In The Spotlight #17 - Chorlton High School - Newsletter, Summer 2018 / 2019

IN THE

CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2019

ENDING PERIOD POVERTY ALSO INSIDE: STEMFEST 2019 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY #WESTANDTOGETHER WORLD BOOK DAY

HELLO...

#STEMfest2019

Welcome to the latest edition of In the Spotlight, celebrating all of our fantastic news, successes and achievements here at Chorlton High School.

This term, our school council have continued our empathetic pledge; #WeStandTogether by organising a fantastic ‘Red Box Project’ campaign to collect sanitary products for fellow learners in our community and helping to end period poverty.

Our library organised another brilliant ‘World Book Day’, helping to bring fun, imagination and creativity to the classroom, whilst also supporting our successful ‘Year of Reading’ educational drive. We have welcomed Manchester City Council and the Huffington Post to run a hard hitting workshop on ‘radicalisation’, some of our students have become ‘Diversity Champions’, attending the Houses of Parliament to receive ‘Outstanding Contribution’ awards for their workshops and rights work in school and beyond.

We are also incredibly proud that CHS has recently achieved prestigious accreditation for transforming practice under SSAT’s (The Schools, Students and Teachers Network) Framework for Exceptional Education. This accreditation is reviewed by leading academics and highlights the commitment of our fantastic staff as they continue to provide exceptional learning experiences for our students.

POET IN SPACE!

I hope you enjoy reading our latest issue of In the Spotlight, you can also keep up to date with all of our exciting news and activities by following our CHS Twitter account; @chorltonhigh. You can also subscribe to receive our fortnightly email newsletter; Chorlton Connection. To subscribe please forward your email address to: admin@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk RICHARD STOUT IN THE SPOTLIGHT EDITOR AND COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING OFFICER

INSIDE THIS ISSUE...

STEMFEST, 1 POETRY & MEDIA

WORLD BOOK DAY

8-9

RADICALISATION 5 HOME OFFICE & HUFF POST

CHS RECOGNISED NATIONALLY 2 DECOLONISING THE CLASSROOM

UNICEF AWARD CHOOSE LOVE

10 11

3 ENGLAND SQUAD STAR

INTERNATIONAL 4 WOMEN’S DAY

6

ANGIE THOMAS VISIT 6 #WESTANDTOGETHER 7 MENTAL HEALTH 7 TRAINING

ENDING PERIOD 12 POVERTY DIVERSITY, POTTER 13 & COLLABORATING

We welcomed the poet, Dom Conlon to our CHS Library to run a series of workshops with our Year 7 and Year 8 students as part of our #STEMfest2019 celebrations.

Dom began his sessions by reading a selection of his poems before going on to discuss the inspirations for his writing; his interest in space travel and futuristic technologies and his personal heroes, such as his father.

He encouraged our students to think and discuss their own heroes or inspirational figures. Dom then gave our budding poets new and creative ways to begin writing by providing them with sentence starters and asking them to jumble up and rearrange their words and ideas. Each student was then given the challenge to continue and complete their own poems using the ideas and techniques they had learned.

STEM CAREERS IN MEDIA AND ADVERTISING Year 9 students took part in a Media and Advertising workshop to find out about digital careers in STEM.

Working in groups they were tasked with creating an advertising pitch for a brand of cereal.

To do this, they considered target audiences, product users, budget constraints and creative advertising strategies. Students used data to research their products more deeply, allowing for a more informed decision for the best media strategy to advertise their cereal. They then worked as a team to write and develop their pitch. They took feedback from mini critiques between groups before their final presentation to the whole audience, where they showed impressive oracy and leadership skills to confidently deliver their message and to answer expert questions from the board.

The wining team won a highly coveted prize: a box of cereal!

Thanks to all the students who worked extremely hard and helped to make this an exciting and fun #STEMfest2019.

CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT

DE COLONISING THE CLASSROOM As part of the Portico Sadie Massey Reading and Writing Awards, we recently welcomed the Author Danielle Jawando to our CHS library to present ‘De-colonising the Classroom’; a creative workshop.

Born in Manchester, Danielle studied at Oakwood High School before it became Chorlton High and now lives in London, where she writes and teaches creative writing at Roehampton University. She has recently written a Young adult book, And the Stars were Burning Brightly, set in Wythenshawe, Manchester which will be published by Simon and Schuster in February 2020.

