Christmas 2016 It has certainly started to feel a lot like Christmas at the High School over the last few weeks! The two school marginalisa on of crea vity! We are all delighted to be Christmas trees have been wonderfully decorated by the crowned 2016 Secondary School of the Year for South School Prefect Team (great job ladies and gents) and Holland. Mrs Anderson’s acceptance speech truly certainly add to the fes ve feel, as do the five trees highlighted the care and dedica on that all of the staff decorated by Year 7 in the House Christmas Tree and pupils inject into school life. Compe on (well done girls – they all look fab!). We have also enjoyed a wonderful Sixth Form Panto, Congratula ons to all. brilliantly acted and performed by our talented sixth Rebecca Wright, Deputy Head Girl formers. I know that they rehearsed a lot and it certainly What an absolute delight and pleasure! showed in a polished and fun performance; well done to everyone involved. It was also a pleasure to see so many A group of staff, students fes ve jumpers and cans of food on our third “Bring a Tin and governors a ended Day” last week. Over 1150 items of food were donated the annual Lincolnshire this year (thank you to everyone), bringing our total over Free Press and Spalding the three years to over the 3550 items of food donated to Guardian Educa on Agape Care – a wonderful contribu on. Awards at the South Holland Centre on The term has also been filled with academic achievements Thursday evening and it has been a pleasure to invite students, past and knowing that we were present to our three Prizegivings, Evening of Sport, Music shortlisted in four categories but also knowing that we and Drama, Achievement Assemblies and GCSE cer ficate would be up against some tough compe on. presenta on. Over the course of these events we have been able to celebrate the academic, spor ng and extra‐ As each of the categories the High School were shortlisted curricular achievements of hundreds of students. in were announced, hearts started to beat faster and will However, a cer ficate, award or trophy may be the we won’t we mu erings could be heard within our group. moment of public recogni on but it is important to We were announced as runners up in three categories: remember that everyone will have achieved a lot over the Student of the Year – Ka e Wickham (very well done to past fourteen weeks and so well done to everyone on a such a deserving student) good term’s work. It is achievements such as this that has earned the School, not just the award of School of the Contribu on to the Community Award – Sixth Form Year in the Lincs Free Press Educa on Awards but also our Chari es Commi ee and Library Commi ee. posi on in the Times’ Top State Schools list. Environmental Project of the Year – SHS Light I would also like to take this opportunity to update you all Replacement Project. on academy conversion. As Dr Gorton made clear in his Then came Inspira onal Secondary School Teacher of the last le er, this is a long journey but we have had an ini al Year and we all cheered and roared when Mrs Kelleher discussion with the Regional School’s Commissioner’s was announced the winner – another deserving win! Office (RSCO) and completed the Department for Although I knew we had been nominated for the Educa on No fica on of Interest documents. In the New Secondary School of the Year Award we had not been Year we are hoping to have a mee ng with the RSCO to told that we had been shortlisted and so when it flashed discuss our plans and consider the next step. We will of up on the screen it came as a complete shock to our course keep you up to date with news. group; I even turned to one of our governors and asked if EDUCATION AWARDS she thought it was a typo! When they announced us as The annual Lincolnshire Free Press and Spalding Guardian the winners I must admit I was cheering and out of my Educa on Awards were a real joy to be a part of. Being chair (along with the rest of the group!) This school is so nominated for five categories and winning two, is special that it will always be school of the year in my view certainly something for us all to be proud of. Mrs but to have our achievements recognised so publically is Kelleher’s speech a er becoming the most Inspira onal the cherry on the cake! Secondary School Teacher was enjoyed by all, especially Even more fun was the 1100 strong whole school “selfie” when she compared Trump’s victory to the that we took on Friday morning to