NEWSLETTER October 2016 Issue 61 A NEW GENERATION OF EDUCATION Sixth Form OPEN EVENT 3 NOVEMBER 6.00PM - 8.30PM 01756 707600 Page 2 // Skipton Girls’ High School Newsletter // Issue 61 www.sghs.org.uk A Word from the Head Teacher Dear Parents and carers, A warm welcome to our Autumn 2016 school newsletter. • SGHS Netball teams are training and competing hard to retain their titles as league winners and runners I am pleased to share that our Year 7s, Year 12s and new up. colleagues have made a fantastic start to the academic • And finally, this week we are hosting members from year and they have been well cared for by the rest of our the RFU who will be delivering Rugby taster Skipton Girls’ community. sessions to Year 7 and 8 in curriculum time. A new rugby club will be starting next half term. We greatly appreciate that transition to High school and joining a new school at 16 can be a daunting experience After reading this we can say for certain that our whole but with the help, support and guidance of all staff, and school mantra ‘This Girl Can’ is definitely being realised especially the special support of our Head Girl Team and throughout our PE Curriculum and provision – well done Year 13 House Captains, we hope transition has been to all girls involved! smooth and positive. Finally, I’d like to celebrate with you the exciting news that I wish to start the year by shining a spotlight on our SGHS’s application for a Tesco Bags for Life Grant has amazing Physical Education Department and the been successful and is destined to achieve grant funding achievements of our students in playing competitive sports for our ‘Community Food Gardens Initiative’ to support and their participation in individual competitions. We our ambition to achieve the Green Flag Eco school status. have seen a record high number of students attending extra-curricular clubs in the first half term with over 250 Please can I urge parents and carers to vote for our students accessing 11 clubs on a weekly basis. project in the Skipton Tesco Store between 31st October This is thanks not only to the PE staff team but also the and 13th November 2016. dedicated support and commitment from members of staff from other departments and Sixth Form students Wishing you all a restful half term break. who help in the delivery of such clubs. Mrs J Plews PE Achievements this half term include: Head Teacher • 41 Year 10 students have signed up to study Level 2 in Sports Leadership in the community which involves each student completing a minimum of 10 hours of volunteering/leadership in a sport setting. • On Sunday 25th September at Sedbergh school, Cumbria, SGHS students became team event winners at the English Schools Fell Running Championships – a stunning achievement! • Bingley Harriers School Cross Country – students from Year 7/8 were crowned team winners with both the A and B team coming 1st and 2nd respectfully. • English Schools Cross Country Cup – Ripon Grammar 10th October - We are delighted to announce that SGHS girls have once again qualified through to the North East regional round of the ESCCC which will be held in Middlesbrough on 12th (Above) Hannah Thom, Emily Jones, Lilli Carr, Alice Jones, Freya November. Mitchell, Scarlett Guise, Katie Handley and Emma Peel who competed in the English Schools Fell Running Championships Issue 61 // Skipton Girls’ High School Newsletter // Page 3 Art Trip to Brimham Rocks On the 29th of September, the Year 12 Art students went on a trip to Ripon to explore Brimham Rocks, Ripon Cathedral and attend a workshop with artist David Stead. We started our day at Brimham Rocks alongside drizzly weather, but the cold and the rain didn’t stop us from exploring. We took loads of photos, as well as doing sketches for our ‘Yorkshire Grit’ project. In fact, the rain assisted our drawings, giving our work a sense of working outside in interesting and different conditions. Next stop was Ripon Cathedral, which is a huge and beautiful building in the heart of Ripon. Again lots of photos were taken before we left and then we visited David Stead’s workshop. Here, we learned about all the aspects of David’s work and about how he starts a huge piece- something none of us have ever really tried before so it was really interesting for us all. He paints some really interesting and colourful pieces which we all enjoyed viewing. Maddy White Year 12 “Visiting David Stead has really opened my eyes to different artistic techniques” Kizzy “I really enjoyed visiting Stead’s workshop and learning about his unique style” Danielle Page 4 // Skipton Girls’ High School Newsletter // Issue 61 Geography Fieldtrip - Wycoller On the 11th October, the Year 12 Geographers set out to conduct their first day of A Level fieldwork in Wycoller to investigate how river discharge changes with distance downstream. The aim of this fieldtrip was to enable