This week students in Years 7-9 have been starting their Student Leadership Award. They have been reflecting on and celebrating their wonderful achievements inside and outside of school. In tutor time students have been discussing the different categories and collecting evidence for:
- Developing myself
- Contributing to my community
- Working with others.
Please do talk to your son/ daughter about this at home and help them to think about further activities they could do to support achievement of the award. We really do enjoy celebrating achievements with students and are delighted to ‘show case’ these on social media. Please do share any news with us via communication@thehambleschool.co.uk
Mrs Valleley (Deputy Headteacher) delivered an assembly to Year 10 this week focussed on ‘Setting Goals and Aiming High’ – Students were encouraged to think about what they want to achieve and how they are going to put plans in place to get there. Following on from the Achieving Excellence Evening last week we also reminded students that they should be revising at home for their Year 10 Review Assessments this week.
On Friday we welcomed Michelle from SETA (Southampton Engineering Training Association) who delivered an assembly to Year 11 about apprenticeships. We would encourage all year groups to explore our careers pages on our website: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/careers/
As we approach December, we have outlined all our Christmas Events in this week’s message. We do hope that Parents/ Carers and family members will join us to celebrate the festive season.
Next week is WEEK 2
Question of the Week
Please select your answer in the form below, all fields marked * are required and to help prevent SPAM this form is protected by Google reCaptcha v3.
Each week we will ask parents/ carers a question in the Weekly Message – this will either be about a topic we are focussing on or an aspect of our school improvement plan. We would appreciate it if everyone answers it when reading the Weekly Message.
Events w/b 25 November
Monday 25 November – INSED Day – The school is closed to students
W/b 26 November – Year 11 Mock Exam Catch ups
W/b 26 November – Year 10 Review assessments
Tuesday 26 November – Year 11 Ensemble recording day
Future Dates
W/b 2 December – Year 7 Review Assessments
Tuesday 3 November – The Collaborative Music Concert – Featuring Hamble Primary School & Netley Abbey Junior School at 5pm in the main hall. The Hamble School concert is at 7pm in the main hall
Friday 6 December & Monday 9 December– Year 7-11 Nasal Flu Vaccinations
Thursday 5 November – Year 12 Certificate Evening – 7pm (please be seated by 6:50pm)
Tuesday 10 December & Wednesday 11 December – Christmas Lunch – These need to be booked and paid for in advance
Friday 13 December – Christmas Jumper Day.
Letters
You can find all letters sent home over the week here – https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/letters-to-parents/
The canteen menus can be found here: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/food-and-drink/
Please check your child’s Attendance regularly on Class Charts
Theme of the Week –Challenge and Aiming High
Our values underpin the work we do every day:
We Care
We Aim High
We Learn and Achieve Together.
This week we will be focussing on ‘Aiming High’. This means having high expectations, recognising the value of education and always striving for the best in terms of work ethic and behaviour.
‘Don’t be afraid to be ambitious about your goals. Hard work never stops. Neither should your dreams’ Dwayne Johnson.
Mrs Valleley (Deputy Headteacher) will deliver assemblies to Year 7-10 this week focussed on Challenge and Aiming High. Students will be asked to consider whether they are enjoy challenge and are proactive with their learning. They will be provided with some strategies to help them use their initiative and challenge themselves to achieve the very best outcomes. We will also discuss the idea of a growth mindset and the characteristics of people with a growth mindset.
Year 11 will have an assembly this week to review the Mock Exams and the Year 11 Roadmap.
Reading Week
In the Personal Development sessions during tutor time, students in Years 7-10 will take part in Reading Week. The theme for the sessions is ‘Raising Aspirations’. Students will be reading extracts from the autobiography of NASA Mathematician, Katherine Johnson, called ‘Reaching for the Moon’. You may be aware of her story, if you have seen the film ‘Hidden Figures’. This is a text that highlights the theme of aspirations, but also explores other relevant topics such as, Black History and STEM.
The purpose of these sessions is to give students more opportunities to read. Therefore, students will have a chance to read aloud and discuss the book with their peers and their tutor.
This Week at the Dinner Table…
- What do you want to achieve this year?
