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SLETTER 2

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LETTER FROM THEHEADTEACHERA

The spring term in any school is always a time of change as we leave the dark and cold ofwinter to welcome the brightness of the new spring season. The term is also one of thebusiest, as students focus on examination work and prepare for the GCSE, AS and A levelqualifications. Staff and students put enormous effort into ensuring that the most is madeof this time both in lessons and through after school classes.

However, the school does not only concentrate on examinations and continues toembrace other opportunities.

Since Christmas, we have witnessed our students embracing community links locally asour A, G & T worked with Hayrack Cafe in Cheshire and internationally through our SouthAfrican work. Please take time to read how both projects have put The Whitby HighSchool out in the community helping other organisations – not forgetting our very own Young Lord Mayorwho will take office later this year.

Sport participation and success has also featured over the past term with students involved in manyactivities including table tennis, netball, contact rugby, indoor athletics and volleyball. All students didextremely well with our Year 10 girls’ winning ‘silver’ in the Cheshire Games. However, success is not onlyreserved for the students as my congratulations go to one of the staff, Mrs Shipley who came first in her agegroup in the recent Duathlon at Oulton Park.

Our annual ski trip to Italy once again a huge success offering new experiences to our youngsters whilstsupporting Year 10 students with GCSE examination work. Next year this will further extend to supportingwork experience. Visits to Liverpool and Snowdonia equally supporting Geography students whilst ModernForeign Languages welcome back a former student to share his experiences as a ‘Whitby Linguist’.

So, the school continues to thrive in and outside the classroom. In supporting learning we are also movingforward with improving our environment. We have had completed major works in replacing our electricitypower board in Overpool building, whilst the base work has started for our new eco-friendly Biomass boiler.The summer term will also see the first phase of the long awaited window replacement programme in ourOverpool building that will keep classrooms dry in winter and cool in the summer.

Finally, if you have not looked yet, take some time to explore our new website and why not follow us onTwitter. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve, please let us know.

Have a restful break over the Easter holiday period; I look forward to welcoming our students into schoolon Tuesday 22 April 2014.

Mr B HeeleyHeadteacher

KHLUNIDRESSES FOR

GROWING TOGETHERDuring half term Sixth Form students and two teachers from TheWhitby High School took Gugelethu Cape Town by storm. IDMkhise and The Whitby High School who are internationallytwinned through the British Council continue to work with IDMkhise’s neighbouring school Siviwe.

The Global Enterprise project focuses on making products thatare manufactured, utilising unwanted items. The Whitby HighSchool and Annabel Ballance (a past student) put a clear plantogether to manufacture over 40 beautiful summer dressesmade from a simple pillowcase.

Together with nine pupils and two teachers from The WhitbyHigh School, five learners from ID Mkhise worked alongside fivelearners from Siviwe School of Skills. These pretty dresses werepresented to the children of Sokhanyo Primary School, (which areinternationally twinned with Woodlands Primary), in the spirit ofpartnership and acknowledging the commitment of a sharedglobal vision. Together we move forwards.

Collaboration is at the forefront of this enterprise. The aim of thisproject is to grow and develop this cluster relationship toencourage learners to make products to sell to their communitiesto enhance self-sustainability.

The students involved in this fantastic project were:

The Whitby High School - Lucy Hughes, Eleanor Jones,Emma Attwood, Chris Whittaker, Callum Caine, ZoeWalker, Emma Butler, Molly Roberts.

ID Mkhise - Bongani George, Yonela Matsolo, Lelethu Noji,Zikhona Ngetu and Siphosethu Moli.

Siviwe - Lusanda, Zimbini, Elihle, Nokubonga and Thandi.

AFRICA

Congratulations to the winner, Danielle Carrington, Year 7 who won the Textiles Designer of theTerm award. The competition will run each term to see which pupil has produced the mostcreative, well presented and annotated design work. Each winner will receive a £10 gift voucherof their choice.

Year 12 and 13 are currently producing and finishing their fantastic projects to be on thecatwalk! The fashion show will be part of the Design and Technology annual exhibition that willtake place in May. We hope to see you there.

TextilesDesignerOf theTerm award

TEXTILES

The Whitby High School onceagain is proud to receive theEllesmere Port area shield for thebest Peace Poster in theEllesmere Port Lions Peaceposter competition for schools.The children had to design aposter to promote World Peacetitled ‘Our World, our Future’ –but they were not allowed to useany words on their poster!

