Dear Parents
It was an absolute joy to celebrate the achievements of the 2023 Year 11 at our Governors Awards ceremony last night. It was good to catch up with those who have moved on for their post 16 study. We are proud of the amazing achievements of all of our young people and it was so rewarding to be able to celebrate with last year’s Year 11 and their families.
The Mental Health PIAG on Wednesday was very well attended and parents found the input and workshops really useful. Many of the resources can be found on the wellbeing pages on the school website.
Please see HERE a letter regarding an election for three Parent Governor vacancies which have arisen for January . We are very grateful to our Governors, who are an amazing support to our school and I look forward to welcoming new Governors to the team in due course.
I am delighted to announce that we have secured funding to refurbish our gym into a fitness suite with the support of WASP (Wiltshire and Swindon Sport). This will be a significant investment in our sports facilities and I am working on some exciting fundraising activities to bring the changing facilities up to the same standard in phase 2 of the project and ensure that this is a resource which can be used and appreciated by our young people, staff and the wider community. Please look out for opportunities to help and support the project over the coming weeks including our Christmas Fayre on 8 December.
The Headlines next week will be on Thursday as we have TD day on Friday and no pupils or students in school.
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
NEWS ITEMS
Wiltshire Police Youth and Early Intervention Team – Op Sceptre
Please click on the link below for information on Op Sceptre – a week-long national campaign aimed at tackling knife crime.
Year 10 Health and Social Care Workshop
Year 10 Health and Social Care pupils learnt about the impact of vision impairment on people’s physical, intellectual, social and emotional development this week with a visit from Sara Dagger, who is an advisory teacher for vision Impairment and works as part of the Sensory Impairment Physical and Medical Service (SIPMS) in Wiltshire. As part of Sara’s workshop they had the chance to have a small taste of some of the barriers that people experience, by wearing vision impairment glasses and taking part in various tasks. The pupils really enjoyed the visit and it was so helpful for their coursework.
For the past two weeks, a large number of pupils in all Key Stages have been taking part in the ‘UK Bebras’ challenge during their ICT & Computer Science lessons. The competition required pupils to complete a number of timed problem-solving/computational thinking challenges which awards pupils with a score based on their performance. Pupils who score in the top 10% nationally will be invited to take part in the next round of the competition (TCS Oxford Challenge) in early 2024.
Well done to all those pupils who took part, and we look forward to seeing the results once they are released. If you would like to learn more about the Bebras challenges or even try them yourself, more information can be found on their website:
WIRE Award
It was a fantastic opportunity to be able to share with Year 7, in assembly, the achievements of the Religious Studies Department.
As a team we are committed to promoting knowledge, understanding and diversity of religion and worldviews. Our Culture Week in April enabled students to meditate with a Buddhist nun, create stained glass images and visit a Gurdwara. As a result, along with the team benefitting from training with the incredible Lat Blaylock, RE National Adviser, we continue to enrich our curriculum. In recognition of the above, we were awarded the WIRE award, Widening Inclusivity in Religious Education. The award also recognises excellence in RE in schools. I believe we are only the second secondary school in Wiltshire to receive this award, so we are thrilled!’
Mrs Singer, Curriculum Leader of Religious Studies, Philosophy and Ethics.
Extra-curricular Sport
This year in the PE department we are taking a different approach to extra curricular sport to try and provide sporting opportunities to more students. We are calling this new system Intra School Sport. Each student has been assigned to a colour team (red, blue, yellow & green) and over the course of two terms each team will play each other in a round robin league format. The sports will change throughout the year with netball and rugby being the first on offer.
These matches are extra to normal lessons and will take place straight after school on selected dates. We are tasking the students with organising squads and teams (with a little help from the PE department) and are hoping to see more students out competing.
So far this has proved very popular and we have seen an increase in the number of students being able to participate.
Match report by Hermione Ferris – Year 9 Intra-School Netball Tournament
The Year 9 inter tournament took place on Wednesday 8th November. There were 4 teams in total and points gained on whether you won (5) drew (3) or lost (0) . Red won their first match to blue 4-3 then won 9-4 to green and won again 6-1 to yellow to take the overall tournament. Green won 7-5 against blue and 7-4 against yellow to come in 2nd with 10 points overall and blue came 3rd overall with yellow in 4th. The players of the matches were Bea, Macy and Amelie from the red team. Haddy and Aurora from the blue team. Erin and Hermione from the green team and Ava and Abi from the yellow team. It was great fun to play and special thanks to Mrs place and Mrs Colquhoun for umpiring and organising. There was excellent play throughout from all the players.
