March 2019 Edition

Welcome to the March edition of Beverley Highlife. I hope that you enjoy reading about what has been happening at this month. Sharon Japp, Headteacher

Cyberfirst Final

On Sunday 24 March our GCHQ finalists left for Edinburgh with Miss Brownell and Miss Butlin to take part in the final stages of the competition. In keeping with the nature of the organisation the details of the following two days were kept top secret. Upon arrival we received an invitation to a formal meal hosted by the Deputy First Minister of Scotland at Edinburgh Castle. A private tour of the castle was a real highlight as was the dining experience in The Great Hall.

On Monday our four students pitted their cyber wits against the other 9 teams at The Playfair Library, University of Edinburgh. After a day of problem-solving, code-cracking challenges and a nerve wracking boardroom presentation, the students did themselves proud. Being in the top 10 (out of 3,350 teams) they proved themselves to be amongst the UK’s most cyber-savvy students.

We are delighted and exceptionally proud of these four fantastic students, Libby Boswell, Evie Larvin, Tanya Norman and Lottie Wilkinson. For the final component of this competition they will meet with HRH The Duke of York, at Windsor Castle in May, to share their experiences.

FairActive School Award

Beverley High School has been recognised as a FairActive School by the Fairtrade Foundation thanks to your fundraising and our awareness raising work. FairActive is the next award up from last year’s FairAware status. Next year we will aim for the top award which is the FairAchiever School. Well done to Mr Evans, Miss Stamp and the International club for co- ordinating all the school’s fairtrade activities this year.

World Street Dance Championship Qualification

A number of Beverley High School students form part of the 19 strong BDC Queens Street Dance team that have gained regional, national & international recognition. Aimee Dobbs, Harriett Acklam, Sophie Stead, Olivia Lambert, Claudia Jenner, Gina Reed & Ruby Northern all make up part of the team that has seen continued success since forming just under two years ago. Formed out of the Base Dance Studios in Beverley, their first competitive competition was the Lancashire Street Dance Championships in April 2017. A first place set the tone for further regional success ensuring qualification into European & World Events. A Six Nations triumph followed in late 2017 which set them up for them up for their biggest challenge in the British Championships in March 2018. As a team, they had been dancing for less than a year together but this did not stop further success in being crowned British Champions in the Under 14 category.

Hugely competitive International Events came about & highly acclaimed 6th place in the European Finals in Germany & 3rd place in the World Championships in Glasgow ensured an excellent first year for the team. 2018 was rounded off by further number one spots being gained at the 2018 Six Nations Championship. An appearance on ITV’s Calendar followed & local acknowledgment in winning the Hull Daily Mail Team of the Year 2018 continued the girls’ remarkable success. This has continued into early 2019 & despite going up an age group, they have once again defended their crown & become British Champions 2019. A 2019 World Championship place has been gained so hopefully they can continue their amazing journey. Well done BDC Queens, we look forward to hearing about the World Championships in August.

National British Dressage Championship Qualification

Year 10 student Molly Tulloch has been successful on her new horse over the past year and qualified for the British Dressage National Championships final at Hartpury College, Gloucestershire in April. This is the pinnacle of the British Dressage calendar and Molly has done extremely well to qualify. She has qualified for two classes. Well done Molly and good luck next month!

Pictured, Molly and her horse Ashcwin, qualifying for the Winter national championship to be held at Hartpury College.

GCHQ Scarborough Trip

On 28 March we had the opportunity to take Year 8 students back to GCHQ in Scarborough to hear from a famous STEM ambassador and former child prodigy. Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon is a prodigy in every sense of the word. Aged 11, she was the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing, and was just 20 years old when she received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford. Since then, she has forged an enviable CV, including positions at Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard and Deutsche Bank. Then there are the Honorary Doctorates from Open University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Kent University & Bristol University and an Honorary Fellowship at Keble College, Oxford. It is this wealth of experience and pioneering spirit that led her to co- found the STEMettes, an award-winning social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women in the STEM sectors. We were delighted to be able to meet her and for her to use her experience and incredible personality to hopefully inspire our students into this ever changing and exciting world.

