IN THE
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018
CELEBRATING SUCCESS ALSO INSIDE: BBC NEWS - LIVE LESSON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY BLUE PETER SURPRISE TWITTER EVENT JASON MANFORD VISIT
HELLO... Welcome to the latest edition of In the Spotlight. Inside, you will find all of our fantastic news, highlights and successes here at Chorlton High School. During last term, over thirty of our Year 8 and Year 9 students were selected to take part in a BBC NEWS – Live Lesson: a programme broadcast live to schools all over the UK, to mark the launch of a new BBC initiative designed to support young people to identify real news and filter out fake or false information. Bruce Daisley, Vice President for Europe at Twitter, visited Chorlton High School to provide an inspiring presentation to over 50 Year 9 students as part of the Speakers for Schools national campaign; #Skills2030. Bruce shared some of his best life lessons and gave our students advice about what skills they might need for future success. We held another amazing CHOOSE LOVE SHOW, where our students created an evening full of music, song and dance, helping to spread a positive message within our community. Our students also excitedly welcomed Jason Manford, Comedian and TV Presenter, to deliver a motivational talk and Q&A session. The CHS Library celebrated WORLD BOOK DAY with a series of events to encourage an interest in literature, reading and creativity. We also celebrated the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women during International Women’s Day 2018. To keep up to date with all of our exciting news, activities and updates,follow our CHS Twitter account; @chorltonhigh. You can also receive our fortnightly, bite-size newsletter; CHORLTON CONNECTION. To subscribe, please forward your email address to: admin@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk RICHARD STOUT COMMUNITY AND MARKETING OFFICER AND IN THE SPOTLIGHT EDITOR
INSIDE THIS ISSUE...
BBC NEWS - LIVE LESSON
1
DRAMA AT THE PUB 6 & BBC SCHOOL REPORT TWITTER EVENT
2-3
JASON MANFORD & CHOOSE LOVE
7
SPORTS NEWS
10
CHS NEW 11 ACADEMIC REPORTS
BLUE PETER 4 & MENTOR TRAINING
WORLD BOOK DAY 8 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
5
HARRY POTTER STEM FEST
8 9
CHS SOUTH NEWS 12 POETRY, TEENS 13 & PARENTS
BBC NEWS LIVE LESSON Over thirty of our Year 8 and Year 9 students took part in the recording of a BBC NEWS - Live Lesson to mark the launch of a new BBC initiative designed to support young people to identify real news and filter out fake or false information. BBC Live Lessons have been devised by BBC Learning to support school curriculum in an exciting and interactive way. Bringing schools, from all over the UK, together with some of the BBC’s leading experts, brands and talent to create a shared learning experience. This Live Lesson was presented by Naga Munchetty, BBC Breakfast presenter and Ricky Boleto, Newsround presenter, along with featured guest experts James Martin,
Executive Editor of HuffPost UK and Claire Milne from the independent fact checking organisation Full Fact. The lesson aimed to provide 11-14 yearolds with skills needed to view, analyse and evaluate the information they may find online and on social media. The programme helped our students to identify possible sources of false news and introduced them to the impact this information could have.
Our students were selected to ask a range of questions during the live broadcast, and enjoyed interacting with the presenters and guest experts whilst broadcast live to schools all over the UK. You can read more about spotting fake news and false information, and watch the BBC NEWS - Live Lesson at www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0376g8q or search for ‘BBC Live Lessons’.
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
TWITTER EVENT We were delighted to welcome Bruce Daisley, Vice President for Europe -Twitter, to provide an inspiring presentation to over 50 Year 9 students as part of the national #SKILLS2030 campaign.
During his talk, Bruce shared some of his best life lessons and advice with our students about what skills they might need for future success and how to prepare for the world of work in 2030. This event comes as part of Speakers for Schools national campaign, What skills will young people need for work in 2030? (#Skills2030), where over 30 of the UK’s leading figures from business, tech and culture are each giving a talk at a state school, sharing insights and advice to students on how to develop their future careers. The talk series feeds into an important, on-going discussion about how young people can best prepare for an evolving job market and what skills are considered fundamental by today’s leaders. By linking influential speakers with state school students, the charity hopes this campaign will inspire and empower young people for the world in 2030.
Bruce focused on the ways in which we can create our own opportunities in life by standing out and grabbing someone’s attention with inventive communication. Students asked questions around his first jobs, pitfalls, mistakes and biggest successes!
