Dear Parents and Carers
I hope that you had a restful Easter break.
The return to school this week has been positive and busy with lots going on already and the exam season starting with many practical and oral exams taking place ahead of the formal written exams in a couple of weeks. Please see here the link to the extra-curricular offer for this term – as always please encourage your young people to get involved in as much as possible!
Please remind young people that although jumpers are no longer compulsory, they should still be wearing school shoes (unless they have a medical reason which has been agreed by their Year Team) and other uniform should be in line with our policy. Any relaxing of uniform because of warm weather will be communicated to pupils by me when and if the weather becomes extreme.
I am delighted to let you know that Hardenhuish will be celebrating it’s 50th Birthday later this year. We are hoping to plan some events to celebrate this and would be grateful of ideas, volunteers to get involved in planning and any items that you might think could be added to our archive (either on loan or permanently!) to be part of the celebrations. Please email admin@hardenhuish.wilts.sch.uk if you would like to get involved in any way.
Have a good weekend.
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
News Items
Focus on… Activity Day
Following on from our previous Focus on Trips and Visits, where we talked about the value and importance of opportunities outside of the classroom and beyond the school site, we like to end our year with an Activity Day for Years 7-9. This gives an opportunity for each year group to celebrate their year and have a positive end to the academic year, setting them up positively for the beginning of the next academic year. Our Learning Managers come up with activities which they think their year groups will enjoy, being mindful of keeping the costs as manageable as possible. The trips will be launched in the near future, with Year 9 visiting Thorpe Park, Year 8 visiting Paulton’s Park and Year 7 taking part in an on-site problem-solving day. We would encourage all young people to participate in these whole year group trips but will be offering an alternative on-site activity for those young people in Years 8 and 9 not attending the off-site trips. If you have any questions regarding Activity Day, please direct these to Year Teams in the first instance.
Unhealthy Relationships Podcast
Early this year a group of Year 7 pupils took part in a workshop run by Wiltshire Council about Health and Unhealthy relationships. In groups they created podcasts that were professionally recorded and entered into a competition. One of those podcasts has been shortlisted to the final 16 from 75 entries.
You can listen to the brilliant entries via the link and cast your vote from today. So that no finalist gains an unfair advantage, the podcasts will appear in a different order each time you visit the voting page, and you will need to click through to the second page to hear some of them and find Hardenhuish School www.collaboratedigital.com/vote. Voting closes Thursday 1 May at 5pm.
Zoolab
This week in science we were lucky enough to be visited by Zoolab. Year 7 pupils saw a range of animals from cockroaches, tree frogs to snakes and spiders and we learnt all about how the animal kingdom is inspiring the latest technologies. The pupils were really engaged and enjoyed themselves thoroughly, with even Mrs Hammerton braving holding a snake. A big thank you to George, our Zoolab ranger, for running the event and working with our young people.
Year 9 Business Winners
Last term in Business, our entrepreneurial Year 9 pupils undertook a project to design a pet product. Pupils came up with a range of innovative product ideas and presented these on fabulously creative mood boards. The entries were judged by members of the team at Jollyes Pet Store in Chippenham, who were very impressed by the high quality and viability of the ideas. Very well done to all pupils involved!
Music Exam Results
Congratulations to Lucy Armstrong for achieving a distinction in her Grade 6 Cello exam.
Gymnastics
During the Easter holidays, Hardenhuish pupil Kaci Sweeney flew to Portugal to compete in her first international competition for Scotland.
Competing against 11 other countries they won overall as a team and were also awarded the delegation award for the highest scoring team. On the second day, competing individually Kaci scored a personal best on the vault, 4th on floor and bars and was crowned beam champion, winning a gold medal.
Vacancies – Hardenhuish School