Save the Children Parliament Trip

On Tuesday 19 March, 10 students visited Westminster to work with the charity Save the Children as they called on the government to do more to support the children who are suffering from the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The students selected had all submitted particularly empathetic entries into a creative writing competition run by the charity, with three being crowned national winners. This was an excellent achievement – students from over 120 schools across the country entered and there were only 20 winners: 3 of whom were from Beverley High School!

The first part of the day involved a large publicity stunt where the students added pens to a large installation of the phrase ‘words not war’ – one of the key phrases of the campaign – outside The Houses of Parliament. Students from a school in Milton Keynes, university students and key members of the campaign were also involved with this and the ‘stunt’ was done to represent the 60 000 people across England who have signed the petition requesting that the government do more to make their voices heard about the conflict. Representatives from the local and national media were also present at this time and spoke to and photographed the girls as they campaigned – you may have seen them on Look North or read about them in the Hull Daily Mail.

After this, the students spent the rest of the day in workshops, exploring how to effectively present their opinions to people in positions of power and about the influence that they can have as individuals. They then met with MPs in Parliament and had the opportunity to ask them questions about what they are doing to support the children of Yemen. One of these Members of Parliament was Beverley MP, Graham Stuart, who also managed to gain access for the students into the House of Commons where they were able to watch part of a live debate.

Throughout the day, the students conducted themselves very maturely and empathetically, speaking with real passion about what they hoped could be done to support the children of Yemen. Well done to the pupils who entered the competition, those who won and those who visited London and to Miss Stamp for organising the competition in school and accompanying the trip.

National Festival of Music for Youth

In mid-March 40 Beverley High School students performed in the local stage of the National Festival of Music for Youth. They played and sang in a wide range of East Riding ensembles and choirs including: Senior Wind Band; Youth Jazz Orchestra; Intermediate Wind Band; Double Reeds Ensemble; Intermediate Strings; Youth Singers; Senior and Intermediate Percussion Ensembles. High praise was bestowed by the judges and we await news of which groups have been selected to travel to the regional stage in Birmingham in July. We hope that some will be selected to play at the National Schools’ prom in The Royal Albert Hall in November.

Senior Recital Evening

The annual senior recital evening on Friday March 22 provided another reminder of the breadth and depth of musical talent in our school. Members of the audience commented on the extraordinarily high standard and expressed their thanks for a very enjoyable evening. Congratulations to the 54 students who played, sang and supported each other so beautifully and to the Music department for staging such an extraordinary evening.

Sports Report

Netball The Year 10 netball team played 5 matches in the end of season tournament held at Cottingham High School against South Hunsley, Goole, Cottingham, Longcroft and . The team won all these matches so played in the final against Bridlington, the winner of the other league. They won this match 12-3, therefore they are the East Riding netball champions! The Year 9 netball team did really well in the East Riding end of season tournament, coming second out of 12 schools in the East Riding. They beat all 5 teams in their league to make it through to the final. In the final they lost 5-8 to South Hunsley. The Year 7 end of season tournament was held at Longcroft. Drawn in the larger of the two groups the girls performed very well, beating Howden, Wolfreton and Woldgate. Despite a disappointing loss to Hornsea, they finished top of the group with a far superior number of goals scored in the four games (21 goals). The semi-final was a tight game against Goole, ending 3-3 at full time and still 3-3 at the end of extra time. Dominating in possession we secured the win with a golden goal taking us to the final. Despite losing to South Hunsley in the final, the Year 7 team has qualified for the Humberside Schools netball tournament at St Mary’s College on Friday 28 April. Well done to the all the netball teams for representing Beverley High School so well.

On Tuesday 19 March four primary schools attended a High 5 netball tournament held at Beverley High School and led by six Year 9 students, Tyde Gourley, Mia Vleeshower, Danu Lavery, Yasmin Merryweather, Esme Timmans and Rhiana Day who umpired the matches and helped explain the rules to the younger students. Well done for being such good role models for future pupils of the school. Swimming On Tuesday 12 March four Year 7s and two Year 8s took part in the Swimming Gala. We joined forces with to form a mixed team which competed against six other schools in individual and relay races. We were placed 1st overall. This is the third time in the last four years where we have won! Well done to the team with a special mention to Year 7 pupil Lucy Towse who took four gold medals from the Gala, a fabulous achievement!

