Category : Headteacher’s Blog

It’s been a week of activities for International Week, led by our Head and Deputy Head students, inspired by Izzy. They took assemblies talking to students about how they could get involved in activities and help to raise money for the Disasters Emergency Committee to support the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

In Year 9 Geography lessons, students have researched geographical information about an unfamiliar country of their choice. This information will be used to decorate a plate that will form part of a larger display of shared knowledge on different places in the world. In Food Technology Year 8 have been cooking chow mein whilst Year 7 have been perfecting bechamel sauce.

In Computing, Year 7 have been learning about cell references in spreadsheets to create flags from different countries.

Historians have been looking at celebrations across the world, finding out what and how other cultures celebrate. Students have been using their findings to create a display of world culture and celebration. Here it is, under construction.

Desks were moved out of the Music Room, so that Year 8 musicians had the room for energetic samba band performances, as they learnt about Brazilian music. This lunchtime the Music block was filled with African drumming when the new space was filled with a djembe circle, filling the octagon with lots of noise and energy!

At lunchtime today Year 7 and 8 students experienced the East Asian art of origami. A number of different shapes were attempted and they even had small frogs jumping around the room!

We’ve also had form time quizzes, a scavenger hunt where students discovered how to say hello in many different languages and an International door form competition.

In the Dining Hall at lunchtime, Year 11 students including prefects and Head and Deputy Head students held an amazing Bake Sale, raising just under £400. Thank you for your support with this and for your generous donations through ParentMail. In total, we’ve raised a massive £829.64 for the Disasters Emergency Committee to support the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

In other news, the Year 10/11 Football Team are through to the semi-final of the County Cup following an impressive 4-3 (Leverett 3, Evans 1) victory over Selby High School.

Following Year 9 Futures Week, the Year 9 Options Evening is at 6pm on Monday 14^th March. We’re really looking forward to welcoming Year 9 parents and carers into school.

A reminder that next Wednesday (16^th) is a Professional Development Day when students do not attend school. We’ll be fundraising again next Friday (18^th) by having a non-uniform day for Red Nose Day and if students wear red that will be even better. We’ll also be selling red noses on Thursday and Friday.

And on the commemoration of the 700^th Anniversary of the Battle of Boroughbridge, have a lovely weekend!

It may only be five days since the half term break but we’ve certainly packed a great deal into them! Year 11 (and Year 10 for Option subjects) have been fully immersed in their second series of Progress Exams. They’re now totally familiar with the rules and regulations of the exam season and have demonstrated a great deal of maturity throughout the week. In order to keep parents and carers fully up to date about their progress, we are going to have an extra Parents’ Evening on Monday 21^st March from 4-6.30pm. A letter giving further details was sent to parents/carers today.

Having completed their exams before half term, Year 9 are looking forward to the Options process over the next couple of weeks. Futures week will be launched by Mrs Bloomfield in assembly on Monday. Students will then experience different subjects during taster days on Wednesday and Friday in advance of the Options Evening for parents, carers and students on Monday 14^th March at 6pm.

Our congratulations go to students in Years 7, 8 and 9 whose recent Progress data shows impressive improvement in all three areas; Attitude to Learning, Behaviour for Learning and Homework. Look out for the postcard which is being sent to parents and carers of students who have demonstrated consistently high levels of commitment.

Speaking of homework, Mrs Gomersal reports, ‘In Geography, Year 8 students have been learning about plastic pollution and the impact upon the world’s oceans. Students were inspired to create their own ‘Yorkshire souvenirs’ from waste items after learning about the innovative and creative ways that the Kenyan company ‘Ocean Sole’ are recycling one million flip flops per year. This drive to become more sustainable and increase our awareness of the fragile planet that we live on, prompted students to design and construct their own souvenirs for homework.’

We marked World Book Day (Thursday 3^rd March) with a series of assemblies led by Mr Cockerill, Mrs Wellock and MrGrierson. They included a range of themes from childhood books, celebrities’ favourite books and books which have previously been banned, all culminating in helping students to understand the power of the written word. Also, Mrs Wellock reports ‘Year 7 book club students really enjoyed watching the author Emma Carroll’s live webinar this morning. She discussed her latest book, The Week at World’s End, as well as offering some great tips about the drafting and writing process.’

