SUMMER 2019
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ISSUE 22
PHOTOGRAPHY OPEN
EYE
Z E R O
M O B I E
EXHIBITION
W A S T E
P R O J E C T
S P O R T S
D A Y
D E S I G N
C H A L L E N G E
REFRESHMENTS SOUVENIRS MEMORIES
FROM THE HEADTEACHER Welcome to the Summer 2019 edition of The Whitby High School Newsletter, filled with the many things that have happened beyond the classroom. This is the last newsletter of this academic year and reflects the busy year 2018-2019 has been across all aspects of the school. When I read the newsletter I am always surprised by the number of extra curricular activities that take place and the variety of experiences our young learners engage in. Sometimes these are totally unknown to me as students embark upon activities personal to them. This is exemplified by the article about the success gained by Charlotte Dry in the Mobie and Construction Innovation Hub 2019 Design Challenge Final. I am heartened to hear of such success and please, as parents and carers, let me know of other successes that may be achieved. Let the school rejoice in our young peoples’ achievements. This term our collaborative work has continued as we work with a wide range of organisations to extend opportunities and widen experiences. Our successful links with South Africa were further strengthened as we joined a small group of other local schools, working with schools in Cape Town on the ‘zero waste’ agenda. Collaboration with an extended group of other schools internationally has brought students together with their peers from Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Spain, Italy, Romania and Latvia. Take a moment to catch up on the experiences in Eindhoven and the excellent work with which they supported each other.
Earlier in July we welcomed the Northern Chamber Orchestra into school, a real contrast to hosting the former drummer of Status Quo - Jeff Rich earlier in the year. The NCO supported by ForViva were simply breathtaking, performing and working with our youngsters. Please can I remind you that we are celebrating our Diamond Anniversary in September. The focal point of our celebration is our Open Day on Saturday 21st September for former students and staff, please see school website for details. At this time of year, we inevitably say goodbye to a number of staff who leave us to move on to a promoted post or to pursue other things. This year we bid farewell to Mr Waldron, Mr Gorman, Mr Huey, Mr Rogerson, Ms Corless, Miss Jones, Ms Billon and Mrs McGinity. Also leaving is Mrs Crute, our examinations officer. They go with my very best wishes for the future. It is also today that we see the retirement of Mrs Day, one of our Science Laboratory Technicians who has given 29 years of loyal service to the school. She will undoubtedly be missed. I wish her a long and happy retirement. Finally, thank you so much for your continuing support over the past year. In difficult times it is reassuring to have your loyalty and support. Remember, school resumes on Tuesday 3rd September for new Year 7 intake and Wednesday 4th September for remaining years.
In school, collaborative work in science has enabled another successful Science Day to take place whilst Philosophy and Ethics have supported the valuable work of the local food bank. Headteacher
ON THE
CONTINENT The Whitby High School students embraced a fun filled week in the Netherlands with their host families from Durendael School in Oisterwijk. It was a celebration week with other schools from Germany, Russia, Spain, Italy and Romania. Students visited Eindhoven, which is the fifth largest city in the Netherlands and lies in the south of the country near the Dommel and Gender streams. They went to the Philips Museum, which was once one of the largest electronic conglomerates in the world and currently employs around 74,000 people across 100 countries. Students also enjoyed a fun filled day out at Efteling, the fantasy-themed amusement park in Kaatsheuvel, but the highlight of the visit was the trip to Amsterdam and the Rijks museum to admire the famous Rembrandt paintings. The final evening was an international food evening whereby students brought food from their respective countries to taste. It was a great week sharing different cultures and there were plenty of tears at the airport as the students bid their farewells. Also this term, a group of students from The Whitby High School visited Latvia as part of the Erasmus+ Emotional Wellbeing Project. It was an amazing week and such a good opportunity to experience a culture which was very different from our own. The focus of the week was to gain insight into professional working and the development of soft skills necessary for success in the 21st Century. Students’ creative skills were put to the test when they were given the challenge of making soap and beeswax candles, and a visit to the national library in Riga gave students the opportunity to practise their calligraphy skills. These were unique opportunities for the students which they thoroughly enjoyed. .
