Herts County Athletics Championships

A number of our students attended the Hertfordshire County Athletics Championships on 10 June - not only was it a great achievement to be selected to compete at this event, but students also performed incredibly well given the temperature on the day.

Well done to Agnes and Jess (Year 7) who, in their first year competing at this level, finished 6^th and 7^th in their U13 Girls 200m heat.

Edythe (Year 8) finished 4^th in her U15 Girls Hurdles heat with a Personal Best time of 12.6s, and followed this up with 12.72s in the final to finish 4^th overall. She then jumped a Personal Best of 4.25m in the U15 Girls Long Jump to complete a busy day.

Her teammate Emily (Year 9) finished 4^th in the same competition, narrowly missing out on a medal with a jump of 4.57m. Emily also had a packed day, as she stormed to victory in her 100m heat before running 12.9s in the U15 Girls 100m Final to secure 5^th place.

Sarena (Year 8) had a tough gig competing in the 1500m but ran a superb Personal Best by 4 seconds to finish in 6^th place.

Florence (Year 8) produced an outstanding performance in the Triple Jump, jumping 9.75m, which was a Personal Best and earnt her a 2^nd place finish.

Fran (Year 10) ran incredibly in the 300m Hurdles, a Personal Best that brought home the first Gold medal of the day. She followed this up with a jump of 9.27m in the Triple Jump with teammate Jess (Year 10) jumping 8.21m.  

Abby (Year 11) also had a tough race running the 1500m, but finished with a time of 5:06 to put her in a fantastic 2^nd place. Poppy (Year 11), who is recovering from injury, finished 2^nd in the U17 Women’s Javelin and has been selected to represent Hertfordshire in the English schools national event in July. Amelia (Year 12) ran an impressive 12.03s Personal Best to take the second victory of the day in the U19 Women’s 100m, and has also earned her place in the English schools team.

Well done to all! 

Fundraising for Phase Hitchin

Thank you to all who have sponsored Mrs Cole and the Phase Everest Climb Challenge team. The event took place on Friday and Mrs Cole was on the graveyard shift into the night. Lots of smiles and a few blisters have helped raise money for Phase, who work with our students to build their resilience and wellbeing.

If anyone would like to sponsor the team who ended up conquering the height of Everest, K2 and all three of the UK's highest peaks in 24 hours on a treadmill, they would be delighted to raise more for Phase!

It's cool to be healthy

Our 'make your own flavoured water' station, set up one lunchtime this week for Healthy Eating Week, was a huge hit with the queue going out the door! Students filled their water bottles with fresh pieces of citrus fruit, strawberries, cucumber, mint, kiwi and ginger for a refreshing and healthy drink for the afternoon!

On that note, a reminder for all students to bring in their water bottles every day, now that summer is finally here!

Hydrating hedgehogs too

This poor dehydrated hedgehog appeared in broad daylight down by our Woodside Building this week, despite all the students who were around as it was lunchtime. It got into the shade before flopping itself, belly down and legs asplay on the cooler ground! With the help of some students, Mr Beardmore-Crowther got some water and a shallow drinking tray. The hedgehog made its way to the water and proceeded to drink for what seemed like a good 10 minutes!

It was lucky that we were able to help this particular critter, but this is an unfortunate side effect of the increasingly common heat waves and lower summer rainfall levels we are seeing. Eco Club plan to get some water bowls out in the area and hopefully provide a bit of respite!

Library news

Reading Group Carnegie author event

Twelve of the Library Goblins joined students from across North Herts at St Francis College in Letchworth for an excellent author event with Katya Balen, winner of the Carnegie Medal for Writing in 2022 with her novel 'October, October'.

Katya spoke about her work and life as a children's author. She also led the students in a writing workshop using a sherbet lemon - they were all given a sherbet lemon and had to write a paragraph imagining they were the character October eating one for the very first time. Several of our students read out their work! There was also the opportunity to buy Katya's novels and have them signed in what was a very inspirational event.

Managing exam stress - video

Take a look at this video for parents from Phase, about helping your child to manage exam stress.

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

International Women in Engineering Day

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.

Graduate Careers Live! is essential viewing for all Year 12 students and their parents, just before they begin considering their post-Sixth Form options, visiting universities and researching degree apprenticeships.

Broadcast earlier this term from a TV studio in central London, the 90-minute programme features:

• the very latest research on today’s graduate job market, and the universities and degree courses that are most likely to lead to successful graduate employment in the future

• studio guest Zoe Thomas, author of The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide

• specially recorded interviews with recent graduates and degree apprentices from Dyson, Rolls-Royce and the Royal Navy, describing their career path since leaving the Sixth Form

• an in-depth introduction to degree apprenticeships – the alternative, debt-free route to the graduate job market – and a showcase of employers now offering degree apprenticeships to Sixth Form school-leavers

• expert advice and guidance from senior graduate recruiters – from banking &

finance, law, accounting & professional services, and the public sector – on how to make the most of university and to get ready for the graduate job market

The programme is presented by Martin Birchall, Editor of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, and Levi Jouavel, a BBC presenter and former apprentice. It is produced in partnership with the Department for Education.

Mental health support for
Hertfordshire's young people