Newsletters

HGSS Newsletter - March 2024

Dear Parent or Carer,

Welcome to our end of half-term three newsletter.  It is great to see such a wide range of activities having taken place in this short half-term, including: Together As One mentor training, a visit to the Ritz’s professional kitchens, an international arts project with GEMS Al-Khail and a visit from Homerton College, Cambridge to name a few.

We do really encourage students to take part in a range of activities outside of their lessons, to enrich their learning experience, develop new skills and different friendship groups and importantly to have as diverse a range of experiences to draw upon when interviewing for Sixth Form, University, Apprenticeships and jobs.  To sign up to clubs please register your child(ren) at https://holmergreensenior.schoolcloud.co.uk/

We have successfully achieved ‘Microsoft School Showcase’ status, one of only 450 schools worldwide and attended a presentation to receive the reward earlier in January. 

We held a joint INSET day this January with 11 schools, facilitated by a great keynote speaker Margaret Mulholland, around modelling, scaffolding and planning in the class for learners with SEND.  It was great to see over 300 teachers and support assistants collaborating from a range of schools.

We are an inclusive school with over 50 different nationalities. These are  celebrated in a range of ways from: flags hanging in our Dining Hall to themed lunches, the most recent being Chinese New Year.  We know, due to the pervasiveness of social media and algorithms that run behind internet/chat searches we make, that it is easy to find ourselves in an echo chamber and remaining open minded and being able to challenge the views expressed is difficult.  To counter this, we are working with a charity called ‘Together As One’ that supports schools in promoting equality, diversity and inclusivity, through awareness and training up mentors.  We are proud to have twenty ‘Together As One’ mentors from years 10 and 12 who will start mentoring students, to share awareness.

We strongly encourage students to bus, cycle or walk to school to reduce traffic and pollution and to support their own physical wellness.  If you need to bring your child to school by car, please do not drive along Parish Piece to drop off OR pick up.  Please drop and pick up away from the school, parking safely, legally and respectfully.  Please do not park in private local car parks; on yellow zig zag lines; or anywhere that could be dangerous.  With the lighter evenings, please encourage your child to walk, cycle or catch the bus to school, it is also a great way of them developing independence.

We are in the process of building a new reception for the school-site and these works are progressing well, so that we are hoping we will be able to open it just after the Easter holidays.  The reception area fulfils many functions, including, vital medical and attendance work.

As a reminder, Monday 19 February is a staff training day and all students begin timetabled lessons on Tuesday 20 February.

We wish everyone a great holiday.

Ed Hillyard

Headteacher 

 

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Under the mentorship of our drum and guitar teacher, Mr Spaveski, the new HGSS band club is underway and proving a huge success.

Every Thursday lunchtime, MU1 becomes a hub of music creativity, and members have successfully learnt 'Shivers' by Ed Sheeran.

If you would be interested in joining, please do ask the music department for more information.

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On Friday 12 January, Year 11 collected their mock exam results.  The aim was to give them an insight into how collecting their results will be in August, to motivate them for the coming months.

It was a lovely opportunity to celebrate the many successes that came as a result of the hard work Year 11 have put into revising, and an opportunity to reflect on what needs to be done ahead of the real GCSE exams in the summer.

Well done Year 11, keep up the great work!

Mrs Rayner, Head of Year 11

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Netball match review

 

On Thursday 11 January the year 8 & 7 mixed team played a netball match.  We won 2-1 against St Mary’s school.  

We had some brilliant play from the girls and boys and an extra well done to Flo Smith for getting player of the match!  Luciano, a year 7 boy, played with us and scored 1 of the 2 brilliant goals.  Poppy scored the other amazing goal from the edge of the circle.  Isla Stanley subbed in for our team playing out of position as GK.  

We had a very close game and our hard work paid off in the end.

Fleur Murray, Team Captain

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Some external music grade triumphs!

Our peri guitar teacher, Catherine Wells, has alerted us to some Trinity College classical guitar exam results from the Autumn term for HGSS pupils.

Congratulations to:

Freya Owen, year 8, Initial Grade, Distinction

Tom Crichton, year 12, Grade 3, Pass

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Cambridge University
Access Visit

On 1 February, 100 students across years 10, 11 and 12 attended a talk lead by the Schools Liaison Officer at Homerton College, Cambridge University. The purpose of the talk was to introduce the university, courses that are on offer and how to apply.

