Issue number 3 of the Shipston Spotlight is now available.

Follow the link below to catch up on what’s happening at Shipston High School:

The P.E. Department has been busy devising this year’s Sports Day.

Sports “Day” this year will take place between Monday 22nd June and Monday 6th July and in a first for Shipston High School this will take place virtually.  Students are encouraged to join in the virtual event and gain house points towards the all important House Trophy.  Wear your House colours with pride and enjoy the event!

Enjoying a socially distance break

From Monday 15th June, Shipston High School started delivering lessons on site to Year 10 in line with the government guidance. The safety of everyone in the school and wider community is paramount and, in accordance with the guidance, we are only able to invite 25% of the cohort on site at any one time.

Our Year 10 students are attending for one day a week to receive subject specific support in core subjects initially, English, Mathematics and Science. The remaining four days continue with distance learning.
Students have been allocated a specific day each week for attendance in one specific classroom, in a model that is consistent with the approach taken by other secondary schools.

These arrangements are running separately from those which were successfully put in place at the start of the lockdown period for vulnerable students and those whose parents are keyworkers.

Even with such reduced numbers, it has been inspiring to see the school community coming together again with staff and students re-connecting with the special ethos that is Shipston High School.

The second edition of the Shipston Spotlight is now available. Hope you enjoy it.

Whilst in lockdown, one of our Year 10 students has been keeping herself busy in the kitchen.

Over the May Bank Holiday weekend, Charlie Taylor baked and delivered cakes in Shipston and many surrounding villages – even as far as Leamington Spa – to raise money for Safeline, a charity very close to her heart. As the reputation for her cakes grew, she easily reached her original target of £100 and throughout the weekend she continued baking with her total fundraising now standing in excess of £1,300!

Charlie’s mouthwatering selection of cakes comprised:
5 x Chocolate sponge cakes
8 x Strawberry and cream sponges
1 x Coffee and walnut cake
2 x Birthday cakes
120 x Cupcakes
10 x Rocky Road
9 x Chocolate brownies
9 x Lemon cheesecakes
4 x Lime cheesecakes
4 x Chocolate cheesecakes
1 x Strawberry cheesecake
4 x Millionaire shortbread
36 x Lemon and White chocolate muffins

Everyone here at Shipston High School is very proud of Charlie’s achievement. We would like to congratulate her on her enthusiasm and enterprise in achieving something so positive and worthwhile during this period of lockdown. Well done Charlie.

Launched today, The Shipston Spotlight is our first Newsletter aimed to showcase some of the amazing work that is going on in school.  During this period of lockdown the teaching and learning both inside and out of school has been innovative, exciting and informative and some of the results are shared with you here.

We have received the attached information from the Children and Family Support Service of the Warwickshire County Council which Mr Harris, our Safeguarding Lead, would like to share with our students:

If you feel unsafe at home, or feel worried about a friend or sibling during the current situation, here are some things you may be able to do to get the help you need:

• Text a trustworthy family member or safe adult who may be able to help you
• Call Childline 0800 1111 and talk through how you are feeling and your concerns
• Call the police in an emergency (999) or a non emergency (101)
• Speak to Young Carers if you are looking after someone at home 02476 217740
• Look online at support from the Family Information Service

www.warwickshire.gov.uk/childrenandfamilies

• If you feel unsafe or in danger call the council helpline on 01926 414144
• Email the Designated Safeguarding Lead at school at info@shipstonhigh.co.uk (School is closed until 20th April. Emails will be monitored but an immediate response should not be expected.)

