Hitchin Girls' School Parent Portal - Y7 - 11 Weekly Newsletter

We have an online absence reporting form for all absences (whole day or part of the day). If you are unable to use the form you will need to email absence@hgs.herts.sch.uk with the student's name and tutor group, reason for absence and expected return date (if known).

WEEKLY MENU

[Every Day - Pasta / Jacket Potatoes & Toppings, Panini of the Day]

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(V) = Vegetarian (GF) = Gluten Free

SCHOOL NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Good afternoon,

Today sees the last of the public examinations take place and I would like to extend huge congratulations to all the students, families and staff for their work in navigating exam season. A special mention must go to our Exams team - Mrs Emmings, Mrs Pargeter and Mrs Adams, as they have administered all the exams and dealt with the processing of thousands of exam scripts, as well as all our invigilators - well done and thank you! Of course, it doesn't stop there, as we continue with our mock exams for Year 12, which started this week. Year 12s have managed their first week of exams well, and I wish them every success for the remainder of the mocks period.

The summer term is not just about exams, it's also full of rich experiences for our students. This week there have been a number of sporting events, including athletics meets, a very successful district tennis tournament and the Year 7 Netball Day with an England player.

It was wonderful to see parents in school again on Wednesday for the D&T information evening. Also this week, I had the pleasure of awarding Emma B in Year 8 a Headteacher's Award for achieving the 'Platinum Readers Award'. It was great to speak with Emma about the books she has read and her love of reading shone through - well done Emma.

Next week we look forward to the Sports Day events, Gym and Dance Display rehearsals, Leavers' Supper and Founders' Day on Friday. Also, we have our first diving trip taking place next week - students and staff leave for Cornwall on Sunday and I wish them a very successful trip.

As you will be aware, further strike action is planned for the 5th and 7th of July; I will be writing to families next week to clarify the details for these 2 days.

Finally, I want to finish with a celebration of the work Eco Club has been doing. All year the club has been transforming areas of land around the school to grow crops, encourage wildlife and bring some natural beauty to the site. One particular area was identified as a wildflower garden; for months it was a patch of soil, but just this week it came into full bloom and looks stunning. Well done and thank you to Mr Lynn, Mr Buckridge, Mr Beardmore-Crowther and all of the students that have put hours and hours of work into this.

Have a good weekend everyone.

James Crowther, Headteacher

Reminder - we are a nut-free school

Students must not consume nut or peanut products, such as Reese's or Snickers, on school premises, as this puts our students with severe allergies at risk. Thank you for your cooperation.

Reward Trips

Reward Trip allocation will be done early next week, and will then be communicated to students and parents/carers along with payment details.

Enterprise 2023 - Friday 30 June

On Founders' Day students from Years 7 - 10 will be running enterprising activities during the afternoon - there will be lots of stalls selling all sorts, from homemade food and drinks to games, crafts and beauty.

Stalls will run on a cash-only basis so students may like to have money with them on the day to make purchases. All proceeds will go towards Phase Hitchin and our school's Eco Club.

Year 7 Netball Day

We were very privileged to have Ellie Rattu from England Netball in school to coach our Year 7s this week. Ellie plays for England (Vitality Roses) and London Pulse in the Netball Superleague, and gave our students a fantastic first-hand training experience.

Dive Project Cornwall

Last summer, a fantastic group of students in our Biology Society constructed a 2.5m model of a native basking shark out of single-use plastic to highlight the pollution in the oceans. Their creation won a national competition, and the prize was 20 places on a scuba diving course in Cornwall!

More than 70 students from Years 9-13 applied for the course, and now the 20 who were awarded a place are heading off to spend a week in Porthkerris near Falmouth. They will be learning more about our oceans from the Marine Conservation Society and local universities, and will return as PADI-qualified open-water divers and ocean influencers!

Next academic year they will be working in school on projects to educate other young people on how we can tackle some of the issues facing the world’s oceans today. They will also have a prestigious and valuable qualification and be able to dive anywhere in the world.

We’re hoping for super weather and calm seas, and we’ll keep you posted on their progress!

Gold and Silver in the tennis district tournament

In the district tennis tournament held at Letchworth Tennis Cub this week, all students played really well in their respective doubles teams. The U15 A team were Silver medallists in their competition, and U15 B won their tournament. The U13 A and B teams won some challenging matches and became district champions!

NHS competition finalists!

Sonika and Jasleen in 7F took part in the national final of the 'Step into the NHS' competition last week, having won the regional competition for East of England. The competition asked students to design an advert for an NHS role and they chose to produce a film about becoming a Pharmacist. Well done to you both!

Project Polyglot

A huge well done to the Year 10 linguists who have completed Project Polyglot. Last week we had 22 of our students teaching French and Spanish to Years 3 - 6 pupils across Whitehill, Wilshere Dacre and William Ransom primary schools.

Their brief: to create an engaging foreign-language lesson designed to bring the language to life! The result: the primary school children enjoyed lessons on topics ranging from food and holidays to the solar system and Beauty and the Beast.

Our Year 10s worked very hard to produce excellent lessons and resources, and the children were certainly engaged. Many of them hoped the HGS students would be coming back again to teach a third lesson!

We look forward to launching the project again next year.

KS3 Photography Club

Sharing some of the fantastic pictures taken by Years 7 - 9 in Photography Club this term! In Week 1, they looked at the basics of camera use, and then went out and captured textures around school. It was all about seeing the school site in a different way by getting up close to interesting surfaces. Look out for more stunning images in the next instalment!

Trampolinists in regional finals

Congratulations o Year 9s Freya and Isabelle for their trampolining successes at the weekend! They both finished 4th in the regional finals in their age groups (13-14 & 15+ respectively). Our thanks to the coaches at HBS Revolutions as always.

Athletics successes

Congratulations to our Year 7 and Year 9 A and B teams who both won their respective age groups on Wednesday at the District League fixture. We are now waiting for overall results from the league to find out where we finished.

Also congratulations to our County League U14 team, who have made it through to the Cup Final taking place on Tuesday 4 July. They will be against the best schools in the County. Our U16 team have made it to the Plate Final on Monday 3 July.

Well done to all those who have competed in a County League fixture this term and good luck to those who are in the final!

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CAREERS SPOTLIGHT

NOTICEBOARD - LOCAL PROVISION

HAPpy Holidays

For students in receipt of Free School Meals

Looking for something to keep your children entertained this summer holiday?

Through DfE funding, Hertfordshire County Council and Herts Sports Partnership have co-ordinated a huge range of activities running at different venues across the county.

Each activity will offer a nutritious meal, and all of this is free to young people in receipt of benefits-related Free School Meals.

Eligible families can book for free using the unique HAPpy Booking Code: 3JH@XR

Activities are searchable by postcode or the child's age. Places are limited and strictly on a first-come basis, so be quick and book online from NOON on Monday 26 June. https://www.sportinherts.org.uk/booking

Additionally, there's a range of online activities to look through, with ideas for learning more about history, music and theatre, plus ways to keep your family active for 60 minutes each day! View these at https://www.sportinherts.org.uk/haf/enrichment

More information with links to a variety of organisations and useful advice can be found at https://sportinherts.org.uk/useful-local-services

NOTICEBOARD - EDUCATION / CAREERS

IEUK stands for Internship Experience UK, a four-day virtual internship programme (26 - 29 June) which takes place every summer - each year there's a completely new programme designed to support you with your career. So far, more than 140,000 students and graduates have taken part and reaped the rewards of spending a few days of their summer with the world’s top employers. 10,000 of them have even secured roles with the firms they met on the experience.

Find out more and book