Our Y7 Basketball team kicked off their school playing career with a convincing win over Alcester Academy this week!
They demonstrated excellent composure to come from behind to win the game. Fantastic individual performances combined to complete a well rounded team display. MVP Taio S
Last week, our GCSE Astronomy Club went to Millenium Green in Inkberrow to study the sky at night in as dark a place as possible to avoid light pollution. It was very cold from 8pm to midnight but we saw shooting stars, constellations and the phase of the moon, we specifically observed the Pleiades and Orion’s Belt Star Constellations with the school telescope. Some of us managed to catch some meteors (shooting stars!) from the quadrantid meteor shower. James B made some excellent observations through his own telescope.
There are two reading challenges for you to take part in over the holidays. The details are below. Please send or give any completed challenges to Mrs Evans, E4, on your return to school in January.
Happy reading and happy holidays.
Year 10 football team finished 1st and 2nd in their 7 a side tournament last night (9th December).
Some serious Tika taka played in rainy conditions.
Top effort fellas! You made the cold, damp, late night well worth it! Rest up!
Mr Dovey
This Wednesday 24th November, we had our first PD Day of the year. It was a busy but great day with pupils covering a range of topics.
Year 7 explored the importance of looking after themselves and were lucky enough to have a session on healthy eating and lifestyles from a visiting organisation.
Year 8 looked at keeping themselves safe in a range of contexts, whilst year 9 looked at the importance of mental health and getting support if it is needed.
Samaritans also visited each group in year 9 to explore coping strategies and support available.
Year 10s had the opportunity to get creative and build a business from scratch in teams.
Finally, year 11 covered a range of activities focusing on careers, first aid, and the opportunity to meet local employers for mock interviews. All pupils embraced the challenge and discussed some tricky subjects, so well done to them all for their maturity and resilience. Thank you to everyone who supported in making the day a success!
Last week, we collectively raised £1958.50 for Children in Need!
Our Year 7 boys progressed through the first round of the cup with an exceptional team performance against Kenilworth tonight. Loads of hard miles being put in. Tyler D capped the 1-0 win off with a fantastic free kick in the last minute. MOM – Sam U!
You made us proud!
Launching this week, is ‘The Studley Star’.
Every Monday, in tutor time, pupils will be reading about a topic that has been in the news.
This week: COP26
Each week Mrs Evans will put together a news item for tutor groups to look at.
Throughout the Summer season Erin A and her horse Mr Finntastic have competed in the British Dressage My Quest competitions as part of the Alvechurch Riding club team.
They did really well and qualified for the Regional finals at in September. From there they qualified for the BD My Quest Nationals at Bury Farm Equestrian Centre where they came second.
Absolutely amazing. Well done both!
BBC Children in Need is a charity that provides grants and funding to projects based in the UK that have the aim of helping disadvantaged young people. This help comes in a wide variety of forms.
It is one of the biggest nights of the year on TV, with celebrities getting involved every year.
Children in Need 2021 is on 19th November.
We are going to have a huge fundraising competition next week, house against house. When your house hits a certain milestone in the amount of money raised, teachers will complete forfeits!
| £50 raised (per house) | A teacher from your house will dress up in a costume/accessory to teach. |
| £100 raised (per house) | A teacher from your house will have their face painted by students to teach |
| £150 raised (per house) | Heads of House will have to dodge water balloons, thrown by students in their house |
| £800 raised (whole school) | Mr Eost/Mrs Page/SLT will have to complete an extra forfeit, voted for by students. |
All donations can be made via Parentpay or bring donations into Mrs Blackford Taylor throughout the week.
Finally, students will be allowed to attend in non-uniform on Friday 19th November if they wish to donate an additional minimum of £1. This can be paid via parent pay or bringing donations in.
Our heads of pupil leadership team, represented us so respectfully at the Remembrance event in Studley Village today, at the Cenotaph. They paid their respects to the 100 local soldiers who died in conflict and whose names are carved on the cenotaph.
This weekend Year 9 and 10 Duke of Edinburgh Bronze group, went to Pershore, for a practice expedition.
They completed at least 16 hours of walking over two days, navigating a pre-planned route with a map and compass. They put up tents and cooked various dishes on stoves. Great team work skills! Great resilience! Adaptable! Well done Team Bronze!
