CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2015
NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR CHS GCSE RESULTS ALSO INSIDE NEWS TEAM REPORTING LIVE LITERACY IN THE SPOTLIGHT WONDER WOMEN FESTIVAL DIGITAL SKILLS FESTIVAL
HELLO... Welcome to the latest edition of In the Spotlight. As always, this term was a busy one, with lots going on around the school. Throughout January, the Achievement Team hosted a successful Wonder Women Festival to raise the aspirations of our young women. This involved a whole host of activities across the month, from a female leaders’ speed-networking event to a bake sale. We held the second Annual General Meeting of our Co-operative Academy Trust, which was a great opportunity to celebrate our co-operative development over the last year with our members. Year 9 GCSE Media students entered the ‘I am Creative’ advertising campaign national competition with a brief set by Barclays. Pleasingly, five of our students made it to the final of the competition in London! There was a big literacy focus over the Spring Term, with the launch of CHS Reading, Writing and Communication Heroes, our annual Drop Everything and Read competition and not forgetting World Book Day. Thank you to all staff and students who made the Spring Term such a success and we look forward to the success and achievements the Summer Term will bring. CHRISTINE TAGGART COMMUNITY AND MARKETING OFFICER AND IN THE SPOTLIGHT EDITOR
INSIDE THIS ISSUE...
RECOGNITION FOR 1 GCSE RESULTS
LITERACY IN THE SPOTLIGHT
8
SCHOOL COUNCIL 2 UPDATE
WONDER WOMEN FESTIVAL
10
DIGITAL SKILLS FESTIVAL
12
BBC SCHOOL REPORT
4
I AM CREATIVE
6
CHS COMMENDED FOR EXCELLENT GCSE RESULTS We have received national recognition for the exceptional attainment of our students in the 2014 GCSE examinations. SSAT, the Schools, Students and Teachers Network, recently undertook its annual, in-depth analysis of official Department for Education data on all state-funded schools in England, and identified Chorlton High School’s success. We have qualified for an SSAT Educational Outcomes Award by being in the top 20% of non-selective schools nationally for high average grades achieved by students. Sue Williamson, Chief Executive of SSAT said: “Chorlton High School should be congratulated for their exceptional achievement. They have proved
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Chorlton High School
should be congratulated for their exceptional achievement.
themselves to be leading the field in improving GCSE outcomes for their students. There is so much good practice that this school could share, and I hope they will join us at the celebration evening to share strategies with awardwinning schools.” “These results are testament to the commitment and hard work of the students, teachers and leadership team at Chorlton High School, and show what can be achieved when skilled teachers have high expectations and ambition for every young person. I am proud that this school is a member of the SSAT network.”
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
SCHOOL COUNCIL
UPDATE SCHOOL COUNCIL TRAINING AWAY DAY
On Tuesday 13th January 2015, members of the School Council were invited to attend a School Council training day run by SSAT at the People’s History Museum.
SOUTHWAY HOUSING HEDGEROW PROJECT
The day was focused around getting the students to understand what student impact means and to develop personal and group leadership to support them in their roles. At the end of the academic year, these students will be developing their own training session which they will deliver to the newly elected School Council. “I absolutely loved working with your students, they were incredibly imaginative, engaged and enthusiastic, a total joy to work with. It was great seeing them develop more ownership over their goals and ideas as the day went on as well as working increasingly collaboratively. By the end of the day, they had a strong group vision and I wish them every success in realising it!” (Evie Davies – SSAT)
SCHOOL COUNCIL SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS Over the remainder of the year, the Whole School Council will be looking at how we can make our school more sustainable. Members of the School Council have already attended an Efficiency Convention at Parrs Wood High School to get some ideas about how we can make Chorlton High School a sustainable school. A group of School Council members will be forming an Eco Committee and will work alongside the Estates team to decide on ways we can reduce the environmental impact of our school.
On Thursday 26th February, members of the Year 7 Council spent the morning working with Stacey Green, Digital Inclusion Project Officer at Southway Housing, to research and put together presentations on the importance of hedgerows. The group were due to help plant some hedgerows during the morning but, due to the wet weather, they jumped to the next stage of the project which was to research the environmental benefits of planting hedgerows. The group were really engaged and got straight to work, researching the different types of hedges, the wildlife that live in them, the uses of different berries and the environmental importance they play. Once they put the finishing touches to their presentations, they presented their work to the group. Everyone did a fantastic job and the quality of the presentations was very high. After the Easter holidays, the group will be presenting their work to a group of older residents from Southway Housing and sharing their computer skills with them. The group will be working further with Southway Housing next term and will be given some ‘Digital Champion’ training in order to prepare them for this.
