At the end of this term we said farewell to Mr Phil Leather after 38 years of service to Shipston High School. Mr Leather joined the school in 1980 as a Teacher of Physics, moving onto teaching Information Technology and latterly Computer Science. During this time he also took on the role of Network Manager and set up the original school website.
Mr Leather was given a fond farewell at the Sheldon House assembly on the last day of term where he listened to many tributes from students past and present. He recalled that in his early days at Shipston the school had around 250 students and at one time risked closure by the Local Authority, a very different scenario from the present.
The staff and student body alike would like to wish Mr Leather a long, happy and healthy retirement and all our good wishes for the future.
The uptake of hockey in school has seen a tremendous increase over the last couple of school years. The after school hockey club originally set up by Mrs Smith and now overseen by Miss Davies and Mrs Squance is going from strength to strength with lots of students regularly turning out for practice sessions and playing both in school and club teams. Plans are already well underway for next year’s hockey club tour to Rotterdam.
To end what has been a very successful season, students competed in a Hawaiian themed hockey tournament with team “Coconuts” finishing in the top slot.
Shipston High School is the inaugural winners of the Warwickshire County Council Road Safety Team annual award, sponsored by the Ocado Foundation.
This award is given to the school considered to have shown the best initiative or making a particular, significant contribution to road safety. We won the award for the tremendous voluntary homework carried out by a number of our Year 7 students in preparing booklets and posters on road safety themes covered in their PSE lessons over the last year. Some of the students, together with Mrs Lucy Baker were presented with the Trophy and a £500 prize to be spent on road safety initiatives at the school by Mr John Squires, Road Safety Mentor from the WCC.
During the last 6 weeks of the Summer Term several of our students from across the KS3 age-range have worked on an exciting new design and technology STEM project which considered what the car of the future will be like. The project was supported by the Design and Technology Association (DATA) and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). It provided students with the opportunity to investigate the application for microprocessors within cars of the future and provided them with the skills to make use of programmable control. As part of the DATA’s Skills for Industry programme, it also gave young people an insight into working in industry and specifically the car industry.
In response to this challenge, students first had to consider what aspect(s) of cars would benefit from being controlled by a micro-processor (for this they would use the ‘Crumble’ programmable micro-controller, manufactured by Mindsets (UK) Ltd https://mindsetsonline.co.uk/ ). Ideas included integral roof boxes which could be expanded / collapsed as required and Car-to-car communications which might respond to each other e.g. if they approached with full-beam headlights, to automatically switch the lights to ‘dipped’. After discussion of all the possibilities the students settled on the challenge to create a boot-space storage device which uses a vacuum bag to securely hold the contents of the boot and prevent them from falling / rolling around and breaking.
Students planned the work and designed and developed several prototypes of the storage system, which included the use of 3D printing. They also developed the program code which would operate the system. All work was documented to show the record of the student’s progression.
On Monday 16th July, five students selected by the group, attended Stratford High School to display their control solution to representatives from DATA and the other schools taking part. James and Matthew Barrett, Atom Gill, Laurence Barnes and Ellie Bonny gave a detailed presentation of their work and demonstrated their prototype solution.
The students spoke clearly and confidently – a testament to the School’s Public Speaking programme – showing good knowledge and understanding of their product.
Overall the presentation evening was a great success and all students felt they’d achieved a great deal from the whole range of activities undertaken. The other members of the design teams were: Oscar Cooper; Lauren Aubrey; Harrison Stone; Albie Murtagh; Jedrezj Jakielski; Alex Gillitt and Sam Howard. Congratulations to all, for a good job, well done.
Many congratulations to Isabella Benfield who, along with her pony Cookie, was crowned National Champion at the Riding for the Disabled Association National Championships held at Hartpury College recently.
Isabella collected a massive amount of accolades including coming first in the Dressage competition, second in Showjumping and being judged Best Turned Out.
An amazing achievement over a very busy weekend.
This year’s Year 11 Prom was held at Heythrop Park Resort, Enstone, Near Chipping Norton.
