2018

Now that Studley High has ‘gone digital’ for all news about the school, and we’re no longer printing our newsletter – you’ll notice an increase in content and regularity for ‘Latest News’ on the site as well as increased sharing on social media.

But we know some of you miss some of the regular articles that we were printing, so we’ve decided to reinstate them online! One of the most popular, was our ‘3 minutes with’ article.

So each half term, we’ll interview a member of staff, so you can continue to enjoy the brief insight into the world of our staff.

This half term – we spent 3 minutes with:

Mr Eost – Deputy Head

Tell us about a typical ‘day in the life of a Deputy Head’

There is no typical day as a Deputy Head and that is what I love about my job. I am privileged to work with a cross section of our school community including a range of staff and pupils. I also work with colleagues from other schools/agencies to help ensure that there is high quality provision, not just for Studley High School pupils but also for Warwickshire pupils in general. My favourite part of the job is still teaching in the classroom and although I don’t teach, due to the nature of my role, it is still my passion!

What inspired you to teach?

I went to Bridley Moor High School in Redditch (its doesn’t exist now) and I was inspired by my PE teacher, Mr Grey. The way that he taught engaged all pupils and from that experience I knew that I wanted to teach as well. I randomly met Mr Grey a few years ago and I had the opportunity to tell him about the effect he had/has on my career in teaching, which was great.

What is your greatest sporting achievement and why?

I love sport and have have been fortunate to take part/play in a wide range of sports. My greatest sporting achievement was getting to a county cricket final with my cricket club and getting the opportunity to play at New Road. Although I still play sport, I spend a lot of my weekends taking my two boys to rugby and cricket fixtures. They are both a lot more talented than me!

What is your favourite food or place to eat?

A bit random – but Kerala in India. I travelled around India for a number of months when I left university and can honestly say its the most beautiful country I have ever been to. So I would pick a beach side restaurant in Kovalam eating traditional Indian food.

Finally, what was the last track you listened to on Spotify/iPhone etc?

Kings of Leon – ‘Use Somebody’

On Wednesday 11th July 9am-10am, ‘Law Ambassadors’ from the University of Warwick are delivering a workshop in school on, ‘The Justice System’.

They will be delving into a landmark case at the ‘Crown Court’. Our students will research the background of the case, the evidence, the history and the roles of everyone in a court room. They will make arguments for the defence or prosecution.

Additionally, there will be a Q&A session at the end of the workshop and students can discover more about studying Law with a view to a career in Law. This workshop is being offered as part of SHINE at Studley and will be a fantastic, challenging opportunity for our SHINE pupils, even if they’re not interested in following a career in Law.

We are delighted to report that former pupil, Ellie Wakefield-Clarke has incredible news:

On the 24th May 2018, Ellie was invited to attend the D of E Gold Award ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

She met HRH Countess of Wessex:

She was lovely and told us to ‘keep going’ in our DofE stories and was very softly spoken and naturally pretty and down to earth. I was able to glimpse HRH Prince Edward (who is the spitting image of his father!) and as I was leaving, HRH Princess Eugenie waved from her car. As we came through the entrance gates of Buckingham Palace to leave, HRH Prince William was arriving in his car and gave us a wave too!! So a Royally good day!

Over 300 young people received their award that day and the ceremony took several hours. Ellie was informed that only 4% of those that complete Bronze, go on to complete their Gold.

Ellie completed Bronze, Silver and Gold all under the age of 18!

Ellie told us:

This was only possible thanks to Studley High School taking me through Bronze and Silver awards while I was at school, so thank you to those staff who helped me through!

Conrgratulations Ellie!

On Sunday 27th May, we took 12 pupils to England vs The Barbarians rugby match at Twickenham Stadium. Whilst the Midlands suffered torrential rain and floods, we basked in glorious sunshine in South West London.

The Barbarians are a nomadic team of world class players form all over world, who hold on to the amateur ethos of rugby and are renowned for playing an exciting brand of rugby. This game did not disappoint.

The Barbarians led 21-0 within the first 12 minutes. They scored nine tries in all, with Fijian centre Semi Radradra unstoppable by the sheer strength of his running.

England made some fantastic scores of their own and tied the game to 28-28 after 35 minutes. The second half was just as exciting as the first, with the final score being 63-45!

