Year 10 students have recently completed a week out of school on work experience.

This is a really valuable time for our students, they find their own work placements and then work there for a week. It really helps students see how communication skills and other things they learn in school are relevant in the workplace and gives them an insight into the real world of work. Many of our students have been offered jobs and apprenticeships through their work placements and also have great references from their employers.

This year students have been placed at many different places including The Stratford Herald, Pink Connect, The Ethical Food Company, Eddie Stobart, Owen Mumford, Alpine F1 Team, Onside Coaching, Ettington Park Hotel, Vets, Aston Martin, Chipping Norton Theatre, Amazing Animals and

many many more.

James Verralls worked at The Stratford Herald and even wrote some articles that have been published in the paper.

Jessica Eckersley spent her week working for Eddie Stobarts.  She started the week working in accounts, finance and HR and finished it working at their Warrington office spending time with finance and their legal departments. Jessica now has very clear ideas on her future career in law and which branch of it she would like to specialise in.

Well done to all of our students as it was not the easiest year to find work experience placements.

The school would like to thank the many employers who hosted our students, it has been a very rewarding experience for them and we really value the time taken and commitment shown to our students.

Year 9 students will now be starting to think about where they would like to go for their work experience next year.

If you are able to offer a work placement in the future, please contact Louise Moorman at the school.

As the Year 11 students start to prepare for their GCSE examinations, it is customary to relieve them of their prefect duties and look to Year 10 to take up the responsibility on their behalf.

Would-be prefects are invited to apply for the position and have their application supported by a member of staff, following which a selection process takes place through the Pastoral Team.  Once in post, these prefects are then given the opportunity to apply for one of the four senior prefect roles available.  Selection for these roles is a rigorous process.  After their written letter of application, students are tasked with a practical activity designed to test their teamwork and leadership skills followed by a formal interview with Mr Harris (Deputy Headteachear), Mrs Berry (Governor) Ms. Westbrook (Staff) and Harry Wixey (outgoing head prefect).

After a very close contest the senior prefects were announced as:

Head Prefects:  Nahia Beasley and Imogen Hynes

Deputy Head Prefects: Daisy Roberts and Georgina Slatter

Many congratulations to the successful applicants.

Access to Family Advice Guidance & Services including Financial Pressure

Family Information Service (FIS) Helpline 012926742274 is available for parents/professionals that can signpost us regarding services – they support on family relationships, finances, housing, parent support, SEN needs and disabilities, childcare, and health & wellbeing.

https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/contactusfamilyinformationservice

Call FIS helpline to access a FIS Broker where there is a barrier to accessing services ie mental health, disability or isolation https://api.warwickshire.gov.uk/documents/WCCC-859-429

Access to Parenting Support
We have free online Parenting courses to support parents prebirth to Teenager including a online course aimed at teenager themselves Understanding your brain.

Understanding your pregnancy, baby, child, teenager, and child with additional needs
https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/children-families/parenting-support/2

Parenting Programmes – Parent Management, Positive Parenting, Nurture 12
https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/children-families/parenting-support/3

The Targeted Youth Support Team will be running a variety of Summer Projects across the county. Projects will be running throughout the school summer holidays in North Warwickshire, Nuneaton & Bedworth, Rugby, Stratford and Warwick. Each of the 5 areas will be holding a Team Building and Bushcraft Day

Team Building – Working together to complete a range of different tasks and challenges. There will also be an opportunity to have a go at archery (limited to 10 places per day)

Bush Craft – Lots of different outdoor activities including orienteering, fire building and cooking (limited to 10 places per day)



Emotional wellbeing 

Primary age and above–Childline https://www.childline.org.uk/get-support/you can call 08001111 live chat to a counsellor, send an email or watch talking to Childline on YouTube or there is ask Sam and have resources on a wealth of topics https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/ 

Age 11-25 Emotional Wellbeing  Emotional wellbeing support available to all Warwickshire postcode KOOTH https://www.kooth.com/ online self-accessible emotional wellbeing resource for Young People within Warwickshire, it is moderated and has accesses to practitioners, post chats and has emotional wellbeing resources such as mood diaries etc.

Anxiety Toolbox for Teens resources https://www.breakingtheanxietyhabit.com/anxietytoolkitforteens

 Dimensions Toolkit https://dimensions.covwarkpt.nhs.uk/– helps assess a comprehensive emotional wellbeing/mental health assessment identifying deficits in young people’s emotional wellbeing, making recommendations, signposting and suggests appropriate referrals into RISE (when speak to SENCO/GP means refer in and you can include the conclusion as part of the referral)

Young people, Parents https://dimensions.covwarkpt.nhs.uk/PublicLanding.aspx

Mental health – Young Minds Parent helpline https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/parents-helpline-and-webchat/ 

Tel 0808 802 5544 from 9:30am – 4pm, Monday – Friday.

