Dear Parents
I am pleased to report that our IT issues are slowly being resolved and we are returning back to more normal ways of working. Our WIFI is back online and we are hopeful that our telephone system will be fully operational again by the end of next week. Thank you for your patience and support as we have worked through these challenges. I hope that your young people have not noticed too much disruption – they have been amazing and have once again adapted to doing things a little bit differently for a while!
The first week of exams have gone really well and the young people have responded to the demands of this with maturity and positivity. Thank you to the exams team for setting things up so well and establishing the routines and expectations which help the exam season to run so smoothly.
I wanted to share with you some feedback we received after hosting a group of young people from a Dutch school last week:
I have just been in to see the group off and I asked them what their favourite part of their trip was and for most of them it was the visit to Hardenhuish! So, you are better than the SS Great Britain, the Roman Baths and the whole of Oxford! And also body-zorbing, archery and high ropes!! You should see if you can get that into your next Ofsted Report!! ☺
What lovely feedback for us to have received and I am so pleased that our schools stands up against some of the south west’s top tourist attractions!
Please can I ask that if you collect your young people from the Yewstock entrance, you are mindful of where you park and do not block residents driveways. Our neighbours are very understanding of this being a drop off and pick up point for our young people but would be grateful of retaining access to their homes.
Please see attached correspondence that Wiltshire Police have requested we share with you regarding Operation Sceptre.
Please do share with us any successes that young people are achieving outside of school. It is lovely to be able to celebrate these with the wider community.
Have a good weekend – a reminder that we finish for the May break next Friday at 3pm
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
NEWS ITEMS
Torrential rain didn’t dampen spirits!
Hardenhuish NSEA riding team received a generous invitation for a guided cross-country course walk with 5* international event rider Tom Rowland at Badminton Horse Trials. Tom’s father, Mr Peter Rowland is our Schools Improvement Partner. Tom is a local rider based at Cirencester and competes a beautiful, talented chestnut horse called Possible Mission.
There are 3-day phases in eventing – dressage, cross country and finally show jumping’ all testing horse and riders’ skill, athleticism, accuracy, fitness, endurance and obedience.
Tom finished the 3 phases in the top 20 which is an exceptional result at a 5* international event.
I was lucky enough to watch Tom’s dressage on Friday which was a personal best score for Tom at this level. He scored 30 and was lying 10th after the first day of dressage. Tom had an awesome clear X-C round only gaining penalties for going over the time due to the arduous ground conditions. Luckily being an Irish bred horse, he was used to deep going. This was followed by an unlucky 2 fences down show jumping. (but not too shabby when William Fox-Pitt had 3 down!).
The cross-country course is approximately 4 miles long with about 45 jumping efforts on undulating parkland. The torrential rain and poor ground conditions proved a massive challenge to horse and riders with only 30 finishing. The riders walk the course about 4 times. Tom was kind enough to walk the course with our school team riders, Amelia and Louisa Niker, Brooke Robinson and Lexi Morgan. Tom explained the challenges of presenting his horse to the fences. He discussed pace, riding a line, riding into water and drop fences, accuracy at the fence, what to do when things go wrong, quick decision making when alternative fences need to be taken (plan B!).
Congratulations and a huge well done and thank you to Tom for giving our pupils a course walk experience! I know a couple of our riders have their sights set on Grassroots (the amateur Badminton) so perhaps we will see them there too one day or even at the main event!
Mrs Bush
Blakehill Farm Visit
Pupils working with our Key Centre attended an educational trip to Blakehill Farm on Tuesday this week. They were a credit to the school and engaged in many different activities including: bottle feeding a baby calf; learning about the cattle herd and sustainable farming practices; identifying the different species of grasses and wildflowers in the meadows; learning about and sitting in the cockpit of tractors and a quad bike; meeting the farm dogs. Thanks to Mrs Dawson for organising. Well done all!
Paula Willcox, Key Centre Leader
Music Exam Results
Congratulations to Thomas Short for achieving a distinction in his Grade 7 Jazz Saxophone exam.