At the end of last half term, we invited 60 Year 6 pupils to Studley High from our local primary schools.

Students coming to us in September, who are presently in Year 6 will choose whether they want to study Spanish, German or French, before they arrive.

To make the decision making process easier, the Year 6 students attended an ‘MFL Taster Afternoon’ where they completed a carousel of 30 minutes in each language. The sessions allowed the students to see teaching styles, content and to experience each language, which they may not have encountered at primary school.

Schools involved now, and in forthcoming taster afternoons: Studley St Mary’s Junior School, Tanworth-in Arden Primary, Coughton Primary, St Mary’s Catholic Junior School and Webheath Primary School.

Studley High School has been awarded the status of `Beacon School in Holocaust Education’ for 2018-2019 academic year.

The accolade comes from the Centre for Holocaust Education, which is part of the highly-respected Institute of Education (IoE), one of the world’s leading university in the field of education .

A Beacon School is committed to the view that the Holocaust is a critically important part of young people’s education while appreciating the complex challenges it raises as a school subject. Only 15 secondary schools in England are chosen for this scheme nationwide each year, which will put the Studley High History department at the forefront of the latest teaching and research about Holocaust Education.

This award reflects the confidence that UCL has in the school with regard to the quality of the education it provides and its commitment to developing students’ understanding of the Holocaust. A major part of this award is a place for our Lead Teacher of History, Mr Hobbis, on a comprehensive training programme of the very highest quality by UCL and the Institute of Education. The programme includes, for example five days of intensive training in London and four days in Poland looking at sites of the Holocaust and how these can be brought into classroom experience.Through standout training, Beacon Schools such as Studley can draw upon UCL’s unparalleled expertise and resources in Holocaust education.

The programme is not just about the history of the Holocaust – it is also about developing students’ understanding of the Holocaust in other ways and is very much cross-curricular. It will cover,issues of ethics and morality, the geography of the Holocaust, Holocaust literature, the complicity of business in the Holocaust and much more. The aim of the programme is to develop students’ independent learning, a vital attribute transferable to all subjects. The programme will also establish Studley High School as a Beacon School for Holocaust Education in the region, with responsibility for not only teaching our students but also for leading many other schools in the area.

One of our key aims as a UCL Beacon School is to build a network for teachers of the Holocaust in local schools from across a variety of curriculum departments. We will facilitate thinking and practice on Holocaust education and share outstanding teaching materials and high quality professional training. We also want to hear from colleagues in other schools and colleges about your own practice, successes and challenges, to work together, and to offer support to colleagues – deepening knowledge and understanding of this complex and deeply disturbing history.

We anticipate exciting things ahead – not just in the History Department but for all departments at Studley High School.

Year 8 pupil, Jess Dolby completed ‘The Jurassic Beast’ in Dorset, this weekend. This is a cycling challenge, and not for the faint hearted!

Starting out at the National Tank Museum in Bovingdon, riders take a route that heads north and up through a series of unspoilt Dorset villages, skirting around the base of menacing-looking hills in the region, throwing in a short and sharp climb every now and again – passing mile 10 just at Milton Abbas.

She then headed towards the coast for the incredible views of Corfe Castle, Lulworth Cove and Poole Harbour – views stretch out towards the Isle of Wight!

The ride was 36 miles, but she cycled to the start, so Jess actually completed 43 miles!

Jessica said, “I was very proud of my achievement; it was definitely hard”.

Well done Jess!

Year 7 pupil, Henry Dogget has been swimming competitively with Stratford Sharks since 2014. When he first joined, he was swimming with the Junior Reception Squad, training 2 hours a week. Since then he has progressed through 4 squads, earning the titles of ‘Top Boy’ in Junior Reception 2014 and more recently ‘Top Boy’ in Junior Development Select 2017.

Henry trains extremely hard, often up to 10 hours a week. These sessions consist of swim sessions in various pools in the local area, early morning and evening sessions and also land based training. Henry also carries out his own land training sessions at home. He travels far and wide to many galas. His dedication to the sport can be seen in the progress he is making gaining personal best times.