CHS IS ‘TRANSFORMING EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE’

During the workshop, Danielle worked with a group of Year 10 students to get them to think about their own experiences, where they come from and the importance of writing about ‘what you know’. She encouraged our students with examples of her writing and with a reading of the poem ‘My People’ by Kim Moore. Our students were incredibly inspired by Danielle and her workshop and many used their time to write poems of their own.

The workshop was organised by the Portico Library, Manchester as part of the ‘Portico Sadie Massey Reading and

Writing Awards’. The Portico library encourages young people in the North West to write.

They are currently running a creative writing competition open to all students in KS3/4/5. Entries must explore a historical or contemporary narrative based on a person or event in the North of England.

Further entry information can be found at www.theportico.org.uk/sadie-masseyawards

Chorlton High School has achieved accreditation for transforming practice under SSAT’s Framework for Exceptional Education.

The Framework for Exceptional Education is a self-review and planning tool incorporating SSAT’s 30 years’ of experience in school improvement. Co-developed with a group of high-performing schools and reviewed by leading academics, the framework supports schools in quality-assuring their work and sharing effective practice.

This identifies our work to be amongst the most effective practice in education nationally.

effective practice in education nationally. This is a true testament to our fantastic staff, with their commitment to developing themselves as exceptional teachers who provide the very best learning experiences for our children in their classrooms every day. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them all!”

ZOE MORRIS, HEADTEACHER

To achieve accreditation as transforming in practice, Chorlton High School was reviewed by another high-performing school and an independent moderator from SSAT. SSAT’s Chief Executive, Sue Williamson commented, “For a school to be accredited for transforming practice is a real credit to their team and the quality of the work that they are doing.”

Zoe Morris, Headteacher of Chorlton High School, said “We are very proud to receive this accreditation from the SSATs Leading Edge Team which identifies our work to be amongst the most

CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT

CELEBRATING WOMEN

RADICALISATION HOME OFFICE AND HUFFINGTON POST PERFOMANCE AND WORKSHOP

On Friday 25th January, our Whole School Councillors were invited to watch a performance and attend a workshop on ‘radicalisation’, along with the Home Office of Manchester City Council and the Huffington Post.

The performance explained themes such as hate and anger, and the interactive nature of the performance allowed us all to understand how we would deal with radicalisation.

All day, around school, we took time to talk, share, laugh, discuss, learn and grow together, as we celebrated another inspiring International Women’s Day! We began during form time and assemblies, with staff sharing their own inspirational icons, ranging from activist Malala Yousafzai and international law and human rights barrister, Amal Clooney; to their own families and mothers.

We invited Leila Herandi, a theatrical performer with Odd Arts, to run a range of thought provoking drama workshops throughout the day. These sessions gave all our students the opportunity to explore the rights of women and provided thought-provoking discussion points on equality and community.

Our ‘CHS Young Interpreters Club’ gave up their break time to share amazing family stories of the women that have inspired them, helping to promote culture and experiences from around the world.

Our Period Poverty Ambassadors also continued to inform students and staff about the ‘Red Box Project’, an ongoing drive to help end period poverty in schools. Plan International UK, a children’s rights charity, found that 49% of girls have missed at least one full day of school due to their period and 68% said they were unable to pay attention in class, and we are working to raise awareness and to help tackle this issue.

In February, under the direction of our Whole School Council, a ‘Red Box’ donation box was set up in the reception of our school to collect sanitary products in order to distribute them throughout our local community. During International Women’s Day, we were extremely excited and privileged to make our very first #PeriodPoverty donation! Our student representatives travelled to Barlow RC High School, Didsbury, and St Paul’s High School, Wythenshawe, to meet, support and deliver these products to their fellow learners.

To conclude this amazing day, our Year 7 students enjoyed an afternoon Oracy session provided by our English Department, celebrating some remarkable, powerful and world-changing women and their achievements throughout history!

Before the performance, our students were encouraged to express their existing opinions about religion and radicalisation, which gave them the opportunity to discuss different viewpoints. This helped our students to watch this amazing production with an open mind.

The performance itself was very thought provoking, keeping the audience engaged with the hard-hitting issues it presented. For the second part of the performance our students re-watched certain sections of it and were encouraged to stop the action when they thought a certain character could have acted differently. They were able to interact and replace the actor/actress enabling them to explore the ways different responses and scenarios can play out.

