It has been good to see students and staff back in the classroom this week. On Monday we had a monitoring visit from Hampshire Improvement and Advisory Service (HIAS). During the day two School Improvement Managers completed lots of learning walks around the school, spoke to staff and observed break/ lunchtime. We are delighted to report that they felt ‘school improvement has continued at pace’ and some of the highlights from their feedback have been outlined below:
- ‘There has been a keen focus on adaptive teaching and a drive for visible consistency and the impact of this work is evident during learning walks’.
- The impact of the quality of education can be seen in the outcomes for 2023 and 2024. This data shows a clear trajectory of improvement’.
- ‘The now embedded approach to inclusion across the school has continued to see a positive impact on behaviour and attitudes’.
- ‘The PSHE/RSE curriculum is well planned out and responds effectively to the local context’.
- ‘All leaders regularly evaluate the impact of their work’.
Last week it was announced that we have been shortlisted for the Best Practice in Inclusive Education Award. This is a national award and recognises the school’s ‘exceptional commitment to promoting inclusiveness in the classroom and creating a positive and supporting learning environment for all students’. We are extremely proud of this award as we did not ‘self nominate’ but have been put forward by external agencies. There are 20 award categories and we are the only Hampshire secondary school to be shortlisted.
As you are aware we have a number of Student Leadership positions of responsibility in the school. On Friday we met with a range of different Student Leaders from all year groups. We completed a Student Voice activity to get some valuable feedback and the students reported a number of different aspects that they think are strengths at the school. A selection of their ideas are included below:
- We like the Rewards system and Proud Friday
- Good Extra Curricular activities
- Calm behaviour
- Focussed teaching groups have helped learning
- Challenge in lessons is good
- Good information and communication
- Supportive staff
- Easy access to help and support
- Good trips
- Performing Arts opportunities are excellent
- High quality teaching.
Well done to Year 11 for all their hard work in the Mock Exams – These continue next week.
It was also wonderful for see Key Stage 3 Parents/ Carers at our Achieving Excellence Evening last week and Year 10 Parents/ Carers at the Work Experience launch. Thank you to everyone who came along.
Next week is WEEK 1
Curriculum Information
You said that you would like more in depth information about curriculum areas. So once a fortnight we will now showcase a department and share a video about what students are learning. This week we will focus on History.
Curriculum Introduction: History
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 3 March
Monday 3 March
Year 11 French & Spanish Exam Listening and reading
Year 11 Geography Exam
Year 11 Business Studies Exam
Tuesday 4 March
Year 9 PSHCRE Day
Year 11 Science Physics Exam
Year 11 Maths Exam
Year 11 Media Exam
Wednesday 5 March
Year 11 DT, Drama & PE exam
Year 11 NFCE Engineering & Computer Science Exams
Year 11 Extended Media Exam
Thursday 6 March
World Book Day
Year 9 National Careers Week – Trip for selected students
Year 8 Parents’ Evening – Please contact general@thehambleschool.co.uk if you would like help booking appointments all call reception
Year 11 Food Preparation & Nutrition
Year 11 Computer Science Exam
Year 11 NFCE Health & Fitness Exam
Year 11 Interactive Media Exam
Year 11 Statistics Exam
Year 11 Physical Education Exam
Friday 7 March
Year 11 Religious Studies Exam
Year 11 History Exam
Year 11 Statistics Exam
Future Dates
W/b 10 March – British Science Week, Year 11 Exam Catch Up Week, Year 7 & 8 NGRT Testing
Wednesday 12 March – Parent Coffee Morning
Wednesday 12 March – Year 11 Physical Education Exam Practical day
Friday 14 March – INSED Day (school is closed to students)
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 – World Book Day 2025
This week we are celebrating World Book Day. There are lots of reading themed activities planned as part of our celebrations including a fancy-dress competition on Thursday, literacy themed lessons across the curriculum all week and a Book Swap at breaktime and lunchtime on Thursday.
