WORKING WITH WORTHING HIGH SCHOOL IN 2012-13
Autumn 2013
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BEING ENTERPRISING Although the need to cover all aspects of being a Specialist School in Business and Enterprise are no longer compulsory, the school continues to support a wide number of community initiatives, and offer our students an increasing number of applied learning opportunities. 2012 – 13 has seen a growing number of new businesses associated with the school either through sponsorship or direct curriculum involvement. In addition, subject areas across the curriculum have embraced the key enterprise skills as a part of teaching and learning. Furthermore, the school’s national reputation for its employer engagement initiative has led to other schools in England requesting further support and guidance following the National Business and Enterprise Conference held at Warwick University. Some examples of successes and achievements in 2012-13 have been:
Applied Learning opportunities and visits have been provided to our students throughout the academic year by Ricardos, Equiniti, N’SURE, Enterprise Actions, Southern Water, Morgan Sindall, HSBC and the Worthing Chamber of Commerce.
Over 30 students have given presentations to the Trust Executive and Trust Board of their applied learning experiences.
The “Meeting the Professional” initiative set up by Liz Millar (Careers Co-ordinator) is gaining momentum and provides opportunities for our students to meet professionals from a variety of local Businesses in which they have an interest.
Over 30 local Businesses are members of the Business Partner Group and are involved in either small scale sponsorship or direct curriculum involvement.
The school continues to provide excellent Enterprise support for the Vale and Chesswood Middle Schools.
The excellent 7 week Financial Literacy course provided by NSure staff and the 7 week HSBC interview and presentation skill course for every Year 10 and Year 11 student throughout the year is still the “Jewel in the Crown” and is the envy of all schools. We are indebted to these 2 local Businesses for readily giving of their time and commitment to all our students.
Barclays Bank have not only provided excellent early intervention in Financial Literacy for our Year 8 and Year 9 students, but were responsible for the large scale sponsorship of the Dance Evening co-ordinated and hosted by the school which involved many of our middle schools in the Pavilion Theatre. Rhys Price Director of Business Links in the Community
Developing effective employer engagement Worthing High School is a mixed comprehensive school for nearly 1000 students aged 12-16. The school has a national reputation for its excellent work with employers in supporting the curriculum and has made very effective use of its links with businesses in supporting students in many subject. What’s particularly striking at Worthing High is the routine presence of employers in the classroom. The school has a long list of employers with whom it has developed over time and has identified the following key factors for successful employer engagement:
The need to build relationships over time with a range of employers. Employers need to be aware of the benefits, both for the school and for themselves – for example in developing employees’ interpersonal skills. The need to be flexible and keep an open mind about suggestions of working together. Credibility needs to be demonstrated through commitment and ensuring things happen at the school end. Staff development to ensure an understanding of working with employers and the possible benefits it can bring. Ensure that employers get recognition for their work through coverage in newsletters and the Media. The need to monitor and evaluate all initiatives and to learn from past experiences of what works well and where improvements might be made.
Experience at Worthing High shows the importance of running employer engagement from within senior leadership. Rhys Price, Director of Business Links in the Community, comments: “You have to have somebody from school who’s able and willing to make things happen and has the commitment and the drive to see it through.”
Worthing Business Circle > Blog > Latest Entries Rhys Price says Joining Worthing Business Circle has been greatly beneficial to both the school and the local business community. It enables us to inform local employers of what is happening in school and the part we play in supporting the local and wider community. Members of Worthing Business Circle have been very generous in not only providing sponsorship for a number of events but with providing a number of our students with applied learning opportunities using real life scenarios. I am extremely grateful for all the support they have provided us and hopefully members have also received some benefits from the partnership.
ENTERPRISE ACTIONS In April, Graham Vaughan, Director & Human Resources Consultant for Enterprise Actions Limited visited a Year 10 Business Studies class to introduce employment law. Graham explained the impact of employment law, not just on the on employees but also small businesses themselves. The group learnt that if is often difficult for small organizations to manage updates in the law and that they have to use external consultants such as Graham’s business. It was a very informative session and helped students prepare for their Year 10 exam.
TRAINING FOR EMPLOYERS A feature of Worthing High School is the regularity of employers in the classroom covering a wide range of topics and applied learning experiences for students. Employers can engage affectively with 14 – 16 year olds often undergoing a course at school or in the workplace. Pace of lesson and variety of task are key elements of good lesson learning and management. A number of local employers who have benefited from training include HSBC, Nsure, Barclays Bank, Carpenter Box and Worthing Business Circle. Further training is already planned with a number of local Businesses.