The Huffington Post was invited to film a short documentary of the performance in collaboration with the Home Office, and consequently a selection of our student councillors and staff were interviewed afterwards. They answered questions relating to radicalisation and hate, but in discussion afterwards, the question that stood out was specifically about Manchester: “Have you sensed more hate since the Manchester Arena attack?”.

A resounding response was that the Arena attack brought Manchester closer together. In addition, it has reminded us of the importance of love, community, and has made us realise that we are all citizens of the same city. #westandtogether #chooselove

CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT

OUR ENGLAND SQUAD STAR! One of our sporting students, Polly Watson, has been selected to be part of the England squad for the Women Under 15 European Double Header Fixture Camp in Switzerland. An amazing achievement!

Polly went on to play against an older 16’s Swiss team, proudly wearing the prestigious No. 7 shirt. She used the first 40 minutes to find her confidence, slowly figuring out the opposition and playing brilliantly during the second half. England eventually lost 2-1, but were playing an older and more experienced Swiss team that included

some 17-year-old girls in the line-up.

Team England had also only met and trained together for two days and were predominantly aged 14 so this result is a fantastic achievement.

We are incredibly proud of Polly, for her effort and dedication, and we would like to congratulate her and her parents for this success.

WRITER ANGIE THOMAS IN MANCHESTER Multiple award winning American author Angie Thomas visited Manchester in March to promote her new book On the Come up. The visit to Manchester Central Library, was part of a UKwide tour for Angie, who has taken the young adult book world by storm in the last few years, so it provided the perfect opportunity for a library trip.

Angie’s first novel, The Hate U Give rocketed to the top of the New York Times bestseller lists, staying there for 106 weeks! It has been just as popular at Chorlton High School, with Ms Hockey having to buy more copies of the book to cope with the demand! Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement in America, the story features, sixteen year-old Starr, who’s world is shattered when she is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. What she knows could destroy her community, but it could also get her killed. It’s a gripping and powerful novel about one girl’s struggle for justice. It was made into a film in 2018.

Students from Year 9 and 10 were invited on the trip and were treated to a funny, inspiring and unapologetically radical talk/ interview between Angie and Shirley May, from Young Identity poets. She was even persuaded to perform a rap at the end.

#WeStandTogether

Hours were spent afterwards waiting for her to sign books as everyone wanted pictures with Angie. Why not grab yourself a copy from the library and find out what all the fuss is about!

We are immensely grateful to Figen Murray for coming to CHS to speak to our students and Student Council Representatives in an assembly about her son, Martyn Hett, who was killed in the Manchester Arena bombing.

Tragically Martyn lost his life, but Figen delivered a brave and empathetic message of tolerance in her emotional presentation.

Her aim is to give young people the strength to positively influence and

shape their own world.

Figen encouraged our students to think about inclusivity and kindness whilst at school and beyond.

Thank you Figen #WeStandTogether

YEAR 10 COUNCIL - MENTAL HEALTH TRAINING Our Year 10 Student Council welcomed Lindy Newns from the Chorlton Civic Society, to provide them with mental health information and training.

The training held in our school library, focussed on hidden mental health issues and how these can impact different people in different ways. It introduced the problems many students can face whilst at school and at home, and allowed our council to discuss various processes used to identify and support those who may be in need. They also explored stereotypes, prejudice and stigmas and how an understanding of these three definitions can help to enrich the caring community within our school.

suffering in silence. Going forward, they would also like to develop ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ alongside a series of positive postcards with messages, quotes and affirmations to help celebrate and strengthen this compassionate drive.

Our council will now deliver their own mental health presentations to their various form groups, with the aim of working towards a positive impact for any student or member of staff who may be

CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT

WORLD BOOK DAY SPOT THE BOOKFACE In a twist on our usual World Book Day photo competition, staff were invited to have their photo taken as part of #Bookface!

The wonderfully effective photographs were then displayed around school, with a student competition to identify which teachers were hiding behind each book. Ms Hockey, CHS Librarian, had great fun matching books to staff!

Chorlton High School was the place to be on World Book Day on Thursday 7th March. Books took centre stage, as all Year 7, 8 and 9 students were able to choose a £1 World Book Day book to take home.