A visit and presentation by two local companies helped students to understand the skills required to work in a modern company. The maintenance of their national culture is very important to the Latvians and many of the Latvian students were involved in the National Song and Dance Festival. We were given the opportunity to visit the competition and watched several groups perform a dance in their national costumes. Our final day included a visit to a science and technology museum in Ventspils for a workshop on climate change, and a visit to the beach enabled our students to dip their feet in the Baltic sea! Students really enjoyed the week and many said they would like to be involved in another exchange. These opportunities are open to all students and if you require any information please contact Assistant Headteacher Miss Hewitt. Students enjoyed another cultural experience when a group of Year 10 students were invited to take part in an International Language Day in partnership with the British Council and UKLC. It was held at Reaseheath College and our students teamed up with students from Italy to take part in English lessons and sport activities. The Italian students were very excited to welcome our students and were keen to practice their English. After morning lessons students had lunch together and then, in the afternoon, spent time on presentation projects and sports activities. Volleyball was particularly competitive with some fantastic shots and a resulting Whitby victory. At the end of the day our students were sad to leave and the organisers of the event were impressed by how well our student’s interracted with their Italian counterparts. They have been offered the chance to visit again and to consider work experience with them during the summer holidays after Year 11.
@GLOBAL_LINKSWHS
FURTHER SUCCESS WITH
OPEN EYE On Thursday 18th April all sixteen of our Year 12 A Level photography group launched their ten day public exhibition at the highly acclaimed Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool. The exhibition was the result of the work produced during our continued collaboration with the gallery, a collection of images exploring the idea of a sense of ‘belonging’. Our students responded in many different ways, such as family routines, memories, favourites places, or how they liked to spend their time. The result was a very personal and somewhat moving exhibition. The quality of work was outstanding. This collaborative project has given our students a valuable insight into many aspects of the photographic and exhibiting world. Students had lectures at the gallery on the work of other contemporary photographic artists in order to inspire and demonstrate the range and possibilities of photography as a medium. They then did a practical workshop using some of the techniques they had discussed at the lectures. Open Eye staff came into school regularly to mentor students. Under the close supervision of Thomas Dukes (gallery curator), the students curated and hung their exhibition in the gallery. They did everything from planning the layout, measuring, drilling holes, framing, and hanging the vinyl prints. Students demonstrated fantastic team-work and were selfless in ensuring all the work was hung well. We would like to thank Open Eye Gallery and Curious Minds for giving our students this fantastic opportunity, and everyone else that has supported the project. Thanks must also go to our student Zoe Catherall who delivered a brilliant speech on behalf of her classmates. The students involved were a credit to their parents, the school, and most importantly themselves, showing courage, resilience and perseverance throughout. It was wonderful to see their beaming smiles and pride, well done Year 12! The exhibition will be hung in Ellesmere Port library in the Autumn term.
@ART_WHITBYHIGH @OPENEYEGALLERY
about my Having to talk to people confidence photographs has built my I constantly push myself to get the best possible final result
My family ... W ere very proud to see my wor displayed in k such an ama zing creative place I Have learned that i can respond well to criticism and improve my work
Seeing my own photograpy up in a public gallery was an incredible expe rience This experience has 100% changed the way i will take photos and approach coursework in the future
E We as a school feel the same passion and drive to make a difference and voice the need for a very big issue in both counteries -zero waste. Our aim is to raise awareness of the effects of plastic on the environment both in the UK and South Africa, ensuring some understanding that these key concepts and issues affect us all. The collaborative activities and shared learning within our partner schools has been immense. The impact on sharing knowledge on global devastation with single use
plastic whilst in South Africa has driven the team of teachers to undertake shared learning in their schools.
