SPRING 2016
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Featuring ANNUAL SKI TRIP Liverpool hope university visit WORK EXPERIENCE Sports update World book day CLEAN For the queen Able gifted and talented Connecting through classrooms
connecting
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classrooms The Whitby in africa
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FROM THE HEADTEACHER As we now move into Spring, it is always a good point to take a look at all the things that we have done during the dark, cold months behind us. Like previous years, it always amazes me that during such a short term the students involve themselves in so much. Please take some time to read this Spring Newsletter and enjoy the reports on how our students gave up their half term holiday to work in South Africa. Spending a week in the township of Gugulethu supporting a Primary and a Secondary school will live with these youngsters for the rest of their lives. An experience that enabled everyone to appreciate the beauty of the Capetown area but also supported young learners in developing opportunity whilst working together. Opportunity to develop new skills came once again, as a selection of students from across year groups joined staff on our annual Ski trip to Italy. A wonderful time was had by all with no broken bones or injuries, including the staff!
Details of The Brilliant Club visit to Manchester University, charity work, excellence in Attitudes to Learning scores, World Book Day and much more are all contained within this edition highlighting the many things our students involve themselves in on a regular basis. Well done to them all!
In the summer edition, I hope to be able to inform parents of the continued redevelopment of the school following the ÂŁ2.6m of Capital Building Funding from Cheshire West and Chester Council. This will see some significant changes to the school for completion by summer 2018.
This time of year is also a good time to remind parents of some of the aspects of school that are vitally important to your child’s future success. Attendance and punctuality, standards of behaviour and dress all support us in building a community that works together to enable your child to reach their full potential.
Please enjoy this Newsletter and the many things our young learners, your children, have been involved in. I wish you an enjoyable break over this Easter period and look forward to welcoming everyone back into school on Monday 18th April 2016
Finally, this edition alerts parents to refurbishment work to the Overpool building that will start over the Easter break. The next phase of window replacement will see a further reduction in the old metal frames offering more classrooms a dry and draft free learning environment.
WORLD BOOK DAY
Thursday 3rd March was World Book Day and as usual, The Whitby High School celebrated in style! 250 balloons plus 250 excited children equalled a lunchtime of joy and celebration as our students released the myriad of colour into the sky. As with previous years, our Year 7 students completed a balloon tag, which detailed their name, the schools’ address and their favourite book. In the hopes that our balloons would travel far and wide, the children also asked what the recipient’s favourite book was. Attaching the tags to the balloons, we prepared for take-off! On Thursday, the majority of the year group gathered on the grass by the Sycamore gates and on the count of three, freed the balloons from their excited grasps. In the past we have had tags returned from as far as Finland! Who knows where our roaming balloons will end up this year...Happy World Book Day!
Lord of the flies On Saturday 6th February, Miss Mitchell and Mr Perrett took a group of enthusiastic Year 11 Literature students to the Liverpool Playhouse to see Lord of Flies. The majority of GCSE Literature students study the text, written by William Golding and this was an ideal opportunity to further their understanding in an enriching manner. The excursion began with a much-needed visit to Costa Coffee! After the caffeine fix was had, the teachers and students headed to the Playhouse and it was not long before they took their seats. The play itself was magnificent and really developed their understanding. Following the performance, it was clear how much the students had enjoyed it, by the excited discussions that they had on the train journey home.
Window replacement Following the successful window replacement programme in 2014, we are pleased to inform you that we are about to commence a further phase of window replacements in the Overpool Building. Work is expected to commence on 4 April and continue through to June. As a result of this, some lessons will be relocated to different classrooms during the project but disruption for students will be kept to a minimum. We are hopeful that we will be in a position to phase further replacements over the coming years, and will keep you informed of progress with this. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause but we hope to have your support in continuing to improve the learning environment for our students.
Do you want to Become a teacher? The Port Alliance School Direct Secondary programme is still accepting applications for 2016/17 in the following subject areas: Art, Drama, Design Technology, Modern Foreign Languages (French or German) Are you interested in becoming a secondary school teacher? Would you like to be trained by experienced subject mentors committed to developing and supporting the next generation of teachers? Would you like to feel part of the school from the very first day? Then apply to train with The Port Alliance, working in partnership with The University of Chester. Please look at our website or contact Miss H Speed Schooldirect@whitbyhs.cheshire.sch.uk for more information
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Brilliant club A huge congratulations to 11 graduates of The Brilliant Club, a new programme started at The Whitby High School this year. Eleven Year 8 students attended university style tutorials during the course of the Programme Building and Programming a Mini Robot. They all completed a 1500 word assignment, a huge academic challenge for these students. At the end, they were rewarded with a graduation ceremony at the University of Manchester and got to experience a day in the life of a university student. The Brilliant Club programme aims to give young students an experience of university learning to help them make an informed decision in the future. Well done!
punctuality
Ten of our Able, Gifted and Talented Year 9 students have been involved in setting up and running the BIG maths quiz for our local primary schools in connection with the Liverpool Outreach Team.
