On Thursday 20th June after the Maths GCSE examination, the Year 11s will have a Celebration Assembly during which they will receive their hoodies, year book and Prom tickets.
Pupils who are not involved in the GCSE examination are invited into school at 11am. They will have to wear their uniform and sign in at Pupil Services. They should then go directly to the Main Hall.
After the Assembly, pupils will be expected to leave the school premises.
A decision has been made to close the school for students from Years 7, 8, 9 and 10. The school will be open for staff not taking industrial action and for Year 12 students, who may wish to use the facilities or get extra support from staff in school.
Please see letter for further details.
Union Strike Action 270613a
Dear Parents/Carers
During the last and current academic years, the school has hosted some very successful Parental Forums to update parents on aspects of school practice and procedures and to gather parental views and ideas for future developments.
The next forum of this academic year has been arranged for Thursday 20 June 2013 in E1 from 6.30 pm. The school’s development priorities for 2013/14 will be available to parents for comment, feedback and any further suggestions.
If you wish to attend the Parental Forum on Thursday 20 June 2013 I should be grateful if you would complete the slip below and return it to school by Monday 17 June so that we can plan effectively for the event.
Yours sincerely,
K Neal (Mrs)
Assistant Headteacher
Year 7
Will be participating in a number of activities around the theme of Cultural Diversity. They will be in Form Groups and will attend a variety of workshops which will include topics such as: Fairtrade; Mancala Maths; Bunraku Puppets; Chemistry of Colour and Marvellous Mythical Monsters.
They will be given a detailed programme nearer the time and introduced to the week’s key aims in an assembly. There is a trip to Chester Zoo on Monday/Tuesday, led by the Art Department and a trip to Tatton on the Friday, led by the History Department. The students will not be required to wear school uniform (except for the zoo trip). A Fairtrade shop will operate at lunchtimes during the week and the canteen will be offering a culturally diverse menu.
Year 8
Will be working on the theme of Healthy Living. Students will work in teams within their form groups and they will take part in a range of workshops based on eating healthy food and a series of fitness activities. There are also investigations, experiments and quizzes on the subjects studied during the week. A number of coaches come from outside school and students take part in new sports such as fencing and archery. Teachers from Helsby High School run a variety of activities and workshops including Body Combat and Murder in the Jungle. Students will also take part in a trip out on either Tuesday or Wednesday and during the trip they can try a new sport or several sports or try to improve on a sport that they are already quite good at.
Year 9
Will be participating in a number of activities around the theme of Current World Affairs using a Teen Newspaper as the vehicle for their work. They will spend Monday & Tuesday attending specialist topic sessions to provide them with stimulus material for their Newspapers. Mobile Applications, CSI Helsby and the Economy are just a small selection of the topics being delivered. On Wednesday the whole year group will visit the World Museum in Liverpool for further reporting opportunities. Thursday and Friday will be spent in form groups creating their newspapers in pairs. Each form will judge their newspapers recommending one to enter in to a Newspaper of the Year Award. The best newspaper will win the award, with other prizes for specific skill demonstration.
Year 12
Will be engaged in a mixture of activities.
All students will be required to spend a minimum of 2 days in school, for sessions running between 9am and lunchtime.
In addition, Year 12 students are also asked to use the remaining time during the week on the following:
Monday 15th July: Groups A and B in school; Tues 16th A and B; Wed 17th C and D; Thurs 18th E and C; Fri 19th D and E
Groups: A (Students in Tutor groups BWE, DVA, DWI): B (ECU, EEN, IDU): C (JMN, JMO, KBR, KED): D (KLI, MMA, MWI); E (NBA, SRA, VCR)
Attachment: Activity Week 2013 (Adobe PDF Document)
A chance to win every Month!
For only £5 per month you can help raise money for the school and give yourself the opportunity to win some cash yourself. Every month we draw three lucky prize winners sharing out 50% of the revenue received.
Sign up today and help your school! Click here to print off an application form and return to Mr Capstick at the school or alternatively contact Tony Smart (tonyrsmart@btinternet.com).
Year 11 student George M has become the Cheshire High Jump champion after winning the Inter boys event, held at Macclesfield athletics track, on Saturday 8th June.
George, who was also a key member of the U16 national basketball finalist team, jumped an impressive 1.70m to win the event. He will now represent Cheshire at the inter-counties Mason Trophy competition.
Cheshire West and Chester Parent Partnership Service are holding a Parent, Carer Forum Meeting on Thursday 27th June 2013 at the Mercure Chester East Hotel in Christleton.
If you’d like to find out more about this Forum, then please have a look at the attachment below.
Attachment: CWaC Parent, Carer Forum Meeting Leaflet (Adobe PDF Document)
The recent retirement from football of David Beckham stirred memories of a bright Spring day in 2000 when the 24 year old soccer star, at the height of his fame as a Manchester United player visited Helsby High School. Beckham’s visit was the result of a pupil, Andrew Dunning, winning a national competition to design a school football strip and the prize was to have the strip made and for David Beckham to come to school to coach the football team in their new strips.
Back in 2000 David Beckham was still receiving a great deal of bad publicity after being sent off in the 1998 World Cup finals. However, as the Chester Chronicle press article shows, he impressed everyone at the school with his professionalism, demeanour and particularly the rapport he established with the pupils he met. He faced a question and answer session with over 200 pupils in the hall, a daunting task for anyone, but he was articulate and humorous throughout.
The surprise of the day was that David did not come alone; he brought with him his eldest son Brooklyn, who was a very young baby at the time. The Head’s office had to substitute as a nursery for the afternoon and when Brooklyn’s nappy needed changing it was his Dad who jumped in to do the job.
The day was also memorable as it was David’s last engagement for his sponsors Brylcreem and the day after his visit to Helsby he hit the front pages by having his head completely shaved. David Beckham has gone on to sport many different hairstyles since then and become hugely famous all over the world but those who were at the school in 2000 will always remember his visit and how he made the day for Andrew and his friends in the Year 9 football team.
Attachment: Chester Chronicle Press Clipping (Adobe PDF Document)
Are you curious about science and medicine? Then why don’t they come along to the third Barts and Queen Mary Science Festival?
This year’s festival will be held in the Octagon which is at Queen Mary’s Mile End Campus. The event features a lively science market with exhibition stands and talks which present science in fun and interesting ways.
Everyone is welcome to this free event. Online registration is now open and can be found at: http://bartsqueenmarysciencefestival.eventbrite.com.
For further information or if you have any queries about the day please email: sciencefestival@qmul.ac.uk
Throughout the spring term the Biology Department put on a series of after school talks for the benefit of our Year 13 Biology students. The mini lecture series was called ‘Beasts & Biscuits’ and was given by members of the Department on topics of interest or expertise.
With many of our students going on to study Biology related subjects at university it was an opportunity to illustrate the level of detail that they will be required to understand. There were fascinating talks on diving bird physiology, nerve regeneration from first hand Ph.D. research by Drs Parkes & Clarke, a Masters-level ecology talk, a discussion of human evolution as well a very interesting Applied Biology talk on hormonal assays.
Some Year 12 students and Year 11 biologists also attended when their AS/GCSE revision sessions allowed. The students said these talks ‘were interesting and gave me an insight into the wider applications of Biology’, ‘a brilliant opportunity to hear about teachers’ areas of expertise’ and ‘were delivered enthusiastically and had great biscuits!’.
Similar talks are planned for early next year including a guest speaker Dr Jon Green, a marine biologist from Liverpool University. Students are invited to then pick his brain with regards to his role as a University Admissions Tutor and so improve their university applications.
Dr R Parkes