In Sporting news, Mrs Godsell-Wright took the Year 7 and 8 girls for their first football tournament. She reports, ‘The Year 7 and 8 girls were absolutely superb tonight- and a credit to the school. Their behaviour was impeccable and they thanked the organisers of the competition and our driver without being prompted. This is the first time they have competed for school (or played a fixture). We finished 5^th out of 7^th which is encouraging as we were the smallest school in the tournament!’

In other community news, the Chair of Governors, Malcolm Dawson and I were delighted to attend the Town Council Meeting on Tuesday to talk about our school and answer questions.  We’re looking forward to working more closely with the Town Council for the benefit of all in our community.

We’re also looking forward to International Day next Friday (11^th March) organised by our Head and Deputy Head students and the Prefect Team. Izzy has sent the following message,

Next Friday we are holding International Day! There will be loads of fun activities throughout the day including quizzes, crafting, themed lessons and a decorate the door competition, aimed at opening our eyes to the world we live in. On the day for a small donation your child can wear colourful socks to celebrate world diversity and there will be a bake sale so they can bring cash on the day to buy international treats. If any of you would like to bake a donation to the sale these can be brought in on Friday morning and handed in at reception. All proceeds from the day will go to the DEC Ukraine appeal through the British Red Cross. So, get ready for a day of international fun!

You can make a donation through Parent Mail.

A reminder that we have a Professional Development Day on Wednesday 16^th March when students do not attend school.

Have a lovely weekend!

The week started with a 4-3 victory against Ermysted’s Grammar School, Skipton for the Year 10/11 Football Team who are now through to the quarter final of the District Cup when they’ll play Selby High School.

In other sporting news, the Year 10 Handball Team had their first game of handball before going to the North of England championships next month.

Mr Field reports, ‘They played really well and learnt quickly from playing against a more experienced team. We only lost the lead in the game in the last ten minutes!’

Year 9 have been developing their revision skills and demonstrating great resilience during their exams this week. They’ve got some exciting decisions to make in the next few weeks with Options Evening on Monday 14^th March.

In assemblies this week, Mr Grierson has been exploring the theme of reaping the rewards of hard work and commitment through the examples of sporting stars who have achieved things others thought impossible. These included Roger Bannister, who was the first to achieve a four minute mile and Graeme Obree, a relatively unknown cyclist from Scotland who, in 1993, smashed the World Hour Record on his homemade bicycle, Old Faithful. Mrs Lake, on Monday, explored the process and practicalities of revision with Year 11.

Bringing real world business to the classroom, Mrs Knock welcomed Mr Green from Metro Bank to speak to her GCSE group this afternoon.

This week we say farewell to Mr Mitchell who has been an important part of our SEN Team and Mr Ambler, our Assistant Business Manager who has helped to keep the site running smoothly over the last couple of challenging years. We thank them both for the excellent contribution that they’ve made to our school community and wish them well in their future posts.

Have a good half term!

‘Children’s Mental Health Week’ has been the focus of Mrs Godsell-Wright’s assemblies this week. The theme for this year ‘Growing Together’ is to encourage children and young people to consider how they have grown (both physically and emotionally) and how they can help others to grow. In particular, Mrs Godsell-Wright talked about how the brain grows and develops during adolescence with the thought that we have the opportunity to grow and develop in whatever direction we choose.

In Year 7 English this week Mrs Macadam reports,

‘As part of our travel writing scheme I set the students a voluntary task of researching recipes from the country they are blogging about.  Some students brought their recreations in today. We taste tested Sushi using authentic chopsticks (Rowan) and Bethanie and her Dad made 30 lemon posset with a side of Italian butter shortbread.’

Students demonstrated great creativity and I can confirm that they were delicious!

Meanwhile, in Science, Year 7 were dissecting daffodils and, in the words of Mr Errington, ‘were doing a great job’.

On Wednesday, some of our Year 11 students went across to King James’s School for their Sixth Form Taster Day where they met staff, fellow students, had taster lessons and experienced Sixth Form life.

