Newsletter
April 2019
Introduction from the principal
It is my pleasure to introduce our latest newsletter giving a round up of our most recent extra curricular events and to welcome staff and students back to school for the summer term.
We marked the end of the spring term with our annual awards evening and followed this up with house reward assemblies, where students received recognition for their hard work in all of our PROUD values. We were delighted that among the numerous awards we were able to celebrate the award of over 95,000 positive character credits won by students since September.
We look forward this term to a wide range of trips and activities including Year 11 prom, sports day and our Year 13 Leavers May Ball.
It is the season too of examinations across the school. I would like to particularly wish all Year 11 and 13 students good luck with their public exams and look forward to sharing their successes with them when we receive results and confirmation of university places in August.
I hope you enjoy browsing through our newsletter.
British science week
Uxbridge High School celebrated science week with live explosive experiments from our sixth form chemists during school assemblies.
Fairtrade fortnight
Some of our students recently took part in an assembly on Fairtrade fortnight. They shared important messages with their fellow students about Fairtrade products and the more general concepts of fair trade, ethical trading and development issues.
Spring open mic event
The spring open mic night took place in our activity studio in March. There were a range of acts from bands and soloists, pianists and dance crews, displaying the wealth of talent that we have at Uxbridge High School.
Author visits - Gareth Stevens & Colin McNish
It was a pleasure to host ex-student and dystopian author Gareth Stevens to talk to students about his newly released novel 'In the End'.
Author of ' The Doomspell Trilogy', Cliff McNish's visit also inspired our Year 7 students giving a talk and workshop about his books and career during his recent visit.
BBC schools news day
The English department value literacy and promote digital literacy and journalism. This term they joined the nationwide programme called BBC School Report. As part of BBC schools news day, this high profile initiative has given students an opportunity to gather and report newsworthy topics through our school website.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/collections/schoolreport#.
Led by Miss Hanif, the students created their own articles with different media and learned the rules of journalism and censorship. Miss Hanif wanted students to be able to access the news and differentiate between fake and real news and read with a discerning mind. Students were introduced to the idea of writing for a specific audience and developed their research skills to make sure their reports were truthful and accurate. They used a variety of media to produce a range of fascinating stories, practiced writing news reports within tight deadlines, working as a team and experiencing the importance of the three Cs of scripting - being clear, concise and correct and the key concept of impartiality.
Platinum arts award
We are proud to have been recognised for the outstanding efforts of students and staff at Uxbridge High School in the arts with the award of a Platinum Arts Mark. This was awarded particularly in recognition of Uxbridge High School's partnership work with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
WRD Magazine
Our students recently featured in the last edition of WRD magazine , the reading magazine for children aged between 8 and 14 years old.
Hillingdon Dance Festival
Staff were recently treated to a fantastic dance routine from our first ever Hillingdon Dance Festival entrants. Well done girls!
RSC Inset Day
We were delighted to welcome staff from Haydon, Vyners, Hayes Park and Whitehall Junior Schools working with our partners RSC Education for an RSC Inset Day this term.
Hall of Fame
A Hall of Fame wall now exists outside Mr Clemen's office. This includes pictures of staff and students. They are Mr Janar, Mr Emery, Chloe, Aryan, Abdil, Rashaad, Joanna and Joanna. All of whom have achieved unique achievement in sport. We are continuing to build the wall as the summer progresses.