They have information for Young people, Parents and Professionals on
-Feelings (responses)
-All of the mental health conditions
-Coping with Life as well as more but it is a good resource

Access to Mental Health Crisis – Young People  

Young Minds Parent Line 08088025544

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/parents-helpline-and-webchat/

Young Mind Young Person Crisis lines

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/young-person/find-help/i-need-urgent-help/ 

Young Minds Textline It also has a parent’s line

SHOUT 85258 24/7 crisis text support https://giveusashout.org/

Feeling suicidal support Papyrus https://www.papyrus-uk.org/

Hopeline UK 08000684141 text 07786209697

Hub of Hope – www.hubofhope.co.uk

Has list of all Mental Health conditions and things affecting Mental Health services accessible in your area and site will direct you to the local offer

Connect to health -School nurse parent line Chat Health Parent Warwickshire – If you are the parent of carer of a school aged child, you can text a school nurse on 07520 619 376 Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm

The Summer term has been an extremely busy month of Rounders for Years 7-10.

Year 7 had a month of enormous success! They won fixtures against Alcester Grammar, Chipping Campden, Aylesford, and Stratford High whilst Year 8 had several enthusiastic players taking part in fixtures every week. They demonstrated great enthusiasm and determination, especially in the one week where they had three fixtures in a row! A special mention to Megan Russell who has done a brilliant job as Year 8 Rounders captain, encouraging the team to always achieve their absolute best.

Year 9 and 10 continue to develop on the Rounders pitch, which was evident in their results this season, taking wins against a range of schools in the area. Year 9 has shown great progression and grown in confidence showing the potential to be a team to beat in the future.  Year 10 has become a team that shows great strength in the field, enabling them to prove difficult to beat.

Year 9 Rounders Team

Softball Team

Softball
Year 7 and 8 teams have had regular home matches which have seen some excellent tactical displays of batting and fielding with Years 9 and 10 competing several times against St Benedict’s.  All those involved have shown great sportsmanship and a competitive spirit throughout.

Edo Morales, a Chilean textiles artist, used a variety of textile techniques and embroidery stitches to create images of himself and famous people for his exhibition in 2011–2012.

Given this brief, the Year 9 Art Textiles group we

re set to work to create their own piece of artwork in Morales’s style  The gallery below shows some excellent examples of their work.

Rihanna by Nua

James Ward-Prowse by Kieran

Richard Hammond by Sabbir

Michael Jackson by Maddie

Katy Perry by Tilly-Anne

Hasbulla by Felix

Anna Maynard by Millie

My friend Grace by Evie

Daniel Ricciardo by Harry

Will Smith by Nathan

Matt Smith by Finn

Harry Styles by Tia

Pink by Isla

Clint Eastwood by Ted

Rihanna by Nua

Andrew Garfield by Samantha

Year 7 Public Speaking

The results of the recent Year 7 Public Speaking Competition were:

3^rd place: Lee McIntyre

2^nd place: Leila Burnard-Hunt

1^st place: Siobhan Orr

Thank you to all who entered – the speeches were so interesting. The topics included: the history of Lego, murder mysteries, dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period, plastic pollution and coronavirus. What a fantastic range!

The students were all amazing congratulations to all of them.

Under the direction of Mrs Webb, Year 8 have been busy working away to clear up the Garden area.

After some radical de-cluttering the group has planted some strawberry plants and pumpkins outside with tomatoes in the greenhouse.

It is lovely to see the area looking a bit clearer and had the added bonus of a leisure activity supporting their learning of plants and photosynthesis.

Monday 11th July sees the start of the Shipston High School Commonwealth Games!

Exciting things are happening in the P.E.department with a number of activities being arranged by Head of Department Miss Davies and the P.E. staff. All Year groups will be representing their Houses to see who can lift the honours – will it be Badger, Mayo, Hart or  Sheldon?

With the weather set fair for the week it promises to be a fantastic event for all involved. Below you can see what’s in store for Year 7.

We were delighted to have been contacted recently by Mr Mike Abbotts regarding a book that he and some fellow ex rugby players had written charting the founding and history of Shipston Rugby Club.

It was really interesting to learn that what is now a thriving, 600 member strong rugby club originated as a team of Shipston High School leavers (“Old Boys”) who got together with the then Headteacher and P.E. master of the school to form the first team during the 1962-63 season.

