Headmaster's Welcome

Headmaster's Weekly News, Friday 8th February, 2019

Feb 8, 2019

8 February 2019

Dear Parents

6H Assembly
Thank you 6H for an excellent assembly this week which marked the end of a very busy and talent-filled week at Highfield. We had children travelling to Beech House to take part in the ISA Cross Country Championship; children in Sedbergh playing in a Netball tournament and 104 children performing in Peter Pan at The Charter Theatre; and that was just Wednesday! There is certainly no end to the energy, drive and talent of our Highfield pupils. We really enjoyed 6H’s retelling of the story of Jonah and the Whale. Their delivery was excellent and all the time these children have spent on the stage at Highfield was certainly evident in their acting, presentation skills and comic timing. Well done, 6H, and thank you to Mrs Haythornthwaite for organising this assembly.

Peter Pan at The Charter Theatre
104 children from the age of four to ten, along with 15 members of staff, departed from Highfield on Wednesday for The Charter Theatre in Preston. They were off to take part in rehearsals for the biggest show in Preston on Wednesday night: Peter Pan! It was incredible to see such young children take centre stage in this theatre in front of over 320 people. With dramatic sound and lighting, and even a couple of explosions, they appeared completely in control, showing no nerves at all. Amazing! The dance routines were excellent, starting with our Reception dancers right the way through to our experienced Year 6 performers. Miss Burns’ dancers performed a range of complex choreography with music and actions that really helped to tell the story of Peter Pan. We watched tap dancing crocodiles, ballet dancing toys, a street jazz dance-off between Indians and Pirates and a mermaid ballet, to name just a few. The children were bursting with confidence and enjoyment as they executed their routines faultlessly. Thank you to Miss Burns and Miss Alcock for all your hard work with your pupils in the lead up to this stunning performance. Our Year 4 cast of 34 actors was also amazing, managing to hold their audience in the palm of their hands at the age of just 8 and 9. They really did command the stage with great talent and personality. It was a fantastic achievement to deliver this high quality performance with just a few hours of rehearsal time in the theatre. I would like to thank Mrs Duke, not only for her wonderful direction but also for her personal approach in adapting the script, writing in extra characters, creating new scenes and splitting up the major parts equally (which I know takes hours of work) to make the play as inclusive as possible for all the children in Year 4. I would also like to thank all the school staff for their support of this production. It is a real team effort from the whole Highfield Community. Congratulations and well done to the whole cast of Peter Pan!

Safer Internet Day
It was National Safer Internet Day on Tuesday and the school has been working with the children this week, in class and assemblies, to make them aware of how to keep vigilant and safe on the internet. The internet has also had a high profile in the media recently and it is important that we are all aware of keeping our children safe. The following website address will give you more advice and take you through to the Safer Internet Centre website. www.saferinternetday.org.uk

Sedbergh Netball Tournament
On Wednesday 6th February, eight girls travelled to Sedbergh for their annual tournament. Eleven teams entered and we played our group matches, winning 2 and losing 3; these results meant we qualified for the Plate competition. We played a very strong Sedbergh B team winning 5-2, we then qualified for the Final of the Plate, playing Barnard Castle B. We went on to win 7-4 so the girls were crowned winners of the Plate competition! We were bringing some silverware back to Highfield!
Congratulations to all the girls who improved with each game and who took on board their areas for improvement; and a big thank you to Mrs Hornby who helped transport half of the team to and from Sedbergh, making this tournament possible on such a busy day. Mrs Parsons

ISA Cross Country Championships
On Wednesday, 9 of our cross country runners travelled to Beech House school to take part in the ISA Cross Country Championships. After a walk of the course and working out how to avoid some of the very muddy patches, the races got underway. With over 100 competitors in each race it was very busy at the start.
Up first was Lucie in the U10 race; she got off to a fantastic start, right at the front and managed to maintain her position in the front group for the whole race finishing in an excellent 9th position.
Next was the U10 boys, they too ran a steady race with some excellent pacing throughout. Stephen finished first from the Highfield runners followed by Hamza and then Alex.
Natasha was our individual runner in the U11 race. The race began with a false start meaning after a short rest the girls had to run the race again. Natasha ran extremely well, overtaking many runners on the final hill to finish strongly.
Finally it was the turn of the U11 boys. There were some excellent club runners in this race and it was a tough start. The boys ran a great race, overtaking many competitors on the way round and really pushing hard up the final hill. Well done to Josh A -27th overall followed by Yawar, Omar and Josh D.
Thank you to all our parents and grandparents for their help with transporting our runners and for their support during the races. Mrs Botton

School Tracksuit
The weather has been particularly cold over the last few weeks and children have been coming to school without their school tracksuit trousers or sweatshirt. On some days, the children do wear their tracksuits for large parts of the day including break times. The school tracksuit is available from Monkhouses for children from Reception upwards and it is an essential part of the school uniform. Please could you make sure that all children have the school tracksuit trousers and sweatshirt with hood for after the half term break. Thank you for your support. Mr Duke

Merit Awards
RB: Adam RH: Brodie 1D: Monty 1W: Wei Ann 2E: Violet
3J: Hugo 3M: Taylor 4D and 4S: The Whole Year Group 5M: Hiba 6H: The Whole Class 6P: Zain
Monitors of the week: Aishah and Abigail
High 5 Award: Katie

Thought for the Week
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
J M Barrie, Peter Pan

Yours sincerely

J M Duke
Headmaster