View this or a previous version in a web browser.

Friday 19th October 2018

It has been an incredibly busy half term that seems to have flown by. Students have settled into their new year groups and timetables and there is a very industrious atmosphere round school as you observe our young people engaging with their learning and extra-curricular activities.

It was a long day in London on Tuesday as I attended the ASCL Regional Conference. This was really informative with updates about the key national issues in one day from the ASCL Specialist team.

Today I was delighted to receive a letter from the National Citizen Service to say we have achieved Champion School status at the Bronze level due to the level of participation of our Year 11 Leavers over the summer. The NCS programme is available to all Harrow Way students in Year 11 and will be launched at Harrow Way on 11th February 2019 to both students and parents.

We also hosted our annual LEARN event today where 30 trainee teachers joined us for the day to enjoy various sessions put on by our own staff about pace and engagement in the classroom.

This week has finished with some fantastic celebration assemblies led by our wonderful Year leaders. We have had so many events going on, most of which have previously been described in some detail in the ENews, have made it a truly memorable 7 weeks. All that said, I'm sure staff and students are very much looking forward to the well-earned break.

National Performance Tables 2018

On Tuesday 16th October the national performance tables were published for the first time in relation to the 2018 summer GCSE results. We are again delighted to be ranked so highly in the county with our positive progress 8 score. This was the highest progress 8 score in the local area. Our Progress 8 figure puts us in the top 25% of secondary schools in Hampshire.

Clearly, none of this is achieved without the hard work of our students and the dedicated staff team that we have here at Harrow Way. We know too that parents play a pivotal part in encouraging and supporting such achievement.

As a school, whilst we are, of course, delighted by these strong indications of the impact of our work, we are nonetheless committed to further improvement, as we would never wish to stand still.

Progress 8 measures a student's progress between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 across eight key subjects. It shows whether students have performed to expectation, based on a value-added measure using Key Stage 2 English and Maths as a baseline. This new measure is designed to encourage schools to offer a broad, well-balanced curriculum.

Year 11 Mocks
Year 11 have had a really positive first half term, showing real maturity and determination to achieve their best. They are now preparing for their first set of core mock exams in English, Maths and Science starting on Tuesday 20th November. These mocks will give students their first chance this year to practice preparing for a sequence of exams and also to see how they are progressing in each subject.

Students are reminded that revision sessions run on a Tuesday (Science), Wednesday (Maths) and Thursday (English) every week until 4pm.

You can link to all the Mock Exams being taken this term here. This is on the Year 11 Parent page on the website. As well as the core exams mentioned above, these also include French and Spanish Speaking w/c 29th October; a L2 Health & Fitness mock on 29th October with the external exam on the 7th November and Art mocks on 8th and 9th November.

Sporting Fixtures
A busy week for the boys' teams. The results were mixed, but staff have had nothing but praise for the students' tenacity and commitment both during the matches and turning up for training each week. The improvements keep coming!

Mrs Gibbs - Art Exhibition
You may be interested in paying a visit to the Weyhill Fairground over half-term. Our Art teacher, Mrs Jenny Gibbs has an exhibition of her art work on display. The Weyhill Fairground's website for more details is here.

Battlefields Tour
Two year 9 students, and a member of staff, are off to France and Belgium on Sunday 28th October on the government funded First World War Centenary Battlefields Tour. As part of the tour opportunity they will consider the wider impact of what they have learned and how they can use it around the school or within the community. We look forward to incorporating their experiences and thoughts in the school and wider community.

School Visits
50 Geography students visited Salisbury City Hall yesterday evening to watch the Ocean Film Festival. The film trailer can be found here: oceanfilmfestival.co.uk

Following on from the Year 8 student visit to the Hampshire Book Awards, the school were pleased to receive a letter from the winning author Tamsyn Murray. Each student who took part in the process will be given a copy of Tamsyn's letter to bring home. She said in her letter "I truly loved meeting you all yesterday - it was an honour and privilege to talk to you about Instructions for a Second-hand Heart." "Days like yesterday don't come along very often; I'll always treasure and remember it. Thank you for making me feel so very welcome and for choosing my book as your winner".

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.

Harrow Way Community School (All Parents) Mailing List

Please contact the Admin Office, including your e-mail address and child's name (if applicable) to update your contact details or unsubscribe. Contact the school here.