Year 7 Parents’ Evening took place on Wednesday afternoon. We’ve been incredibly impressed with the progress that Year 7 have made and it was great for parents and teachers to have high quality conversations. We’d be grateful if you could complete the questionnaire that’s been e-mailed out so that we can gather your views on all aspects of school life.

Year 9 have an important week ahead as they carry out their Year 9 exams. They’ll be doing these under exam conditions as, just over a year from now, they’ll be sitting exams for two of their option subjects as part of our Key Stage 4 Stage not Age curriculum.

Malcolm Dawson (Chair of Governors), Brian Horner (governor) and I were delighted to meet with Town Council representatives, Mayor Pat Taylor and Councillors John Goss and Sean Hynes on Thursday. Amongst a range of topics, we discussed the temporary suspension of Sixth Form provision and our recent Ofsted inspection. We’re really looking forward to working together more closely for the benefit of our community.

And, of course, our Ofsted report was published this week confirming that students at Boroughbridge High School are safe, happy and successful.

With one week to go to the half term break, have a lovely weekend!

The week began well with the excellent performance of the BTEC Performing Arts students who, on Monday evening, performed extracts from the play DNA by Dennis Kelly to showcase their work in the theatrical style of Naturalism. The play explored the lives of a group of young teenagers, and how they worked together to cover their tracks following a terrible accident; and the emotional rollercoaster as they dealt with the consequences of their actions.

The students worked tirelessly to pull together a truly dramatic and emotional performance! The performance of the play was attended by staff members and parents of the students, and was very well received by the audience. There were gasps at the twists and turns, and you could have heard a pin drop at the most tense and dramatic moments!  The students enjoyed tremendous feedback from the audience, with comments like “It was so professional”, “What a talented group of students” and “This was the best thing I’ve seen in a long time”. When the play was performed to a group of Key Stage 3 students, they were thrilled by the performance and many left saying they felt inspired to choose Drama at KS4 and follow in their footsteps.

Mr West, their Drama teacher said “I am immensely proud of what the students have achieved, they richly deserve all the positive reactions that came as result of the performance. It was so wonderful for them to finally be able to perform a play, something we have not been able to do since the start of the pandemic. It really brings home the importance of the arts and the magic of the theatre”.

Assemblies this week have covered a variety of topics. Mr Grierson explored the importance of revision with Year 10 whilst in Year 11 assembly, Mrs Godsell-Wright impressed upon students the importance of keeping fully focused in the weeks ahead as they move towards their next exam season before sharing the exciting news we’re already planning their post-exam Prom, the first in three years! Looking further ahead, Mrs Godsell-Wright talked about Apprenticeship opportunities and some Year 11 students have had careers interviews with our new Careers adviser, Mrs Morgan. Years 7, 8 and 9 were all challenged by Mrs. Godsell-Wright to think about the responsibility of being a Young Carer and how and where Young Carers can get support.

Impressing in lessons have been Miss Whiles’ Year 8s who have been using contemporary sources of A-Level and University standard to draw conclusions about British empirical rule in India, producing some really sophisticated and considered conclusions. Meanwhile, Mr Cockerill reports that Year 9 students have been writing poetry about 9/11 this week in English with many being very thought provoking and well crafted.

It’s Year 7 Parents’ Evening next Wednesday which will be online. The appointment system is live and, as usual, we’ll be sending out a follow up questionnaire. We’d really appreciate your responses as these form an important part of our self-evaluation.

Have a lovely weekend!

It’s my pleasure this week to introduce you to our Head and Deputy Head students who were elected by students and staff at the end of the Autumn Term. They have a really pivotal role in our school working with the Student Council and the Staff Team to effect change for the benefit of all at Boroughbridge High School. They have big plans of what they’d like to achieve and have already started to have an impact. Read on to find out more.

From left to right, Phoebe, Carli, Emilia and Izzy

Hey, I’m Carli, and I am proud to represent Boroughbridge High School as one of the Head Students. In this role I would like to promote equality amongst my peers, particularly by organizing an LGBTQ+ day, fundraising for a local trans youth charity. As a member of the LGBTQ family it is important to me to promote equality, providing a safe space in our school for people to be who they are. I am also looking to collaborate with other Head Students and Prefects to help boost their own ideas to help better the school. More than anything I would just like to be a role model to other students at the school, being someone others can look up to and talk to.

