Dear Parents and Carers
I thought I would take a final opportunity ahead of the Headlines being filled with festive events and the Just Giving campaign closing to update you in relation to the fundraising that has taken place to refurbish our changing rooms. So far, £537.00 has been donated with an extra £116.75 raised through Gift Aid. This is a great addition to funds raised from other sources, and if you would like to contribute to our campaign, we would be very grateful.
I hope that our Year 11 and their parents found the PPCE useful yesterday to discuss the mock exams and consider the areas of focus over the coming months in preparation for the exams in the summer.
We have lots taking place over the next couple of weeks to celebrate the festive season including Christmas Jumper Day, A Taste of Christmas for KS3, a Reindeer Run and the Christmas Fayre next Friday. Further details can be found below.
Advance warning that we finish for the end of Term 2 at 12.30pm on 20 December.
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
News Items
Focus on… Mental Health and Wellbeing Support
Mental health and emotional wellbeing are just as important to our lives as our physical health. At Hardenhuish we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community and we know that mental health and wellbeing can affect children’s learning and achievement. By supporting wellbeing we can also support our pupils to succeed.
We are proud to be recognised for all of our hard work and continual focus on wellbeing, and have been awarded both the Wellbeing Award for Schools and Wiltshire Healthy Schools Gold awards.
There are a wide variety of ways we promote positive mental health and raise awareness of how to support wellbeing, through events such as Hello Yellow, workshops and assemblies, with our student Mental Health Champions, and through the curriculum. Specific mental health and wellbeing support is available from many sources, including through our pastoral system, our school counsellors and the tutor mentoring programme. Our pupil wellbeing poster is displayed in all tutor rooms, and summarises the support that is available for pupils:
A Level Physics Observatory Trip
Year 12 and Year 13 Physics students visited Marlborough Observatory on Tuesday this week. Huge thank you to Gavin James for hosting us and talking us through the night sky. We were so lucky to have clear sight of both Jupiter and Saturn. The moons of both were clearly visible and everyone present were in awe. Our students learned their way around the night sky, identifying Polaris and even spotting Andromeda. We have another visit next week with the other half of the Year 12 and Year 13 groups, so fingers crossed we are lucky again.
Geography Department CEOS Project
The Geography Department are starting up a new group for pupils in Years 8, 9 and 10 which is linked to a project being run by CEOS (Committee for Earth Observation Satellites).
As part of the project, pupils will be exploring how we can use satellites to explore earth and focusing on themes such as use of satellites to understand urban areas and biodiversity.
There will also be opportunities where we have been invited to work alongside schools in Canada, Australia and South Africa through some online workshops and we will also be taking part in a poster project which will then be presented to international leaders from across the world who work as part of space agencies and Earth observations.
Badminton
On Sunday Year 9 pupil Imogen competed in the Badminton U19 Wiltshire Silver tournament. Along with her partners she won Gold in girls doubles and Silver in Mixed. This weekend she has qualified to compete in the U15 English National Championships in Nottingham. Well done Imogen!
Planned Railway Engineering Work December 2024
Westbury station will close as of close of business Tuesday 24 December 2024 until start of business on Friday 24 January 2025. The reason for the closure is to modernise aging facilities within Westbury station and upgrade the rail infrastructure in the surrounding area.
This will affect pupils and staff who like to use the train for travelling to and from school when they return for the spring term.
There will be no trains running from Warminster, Dilton Marsh, or Westbury during this time and services to Frome will be limited because the trains will be taking an alternative route to and from Trowbridge. Here is an illustration showing the impact of the possession on rail services in the region.
Great Western Railway have asked if they could be informed of any staff or pupils who prefer to travel from either Warminster, Dilton Marsh, Frome or Westbury to school. Please email admin@hardenhuish.wilts.sch.uk and we will pass this information on.
Vacancies – Hardenhuish School