Uxbridge High School
End of term newsletter - Summer 2
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Welcome to our final newsletter of the year, which you will find packed with articles and pictures of our most recent events. There is also a section of important information regarding our arrangements for the start of term and the new academic year.
As I have previously mentioned, I’m delighted to be handing over the leadership of Uxbridge High School to Louisa Seymour from this September. Louisa will be the fifth Headteacher/Principal of our school since 1968, 54 years ago. I know that she will continue to develop the school and has exciting plans for the future.
After thirty-five years of service and 8 as the Principal, moving on will not be easy. However, I am looking forward to continuing to work in education on a part time basis, in support of a range of other schools.
May I wish all those associated with the school now and from past years my gratitude for your support and confidence in all that we stand for. I look forward to hearing of Uxbridge High’s continued future success and continuing to hear from our staff and students, past and present as they progress through their lives and careers.
Finally, can I wish all our families, staff, and students a restful and enjoyable summer.
LOOKING FORWARD TO A GOLDEN 2022-23 - MS SEYMOUR
The PROUD values at Uxbridge High School have created our culture of high expectations. Our school logo and branding will be updated for the next academic year to emphasise the gold. This gold will represent the future ambitions for the school. I am very much looking forward to leading a high performing school in all areas. To do this we will need your support to ensure you have the same high aspirations for our success. Everything we do at the school is designed to provide young people with the best platform to go forward and achieve. This is why we celebrate the PROUD values as much as academic success. The laurel leaves in the school logo represent special achievements and, in the future, these will be used to celebrate how much value the school places on success in sports, the arts and making a contribution to the community.
To help us prepare for a brilliant start to our golden future we hope that all the young people are first and foremost able to have an enjoyable and relaxing summer break. Please then ensure they are fully prepared and equipped for the start of term. We want students to be PROUD to look smart and represent our school by wearing perfect school uniform every day. We insist that they come to school with a pencil case every day that is on the desk at the start of each lesson. Please also support us with prioritising students being in school on time every day. We will support you with building these positive habits that will not only help them be successful in school but also in the future. When students have positive habits that they follow everyday it is much easier for them to learn well. We have excellent teachers in the school who are committed to ensuring that all the students have access to great lessons and great opportunities beyond the classroom. We hope you are fully supportive of our vision.
My initial request of you is that you help us make a really positive start to the new academic year. Going forward there will be plenty of opportunity for you to communicate with the school and I will be writing to you at the start of the new academic year providing further details of both the plans for next year and how you are able to get in touch with the school and work with us for the success of the young people.
One final advanced information about the new academic year is the change in House names. We consulted with the school council, and they wanted the houses to represent the universities that become the destinations of many of our students. The colours of each house will remain however we have changed the names as follows:
Lancaster >> Brunel
Stuart >> Cambridge
Tudor >> Imperial
Windsor >> Oxford
York >> Warwick
I look forward to working with you all in the future.
Thank you
Ms. Seymour
PRINCIPAL'S COMMENDATIONS
Towards the end of every term, we ask staff to nominate one student for the principal’s gold commendation award. This can be any student from any year group, but we ask staff to state a specific reason as to why they feel the student is deserving of this prestigious award.
For the summer term awards, there was a total of forty students nominated for the award, who were then shortlisted to 4 final winners of one per year group. We would like to extend a huge congratulations to the following winners once again: Sairudr in Year 7, Edith in Year 8, Samatar in Year 9 and Emily in Year 10.
Edith and Samatar met with Mr Clemens on the last week of the Summer term to receive their prize, certificate and badge.
SUMMER TERM SUBJECT AWARD WINNERS
Well done to all students who have won subject awards so far this term. Keep up the good work!
Sport - Daniel and Charlie
Art - Zuhal, Shengquan, Ema, Manolo, Gofran, Fatihah, Diana, Skyla, Navneet, Isabella, Anna, Elsie, Trip and Bethany
English - Isabella, Nadia, Sherol, Ayaan, Rina, Emma-Louise, Ifechi, Oskar, Cate, Sana, Sabrin, Renee and Bethany
Maths - Ryan, Chigozie, Mahdi, Skye, Fatihah, Ailish, Aaron, Kawthar, Abdullah, Molly, Rafaela, Nasrin, Aminu and Harvinder
DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD EXPEDITION – MS SHUTKEVER
Thirty students from Year 9 completed their bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition in May. This involved walking over 10 miles a day and camping overnight! We are very proud of the resilience, independence, and leadership the students displayed over the weekend. It was an extremely enriching experience for both staff and students.
