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Friday 16th November 2018

Monday 12th November was the date of our annual presentation evening, an opportunity for the school to get together with our cohort of summer leavers and say 'well done'. Leaving secondary school is a big moment in a young person's life and it is nice to be able to return to school a few months later to meet friends and catch up with members of staff. It's also a chance for us to recognise a wide range of students for their remarkable achievements both in their GCSEs and throughout their time at school. Success comes in all shapes and sizes and whilst this particular event does tend to have an academic focus, that is by no means the only thing that we celebrate.

This year we were delighted to welcome back ex-Harrow Way student Sophie Roberts to present our Year 11 students with their GCSE Certificates. Sophie is a Film Production Assistant and has been involved with working some major films including: Star Wars Solo, Justice League and Christopher Robin.

Some of the star winners were: Christie Hatchett won the Anne King Shield for the highest academic achiever; Paige Bradbury won The Will Dyke Cup for exceptional contribution to school life and Sarah Zieleniak won the Harrow Way Shield for outstanding personal achievement. The evening's programme list subject awards winners can be viewed here.

Project 215
I hope many of you were able to get down to Vigo Park last Saturday to see the WW1 commemorative soldiers decorated by our Year 7 and 9 artists. Our soldiers joined the 205 others from schools, groups and organisations across the Andover area as part of the Andover 215 project.

Andover College
A massive thank you to Andover College for coming into school on Tuesday to work with some of our Year 10 students. Lecturers Rob, Paul, Aaron, and John came into school to tell the students all about Andover College and put on a few interactive lessons, including Maths and Science.

Autumn Termly Progress Reviews (TPRs)
Progress Reviews will be published online next week on Parent Progress View (PPV). If you have not yet registered for PPV you can on the school website here. More details on how to use PPV can be found on a guide here.

Year 11 Mocks English, Maths and Science
These are formal exams that will take place under formal exam conditions in preparation for their GCSEs later in the year – Link to all the Mock Exams being taken this term here. This is on the Year 11 Parent page on the website.

Please make sure your child is aware of the importance of these mock exams and assessments. They are essential practice for the actual GCSE exams next summer. Additionally, results in these exams will guide teaching staff as to how much additional teaching and intervention time your child needs to be ready for the GCSE exams in May-June 2018. The better your child does at this stage, and the closer to target grades, the less time your child is likely to need to spend in intervention lessons before or after school, and in the school holidays.

During the mock exams please try to avoid taking your child out of school due to medical or other appointments wherever possible. Also please try to avoid time off school due to sickness unless your child is really quite ill. In the actual GCSEs there are no opportunities to catch up on exams missed – unless there is medical evidence to show the student was too ill to take the exam the student will lose all the marks for the missed paper.

Power of Language Day
Today Y9 and Y10 experienced The Power of Language Day. Our students showed fantastic maturity during the day as we discussed the use of bad language, sexist language and racist language.

All students went away with the message that this language is unacceptable in our school. However, they hopefully now understand how dangerous and destructive those words can be and will choose their words very carefully.

Sporting Fixtures
This week the Year 7 Football team took part in the Andover District 5- a-side tournament and were placed second overall.

I was delighted to receive this photograph following the recent Andover Athletics awards evening last Friday. James Pay and the cross country team were awarded a shield, he stepped in when someone dropped out and did exceptionally well. Beth Mathews and Adam Robinson were both awarded plates for breaking club records in Hammer, Long Jump and High Jump. Beth also received the 'Controlled Techniques' Cup, and Adam received the shield for Athlete of the Year. Well done all!

The final results for the House 5 a side football tournament:
Year 7
1st Hawks
2nd Kestrels
3rd Buzzards

Year 8
1st Buzzards
2nd Kestrels
3rd Hawks

Assembly
Assemblies this week were by Miss Lowing on the subject of how to revise. New research has shown that popular ways to revise, such as reading over revision guides and copying out notes, are not as effective as we previously believed.

Instead, students were told about how memory works and how to strengthen the neutral pathways so that retrieving information becomes easier. Some effective strategies include flashcards (cards with a question on one side and the answer on the other side) and answering exam practice without using notes.

When paying online for visits, many now have an opportunity for parents to give consent as well as payment. If you have given your consent and paid on-line, there is no need for you to return the slip to school.

These visits for 2018/19 have currently been agreed by the Headteacher. Others will be added throughout the year. There is no guarantee that they will all go ahead as this depends on student uptake. Further details on each visit will be given out to the year group/classes involved by the member of staff organising the visit.

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