Spotlight On South - CHS South Issue 5

Welcome

Resilience, Responsibility and Optimism

Welcome to our Autumn 2020 edition of ‘Spotlight on South’.

Despite the challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic, the CHS South community has responded with resilience, responsibility, and optimism. I feel exceptionally proud that the efforts of our school community have ensured that we have remained open to all Year Groups each and every day of the Autumn Term to allow us all to restore and renew together.

Despite some of the limitations placed on us, our commitment to provide opportunities for our community to be a creative, happy and successful one remains steadfast. This edition of ‘Spotlight on South’ should provide us all with pause to celebrate our achievements over the Term gone by and look forward with optimism to our journey together in 2021.

Have a safe and peaceful festive season.

David Prophet Headteacher, CHS South

New BuilDing

There’s No Place Like Home

The end of our very own yellow brick road (or should that be pink?) is in sight as we draw ever closer to the move from our temporary site at Lowry House to our permanent home in our brand-new state of the art building at Hough End in September 2021.

Work on site has continued apace over the past few months thanks to the efforts of BAM Construction, and we are thrilled with the progress made to date.

We are currently working to finalise our exciting plans for the grand opening of our building in September 2021, but for now you can enjoy a sneak peek of the progress so far:

Theatre Sports Hall

2nd Floor Teaching Space & Corridor

Arial view of CHS South

remote

Microsoft Teams - Distance Learning

Over the past 9 months, staff at CHS South have worked incredibly hard to organise and manage an engaging and highly accessible distance learning platform on Microsoft Teams.

This has enabled students, staff and parents to stay connected throughout these incredibly difficult times and ensured that students learning never stops.

Home learning through Microsoft teams has continued to grow throughout our new academic year, led by our curious learners and built their inventive and exciting online projects during the summer term.

FAMILY

Year 7 Tutor Team Celebration

Positivity and creative thinking are two aspirational attributes we celebrate highly at CHS South, and on the evening of Monday 12th October 2020, our Year 7 CHS South tutor team connected digitally with their community by hosting a virtual quiz for families to take part in.

Attendance was superb with 33 families joining us online to compete against each other during four fun rounds. Ms. Galbraith presented ‘Close ups’ and a treasure hunt and Mr Mundell hosted a general knowledge and black history topic to end the quiz.

The three families with the most points were gifted with:

1st place Amazon Tablet Donated by the Year 7 Pastoral Team.

2nd place £20 voucher for Proof Bar & Cafe Donated by Proof.

3rd place Bouquet of flowers Donated by Rodgers the Florist.

Our tutor team also made calls to the parents of each of their tutees’. They discussed the ways our students have enjoyed their transition to high school and the added support they have received to settle during the recent extremely difficult times.

Ms Burke, Assistant Headteacher noted:

“This was a nice informal way to get to know the newest members of the South family. It was a great alternative to the usual parent and tutor evening where we would meet parents in person.”

SHARING MacMillan Coffee Morning

To celebrate the fabulous work of Macmillan Cancer Support and to mark their annual Coffee Morning, we invited all our fantastic families to share in this baking event at home.

We received a fantastic array of photographs and enjoyed seeing all of the extremely impressive cake creations! Staff were also involved too, with many thinking creatively about ways to support, by baking, selling strawberry plants and raising awareness for this amazing charity.

A huge thanks to our families and community for your donations, you raised over £100.

Welcome...

As a special thank you, and to welcome the Year 7 families who took part in raising money for Macmillan, our school catering company donated a lovely afternoon tea mini hamper.

These were hand delivered by Mr Mundell to say thank you and welcome them to our CHS South family.

online Virtual Open Evening 2020

Usually in October we have the privilege of opening our doors to welcome Year 5s and 6s and their families to explore our CHS South community.

During this exciting event, they got an opportunity to meet Mr Prophet, Headteacher, experience live lessons and chat to staff and students about life at CHS South.

Of course, 2020 was a year like no other and our Open Evening went virtual!

Our Headteacher gave his annual speech, with reference to our upcoming new school building! Students and staff showcased the collaborative working relationships and our strong family values that underpin teaching and learning in our school.