- What do you want to achieve by the time you leave The Hamble School?
- How are you going to get there?
- How proactive are you?
- Do you enjoy putting yourself forward for things?
Children in Need
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our fundraising efforts for Children in Need. We are delighted to inform you that we raised £376.96. The winning House Twickenham for the most contributions, followed by Wimbledon, then Lords and Wembley.
Exam Stress
This week we continue with the Year 11 Mock Exams as some students will have ‘catch up’ sessions if they were absent during the main period. We also have Year 10 Review Assessments and Year 7 will begin their Review Assessments the week beginning Monday 2 December.
Here are some more helpful tips to help with exam stress…
We all talk about breathing when we are feeling stressed or anxious, it may be helpful to know why thinking about our breathing helps you.
- Breathing is proven to help reduce stress and calm your mind
- Breathing improves your ability to make decisions
- Breathing reduces ‘racing’ thoughts through your mind
- Breathing increases your ability to focus and listen
- Breathing increases your general intellectual capacity
Breathing for your body
- Calms the heartbeat
- Increases energy
- Reduces the levels of cortisol (the ‘stress’ hormone)
- Improves sleep
- Strengthens the immune system
- Reduces blood sugar levels
- Reduces fat in the body
- Reduces pain
So, the next time someone says to you breathe try this simple activity (in fact ask them to try it with you)
- Sit or lie somewhere comfortable
- Close your eyes
- Take a moment to just ‘be yourself’
- Breathe in for five seconds * and then…
- Breathe out for five seconds*
Continue this for five minutes.
Give yourself some daily care:
Think about what simple, everyday things you could do to care for yourself. These aren’t necessarily just things you enjoy doing (although they should certainly be that too), they should be things that nourish you and prioritise you and meet your needs.
- It could be taking a bath
- Going for a walk
- Making yourself a lovely nutritional meal or snack
- Meditating or listening to a podcast or using a relaxation App
Is there something you could do right now to prioritise yourself and your wellbeing?
If you need inspiration ask your friends or any members of staff, we all want you to do well and we are all here to help.
School Production
As part of our student voice, this week all students have voted for our Summer Whole School Musical Production, which will be performed in July 2025. The choices were:
- Matilda
- Legally Blonde
- Oliver
The winning show will be announced in the Weekly Message next week and details about auditions will be communicated in the Spring Term.
Year 9 Football News
The Year 9 Boys Football Team have had a fantastic start to their season. They have far won their first 3 games, including an exciting 3-2 away win at the prestigious Winchester College and a 1-0 home win against local neighbours Bitterne Park School. They now face a trip to Bournemouth to play Glenmoor and Winton Academies on the 5 December in the 4th round of the National Football Competition. Best of luck boys, keep up the good work!
Read and Write
The Inclusion department are delighted to introduce the Read&Write literacy support tool that offers help with everyday tasks like reading text out loud, understanding unfamiliar words, researching assignments and proofing written work. The programme is currently being rolled out to all students across the school and will be attached to each student’s school login. This means that all of these features will be able to be used at home with homework etc. The programme features can be individualised to the needs of each student. Some of these features can be used in GCSE final exams as access arrangements, please find more information at https://www.texthelp.com/en-gb/products/read-and-write-education/. If you have any questions or would like to discuss further please contact inclusion@thehambleschool.co.uk to set up an appointment.
Features at a glance:
Christmas Events
As we look forward to the Christmas season we thought it would be useful to include all the dates for December in this week’s Weekly Message:
- Tuesday 3 December – Collaborative Music Concert and The Hamble School Music Concert. Ticket details in the dates section above. The PTA will have refreshments available to purchase – Please bring cash to buy drinks, crisps or sweet treats.
- Tuesday 10 December & Wednesday 11 December – Christmas Lunches. See letter sent home last week and available on the website.
- Wednesday 11 December – Community Carols – All community members welcome from 4pm to enjoy a Mince Pie and a sing along with the Choir. Sign up will be emailed home next week.
- Friday 13 December – Christmas Jumper Day. All students are invited to wear a Christmas Jumper (or something festive).