I really enjoyed the talk! Bruce had great ideas and advice to help our future careers. He was so enthusiastic and I liked his quote; ‘the only way to do great work is to love what you do’! YEAR 9 STUDENT
After his talk, Bruce kindly took part in a fantastic and in-depth Q&A session with our BBC School Reporters and Year 9 and Year 10 students. They discussed a wide variety of subjects including; the future of Twitter and social media, freedom of speech, staying safe on line, user responsibility and the ways new technologies can be used to help organise social movements. Ms Zoe Morris, Headteacher at Chorlton High School, welcomed Bruce’s visit: “At Chorlton High School, we believe in giving each of our students the very best of educational opportunities. We would like to thank Bruce Daisley and Speakers for Schools for providing a morning of exceptional and inspiring learning, and for helping to enrich our student’s skills and their future ambitions.’’ CHS students and staff would also like to thank Bruce and Speakers for Schools for providing such an amazing event! Our students have been given a wealth of inspiration and valuable insight from one of today’s leading figures in media.
Attitude! - that’s the biggest thing in your favour, if you’re going into your first job. BRUCE DAISLEY, VICE PRESIDENT FOR EUROPE, TWITTER
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
MENTORING TRAINING
BLUE PETER APPEARANCE
Last term, CHS welcomed Mind Manchester who provided two days of mentoring training for our students from Year 7 to Year 10.
During the first week back this half term, Chorlton High School was given a very exciting opportunity.
Each session was designed to give learners an understanding of mentoring and the skills required to act as a successful mentor. A range of introductory topics were covered through presentations, practical activities and group discussions, helping to develop an awareness of both the power and the challenges of mentoring. Students gained a better understanding of worry and anxiety, and the ways good communication and active listening can be used to improve the mental health of others whilst making real lasting change.
One of our Year 7 students, applied for a special edition Diamond Blue Peter badge and his application was accepted making him one of the first in the country to receive this award.
Our new mentors will be encouraged to use their skills throughout 2018, as part of our ongoing ‘Year of Wellbeing’ here at Chorlton High School and were vital to our support of #timetotalk Day on 1st February 2018.
In his application he stated that he was currently learning a new musical skill, the trumpet, and had joined a new concert band to play with. Blue Peter asked if they could come to a Concert Band rehearsal to surprise him and present him with the badge.
TIME TO TALK DAY 2018 is a campaign run by Time to Change, a growing social movement changing how we all think and act about mental health. Their aims include; improving attitudes towards people with mental health; reducing discrimination and making sure there are opportunities to challenge mental health stigmas in schools, online and in the workplace.
#timetotalk
The teachers had a difficult time keeping this a secret from the students in the band, using a “School Band documentary” cover up to keep people off the scent, it was worth it in the end for such a wonderful surprise. Not only did all the students get to meet Lindsey Russell, Blue Peter Presenter, but our students also gave her a mini trumpet lesson, so she was able to join the CHS Concert Band too! Chorlton High School appeared on Blue Peter in March 2018 on CBBC.
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY Celebrating the achievements of women everywhere! On 8th March 2018, we took part in International Women’s Day (IWD); a worldwide day of celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day introduced the IWD theme for 2018, focussing upon #PressforProgress; a call ‘to motivate and unite friends, colleagues and whole communities to think, act and be gender inclusive’. Using this theme, we developed a pop-up, mini event, taking place during break and lunchtime, to encourage and provoke ideas and thoughts around equality and unity. The event encouraged our students to think about what they would like to do to help bring about positive change for themselves, their friends and family, and within their wider communities. Students were asked to write a statement and place it up on our IWD wall. It was fantastic to hear our students discuss, debate and reflect upon a huge range of issues. We wanted IWD to act as the beginning of a continuing conversation, helping to spark new ideas and inspire new ways
to create ‘a future for girls that is bright, equal, safe and rewarding’. CHS staff also enjoyed a successful end to IWD, coming together, after school to enjoy coffee, tea and cake!
DRAMA AT THE PUB
CHS Year 11 Drama students took part in a series of poignant, emotional and funny pop-up performances set in The Lloyds pub in Chorlton. Our students pulled together amazingly well. Working incredibly hard to create a fantastic and well appreciated event within our wider community. Audience members celebrated the professionalism and high quality performances of our students.
We would like to offer our huge thanks to Darren and his team at The Lloyds, Chorlton, and to everyone who helped to make this such a wonderful event.
BBC SCHOOL REPORT For the past few years, Chorlton High School has signed up to take part in BBC School Report, a nationwide project to educate and inform young people about the news and the world around them.
The BBC School Report offers students the opportunity to produce their own news reports on subjects that matter to them and engage with a real audience via BBC programmes and platforms. It encourages a hands-on approach to learning and in response, English teacher Mr Szmierek set up a CHS News Team to bring our student voice to a wider audience.
Our student news team meet regularly and take part in production meetings to decide editorial direction, learn new digital skills and to research, film and edit their reports. The BBC also provides a wealth of online resources to help explain the news-making process, including lesson plans and short videos with advice and tips for our budding reporters.