USING SPANISH IN THE WORKPLACE In January, all Year 11 Spanish GCSE students spent the morning at HSBC Invoice Finance in Worthing working alongside staff who use Spanish as part of their everyday work. Students interviewed the team who regularly communicate with the Spanish speaking business world. They were made aware of the importance of being able to speak and communicate in a foreign language in the modern business world. Students now realise the large number of opportunities which exist for those who can speak a foreign language. Many of these particular students are going on to study Spanish at A level next year. Steve Martin (Year 11 student) said, ‘This was a great opportunity and it has made me think of what I would like to do in the future. I love using my French and Spanish and a job in which I could do this would be great. It also made me think that there are many opportunities in the local area – not just in London or the other big cities’.
CAREERS FAIR Every year the school organises a Careers Fair and Post 16 Evening, which is always well attended by students and parents from Years 10 and 11. Representatives from local and national businesses are on hand to offer advice and career opportunities, as well as post 16 colleges who can then guide students on suitable courses. We are extremely grateful to all the businesses that give their time in helping to make this event the successful evening that it is. Listed here are just a few of our participants: Balfour Beatty Bo-K Florist Broadwater Medical Centre Euphoric Beauty Fitzalan Veterinary Surgery HSBC Bank Nsure Tarring Osteopath In this current climate students, parents and teachers need to be constantly updated and informed of all current labour market information, so that our students will be well equipped to face the world of work, and have the best opportunity to follow their career path.
SKY SPORTS-LIVING FOR SPORT PROJECT Pete Waterfield visited the school for a third time on Tuesday 30th April 2013. He worked throughout the day with 15 year 8 students on their “Sky Sports Living for Sport Project” - ‘Transition’. Students were inspired when listening to Pete’s story and were wowed by his trampolining prowess. Worthing High welcomed Pete back in July when he presented the Sports Awards at the Presentation Evening, which you can read about in the PE Newsletter. Miss Field Leader of Physical Education
WORKING WITH EMPLOYERS A programme entitled ‘Meet the Professionals’ has been set up to enhance the Careers Information and Guidance that Year 10 and 11 students receive in school. Students were sent a questionnaire asking them who they would like to come in and talk to them about a specific career or profession. From this we are able to see in which areas the students were looking at. The feedback from professionals and students has been excellent. Liz Millar, Careers said, “Being able to ask questions to the right people has helped the students realise what is actually involved in that job, and students are now more informed about what they need to study at college and possibly university.” We would like to thank the following businesses for giving up their time to come and speak: Spofforths (Accountants); Major Ansell (representing the Army); Anthony Michael Salon (Hair and Beauty); Morgan Sindall (Construction); Bennett Griffin (Solicitors), Equiniti (PR & Marketing), This has been a very successful programme which will continue next academic year and if any other businesses would like to contribute to this Employer Engagement programme, please contact Liz Millar at emillar@worthinghigh.net
WORTHING SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND Meeting between the society and the young people of WHS. Monday 28th May – focusing on providing an intergenerational event where discussion is encouraged and friendships are made. As soon as the people from Worthing Society for the Blind entered D13, our students chatted away to them. The conversation flowed so well - I had prepared question sheets for our students just in case things did not flow but these were not needed! We had a lovely afternoon tea together, and our students described the cakes to our guests and shared these with them so beautifully. It sounds rather too idealistic, but friendships were made very quickly, and our guests have asked to meet with the same children again before too long. We had a lovely sing-along and afterwards wisdom was shared with our youngsters - they listened well. I cannot sufficiently describe it here - the atmosphere was so special - moving and incredibly warm. Our guests could not stop singing the praises of our youngsters and were so grateful for the afternoon - they were made to feel so special and valued, they told us – and that was our intention. 3.15 came and went and our students carried on talking - they were not interested in going home at that point - too busy chatting away. I had to call an end to the event at 3.40pm as the charity driver was waiting! I am so proud of these young people.