The current school attendance is around 95%. This is the highest level since we began monitoring attendance and collecting figures some years ago. However, there is still room for improvement. All students with less than 95% attendance for the year will be receiving a letter home in the summer term. Remember good attendance pays and it has been proven that children with good attendance are more likely to succeed in their exams.
They spent two days in December running practical mathematical events in the Overpool Hall for Year 6 pupils. It was a tiring two days for them but they enjoyed it. They also ran quiz heats in February and the final is due to take place at the Ellesmere Port Civic centre on the 15th March.
Could we remind you that holidays in term time be authorised and to send a note in to explain any absence due to illness. We have also seen a sharp drop in the number of late marks this year. The school will continue to monitor and tackle this issue. Just a reminder that students who are late without good reason have to stay for 10 minutes on the day in question. More persistent late comers have extra 30-minute detentions on a Wednesday and Friday. On the last week of every half-term, we run 30 minutes detentions every day for those students who are late. We thank you for your support on these crucial matters.
Friends of the whitby The PTA group meets regularly and are always looking for new members. It is a committed group, which does some great work to raise funds. All of the funds raised go back into the school. At the moment, ÂŁ2000 has been made available for departments across the school to bid for. More will follow on this in the next newsletter. Last time we did this, there were some fantastic events put on in school. The Science Department ran a themed day and the 'Sanctuary Room' benefited from some refurbishment. Some of our most vulnerable students use this room regularly.
students connect In africa
In February, a group of Sixth Form Students made the long journey out to South Africa accompanied by Mrs Ballance, Mr Morby and Mr Heeley. They arrived in Cape Town after a long flight to receive a very warm welcome from the South African teachers from our partner township schools. To start the visit off and before the hard work began the group enjoyed time sightseeing around the Cape experiencing Boulders Bay, playing amongst the penguins and taking in the amazing view of the most southerly point of Africa. The group even went on a Safari seeing majestic animals in their natural habitat. But by far the most amazing experience the group was honoured to have was meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu who chatted to the group and thanked them for the work they were planning to do in South Africa.
@Global_LinksWHS
During the week, the plan was to work with students from ID Mkhize School and Mutendi High School, Zimbabwe to rebuild a playground at Sokhanyo Primary School, Gugulethu and to work alongside a Cape Town Muralist to brighten up the outside of the school. There was plenty of work to do from painting a vegetable garden wall to painting a huge external classroom wall with inspiring, creative, colourful artwork. Students and staff planted trees whilst a local construction company built the wooden play structure, a balancing beam and a sunshade shed. Mr Morby and Mr Heeley used their creative practical skills turning old desks into seats and plant holders. At the end of the week, the playground was officially handed over to Sokhanyo Primary School, it was an emotional experience but a wonderful celebration of all the hard work that the three schools had put in together to build a lovely colourful, safe play area for the students to enjoy. As the partnership goes from strength to strength, The Whitby High School is proud to work on joint projects with our African schools. This will be one trip that will not be forgotten in a hurry.
WORK experience Students shine At woodlands Year 10 Students have taken full advantage of the opportunity to experience the World of Work through a two-week Work Experience Placement. Many of our students took the initiative and found their own placements engaging with employers in a variety of skills sectors such as engineering, retail, construction and health. Staff visiting the students and their employers have been impressed by our students’ mature and enthusiastic approach to carrying out their tasks and duties. Comments from employers have been very positive. ‘It’s been great having Ben work with us, he’s very helpful and has fitted into the team really well’ and ‘Tyla has been a pleasure to have in the class, she is polite and professional and a real credit to the school and her family’. Four of our students represented The Whitby while on placement at our partner school Woodlands Primary. Staff found our students to be very enthusiastic and helpful with an array of tasks. One student said “I’m enjoying myself here which is great because this is what I want to do when I finish school” Students themselves realise the benefit of having work experience as part of their Key Stage 4 studies. One Student said ‘I now realise how competitive the world of work is and why I need to study hard to get good qualifications’. Comments like these only reinforce our commitment to providing our students with this valuable introduction to the world of work and lifelong learning.
house keeping
Congratulations to the pupils who scored the top ATL scores in Windsor house. They have consistently got 1 or 2 grades for every lesson. Well done to Ben Davies who achieved the highest ATL score in Windsor and 2nd overall highest in the school!” Also well done to Brooke Smith who evenutally raised over £200 by cutting her hair off for charity.
