Category : Headteacher’s Blog

It’s been a week of mixed emotions as Years 13 and 11 have sat their final exams and attended Boroughbridge High School for the final time. On Thursday, following the Science exam, the traditional shirt signing for Year 11 took place with students and teachers writing inspirational, kind or funny messages. Students then went to their Leavers’ Assembly where messages from staff, present and past were played, all reminding students of what they have achieved and wishing them success for the future. (Thanks to Amelia for pulling the video together.) There was then some amusement as photos from Year 7 to 11 were shown, reminding students of how much they’ve grown both physically and emotionally in the last five years. We’re looking forward to celebrating their time at Boroughbridge High School at the Prom this evening.

Year 13 have celebrated the end of their exams with a trip to Snozone this afternoon.

Above all, after the challenges of the last couple of years, Year 13 and Year 11 have shown great resilience in their preparation for the exams and the way in which they have conducted themselves throughout the exam period. We wish the class of 2022 well for the future and will look forward to hearing about their future successes.

As is the nature of school communities, as Year 11 and Year 13 leave we move to our new timetable on Monday and the new school year begins. In assemblies this week, I’ve celebrated with students all that they have achieved in this academic year before reminding them of our school expectations to secure future success. We also talked about learning and building knowledge and, in particular, about the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve which shows that without recapping and retrieving knowledge, after 1 day you will have retained only 33% of the knowledge, after 6 days only 25% and after 31 days only 21%. So, as a school we are using the strategy of retrieval grids to ensure that students retain and then build upon this knowledge. Mr. Errington reports that ‘Following the assembly on Tuesday morning about the science behind how we learn, some of my year 7s wanted to investigate further.  Now that they know how learning works, they went straight back to re-visit the learning they did back in September so that they are in top-form ready for Year 8.  Well done year 7.’

We’re also introducing Curriculum Progression maps so that students have a visual representation of what they’re learning, when and how this builds knowledge and skills over time. I’ll be writing to you soon to give you further details.

Yesterday, the next round of the Harrogate and Craven District Athletics Championships took place at Giggleswick School with 24 of our students competing. There were 8 places available in each event and when asked to summarise our performance Mr. Field exclaimed ‘absolutely brilliant’.  We had five 4^th places, eight 3^rd places, two 2^nd places and one 1^st place (James in Year 7 in discus) so, as you’ll have calculated, 11 podium finishes. An impressive performance indeed and against schools much larger than Boroughbridge High School.

Today the Rewards Trip to Flamingo Land has been a great success with students from Years 7 to 10 enjoying both the rides and the zoo. Everyone had a great time and staff were, as always, impressed by the excellent behaviour of students. This is one of the Rewards events that take place across the school year.

Staff and students have been talking today about the fantastic first night of the Grease production at Coronation Hall starring many of our students. Mrs. Macadam reports that ‘The opening show was first class and it is a must see for everyone – you certainly won’t regret it!’ It’s not late to see the production as it continues tonight and tomorrow.  Looking in lessons this week, I thought you might like to see the completed spaghetti measurers which Year 7 have been working on in DT, demonstrating how to combine creativity and technical skill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advance notice of The Big Book Swap: 

Mrs. Wellock reports that ‘Students and staff have been donating books over the last few weeks and we are now ready to hold our Big Book Swap. Students should come to the library at lunchtime on Friday 1st July to take part where they can purchase second-hand books with cash (prices from £1 to £3) or use book tokens (if you donated your own books to the swap). We have so many great titles including Ben Davis’ The Private Blog of Joe Cowley, RJ Palacio’s Auggie and Me, and a signed copy of Andy Seed’s The Silly Book of Side-Splitting Stuff.  You can expect to find lots of other books by some of our favourite authors: Malorie Blackman, John Green, Michael Morpurgo, Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Wilson to name a few. If you still have spare books at home that you’d be happy to donate then it’s not too late to bring them in – please drop them off at the English office to collect your tokens!’