The first World Book Day took place in 1997, with the aim to celebrate and encourage reading for pleasure. Research has shown that reading for pleasure has a greater impact on a child’s development than any other factor. It has also shown that children that read for pleasure are more likely to secure managerial or professional jobs later in life. At The Hamble School we know that reading is vitally important, not only to support academic progress and wellbeing, but also to ensure that students are able to successfully navigate adult life. We seek to support reading for pleasure in a number of ways. Students have:
- Regular use of the Library – It is open before school, breaktime, lunchtime and after school.
- Reading for Pleasure Library Lessons in Years 7 to 10
- ‘Recommended Reads’ available in the Library and published on the website: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/library/recommended-reads/
- Book Buzz in Year 7 – Every student is able to choose a free book to take home
- Key Stage 4 Book Club – Every other Wednesday Lunchtime (Week 1) in the Library
- The Book Swap – New for 2025.
The Personal Development Programme this week is centred on our World Book Day celebrations. Students in Years 7 to 10 will have assemblies on the importance of reading for pleasure and its benefits. The Tutor programme this week revolves around students being given the opportunity to listen to staff and students giving book recommendations, with students then being given extracts from some of the recommendations to read themselves. We hope that students will be able to reflect on their own reading habits and will feel inspired to read something new.
Mrs Loveridge (Head of English) will also be delivering assemblies on the theme of reading. Further information on our Reading Curriculum is available on our website: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/reading-curriculum/
This Week at the Dinner Table…
Encourage your son/ daughter to read a book for pleasure and ask them the following questions:
- What is your favourite part of the book?
- What is your least favourite part of the book?
- Would you want to read another book by this author?
- Did reading this book impact your mood? If yes, how?
- What surprised you most about the book?
Year 9 Preferences
Next week, we are excited to launch the Year 9 Preferences Form. This is students’ opportunity to express their preference for which of their current subjects they will continue to study in Year 10. We are proud to offer a broad, balanced and ambitious curriculum that enables students to achieve the very best outcomes.
The instructions with how to access the Preferences Form will be distributed by email this week.
We encourage parents / carers to look at the information on the Preferences web page (https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/preferences-2025/year-9-into-10-preferences/) with students before submitting the form. We will also be providing support in school through assembly and the tutor programme.
The deadline for Preference Forms is Monday 17 March.
Cyber Explorers Cup 2025
We are excited to invite students in Years 7 to 9, to take part in the Cyber Explorers Cup 2025. This is a national competition where they will put their problem-solving and cyber skills to the test.
Students will take on a ‘capture the flag’ style challenge, working to secure the Cyber Squad’s top-secret headquarters. With puzzles and security tasks to complete, they will race against time to tackle key challenges in three essential areas: People, Processes and Technology.
If your child is interested in taking part, they need to see Mr Baldwin in T6 by Monday 10 March to sign up.
Comic Relief – Red Nose Day
On Friday 21 March, we will be supporting Red Nose Day 2025. This year, the event will focus on celebrating 40 years of going big, giving big and feeling good together..
On this day, we are inviting students to take part in our annual Big Bake Off. This is a chance for students to showcase their creativity and culinary talents by baking cakes, flapjacks, brownies, blondies, macarons or even a croquembouche!
All entries will be judged by our expert panel (members of the Leadership Team and other members of staff who are experts at cake-appreciation!) with students competing for a certificate in the following categories:
- Best artistic design
- Best structural design
- Biggest cake
- Funniest cake
- Most colourful cake
- Tastiest cake
One student per House will also win the coveted ‘Star Baker’ certificate.
On the day, students can bring in some money to purchase these delectable goodies at both break and lunchtime. All baked goods will be priced between 50p and £1.
All monies will be counted up to form part of a House competition and every entry will get house points for their efforts.
More details about the format for the day will be in another Weekly Message before the big week so watch out for this!
PSHCRE Day
On Tuesday 4 March Year 9 will have a PSHCRE day focussed on the theme of ‘Healthy Relationships’. Students will not attend their normal lessons and will take part in a variety of sessions and opportunities, the majority of which will be provided by outside guest speakers.
As part of this Year 9 will be exploring an introduction to sexual relationships in line with key statutory criteria such as Contraception, The Law and the reality of sexual relationships for young people in the modern age. We will also be ensuring that young people are educated about their body and their choices in relation to sexual relationships.
