Dear Parents and Carers
Thank you for all of your support during Term 3. It has been a busy term with so much going on but at least the days are now getting longer and we will be able to maximise this with our opportunities for extra-curricular when we return after the February break.
It is with sadness that I report that Rupert our wonderful school dog of the last 12 ½ years didn’t have the retirement we had all hoped for and has sadly passed away. I know that he supported so many of our young people and staff and we pass on our condolences and thanks to Mrs Bennett, Ms Skeplorn and Mr Fennell who have cared for him and involved him in Hardenhuish life in so many ways.
SAVE THE DATE – the annual Hardenhuish Quiz Night will take place on Friday 28 March. Tickets will go on sale after the February break for this fun-filled night of quizzing!
Have a restful break and I look forward to welcoming everyone back to begin Term 4 on Monday 24 February.
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
News Items
Focus on – Rewards and Sanctions
Rewards and sanctions play a crucial role in shaping behaviour and maintaining a positive and productive learning environment in schools. They serve as tools to reinforce positive behaviour and discourage negative behaviour, and help to establish expectations for behaviour in the school community.
Rewards and sanctions also contribute to the social and emotional development of young people. Positive reinforcement can enhance a student’s self-esteem and confidence, and can encourage positive values such as respect, honesty and cooperation. At the same time, appropriate sanctions help young people to understand the importance of accountability and responsibility.
At Hardenhuish we have a variety of different rewards for pupils and students. This may be a phone call or email home to congratulate a young person on their achievement or effort, or they may be awarded an ACE under one of the following categories:
Achievement
Citizenship
Effort
ACEs can be worth between 1 and 3 points, and pupils have a running total which shows their total number of ACE points achieved over the year. ACEs can be used to lead to other rewards such as entries into year group raffles or Governors Awards. In the Sixth Form, students can be given raffle tickets to go into prize draws.
When responding to negative behaviour incidents, there are different levels of sanctions including C1s, C2s and C3s. These may be issued for incidents in lessons such as missing homework or disruption, or for issues outside of lessons such as defiance of staff instructions. If pupils are issued with a C1 they may be given a break or lunchtime detention, while a C2 will lead to an after school detention for up to 1 hour. During these detentions school staff may hold a restorative conversation with the pupil, to discuss the circumstances around the incident, how the situation may be repaired and start the process of rebuilding the relationship if required.
Higher level incidents such as extreme defiance, bullying or physical incidents between pupils may lead to a day in Reset, where pupils are removed from lessons and social times for a fixed period of 1 day. During this time, pupils are provided with work from the lessons that they have missed. In some instances, the decision may be made to suspend a pupil, where they are not permitted on the school site for a set period of time. Work will be emailed home for the pupil to complete.
There is further information about the principles behind the rewards and sanctions at Hardenhuish and further details of rewards and sanctions in the Positive Behaviour Policy.
Children’s Mental Health Week
Last week Hardenhuish celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week where mental health resources were shared, and pupils had the opportunity to come and try some activities on Wednesday lunchtime. This week also coincided with a visit from the ‘I Can and I Am’ bus. The charity has supported Hardenhuish for the last 3 years by running self-belief workshops with our Year 8s. During their visit to the bus pupils had the opportunity to make pizza before sitting down in groups to look at their strengths and reflect on their positive skills and qualities. We are extremely grateful to all of the staff from the charity who have provided such a valuable and wonderful experience for our pupils.
Thank you also to the Hardenhuish Educational Trust for their support of these workshops.
If you would like to find out more about the charity and about upcoming fundraising events they are involved in, please see below:
The I Can & I Am double decker bus
Resource Centre News
Coming soon in term 4: our annual Scholastic Book Fair!
Hundreds of the latest teen books, available to buy at discounted prices. Look out for more details in a forthcoming edition of Headlines.
Bath Abbey Performance
Congratulations to Lucy Armstrong (Year 8) who performed as a soloist in Bath Abbey on 29 January to a packed audience. She sang the part of Skyler in Voices for Life’s performance of Stardust. Voices for Life is a children’s singing and wellbeing charity based in the area. She was also interviewed by BBC Newsround which you can watch on this link. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/cd0j3x275dzo
Well done Lucy.
Celebrating Creativity: Year 7’s Stunning Artwork on the Creation of the World
Our Year 7 students have been letting their imaginations soar in RE lessons, producing some truly incredible artwork depicting how they believe the world was created. Their creativity, curiosity, and unique perspectives have brought to life a range of interpretations, from vibrant paintings of swirling galaxies to carefully crafted depictions of nature’s beauty emerging in the dawn of time.
Through this project, students have explored different creation stories. Some have drawn inspiration from religious teachings, while others have allowed their own thoughts and wonder to shape their masterpieces. Every piece is a testament to the enthusiasm and originality of our students, showing just how deeply they engage with big questions about our world.
