Poundland founder to inspire Year 9 students for the future

Photo courtesy of www.stevensmith.com

Year 9 students will be given practical help and support to make the right subject choices and set them on the path to future success - as well as a motivational talk from multi-millionaire Poundland founder Steve Smith.

The Spring Term is an important one for Year 9 pupils as they select four foundation subjects to study alongside the core programme of English Literature, English Language, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Citizenship.

As part of the annual Course Choice event - on Wednesday, January 11th - Yr 9 students will get hands-on experience of a range of GSCE classes and college courses, whilst listening to a presentation from Connexions. Successful businessman, Steve Smith, a former market trader who founded retail empire Poundland - which he later sold for £50 million - will be visiting the school to speak to students and inspire them to pursue their career dreams.

Displays will be set up on the day to showcase what various courses have to offer and how they are able to help students fulfil their ambitions in future careers, including travel & tourism, construction and art.

Mr D Brook, Head of Middle School, said: “The event is all about helping our students plan for the future.

“This is the first big life choice many of our students will make and our Course Choice event gives them a glimpse of what each course has to offer to put them on the road to success.

“It is a very exciting time but students will need lots of support both from home and school to make the right choices.”

Year 9 students will sit school exams in all foundation subjects early in February, which will help them choose the correct subjects and courses going forward. A Parents Evening will also take place on Wednesday, March 29th to give students, parents and carers the chance to discuss options before each student sits down for a one-to-one interview with a senior member of staff in April.

The process will completed by the end of June.

Highfields goes crackers for charity Christmas Jumper Day

Students and staff went crackers for Christmas jumpers to help raise money for charity.

The school’s corridors and classrooms were brightened up with colourful jumpers featuring Rudolph, elves, Santa Claus and snowmen as Highfields came together to celebrate the festive season with a fundraising Christmas Jumper Day on the last day of term.

Each student and member of staff made a token donation to wear their Christmas jumpers to raise money for Save The Children. The charity works to give children in the UK and across the world a healthy start in life, running world-class programmes to ensure they have a bright future.

Mrs N Clifton, Head of Upper School, said: “Everyone got well and truly into the Christmas spirit by wearing their festive jumpers. 

“It was wonderful to see the school come together to raise money for such a worthy cause.” 

Students showcase talent in Christmas concert

Students showcased their impressive musical talents in a spectacular Christmas concert.

More than 100 musicians, dancers and singers helped to fill the school with festive cheer when they performed a host of Christmas classics and other well-known hits to a packed audience.

The school choir, flutists and ukulele players, as well as members of the strings group, rock bands and cast of this year's school production of High School Musical were among those who performed in the musical extravaganza. The audience then got chance to join in with a finale of Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody.

Visitors also got the chance to browse through dozens of stalls selling local crafts and take part in a raffle to raise funds for the Save The Children charity.

Head of Performance, Sharon Bishop, who organised the evening, said: "We have so many talented students at Highfields and the Christmas concert is always a great opportunity for them to showcase this on stage.

“Our students put on a great show  and really helped to get everybody into the Christmas spirit."

Consultation on proposed revision to Admissions Policy

Highfields School is consulting to implement a revision to our over-subscription criteria within our Admissions Policy. This revision is proposed to come into effect for entry to the school from September 2018.

On December 14th 2016 the Governing Body resolved to commence the consultation process.

The Admissions Policy can be found here. The proposed revision to the oversubscription criteria can be found on Page 2 Clause 4 - Children whose parent/carer is a member of staff employed at the school.

You are invited to have your say on this revision to the Admissions Policy by email to lbishop@hswv.co.uk or in writing to Mrs L Bishop, Clerk to the Governing Body. Highfields School, Boundary Way, Penn, Wolverhampton. WV4 4NT. Any comments must be received by 3pm on January 31st 2017 at which point the consultation process will end.

Future stars rock the stage at musical showcase

Future stars showcased their stage presence and songwriting talents during a rock music extravaganza.

