Dear Parents and Carers
Happy New Year and welcome back to Term 3! I hope that you had a peaceful and restful Christmas break and are looking forward to all that this term will bring.
It has been a good first week back (despite the disruption of snow on day 2!) and the children seem to have settled back into school life well. Year 8 have made a really positive start to their first Hardenhuish exam experience and have managed this extremely well so far. Thank you for your support of them at home during the next three weeks as we start to prepare them for their future external exams.
Please can you remind young people to wear coats (not hoodies) during the colder weather.
We have a busy term ahead and I thank you in advance for your support. This begins with us welcoming a further group of young people and staff from China on Monday who we are looking forward to introducing to Hardenhuish life during next week. We have also published below our extra-curricular list for this term. As always, please encourage your young people to get involved in as much as possible.
Term 3 Extra Curricular Activities
Have a good weekend.
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
News Items
Focus on ..School Governors
Hardenhuish Governors are an active group of volunteers who give generously of their time to oversee the work of the school. The Board of Trustees meets once each term and establishes an overall framework for the governance of the Academy and determines membership, terms of reference and procedures of Committees and other groups. It receives reports including policies from its committees which include Community, Education, Resources and Strategy for ratification. It monitors the activities of the Committees through the minutes of their meetings. We are very grateful for the support of our Governors who play an active role in our work through visits into school, attendance at events and provide both support and appropriate challenge to our work.
Resource Centre news
We start 2025 with a great selection of new titles now available, including the latest novels from Ross Montgomery, Jim Smith, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Jennifer Killick, Tom Palmer and, for older readers, Richard Osman’s ‘We Solve Murders’. There’s also several new Manga titles and lots more non-fiction including celebrity biographies and sporting annuals.
Last term, our Book Group were looking at novels that had a political or activist theme to link in with School Parliament week in November. ‘Safiyyah’s War’ by Hiba Noor Khan was shortlisted for the Carnegie award last year and carries a wonderful timely message about co-operation and empathy. This was described as a “really good book full of compassion and adventure” by one Book Group member. For the second year running ‘I Must Betray You’ by Ruta Sepetys proved extremely popular, with one student calling it an “interesting thriller” whilst another said that she “struggled to put the book down sometimes”. Finally, our Year 9+ choice was ‘What’s A Girl Gotta Do’ by Holly Bourne and this focussed more on the empowerment theme – one reader described it as “a really funny but powerful story that every teenager should read”.
This term, Book Group are focussing on verse novels – a rapidly growing trend in children’s and YA literature. These books are often shortlisted for awards and enable readers to enjoy stories based more on rhythm compared to traditional prose. Once again we have several titles available to borrow which include sporting verse novels by Kwame Alexander, the hard-hitting ‘Long Way Down’ by Jason Reynolds (which is also available as a graphic novel), award-winning ‘Poet X’ by Elizabeth Acevedo and the Carnegie-shortlisted ‘Crossing The Line’ by Tia Fisher.
If you like the sound of any of these titles but missed yesterday’s Book Group meeting, make sure you come and see Mr Southwood in the next few weeks to see which are still available.
Finally, our KS3 Reading Challenge is up and running again this term with lots more prizes to be won. This time it will run through to Easter but the main elements remain the same – read four different genres during the spring term, obtain an ace and a raffle ticket for each book completed and the big draw for cash prizes will be made at the end of term 4. See Mr Southwood or one of our Library Ambassadors for a booklet and you can get started again straight away…
Look out for lots more literary news as we head towards the end of term.
Mr Southwood
Reflexology Therapy
This week Year 11 Health and Social care students enjoyed a visit from Tracey Andresen, who is a Reflexologist, to learn more about how this type of therapy works and the range of benefits it has for people. As well as helping to inform their coursework for creative and therapeutic activities, they had the opportunity to try some techniques and learn about how they may be helpful for exam focus and stress.
Thank you so much for your time, Tracey, the students really enjoyed your visit!
School Vaccinations
While your child is in secondary school, they will be eligible to receive their routine vaccinations in Year 8 and Year 9.
The immunisation team is comprised of experienced nurses and support workers and will visit the school several times throughout the school year.
All Year 8 students are eligible to receive the HPV vaccine. HPV is linked to several different cancers such as cervical cancer, some head, neck and throat cancers, genital cancer and anal cancers and is also responsible for genital warts.
All Year 9 students are eligible for their Diptheria, Tetanus and Polio booster (Td/IPV) and at the same time, the Meningitis ACWY vaccinations (MenACWY)
A consent link sent from the school will be sent to all parents with children in these year groups so they can either accept or decline the vaccinations.
Don’t worry if they miss their vaccinations in Years 8 and 9, we can continue to catch these up until they leave school in Year 11
Please take time to look at the added links to learn more about the different vaccinations.
A guide to immunisation for teenagers and young people (publishing.service.gov.uk)
We look forward to meeting your children.
The Immunisation Team 😊
Tel: 0300 247 0082
| DATE | VACCINE | SESSION |
| Thursday 13th February 2025 | HPV | Session 1 |
| Monday 3rd March 2025 | HPV | Session 2 |
| Wednesday 23rd April 2025 | TdIPV & MenACWY | Session 1 |
| Thursday 10th July 2025 | TdIPV & MenACWY | Session 2 |
Vacancies – Hardenhuish School