Dear Parents
It has been a busy week and thankfully the weather has continued to be kind.
Thank you to all those parents who have attended our Parent Information Advice and Guidance sessions in person this week: Year 10 to launch WEX, Year 11 to discuss mocks and Post-16 Options and Year 7 to introduce many aspects of life at Hardenhuish. We hope that you have found these sessions useful and as always if there are topics you think it would be useful for us to cover in particular year groups, please let the year teams know.
Responding to parental feedback, we are publishing today our overview of the trips that are planned to happen through this academic year and have accompanied this with an additional “Focus On…” to help explain our rationale with trips and visits and also enable some forward planning from a financial perspective.
We have had visits out to a number of places this week as well as visitors in to school adding to the experiences of our young people; we hope that the reports about these are informative. As always if young people are taking part in activities outside of school and you and they would like to share and celebrate their successes through the Headlines, please email information (and pictures where possible) to Year Offices or admin@hardenhuish.wilts.sch.uk.
We have Tutor Check in next week – please remember to book your appointment to check in with your young person’s tutor about how the beginning of term has gone.
A reminder that we finish for the October break on Wednesday 18 October 2023. Whilst talking dates, we have also published the overview calendar for the 2024/5 academic year on the website this week if you wanted to look ahead to next year.
Have a good weekend and let’s hope the weather continues to be lovely!
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
News Items
Focus on… Mental Health and Wellbeing Support
Mental health and emotional wellbeing are just as important to our lives as our physical health. At Hardenhuish we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community and we know that mental health and wellbeing can affect children’s learning and achievement. By supporting wellbeing we can also support our pupils to succeed.
We are proud to be recognised for all of our hard work and continual focus on wellbeing, and have been awarded both the Wellbeing Award for Schools and Wiltshire Healthy Schools Silver awards.
There are a wide variety of ways we promote positive mental health and raise awareness of how to support wellbeing, through events such as Hello Yellow, workshops and assemblies, with our student Mental Health Champions, and through the curriculum. Specific mental health and wellbeing support is available from many sources, including through our pastoral system, our school counsellors and the tutor mentoring programme. Our pupil wellbeing poster is displayed in all tutor rooms, and summarises the support that is available for pupils.
Focus On… trips and visits
We continue to work hard to ensure that young people have as many opportunities for trips and visits to enhance their school experience post-pandemic as possible. We aim to launch trips and visits with as much notice as possible and to ensure that for the higher value trips, payment plans are provided to make them as affordable as possible to all pupils.
Please find linked an overview of the trips and visits that we are aware of so far by term and year group for the 2023/4 academic year with their approximate costs. More details will be shared as costings and staffing are finalised. We are doing our best to adapt to demand and have added extra places to several trips recently where demand has significantly exceeded the originally available places. We may also however not run trips if there is not sufficient interest to make them viable.
We are grateful to staff across the school who plan, manage, administrate, and accompany these trips and visits and thank you for your support as parents for your support of these amazing enrichment opportunities for our young people.
Congratulations to Kelsie!
Kelsie was appointed as our new Young Carer Ambassador and was presented with her lanyard in our weekly lunchtime Drop-In session on Tuesday .
Kelsie regularly attends our sessions and is an inspiration to others. She is going to help lead our Key Stage 3 Young Carers support day on Wednesday 11th Oct.
Also attached is a poster advertising local events running over half term for Young Carers.
Wellbeing Champions
On Friday 29 September, we welcomed 150 Year 5 and 6 pupils from local primary schools to take part in a Wellbeing event. This event was led by our wonderful Mental Health Champions and Sports Leaders who did a fantastic job of explaining activities on grounding, breathing techniques, teamwork and reflection tasks. One of the main aims of the session was for the primary pupils to understand why physical activity was so important for both physical and mental health which they did whilst trying our different physical challenges. We also completed a gratitude activity where pupils could thank someone who has made a positive impact on their lives, which were lovely to read. It was the first time that some of the leaders had experienced such an event and I was blown away by their passion, enthusiasm and confidence. The visiting staff were full of praise for their leadership skills and they were undoubtedly incredible role models for the visiting pupils. I would like to say a huge thank you to all of the Mental Health Champions and Sports Leaders who supported this event for doing such an outstanding job!
Year 12 Young Enterprise Company Programme Launch
This week saw the launch of the Young Enterprise Company Programme for Year 12 students. This exciting opportunity will involve the students working in teams to set up and run their own company under the guidance of Mrs Hayward a local Business Volunteer and the Business and Economics department. The programme will give students practical business experience and help them to develop an enterprising mindset and employability skills. We look forward to seeing their exciting business ideas!
The Year 11 Health and Social Care students gained their Qualsafe Level 2 Award in First Aid Essentials certificates at the start of this academic year. The course covered a range of first aid skills including the primary survey and the recovery position, CPR, how to assist someone who is choking, as well as bleeds and shock. The training consisted of four practical assessments, as well as a written exam. A fantastic achievement, well done to all of them!
U14 Netball Tournament
The annual netball tournament is a highlight on the calendar as we welcome all of the local schools to Hardenhuish to take part in a competitive tournament. There were some excellent attacking runs, set plays and defence happening from our teams throughout the event and everyone dug deep and pushed themselves to the limit. We were all so impressed with their effort and commitment and loved the way in which they rose to every challenge, showcasing a magnificent display of skills, determination and teamwork.
Hardenhuish came 3rd in both the A and B team tournaments behind some very strong St Mary’s and Malmesbury teams and should be really proud of the way they performed.
Game results are as follows:
| A Team | B Team |
| St Marys 6-1 Loss Corsham 9-2 Win Abbeyfield 5-0 Win Sheldon 2-2 draw KGA 6-0 Win Malmesbury 6-2 Loss | St Marys 6 – 1 Loss Sheldon 4-3 Win KGA 12-0 Win Malmesbury 9-1 Loss |
The PE department would also like to thank Grace, Tobi, Amelia and Sophie for helping with umpiring and running the results table.
Netball Hardenhuish v Sheldon
Thursday 5 October saw our Year 8 netballers go into action against Sheldon in our first friendly match of the year. Everyone was very excited and it was lovely to see that the Huish team spirit was high! The teams hadn’t played together before but their progress as the matches progressed was great. Well done to all involved!
Results:
A team: 15-9 to Hardenhuish
B team: 10-6 to Hardenhuish
C team: 13-5 to Hardenhuish
School Calendar