Year 10 Music students took to the stage for the Rock School event at Wolverhampton’s Newhampton Arts Centre.

Students spent weeks working with Rock School musicians to perfect their performances ahead of the showcase in front of pupils from other city schools.

Music teacher, Miss A.Ross, said: “Our students should feel very proud of how they performed at the Rock School showcase.

“We are lucky to have so many students with amazing musical talent and they really impressed the crowd with their performances."

Highfields hosts JLR careers roadshow

Highfields hosted a careers roadshow run by Jaguar Land Rover to inspire students to pursue their dreams of a future in engineering.

JLR ran the event in conjunction with a number of its leading engineering and manufacturing partners to provide information and guidance to students, parents and teachers about the range of career opportunities available.

The company is staging talks across the West Midlands as part of the careers roadshow and chose Highfields to host the Wolverhampton event for the second year running. 

Jaguar Land Rover - which operates a £500 million engine plant on the i54 site in Wolverhampton - offers a wide range of opportunities and apprenticeships that enable young talent to build experience, gain qualifications and earn a competitive salary while making a real contribution to the success of the organisation and the engineering sector.  

Adrian Jeavons, Careers and Business Links manager at Highfields, said: “The industry demands ambitious and talented young people from various stages of education.  Jaguar Land Rover offers an Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme for those with or currently studying GCSEs and a Higher Apprenticeship scheme for those with or currently studying A Levels.  Many of their partners offer similar schemes.

“We are honoured to have been chosen to host this careers event for the second year in a row to give budding engineers of the future the inspiration to go ahead and pursue their dreams.”

Bake Off success is icing on cake for Highfields students

Budding pastry chefs from Highfields got creative in the kitchen to whisk up Christmas cakes as part of a festive Bake Off competition - and were delighted to finish first and third.

After the country was once again taken into the floury grip of Great British Bake Off fever, Year 9 students were challenged to make their own sweet creations based on the theme of Christmas.

After-school cake decorating classes have been taking place in the run-up to the competition, led by Miss Legister and Miss Williams, to teach students a range of cake decorating techniques, including making fondant figurines, Italian meringue buttercream, royal icing and chocolate shapes.

Highfields students Florence Waite and Chloe Peters were chosen to represent the school in the culinary contest, which also featured students from four local schools - St. Peters, St. Edmunds, Aldersley and South Wolverhampton & Bilston Academy.

Laura Nolan, from The Nuthouse Bakery in Brierley Hill, judged the tasty treats dished up by competitors - and gave Chloe first place and Florence third. Aldersley School took second place.

As the winner of the competition, Chloe will now feature in Cake Masters magazine.

A range of prizes were up for grabs, including free aprons, cake decorating ingredients, two tickets to any International Crafts & Hobby Fair show and a year-long subscription to Cake Masters magazine.

Food Technology teacher, Miss Williams, said: “The cakes served up by the competitors were a fantastic standard. We are delighted for Chloe and Florence on their well-deserved first and third places but everyone involved in the competition did a wonderful job and should be very proud of what they produced.

“It was a great event and staff and students from all of the other schools involved commented on what an amazing time they had. We are already looking forward to Christmas Bake Off 2017!”

Students inspired to tell life stories for film project

Students are being inspired to express themselves creatively whilst developing their storytelling skills under the guidance of internationally-renowned professionals as part of an innovative arts project.

Acclaimed filmmaker and producer, Mohammed Ali MBE - founder of the not-for-profit Soul City Arts community organisation - worked with a group of Year 9 students to empower them to think about their lives and tell their own stories in a creative way.

DJ and Musician, Mathieu Shenton-Barber, photographer/filmmaker, Richard Baddeley, and workshop leader, Manpreet Darroch, also came into school as part of the project to inspire students to look at the current reality of their lives so far and their potential for the future.

The project is funded by the National Network for Collaborative Outreach (NNCO), which is overseen by the Aimhigher partnership. The aim of the NNCO is to deliver outreach events and activities in order to raise aspirations and encourage more people to think about pursuing further education.