Although they had only left school a week before, it was lovely to see all our Year 11s back together looking very smart ready to enjoy a well deserved meal and disco together. As in previous years, students didn’t disappoint in the many and varied modes of transport used to arrive at the Hotel!
Thanks to Mrs Peebles for all her hard work in making the Prom such a success.
Year 10 Work Experience took place during week beginning 2nd July.
This gave the whole of Year 10 the chance to find out what it’s like in the world of work and to experience possible career choices for the future. With the help of Ms Moorman, students arranged their visits to a wide range of differing placements both near and far, through hotels, schools, offices, retail and other establishments. Pictured here is Georgina who visited a local livery yard.
We are always grateful to the many local businesses who are willing to accommodate our students to give them such a valuable experience.
We were very saddened by the sudden death of Mike Dobbin, a stalwart of the Royal British Legion Shipston on Stour branch and former Governor of this school.
We were recently approached by Richard Adams, President of the Shipston branch, asking the school to give some thought to a memorial gift that the Legion wished to make in Mike’s memory. It was decided that a wooden bench in the school garden would be a fitting and useful gift that could be shared by staff and students alike.
The bench has now been installed in the garden and we would like to thank members of the Shipston on Stour Royal British Legion for this very thoughtful gift which will invoke some strong memories of Mike and his association with the school over many years.
Two groups of students and staff took part in this year’s GCSE Geography fieldtrip to Borrowdale in the Lake District.
During the course of a very hot and humid week, students were involved in a river study (there was some water!), a tourism study in nearby Keswick, a trip down the Honister Slate Mine and an ascent of the famous Cat Bells.
A great trip with some very useful and detailed information the students can now bring back to use in their GCSE studies.
Many thanks to Miss Davies and Mr Moyle for another very successful trip.
Once again this year, we were happy to be involved with the 20th Shipston Proms music festival.
Students from across the school took part in various events over the Proms fortnight, either representing the school or in their own right.
Our own school concert which was very well attended took place on the evening of 21st June including performances by the Year 7 Choir, the Jazz, Brass and Wind bands and many talented soloists, with the Jazz Band performing in Shipston Town Centre on the “Last Night”.
Thanks to Mr Hunt for all his work this year with some very talented musicians.
Our annual Shipston Award and Pixl (Partners in Excellence) Edge presentations took place on Friday 6th July where over 120 students received their Awards. The ceremony was the culmination of a year’s hard work to achieve either the Pixl or Shipston Award Gold level. Each student received a badge and certificate celebrating their achievement, watched by family and friends. Congratulations to all of our successful students.
Shipston High School’s student numbers continue to grow. This year the school will admit 120 new students into Year 7 in September – its largest intake yet. On 28th June we held our Induction day for those students to come and have a day in school to experience just what it’s like to be a student at Shipston High School. It is always exciting to see pupils from a number of schools join together with new friendships to foster and new experiences to share. This year was no exception and by the end of the day there were many smiling faces and an air of anticipation of what lies ahead. We are very much looking forward to them joining us properly in September.
It doesn’t, however, end there. We are already looking ahead to September 2019 and the following week, on 3rd July, we held an Open Morning for Year 5 Parents and pupils who are exploring possibilities for their secondary education. We were delighted to welcome into school around 60 families, eager to see what we have to offer their children – and to get a first look at our new building. Applications are now open through the Warwickshire Local Authority for places in September 2019 until the end of October 2018.
When the first piece of turf was dug out at the top of the school drive, our new block seemed a long way away. We all watched it grow with interest, through all weathers until towards the end of June the keys were finally handed over. INSET day on 29th June saw a multitude of staff carrying boxes and furniture over to the new building to get it ready for the students’ return on 2nd July. And it was!
The new “C” block houses a brand new school reception and visitors’ waiting area, together with nine new classrooms allocated to English, Modern Foreign Languages and Religion, Ethics and Philosophy. Staff and students are enjoying working in their new light, bright environment which can only enhance their learning experience.
We were recently delighted to welcome the Mayor of Shipston, Cllr. Ian Cooper as one of our first visitors to the new block.
