USH Newsletters

11th March 2016

  • Message from Mr Woods

    Hello

    Thanks to the efforts of staff, great things continue happening for our children. The Newsletter never fails to delight us (and doesn't it come round quick?) with its wealth of vibrant student activities taking place at USH.

    It’s wonderful to see our continuing sporting success in this edition too. Congratulations to all our sportspeople and our teams for representing your school. Sport remains a shining star of our school and we are proud of our contribution to regional and national tournaments and leagues.

    Whilst the search continues for Mr Hadfield’s successor and because our children deserve the very best, I am pleased to announce that Mr Hall will be our Acting Head of PE to ensure our students continue to get the most out of opportunities on offer. For consistency, Mr Hall also remains Head of Year 8 and will be ably supported by dedicated department and pastoral teams.

    Stuart Woods
    Headmaster


  • BBC School Report Day

    On Thursday, 10th March, 23 of our year 9 Film Studies students joined schools across the country, in taking on the roles of journalists, reporters and camera crew in creating our school’s BBC TV News Report, 2016.

    The day consisted of a morning briefing, which was followed by a very tight schedule that needed to be kept to rigidly, in order to successfully produce the final piece by the deadline of 4pm. Students carried out some hard-hitting journalism throughout the course of the morning, contacting both internal and external sources to interview them about our top stories, and researching Thursday’s latest news, entertainment, sport and weather, to ensure that our programme was up to date and engaging for audiences.

    The recording of our actual programme was ambitious. We borrowed a vision mixer from St Vincent College and successfully recorded the entire programme live, editing as we went. This harnessed some impressive skill from all students who were involved, and as you can see, generally went without a hitch! We were then left to insert the news feature stories, and upload to the BBC website.
    Overall, the day was a success, and something that the students learnt a lot from, and we feel will remember for many years to come.

    We are looking forward to next year’s event.

    Mrs Turner

    http://uppershirleyhigh.org/bbc-school-report

  • World Book Day

    Thursday 3rd March was World Book Day, and here at USH we organised a series of events over several days in order to celebrate our love of books and reading.
    All week, students were encouraged to be detectives by trying to discover the favourite books of twenty members of staff. There were prizes for the six winners - Flo Stone, Vicky Latala and Olivia Kowalik  in Year 10, Tom Brokenshire in Year 9, and  Justyna Guzowska and Phoebe Barlow in Year 8 - who all managed to track down all participating staff and find out their favourite books.

    On World Book Day itself, the day started with a book quiz for Tutor groups, challenging the students with questions about books for children and teenagers, and with a prize for the winners. Standards were so high that a total of twelve tutor groups scored 100% and we had to draw the winner out of a hat.

    Part of the Library was transformed into a special Book Stall for the day, run by the Librarians. In English lessons, students in Years 7, 8 and 9 were each given a free £1 book token which they were able to exchange for a specially-published World Book Day book at our Book Stall. We are very grateful to the independent bookshop, October Books in Portswood, for supplying the books.

    On Friday 4th March, we were excited to welcome the award-winning children’s author Morris Gleitzman to talk to our Year 7 students and visiting Year 5 children from Shirley Junior School. Morris is the author of over thirty-five books, including the incredibly moving Once series, which follows the adventures of a Polish Jewish boy surviving the Holocaust. After his inspiring talk, during which he shared the secret of writing a good story, Morris stayed behind for book signing.

  • Information about the Y8 Paris Trip

    For Parents of current Year 7 Parents

    The information for our proposed Paris Trip in October 2016 will be coming out to you shortly.  If you have any queries, please contact me.

    Mr Perry

    Martin.Perry@ushschool.org

  • Swimming Success!

    Isabella Fraser-Corbridge recently completed in the Hampshire County Swimming Championships.  She came away from the meet with a total of 6 medals (2 Golds, 3 Silvers and 1 Bronze).  Isabella was crowned Hampshire Champion in the 400m Individual Medley and 200m Butterfly events and her time in the 200m Butterfly currently ranks her 21st in Great Britain in her age group.