A reminder that new Year 8 and new Year 11 need to bring their PE kit on Monday morning.

Have a lovely weekend!

I hope you had a lovely half term and Jubilee Bank Holiday. It was great to welcome students back to school this week for the last few weeks of our 2021-2022 timetable. You’ll be aware that we move to our new school year and new timetable before the Summer break, to maximise our learning time. This year it will be from 27th June.

Assemblies this week, led by Mrs. Knock, have focused on the life and talent of Alan Turing showing how he developed a number of techniques for speeding the breaking of German ciphers, including devising an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine. His code breaking work is reported to have reduced the Second World War by up to two years. Students then heard about Turing’s contributions to Artificial Intelligence and the pivotal impact of his work on our current technology.

With the athletics season underway, Wednesday saw the Harrogate & Craven District Athletics Championship return to the sporting calendar for Boroughbridge High School.  Mr. Field reports, ‘We took a strong team of 62 pupils to compete in track and field events at Queen Ethelburga’s College.  The pupils represented the school in an excellent manner both on and off the track.  Results are yet to be confirmed but initial calculations indicate that 16 of our pupils have qualified for the next rounds of the Athletic Championships to be held on 22nd June.  We hope that they use their remaining athletics lessons and the after school athletics club on a Thursday to further hone their skills and performance.  We are very proud of their achievements and hope this opens the door to future sporting success for more of our pupils.’

If you’re not already aware, we thought that you’d be interested to know that, after two years of absence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Aldborough and Boroughbridge show is back for 2022. Further details can be found at https://www.boroughbridgeshow.co.uk/#OurStory 

Have a lovely weekend!

As we come to the end of the half term, highlights this week include 9WS getting fully immersed in the world of work by carrying out interviews during form time. Mrs Skilbeck reports that, ‘Last week they spoke to a fast jet pilot, Tony, finding out about his career and working week. His advice to them all was to find a job that you love doing and then it never feels like work! This week they chatted with Doctor Dan, an anaesthetist, and found out how he copes with all the gory bits of surgery. They also learned that the hardest parts of his job are both dealing with emergencies in the operating theatre, and the emotional challenge of looking after the most poorly patients and their families in intensive care. The students are practising communication skills and it’s making us all think about different people and their lifestyles.’

 

Meanwhile in the Digital World, Mrs. Knock reports that ‘In Code Club, students have started to explore ‘Cyber Explorers’, a platform aimed at building knowledge and skills in cyber security for 11-14  year olds.  This exciting initiative is led by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), where students play games and solve problems, whilst learning about the basics of digital security.

Y7 students have  been exploring programming with Microbits, small pocket size computers. In their first lesson they looked at the features of the microbit which include an accelerometer, inputs and a screen made up of LED lights as you can see.’

 

In Geography, Mrs Bauwens reports that ‘Year 7 have been looking at the water cycle and getting to grips with lots of key words this week.  Year 8 have been starting their new topic on Coastal Landscapes and will be using what they have learnt about how the sea erodes to make flip books showing how stacks are formed.  Year 9 have been cooling off by studying how ice ages have affected the British Isles and will go on to study glaciers.’

In assemblies Mr. Grierson, in preparation for the week ahead, has been looking at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, describing the significance of the event and the history that lies behind the celebration.

This morning Years 7 and 9 have had an extended assembly led by The Inspire Youth Project exploring the challenges of growing up and keeping yourself safe.

Have a lovely weekend and Bank Holiday Jubilee weekend!

Year 7 have been having an exciting practical time this week. In Food Technology, different flavoured flapjacks have been in abundance. You may have enjoyed one when it was brought home. Meanwhile in Science, at the end of last week, students combined their IT skills from their spreadsheet knowledge with their scientific knowledge to make their very own jumping bean, impressing Mr. Errington with their expertise. Races were then held  with Alf winning the competition.

This week they’ve been investigating the products produced when an acid reacts with metals producing hydrogen gas. They then tested the gas getting the familiar squeaky pop.

