Dear Parents
I have had the pleasure of speaking to Year 11 and 13 in assembly over the last couple of days, encouraging them to reflect on their time at Hardenhuish and wishing them well both with their upcoming exams and their futures. They have both been fantastic year groups and I am confident will achieve great things both in the summer and beyond.
Our programme of trips, visits and amazing extra-curricular opportunities continue as you can see below. Thank you to the staff who organise these and you for your support of all of things that enrich our young people’s time in school.
Thank you to those of you who have already completed our parent questionnaire. If you have not yet had the opportunity, it should take around 10 minutes to complete and will help shape our future school improvement:
Link to parent log in: https://survey.gl-assessment.co.uk/s/JOQHQF/
Parent password: HHHS10112Pa
The deadline for completion is Friday 17 May. We recognise that some of the questions may be difficult to answer as this is a generic survey used by a large number of schools nationally.
It is lovely to hear that the Teen Takeover of Chippenham last weekend was such a success and look forward to seeing how this will develop in the future.
Have a lovely long weekend, lets hope for some warmer weather (Year 11 are certainly hoping the field dries out a bit to enable them to make the most of it during their last few days!).
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
News Items
Focus on….EDI
As well as the amazing work on Culture Week, we’ve been focussing a lot this year on EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) here at Hardenhuish. Mr Henley was seconded to the Leadership Team, specifically looking at how we can promote EDI at the school. We currently have both a staff and student ‘Equalities Group’ who are dedicated to ensuring Hardenhuish not only challenges issues pertaining to EDI, but ensures staff and students are given the opportunity to celebrate difference. As a group, we’ve created an EDI umbrella, a symbol that demonstrates the idea that all areas of difference are protected and united.
The staff and students are also working on the creation of an ‘EDI toolkit’; a resource where we pool together our passions, research and advise for all members of the community on how to embrace and celebrate diversity.
Culture Week
What a week it was.
The PSRE department value the opportunity to embrace cultural diversity and as teachers we have the privilege of being able to share this with our students. Culture Week is now growing each year and so this year the pupils experienced an even richer taste of different cultural perspectives, including religious and non-religious art and learning.
Year 7 learnt about the meaning and impact of stained glass, throughout the world, creating their own examples too and recognising the importance of symbolism in religion.
Year 8’s were fortunate enough to experience first hand the calm and insightful practices of a Buddhist Nun and all the Year 8’s left their Culture Week lesson having practised mindfulness, yes, being silent for at least 10 minutes. Thank you Lamchen for your time given to enrich the students understanding of meditation and Buddhism.
For Year 9, Japanese Culture was studied, also the students learnt how to write Kanji and created their own Tanzaku.
One of many highlights was a visit from an Imam based at Bristol City Academy. He met with the GCSE Religious Studies students (years 9, 10 and 11), spoke with them about the religion of Islam and this was followed by students’ questions. The learning was invaluable for the Year 11’s particularly.
The students were also given the opportunity to listen to a Humanist and again ask questions about their views on many of life’s ethical challenges.
SARI (Stand Against Racism and Inequality) delivered a presentation to each year group in KS3. It is so important students are aware of the impact of
On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday lunchtime, the pupils had the chance to get culturally creative. Students went away with the knowledge and history of Greek worry beads, along with their own string that they made. Also, they learnt about the history and meaning of Mexican God’s eye’s again creating their own and finally they used oil pastels to colour different African masks whist learning about their cultural meaning and background.
During these lunch time activities, students were also encouraged to add to the Appreciation Station. On a butterfly, they were asked to write what they are grateful for. These display boards also included many of the posters that were submitted as art of a competition to be the winning Culture Week poster. Ayden in Year 7 won the competition and received a prize along with the runners up.
Years 7,8,9,11,12 and 13 all had a Culture Week assembly, delivered by the PSRE team. The final message being reflected on…
The Art department created the colourful individual letters, CULTURE, which will be used as part of a display in L Centre.
As a department we are very grateful to Mrs Lucas who explains what she did for Culture Week.
Mrs Lucas put together a range of lessons that were delivered in English as part of our Culture Week celebrations. These included studying poems about: the benefits and the challenges of speaking more than one language; immigration and the elements of what we think of as British culture which actually originated elsewhere in the world; and how people in another country might respond to a water main bursting (something which we are likely to consider an annoyance and a major inconvenience – not so in the poem!).
Mrs Lucas said, “So often in English, we encounter writers and characters living in different cultures to our own, and the beauty of reading is its ability to transport us to different places and help us develop our empathy skills as we learn about how other people live and think. As a department, we were delighted to be able to join in the celebrations of Culture Week and help pupils discover the diversity that’s both within and outside of our little town!”
Young Enterprise Area Final Success!
On Friday, a team of year 12 students: Harry, Charlotte, Robyn, Rocco, Rufus, and Maxwell, attended the Young Enterprise Area Finals to showcase their business Acorn Adventures. The team have worked since September alongside their business mentor Sue Hayward and the Business department to develop an activity book for children aiming to encourage children aged 5-9 to explore and appreciate nature through activities from tree identification to building a bird box.
The day involved the students setting-up a creative display to promote and sell their products, a question and answer session with the judging panel, and delivering a professional presentation about their business to a room of business experts. The team won the award for outstanding use of technology and were highly commended for their creative product, multichannel approach and superb website.
Primary Outreach is back!
