Message from the Headteacher

Welcome to our final newsletter of the year and my final piece before I depart. I have written a separate letter to you all, and so this is just a brief introduction to the action-packed newsletter for this tern. 

It has been a long term, but it has also been a joy to see the return of so many of the things that we hold dear here at HGS - Gym and Dance Display, Founders’ Day celebrations, Enterprise Day, Sports Day and our annual reward trips, which took place this week.  As you will see from this newsletter there has been a lot going on.  

As I usually do at the end of the academic year, I want to say a huge thank you to all of the staff in school on behalf of you all. They have worked tirelessly and, as ever, I feel very privileged to work with them. 

I also want to say thank you and well done to all our students. They have generally worked hard and have taken opportunities in a range of areas for further development.  

I want to wish our Year 11 and Year 13 students the very best with their results this summer following the resumption of examinations for A Level and GCSEs this year. They have prepared well, and I am looking forward to seeing many of them on results day. Good luck in your future endeavours.  

I wish you all a great summer, with some rest and time with family. I also wish all our students a very happy start to the term in September and every success for their future.     

For the last time -

Mrs Frances Manning, Headteacher

Return arrangements in September

Years 7, 12 and 13 return on Monday 5 September

Years 8 - 11 return on Tuesday 6 September

We look forward to welcoming you all back then!

7A 

First of all,  we were very successful in our Enterprise Day skincare stall. We were so organised in setting up and buying/sharing resources, we ended up selling all of our products! 

We also tried very hard on Sports Day, with all of us volunteering to participate and show our skills. Our best results were both in 3rd position, from Liliana in high jump and Vega in the 800m. We are very proud of all of our form members for always trying their best, including in our exam period. Miss Benmoussa (our form tutor) shared many revision techniques, and this helped us all as a form to really succeed in our exams!

As for individual achievements, Eve has been doing very well in tennis outside of school. She has won a trophy for her club, and also joined the district team and was put forward as a Year 8 despite being a Year 7! Well Done! Another achievement is by Bea, who plays for our local football team Hitchin Belles. She has won the manager's Player of the Season trophy, and had worked very hard to achieve this for the past few seasons. 

We have had so much fun over this last term, and it has been great doing all of these activities either as a form or individually! 

Daya Khera, 7A Form Prefect 

8A

8A has done so much this year and we are very proud of all our achievements. For example on Founders' Day our Enterprise stall was ‘Slaying Slushies’. Through the tough times of rain and wind which really tested our teamwork and collaborative skills, we managed to raise lots of money for the Austen House charity.

Austen has participated in all of the sports activities, and lots of people are in sports clubs out of school and in school, which we have all enjoyed very much. Also, we are very proud to say that we came in 1st place and 2nd place in a few of the events on Sports Day.

We have enjoyed Year 8 so much and loved every moment of it. We have all worked so hard this year in everything we’ve done and have always tried our best even when things were hard. Our form has shown lots of teamwork in this past year - the relay race on Sports Day, the Christmas fair that we ran, and many, many more. We have loved Year 8 and are excited to start a new year of Hitchin Girls' School! 

Evie Scaplehorn, 8A Form Prefect

9A 

Over our first full year, 9A have achieved many things, including completing all the Headstrong challenges. We took part in Enterprise Day with our Charms 4 Charms stall selling bracelets, heart-shaped glasses and homemade candles that came in a range of scents - all of which were available in Pride colours.

Rosie, Holly and Molly represented our school in athletics. On Sports Day, our relay team - Holly, Bethan, Rosie and Naya - came 3rd, Emma came 3rd in 200m and Bethan came 3rd in javelin. Austen house has maintained the highest number of BFL points on the leaderboard.

Daisy Foard, 9A Prefect

10A

We have had a very hardworking, successful term. Firstly, Ruby won the 200m on Sports Day, while Emma came 3rd in long jump and Alessia performed brilliantly in 800m, which we are very proud of.