Wiltshire Track and Field Cup – Marlborough College
The Track and Field Cup is organised by the English Schools Athletics Association, this is a national competition with the first round starting at county level.
The Wiltshire round was held at Marlborough College on Wednesday 3rd May; this was an opportunity for schools in Wiltshire to enter their best athletes into a team competition. Each athlete must take part in both a track and field event, points are allocated according to distances and times.
Hardenhuish had 51 athletes competing across all four competitions, this was a great way to start off the athletics season.
The following schools took part in the competition:
Hardenhuish
Ridgeway
Bishops Wordsworth Grammar
Luckley House
St Mary’s Calne
South Wilts Grammar
The age groups were split slightly differently to most athletics events, Juniors were years 7 and 8 and Inters were Years 9 & 10.
There were outstanding performances across all age groups and special mention to those students who stepped outside their comfort zone to compete in events in which they had little experience of. Finding a 1500m runner who is also a shot putter is not an easy task!
Also a mention to the relay teams, winning 3 out of the 4 races was an exceptional achievement.
The final team results were:
Junior Girls – 3rd
Junior Boys – 2nd
Inter Girls – 5th
Inter Boys – 2nd
We are waiting to see if either the Junior or Inter Boys teams qualify for the South West Regionals.
Area Athletics Trials Bath University – Thursday 11th May
This was an opportunity for top athletes to compete for a place at the County Trials at Swindon Athletics Track on Saturday 10th June. 30 athletes from Hardenhuish in Years 7-10 took part in this competition. In order to be selected for this competition students needed to be able to achieve area standards (times/distances) in their chosen event.
Congratulations to all the athletes that took part in the trial; it was as always an incredibly high standard of competition.
Minor Girls – Year 7
Sophie Phelps – 1st 1200m
Kaitlin Cummings – 2nd 800m
Junior Girls – Years 8 and 9
Louisa Niker – 2nd 1500m and 1st in hurdles
Scarlett Burrett – 2nd in long jump
Junior Boys
Tommy Mattis-King 1st hurdles, 1st long jump, 1st triple jump
Tom Southgate 1st 200m and 2nd long jump
Tobi Loughlin 1st 1500m
Dan Phelps 2nd 1500m
John Hoy 1st shot and 2nd Javelin
Noah Harding 2nd shot
Inter Girls Years 10
Natasha Moyes 1st 100m and 1st 200m
Claire Marshall 2nd long jump
Inter Boys
Joe White 1st 200m and 2nd 100m
Harry Glover 1st 100m
Oliver Upton 2nd 400m
Ben Harvey 2nd triple jump
All of these students have been selected to represent North Wiltshire at the Wiltshire Athletics Trials at Swindon Athletics Track on Saturday 10th June. We wish all these athletes the best of luck; if they do well at this trial they will be selected to represent Wiltshire in the South West Championships.
Athletics Club
Athletics Club is on every Tuesday after school from 3pm-4.15pm. The club is open to all students in Years 7-13 and athletes can choose which event they would like to focus on. Or maybe as a tutor they would like to work on relay changeovers – remember relay is worth double points!
Upcoming Athletics events
Year 7 – Super 8’s – Friday 9th June at Dauntsey’s School.
Year 7-10 Area Athletics Championships – Bath University – Wednesday 14th June
Year 7-10 Sports Day – Friday 23rd June
Badminton
Year 7 pupil Imogen Drew recently competed in the U15 and U17 Dorset bronze BE national tournaments, winning silver in the U15 girls singles and gold in girls doubles on the Saturday and Sunday in the U17 she won some great singles games finishing second in her group and won silver in girls doubles. Her resilience and determination really does shine through.
Wiltshire Athletics
Year 10 pupil Natasha Moyes recently competed in the U17 category at the Wiltshire Athletics, winning gold in the 200m achieving a time of 27.32s and a silver in the 100m achieving a time of 13.10s. Well done Natasha!
Job Vacancies
Vacancies – Hardenhuish School
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