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The Whitby High School has worked with South African schools for over seven years. Our first ever trip to Cape Town was one of adventure and cultural diversity and we have since formed a solid relationship with them as well as bringing more local schools into the fold. In 2019 we were honoured to form a Connecting Through Classrooms school partnership with Neston High School, Hillside Primary School and Weston Primary School.
Whilst out on our exchange visit we agreed as a partnership that we should embrace the same lessons, collaborating on all the same projects in order to have the biggest impact. We introduced Eco Bricks (stuffing, otherwise useless and non-recyclable materials such as crisp packets, inside plastic bottles to use for construction purposes) which continues to be a massive success in both countries. So far the children of Weston Primary have filled over 300 Eco Bricks in two months! The school has set up an Eco Council promoting recycling in school educating the younger students. They have even ordered two new recycling bins. Hillside Primary are also raising awareness by challenging all families to recycle their plastic by making Eco Bricks, and parents are actively getting involved and are even shocked by how much plastic they simply throw away.
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Desmond Tutu once said -
To show our commitment as a Global Cluster, a celebration assembly took place to raise awareness of caring for our world. We were honoured to have local councillors and also Greenpeace in our school. If you have the passion and drive and want to inspire and be inspired, then move and do something to help climate change. As Greta Thunberg said “No one is too small to make a difference.”
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So if we all work together we really can make a difference. Global Learning embraces the wider curriculum in our schools through English, science, maths, history, geography, art, music and design technology.
WA ST E
The whole Zero-Waste Project has really made us think about our environment and the detrimental effects our actions are having, not just in our school, but globally.
caps from the school canteen to create amazing murals to be displayed along the school corridors. South African teachers have been working along side us at The Whitby High School collaborating on projects in music, design technology and many more– they have experienced good teaching and met with with our students.
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Weston Primary also launched an Eco Week in April where all classes were encouraged to reuse plastic bottles in creative ways. The children created bird feeders, pirate ships, artwork, bee feeders, hanging baskets and much more.
@GLOBAL_LINKSWHS
Through design technology we continue to integrate Zero Waste within our curriculum by using thousands of bottle
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SCIENCE DAY SUCCESS The Science Department recently held its annual Science Day, involving over 280 Year 9 students. The school has been fortunate enough to develop and maintain strong links with both local and multinational science-based companies over the years. A number of our students have benefited from this close relationship, completing periods of work experience with the likes of Chester Zoo, Innospec and Unilever. More recently, students have taken up Higher Level Apprenticeships with Unilever. Through providing hands-on learning experiences, students get a real insight into the possible career opportunities the science industry holds. This allows them to realise that the skills they learn in STEM based lessons are directly transferable to industry. Year 9 Science Day continues to provide an ideal opportunity for Whitby High students to experience science in the real world. We look forward to welcoming back our partners in July 2020.
YEAR 7 FOODBANK RELIEF As part of our unit in philosophy and ethics, the Year 7 students have been doing work on showing compassion to others and taking care of the local community and the environment. Over a two week period, students brought in food donations and we quickly filled several boxes with much needed food items. The items have now been donated to the West Cheshire Food Bank. The Food Bank is a project founded by local churches and community groups, working together towards stopping hunger in our local area. They were very grateful for our donation so thank you again to all the students and their families who donated.
@SCIENCE_WHS
YORK REIGN
ON SPORTS DAY Sports Day was, yet again, a huge success this year. A large number of students turned out to represent their Houses throughout the day and we were blessed with some beautiful weather. The morning consisted of the field events and there were a large number of notable performances to include: Ellen Maxwell Year 7 High Jump (1.30m), Hannah Jones Year 9 Shot Put (7.13m), Shaun Griffiths Year 9 Long Jump (4.78m) and Mikey Jevons Year 8 Javelin (24.12m). The atmosphere and behaviour during the field events was outstanding and congratulations to all athletes who took part. The Hurdles and 800m took place during Period 4 and the PE Department were exceptionally pleased with the support students were showing each other during some difficult races. A special mention should go to Aimee Phillips Year 7 800m (2m 48s) and Harry Jackson Year 10 800m (2m 28s) – both won with excellent times! After lunch we had the rest of the track events and the whole school took to the field to celebrate. Outstanding performances include: Binta Gassama Year 7 200m (30.9s), Andrei Prajea Year 9 200m (26.9s), Finley Jones Year 10 Boys 100m (12.4s) and Ceris Gaffney Year 10 Girls 100m (13.7s). The overall winners were York House who pulled away with a comfortable lead in the afternoon. Congratulations to all those who took part on the day and thank you to all staff and students who helped make the day so successful.