Down in Art, Year 7 have been producing their own Raku Inoue portraits of insects and other animals using natural art materials only i.e. flowers, twigs, leaves and stems. Raku was inspired by the ancient and traditional Japanese art of flower arrangement. Mrs. Hunter says,’ I’ve really enjoyed making this with students. They did so well and are a talented bunch.’

                               

The Year 10 Handball team had a great match earlier in the week. Although the score didn’t go our way, we’re looking forward to seeing how they get on in their next match.

In assemblies this week, Mrs Skilbeck and Mr. West have explored the theme of resilience. They talked about the challenges facing our young people before looking at the three stages towards resilience,

1. Acknowledge the challenge
2. Look for and accept the good things (accept the things you can’t change too!)
3. Ask yourself, is this working for you?

For inspiration they then explored examples of people who have shown extraordinary resilience.

Have a lovely weekend!

At last the Year 11 Leavers’ Hoodies have arrived signifying an important stage for Year 11 as they move towards their exams. In their assembly this week, we talked about their achievements at Boroughbridge High School to date and how this should reassure them that they can approach their exams confidently, along with discussing how to make revision time most effective. We took the opportunity to remind ourselves of notable achievements  including the boys’ football team reaching two semi-finals this season and the remarkable performances of the BTEC Performing Arts group whose final piece was enjoyed by their audience on Wednesday evening.

For other year groups, assemblies have focused on our Climate for Learning strategy underpinned by our commitment as a community to ensure that we all act in a way so that everyone is safe, happy and successful. Students were reminded of how they can gain reward points, with a promise of a possible rewards trip to Flamingo Land coming up towards the end of the Summer Term. We then revisited our Behaviour for Learning strategy which supports students in maximising learning.

Prizes were presented in Year 7 assembly to the Science Rocket car teams including the winners from the team with the fastest car (87.2mph) from Dr Lefley’s groups, Millie, Elliot and Neve with group winners for best designs going to 7SCA1’s Piran, Spencer and James, 7SCA2’s Toby, Oliver and Ralph, 7SCB1’s Alex, Mia, Brandon and Brody and 7SCB2’s Oliver, Nathaniel and Will.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Wellock is in the process of organising The Big Book Swap. We haven’t yet set a date but it’s never too early to start finding any children/young adult fiction books (suitable for 11-16 years olds) that students have at home that they would be happy to donate and bring them into school in the next week or so. They will need to give them to their English teacher who will exchange them for tokens that they can use at the book swap event.

Next week it’s the turn of students in Years 7 and 8 to take their exams in the Sports Hall.

Have a lovely weekend.

 

 

What a week! With School Council Fundraising Week at the fore, it’s been a great way to end the Spring Term. There have been many activities to keep us busy including 7SF asking us to guess the number of sweets in a jar, 8LJ car washing (in the rain!), 7BB running a ‘Can you find the Creme Egg?’ cup game, where lucky participants could win the chocolate treat by choosing the correct cup, 8NC having a penalty shoot-out, 9JF running a lolly tombola bringing in 50 prizes to win, 9WS running a tuck shop, Year 10 having a Bake Sale, 11CW selling hot drinks with marshmallows and cream and 11PK running a raffle bringing in prizes ranging from chocolate bars and Easter eggs to bath bombs and hand creams! Meanwhile, 9BG have lived up to their Geography form tutor’s expectations and created a scavenger hunt for all students in the school to engage in. There have been lots of enthusiastic students using their excellent knowledge of the BHS environment to complete the quiz! Perhaps the update you’ve been waiting for is the amount of money raised by 8SW to determine just what lengths Mr Woodward would have to go to. Well, they managed to raise an impressive £125.09, bringing a multitude of smiles to both students and staff, giving Mr Woodward an excellent makeover, as you can see!

The School Council will decide how the money raised (£464.77) will be spent in school to improve the environment.

We’ve finished the week with a Non-Uniform Day, raising £240 to continue to restore our Wildlife area.