NO LIMITS: LIVE! Working with local record producer Ian Lovatt on developing a community -based music-making course. No Limits: Live has been piloted here at WHS and enjoyed great success. We are now currently rolling it out to other local schools and community groups. If we can demonstrate the need for a provision such as this, then we can tap into Arts funding. The Vale School and Chesswood School have been visited by Ian and Steve Jeffery and response is looking very positive. There are current plans to resource rehearsal pods in the music department to serve this project which will in turn serve the pupils of WHS too. www.nolimitslive.co.uk
WORTHING SCOPE The charity song is now complete after a further 20+ hours of recording studio time at Northbrook College. Spencer Tobias-Williams, Judah Billen, Greg Vernon, Neath Champion - Weekes and Jasmine Wren-Gale were called to Northbrook College to begin recording the song that numerous students have written together to promote the charity and raise funds through a down-load promotion of the song across the town. These students were a credit to us, their parents and themselves! They worked so hard and even though they were nervous, they have recorded some wonderful music. I was mesmerised watching Spencer in the studio – he is full of very musical ideas that enhance the piece – everyone was a little in awe of him to be honest. I do know that Universal Records are rather interested in his band at the moment (High Tyde) – exciting times for Spencer and his band (and his family…and me!!!) They gave so much of their time and talents and were great to work with. Northbrook college have been an amazing support and I have learned so much too from them – a truly great partnership between college and school. On the 2nd and 3rd of July WHS students and performing artists from Worthing Scope worked together to write, arrange and perform a play with music. This was a really special occasion and we all learned so much from each other. Students worked so closely with the people from Scope and the support for one another was inspirational. We cannot wait to work together again – a truly magical experience.
THE OPEN UNIVERSITY In January 2013 we invited two Open University lecturers to the Worthing High School Science Department. During the day they delivered 4 workshops - "The workings of a motor", "Investigating Pendulums", “Evolution", and "The life of a carnivorous plant" to an enthusiastic group of Year 8 students.
St LAWRENCE SURGERY COMMUNITY DAY Friday 6th July, WHS’s dance group, Ricochet, performed at the open day event for this local surgery.
EQUINITI VIST In February, Year 11 Business Administration and Finance Diploma students were fortunate to have an opportunity to visit Equiniti in Durrington. In the morning, the group had a number of activities, including talks on tackling financial crime, the role of relationship managers and the importance of group dynamics. In the afternoon, students went to Lancing to see how Equiniti processes share certificates & dividend cheques for some of he biggest companies in the UK. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and the group gained first-hand experience of how a large company operates in the international business market.
NEW PEACE GARDEN Worthing High is pleased to announce that the Peace Garden is now finished and ready to be used for supervised activities. The garden has space for about 25 seated and can be booked as a resource classroom. Below is a picture of the garden when we started back in May 2011 so that you can see just how much work everyone has put into getting it ready for you to use with your students. In addition to the £1000 grant Barclays provided along with their staffs hard work
after
we were also given £500 by Nick Sherman’s widow which we have also used on the garden – hopefully a lovely reminder for us all. before
COMMUNITY AND CONSERVATION DAYS
These were the most varied days we have offered our students so far. They were very successful. You only have to look at the photos to see the impact the day had on other community members, conservation and WHS students. This is a response to new challenges that our students should be proud to be associated with. I would like to thank Ferring Country Centre, SCOPE, Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, Friends of Broadwater Cemetery, Care home, Care Home, West Sussex County Council, Worthing Borough Council and Continental Landscapes, Wildfowel and Wetlands Trust, Sussex Wildlife Trust, National Trust at Cissbury, Devil’s Dyke, Sheffield Park and Uppark House, South Down National Park, Sussex Ouse Restoration Trust, Worthing Museum, Vale, Goring, Thomas Becket, St Mary’s RC, Durrington and Hawthorns First and Middle Schools, Worthing Baptist Church, Adur and Sydney Walter Centres, Cortis Avenue Wildlife Garden and of course all of the staff and students at Worthing High who supported these activities. In July Chichester Harbour Authority became a new partner in our programme. Paul Kaczmarek
WORTHING HOSPITAL’S CHILDREN’S A & E CENTRE Students of WHS were invited to attend an event at the new A and E centre. WHS students helped to raise a considerable sum of money for this project through a community fundraising concert – bringing together 10 local schools to give a performance at Lancing College. As a “thank you” for their efforts, the hospital wanted to show the students what the extra funding had managed to provide. Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust has invested money to create a new dedicated area for children within the existing A and E department at the Lyndhurst Road hospital. A dedicated plaster room and an interactive play area within the dedicated children’s waiting room have been built. The new children’s A and E centre is completely separate from the adult treatment and waiting areas and will be staffed by children’s nurses. Students were given a tour of the new centre and experienced the scanning room where they were given the opportunity to look at their own internal organs (!) – Liver, kidneys, spleen, heart, bladder etc. They talked with the consultant about his job too. Exploring the ambulance and of course sounding the siren was a huge highlight. The young people of WHS then checked each other’s blood pressure and blood saturation before the final treat which was to have their arms plastered and put into slings. By the end of the event, it looked as though this school trip had gone terribly wrong – every child was in plaster! This was a really special occasion and we were so grateful to the whole team for giving us such a memorable and exciting opportunity. The department would like to know if the teenagers felt the waiting room was lacking anything for their age-group. I will follow this up and attempt to fundraise for the items they felt were needed.
