South Bromsgrove High - An Academy Trust Half-Yearly Newsletter Issue 12 2019 www.southbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk View from Miss Dodd What’s your first memory? My first memory is not a fond one. It is of me being viciously attacked by my pet cat, Rosie. My mum even has a picture of this so I can relive it every day! What’s your favourite food? My favourite meal is my Mum’s Sunday roast. Favourite food: Milkybar yoghurt. When you were 16 what plans did you have for a career? I knew that I loved English and that I wanted to make sure I incorporated the subject into my career, but I did not realise I wanted to be a teacher until after University. Who’s your favourite actor/sportsperson/ music artist? (you could focus on just one) I’ve been listening to British artist, Jamie Issac a lot recently. His song ‘Wings’ is beautiful. What’s the best piece of advice you have received? You don’t have to be extraordinary to do extraordinary things. Tell me something others might not know about you? In the same week, I was stung by a bee, wasp and jellyfish. Needless to say it wasn’t the best of holidays. Who was your favourite teacher? My favourite teacher at school was my history teacher, Mr Larkin. He was one of those teachers that could just sit and talk to the class for an hour and everyone would be captivated. How do you relax? Sleep. 2 Issue 12 2019 : www.southbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk Keep communicating For any large organisation, communication with all stakeholders can be a challenge. We have 87 teachers. 54 support staff, 1334 students and lots of parents. This is why it has been a focus within our School Development Plan this year and last. Over the course of the last four terms I have employed a variety of strategies to support stakeholders in Contents understanding what the school is trying to achieve. For parents I have introduced a twice half termly newsletter which summarises what has been going on over the last three weeks in terms of trips, events and priorities within the school. We have to ensure Department Focus 4-8 that our website is compliant with certain statutory requirements but we are also developing our use of social media. The school has a Twitter account (@SouthBromsHigh) and we have also revamped our Facebook site (Sbhs Bromsgrove). This is alongside our LinkedIn account for alumni to join (South Bromsgrove High). Recent careers and employability events are beginning to be supported by alumni and Extra-Curricular 9-12 it is great to see ex-students return to South to talk about their jobs. We will also use all three platforms to communicate with you about our plans to celebrate our Golden Jubilee next academic year. Our Parent Focus Group is building momentum and we have met twice this last term to discuss how we quality assure the work of the school and the House Matters 13-15 school’s approach to marking and feedback. Finally, 658 parents have downloaded our ‘My Child At School’ to help them keep up to date with their child’s progress. Communication with our students is also important and alongside assemblies, tutor time and notices around the school, we also have a Year Updates 16-21 variety of forums for students to engage in and feedback ideas. These include our School Leadership Team, the Student Research Council, the Equality Council, the Digital Leaders and the Eco Leaders (formerly the Garden Group). I am also involved in all the school’s quality assurance systems so regularly talk to students when visiting lessons. Partnerships 22-23 I also meet with students regularly at the end of the week for Hot Chocolate Friday. This is when we celebrate students who have been nominated by staff for having gone ‘above and beyond’ at school. I have also endeavoured to improve communication with our staff. As a new headteacher at the school I have carried out a one-to-one interview with every member of staff, where we discussed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in relation to school. This has given me some useful insights and helped to shape our priorities. I have also introduced a weekly Headteacher’s Bulletin which works alongside our weekly Monday morning briefing. This allows me to share with colleagues what I have been up to in the previous week, important news and an outline of the week to come. This term we are also setting up a group with representatives from every faculty to look at issues such as workload. Finally, Mrs Clark works hard with Mr Siddle on our press releases and we are regularly featured in both the print copies and websites of the Bromsgrove Advertiser and Bromsgrove Standard. And of course there is the excellent South newsletter, edited by Mr Sprouting. Communication can always be improved, it is never perfect. If you have any more suggestions then let us know. Best wishes Chris Smith Headteacher @sbhs_biology Issue 12 2019 : www.southbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk 3 Department Focus : History History Update With the centenary of the end of World War One taking place this year, the History Department chose World War One as our theme for Open Evening. We built a trench and set up a First Aid Post at which students could be given a ‘Blighty’ wound. In our ‘Peace corner’ visitors sampled peace babies, which we now know as jelly babies; they were first released to commemorate the end of the war. Perhaps slightly less popular was Miss Jones’ trench stew which certainly had an evocative smell! Students from across the Key Stages supported us on Open Evening and curriculum and some smashing ideas were superb representatives for our for the future. Finally, they have kindly subject. given up one of their free periods to support in Year 9 classes, where The History Department joined with the they have shared their knowledge RE Department to lead assemblies to and enthused many of our younger remember the actions of soldiers and students. A huge thank you to Eleanor also all those involved in and affected Hudson, Elliot Kirkpatrick, Kathryn by WW1 in any way. This included the Smith, Niamh Baker, Charlie Reed, children who lived through the conflict Sarah Pickering and Chloe Clements. and the impact of war on them. Year 9 have been studying WW1 in lessons This half term we also enjoyed taking and they worked with motivation to Year 11 students to visit London. create a striking poppy waterfall display Students benefitted from a lecture on for our reception area. the history of The Globe and a tour of Year 10 South students travel each the building which is the historical site year to the WW1 battlefields and this selected for their GCSE this summer. year is no exception. We always do our They also were able to tour the upmost to visit the graves or memorials outstanding World War One exhibition to any relatives of those on the trip. If at the Imperial War Museum. We were you are coming with us, do let us know proud of their motivation, interest and about any ancestors you have who focus. Year 13 have been focused on fought in the First World War so that we their coursework and have had the can make them central to our visit if at opportunity to take part in two study all possible. visits, to Birmingham University Library and The Hive. For the first time this year the History Department has appointed History Finally, we would like to recognise the Ambassadors. These Sixth Formers hard work of the following star students have already proven themselves to who achieved hugely impressive results be absolute superstars within the in their PPEs recently: Beth Filer, department. Between them they Sian Perry and Gemma Hunt. Their have represented us at Open Evening outcomes show how much hard work and Sixth Form Open Evening, they pays off. have also attended our Department Meetings and given us the benefit of Mrs Jennings their very eloquent opinions about our Head of History 4 Issue 12 2019 : www.southbromsgrove.worcs.sch.uk Department Focus : Geography Geographers Out and About This has been a busy term for South’s Geographers in terms of fieldwork. We started in October with 150 year 11 students heading to Bewdley to investigate flood defences and the risk that the town faces from flooding. This was a great opportunity for students to practice a range of fieldwork techniques and investigation skills ready for their final exam in June. Overall, the defences were judged to be successful but the geese were not considered to be welcoming. The week after it was year 12s turn with our annual visit to Cardingmill Valley in Shropshire. This allowed students to try some proper physical geography fieldwork looking at whether infiltration rates increase or decrease with slope angle and distance from the river. The valley as always was beautiful though sadly the sun did not grace us with its presence. Hopefully, this will have inspired some good coursework investigation titles later in the year. Finally, on Thursday 8th November our year 13 Geographers headed to the South Coast on our annual pilgrimage to the UK’s Geography “playground”. This area provides the perfect opportunity to explore the landscapes and processes studied as part of the A-Level course. Thursday involved a trip to the town of Swanage to look at coastal management strategies and to evaluate their effectiveness.