Henrys coach, Yvonne Caswell:

Henry has always been a keen and technically able swimmer. His determination to succeed and passion for swimming has been even more evident over the last few months when Henry was selected to move into Junior Performance. Henry continues to make improvements, listens carefully to advice and supports his fellow team members therefore he has become a key member of the Junior League team. With this in mind Henry was chosen to be Vice Junior Captain for the year.

Well done Henry – keep up the great swimming!

Year 7 pupil, Luc McMullan has been practicing karate (Tang Soo Do) for the last 2.5 years.

He is currently a green belt and is hoping to gain his red belt after his next grading in June. Red belt is only 3 levels away from black belt, so this will be a great achievement for him.

Luc is also taking part in a Tang Soo Do tournament (Mercia Tang Soo Do) in Coventry on Sunday. This is an annual competition and hundreds of participants will be there. During the tournament, he has to complete a karate “form” – a form is a set of moves and he will be doing Pyung Ahn O Dan and a “Bong form”, which is a set of moves whilst holding a long wooden stick.

Luc will also be involved in another couple of karate-related events in the next few weeks:

The first one is a “karate-thon” to help his big brother raise money for his charity Nepal trip in November. Basically, he will do karate for 12 hours with his brother and other club members. We wish him the best of luck.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/matthieu-mcmullan

Here is a black belt performing Pyung Ahn O Dan!

Last week, our pupils visited Greenmech based in Alcester.

Greenmech are a British-based manufacturer, supplying the global market with high quality wood chippers and shredders to professional users. They design, test, manufacture and distribute machines.

The trip to Greenmech was my first experience to a working manufacturing company and I have to say I really enjoyed it. The trip was very engaging allowing us to ask any questions we wanted and to see the different pieces of machinery throughout the factory. It has given me an insight into one of the pathways to further pursue a career in engineering. This has been very helpful for me because I am still uncertain of what I want to do after I leave Studley. Overall I really enjoyed the trip to Greenmech, it was a great few hours!

We are delighted to report that 19, ‘more able’ Year 10 students are currently taking part in a Research Project.

The students will look at general and then more specific questions to increase their knowledge of a specific subject and report back on their findings.

They are researching a question of their choice and writing a “mini-dissertation” to present their findings.

Example questions include:

• Is the use of animals in sport cruel?
• Why is 95% of the sea still undiscovered?
• Who is the most inspirational woman in History?

The students have a brilliant opportunity to work with the Alcester Grammar Sixth Form Students, who will be coming to Studley to support the students with evaluating and presenting their research. They will also be attending our Celebration assembly in July, where our students will be presenting and discussing their findings.

Miss Dempster, P.E

We are delighted to announce that the UK Association for Music Education have contacted us this week to thank us for, “the hard work you and your colleagues do to ensure that pupils at your school are able to access and engage with a high-quality music education. Your dedication to offering and delivering a broad and balanced curriculum is both welcomed and celebrated.”

(Rosie Saxton, Membership Administrator)

Warwickshire Music Service nominated us, as they have recognised the value that we place on music and requested that we became a Music Mark School Member.

Music Mark enables members and the wider music education sector, to deliver high-quality musical and social outcomes for all children and young people.

The Association thanked us for, “all that you are doing and will continue to do” and will continue to, “support our collective vision.”

Head of Music, Miss Bussey:

I am delighted that Studley High School has been nominated to become a member of Music Mark. This is in recognition of providing our students with access to a high-quality music education. We were nominated by Warwickshire Music Service who are supporting us towards delivering the best musical education for every child at Studley High School.

Pupils taking the WJEC Level 1/2 Hospitality and Catering and have to complete plenty of practical work as part of their studies! They cook every other week and the dishes, which they prepare, cook and serve are then judged.

They are judged on the way they work, their organisation, confidence, safety and hygiene as well as the finished result.

Chef of the week w/c 30th April:
Katie Simcox for producing a good quality lemon meringue pie:

Previous chef of the week winners:
103/Fd2 – Nathan – very even pancakes
104/Fd4 – Cameron – who drew faces in his pancake mix – very good!
Sophie Cheetham & Alfie Smith (Lasagne)
Abbie Jinks
Millie Dyson
Katie Simcox
Millie won for her Macaroni Cheese, Abbie for her Cinnamon buns and Katie also for Cinnamon buns.