Tudor have now raised over £500 for their House Charity, Hospice of the Good Shepard. This has been done through sponsored silences, candygram sale, sweets sale and a cake sale. The fundraising is continuing. A special shout out to 7T who have raised over £300 from their sponsored silence. 7T were form of the half term last half term. They are maintaining excellent attendance, punctuality and ‘Attitude to Learning (ATL) grades. Also, they have gone above and beyond with their fundraising. A special mention for Heather Beeston of 9T. She has achieved the highest number of ATL grade 1's in the whole of Tudor three half terms in a row. She has received a £5 voucher every time. Congratulations! Well done to Polina Matvejeva, Georgia Caine, Tom Christian, Holly Hughes and Lucy Murray for getting ‘1s’ for effort from all of their teachers. This is an excellent achievement and Mr Heeley recently met the students and presented them all with a rewards voucher.
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Perfect In Pila for School skiers On Monday the pupils were woken up at 6:45 for a big breakfast and our journey down to Aosta to collect our equipment. We then had a 15 minute trip in a gondola up to the pistes of Pila. The groups met their instructors at 10:00 am and the weather was looking quite good with a mixture of sun and cloud.
We departed school at approximately 12:30 pm on Saturday 27th February, waved off by lots of parents, on our impressive Sharpes coach and there was an air of excitement amongst the group. Mr Heeley came to see us off – it was really kind of him to wish the staff and pupils a fantastic and safe trip. The Whitby High School Ski Team arrived at Aosta ready for boot and ski fit at approximately 1:00 pm local time on Sunday 28th February. We were met by our fantastic Interski Representative, Lucia Ferguson who proved to be a great help throughout our stay. Then it was off to Hotel St Nicholas for the last part of our journey. The proprietors, Roberto, Miranda and their team were all very accommodating and nothing was too much trouble. Our lunch was very tasty and filled with carbohydrates to prepare us for the slopes the next day. Later, in the afternoon, we were all allocated our rooms and given time to unpack and shower.
The instructors proved to be very popular this year, particularly Mike, Marco, Elisa and Les. Pupils had their lunch in one of the piste side restaurants e.g. The Yeti bar or La Maison. The weather deteriorated in the afternoon and visibilty was greatly reduced to near white out. Despite that, all the groups still made the desired progress and did not complain when they returned to the meeting point by the gondola station at 3 pm. Dinner was a tasty three course meal each night, which we all needed after expending so much energy skiing. After dinner each evening, Mr Millington passed on nominations for ‘crash of the day’. The winner had to wear a fluorescent bib for the next day’s skiing. Mr Millington also passed on a doll to look after, to individuals as a result of having been careless in some way. Monday evening’s activity, ice-skating in Aosta, was great fun and we were the only school on the ice rink, which gave our pupils lots of space to practise their moves! Several pupils stood out for their skating prowess.
On Tuesday the beginners’ groups began to execute competent snow plough turns and the intermediate group worked on parallel turns and stops. The advanced group, with Claudio, practised some jumps in the snow park. The pistes were in fantastic condition, the sun was shining and the sky was a deep blue. The interski representatives call these days ‘Bluebird days’, when everything is just right. Tuesday evening’s activity was the disco and it wasn’t long before we saw some great dance moves from the Whitby Ski Team, most notably from the sixth form. The conditions on Wednesday began well, with good visibility and some dramatic cloud formations. This was the day that every group really pushed on. It was great to see all beginners’ groups make it up the cable car onto Grimod, an extensive blue slope up the mountain. The intermediate group was becoming comfortable on a variety of red slopes, whilst the advanced group tackled their first black run. At 3 pm when we all met again the pupils were all delighted and excited by their day. The aprés ski activity on Wednesday was bowling. There were some very interesting bowling styles amongst the pupils! Luke Martin was the highest scoring pupil. On Thursday staff noted that the 6:45 wake-up call was getting harder as the pace was beginning to show on pupils’ faces. Once we got up to the slopes we realised we would be skiing above the clouds in the valley. What a sight! All groups pressed on, learning more new skills. Thursday evening saw almost 40 pupils opt to go out sledging on the slope outside our hotel. What a fantastic time we had. Ross Hetherington won the mass group race at the end. Lucia, our Interski Representative, was brave enough to stand in the path of the sledgers to get some great film footage. That evening was Pizza night and Roberto hosted this in our hotel. The pizzas were delicious and everyone ate as much as they wanted. Jay Eastwood particularly enjoyed his pizza slices!