Recently, our CHS News team met Dominic Hughes (BBC Health Correspondent), taking this fantastic opportunity to discuss his career. Our reporters also featured on BBC Newsround to ask questions of children in a Myanmar refugee camp, helping to build both awareness and empathy for this extremely difficult situation.
JASON MANFORD Q&A CHS were very happy to welcome the star of stage and TV, Jason Manford, to deliver a motivational talk and Q&A session for our students. Jason, who attended Oakwood High School, related stories and anecdotes based on his inspirational message of never giving up. Connecting his childhood, growing up in Whalley Range and his route to becoming a successful stand-up comedian and actor, in an extremely engaging, fun and humorous way. Our students were inspired to ask many questions during the lively Q&A session that followed, gaining valuable insight into the Arts industry, future career paths and continued learning. We would like to thank Jason for providing a highlight of last term, and we look forward to inviting him back soon!
CHOOSE LOVE SHOW 2018 Due to the enormous success of last year’s Choose Love Show, we decided to develop this evening showcase into an annual event. For this year, our students raised their game impressively. Working together to produce a series of outstanding performances whilst wowing the audience for over two hours. Once again, our students proved themselves fantastic, creative and professional ambassadors for CHS and helped to spread a positive message within our community. We are delighted to announce that the Choose Love Show 2018 has raised and donated over £800 to HelpRefugees.org. The CHS Arts team would like to thank everyone who helped to support this amazing event. They would also like to extend special thanks to the kind, compassionate and inspiring students who took part.
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
WORLD BOOK DAY Celebrating reading, writing, fun, creativity and imagination everywhere! Students were taken by surprise, as they arrived for school to find the English department and library team, magically transformed into their favourite book characters!
World Book Day offers a wonderful opportunity for teachers and students to engage in a celebration of reading, writing and learning, with a focus on creativity and imagination, as part of their usual school lessons.
CELEBRATING HARRY POTTER During Spring term, we held a magical Harry Potter Quiz to help celebrate Harry Potter Book Night! Our event proved to be extremely popular, so much so, that we were required to relocate from the CHS library into our more spacious canteen! Students and staff gathered into teams to have fun and enjoy answering a series of Potter related trivia questions. Our quiz was unbelievably competitive and all answer sheets were collected and taken to the Ministry of Magic for independent verification before the announcement of the 2018 winners!
During the day, we also began our Book Character Competition, where students are encouraged to find 13 secret book readers hidden around our school!
STEM FEST
This year’s STEMfest ran from 5th to 9th February, and was a week-long celebration of all things STEM!
Students were able to take part in activities to excite and enthuse them in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). The importance of these subjects is now more important than ever; with the Northern Powerhouse initiative being implemented in Manchester as well as many other towns and cities surrounding the region, careers in the STEM sector are showing the largest growth. There was a range of activities for all years, including a Harry Potter ‘magic’ spells session, designing your own
rollercoaster and girls in engineering. As well as this, we included some cross curricular links to show how wide ranging STEM fields can be, and these included STEM oracy sessions, a STEM themed book club and a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry to look at the scientific history of Manchester. The week ended with a popular STEM networking event for Year 10, where students met up with STEM professionals from the local community, helping to raise awareness and aspiration for a career in STEM.
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
SPORTS NEWS EXCITING TRACK CYCLE RACING FROM TEAM CHS! Track Racing is an exciting and growing sport, and the HSBC National Cycling Centre is one of the UK’s best locations to take part! Recently, Chorlton High School took a team to compete in the Manchester Track Cycling Championships. Championship races consist of a single lap, pitting riders against each other in a short, fast pursuit, from start line to finish. For this event, riders work as a team to score points for their school across a series of league races. Teams are first selected by their schools and then given expert coaching in order to ride the track safely and with confidence.
Team CHS have worked extremely hard to qualify through to the finals of the Championships, winning all three of their race meetings and recording the following results: • CHS beat Manchester Creative and Media Academy 7-5
• CHS beat Manchester Communication Academy 9-3 • CHS beat Wright Robinson College 8-4 Huge congratulations to everyone who took part. We look forward to reporting on their next, exciting round of races!