Awards evening
On Thursday 28th March we held our annual awards evening, hosted by Vice Principal, Ms Seymour and our senior students. The event celebrated students who had been nominated by their subject teachers for either commendable effort, exceptional progress or outstanding achievement. Heads of house also nominated a student, who they felt was an outstanding member of the team and there were a number of special awards given out in honour of past students. There were superb performances from the music department as well as the UHS dance team. The event was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Congratulations to all those students who won awards, we are incredibly PROUD of you all:
Commendable effort in art - Mawahib Elmi
Exceptional progress in art - Bethany Greenstreet
Jamaal Salandy arts’ award in art - Elisia Swaby
Outstanding achievement in art - Cieran Dancer
Commendable effort in business studies - Louise Milford
Exceptional progress in business studies - Natasha Wolfe
Outstanding achievement in business studies - Patrik Limani
Commendable effort in computer science - Lacey-Mai Bird-Mason
Exceptional progress in computer studies - Rahul Bagga
Outstanding achievement in computer studies - Klea Tobli
Commendable effort in drama - Jaden Cummings
Exceptional progress in drama - Keira Jones
Outstanding achievement in drama - Hannah Willey
Commendable effort in design and technology - James Barnes
Engineering award in design and technology - Tammi Emms
Exceptional progress in design and technology - Ellie Zekaj
Outstanding achievement in design and technology - Daniela Meriacre
Technology award in design and technology - Aaron Parmar
Commendable effort in English - Shannon Herrington
Exceptional progress in English - Arl Libre-Kumar
Library award in English - Molly Hutchinson
Literacy award in English - Lusio Petrelli
Outstanding achievement in English - Holly Parrish
Commendable effort in the FLC - Terrell Kidd
Exceptional progress in the FLC - Elijah-Ray Kabami
Outstanding achievement in the FLC - Faysal Awan
Commendable effort in geography - Paula Zielonka
Exceptional progress in geography - Imogen Baker
Outstanding achievement in geography - Jaymie Foale
Commendable effort in history - Gurshan Singh
Exceptional progress in history - Tara Murray
Outstanding achievement in history - Lucille Davies
Young historian in history - Patryk Kijewski
Commendable effort in maths - Sagal Hussein
Exceptional progress in maths - Emilia Osk Bjornsdottir
Outstanding achievement in maths - Callum Matthew-Lee
Commendable effort in French - David Preda
Exceptional progress in French - Kerryanne Schultz
Outstanding achievement in French - Grace Longo
Commendable effort in Spanish - Farhan Amin
Exceptional progress in Spanish - Lucy Addison
Outstanding achievement in Spanish - Hussain Bakoo
Commendable effort in German - Eisha Brar
Exceptional progress in German - John Neacsu
Outstanding achievement in German - Kaela Van Engel
Commendable effort in music - David Lema Torres
Exceptional progress in music - Maria Vana Gkiontsi
Outstanding achievement in music - Martin Hrab
Commendable effort in P.E. - Frankie Major
David Burrows sport award in P.E. - Joanna Scanlon
Exceptional progress in P.E. - Chahil Makwana
Outstanding achievement in P.E. - Ishika Sharma
Commendable effort in R.E. - Karim Guerrag
Exceptional progress in R.E. - Amy Miller
Outstanding achievement in R.E. - Emilie Burton
Commendable effort in science - Christopher McDonagh
Environment award in science - Shoikot Aminul
Exceptional progress in science - Hebah Malik
Outstanding achievement in science - Shahmeer Mohammad
Lancaster House - Elsie McKenzie Williams
Stuart House special award - Newsha Fazeli Taherian
Tudor House special award - Ellen Hillbeck
Windsor House special award - Ilhan Abdi
York House special award - Yonis Faysal
Some of our award winners are pictured below.
The principal's commendation
We are very proud of those students who have gained our top award the principal commendation over recent months. Here is the roll of honour.
2017-18:
Alondra Likcani
Archie Broadhead
Chahil Makwana
Corneliu Preda
Daniela Meriacre
Eduard Gluga
Elisia Swaby
Gosia Bielecka
Jayden Sutton
Lei Wang
Morgan Parmar
Naomi Hunting
Ricky Donald
Shannon Herrington
Sula Keir-Crowther
Tammi Emms
2018-19:
Courtney Parr
Holly Piper
Ilhan Abdi
Nabeel Salim
Paula Zielonka
Carter McLaughlin
Samuel Hall
Harrison Clayton-Goddard
Sariya Ahmed
Aaisha Alfathi
Mental health ambassadors training
In February our 3 mental health student ambassadors held a training session with our house teams.
One-Hillingdon talent event 'Show and Prove'
Hot on the heels of our hugely successful Spring Music Showcase concert, two of our young musicians, Bethany McDonald and David Lema-Torres, have been selected as finalists in the One-Hillingdon talent event 'Show and Prove, on Saturday 6 April at St Margaret's Church, Uxbridge. This event will feature performances by Mobo award-winner, Guvna, and is open to all 11-19 year-olds. As the audience gets a say in who wins, if you are able to support, please do go along!
Daniel Spargo Mabbs foundation visit
In January Uxbridge High School students spent time working with the Daniel Sprago Mabbs Foundation.