ENTERPRISING STUDENT OF THE MONTH A wide range of local Businesses continue to sponsor the Enterprising Student of the Month initiative which awards prizes for a student in each of the school communities of Broadwater, Heene, Salvington and Tarring for demonstrating enterprising qualities. Sally Stewart presents four year 11 students each with a £10 voucher for demonstrating high level enterprising skills during their work experience. This July award was sponsored by Leaders.
YEAR 8 ENRICHMENT DAY- PERFORMING ARTS In July, Year 8 enjoyed a Creative Enrichment Day. Numerous guests visited the school to inspire our students to think creatively and enjoy creativity at its best. Michael Loney from IE Music (Robbie William's manager) told the students all about the music industry, entertaining the young people with stories about very famous people in the music business. Students also learned "close-up magic" tricks from Chris Nicholson - a highly successful TV magician who has often appeared on SKY TV and has performed all over the world. Chantal Cooke - a TV and radio presenter and founder and owner of "Passion for the Planet" radio station (London) taught the Year 8 students about how best to communicate the very things that concern them most and Ryan Gorringe showed them the art of recording and manipulating sound which he uses all of the time as a record producer. T21 Dance school showed us all how to "pop" and street-dance and Circus Scene showed us how to master and improve our circus skills. CoMA Arts brought a group of professional musicians who performed classical works from the 20th Century - the sounds they produced were beautiful and at times wonderfully unusual. This was a huge highlight and to be given the opportunity to conduct the group was something that many students thoroughly enjoyed. Northbrook College showed us how to make animation films and we were also given the opportunity to really explore the school environment and note what kinds of creatures share the school with us - creating a habitat map was both enjoyable and informative. Probably the biggest highlight was the live gig from local band "High Tyde" - this group is made up of boys from Worthing High (Spencer Tobias-Williams), Littlehampton Academy, Sir Robert Woodward Academy and St Andrews. The band have been enjoying great success and Records are particularly interested in talking to them about their future. I know that there are other major record labels who have heard the band and are keen to investigate them further exciting times. The band played throughout the day and then finished off playing in the final assembly - Year 8 went mad for them! This was a hugely enjoyable day and all students threw themselves into the various workshops. EVERY workshop leader commented on how well behaved the students were and how interested they all were too. I was thrilled to have so many students approaching me to thank me for such an enjoyable day. Their really positive attitudes, lovely manners and "can do" attitudes meant that it was one of the most enjoyable days I have had at the school too. Well done, Year 8!
Mr Jeffery
LOCAL NEWS - CLASS ACT At the end of Spring term the Worthing Herald approached the school to work on a project called Class Act. The project linked the Herald with our school and their team works with students to produce two pages of school news – the students write the stories, take the pictures and design the pages. During Summer term Colin Channon, Editor in Chief for Sussex Newspapers West came in to school and worked with a team of 8 students. He taught them how to write for a newspaper, what kinds of stories work well and all about newspaper design. Armed with their new skills the student team worked hard to create their “school news” article during the term which was published in the Worthing Herald on Thursday 13th September. The article included a “Day in the Life of” when one of the students covered a teacher for the day and a piece on an ex-student who is now at Oxford University who recently returned to the school to talk to our students. The students learnt a great deal from the project and we are very grateful to the Herald for working with us on this innovative scheme.
EDF ENERGY In January 2013, Alba Pascual from EDF Energy delivered a talk to all our year 9 students on Electrical Safety. She started with a short video clip showing how some of the repair work is completed to the overhead cables. She then talked about jobs in the industry explaining how a majority of the current staff will be retiring in the next few years so there will be many vacancies for current High School students to fill. She finished with a video showing a group of school aged children behaving irresponsibly near to high voltage equipment. The film included the impact on family members and gave our students much to think about.
