End of Term reflections from the Headteacher

By Mrs A Punt20th July 2020

Shipston High School has had another active year, with students and staff involved in a varied range of activities.
One event has dominated all of our lives, and 2020 will doubtless be remembered as the year of the coronavirus. However, as the school community enjoys the summer break, it is an ideal opportunity to reflect on the year.

In the Autumn term the school welcomed another full year group of 120 year 7 students. This marked a further growth for the school, and Shipston High School is now regularly oversubscribed; a real mark of its popularity and families’ desire to be part of the school success story.

Alongside a great atmosphere of learning in the school, students were able to enjoy activities offsite, including trips locally and internationally. For example, Year 11 students visited the impressive Oxford University Museum of Natural History and all of our Year 7 students enjoyed a trip to Warwick Castle, learning about the history of the castle and the region’s power. 2020 saw our first school trip to Poland, where students experienced local culture, and visited the site of Auschwitz. This was a powerful and extraordinarily challenging experience for school age young people. It is with pride that we reflect how superbly our students represented the school during all of their out of school activities and the appreciation they have shown to members of staff for making the opportunities available.

In public speaking, Shipston High School won the prestigious Rotary Youth Speaks District competition. Our Year 10 students performed very impressively, beating sixth form teams from the local area to take victory. They were truly magnificent, engaging, articulate, and entertaining, winning plaudits from around the venue.

Thanks to support from the Police Crime Commissioner, we were delighted to welcome into school Loudmouth Theatre in Education company in early 2020 who gave a presentation to Year 11 focussing on Child Exploitation, Sexual Exploitation, County Lines, Grooming and Knife crime.

In March 2020, everything changed, and all schools in England closed to most children. Online learning became the route to education, and everyone had to adapt quickly to this remarkable event. Throughout, students have remained committed, curious and creative.

Finally, we are grateful for all the support the local community gives to our school but we would particularly like to thank Shipston Rotary Club, Pink Connect and Abbey Timms of Frills Cupcakes for their generous support for our young people; this is very much appreciated.

On behalf of our school community I would like to wish all parents, carers and friends of Shipston High School a happy, healthy and restful holiday.

Mr G. Saunders
Headteacher

Thank you

By Mrs A Punt7th July 2020

In these uncertain times the majority of our students have been working off site, experiencing the challenges and demands of on-line working. Availability of computers, laptops, ipads and other devices to use as a study aid can sometimes be difficult for families who may not have access to any of these or where there are multiple users in one household.

We are, therefore, extremely grateful to Mr James Pink of local company Pink Connect, who has kindly donated six computers, monitors, mice and keyboards to the school for use by our students. We try to put our school at the heart of the local community and this generous gesture by Mr Pink illustrates all that is good about Shipston-on-Stour and its surrounding area. Thank you.