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LETTER FROM THEHEADTEACHERA

As Christmas approaches andI reflect on the past term, it isevident that the staff andstudents continue to workhard and make the most of theopportunities that come alongto support and enrichlearning. This Christmasnewsletter demonstrates thisquite clearly as it details the

many and variety of experiences of our younglearners.

The start of the term is always dominated by thesummer results and all the analysis that takes place,the scrutiny of every single result and what can belearned from them. This year many changes to theway subjects are assessed, changes to thecurriculum and a ‘raising of the bar’ in terms ofexpectation have all come into being. These changeshave put enormous pressure on students but onceagain, they have come through triumphant. GCSEresults were excellent and we were particularlypleased with our success at Advanced Level – 100%pass rate with every single student achieving a goodgrade in all subjects.

Since September, we have seen the new Year 11Prefects take up post with staff and students havingan input to who they should be. Already some of thegroup of twenty prefects have represented theschool at school events and notably at theRemembrance Sunday Service at the Ellesmere PortCenotaph.

To further pay our respects to the fallen and torecognise the significance of the date as thecentenary of the start of World War I we held anArmistice Day Assembly on the 11th November. Forthe first time, every member of the schoolcommunity came together in our Sports Hall. Thetwo-minute silence was followed by ‘The Last Post’played by Max Astbury – significantly on a cornetowned by a member of Armed Forces killed inGallipoli in 1915. Please visit our website to see a fullaccount of this whole school act of remembrance.

Following on from achievements in the summernewsletter, the school went on to win ‘Sports’Secondary School of the Year for the whole ofCheshire and Warrington, whilst Bethany Brizell wasawarded the ‘Young Volunteer’ of the Year Award.Both are now local and regional winners.

As you read the newsletter I hope you will find thewide range of activities reported on as impressive.The visits from the ‘Flying Theatre Company’ and‘Wire and Stitch as well as visits to the British OpenGolf Championships, Burton Mere and to the ChiefConstable at Ellesmere Port Police Station. Ourinternational visits to Spain, Zimbabwe andGermany working with students from othercountries such as Spain, Netherlands and the CzechRepublic.

In addition our students excel within the communitywith individuals ‘treading the boards’ in Romeo andJuliet, Oliver, Grease and Les Miserables. The talentof these youngsters always impresses me and nevermore so than after our absolutely stunning schoolproduction of Hairspray. A resounding successinvolving over 70 students, 15 staff and 12 formerstudents.

Please take a moment to read through thisnewsletter. I hope you will be able to appreciatehow privileged I am to be the Head-Teacher of TheWhitby High School. Don’t forget our website andthe wealth of information it holds and follow us onour Twitter account @WhitbyHigh.

I hope that you and your family enjoy a very merryand peaceful Christmas and a happy, prosperousNew Year. Don’t forget school opens on Monday 5thJanuary 2015.

Mr B HeeleyHeadteacher

Prepare Achieve Care Enjoy

THE WHITBY REACHESNEW HEIGHTS ATCHESHIRE SPORTSAWARDS

After winning 2 categories at the Cheshire West and Chester Sports Awards The Whitby High School and Young Volunteer ofthe Year Beth Brizell went forward to the Cheshire and Warrington Sports Awards held at Tatton Park on Friday July 4th. Thiswas a double honour to go up against the best schools and leaders in Cheshire and Warrington.The nominees for Secondary School of the Year included Lymm High School and the specialist Sports College Wilmslow HighSchool.In the 2 categories:

Bethany Brizell - Young Volunteer of the Year14 year old Bethany gives up to 12 hours per week to volunteer in a variety of different roles including coaching Netball andofficiating games, helping with administrative tasks and organising competitions. She has a passion for providing sportingopportunities to young people and regularly gives up here lunch and break at school to help sports leaders put on lunch timeclubs each day. Bethany has also helped raise money for charities and the community and was key to The Whitby High Schoolachieving Gold School Games Kitemark accreditation.

The Whitby High School - Secondary School of the Year.The school is very passionate about sport and its benefits, applying principles used in elite sport to improve performance. SirDavid Brailsford CBE and Head of Team Sky cycling said ……”It’s important to understand the “aggregation of marginal gain”…. how the small improvements in a number of different aspects of what we can do have a huge impact to the overallperformance of the team.” Head of PE at The Whitby High School said that this philosophy was applied to Sport at The WhitbyHigh School. “The PE departments work at The Whitby High School is never complete but we have made lots of littleimprovements and these have made us bigger and better.”