SAVE WATER CAMPAIGN Pam James and her team from Southern Water have been working with new GCSE ICT pupils in order to help prepare them for their ICT coursework. The coursework is worth 60% of the final grade for ICT and is therefore an extremely important element of the course. Pam and her team set up a scenario for pupils to create a logo for a save water campaign, through the activity pupils learnt the importance of knowing the project brief they had been given and always referring to the essential specifications and therefore being able to meet the success criteria. The activity really made pupils consider how they will know, understand and meet the coursework requirements. This fun activity was beneficial to all.
E.Y.E PROJECT ECO SUMMIT Two hundred eco-warriors from eighteen local schools took part in the 5th annual E.Y.E. (Eco, Young and Engaged)Project Eco-Summit which was recently hosted by Worthing High School. The pupils, ranging in age from 7 to 17 years, were able to share their own school’s ‘green’ work as well as participate in a day full of workshops focused on environmental and sustainability-based themes. Tim Loughton M.P. founder and patron of the E.Y.E. Project led the day. Cooking with locally sourced ingredients, creating musical instruments and music from junk, caring for our oceans with Ed the Bear, linking with a Fairtrade cotton factory in Mauritius, and learning how to be ‘waterwise’, were just a few of the 14 exciting and creative learning opportunities available on the day. The national organisation ‘Wastebusters’ supported the event leading a presentation to all of the attendees in which their characters Buster and Pong reinforced how everyone can work to waste less and to recycle what can not be reused when ever they can, so sending less to landfill. Polly Wise, chairperson of the E.Y.E. Project and Eco School’s Coordinator at Thomas A Becket Middle School said “the E.Y.E. Project continues to grow locally, we now have 30 local schools from across Worthing and Adur district registered, 18 of whom took part in the day. This was our biggest Eco-Summit yet.” “The day bought together many individuals, groups and organisations who supported the event either as workshop leaders or stand holders and this enabled schools to form links with which to work with in the future. We thank them all for their support. We also thank Worthing High School for hosting the event again.” The E.Y.E. Project has recently redeveloped its website so enabling its registered schools to showcase and share their work. www.eyeproject.co.uk Polly Wise -Chairperson of the E.Y.E Project
BAPTIST CHURCH MEMBERS ‘DO LUNCH’ WITH STUDENTS July saw Year 11 students hosted a lunch for a group of older people from the local Baptist church. They spent the morning preparing a lunch that consisted of a variety of quiches and salads followed by mixed berry cheesecake and banoffee pie. The students worked hard to create an ambient space fort the visitors to eat their meal by decorating one of the classrooms with flowers and neatly laid tables. The students ate lunch with the visitors which allowed them talk to them and find out about their lives and experiences- one of the older people had worked at Worthing High School many years ago. The students were very attentive to the guests, serving the food they had carefully prepared. The guests were very impressed with the food they students had prepared, and many of them had seconds!
INFLUENTIAL STUDENTS AIM TO REDUCE TEENAGE SMOKING Year 8 students completed an anonymous questionnaire to identify peers who they trust for advice and consider the most influential within the year group, the results from the this created a list of 20 students who were invited to work with NHS West Sussex and Decipher Assist on a programme of training to become ‘peer supporters’. The students attended a two day training course at the Charmendean centre in Worthing and completed four follow up sessions focusing on promoting a healthy lifestyle and communication with peers. “The ASSIST programme aims to reduce smoking amongst young people aged 12-13 (Yr 8) by training influential students to disseminate new norms of behaviour through their established social networks. It has been rigorously evaluated as A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial, funded by the Medical Research Council, which took place in 59 secondary schools in South Wales and the SouthWest of England” This project is an excellent opportunity for young people to learn about the dangers of smoking and filter this through their friendship groups. The way in which students are selected is a great idea. They are not smokers or even at risk of becoming smokers but well respected people within their social groups, therefore each small group gets represented and the information and knowledge is then shared around the year group and school. John Rhodie - Health Education Coordinator
THE BIGGER BANG SHOW On Wednesday 14th December, 30 year 8 students travelled to the Dome in Brighton to see The Bigger Bang IV A Science Oddity show. The show had many chemical reactions that are too dangerous to complete in a school laboratory.
BRIGHTON UNIVERSITY BIOCHEMISTRY LABORATORIES On Thursday 14th June, 30 year 10 GCSE triple scientists visited the Biochemistry laboratories at the new Huxley Building in Moulscombe, part of the University of Brighton. Dr Jacqui Elsom led the day giving students an insight into university life as well as an introduction to some of the current research topics being undertaken by the University.
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