WHS Spring/Summer 2016 Edition William Howard School Newsletter Geographers in the field - the world is a classroom! Inside this issue: Sports Relief Subject Top Stories Tanzanian Link New Student Ambassadors Sporting Success Duke of Edinburgh Awards Careers Education Trips & Visits Read all about the LRC The Exhibition 2016 Sixth Form Life and more… Head ’ Line s Welcome to the final newsletter of the year. And what a year it has been! Within these pages you will find a whole gallery of As always, this time of year has seen our Year 11, 12 and different experiences, stories and images highlighting 13 students sitting important external exams at Level 2 the year at William Howard School. and Level 3. These will lay foundations for their future, regardless of the path that they take. We are confident that exam results should once again see William Howard as one of the highest performing schools in the county. In our first year as a Multi Academy Trust we have I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our broadened our knowledge and experience by working students, who are moving on this year to new challenges, with our sister schools of Workington Academy and good luck for the future and a restful summer. Thank Yewdale Primary and will soon be welcoming Longtown you once again to our local community which has Primary into the Trust. As a school William Howard has supported the school by taking part in the different continued to provide all the strengths and opportunities activities and events that have taken place over the that have always been associated with us – what we do course of this year; from the Charities morning at and how we work with our students, providing strong Christmas which raised funds for those members of our support and chances to excel, will never change. community affected by the floods; the Senior Citizens’ You will read about Music concerts, Tennis excellence, Tea Parties, held both within school and in the Young Enterprise, Sport Relief, National Careers week community, through to the Open Spaces Open Day. and Student Ambassadors, to name but a few. Once Thank you again for your support. again our students are the stars, whether they are students of old who have gone on to represent their country or current members of our community who are picking up prizes of local and national recognition. If you are a past student of William Howard School then please join our Alumni, you will find details on our website. Domenic Volpe, Head of School The PE department organised a number of activities to raise funds for Sport Relief. During PE lessons there was the fastest mile challenge for each of the year groups 7 to 11; a challenge to determine the fastest piece of equipment (ball) to cover a mile distance in rugby, football, hockey and netball and a range of other tournaments. Staff were determined to get involved too and participated in running club events on two afternoons after school and were fiercely competitive in step challenges recorded on Fitbits and pedometers. Mrs Wannop won the Fitbit challenge with 181,000 steps and Miss Sheldrake the Pedometer challenge with 183,000 steps! Both staff and students participated in the House X-bikes challenge, aiming to see which House could attain the farthest distance travelled The victorious House in this challenge was Mpingo. Thanks to all this hard physical effort, £262 was raised; together with a £100 contribution from the non-uniform day £362 was raised for Sport Relief. New Student Ambassadors Although the role is not due to officially start until September, we have already put a summer programme of This term we have introduced a new events together to give ambassadors a flavour of the role. and exciting student leadership The student ambassadors are expected to take part in a variety of different activities including school representation structure in school. One of the roles at parent events, social time duties and support with the is the ‘Student Ambassador’. Year 6 transition programmes. Ambassadors have already This is a new, prestigious role that aims to give students signed up to two focus groups for the remainder of this the opportunity to represent the school in a variety of term and next year. The first focus group is Teaching and different ways, whilst collating a personal portfolio that Learning; this group will look at the difference in learning can be used when applying for future job applications. behaviour between boys and girls in the classroom. The Last term Directors of Learning and Student Managers second group is the School Environment focus group; in this were asked to select a number of students from their group students will look to develop aspects of the school year group, (using specific criteria), who they felt would environment, fundraising ideas and how money raised be successful in the new role. These students were then would be utilised most effectively. Ambassadors will be invited to apply for a place as a student ambassador. In awarded with their Student Ambassador tie which they will total, 38 students from Years 7 to 10 were selected to be wear at all times in school. Later this term the ambassadors a part of the programme and will take on a range of will be taking parting in a team building/leadership training different roles in school. day to enhance their skills and confidence in this new role. 36 Student Ambassadors from years 7-10 attended a leadership day at Abernethy Barcaple The focus of the session was to look at different types of leadership, whilst working with others across different year groups and identifying their own strengths and weaknesses in relation to their own leadership ability. Students completed a range of activities, including raft building, initiative tests and a range of different challenge courses. Both students and staff had an amazing day, one At the end of each activity, students as a group had to reflect on their performance as a team and identify areas student said: ‘Thank you, so much for taking us on that they needed to improve. At different stages students the trip - it was awesome. I had so much fun doing had to make a valuable contribution to their team to all the activities and made quite a few more ensure they were both successful and fully involved. friends. There is no way to thank you so much.’ William Howard School Alumni We launched our Alumni initiative this term. Former student Nick Miller is the first person to sign up to the scheme. Nick was a student at William Howard School before moving to America to concentrate on his studies and sports career. Nick finishes at Oklahoma State University this year before moving on to his career in pro sport hammer throwing. During National Careers Week and Apprenticeship Week we had a range of activities happening across school. In PD lessons, Year 7 and 8 students had taught careers lessons and Year 9,10, 11 and 12 students had guest speakers talking about different job opportunities available to them. A number of parents came into school to share their career paths with the students as well as Armed Forces, Colleges, Apprenticeship Providers and Industry Experts. Nick has graduated with a 2:1 equivalent and was also a recipient of the senior director's award which is selected by a committee and For more information visit the following presented to the senior student-athletes who have successfully websites: maintained a balance in academic work while making a difference in their sports. This award goes to those seniors who exemplify • www.gov.uk/government/topical- what student-athletes should be, and Nick was awarded his for events/national-apprenticeship-week- men’s track and field. 2016 • http://nationalcareersweek.com/ If you are an ex-student or former member of staff of William Howard School look out for the Alumni page on the school website. We are very keen to have parents involved in Careers education and we Work Experience were particularly pleased to welcome them into the Year 9 and Year 10 During the last week of summer term, we have assemblies to talk about their own Year 10 and Year 12 students on Work Experience. personel career paths. Once again we have a wide range of placements with local If you are interested in being involved employers as well as national and international placements. This with careers please contact Mrs Hill: year we have students working in Cern in Switzerland and with [email protected] the UN in Brussels. Work Experience week is a valuable opportunity to experience the world of work and we are always looking at collaboration with new employers to support our students. If you are interested in working with us please contact: [email protected] \ Design & Technology The Exhibition, held this year on Tuesday, 10 May, allowed the department to show off all the amazing work and celebrate the students’ success. The presentation evening was opened by Mr It's incredibly busy with all Volpe who welcomed all the parents. I this term… Mr McPartlan then took over proceedings to the GCSE and A Level students finishing their congratulate all winners for each category. work to meet the final deadlines. This was topped off by a fashion show where It’s hard work, but absolutely worth it! (YD) all A-Level Textiles work was modelled by students who walked the catwalk to Beyoncé. This Exhibition, which also included Art, Photography and Media work, was featured in The Cumberland News with professional photographs.