This year our winners are all inYear 7 and are keen artists. Allwinners received vouchers andframed certificates.

PEACEPOSTER FOLLOW US ON

@whitbyhigh

The club runs every Wednesday after school and focuseson developing computer programming skills. In Februarywe all went to Manchester Central’s RaspberryJamboree. There were many exhibitors demonstratingtechnologies including 3D printers, apps, interactivedemonstrations and competitions.

The Whitby High School was very successful with onestudent winning his very own Raspberry Pi kit. Studentswere asked to discover and research future activities forthe club and this is what they found out.

“First of all, we watched someone show us how toprogram Minecraft for the computer to place blocks. Atthe end, he showed us something he had made: a“mineclock”! Next, I went to see, step-by-step, how toget a raspberry pi to do things such as getting the LED toflash red repeatedly and create a working alarm.

Finally, we learned of a music programme that allowedus to transmit random sounds and sound sequences inone big formation to the headphones. There were also alot of free games we could play from the “lucky dip” tothe Rubik’s cubes to scratch”. Aaron, Year 7.

The unanimous verdict from the Jamboree was to domore Python programming in the Minecraft world andthe students have a lot of inspiration from the day. Theclub also has robotic arms and many more plannedactivities to get involved in.

Raspberry piEnjoyRaspberryjamboree

During our meetings we have been asked to investigate theschool’s rewards system to see if we can make suggestions toimprove it. We decided that the best way to obtain someinformation was to create a questionnaire for students andstaff.

Questionnaires were handed out in different forms acrossYears 7-11 and to members of staff who teach varioussubjects. We received feedback from 135 students in Years7-9, 59 students in Years 10-11 and 16 members of staff.From this information we are currently creating a PowerPointpresentation to present to the Senior Leadership Team.These ideas will be used to create a new rewards system.

STUDENTVOICEResearchcommittee

The Whitby High School Ski Team arrived at a snowy Aosta readyfor boot and ski fit at approximately 11:30am local time onSunday 9th February. We were met by our fantastic InterskiRepresentative, Ceri Rees who proved to be a great helpthroughout our stay. We all gathered in our travel groupsoutside boot fit – these were to be our groups for a quick headcount.

The groups were given names such as The Missiles, The Cometsand Code Red. Then it was off to Hotel St Nicholas for the lastpart of our journey. The proprietors, Roberto and Miranda, andtheir team were all very accommodating and nothing was toomuch trouble. Our lunch was very tasty and filled withcarbohydrates to prepare us for the slopes the next day. Later,in the afternoon sunshine we all went out for a play and asnowball fight in the knee-deep snow in the area close to thehotel. This was great fun! The evening was spent settling intoour rooms and preparing our ski gear for the morning.

DOMENICAAfter dinner each evening, Mr Millington passed on nominationsfor ‘crash of the day’. The winner had to wear a fluorescent bibfor the next day’s skiing. Mr Millington also passed on a ‘SpongeBob Square Pants’ costume to individuals as a result of havingdone something amusing or in one boy’s case for losing histrainer during our snowball fight! Monday evening’s activity,ice-skating in Aosta, was great fun and we were the only schoolon the ice rink, which gave our pupils lots of space to practisetheir moves! Several pupils stood out for their skating prowessmost notably Amy Conner. A few people in the party, some staffincluded, looked decidedly shaky on the ice!

On Monday the pupils were woken up at 7:00 for a big breakfastand our journey down to Aosta to collect our equipment. Wethen had a 15 minute trip in a gondola up to the pistes of Pila.The groups met their instructors at 10:00 am. The instructorsproved to be very popular this year, particularly Simone, Meg,Steph and Gavin. It was snowy on the first day but the freshpowder was excellent.

All groups made progress and pupils returned to the meetingpoint by the gondola station at 3 pm satisfied. Dinner was a tastythree course meal each night, which we all needed after expend-ing so much energy skiing.

LUNEDI

On Tuesday the beginners’ groups began to execute competentsnow plough turns and the intermediate group with Simoneworked on parallel turns and stops. The pistes were in perfectcondition, the sky was bright blue and cloudless and the powderwas absolutely outstanding. Tuesday evening’s activity wassledging in the area local to the hotel.

