View this enews or previous versions in your browser.

It’s been a pleasure to reflect on the fantastic things happening across our school community recently. While we’re not quite ready to finish the year just yet, we’ve certainly had plenty to celebrate —and plenty to look forward to.

 

Sponsored Walk for Air Ambulance

Last week’s sponsored walk was a true highlight. We were blessed with perfect weather, and our students were in high spirits throughout the day. It was a wonderful opportunity for them to spend time together, enjoy the great outdoors and, most importantly, reflect on the importance of thinking about others. We are incredibly grateful for the generous support from families and friends—every penny raised will go to the Air Ambulance, a life-saving charity that means so much to so many.

Celebrating Student Success
Over the past fortnight, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting three wonderful presentation evenings—one for Years 7 & 8, one for Years 9 & 10, and a special celebration of sporting achievements. These events are a real highlight of the year, allowing us to recognise and celebrate the dedication, talent and resilience of our students. From academic excellence to sporting success, we were thrilled to shine a spotlight on their achievements. At the Presentation evenings, audiences also enjoyed a Dance display or a medley of songs from our recent school musical Frozen, showcasing just a small taste of the creative talent we have in our school.

Year 10 Work Experience Week
Our Year 10 students have spent the week out on work experience—and what an experience it’s been! These placements are such an important part of a young person’s development, opening their eyes to the world of work and helping them to reflect on their future ambitions. They’ve come back full of stories, questions and reflections—and while many enjoyed the change of scene, I think a few are quietly relieved to be back in familiar surroundings!

 

Sports Day – A True School Tradition

Today, we hosted our annual Sports Day—and what a day it has been! Despite the warm weather, our students rose to the challenge with energy, enthusiasm, and determination. Mr Briggs, our Head of PE, tells me it’s the most important day in the school calendar… though other staff might (gently!) disagree! Whether taking part in events or cheering on their peers, our students showed exactly what makes this community so special. My personal highlight? Watching our students cheer every competitor over the finish line—even those limping home in last place. That spirit of kindness and encouragement is something we value deeply.

While the end of term is nearly here, we’re already deep into planning for the new academic year. The work on the school facias has been completed this week, and we have further site improvements scheduled over the summer. Most notably, our long-overdue auditorium refurbishment will begin—complete with a new floor and an updated front of stage area.

Perhaps the biggest change students will notice is our brand-new school catering. Earlier this year, the Student Council raised concerns about the quality of food on offer. While we sought improvements with our current provider, change wasn’t forthcoming—so we’ve taken action. In September, we welcome Caterlink as our new catering partner. With exciting new menus, improved food quality, and additional tills to speed up queues, we hope lunchtimes will be better than ever.

I wish you all an enjoyable, if rather warm, weekend. Here’s to the last week of term,
Mrs Dawn German

All key dates for 2024-25 are also available on the website.

Assemblies This Week - Mr Grace
This week's assembly was on the theme of resilience.  It is well known, and communicated by future employers, that resilience amongst our students is one of the most important qualities they can develop.  My assembly looked at the Stoic philosophy that "the obstacle is the way" through the metaphor of parkour and freerunning.  This sport helped me develop resilience and get through a tough few years when I was at university.  The demands of parkour, to be agile and springy yet strong and durable, reflect the dual elements of true resilience.  David Belle, the sport's founder, explains how practice and preparation for challenges helps build resilience, and here at Harrow Way we support the students in developing intellectual and academic resilience in many different ways, including our Do Now retrievals and our feedback tasks after assessments.

Staying Hydrated in the Warm Weather 
With the recent warm weather, we kindly ask all students to bring a reusable water bottle to school each day. Bottles can be refilled during break and lunchtime using the available water stations. Staying hydrated is especially important during hot weather to support focus, wellbeing, and overall health. Thank you for your support. 

Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme

Hampshire County Council is inviting families with children in receipt of free school meals to apply for a voucher for Andover Leisure Centre. This voucher provides:

This offer is available on a first-come, first-served basis, and the deadline for applications is 8 July.

Families can apply using the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/7GangGXHQb

New Intake Notices - Year 7 September 2025

Medical Information
For the benefit of our new families, Mrs Jackson, our Student Welfare Officer and lead first aider, is the key adult who supports students with medical needs.

If your child has a medical condition, please visit our Medical Information Page via this link.

All medication must be clearly labelled and handed in with the appropriate form, unless your child has been advised to carry it. We also stock paracetamol and antihistamines for use with parental consent (given via MCAS Admissions Form).

For any queries, please contact Mrs Jackson at: kerri.jackson@harrowway.hants.sch.uk

Admission Form for September 2025
Please remember to sign up for My Child At School (MCAS) and complete your admissions form, details of how to do this were supplied in the Welcome Pack. Thank you.

Year 11 Notices

Year 11 Exam Results Day – Thursday 21st August 2025
We will be distributing Year 11 exam result slips on Thursday 21st August, between 10:00am and 12:00 midday, in the auditorium.