In other athletics news, The Whitby High School entered over fifty athletes in the English Schools Athletics Association Track and Field Cup, which took place at the Victoria Park Arena in Warrington, and involved the best talent from across the region. The Whitby produced some magnificent performances on the day, with many of the competitors achieving podium positions in the chosen events! Congratulations to all those who qualified to represent the school: Junior Boys: Calum Agius, Aiden Hill, Max Randles, Cooper Taylor, Corey Harold, Harley Shakespeare-Wetton, Joe Houghton, Will Dean, Mikey Jevons, Lewis Chapman, Tommy Joyce, Jay Smith, Liam Jones, Liam Powell, Joe Shone. Inter Boys: Noah Barnsley, Harry Jackson, Matthew Skinner, Finlay Jones, Joe Melville, James McLeod, Christian Williams, Will McKimmie, Ben Phillipson, George Johnson, Cassius Martin, Joe O’Brien, Andrew Clarke. Junior Girls: Marli Ngiam, Mollie Potts, Melissa Jones, Maddie Williamson, Isla Ngiam, Rubie Ross, Binta Gassama, Ellen Maxwell, Aimee Terry, Aimee Phillips, Ruby Edwards, Evie Saddler, Izzi Terry Charlotte Smith. Inter Girls: Ceris Gaffney, Katie May Chapman, Phoebe Turner, Olivia Jackson, Ella Appleby, Jasmine Haydock, Demi O’Sullivan, Lilly Jenkins, Kellie Murray, Abbie Morgan, Ellie O’Brien, Caitlin Downes.
@PE_WHITBYHIGH
On Friday 28 June, the Manufacturing Technology Centre hosted the finals of the MOBIE & Construction Innovation Hub Student Design Challenge 2019, at which students were set the task of designing a home for the 21st Century.
Ministry of Building Innovation and Education
The challenge invited students to design the ultimate 21st century house taking into consideration technology, affordability, size, space, family growth, sustainability, comfort, individuality and aesthetics. The young designers were asked to imagine what sort of technologies, size and space will be needed to cater for the needs of not only current generation, but generations to come, as ever-changing working patterns and lifestyles transform the way we live our lives. Students from various schools and colleges presented their designs to the panel of judges, made up of representatives from MOBIE, the Construction Innovation Hub and industry.
The winning designs, announced by MOBIE founder and renowned architect George Clarke, and the Construction Innovation Hub’s programme director, Keith Waller, will become reality as key elements will be built to scale in the form of a ‘film set’ by professional engineers at the Construction Innovation Hub. The film set will be formally unveiled at UK Construction Week in October. The film set will, in addition, showcase cutting edge manufacturing technologies and digital ways of working which are central to the work of the construction Innovation Hub. With £72 million from UK Research and Innovation’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, the Hub aims to be a catalyst to transform the construction sector, changing the way buildings and infrastructure are designed, manufactured, integrated and connected within our built environment. The winner of the 14-16 Catergory was our very own Year 10 student - Charlotte Dry.