Kadeeza was very happy with her score of 8 in French. Karina, Kadeeza, Dajore, Sanaa, Ruby, Sophie, Emma and Lotte all helped to set up for Sports Day. Anna is currently working very hard on completing her Grade 5 in clarinet, which is an amazing target.

Ruby and Sophie took part in the Year 10 athletics team. They won the district event, and their county league. Outside of school, Ayesha won the district boxing competition, and Emily passed her dance exam. Sophie won a Scottish horse-riding championship. Overall, it's been a great term.

Sanaa Rehman,10A Prefect

First of all many congratulations to all of Bronte House – you have been awarded a staggering 135,000 positive reward points this year! Well done to every Bronte student for your hard work. Special mention to our top reward point achievers for each year group – Brooke, Yara, Chloe, Erin and Bani.

We have also worked hard to raise money for our chosen House charity in the last term. I am delighted that we raised over £700 for local charity Gorgeous George. Thank you to everyone that contributed in any way that they could.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing Prefect team – Holly, Sarah and Lottie. It has been a pleasure working with you over the last year and I wish you well with your next steps. We have also elected our new Prefects and I want to welcome Ruby, Paris and Bethan to the Bronte team – I look forward to working with you on our House projects. Mrs Zamblera will be taking over the role of Head of Bronte House from next year, and I know she is very excited about the role and the opportunity it brings to contribute to the whole school and the wider community.

I wish you all a restful summer break.

Mrs Lowe, Head of Bronte House

Jewel House has had a fantastic term, and it has been wonderful to return to our Hitchin Girls’ School traditions. We said goodbye to 11J and 13J, celebrating their accomplishments, on Founders’ Day. We wish them all well as they move onto their next life stage, and we hope to welcome back many of our Year 11 students into the Sixth Form in September.

I would like to thank our outgoing Jewel House Prefect Team for the fantastic work they have done during their tenure. The team organised charity events, in addition to attending regular meetings with me. They have always given their time and effort to the House. Many thanks to Sanjeeda (House Captain), Mollie (Deputy House Captain) and Lauren (Health and Sports Prefect).

I would like to welcome our incoming Jewel Prefect Team, who were voted for by the House in our hustings event this term. Congratulations to Mahima (House Captain), Summer (Deputy House Captain) and Ginny (Health and Sports Prefect). We are very lucky to have them, and they have already proven themselves to be a fantastic team! I would also like to thank our Jewel House Prefects across all the year groups. Their enthusiasm for the House, including charity events, inter-house sports competitions and Sports Day itself, has been outstanding!

This term, the House organised and took part in a number of charity events, including a dance-a-thon, a sponsored hide and seek, a sponsored silence, bake sales and a 'hidden gems' boot sale. All of the money raised has been donated to our House charity ‘akt’, who aim to provide safe homes and better futures for LGBTQ+ young people. Across the year we raised £701, which is an amazing amount! Huge congratulations to the whole House!

Jewel House has put out teams for all of our inter-house sports competitions. A huge well done to the Y7 tennis team, who came 2nd in their league. In other sporting endeavours, Jewel competed enthusiastically during Sports Week in both track and field events, culminating in a Friday afternoon showcase of speed, alongside our Enterprise Day! Many congratulations to all of the Jewel athletes and entrepreneurs, for their hard work and dedication!

Thank you to every member of Jewel House, for the passion and determination you’ve shown throughout my two years as Head of House. I know that Mr Derrett will steer the House to more success in future years, as he takes over the role in September!

Wishing everyone a well deserved break over the summer!

Miss Roy, Head of Jewel House

----------------------------------

This term, we have done many things, like house leagues and our charity event (sponsored silence). We have participated in tennis (which we came 2nd in) and rounders (which we came 7th in). For Enterprise Day, we had a lucky dip with homemade items, sweets and toys. We made more than £40! We watched other forms' adverts (which were amazing) and also watched the Founders’ Day assembly with the other Year 7s. Many of our form members are going on reward trips, including to Thorpe Park, Mary Poppins, Whipsnade Zoo and Bowling / Mini Golf. Overall, this term and whole year were amazing, and we are all looking forward to next year in Year 8!

