Headmaster's Welcome
Headmaster's News, Friday 23th June, 2023
Jun 23, 2023
23rd June 2023
Dear Parents
French Assembly
The whole school took part in the French Assembly this morning. Reception started the assembly by singing Bonjour C’est Moi. This was followed by each year group giving us a taste of what they have been learning in lessons. Year 6 narrated the assembly and also sang a song. The year 6 children described the grammar they have been studying and read out french descriptions of the monsters they have created. In the final part of the assembly, the children listed some interesting facts about France including that the average french citizen eats 500 snails each year. However, Mrs Morrice has eaten a grand total of zero in her lifetime!
Thank you everyone for a thoroughly enjoyable assembly and thank you to Mrs Morrice for organising it.
Music Assembly
Last Friday, was our last Music Assembly of the year. Music at Highfield continues to thrive and in this assembly every year group in the juniors was represented. We watched a range of instruments being played, including the piano, trombone, guitar and the flute. Some children were performing for the very first time and it was amazing to see their confidence in front of such a big audience. It has been really impressive to watch the progress that the children have made from the start of the year. Watching our year 6 perform to such a high standard for their final time was a wonderful way to finish the week and it reminded me just how talented our children are at Highfield. Thank you to our instrumental teachers and to Miss Macklam for arranging this assembly.
Fathers’ Day
I hope all our dads and grandads enjoyed Fathers’ Day last Sunday and were spoilt by their children. The PTA provided an amazing range of presents. I certainly had my eye on a few when I looked round on Friday. Thank you to all the PTA for helping on the day.
ISA Rounders
On Thursday our u11 rounders team travelled to Alderley Edge in Cheshire for the ISA rounders tournament. The girls played really well, with some great batting and fielding, despite the heat and lack of substitutes. It was great to see the Highfield girls working so well together and applying some advanced tactics in their games. After the group stages, Highfield finished 4th out of 9 in their group and progressed to the Plate Bronze Medal match. It was a really tough game but some excellent fielding during the last couple of balls won the game for Highfield and the bronze medal was Highfield’s by 1 rounder! A huge thank you to Mr Baki for helping with transport and supplying ice lollies and to all the parents and grandparents who came along to support and help on the day. Mrs Botton
Congratulations to all our junior children who took part in a very enjoyable Sports Day. The level of effort and support for each other was lovely to see with many excellent individual and team performances. I really enjoyed watching the skills you have been working on in class, especially the javelin and relay events which were all hotly contested. The final winners on the day were Fylde in the overall competition and Bowland in the tug of war. Thank you to Mrs Parsons and Mrs Botton for organising the event and to all the parents and grandparents for their support on the day.
ISA Athletics
Congratulations to Grace and Aibhlin who represented the North at the Nationals in Birmingham on Monday. Aibhlin won the year 6 long jump and she also came a very close 2nd in the 80m. In the relay, she anchored the year 6 relay team to win gold for the North, setting a new ISA record! Grace came 5th in the year 5 long jump and ran a fantastic first leg for the year 5 relay team which came 4th out of the 7 regional teams.
ISA Kwik Cricket
On Wednesday, ten pupils from Years 5 and 6 travelled to Queen Ethelburga’s in York to play in the Northern Region ISA Kwik Cricket Tournament. The children did incredibly well as a team, winning their group before progressing onto the semi-final. The highlight in the group stages was Reuben taking a one-handed catch on the boundary which saved a six! The semi-final was a very tight game coming down to the last over with Tejas defending a yorker before hitting a four off the last ball to win. In the final, we were leading all the way through the game, especially after Toby’s two wickets off two balls. However, the opposition fielded really well in the last two overs which led to two run outs and Highfield finally losing by just two runs. Congratulations to all the pupils who took part. Second place was an amazing achievement against some very good teams.
Reception
Reception visited Smithills Farm on Monday. Below are a few sentences they wrote about the trip. They were certainly bubbling with all the excitement of their trip when they returned to school.
I held a baby chick and stroked an owl. Larissa
I went to Smithills Farm and I held a baby duck. It was yellow. Lina
I went to Smithills Farm. I liked the tractor ride. Ibrahim
I liked feeding the llamas. Yahya
I loved holding the rabbit and I liked the tractor ride. Amelia
My favourite thing was the tractor ride and feeding the donkeys. Muhammad
World Museum by Malaaikah and Hanna
On 20th June, Year 6 visited the World Museum in Liverpool. We saw three exhibitions including dinosaurs, rockpool encounters and Ancient Egyptian Mummification! During the rockpool workshop, Nicola presented ‘Harry’ the hermit crab, sea anemones and a starfish. Lola, Pranav and Luca were chosen to perform mummification on a plastic dummy, on stage. We looked around the dinosaur exhibition and we saw the world’s largest moths. We enjoyed our trip to the museum very much.
Bikeability by Avni and Ayesha
Last Thursday, we began Bikeability. We started by being sorted into four groups. The things we learnt were the M check, the ABCD check, the 6 Ls, dodging obstacles, signalling on a turn and braking correctly. In the afternoon, we learnt about road signs and the majority of the class went onto the roads. Some of us stayed behind and worked on a few skills in which we lacked confidence. On the Friday, most of us rode out on the roads. We arrived at a small lane with houses. We did some more skills: turning from a minor road to a major one, a u-turn and primary and secondary positions, among other things. We had a really great time overall.
Staff News
Mr Irvine has joined the school as Site Supervisor. I would like to offer him a very warm welcome to Highfield Priory School.
Chess
Congratulations to Raj, in 5H, who was successful in the Manchester Megafinal event of the Delancey UK Chess Challenge (27th May). He will now compete in the Gigafinal stage.
Classes for September
| Reception | Mrs Bennett |
| RB - 1W | Mrs Wilson (Mrs Martindale will be responsible for the class on Friday) |
| 1W - 2E | Ms Eccles |
| 2E - 3D | Mr Drake |
| 3D - 4J | Mrs Jones |
| 4J - 5A | Mrs Morrice |
| 4M - 5M | Miss Macklam (Mrs Street will be responsible for the class on Monday) |
| 5M - 6H | Mrs Haythornthwaite (Mrs Davidson will be responsible for the class on Friday) |
| 5H - 6P | Mrs Prince |
Move Up afternoon will be on Thursday 6th July.
Merit Awards 16.6.23
RB: Benjamin 1W: Martha 2E: Haitham
3D: Ali 4J: Eliza 4M: James 5H: Ahmed 5M: Esme 6P: Heba Noor
Merit Awards 23.6.23
RB: Ebrahim 1W: Ela 2E: Poppy
3D: Billy 4J: Lilia 4M: Muhammad 5H: Sisley 5M: Alayna 6P: Lola
Yours sincerely
J M Duke
Headmaster