We also featured an exciting first look around our new permanent home, Hough End. Ms. Burke alongside Head Girl, Mandy and Head Boy Manraj, were given a special tour of the BAM construction site, eagerly viewing our new building and grounds.

We look forward to opening our brand new doors in September 2021!

Use the web address below for a brilliant virtual introduction to CHS South. www.chssouth.org.uk/open-evening

PATHWAYS

Exciting New Learning

We are really proud of our Year 9 students as they have embarked on their exciting journey towards GCSE study.

They are continuing to study all core subjects and their compulsory national curriculum subjects, but also now have the opportunity to spend some more dedicated curriculum time in subjects they really want to develop their knowledge and skills in. Subjects such as photography, design technology, health and social care, drama, and PE to name but a few.

Our Year 9 team has been really impressed with student maturity and focus, noting how much they are enjoying each of their new and exciting subjects.

This is only the beginning of truly memorable learning experiences, great personal development, and academic success.

SUCCESS

Year 9 Achievement Group

Over the last seven weeks we have been running an Achievement program for Year 9 students to focus on revision strategies and techniques.

Students have worked exceptionally well, studying in school and via our virtual learning platform, Microsoft TEAMS. Subject leaders have provided assistance to help develop personalised revision plans and schemes for success.

All the students who attended have made great progress, showing amazing commitment to improving their revision skills and exam outcomes.

EMPATHY

Reading has never been so important!

We want all of our students to enjoy reading for pleasure, broaden their horizons, build empathy and escape into new, imaginative worlds.

This half term, all students were given a book of their choice and enjoyed a day exploring the characters and plot. Students took part in an exciting book fair, meeting virtually with different authors, examining a range of genres and texts, and used their new knowledge during a range of fun quizzes.

Students have also explored why reading is vital for relaxation, learning that regular readers report fewer feelings of stress than non-readers, learning that non-readers are 28% more likely to report feelings of depression!

COMMUNITY

Black History Month

To celebrate Black History month, Year 7 enjoyed a joyful celebration event involving musical entertainment with DJ Kay, sporting activities with Mr Jones, and a superb African & Caribbean dance session delivered by The Ash Company.

Staff and students thoroughly enjoyed this amazing celebration of community, culture and togetherness. One student in particular was so impressive during their dance sessions that The Ash Company indicated they would be interested in providing him a scholarship!

Black History Month celebrations continued, as students shared and enjoyed further activities outlined in a brilliant BHM resource booklet.

ESSENTIAL Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month through literature in our curriculum.

All students at CHS South were offered a free copy of the award winning History book ‘Black and British – a Short Essential History’ by David Olusoga.

The book charts the History of black people in Britain from the time of the Romans to the Windrush migrations and on to the present day.

David Olusoga explores the stories of Black Britain at a personal level by focusing on individuals throughout Black British History. The book compliments our Year 7 History unit which explores migration and multiculturalism in Manchester, including the story of a local Black British hero, Euton Christian.

The student response whilst studying Black and British has been overwhelming, and a virtual Zoom book club has been planned to continue this learning opportunity.

In English, Year 9 chose to read Ghost Boy by Jewell Parker R as a reading book for their reading lesson. Ghost Boys is an eerie depiction of life after death, (specifically after that life is taken by a Police Officer) involving prejudice, misunderstandings, and ever-present fears surrounding racial injustice.

Year 7 Drama students used Ghost Boy to input into a new scheme of learning, as a commitment to ensure diversity in the academic curriculum. They explored the book’s themes and characters to develop practical ways to bring the story to life in the classroom.

PERPLEXING

Codebreaking and Cryptography

How did Julius Caesar send secret military?

How have prisoners of war communicated between cells?

A group of our fantastic Year 9 students had the opportunity to join with students from other schools for a virtual Codebreaking and Cryptography enrichment evening.

They delved into ancient science and the art of Cryptography with Open University Mathematician, Katie Chicot before putting their mathematical skills to the test and breaking a series of intriguing and perplexing codes!