Year 11 pupil, Maddy A has not been able to box since March 2020 due to COVID restrictions. She trained throughout lockdown, waking up at 5.30am most mornings!
On October 24th this year, she travelled to Penrith and took part in the MTK box cup and won the title!
This weekend she travelled down Hereford where she took part in the English Nationals.
On Saturday the referee stopped the fight in the second round as Maddy had given her opponent two standing counts which then put her through to the final. The person she beat in the final was a previous two times National winner and European Silver medallist.
Maddy is currently the first female in Redditch to have won a National boxing title and also the first in over 30 years.
Maddy’s coach and former Redditch boxer, Carl Walton trains her for more than 12 hours each week. Her long term goal is to be selected for Great Britain and hopefully go to the Olympics.
We can’t wait to see her rise to these dizzying heights. Well done Maddy!
Here at Studley High School, we pride ourselves on showing prospective pupils how exciting and inspiring the prospect of coming here can be. Last night was no exception.
Over 300 families and close to 850 individual people poured through our doors last night, to see our school in action.
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and we wanted to share that with you:
My daughter loved the chance to walk around and your pupils were all extremely polite and helpful
After stressing so much about where to send my son, I am so relieved that he loved coming tonight! Thank you so much.
The school did itself proud this evening. There was such a lovely atmosphere, the teachers and pupils went out of their way to make everyone feel so welcome. Thank you!
My son’s feedback was that he ‘loved everything’ and ‘the teachers were so nice.’ He would happily start tomorrow, given the chance!
Thank you to all staff and pupils who made this one of the best open events in the history of our school.
This half term, our member of staff ‘in the spotlight’ is:
What’s the story behind working here? (how did you start and what was it like then and how much has it changed?)
I started at Studley High School in 2005 when my children were a lot younger. I worked part time for Mrs Davies in the Food Tech rooms.
I gradually increased my hours, covered duties at lunchtime and supported as an exam invigilator. This gave me a lot more experience with all the students in the school.
I then became Assistant to the Child Protection Officer until the school changed to houses when I became a Pastoral Manager for Abbey.
In 2019 I was promoted to Senior Pastoral Manager overseeing the high-profile students in the school.
A day in the life of you….
Every day is different in the Pastoral Office. I love my job and the variety it brings. I meet different students and liaise with lots of staff every day.
You will probably see me regularly running around the school or popping into your lessons looking for a student to talk to.
What is your proudest moment….
My proudest moment(s) are having my 3 sons, 2 of which came to Studley High whilst I worked here. I am really proud of all three of them and who they are now.
What is your favourite food (to eat, or cook?)
I love to cook Chilli Con Carne, though my favourite meal is definitely a Sunday roast cooked by my mom.
What is your favourite book/play/gig/music of all time and why?
I enjoy a variety of films and music , ‘Rocketman’, ‘Fast and Furious’, ‘Skyscraper’, ‘The Notebook’ to name a few. I loved seeing Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams in concert and wish I had had the chance to see Queen.
Who is an inspiration to you and why?
My dad!
My dad has always worked hard and taught me to be strong and independent. He is a brilliant dad, a wonderful grandad and is now an amazing great grandad.
He plays the guitar and played in a band when he was younger. Unfortunately I did not follow in his footsteps so can’t play the guitar!
What is one thing we don’t know about you?
I have 3 sons and 4 grandsons. My twin grandsons were premature babies and were born at 25 weeks. They are little miracles and are nearly 3 years old now.
As a school community we have recently seen the devastating impact that Cancer has on individuals and their families. The Studley High School leadership are fund raising in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support who do an amazing job in supporting people physically, emotionally and financially whilst they go through diagnosis, treatment and follow up care.
The Studley High Leadership team will be taking on The Winter Wolf Run – a unique combination of three kinds of off-road running: mud runs, trail runs and obstacle runs. It’s a hardcore 10k run across raw natural terrain, including open ground, woodland, lakes & thick mud.
Running in a pack, we will tackle a series of tough obstacles – both man-made and natural – designed to test mental & physical strength, skill and stamina. We will run, climb, jump, wade, crawl and swim through a course designed to challenge us on every level.