celebrate the awards. There was so much cheering and clapping it was hard to held at Spalding Grammar school. Forty Year 11 students be heard. This is a team win and I meant what I said to received their Bronze award cer ficates and badges and everyone “You all made the nomina on incredibly easy – three students were awarded their Gold award. for all that you do, for all that you achieve, for all that you are”. It is an absolute pleasure and privilege to be head of such a special school. LANGUAGES, LAUGHS AND LOTS OF CAKE… Picture the scene: 18 fresh faced, sprightly Year 10 students in October 2015, ready to enrol on the annual Foreign Language Leader Award scheme. And there we were, ready to be swept up on a magical journey into the mysterious world of teaching languages. One year on and I can safely say on behalf of There have been lots of recent changes to the way that the group that we have DofE is administered in schools and Spalding High has loved every minute. now become its own Directly Licensed DofE Centre. Mrs During the course, we Anderson and Mr Garbe (SHS DofE Manager) recently learnt how to plan a lesson, how to enforce rules and how to deliver material to students effec vely. As the current Year 11 is a year that learns French rather than German, French was the most commonly taught language throughout the group. Over the year, we each taught a starter to our peers, a starter to a Year 7 form, and then a half an hour lesson to a Year 7 French group to end the course. Safe to say, we all were shocked at the volume of work required to plan just one lesson, however this teaching experience was thoroughly enjoyable! There have been so many highlights of the course: from Mrs Barats demonstra ng how not to teach, to planning our own evening of a ended the Central England DofE Licensed Centre French culture, and presenta ons to be awarded the School’s official DofE most notably the license. most delicious array of baking brought to mee ngs; there has not been a dull moment! Under the leadership of Mrs Barats and Mrs Carthy, we have not just got a be er grip on the languages we taught, but have learnt so much about learning a language and self‐confidence also. The hard work, on everyone's part, has most definitely paid off. A depar ng word perhaps seems fi ng for this, from MFL leaders 2015‐2016 to the new cohort of Year 10s Enjoy Currently there are 49 new Bronze students and 35 Gold the experience whilst it lasts, it goes too quickly! students busy working towards their awards. Emily Smith 11N Mr Garbe DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S AWARD DofE is thriving at Spalding High School. On November 24th the South Holland DofE presenta on evening was SENIOR MATHS CHALLENGE RESULTS – BEST EVER!
challenges each week, A and B, and separate overall leaderboards for each. All of our compe tors are in the top 100 na onally for the easier Challenge A, and Jade Lin and Pippa Shirley are each currently in joint top place on the Challenge A leaderboard. In the harder Challenge B, Pippa is currently 12th overall – a fantas c achievement – and all of our compe tors are in the top 200. The compe on has a racted support from a number of people over the years, who have given up their me to launch the compe on, to meet with compe tors and to a end the annual prize giving at Bletchley Park. These include the media scien sts Adam Hart‐Davis, Hannah Fry and Simon Singh; Newsnight editor Mark Urban who has a passion for military history; comedy writer James Cary who wrote Bluestone 42 and the Radio 4 comedy Hut 33, Congratula ons to Upper School and Sixth Form students and the star of Hut 33, Robert Bathurst whose aunt who have achieved a magnificent one Gold, 22 Silver and worked at Bletchley in the war; two Foreign Secretaries, 43 Bronze Cer ficates in the Senior Mathema cs Boris Johnson and William Hague (though Boris was Challenge 2016. This total of 66 cer ficates out of 98 London Mayor at the me). It is not unknown for the entries is by far our best ever, well exceeding the 38 winners to meet members of the secret world of GCHQ at cer ficates we won last year (which was itself a school the awards dinner. All of these people are really busy and record at the me). they all see the value of the Na onal Cipher Challenge; we The top mark overall by a long way was Oli Warren in hope you will too. U6WRD with 93. This gains him a Gold Cer ficate and Miss Ashley qualifica on for the next round, the Senior Kangaroo. GCSE PRESENTATION