Hardenhuish Headlines

Dear Parents

As it is TD day tomorrow, I am sending the Headlines on Thursday this week!

The Summer Concert started this week off really well with a lovely evening on the Flag Field where various bands and groups (including the staff choir!) performed some fantastic music. Thankfully the weather was kind (if a little windy) and the Queen sing-along medley was a fitting end to an enjoyable evening.

We have been lucky enough to welcome Richard Pomfrett from the Stay Safe Initiative this week to deliver e-safety presentations to Years 7 and 9. Please do use this as an opportunity to speak to your young person about keeping themselves safe on line and let us know if there is anything further we can do to support you with this.

The Year 12 Mock Interview day on Wednesday was a fantastic opportunity for our young people to have some expert coaching in cv writing and interview technique from local employers. Thank you to all those who gave up their time to come in and support this invaluable opportunity and if you would be interested in helping us with this in the future, please contact Vicky Brenton, our Careers and Transition Manager.

Thank you in advance for any time you can spare to complete the wellbeing survey below.

The Proms this week (Year 13 on Wednesday and Year 11 tonight) celebrate the end of this stage of our wonderful young people’s time at Hardenhuish. They are lovely occasions and it is an absolute joy to be able to share in these celebrations. Thank you to all those parents who have helped to make these events so special by enabling the young people to attend and for all of your support during their time with us.

I hope that you have a lovely long weekend.

Lisa Percy

Headteacher

News Items

Parent Focus Group

Thank you again to all of our parents who completed the Kirkland Rowell Survey conducted recently. Following the survey and as part of our drive for continuous improvement, we are planning to hold a parent focus group event with a particular focus on safeguarding and the safety of our young people. If you are interested in becoming part of this group or have further thoughts to share on this topic, then please let me know by sending an email to admin@hardenhuish.wilts.sch.uk by 1st July 2023. We will then arrange a suitable time for the first meeting to suit availability. I look forward to hearing from you. Many thanks, Jo Glossop (Assistant Headteacher/Designated Safeguarding Lead).

Focus on Wellbeing

At Hardenhuish School we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community, and recognise how important mental health and emotional wellbeing is to our lives in just the same way as physical health. We understand that children’s mental health and wellbeing can affect their learning and achievement, and by supporting wellbeing we can also support our pupils to succeed.

Over the last year, some of the things we have done to support the wellbeing of pupils have included:

  • Whole school events such as Hello Yellow and Mental Health Awareness week
  • Workshops on subjects such as self-esteem, managing anxiety and how to promote positive mental health
  • Used the Successful Lives programme, assemblies and PSHE lessons to focus on mental health and wellbeing
  • Trained staff to help identify the signs of someone struggling with their mental health and how to best provide support
  • Continued to provide individual support through our School Counsellors, Pastoral Managers, Health & First Aid Officer, the tutor mentoring programme and more
  • Worked closely with external agencies including CAMHs and the Mental Health Support Team
  • Worked with the sixth form Student Leadership Team on wellbeing priorities for the school.

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.

We are currently going through the reassessment process for the Wellbeing Award for Schools. To help evaluate our wellbeing provision we would like input from parents to help us understand what we are doing well and how we can do even better. If you would like to help with this then the survey can be found at:

https://app.awardplace.co.uk/stakeholder-evaluations/user-survey/645409cfe9a7a

Food Department Trips

This year, the food department have taken two group of students on trips to enhance their learning.

Year 10 GCSE Food Preparation & Nutrition groups had the opportunity of visiting Borough Market in London. We went to see the diverse range of fresh and local ingredients and students had the opportunity to taste different cheeses and charcuterie.  We had lunch at the market and students were able to purchase their lunch from an array of street food vendors. 

After this we stopped at Harrods to see the food hall and experience the vast array of food, their prices and how they were displayed.

Year 9 students went to Marshfield Farm to see the process of ‘Farm to Fork’.  We saw the herd of cows coming in for milking and learnt about how they were managed to ensure that they were happy cows producing quality milk for their delicious ice-cream.  We were then taken to the Ice Cream parlour where we were able to sample all their ice-creams and sorbets.

Comments from students were:

“I enjoyed the ice-cream and seeing the cows”, “I loved learning about the origin of Marshfield Farm”, “I loved the ice-cream, it was one of the best I’ve tasted”, “I found out that the farm sells more doggie ice-cream than vanilla and chocolate combined!!”

All donations from this trip goes to Jamie’s Farm, who work with disadvantaged young people to transform their lives by farm visits.

24 Hour Bike Ride

Over the weekend four sleep deprived members of staff completed the Crudwell 24 Hour Bike ride, riding in relay as part of a team over the full 24 hours to complete 53 seven mile laps. As a team ranging from ages 7 to 64, they managed to come 3rd in the adult category, all while raising money for charity including the Hardenhuish School charity of the year, Cots for Tots.

Our Community

Our Community – Hardenhuish School