Tuesday was one of the most exciting days in the Year 7 curriculum – the Rocket Car Challenge! In Year 7 Science lessons last week, students had been investigating speed. Armed with this knowledge, they designed their cars in teams of three. Their morning was spent cutting, sculpting and gluing until their cars were complete. In the afternoon, they all made their way to the tennis courts to race their cars. The winning team, Millie, Elliot and Neve, from Dr Lefley’s group, created a car that reached close to 100mph. Here’s the winning car at the end of the race. It was an excellent day all round!

With Earth Day on 22^nd April assemblies this week, led by Mrs Bauwens, have focused on the impact of human actions on habitats and species before looking at everyday actions that we can all take to conserve the world’s resources such as reusing clothing and taking a shorter shower.

In sporting news, our congratulations go to Thomas Roderickson (Year10) who has been selected to be the goalkeeper for the North Yorkshire County football team. An impressive achievement!

This morning, we were really privileged to have S Sgt Welch in school to talk to Year 7 about his amazing achievement in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Rowing Challenge, a 3,000 mile rowing race considered to be the ‘world’s toughest row’ from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to English Harbour on Antigua in the Caribbean. His team, Force Atlantic, completed the race in a World Record time of 40 days, 23 hours and 57 minutes. Students heard about the levels of resilience that were needed, hearing a clear message of how thorough preparation, hard work and determination can make the seemingly impossible, possible!

Have a good weekend and best wishes for a lovely Easter break!

 

We’ve had quite a week for weather, going from almost Summer last week back to a wintry blast this week. It’s not often that we have simultaneous blossom and snow.

Braving the weather on Thursday afternoon were the Year 11 Boys’ Football Team who put up a good performance against Queen Ethelburga’s in the semi-finals of the County district cup. Whilst they weren’t victorious on this occasion, staff watching agreed that it was an excellent match. The team now have another semi-final against King James’s School to look forward to.

Creating sports people of the future, Olive (Year 11) has shown great leadership working with some of our Year 8 and 9 students to develop their rugby skills.

 

In Year 7 lessons this week, Mrs Flowers reports that, in DT, students are beginning to use Techsoft design V3 to turn their drawn ideas into CAD drawings to use to cut out on the laser cutter.  This actually has a free version online that they can practise on which can be found at

https://www.techsoft.co.uk/products/software/techsoft-design-v3-download

Meanwhile, in Maths, Mrs Price reports that her Year 7 class have been putting their percentage increase/decrease skills to the test in a Stock Exchange game. They had £100 000 to invest in either McDonald’s, Mrs Moosajee’s stationery shop, We Buy Any Car, MC Wise and DJ Luck’s album or Mathswatch. They also had the option to bank it with 5% rate. All teams secured a profit with the smallest return of £147. The winner, having made some very wise investments had an amazing return, ending the day with £321,036.

Next Tuesday, Year 7 students have the Rocket Car Challenge to look forward to. They’ll be working with the Science team throughout the day to see who can create the fastest rocket car.

Mr Cockerill reports that Year 9 students have been working on creative writing from the perspective of an alter-ego, inspired by S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders. Mr Cockerill thinks that some of them are as good as – if not better – than the novel itself!

 In assemblies this week, Mr Grierson has been talking with students about the value of education and how, in some countries, access to education is limited with some children not being able to attend school. He then went on to explore the impact that high attendance has on exam results, future destinations and, often, salaries.

Next week is School Council Fundraising Week, where we’ll be seeing a diverse range of money raising strategies with the aim of raising money to fund ideas to improve the school environment, voted for by the students, for the students. Mr Woodward’s form, 8SW, have come up with a fairly unique fundraiser, ‘Give Mr. Woodward a makeover’ the outcome of which depends entirely on how much money they raise. Mr Woodward says,

‘For £25 raised, the Form group can decorate my nails however they see fit. For £50 raised, the Form group can decorate my nails and “style” my hair however they see fit. For £75 raised, the Form group can decorate my nails, “style” my hair and put make-up on my face in whatever way they see fit and For £100 raised, the Form group can decorate my nails, “style” my hair, put make-up on my face and dress me up in whatever way they see fit. I’ll teach the whole day in my new guise.’