The snow was so deep, that it took a little time for us to carve areasonable run for our mini sledges. A few pupils wereparticularly keen on helping with this including Bailey Davies andNicole Clarke. Soon we were all having a go and we all had agreat time enjoying the evening sun.

MARTEDI

Mr Millington also passed on a‘Sponge Bob Square Pants’ costume

to individuals as a result of having donesomething amusing or in one boy’s case forlosing his trainer during our snowball fight!‘‘

SKIERS SLOPE TO SUCCESSIN PILA, ITALY

MERCOLEDIWednesday also dawned a perfect cloudless,blue day and this was the day that everygroup really pushed on. It was great to seemost beginners’ groups make it up the cablecar onto Grimod, an extensive blue slope upthe mountain. At 3 pm when we all met againthe pupils were all delighted and excited bytheir day. Jack Parry particularly stood out asthe most enthusiastic pupil new to skiing – hehas really caught the skiing bug!

It was disco night on Wednesday and itwasn’t long before we saw some great dancemoves from the Whitby Ski Team, mostnotably from Madison Livens and BethanyCox. 10:00 pm came round a bit too soon formost but the pupils said they had reallyenjoyed it. There was a great atmosphere inthe disco between the different schoolsthere, which was good to see.

On Thursday staff noted that the 7:00 wake-up call was getting harder as the pace wasbeginning to show on pupils’ faces. This wasprobably the most challenging day on theslopes because of the heavy snowfall. Theforecast had said 7cms of snow but it wasmore like 20cms in reality.

Thursday evening was Pizza night and wewould normally make the journey down toAosta to a restaurant but because of theblizzard conditions, our Interski Rep, Ceri,organised for Roberto and his team toprovide us with the pizzas in the hotel. Thismeant that we did not need to venture outagain that evening. The sixth form girlsparticularly enjoyed the pizza night in ourhotel. The pizzas were delicious andeveryone ate as much as they wanted.

GIOVEDI

Friday dawned another good day for skiing. The snow hadstopped and the sun came out and the snow conditions weregreat. In addition we all found that the slopes were not busy, aperfect combination. This was the day the instructors gradedskiing competency in their groups. The advanced group did afull range of techniques, the improvers tackled the naturalhalf-pipe and loved it. The beginners learned how good it feelsto ski further and faster. On Friday evening the instructorscame to the hotel to award certificates and prizes.

The instructors this year were really outstanding and it wasgreat to see how the pupils had really bonded with them. Oneinstructor, Simone, had made individual DVDs to give to his skigroup. In addition Mr Millington awarded prizes in manydifferent categories e.g. best kept room / best disco dancers /skaters / most stylish on the slopes and best improved skiers toname but a few. The pupils were also very keen to thank theirinstructors and staff for their efforts. Pupils had collectedmoney to buy gifts for their instructors. This was a lovelygesture.

VENERDI

Saturday was our last skiing day and as we checked pupils hadall their ski gear before departure from our hotel in themorning. We noticed that many pupils were proudly wearingtheir ski prizes from the night before. These ranged from hats,to headbands and neck warmers. Our last day, proved to beanother great day for skiing. The snow conditions had beengreat all week and we had not experienced any severetemperatures in comparison with some previous trips. Whitbystaff took the opportunity to video GCSE P.E. pupilsperforming the techniques they had learned which will counttowards their practical sport qualification.

We left the Alps at approximately 6:30pm and had a smoothjourney. The coach drivers commented just how much theyhad enjoyed being part of such a well behaved and positiveschool group. Kevin and Wilf were particularly popular withthe group and pupils were sad to say goodbye to them. Whenwe arrived back at school we were greeted by Mr Heeley. Itwas really kind of him to come and meet the returning ski team.

The ski trip was a really memorable experience for all involvedand we could not have ordered better snow conditions. Welldone to all pupils for being such determined skiers and havingso much positive energy! A big thank you should goparticularly to Mr Millington for all his efforts organising thisfabulous trip.

SABOTO

X

The Science Department and thirty year 10 studentshad the chance to see and hear five of Britain’s topscientists, all working at the cutting edge of theirspecialisms.

Pupils were able to see famous scientists includingProfessor Robert Winston and Professor Jim Al-Khalili.