“It was so much fun to research about hedgerows and put together our own presentations. I really enjoyed the morning and am looking forward to presenting after Easter” (Year 7 Student) “I really enjoyed the session! Can we do this every week?” (Year 7 Student) “What a great introduction to Chorlton High School, members of the Year 7 council were brilliant to work with and they even taught me a few things. Despite the “fun stuff” being rained off, they fully embraced, and were enthusiastic about, the topic. The group put together a wonderfully varied set of presentations about hedgerows and even added in some drama! Part two includes training the Year 7 council members to become Junior Digital Champions and delivering their presentations to a group of older Southway Tenants. I am looking forward to seeing how this partnership project may develop in the future.” (Stacey Green, Digital Inclusion Project Officer Southway Housing)
AMAZING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS We always like to celebrate the achievements of our students within school but it is also great when we get to celebrate their amazing achievements outside of school. This term we are delighted announce the following amazing achievements from two of our students: Matthew Mantel (Year 9) has been elected to be Manchester’s Youth Council Representative. He will collate ideas and voices of young people in Manchester and take them to the House of Commons. Malakai Dixon (Year 10) won the Northwest Junior Champion belt for boxing on 17th January 2015. This means he is now the best junior boxer in the North West!
CO-OPERATIVE TRUST AGM
GIRLS FOOTBALL TEAM
On Tuesday 10th February, we held the Annual General Meeting of our Co-operative Academy Trust. The meeting was open to all members of our Co-operative Trust (parents/carers, students, staff and members of the local community). The evening was a big success and it was lovely to welcome lots of our Co-operative Members to our school. Aneez Esmail (Chair of Governors) welcomed everybody and thanked them for coming. This was followed by an overview of the activities and achievements of the school over the past year, an overview of the financial accounts and an update on the co-operative development and future plans. Maddie Anderson (Year 9), Alita McLaughlin (Year 10) and Isabel Butterworth (Year 7) from the Whole School Council delivered a brilliant presentation on student voice at Chorlton High School and fed back on what the School Council have been discussing this year. Throughout the meeting, members were treated to outstanding performances of dance, drama and music from some of our talented students. At the end of the meeting, informal networking and discussions took place regarding the future development of our Co-operative. We would like to thank everyone who came along and helped to make our AGM a success.
On Friday 6th March, eight Year 7 girls represented Chorlton High School in the Manchester United Foundation Football Tournament. They played seven other teams from the local area. Despite not getting to the next round of the tournament they played exceptionally; giving it 120% and representing Chorlton High School perfectly! Miss Gardner said: “I am extremely proud of the progress the girls have made this season and hope that they can go on to win next year.”
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
BBC SCHOOL RE SPEAKERS FOR SCHOOLS On Monday 2nd March, the CHS News team were invited to Loreto College where we had the opportunity to witness a debate about young people in politics, along with 200 college students. The event was hosted by Rick Edwards and the panel consisted of Brie Lowery (UK CEO of Change.org), Elizabeth Linder (Head of Politics & Government Facebook), John Pienaar (Correspondent from BBC 5 Live) and Harry Lambert (Founder and Editor of May2015.com). We were invited because we have been researching the role under 18’s play in politics as part of the BBC School News Report. The debate consisted of questions from the audience, as well as questions from the general public who watched the debate online. At the start of the debate, Mr Edwards went through the results of the survey which many of the students had taken part in; this prompted many of the audience’s questions. They discussed whether under 18s should be able to vote in the general election, if registration should be automatic, whether people should be allowed to vote online/over text and if Prime Minister’s questions should be more composed.
NEWS CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL
PORT The general public also wanted to know the panel’s opinions on representation in Parliament and whether they felt that all genders, ethnicities and classes were having their voices heard. Once the debate had concluded, we had the chance to interview some of the panel members. Miss Lowry told a story about a young girl from Bristol whose friend had experienced FGM. The young girl had begun a campaign on change.org to increase awareness of the issue and to try and put an end to it in the UK. This petition gained over a quarter of a million signatures and got her friend and others like her the help they needed. This is proof that, despite being under 18, she could still make a difference. Inayah Hussain (Year 9) said “I strongly agreed with the panel members who said that young people need to be more aware of politics, especially if the voting age will be lowered”.
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Young people need to be more aware of politics, especially if the voting age will be lowered.
Jasmine Hulme-Kenny (Year 9) said “Before the event I had very little knowledge of how young people could get involved with politics”. The event was very enjoyable and informative, and we are very thankful for Speakers for Schools for inviting us along. Speakers for Schools have arranged other events like this one all over the county to engage young people in politics, but also to discover what their opinions on the big issues today are.