You may wish to make a contribution yourself as we promise that a photo will be taken and put in the Blog next week.

We’ll end the Fundraising week with a Non-Uniform Day on Friday (8^th) where money raised will be used to maintain and improve our Wildlife Area which is a community resource. Thank you in advance for your support.

Looking ahead, here’s a date for your diary. A number of our students are in the cast of The Hightimers’ production of Grease in June. Here’s how you can purchase tickets.

Have a lovely weekend!

 

Many productive conversations took place on Monday evening for Year 10/11 students, parents, carers and teachers during our extra Parents’ Evening. With thoughts of an important few months ahead, our new Careers Adviser Karen Morgan who started in January has been hard at work helping Year 11 students begin to finalise their Post-16 choices, carrying out Careers Interviews and using the e-Clips website to explore different careers with them. If your child has any careers related questions please feel free to contact her via the school office at schooladmin@boroughbridgehigh.com. Look out for the Careers newsletter which will be coming out to you after Easter.

Tuesday evening was Open Mic night where a team of enthusiastic performers entertained an audience of parents and friends. Mrs Skilbeck says, ‘We were so happy to reinstate this tradition of hosting informal music making in our lovely music room.  Making their debut performances were: The ‘Oxygonk Breathers’ djembe group; ‘Octagon Cafe’ rock band and Issy with a beautiful guitar & vocal performance; The GCSE music class turned out in force and performed a mix of ensemble, solo and composition work with bags of confidence.  Tea and biscuits and a chance to chat with parents and friends made this a really warm, friendly event.  Here’s to the next one!’

In assemblies this week, we’ve been celebrating the things that we’ve achieved as a school community over the last few months including sporting success, taking on new challenges, the impact of student leadership and fundraising for others. All in all, we’ve had a very successful school year to date. Coming up in the next couple of weeks (w\c 4^th April) is School Council Fundraising Week where students will be raising money to invest in things to improve the school environment. You’ll be hearing more about this very soon.

Have a lovely weekend!

Following our excellent International Day and fundraising last Friday, after school the Year 8 football team made their way out to the pitch to take on Settle College. Through the persistent wind and rain, the opposition secured the first goal. But it wasn’t just the weather that was persistent, as by full time we’d equalised. Extra time brought three further BHS goals leading to the final score of 4-1. A great game and a great way to end the week.

We were delighted to welcome Year 9 parents and students into school for Options Evening on Monday. It was also lovely to see older ex-students along with younger siblings who’ll be joining us in the future. After an introduction to our aspirational and broad curriculum, and our Stage not Age approach, students and parents had the opportunity to visit subject teachers to get a real understanding of what GCSE and BTEC courses are all about. The deadline for choices to be made is Monday 22^nd March.

Assemblies this week have focused on Red Nose Day and Comic Relief leading to our fundraising today. We’ve also had School Council Reps selling red noses and have a had a non-uniform day raising a grand total of £450.21. Thank you for your support.

This week, four of our students became published authors when their pieces of creative writing were included in a Young Writers’ anthology, ‘Empowered’. Our congratulations go to Kyla B, Lola B and Matthew D in Year 7 and Michaela P in Year 9.

The National Citizen Service team will be speaking to Year 11 in assembly on Thursday to outline how they can get involved in the NCS programme which is an excellent opportunity to do something meaningful during the summer break as well as a chance to develop skills and take on new challenges that will set them up for adult life. We had an excellent take up last year and we’re looking forward to something similar this year.

Next Monday will be our additional online Parents’ Evening for Year 11 students in all subjects and Year 10 Option subjects. Please book your appointments online if you haven’t already done so.

Have a lovely weekend!