Joint second were Ka e Ridlington in U6DOW and Jemima Spalding High School students have been honouring last Wakefield in 11N, both on 82. The Senior Mathema cs year’s Year 11 students and their excellent GCSE results Challenge is aimed at 6th form, but we allow top set Year with an a ernoon of celebra on. Alongside the 10 and 11 to sign up on a voluntary basis. Of these 34 presenta on for GCSE cer ficates were awards for students who are technically ‘too young’ for this contribu ons to sport, music and school life. Subject challenge we achieved ten Silver and fi een Bronze specific awards were also celebrated. Cer ficates – fantas c results. The a ernoon comprised speeches, presenta ons and Well done to all. music performed by students and was an enjoyable way Miss Ashley to celebrate the hard work and achievements of our GCSE CIPHER CHALLENGE 2016 students, most of whom have returned to pursue their The Na onal Cipher Challenge is a na onwide, online studies in Sixth Form. codebreaking compe on which has been running since It was a pleasure to see our students both past and 2002, and regularly a racts entries from teams at over present receive their GCSE cer ficates and awards. The 700 UK schools and colleges. The top prize is £1000 from a ernoon provided a wonderful opportunity to formally GCHQ, presented at an awards ceremony at Bletchley recognise the hard work and commitment our students Park (where the Enigma code was broken). put into their work. We had an excellent presenta on The compe on is structured as a series of encrypted from students covering a wide variety of subjects, messages which tell a story. This year the compe tors are spor ng achievements and extra‐curricular events along trying to unravel the mysterious death of Jamelia, a young with wonderful musical items from Jade Lin, Amber Oddie scien st working in the ho est topic in mathema cal and Mr Garbe . physics, gravita onal waves. The police are certain it was YOUNG ENTERPRISE suicide, but Harry is not so sure, and he needs your help This year’s L6 Young Enterprise Company is called ‘Purity, to find out what really happened. Points are awarded for the Candle Company’. On Saturday 3rd December they speed and accuracy, with accuracy more important. par cipated in the annual Crowland Christmas Trade Fair, Spalding High School currently has nine teams and jointly organised by Crowland and the South Lincs YE individuals across a range of year groups. There are two Board, along with companies from UAH Holbeach and KGGS Grantham. The event was hugely successful for Purity as they virtually sold out of their hand‐made three layered, scent changing candles. The product was a was contemporised and the two male poli cal leaders winner with the public and Purity will be selling their represented by Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. Before candles in school up un l the Christmas break. too long we were all singing along to this raucous comedy Mr Garbe in Greek, it brought out the feminist in all of us! We never stopped laughing!! To hear the accompanying pre‐ VR EXPERIENCE show talks that to contextualise women’s place in Greek The two GCSE groups society please use the link: took part in a Virtual Reality Experience h p://www.cambridgegreekplay.com/plays/2016/ hosted by Colossal an gonelysistrata Squid (a local company Mrs Jones based in Crowland). OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD Students had the Spalding High School students have been busy wrapping chance to experience and have donated 67 boxes of Christmas presents to the latest VR hardware Opera on Christmas Child. The charity collects dona ons and some of the new ground‐breaking fully immersive of shoeboxes filled with Christmas presents to be sent to so ware experiences. A great me was had by all and the children who would otherwise receive very li le for event was a complete success. Students experienced the Christmas. tradi onal Roller‐Coaster, a spooky encounter with a giant robot in a forest, a fully photo realis c montage of environments and a Call of Duty style street fight between armoured police and a killer robot. We even managed to get Mr Blackbourn, Mr Mar ndale, Mr Manton and Miss Goulding to have a go too! Mr Fovargue CLASSICS A‐Level La n students were able to experience a set‐text day with SGS students which everyone seemed to enjoy. Four university lectures and a tour round Clare College to keep them all on their toes!
