Headteacher’s Blog – 27th September 2024

We continue to deepen our values; ambitious, respectful and resilient. Part of our focus on resilience is around taking on learning challenges, ‘We try our best and persevere when things are difficult.’ Examples where students have shown their resilience this week include in Computer Science with Mr. Sands where Year 9 were grappling with html code development, using their skills to develop their own webpage. In Art with Mrs. Hunter, Year 9 began their dog building. We’ll look forward to seeing the transformation.

In English with Miss Kelly Year 7 had to come up with a different way to communicate with each other and problem solve without using language (spoken or written). This is a part of the novel being studied, Girl.Boy.Sea in which a Berber Girl and an English Boy find themselves alone at sea together and have to find a way to overcome their language barriers.

Then, imagine the scene on Monday morning when, with torrential rain, everything in the woodland was soaked as students in Years 8 and 9 started their Forest School session. Mr. Woodward reports, ‘Despite this after lots of failed attempts but always one more try all groups managed to light (using flint and steel) and sustain (using fuel from the woodland floor) a campfire to heat water to make a warm drink.’

You’ll be hearing more about our values in the coming weeks.

Last week, William in Year 8 was invited to take part in a concert to raise funds for Dementia Forward. The concert was to highlight the challenges faced by Duncan who appeared on the Channel 4 programme ‘The Piano’. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tv/article-13366373/amp/Channel-4s-Piano-star-Duncan-gushes-wife-Fran-moving-viewers-tears-heartbreaking-struggle-dementia-emotional-performance-pair-softies.html

The Military Wives also sang and it was an all round wonderful concert. William’s performance was particularly impressive as he played with no music to read as he was playing his own interpretation of Cornfields (Hans Zimmer) from the movie Interstellar. Willaim received a huge applause with many positive comments of how controlled and soft his playing was.

The School Council is now up and running and Miss. Kelly is already impressed with the commitment of the team and the quality of the ideas being discussed. We’re looking forward to using this team’s feedback to make improvements.

Following our successful recruitment for the Duke of Edinburgh Award our young people have shown great initiative in coming up with the idea to have a Bake Sale to fundraise to support the Award. The theme was hiking, camping or nature and, as you can see there was much creativity shown and £152 raised. The Gold Award for the most humorous cake affectionately named ‘Roadkill’ went to Jacob (Year 11) with Ava (Year 7) taking the Gold award for the most realistic wildlife cake, Nina (Year 7) taking the Gold award for the best campsite and Darcy (Year 8) taking the Gold Award for the most realistic environment. Rosey (Year 11) took the Gold Award for the best decorated buns (superb highland cows) but unfortunately we didn’t get a photo! Mrs. Macadam and Mrs. Murphy also wanted to congratulate and thank Rosey and Freya (Year 9) for their help with the organisation and sales on both days.

 

It’s been European Day of Languages so, in Form Time, students have been getting involved in a mutli-lingual celebratory quiz.

The Wellbeing in Mind team have been leading assemblies this week. It’s been great for our students to explore what we mean by our mental health and how we can look after it. If you’d like to know more, then one of the videos used can be found at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxIDKZHW3-E

It was also helpful for students to think about how looking after our mental health can help us to be more resilient.

Our extra-curricular programme is continuing to increase and, next week, Mrs.Macadam’s Year 7 Film Club is starting on Monday with the first film being Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief’.

In Sporting news, Mr. Field reports that Another great week for extra-curricular in the PE department. 120 pupils have attended one or more of the activities on offer this week, an improvement on last week’s total.  This week also saw the start of a busy fixtures period with three games of football being played at our schoolThe Yr9 boys played Vale of York in the County Cup on Tuesday after school. The game did not start as planned and the boys were 3-0 behind within five minutes.  Showing true resilience, the boys pulled the fixture back in the favour of Boroughbridge by leveling the game shortly after half time,making the last twenty minutes a tense encounter.  Unfortunately, two late goals from a game weary York team conceded the Yr9 boys to a defeat but they were able to hold their heads high as the performance was very encouraging as they still have the District Cup to compete in.

The Yr10 girls played their first game of the season Thursday against Ripon Grammar School in the ESFA Girls small schools 9v9 Cup.  The girls showed great resilience in unpleasant weather conditions and played some great football but were beaten by RGS in a well contested game.  They too have more matches coming in the near future.

The Yr8 boys team also played Queen Ethelburga’s in the ESFA small schools trophy Thursday night in what was a busy evening of sport at Boroughbridge High School.  The boys played some very attractive passing football and dominated the game across all areas of the pitch.  Two goals from B. Godley before half time gave Boroughbridge a deserved lead at the halfway point and ensured their tails were up for the second half performance.  Soon after the break A. Farnworth scored from a freekick to put the fixture further out of the reach of the QE team.  QE then pulled a goal back after a quick break, this reignited the Yr8 boys and it wasn’t long until W. Burrell curled a fine effort into the far corner after a splendid galivanting run down the wing.  The boys were deserved winners and the opposition staff commended the boys on their commanding performance.  They now progress to the next round which will present a tougher challenge, we are sure their footballing talents and ambitions of reaching the latter stages of this national competition will lead them to future successes.’

A reminder that it’s our Year 5 and 6 Open Evening on Wednesday 9th October. We’ll be closing at 1.30p.m. to prepare for the event and we’re looking forward to welcoming many students back to represent our school.

Have a lovely weekend!