Badminton After winning the East Yorkshire round of the national schools’ badminton competition the Key Stage 3 team competed in the Yorkshire round in York on 19 March. The girls played amazingly well in both doubles and singles matches against some very strong teams, including opposition who compete at national and European level! Overall they came 3rd in Yorkshire which is a terrific achievement in a competition that we entered for the first time this year. We were the top state school in Yorkshire. The team was: Madeline Stapleton (Year 7), Jasmine Gray (Year 8), Ebony Lound (Year 8), Charlotte Rymer (Year 9) and Elena Galais (Year 9). Well done to the players and to the PE department for supporting such a range of sporting competitions.

Fantastic Football

Ten students from the Joint Sixth Form competed in an 8-a- side tournament at Hull Collegiate this month. We were one of 10 teams involved in the tournament and the only team from a state school. In games of high intensity football for 16 minutes on full sized pitches, they played really well as a team and did Beverley Grammar School and the J6th extremely proud. To the shock of the other schools, the J6th students topped their group and then went on to win in the final against a strong Scarborough College side. The students played some fantastic football and were the standout team in the tournament. A superb achievement, congratulations to all the players involved and Mr Wright. A massive success for the J6th to win a tournament of this prestigious status.

Blyton Park Greenpower Car Test Event

On Saturday 9 March the Greenpower Race team took their cars to Blyton Park for the Hull Test Event to check the cars in preparation for the United Kingdom’s first ever street car race on 28 April. We were delighted with the performance of the team despite some horrendous weather conditions including gale force winds and hail and rain storms! After 90 minutes of racing we finished in 2nd place from a field of 35 cars and proved once again that if we can keep the cars reliable we have an outstanding chance of a podium position! Sadly our reliability issues meant that a minor issue in the afternoon for both cars ended our session early but gave us more valuable insight into the frailties of plastic! We have had a frantic re-build and are confident that we have now got cars capable of taking on the world!

World Maths Day 14 March

On 14 and 15 March all lower school students took part in an international maths competition for World Maths Day. The organisers support UNICEF and donate money for the points the students score. The highest scoring students are awarded certificates. The quizzes varied in difficulty and so the points were achieved based on participation and not just ability. Bronze award winners and top in their year groups were Isobel Pape, Hannah Greaves, Angelina Huang, Maria Sebastian, Alexa Robinson, Olivia Martin and Chloe Foster. Well done to the entrants and to the maths department for involving us in this international competition.

Year 7 Science Competition

Year 7 students had the opportunity to take part in I’m a Scientist - an online super- curricular activity where school students connect with scientists. It’s an X-Factor style competition between scientists, where students are the judges. Students challenge the scientists over fast-paced online text-based live chats. They ask the scientists anything they want, and vote for their favourite scientist to win a prize of £500 to communicate their work with the public. Students who took part were praised by the scientists for their intelligent thinking – we learnt about spaghettification and finally solved one of life’s big questions: what came first, the chicken or the egg? Students were also able to take part in a live chat at home with their parents or carers.

Hull University Computing trip

In an ever developing technological world where on a regular basis more and more jobs that were traditionally performed by people are now being replaced by machine it is more important than ever that we equip our youngsters with the skills and pathways so they can lead successful lives in a digital future.

With this in mind we invited 25 students from Year 9 to visit the Computer Science Department at Hull University where they listened to an inspirational talk about the importance of computer science in the workplace and further education. They also spent time in the amazing immersive virtual environment where students really are at the leading edge of new technology. It goes without saying that every student was a credit to the school. On leaving the girls were buzzing with excitement about computer science and what the technological future holds. Well done to the Computing department for organising this visit.

Year 9 Options Evening

Year 9 Options Evening was held on Thursday 14 March between 5pm and 7pm. Mr Colton explained the process to parents and students in the hall with two informative talks. Parents and students then went to explore the various options available and were able to discuss course content with both staff and current Year 10 students. Options Forms were all handed in to the deadline of Friday 22 March and Mr Colton now has the unenviable job of trying to ensure every student can study their first three option choices!