BY ATALANTA HARKAVY & RUBY WAIT-WEGUELIN CHS NEWS TEAM CHS
CHS NEWS TEAM LIVE ON BBC RADIO MANCHESTER On Thursday 19th March, members of the CHS News Team got the opportunity to review the papers for BBC Radio Manchester as part of the BBC School Report day. Starting the day at quarter to six, the bad weather couldn’t dampen our mood. As we made our way to the studios of BBC Radio Manchester, the excitement was palpable as we thought about the news as it was breaking. With a cup of tea in our hand, we set forth on our difficult task of finding today’s news. Although, at first we struggled with finding stories we soon became accustomed to the task and found that one story stood out from the rest; The Budget. As we began to delve into this story it became obvious that there was nothing in The Budget for young people, it was all aimed at voters. We also wanted to look at some softer stories such as the danger of the solar eclipse which was reported by
Ruby. Jasmine discussed James Corden’s recent move to the US to be a presenter on the ‘Late Late Show’. We were apprehensive about going on air. What if we sneezed? Or got the giggles? Fortunately, the radio presenters, Phil Trow and Alison Butterworth, were very friendly. Overall, it was a new and exciting experience. We were surprised to see how many people were involved behind the scenes and how the shows work alongside each other. Rebecca, our guide, is a reporter as well as a producer and has to switch between jobs on a day-to-day basis. She said – “I love the variety of my job, I never do the same day twice!” On reflection, we all really enjoyed this experience and would love to return another day!
BY ATALANTA HARKAVY, RUBY WAITWEGUELIN, JASMINE HULME-KENNY CHS NEWS TEAM
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
I AM CREATIVE On Wednesday 18th February, Ms McKie and Ms Ransome took a group of talented Year 9 Media students (Jamie Carter, Curtis Wilson, Suleman Ahmad and Sahzil Choudry) down to London. We were attending the final of the ‘I Am Creative’ Media project, held by Olgivy’s Advertising Agency in Canary Wharf. The boys, in two groups, presented a pitch they had each created (for Barclays Bank) to a group of professionals and peers, in a state of the art marketing facility. The students faced fierce competition from a number of other groups, including A Level College students. The feedback the students got from the judges was positive and very constructive - it will definitely be helpful during their GCSE course. We are very proud to announce that Curtis and Jamie were rated as Highly Commended and as a result have won a place on The Ladder; a scheme run by the Ideas Foundation, which supports students through their education and offers opportunities to gain experience in the Media Sector. It was a wonderful experience and we were both very proud of our Media Students.
SHANE HEGARTY AUTHOR VISIT
On Thursday 22nd January, a lucky group of Year 7 students got the opportunity to meet author Shane Hegarty and find out about his new children’s book ‘Darkmouth’. ‘Darkmouth’ is Shane’s first children’s book and follows the story of 12 year old Finn, whose job as a Legend Hunter requires him to do battle with the monsters (or Legends) that want to feed on humans. Only problem is… he’s not very good at it! The students were very engaged throughout the session and enjoyed discussing their favourite books, characters and endings with Shane. They discussed their favourite books in great detail and were eager to share suggestions and ideas. The Year 7’s demonstrated that they were a very well read group of students
“The day was brilliant! The judges and staff were helpful, kind and sensitive. Speaking to such a varied group including students from all walks of life and a Barclay’s official was a new experience for me and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. As well as speaking it was also interesting to hear pitches from other students”. CURTIS WILSON YEAR 9 “It was informative and beneficial to me as it has given me the information I need to improve my skills and it has given me an insight into how the advertising industry works. This trip has helped me meet new people such as the judges and the other participants”. SHAZIL CHOUDHRY YEAR 9 “It was quite nerve wracking to present but overall it was exciting, adventurous, interesting, fun and a pretty good day and I would love to do it again!”
bursting with literary knowledge and enthusiasm for sharing what they had read with others. Ms Hockey, Library Resource Manager said “Thanks so much to Shane Hegarty for choosing Chorlton High School as the first school to publicise his children’s book ‘Darkmouth’. We are really lucky to have been given a few copies for the library and I, for one, can’t wait to read it!”