They aim to reduce harm to young people in respect of drugs and alcohol, and gave some important and strong messages.
Hillingdon Music Hubs anthem project concert
The Start to Sing vocal group has come a long way since it was established in October 2018, with performances at both the Winter and Spring Showcases.
After the Easter holidays we are very excited as students will perform on a larger stage. On Thursday 25th April 2019 Start to Sing vocal group have a wonderful performance opportunity at Brunel University, where they will be performing as part of Hillingdon Music Hubs anthem project.
If you would like to support this event, the concert will be live streamed. Check out the Hillingdon Music Hub’s website and twitter page for more information: https://www.hillingdon.gov.uk/music or https://twitter.com/MusicHillingdon to see the Start to Sing group performing in the amazing Anthem Project.
Teenage Cancer Trust visit
In the final week of term the Teenage Cancer Trust gave an informative talk to our Year 10 students. Topics covered included awareness, what the Teenage Cancer Trust does during treatment, what cancer is, the warning signs, the challenges young people with cancer face, the way cancer is treated and why a healthy lifestyle is important.
Teaching and learning meeting
Back in March, Uxbridge High School was delighted to host a meeting for teaching and learning leads from several Hillingdon secondary schools. During the meeting we shared some of the great teaching and learning practice from each other's schools and created plans for working closely together in the future. Uxbridge High School is excited to be leading the way in teaching and learning with other neighbour schools.
HASBRO mentoring programme
This term thirty Year 10 students began The Prince's Trust Mosiac secondary school mentoring programme. The students are mentored by a group of professionals that work for HASBRO, which is a global toy and board game company. The aim of the programme is to connect with young people to help increase confidence and improve their chances of fulfilling their full potential. They have been participating in a range of activities, which directly enhance their ability to succeed in future educational and professional environments. The programme will continue into the summer term and finish with a world of work visit to HASBRO's London head office.
Senior students, head boy and head girl
Thank you to the outgoing head boy and head girl for all their sterling work while in these roles:
Catarina
Ellis
Welcome to our incoming head boy and head girl, who officially begin their roles in September, but will take over from the current head boy and girl at the May Ball:
Koina
Jonathon
Deputy head students include Louise, Inayaah, Thomas and Shugwa.
Assistant head students include Elleanna and Fiaz.
Senior students include Holly, Thomas, Marie, Cameron, Sofi and Yusuf.
All of the students submitted application forms, attended interviews and made presentations in winning these roles.
Congratulations to them all.
P.E. report from Mr Emery
The spring term has been another one full of success for everyone who has represented the school or been involved in the school's extra-curricular programme.
Ms Gardner's amazing dance club continues to grow and impress anybody who has been fortunate enough to watch them. This term the girls have performed at the spring open mic night and the Uxbridge High School awards evening.
Rugby has been a huge positive this term with all years competing in the borough tournaments. Our Year 7's however have been particularly impressive. Earlier in the term this tenacious year group led by Kaden Beavis remained undefeated to win the West London School's cup at Ruislip Rugby Club. Unfortunately they were unable to put in a repeat performance in the borough tournament losing to a tough Vyners side in the finals.
The school football season has now come to a close. Our Year 10 students had yet another successful season, just falling short in the Middlesex quarter finals, a cup they have previously won in. Year 7 Students from all year groups have been fantastic this year, enabling us to field strong sides in each year group - well done to everyone involved!
As the spring term comes to an end, we look forward to what the summer term has to offer. We will now look to athletics, cricket, rounders and tennis and would love to keep participation and engagement levels high across our extensive extra-curricular programme. Any student who would like to try something new or get involved, please feel free to come along, develop your fitness, skill level and develop friendships.
A final well done must go to Chloe Raeburn who just this week was rewarded with a Jack Petchey award. A much deserved reward that is credit to all of the hard work she continues to put in!
The P.E. department would also like to wish our Year 11s well in their preparation leading up to their summer exams, especially those in our GCSE cohort. Continue to work hard and remember, you get out what you put in!
A huge well done to everyone who has taken part and represented the school this term.
Please note that our Twitter accounts are public and you can browse them at any time without having to sign up for an account
Meet the leadership team!
If any parents have any questions about the school or need to voice concerns the time to do this is during leadership surgery on a Monday.