Carrie, 7J Prefect

In the Summer term, 8J have been keen to take part in charity events. On Enterprise Day, we earned around £45. For our sporting events on that day, despite the rain, we managed to come 1st place in the relay and did very well in the other races and field events too. Two members of our form came 5th in tennis and rounders, winning recently with a brilliant team effort!  Also, some members took part in the Gym & Dance Display and did a wonderful job performing. We are working hard on our metacognition passports and are close to finishing! We enjoy our form activities as they bring us closer together, as well as having lots of fun, such as in our weekly Kahoot and Scattergories. We hope we will be able to achieve even more in our next year!

Emilia, 8J Prefect

During this year 9J have accomplished many things, for example our charity cake sale / dance-a-thon, where we raised £196.60 for the ‘akt’ project. As well as that, our form has competed in multiple sporting events, such as the netball and hockey tournaments. During Headstrong, we looked at various career paths and options, as well as completing Healthy Schools Challenges, some of which were run by Libby in our form. Esme, Shayna, Lisa and Libby have also been involved with the Bronze Arts Award. In addition to this, Claudia donated 12 inches of her hair to charity!

We also worked on our Enterprise Day activity, called ‘Price Pong’. Lilly and Amelie worked hard to lead this project alongside the rest of our form. Meanwhile, we have completed our End of Year tests and have achieved many Form of the Week awards. Claudia has also been getting very creative with her handmade clothes she sews for her dogs!

Anna, 9J Prefect

The final term of the year is coming to a close, and for everyone in 12J, I know it's come around quickly! A few weeks ago, we finished our mock exams. Everyone worked incredibly hard and I’m sure that our dedication will pay off when we see our results.

This term we’ve also had a couple of sessions to prepare for the UCAS process, as well as for our personal statements - with the first draft in, we’re working with our form tutors to improve them. This is a pretty daunting task - however, the support we’ve been given so far has been a huge help, as we begin to tackle our post-18 plans. This term, many of us in 12J have also been attending the first few university open days.

Through the summer, most of our form will be working on activities to bulk out our personal statements; whether that's work experience, MOOCs or volunteering. Although these things are important, I hope that we can take this time for ourselves to get some rest after this long year.

With all our exams there hasn’t been much chance for individual achievements. However, 12J member Eleanor went out to run the Race for Life on a sweltering weekend for Cancer Research. Well done Eleanor!

On Founders’ Day, there was the Prefects’ Badge ceremony in the morning assembly, and members of our form went across to the different Jewel year groups to run the quiz, written by us Prefects! Despite it being our sixth Founders’ Day as a form, I know that it’s still a fun day that we all look forward to. Many of us in 12J are part of the Senior Choir who sang in the service at St Mary's - it's crazy to think that in a year's time, it will be us sat in the church becoming Old Girls!

As I’m sure many of us are aware, this is Miss Roy’s last term at HGS! Since she became our Head of House quite a few years ago, I think that Jewel House has truly evolved for the better. So from everyone in 12J, we wish Miss Roy all the best and thank her for everything she’s done.

Enjoy your holidays everyone and have a safe summer break!

Summer, 12J Prefect 

Congratulations to Pankhurst House on winning the fish and chips lunch (plus other food options) for this year. As of 8 July we had just pipped Teresa House at the post - fingers crossed for the overall House Cup competition!

Pankhurst has done extremely well in sports. We came 2nd overall in Form Running at the end of the Spring Term, and were the overall winners on Sports Day. 9P won their tennis league and 7P came 3rd in their rounders league. In 9P, Farah, Hannah W, Leila K, Holly N, Keira, Chloe and Millie competed in the district rounders tournament and finished in 2nd place. Sophie B and Harriet U in 10P both took part in the Gym and Dance Display. And Scarlett N in 7P ran 10K for Cancer Research!