SION GORDON YEAR 9
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
LITERACY IN THE SP
WORLD BOOK DAY WATERSTONES VISITS World Book Day was extra special this year, for one hundred and twenty students from Year 8, who were selected to go on some visits to Waterstones Bookshop on Deansgate in Manchester. The trips had been organised to coincide with World Book Day, so that students could choose a book of their choice, spend their £1 WBD vouchers and have a look round the biggest bookshop in Northern England. Time was spent browsing the shelves in the children and young people’s area on the ground floor and also included a tour
of the bookshop. Students were gifted a book, so all of them were able to choose a book to take home. “We had such a lovely time on the visits” commented Ms Hockey, Library Resource Manager. “It was great to see the students making their choices and having a look at all the books on the shelves.” The students enjoyed themselves as well. “It was better picking a book than I thought it was going to be” said Talib O’Connor “It was really nice of Mr Park to buy us a book”. Tyce Levesconte said
“The trip was a really good experience. My favourite part was looking around the whole bookshop, I liked the way it was set out”. The most popular book to be chosen was ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul’ by Jeff Kinney, closely followed by ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ by John Green. Enjoy reading!
OTLIGHT DROP EVERYTHING AND READ
This half term we’ve seen the whole school pausing in their registration, lunch and break time tracks to get their heads into some brilliant books. Everyone from Mr Park to Ms Bailey, Mr Harper to Ms Hodson, the kitchen staff to Mr Wallbank, have been burying their noses inside some riveting fiction and non-fiction texts alike. Tutor groups have had the opportunity to uncover some new reads during form time, drawing upon the expertise of Ms Hockey and Ms Coates to help them select the ‘perfect’ book that they won’t be able to put down. The year 8s have brought their books from their Waterstones visit to show off and share with their friends, and students from each form have been using our ‘Drop Everything And Read’ reading catalogue to identify the next page turner that they want to get their hands on. So – ENJOY this! Get yourself completely immersed in a book and DROP EVERYTHING AND READ!
SAVING THE WORLD, ONE APOSTROPHE AT A TIME… Some wise person, somewhere, once said ‘a leader is someone who demonstrates what’s possible’. A wise lady at Chorlton High School (Ms Bailey) said: ‘our RWC (reading, writing and communication) Leaders make anything possible’.
Cheesy? Yes, but true none-the-less. Thirty Year 7 students have, this term, begun the challenge of raising the standard of reading, writing and communication across the school. These intrepid heroes have participated in two training sessions; enabling them to grasp the mantle of responsibility. These crucial skills shall be undervalued no more. Students! Do you need your punctuation checking? Ask our leaders. They can punctuate with the best of them. Teachers! Is having your class coached on how to spell those tricky key words the stuff of your dreams? Look no further. Our leaders are experts on the machinations of the teenage mind and how to negotiate its spelling black-holes. Parents! Do synonyms sizzle your brain? Do you know what a synonym is? Ask your talented
offspring! No word is too dull for them to transform. Yes, Chorlton High has had RWC unleashed upon it and it will never be the same again. ‘Is there no limit to the achievements of these philanthropists?’ I hear you say. Well, as far as this wise old woman can tell, no there is not. Next half term, having completed a long list of criteria to earn their ‘Bronze Award’, the RWC Leaders will commence the next stage of their incredible journey: the Silver Award. Watch this space for updates on these daring few. It’s going to be epic. Wait, Leaders, should that be an exclamation mark? It’s going to be epic!
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
WONDER WOMEN Over the Spring Term, the Achievement Team at CHS held their first annual ‘Wonder Women’ festival. The aim of the event was to raise aspirations of our young women, and help raise awareness of the exciting futures available to them. In addition, we wanted to tackle stereotypes about what it means to be ‘a girl’ with all students in school.
The festival started with activities and discussion in form time that aimed to promote positive images of women, particularly in the media. In addition, lots of members of staff shared stories of women who had inspired them which were displayed on screens around school. It was great to see so many students reading these and considering which women have inspired them, and help to motivate them every day. Needless to say, most of the male members of staff see their Mums as their biggest role models! The first major event was for a group of Year 8 girls who spent the day considering how to live a healthy and well-balanced life style. During the day, the girls spent time considering body image issues, the media representation and expectation of women, and how women can often have
unrealistic expectations of themselves and each other. After this, Miss Chapman then ran a two hour cookery session where the girls learnt how to make tasty, quick and healthy snacks. Many were amazed at how much they enjoyed food that they knew had nothing but goodness in it and everyone tried at least one thing that they had never eaten before. The day ended with some yoga thanks to Ms Baron. As a way of inspiring students, the festival also included a range of careerbased talks and events. These included talks from Jo Deakin (Criminal Justice), Georgina Hall (Genetics) and Victoria Ogunseitan (Life Sciences) from the University of Manchester about their various subject areas and careers within these. Wednesday 21st January saw our second ‘Inspiring Female Leaders’ event, which welcomed almost 40 speakers from the community into school to take part in a ‘speed networking’ event with 140 students from years 9 – 11. The two hour event gave our girls the opportunity to meet inspirational women from a whole
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I never realised there were so many careers and opportunities that I had never even thought about! I feel really motivated to work hard and achieve my own goals.