Students will use this creative process to give them the confidence to share their stories with students from other schools during an event at Aston University. A film is being created documenting the process of the project and to allow students to explain what impact it has had on them.

Through artistic intervention and creative expression, the project - called TruStories - aims to inspire students to explore, reflect and challenge the beliefs young people have around attainment, aspiration and identity.

Mr Ali said: “Young people use storytelling techniques to engage with an alternative narrative and explore where they want to be in life and what it means to get there.

“This project empowers young people to tell their stories as well as hearing and feeling other people’s experiences. By hearing success stories as well as honest narratives from their peers, young people participating in this project will be inspired to challenge their current status quo.”

Humanities and Citizenship teacher, Mrs C.Hartshorne, said: “We are delighted to be part of this project to work in collaboration with a variety of renowned artists. This will allow students to look at their lives and the direction in which they want to go in future.

“It has inspired them to look at things in a different way, challenge their status quo and then express themselves creatively. I am really looking forward to seeing the finished film following their session at Birmingham City University.”

Talented chefs serve up tasty treats in culinary contest

Two budding chefs from Highfields showcased their culinary talents when they each dished up a tasty two-course menu to impress judges as part of a prestigious competition.

Hannah Mottram and Keano Prescad made it through to the second round of national culinary contest, FutureChef.

The competition is run by the Springboard charity and has been helping to nurture the culinary talents of school pupils from across the country for the past 17 years.

Year 11 students Hannah and Keano were given 90 minutes to dish up a main course and dessert as part of the contest, which was held at University College Birmingham.

Hannah made her own pasta from scratch for a Spaghetti Carbonara main course and created a Panna Cotta dessert while Keano made Salmon en Croute and Crème Brûlée. Competitors were then judged on their skills and techniques, creativity and presentation, nutritional balance, composition, taste and flavour.

Hannah bagged the runner up prize and impressed judges so much with her culinary creations that she has been offered an apprenticeship while Keano’s dishes were such a hit that he has made it through to another competition in December called ‘Young Chef of the Year’.

Food Technology teacher, Miss E.Williams, said: “There is a lot of culinary talent in the school. We were delighted that Hannah and Keano made it through to the second round of the competition and they did themselves proud by creating some fantastic plates of food. It has been a wonderful opportunity for them to experience the highly pressured - but very rewarding - culinary world.” 

Highfields School to host JLR careers roadshow

Highfields has been chosen to host a prestigious careers event run by Jaguar Land Rover to inspire budding young engineers of the future.

JLR will be running the event in conjunction with a number of its leading engineering and manufacturing partners to provide information and guidance to students, parents and teachers about the range of career opportunities available.

The company is staging talks across the West Midlands as part of the careers roadshow and has chosen Highfields to host the Wolverhampton event for the second year running. It will take place from 6pm to 8pm on Thursday December 8th.

Jaguar Land Rover - which operates a £500 million engine plant on the i54 site in Wolverhampton - offers a wide range of opportunities and apprenticeships that enable young talent to build experience, gain qualifications and earn a competitive salary while making a real contribution to the success of the organisation and the engineering sector.  

Its partner companies help to support operations by supplying components or services for its vehicles from the rugged and iconic Land Rover Defender to the exciting new Jaguar XE.

Adrian Jeavons, Careers and Business Links manager at Highfields, said: “The industry demands ambitious and talented young people from various stages of education.  Jaguar Land Rover offers an Advanced Apprenticeship Scheme for those with or currently studying GCSEs and a Higher Apprenticeship scheme for those with or currently studying A Levels.  Many of their partners offer similar schemes.

“We are honoured to have been chosen to host this prestigious careers event for the second year in a row to give budding engineers of the future the inspiration to go ahead and pursue their dreams.”

All places for the careers event must be booked in advance. Please fill in the online registration form using the link http://bit.ly/2fs1QqW to secure your place.