This week, three Year 9 students took part in the Rotary Club’s ‘Youth Speaks’ public speaking competition. On the 1st of February, the students competed against students from other schools in the region. This proved to be even more challenging due to the fact that this particular event took place online.
Helsby’s team consisted of Year 9 students Reece H (Chairperson), Matthew H (Speaker) and Henry P (Vote of thanks). The team crafted their own speech that examined finances in football, exploring how money has been spent in the past compared with modern day. They presented a mature and engaging argument throughout and delivered this enthusiastically, with a real sense of passion for their topic. In addition to the delivery of their own speech, the respect they showed and the attention they gave to other teams did not go unnoticed.
Although they unfortunately did not win, the team conducted themselves extremely well during the virtual event. It is clear that they have really developed as public speakers and grown in confidence as a result of their dedication and time working on this project. They represented both themselves and the school to a very high standard and their contribution to this event has been very much appreciated. Well done to Reece, Matthew and Henry.
Using the internet safely and positively is a key message that we promote in Helsby High School, and celebrating Safer Internet Day is a great opportunity for us to re-emphasise the online safety messages we deliver throughout the year. This year Safer Internet Day is focusing on exploring respect and relationships online. The Uk Safer Internet Centre has produced the following resources for use by Parents and Carers.
Organisations and resources please keep these in this order and link them to the resources attached
Conversation starters
Family activities
Family online safety plan
Learn more and get involved
Some other resources which you may find helpful in supporting your child online are:
She has had perfect attendance so far at the year 11 tutoring and before the sessions start each week and she told me that she had applied for an apprenticeship week in Manchester over the October half term.
This apprenticeship week was with the big building companies in Manchester as she wants to be a project manager.
She applied herself to get the pace and travelled everyday to Manchester.
On the course she was expected to do all sorts of activities – making plans, explaining drawings, giving presentations to the other students and filming a youtube . At the end of the week you actually got a design award and a £20 voucher.
When I spoke to her this week, it was quite obvious that she hadn’t shared any of this information.
Connor B
12NLL
Connor B & Caitlyn L nominated by EDO for excellent work in their work experience project
Caitlyn L
12RCL
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Connor B
12RCL
Ms Tatham would like to nominate Connor B, Alex C, Boe K, James M, Maisie W, Jemima W and Ruby W for their outstanding engagement in their work experience project.
Alex C
12AME
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Boe K
12NTU
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James M
12RPA
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Maisie W
12SRA
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Jemima W
12AME
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Ella P
11MMA
Just wanted to pass on some comments from the after school tutors about Ella this week.
Apparently in both sessions she has massively outperformed what the tutors had expected of her.
She was motivated, persevered when it was difficult and generally had a very impressive attitude. For one of the sessions she was actually on her own with two tutors, so she would have been really pushed.
Izzy J
11MMA
This may seem somewhat trivial, but I just wanted to pass on some nice news regarding some of the lovely behaviour displayed by our students. Izzy J and Amy H passed me on the corridor last night whilst they were waiting to start their after-school tuition, I was struggling with a massive armful of exercise book. They both stopped what they were doing, and of their own volition, insisted on taking them off me and walking me to my destination.
Last week Year 11 students started the New Year working in small groups to take advantage of the expertise of members of our teaching staff in a morning of Revision Workshops. Students were divided into 14 groups and had the chance to work with two lead teachers of each group to explore revision strategies and create a bespoke revision timetable that works for them. The two-hour workshop was divided into the following areas.
Being a Success
Resources for Success
Planning for Success
Success and Mental Health
The students had the opportunity to hear a motivational workshop about having ‘A positive growth mindset’ and how this can influence success at this crucial time in their school careers. The assembly was led by Dr Ravetz (School Progress & Pastoral Leader). While the final part of the workshop focused on Mental Health.
Students also received two booklets containing resources to help them in the coming months.
The Assessment Preparation Support Booklet
Year 11 Revision Resources
The presentations and the resource booklets can be found within the files in the ‘Year 11 GCSE Support’ team on Teams.
Students found the workshop a positive experience and felt that the information provided will be useful to support their learning and mental health during the rest of the year. We are proud of the way our students conducted themselves and in the way they prepared resources to support their revision for their upcoming assessments.
At the end of last term our Year 12 Students completed their work experience week, working together on real business projects. We would like to thank our students for their professionalism and hard work during the week and also our staff for their energy and enthusiasm in the support of the programme. A huge thank you also goes to the businesses who gave up their time to join us either in school or remotely to facilitate the work related experiences.
The projects that students were working on were:
Employer
Project
NHS
Plan improvements to a hospital to improve dementia support
Altimex
Design and pitch a new electrical device to help people
Sony Gaming
Identify a gap in the gaming market and design and pitch a new game
Minerva Arts
Market a youth theatre to primary schools that meets their curriculum needs
Lane End Construction
Produce a plan of 30 houses on a Helsby site which maximises revenue but minimises the impact on the environment
Marketing Cheshire
Develop a marketing campaign to attract families with teenagers to Chester and Cheshire
Community Windpower
Choose the best site from 10 options in Scotland to build a new windfarm. Taking into account financial constraints and the effect on the local environment
Our Year 12 students listened and engaged excellently with the material, developing a range of productive ideas and appropriately addressing the issues raised by their link business. These proposals were presented excellently with a professional clarity of which would be appropriate of those in full time work, demonstrating their employability and that they have the skills to ready them for their future career paths. We know that real world experience and working with actual businesses provides students with the best insight into how companies operate and allows them to see first hand the potential sectors they could be involved with in the future.
Feedback from Sony:
“We were blown away by the quality of their work, the amount of thought, effort and polish on show from your students was breathtaking!” Sony Interactive Entertainment
Feedback from our Year 12 Students:
“We really enjoyed the Dementia project with the NHS as it has helped us to see real projects within the NHS and the budget constraints that they face. We learnt how to research and cost a Dementia friendly ward and present our findings as a team. It was a great experience.” GW and SW
“Marketing Cheshire helped me to think about my future career path. I worked on the budgeting section of the project and used Excel for my costings. I really enjoyed this and now want to pursue an apprenticeship in Business Finance.” MF
“The Community Windpower work experience opened my eyes to the career paths that I hadn’t previously considered. I enjoyed learning about windfarms and applying my geography, but most of all working with people that I don’t usually work with and presenting our best windfarm location.” AS
“The Community Windpower work experience allowed me to understand the challenges of a real project such as setting up a windfarm and team working in a professional environment.” OS
“I enjoyed the Sony work experience – working as team and developing new gaming ideas. Doing the presentation pushed me out of my comfort zone.” MGL “I thought the Sony work experience project was helpful in improving my presentation skills and managing to get a real task done to a tight deadline.” BS
Please also note that work on the installation of the new cycle path from Frodsham along the A56 has started today, with single file traffic for the last 100 metres or so before school in a westerly direction (ie travelling from Frodsham to Helsby). If these roadworks are still in place later this week (and they may well be) then this is likely to cause significant disruption at the start and end of the school day and parents travelling to school from the Frodsham direction may want to allow extra time for the journey to school in a morning in particular.
Well done to our Stars of the Week! Headteacher Mr Hill rewarded students with croissants and a bonus break time for their beautiful festive card designs. A collage of the cards is proudly displayed at our reception and will be posted online for our end of year celebrations!
Please click on the video link to find out more information about:
• How we set Target Grades in the Sixth Form • How Target Grades are used • How progress is assessed • Reporting to Parents and Carers ( including Key Dates)