If you would like to donate to this amazing charity this can be done through our Go Fund Me page – https://gofund.me/8e570483
This term the English Department are launching two SHINE book clubs:
As we come to the summer holidays, the English Department want to set you all a reading challenge. See the bingo card below. How many books can you read? Will you be able to complete a row or even the whole card? We have included links below to recommended reading list. There are also recommendations from the English department. With such an amazing choice, we are sure you will find something you love.
Here are the details of your Easter Reading Challenge KS3 and Easter Reading Challenge KS4
Year 11 Prom has been provisionally booked for Thursday the 8th of July at the Limes Earlswood, the theme is ‘Hollywood Glamour’
Please note that our plans are based on current projected government guidelines and subject to change. Students may need to consider this before organising outfits and transport. We will provide more information as soon as we can.
Year 9 Geography students have been studying the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over recent weeks and had opportunity to submit questions to bestselling author and journalist Tim Butcher which he answered in a zoom interview with Mr Blazak.
Tim is author of 3 books, including the bestseller “Blood River” which he wrote about his travels in the DRC during the height of the brutal civil war, as he followed in the footsteps of victorian explorer Henry Morton-Stanley.
Tim also spent more than 20 years as a journalist with the Daily Telegraph including a period where he was the Chief Africa Correspondent, and was the 2013 recipient of the Mungo Park Medal from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in recognition of his achievements as an explorer and educator.
This was a unique opportunity for Year 9 to pose questions to Tim about the DRC, his travels there and about development within Africa more generally and draw upon his experience and expertise. The quality of questions submitted was outstanding and impressed both the Geography department and Tim himself! Massive thank you to Tim for giving up some time in his busy schedule to give us his insights, and well done to Year 9 geographers who engaged brilliantly with the topic!
We present to you, the talent of our pupils. From Y7 to Y11, pupils in Art, Photography, DT & Food have been working hard remotely. Here is a selection of some their incredible work:
Yesterday was marked by some very sad news of the passing of Captain Sir Tom Moore. We are all very saddened of the passing of such an iconic figure that gave us all hope in the fight against coronavirus.
As you are well aware the late hero made his fame by celebrating his 100th birthday by completing 100 laps of his garden. This act helped raise over £33 million for the NHS.
n order to commemorate the life of Captain Sir Tom Moore, this weekend we want to encourage all students, staff and extended Studley High School community to do “100 your way”. By this we mean deciding upon an action and repeating it 100 times. Please see below for examples;
Complete 100 minutes of exercise
Bake 100 cakes/biscuits to share with loved ones
Paint 100 rainbow cards and post them to neighbours
Perform 100 push ups
Climb 100 flights of stairs<
Perform 100 keepy uppies with a football
Perform 100 catches with a tennis ball.
If students/staff/parents do take part in this commemoration the PE department would like you to take a 5 second video of you performing your action and send it into [email protected].
We would also like to take this opportunity to raise money for a special charity close to our hearts at the school. Therefore an optional payment item has been created on Parentpay for donations to the Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
We hope that you will take the opportunity to get involved with this community event and will enjoy the challenge that an outstanding human being has set.
Many thanks
Mr K M Dovey
CAL for PE
One of the focuses we have looked at this year, as part of wellbeing is ‘GIVING BACK’, the idea of doing good makes you feel good. This links on to a previous initiative of our wellbeing week last year. Staff and students have had the opportunity to GIVE BACK over the past few weeks:
Staff collected for the Arden Foodbank as it is an organisation that lies close to the heart of our school. Many bags of food were collected this week and staff were very generous.
Miss Hughes teamed up with Mr Blazak as part of the house competitions system to add a competitive element for pupils as part of the giving back project.
Each house collected for the Worcester homeless appeal. Students had the opportunity to design a Christmas card for residents at FourAcres which is a local care home we visited during the wellbeing week last year.
The results of the card design competition are here:
So many fantastic Christmas card entries. Here's the final 12. Winner to be revealed tomorrow. #12CardsOfChristmas pic.twitter.com/3XO4wa2SGT
— Studley High House Competitions (@SHSHouseComps) December 17, 2020
Mr Blazak reported that 350 items have been donated by our generous students and their families.
