Dear Parents
Thank you for all of your support during a Term which seems to have gone by in a flash!
The Year 11 left yesterday and I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mr Peake, Mrs Burgess, Mrs Pike, the Year 11 Tutor Team, all those who have taught Year 11 and Year 11 parents for all of the care and hard work they have put in to get them here. Some may have said thank you but I am sure that they are all grateful for the unwavering support. We wish them well with their ongoing revision and the rest of the exams and look forward to celebrating their success with them later in the summer.
The Art, Photography and Product Design Exhibition this week was an incredible showcase of the creative talents, skills and dedication of our young people. It was a lovely opportunity to talk to them about their work and also share the pride of those who have supported them with their amazing work.
On the Thursday that we return (6 June) it is D Day (Power Point linked below for information) and we will be marking the event in a number of ways including joining in with National Fish and Chip Day. We are very happy for those young people who are part of uniformed organisations to wear their uniform to school on this day as part of our commemorations.
Have a restful May break and I look forward to welcoming our community back for Term 6 on Monday 3 June.
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
News Items
Focus On…The Nurture Room at Hardenhuish School
Right at the top of the stairs in the House is the Nurture Room.
We welcome young people with both SEN (special educational needs) and SEMH needs (social emotional and mental health).
Working closely with the year teams and the Learning support team who oversee referrals, Nurture staff provide a calm, safe base for young people needing a little extra support throughout the school day.
Available during break and lunchtimes, the Nurture room can be used as both a supportive environment to encourage friendship and social interaction and a calm space for some young people to emotionally regulate and take some time out.
Mrs Birkett, who supervises Nurture, has a vast array of mindfulness resources to help calm young people who may be feeling overwhelmed. Some students have recently discovered talents for Crochet and embroidery! The room also has games and puzzles for students to use at social times.
Nurture has comfortable seating with sofas and a HUGE beanbag. It also has 4 computers and resources to enable young people to use their time in Nurture to keep up with their studies.
Our aim in Nurture is to help young people learn to ‘surf’ their emotions. No matter how intense the feelings, emotions don’t last forever, just like a wave.
Trying to ‘control’ one’s emotions is akin to standing in the ocean attempting to stop a wave from hitting you: impossible. But with enough practice, it is possible to surf the wave.
Resource Centre news
Whilst the summer sunshine may make this one of the quieter moments in the school year, there is still plenty going on in the literary world and our various Book Groups in particular are continuing to enjoy some of the finest children’s literature around.
Our committed bunch of Carnegie Shadowers in Year 8 and Year 9 are working their way through this year’s eight shortlisted titles, which range from gritty verse novels and thoughtful poetry collections to adventures in the Australian outback and school rap battles. They are all looking forward to seeing which novel wins the prestigious 2024 Carnegie Medal in mid-June.
Meanwhile, Book Group over the past two terms have been sampling a broad range of contemporary literature, including several recently-shortlisted Carnegie books from the past few years. One of last year’s popular choices ‘The Eternal Return of Clara Hart’ by Louise Finch remains a firm favourite across the upper year groups for its “unrelenting pace and unique storyline”. ‘Loveless’ by Alice Oseman was described as “absolutely amazing with ace representation” and finally ‘Guard Your Heart’ by Sue Divin was also very well received, with one pupil commenting that “it’s so well written and the perfect forbidden love story – once you pick it up, you can’t put it down”. High praise indeed. If you’re interested in any of these, please let Mr Southwood know.
Next term of course sees the return of our annual Hardenhuish Literature Festival and if you want to feel well prepared for our visiting authors why not come along and borrow one of their novels during the first week back? Years 7 and 8 will be treated to a visit by local mystery writer Sophie Cleverly, whose ‘Scarlet and Ivy’ series has been popular for many years. She has also recently started a new series entitled ‘The Violet Veil Mysteries’ – all of which are available here. Years 9 and 10 meanwhile have a visit from the award-winning Manjeet Mann in store – she has won a range of awards and shortlist nominations for her two verse novels ‘Run Rebel’ and ‘The Crossing’ which tackle hard-hitting contemporary issues. We cannot wait to welcome them both to Hardenhuish and you will find out more details about their visits in English lessons early next term.