Mr Tollast, who helped coordinate the event, said:

“Our students really did us proud, and they’re looking forward to hosting their own Cryptography Club when extra-curricular clubs are up and running again!”

respect

Prejudice, Discrimination, Human Rights

In their RESPECT lessons, Year 9 have explored the darkness and the light of modern societies through the veil of prejudice, discrimination, and human rights to deicde whether the world has made great steps towards human rights.

Issues for research have included; has Covid 19 led to an increase in prejudice and discrimination, the Uigher Muslim crisis in China and how this affects the ways we ‘enjoy’ popular culture, and the Black Lives Matter movement, writing speeches inspired by Dr. King and President Obama.

A number of our Year 9 students bravely contributed to an assembly on International Men’s Day, highlighting the positive contributions men play in society and focusing on the challenges they face through sometimes toxic expectations placed upon them.

Remember, boys and men do feel sad too.

However, this important acceptance of challenges was uplifted with a discussion about positive male role models. These figures included Malcolm X, Kevin Hart, Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein, Ed Sheeran, as well as our own fathers, brothers, and grandfathers.

Year 9 has also begun to investigate the state of wealth and poverty in the UK. Many were shocked to learn the enormous disparity between the rich and poor in our country and across the world.

Pertinently, we have explored how this issue was a contributing factor towards the Grenfell disaster, linking together politics, media and it’s biases. This learning will culminate later in the academic year during a further meeting to discuss who is responsible for improving the state of poverty in the UK.

GOLD

Youth Sports Trust

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded Gold Status from The Youth Sport Trust.

The Quality Mark is a nationally recognised badge of excellence for PE and school sport.

YST use the Ofsted guidance and the relevant Department of Education publications to support the PE and Sport Premium of Schools. Our inspection highlighted strengths in:

• Overall vision for PE, physical activity and school sport

• Quality of PE

• Quality of school sport

• Quality of physical activity

• Use of PE, physical activity and sport as a catalyst for wider learning.

Throughout the national lockdown our PE team provided engaging online fitness activities through the CHS South Microsoft Teams platform and we also delivered live zoom High Intensity Training sessions with a number of year groups.

united

Year 9 Anti-Bullying Week 2020

The theme for Anti-Bullying Week 2020 was: United Against Bullying.

It ran from Monday 16th - Friday 20th November and CHS South students showed their support by developing a range of anti-bullying posters.

The quality of the posters, both in design and content, was exceptional, featuring powerful and empathetic messaging. It was heartwarming to see our students so unified for this issue and it was clear they consider each other as members of the same family.

LEADER

Student Success

Neishai’s love of football began in Year 2 when she was 6-7 years old. She has studied players, managers and teams and used video games such as FIFA to develop her skills ever since.

At 8 years old Neishai joined Old Trafford junior football club enjoying success and still remains on the team. She also has a training contract with Manchester City Girls football team and aims to be signed on a full contract when the next season begins. To date Neishai has been Woman of the Match numerous time’s whilst helping her team win the cup final in the Salford league

In addition, Neishai plays for both the girls and boys’ teams at CHS South and has been constantly praised by all Manchester Schools for her commitment and energy during games. She now trains four times a week and shows a fantastic dedication to her chosen sport.

We wish Neishai the very best of luck in all her future competitions and endeavours.

Team Work Sporting Success

CHS South and British Cycling

We have worked closely with British Cycling in PE lessons to build cycling competency and confidence.

During these lessons, students were selected take part in one to one sessions at Manchester’s Regional Cycling Centre and compete against other schools at the Manchester Velodrome.

This pathway is one that will continue to flourish at CHS South and we will continue to provide opportunities for gifted cyclists to visit the Velodrome.

Vist to Manchester United

In 2019, CHS South were invited to visit the Theatre of Dreams to watch Manchester United play Colchester United in quarter finals of the Carabao Cup.

All our students thoroughly enjoyed our trip and it was even better to see the home side win! Hopefully, fans will be allowed back into stadiums in the near future, so our students can continue to enjoy competitive sport and be rewarded for their outstanding contribution to school sport.

Team Work Sporting Success

Table Tennis

Table tennis continued to be a success at South, with high numbers playing at social times and brilliant attendance at after school clubs.

In 2019, our U13s Table Tennis teams were crowned Manchester School Champions in the singles and doubles format. Well done to all the students who play every day in casual competitions and to those who have represented the school in their own time.

