year group by year group to the whole of our school community. This we hope, will
greatly improve our homeschool communication, and have a positive impact upon our practices and procedures within school. OUTSTANDING: That is Ofsted’s view of the achievement and progress in our Mathematics Department. HMI spent two days with us in December and concluded that our Mathematics Department was Good with Outstanding features, particularly achievement and care and guidance. The behaviour of our students was good, which in HMI’s view made a significant contribution to their progress. Congratulations to all involved including our students who were described as “… being a tribute to our school throughout the whole inspection”. A J CONNOR Headteacher
Advanced Skills Teacher In September, Duncan Train became Honley High School’s first Advanced Skills Teacher, building on the work he has done as Curriculum Area Leader for Creative and Expressive Arts. The application process which took a term was then followed by a stringent series of interviews by Ronald Bulman, a senior OFSTED inspector. “It was like a personal day long OFSTED. After applying, I had to produce a folder of evidence to support my application including testimonials from staff, students and parents. The
actual interview took a whole day and I had to produce two Outstanding lessons for the inspector. 8NO and my English group were instrumental in providing the evidence. Afterwards there were interviews not only with myself, but with all my referees. It was very stressful, but ultimately worth it!” Mr Train now has a remit to improve the standards of teaching and learning across the whole curriculum, working closely with Mr Oliver on developing and implementing learning and teaching policies as
well as supporting teaching staff in the development of their own practice. “It is a great challenge and an opportunity to get an overview of all the subjects on offer at Honley as well as to look at different learning and teaching methods. I feel really valued by the Senior Management Team who supported my application, especially the Boss.” Mr Train’s Curriculum role has been filled by Mr. Leigh Baker, Head of Music.
Mr Train, AST
Guidance for Exams Parents of Year 10 and Year 11 students may like to view the Examinations 2009-10 Guidance for Students and Parents document on the school website. This includes the timetables for January exams including Year 11 mocks and examinations in the summer. Mrs C Hickey, Examinations Officer
English
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PE
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Music
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Technology
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Sports
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Governor Profile Dylan Murphy is one of our staff governors. He teaches History to years 7 to 11. An ex-pupil of Honley High he went on to get a PhD in History and is a published historian. In his spare time he does a lot of walking on the moors above Marsden and tries to read too many books at once. He recently read Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine. Dylan is a big film buff and loves the films made by Alfred Hitchcock and Sam Peckinpah. Besides this, he is a member of Amnesty International and is active in local politics. A committed vegetarian he loves Indian food. His favourite view is looking at Marsden from the reservoirs that surround the village. If he were to be stuck in a lift he would choose J.D.Salinger so that he could listen to his fascinating stories about the Glass family. He is married with two children. A BIG THANK YOU TO HONLEY POST OFFICE
Our regular newsletter is helped by the generous sponsorship of Honley Post Office, whose support we value highly.
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Honley High Notes
English RSC Update Autumn heralds the start of the new partnership between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Honley High School. On the 4th December 2009, we will be hosting the RSC’s Learning and Performance Network programme’s inset day. On the day, we will be joined by many of the staff from our feeder primary and junior schools. The focus for the day will be ‘Exploring Shakespeare in KS2/3’. The RSC’s Virginia Granger will be
leading the sessions; as well as being a Lead Practitioner for the RSC’s Education Department, Virginia is also an RSC actor. We look forward to the day and most of all, we look forward to the positive impact the RSC will have on students at Honley and beyond. In addition, as part of our ongoing partnership, 12 Year 11 students will be visiting Stratford in November to see a performance of ‘Twelfth Night’ at the Courtyard Theatre. The RSC’s performance of ‘Twelfth Night’ has received much coverage in the press and we look forward to seeing the play for ourselves.
