USH Newsletter 7th June 2019

I was delighted to attend the SSAT Award ceremony on Thursday evening to collect an award for educational outcomes on behalf of USH. This award is testament to the hard work and collective ambitions of our students, staff and parents. Congratulations everyone. Behind every headline number are real stories of real children, real lives and real progress. USH will never lose sight of this in recognition that our exam results are important but not ALL important.

I am also pleased to announce that we have been invited to The Leading Edge Schools Network- a prestigious group of the best performing schools in the country. Being part of this group will ensure we share and learn from the best educators and so continue to sustain a high-quality education for the children of Shirley.

Mr Woods

As we know the Head Boy and Head Girl campaign is in full swing; voting will be on Tuesday 11^th where all students and staff will get one vote. The student leadership team is our biggest ever with more girls applying than ever before. Please see below the students and their roles within the team. What a fantastic team to go into Year 11.

These great local photos show the role that this small part of Southampton played in D-Day - troups mustered, and military vehicles, equipment and stores were stored both at The Sports Centre and on The Common, with many mllitary vehicles filling local streets. These photos show American troops and their vehicles in Rockleigh Road in the immediate run up to D Day.

Tutors were provided with a powerpoint presentation including photos and video clips as well as some information about what D-Day actually is to share with their tutor groups.  

Before the half term break, some of our students had the exciting opportunity to be a part of the book launch for Tom Palmer’s latest work, D-Day Dog, which took place in none other than the D-Day Story museum in Southsea.

Upon our arrival, we were ushered into a room along with students from several other schools, and seated ready to hear Tom talk to us about his latest historical fiction, a WWII-based story all about not just a soldier, but also his parachuting canine companion (something we learnt was not uncommon at this time). He talked us through how he came up with the idea for this book, how important researching these men and their service dogs was to ensure justice and accuracy in his story, and how much enjoyment he gets out of writing to engage young audiences, particularly having been a struggling reader himself when he was at school.

The students then received a copy of Tom’s new book and were able to have it signed by him personally, before getting the opportunity to explore the museum with its impressive models and interactive mission activities, taking us from England’s preparation for the war with the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, right through to D-Day in 1944. We were also awed to discover the Overlord Embroidery in the room across from the main museum, a large embroidered tapestry consisting of 34 hand-stitched panels reaching 83 metres long, commissioned in 1968 to remember the journeys of sacrifice and victory made by soldiers during the conflict.

Our visit finished with a chance to try on some clothing resembling that worn by our troops in the war, before we headed back to school and 2019 with our books!

Miss Turner

The latest display of books in the School Library is timed to coincide with Empathy Day on 11^th June. Empathy helps us understand one another better and is an essential social and emotional skill. Research shows that stories are a powerful tool to develop empathy, because in identifying with book characters, young people learn to see things from other points of view. So as we read, we can build our empathy skills at the same time.  

The books on display all offer powerful insights into other people’s feelings, ways of life and the experience of facing challenges like becoming homeless, or a refugee, being different, or living with a disability. They are all available for students (and staff) to borrow.

Just before half-term, we invited students who will be joining us at USH from our non-feeder schools up to tour and immerse themselves in an afternoon at USH. We had six wonderful Year 7 students (Mercy H, Raine H, Julia K, Maria K, Oliver N and Oliwia S) offering students tours of the school and answering questions on what life as a Year 7 is like.

We had drinks and biscuits afterwards and watched a video about the ‘Day in the life of an USH student’, which all students thoroughly enjoyed and got them talking – they can’t wait until they experience it for themselves! The students filled in a booklet all about themselves, what things they like to do in their spare time, what their favourite school subjects are, and they drew a little poster about themselves – all perfect ways to let us get to know them before they join us!

The reaction from our incoming non-feeder students was very positive and they are all now a little bit more excited and ready to come to us for our Transition Week in early July, and can’t wait to start in September!

It’s the time of year when our new Year 7 cohort start coming up to visit USH, ready for their new adventure with us in September! We will be running our Transition Week in school in the first week of July, starting with our Transition Evening on Tuesday 2^nd July from 5pm-7pm. To try and make this evening as smooth and encouraging as possible, we would like the help of our current wonderful Year 7s to make this evening as enjoyable and informative as possible for next year’s students (just like last year!)