Junior NBA Basketball

Our Year 7 and 8 teams made a great start to the season in 2019. We reentered the Manchester Schools Leagues and for the first time, the regional Junior NBA competitions.

Year 7 and 8 were competing regularly in both formats; however, the season was short due to the NBA and NGB guidelines.

Well done to all players who continue to represent the school teams and work hard for the school.

Team Work Sporting Success

KS3 Girls Football

Girls’ football has thrived at CHS South. We are now becoming established across Manchester schools; entering all competition formats for girls in our school.

In 2019, our U13s had brilliant success, achieving the silver medal at the Manchester Schools Futsal competition. In addition, our Year 7 had huge success in the Manchester Schools Cup. The team beat Co-op Academy and TEMA in the rounds and Didsbury High in the quarter finals.

Unfortunately, the national lockdown did not allow us to complete the competition, but I am sure the girls cannot wait to start to playing again.

Inclusive school sport

As part of our mission to keep all students active, inclusive extra curricular activities are an essential part of our student’s calendar. All our clubs are free, open to all students and are non-selective.

One real success story has been our girls club, which offers a range of bespoke activities to make sport and activity fun. During this club we offer: trampolining, Pilates, rounder’s, skipping sessions, aerobics, cycling and brisk walks. The attendance at this club remains really high and we will continue to promote and run this for all students.

Team Work Sporting Success

Year 7 Football

Our CHS South A team had a brilliant start to their high school football journey, reaching the semi-finals of the Manchester Schools Cup.

The boys beat Burnage and Loreto in the Rounds and TEMA in the quarter finals. They lost to Co-op North in the semi-finals but played amazingly well throughout the match. The boys also had success in the Manchester Schools League, finishing third overall.

We are very proud of what the team achieved last year, and we hope their love for sport continues to grow throughout Year 8.

Year 8 Boys Football

Our boys’ CHS South A team had good start to their second year of school football, showing determination and resilience against tough opposition.

CHS South finished second in the Manchester League, with wins against Co-op North-B and Manchester Health Academy. Close draws against Burnage and MEA Wythenshawe and a loss to Loreto meant they finished second in the league.

We hope they continue to thrive and enjoy their school football.

HEALTHY Manchester Mile Competition

It is recommended that children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 years old take part in 60 minutes or more of moderateto-vigorous physical activity everyday.

With this in mind, and with the CHS South extra-curricular programme looking a little different this year, our PE team have worked creatively to design ways to keep students active and competing against different schools across Manchester.

During Autumn 1, over 100 superb students competed in the ‘virtual’ Manchester Mile.

This competition was ran in collaboration with our amazing partners at The Manchester Schools PE Association. It was fantastic to see the students running, pushing themselves outside their comfort zones and most importantly having fun.

The PE team would like to celebrate every student involved, it was a delight to see so many taking part.

Manchester Mile Competition

Top runners from each year group:

Year 7 Girls

1st – Lola Graham Monroy

2nd – Lily Graham Monroy 3rd – Milly McBridge 4th – Rainbow Geist

Year 7 Boys

1st – Amarri Croasdale 2nd - Raphel Crawford 3rd - Viktor Krasov 4th - Seerani Johnson-Reid

Year 8 Girls

1st – Gabriela Pietralczyk 2nd – Juliette Garrabet-Thomas 3rd – Eva-Grace Kelly 4th – Oliwia Kazmierczak

Year 8 Boys

1st - Xandon Williams 2nd - Luca Barnett

3rd – Donzayo Esdaille-Lewis 4th – Ali Shahot

Year 9 Girls

1st – Rosa Morrello 2nd – Mandy Ali 3rd – Zubeida Adbi 4th - Hanaah Abdullah

active

Netball Team Success

Huge congratulations to our Year 8 and Year 9 Netball teams.

Both teams have recorded a second place finish in their respective divisions during the 19/20 season of the Manchester Schools Netball Competition.

Each team won 6 out of their 8 matches, drawing and losing only one game each throughout the league, proving consistency is key to success.

With this year’s league currently on hold, and in celebration of their achievements, our students were invited to a special rewards evening to catch up and share a pizza together as a team!

