Dear Parents and Carers
It has been a busy week in school with lots going on in all year groups and plans being finalised for Charity Week to raise funds and collect cereal products for The Rise Trust next week.
Staff are busy running numerous revision sessions for our young people taking exams this summer and we would be grateful if you could encourage your young people to attend these as they are good reminders and solidify learning to support their independent revision.
You may have heard the good news story this week of our own Mr Cobbold on Radio Wiltshire, thanked by an ex-pupil from a previous school for helping him win £250,000 on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”. The advice of the winner was that you never know when something you were told in school will be useful – clearly good advice!
Wiltshire Council have asked us to ask you to remind your young people that if they travel by bus/coach, they must carry and show their bus pass on each journey and cannot guarantee travel if they have left their bus pass at home.
Have a good weekend.
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
Focus on… Charity Week
Each year, Hardenhuish School Parliament organises a Charity Week that encourages pupils to be active citizens and make a meaningful contribution to the wider community. This year, we are fundraising for our amazing school charity The RISE Trust. We hope Charity Week will raise both awareness and funds for this essential local charity.
Charity Week takes place the week commencing 24 March and promises to be a fun-filled week of activities. Pupils could bake an Easter-themed showstopper for the Bake-off competition, play games from Guess Who? to bingo, attend a book sale, participate in dodgeball, netball, or a penalty shoot-out, and watch a dance showcase or busking! There will be lots of food on offer including Charity Week cookies, sweet stall treats, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and the chance to win in our Easter Egg Raffle! Additionally, Wednesday is Pink Day, where students can wear pink accessories with their school uniform or a fully pink outfit, and there is a non-uniform day on Friday.
To take part in any event, students can either bring £1 to the activity or their Charity Week card – a pre-paid card that can be purchased from the Arbor school shop for £5 and allows pupils to take part in six different events throughout the week. Pupils can collect this card from their year office on Monday. If you have any spare change then please could you send this in so pupils can show support for our dancers and buskers.
We hope students will really enjoy getting involved and that this will be a record-breaking Charity Week!
Resource Centre news
A huge thank you to everyone who supported our Scholastic Book Fair last week. We took a record-breaking total of £1528.74 as our students stocked up on the latest fiction titles in their droves. Over 20 novels were sold out by the end of the Fair, ranging from bargains like ‘The Inheritance Games’ to our recent Year 9 author visitor Tia Fisher’s ‘Crossing The Line’.
This tremendous total will benefit the school library significantly over the coming months, enabling us to choose over £900 worth of new titles for the shelves. This has already started with the likes of ‘Mondays are Murder’, ‘A Game of Scandal’ and the newly-published fifth Hunger Games book ‘Sunrise On The Reaping’ all new additions this week. Look out for many more over the weeks ahead!
If you are still interested in Scholastic bargains, their website continues to have a brilliant selection all year round and you can take advantage of free delivery to the school through this link https://schools.scholastic.co.uk/hardenhuish/digital-book-club. They even have hand pointers in stock – something we sold out of in less than a day at the Fair!
As one big event draws to a close, we still have lots to look forward to. The Resource Centre will be involved in Charity Week next week with a £1 book sale here on Tuesday and our Carnegie Shadowing group have begun working their way through the eight shortlisted books following its publication last week. As you are probably aware, Mr Palmer’s book ‘Play’ is among the shortlisted titles this year and it will be fascinating to see what our students think of both his novel and the other contenders for the award over the next few weeks.
Spring Concert 2025
This year’s Spring Concert was a lovely showcase of the talented musicians at Hardenhuish School and was a really wonderful evening of quality music. Some of our regular groups performed with hits from film, Abba and some jazz standards. Thank you and well done to Lucy Armstrong (Year 8), Andrew Berry (Year 8), Lucy Doggett (Year 11), Thomas Berry (Year 11), Matei Soltermann (Year 12), Lenny Osler (Year 13), Grace Dowdeswell (Year 13), Meg Hoy (Year 13) and Thomas Short (Year 13) for your brilliant solo performances and to the Year 10 Fireflies band performing Hard Times by Paramore and the Midsummer Night’s Dream Band for performing two pieces from the recent production.
Music
Congratulations to Lucy Armstrong (Year 8) for achieving 2nd place in the Mid-Somerset Festival competition in the Baroque category playing a Bach Rondeaux on Rondo. The Adjudicator wrote that she ‘captured the character of the music. A confident approach’.
Well done Lucy
D of E Gold
Y13 student recently was recently awarded her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. Congratulations, Hannah on this achievement.
KS4 Netball Festival
What a lovely evening of netball to end our KS4 season. There was great teamwork, and impressive performances from all the players. Both teams showcased their skills, with some brilliant attacking plays, strong defensive work, and excellent shooting. They secured some well-earned victories and had a few close matches that kept everyone on the edge of their seats. The determination and sportsmanship displayed throughout the evening highlighted what fantastic ambassadors we have for our school. Overall, it was an evening of fun, competition, and pride as everyone gave their best on the court. Special mention to our Y11s who have now played their last netball game for Hardenhuish, thank you for your efforts over the years and we hope you are able to keep playing your netball for competitively but mainly for fun!