Dear Parents/Carers
Thank you for all of your support in what has been a very successful year for Hardenhuish.
We said goodbye to those colleagues leaving us this year on Monday and I wish them all well with their new adventures. We have also welcomed new colleagues joining us this week who are all excited to be working with us and our young people next year.
I hope that our Year 9 have had a wonderful time at Alton Towers, that Year 7 enjoy Cotswold Wildlife Park and Year 8 enjoy Paultons Park today and those young people staying in school enjoy the fantastic activities on offer.
I look forward to hearing about the wonderful experiences our Year 10 and 12 have had whilst on work experience next year when they return in the new school year.
Please find here a report from our Governors detailing their work during this year. We are grateful to them for their generosity of time and expertise and for ensuring that we not only fulfil our duties as a school but remain true to the high expectations and ethos of Hardenhuish.
I hope that everyone involved with Hardenhuish have a restful summer and I look forward to welcoming our community back for the next academic year in September.
A reminder that we have TD Day on Monday 2 September, on Tuesday 3 September we welcome our new Year 7 and 12 and the rest of the school return on Wednesday 4 September with our first Headlines of 2024/5 being published on Friday 5 September.
Take care and have a lovely summer.
Lisa Percy
Headteacher
News Items
Resource Centre news
It has been an extremely busy final term of the school year with lots of literary events taking place. Demand for our visiting Literature Festival authors has been very high following their talks and it is no surprise to see both Sophie Cleverly and Manjeet Mann high up in the ‘most borrowed top 10’ in recent weeks. The Carnegie shadowing process also drew to a close and the likes of ‘Crossing The Line’ by Tia Fisher and ‘Song Walker’ by Zillah Bethell certainly look like they will be well-established recommended reads over the months ahead.
We are already looking forward to lots of these literary events again next year, along with the usual Bookbuzz initiative for Years 7 and 8, and plenty more genres and themes to be explored in our termly Book Group meetings.
This week has also seen the culmination of over a year’s work manually re-cataloguing the entire library system of nearly 14,000 books following the cyber-attack that the school suffered back in April 2023. Dealing with such a huge loss of data and keeping the library loans going smoothly during this extended period has been quite an undertaking but I am pleased to say we are now back to where we were before the cyber-attack took place and, from September, loans will be registered electronically once again! Pupils will also be able to independently search for titles, authors and subjects again at long last and this will be such a positive going into 2024-2025. Thank you to everyone for your patience whilst this rebuilding process has been taking place.
Thank you as well for several very kind donations of books that have happened in recent weeks from staff, parents and departing students – this has been really appreciated and goes a long way towards keeping our stock updated, wide-ranging and enabling us to weed out some well-worn copies of popular titles.
Enjoy your summer reading and we look forward to seeing you again in September.
Mr Southwood
Dance Workshop
This year our Year 10 GCSE dancers have had the experience to work with professional dance company Motionhouse through a physically demanding and stimulating workshop.
The group had the opportunity to work with professional dancer Junior Cunningham who shared a wealth of knowledge and experience of the dance industry.
They pushed themselves physically and choreographically through a range of challenging and complexed tasks allowing them to take away lots of innovative ideas to enhance their GCSE Practical work.
Over the last 2 weeks, Year 10 Health and Social Care students have enjoyed a visit from Monique Bentley, Sarah Tyler and Kay Reid from Alzheimers Support to further develop their understanding of Dementia and how best to support those who are experiencing it. During the session the students were given the opportunity to learn about the range of needs that those who have it may present with, as well as reflecting on common assumptions about the condition.
Many thanks to Monique and the team for sharing their expertise, this will prove very useful for their studies.
Art Bytes
Once again, this year, Hardenhuish students were given the opportunity to take part in Art Bytes – a national art and EdTech Programme for schools. Once registered, the schools taking part entered up to 30 pieces of Year 5 or Year 9 artwork into a digital gallery. The exhibition displayed a selection of the best three pieces of art from each school made by a professional panel of artists. Once this selection was made, families, friends, teachers etc. could then vote for their favourite piece.
Regional and national winners were then selected and announced at regional events. The experience of seeing their work online with all the other schools was an encouraging and uplifting experience for the students, knowing that their work was valued by others in a national format.
Art Bytes and TAS Wessex Area wanted to encourage all the students from the Wessex Area to see their work in a physical exhibition as well as digitally so worked with the Neeld Hall to create a pop-up exhibition. All the pieces entered from the Wessex Area were sent in, mounted, labelled and displayed as a school. TAS Wessex Area funding provided the opportunity to hold workshops which increased the value of the day as the students were able to work with Rae Melody in a variety of art activities.
12 schools participated this year and there was a great selection of work for families and friends to enjoy and celebrate, brilliantly facilitated by the staff at the Neeld Hall.
The event was brilliant with over 187 students receiving their certificates and prizes. The SW Regional primary and secondary winners were so excited as they celebrated their success.
Congratulations to all who took part and thanks to Jess Bigwood for encouraging our students to take part for for providing images for Art @ The Station which have recently been installed in glass waiting rooms at Chippenham Station.
Hardenhuish School Climbing Competition
Friday 12th July saw 18 keen climbers from Hardenhuish school compete at The Arc climbing centre in Chippenham for best all rounders in three disciplines. The small, fun competition was across Bouldering from grades 5-7b, Speed Climbing and Roped climbs from 6a to 7b. Students had 30 minutes to complete as many boulders as they could, gaining more points as the routes got harder. In speed climbing the students were roped up and racing up a 15 metre wall to gain the shortest possible time. On the roped climbs students were gaining more points the higher they could get up the most demanding wall of the centre.
The speed climbing route being completed in just 10 seconds!
Stand-out performances were many but we had to choose 2 students from each age category for the finals. The two senior boys in the finals have both been training and competing for quite some time. A year 9 smashed the speed climb up the 15 metre wall in an extraordinary 10 seconds! Similarly impressive was a Year 10 member of The Arc squad who completed 16 boulders at grade 6a or higher in just 30 minutes. Both faced a superbly challenging red 7a route with the Year 9 ripping his way up slightly ahead.
The overall winner about to send a dynamic jump on the bouldering wall
For the girls we had a Year 8 and Year 9 student smash all three disciplines and ended up in the final together with the Year 9 just getting to the highest point on one of the hardest climbs in the whole centre, a very technical 7b on the 15 metre wall.
Year 9 boys competed in the final up a technical green 7a. Both TCA squad members they were up to the challenge with the winner topping out what many experienced adult climbers can only dream of (myself included for now!).
For many competing, Friday was the first time they had experienced a climbing competition. Climbing competitions are about mutual respect and support and our Hardenhuish students didn’t let the side down. A big well done to everyone who competed:
Big thanks to the Year 12s who competed but also helped guide others throughout, being old hands. Both have competed in our previous competitions when they were themselves in lower school. Huge thanks also to The Arc climbing centre, especially Paul, Dan and Luke who made the competition possible and went above and beyond to get the centre ready including setting new routes and annotating photos of the climbs ready for scoring.
Hardenhuish School has now had a thriving climbing club for 5 years. Throughout that time we have grown a supportive community of all ages, some of whom have gone on to love and live the sport. This year alone we have had 100 members take part in the climbing club on Monday afternoons. Climbing instructors Matt and Darcy (also an alumni of Hardenhuish) are sadly no longer able to support the club on Mondays as their instructor careers elevate. We cannot thank them enough for their professionalism and patience. They have made the club what it is and we hope to find instructors to continue their hard work next year.
Vacancies – Hardenhuish School