Dear Parents and Carers
It has been a busy week with lots of activities taking place for UK Parliament Week including visits from the Mayor and our MP. The young people have engaged well with our visitors and the activities and have enjoyed the opportunity to find out more about how our democratic system works.
Linked to this, please a letter from our Chair of Governors here , Andrew Wilson asking for parents to get involved with our school as a Governor. We are very grateful to our Governors for their continued support in helping us to make Hardenhuish even better – if you think you could play a role in this and would like to find out more, please contact the Clerk for more information.
Year 13 had an interview day on Monday and really benefitted from the opportunity to test out their interview skills and have an external professional have a look over their CVs. Thank you to Mrs Silverton for organising this and to all of the volunteers who gave so generously of their time, knowledge and expertise.
A reminder that raffle tickets are available on Arbor for the Christmas Fayre and any help or donations of prizes will be gratefully received. If you would like to contribute to our fundraising whilst doing your Christmas shopping, please see the flyer from easyfundraising.
A reminder that we have TD Day tomorrow so enjoy the long weekend.
Lisa Percy
FOCUS ON…. PPCE/PSCEs
PPCE and PSCE stand for Parent and Pupil Consultation Evening and Parent and Student Consultation Evening respectively. PPCEs are held for pupils in Years 7 to 11 and PSCEs are for students in the Sixth Form. Each year group has one PPCE/PSCE scheduled during the year.
PPCE/PSCEs are opportunities for parents and pupils to meet with subject teachers to discuss how the young person is doing. The meetings follow when reports have been sent home to allow those conversations to be as informed as possible. Parents and carers will have seen current and expected grades alongside targets as well as reports on the aptitudes of effort, behaviour and homework. Within the meeting teachers will also provide information about specific areas for improvement and targets that that the pupil/student needs to work on in order to make progress.
PPCEs and PSCEs are scheduled to last from 3.30 pm to 7:30 p.m. and these take place on our brand-new system using “TES Parent Meeting” with parents being able to book 5-minute appointments with each of their young person’s teachers online. Teachers are available for a 3-hour window within those times to allow for their commitments outside of school. For more information on how TES Parent Meeting works please see this video: Video: Parents – How to attend appointments over video call – SchoolCloud Parents’ Meetings
If, in exceptional circumstances, staff are unable to attend a PPCE/PSCE, parents will be informed so that an alternative consultation can be arranged if necessary.
This week was UK Parliament Week and students have been taking part in activities and events to discover more about UK Parliament, democracy, and politics.
Pupils attended an assembly about our theme for the week – democracy, which was presented by our year 13 student leaders. In tutor time, pupils took a 360 tour of Parliament, watched videos about the House of Commons and House of Lords, completed a UK Parliament wordsearch, and took part in The Great UK Parliament Week Quiz!
Throughout the week, pupils attended events including a talk with Cllr Kathryn MacDermid the Mayor of Chippenham, a discover UK Parliament session, a debate on the future of the British monarchy, a politically-themed board game club, and a talk with the Rt Hon Sarah Gibson MP.
It was a fun and informative week for all!
Varsity Netball Matches
Congratulations to all the Year 7 girls who participated in their first Varsity Netball matches this week vs Sheldon. There was excellent defensive play and goals being scored with some very close games on show. Lots of learning and plenty to take forward into our next games. The current standings are 2-2- vs Sheldon-so it is all to play for when we play in our 2nd round Varsity matches! Well done girls!
Well done to all the Year 8 girls who have been involved in our Varsity matches in the last few weeks, we currently trail Sheldon by 2 games, but we have it all to play for with the next round on Tuesday. The girls have been quite unlucky as they played in awful conditions but kept going to the final whistle. Fingers crossed for dry weather for our next game!
The Year 9 girls showed their netball strength in depth in their Varsity game coming out on top as winners. The girls worked hard across the court and were able to put in a top performance in against Sheldon winning each quarter of their game. Well done girls and hopefully another top performance will be shown in our next round.
Year 8 Area Netball Tournament
A squad of 9 went to the Area netball tournament, finishing as runners up which is a fantastic achievement – winning 5 out of 6 games. The girls played well with our shooters really stepping up to score lots of goals in some games. The defensive pairings worked well with lots of interceptions and winning lots of rebounds. Our mid court players ran around all afternoon which is difficult with 5 games back-to-back. I am so proud of the way they played and the results they achieved that afternoon! Great sportsmanship on show as always!
Year 10 Art
Our talented Year 10 GCSE Art students have been exploring texture and form through a Helen Hansen inspired collaborative piece in our after-school workshop.
They focused on tonal contrast, layering, and mark-making to capture Hansen’s expressive style in a striking monochrome composition.
A wonderful example of creativity and teamwork in action.
Vacancies – Hardenhuish School