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Friday 24th January 2020

It's very quiet in school (7.10am) as I'm putting together this week's e-news; I can't quite believe it's Friday already again; the end of the week does seem to come around ever so quickly but I suppose that's an indication of how busy and productive things are.

Leadership and Learning Partner Annual Visit
On Wednesday we had our LLP (Leadership and Learning Partner) visit from the Local Authority. The purpose of the annual visit was to moderate and ratify the school's self-evaluation process.

During the visit an extended discussion was held with me regarding the school's internal data, self-evaluation and planning. A learning walk was carried out to view the school in session. Meetings were also held with senior and middle leaders, as well as discussions with Year 11 students. Below are some of the comments from the feedback.

"The school will remain low priority for the Local Authority. This is because there is very good leadership capacity and leaders are focusing on improving teaching and learning in order to further improve outcomes for the key groups of pupils. Teachers are willing to refresh their thinking and look to research finding to support further developments."

"I didn't see any low level disruption in any of the lessons I visited"

The Highest Ranked School in Hampshire for Performing Arts (Drama and Dance) and D&T (Catering)
Out of the 69 secondary schools in Hampshire we were ranked 1st for Student Progress in both these subjects in 2019. We also were ranked 2nd for Business Studies and 6th for Science and Media Studies.

Youth Speaks Competition - Debating Success
I was delighted to receive an email from Mrs Bain on Thursday morning making me aware of the success of our debating team, who had taken part in the Rotary 'Youth Speaks' Competition.

"We won our Intermediate Category and are through to the next round. More exciting than this though, one of the judges took me aside and said we had scored higher than both of the senior teams and we had great potential to do well in the competition!"

Our team consisted of Elliot Adams, Charley Kinghorn and Kiah-Leigh Hutchinson. Well done, and good luck with the next round!

Hampshire Youth Parliament
Our Member of Youth Parliament, Dmitrijs Meiksans, has asked me to make all students aware that as a school, we are taking part in the 'Hampshire Youth Parliament Elections' and this time the elections are electing the new Support Member of Youth Parliament (SMYP) for our constituency of North West Hampshire.

There are two candidates running for elections, one of which is our very own Charley Kinghorn from Year 9 and the other candidate is Eleonore Thirlet from Bishop Challoner Catholic Secondary School in Basingstoke. The job of the SMYP is to be by the side of the Member of Youth Parliament (MYP), when going around the local community and listening to the 22,000 young people within the constituency and bringing about change. Our MYP is Dmitrijs Meiksans, also from Harrow Way.

We would like to wish Charley good luck and we eagerly anticipate the results.

Year 9 Parent Consultation Evening - Thursday 30th January
The Parents Evening site is open to Year 9 Parents to book appointments to see subject teachers. Please follow this link to log in. Parents have received an email with details and instructions on how to access the site.

Sporting Success
Harrow Way took a year 7 and year 8 girls team to the district basketball tournament on Wednesday. The year 8 girls are regular attendees of the KS3 lunchtime basketball club and the year 7 girls were selected due to their promise in the sport. Both teams did exceptionally well, finishing second out of 5 teams in their groups.

Year 11
Thank you again to all the parents / carers who attended last week's Year 11 parents' evening, and of course to all my colleagues who no doubt provided the usual insightful feedback and targets for the months ahead. As I have alluded to previously, we are generally very pleased with where the Year 11s are at currently but, of course, there's still plenty of time left to make those small incremental gains towards success in the summer.

Revision programme and Year 11 Pre Public Exam Timetable
All Year 11s are expected to attend the Revision Programme after school each day. Various departments are opening their doors each day to ensure students have a space to study, ask questions and tackle the areas they find hardest. Daily sessions are as follows:
Monday - Humanities
Tuesday - Science
Wednesday - English
Thursday – Maths
Friday – All options

Year 11 Pre Public Exam Timetable w/c 10th February.

School Visits
The Climbing Club enjoyed a superb day at Bouldershack on Wednesday, with some challenging climbing offered to our students. See our Twitter Feed for some great photos.

The History Department are visiting Warwick Castle with Year 7 students today. Mrs Brown will let us have some photos ready for next week's enews.

We are pleased to announce an additional overseas visit opportunity. Students in year 11, 10 and 9 have the opportunity to join a visit to New York City USA leaving on Wednesday 15th July and returning that weekend. To secure flights and accommodation a contribution of £860 will be required and reply slips expressing an interest in taking part in the visit need to be returned by next Friday, 31st January. A copy of the letter can be found here a link to the expression of interest form can be found here. Students should talk to Mr Fluellen for more details.

Additionally, you may like to know we will be offering a Ski Visit in Spring 2021. Further information will be available next week, but we are planning a visit to the Aosta Valley during the Easter Holidays.

Having a post Christmas clear out/Spring clean?

The Art Department would love to take the following off your hands:

• Nail varnish
• Fabric
• Wool
• Sewing stuff
• Glossy magazines/Sunday supplements
• Plastic carrier bags (especially colourful ones)
• Sweets/confectionery - wrappers, boxes, everything
• Maps/compasses/anything associated with journeys
• Things associated with laundry: baskets, packaging, soap, washing up liquid…

These visits for 2019/20 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. These details are also available to view on our Letters Home page on the VLE. Links to available individual letters are below.

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.