The department works closely with the local community and primary schools which has included fundraising events andSports Leaders delivering assemblies to highlight the importance of living a healthy and active lifestyle. The PE staff have beendescribed as dedicated and enthusiastic, offering a wide range of sporting provision as well as supporting pupils in organisingand running Primary School Games competitions. Winning the Gold Kitemark Award and organising a Gold Duke ofEdinburgh’s Award expedition to Ireland were two of the highlights of the Year.

The Whitby High School won BOTH Awards on the night.

The Science department organised a day at the BritishOpen Golf Tournament that took place in the Summerterm at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake. A worldclass line-up of golfers had assembled to try to win thismajor trophy and it gave the students who attended thechance to experience a truly global sporting event.

The aspects of Science examined were concerned withBiology, Chemistry and Physics.

We looked at diet and fitness of top athletes, the newmaterials that have brought about major advances in thegame and the effect of forces on ball flight.

The trip was open to any student and attracted bothexperienced golfers and some students who had neverplayed the game. There were also a number of age groupsrepresented, ranging from Year 7 to 12.The highlight of the day was having all the studentsgathered around the green to watch Rory McIlroy hole agood length putt. This took him into the lead of thechampionship, which he held onto for the rest of thetournament.

The students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and werea credit to the school.

A DAY AT THE BRITISH GOLFOPEN TOURNAMENT

The students thoroughlyenjoyed the experience

and were a credit to the school.

The A level Biology students carried out theirannual fieldwork studies during the summerterm.

The first of the visits was to Burton MereWetlands, an RSPB reserve located not far fromour school. The primary focus of this visit was tolook at the importance of conservation and howit affects the habitats in our region. Biodiversitywas another area examined by the students.

The RSPB guide who showed us around thereserve was impressed by the knowledge andenthusiasm shown by the A-level cohort. On thesame day, Mrs Van Woerkom and Mr Taggarttook the students for a short walk along theWirral Way to look at how agriculture impacts onecosystems in our region.

Our second visit was to Formby Point NationalTrust Nature Reserve. Here the students’primary focus was the succession of colonisingplants and sampling techniques using a linetransect. We also looked at competitionbetween species using the red and theintroduced grey squirrels as examples.Conservation was again a focus here as the areais managed to promote the successful breedingof red squirrels and the natterjack toads. Thestudents were thrilled to observe both of thesespecies, as the majority of them had never seeneither of these rare species in their naturalhabitat before.

One student, Callum Morris said ‘I didn’t realisewe had such diverse habitats in our region. Beingout in the field helps me to remember key things’.

A LEVEL BIOLOGYSTUDENTS EXPLORENATURE RESERVES

CONNECTINGTHROughCLASSROOMSWe took the project one-step further by sewinginto the leather with thread and beads. We madefabric hearts from unwanted materials anddoormats from old sacks and scrap material. Thechildren of Mutendi Primary had been workinghard with card making, printing onto fabrics andmaking little wooden stools for their churchcommunity.

The work was endearing and commendable in allschools. We shared ideas with them and theyshared ideas with us. Itwas a magical experi-ence that has inspiredall teachers to raise theprofile of global diversi-ty, so that we can con-tinue to learn fromeach other`s cultures.

During October half term, a group of teachers(three from Cheshire; three from South Africa;three from Zimbabwe) met in Zimbabwe to share`best practice` ideas and raise awareness of globaldiversity.

The first school visit was to Mutare Boys’ HighSchool; this is 250km from Harare, the capital ofZimbabwe. This school is on the Mozambiqueborder, with monkeys present within the schoolgrounds whilst students were inside learning! It wasa school with excellent discipline but very fewresources. The school made us very welcome andintroduced us to the wonderful global enterpriseproducts that they had produced; starting fromunwanted items and finishing with marketablegoods for their local communities.

We were also shown around Mutare PrimarySchool, as Mrs Dean, Deputy of Woodlands PrimarySchool, wanted to understand more about theprimary education system in Zimbabwe.

Out next visits were 250km apart in the GreatZimbabwe area. After a five hour minibus journey,we arrived in Masvingo where we were greeted bystudents of Mutendi Secondary and MutendiPrimary School. We shared Global Enterpriseprojects – making flip-flops from conveyor beltrubber and leather offcuts.