A huge well done to our Year 7 students for their fantastic efforts, and a big thank you to the PSRE teachers for encouraging such a wonderful exploration of faith, science, imagination, and artistic expression!
Its National Apprenticeships Week!
Please see links below to some video guides produced by The Careers and Enterprise Company to help parents and carers to support their young person with vocational pathways:
How can I support my child to explore vocational opportunities?
How can I support my child to apply for vocational opportunities?
How can I support my child to transition into vocational pathways?
There is also useful information for parents and carers at Amazing Apprenticeships:
Parent – Amazing Apprenticeships
The Careers and Enterprise Company would be grateful for any feedback on the video guides, and the QR code below links to a short feedback form:
Safer Internet Day was on Tuesday 11th February with this year’s tagline being ‘too good to be true’, with a focus on misinformation and scams. In line with this theme, pupils have been receiving assemblies during the past couple of weeks focusing on the impact of AI and the spreading of disinformation and misinformation.
AI is becoming an exciting new technology that can have many benefits, such as reducing our workloads, autromating tasks and helping to generate copyright free material such as images and video. There are however still many ethical and legal considerations that need to be taken when using AI, with the full impact of AI on society still not known. My message from the assemblies this term focused on the following areas:
- Can you spot AI material that is being portrayed as ‘real’?
- What is the impact of AI material when it is being used to spread both disinformation and misinformation (e.g. during elections)?
- What is the impact of ‘deepfakes’, and how easy are they to both create and distinguish from reality?
A deepfake is video, picture or audio clip that have been created using someone’s likeness, this could be using someone’s voice to make them say things they wouldn’t normally say or place their face over a video that isn’t actually them. With the help of the learning managers in each year group I was able to clone a deep fake of their voice, creating a false audio clip that was played during the assembly. Although the clip was intended to be humorous, it also highlights how easy it is to imitate someone’s voice and get someone to say something they didn’t actually say. The content that we all share on social media platforms and the wider Internet could be used against us, and we need to make sure we are making steps to protect our likeness.
The assembly concluded with advice for young people to consider:
- Keep social media platforms private to ensure others cannot take content and potentially use it in a negative way.
- Be critical thinkers and, now more than ever, don’t believe everything you see/hear online.
- Be mindful of the ethical and legal implications of AI, and how its use could have real world consequences if it’s intended use to for defamation or the spreading of disinformation.
As with all new technological advances we never fully know the impacts it will have and the changes it will make to society as a whole. I believe AI will have huge benefits to many areas of our lives, but like everything we need to ensure we are using the tools in a way that is ethical. We hope the assemblies have encouraged young people to think about their own digital footprint, their use of AI and opened up wider conversations about the reliability of content that we see online.
Below are some useful links and information from the ‘National online safety’ (NOS) with more information about AI, scams and deepfakes.
Tim Phillips – Curriculum leader for ICT & Computer Science
Bletchley Park Trip – Tuesday 4th February
On Tuesday 4 February, 60 Year 9 pupils and eight members of staff ventured to Milton Keynes to visit the historic Bletchley Park. Although it was a bit chilly, the sun shone on the beautiful grounds of Bletchley, where pupils had the opportunity to explore areas of interest and learn about Bletchley’s part during WW2. These included the various huts where code breakers worked tirelessly to break enemy encrypted messages, the house with its charming architecture and surrounding stables (now containing vehicles from the time period), a museum containing encryption devices (such as the Enigma Machine) and a chance to see one of the ‘Bombe’ machines in hut 11, an early electro-magnetic device that helped allies break some of the enemy encrypted messages. Pupils also had a presentation that looked at the importance of Bletchley Park during many key parts of WW2, including the D-Day landings that could not have been successful if not for the intelligence gathered by the brilliant minds at Bletchley.
Pupils also had a session on cyber security, looking at the various risks that exist in our digital world and what steps they can take to make sure their personal data and privacy is kept safe and secure. Fortunately, we were also able to visit the AI exhibition (which only opened that day), allowing pupils to explore how AI is changing society, with both the positive and negative implications of this.
It was a wonderful day and the Year 9s were brilliant, we hope the trip gave pupils a chance to reflect on the work that these code breakers did during the war, whilst looking at the early machines that helped lay the groundwork for the technology that we have today.
The ICT & Computer Science department
Cross Country Success!
Massive congratulations to the following students who represented Wiltshire in the South West Cross Country Championships on Saturday 1st February in Newquay.
Selby Archer (Pictured)
Tobi Loughlin
Dan Phelps
Sophie Phelps
Amelia Chalk
All students performed amazingly well over a very challenging course and have all now been selected to represent the South West at the National Finals on the 15th March in West Sussex.
The PE Department
Lost Property
Please find below list of lost property currently held. Please encourage your young person to come and check if any of the items may belong to them. Any items not collected will be disposed of or donated to charity in term 4.