International Women's Day, Invest Day, PTA quiz night, Leavers' Concert, Book Week, Parents/Carers feedback
Our School Our Week
Picture of the week:
International Womens' Day. All lessons included activities to celebrate the day and staff celebrated the work of the suffragettes.
Headlines:
- INVEST day 7th March
- Book Week
- Feedback from the Parent/Carer Survey
- Leavers' Concert
- PTA Quiz Night
INVEST day 7th March
Another action packed day off timetable for the whole school. These days present students with a great chance to explore subjects in more depth, for example the subject workshops offered to Year 11, and to take part in trips. Last Tuesday Year 7 visited Coventry Cathedral, they had a guided tour of the cathedral and explored the vast array of symbols linked to the theme of forgiveness and reconciliation. They also saw the film set of Nativity 4 being constructed! They will now create their own symbolic piece during lessons and for home learning.
Year 8 began the day with a "Magical Mathematics" delivered by Ben Spark from Bath University. He showed how mathematics can be used for tricks and puzzles and the students were able to learn some of his tricks and try them out.
During the second session, students had the opportunity to look at mathematics originating from different parts of the world including Britain, Europe, Mediterranean, India, Japan and China. Students completed puzzles, activities, solved problems and did some code breaking.
The day ended with the opportunity to learn how the stock market works and have a go at some trading. There was plenty of frantic and tactical trading. Well done to 8Ba who won the stock market competition!
Year 10 and 12 engaged in PSHE activities. Year 10 considered how they might promote their mental well being and Year 12 extended their awareness of staying safe through workshops on knife crime and road safety.
INVEST days also allow us to free up staff for planning time, on this occasion it was the turn of English and Geography, staff in these areas spent time improving schemes of learning.
Book Week
The LRC ran many activities this week to celebrate Book Week. We find so much information from the internet but the books in our LRC should not be overlooked! Students took part in quizzes, DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) and had fun dressing up as their favourite characters. Winners of the competition were the Seven Dwarfs, Medusa, Peter Pan's shadow and Year 10 as characters from The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare, one of our most popular authors.
Feedback from Parent/Carer Survey
Many thanks to all who took time to complete the survey at the end of January. We have had opportunity to analyse all 453 responses and create actions to be incorporated into our School Development Plan. A full summary will be emailed to you separately. It was wonderful to read of the things you value about High School for Girls such as our family feel and high achievement, and also gain valuable insight into what parents and carers would like to see improved. There are also some 'Quick Wins' we have been able to achieve already:
- students in all year groups are now welcome to attend consultation evenings
- the headteacher's email has been revamped so it has headlines and short passages/photos with links as appropriate
- curriculum outlines, some parents were not aware that these are on the website, they can be found here
Thank you to parents/carers who have offered to engage with the school by offering time and work experience placements or shown an interest in governance. I have passed your details to relevant staff who will be in contact. A priority for me is to contact those interested in working on school development planning, this group will help us work on key points raised in the survey.
Leavers' Concert
Parents/carers, students, staff and governors are invited to the annual Leavers' Concert, on Tuesday 20th March at 7.00 pm in the school hall. All of our larger ensembles are performing in the concert, and if you daughter/son is in the following groups, then they will be part of the evening's entertainment: Orchestra, Concert Band, Senior Choir, Junior Choir, Glee Choir, Brass Group, Flute Choir, String Ensemble, Rock Band and Guitar Group.
The concert will also include solo items from our Year 13 students - in their final term of school.
Tickets are available to purchase via Parentpay at £4 for adults and £2 for concessions. Tickets will then be given to students via the tutor communications folders.
PTA Quiz Night
A reminder that on Friday, 23rd March the PTA quiz night takes place. Details are here:
Forward look - dates for your diary ...
Thursday 15th March
Year 12 Mock Interviews
Monday 19th March
Swiss Exchange in Gloucester (until 21st March)
Year 10 Progress Monitoring issued
House Biology
Tuesday 20th March
Year 13 Leavers' Concert - 7.00-9.00 pm in the Main Hall
Wednesday 21st March
Year 12 and 13 Parents/Carers Consultation Evening - 4.30-7.30 pm in the Main Hall/Building
Senior House Netball
Thursday 22nd March
Junior House Netball
Year 12 at UCAS Conference
Friday 23rd March
PTA Quiz Night - 7.00-10.00 pm in the Main Hall
PGL Netball Weekend
Monday 26th March
Year 8 and 9 HPV vaccinations
Year 10 Parents/Carers Consultation Evening - 4.30-7.30 pm in the Main Hall/Building
Wednesday 28th March
1.30 pm - End of Term 4
Best wishes,
Miss Giblin
Headteacher