Last week, saw the start of a ‘Primary Engineers’ programme, aimed at supporting engineering knowledge for educators in our community.

‘Primary Engineers Programmes’ have, over the past 12 years, created an engineering curriculum that spans Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Further Education institutions. Its core aims include: the development of children and young people through engagement with engineering, the promotion of engineering careers for pupils through inspiring programmes and competitions, the development of engineering skills for teachers and practitioners as a sustainable model and working to address the gender imbalance in science and engineering.

They developed a ‘STEM by Stealth’ approach to education which enables children and pupils to engage with practical maths and science alongside creative problem solving and literacy. This has created a positive impact on individual children and pupils’ self-awareness and confidence through team work. It also provides improvement in social skills through engagement with project work and links to the wider world and engineers.

Their work bridges the gap between industry and education and the programme reach extends to parents, carers and the wider community through public exhibitions of children and pupils’ ideas in relation to engineering in regions across the UK.

Feedback from those teachers from local Primary Schools, who came to the session, :

Excellent engineering day with enthusiastic and expert support. Fantastic learning experience. Can’t wait to get started with the pupils.

Fantastic experience of simple, practical engineering that all children would love to try. A great way to spend a day of CPD – hands on and practical.

A thoroughly enjoyable practical day – well paced, trainer well prepared & showed us what we needed whilst giving us time to develop our skills. It makes a refreshing change to come away from a course with resources that will allow us to carry out the activities at school – thank you

Day was enjoyable and everyone more than helpful. Started day thinking I wouldn’t be able to achieve anything and finished with a fully functioning car that made it up ramp number 2!

Now that they have the knowledge, they will go back to their respective schools and teach their pupils. 8 pupils from each school will then be invited to attend a ‘Celebration Event’ on July 4th, and the winner, chosen by the judges will receive a certificate and the award of ‘Primary Engineer’.

Last week, was the third of four Personal Development days for our pupils, across the academic year.

Here is a flavour of the events that took place:

• Careers led sessions on the world of work.
• Yr 8 – Samaritans came in to talk about the work they do within the community.
• Yr 8 – Fearless Crime Prevention officer came in to deliver sessions on crime and the perceptions people have of it.
• Yr 8 – First Aid staff from Warwickshire Fire Brigade gave training on CPR and other life saving techniques used in an emergency situation.
• Yr 9 – Guest speaker Martin Bandel gave a talk about the holocaust and refugees in war time giving a very personal account of his own experiences.
• Yr 9 – David Martin from Warwickshire Police delivered sessions on hate crime.
• Yr 10 – The entire year group took part in an enterprise challenge ‘Passion 4 Fashion’. They had to create a fashion company, design outfits and work to within a budget to buy and sell items for their fashion company. The day ended with successful companies modelling clothing for a fashion show.

On 21st March, Pasha Kovalev winner of Strictly Come Dancing 2014, returned to the Redditch Palace Theatre with his BRAND NEW show ‘The Magic of Hollywood’.

After the huge success of his tours ‘Life Through Dance’, ‘It’s All About You’ and ‘Let’s Dance The Night Away’ over the last few years, Pasha was joined again by his spectacular dancers in an evening of LIVE SINGING, DANCE, HOLLYWOOD GLAMOUR AND FUN.

This amazing new show, created by Pasha and his long time dance partner Anya Garnis, was jam packed with sequins, glitz and glamour as Pasha took to the stage with his sensational dancers and they performed ‘Oscar worthy performances’ all set to a Hollywood theme….

In every theatre, Pasha invites a local dance school to perform on stage with him and some of our Studley High School pupils Georgia Fisher, Beth Hemming, Eve Matthews, Lawren Thornewell, Isabel Matthews, Erin Brown and former pupils Anna Bray, who are part of Starlight School of Dance, were chosen to appear on stage again this year. It was an incredible opportunity to showcase amazing young talented dancers as a part of Pasha’s show ‘The Magic of Hollywood’.

Talent spotlight:

Beth Hemmings (Year 8) has been dancing with Starlight School of Dance in Redditch since she was 3 years old.

This led to yearly pantomime performances in which she played both chorus and principal parts. It also lead to successfully entering many dance and performance competitions. Beth now learns ballet, tap, musical theatre and theatre craft.