Year 8 student Beckah, who helped with the collec on last year, helped Mr Wilson, (Food Technology) and Mrs Lees (Learning Resource Manager) with the organisa on and promo on of the event for this year. Beckah added ‘The Shoe box appeal is an amazing cause and to be able to support it is brilliant. Knowing that more children will get presents this Christmas is a great feeling and everyone has been very keen to support the project. Thank you to everyone for their kind dona ons.’ Mrs Lees Also this autumn term Classics students have been out to AGAPE see the Cambridge Greek play which is only produced The fes ve spirit is clearly apparent at the High School once every three years. The play is performed in Ancient today! Not only are students and staff adorned with Greek with sub tles and is always impressive. This year Christmas jumpers (many with flashing lights and musical we saw a double‐bill of An gone by Sophocles and accompaniments) but we have come together and Lysistrata by Aristophanes; one tragedy and one comedy. collected a staggering 1150 items of food to donate to the Despite having to read along the produc ons were very Agape Care food bank. This is such an important appeal memorable and the students were most surprised by how and I would like to thank everyone who donated items; I relevant and relatable the two plays were considering am so very proud that the school community con nues to that they were wri en over 2500 years ago! The comedy support such a worthy cause every year. U16 NETBALL CHAMPIONS Spalding High School U16 team have won the County Netball Champions and now the very talented team move 40th, Holly Milham came 71st & Chloe Voaks came 77th, on to represent Lincolnshire. The team came 7th out of 25. The tournament was held at Skegness Academy on a very Jessica Ringsell won the U14 girls Elite group and Alice cold and wet Saturday. Despite raining for the en re day, Banks came 3rd in the U19 girls Elite group, so Mackenzie, the very commi ed group of Year 10 and Year 11 Jessica & Alice will go on to represent Spalding High in the netballers were undeterred. As county champions at U14 Zonal round in Cannock on 4th February. level last season, hopes were high but there is a big step Mr Farrell up to U16 level, and with only one Year 11 girl in the squad, it was hard to predict results. Their performance SOUTH LINCOLNSHIRE SCHOOL SPORTS ASSOCIATION was magnificent all day. 8 matches and 8 wins to become The High School had a very successful me at the South Lincolnshire School Sports Associa on annual cross county U16 champions, with all but one girl in the same th age group next year. Lucy Hull and Olivia Thompson were country event held at Spalding Academy on the 4 outstanding in defence, conceding 20 fewer goals than November. In the U13 girls category six girls finished in their closest rivals, but all 11 squad members played their the top 20 and will now go on to represent the South parts. The girls now go on to represent Lincolnshire in the Lincolnshire team at the Lincolnshire Schools' cross East Midlands tournament in January, in Northants. country championships in January. Fantas c performances from Year 7 pupils Lo e Hemmings (1st), Mrs Moss Emily Richards (2nd), U14 INDOOR HOCKEY Charley Woodworth Spalding High U14 indoor (7th), Alexa Boole hockey team were crowned (12th), Honey champions in their super zone Harrison (18th) and tournament at Bourne Sophie Smith (20th). Academy in November. The Other noteable team compromising: Calypso performances on Priestley, Emmy Gi ns, the day include Connie Gi ens, Grace Hodge Molly Peel who and Yasmin Pritchard (GK), finished in 2nd place were dominant throughout. in the U15 girls The girls defeated all their event and Paul opponents with several high De y (7th) and John Bates (9th) in the U19 boys event‐they scoring games. Well done! will also go on to represent South Lincolnshire in January. The U14 success was followed up in the U16 indoor Mr Farrell hockey tournament only a couple of weeks later. YEAR 7 INDOOR FOOTBALL Although it was a Year 11 tournament, Year 10 girls, Macy The Year 7 girls’ indoor football team won the South Carr, Charlo e Maplethorpe, Jess Ball and Year 9 girls Lincolnshire School Sports Associa on futsal tournament Emmy Gi ns and Connie Gi ns stepped up to the on Tuesday 13th December. challenge of playing in an older aged group tournament. Connie Gi ns played in goal all tournament despite it only being her second me in this posi on, and she quickly displayed her natural spor