Pankhurst were highly placed in many of the House Cup competitions this term:

Enterprise Day - both stall awards and money raised taken into account - 1st place

Junior Maths Challenge - 1st place

Healthy Schools Challenges - 1st place

Termly highest positive BFL points per student - 1st place

Farah and Hannah in 9P were part of the team who successfully worked on the accreditation of the World Class Schools Mark - well done!  Farah also took part in the student panels set up to interview for the new Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher.  She made some thoughtful and insightful contributions, and did Pankhurst House proud.

I would like to welcome our new Senior Prefect team:

House Captain - Sajaana Jayaseelan

Deputy House Captain - Himara Vasudevan

Health and Sports Prefect - Mahek Sadiq

I would also like to introduce your new Head of House who will be taking over from me in September - Mr D Crowther.  I’m sure he will take you to even greater heights of glory.  I wish him the best of luck!

Mrs Rowe

Even though Rosa didn’t win the House Cup this year, we didn’t come last!  I have been impressed by the general enthusiasm of Rosa students and their willingness to get involved in fundraising and sporting activities. Here are the reports from each of the Form Prefects:

8R

8R came 1st in the tennis tournament and 3rd in the rounders tournament; they raised more than £85 in a bake sale for an Alzheimer's charity; and Amber, Poppy and Bella performed in the Gym and Dance Display! (Miss de Wild thoroughly enjoyed watching them having not experienced it last year with them.)

9R

In 9R, Ash and Lily took part in Founders' Day, and Ash achieved a Distinction in their Grade 5 singing exam and passed their Grade 5 theory exam. Additionally, they have taken part in the World Class Schools symposium and their group had the best presentation.

Lily and Freya took part in the Gym and Dance Display this year and Freya passed her Grade 1 piano exam. Lily won her inter club trampolining competition and competed in an invitational acrobatics competition.

Maliya L won county basketball and was awarded MVP (most valued player), while in recent swimming competitions, Ellie won three Gold medals and one Silver.

Lexi T passed her Grade 6 singing exam. Hannah achieved a Distinction in her Grade 3 tap exam and a Merit in her Bronze jazz exam, plus won 800m on Sports Day.

10R

Abby came first in 1500m in the county league; Charlotte, Emily and Phoebe took part in the Gym and Dance Display; and Libby, Melody and Imogen were invited to a prestigious maths lecture. Meanwhile Annabel and Elodie achieved Bronze in the Physics Olympiad and Maisie achieved Silver. Elodie also won a work experience position at the University of Bristol in the area of Environmental Science.

Welcome to our new Senior Prefects

• House Captain - Jasmine Barlow
• Deputy House Captain - Janice Whonderr-Arthur
• Health and Sports Prefect - Maisy Roberts

Staff changes

Mr Bishop will be joining us as tutor of 9R, as Miss de Wild will be joining the Year 8 team as 8J’s tutor in September. Mr Mason will become tutor of 11R, as Mr Goldring is moving to Italy to teach in an international school there.

We wish Mr Goldring all the best in his new job  I would like to thank both him and Miss de Wild for all their hard work in Rosa House.

I would also like to welcome Miss Murch, who will be taking over as Head of Rosa House from September. I will be concentrating on my role as Head of Year 11, but will still be supporting Rosa House from the sidelines! I’m sure that Miss Murch will take Rosa from strength to strength, and you will gain the success you deserve.

Mrs Rowe

In KS3 Latin, we have spent this term learning more about Caecilius, his family and their life in and ex horto. Year 7 Latin students have ‘attended’ a Roman dinner party and created their own stop-motion 'Latin Movies'. Year 8 Latin students have enjoyed learning about gladiators, and exploring different cultural attitudes between people in ancient Rome and people nowadays in respect of baths and bathing practices. Year 9 Latin students have enjoyed finding out about diversity in ancient Roman Alexandria and the Egyptians. We have been impressed by all our students’ engagement this term.