We took the opportunity of inviting Mr Abbotts to come into school to meet some of our current rugby students, which he did on Wednesday 30^th March along with one of his contemporaries, Mr Baylis and the current Chairman of Shipston Rugby Club, Mr Powell.  The group of students (all of whom are currently members of Shipston RFC) enjoyed a brief explanation of how the club started, some of its highlights (including Shipston playing at Twickenham) and memories from back in the day.  It was a source of great pride that the Club had been developed totally from nothing, having to use a local farmer’s field to play their fixtures, to the vibrant and busy club that exists today, all due to efforts by many volunteers over the years.  Our young people clearly have a great loyalty and affection for the Club which can only increase in years to come.  We are very grateful to Mr Abbotts for his donation of a copy of the book for our school Library.

As a school, going forward we are very excited about building further links with the Club which will hopefully in the future build stronger links between the school, the Club and the local community.

Following a donation from the Shipston Rotary Club, we have been busy planting trees and hedgerows to enhance our surroundings.

Led by Mr Bamford, Second in Science, a dedicated team of volunteers from his Year 9 Eco Club (including the School Business Manager and Site Manager!) have planted almost 400 small trees and shrubs around the school site.

On Wednesday 30^th March, we were pleased to welcome into school Mr David Gill, President of the Shipston on Stour Rotary Club, and Mrs Judith Slinger to meet with Mr Saunders, Mr Bamford, Maddie and Lauren, two of the students from the Club, to see at first hand the work that has been happening on site.  They were also given a small insight into the aspirations of the Club for the future and their plans to rewild part of the school grounds.

We are extremely grateful to the Rotary Club for their ongoing support for the school in providing opportunities for our students outside the normal curriculum.  It was also a pleasure to finally welcome them into school following the relaxation of covid regulations.

It is always interesting to learn what our former students have been doing since leaving Shipston High School.  Recently, we were very lucky to welcome one of our ex-students, Jordan Hale, to come in and talk to our Year 8 students as part of their Careers day.

Jordan spoke to our students about his life at school and how he uses the skills he learnt here even though at the time he didn’t realise he would need them!  Students heard how he now has to use algebra and Pythagoras theorem in his everyday life and how Chemistry has helped him to develop some new products that he sells.  He was also able to explain how, when using subject topics studied in school in practical ways, they become easier to understand and more relevant.

Jordan was also very keen to stress that students should choose to do something that they love doing and are really interested in – which he certainly is – and that they should realise school is important even though they might not realise it at the time.

Jordan was passionate about his very successful business “Veis Detailing”, which he has built up himself.  He also proved himself to be an inspirational speaker, sending a very valuable message to the students that the things they learn in school are transferred into the workplace.  The students really enjoyed the session and had loads of questions, one of the students said:

“The part of the day I enjoyed most was Jordan explaining about his business because it was inspiring and interesting and he understood because he had been us not very long ago”

Just before the half term holiday, in preparation for Year 9 students choosing their GCSE options, the Modern Foreign Languages department invited Ruth Partington, founder and director of Empower, a high powered market research company, to Shipston High School to talk about the usefulness and true benefits of speaking and having the knowledge of a language within the workplace.

Ruth’s presentation was extremely informative and impactful. Year 9 students were given a real opportunity to consider careers where languages were a key requirement within parts of those industries. These included the manufacturing, scientific, gaming, food, clothing and logistics industries as well as the more traditionally recognised careers such as translating, education, events and hospitality.

Students who took part in the event were surprised how great a part languages can play in a number of careers (some they hadn’t even thought of!) and realised how being able to speak a foreign language can give you an extra advantage when seeking employment.  It certainly made a number of them consider the possibility of taking a modern foreign language to GCSE and beyond.

Feedback from the students at the end of the session was very positive, including comments like:

“I think that the languages assembly was beneficial and helpful in informing students how languages can affect and help them in later life”

“I really enjoyed taking part in the assembly and learnt how much languages are actually needed for so many jobs.  Languages are fun to learn so I’m really glad they are so helpful too!”

“It helped me to decide to choose a language because it showed me all of the possibilities there are from taking a language”

“I learnt how important language is in many industries.  Before, I did not want to take a language however I am now considering it”

The Careers department has been very proactive this term with events being organised for students throughout the whole age range of the school.

Recently the entire Year 8 cohort were off timetable for a whole day of Careers. The goal was to raise students’ aspirations and knowledge of what careers may be available for them in the future and help them to develop valuable skills such as working as part of a team and making valuable connections.

Students learned how industries and future careers are changing and also gained an insight into current labour market information.