The line-up of books was impressive, with a special Diary of a Wimpy Kid story, a new Percy Jackson story and two award winning authors, Patrice Lawrence and Malorie Blackman, for our ‘Young Adult’ readers.

However, it wouldn’t be World Book Day without some dressing up and competitions!

For the second year running, English and Library staff donned fancy dress and there was keen competition to see who had the best costume. English teacher Mr Doran made the greatest impression as Dobby, from Harry Potter. Dressed in a sack, latex toes and a weirdly compelling latex Dobby mask, he kept being given socks by students in the hope of freeing him from a life of servitude (teaching)! Mr Langstaff, English teacher, ignored style rules and came in triple denim, as Lenny from Of Mice and Men, a true fashion faux pas. Ms Hockey starred as Librarian on Fire, as Katniss from The Hunger Games.

Students enjoyed the competition, matching up the member of staff with the book character. Well done to our students who won by knowing their Ms Havisham from their Snow White.

CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT

CHOOSE LOVE On Thursday 14th February, Chorlton High School celebrated another amazing student-led community event, our annual ‘Choose Love’ show.

UNICEF RIGHTS AWARD We are very happy to announce that Chorlton High School has officially been given the BRONZE – Rights Committed award from Unicef.

In the first week of term all of our staff took part in a whole school training event to introduce the ‘Rights Respecting Schools Award’ (RRSA) and explore the ways we can all embed these rights throughout our school.

Upcoming ‘Rights Respecting’ events will include:

To gain our BRONZE award, we organised and ran a number of events across our school in which the ‘Rights of the Child’ were explored:

Teaching staff were also asked to make short-, medium- and long-term personal pledges on ways to incorporate thinking about rights in lessons and across curriculum areas.

• Rights Ambassadors – All ambassadors will be approaching departments with ideas and creative ways to further explore the rights of students.

• Have Your Say Day – Rights Ambassadors developed and delivered a whole school questionnaire.

• Rights Ambassadors Training – all ambassadors had training on the rights of the child and the ways they could launch this drive in Year assemblies • School Assemblies – In Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 our Rights Ambassadors launched the ‘Rights Respecting Schools Award’ to their peers.

Our Student Rights Ambassadors helped to facilitate this session and their passion and enthusiasm were both extremely impressive and infectious.

We now have tremendous momentum as we prepare our detailed action plan to achieve the SILVER award.

• Rights Review Day – During lessons our Rights Ambassadors will be discussing any rights that are being actively talked about or signposted.

• A Right to Talk – This project will provide parents with details about a specific right. We will forward weblinks and videos to stimulate discussion at home about the many aspects and important elements of that right, along with questions to delve deeper into the importance of that right and of those children in the world not experiencing it.

Students from Years 7 to 11 organised their own rehearsals and used their own time after school to create, develop and prepare a fantastic range of outstanding dance and music pieces to share during the evening.

Beyond enjoying a fantastic showcase of creative talent, the aim of our annual ‘Choose Love’ show is to continue to build awareness of the continuing refugee crisis in Europe and to

raise much needed donations to send to our local charity Refugee Aid, Chorlton.

This year, we raised just over £300 in one evening!

A huge thank you to everyone who attended and supported this event. Thanks to all our exceptional performers and to parents, carers and staff who all contributed to make this another successful evening.

AFTERNOON TEA WITH THE LORD MAYOR Imagine being invited to afternoon tea with the Lord Mayor of Manchester! Four students, representing our student leadership and Whole School Council got to see behind the scenes of the life of the Lord Mayor – June Hitchen, with a visit to her council chambers during February half term.

The students experienced a range of aspects of Council life – trying on her Mayoral Robes, signing her visitors’ book and then a trip down to the Council Chambers were they debated two issues – ‘Should mobile phones be allowed in

school?’ and ‘Should homework be banned?’

It was a fantastic experience for those involved, hopefully inspiring the next generation of Parliamentary candidates!

Invited into her apartment, students chatted with the Lord Mayor over tea, sandwiches and an excellent selection of cakes – asking her questions about her role as the Mayor, her background in politics, getting into this role and her aspirations as the Mayor and for future.

CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT

ENDING PERIOD POVERTY

DIVERSITY CHAMPIONS

COLLABORATIVE TEACH AT CHS CHS was delighted to host the Collaborative TEACH Meet for the city.

There were more than 20 stalls led by Manchester teachers, showcasing the most exciting and important aspects of pedagogy across the city.