ZIMBABWE

The Whitby High School would like to celebrate the success of a numberof our performing arts students who have taken part in shows recently.

Well done to Sally Pickering, Curtis Ledsham, Matthew Lacy, Sean Gossand Charlotte Pedley for joining Chalice Media Productions in theirperformance of Romeo and Juliet at Montague’s Bar, Ellesmere Portduring their summer holidays.

Six of our budding performers were involved in the Ellesmere PortMusical Theatre Company’s production of Oliver. The show played at

New Brighton’s Floral Pavilion Theatre from 4th – 6th September andwas a huge success. Many congratulations to Jack Parry (Artful Dodger),Jed Young (Charley Bates) and to Bethany Cox, Izzy Johnson, KayleePaige Evans and Courtney Upfold-Roberts who all featured in thechorus. The show was high energy and high quality – well done!

Also, a huge congratulations to Y13 student Kyle Hickman-Germon whoplayed Sonny and Mr Semans who played in the band in Hoylake andWest Kirkby Theatre Group’s superb production of Grease. The

performances ran from 18th - 20th September at the Gladstone Theatrein Port Sunlight.

Daniel Finlay, Y12 has just been successful in auditioning to take part inTipTop school’s production of Les Miserables.

Come and see the wonderful talents of some of these students foryourself, when they star in The Whitby High School’s superb productionof Hairspray in November.

WHITBYSTUDENTSTAKE TOTHE STAGE

Students from the English department’s AG&T cohortvisited Ellesmere Port Police Station for a meetingwith Chief Inspector Giles Orton.

They discussed a project that will see the local force’sinternal newsletter designed and published by theWhitby High School’s finest.

The group also discussed careers and the ways thatschool and law enforcement can work together.

’elo ‘elo ‘eloEnglishStudents Takeon Forcenewsletter

Erasmus+ projectThe school has been successful in applying for funding from theBritish Council to take part in an ERASMUS+ Project withschools from the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Germanyand Spain. Six Year 9 students will visit each of the fourcountries and work on a project about Social Media andEducation, highlighting the threats and opportunities thatsocial media can bring.

The visits will provide our students with a chance to comparehow social media is used as a teaching and learning tool indifferent countries and schools as well as gaining an insightinto different cultures.

The first visit took place in Jaén, Spain in November and was ahuge success. Our students stayed with host families and reallyembraced the Spanish Culture enjoying Spanish food like paellaand tapas and adjusting to very early starts to the days, lateevenings and siestas. In school, our students learnt about thehistory of social media and the internet and looked atcyberbullying, the misuse of social media and how to keepthemselves safe.

They also visited several places of cultural interest includingJaén Cathedral, the Alhambra, Granada and the Catillo deBanos de la Encina, a Spanish Fortress. The week culminated inan exhibition of all their work and an InternationalPresentation Evening.

The next visit is taking place in January 2015 in Dreiech,Germany and will no doubt prove to be another amazingexperience for our students.

On Friday 7th November we held a Wire & Stitchworkshop for our Year 12 Art students.

Our focused and hard working students really wereexemplary in so many ways. The workshop wasprovided for our students to analyse the work of a‘real’ artist Julia Jowett rather than just researchingon the Internet and in books.

Julia's art consists or drawings by wire, pencil andstitch; intricately working dense areas of traditionalembroidery and needlepoint stitches into metalgauzes and figuratively manipulated wire lines. Shecombines hand embroidered wire work withobservational drawing and screen printingtechniques onto fabric and paper grounds to createcontemporary art pieces. Drawing on folk tales,childhood stories and surreal imaginings, Juliaharnesses instinctive feelings and traditional craftprocesses to create considered folkloric narrativesthat intrigue.

The students’ project theme is ‘Botanical’ and theyproduced blanket stitch wire flowers, this techniquebeing a possible way for our students to progress intoa final piece of work- just wonderful!

WIRE & STITCHWORKSHOP

Years 8 and 9 French students were treated to anentertaining afternoon when The Flying TheatreCompany paid a visit to The Whitby High School. Theplay, entitled “Bon Voyage!” took the audience on animaginary journey to the south of France. Performedentirely in French, the scenes involved slapstick andmagic and audience participation.

Staff and students alike enjoyed the chance to hearthe French of familiar topics such as food and drink,transport and holidays, and comments after theperformance showed what a fun experience it hadbeen. The MFL department would like to express theirthanks to the PTA without whose generous fund-raising the show would not have been possible.