We are very grateful to some fantastic employers who took the time to come and talk to the students. Speakers included a really topical talk from Shamreen Mirza from Pfizer, which sparked a lot of questions especially about their Covid 19 vaccine programme, James Pink from Pink Connect, a local IT Company, Pam Caine from Marchant Cain, an Engineering design company, Leanne and Emily from Runwood Care Homes, and Colin Fyfe from The Hinckley and Rugby Building Society. There was even a presentation from Noah, one of the Year 8 students, on how to use the new careers “Unifrog” platform.

As well as learning about the many different businesses, students were very fortunate to have the benefit of our guests staying and working alongside them, encouraging and helping as they went. Throughout the day the students were highly engaged, asking many interesting questions – some students even stayed at lunchtime to talk to the employers!

Meanwhile At the other end of the spectrum, as part of their transition from school at the end of  Year 11, a group of year 11 students recently visited Stratford upon Avon College – a novel experience in itself as there have been no trips anywhere for over two years due to the pandemic!

Students were given a guided tour of the college campus, visiting many of the different subject departments and seeing some of the work that current students were working on. By the end of the visit, students had found out in some depth about lots of the exciting courses that are available at Stratford, together with information on all of the support that is available for students’ transition to college.

With the National secondary schools place offer day taking place at the beginning of March, we are pleased to announce that 130 place offers have been made for entry into Year 7 in September.

Our offer to the local authority to extend our admission number from 120 to 130 for this new academic year only, due to the popularity of the school and high demand for places, was well received. This has meant that, although we are still running a waiting list for those unsuccessful applicants, we will be able to enrol additional students who may otherwise have failed to obtain a place.  Our aim has always been to try and accommodate all applicants within our school’s priority area seeking a place at Shipston High School and our increased intake next year goes a further step in achieving that ambition.

At this stage, we are expecting to be able to re-establish our Induction day for new starters early in July.

Because of the restrictions put in place on social gatherings during the pandemic, we are very aware that the vast majority of our new starters and their parents have as yet been unable to look around the school and we are looking forward to rectifying this situation.

A personalised letter of welcome has been sent to all our successful applicants.

February saw the start of the Junior NBA season at Shipston High School. The competition is being run in affiliation with the NBA for 11-13 year olds and sees students across the country competing in county divisions with each school representing one of the 30 NBA teams. Since our training sessions started it has been excellent to see so many students getting involved. Our Year 8s have played against Alcester Academy and St Bede’s in Redditch, both of which were highly competitive games, whilst the Year 7s are about to start their round of fixtures. We are looking forward to seeing them representing Shipston High and “Miami Heat” across the county and beyond.

Shipston High School was well represented at the recent Warwickshire Cross Country Championships held at Kineton High School on Saturday 22nd January. The students ran superbly and did the school proud. Congratulations to Samuel Plumb (Year 7) who finished 4^th in his age group, hopefully securing him a place in the Warwickshire team –  a fantastic achievement.

The team results showed the following County placings:

Minor Boys – 4^th

Minor Girls – 6^th 

Junior Girls – 6^th

Inter Boys – 4^th /5^th

Well done to all students, a great morning of cross country.

On Monday 24th January, our Year 10 Food Technology classes took part in a Careers event with the Royal Navy Catering Services Branch.

Students were given a presentation explaining the roles of the Catering Service Branch, career opportunities, service life, educational gains, sporting and social opportunities and a general oversight into a career in the Royal Navy.

Students were divided into team

s for a Master Chef Style lesson where they were given a box of ingredients and a recipe with the aim of creating two dishes (Main and Dessert) within an allocated time frame. Teams then had to serve the dishes and once completed, present them to the Navy team. This activity proved a fun and enjoyable way to exercise student initiative, teamwork, communication and time keeping skills.

This event was really informative but also a huge amount of fun, the students thoroughly enjoyed it, and most of the food was delicious!

Art Textiles is the newest of the suite of courses which the Design & Technology department offer at GCSE, with the first year11 class due to complete the GCSE course in June of this year.

Students from classes 9a/Te3 and 9a/Te2 of the Art Textiles module researched a range of images created by the Santiago, Chile – based artist Eduardo ‘Edo’ Morales.

Edo produced a ‘collection’ of portraits for an exhibition in 2011 – 2012 in which he used a variety of embroidery stitches and textiles techniques to create images of hims

elf and famous people such as David Bowie and Frida Kahlo.

Students have used these images as inspiration for their own works – some were even brave enough to create their images of themselves – however most chose to create images of famous people, from Kate Bush to Ed Sheeran.

This is the first time this module has been delivered in school, and the Design & Technology Department is very pleased with the results, with more to come from the remaining Year 9 groups in April and July.