EXAMS - MR WELLER
For the first time in two years, Year 11 and Year 13 students sat a full public examination programme and without exception they have risen to the challenge. We are looking forward to celebrating some amazing successes later in the summer. Results days are Thursday 18 August for A level and all other level 3 qualifications and Thursday 25 August for GCSE’s and all other level 2 qualifications.
YEAR 11 LEAVERS' ASSEMBLY - MR SMITH
On 23rd June, all Year 11 students enjoyed their Leavers’ Assembly following their final exam. We started the proceedings by listening to Douglas Green play the piano beautifully and then celebrated students’ achievements by handing out the final subject awards of the year. All the tutors spoke about their group and Mr Whittaker even gave us all a rendition of “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” by Bob Marley! So many teachers had got together to create a goodbye video for the students and we all enjoyed watching their creativity and, in some cases, acting skills (Mr Ahmed in particular!). The highlight at the end was the viewing of the student photos from the last 5 years, bringing back many happy memories. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Sunmeet and Ciara for their help with organising the assembly, all the Year 11 team and of course the students for the positivity and determination they have shown throughout the year!
YEAR 11 PROM - MR SMITH
On Thursday 7th July, the sun shone brightly on all Year 11 students as they enjoyed their Prom celebration at school. The students looked amazing as they arrived in style at school, and the teachers’ most difficult job of the evening was trying to choose the best dressed students as they all looked so stylish! The Prom Committee had made the Orsino area look stunning and many students showed off their dance moves! The evening was a lovely celebration of the end of Year 11 and Ms Hill and I felt privileged to have been in charge of such a great group of students. I would like to give a big thank you to Ms Previdi for all her work in organising such a wonderful event.
Congratulations to our award winners on the night:
Best entrance: Feena
Best friendship: Mohit and Ali
Best dance moves: Najib and Gulled
Best dressed: Faatimah and Hechi
Prom Royalty: Desi and Sunmeet
HILLINGDON SECONDARY MUSIC FESTIVAL - MR DAWSON
UHS Musicians were proud to take up the invitation sent to all schools in the borough, to perform at the first ever Hillingdon Secondary Schools Music Festival. We shared the big stage at The Beck Theatre, with around one hundred students from 6 other secondary schools from across the borough who chose to take part, and the collaboration through music was an inspiration for all the young people involved! It was a fun day in which everyone worked together to find great solutions, like when we provided accompaniment for Haydon School's choir as their backing track would not work, and when one of our soloists volunteered bravely to be the final item on the programme, a measure of the trust in the excellence our UHS musicians are well and truly capable of.
ART EXHIBITION - MR SASU
Last week, our UHS Art Department have enjoyed welcoming staff and students to view the excellent work produced by Year 11 and Year 13 art and photography students. Both cohorts have left us in awe this year - in awe of their hard work, dedication and creativity over the past two years. They have made us PROUD!
Biro Study By Alex Y11, Self Portrait In Watercolour By Isabella Y11, Close Up Of Self Portrait In Oil Paint By Trip Y13, Photo-Montage Collage By Sinead Y11, Close Up Of A Tree In Oil Pastels By Tisaanth , Daisy Photography By Lauren , Illustration In Acrylic Paint Pen By Rhianna , Ordinary Vs Extraordinary Photograph By Harry Y11.
CULTURE DAY - MR PALMER
On Wednesday 13th July students came together to celebrate culture day, dressing in cultural clothing from across the world and enjoying a wide variety of different activities including Caribbean steel pans, Classically African Cooking, African drumming, and a wealth of different dances from Ireland, Africa and the Caribbean. Shaun Wallace - aka the 'Dark Destroyer' and 'Legal Eagle' from ITV's The Chase tested even the brightest minds UHS had to offer with an intense head-to-head battle of wits, alongside an enthralling look into how students can become just as successful as himself. The day culminated in a vibrant show of culture with a range of students and visitors dancing, singing, drumming, playing piano and guitar that was extremely appreciated by the crowd. Students came together to raise money for the fantastic 'Bike Project' in London, helping refugees from across the world.