We are immensely proud of the girls’ exemplary conduct, individually and as a team, during their games and brilliant skills development, providing an excellent foundation for future achievement.

Netball Team Success

Congratulations to the following girls: Year 8 Phoebe Burton Gabriela Pietralczyk Holly Scott Oliwia Kazmierczak Maryam Waqar Seren Rae Kiana Wilson-Chikafa Jada Wilson-Chikafa Eva- Grace Kelly Lois Burton Year 9

Hanaah Abdullah Zalaika Hussain Sanii Jennings-Sealey Sophie Wilson Marium Faisal Roberta Smadeci Zanae Duhaney Iqra Yousaf Mandy Ali

GOLD

School Games Mark Gold

We are delighted to announce that we have retained the School Games Gold Mark Award for the 2019/20 academic year.

The School Games Mark is a Government led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust. It has been presented to CHS South as a reward for our commitment to the development of competition across our school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for this continued success.

Up until school closures in March, CHS South had a high amount of young people competing in local interschool competitions this year, enjoying great success in netball, table tennis, girls football and boys football.

Unfortunately, our students couldn’t finish their respective seasons and competitions due to Covid19. However, we are extremely proud of our young sports people and athletes for their dedication to all aspects of school sport, especially our young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our competitions possible.

ENJOY

Diane Modahl Sports Foundation

The Diane Modahl Sports Foundation (DMSF) is a registered charity, working with young people from areas across the North West. They provide exciting opportunities to learn develop and grow whilst enjoying sport at school and beyond.

This half term, we welcomed James Keegan, renowned Irish Dancing sensation and lead dancer in Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance to present an incredible DMSF skills session.

Year 7 and Year 8 students enjoyed a fantastic workshop, learning Tap and Irish dancing techniques before taking part in their own special choreographed stage routine. Well done to all our students who took part in the day.

We are currently developing future events with the Foundation, alongside our partners at Broughton Park.

Leader Student Success

Gage Jones has been playing football since the age of 3, at age 7 he started to play for Fletcher Moss, scoring 2 goals during his very first game, helping the team to win their first game that season.

As a commanding centre half, Gage leads this team by example, scoring brilliantly from free kicks and also a halfway line goal!

Gage plays with a rare talent and has represented many teams to include Manchester Lions and Irlam Town. In addition, he has been the stand out player in our school team, captaining the side to semi final success in the Manchester and Greater Manchester cup games for 2 years in a row.

More recently, he has undertaken trials at Bury, Bolton, Rochdale with interest from Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City.

Gage and his family settled on the elite set up at Rochdale and he we are pleased to announce, he has signed a two-year contract with Rochdale AFC. Following this up with selection to play for Manchester School Boys, he will represent his district when competitions recommence.

We wish Gage the very best of luck in all his future competitions.

REWARDS

MFL Student Celebration Events

Our brilliant MFL department is running a fantastic new Friday morning Rewards Breakfast for nominated Year 7, 8 and 9 students.

Students earn an invite by showing excellent effort in Spanish or French lessons, by completing their Pearson Active Learn homework early and by working hard to improve their motivation to learn.

So far, over 50 young linguists have been invited to enjoy a pain au chocolat and chocolate caliente and we will continue to host Rewards Breakfasts throughout the academic year.

Winter MFL Quiz

During our Winter term, students enjoyed a festive MFL Christmas Quiz in December using Microsoft Teams and hosted by Ms Tomkow and Miss Holden.

Our young quizzers competed fantastically during this extra curricular evening event, with winners receiving a variety of prizes!

Influencers

Think big, make change, speak out

Do you think all young people should be able to experience the arts and culture in your city?

Would you like to make change and become a creative influencer?

This advert was featured across Manchester for young people to apply for the position of creative influencer. Four CHS South Students were successful in becoming Creative Influencers and we are really proud of them. Well done, Jezeil (Year 9) and Hunter, Olivia and Lucy (Year 7).

We are excited that you have such influential voices and leadership opportunities in our amazing city.

PIONEERS Everday Dance Creativity

Year 7 and 8 students have been the pioneers of creativity in our school, having unlocked, experienced and begun to explore new possibilities during every lesson in Dance!

