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Friday 9th February 2018

Well, I did suggest last Friday that this week would prove to be particularly busy and so it has turned out to be (no winding down for half-term) and that's exactly how we like it. Consequently, there is plenty to read on the website / eNews this week, which will doubtless lift the spirits over a forecasted cold/wet weekend.

Assemblies
This week Heads of Year have been holding celebration assemblies and I hope many of you have received postcards over the last week celebrating individual successes.

Sporting Fixtures
The Year 7 & 8 Netball teams played Rookwood this week. The Year 7's won a closely-fought game 11-10; player of the match was Danni Gooden-Husbands. The Year 8 team also won, with a 7-4 victory and Traci-Ann Henry was named player of the match.

Andover Young Musician Competition
A group of our Musical students entered this competition yesterday evening and performed a number from the School of Rock production. Judges were impressed by the fun and energy emanating from the students, who are to be congratulated for their ability to perform under the eyes of a judging panel. Staff were also impressed by the efforts your children made to make other contestants feel comfortable and valued.

Safer Internet Day 2018
Safer Internet Day 2018 took place on Tuesday 6th February 2018 with the slogan "Create, Connect and Share Respect: A better internet starts with you" and it provides a fantastic opportunity to engage with children about their digital lives.

The UK Safer Internet Centre have produced a pack for parents and carers, including conversation starters, a factsheet, family pledge card and more! This film accompanies the Safer Internet Day education pack for parents and carers created for Safer Internet Day 2018. The film looks at what is important in digital parenting and signposts parents and carers to resources they might find useful.

Uniform
As you are aware this far into the school year, students are growing rapidly and consequently some items of uniform become inappropriate for school.

We have delivered an assembly to the whole school and in order to ensure a consistent approach, we have sent letters home if we have noticed that uniform does not comply with the school policy.

In particular we have noticed that some of the skirts worn to school are too short and some are of Lycra material which is not allowed as part of our policy. Some trousers worn to school are in the 'skinny' style. Our guidance suggests that if they are tight at the ankle then they are unsuitable for school.

We have also noticed some students wearing multiple earrings or hooped earrings. Please note our policy is one small stud in each ear. We are also having a drive in ensuring makeup is subtle and appropriate for school. Please support us in ensuring your child's uniform follows the school uniform requirements ready for the start of the new half term. If you have any queries or concerns please contact your child's tutor in the first instance.

Prefect Process
This year, students are being invited to apply to the role of prefect; we are only inviting students who have exemplary attendance, have 1 or less Behaviour points and have been approved by staff as suitable.The Year 10 students had an assembly last week to go through the process and have been able to see who is eligible to apply to the position of prefects. The invited students are being asked to write a letter of application which is due in on Wednesday 21st Feb. These will then be viewed by the Year 10 team and prefects will be selected. Selection of senior prefect roles will be via a formal interview process. We will be allowing a second tranche of applications in the summer term.

Musical Change of date
The public performances of this year's musical School of Rock have been put back to the week commencing 21st May. Public Performances will be on Wednesday 23rd, Thursday 24th and Friday 25th May, starting at 7.00 pm.

500 Words Challenge
The English Department are challenging Year 8 students to enter the BBC national 500 Word Challenge. Students should submit their entries to the English Department by Thursday 22nd February.

Year 11 Mocks
Thank you for your support over the last two weeks. Mock papers will be marked and feedback given to students to pinpoint areas of revision needed for the examinations in May.

Year 7/8 Visit to Boulogne
We have had an overwhelming response to the 8th June day trip to Boulogne and are finalising the list of successful applicants. We have realised that passports may be an issue for many parents, therefore we are applying for a Group Passport. If your child is a British citizen, please do not feel that you have to apply for a passport just for this trip. Mrs Phillips will be in touch with more details after half term.

Be your best!
At Harrow Way we have a commitment to our 3 simple rules:

• Be Ready
• Be Respectful
• Be your Best

I wanted to share with you a fantastic story I came across recently 'The Legend of Cliff Young:' The 61 Year Old Farmer Who Won the World's Toughest Race - a true legend and inspiration. A great example of - Be your best and never giving up!

Every year, Australia hosts 543.7-mile (875-kilometer) endurance racing from Sydney to Melbourne. It is considered among the world's most grueling ultra-marathons. The race takes five days to complete and is normally only attempted by world-class athletes who train specially for the event. These athletes are typically less than 30 years old and backed by large companies such as Nike.

In 1983, a man named Cliff Young showed up at the start of this race. Cliff was 61 years old and wore overalls and work boots. To everyone's shock, Cliff wasn't a spectator. He picked up his race number and joined the other runners.

The press and other athletes became curious and questioned Cliff. They told him, "You're crazy, there's no way you can finish this race." To which he replied, "Yes I can. See, I grew up on a farm where we couldn't afford horses or tractors, and the whole time I was growing up, whenever the storms would roll in, I'd have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 sheep on 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I'd always catch them. I believe I can run this race."

When the race started, the pros quickly left Cliff behind. The crowds and television audience were entertained because Cliff didn't even run properly; he appeared to shuffle. Many even feared for the old farmer's safety.

All of the professional athletes knew that it took about 5 days to finish the race. In order to compete, one had to run about 18 hours a day and sleep the remaining 6 hours. The thing is, Cliff Young didn't know that!

When the morning of the second day came, everyone was in for another surprise. Not only was Cliff still in the race, he had continued jogging all night.

Eventually Cliff was asked about his tactics for the rest of the race. To everyone's disbelief, he claimed he would run straight through to the finish without sleeping.

Cliff kept running. Each night he came a little closer to the leading pack. By the final night, he had surpassed all of the young, world-class athletes. He was the first competitor to cross the finish line and he set a new course record.

When Cliff was awarded the winning prize of $10,000, he said he didn't know there was a prize and insisted that he did not enter for the money. He ended up giving all of his winnings to several other runners, an act that endeared him to all of Australia.

An amazing man! Key message - Be your best and never give up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WXXm-FVB58&t=106s

Hampshire Constabulary will carry out thorough investigations into matters of children sharing explicit videos or photos of another child on social media, and will speak to anyone who has a connection with these incidents.

The advice from the police remains the same; if a child or young person receives an inappropriate image or video on any social media platform, be it Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp or any other channel, they should delete it immediately and tell a trusted adult, for example a teacher or parent.

It is really important that they understand that if they show an indecent image or video to someone else or forward it on to other people, they could be committing a crime and we want to stop that happening. We have been clear that we do not want to criminalise children and that they will not be in trouble if they have made a genuine mistake.

Sadly, we are seeing more offences where children and young people are being targeted by offenders who conceal their identities, and know where to go online to access and initiate false friendships with children. Unfortunately, no-one is immune to the dangers and so it is vital we support children and young people in knowing how to keep themselves safe on-line and to minimise risk. Please discuss this with your children and encourage them to talk to you or another trusted adult if they have any worries or concerns. They can also call ChildLine if they really don't feel comfortable talking to someone face-to-face.

If you have any concerns about the safety of your children online or would like to know more, there is further support and advice for children and parents available on the CEOP website http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/.

A red and silver bike has been left in our bike shed and not reclaimed - if it is not claimed soon we will hand it over to the police. If you think this might be your child's property, please call in with further details.

These visits for 2017/18 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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