Intra School Netball Results-Yr8 Netball
A fantastic evening of netball last week in PE in the Intra School Yr8 Netball competition. It was lovely to see so many girls out playing and netball and socialising with their peers. We had players, umpires and even DJs this week. It was a really tight competition with the top 3 teams being split by only 1 pt. The overall winners were Yellow who were unbeaten in the competition. Well done Yellows!
1st Place-Yellow-8pts
2nd Place-Green-7pts
3rd Place-Blue-6pts
4th Place-Red –3pts
Thanks
The PE Department
First Winter Eventers’ Challenge Qualifier of the Season
The Hardenhuish Equestrian team attended an NSEA Eventers Challenge at West Wilts on 5 November run by St Marys School. Faith did really well riding Gallagh Thunder in a large competitive class and finished 19th out of 40 plus contenders on her young 5 year old horse in the 80cm class.
The team, in the 90cm class, comprising of Faith riding Ballinlough Kevin (10th) , Amelia on Cashman (12th) and Louisa riding Graigue Boru rode really well with all scores to count and were placed a commendable 5th.
It was a challenging, twisty, tight course and up to height. Like Faith, Louisa was also riding a new horse. It’s so exciting to see these riders moving up from their ponies on which they have represented Hardenhuish since Year 7 at championship level in winning teams. They show resilience, commitment to training and great determination. They are skilful, quick thinking and perform well under pressure whilst demonstrating great teamwork.
The Team are out again 19 November at West Wilts at Dauntseys School NSEA event.
We wish them luck!
English Schools Cross Country South West Regional Finals, Kings College Taunton
On Saturday 11 November, the Inter-boys and senior-boys cross-country squads travelled to Taunton Race Course to compete in the South West Regional Finals – this was a last minute change of venue due to a storm and flooded pitches.
This competition was an opportunity for the winning schools from across all counties in the South-West of England to compete for a place in the National Finals.
The course was not as challenging as the terrain they are used to on the famous Huish Hill, but the pace was very fast.
Huge congratulations to all the students for qualifying for this prestigious competition, racing against some of the top runners in the country was a fantastic experience.
The Inter Boys race was 4.4km long and the Huish squad’s finishing positions were:
Tobi Loughlin 1st
Dan Phelps 5th
Charlie Whale 31st
William Howe 35th
Louis Sabatier 39th
Dan Coward 44th
Out of a maximum of 100 runners, overall Hardenhuish Inter Boys team finished 4th in the South West.
The Senior Boys race was 5.1km long and the Huish squad’s finishing positions were:
Henri Cotineau 29th
Ryan Johnston 32nd
Selby Archer 41st
Jo White 44th
Kieran Kennedy 49th
Daniel Matthews 50th
The senior team finished in 9th position.
A huge well done to everyone, this will put them all in a great position going into the District XC Championships which will take place on Thursday 23rd November at Beversbrook, Calne.
Many thanks as always to all the parents and family members who were able to come along to the event to cheer on Team Huish.
Mrs Place & Mr Brailey
Netball News
This week saw our Year 7 netballers come together to play 3 local schools. The girls have made massive progress and have been committed to training, so it was lovely to see them play. Team Huish played well as a group and worked hard on their movement throughout the court and showed how great they are at interceptions! For a wet and cold autumn night it was great to see lots of smiles and plenty of encouragement throughout the matches. The results were as follows:
A Team:
Huish 4-2 Abbeyfield MVP – Charlotte
Huish 1 – 2 KGA MVP Charlotte
B Team:
Huish 4-0 KGA MVP-Grace
Huish 0-3 Abbeyfield MVP- Eliza
Huish 2-0 Sheldon MVP-Esther
The PE department are looking forward to our Year 7 Intra Netball Tournament this upcoming Tuesday, everyone is welcome to come along to play, umpire, support and even DJ!
Year 8 and 9 Netball Fixture v KGA and Abbeyfield
Well done to all the Year 8 and 9 pupils who played in the netball fixtures against KGA and Abbeyfield on Wednesday 15 November.
Year 8A won 31-6 v KGA
Year 8B won 11-1 v KGA
Year 9A won 35-2 v Abbeyfield
A fantastic set of results. This puts the Year 8s in a great position ahead of the North Wiltshire Tournament on 28 November.
Mrs Place and Mrs Barton
School Calendar
School Calendar – Hardenhuish School
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