Year 7s have focussed on Matilda the Musical alongside Musical Theatre, using chairs and tables as props. Year 8s have explored different everyday stimuli to deepen their existing knowledge of Street Dance, using the classroom environment to support their learning.

They have improved a range of brilliant skills including physical expression and communication, confidence-building through team work, as well as drawing upon their oracy, literacy and numeracy skills!

By taking full advantage of all available resources, both year groups have developed their choreography and continued to grow into creative, happy and successful individuals.

CREATE

Observe, Experiment and Apply

This term, Year 7 Art students have developed their colour theory knowledge and observational skills by exploring the characters from ‘Lost and Found’, a book by Oliver Jeffers.

Year 8 have created their own characters, inspired by ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’ by Tim Burton. Studying stop frame animation and practicing their application skills with oil pastels.

Year 9 students have experimented with a wide range of drawing and making techniques using the theme of Sci Fi.

They began their art brief by drawing a range of Sci Fi inspired objects, including shells, insects, circuit boards and traditional amour.

We look forward to viewing all of the brilliantly creative Year 9 final pieces!

EXHIBITION

Be Heard

CHS South Voices

Students took part in an extremely exciting experience as they auditioned for an upcoming singing programme and performance.

Over 35 young vocalists, including Year 7, 8 and 9 students gave up their free time after school to practice and perform. Students have shown amazing commitment,organising vocal training in their minichoir bubbles and building confidence by supporting each other to get better.

We are developing various virtual opportunities for our excited and enthusiastic performers to take part in during the new year.

We have been incredibly impressed with the creativity and hard work on show, it can be easy to forget the power music holds in these times but our students have ensured the magic of singing together is still alive.

Well done to all involved!

ODD

Thought Provoking Theatre

Year 8 had a brilliant and thought provoking performance from Odd Arts exploring the dangers of Knife Crime.

Odd Arts is a charity using theatre to reduce risk, increase opportunities, reduce disadvantage and increase wellbeing. Using theatre to challenge the way people see themselves and the world, they work with over 25,000 people each year within the criminal justice, education and community networks.

They have worked alongside young people (with lived experience of knife crime) to develop a theatre performance exploring the root causes and journey towards serious violence.

Participants first watch a performance and are then given a chance to replay certain scenes to try out alternative strategies of early intervention. The charity has also created a workshop that addresses the myths, misconceptions, stereotypes and facts around knife crime.

The performance, workshop and messaging, has reached 1000’s of young people in Central Manchester and our Year 8 students were lucky to be part of this vital education programme.

Odd Arts will return to CHS South to provide further workshops on Mental Health, Covid and Kindness.

identity

Arts Award

This term, curious Year 9 students have developed valuable communication and teamwork skills by learning to creatively problem solve whilst studying for their Arts Award.

Our students have studied self-expression, gaining a deeper understanding of the ways the Arts enriches the experience of learning at school and as preparation for life after. They have researched individual identity and management to build confidence in valuable transferable career skills, such as teamwork and communication skills.

All Year 9 students are working towards securing this qualification which helps provide experience of arts industries in preparation for employment.

WELLBEING Staff Champions

We continue to celebrate our amazing staff, their support and equally wonderful achievements!

We asked each member of staff to think about a colleague who had exemplified one of our Qualities of Success (optimism, empathy, motivation, creativity, curiosity, responsibility, resiliency, reflection and practice) and to nominate them as a School Champion.

Staff also received their champion nomination cards as a wonderful reminder of the support they have offered to make CHS South Creative, Happy and Successful.

Our staff wellbeing and mental health initiative has continued to develop and grow.

Using feedback, we have developed how we structure meetings, planning and marking for our teaching staff. We also made professional development a focus for all staff to encourage reflection their mental health, at work and at home.

We have also celebrated our superb CHS South family with number of wellbeing events, helping to keep our staff happy and healthy.

festive

Christmas Card Competition

Christmas Merry

from students and staff at CHS South

Well done Realdo who is our Christmas Card design competition winner!

His amazing artwork will feature in our fantastic 2020 Christmas card design. Thanks to all who entered.