Mr Clemens
Mrs Carroll
Ms Seymour
Uxbridge High School ski trip report from Mr Wolf
9 days, 8 nights. 36 hours on a coach. Daily 7.15am alarm. 24 hours of ski lessons. 24 times back and forth to the ski slopes (carrying skis and poles). Many a pain au chocolat for breakfast. Quite a few sunburnt faces. Multiple falls, many a challenge to overcome and some major triumphs.
All said and done... #UHSSkiTrip 2019 was well and truly worth it!
The school's ski trip to Alpe D'Huez was always going to be one to remember. However, the effort, attitude and resilience of our 33 students (and 4 staff) made it truly magnifique! Arriving after 18 hours on a coach, snow covered mountains and an altitude of 1850m made for a spectacular start. Evening 1 involved 'ski fit' (getting fitted up with the correct skis and equipment) before an early and much needed bed.
Day 2 onwards we all followed the same routine... Up early - breakfast - leave hotel - ski lessons - return for lunch - back to the piste for more ski lessons - return to the hotel for some down time - dinner - Apres Ski activities - time to relax - bed. Despite the regular routine, the thrill of learning to ski kept everyone highly motivated. In fact, throughout the 6 days of skiing many students made a huge amount of progress. Our instructors said they'd never taught a group with so little skiing experience (only 4 students had been skiing before), but by the end of the week we had students going on 'red' runs (the second most challenging). Their ski instructors - Guilliame, Francois and Frederic - were all very pleased with the tremendous progress they had made and as staff we were extremely proud of every student's efforts on the slopes. Their determination to succeed was beyond all of our expectations.
The apres ski activities gave students the chance to have some more fun, while getting to know each other a little better. 'Bum-boarding' was a hit, as was ice skating, although many students could have done with some ice skating instructors too!
We were all certainly sad to go. Leaving such a picturesque place where everyone had made such brilliant memories was tough, especially with the knowledge of another 18-hour coach journey ahead. It was a trip to remember for everyone involved.
Mr Wolf, Ms Skill, Mr Humpleby & Ms Dhillon
Here are the thoughts of a few students who were lucky enough to attend...
"To ski or not to ski, that is the question. A question that has been on the lips of 33 students and 4 members of staff since 12 April. It all began with tumbles which turned into GIFs on Twitter, from snow ploughing to parallel turns, the list could go on … However, summing it all up, skiing – really is brilliant beyond words and exhausting beyond understanding!" Tom, Year 11
"As we speak, I write this consigned to the sheer comfort of a small coach chair and a memory foam neck pillow. Immersed in the cacophony of crunching, coughing, sniffing, snoring and occasional “I’ve just woken up and realised we’re still not there yet” grunting. A faultless reflection of the previous journey, but by nature, heading in the opposite direction. Attendees of the Uxbridge High School ski trip all lie here, awake or asleep, but former and latter alike, we each possess varying, but mostly similar, memories of the previous week. So, at precisely 4:20am, fuelled on high doses of sugar and caffeine, I will mercilessly and single handedly attempt to recount the 6 days we spent in Alpe d’Huez.
Upon arrival, we each lugged our 10 ton suitcases into our accommodation for the coming week. Expecting the quality of the Ritz, we were nonetheless rather disappointed. After overcoming the quick wave of egocentricity, we went to sleep that night, extremely unprepared for the abrupt awakening we would all have the following morning.
7:30am rolled around far too quickly. On behalf of everyone who came, we can still hear the harrowing scream of Mr Wolf outside our doors, “time for breakfast”, succeeded by three distinctive knocks and then reluctantly waking from our slumber, eating breakfast and getting ready. After taking approximately 3 months to perform said tasks, we left to go skiing. Everyone undoubtedly thought they looked very cool performing simple turns on a 3-degree decline yet nevertheless had lots of fun. Although progress was definitely visible after the first few lessons.
Returning after our last session of skiing of the day was the bane of all of our lives that week. Heaving skis up a sizeable hill and 2 sets of stairs, wearing what felt like knee high clogs was excruciating, yet certainly didn’t taint the experience we had.
Now 9:05am, I sign this anecdote off feeling far more refreshed than when I started, though still partially functioning on caffeine and sugar. In summation, Uxbridge High School ski trip of 2019 was definitely a good one, ending on the simple request to take this opportunity should it arise again". Ellie, Year 9