Humber Skills Fair

On 6 March 115 Year 10 students visited the first ever Humber Skills Fair at the new Bonus Arena in Hull. They were able to discover information from a wide range of businesses and providers and take part in a number of interactive challenges including Virtual Reality, a fitness challenge and interactive medical training. They even got to handle a range of exotic insects! Well done to Careers Leader Miss Brownell for organising the visit.

Year 8 Parents’ Evening

Thank you to the parents of Year 8 students who attended Monday’s Parents’ Evening. Survey results will be collated and published on the school website in due course.

Red Nose Day 2019

Thanks to your generosity Beverley High School was able to donate £765 to Comic Relief for this year’s Red Nose Day appeal. Congratulations to the J6th volleyball team who beat the staff!

Lunchtime Lectures

During March we welcomed two speakers to our Lunchtime Lecture series. Richard Lees talked about his artwork for ‘Love Music Hate Racism’: https://www.lovemusichateracism.com/events-campaigns/ and the posters on exhibition at Warner Brothers supporting the Beautiful Resistance campaign. Richard installed our first ever pop up exhibition and students were able to ask questions about the politics surrounding the movement. Emeritus Professor Barbara English spoke about Mary Wollstonecraft as the original suffragette and her links to Beverley and local history. Barbara lectured on Mary Wollstonecraft as an author, free thinker and pioneer of women’s rights who argued that women should be educated, be able to vote and be in government: extraordinary claims for the 18th century.

Medicine and Oxbridge Event

On Thursday 28 March Beverley Joint 6th was delighted to welcome over 80 parents and students from Year 11 at Beverley High School and Beverley Grammar School as well as Year 12 students from Beverley Joint 6th to an Information Evening for students interested in applying for medicine, medicine-related subjects and Oxbridge. The purpose of the evening was to guide students and parents through the early application process for these destinations and to allow students the chance to meet former students of the Beverley J6th who have been through the process. It was lovely to welcome back to the Joint 6th James Quigley who is now in his first year studying Natural Sciences at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, Rebecca Hull who is a fourth year Medical student at Newcastle University and Ellie Keightley who is a third year Veterinary Science student at Liverpool University. Year 11 and 12 students also heard from Year 13 students who have very recently been through the medicine, nursing and physiotherapy and Oxbridge application process and are now holding offers from their chosen universities. More events are planned in the near future for both Year 11 and 12 students including visits to both Oxford, Cambridge and HYMS in the next few weeks.

Business Studies Year 13 Revision Conference

On Thursday 21 March Year 13 Business Studies students attended the Tutor2u Edexcel Business Grade Booster Workshop which was held in the Vue Cinema in The Light, Leeds with their teachers Mrs Jukes from Beverley High School and Mrs Good from Beverley Grammar School. Students spent the day refining and sharpening key exam technique and building their confidence in assessment skills. The day was packed full of revision support and activities for the students as they complete their preparation for the three papers they will sit at the end of their linear A Level course this Summer. An excellent day focusing on all things business was had by all!

Welcome/Willkommen to Wuppertal

Mr Young and Mrs Lawrence visited our partner school Gymnasium am Kothen in Wuppertal, Germany for three days this month in order to establish further links in preparation for the upcoming German Exchange. As part of this visit, they met with the Headteacher and other colleagues, visited the school and observed a range of English lessons. It was really exciting to be guests at the annual school music concert in which all year groups showed off their talents through a range of singing, orchestral and modern musical pieces. They also visited some of the beautiful areas in and around Wuppertal as well as other places that they intend to visit as part of the exchange. Both the German and English pupils as well as staff are looking forward to the upcoming exchange in June and September.

Languages beyond the classroom

In order to develop Year 9 pupils’ understanding of the importance of languages beyond the classroom, two student ambassadors from the University of Leeds led two interactive sessions on language learning. As part of the session, the ambassadors spoke about job prospects, university life, year abroad experiences and highlighted the importance of languages on a global scale, not just in the classroom. They spoke about a range of opportunities that studying languages can bring and their importance in the world.