Year 7 Ancient Civilisations students have really engaged with the War with Troy story. They have made some lovely character diary entries, illustrations of new shields for Achilles and cartoon strips of the action. Meanwhile  Year 8 Ancient Civilisations students have studied the Minoans and are currently enjoying the Return from Troy story.  The students have taken part in some wonderful discussion, demonstrating that they have really understood what led to the end of the Minoan Civilisation. Year 9 Ancient Civilisations students are continuing their study on the Romans, moving onto Roman Britain and the beginning and end of the Roman Empire.

In KS4, Year 10 Latin students have continued to make great progress in their GCSE course in Latin literature and produced great results in their end-of-year exams. Year 10 Ancient History students have continued to engage well with the course materials: they have shown enthusiasm for the topics and have developed discussions about the themes of Ancient Greece and Persia. We said farewell to our Year 11 and Year 13 students and wish them all luck in their future undertakings.

In Year 12, our Latin and Classical Civilisation students have completed their exams and are now working on their UCAS applications.  We have a number of students hoping to study Classics-related subjects at university. We continue to be impressed by all of our students’ professional attitudes to learning and mature approaches.

We are delighted to have booked our Greece Trip 2023 and all places have been allocated. Staff and students involved are all excited to see the return of the annual Classics Trip. We look forward to visiting Athens, Delphi, Olympia, Corinth and many more destinations next Easter. 

Additionally, Ms Emanuel is planning a trip for our Year 9 Latin and Ancient Civilisations students to Verulamium in the Autumn term, so we look forward to this with anticipation.

Congratulations to Ruby and Saran who were our annual winners of the Margaret Beddard Award. Miss Beddard was Head of Classics and later Deputy Head at HGS for many years.  She kindly set up the award for students who show promise and commitment in Classical subjects. Ruby and Saran have been dedicated Classics students for a number of years and took on the role of co-directors of the Classics Play this year - both worthy winners!

We said farewell to Ms McMenamin, our trainee teacher from the University of Cambridge, who will be teaching Classics at Norwich High School for Girls from September.  We wish her well in her future career.

This summer also sees the return of the annual Classics Society BBQ for our senior students and the cast of the play. It is lovely to be returning to our long- established traditions after the disruption of the last couple of years.

Mrs Rowe and the Classics Team

This year has allowed us to return to fieldwork and we have had some fantastic trips. We started with Year 11 visiting Sheringham on the North Norfolk coast in October. This trip covered the fieldwork skills required for their GCSE exam.

Our Year 12 students spent a day exploring the regeneration of the King’s Cross area, investigating the extent to which aspects of deprivation were still evident. They then enjoyed a residential trip to Norfolk, staying in Norwich and preparing for their coursework by practising fieldwork skills. They covered a range of topics including water & carbon cycles, coasts, changing places and urban environments. We even managed to conduct fieldwork with our incoming Year 12 students, who carried out a mini investigation to estimate the carbon content of the trees on Windmill Hill.

We would like to congratulate Elodie in Year 10 who was selected to attend a week’s Earth Science work experience with The University of Bristol; and Aoife in Year 13, this year’s winner of the Margaret Warwick Geography Award.

Good luck to all our Geographers receiving exam results this summer. We look forward to hearing about your successes and welcoming some of you back in September for A Level Geography.

I would personally like to thank the whole Geography team for their support of students, the Department and me through the year.

Have a fabulous summer and enjoy your travels wherever they may take you!

Miss Johns

Geography summer challenge!

Find out more at: https://www.internetgeography.net/geography-summer-challenge-student-guide/ 

The competition is open to any student entering Y7-11 in September 2022.

Evidence for entries should be on a Google Doc or in a Drive folder and should be emailed to emma.johns@hgs.herts.sch.uk by Friday 9 September.

Three entries will be selected as school winners, and the best one submitted to the national competition to win one of three £30 Love to Shop vouchers. Good luck!

