It is really exciting to learn what our students are achieving after leaving Shipston High School. Recently we were notified that ex-student Cyrus Barghchi has been offered a place at the London School of Musical Theatre, a fantastic achievement! As Cyrus is not eligible for any grant assistance, he is undertaking a range of fundraising activities to help pay for his tuition fees, one of which was a sponsored cycle ride from London back to Shipston High School, to signify the journey he has made in his acting and stage career so far. At 3.00 p.m. on Friday 23rd June Cyrus cycled up the school driveway to a welcome committee of staff and students all eager to congratulate him on his achievement. He was astounded how the school has changed since he left here in 2009!

With all the GCSEs finished we have now said Goodbye to all our Year 11s.

Whilst wondering where the last five years went, it is with some pride that we watch the mature group of young people leaving our school to pursue their chosen career path and admire how far they have come both academically and personally since they joined us in 2012. Year 11 have been a fantastic group of students and embody the kind of values that we try to instil in all our students – learning, respect, ambition and achievement. As they leave we all wish them every luck for their futures and express the hope that they all get the results they deserve on results day in August. Before that, however, is the serious business of the Leavers’ Prom taking place next Friday – have a great time everyone!

Our Public Speaking team of Holly Osborne, Georgia Cooke and Millie Bryan competed in the National Finals of the Rotary International “Youth Speaks” competition on Sunday 7th May at Telford.

Holly, Georgia and Millie, all in Year 10, represented the school in the senior round of the competition, competing against sixth formers from schools all over the country, some of them almost 3 years older than themselves.  Although not being placed with their topic “To Read or Not to Read: The Role of Fiction in the Development of Young People” they can be proud of the fact that they are one of the top seven public speaking teams in the whole country!  No mean feat.   We are extremely proud of these three students who proved to be excellent ambassadors for the school.  Their dedication in putting in so much of their own time in preparing for and attending the Local, District, Regional and National finals does them much credit.  We are also indebted to the very supportive parents and staff who gave up their free time to support the students.

Our thanks also go to the Rotary Club of Shipston on Stour for their support and for providing our students with such a great opportunity.

Debi Howell, Relationship Manager for Wales and the West region of the London Institute of Banking and Finance visited us on Tuesday 16th May .

Her aim was to have a look at our delivery of the Year 9 Lessons in Financial Education course.  She talked to staff and students about this and their recent participation in the annual Shares Competition, including members of the two leading teams (both in Year 10) and met with Mr White’s Year 9 Personal Finance students group.  Following this she spent some time discussing with students their experiences and learning with the intention of using their quotes and images on publicity material.

As part of our new GCSE course we will be studying Surgery and Medical developments on the Western Front during World War One.  

In preparation for the course, at the beginning of June we took 42 year 9 students on a three day visit to Ypres in Belgium.  We visited a variety of places including Tyne Cott, the largest British Military cemetery and Langemarck which is a Germany cemetery.  Many students were able to visit relatives’ graves along the way, including Samuel Begley’s grave.  Not only did he fight for Warwickshire  but he was from Shipston and his great great Grandson was one of the students on the trip, making this stop particularly moving for staff and students alike.  On our final day we travelled to France and visited the Somme. The first stop here was the Lochnagar Crater, one of the largest man made holes on earth caused by a mine. We were also able to see the Thiephval memorial which is the largest British memorial in the world.  We followed the route that casualties would have taken either on stretcher or on foot, allowing students to understand the movement of casualties during the war.  As part of the tour four students were selected to lay two wreaths, one on behalf of the school and the other on behalf of Shipston British Legion, at the Menin Gate during the ceremony that takes place every evening.