NON-BINARY DAY - MR PALMER
Students followed on from Culture day with non-binary day on 14th July with discussions in lessons around gender, pronoun use and non-binary figures such as Simone de Bouvoir in RE. Students enjoyed open discussions around equality and the uniqueness of everyone in both the school and society as part of their lessons and tutor time.
YEAR 8 LANGUAGES MEETING - MR SMITH
On 5th July, we held a meeting for the parents of all Year 8 students who will be in the “fast-track” languages groups next year. These students are now on a languages GCSE pathway and will continue to study a language for the next 3 years. All parents were provided with information about the languages department, the GCSE course and the many benefits of studying languages. Students who are not on the languages pathway will still be able to opt to study a language at GCSE when they make their option choices in Year 9.
ADDITIONAL TRANSITION DAY - MS PHILLIPS
Our FLC opened its doors on Tuesday 28th June to welcome a small selection of Year 6 students who have chosen Uxbridge High School as their Secondary School for September. Becoming familiar with the site, staff and other new students were the aims of the two sessions.
Great fun was had by all.
We look forward to welcoming all our new students as they join us as Year 7s in September.
SPORTS DAY - MR EMERY
Our annual school sports day took place on Thursday 26th May 2022 at Hillingdon Athletics Track. To view the highlights from the day, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZkqk-RNqZE
The winners for the event were as follows:
-Year 7: York
-Year 8: Windsor
-Year 9: Windsor
-Overall: Windsor
SPORTS ROUND UP - MR EMERY
Another term at UHS full of much success. Fixtures have been in full flow during this final half term, with much to celebrate.
This term has been hugely successful for our athletes, with Aqib and Kenny both progressing on to represent Hillingdon at the Middlesex athletics held at the StoneX stadium in North London. A fantastic achievement they should both be very proud of. A number of our students also worked incredibly hard to come back with medals from the Junior Borough Athletics – all of which we are all very proud of! On the theme of superb athletes, our sixth form students Aryan and Abdi have both competed at the highest level and will continue to do so, with Aryan finishing 2nd at the English schools. A huge well done to both athletes.
Our Year 7 girls were also fortunate enough to take part in the Brentford girl’s football tournament. All of the girls showed great resilience throughout a tough day, where they were eventually knocked out by the team who would later go on to win the tournament. Well done girls!
Cricket has continued to go from strength to strength at UHS with the introduction of our UHS cricket academy. We have played several fixtures over the course of the half term, but a special mention must go out to the Year 10 boys who finish the season unbeaten. A big thanks must also go to Mr Mohammed who has worked incredibly hard in developing the UHS cricket academy.
2022 has been one of our most successful years for rounders with Year 7 reaching the borough semi-finals and Year 8 just falling short in the finals. Well done to all students involved.
Activities week is continuing to build off the back of last year's success and Team PE have yet another week of fantastic activities for our students to get stuck in to. The first three days, students will be presented with some challenging and fun tasks to keep them active, engaged and enjoying what will be a fantastic week!
Team PE would like to thank everybody who has represented the school in some capacity this year. You have all shown great commitment and resilience across many competitions against some tough opposition. This year's return to competitive fixtures has provided a fantastic platform for us as a school and in particular our students to build on. As always, have a fantastic break - we look forward to seeing you all again in September!
ACTIVITIES WEEK - MS PATRICK AND MR CHURCHILL
Year 7 spent the day at Warwick castle, students worked with visitors from the army on team building, there was a fantastic concert on the Orsino stage, hungry hippos in the dome, tower building in business, escape rooms in maths and Bosch workshops and water rockets in Science.
On Tuesday we had a visit by award winning author Matt Dickinson, Year 10 stayed cool on the river rapids at Thorpe Park, the music kept playing on the Orsino stage and Year 8 enjoyed the escape room and digital challenges.
On Wednesday, science and maths visited the Science Museum and art organised a trip where Year 9 and 10 visited the Tate Modern. In school we had more Mexican wraps, murder mysteries, building a brand and an endless encore of Justin Bieber on the Orsino stage.
