Skipping into the Guinness book of world records

Last week over 49,000 young people from 400 schools across Lincolnshire, Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent skipped their way to a place in the Guinness book of World Records by smashing the existing record of 19,000 set earlier in the year. Official confirmation of the record should follow later in the summer once all the evidence has been verified by Guinness.

The big skip which raised thousands for the British Heart Foundation was just one of many activities which were part of the second South West Lincolnshire School Games on 30 June. The event which was organised by South West Lincolnshire School Sports Partnership and SKDC saw 800 children skipping alongside Olympic Gold Medalist Duncan Goodhew and 800 metre runner Jo Fenn, Commonwealth Judo champion Tom Davis, Roderick Bradley (AKA Spartan from Sky Ones Gladiators), Roger Canham Ironman champion of the world, Paraplegic weightlifter Clive Wright and equestrian rider Emma Sheardown.

Vincent Brittain, Partnership Development Manager, South West Lincolnshire School Sports Partnership said “It was a fabulous event, which the children thoroughly enjoyed. To break a World Record is a great achievement and I’m sure that the experience will inspire many of them to continue skipping, be active and learn new skills. The event shows how all schools are helping children to understand the importance of being healthy through regular physical activity. We are extremely grateful for all the support that SKDC gave us in both the lead up to and on the day of the event.”

“Meet the Armed Forces Day”

For the first time in the East Midlands, a “Meet the Armed Forces” day was held at Newark Showground on Friday 26th June 2009.

Year 9 students who were on target with their BTEC Sport and Engineering Courses were able to attend the event which proved to be a great reward. Not only did it provide them with the opportunity to look at careers in the Navy, Army and Royal Air Force but there was also a whole host of activities for them to get actively involved in.

Displays included The Tigers Parachute Display Team performed by the Princess of Wale’s Royal Regiment, The Royal Marines Commando Display Team, The RAF Band, The Royal Army Veterinary Corps with their Working Dog Display and The Flying Gunners – the Motorcycle Display Team of The Royal Artillery.

All in all the day was a great success.

We want every single child to succeed.

We want every child to enjoy their childhood, to achieve their full potential and turn 18 with the knowledge, skills and qualifications that will give them the best chance of success in adult life in the 21st century.

Your child, your schools, our future will help create a schools system that provides a great start in life for every child in every school. A system that responds to the challenges of a changing global economy, a changing society, rapid technological innovation and a changing planet. A system in which every child can enjoy growing up, and which develops the potential and talents of every child and young person and gives them the broad skills they need for the future. And a system which breaks the link between deprivation, disadvantage, disability and low educational attainment and so impacts upon intergenerational poverty.

Ed Balls writes to schools

On 30 June 2009 Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls wrote to heads, teachers, governors and support staff following the publication of the White Paper Your child, your schools, our future: building a 21st century schools system.

Link to them files can be found below:

Letter to Headteachers

Letter to Teachers

Letter to Governors

Letter to Support Staff

The choir was formed in October 2008 by Miss Elaine Duggan (Earl of Dysart) and Mrs Debbie Foster (St Hughs). It has approximately 30 members and these include students from the Schools within the West Grantham Federation.

Over the past six months the choir has developed and is already showing a potential of being really good. The first performance took place during December at The George Centre. The students sang Christmas songs to shoppers passing by whilst raising money helped to raise money for Gifts Hospice. The Christmas theme continued and the choir took part in performances at Belvoir Castle and St Hughs Carol Service.

The choir had already shown that they could sing together as a group and create a wonderful sound. A decision was made to set the members of this choir a challenge. In January 2009, they were asked to learn a song but to sing it in two parts. The song that was chosen was where Love from Oliver is. The choir had just over 8 hours to produce a performance that could be taken to both the Grantham Music festival and The Easter Assembly at St Hughs.

On March 10th 2009 the choir performed alongside other choirs from the local area at the Grantham music festival. They sang ‘Consider yourself’ from Oliver, followed by ‘Where is love’. As they finished singing the round of applause from the audience said it all. To finish the term off the choir final performance took place at St Hughs as part of the Easter service. During the service the choir sang an unaccompanied version of Now the Green Blade Raises, and where is love. Both of these performances were outstanding - both Elaine and myself were close to tears.

