USH Newsletter 4th October 2019

USH opened our doors for the annual Open Morning last weekend.  We had record numbers of visitors again this year and were delighted to show them around our school.  We must thank our student ambassadors who were a credit to our school and our Head Girl Ruby and Deputy Head Boy Tom who set the tone with their terrific opening speeches. There was a great buzz around the school and the weather held out too.

Hola/Bonjour/Ciao,

On Thursday, 26^th September, USH celebrated European Day of Languages with a weeklong quiz. Students searched high and low for twenty members of staff who were wearing a sticker with a flag from a different country. They had to find the members of staff, identify the country and make a note of both, before handing in the completed form.

This year, we had one very special winner who managed to find all of the flags. Well done to Aisha D in year 7!!

At the beginning of this new Autumn term, Miss Suffling, Mrs Rendall and Mrs Hayward have started an exciting new project, with a specially selected group of wonderful girls in year 8.

The aim of this group, ( USH Girls Can), is to allow these girls a safe place to flourish, and to equip them with skills that will give them more confidence in their everyday lives, as they move through the school.

Our meetings are every Monday after school, and so far it’s been an absolute blast!  The best part for us, is seeing these girls slowly gaining their voices and becoming strong, independent females!

More to come on this empowering initiative in the following weeks, and a huge thank you to the girls who are dedicating their time to us – we really hope you’re enjoying it, as much as we are!

Mrs Hayward, Miss Suffling and Mrs Rendall.

Congratulations to the following members of the Soul Band at USH who were all invited to take part after excellent auditions! Amy S, Mario J, Alex G (Vocals), Oren M (Drums), Lucas O (Bass), Josh C (Guitar) and Ed K (Trumpet). We’re on the lookout for more brass players, so if you play trombone or trumpet and fancy standing alongside USH’s hardest working musicians, come and see Mr Smith for an audition. The new choirs at USH are taking shape nicely, with nearly 20 year 7’s in our new young voices choir – USH Got Tunes – and a dedicated core of singers in year 8-11 taking part in our senior choirs – Girls are Loud and Boys Make Noise. The school orchestra has steadily grown over the first few and are now enjoying preparing a selection of music for Remembrance and for our Christmas concert. It’s not too late to join any of our groups - See Mr G Smith about Soul Band or just come along and join in with any other group!

Look at the Extra Curricular timetable for after school music clubs: http://uppershirleyhigh.org/documents/content/USH%20Extra%20Curricular%20Timetable%202019.pdf

USH were delighted to send some of our excellent Year 11 student leadership team to Hollybrook Junior school last week. We are always happy to support our local schools and opportunities like this enable our students to develop their leadership skills and confidence when working with others. Ruby H, Fin A, Isaac R, Zuzana K and Tom G were excellent in supporting staff at Hollybrook with the collection and counting of votes for this prestigious event.

Thank you to Mrs Norton at HJ for her close work with our students and we look forwards to continually developing the partnership between our schools.

In September I read an article about chess in the National Education Union’s ‘Educate’ magazine. It featured international chess master and teacher Malcolm Pein. He said that chess “promotes key intellectual skills such as problem solving, logical thinking, pattern recognition and concentration.” These are exactly the thinking skills that students need to develop to make good progress in Computer Science. Furthermore studies in Italy and Denmark have found that there is higher attainment in Mathematics in schools that teach chess.

Malcolm set up the charity ‘Chess in Schools and Communities’ in 2009, to promote the benefits of the game and focus on teaching it in state schools. “There is such an imbalance in terms of the funding that private schools have for chess clubs and coaching” said chess coach Natasha May. “We try to address that imbalance. Chess shouldn’t be elitist.”

Teaching chess to a whole class also encourages boys and girls to mix. Natasha says they are keen to eradicate the stereotype that it’s a boy’s game and encourage girls to play. Malcolm explains this is why he modelled CSC around the classroom approach as opposed to chess clubs. “You’ve got to give girls extra encouragement. Once they’re doing it they realise they can be great at it. They can be as good as or better than the boys, and enjoy it. If you just announce there is going to be a chess club, there will be 30 children, 27 boys, and three girls.”

I contacted the charity, via the link in the article, and asked if they would provide us with 10 chess sets to augment the 5 or 6 that the Upper Shirley High chess club (Thursday after school) already owned. They were quick to respond and the 10 sets arrived on Monday 30^th September replete with roll up boards and cloth bags for the pieces. Our first ‘chess lesson’ was undertaken by the 9Y computer science class during period five that day. The six first-time players in a class of twenty were paired with more experienced players. Most students completed two and in some cases three or more games during the hour. The students were focused throughout, they played very well and said that they enjoyed the activity.

Mr P Harvey

There was an excellent effort from everyone at the Cross Country race at Greggs last week. 

 2^nd Place     Abi B

2^nd Place     Mali B

3^rd Place     Niclas O

4^th Place     George C

10^th Place   Morgan D 

11^th Place   Shawa S

12^th Place   Rebecca G

12^th Place   Kianush

13^th Place   Nathan F

15^th Place   Finley B

16^th Place   Sam C

19^th Place   Max F

21^st Place   Kaira G

22^nd Place  Libby W

23^rd Place   Tom B

26^th Place   Ben B

27^th Place   Niky K

29^th Place   Finbar O

30^th Place   Alfie G

31^st Place   Matee P

32^nd Place  Oliver K

33^rd Place   Louis A

33^rd Place   Kianna M

34^th Place   Ruby B

Autism Hampshire will be holding 6 free Autism Support and Information workshops for families of children and young people on the autistic spectrum, that are residents in the Southampton area.

The aim of each session is to provide insight, advice and support prior, during or following a child’s assessment and diagnosis.

Please see the  flyer for more details and should you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact AUtism Hampshire www.autismhampshire.org.uk