    She has qualified for nine events in the forthcoming South East Regional Championships and hopes to qualify for the National Championship in Sheffield later in the Summer.

    Well done Isabella!

  • Well done Toby!

    Toby Hale ran in the English Schools Championships for the U15 Hampshire Squad last Saturday.  Unfortunately Toby was too unwell to finish the race, but he did SO well to get into the squad and was doing a great job before he became unwell.

  • Hampshire Schools Cross Country Championships

    I took seven students to the Hampshire Schools Cross Country Championships in Fawley.  They were representing Southampton District.  It was a very cold and wet day with plenty of boggy ground and puddles to run through!  The runners extremely well, finishing in the following positions:

    Olivia Norton - 82nd
    Hayden Bussell - 82nd
    Chloe Tsao - 57th
    Holly Pitts - 106th
    Leo Dobbs - 44th
    Jack Dodd - 73rd
    Oli Cook - 14th

    Well done to Oli Cook as a Top 14 place means he has qualified to represent Hampshire.  Well done to Olivia Norton who, after she ran, went to play two netball games at the Sports Centre!

    Miss Marks

  • Cross Country League

    We have started the Cross Country League with more success for the second part of the season.  The Year 9 boys have, once again, scored highly.  Team results are as follows:

    Year 7 Boys A Team - 1st
    Junior Boys A Team - 1st
    Intermediate Boys A Team - 3rd
    Year 7 Girls A Team - 3rd
    Year 7 Girls B Team - 1st
    Junior Girls A Team - 2nd
    Junior Girls B Team - 1st
    Intermediate Girls A Team - 3rd

    Keep up the good work for the last three fixtures - if you are interested please come and see me.

    Miss Marks

  • Reminder: Y10 Work Experience (starts 11th July 2016)

    To all parents of Y10 students

    Work Experience commences on 11th July.  You have 3 options:

    Option 1: A two-week placement from 11th-22nd July
    Option 2: A placement from 11th- 20th July
    Option 3: A placement from 11th-15th July

    If you opt for Option 3, Students will be expected to attend School for the last 3 days of term, 18th-20th July 2016.

    Completed paperwork must be handed in by Monday 11th April.

    All students are expected to participate in work experience.  If  you have any concerns or queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

    Carey Anderson, Careers Adviser

    Carey.Anderson@ushschool.org

  • EAL Training at USH

    On Tuesday, March 8th, Upper Shirley High was pleased to welcome the current cohort of Wildern SCITT trainees to our school.  We work closely with the Wildern SCITT Partnership as we have a strong shared commitment to initial teacher training and preparing our future teachers to be effective and empathetic professionals. 

    Joanna Wojcik, our EAL co-ordinator, welcomed our primary and secondary colleagues with a Polish lesson.  She spoke exclusively in Polish thus demonstrating how daunting it must be for some EAL students to cope in an English speaking classroom.  She then introduced a range of useful and practical strategies which she has drawn together from her wealth of teaching experience.  The session closed with some reflective group work based on case studies and how all those present could implement what they had learnt.

    Thank you Wildern Partnership SCITT trainees for your enthusiasm and high levels of engagement.
    We look forward to welcoming you again soon.


  • Site Update

    We have needed to erect fencing around the front area of our school due to the boggy ground which is a slip hazard for our students and staff. It is not a permanent measure and will be resolved with the installation of artificial grass on the worst affected areas over the summer holidays. Until the ground hardens the fences will need to stay in place.

  • Used Postage Stamps

    Many thanks to those of you who have sent in your used postage stamps. Four packages of them have already been sent to the RNIB to fund Guide Dogs for the Blind.  Please continue to give your stamps to Reception in order for us to continue helping in this way.  A 1cm border should be left around the stamps when they are removed from the envelopes.