As part of their studies of Health in Britain, Year 10 GCSE History students visited the Old Operating Theatre Museum in London. The museum is housed in the attic of a church on the site of the original St Thomas’s Hospital. 

The students listened to an interactive talk about eighteenth-century surgery, which involved operations with no anaesthetics and leg removal in under 2 minutes! The afternoon was spent exploring some of London’s Public Health sites and old hospital buildings. Overall the day was very informative and really consolidated the students’ understanding of Health in the 1700s and 1800s.

Mr Hanse, Head of History

Sixteen students from Mrs Kirtland's and Mrs Le Page's Year 10 classes attended the Maths Enrichment Day at Hertfordshire University this month, led by Val Pritchard of the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme.

Val Prichard sent the following comments about the day:

"Students from each of the nine schools attending the Enrichment Day showed outstanding engagement with the presentations. They coped patiently with hot conditions and rather cramped spaces. I was particularly impressed by the consideration they showed to each other and to presenters. The students did each of their schools great credit. Thank you to all of the teachers and students who took the time to come along."

Our Students were very excited about the day and talked about what they learnt for the rest of the week! Highlights included two of our four teams coming joint 1st and joint 2nd place in the highly competitive 'dragon race'.

We also enjoyed a very engaging session about the golden ratio and why phi is the most irrational number of them all, and a thought-provoking and creative session on three-dimensional models of the fourth dimension.

Students also had fun trying out the functions on A Level calculators, using practical equipment, eating up any 'over-catering' from the lunch provided for teachers, and winning sweets as prizes. Two of them won books in the prize draw too!

Mrs Le Page thanks all the students who took part for their enthusiasm throughout the day. A special thanks also to the site team for getting us there in the minibus.

The Summer term has been a wonderfully busy term in the Music Department. We started off with our Spring Concert in May, which showcased all of our departmental ensembles, as well as a few small groups and soloists. The concert was really well attended, and was a chance to say thank you and goodbye to several of our Year 13 and Year 11 musicians.

In June, our Senior Choir swelled to more than 60 singers, all preparing for a real live Founders’ Day. After many early morning practices and then an intensive couple of days of joint rehearsals with the HBS choir, we performed to a packed St Mary’s Church on 1 July, singing some wonderful choral repertoire as we celebrated with Years 11 & 13 and staff leavers.  

Just two days later, our wonderful musicians were performing again at The Priory Picnic - an outdoor event held at The Hitchin Priory and organised by Hertfordshire Music Service. All three secondary schools in the town were invited to bring a group along, and we took a ‘supergroup’ formed of instrumentalists from Junior Orchestra, Concert Band and Senior Orchestra. They performed brilliantly, and we have already been invited back for next year’s event!



We would like to thank all of the musicians who participate so enthusiastically and reliably in the extra-curricular life of the Music Department. These are some of the events that we really missed in ‘the Covid years’, and we have so enjoyed making music to such a high standard with you all this year. Keep playing over the summer, and we look forward to seeing you back at rehearsals in September.

Athletics

In the County Athletics League the Under-14 team finished in 7th place in their league and 2nd at the plate finals. The Under-16 team finished in 1st place in their league and 3rd in the overall final. Congratulations to everyone!

In the County Athletics Multi Events Competition, Harriet C, Fran H and Lucy B all performed well against some challenging opponents. Congratulations to Lucy who was selected to represent Hertfordshire at the regional finals and Fran who was selected as reserve.

At the County Athletics Championships there were lots of commendable performances. Congratulations to Amelia G (200m), Lucy B (triple jump) and Poppy R (javelin), who were all selected to represent Hertfordshire at the English schools' national competition in Manchester.

District Athletics Championships

We had a great day at the District Athletics Competition, where the hard work during this term culminated in fantastic performances all round, with every athlete getting at least one medal. Congratulations also to Lucy B (triple jump) and Lucy, Erin, Abi and Ruby (relay) who broke the district records. Poppy R broke the district record in javelin throwing a massive 39.76m, and received the ‘Performance of the Day’ trophy. Well done!