Our Transition Week continues with two Transition Days, Wednesday 3^rd and Thursday 4^th July, where our new Year 7s will be immersed in two days of USH lessons, following a regular timetable and experiencing a plethora of subjects with their new USH teachers. We welcome all students to be encouraging and supportive of the new students, and hope that all will be friendly and positive if and when coming across the new Year 7s.

We have had a great positive response to the Paris trip we are running for our current Year 7 cohort and we look forward to taking students to the French capital (and Disneyland!) in October of this year. The first instalment of payment for the trip was due before half-term, and all parents of children who are participating should have paid this by now. The second instalment is due by Monday 24^th June, and is an instalment of £75.

We are currently still gathering up medical and passport documents about the students, so if you are yet to return this form, please do so as soon as possible. If you have lost this form, wish to resubmit your form or need any further assistance, please contact Mr. Smith at your earliest convenience (jack.smith@ushschool.org).

We also remind all parents that passports must be in date with at least 6 months of valid travel remaining by the time we go on the trip, they must be valid for travel within the European Union, and we remind all parents that we will not be able to use Collective Passports, so all students will require their own.

Students should also have a European Health Insurance Card (an EHIC) with them during the trip, to provide medical insurance. If you need to get one, please do so before the trip departs in October – the link attached will be able to help with this (https://www.ehic.org.uk/Internet/startApplication.do).

Merci beaucoup!

Mr J. Smith

Year 10 students studying Art, Photography, Graphics and Food all sat practical exams this week with more Food exams next week.  Over the fornight that follows that there are more exams for the whole year group and I wish them good luck in their exam period.   If you wish to view the timetable for exams you can do so here or on edulink.

Mrs Fortune

It has been a busy year for our talented Mathematicians this year. We have had participated in UKMT Team Maths Challenge in Bournemouth, UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge with Jacob Mittoo being awarded Grey Kangaroo Qualification in a second round, finishing with UKMT Junior Maths Challenge which took place on 30^th April. The Junior Challenge is aimed at students in year 8 or below to stimulate mathematical problem solving. It is the UK’s most popular mathematics competition with over 300 000 students taking part each year. The challenge involved answering 25 multiple choice questions in one hour and was sat in school under normal exam conditions. Nationally, the top 40% were awarded a gold: silver: bronze certificate in the ratio of 1:2:3.

I am pleased to announce the results of it:

Samah J – Best in the Year 8, Best in the School, Gold Certificate

Gabriel L – Best in the Year 7, Silver Certificate

Pippa S, Bevan W, Emma C, Ryan O, Charlie W, Raul M, Matthew S, Alishan A, Rayhan A, Harvey H, Evan H, Yash R - Silver Certificate

Joshua C, Leonor C, Taliah R, Ella C, Blake H, James H, Syeda S, John C, Megan C, Verity T, Theo S, Kayhan C, Matthew R, Alex T, Abigail B, Eriks G, Ryan W, Samuel M, Lewis M, Bart W – Bronze Certificate

Congratulations to all of our students who participated in the events, especially to the highest achievers.  

I am looking forward to next year successes.

The UK Mathematics Trust is a registered charity whose aim is to advance the education of children and young people in Mathematics. It organises national mathematics competitions and other mathematical enrichment activities for UK secondary school pupils. Further information about the Trust and its activities is available at www.ukmt.org.uk

Mrs Adamou

Some of our parents have recently been in contact regarding the amount of time their children are using social media. This can always be a challenge as we know a large proportion of our students use this to communicate with their friends. We are however, mindful that an increasing number are spending a great deal of their free time using these apps and some parents are unsure of how they can monitor this. There are many useful articles and ideas available on the web. The link below specifically gives advice regarding the use of Snapchat and what parents can do to support their children in using this in a safe way. This website has a variety of other ideas regarding different social media platforms.

 https://parentology.com/what-parents-need-to-know-about-snapchat/

 As ever, if you are concerned about anything that happens on social media that you believe needs reporting, please contact your son or daughter’s tutor or use the CEOP button under the e-safety section of the school website.