Languages Extra-curricular Latin Ten students from years 8 – 10 (and a member of staff!) who started at Latin club last year have embarked on a two year GCSE Latin course in after-school classes this term. We hope to be able to visit Fishbourne Roman Palace and Bignor Villa in Sussex next Spring Term as part of our studies. Mrs Kaye Languages workshop for year 9 pupils at Greenhead College A big thank you to the following pupils for their fantastic behaviour and enthusiasm on the recent trip to Greenhead College for the languages workshop. I hope you enjoyed your day and all the new languages you learnt! Jessica Green, Haydn Evans,Sally Slingsby, Hayley Douglas, Ellie Townend, Lucy Richardson, Monisa Sajjid, Claudia Kingdom Charlie Slater, -Sharlott Weston, Hasib Rehman, Ben Mallinson, Taya Franco, Cameron Woodhead, Corrinne Field, Kyle Stanger, Simone Strickson, Oliver Linsell, Sam Hustler, Phoebe Lightowers, Robert Moulson, Hayley Devlin, Daniel Evans, Abbie Lindley. Also, Thank you to all the year 7-10 pupils who are giving up their lunchtime to work on an etwinning project with various foreign schools. Hopefully this will be a successful and worthwhile venture which will last many years! Miss Riley
Aimhigher 2009-10 Parents of 30 Year 9 students have recently been informed that their son/daughter has been selected to take part in the Aimhigher West Yorkshire programme. Aimhigher is a government funded initiative to help and support learners to move towards higher education/University. Students become involved in a number of activities over the course of 2 years, all of which are aimed at raising achievement, aspiration and progression. Recent events have included visits to Bradford University (Springschool and Passport to University), University of Leeds (University Beyond Schools Programme), University of Huddersfield (Futureheads and Summer Skills Lab), stepUP (Cathedral House, Huddersfield), and Oxfam Conference (Manchester). The programme is currently funded until 2011 and activities are organised both centrally and locally. Gill Harrison, Aimhigher Organiser
Technology Year 10 textiles students are starting a re-cycling project . We would be grateful for interesting re-usable clothing & textiles. The sort of thing we need will have different features, surface decoration, colourful prints, textures, pockets, interesting buttons/beads/fastenings, embroidery, lace, ribbon, OR may be reusable bits of ribbon, lace, cord, colourful laces, textured/sparkly yarns etc (those really annoying bits of ribbon inside cardies which hold them on the hanger but you end up cutting out) Jeans & combat trousers are great for making funky bags and skirts! Please bring anything you think we can use to me in Home Economic department. But remember we are not the clothing refuse centre! So -
YES PLEASE: Jeans; combats; dresses; interesting knitwear, thin bits of leather, fabric remnants, interesting/designer curtains NO THANKS: Bedding, plain curtains, socks, underwear, shoes, hosiery, towels, sportswear, upholstery, leather goods
Honley High Notes
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Music Marsden Jazz Festival 2009 Our Jazz Band, Soul Band and a number of soloists including ex students and staff performed at Standedge Visitor Centre on Sunday 11 October. This included our ‘singer/songwriter in residence’, folk legend Roger Davies. The bands performed superbly well and were well supported. Fastrack GCSE Music 2009 Our Year 9 Music GCSE grades were again fantastic with Charlotte Taylor and Holly Stevens gaining an ‘A’, Lucy Clews a ‘B’ and Liam Cheffins a ‘C’. Special mention must be made of Freya
Smith’s very high A* result taken in Year 8 (4 years early!) Fantastic success to all of these students as well as our regular Year 11 Music students receiving very good grades. Joseph We are performing Joseph and his Technicolour Dream Coat on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 November. This is a full production involving live orchestra, chorus and soloists. John Pearmain (Year 11) takes on the Joseph role and Saray Taylor and Shelley Summer (Year 11) take on the narrator part. Tickets are available from school from Monday 16 November. It will sell out.
Mr Baker
Drama and Dance Suga Brown workshops with Year 10 and 11 Dance Students and all Year 8 students Suga Brown Dance Company came to work with our students on 5th, 6th and 7th October. All year 8 students participated in a dance workshop in the school hall. It was wonderful to see what the dance tutors achieved with a large group of pupils in such a short time. Quite a few students got into it straightaway, but there were several who were clearly self-conscious and even a bit embarrassed. You could see their confidence grow by the minute and by the time we were half way through, they were fully involved. It was inspirational to see this happen. . Year 10 and 11 dance GCSE students supported Suga Brown, helping to involve all students and motivate them. It was a fantastic 3 mornings of Dance. The students loved the experience. Mrs Manning
Shear Success! Jake Berry 11LB who would like to be a farmer, has over the summer holidays achieved his sheep shearing qualification after attending a 2 day course in Blubberhouses, Otley. He has also been to visit 3 agricultural colleges, in York, Cheshire and Beverley and begun to apply to the ones he wants – hopefully to start next summer. He would really like to be accepted at Beverley. All colleges will mean him moving from home – not bad for 16! Jake has researched all the courses and colleges himself which shows great determination and maturity. Good luck for the future Jake!