Sports Day

It was a joy to see so many students involved in Sports Week, including field events (Tuesday), district athletics (Wednesday) and track heats (Thursday) - culminating in the track finals on an all-types-of-weather Sports Day (Friday)! Well done to all the Sports Prefects for getting their form teams ready to go, and thank you to everyone for your support and cheering during the events. Congratulations to Poppy R who broke the Year 10 javelin record throwing 35.25m, and to Edythe O who broke the Year 7 hurdles record, running a time of 12.2s.

Winners:

Junior trophy: Frank

Intermediate trophy: Teresa

Senior trophy: Year 12

Overall House trophy: Pankhurst

Tennis

Our tennis players have had a great season. It was wonderful to see so many Year 7 students out at Tennis Club, and taking part in a friendly match against St Francis, as well as in the House League. In the Nicola Mabbitt District League the Under-13, Under-14 and Under-15 teams all finished in 1st place, which led to them competing in the county finals at Queenswood. Brilliant result!

In the Under-13 district tournament, the Year 7 team became Silver medalists, losing by one point in the final. The Year 8 team lost to the overall winners in the rounds and won their play-off to finish 3rd overall. In the Uner-15 district tournament, the Year 10 A team won all of their games to become overall winners, and the Year 10 B team played brilliantly, winning Silver medals.

Poppy R and Chloe E got to the semi-finals of the National Girls' Schools Doubles Tournament at Harpenden in May. Congratulations!

Rounders

The Year 7 team demonstrated excellent teamwork and won all of their matches to become district champions. The Year 8 team showed great cooperation and true perseverance, and came 3rd overall, winning Bronze medals. Well done to you all.

The Year 9 team won Silver medals at the District Championships, also demonstrating excellent teamwork throughout and improving in each match. The Year 10 team played outstandingly in all of their matches, getting all of their opponents out with time to spare to become district champions. The Year 11 team also became district champions, a particularly fantastic achievement considering they hadn't played for two years!! Well played all!

Leadership

Our Sports Leaders from across Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 have played a very big part in delivering a number of activities within school and in the local community. This term they organised the House League for rounders and tennis. Eighty-four Year 10 Sports Leaders also ran a multi-sport event for 240 Years 3-6 primary students.

Gymnastics and Dance

Approximately 90 students from HGS, and 40 students from Whitehill Junior and William Ransom Primary schools, took part in the annual Gym and Dance Display for the first time in three years. There were two evening shows and one primary schools’ matinee performance, which were wonderful! Former HGS students performed a piece especially choreographed by Dawn Maydom (former Head of PE) to show our gratitude to Mrs Manning for her wonderful support of PE and Dance at HGS over many years.

Thank you also to our Year 10 GCSE dancers who also performed a farewell dance for Mrs Manning in front of the whole staff. Well done to everybody involved for their hard work, dedication and brilliant performances, to make a very enjoyable show!

To Mrs Edwards on her retirement after 29 years at HGS, we want to say a very big thank you and enjoy your adventures! Mrs Edwards has taught across all Key Stages and courses, specialising in GCSE PE and GCSE Dance set phrase. She has been instrumental in shaping how the GCSE PE course is taught in school, and ensuring students reach their full potential in both the theory and practical elements. She has given more hours than we can count towards our extra-curricular programme, specifically coaching and running teams for cross-country, athletics, trampolining, netball and gymnastics, amongst many others. Her input has been greatly appreciated, and students have had some outstanding achievements under her dedicated leadership. These include the trampolining teams reaching the National Schools Trampolining Finals on numerous occasions, and a number of athletes qualifying to go to the English Schools Championships.