the students to gain first-hand experience of what they have been learning in the classroom whilst also developing a range of hydrology based data collection techniques which may be used as part of future investigations. Despite blustery wind and rain (which was not forecast) the students were enthusiastic and spirits remained high as they began to collect data at designated sites along the course of the river. Well equipped with wellies and waterproofs, the students got into the river and began using the equipment to measure width and depth so that the day to conclude how river discharge varies in Wycoller they could calculate cross sectional area. They then used Beck and suggest reasons for this. dog biscuits (which unfortunately did not seem to float) to calculate velocity, all of which could be used to work out Overall, the trip was not only an essential and informative discharge levels at each site. part of the A level Geography course but an exciting day out that promoted teamwork and helped students gain The investigation pushed their teamwork skills to the many new geographical skills. maximum as they had to battle the cold winds and rain, whilst stood in and around the river to get accurate Miss Smith results. They are currently analysing the data collected on Geography Issue 61 // Skipton Girls’ High School Newsletter // Page 5 nds of SG rie H F S TOWN 9.00AM HALL, TILL SKIPTON 4.00PM CHARITY CAFÉ SATURDAY 29TH OCTOBER 2016 Join us for hot and cold drinks, a selection of hot food, cold sandwiches, homemade cakes and biscuits. WE NEED YOUR HELP - volunteers to help prepare and run the café on the day, donations of homemade cakes and biscuits (which can be brought in to school during half term on Friday 28th October). Contact [email protected] for further information. PageFriends 6 // Skipton Girls’ High School Newsletter // Issue 61 of SGHS Year 11 Geography Visit to the Lake District On Thursday 22nd September, the Year 11 geographers data on the impacts that increasing numbers of cars have visited Bowness on Windermere in the Lake District. on Bowness. They had a good explore of the services on The theme for this years controlled assessment was to offer and many found time to sample the fish and chips investigate the impacts of tourism on the honeypot site of whilst enjoying the stunning views of Lake Windermere. Bowness. The students busily recorded the shops, services and land uses of Bowness as well as asking members of The data was successfully collected and the students are the public for their views on the impact tourists are having busily writing up their results which will eventually form on the area. Plenty of photos were taken to evidence 15% of their final GCSE grade. some of the social, environmental and economic impacts of tourism, both positive and negative. A traffic count was Miss Smith also conducted at a peak time within the day to gather Geography Issue 61 // Skipton Girls’ High School Newsletter // Page 7 Be Brave Conference At the start of term the staff came together in a conference entitled ‘Be Brave.’ The aim of the day was to launch a year long theme in school about the issues of bravery, risk taking and resilience, in order that we can further support students with their well-being – and model aspects of bravery ourselves! We had the pleasure of welcoming Liz Robson and Kelly and Louisa Futter from Worth-it Projects – an organisation that applies practical approaches to promoting and protecting wellbeing. They have created unique evidence based wellbeing training that supports staff in schools to develop skills which build resilience and promote, and protect, emotional health and mental wellbeing of children and young people. Worth-it Projects are the first organisation pioneering the use of positive psychology coaching to improve the emotional health and wellbeing of young people within educational settings. The session started with a video by Reshma Saujani that is available for you to view on Youtube called ‘Teach girls to be brave not perfect’ which is a thought provoking opinion piece about the importance of mistakes and failure, as long as we learn from them. This was the catalyst for discussion around the issues of perfectionism, fear of failure and bravery which was then followed up with strategies to support students. For example, how to turn PITS (Performance Inhibiting Thoughts such as ‘magnification’ and ‘all or nothing’ ) with PETS (Performance Enhancing Thoughts such as ‘perspective’ and ‘alternative explanations’). (Above) Express Yourself: Learn how to use music as creative inspiration for visual art In order to put ourselves in the shoes of our learners all staff took part in two workshops which pushed them out of their comfort zones, and these included samba drumming, cheerleading, maths problem-solving, survival skills and speaking a foreign language.