‘The Let’s Celebrate’ initiative was designed to motivate and support our staff and their wellbeing. Miss Hughes collected positive comments from each member of staff, about someone else they wanted to recognise at school. This was a chance to celebrate and thank staff for the things they do on a daily basis that make a big difference. She then created a wall of positive comments and anecdotes in the staff room.
This year’s Year 8 Shine Book Club commenced with a lively discussion of Jenny McLachlan’s 2017 novel ‘Stargazing for Beginners.’ The novel focuses on the challenges faced by Meg (a Science geek) who struggles to fit in both at school and at home.
As the novel progresses the main character learns about her own strengths and weaknesses.
The novel was rated highly by all the students in the book club, who found the author’s narrative style engaging and characterisation to be genuinely charming. The novel included clear messages for the contemporary teenager attempting to navigate their way through the modern world.
We are looking forward to our next book club discussion on Wednesday 10 February when we will be evaluating Chris Priestley’s novel ‘Mister Creecher’.
If you are interested in joining the book club please see Mrs Dyde in E3 to borrow a new copy of the novel.
Your challenge was to take a photograph at home or around your local area containing some maths.
The maths could be quite easy to see or a bit hidden. You also had to provide a short explanation of the maths in your photograph.
Well done to everybody who took part, you will all receive two House Spirit House Points towards the House Cup!
A lot of thought went into these photographs and mathematical explanations! The Maths team had a really tough decision picking the winners.
11 winners have been chosen and they will all receive a creative postcard worth 10 House Points!
The English Department were delighted to receive so many reviews from books students had read during half-term. We have awarded 100s of house points and written an amazing number of postcards.
We decided, as so many students had entered, to award an extra prize for best review written.
The winner of this was Lola A. Lola read and wrote a review on an adaptation of Northanger Abbey.
All entries were then put into a hat and Mr Rushton pulled out Kayleigh G’s entry.
Both girls received a £10 book voucher.
Also, a special mention to the students of C5, as this form had six entries.
The next competition will be over the Christmas break. Details will follow in the week leading up to Christmas.
Well done again and keep on reading!
Mrs Evans
If you want to take part in this half term’s reading challenge, fill out this form and return to Mrs Evans or your English Teacher by 7th November!
Last week, Year 7 students were involved in carving pumpkins for residents at St David’s House and Queens Cottages, an elderly care facility in Redditch.
Students carved the pumpkins with spooky halloween faces, and staff and residents at St David’s House were really impressed with their efforts.
The residents will now be painting the pumpkins and displaying them, before using them as flowerpots. Students from all year groups have also been making birthday cards for one of the residents at the home who will be celebrating her 100th birthday next week.
Each year we host a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, and we link it into a House Competition to celebrate European Day of Languages, called ‘Bake Time for Others’. This year, things are very different, but we still want to do what we can to support this wonderful charity which is very close to the hearts of many staff and pupils at school.
Macmillan Cancer Support offers help in a number of ways to people suffering from cancer and also their families. Because Macmillan is a charity they can only provide their range of services, from nurses to community volunteers, thanks to amazing supporters who donate money or fundraise.
During the last few years, SHS coffee mornings have helped to raise over £1000. This year, we are raising money tomorrow. All homebakes (cookies etc.) priced at 50p will be sold in support of Macmillan – just pay using your fingerprint and the amount will be sent to this worthy cause.
We are still going to launch the MFL ‘Bake Time for Others’ competition this year. We would like you to bake either a European recipe, or design a Europe-inspired cake. Please send pictures of your cake to Mrs Morgan at [email protected] to enter the competition and earn house points. Mr Prince, our catering manager, will judge the entries and there will be extra house points for the best ones!
As well as entering the competition, perhaps you could display one of the Studley values: charitable. Why not host your own coffee morning for your family during half term? You could sell slices of your competition entry to raise money, or set up a donation box. Remember to take pictures if you host a mini coffee morning and email them to Mrs Morgan, again to achieve extra house points.
This is always one of my favourite events of the school year and we are so privileged as a school community for how many of us get involved. Let’s make 2020 no exception!
Mrs Morgan
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