Dear Parents and Carers
Happy Creative Week! It has been great to see our young people (and staff) engaging with all of the wonderful activities on offer this week to express their creativity. This has ranged from sculpture to ceramics and cardboard chairs to street art and has, thanks to our very generous sponsors has resulted in lots of prizes being awarded!
I am delighted to announce that tea towels to commemorate our Hardenhuish50 celebrations are now on the Arbor Shop. Thank you for your support of our fundraising campaign to buy a new school flag, a stag weather vane and to support other projects across the site to leave a legacy of our 50th year alongside Hardenhuish Educational Trust.
Please find attached the Governor Parent Report for 2024-5. Our Governors give so generously of their time, skills and support of our school and we are very grateful for all they do. We will be recruiting for new Parent Governors next term so if you are interested in supporting our school from a Governor perspective, please keep your eyes open for the information in the Headlines.
A reminder that we break up for the October break next Wednesday at 3pm. There will not be a Headlines next week and we look forward to welcoming the young people back for Term 2 on Monday 3 November when jumpers are compulsory. I wish our intrepid Iceland explorers a safe and enjoyable trip over the break – I hope the Northern lights are as spectacular as last year!
Have a good break when we get there.
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
News Items
Focus on.. Successful Lives and Aspire
As part of our holistic curriculum and commitment to personal development, we have a Successful Lives programme for Years 7-11 and an Aspire programme for Years 12-13. These tutor programmes are designed to guide our pupils and students to become independent life-long learners, empowered with the knowledge and skills to thrive in a changing world. The five ‘Language for Life Themes’ underpin these tutor programmes to support the character development of our pupils and students.
The Successful Lives and Aspire programmes also include two enriching Successful Lives days that take place in November and June. These are a chance for pupils to learn in an alternative way to the normal timetable and with different groups of young people. There is a range of days on offer from Enterprise Smoothie Day and STEM Day to World War One Day, as well as career focus days with external speakers and educational visits. Look out for year group reports after the days in November and June.
Hello Yellow 2025
Thank you to everyone who supported Hello Yellow events on Friday 10 October. It was to once again see pupils come together to raise awareness of mental health, whether it was wearing something yellow, taking part in one of the activities or having their face painted. We were pleased that lots of people got involved in the photo booth, as you can see from some of the fantastic photos below.
If pupils are struggling with their mental health please reach out. There is also information available on the school website for both pupils and parents:
Wellbeing – Hardenhuish School
Visit to Wiltshire College, Lackham Campus
This week Year 10 Vocational Studies students visited Wiltshire College’s Lackham campus and were given a tour to find out about the wide range of courses they run there, including Business, Animal Care and Horticulture. They met some of the resident animals, including the goats, the snakes, Nigel – the rescue pig and Kevin the Peacock. They also visited the Horticulture Greenhouses and saw some of the large lemons grown there!
Thank you, Michael and Natasha, for arranging and hosting our visit, it was great!
Last week Year 10 Vocational students enjoyed a visit to Wiltshire Scrapstore, an award winning environmental and community charity, in Lacock, to research resources for a fundraising project they are working on.
Their work involves collecting resources that would otherwise go to landfill and redistributing them for creative activities and projects of all kinds, from arts and crafts to DIY. While there the students were able to learn about the work experience opportunities they offer there and the various ways they support the local community. Thank you Jane for your time and for opening up early just for us!
Vacancies – Hardenhuish School