A series of lectures provided a fast moving andexciting experience at the end of which pupils hadthe opportunity to raise issues with the scientists.

The visit was intended to generate furtherenthusiasm for science amongst GCSE students.

Students commented “It gave a real insight intoscience and the real world” with some studentsliking particular lectures such as Bruce Hood on thehuman brain which one student said “it wasinteresting as I was thinking of doing psychology atA-Level”.

A worthwhile opportunity and one that could berepeated next year.

SCIENCELIVE

One lucky Year 11 student is being inaugurated as aYoung Lord Mayor. Each of the 12 Young Lord Mayorshad to read out a Declaration and then sign theircertificate along with the Mayor of Liverpool as picturedhere.

July will be her duty month so she will be busy attendingmany events with the Mayor of Liverpool, and she

even gets to wear a heavy chain of her own!

Young lordmayor

The music department are embarking on an exciting trip to Bussolengo,Lake Garda, in June and we would be grateful for any donations orsponsorship to help reduce costs.

If you are in a position to help or you work for a local business that maybe able to offer some assistance please contact Mrs A McGinity.

All sponsorships receive publicity i.e. on tour literature includingprogrammes, within school and on the school website.

Thank you for your help and support.

ITALY 2014

The Whitby High School Year 7s celebrated World Book Day with amass balloon launch. The launch (literally) spreads a love of reading, aseach balloon carries details of a pupil’s favourite book.

On the day, a strong northerly breeze carried the balloons swiftly off in thedirection of the Mersey.

The sight of 200 multi-coloured balloons rising up into the sky over Whitby isa truly inspiring one and pupils can take a lasting memory from this event.

Previous years’ balloons have been recovered from as far afield as Norway, sowatch this space!

Music

WorldBook dayBalloonlaunch

ENGLISH

ON TOUR

Hayrack Cafe at chicken corner is a local business basedin Thornton Le Moors, Chester. They were looking for anew sign and Mrs Dennan thought this would be anideal opportunity for the A,G&T design and technologypupils, she arranged this with Martin – the proprietor.

Mrs Dennan arranged a meeting with the A,G&T pupilsand those who were interested in the project wereasked to design a new sign for the cafe and children’sfarm.

A week later, Mrs Dennan presented the drawings toMartin – who loved them all. Together they decided totake elements from each and she drew up a design. Theplywood was ordered and as soon as it was delivered,the team got to work.

Regular progress updates were given to our client andhe was eagerly awaiting our completion date. It tookaround 9 weeks altogether with pupils coming in atlunchtime and staying after school to work on theproject.

The sign was collected on Tuesday 24th February andthe pupils were invited to Hayrack Cafe for a visit, food& drink to see their sign in place and to celebrate theirsuccess. This was arranged for the Friday so the wholeteam could go together.

Hayrack Cafe is a lovely place to visit with your family orfriends.

Hayrack cafe

GEOGRAPHYQUIZ

Students took part in theGeographical Association quizin November.

They came joint 9th andperformed really well againstother teams from Cheshireand North Wales and were acredit to the school.

Students soak upSnowdonia sights

Tourism students went to Snowdonia on Friday4th October.  As the photo shows the weatherwas far from ideal, (though had some studentsfollowed our advice on suitable clothing theywould not be looking quite so wet!).

However, the mist cleared sufficiently for us to seeat least some of the features and the behaviour ofall the students was excellent.

Geography studentsstudy liverpool brand

Year 12 Geography students were in Liverpool on 3rdMarch investigating the impact of rebranding on thecity. For once, the weather was kind and the sunshone. A famous interloper joined the group in Math-ew Street and they had to be contained for their own

PUNCTUALITYI would like to thank parents/carers for their supportregarding the recent ‘late gate’ focus. With the earlierstart this year, lateness to school did increase in thefirst term before Christmas. This improvedconsiderably during the ‘late gate’ period.

May I just remind you that students need to be on siteat 8.25 and in form by 8.30.

PHYSICALEDUCATION

NETBALLUPDATE

Congratulations to the U14 & U16 Netball teamsfor coming 4th in both Cheshire Tournaments,successfully defeating Fallibroome, Lymm,Alsager, King’s Chester and King’s Macclesfield.The girls should be very proud of theirperformances.