She has always been fully involved in all aspects of PE Department life and traditions, such as Sports Day, Form Running, the Lower School Gym Competition, and choreographing endless performances for the annual Gym and Dance Display. She has always taken on the role of choreographing the renowned finale and doing a fantastic job as Music Director. She has also been on our bi-annual Sports Tour to Valkenburg since 2009, coordinating the netball teams and hosting the popular tour quiz night.

Mrs Edwards is extremely organised, and generous with her skills and time, finding herself on district and county committees. She has coordinated the Stevenage and North Herts district leagues and tournaments for the last ten years. She has been on the county schools netball committee, taken on the role of the district netball rep and managed the Year 10 inter-district netball team for a number of years.

Outside of PE, Mrs Edwards has coordinated the Year 8 residential trip, and run the Duke of Edinburgh programme in school and across the district, with thousands of students achieving the Bronze – Gold awards. What an amazing accomplishment.

We are so grateful for your passion for PE and sport, and the years of service you have given over and above, to provide opportunities for students to enjoy and succeed in PE, both in and out of lessons. We are really going to miss you as a department, and we wish you all the very best and a well deserved rest.

Well done to everybody who has taken part in a very busy schedule in school this term, and congratulations on some fantastic sporting achievements outside of school.

Take care and all the best to anybody competing over the summer holidays.

Miss Evans and the PE Team

We have had a busy Summer term - careers guidance has continued for students, and we saw the remainder of our Year 12s, helping them to start preparing applications for apprenticeships and universities.

Careers guidance at Hitchin Girls’ School is impartial and confidential, and will usually involve some of the following:

• identifying what is important to the student in the short and long term
• talking through subject options and the implications on career choice of programmes of study.
• exploring opportunities for work or study which may be available
• helping students to make decisions about their learning and career options
• forming an action plan to enable students to move forwards to meet their goals.

All students throughout the school are encouraged to use the research tools on the Hitchin Girls’ School Careers Zone website. This was set up to inspire and encourage pupils to consider a range of career options. The site is user-friendly so that all students have easy access to a range of careers materials. The link to this is: https://sites.google.com/hgs.herts.sch.uk/careerszone/home (Since this is for use by Hitchin Girls’ School pupils only – it is accessible only if they are logged in to their Gmail account).

The school subscribes to Unifrog and the Job Explorer Database. These are all accessible from our Careers Zone. The Job Explorer Database is a user-friendly programme and suitable for all students at Hitchin Girls’ School. It enables them to do simple job searches, look at similar job groups together and search for job matches to subjects taken at GCSE. Unifrog is a complete destinations platform, which includes apprenticeships as well as university information.

This term our Year 8 students participated in a careers initiative called ‘Brand Me’, which was created and delivered by ELSA Next Generation. Students were encouraged to design a Personal Brand Shield to promote themselves through words and images. They were encouraged to think about what image might represent them, their values and their favourite subjects. They then selected a quote that meant something to them for the scroll of the shield. The shields went through a selection process and the top 16 were submitted to be judged by local businesses. The chosen winners were Lexie Waters and Ava Lea, and we are sure you will agree their shields are fantastic.

Some useful links:

The Hertfordshire Opportunities Portal (HOP) is a useful website for students to explore Hertfordshire employment, apprenticeships, work experience and company information. Please visit: https://www.hopinto.co.uk/

Amazing Apprenticeships have created a range of resources, and parents can access current and past editions of the specialist Parents’ Pack, filled with advice and guidance, supported by the National Apprenticeship Service: https://amazingapprenticeships.com/parents/

Careermag for Parents connects students and their parents to the latest career and qualification routes available. Parents are one of the biggest influences on their child’s early career decisions. "When your teenager asks ‘what should I do next?’, it can be a daunting question for any parent. Careermag for Parents is here to help you understand teenagers’ options as well as dispelling industry myths and misconceptions along the way’." To subscribe visit: https://careermap.co.uk/careermag/

On iCould there are articles for parents to help when advising children of their different options: https://icould.com/information-for-parents/

Wishing you all a wonderful summer from all of us in Careers.

Ruth, Tina and Andy