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”