Dear Parents and Carers
Year 10 have been amazing during their exams this week, conducting themselves with maturity and have impressed everyone with their work ethic and positive approach. Thank you to the Year 10 Team for all of their hard work and thank you to Year 10 parents for supporting young people with this vital practice for their exams next year and in the build up to their Stats GCSE.
Ahead of the formal GCSE and A Level exams starting next week, I wish our young people the very best of luck and hope that they will take the opportunity to demonstrate all they have learnt over the last five or seven years and look after themselves over the next couple of months. Thank you to our Year 11 and 13 Teams and our Exams Team for all they are doing to support the young people through the exams and also our TA team who work so hard to support our young people with their access arrangements.
I had the privilege of meeting with our new Student Leadership Team on Tuesday. These are Year 12 young people who have applied for the opportunity to work with our Leadership Team and help us to lead the school forward in areas including diversity, charity and events, wellbeing, student voice, sustainability, enrichment and leading our wider team of subject ambassadors. They were very enthusiastic about what they hope to achieve and I am looking forward to working with them.
Ahead of our VE Day: 80th Anniversary Commemorations on Thursday 8 May, I can confirm that any young people who are part of uniformed organisations are welcome to wear their uniform to school.
Enjoy the long weekend!
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
News Items
Focus on – RSE
Relationships, Sex Education (RSE), and Health Education are taught at Hardenhuish in line with the government statuary guidance that became a legal requirement in September 2020. This demonstrates the government’s commitment to providing a comprehensive and age-appropriate curriculum that addresses the evolving needs of young people. The guidance is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to develop healthy relationships and make informed decisions. RSE at Hardenhuish covers topics such as consent, healthy and unhealthy relationships, online safety, understanding diversity and provides an insight into drug and alcohol misuse. Ensuring that students receive accurate and up-to-date information about relationships and sex is imperative. The aim is to promote a positive and respectful culture, empower students to make responsible choices, and contribute to their overall personal development. By integrating RSE into the curriculum, we seek to prepare our young people for the challenges they may encounter in their lives and foster a culture of understanding, empathy, and inclusivity.
A young carer is someone under the age of 18 who helps to care for a family member, relative, or friend. Young carers juggle their education with caring responsibilities and often take on vital roles in providing physical, emotional, or practical support, such as helping with medication and personal care, caring for siblings, or offering emotional stability to a loved one.
At Hardenhuish, our Young Carers Champions are Mrs Yates, Mrs Burgess, and Mrs Auld, who can be contacted at: youngcarers@hardenhuish.wilts.sch.uk
Please get in touch to find out more about registering your child as a young carer or the support on offer for young carers in school and externally.
Resource Centre News
This term our Hardenhuish Book Group are exploring the mystery genre – from murder most foul to inheritance plots and scandal. There are so many brilliant novels at the moment along these lines, from the likes of one of our past Literature Festival visitors Fleur Hitchcock and the consistently popular Holly Jackson and Karen McManus to probably the most successful celebrity author of the past decade in Richard Osman.
For something a little bit different, we’ve also selected ‘The Inheritance Games’ by Jennifer Lynn Barnes which is full of intrigue as a seemingly random teenager inherits a billion-pound fortune, causing controversy and plotting amongst the four descendant grandsons. There’s also ‘Agency For Scandal’ by Laura Wood which sees an all-female detective agency uncovering villains in upper-class Victorian England. If any of these titles appeal over the next few weeks as your next read, please come and see Mr. Southwood.
Meanwhile there are also lots of the latest fiction titles being added regularly throughout this term, including the highly-in-demand ‘Fearless’ by Lauren Roberts, ‘Diary of a Future Billionaire’ by Pamela Butchart and ‘The Boy In The Suit’ by James Fox. There are also new Manga books, graphic novels, over 20 new guides to countries around the world and 2025 editions of ‘Football Legends’ and ‘Level Up’, so please keep checking the new book shelves to make sure you don’t miss out.
Carnegie Shadowing Group Author Visit
This week the Year 8-9 Carnegie Shadowing Group were very lucky to be visited by author (and Hardenhuish’s very own English teacher!) Luke Palmer. His incredible book ‘Play’ has been shortlisted for this year’s Carnegie Award and it was an honour to have him come along to our meeting to talk about the writing process and his book in particular.
Carnegie Group organiser, Mrs Lucas, said: “It is such a rare thing to have an actual Carnegie shortlisted author as your teacher/colleague, so we were honoured that Mr Palmer was able to give up some of his time to come along to our meeting this week and give us an insight into writing and answer our questions. We wish him luck in the judging process!”
Please click on the link below to access the latest edition:
Visit to Wiltshire College, Lackham campus
This week Year 9 Withdrawal students visited Wiltshire College’s Lackham campus and were given a tour to find out about the wide range of courses they run there, including Business, Welding and Horticulture. They met some Animal Care students who enjoyed sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm about college life with them and one of the Horticulture Lecturers, who talked about student routes into the Horticulture courses. Thank you all for your time and thank you Michael for arranging and hosting our visit, they particularly enjoyed meeting the staff and the resident animals including the goats, the snakes and Nigel – the new resident rescue pig.
British Sign Language
Year 10 Health and Social care students have been learning some British Sign Language this week to help enhance their understanding of how to adapt communication to meet service users’ needs. They have learnt about how best to communicate with those who are hard of hearing, finger spelling and basic greetings. As well as being valuable for their studies it has been great fun! Thank you so much Cheryl Hooke for your time in sharing your knowledge and experience!
Netball
Organised by Team Bath, Hardenhuish Pupil Hermione Ferris played for Wiltshire’s U15 squad in a county tournament at Exeter University yesterday. Their team played counties from Somerset, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Jersey, winning every game to be the overall winners.
Hermione has trained with the Wiltshire squad in their Satellite, Development and County squads over the last three years and this was her final tournament with them. After trials and selection in January, she has now moved into the Team Bath ADC group, who train each week and benefit from top class coaching plus lifestyle and sports science support. The primary aim of Team Bath netball players pathway is to support, inspire and develop players with potential to progress into senior domestic and international netball.
Alongside this, Hermione plays for her club, Calne Netball in the A&B squads in the Swindon League and their U16 regional team who hope to qualify again this year for the 25/26 season.