U14 : Charlotte Leech, Ellie Begley, Eve Davies,Isobel Johnson, Georgia Williamson, Laurencook & Georgia Jones.

U16: Tyler Foster, Beth Brizell, Abi Morris,Amber Williams, Emily Baker, Emma Davies &Tanish Adolph.

Year 7 Played Won Drawn Lost Position

WHS 4 2 1 1 3RD

Year 8 Played Won Drawn Lost Position

WHS 4 4 0 0 1ST

Year 9 Played Won Drawn Lost Position

WHS 4 2 0 2 3RD

STANDINGSEllesmere port netball league

The Whitby High School’s participation in School GamesCompetitions continues to grow. The Whitby HighSchool pupils have been involved in a range of activitiesincluding Table Tennis, Netball, Football, Rugby andIndoor Athletics.

The Whitby High School hosted the District Year 7 & Year8 District Table Tennis, which saw Max Percival takingthe District title. A group of Year 7 and Year 8 girls alsotook part in a District Contact Rugby Competition. Theevent was held at the Ellesmere Port Rugby Club. Itstarted with a coaching session led by coaches from theRFU and the Rugby Club. The pupils then went on to playa competition where they won two out of their threegames, finishing second place to a strong Neston side.

A group of Year 7 and 8 pupils from The Whitby HighSchool also took part in the District Indoor AthleticsCompetition at Stanney Leisure Centre. The competitioninvolved the best athletes from the district, with teamsfrom Neston and Helsby providing stiff competition. Thecompetition was closely fought with the girls’ teamfinishing second and the boys sharing top spot withHelsby!

SCHOOLGAMES

SUCCESS

A group of year 10 girls represented Whitby HighSchool at The Cheshire School Games Finals held atChester University. The multi-sport event was host toCheshire finals for a number of sports but it was theVolleyball competition that the GCSE PE pupils werefocussed on.

The competition included 7 Cheshire district finalistsand each school played each other in a round robinformat. The girl’s started with a 1 point defeat to theeventual champions in their first game but bouncedback winning the rest of their games.

The girls finished second place and received a CheshireGames silver medal as a reward for their fantasticachievement.

The MFL department has been delighted towelcome visitors to the school who haveshared with some of our pupils and studentsthe many benefits of learning a modernforeign language.

Kieran Mangan, a former pupil of The WhitbyHigh, spoke to Sixth Form French and Germanclasses about his experiences as a student inthe first year of his German and Czech degreeat Bristol University. He spoke about theopportunities a language qualification willprovide him with and about how much he islooking forward to living and working inGermany and the Czech Republic as part ofhis degree.

Pupils in Y9 enjoyed the visit by Diene Keite,a Student Ambassador from Routes IntoLanguages North West, who is at LiverpoolUniversity studying French and Spanish. Thequizzes and games they took part in madethem realise how many diverse languages arespoken in Britain without even having toleave the country!

Maybe it really is a small world after all!

Its aSmallworld

Modernlanguages

A large group of Year 11 students enjoyed an inspirationalstudy skills workshop delivered by the Live-N-Learn organisa-tion. This was a fun event, including voting handsets, music,movie clips and inspiring anecdotes but it aimed to helpstudents raise their aspirations and take personal responsibil-ity for their learning. They went away with a variety of prac-tical strategies on how best to study and manage their time inorder to achieve maximum exam success. The students reallyenjoyed the experience and all went out feeling so muchmore confident.

Here is a sample of the positive feedback received from someof our students.

If I am motivated and work hard, I can do it!

I learnt today that if you put in effort, it will pay off

I really don’t manage my time well. I will focus more to getwhat I want

I learnt a lot from today – if I plan my time better it will makerevision easier

I really enjoyed this today, I panic loads but now I am deter-mined to reach my goal

READONLINEOR ONYOURMOBILE

STAFF SUCCESS INSPRING DUATHLONCongratulations to Traci Shipley, Food Technician, who competed in the Oulton ParkSpring Duathlon on 16th March and came first in her age group with a time of 2hours 24 minutes.

Year 10 - Tuesday 24th April

Year 7 - Wednesday 30th April

Year 8 - Wednesday 2nd July

PARENTS’ EVENING

( 0151 355 84458 www.whitbyhs.cheshire.sch.uk

The Whitby High School* Sycamore Drive. Ellesmere Port. CH66 2NU