We are both looking forward to developing further with this choir as the students are a credit to both themselves and the schools they represent.

On Wednesday 11th March St Hughs alongside other schools from the federation visited the Globe theatre in London to see a performance of Romeo and Juliet. In all 43 year 10 students took part in the trip as a reward for their good behaviour and completion of GCSE coursework.

The Globe theatre, which opened in 1997, stands on London’s South bank and is a replica of the original theatre which first hosted many of Shakespeare’s plays in the 16th century.

The coach left the school at 9am and after a short break arrived in London giving the students to have some lunch and walk alongside the Thames.

At two o’clock we were admitted to the theatre where the students were surprised to learn that not only was the performance outdoors but that they would have to stand! This was soon forgotten however with the atmosphere and setting evoking memories of Shakespeare’s time.

The performance itself was outstanding with as much action taking place within the crowd as it did on the stage and with audience participation welcomed the students were fully involved brushing shoulders with Eastenders star James Alexandrou who played Romeo.

The quality of the production and the excellent behaviour of the St Hughs students ensured that this was a memorable day out as well as adding to the students understanding of Shakespearian drama which will benefit them greatly with their GCSE English coursework.

Comic Relief Staff v Students Charity Football Match!

Staff Line Up

Richard ‘Rampage’ Johnston

Steve ‘Stone Head’ Mitchell

Ben ‘Ball Greedy’ Shaw

Martin ‘Old Man’ Taylor

George ‘The Trickster’ Mole

Wayne ‘Maradonna’ Martini

Helena ‘High Kick’ Brothwell

Tracey ‘The Trickster’ Hobson

Liz ‘The Biz’ Abba

Ian ‘The Wolverine’ Woolerton

Oliver ‘The Accelerator’ Saunders

Mark ‘The Mean Machine’ Robinson

Dominic ‘The Daredevil’ Reed

Alastair “Sparrow Legs’ Weir

To raise money for Comic Relief the students came out in force to try and put one over on this formidable combined West Grantham Federation staff dream team.

The first match against the year 7’s was hard fought in the first 10 minutes with special skills being shown by Arthur DeSilva, who is clearly a future talent for the school. However with a combined age advantage of at least 1000 years and a weight advantage of on average at least 15 stone per player the staff gradually got into their stride to win the match with Mr Shaw scoring 3 goals.

The year 8’s presented a different challenge and again displayed fantastic skills and teamwork. By this point though, Wayne ‘Maradonna’ Martini was in full flow and Oliver ‘The Accelerator’ Saunders was showing his pace in midfield and clearly finding strong past form.

The year 9’s, arguably the schools strongest team, were shocked and rattled by an early staff goal created by a collective staff team effort that left at least half of the staff team laid up with aches and pains for a week. Ben ‘Ball Greedy’ Shaw found the back of the net after missing at least 60 times and nailed a nice header. One spectator was quoted as saying, ‘That’s why Mr Shaw should play in goal’. The effort was still going strong when in the dying seconds of the match the year 9’s struck back with a great equalizer to tie the match. Liz ‘The Biz’ Abba displayed dazzling skills as she left the likes of Scott Wood dazed and confused as to how she had skilled him so many times!

With arthritic joints fully warmed up and adrenalin levels so high that no injury could be felt until the following morning the staff team, buoyed up, by the arrival of Dominic ‘The Daredevil’ Reed went on a roll beating the year 10’s to reveres the previous staff football losses of years past.

Several students were quoted as saying, as they made their way in to the changing rooms that they were scared to play the staff team next year as they were getting so good. They also begged to stay and take down the goal nets and help tidy the changing rooms and wash the water bottles out, but after some serious persuasion they finally agreed to let us do it and made their way home.

I would like to thank all staff, students and spectators that made this fantastic event possible, and the former students Dion Desmond and Troy Eldred that came in and referred for the event. I would also like to thank Mr Shaw for borrowing his football team’s kit for the staff and the PE reporters and spectators who braved the rain to support and film the event.

We made £193 for Comic Relief and £205 for Water Aid. We enjoyed meeting parents, staff and students past, present and future, and would like to thank them for their continued support

St Hugh's School raised £475.33 in aid of Red Nose Day