There was plenty of practical advice for our students, such as how to improve your UCAS application through seeking out Super-Curricular activities (related to your academic discipline) and Extra-Curricular activities (related to personal development).

We hope to run more of these events over the year as it was very well-attended. Hopefully this will inspire our students to aim high academically and start to consider early on which academic subjects they may want to study at a higher level.

If you wish to read more about Access events, open days and summer courses run by Homerton College, please use the following link: https://www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/study-here/access-higher-education

We would encourage as many of our students as possible to have the highest of aspirations, therefore if they would like further advice, they can speak to one of the sixth form team or our Careers Lead Mrs Selleck for further information.

 Mrs Towers, Assistant Headteacher
 Curriculum, Assessment and Data
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25 Jan 2024
Social Sciences Teacher (Part-time or Full-time)
Social Sciences Teacher
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Please can we remind you of our School Uniform requirements. 

All information (including a link for name labels) can be found by following this link below:

School Uniform and Equipment

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Our Quiz Night is back! We would love to see as many people as possible for a fun filled night on Friday 15 March 2024 at 7:30pm. Tickets are priced at £6 each, maximum of 8 people on a team and are available to purchase on Schoolgateway now (www.schoolgateway.com). 

There will be a bar on the night which will accept both cash and card.  Food is optional and available to purchase but must be pre-ordered before Wednesday 13 March (Please bring own cutlery).

Please refer to poster for more information. 

PARENTS' ASSOCIATION

Our Parents' Association work hard to raise funds for your children in school and to promote the school in the local community.

Please support them were possible and if you wish to become involved with the Team, please contact office@holmer.org.uk

More information is available on the website:

Parents' Association

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR CHILD IS ILL OR HAS MEDICAL NEEDS

The school has Medical and Attendance Officers.  They are available during school hours to discuss matters relating to the health of your child.   It is essential that you notify them of any health problems that your child may have (e.g. medical details, particular problems or needs).  We can store spare asthma inhalers and epipens and diabetes monitors.

If your child is taken ill or is involved in an accident during the day, he or she will be looked after in the Medical Room until we can contact a parent or carer.  Students should tell their teacher or report to the Medical Room if they feel unwell and not make direct contact with you by mobile phone.

If your child needs to take medication during the day, it should be clearly labelled with the child’s name and passed to the Medical Officer with a letter from the parent or carer. Students who have a medical or a dental appointment should take the appointment card to the Medical Room first thing in the morning.  These appointments should be arranged outside school hours where possible.  We do not expect a student to take a whole day off for a medical appointment.

LATE ARRIVAL AND ABSENCE

The school gates lock at 8.45am, so students must be on site by this time.  Students should be at line up by 8.50am.   If your child arrives after 8.45am they will be marked as late. They are required to sign in at the Attendance/Medical Room.

In the first instance the student will be warned to be punctual in the future.  If a student is consistently late there will be sanctions.  Persistent poor punctuality or attendance will be referred to the Education Welfare Officer.

Email the Attendance Officer if your child is absent or late

attendance@holmer.org.uk

When you know in advance that your son or daughter will have to miss school for any reason, we ask that you inform us in writing beforehand.

However, we reiterate that it is important for your child to attend all lessons, every day.  If your needs to attend an appointment, please try to arrange these in the school holidays or after school.

When absence is due to illness, we ask that you telephone the Medical Room as soon as possible on 01494 719901 or email attendance@holmer.org.uk. PLEASE NOTE THAT ABSENCE DUE TO ILLNESS OR MEDICAL REASONS WILL BE RECORDED AS ABSENCE ALTHOUGH IT WILL BE AUTHORISED.

Further information on attendance and Medical concerns can be found here: Medical

AUTHORISED AND UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE

Failure to notify the school will result in your child’s absence being classed as unauthorised which may result in school referring to the Education Welfare Service.  Only absences perceived by the school to be genuine will be classed as authorised.  Holidays during term time will not be authorised.  We will authorise one day for Eid celebrations.

At Holmer Green Senior School we expect an attendance of 96% or more for all students—Every Day Matters.

 

 

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FREE PORRIDGE AVAILABLE FOR ALL STUDENTS

IN THE DINING HALL EVERY MORNING FROM 8.15AM TO 8.45AM

Parents' Association

Please visit our Parents' Association page on the link below for information on how you can support the school.  Thank you

Parents' Association