ng talent. The girls outplayed many of the teams, scoring 10 goals in the first game. However a draw against Bourne Grammar in their final game put them both joint top, but a er working out the goal difference Spalding High were announced as the winners. A win all girls should be proud of. Miss Dixon REGIONAL SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS TRAMPOLINING Spalding High had a great day with Mackenzie Hughes The girls beat teams from Thomas Middleco Academy, winning the U14 novice girls group, this group had 150 Haven High Academy, Giles Academy, Bourne Academy, compe tors, so a fantas c result. Beth McFarlane came Boston High School and Thomas Cowley School. The girls have now qualified for the Lincolnshire futsal finals on 9th have a sort out as well! March at the Grantham Meres Leisure Centre. Bag2School will be collec ng from our School on Friday Mr Farrell 27th January 2017. Please bring your bag (or bags!) to EQUESTRIAN TEAM School on that morning (by 9.00 a.m.) and help us have a On Sunday 27th November, Year 9 student Olivia Storer really good collec on. competed in an Eventer Trial at The Jays Equestrian in Many thanks indeed for helping us with this unique Suffolk. She was the only compe tor from the High fundraising opportunity. School who was able to go and F Barats and C Somers although she rode very well unfortunately clipped an odd pole Wishing you all a res ul and enjoyable Christmas and a which prevented her from being happy and healthy 2017. placed. M K Anderson The following weekend Lucy Daly and Molly Johnson represented the High School at the NSEA Plate Headmistress Championships at Keysoe in NOTIFICATION OF PUPIL ABSENCE Bedfordshire. This is the first me this As from January 2017 we shall operate a direct line for event has been held and it is for those teams or no fica on of your daughter/son’s absence. Please call individuals who have been placed 719714 to inform the school of a pupil absence. This 3rd or 4th at qualifying events direct line will be manned by Mrs Earl our A endance during the year. Both girls rode Officer from 8.30am to 2.30pm daily. The school amazingly well which resulted in recep on (722110) will con nue to be the point of call for Molly winning the 1.05m 'Jump all other queries. with Style' event to become Plate Champion, she came 2nd in the DATES FOR DIARY 1.05m show jumping and Lucy 4th January 2017 Term 3 begins nd came 2 in the 1.10m show Y11 Mocks begin jumping. 9th January PTA mee ng ‐ 6.30pm Mrs Ray th 12 January Y7 Art trip ‐ Tate Gallery BAG2SCHOOL 13th January Y11 Mocks end
We are pleased to announce that the School has th organised a clothes, shoes & tex les collec on with 18 January Classics Trip to Italy Informa on Evening Bag2School in order to raise school funds. 19th January Y9 Op ons Evening ‐ 7.00pm rd Bag2School is the UK’s leading tex le recycler and 23 January Y9 Bletchley Park visit fundraiser working with schools and since its incep on in 27th January PTA Bingo Night ‐ 7.00pm 2001 it has now paid out over £27 million. Bag2School collec on As well as raising funds for our School, it also helps the 1st February Y13 Parents’ Evening environment by diver ng unwanted tex les away from nd landfill. A recent DEFRA report has shown that tex le 2 February Intermediate Maths Challenge collec on schemes are helping to reduce the volume of 3rd February Y9 Languages Day tex les discarded as municipal solid waste. However it is Y7, 8 & 9 PTA Disco ‐ 7.15 ‐ 9.45pm a fact that as a na on we s ll send 350,000 tonnes of th tex les to landfill every year. 9 Fbruary Y9 Parent’s Evening th By ge ng involved in our Bag2School collec on, you have 10 February Classics Trip to Italy departs an opportunity to sort through your cupboards and Ski Trip to Italy departs wardrobes and donate unwanted tex les in the bag End of Term 3 provided – this can include adults’ and children’s clothes, 12th February Art trip to Berlin departs shoes ( ed together please), hats, belts, handbags and th so toys. In addi on to raising funds it will also raise 14 February Classics trip to Italy returns awareness amongst the children of the benefits of 15th February Art trip to Berlin returns recycling and reuse. th 18 February Ski trip to Italy returns If you fill the dona on bag and s ll have more then you 20th February Term 4 begins can use any other bag to donate your items and don’t forget to ask grandparents, friends and neighbours to Y13 Mocks start 21st February New Sixth Form Taster Day