MFL Spelling Bee

Our Year 7 pupils took part in the 2nd round of the annual MFL Spelling Bee competition. As in previous years, the level of competition was high and all of the pupils performed to their best. It was so tough that we had a tie-break between three pupils. Angelina Huang was successful in winning the French round, Hallie Twidale won for German and Isobel Pape came second. These three girls will now have a further 50 words to learn, making it 150 in total and will compete in the Regional Finals at The University of Sheffield on 30 April. We wish them every success and hope that they succeed in securing a place at the National Finals in Cambridge. Bonne chance! Viel Glück!

The wonderful grandma of a Year 13 student heard about the Red Box Project (featured in the October 2018 edition of Beverley Highlife) and discovered that people are making fabric bags for girls to put their sanitary wear in and take away so that they do not get embarrassed. She has already made 20 bags and brought them into school for us to give to students. Thank you very much for this kind, generous and thoughtful act.

International Women’s Day

Beverley High School celebrated International Women’s Day this month by participating in the #BalanceforBetter campaign calling for a gender-balanced world which is essential for economies and communities to thrive. International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women – while also marking a call to action for accelerating gender balance. The first International Women’s Day occurred in 1911.

Wellbeing Day

Our Spring term Wellbeing Day took place on 13 March. It was a busy day with sessions on: Year 7: Healthy Eating, World Water Day and Dealing with Friendship Issues Year 8: Teenage Prejudice, Self-Confidence, BREXIT, Drug Awareness, Recycling Year 9: SRE, the Importance of Voting, Media Influence Year 10: A lLfe in Prison, Unplanned Pregnancy Year 11: Refugees, Dealing with Stress Along with the teacher led lessons we invited in many guest speakers which included: the Road Safety Team, Teen Cancer Trust, PREVENT team, Domestic Violence team, Powerful Passenger, SEED eating disorder team and a district nurse discussing Risk Taking.

Alongside the Wellbeing Day, Year 7 worked with The Beverley Dramatic Society, who demonstrated via a theatrical play, the dangers of alcohol and the effects it has on our bodies and our minds. Year 7 thoroughly enjoyed this experience and the feedback was extremely positive.

Well done to Miss Evans and Mrs Habbershaw for all their work in co-ordinating what was a jam-packed day.

Not in our Community Workshop

Four Year 8 students and three existing ambassadors attended a Not in our Community event held at Beverley Grammar School on 13 March for the annual Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Summit. There were a number of other schools in attendance. Students took part in group activities, watched a play and got the opportunity to ask questions. It was a very informative morning and all of the Year 8s who attended have signed up to become ambassadors so that we can continue to explore how we can raise awareness within school of Child Sexual

Exploitation and Child Criminal Exploitation via ambassador input. Following last year’s Summit the students who attended have been active in putting together and presenting some amazing assemblies to all year groups about CSE and what, as a school community, we can do to reduce the risks. Well done to the students and Ms Watson and Mrs Mayfield for involving us with this initiative.

Alumni in the Spotlight

Each month Beverley Highlife will introduce you to an alumna of the school who will tell us about their life since leaving Beverley High School.

Name: Sarah Louise Shaw (nee Henderson)

When did you leave Beverley High School?

Completed GCSEs in 2005 then left after completing A Levels in 2007.

Can you tell us about your profession?

After leaving Beverley High School, I completed a BSc Honours degree at The in Sport Rehabilitation and graduated in 2011. Following this, I worked within elite and semi-professional sport as a Graduate Sport Rehabilitator (GSR) and grew my own local private practice. I started lecturing at The University of Hull in 2012, alongside completing a Masters by Research, which investigated The Clinical perceptions and usage of Kinesio Tape within healthcare professionals. I then moved to The Cotswolds in 2016, to pursue a full time lecturing career at The University of Gloucestershire, and now teach undergraduate and postgraduate students in Sports Therapy. A day in the life of me is teaching students a whole host of practitioner skills such as anatomy, soft tissue techniques, therapeutic modalities and how to treat and diagnose injuries. On top of all this, I am a keen researcher within the department so will often be working with colleagues to produce publishable research in the Sports Science field.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Don’t sweat the small stuff and it may take some time and effort, but your hard work does pay off.

Farewell

Beverley High School said farewell this month to Cover Supervisor Mrs Murray who had worked at Beverley High School for eighteen months. Mrs Murray, a qualified teacher, has secured a teaching post at St Mary’s College in Hull and we wish her well with her return to teaching.