A FLYING VISIT

The Sixth Form Leadership Team have made a fantasticstart to their fundraising this year.  The first event was acharity car wash which raised over £200.  Staff donatedmoney for either a car wash or for their car to be leftalone!  The second event was a cake sale for MacmillanCancer Support.

Many of the Sixth Form contributed by making cakes andbiscuits which were very popular with staff and students.The team worked really hard to make both of theseevents a success.  Special mentions should go to ArronWoodward (6T3) and Rhianne Hallmark (6H2) for takingthe lead with these events.

The Sixth Form Student Leadership Team would like tosay a massive ‘thank you’ to everybody who contributedto the Sixth Form cake sale by either making or buyingour cakes. The sale was a huge success and we raised anamazing £230 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Well doneto everybody involved!

Rhianne Hallmark 6H2 – Deputy Head Girl

Year 12 students tasteHigher education

The whole of Year 12 visited Liverpool Universityjust before October half term.  The University put

together a great day for us including a really usefulworkshop on personal statements and applying touniversity; a campus tour with students; an interestingsample lecture on Orthoptics (which we now know isabout the diagnosis and treatment of eye and visionconditions) and a question and answer session withcurrent Liverpool students.  The aim of the day was togive Year 12 a real taste of university life as well asproviding useful information on the application process.

Students commented in a survey after the event that thebest parts of the day were ‘the lectures - it was nice toget to experience what it would be like and we learnt alot of different things that didn't just apply to one groupof people. It was interesting for everyone’ and ‘beingable to look around the campus – I felt that exploring thecampus enabled me to get a better understanding ofwhat student life at university can be like’.    Finally, onestudent commented that it was a ‘very worthwhile andbeneficial trip to encourage us to start considering ouroptions’.

We are very grateful to the University for hosting such abrilliant day.  Our students engaged with the day verypositively and had a great experience.  We will definitelybe returning next year.

CAKE SALE

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In September 2014 we travelled to Reutlingen in  Germany tocomplete two weeks work experience in a Children’s Campknown as 'Burzelbach- Kinderspielstadt'. The experience reallychallenged us to speak German consistently,  which improvedour language skills immensely.

During our trip we  had the chance to visit major  towns andcities such as  Stuttgart, Tübingen, Reutlingen and even  Munich,where we were able to visit the Sophie Scholl memorial, whichhas helped us to develop our speaking exam work  that is basedon Sophie Scholl and her story.

It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that we would love to doagain. Wir lieben Deutschland!

ForeignLanguageStudentsGet To work

Once again we were delighted to take a large groupof Y8 and Y9 students studying German to ourPartner Town, Reutlingen. We stayed in a nearbyYouth Hostel and spent some time in lessons in theFriedrich-List and Isolde-Kurz Grammar Schools,before enjoying an Anglo-German Treasure Huntaround the town (with shopping opportunities builtin). That day finished with a (rainy) barbecue at theEnvironmental Centre, with a chance to make somenew friends.

Students had been in email contact before the visit,and some have maintained contact since then. Wealso found time to visit a typical German castle, usedas the template for Walt Disney’s Sleeping BeautyCastle. We relaxed in a leisure pool, went punting onthe river in Tübingen, and walked bare-foot around a“Barefoot Park”, through mud, sand and clay, andover stones, pebbles and glass!

In 2016 it will be the 50th anniversary of thepartnership between Reutlingen and Ellesmere Portand Neston, and we would like to celebrate this witha longer trip which will enable us to spend more timein the German schools, which is what our studentsmost enjoy. We aim to work on a collaborativeproject to mark the occasion. Look out for thenotices about this in the Summer Term!

The Whitby High School was very pleased to host the re-gional Oxbridge conference once again this year. AemiliaMcDonnell, Student Liaison Officer from Cambridge Univer-sity, presented to over 80 attendees in years 11-13 fromlocal schools and colleges in the area.

Aemilia described life at Oxford and Cambridge Universitiesand the processes behind applying, interviewing for andstudying at those institutions. There was then time forindividual questions from the audience. The evening was anexcellent introduction to Oxford and Cambridge Universitiesand has given students great ideas about where they wouldlike to study in the future.

Ameilia made it clear that if students have the potential anddesire to study at Oxford or Cambridge they should go for it!

There are many events throughout the year aimed at Ox-bridge students. Any students in any year group who areinterested in applying to Oxford or Cambridge should con-tact Mrs L Begbie for more information.