In addition, students have opportunities to discuss and explore themes of bullying and healthy platonic relationships and all students will be able to take part in CPR training on the day.
Students should come into school in normal school uniform, with their writing equipment (there is no need to bring in exercise books) and will be given a timetable in tutor time for the day.
Student Leadership Award
The Student Leadership Award (SLA) is an innovative way of recognising students’ leadership skills and the impact they have in the classroom, across the school and in the wider community.
Across The Hamble School, students of all ages are all engaged in exciting and challenging activities. Whilst many of these carry recognition in their own right, the SLA and skills of leadership encompass all activities students are engaged in. We know that when students have a voice, leadership has a real impact.
We have identified ten key skills that young people need to be successful leaders, and grouped them into three core themes:
- Developing myself
- Contributing to my community
- Working with others
These skills and themes are grouped into a self-assessment framework, to reflect The Hamble School’s values of, ‘We care. We aim high and We learn and Achieve together’.
Students assess themselves against this framework and then actively seek opportunities to advance themselves and gather evidence to showcase their new skills in a portfolio.
Students can work towards the SLA at three levels: Stage 1, 2 and 3, with increasing degrees of challenge and commitment required to reach the highest stages. Students will need, in a similar way to the Duke of Edinburgh Award, to demonstrate these skills for a more prolonged timeframe and at a greater depth as the stages progress.
Some examples of activities that could be assessed for stage 1 are:
- Attending a club
- Helping to plan or organise an activity (perhaps tutor activity – shoebox appeal)
- Taking part in discussions – expressing your ideas regularly in tutor-time or other activities
- Regularly attending an event or club
- Behaving well in school ATLs on 2 reports Grade 3 or better
- Being able to demonstrate new skills learnt and using them to help others.
- Supporting your community – helping people, volunteering, school council, cyber ambassadors etc.
- Being part of a school team, regularly working well with others
- Presenting to an audience – presenting to tutor group, in assemblies, presenting to your class
- Setting yourself goals and reflecting on progress – in planners.
Unlike other awards, students peer assess each other’s portfolios as well as being internally moderated, ensuring the process both reinforces and rewards meaningful student leadership.
As well as the prestige of accreditation, the process that students go through in becoming accredited is of great benefit. This process encourages students to:
- Critically self-reflect on their own skills as leaders
- Work collaboratively to plan how they will meet the criteria and evidence it
- Organise and structure their evidence
- Peer assess others’ work against criteria
- Aspire to take on increasingly challenging leadership responsibilities.
Many of the skills students use in this process, reinforce key learning competences in the classroom. The award itself can provide valuable evidence of students’ all-round achievements when applying for colleges, universities or jobs.
National Careers Week 3-8 March
Students will be taking part in career-based activities in tutor time over the next two weeks to highlight National Careers Week. This helps to give students the information they need to make informed decisions around their future pathways.
There is a wealth of information online to support the work we will be doing in school; we recommend the resources the BBC have put together for you to use at home.
Follow the link here to access https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z7kx47h#zdh3239
There is also a handy guide for parents that you can download here https://nationalcareersweek.com/ncw25pg/
Year 9 Boys Football – National Cup
Unfortunately Thursday was not our day, and we lost 2-0 to Northampton School for Boys in the Quarter Finals of the National Cup.
The students battled bravely throughout, and had early opportunities to take the lead, but then were hit on the counter attack to be trailing 1-0 at half-time. The visitors had chances to double their lead early in the second half, but excellent defending from Frankie R and goalkeeping from Jakub K kept the game at 1-0. Ralph B had a shot deflected just wide and Sam F forced the keeper into a good save, but we weren’t able to create many chances against an excellent defensive unit. Northampton then deservedly double their lead, late on. We are extremely proud of the efforts of our students; 674 schools entered the competition and to make it to the quarter final was an incredible experience for our students. They are already planning to take part next year and we are extremely proud of the whole team. #TeamHamble
Sexual Health Services in Hampshire
Information about Sexual Health Services in Hampshire can be found here: https://www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/getiton
A Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) is an infection that can pass to another person through vaginal, anal or oral sex. STIs are on the rise in Hampshire & IOW in young people
Who can get an STI?