- Wednesday 18 December – Year 7 Grandparents (or a significant adult) Event. Year 7 students and their Grandparents are invited to enjoy Christmas Crafts, Mine Pies and some music. The event starts at 1pm and sign up will be emailed home next week.
- Thursday 19 December – Year 7 and 8 PTA Disco at 6:30pm. Tickets are now available to purchase on Scopay for £6.
- Friday 19 December – Last day of term. School closes to students at 1pm.
Our Food Bank will be open for families to collect items on Friday 13 December 3:30pm-4:30pm or Thursday 18 December 3:30pm-4:30pm. Please email Ms Tonner (Family and Community Support Worker) ttonner@thehambleschool.co.uk if you would like support or want to arrange an alternative time for collection.
Achieving Excellence Evening
Thank you to all Parents/ Carers who came to the Year 10 Achieving Excellence Evening last week. We hope you found this useful. We are always keen to get feedback and find out what we can do to support families. If you attended the event, please complete the evaluation here:
School Council
As a school, we really value the opinions and input of our students, and are always looking for avenues to gain further insights into what they are enjoying about school, and any ideas about making it even better. One key aspect of Student Voice is our Student Council, and the start of this half term has given us the opportunity for representatives from Years 7-10 to meet. The School Council Reps have been selected for the role by volunteering and a class vote. They really want to make a difference to school life by listening to others and making sure that everyone has a voice and a say.
Feedback in the meeting was very positive towards rewards points and showed that students liked the opportunity to be rewarded for their hard work; understand the areas they are excelling in, and felt that it gave Parents/Carers an excellent opportunity to engage with school and understand their efforts. Rewards are really important to us, and it is always great to see students benefit from their hard work and kindness by achieving certificates and the many other prizes on offer.
End of year rewards trips were also discussed, with students excited to offer suggestions and ideas about the types of trips and events we might be able to offer. We are hoping that next year’s rewards will be bigger and better than ever and give students real motivation to work hard and earn points to help them reach the target 1500 needed!
Finally, a range of other school related issues and suggestions were discussed. It is invaluable to get the student perspective on how they feel about our facilities and routines, as we want them to have the best experience they can every day.
All the above has already been shared with the Senior Leadership Team. Students will need to look out for the feedback and news on which areas we are able to respond to and move forward in the future. In the meantime, we would encourage all students to contribute and participate if they have ideas or suggestions. This can be done through their tutor representative; by talking directly to their tutor, or through the student suggestion box located in reception. The next Student Council meetings will take place early in the Spring Term, just after the Christmas holidays.
CyberFirst Girls
Our Year 8 girls started the CyberFirst Girls competition last week. This is aimed at encouraging girls interested in technology to pursue a career in cyber security. To find out more, visit the website here: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyberfirst/girls-competition
Fully Funded Courses for Parents/ Carers
Fully Funded (FREE) NCFE | CACHE Courses available in levels 1, 2 & 3 starting on 2nd December!
Sessions will be available with our employment engagement officers after course completion!
We run ONLY in term time and not during half term/ end of term periods.
This is a six-week intensive course, with online live webinars with Aspire Education’s friendly tutors, starting at 9:30am and finishing at 2pm (with lunch break) from Monday to Friday.
All you need is access to the internet and a laptop or tablet.
These courses are fully funded by the ESFA (Education Skills Funding Agency).
If you are earning less than £23,500 per year or claiming benefits (including Universal Credit, JSA, ESA, PIP, Income Support, Housing Benefits, carers allowance or any type of Tax Credit including Child Tax Credit) you are eligible for a funded place.
*Please see more details about our eligibility on our website.
Take advantage of this opportunity while it’s still available.
Please go to: www.studysmartuk.online for more information.
Rewards
The students listed below achieved the most reward points this week – Well done to you!
- Year 7 –Zoe G 7-1
- Year 8 – Elizabeth S 8-8
- Year 9 – Max P 9-5
- Year 10 – Scarlett W 10-9
- Year 11 – Noemie J 11-4
Support
If you or your child would like support with wellbeing, please check out the links of our website: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/student-wellbeing-support/