*If you are unable to do any of the above because it isn’t safe to do so, perhaps you could alert a neighbour or passer by to your situation

Mr Saunders has received the following message today from Ofqual which is shared for our parent and student community:

A message for all GCSE, AS and A level students this summer
I understand how unsettling the past weeks have been for you, since the announcement that exams have been cancelled this summer, and that you are urgently waiting for news. I wanted to let you know what we are doing to provide you with grades. Our over-riding aim in this is to be fair to students this summer and to make sure you are not disadvantaged in your progress to sixth form, college, university, apprenticeships, training or work because of these unprecedented conditions.
How will grades be calculated?
Your school or college will be asked to send exam boards two pieces of information for each of your subjects, based on what they know about your work and achievements: • the grade they believe you were most likely to get if teaching, learning and exams had happened as planned • within each subject, the order of students at your school or college, by performance, for each grade. This information will be used to standardise judgements – allowing fine tuning of the standard applied across schools and colleges Your school or college will consider a range of things like your classwork and homework; your results in assignments and any mock exams; any non-exam assessment or coursework you might have done; and your general progress during your course. This information will allow us, with exam boards, to standardise grades across schools and colleges, to make sure that, as far as possible, results are fair and that students are not advantaged or disadvantaged because their schools or colleges are more generous or harsh than others when making those judgements. That means the final grade you get could be different from the one your school or college sends to the exam board.
Do I need to complete any new work for my school/college to submit a grade?
Your school or college is not required to set additional mock exams or homework for your centre assessment grade, and you won’t be disadvantaged if you were not set, or were unable to complete, any work given out after schools were closed.
Can I see the grades my school/college submits for me?
No, this information will be confidential. Please don’t ask your teachers, or anyone else at your school or college, to tell you the grades they will be sending to the exam boards or where they have placed you in the order of students; they will not be allowed to share this with you.
I am a private candidate – what does this mean for me?
If you are a private candidate (for example, home-schooled, following distance-learning programmes or studying independently) the centre you are entering with should include you where the head teacher or principal is confident that they and their staff have seen sufficient evidence of your achievement to make an objective judgement. We are urgently exploring whether there are alternative options for those students who do not have an existing relationship with a centre and who need results this summer to progress. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be possible for all private candidates, some of whom may instead need to take exams in the autumn to get their grades. We appreciate that this is a matter of real concern to private candidates and will provide an update as soon as possible. We have asked organisations that represent universities and FE colleges to consider the steps that providers could take when making admissions decisions this summer for any private candidates who do not receive a grade. They have told us that they believe that institutions will consider a range of other evidence and information for these students to allow them to progress wherever possible.
When will I get my results?
We’re working hard to get results out as soon as is possible – results won’t be delayed after the dates they were expected in August, and ideally they will be issued a little earlier, so you can have the certainty you need.
Can I take my exams another time?
We are working with exam boards to offer additional exams in the autumn term as soon as it is possible to do so. We’ll let you know about these in the coming weeks. The information we have published covers GCSEs, AS and A levels, plus Extended Project Qualifications and Additional Extension Awards in maths. You can find out more about which qualifications and students are included, and the current arrangements for those which are not, in our detailed guidance; along with answers to other questions that you and your parents or carers might have. We will keep updating our guidance as new information becomes available, including to share details about vocational and technical qualifications as soon as we can, so please keep an eye on our website. Please be reassured that the grades you get this summer will look exactly the same as in previous years, and they will have equal status with universities, colleges and employers, to help you move forward in your lives as planned.

With every best wish,
Sally Collier Chief Regulator, Ofqual

Congratulations to one of our Shares Competition teams comprising Katie Laycock, Bethany Brookes, Charlie Taylor and Jack Taylor, who made it through to the semi-finals stage of the competiton.

They competed with 499 other teams over a four-week period in the semi-finals; mainly made up of Year 12 and 13 students.  Each Monday the teams were presented with the names of several companies and students had to use their skills, knowledge and judgement to predict the price of each share at the close of business that week.

We are delighted that our students were placed 48th out of the 500 teams that competed in the semi-final.  This is a superb achievement and all the more amazing when you think that the team actually placed 48th out of over 6,500 teams that competed nationally; again the vast majority of them being 6th Formers.

Mr P Moyle