This week we visited Sutton Benger CE Primary School. The school were very welcoming and the class of Y4 and Y5 pupils were all very excited about working with a Secondary School Art Teacher. We created continuous line drawings of shells and then transferred these onto polyboards to print with. All the pupils printed a card to take home and helped create a poster to put up in their teacher’s room. All the pupils got involved, helped each other and told us ideas for who they would give their card to. This was a mixed year and mixed ability group who worked together to produce a lovely body of work.
Religious Studies visit
On Monday 29 April, 8 Y12 Religious Studies students visited Bristol University to take part in a Buddhist Studies Conference to enrich their A level studies. During their visit they were able to take part in a number of activities including; lecture talks on Buddhist philosophy and Zen meditation and koan practice, speaking to a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka as well as enjoying the practical activities of Buddhist meditation and calligraphy. The students also had the opportunity to hear from key note speaker Prof. Rupert Gethin. Many thanks to Rita Langar at Bristol University for putting on this fantastic opportunity for our students.
Cadbury World
On Tuesday, Year 10 Business students visited Cadbury’s World to discover more about the business of chocolate! Students toured the museum and factory to learn about how their favourite chocolate brands are created and see how they are produced. They attended a lecture about marketing at Cadbury which gave a fascinating insight into how this popular brand competes and stays ahead of the competition. The day gave the students the opportunity to see first-hand how business theory applies to this global superbrand!
Chippenham Teen Takeover
Last weekend, Chippenham held the first ever Teen Takeover. There were a large variety of activities held in the heart of the town, including: wall climbing at the Arc; zip-lining in Monkton Park; a screening of Shrek at the Reel Cinema; a poetry workshop with Christian Foley at the library; circus skills training in the Nelde Hall and much much more. Best of all, all of the events were free of charge! It was a great opportunity for teens to try new activities along with their friends. As a Chippenham Youth Councillor member, I helped to gather young people’s opinions on the changes they’d like to see made to improve our town. Personally, I’d like to see the Teen Takeover become an annual event as I had such a great time with my friends. – Jasmine Owen, Chippenham Youth Councillor, Y7
Leigh Delamere Solar Farm trip
Last week we took two groups of year 8 students on to Leigh Delamere solar farm development site where they were given a tour of the site as well as a workshop hosted at school in the afternoon. This is what was said by one of the Leigh Delamere staff after the visit.
Year 8’s were welcome visitors to the Leigh Delamere solar farm development site. Whilst walking around one of the farmer’s fields students spotted racing hares, birds nests in the hedgerows, deer tracks, rabbit paths and mouse holes.
Some students were surprised by the number of different insects collected in nets during their biodiversity study. Although the happiest group was the group with the highest worm count in 10 minutes – 57 worms! (all returned safely)
By the end of the visit Year 8’s had a better appreciation of the importance of species diversity in a local area and collecting data fairly and accurately.
A great morning out of the classroom being ecologists! – Well done year 8!
Blake Hill Farm visit
This week Y8 students enjoyed a trip to Blake Hill Farm, thanks, in part, to funding from the Hardenhuish Educational Trust. This was hosted by The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. Blakehill Farm was once an airfield during the second world war. It is now the UK’s largest grassland restoration project and one of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust’s largest reserves.
During the trip the students had the chance to discover what is involved in keeping livestock and why the cattle are so important for the Trust’s restoration project. They also enjoyed the opportunity to explore the surrounding meadows and plant, insect and bird life, met the farm workers and learnt about conservation work. The students particularly enjoyed the chance to help feed the in calf cows. This was a wonderful day for all, in which the sun shone too. A big thanks to our hosts and the Trust for funding the trip.
U14’s Netball Success for Calne Netball
Hermione Ferris, Lottie Haysom (year 9’s) and Eleanor Gladding (year 8) play for Calne Netball and they were part of the team to win the under 14 netball tournament in the Swindon league, winning all their matches. They have also secured the league win this season, winning all of their matches bar 1.
Eleanor has stepped up into the under 14 team this season, and also plays in the under 13’s who came 4th in their tournament at the end of March.
The girls are now training hard to try and secure a place for Calne in the 3 teams to go through and represent Wiltshire in the under 16 regional league, which will play next season against teams from across the southwest counties.
All the girls train with Calne Netball Club on Tuesday evenings at St Mary’s Sports Centre in Calne and Hermione also trains with the Wiltshire under 15 squad in Marlborough College on Thursday evenings.
The club are always keen to welcome new players from all areas, from Under 11 – Under 14’s through to Adults, with teams in the Swindon and Devizes Moonraker leagues.
Martial Art Professional Championships
Imogen Drew competed in the Elite Martial Art Professional Championships in Thornbury. She won Gold in High Kick, Gold in Sparring, and Bronze in Patterns Such a great achievement – Well Done!
Year 7 Football
The Year 7 football team made it all the way to the Wiltshire Schools FA County Cup Final on Wednesday 1st May and came in second place after a narrow defeat to Sheldon 7-5! It was a great game, and they deserve a huge credit for getting that far in the competition. Well done boys!
“She can be active”
On Monday, April 29, a group of 10, Y9 pupils attended the “She Can Be Active” programme, run by Youth Sport Trust. These enthusiastic students have demonstrated a keen interest in promoting physical activity and developing their leadership skills.
The leaders had a unique opportunity to train and work with Katie Grey, a para swimmer, and Louise Hunt, a para tennis player. These experiences offered valuable insights into adaptive sports and provided inspiration for the students. The day was filled with team-building challenges, allowing the group to bond and develop a strong sense of teamwork.
Through these activities, the leaders brainstormed and discussed innovative ideas for activities they wish to introduce to their school. We look forward to seeing all of the amazing things they are going to achieve!