Hi, I’m Emilia and I am one of our Head students at Boroughbridge High School. It’s really important to me that every student here feels included, safe, and like their ideas and opinions are being heard. This is why I am looking forward to using my position to improve the school environment and to work with the prefects, head students and student council for the changes we would like to see within our school. One of my ideas for this year is to find a way to offer support to younger students on things such as how to revise; I also hope to open up an indoor space for GCSE students to revise.

Hi, my name is Izzy, and I’m Deputy Head student at Boroughbridge High School. Having recently moved to the UK from overseas, I bring world and cultural knowledge to our student team, as well as resilience and determination. I’m a keen musician and artist and I value any experiences that make me a more rounded young adult. My aim is to make sure students at this school recognise how capable they are and that it’s okay to get things wrong.

Hi, my name is Phoebe and I am one of the new Deputy Head students for this year. I love Boroughbridge High School and wanted the opportunity to help the school community as much as possible. During my time as Deputy Head Student, I hope to support and represent all students, making our school as good as I know it can be and a place where all students can feel that they are listened to and their ideas are taken on board. Personally, I would like to make sure that this year I can encourage and support the Music and Drama departments at Boroughbridge particularly, as I have been a part of them for many years and I consider them to be invaluable to our school, as well as implementing as many of the wonderful ideas that I know students from across the school to have.

We’ll look forward to updating you on their progress.

In other news, the Readathon is complete and, in total, we raised £412 for the ‘Read for Good’ charity. Boroughbridge High school ran its first Readathon in 1995 and since then we have completed eight readathons and raised a total of £1783.41!

In assemblies this week, Mr Grierson has been talking about internet safety and more specifically about steps that students can take to ensure that they stay safe when they’re involved in gaming and using social media sites. You may find this site useful https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/ . After half term, Mr. Grierson will be leading two sessions on how parents can keep children safe online. Please e-mail him directly at rgrierson@boroughbridgehigh.com if you’d like to join him.

Have a lovely weekend!

We were delighted to hear this week that four of our students will have their pieces of creative writing included in a Young Writers’ anthology, therefore becoming published authors. Our congratulations go to Kyla B, Lola B and Matthew D in Year 7 and Michaela P in Year 9. We’ll let you know when it’s published.

The Year 7 castle competition also came to a close this week, following hours of commitment and creativity. Finalists were Charlie B, Harry G, Neve G, Freya H, Jack S, Ewan T, Evie W and Kyla B with overall winner being Annabel H. As you can see there were some impressive entries.

In assemblies this week, Mr. Field has been exploring the themes of Resilience and Achievement, asking students to reflect on situations where they’ve shown resilience. Linking to the world of sport and, in particular, the Olympics, students found out about the amazing achievements of swimmer, Zheng Tao, who won four gold medals at the Tokyo games despite losing both arms as the result of an electric shock as a child. Closer to home, students heard about Katie Ormerod who, having narrowly missed qualifying for the 2014 Winter Olympics went on to became the first female snowboarder to land a double cork, one of the most complex manoeuvres in snowboarding which involved three rotations and two inverted flips. She started her training at XScape which many of our students have visited in the last few months. Students were challenged to take this inspiration and think about what they can do in the weeks and months ahead.

Have a lovely weekend!

With the Spring Term now well underway, Key Stage 3 students have been engaged in a variety of practical activities. In Music, Year 7 have been chair drumming again to consolidate their rhythm work so the tunes of Franz Ferdinand and Smashmouth have been ringing out around the Music block. Year 8 have been learning to play the 12-bar blues on keyboards in their jazz topic and Year 9 have mastered the James Bond themes on guitars, bass guitars, ukuleles and keyboards as part of their sound tracks topic.

In ICT, in Years 8 and 9, students have started the Relevance project which is to gather research to explore ways of engaging more girls in computing in order to increase the number of girls who go on to study it further. So far, they have been exploring the impact technology has on the wider world as well as developing skills in programming so they can make an app on the Code.org website. Year 7 have been exploring iteration in programming using Scratch. They were challenged this week to create a range of shapes using iteration blocks and the pen tool. Some were able to use nested loops to make patterns.