- Anyone who has sex can get an STI, you don’t need to have lots of sexual partners. The more partners you have the more likely you are to come into contact with an STI. Both men and women can get and pass on STIs.
- Some STIs have no symptoms so it’s important to get checked out if:
- you have had unprotected sex with a new partner recently
- you or your sexual partner has sex with other people without using a condom
- your sexual partner has recently been diagnosed with an STI
- you or your sexual partner has symptoms that are unusual or worrying.
Get tested
- If you have changed partner or had unprotected sex and have no symptoms you can order a free STI test online.
- GPs (your family doctor) also provide confidential testing and treatment for STIs. Make an appointment at your GP practice if you need to discuss STIs or you want a STI test.
- If you notice any signs or symptoms that are unusual for you its best to go and get them checked out. Sexual health clinics provide free and confidential testing and treatment of STIs. Staff can also help you to tell your partner(s) that they may have been exposed to an STI.
- If you are under 16 you can go to your GP or a Sexual Health Clinic for confidential testing and treatment.
- Remember most STIs can be treated easily so don’t delay getting tested.
- When you are seen by a healthcare professional you will be asked for your name and contact details and you will be asked some questions about your sex life:
- When did you last have sex
- When did you last have unprotected sex and what sort of sex (oral, vaginal and/or anal) have you had
- Do you have any symptoms
- Why do you think you might have an STI
- Asking these questions help clinic staff to provide you with he right tests and treatment if needed.
To find out further information on sexual health services, visit Let’s talk about it
Protect yourself from STIs
For more information about sexually transmitted infections visit:
Parking
A reminder that when we have events after school for Parents/ Carers we will provide onsite parking. Please just drive through the school gates on Satchell Lane. If you decide to park in the Sports Centre Car Park, you must put your registration number into the tablet in the Sports Centre reception. We do not control the Sports Centre Car Park.
Year 11
A reminder that written Mock Exams continue on Monday and this is the last set of Mocks before the final GCSE exams. The timetable has already been distributed but is on the website here: https://www.thehambleschool.co.uk/examination-information/ You will also find the Summer 2025 Exam timetable on the same page.
Please ensure that your child has read the information for candidates below and comes to school with the correct equipment. It is also important that you have been through the start and finish times as some exams will start at 8:30am and some continue beyond the end of the school day. As already communicated students have to stay in school until the end of the exam, just as they will need to do in the summer exams. Other commitments will need to be rearranged and if they get the bus home, alternative transport will need to be arranged. Please ensure that your child is in school and remind your child on the days when they need to stay later.
During the final GCSE exams students will still need to be in if they are feeling unwell; they will only get ‘Special Consideration’ if there is a serious issue on the day of the exam and they get a Doctor’s certificate to prove this. These rules are put in place by the exam regulators JCQ (not The Hamble School) therefore it is worth ensuring that students develop the resilience needed during the Mocks and ensure that they are in school everyday. Please also note that we do not operate Study Leave, therefore, when students are not in exams, they will be in lessons preparing for exams.
Intervention after school on a Tuesday/ Thursday is cancelled for the next two weeks so that students can go home after the exams and rest/ prepare for the next day.
Holiday Activities and Food Programme – Easter 2025
Families are now invited to register for free places on Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) schemes over Easter 2025.
Children and young people from low-income families in Hampshire can look forward to an exciting programme of fun activities and nutritious meals over Easter, courtesy of Hampshire County Council’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme.
The programme is funded by the Department for Education so that local authorities can offer healthy food and enriching activities in the school holidays to children who receive benefit-related free school meals during term time. A small number of places are also available on HAF schemes for other vulnerable families.
Bookings will be available in early March, but eligible Parents/ Carers are encouraged to register their children for HAF to receive their booking code.
Registration can be done by providing very simple information at the following weblink: https://www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/childrenandfamilies/connectforcommunities/holidayactivities/register
If you need any help with this, please email general@thehambleschool.co.uk
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/
Rewards
The students listed below achieved the most reward points this week – Well done to you!
Year 7 – Priscilla O 7-8
Year 8 – Oleksandr B 8-6
Year 9 – Harvie P 9-1
Year 10 – Jon B 10-2
Year 11 – Marty M 11-4