The Maths Department would be very grateful if any Year 11 students are willing to donate their scientific calculator in exchange for a bar of chocolate on results day! While some of you may need your calculator for Further Maths or A-levels, many will no longer have much use for it. 

Donating your calculator to the school on results day helps future students – and you get chocolate in return, which is surely more fun! Thank you in advance for your generosity and see you on results day!

Request for Pre-Loved Year 11 Uniform
As your child is ending their Harrow Way journey, the PTFA would like to wish them the best of luck in everything they do. We would like to thank you, the parents, for your support towards the PTFA over the last few years.

We are kindly requesting, if it is possible, that you consider donating pre-loved uniform and PE kit to the thrift shop. We have found the thrift shop to be increasingly popular and our supplies are low. Ideally we would like: blazers, skirts, ties and PE kits.

To donate, simply drop in uniform at reception (don’t worry about washing or missing buttons etc. we will take care of that). Alternatively, your child can drop the uniform directly into Mrs Bain’s room B004. The PTFA are also planning to have ‘drop-zones’ after the students’ last exams. Thank you for your support with this, HWPTFA

Ways Forward - our weekly newsletter for Careers, Apprenticeship, College, Work and Work Experience.

We hope year 10 students are all enjoying their work experience placements this week.

This week's edition of Ways Forward includes opportunities for students to find out more about becoming a perfumer, careers in conservation, university discovery events, and information to help those of you over 14 years old to find a summer job.  We also explore how to use AI when you're applying for jobs.

Forage Job Simulations allow you to try out some virtual work experience with leading companies; this could be a brilliant thing to add to your CV over the summer holidays!

The Department For Education has announced that, in support of raising attainment and engagement as well as improving life chances, 2026 will be the National Year of Reading. The press release is available at their website. We have already looked at the vast array of what we currently do and we also have some ideas on how we will further engage with this next year.

As our Tutor Group Reading Programme comes to a close for this academic year, we have been promoting suggested follow on titles for each group to engage them with reading over the summer. We are glad to hear that Year 9 has been enjoying the Sue Wallman book, Watch Your Back. This was published earlier this year so we definitely keep up with the trends! We reached out to the author who kindly gave us a message for students.

A reminder that all students can access books, comics, magazines and audio books free of charge at SORA during the school holidays. The platform is for 4 year olds to young adults and is run by the School Library Service at Hampshire County Council.The app is free and you can gain access through the school website.  Students should sign in using their usual Harrow Way credentials. A great free resource!

Our new Year 7 cohort will visit the Learning Resource Centre and Library in September for an induction. Should you have any questions about what we do, how we support reading, homework and more, you can email us. We'd be happy to hear from you. Thank you.

  Sports Presentation Evening 2025

On Wednesday evening, we had the absolute pleasure of welcoming our students and their families to this year’s Annual Sports Presentation Evening—a celebration of dedication, progress, and sporting excellence.

Students were recognised with awards including Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, and Players’ Player of the Year, with the latter voted for by their teammates—a true reflection of their character and impact.

We were honoured to welcome Jamie Coleman, Manager at Andover New Street, as our guest speaker. Jamie shared his inspiring journey through football—the challenges, the triumphs, the near-misses, and the resilience it takes to pursue a dream. His story, including coming just 180 minutes away from playing at Wembley, resonated deeply with our students. Thank you, Jamie, for your powerful words and inspiration.

We also celebrated standout teams and individuals:

🏆 Most Improved Team of the Year went to our Year 8 Boys' Football Team, who have shown incredible growth and commitment this year. After a tough season last year, their hard work in training has truly paid off. Well done, boys!

🏆 Team of the Year was awarded to the Year 9 Rounders Team, who have now claimed the District Champion title for the third year in a row. Their dedication to training and mentorship of younger players is a testament to their teamwork and leadership. Congratulations, girls!

🏅 Our KS3 Sports Personality of the Year was awarded to Dotty Oostendorp. Dotty has been a phenomenal role model over the past three years at Harrow Way. A key player in every team, she leads with passion, consistency, and grace—an exceptional athlete and an outstanding captain. Well done, Dotty!

🏅 The KS4 Sports Personality of the Year was awarded to Henry Jennings. Over his four years at Harrow Way, Henry has been a cornerstone of many school teams. Initially joining as a footballer, he has broadened his sporting talents, becoming a vital player on the Year 10 Rugby Team and securing a spot on the district athletics team after winning first place in the triple jump. An outstanding achievement—congratulations, Henry!

Check out the latest news, fundraising initiatives and upcoming events from the PTA here - harrowwaypta.charityhive.co.uk

For local community events and information, please click the button below:

Copyright © 2024, Harrow Way Community School, All rights reserved.

Harrow Way Community School,
Harrow Way,
Andover,
Hampshire.
SP10 3RH