MORE WATER POLO SUCCESS! Chorlton High School Students; Callum Fookes, together with Tom and Luke Roche have recently represented Manchester in the U17 National Water Polo tournament. The team came through two preliminary rounds unbeaten to qualify for the finals. The final proved to be a closely fought match, with both teams competing brilliantly, before Manchester successfully beat Watford 18-10. The success continued out of the pool as Callum was also then nominated as the best goalkeeper in the tournament. Beyond the U17 tournament, our students also compete in a number of other teams. Luke and Tom have represented Manchester in the U19’s National Water Polo tournament, winning two bronze medals. Luke and Tom have again been selected to
represent the England Water Polo Team who will compete soon in the Slovianka Cup, held in Gorzow, Poland. As part of the England team, our students will compete against teams from Belarus, Lithuania and Poland. The squad will also attend a number of training camps in preparation for the European Championships Qualifying tournament in May 2019, where they will compete as Great Britain. Our huge congratulations and good luck to all of our competing students and to all of their respective teams and squads!
NEW ACADEMIC REPORTS Introducing our new electronic Chorlton High School Academic Report. The electronic Chorlton High School Academic Report replaces our old, paper based, Written Report and is designed to drive academic progress and enable independence by focusing on student’s strengths and areas for development in each of their subjects. For their specified areas for development, students have been provided with ‘therapies’, tailored to enable independent study and learning.
ENABLING INDEPENDENCE
The Chorlton High School Academic Report can be accessed online via smart phone, tablet and laptop and a guide on how to use the report can be found at www.chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk.
Therapies are resources, specifically linked to an area for development (either online or through textbooks) and will help to enable each student to make progress.
The new report has three distinct areas: Areas of strengths are identified through performance in examinations, in classwork or in home learning and show where a student is successful. Areas for development are identified next steps that will help boost academic progress in the subject.
independent study. We encourage you to talk to your child about their report and encourage them to complete the therapies that they have been provided with in each subject. The Therapies that we send out on the report are a snapshot of the available online resources that have been developed by each subject to enable independent study across the entire course. We recommend that you spend time with your child exploring all of them to utilise this fantastic learning resource. You can access our Therapies at www. chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk.
CHS LEARNING JOURNEY
All students have a 5-year learning journey at Chorlton High School to enable them to become Successful, Creative and Happy. Good learning habits are crucial to enable success. One such habit is
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
CHS SOUTH NEWS We are in the process of opening CHS South, our brand new eight-form entry, mixed, comprehensive school. We are planning to open in September 2018 with 240 Year 7 places. The school will run as part of the Prospere Learning Trust, replicating the ethos, values and Artsrich curriculum model so successfully embedded at Chorlton High School for more young people across our community. As we are a brand new school with 240 places available from September 2018 some students not awarded their schools of choice may have been offered a place at CHS South, if it is their nearest school with places available. If any of you and your child find yourselves in this situation, we recognise you will need time to consider your options and will have questions to ask. We also recognise that you may be in a situation where you haven’t been awarded your schools of choice or CHS South and may be interested in changing your preference in favour of CHS South, if there is availability. To assist young people and their families in this situation we have hosted two CHS South weekend Open Morning events, held in The Green Room at Chorlton High School. These events provided an opportunity to call in and speak to the leadership team for CHS South, ask any questions and get to know us a little better before making a decision about their situation.
You can view our new digital CHS South prospectus at www.chssouth.org.uk and can stay in touch with us via our Twitter account; @southchs.
POETRY COMPETITION WINNER! One of our Year 7 poets has achieved great recognition for his creativity and imagination! Written on behalf of his best friend, the winning poem was selected by Katie Thistleton, CBBC Presenter, from the
TEENS TEENS TEENS! A number of Chorlton High School parents / carers have successfully completed our ‘TEENS TEENS TEENS!’ course. This five-week course was developed to help Parents / Carers navigate the difficulties of supporting teens and preteens as they prepare for adulthood. Those who attended were given the skills and confidence to identify and acknowledge any issues, helping to provide ways to best help support and build successful relationships between parent / carer and teenager. We would like to thanks everyone who attended and supported our course.
numerous, high quality entries into the World Book Day Poetry Competition. The CHS winner asked; “Is this really true!?” before receiving his certificate, a signed postcard from Katie and a fantastic Easter egg, that he instantly shared with his entire maths class!
PARENTS’ BOOK CLUB Parents’ Book Club continued into the new year in March, as we once again welcomed parents / carers to relax whilst reading in our CHS Library. The book selected to begin 2018 was; The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, a mysterious book of forbidden faraway lands, fire demons and the journey to salvation! Our Club provides a fantastic opportunity for parents / carers to meet and chat over tea and coffee, whilst reading the books available to students at Chorlton High School. We hope it helps support and encourage further reading at home.
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL IN THE SPOTLIGHT
CHORLTON HIGH SCHOOL NELL LANE CHORLTON MANCHESTER M21 7SL Tel 0161 882 1150 Fax 0161 861 8753 admin@chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk www.chorltonhigh.manchester.sch.uk @chorltonhigh 3954 design manchesterdesignfactory.com 07884 427009