YEAR 5 TASTER DAYS - MR KERRISK
Last week, UHS welcomed some Year 5 students from Whitehall Junior School and Cowley St Laurence Primary School for a taster day. They enjoyed lessons science, MFL, geography and had a wonderful time.
PGL - MR HUMPLEBY
We took sixty-two students on our end of year rewards trip to PGL Marchants Hill. Students took part in a wide range of activities including Jacob's Ladder, Abseiling, Raft Building and Trapeze to name a few. All students were fantastic throughout, pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and trying new activities. It was great to see our students challenge themselves, and work as a team with other students. Thank you to the staff who gave up their weekends to ensure our students had a wonderful time, and we look forward to our PGL trip next year.
BERLIN TRIP - MS LATUNJI-JONES
For the last week of the summer term, forty-four Year 9, 10 and 12 students have been engaging in various activities on a trip to both Berlin and Brussels. Whilst in Berlin, the students have been able to develop their contextual understanding of post-war German history, including visiting the Reichstag (German parliament) and seeing the remnants of the Berlin Wall on the east side. The highlight for many students was being able to visit various Jewish memorials which has put into perspective the atrocities faced by many in the 20th Century. Their interaction with post-war history was further developed in Belgium by their visit to the town of Ypres where they were able to explore the significance of Flanders Field as well as visiting the European Parliament. Through this, students have been able to explore international politics alongside making historical discoveries. All the students have shown exceptional engagement, determination and enthusiasm to learn and develop their understanding of key historical events.
ATTENDANCE - MR WELLER
Attendance continues to rise as we come out of the Covid restrictions. We hope that next year no students' education will be disrupted by having to take time off school and that everyone will be able to do as well as they can by attending 100% of the time. Please have a look at our updated guidance on attendance on the website we are keen that next year we do even better. We hope that you enjoy your well-deserved summer holidays and look forward to seeing you back in school in September.
NEW CATERERS FOR SEPTEMBER - MS THOMAS
We are excited to announce new caterers for September. Following a rigorous selection process, Culinera has been chosen to provide the catering services at UHS. Culinera will usher in an exciting new era of food at UHS with menus packed with fresh, tasty and healthy ingredients. To find out more about Culinera and the new food offer at UHS please visit the new dedicated catering website https://uhs.culinera.co.uk, where you will find an introductory newsletter, menu information, tariffs, allergy information and lots more!
IMPORTANT DATES FOR SEPTEMBER
Monday 5.9.22
Year 7 & 12 return
Year 7 - 8:15 Registration in playground.
Year 12 - 8:40
Tuesday 6.9.22
Years 13, 11 & 9 return (Years 7 and 12 already in school)
Year 7 - 8:15
Year 9 - 8:30
Year 11 - 8:20
Sixth Form - 8:40
Wednesday 8.9.22
Years 8 and 10 return (All students in school)
Year 8 - 8:15
Year 10 - 8:40NEW STRUCTURE OF THE SCHOOL DAY 2022-23
08:15 – 08:30 staggered arrival and tutor start times:
08:15 Years 7 & 8
08:20 Year 11
08:25 Years 9 & 10
08:30 Sixth Form
08:30 – 08:45 Tutor period / assembly
08:45 – 09:45 Period 1
09:45 – 10:45 Period 2
10:45 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 12:00 Period 3
12:00 – 12:40 Lunch 1
12:00 – 13:00 Period 4a
12:40 – 13:40 Period 4b
13:00 – 13:40 Lunch 2
13:40 – 14:40 Period 5
14:40 – 15:00 Staggered dismissal
14:40 – 15:40 Period 6
14:40 – 16:30 optional wider curriculum/intervention
TWITTER & INSTAGRAM
Please feel free to browse our Twitter and Instagram accounts for up-to-date information and updates on the variety of activities taking place at Uxbridge High School. Our Twitter accounts are @UxbridgeHighSch, @UHSPrincipal, @UHS_VAPA, @UHSPE, @DT_UHS, @HistoryUhs and @MflUhs. Our Instagram account can be found here.
Please note that our accounts are public and you can browse them at any time without having to sign up for an account.