Friday dawned another good day for skiing, with amixture of sunshine and cloud. This was the day the instructors graded skiing competency in their groups. By lunchtime the snow had begun to fall and conditions became trickier. On Friday evening the instructors came to the hotel to award certificates and prizes. In addition, Mr Millington awarded prizes in many different categories to all pupils. On Saturday, our last day, we all woke up to a substantial covering of snow. The coach drivers had to put on snow chains to drive us safely down the mountain to ski hire. This caused the first of a few delays that day. It was so good for our pupils to ski in all different conditions, including the fresh powder! The GCSE group was filmed by Mr Millington performing the techniques they had learned, which will count towards their practical sport qualification. As pupils said goodbye to their instructors at 3:00, there were lots of sad faces as it had been such a great learning experience and lots of fun. Following a very quick shower and a meal we all boarded the coaches for the long ride home. We left the Alps at approximately 7:30pm and depsite delays entering the Mont Blanc tunnel and at the ferry port in Calais, we arrived back at school at approximately 4:20 pm. The ski trip was a really memorable experience for all involved. Well done to all pupils for being such determined skiers and having so much positive energy! A big thank you should go particularly to Mr Millington for all his efforts organising this fabulous experience.
students PUSH FOR PRISTINE site This year there is a national campaign called ‘Clean for the Queen’ in which we are all encouraged to do what we can to keep Britain’s streets tidy. This past month our students have been making efforts to rid the school site of litter.
Non-uniform Fund raiser
As part of the campaign a group of students kindly gave up their lunch hour to volunteer as part of a clean-up crew. These students braved the rain to pick up litter from the yard as well as the corridor and the dinner hall. Their kind work was most appreciated by the site team and the lunchtime assistants.
Mr Gray presented a cheque for over £500 to Sian Day from the Teenage Cancer Trust. This was some of the money raised during the recent nonuniform day. We are planning to link with this charity and hold fund-raising events during the school year.
As part of our link with the Teenage Cancer Trust, we are going to donate £5 per day to the charity for every day the site is kept clean. We have got concerns about the amount of litter around the site and hopefully this will motivate the students to keep the site clean. Potentially, £950 could be raised for this worthwhile charity over the course of a school year.
Hope for Media students Year 12 Media Studies students were invited to an afternoon of tutorials and talks from the Media department of Liverpool Hope University. One of the senior lecturers of the faculty introduced students to a professional software package that is used to create the very magazines and newspapers we read on a daily basis. This was especially useful as the students are currently learning the skills to develop their own professional level magazine. The trip also allowed pupils to ask current students about life at the University. The day concluded with a tour of the Campus. All students enjoyed the trip and agreed how useful it was, we must have impressed them with our skills as they have invited us back for more.
Keeping up appearances The vast majority of our students arrive to school properly equipped, on time, with a good attitude and ready to learn and we thank parents and carers for your support with this. It is essential for the happiness and academic progress of all in school that we have a calm and orderly environment and in an organisation with 1600 students this requires consistency and a firm approach with regards to the rules. Below are a few reminders of some of our key expectations. Should you have any questions about our standards please seek further information from our website or contact your child's House Progress Manager or Mr Gray - Deputy Headteacher. Students are expected on school premises at 8.25 ready for registration at 8.30 prompt. Correct uniform must be worn daily, including school shoes. Students should be properly equipped for school including house card, planner, PE kit, general stationery and other specific subject specific items. Home learning plays a significant role in your child's academic progress. Check their planners and talk to them about their learning. Planners should be signed regularly by both school and home. Students are expected to speak courteously and respectfully to each other and to staff at all times. Any behaviour which disrupts learning or the smooth running of the school will not be tolerated. Thank you for your support and cooperation
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sports update Congratulations to the boys who competed recently in the district final against Woodchurch and won convincingly 27 – 14. They went into the game as underdogs having previously been beaten by Woodchurch in the preliminary rounds. Weeks of training on Friday nights however paid off as Whitby dominated the opposition from start to finish. Pictured from left to right are Josh Cooke, Conner Cadwallader, Joe Melville, Joshua Davies, Tyrese Providence, Ben Davies and David Walker. Special mention also goes to George Johnson who missed the final due to injury.
The PE Department would like to thank all of the staff and students who turned up for the Annual Sport Relief Mile on Friday 18th March. Well done to those who ran, walked and even cart wheeled the mile, all in aid of a very worthy cause. We managed to raise over ÂŁ160 which equates to approximately 70 Malaria nets. That is a potential 70 lives saved just by your donations. Well done again everyone! The staff and pupils have an excellent track record of charitable giving and long may this continue.
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