This year Beth returned to Astwood Bank Operation Society as a dancer, to perform in ‘Carousel’ at the Redditch Palace Theatre and also one of Mr Snow’s children where she showed her dancing, singing and performing talents.

She was asked to dance alongside qualified adult dancers and part of the routine included a solo piece choreographed specifically for her. The rehearsals were weekly with additional ones nearer the opening of the show. She starred in 5 performance and these received excellent reviews by the critics in the papers including NODA (National Operatic and Dramatic Association, who were so impressed with the standard of her performance that on behalf of the Society, the Mayor of Redditch awarded Beth the ‘Ken and Mary Dyer Award’ and was the youngest person ever to receive this.

Beth was also part of a troupe of Starlight pupils to perform with Pasha and Anya at the Redditch Palace Theatre. Following a successful audition, they attended the weekly rehearsal. The choreography was challenging but the pupils rose to the challenge and provided an excellent, polished performance. They have previously performed with Pasha and they were so impressed that they have approached the dance school again this year. They are due to perform again in May, in Solihull.

Her mother, Hayley told us:

These activities have made a positive influence on both confidence and resilience and this has been evident over the years.

We congratulate Beth on her rise to fame and wish her continued success for her upcoming performances.

If you have a keen eye for the world, or an artistic flair behind the lens – this is for you!

Compulsory for Year 9, but open to all year groups and staff at Studley:

• Deadline 30th April
• Format – JPEG
• Students to submit work via REAL SMART folder
• Staff to email Miss Hughes directly

Studley High School Gymnastics trio team performed at the Milano National Finals last weekend, against the whole of the UK and Northern Ireland. The team included Ella Rose Garratt, Mia Browning and Phoebe Hunt.

Their efforts were outstanding and performance level was amazing against an incredible level of gymnastics.
Of 22 teams across the UK, our Studley team came 15th. There were 2 teams representing for West Midlands, Studley High and Woodrush High and their combined West Midlands total gave them 6th place overall.

This is an amazing result for our gymnasts! Over a third of the competition were from schools that get sponsorship and scholarships to compete.

Gymnastics coach, Kirsty Garratt tells us,

I am so proud of the girls and what they achieved at this event. Ella Rose Garratt has supported the BSGA (British Schools Gymnastics Association) for many years. This year, she was asked by the BSGA to collect charity donations from a large audience of – raising money for Cancer Research UK (a total of £350 was raised.)

In support of the amazing talent of this team, we received the letter below from the Chairman of the BGSA, Jamie Weller:

The largest festival of science in the UK aimed at school age pupils took place last week at the NEC, Birmingham.

This year, the Fair was bigger than ever and included exhibits from many strands of science and plenty of activities for everyone to enjoy.

This years Big Bang trip was a full of firsts. Not only was it the first time we’ve managed to take the entire year group to the show at the NEC, it was also the first time the entire cohort managed to watch the same live show at the same time! However the firsts didn’t stop there, for the first time ever, a Studley High School student was picked to take part in the show on the main stage (Oscar Foxall) and to top that, Olivia Few was chosen to take part during the live show. Both students played their parts very well.

The students were extremely well behaved throughout the trip, it was lovely to see them so engaged with such a variety of activities and possible STEM careers.

Highlights of the day included: the explosions of the Big Bang Stage, the opportunity to build and race a rocket propelled car and opportunities to speak to real scientists about their careers. Pupils came away with not only huge amounts of information and ideas for careers they may have not heard of before, but also more perspective on the huge developments which are taking place in STEM today.

The trip was organised in collaboration with the Careers Department.

On Saturday 17th March, Year 11 pupils were invited to take part in ‘Super Science Saturday’. The focus was to revise key aspects of their Science GCSE course.

Sixty pupils arrived, bright-eyed, on a very cold and frosty morning to complete three hours of science revision. Their reward for this? Four hours of paintballing on an equally chilling afternoon. Great team building skills were developed especially when the pupils rallied round to ‘defeat’ the four members of staff that accompanied them (Mr Salmon, Mr Eost, Mr Sidhu and Mrs Moreland). You can see how much Mr Salmon enjoyed his time, in the below image!

Pupils were, as always, praised on their behaviour at the centre. Watch this space for the next ‘Super Saturday’!