Headlines by James Saunders - 14 July 2023 by Honywood School

14th July 2023

HEADLINES

By James Saunders

PRIDE FETE

Equality, Representation, and Inclusion is at the heart of our school. Our core values of Trust, Respect, Equity and Excellence are designed to ensure that our environment remains inclusive. We believe that everyone, regardless of age, faith, ability, race, gender or sexuality is free to be themselves all the time and have equal opportunity to engage in their learning free from disruption.

Next week we complete our recognition of Pride Month by putting on our inaugural fete. The Pride fete is one aspect of our commitment to inclusion at Honywood. So what does Pride mean? Pride means everyone has a voice, it puts away the rift that prejudice used to cause. It is a huge celebration, a celebration of people, all people. Where people would like to live in a world full of respect, tolerance, consideration, support and love.

I received an email from Freddie, from Mr Harrison’s learning group, this week. They are holding a tombola for the fete on Tuesday and need some help. Here is Freddies message:

Got any drinks to spare?

CHa is holding a bottle tombola for the fete on Tuesday, and needs plenty of bottles. If you have any unopened bottles of any sort of drink (and shampoo, or such), please drop them down to Sc5 preferably before Tuesday. Anything will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Freddie

ENRICHMENT WEEK CONCLUDES

I am sure that it would not have gone unnoticed that things have recently been a bit different at Honywood. We did not publish headlines last week

because it was our last Enrichment Week of the year. I hope that like me you have been able to follow the exploits of our learners on Facebook. I would like to thank Mrs Frogley for all of the hard work she puts into our Facebook site to keep families updated with the exploits of our learners and the many teachers who took the hundreds of photos we shared with you all. I can see from the comments, that parents have really valued the ability to follow the progress of their children whilst they have been away and none of this would be possible without someone coordinating this. I would also like to thank our parents and community whose engagements with our social media bring it to life.

I would like to thank our staff who gave up their week, away from their own families, to support the residential trips to Paris, Berlin and Lincoln. None of these things are possible without staff going the extra mile.

THANK YOU AND FAREWELL

I would like to provide an update on our staff changes for next year and invite you all to join me in thanking those staff that are leaving us this term.

Mr Robertson will be taking up a new role at Beaulieu Park School and is looking forward to teaching A Level Physics.

Mr Harrison will be moving on to a head of year post at Leventhorpe school. This is a role Mr Harrison has wanted to take on for some time. Unfortunately he will be taking Bilbo the bearded dragon with him so we will also be a pet down.

Dr Jagiello will be taking up a new position as Raising Attainment Progress Leader at Notley High School. A great opportunity for Dr Jagiello to put her PhD to the test.

Mrs Karieva will be moving on to Tabor Academy to teach Maths. After her relocation from Ukraine, Mrs Karieva has had an excellent impact on our learners, and offered a friendly sense of familiarity for our learners displaced from Ukraine.

Dr Rai, our maths tutor, is now taking up a teacher training position. I am sure she will be back once she has completed her training.

Miss Pearce will be moving out of education to take up a new career in the NHS. Miss Pearce has been an excellent learning supervisor and has, during her time here, worked with almost every learner.

Good luck to everyone and thank you for your contributions to the Honywood community.

Introducing our New Lead Learners

Just before their work experience, C10 learners who had applied for Leadership Roles were interviewed. There were some exceptional applications and all of the leaners interviewed were very impressive. But, as always there has to be a decision to appoint and some learners would be disappointed, but they should all feel incredibly proud of their achievement in gaining an interview and hopefully the process will give them a small insight into the world of work and applying for jobs.

Well done to Caleb Gilbert who competed in a Karate Tournament in Croatia recently.

He fought incredibly well on the day, winning six fights, and coming away with the silver medalnarrowly missing out on the Gold by one point. This is the highest level of competition Caleb can compete at, so to win the silver was a huge achievement. Well done Caleb!

Congratulations to our new Lead Learners:

Our prefects are:

Laila Arkell, Livvi Arkle, Maddie Bates, Joe Byers, Frank Chapman, Rose Collier, Jack Garner, Olivia

Longhust, Damini Manku, Felix Martin, Tamar Milliken, Deborah Ogundare, Chloe Ramsay, Mia

Ramsay, Emily Roebuck, Maggie Smith, Nathan Succamore, Rosa Swain, Yvie Turner and Emily Wild

Dominic Scherer Lead Learner for Development Olivia Jinman Lead Learner for Wellbeing Harriet Trustrum Lead Learner for Leadership Olaoluwa Arowosegbe Lead Learner for Culture

The art of cooking starts with the kitchen FOOD ROOM REFURB

We have some really exciting developments happening in our Food room for the next 2 weeks and over the summer holidays. Looking at these current photos, I know that some families remember the food room looking exactly as they remember it from their own days at Honywood, so we are really excited to announce that the room is being refurbished over the Summer. This will provide excellent new facilities for both KS3 and GCSE learning in Food, and we are getting more workstations than we had previously, along with a whole set of brand new cookers. However, this does come with the challenge of ensuring we have enough equipment (utensils, pans etc) for our extra new stations! Should you wish to kindly donate towards the cost of equipment for our new food room, you can do so on ParentPay. Login and check your payment items to donate.

Your support is much appreciated, and we are looking forward to showing off some photos of the new room in September!

Next week we will be taking in the learners’ iPads for the Summer refresh. Please refer to emails and digital signage to see what time your Learning Group is scheduled to come to EN2.

MON 17TH JULY – C7 AND C8

TUES 18TH JULY – C9

WED 19TH JULY – C10

Donations from parents for prizes are welcome and are greatly appreciated.

All stalls are priced at £1 or 50p so please bring some coins with you!

The ice creams vans on site will take cash or contactless payment (not your cashless catering card).

Afternoon Tea is a fantastic experience for friends to enjoy together. Booking is essential via the Google Form

We have sittings at 1pm, 1.30pm and 2pm. Sit back and enjoy classic scones with jam & clotted cream, sandwiches, tea/coffee or squash.

Once booked learners will need to take their cash to EN2 before 3.20pm on Monday 17th July. Don’t miss out!

NYO Side-by-Side

The National Youth Orchestra are coming back to Saffron Hall in August with an incredible offer for young musicians. They are opening-up their rehearsal as a ‘side-by-side’ where young musicians can sit-in and play with NYO! This activity is FREE and open to musicians aged 11-18 (KS3+) playing at Grade 5 standard and above, but you don't need to have taken any exams. Following the side-by-side the NYO will perform a concert and are offering FREE tickets to under 25s.

Date: Friday 4 August 2023

Side-by-side: 4-5.30pm

Concert: 7pm start

Choral Composition Competition

More info & to apply online visit:

https://www.saffronhall.com/articles/nyo-inspire-side-by-side Questions & queries: inspire@nyo.org.uk

Chamber choir Granta Chorale are running a carol composition competition for students in years 7-13 from June to September 2023. The competition involves a workshop day where selected entrants can receive tailored feedback from Granta Chorale singers and professional composers Janet Wheeler and Sarah Cattley, as well as performance opportunities and a cash prize. Find out more: https://www.grantachorale.org.uk/carol-competition

Are you a parent or carer of a young person aged between 11-14 years?

Do you and your child want to take part in a research study that aims to find out how thinking and coping skills are related to mental health?