George Clarke said: "The traditional housebuilding industry needs to modernise. We must design and build differently, produce affordable homes, manufacture them quickly, sustainably and efficiently using modern methods of construction that are both environmentally responsible and meet the needs of a 21st century family home. The 2019 Student Design Challenge asked the designers of the future to provide housebuilders with some answers and direction. As always, the amazing creativity and vision of young people did not let us down and we have been wowed by the originality and quality of their submissions." He added, "Throughout our age categories, 14 years to adult, we've been treated to some brilliant, creative visions of the future family home, embracing technologies and lifestyles that are both realistic and foreseeable." See Charlotte’s winning entry below -
MUSIC DEPARTMENT UPDATE
The music department have had a busy year, with a good variety of opportunities for students to experience musical performances and to perform themselves. Some of our Year 10 and Year 11 students have organised and performed in lunchtime concerts raising money for charities. Grace Done organised an afternoon concert for a local primary school at the same time as raising money for Claire House. Year 11 and 13 exam students have had the pleasure of working with semi-professional musicians to help them complete part of their coursework. We would like to thank Mr Fellowes and his band – ‘Dead Sounds Society’ and former music teacher Mr Semans with his band – ‘Swing the Merciless’ for giving up their time and playing songs several times so the students could work the mixing desk and record live music. Earlier in the year a Mr Vic Blackwell approached us with an exciting request. Vic is a talented jazz musician and composer of light-hearted and comical songs. However, he wanted to do something more serious on his next record and has written a piece called ‘S.O.S’ about caring for our planet. Vic wanted the sound of young voices to feature in the chorus of the song. One Wednesday afternoon he took part in some Year 7 music lessons and recorded our students singing his chorus. This was a wonderful and unique experience for the students and he was very grateful for their help. More recently we were involved in the Zero Waste Project mentioned earlier in thie newsletter. A Yeat 7 group learned an African song – ‘ which we sang to our African visitors during our music lesson. Whilst our pronunciation of some of the words may not have been perfect, the enthusiasm and energy of our students more than made up for it. Later that week our talented group of singers - Vox Rox were proud to be part of a celebration concert at Hillside Primary School where a number of schools involved in the project, performed throughout the afternoon. Our students performed ‘Love Song To The Earth’ – a song written by Paul McCartney and Natasha Bedingfield to help people to wake up to the problems of climate change. Vox Rox were last on the bill and everyone sang with us, creating a wonderfully emotional atmosphere in the hall. On Thursday 11th July all of Year 7 and selected music students from other years were fortunate enough to attend a concert by the Northern Chamber Orchestra. These high calibre professional musicians entertained and educated during their rehearsal and concerts all morning. In the afternoon, three of the orchestra members led practical composition workshops to help develop skills and experiences whilst blending a wide range of instruments and genres that our music students have to offer. The day was certainly enjoyed by all and we hope to see the NCO in the near future.
@MUSIC_WHITBYHS
House Keeping Congratulation to Morgan Cole, Ryan Shaw, Ella Proudlove and Daniel Stubbings in Year 11 who all had 100% attendance this year. This is very impressive. Huge Congratulations to Daniel Stubbings who had 100% attendance for 5 years (bar one day!) and Ella Proudlove who have had 100% attendance for 5 years at Whitby! This is a fantastic achievement and they should be really proud of their achievement. Well done to all those Year 11 students who came in to school regularly despite lots of difficulties this year. We are immensely proud of you all. We wish all Year 11 Windsor students the best of luck with their exam results and hope they have a fantastic summer. Stuart House have raised over £1500 for Alder Hay this year through a variety of activities including cake sales, sponsored silences and ice cream stalls.
Megan Davies from 9SR was awarded the Stuart House Pupil of the Year Award for achieving the highest ‘School Score’ at 1280. This was also the highest in the school. Well done Megan, we’re very proud of you! Hanover House have increased their attendance rate by 1% This has been a team effort and your Form Tutors and Mrs Witcher are very proud of you. In addition to this, Hanover had strong performance this year at Inter-House and, despite being in 5th position for Sports Day, they again had some strong performances which really stood out. Hanover’s charity work has again been fantastic, with all Forms taking £5 and turning it into a £100 or more - Well Done! We also saw outstanding Form Assemblies from Year 8 and 9 and look forward to next Year.
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