Illustration Talk & Workshop with Amelia Huw Morgan
On Tuesday we had Amelia Huw Morgan and Taraya Rose Paget from Cardiff Metropolitan University in to visit our Art department. Amelia is lead lecturer at Cardiff School of Art and Design and spent the afternoon with a group of our young people to tell them all about the importance of illustration and how thinking differently within our world is a truly wondrous thing.
Amelia talked about the importance of wonder, light and storytelling through visual and creative means whilst our young people got creative making visual recordings of her session. We then completed a workshop to create small creative booklets to illustrate how we see the future and our ideal world. It was such a lovely afternoon, and we are so very grateful to have Amelia and Taraya come in all the way from Cardiff!
If you would like to learn more about Amelia’s practice, take a look at her website here: Amelia Huw Morgan Illustration (https://www.ameliahuwmorganillustration.com/)
If you would like to learn more about Cardiff School of Art & Design, take a look at their website here: Cardiff School of Art & Design (cardiffmet.ac.uk)#
Year 7 Talk – Digital Empowerment Programme
On Tuesday 14th May Richard from ‘the stay safe initiative‘ came into Hardenhuish to present the ‘digital empowerment programme’ with Year 7 pupils. The talk focused on online safety and built on the learning pupils will have done in both their ICT and PSHCE lessons, getting pupils to think about their own online etiquette whilst also reenforcing how to stay safe in the ever-changing digital landscape.
Richard also kindly shared some resources for the community to help support with understanding the types of applications/platforms young people are using, with information and guidance on what to do if you have any worries or concerns.
If pupils have any questions or concerns about online safety, please remind them they can speak to their ICT/PSHCE teacher, their tutor, the pastoral team, or any member of staff within the school community.
Tim Phillips
Curriculum leader for ICT & Computing – Online Safety Co-ordinator
Area Athletics Trials Bath University – Thursday 9th May
This was an opportunity for the top athletes to compete for a place at the County Trials at Swindon Athletics Track on Saturday 8th June. 31 athletes from Hardenhuish in years 7-10 took part in this competition, to be selected for this competition students needed to be able to achieve District standards (times/distances) in their chosen event.
Congratulations to all the athletes that took part in the trials, it was as always, an incredibly high standard of competition.
The following students have now been selected to represent North Wiltshire at the Wiltshire Schools County Trials where they will compete for the opportunity for a place to represent Wiltshire in the Southwest Schools Championships on 15th– 16th June.
Year 7
Michelle Gudiak – Javelin
Will Townson – Long jump
Fraser Appel – Long jump (reserve)
Junior Girls – Y8&9
Sophie Phelps – 300m and 1500m (reserve)
Junior Boys – Y8&9
Ben Trewartha – Javelin
Dan Coward – Triple jump
Isaac Chalk – 800m (reserve)
Inter Girls – Y10&11
Natasha Moyes 200m and 300m Hurdles
Lily Shuker – Shot (reserve)
Inter Boys – Y10&11
Tom Southgate – 200m
Harry Glover – 100m
Tobi Loughlin – 1500m
Dan Phelps – 1500m
Oli Upton – 400m
Ryan Johnson – 3000m
Seb Retter – Long jump
Tommy Mattis-King – Triple jump and hurdles
Adam Armstrong – Discus
Bryn Harp – Javelin
James Rymer – Triple jump
John Hoy – Shot (reserve)
Senior Girls
Alannah Heneghan – Pole vault
Athletics Club is after school every Thursday 3-4.15pm. The club is open to all students to attend and to practice their favourite events.
The squad for the Area Athletics Championships on Wednesday 19th June at Bath Uni will be chosen from those athletes who attend the club.
Badminton
Wow, what a weekend for Imogen Drew who won Gold in mixed (with her partner Sully) in the U17 SBA Silver and the following day won Silver in Girls Singles and Silver in mixed (with her partner Rob) in the Wiltshire U19 bronze tournament. Such a great achievement as both tournaments were above her age category.
Whooping Cough
Please see the guidance below regarding whooping cough:
Lost Property
Lost Property List Term 5 2024
Vacancies – Hardenhuish School