Representatives from 14 schools joined us to celebrate all things ‘teaching and learning’. Colleagues from across the city had the opportunity to discuss research and strategies for memory & recall, challenge, oracy, word-rich classrooms, SEN support, knowledge organisers, creativity, reading and writing, numeracy development, independent learning and so much more.

At Chorlton High School, we believe in developing Successful, Creative and Happy teachers and this event was a true exemplification of this vision. As a Teaching school, we pride ourselves on continuing to develop as a professional, collaborative learning community both within and beyond the school.

Each Year group has a specific charity to focus on their fundraising on. For Year 8 it is the ‘Red Box Project’. This project focuses on making sure no girl misses a day of school due to period poverty or the stigma that surrounds it.

One in seven girls have struggled to afford sanitary products according to the charity ‘Plan International’.

Here at Chorlton High School we want to change that. We have partnered with the Red Box Project to be a collection point for donated sanitary products. From there we ship sanitary products to other schools to help the wider community.

Theo Francis, a student councollor, who made the fantastic box explained, “When Ms Quinn told us about the incentive I immediately said that I could make the collection box and set the wheels in motion. Ms Quinn said she wanted a red pillar-box style collection point to tie in to the theme set by the Red Box Project.

“Some people say that it is ‘not right’ for a boy to help a ‘girls cause’ but at the end

of the day, we are all human. I only hope that through this project, as a school, we can break down the stigma around period poverty. After all, it would bring us one step closer to peace.”

Our Period Poverty Ambassadors have continued to inform students and staff about the ‘Red Box Project’, an ongoing drive to help end period poverty in schools!

In February, under the direction of our Whole School Council, a ‘Red Box’ donation box was set up in the reception of our school. This has been successfully used to collect sanitary products in order to distribute them throughout our local community.

During the recent International Women’s Day, we were extremely excited and

CREATIVE WRITING WITH REECE WILLIAMS We recently welcomed the poet and performer Reece Williams from The Portico Library, to run an inspirational creative writing workshop for our Year 7 and 8 students.

The workshop helped to stir our students’ thinking, energising them with ideas to

further develop their oracy skills. Together they explored concepts of identity, culture and belonging, before writing their own poems, inspired by the work of John Agard, playwright and poet.

Our huge thanks to Reece and to the Portico Library for this fantastic session!

privileged to make our very first #PeriodPoverty donation!

Our student representatives travelled to Barlow RC High School, Didsbury, and St Paul’s High School, Wythenshawe, to meet, support and deliver these products to their fellow learners.

Two of our Year 9 students have represented Chorlton High on a University of Manchester project, ‘Diversity Champions’.

The project was set up by the University in response to the rise in hate crime recorded after the Manchester Arena attack in May 2017. Through the course of the year, Zak Gardner and Aleeza Ahmad have taken part in a number of training events around different aspects of diversity such as mental health, race and religion and LGBT rights. They ran a diversity day in school, running workshops for a number of Year 7 students. Along with Miss Slinger, Teacher of Geography, they also took part in a study tour to Krakow in Poland around Holocaust education which included a visit to Auschwitz.

At the end of the first year of the project, the Champions and Miss Slinger have received ‘Outstanding Contribution’ awards in recognition of their work and support for the project. They were all invited to the Houses of Parliament in March, where they spoke about their experiences and the impact of the project at an event held by the Polish Embassy, focussing on their time in Poland and at Auschwitz.

We have now begun the second year of the project with the University and have recruited two new Year 9 champions. We are excited to see the project grow and develop further, building on our community and diversity work in school.

HARRY POTTER BRINGS MAGIC TO OUR YEAR OF READING

In February, to continue our Year of Reading campaign, we focused on Harry Potter and celebrated all things wizardry and magical!

We organised another successful Harry Potter themed quiz in our library – bringing together students and staff to test their Potter knowledge, battling it out in teams of four. After various hard-fought rounds, victory, once again, went to a student team; ‘Marauders’, with our staff team; ‘The Chudley Cannons’ beaten into

second place! We would like to thank everyone who took part in this enjoyable and well-attended event.

We also ran a Harry Potter themed competition. To enter, we wanted students to explore their vocabulary with etymology, the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed over time, to invent a wondrous new spells using Greek and Latin root words. Winners each received a prize bag and golden tie!

CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT

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