In PE, a wide variety of sports have been played with Year 7 boys starting their rugby league sessions, with girls starting to learn how to compose their dance. Year 8 boys have been building on their badminton learning from last year whilst Year 8 girls have been taking inspiration from the success of the England women’s football team in their football lessons. Year 9 boys have just completed their rugby union sessions having enjoyed the perfect muddy conditions whilst the Year 9 girls were perfecting their badminton prowess, developing their doubles gameplay. Students have made great progress.

In DT, Year 9 are planning in order to make cushions and looking at the characteristics of different types of fabrics.

As you’re aware, we’ve also had our Ofsted visit this week. Thanks to those who completed the questionnaire.

This afternoon our Year 11 Football Team have travelled to Clitheroe for their fourth-round match in the PlayStation Small Schools’ Cup. We wish them well.

Have a lovely weekend!

It’s been great to welcome students back to school this week. Following an efficient testing process, (thanks for your support with this), students were soon back in lessons engaged in face to face learning. Assemblies took place over the first couple of days and included a reminder of our Boroughbridge High School standards and our individual responsibility to act in a way which ensures that everyone within our school community is safe, happy and successful. We also talked about the reintroduction of face coverings in classrooms along with communal areas (which is in place nationally at least until the Government’s review of Plan B on Wednesday 26^th January) and the importance of doing everything that we can to sustain face to face teaching in the coming weeks.

Looking forward to events ahead, rehearsals start next week for School of Rock.

Have a lovely weekend!

So ‘here it is Merry Christmas’ and this week has seen the final batch of small Christmas cake gifts going home with Key Stage 3 students. After a group effort in Food Technology to make the Christmas cake, students have developed their fondant icing techniques, covering the cake smoothly before adding holly and berries then gift wrapping! We hope you’re enjoying them!

In search of Christmas weather, an Xscape trip on Tuesday gave students in Years 7, 8, 9, along with one of our Head students, the opportunity to experience the joy of the slopes. At the end of the session, students replenished their energy with a burger and, as students were leaving, the manager passed a note to Mr Field which said, ‘Lovely, polite, young adults’. Well done to all.

In other sporting success, Year 10 and 11 boys had a resounding 9-0 victory in a district cup match against Nidderdale.

Meanwhile, Mrs Macadam reports that ‘In the English Department, Year 7s have been busy researching Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and a good number of the students entered a competition to build a model of the theatre in a variety of forms.

Submissions were impressive, original and highly inventive; many were incredibly accurate.  There were three delicious and beautifully presented Globe cakes, a heavy, welded Globe and a range of other cardboard versions.’

You can see their impressive work here.

Our KS3 Readathon (raising money for the Read for Good charity that buys books for children in hospital and pays for authors and storytellers to visit them too) is complete! We are still collecting money at the moment (current total is £275). A special well done goes to Harley (Year 7) who raised £195 on his own!

Mrs Godsell-Wright’s assemblies this week have looked at the different religious festivals that take place at this time of year which all have core themes of being kind and helping others. Students were encouraged to send a card to people in our community who may be spending Christmas alone. Thank you for your donations of money and food items which two of our Wellbeing Ambassadors, Bella (Year 11) and Mary (Year 8), have made into hampers to take to our local homeless shelter, food bank and Boroughbridge Community Care.

Today has been a day of celebration with students wearing Christmas jumpers in support of Save the Children and rewards being given to students with a consistently positive Attitude to Learning.

We’ve also had our usual annual Christmas door competition! The standard has been incredibly high this year with the overall winners being Mrs. Knock’s Form, 11PK and I think you can see why!

We also said farewell to Mrs Bibbings today, thanking her for the great contribution that she’s made to Boroughbridge High School and wishing her well for the future.

So, as we launch fully into the festive season, I’d like to thank you for your support throughout 2021. I hope that you and your family have a lovely restful and peaceful Christmas break and we’ll look forward to welcoming students back to school in January.