Year 10 Student
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FESTIVAL
variety of careers: judges, designers engineers, entrepreneurs, doctors, MPs and teachers were just a few of the professions represented. A great way to end the festival was having a week focussed on looking at exercise and the positive impact of physical activities. This involved holding our first whole school netball competition and having a representative from the ‘This Girl Can’ campaign (you’ll have seen the adverts on TV!) come in to school. Whilst the ‘This Girl Can’ seminar was aimed at Year 11 girls and trying to get them to consider the benefits of exercise both physically and mentally, the netball tournament welcomed students and staff from all year groups and areas of the school to take part in a mixed (and extremely competitive!) netball competition. It was a great way for students from all year groups to get to know each other (and see just how competitive the staff can be!) whilst having fun and keeping healthy. The staff are still bitter about their narrow loss to the Year 11 girls netball team. A rematch has been scheduled for the upcoming half term to try and allow them to regain some dignity. The festival was a great way to celebrate our young women and help to inspire them to achieve beyond their potential. Thank you so much to all the members of our community who came in to support the event. If you would be interested in supporting motivational events like this in the future, please contact Beth Nunn on b.nunn@ chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
DIGITAL SKILLS FESTIVAL
On Thursday 12th February Year 9 Computer Science students took part in a Digital Skills Festival experience day designed to help them learn practical skills that they can apply to school work and future career roles. The day also provided them with a chance to develop further understanding of computer science careers and a chance to meet people from computer science industries. Two Year 9 students who attended the trip gave their feedback on the day:
On the 12th February, we went on a trip with Computer Science. First in the morning we went to MMU (Manchester Metropolitan University) where we visited a company called ‘Bright Future’. Whilst we were there we created our own game using Coding. At first it was challenging however after about 5 minutes of making our game it became fun and also rewarding after you had finished the game part by part. The game we made was a car game; we had to code the game to allow us to move a car around a race track. To do this we used an App Development Software called ‘Greenfoot’ (which is also free to download). A plus side to using this App Development Software is that we got to experience something new and this has helped us further develop our skills using coding and new apps.
But we didn’t just do coding we also talked about apprenticeships and jobs available for people that go down the route of Computer Science. We found out that there were a lot of jobs especially for women. In the afternoon we also went to The Escalator, where we met up with another school and some people that worked for the company ‘Manchester Digital’. When we first got in we walked into what looked like a little café however when we walked to the back of the room a whole new space appeared. There was a room where meetings would take place and there were two sets of tables where we sat. It was almost like a secret room. Whilst we were there we got given an advertising task. Our task was to create and advertise three different flavours of nuts for people who go to the gym, aged
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It was a great experience and I’m sure it will help a lot of people with their futures in Computing, Science and IT.
17-24. Both of our schools split up and had to try to come up with the best advertisement and flavours. The teams were Chorlton High School vs. Manchester Enterprise Academy. We included a TV advert which I was part of, a slogan, a logo and a design for our packaging. What also made this day even better is that we won so it gave us all a huge feeling of reward and confidence for the future. This allowed us to work as a team and also gain new skills such as communication, leadership and handling pressurised situations under a time limit. BY LORAE ALDER YEAR 9
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Our trip to Manchester Metropolitan was an exciting, fun, adventurous, brilliant trip! The activities were challenging but at the same time fun to do. We were given permission to create and play a game which consisted of moving a car round a track. There were several steps to doing so however, the help we had from the staff made it easier to handle and create. Once we learnt the basics of how to move up, down, left and right; we were able to make the game multiplayer and add two or three cars. It was a great experience and I’m sure it will help a lot of people with their futures in Computing, Science and IT. This was all in the first half of the day, once we had finished at the Manchester Metropolitan; we took a walk into Manchester, eventually ending up at the escalator building. Here we carried out a design and marketing workshop where we competed with another school
to see who had the best ideas for making a new brand of peanuts! It was great to see everyone enjoying themselves and taking part in what was a fantastic day! The staff here were equally as helpful and easy going as the ones at Manchester Metropolitan University. In the end we compared our ideas for the peanuts and when the winner was announced, it was us! We designed a creative and colourful logo, good prices, great flavours and a lot more. Manchester Enterprise Academy were very good and it was very close! All in all the trip was fantastic, both parts to it. I would love to do something like this again! BY EMMETT LAVERTY YEAR 9
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
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