Library
On the 5th October, Hanna Thorpe, Sophie Burgess, Freya Smith and Bronte Roe went to the Open Day at Kirklees Library Services’ Booksplus centre as part of International School Library Day. Authors Tom Palmer and Emily Diamond talked about their writing, and there was an opportunity to tour the warehouse and purchase books. The pupil librarians also took part in a quiz set by Tom Palmer and came out winners of a football trophy after a penalty shootout!
CYCLE SHEDS AND ‘ROAD’ SAFETY – AN UPDATE In newsletter 12 we reported on our success in getting our School Travel Plan approved by the Government and the fact that the grant obtained was to be used to install cycle sheds. These were completed over the summer break. We obviously hope that as many students as possible will make use of them but this will only be possible with parental permission and under certain conditions. Letters giving details and permission slips can be obtained from, and returned to, Mr Midgley. If you still have no alternative to driving students to school can we repeat the requests to -
Car share where possible
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Not drive through the school grounds
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Not drop off students in the entrance adjacent to the Caretaker’s house
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Not park on double yellow or zig-zag markings.
In the mornings it may be possible for you to drop off in the bus turn but this is not available for afternoon pick ups as the area is needed for bus parking. Gynn Lane provides an alternative drop off and pick up area. Your help in improving student safety in these ways is very much appreciated – thank you.
Mr Midgley
Sports News
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Honley High School Honley teams just champion! (2008-09) are the Kirklees Honley High school have been in champion form! In table Schools Year 8 League tennis, not only was Oliver Shaw the outright individual cham- Division 1 football pion, but the team were the Under 16 Huddersfield Schools’ champions. Champions. Having won all their The Under 13 football team were Huddersfield Schools’ previous fixtures, the Champions winning the cup after beating Holmfirth in the final. title was eventually The Year 10 football team won the Huddersfield Schools’ Un- assured after a very der 15 Cup. entertaining and nailThe Year 9 rugby league team won the Kirklees Association biting 4-3 victory over Holmfirth. Cup. NETBALL The Year 7 athletics team beat 17 other schools to Good luck to Georgina Hoare (year 11) who hopes to get into the Netball Yorkshire win the Kirklees Athletics Cup at Spenborough and the Year 7 rugby league team beat Huddersfield 8-16 Squad for the second year running. Congratulations to the following girls who have been selected for west Yorkshire in the Kirklees Shield final. netball
Y10 Emma Sanford, Y9 Libby Cuttell, Y9 Grace Boulton, Y8 Ellie Folger. Congratulations to the following girls who have been selected for Kirklees Netball:Year 10 Hannah Rowe, Georgia Booth, Emily Woodings, Natalie Dopson, Sophie Quigley. Year 9 Kirsty Woodhead, Emma Harrison. Year 8 Sophie Wilson, Ellie Birkinshaw. Malta Netball Tour 2009 At half term the year 10 and year 11 netball teams visited Malta to play in a 3 day tournament, as well as taking part in friendly matches against Maltese teams. Both year groups played extremely well, behaved impeccably and had an enjoyable week away, experiencing a very high standard of netball. The year 11 team played against very high calibre opposition and performed very well in an exceptional league. The year 10 team won their division against English and Maltese teams, bringing home medals and a trophy. Both year groups were a credit to Honley High School.
Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Well done to the 14 students who got selected to complete their Bronze Award at the Honley High Award Centre. They are currently working towards completing two sections before preparing for the expedition next year. In addition we also have 6 year 11’s and 10 year 10’s working on their Silver Award at present. Congratulations to the following students who have recently completed their Bronze Award: Kelsie Chilvers, Rachel England, Matty Schofield, Joe Allen, Chrissie Levick and Fliss Houston
BUDE Once again this October Year 8 went down to Bude for their Personal development and Activity week. This year though we took the largest number of students we have ever taken away – 230 and even more unusually the weather was fantastic, the first rain free week I have had in 30 years. The students always enjoy the week, but glorious sunshine just adds to the experience! As a result a fantastic week was had by both staff and students. Mr Sharrock